2023-01-28: Eternal Loneliness

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<Pose Tracker> Ganondorf Dragmire has posed.

The charge into the depths of the Final Resting Place of the Gerudo has revealed the secrets of the forgotten tribe. Nomadic women, proud and true, whose desperation was abused by the charismatic King of Thieves to lead them to war against green and fertile Hyrule. A war from which they won nothing but contempt, when their King was cast down by a Hero, a Princess, and Six Sages.

For their support for the King of Evil, the Gerudo were cast out from the lands of Hyrule, and with time and wandering, found their way here, to meet the fate of everything beset by snow. They built what appeared to be their tomb.

But it was no tomb at all. No final, longing testament. It was only ever a place to rest. So was the revelation of the Last Chief of the Gerudo, as she woke from the sleep of eons.

The way opened by Riju reveals the secret, after a long charge and a well-placed Memory Camp.

This place looks more like the strange not-quite-Elw chambers earlier in. Linework in gold and the shimmering shapes of only half-familiar constellations; runes in glowing blue. The chamber's back end opens out into a vast, dark space...lined, ceiling to floor, a VAULT of the same coffins which Riju and Urbosa were resting in before.

A veritable army of slumbering Gerudo. A light for their people, cast into a tomorrow that might otherwise take too long to come.

In the center of the platform sits a booth of a sort. Perhaps it was in use until moments ago. An ancient inhabitant, mummified by time, lies battered aside some meters away.

In that booth now float a series of crystals, each about a meter high, each refracting one of the stolen leaders of Filgaia, crying out and battering on their sorceress prison. In the center stands Ganondorf Dragmire, hands aloft, pulling some unseen power out of the stolen souls and channeling it. The glyphs above him gradually turn dark. And then, turn a frightful RED.

As Drifters charge in, he breathes, "Very well. Complete this, Agahnim, my Shadow!"

What happens next is difficult to fully see. A shape steps *out* of Ganondorf, except the being that steps out *is* Ganondorf; what is left behind is a robe-clad specter, blue skin crackling with forces.

Ganondorf steps out of the control booth, and a red-light forcefield flicks into place around it, sealing it shut.

The King of Evil's eyes are deep beneath fiery brows as his gaze casts across the arriving Drifters. And then he reaches to his belt and draws his two frightfully bright blades, and dark magic pulses from his being.
"Is this what you bring me, Sage of Light? A coward, a courier, a musician, an untried hero, and a half-honed demon?"

The miasma around him grows deeper, darker, and his eyes shine red within the bonfire.

"Return to your homes," he commands them.

"You may yet avoid my blades."

DC: Ganondorf Dragmire switches forms to The Man With The Evil Eyes!
<Pose Tracker> Solitaire Collier has posed.

Solitaire has learned some dire news about the Demon King indeed. It was one thing to conquer the world and make all into your subjects, but using sorcery to dominate others to your will irrespective of their own was another. Solitaire was willing to do a great many things for her ideals, but this one hit particularly close to home.

You have misgivings about Ganondorf.

"What I have," Solitaire murmurs. "Is an inability to distinguish him from the Veruni Lords, from the Galadian Houses."

You know that you cannot build a better the world you want without allies. And you know you don't get to pick and choose your allies when you are rebelling against the current comforts of the Age itself.

"She's a child." Solitaire says. "Not much older than me."

Then what do you intend to do?

"Kill Ganondorf." Solitaire says it as if she were going to the store to buy bread. Nidhogg knew that would hardly be the case, and that Solitaire didn't see that as the case, but that was the way Solitaire behaved. If she felt something needed to be done, she would endeavor to do it as if it were a household chore even if that chore was beyond her ability.

He's still an ally of Odessa. You'd be on the run from two organizations.

Solitaire thought of Eleanor. Of Ida. Though they were Nobles, they were... noble. And she had that strange dream of Ida's Hyadean partner. Whatever he was in the past, he seemed like a good man now. It was nice talking to him, in the dream. It was nice to have a break from her usual dream, of the laughing man who taunted her over the bodies of her dead parents.

"I can turn myself in." Solitaire said. She thought of Ratatoskr. He probably had no such compunctions. "Eleanor would be ideal. I don't have much intelligence but I imagine they would put me to charity work rather than in a windowless cell or the chopping block."

Nidhogg was inclined to agree with her there. But it would kill Solitaire's dream before she had a chance to fulfill it. She might find peace, but she wouldn't find fulfilment in that kind of life. She wouldn't find strength that way. A secondary concern was the possible loss of the Demon Spear. It would be nice if he could find a way to return that to Riesenlied if nothing else.

She was still a child, he thought. Her ideals were an important, her purity of purpose was important... but right now they were getting in the way. She was still too young. One day she'd learn that sometimes you have to make sacrifices, sometimes you had to set aside your ideals so that you could even hope to strive against the cruelties of the present. Ganondorf would be a powerful ally even if he couldn't be a trusted one.

To say nothing of the danger of letting her even fight in the condition she was in.

He thought of Ruth's request. Do not allow her to make a decision she'd regret. A kind sentiment...

And Nidhogg had made plenty of choices he regretted already. The choice was easy for him.

"Solitaire." Nidhogg said, a whiff of black smoke drifting to Solitaire's nostrils. "Sleep for now."

The mouse beastfolk's eyes drooped--then closed completely. But her footsteps forward did not stop at all.

<Pose Tracker> Solitaire Collier has posed.

NOW

Solitaire steps into view. Her eyes are closed. Her body sways from side to side before ultimately slumping against the wall. Her grip on Patience slackens. It slackens just enough.

The axe wiggles.

And then it pries itself free from Solitaire. It floats in the air. It faces? Hard to really tell because it doesn't exactly have a face.

An empathic pulse bursts out of the axe, his words lingering in the mind.

You defeated us a thousand years ago. Five hundred years ago. Even a few years ago. You have defeated Siegfried, Boomerang with Luceid's aid, and even Mother....

The axe is afraid. How could he not be? Everyone here has felled more powerful Hyadeans than he.

He's not sure when his Metal Demon Pride left him. But now...

Lord Ganon. Though she needs rest I shall fulfill the terms of our pact for her.

A black energy field erupts around Nidhogg as he hovers in place threateningly.

They don't dare flee for they are bloated with the taste of victory still lingering in their throats. Perhaps we can free them of this weakness.

<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.

    Ratatoskr took his own journey through the tomb alongside Solitaire. Entranced by what was, with virtually no reference point for anything by his very reckoning. He came to Odessa enamored with the likes of Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus and the scale of which his next war was going to entail, intoxicated by the idea of getting to live in the best era filled with the greatest war heroes of today. Today!
 
     Today.... he is confronted with the horrors of a time beyond and before anything he's known, ever curious about what has been lost and buried. Even when the time came to need to remove a section of wall to continue, it was done with the utmost care to ensure damage was minimal and not beyond restoration. When confronted with the truth and a request by the still-living Gerudo...
 
     He saw Solitaire walk further in, Nidhogg in hand, eyes closed, and his eyes dimmed. She seemed hesitant before. What changed? He doesn't ask her or speak up as she goes in ahead of him. The one time Ratatoskr doesn't run his mouth... might be to someone's ultimate detriment, not that he's aware of it.
 
     "...It's still happening... it's still here..." His grin lowers to a smile. "...I have to keep all of it...!"
 
     NOW
 
     Ratatoskr arrives just in time to miss the empathic burst, the bright shine of his solid yellow eyes violating the awful red glyphs... but he turns his back, letting the deep red illuminate behind him.
 
     "...There's something I don't understand. If they're still alive... why won't they go forth and live? Why do they want to just be left and forgotten...?"
 
     Oddly contemplative, but he has gotten a bit older. A little bit of additional maturity in a nineteen-to-twenty-five-year-old squirrel-like Hyadean.
 
     "...No one should," he says, a ways off from Ganondorf out of immediate sight or mind - less positioned like a pawn of nebulous witting. He has worked to Ganondorf's aims before, after all. He fought and assisted in bringing low the Sage of Fire. He does see how the black energy field is enveloped around Nidhogg, separate of Solitaire, and he considers.
 
     One way or another, he's seeing history unfold at a scale he couldn't have ever seen coming...

<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.

Eleanor Klein, done with her brief break where she spoke with Josephine Lovelace, has moved onward. She has seen the strange caves; the vault. The army that he could bring to bear, here... Not only would it be wrong--

It would more than replenish his forces.

But those crystals... "Mother!" Eleanor cries, in alarm, seeing her in that prison, being drained of some kind of energy. But she has to control herself--the only way to free her is forward. Through... Ganondorf, who steps outward. Eleanor steps forward, resolute, ahead of the others. And she stares forward, her gaze unbending, golden eyes ablaze with indignation. "We will not allow this!" Eleanor calls to him. And then... He looks to her, too. Drawing his blades. Her blood runs cold, but she can't run. She can't leave. She must be here, and must save them. Save her. And...

'Sage of Light?'

"They will be enough," Eleanor promises, though her glance at Hicalu in surprise betrays her; she does not expect him to help, does not expect him to be here, certainly not fighting such a fearsome foe. But to the others, she has much more confidence.

"That you fail to see their potential is a consequence of your own blindness, tyrant."

She feels stronger, leaning on Rauru's term of address for him, and she straightens.

"...I will not go." She then breathes in, and pulls a golden Crest, its power melding Muse and Fray. "By the opposing forces of sun and moon! Somatic Force!"

Link will find himself empowered, his weapon enchanted with sharpness, all of his equipment so improved. It comes as a brilliant golden aura all about him, and it feels right to Eleanor, somehow.

GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Link with Somatic Force!
GS: Eleanor Klein has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Eleanor Klein has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.

Xiumei came here with Eleanor. Thanks to Eleanor -- with help from Clarine and Mariel -- she has an understanding of the stakes. Ganondorf would claim an entire people, again; Gerudo, lost to time, and brought back to only by slaves again.

She can't let that happen. Even if she wasn't betrothed to the Sage of Light, she would be obliged to try.

So she dashes ahead. She has her Pulse Saber drawn; the weapon glows with a soft green-white light, from the energy blade that composes it. She stares, as she sees the coffins -- an entire army of Gerudo -- and she stares for a moment, before she looks up at the King of Evil.

"We're with you, Nora," Xiumei says.

Her eyes turn towards the axe floating in the air. She doesn't know who Solitaire is; seeing her slumped against the wall only gives her a moment's concern. The, she looks at the axe, and the field of dark energy that exploded around it. This prompts Xiumei's eyes to narrow.

"A... Hyadean?" she asks.

A voice emanates from her -- the gem at her chest, in her armor, pulses -- with a masculine voice. "One of their weapons. I don't recognize him but I didn't mess around with the rank and file."

"Someone else we'll have to get past," Xiumei answers Varius. Then, her Pulse Saber vanishes -- and a hand cannon appears, which she grips with both hands, and takes aim. A trio of energy blasts explodes from the barrel, hurtling towards Nidhogg.

GS: Zhang Xiumei has attacked Solitaire Collier with Pulse Cannon - Triple Burst!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Hicalu Wilwisp has posed.

    "L...Lan, you gotta stop him! Ashley, Juri, Josephine...! If the King of Evil gets his way, their spirits will be crushed forever! T-they won't ever get to rest, then..!"

    As Hicalu hurries forward, the words of support he has for his party position them as the actors. And he...

    Hicalu yelps, as he sees a certain squirrelish Hyadean. "Aaahh! L-Lan! T-that guy, too?! No way! No way, no way! He's s-so scary!" He is, of course, speaking about Ratatoskr. He does not appear to be joking about. No: his fear is entirely, PAINFULLY sincere.

    And more than any other, he's afraid of...

    Hicalu hides behind Lan, as his chartreuse gaze falls on a man with evil eyes. His fennec's tail curls about his light Baskar clothing, made for the desert, not the snow. His eyes flood with tears, as he looks up at those stolen souls, and he thinks his grief easily-explained. "S...stop it... s-s-s-stop it...!!"

    So offended is he that he even takes a step forward, though his knees wobble, and his hands clutch together at his chest. "Y-y-- you're h-hurting them--!" He cries, though he's forced to choke out the words.

    It's more than clear, to him, just who Ganondorf is speaking of when he addresses Eleanor. He shrinks back, a step. His ears pin to his unruly, curly bronze hair.

    "I-I-I-I..." He stammers, quite pale. He stammers and freezes, and for a moment, that is all. (And perhaps Eleanor was right, to worry.)

    But he scrunches his eyes shut, and shakes his head, and clenches and unclenches his hands. The reasoning why is written up his arms and his legs, the ink of his Symbological tattoos displayed for all to see. So, too, his hand gestures, and he gets halfway through his before his trembling interrupts the arte.

    "Nnnh--" he whines, and tries again. Flat to curl to swipe. "Expansive Enlighten!" He invokes, finally, as fiery energy settles on Link, and Eleanor, and Medli.

    He's terrified, but he can't just run away, even if he wants nothing more than to escape those blades.

GS: Hicalu Wilwisp has attacked Link with Expansive Enlighten!
GS: Hicalu Wilwisp has attacked Eleanor Klein with Expansive Enlighten!
GS: Hicalu Wilwisp has attacked Medli with Expansive Enlighten!
GS: Hicalu Wilwisp has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Hicalu Wilwisp's stances have changed to Stoic!
GS: Hicalu Wilwisp gains 22 THP from his Cautious!
GS: Hicalu Wilwisp has completed his action.
GS: CRITICAL! Medli accepts Hicalu Wilwisp's Expansive Enlighten for 0 hit points!
GS: Surge applied to Medli!
GS: Quick applied to Hicalu Wilwisp!
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.

 
An ancient tomb. A civilization barely known that lays dead, or sleeping. To be raised and brought into the thrall of an ancient evil. Awoken by whom? Perhaps there is hope for many. Perhaps the Gerudo could join Filgaia. They could always use more strength.

But not if the ancient devil GANONDORF should bend them to his will.

The devil-king speaks to them.

Something in Venetia is struck with coldness, but as she so often has, for years and years, she reaches for a familiar source of heat. Of storming power. Of fury and strength. Her anger -

And it makes her shout out, "Are your eyes dimmed by your ancient demise, or are you simply not able to count? You are not facing what you once were, you contemptible fool. Repent of your ways immediately, for the world you knew has grown! There is more than you know, ancient terror!"

Before she can continue, though, Solitaire moves. Venetia is shocked but not exactly surprised to see her, first, here, and second, in a poor state. When Nidhogg draws out of her slackening grasp, Venetia leaps to an assumption, bridged by the gap of her fury. "You use your wielder in such a way? Dinoginos wept, did you KILL her??"

"Would all of you stand on the corpse of a world, the last thinking being, if it meant your kingship was unquestioned?! Miserable fools! I'd leave you to it if I had another planet to go to, but this one is mine to defend!" (With actual anger but somewhat less performance, she answers Xiumei: "Understood. I'll try to box it in. Do you think you can, I don't know, steal control? It's communicating somehow.")

And for her next statement: "Face the wrath of the stars! AMETHYST SIGN--" Yes, it's that favorite! Big purple rocks, thrown at Nidhogg! Collect the rocks later!

GS: CRITICAL! Eleanor Klein accepts Hicalu Wilwisp's Expansive Enlighten for 0 hit points!
GS: Surge applied to Eleanor Klein!
GS: Quick applied to Hicalu Wilwisp!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: Venetia Vuong has attacked Solitaire Collier with Amethyst Sign ~Second Month's Decision~!
GS: Venetia Vuong has completed her action.
GS: Solitaire Collier has activated Force Action: Accelerate!
GS: Solitaire Collier partially evades Zhang Xiumei's Pulse Cannon - Triple Burst for 99 hit points!
GS: Hyper and Mighty applied to Zhang Xiumei!
GS: Solitaire Collier partially evades Venetia Vuong's Amethyst Sign ~Second Month's Decision~ for 92 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Juni Vandrer has posed.

Juni Vandrer is limping along. Keeping pace, mostly covering up with her field coat at this point. Matte grey, hood up. Shrouding herself. She's feeling the earlier fight and the climb up by now. Even some self-reflection sneaking in on her condition at this point. Too late though, she wouldn't have stopped anyway.
 
 The coffins snag her attention. A frown. "Cryo?" She isn't a fan of collateral and that means checking her shots as she goes. Pretty confident something else is up here.
 
 Still, still there are other threats and tunnel vision's an inevitability when family's involved.
 
 "Home's not an option. Sorry." she responds to the big guy's decree. "Breaking things though." Always cover up your own problems with humor. The tried and true soldier's way.
 
 The rifle is twisted in her grip, an adjustemnt is made and the rifle now resembles something of a strange carbine. Less charge, faster recycle. There's a flash at her wrist and she slaps it against her hip and mutters. The thing snapping closed as she readies the rifle again.
 
 Venetia's outburst does snag her attention though. "That thing driving a body?" Actually sounding... disturbed by the idea. Might be some memories there for later. Stuff she buried. Oh well. She calls out, "Can't let that stand." and sights down the barrel with her calibrations and systems complete and running.

GS: Juni Vandrer has attacked Juni Vandrer with Short Barrel Configuration!
GS: Juni Vandrer enters a Counter stance!
GS: Juni Vandrer has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Juni Vandrer has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Link accepts Eleanor Klein's Somatic Force for 0 hit points!
GS: Amplify, Burst, and Surge applied to Link!
GS: Link accepts Hicalu Wilwisp's Expansive Enlighten for 0 hit points!
GS: Surge applied to Link!
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

 
    The journey through the tomb of the Gerudo was mostly uneventful - except for the part where Ashley kidnapped an angry teapot. That was an Event.

    But she got to spend some quality time with her little brother, and he got to see some Real Drifter Action without even really getting hurt, which is even better! (There was a scary incident with a pair of ghosts and some shadowy hands, but he was Very Brave and ended up being instrumental in unraveling the puzzle.) Regrouping now, Lan's glad to see Gwen and Eleanor in particular -- she's going to go join up with them and they can all kick Ganondorf's ass together -- when Hicalu reveals a dreadful thing.

    "Wait, he scared you?!" It's not really hard to scare Hicalu, to be fair. Just ask Riley, and Xander, and that one Guild Galad merchant with the resting bitch face... "Stay near Eleanor, okay, I'm gonna go have a word with him...!"

    Because it is horrible that the Demon King has been revived, and Lan will absolutely go deal with that in a second and get everybody's missing civic leaders back, but right now she has something more important to do.

    "RATATOSKR!" Lan shouts, breaking into a run. "What did you do to my little brother!!"

    And because it's Ratatoskr, who communicates best through hyperfixation and violence, Lan follows the question up with an attempted elbow strike.

GS: Lan Lilac has attacked Ratatoskr with Akashic Arts!
GS: Lan Lilac has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Lan Lilac has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.

The first time Ashley Winchester encountered the King of Evil, it was on a different world. That was a desperate moment, one which caused him to awaken the power of the Blaze of Disaster for the first time. In a way, everything began with Ganondorf Dragmire-- so it's only fitting that the so-called half-baked demon stand here, now, against the ancient Gerudo.

Especially since... he has another reason to be here. One that came to him just moments ago.

Riju's words echo in his ears. The King of Evil seeks to dominate the minds and souls of the slumbering Gerudo. To take them and turn them into his slaves. His weapons.

For SOME REASON, the prospect of people being turned into the puppets of a King of Evil does not sit well with Ashley.

"This is bad," Ashley mutters as the glyphs at the center of the room turn red. "I'm no magician, but I've read enough stories to know when someone is corrupting something, and that sure as heck looks like some grade-f corruption," Ashley murmurs, racking the slide of his trusty, heavy-duty, anti-armor Bayonet. He slips a cylindrical canister into the breach, glaring daggers at the King of Evil himself--

"Sorry, am I the half-forged demon? I take offense to that. Like I told the demon and the wolf a little bit ago--" He takes aim, steadying the Bayonet against his shoulder-- "I'm a baker."

--And fires. The canister launches... past Ganondorf, into the space between he and his shadow. It bursts, then, erupting in a deafening explosion of sonic force and concussive, head-pounding energy...!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.

The Gerudo lie dormant. Not dead, but asleep - waiting to be awoken. But if Ganondorf does it, through his foul means...

They have their goal. This ritual must be stopped. Alongside the others, Clarine glides into the ritual chamber. Ganondorf is here... and he is not alone. A frown crosses her face.

"...I shall provide what cover I can. Do as you must." She says, to those facing Ganondorf's shadow.

Her attention turns to Ratatoskr. She has never really seen him as a villain - more an exuberant young man, prone to going too far.

"There are fates worse than being forgotten. Should they awaken here and now, they will be but thralls to his whim once more - a profaned shadow of their former selves." Clarine replies. "...Do you stand with him?"

Red light, briefly, pulses out from her. It settles over those closest to her location, enhancing one's might.

GS: Ashley Winchester has attacked Ganondorf Dragmire with Canister - Thunder Cracker!
GS: Ashley Winchester has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ashley Winchester has completed his action.
GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Acuteness!
GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Acuteness!
GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Lan Lilac with Acuteness!
GS: Seraph Clarine has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Seraph Clarine has completed her action.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey accepts Seraph Clarine's Acuteness for 0 hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
GS: Shield applied to Seraph Clarine!
<Pose Tracker> Medli has posed.

Upon meeting Riju, Medli had so many questions she wished to ask her. What was it like, sleeping so long? Was she okay? How did she feel leading her people to such an uncertain future?

 In the end, she was too shy to ask a single one of them, only bowing low and smiling to the young Gerudo chief. Following behind Link, her harp in her arms, Medli takes in the sight before them.

 "T--this is!" With a trembling voice, Medli shrinks back, pressing into Eleanor's side. "This is horrible..! We have to do something!"

 Ganondorf's words seem to wake Medli from her fright. Red eyes glare up at the King of Evil. "I'm more than a musician! I'm the Great Valoo's attendant! You're nothing compared to his majesty and strength!"

 Eleanor cries out, and the young Rito girl looks up at her in concern. "Miss Eleanor, we'll save them! Please don't worry!"

 Though Medli doesn't know Hicalu, she puts a comforting hand on his arm. "It's okay. You're not alone." As his power flows across Medli's form, she smiles to him. "Thank you."

 Though her fingers shake, Medli brings a hand to her harp strings. "Link... everyone, I'll keep you safe!"

 Bright and true, a song full of life echoes out in this cursed place. In every note, it speaks of a world of sun and sea. Medli's wish is that it strengthens her allies, especially the young hero in green.

GS: Medli has attacked Link with Aeolian Chord!
GS: Medli has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Medli has completed her action.
GS: Link accepts Medli's Aeolian Chord for 0 hit points!
GS: Blitz applied to Link!
GS: Mighty and Riposte applied to Medli!
GS: Link gains 2 Combo from Inspire!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    When Link's party came upon Riju in her pod, Gwen listened to her story quietly, letting it fill in what all the statues and melancholy air of the place could only distantly convey without the aid of context. How many people became slaves to Ganondorf, even when he wasn't alive?

    Her hand still remembers the feel of the Pendant of Courage. Her failure. The long, long aftermath. She doesn't hold herself uniquely responsible; but it makes her spine straighten all the same to have that grit of memory in her mind and the taste of anger in her throat.

    And here Gwen is, unknowingly standing next to the hero foretold by that stone mural in Ignas, forever ago.

    Casting a glance back towards Lan, then following her gaze over to Hicalu, Gwen gives a quick thumbs up. She'll try to keep an eye on him for Lan. They can chat later.

    The courier has a package to deliver.

    ".... I ain't here because she asked." Gwen's words come with a deadly, serious weight, as she walks forward with purpose. ".... how many people've been tempted to chase after your legend, thinkin' they'd find somethin' valuable? Did the people who made this place... call you any of the names you got known by? And they become victims of yours too, in the end. N' now, you're dancin' on their last wishes."

    "Forget things like destiny, sages, or fate. You're just a thief from a long time ago who refused to die." She rolls up her right sleeve, openly displaying the ARM she had only shown the top part of to Medli and Link. Tucked back by the leather sleeve garter, the metal delicately inscribed plates reflect the bonfire's glow. "And. as you're beginnin' t'hear, lotsa Drifters here have experience dealing with a number of guys like you--"

    Gwen whips out her palm, buckle undone, firing a gleaming bullet right at Ganondorf. "--n' you'll go down just the same!"

<Pose Tracker> Solitaire Collier has posed.

Heh... So you have a partner too, don't you? I am Commander Nidhogg, a humble tactician. But you can call me Patience.

Nidhogg is annoyed by Venetia's words and snaps out.

Act not like you care for her. For all your grand sorcery you are but a servant to government, to masters, to wealth. Nidhogg sneers. Speak as if I'd harm her again and I'll burn out your tongue.

The axe gets battered by rocks and is jolted around through the air by the impacts--and even gets blasted back by an energy blast that is able to pierce the black aura the weapon is emanating...

But it's still more weapon than anything. Dents form where its impacted by the power of the Drifters but it recovers quickly. There's no heart to pump quickly, no head to be concussed. Just a metallic construct made for killing, the head of the axe shaped like hungry jaws.

Get past me i you can!

A surge of power erupts saround the axe as it flies forward, aiming to slice down across Xiumei's gunarm--around the armpit--trying to weaken and disable her fighting power.

It follows up by twisting to its side and slamming directly for Venetia's throat--it isn't a cutting strike so much as a crushing one, trying to cut off Venetia's ability to form words--and, as such, unleash her magicks.

Does it see Juni there, taking aim?

Perhaps, but it's still focusing on the others first.

But I overstep. She is the one who shall carry the ideals. I'm just here to ensure that her dream does not wither on the vine.

GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Ganondorf Dragmire with Crackshot!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
GS: Solitaire Collier has attacked Solitaire Collier with ImPatience!
GS: Solitaire Collier has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Solitaire Collier's stances have changed to Avenger!
GS: Solitaire Collier heals Solitaire Collier! She gains 169 temporary hit points!
GS: Regen applied to Solitaire Collier!
GS: Quick applied to Solitaire Collier!
GS: Ratatoskr solidly guards Lan Lilac's Akashic Arts for 62 hit points!
GS: Cripple applied to Ratatoskr!
GS: Solitaire Collier has attacked Zhang Xiumei with Crumbling Foundation!
GS: Solitaire Collier has attacked Venetia Vuong with Graceful and Merciless!
GS: Solitaire Collier gains 63 THP from Regen!
GS: Solitaire Collier has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Zhang Xiumei partially guards Solitaire Collier's Crumbling Foundation for 138 hit points!
GS: Zhang Xiumei's Weaken Ward may block the effect!
GS: Weaken blocked!
GS: Quick applied to Solitaire Collier!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire solidly guards Ashley Winchester's Canister - Thunder Cracker for 62 hit points!
GS: Mute blocked!
GS: Hyper applied to Ashley Winchester!
<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.

"Ah... no, I can't steal control of a Hyadean weapon, it's--um--not the same--"

Xiumei stammers. She doesn't know how it works. Her words get tangled in her mouth. But, Avile -- a cheerful woman's voice -- explains, as her armor's crystal glows: "Nope! Hyadeans are living matter that is also metallic. The result isn't robotic but rather a sort of metal flesh that uses technology-like templates. It might strictly be considered a form of technological prowess but it doesn't use the same computing principles as anything on Filgaia--"

Varius butts in: "Can't do it. Focus on fucking shit up, Vuong."

"Y-You two." Xiumei sighs, groaning a little. Then, she looks back at Nidhogg, and then she frowns. "...I've got a couple."

She leaps backward. She just manages to keep from getting cut into her arm -- instead it hits her chest armor, sparks flying, and a gouge left in it. She hisses in pain, and then starts rushing to the side of Nidhogg. She takes aim as she does, firing off another couple shots of energy blasts in her direction.

GS: Zhang Xiumei has attacked Solitaire Collier with Pulse Cannon - Strafing Shot!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Zhang Xiumei's stances have changed to Sage!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has completed her action.
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire suffers a terrible blow from Gwen Whitlock's Crackshot for 104 hit points!
GS: Cripple applied to Ganondorf Dragmire!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "Don't you worry or none, kid," Josie had said to Hicalu, moments before. "We're on it, yeah?"

    If Josephine Lovelace had stopped before that clash that is to come to have a smoke break and a brief -- but brutally honest -- discussion about her past sins with one Eleanor Klein, regardless of Hicalu's pleas, that's her own business, and she'll not speak of it to anyone else.

    There hadn't been the time to linger overlong, not with the pressure of this moment bearing down upon them all. Not only had Ganondorf seized several leaders from across Filgaia (not really Josie's concern) and not only had he abducted several others of elven blood (much more her concern, especially when their absence makes little girls cry), but it was plain that an entire people were about to be forced into a nightmare reborn. Riju's words still ring in her ears.

    She's never going to claim she has a good sense of what's right or what's wrong but this... this isn't.

    "God..." Josie exhales, her gaze lingering on the vault of slumbering people laid out before them all. How many? Riju had spoken true. This is an army. And--

    No questioning it. That girl's a dead ringer for her younger sister. And that must be Eleanor's mother.

    In the past she'd have rather avoided a confrontation like this -- not her circus, not her monkey. But, things change.
    And hell, she's come all this way. It's far too late to get cold feet now.

    "Nope," she answers Ganondorf's declaration, grimacing as she stares up at the terrible visage of the King of Evil. "I mean, hell. I'm feelin' up to do a deal, right," she continues, swinging her black shotgun free from where it hangs across her back. Her lips twist in a grim smile of her own. "But somehow... I ain't thinkin' you'd be up to my terms, yeah? So, the hell with bargaining, I figure--"

    He's not alone here. No, not in the sense of him and his shadow. But Solitaire's weapon -- shedding its wielder -- speaks.

    And then there's Ratatoskr.

    "Well, damn," Josie mutters.

    And this is when light blooms close by. She knows that arte--

    "Clarine! Will-o-wisp! Been a while!" Josie calls over. "Guess we're back on the same team, yeah? ...Heh. Don't think you have to ask that question! ...Ain't that right, Ratatoskr?"

    Without so much as a warning, she fires a shot in his direction.

    "As long as it's 'history'... he's eager to be here!"

GS: Josephine Lovelace accepts Seraph Clarine's Acuteness for 0 hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Josephine Lovelace!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Ratatoskr with Screwdriver!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Link has posed.

It's time.

As Link passes from the tomb towards where Ganondorf has kept the nobles, making his grand appearance, his eyes glance around for Aryll. She's probably not here. Ganondorf is ancient...having made this race suffer and planning to make them suffer again. Link can't let it happen.

But as Ganondorf addresses them, he looks up at the titan of malice, so much larger than him, drawing his sword and shield. His replacement shield is weak and his blade damaged...

But Eleanor's glow makes that inconsequential. He can focus on new equipment later, if he even needs it after they stop him.

As the beastman working with them charges him with fiery energy, Link addresses back. He's scared. Ganondorf can feel it - he knows the mettle of courage.

And yet, Link possesses either courage or foolhardiness, because he takes a step forward and speaks despite the all-human fear in his bones. his green cap worn proudly.

"My name is Link."

"You hurt my friends. You hurt their families. You hurt people I don't even know, long dead and still alive."

"And most importantly, you hurt my sister, taking her away from me and Grandma...abducting her..."

"Fight me, evil king!"

Link suddenly is dashing forward, emblazoned with energy, and makes a hard sidestep to the left instead of a suicidal head-on attack. It's hard to predict that such a child could be a skilled warrior, but...

It's unlikely to faze his foe.

The sword that slashes at him will probably hurt if it connects, though, as Link tries to see how sturdy the massive overlord is with quick but focused strikes.

GS: Link spends 2 Combo on Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling!
GS: Blitz! Link has attacked Ganondorf Dragmire with A Brother's Rage!
GS: Link has completed his action.
GS: Ratatoskr solidly guards Josephine Lovelace's Screwdriver for 50 hit points!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire takes a glancing hit from Link's A Brother's Rage for 59 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ganondorf Dragmire gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Hyper applied to Link!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Link and Medli move towards their destiny, and Ida Everstead-Rey is right behind them. A fur-lined Arctican mantle billows around her as she rushes into the room, her eyes darting about. God in heaven, those must all be sleep chambers, like the one Riju was in. Ganondorf's people aren't dead--they're asleep. Ida stops in her tracks, her throat constricting as Ganondorf steps out of himself and leaves... someone to complete the ritual.

    Ida's gaze falls upon the crystals, and it does not take her long to find her aunt. The image of Anna Everstead-Rey flickers beneath the surface of her glassy prison. Her hands press against one of the facets, white-knuckled; her face is a rictus of pain. From across the room, Ida's eyes lock on her, and her breath catches in her throat. She's seen Anna in pain, when her old war injuries acted up. She's seen her sorrowful. She has never seen her in agony.

    Ganondorf is killing her. He's killing the captives so he can enslave his own people. Riju did not mince words when she described his plans.

    Ida sees red. Her lips pull back from her teeth; anger that may be new to Link and Medli settles in her eyes. "Go," Ida says. "I'll free them." But there are others in the way. Ratatoskr--Ida isn't fool enough to assume that his youth and enthusiasm mean he's easy prey. Clarine's light traces her body as she pulls a silvery sphere from her belt, ignites it, and then HURLS it at Ratatoskr's face. Hit or miss, it explodes with a thunderous roar and brilliant magnesium flash.

    This is not going to be a clean fight, but Ida wants to make it as quick as possible. There are countless lives at stake.

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Ratatoskr with Flare Grenade!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey's stances have changed to Stoic!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
GS: Ratatoskr takes a glancing hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Flare Grenade for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ratatoskr gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Blind applied to Ratatoskr!
<Pose Tracker> Ganondorf Dragmire has posed.

The order is given, and ignored. "So be it," Ganondorf declares.

And then he lunges. He SURGES, fast enough to befuddle the eye. Ashley's blast wave ruffles his robes but not his mind on the way past. Link comes at him at the same time and slices through, but Ganondorf's blade is positioned just-so to flick the little hero's blade aside.

He all but materializes next to Eleanor and punches her directly in the throat.

"Not a Hero yet," he says, to her and Link both.

Gwen gets him, then, a shot that strikes him across the chest, forcing a flinch. He raises his hand and flickering purple-black lightning crackles across the distance, answering the shot in kind. "Power abides," is his answer.

He moves then, moving back the way he came. He blurs toward Ashley, Hicalu, and Medli, seeming to appear by each at once, striking one, two, three times with his blades, before the speed images converge again - spearing toward Link.

"Now then, you who would wear the garb of a hero!" he roars. "Tyrant you would call me! Foe, you would call me! Stand on the field of the Bearer of Power, and witness its majesty! IF IT IS A BATTLE YOU WISH, YOU SHALL HAVE IT!"

He strikes down, twice, an overhead swing that shatters stone as it connects and forces Link to dodge. And he looks up, teeth split in an eager grin. "Begone," he whispers, and then blurs forward again, both blades out, seeking to carve the Hero apart with a twin-force blow across the chest.

GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has attacked Eleanor Klein with Punish the Defiant!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Dark Lightning!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has attacked Hicalu Wilwisp with Blade of the King!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has attacked Medli with Blade of the King!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has attacked Ashley Winchester with Blade of the King!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire spends 1 Combo on Link!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has attacked Link with Biting Desert Wind!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has launched an attack Link!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire spends 4 Combo on Poison and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has attacked Link with Reject the Sacred!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has completed his action.
GS: Hicalu Wilwisp fully evades Ganondorf Dragmire's Blade of the King for 0 hit points!
GS: Ashley Winchester suffers a terrible blow from Ganondorf Dragmire's Blade of the King for 115 hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Ganondorf Dragmire!
GS: CRITICAL! Medli takes a glancing hit from Ganondorf Dragmire's Blade of the King for 72 hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Ganondorf Dragmire!
GS: CRITICAL! Eleanor Klein takes a glancing hit from Ganondorf Dragmire's Punish the Defiant for 72 hit points!
GS: Mute applied to Eleanor Klein!
GS: Hyper applied to Ganondorf Dragmire!
GS: Link takes a glancing hit from Ganondorf Dragmire's Biting Desert Wind for 63 hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Ganondorf Dragmire!
GS: FP up! Power Burst and Evade bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.

    Ratatoskr seems blissfully unaware (...kind of) of a slight made some time ago as Lan shouts, and something about her anger and voice carries such weight that his tail flares out in segmented metal plates hearing it, and he hardly gets to respond before she swings an elbow into his that tries to meet hers--
 
     She might feel some physical resistance in differences between mass and momentum. His shoulder gets outright dislocated in the exchange. This will fix itself, eventually.
 
     "Who's your little brother?" He asks, somewhat muted as if taken aback by the ferocity of this, in the humor of the moment.
 
     Clarine asks a very pointed question. Josie helps answer it for her in her opportunism and keen shooting. Josie shoots, and Ratatoskr... holds out his other hand, catching the bullet and clasping it tight as quicksilver visibly dribbles down his palm and forearm for a short while before the wound closes.
 
     "She has that righ--" Ida doesn't have time for this nonsense when her aunt - and so many others - are in utter agony, and Ratatoskr sways his head aside so the Flare Grenade doesn't go off in his face. It rebounds off a wall somewhere and goes off. He misses the flash behind him, but there's still a heck of a boom that has his ears ring and disorients him slightly.
 
     "...You're all really in a hurry..." He's not screaming over the ringing so that's a plus. "I've so many things to ask these people... I've so many of them to fight!" He sweeps the arm with the dislocated shoulder out, which is as silly as it looks, and maybe Lan did more of a number there than he realizes. "One way or another... I am bearing witness!"
 
     That's about as much as he can say standing there as he hurls himself into it. An opposite elbow attack towards Lan into a palm strike that blasts compressed air at shotgun force, followed by turning that into a swinging punch for the mass of light that is Clarine before bending his elbow and discharging that same compressed air at her that way.
 
     For Josie and Ida, it's much the same principle, a leaping spin-kick with enough reach on his lanky legs to get both, bring it around. His heel discharges that shotgun-like blast of compressed air at Josie, pivoting with the inertia to bend his knee up closer to Ida before it discharges from there instead.
 
     Like the principles of Muay Thai in which Ratatoskr's fighting style seems to take after by accident, albeit with a Hyadean touch, every limb has two deadly weapons in effect.

GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Ratatoskr with Bearing Witness!!
GS: Ratatoskr has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ratatoskr's stances have changed from Counter to Avenger and Counter!
GS: CRITICAL! Ratatoskr accepts Ratatoskr's Bearing Witness! for 0 hit points!
GS: Amplify and Burst applied to Ratatoskr!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: Ratatoskr has activated a Boss Action!
GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Lan Lilac with One Armed Dual Wield!
GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Seraph Clarine with One Armed Dual Wield!
GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Josephine Lovelace with One Armed Dual Wield!
GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with One Armed Dual Wield!
GS: Ratatoskr has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Link takes a solid hit from Ganondorf Dragmire's Reject the Sacred for 163 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Link gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Poison blocked!
GS: Hyper applied to Ganondorf Dragmire!
GS: FP up! Power Burst activated!
GS: Ratatoskr gains 10 FP from his Daredevil!
GS: Ratatoskr has completed his action.
GS: Juni Vandrer accepts Juni Vandrer's Short Barrel Configuration for 0 hit points!
GS: Quick applied to Juni Vandrer!
GS: CRITICAL! Josephine Lovelace takes a glancing hit from Ratatoskr's One Armed Dual Wield for 86 hit points!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures activated!
GS: COUNTER! Seraph Clarine counterattacks Ratatoskr with Reflect!
GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Clarine solidly guards Ratatoskr's One Armed Dual Wield for 97 hit points!
GS: Quick applied to Ratatoskr!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: Gwen Whitlock solidly guards Ganondorf Dragmire's Dark Lightning for 65 hit points!
GS: Disrupt blocked!
GS: Hyper applied to Ganondorf Dragmire!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey solidly guards Ratatoskr's One Armed Dual Wield for 54 hit points!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Venetia Vuong partially evades Solitaire Collier's Graceful and Merciless for 122 hit points!
GS: Venetia Vuong's Mute Ward may block the effect!
GS: Mute applied to Venetia Vuong!
GS: Hyper applied to Solitaire Collier!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.

Xiumei's support means a lot to Eleanor. She knows she, and ARMS, will handle the others. And so...

Hicalu proves his bravery. Eleanor looks to him in a new light, as his magic settles upon her. She even smiles at him. "Hicalu... You can do it!"

She doesn't know if he can. But she believes in him, now.

Ashley mentions corruption.. and Eleanor nods. "We must," she agrees. "I can undo his spell, if I can get to it. But only if I get to it in time."

Clarine will provide what cover she can... And Medli--Medli moves to comfort her, too. It warms her heart, that little bit, and she does indeed feel strengthened.

Not a Hero yet, he says, and Eleanor knows that it's true. She jerks to the side, as if seeing his attack coming, but this only spares her throat; she still gets hit hard in the shoulder, and this is enough to slam her backward, sending her spinning across the platform to hit the ground at one knee. A strike...

The Bearer of Power...

"It is only--" She huffs, and breathing is still hard. "It is only stolen power you wield, Ganondorf! And it will not stop us!"

She can only pray that her and Hicalu and Medli's magic is enough to defend Link from that terrible attack.

In the meantime, rather than pull another Crest, Eleanor rises, and starts to move along the side of the battle. "Ashley!" she calls. "I'll try to weaken him!"

She suddenly has a golden gun in her hands--and it's not an arrow, but the bullet sure is consecrated with golden light all the same as she starts firing shots for Ganondorf.

GS: Eleanor Klein has attacked Ganondorf Dragmire with Sacred Bullet!
GS: Eleanor Klein has completed her action.
GS: Lan Lilac accepts Seraph Clarine's Acuteness for 0 hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Lan Lilac!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: Lan Lilac takes a solid hit from Ratatoskr's One Armed Dual Wield for 114 hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Ratatoskr!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Hicalu Wilwisp has posed.

    "AAAAAAHHHHH---!!" Is what Hicalu has to say, as Ganondorf moves.

    He is a coward -- a coward who runs and lives, as Ganondorf blurs forward. (And there's a comment to be made, perhaps, in the way he managed to realise the attack was coming. Perhaps he simply assumed, after that crackling lightning.) He turns tail and SCRAMBLES, and even so, Ganondorf's sword still slices a fine layer of fur from his tail as he bolts to the far wall.

    That tail can be seen, poking out, as he cowers behind some fallen slab. Hicalu cries, back there, for a moment.

    But... Tristan's sister said he could do it.

    One trembling hand grasps the stone he's hidden behind, as Hicalu peeks out, from behind it. He gulps, and gestures, once more. Gestures -- and gestures again -- and has to try a third time, before he manages to commit the Symbological spell. "Phoenix Feather...!" He invokes, as warm feathers settle on Link's shoulders, to protect and strengthen him against the might of Ganondorf.

    All the while, he prays Ganondorf will ignore him, back here.

    He really is a coward...

GS: Hicalu Wilwisp has attacked Link with Phoenix Feather!
GS: Hicalu Wilwisp has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Hicalu Wilwisp gains 25 THP from his Cautious!
GS: Hicalu Wilwisp has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.

 
"It's hard to say exactly," Venetia explains to Juni. "It's a Metal Demon, excuse me, Hydaean device. It could just be an active thing, like an ARM, but if it's acting with its own volition I have my doubts."

And then Nidhogg talks back.

Venetia answers the weapon. "Oh, I'm sorry, did I offend you while you were helping an ancient demon king RESURRECT AND ENSLAVE THE DEAD? I'm so terribly sorry! NO I AM NOT I AM LYING FOR EFFECT. If you would not harm her then justify yourself, weapon!"

"And what is MORE"

Everyone's got a plan until they get a bar across the throat. The blow is strong enough to jerk Venetia back. She had sort of seen Nidhogg coming but she was anticipating an axe blow or perhaps some sort of head strike, and as such the blow is marginally softened, in so far it doesn't break her neck. "BLUGGHHKK" Venetia articulates, before wheezing.

She rubs her throat and croaks out towards Varius, "in a moment" as she deals with Nidhogg in another way. Her gun. It gets drawn and fired, if with some caution to avoid winging Xiumei in the crossfire.

GS: Venetia Vuong has attacked Solitaire Collier with Five Rounds of Standoffish Lead!
GS: Venetia Vuong has completed her action.
GS: Solitaire Collier has activated Force Action: Accelerate!
GS: Solitaire Collier suffers a terrible blow from Zhang Xiumei's Pulse Cannon - Strafing Shot for 136 hit points!
GS: Gamble: Very High! Solitaire Collier suffers a terrible blow from Venetia Vuong's Five Rounds of Standoffish Lead
for 187 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Medli has posed.

Ganondorf appears in their midst, suddenly, and Medli can't help but gasp in fright. Despite her brave words -- she's terrified. As he strikes Eleanor, Hicalu, Ashley, Medli scrambles backwards, trying to get out of the way. It's only when the King goes after Link that Medli cries out, rushing toward him.

 Ganondorf's blade clips Medli's side, and she tumbles to the ground. It hurts -- but Link! Link needs her! Biting her lip, she gets to her feet.

 "D--don't worry." Medli looks toward Hicalu. "Thank you for helping us. I believe in you, mister!"

 With a breath in, she again brings her hand to her harp. This time, Medli raises her voice in accompaniment, red eyes slipping closed. Maybe this will leave her open to Ganondorf's attacks. She pushes the thought from her mind.

 "La, la la la, la la la..." Medli sings. Power winds around her slight form, spreading out to the ones who fight by her side.

<Pose Tracker> Juni Vandrer has posed.

Juni Vandrer glances sidelong at the explanation on the metal demons. She doesn't look particularly relieved at the explanation. "Not sure if I like that answer better, but that's a later problem. Remind me to follow up on that." Filing it in the back of her head for now. Though as an aside to Zhang, "Later though."
 
 And as noted, the axe talks back. "Not really feeling either name honestly." She calls over the growing din of a mess happening all around. "You're about to get her hurt right now chuckles." She gestuers to Venetia with her off hand, her usual tactic of splitting a singular opponent's focus means she's walking the other direction. Still talking. "I've heard the rhetoric." She lines up a burst and fires, each shot met with a faint glow deep in the twin prongs acting as a barrel followed by the crack of a slug breaking the sound barrier. She'd like to claim she wanted to aim for the axe, but that's a luxury for simpler times. When she's got the ambush. Not now.

GS: Medli has attacked Link with Harmonic Glissando!
GS: Medli has attacked Eleanor Klein with Harmonic Glissando!
GS: Medli has attacked Ashley Winchester with Harmonic Glissando!
GS: Medli has gained 4 Combo!
GS: Medli has completed her action.
GS: Juni Vandrer has attacked Solitaire Collier with Pin Down!
GS: Juni Vandrer has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Juni Vandrer has completed her action.
GS: Medli heals Eleanor Klein! She gains 83 temporary hit points!
GS: Blitz applied to Eleanor Klein!
GS: Cover applied to Medli!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: Solitaire Collier takes a glancing hit from Juni Vandrer's Pin Down for 36 hit points!
GS: Drowsy applied to Solitaire Collier!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
GS: Link accepts Hicalu Wilwisp's Phoenix Feather for 0 hit points!
GS: Hyper, Quick, and Shield applied to Link!
GS: Medli heals Link! He gains 90 temporary hit points!
GS: Blitz applied to Link!
GS: Cover applied to Medli!
GS: Link enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

 
    If Lan had put .05% more thought into this, she might have remembered that villains don't usually wait until everybody is ready to fight. And that her precious, fluffy little brother is a lot closer to Ganondorf than she is, which makes him more likely to be in the King of Evil's damage splash zone.

    She probably should have thought of this before immediately aggroing Ratatoskr, whose main (but far from only) fault is being a weirdly enthusiastic wartime history nerd.

    "He's the adorable one with the tattoos and the fox tail! HE SMELLS LIKE CINNAMON ROLLS, YOU--" Did she knock his shoulder out of joint? Lan knows that won't even slow Ratatoskr down, but it's still kind of icky. "Your shoulder--"

    The pair of loud thooms so very close to her and him makes Lan shake her head a bit, but she's still good to go. He comes back at her with an elbow strike of his own and she brings an arm back up to block; even just the compressed air blast is loud and disorienting, again. Why is everybody so into loud things that go bang?!

    She leaps back and away from him when he goes after Ida and Josie. She needs a little room for this...!

    Forming a circle with the fingers of both hands, she sights through it. Her view of the world beyond the 'reticle' is silver...

    Ratatoskr's view might be, too, because there's a chain of bright energy spheres gunning for him!

GS: Lan Lilac spends 2 Combo on Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling!
GS: Lan Lilac has attacked Ratatoskr with Meteorainbow!
GS: Lan Lilac has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Lan Lilac has completed her action.
GS: Medli heals Ashley Winchester! He gains 88 temporary hit points!
GS: Blitz applied to Ashley Winchester!
GS: Cover applied to Medli!
<Pose Tracker> Solitaire Collier has posed.

More than one... Nidhogg is impressed! Is it easier with more than one? Solitaire can be quite the handful.

Nidhogg is distracted by asking for parenting/weaponized teammate tips!

This leads to both Xiumei and Venetia getting some pretty solid hits on the axe. Xiumei blasts the axe in the side, sending it spiraling wildly out of control--it's not exactly the most grounded opponent she has faced--and flies straight into the firepower unleashed by Venetia's more traditional firearm. It stumbles in the air, slouching as black smoke drifts off its body.

You are Galadian. Your people enslave the living. You lie and give them little metal shards that fail to provide for their lives so that they do not tear the throats out of the noble houses.

The dark aura reappears.

The rest, feel free to guess at.

Juni tells him he's about to get Solitaire hurt RIGHT NOW.

Explain.

Juni's bullet glances off the axe's handle. It spins around in a circular motion before soaring back up so it can have better awareness of his opponents.

Nidhogg couldn't quite hit Xiumei where he wanted, and Juni is still difficult to battle around. Perhaps he can try switching up tactics between them.

Perhaps this....

Nidhogg comes crashing down, this time striking directly at the very armor he had struck against Xiumei before, trying to deepen the gouge ther.

The weapon snaps back, spinning around rapidly and this time curving upward to try and slice into one of Juni's shootin' arms, aware of just how powerful that rifle of hers can be--

--before flying after Venetia, intending to slice into her in several rapid strikes, black smoke and noxious energies erupting out from within him.

GS: Solitaire Collier has attacked Zhang Xiumei with Talons of Nidhogg!
GS: Solitaire Collier has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Solitaire Collier has attacked Juni Vandrer with Crumbling Foundation!
GS: Solitaire Collier has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Solitaire Collier spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Solitaire Collier has attacked Venetia Vuong with The Shore Of Corpses!
GS: Solitaire Collier gains 59 THP from Regen!
GS: Solitaire Collier has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.

The mercy of the King of Evil is shunned. This is, Ashley senses, the only right thing to do.

Unfortunately, it costs him.

A blade flashes out faster than he can follow. It carves a bloody arc across his chest before he can leverage his Bayonet to deflect the second and third. "Tch-- he's way faster than he looks. Or is this magic...!?"

If a single wound were enough to kill the Vessel of Disaster, he-- and likely Filgaia with him-- would have been long gone. Ashley staggers back, but he knows what he has to do. "We need to get you in there," he agrees at Eleanor, loading a second canister into his weapon, "We need to clear the way as quick as we can...!"

A song washes over him. Ashley has learned from his time on Lunar how potent music can be, and this song is no less impressive. Medli's voice soothes his aching wound and steadies his aim. "Ganondorf... What are you doing this for? These people have suffered enough, haven't they? Do you need to use them again? Is that all your power is good for!?" He fires again, this time aimed dead-on at the King of Evil's heart, and this time...

The canister is not a glorified flashbang.

It's a damn napalm bomb.

GS: Zhang Xiumei fully evades Solitaire Collier's Talons of Nidhogg for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Zhang Xiumei gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Break blocked!
GS: Hyper and Quick applied to Solitaire Collier!
GS: Ashley Winchester spends 1 Combo on Poison!
GS: Blitz! Ashley Winchester has attacked Ganondorf Dragmire with Canister - Incendiary Round!
GS: Ashley Winchester has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ashley Winchester has completed his action.
GS: Ratatoskr takes a glancing hit from Seraph Clarine's Reflect for 64 hit points!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus and Gleam activated!
GS: Ratatoskr takes a solid hit from Lan Lilac's Meteorainbow for 160 hit points!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font, Evade bonus, and Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Link has posed.

Link doesn't get time to respond to Ganondorf's dismissal, as his sword is flicked away.

His friends are hurt, but he most focus on himself, as the first blow comes down. He rolls out of the way, taking chip damage from the quake. But as he tries lifting his shield, that torso-ripping blow comes out. It'll kill him if it impacts dead-on.

The shield goes up. He should have tried dodging. It'd be much more like a normal fight...

It'll shatter his shield.

Yet...

The blow impacts with the golden light Eleanor created, and the song Medli played has empowered Link. It still doesn't appear to be enough. He goes sailing back towards where his sword landed, his tiny body hitting the ground.

For a moment, he shouldn't be fighting. Thoughts course through his rattled skull, eyes bleary.

"Link! Aryll! What have I told you about playing in the forest...? You're gonna get hurt if-"
"It's okay, grandma...! Link was protecting me. Right, big brother?"
"Yeah! I can't be stopped...mom and dad are watching over us, right? As long as I have someone to protect, they'll protect me, even when I'm scared!"
"...well...I suppose you're a lot like your mother, little one. Comme on, let's get inside and..."

By the time Ganondorf has taken focus off Link, he's rising to his feet. He's gonna bruise, and he might even bleed, but he's not wobbling. His heartbeat is going a mile a minute. His fear is palpable.

The sword and shield come up with him. The shield didn't shatter - Eleanor's spell kept it whole, and saved his life.

"Do you think that'll be enough...? I've got the spirits on my side...!"

Link spits red droplets from where he bit his lip, the thirteen-year-old's sword rising as he rushes forth, blessings knitting his wounds together and giving him power.

His fear is his courage, as he rushes forward, forces power through his legs, and jumps, moving to slice at Ganondorf's upper torso using the power his allies have given him.

GS: Venetia Vuong solidly guards Solitaire Collier's The Shore Of Corpses for 78 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Venetia Vuong gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Jam applied to Venetia Vuong!
GS: Hyper and Quick applied to Solitaire Collier!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
GS: Link has activated Force Action: Snipe!
GS: Blitz! Link has attacked Ganondorf Dragmire with Jump Attack!
GS: Link has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Link has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.

"I can't say," Xiumei says. The answer is 'it depends,' but that can be maddening.

She turns as Nidhogg comes flying at her -- and before it strikes, she leaps high into the air so the weapon strikes the stones instead, before bouncing back at Juni. In midair, she spins around to face that axe is it bounds away for Juni.

She holds a hand out -- cubes of light flash into existence, then her hand wraps about a cross-shaped piece of metal. She throws it out.

It becomes surrounded by a field of green-white energy, and then it lances out in an arc, before flying back towards Xiumei's hand.

GS: Zhang Xiumei spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has attacked Solitaire Collier with Barrier Cross - Boomerang Strike!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Mighty expired!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    When she first aimed, Ganondorf was there. She had a clear shot. Suddenly, he isn't. The courier jerks her head around to look about wildly. She's not afraid of a Ganondorf she can see, but she never realized just how threatening a Ganondorf could be, when he's just out of sight.

    She finds him punching directly into Eleanor's throat, and her heated bluster fails her; fear briefly charts up her neck as she fires her crackshot.
    
    Which likely is why her words sound just a little bit on the high-pitched end of things, as she blocks that black violet lightening with her ARM. "What th' hell are you talkin' about? Power abides what?!"

    'You hurt my friends. You hurt their families. You hurt people I don't even know, long dead and still alive.'

    Link's earlier words take a second to sink in, but Gwen finally looks up from the subject of her anger to the people trapped around them, and recollects herself.

    She can be angry all she wants, but she's not the one who could lose someone close to them if they take too long.

    ".... Link, Medli, Eleanor, Ashley, Hic--" Where did Hicalu go? "Er, well, keep supportin' each other. I'll support you as long as I'm up n' runnin'." She pulls out a few bullets in her left hand, pressing them into the chamber in her right ARM. "In a sec I'll generate a field to make your ARM attacks way easier. He's fast, yeah, but we got an advantage, even with his allies here!" Wait was that Ratatoskr, what is he doing here

    As Link courageously rushes forward and the light of Ashley's NAPALM (seriously) lights her way, Gwen screams out the fear needling in her stomach as she launches a punch from the other direction, hoping Ganondorf launches on her instead of the now bloodied Link.

GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Ganondorf Dragmire with Return to Sender!
GS: Gwen Whitlock enters a Counter stance!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Juni Vandrer suffers a terrible blow from Solitaire Collier's Crumbling Foundation for 184 hit points!
GS: Weaken applied to Juni Vandrer!
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.

 
The war rages. Venetia finishes discharging her firearm and holsters it. No time to reload. It's an enemy axe. She knows what axes can do. She croaks to Nidhogg, "Aye, and every single one of you is Berserk. You're a wise and majestic flying tree-feller, and so your word overrides the evidence of my senses. Ha! Categorization error, you artificially stupid --"

She gurgles for a moment.

But she manages to choke out "ancient pillar" as she sees Nidhogg coming towards her. A blooming column of marble which absorbs two of his strikes and slows the third enough that she gets a narrow if, long, gash along one arm instead of a deep seated cleaving. Even so: Blood on the ground.

Another Crest Graph comes up. Venetia pushes out "selenite s-- sign," with a relatively variable flaring of the Crest Graph as the metathallium inlay responds to will as much as words; blue-white saline crystals erupt from the ground, aiming to appear around Nidhogg midflight. r
"it'll cut through but," Venetia says to Juni and Xiumei, before slapping her own throat in frustration. Did it BREAK? Venetia thinks. Am I going to sound like this FOREVER? Is this SASSY AXE going to get the LAST WORD??

GS: Venetia Vuong has attacked Solitaire Collier with Selenite Sign ~Cavern of the Crystals~!
GS: Venetia Vuong has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Venetia Vuong has completed her action.
GS: Solitaire Collier has activated Force Action: Accelerate!
GS: Solitaire Collier takes a solid hit from Zhang Xiumei's Barrier Cross - Boomerang Strike for 123 hit points!
GS: Hyper and Hyper applied to Zhang Xiumei!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
GS: Solitaire Collier partially evades Venetia Vuong's Selenite Sign ~Cavern of the Crystals~ for 52 hit points!
GS: Cripple and Entangle applied to Solitaire Collier!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire takes a solid hit from Eleanor Klein's Sacred Bullet for 83 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ganondorf Dragmire gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Shieldbreak applied to Ganondorf Dragmire!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Lan dislocates Ratatoskr's shoulder. Ida's lips twist, but the circumstances keep the sympathy from gaining too much traction. He'll survive this. Ganondorf's captives will not, if they can't get Eleanor through to break that spell.

    'I've so many things to ask these people... I've so many of them to fight!'

    "That can wait," Ida says, and while her tone is cold, there's something at least vaguely sisterly there. But then Ratatoskr unloads on them, executing those familiar, agile two-point strikes. Ida sees the knee-strike coming. She shifts her weight back, raises her open hands, and grasps the side of the young Hyadean's knee. She gently guides it away from her, redirecting Ratatoskr's momentum with a practiced hand. The BOOM of compressed air makes her left ear ring, and blows her hair back.

    Ida breathes out. Her breath mists in the air, condensing into plumes of white. A moment later, shapes form in that atmospheric moisture: phantasms of Ida, each approaching Ratatoskr from a different angle. One drives a foot for his sternum. One throws a low kick for the his knee. One goes for an armbar. One drops to the floor and executes a sweeping kick to knock him off his feet.

    That last one is the real Ida, and she's trying to kill Ratatoskr's momentum.

GS: Ganondorf Dragmire takes a solid hit from Ashley Winchester's Canister - Incendiary Round for 180 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ganondorf Dragmire gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Poison applied to Ganondorf Dragmire!
GS: Hyper applied to Ashley Winchester!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire solidly guards Link's Jump Attack for 83 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ganondorf Dragmire gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Mighty applied to Link!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Ratatoskr with Coils of the Water Dragon!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire takes a solid hit from Gwen Whitlock's Return to Sender for 143 hit points!
GS: COUNTER! Ratatoskr counterattacks Ida Everstead-Rey with Counter Attack!
GS: Ratatoskr suffers a terrible blow from Ida Everstead-Rey's Coils of the Water Dragon for 163 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ratatoskr gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Delay applied to Ratatoskr!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.

A familiar voices reaches her. Clarine's attention is pulled away from Ratatoskr, and to -

"Josie?" Clarine replies. She blinks, momentarily. Back on the same- "Then you are-"

Clarine brightens visibly, as her words click. They have fought before. Clarine is quick to enter battle against those who oppose her, even should they be a friend - but she is quick, too, to welcome them back once the reason for opposition is dealt with.

"...I am pleased. Let us fight together once more." Clarine says with a bow of her head, turning her attention back to Ratatoskr. As Josie said - where there's history', he's eager to be there - and his eagerness shows in the way he fights.

"Then come, Ratatoskr. You will ask nothing until this is concluded, one way or another. Let us delay no further." Clarine says. He goes in for a punch. He'll find himself staring back at him, as his fist impacts one of her mirrors. Mirror and Clarine both slide backward, and when the former is struck by a bullet of compressed air the mirror flashes, reflecting the force right back at him in a burst of light. From the strained look on Clarine's face, however, it was no easy feat.

"O seven brilliant blades, I call upon you to descend and loose your shining might..." Clarine incants. A Seraphic glyph lights up all around her - and at her call, six crystalline swords, glimmering in all the colors of the rainbow, appear above Ratatoskr. "Prism Sword!"

The swords descend, one after another - they attempt to form a cage, connected by light. And then, the seventh promised sword appears and descends toward Ratatoskr himself before each of the swords detonates in a brilliant display of light and crystal shards.

GS: Seraph Clarine spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Ratatoskr with Prism Sword!
GS: Seraph Clarine has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Juni Vandrer has posed.

Juni Vandrer catches the blade off of the coat. It digs in. It hurts. It's definitely re-opened a few of the previous wounds and she just makes a sound of disappointment in the back of her throat as she bounces back. Sure that blinking light's back on her wrist, but that's covered up by a plate so she'll keep ignoring it.
 
 Shakign some droplets to the side, she re-shoulders her rifle. "You're going to tell me you don't know how you're putting her at risk at this very minute. Sincerely? Or are you just lying to her."
 
 "Short-sighted to trade a corrupt ruling body for that." She barks out with a laugh while gesturing towards Ganon. "Let's go."
 
 "It happens." she calls out to Xiumei, it's not the first time she's heard the answer and far from the last time she'll have to give the answer.
 
 There's a pause. "You're calling a guy named Berserk wise?" that's.. "I need that story." She says, that hint of laughter still on her voice from earlier. Maybe she needs to do a lot more homework as a whole.
 
 As she's talking though, she's watching the movement. The system once more recording and adjusting the projected HUD. The calculations presented through the scope. Making it easier to pick out a sweet spot. So to speak.

GS: Juni Vandrer has attacked Solitaire Collier with Active Tracking!
GS: Juni Vandrer has gained 4 Combo!
GS: Juni Vandrer has completed her action.
GS: Solitaire Collier takes a glancing hit from Juni Vandrer's Active Tracking for 0 hit points!
GS: Dispel! Hyper, Quick, and Regen removed!
GS: Solitaire Collier's Slow Ward may block the effect!
GS: Slow applied to Solitaire Collier!
GS: Ratatoskr solidly guards Seraph Clarine's Prism Sword for 61 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ratatoskr gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Quick and Shield applied to Seraph Clarine!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font, Guard bonus, and Gleam activated!
GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Ratatoskr receives 100 temporary hit points.
GS: Ratatoskr enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Solitaire Collier has posed.

Mm. Nidhogg says. Then it seems our conversation is at an end. A pity.

Though Xiumei's cross is able to impact against the side of the weapon and Venetia is able to pinball it around with her crystals in midair--it might be pretty apparent to Venetia that despite everything, Nidhogg just isn't as capable as fighting on his own as he is with Solitaire backing him up. Or maybe even he knows he's kind of reaching when fighting with the King of Evil here.

But Juni's words give the axe pause.

...If I let her do something so shortsighted as she was about to. Her dream would die. She would condemn herself to a life supporting the very systems that failed her, bearing the weight of the excess of lords and ladies--rather than change anything fundamental.

The dark aura shimmers dangerously as it considers another meaning behind Juni's words.

I had thought you 'heroes' disdained targeting sleeping children.

MEANWHILE

Solitaire dozes, seemingly oblivious to what's going on. She is still pretty beat up from the EARLIER fight. Nidhogg hasn't been straying too far from her in the fight but has always ensured he wasn't directly in Solitaire's line. More or less.

The axe suddenly bursts forth! Swiping in a wide arc and unleashing a wave of dark energy that threatens to enveolop all three of them! It's noxious, burning, and would probabyl be defiling the land it touches if it wasn't already in a defiled land.

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "Long story," Josie tells Clarine, at least having the decency to smile at her sheepishly, lopsidedly. "But I daresay we're on the same side this time 'round!"

    There is but one problem with fighting Ratatoskr, a natural consequence that Josie has often observed while fighting alongside him.

    "Tch," Josie hisses as he simply catches her bullet. "Sure am in a hurry," she drawls his way in spite of her clear irritation. "Ain't like those kids -- or pregnant mothers -- are doin' all that rightly at the moment!" Her gaze slides sidelong to her current allies and she remarks, "Easy now! He might act the fool--"

    That's about as far as she gets before her erstwhile companion leaps into the fray at the lot of them, delivering a shot of compressed air her way that might as well have been a bullet. Josie twists out of the way, her shotgun born close to her body, and still earns herself a deep cut across her cheek; if she hadn't already cut her hair, it would have been a significant haircut as well.

    "...but he ain't a fool," Josie finishes, needlessly, grimacing against the sting. "But right you are. This is history, and you're gonna observe it to the last, yeah?" She smiles, bitterly. "Too bad. You ain't a bad egg, but I also know better'n to try and talk you down, Ratatoskr! But lemme just say--"

    She jerks her head towards the crystals, towards the slumbering Gerudo, towards everything.

    "Look around you!"

    With care, she levels that shotgun at him.

    And then angles it a few degrees to the right. Where is Josie aiming?

GS: Solitaire Collier has activated a Boss Action!
GS: Solitaire Collier has attacked Zhang Xiumei with No Vacancy!
GS: Solitaire Collier has attacked Venetia Vuong with No Vacancy!
GS: Solitaire Collier has attacked Juni Vandrer with No Vacancy!
GS: Solitaire Collier has completed her action.
GS: Zhang Xiumei takes a solid hit from Solitaire Collier's No Vacancy for 167 hit points!
GS: Delay and Disrupt blocked!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
GS: Zhang Xiumei enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "Long story," Josie tells Clarine, at least having the decency to smile at her sheepishly, lopsidedly. "But I daresay we're on the same side this time 'round!"

    There is but one problem with fighting Ratatoskr, a natural consequence that Josie has often observed while fighting alongside him.

    "Tch," Josie hisses as he simply catches her bullet. "Sure am in a hurry," she drawls his way in spite of her clear irritation. "Ain't like those kids -- or pregnant mothers -- are doin' all that rightly at the moment!" Her gaze slides sidelong to her current allies and she remarks, "Easy now! He might act the fool--"

    That's about as far as she gets before her erstwhile companion leaps into the fray at the lot of them, delivering a shot of compressed air her way that might as well have been a bullet. Josie twists out of the way, her shotgun born close to her body, and still earns herself a deep cut across her cheek; if she hadn't already cut her hair, it would have been a significant haircut as well.

    "...but he ain't a fool," Josie finishes, needlessly, grimacing against the sting. "But right you are. This is history, and you're gonna observe it to the last, yeah?" She smiles, bitterly. "Too bad. You ain't a bad egg, but I also know better'n to try and talk you down, Ratatoskr! But lemme just say--"

    She jerks her head towards the crystals, towards the slumbering Gerudo, towards everything.

    "Look around you!"

    With care, she levels that shotgun at him.

    And then angles it a few degrees to the right. Where is Josie aiming?

GS: Venetia Vuong partially evades Solitaire Collier's No Vacancy for 129 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Venetia Vuong gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Delay and Disrupt blocked!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Ratatoskr with Walk Me Down!
GS: Sneak! You have gained 2 Combo! Only you see this message.
GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action.
GS: Sneak! The true nature of Josephine Lovelace's attack becomes clear!
GS: Ratatoskr partially evades Josephine Lovelace's Snakebite for 36 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ratatoskr gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Dispel! Amplify, Burst, Hyper, and Quick removed!
GS: Poison applied to Ratatoskr!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    The bullet doesn't hit Ratatoskr-- immediately.

    It sails in fact past his head to bounce once off of one of the support structures before it comes sailing on back for him again. Perhaps his reflexes will permit him to escape of the immediate trouble this might cause him. Except, there's one more little tiny thing.
    Josie had doped this bullet with something rather corrosive.

<Pose Tracker> Ganondorf Dragmire has posed.

Ganondorf has no compunction. No breath of mercy, not even for the young boy who raises shield and sword against him. This too is the King of Evil's world, where all who would wear the mantle of Hero will be destroyed.

This too is the Goddess' world, where all who would wield Courage against Power will be tested.

He turns, while Link recovers his strength, eyes deep in his head peering across the warriors assembled. "An Attendant," he rumbles, and his eyes lock on Medli.

He pushes off again, and fully reaches to grab the girl by the neck of her tunic, staring deep into her eyes. Searching, like he saw something, sensed something.

"So," he seethes. "Even a godless world can defend itself," he says.

Then he whirls and physically pitches her toward the pillar Hicalu has hidden behind, before moving to follow the thrown child with a blast of eerie light which phases completely through the pillar to blast Hicalu off his feet.

PANG. He grunts, a shot of light scowering him. He turns toward Eleanor, the source of the light, and marches toward her, his eyes growing more blazing, his step growing more determined. "How wrong you are," he tones toward Eleanor. "The power was stolen from me. Sealed away by those who feared it. But even as I am...it is more than enough for this!" With the last step, he lashes at her with both swords, blazing with malignant light.

That move completed, his hand snaps up, batting Ashley's bomb aside; but it explodes on contact, releasing gouts of fire upon him. His robes catch light, and the fire singes him, though it might serve to make his aura of villainy more plain. Still burning his sword lashes up to catch and parry Gwen's fist.

Then Link surges at him, and deep-set eyes peer at him with a flash.

He parries that, too, with his other hand, and he stares with full attention at the tiny hero rushing at him, eyes ablaze, body ablaze, and aura surging. Finally he roars, a wordless thing, and a surge of power rushes away from him, sending Gwen and Link flying, and blasting away at Ashley, as well.

"I am their King," Ganondorf declares, as his aura returns to a more sedate level.

"I command them. Is that not the way of even your world of dust?"

GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has attacked Medli with Punish the Defiant!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has attacked Hicalu Wilwisp with Dead Man's Service!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire enters a Counter stance!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has attacked Eleanor Klein with Warlock Blade!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has attacked Gwen Whitlock with The Thief from the Desert!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has attacked Ashley Winchester with The Thief from the Desert!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has attacked Link with The Thief from the Desert!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire takes 20 damage from Poison!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.

"It's a hard situation to generalize," Xiumei says, though moving as fast as she is, her words come out a little clipped.

The blast of dark energy strikes her as she lands. Xiumei yelps, throwing an arm up -- but it still burns into her, making her eyes water. She glances sideways at Venetia, with some concern; then, back to Nidhogg. She rushes in.

Her weapons both vanish; they replaced by a beam saber, the blade of light erupting to life, as she closes in on Nidhogg. She slashes it downward, before she swings it back up with a diagonal strike across the axe.

She glances at Solitaire -- but only for a second. Her dream, is it?

GS: Zhang Xiumei has attacked Solitaire Collier with Pulse Saber - Double Slash!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has completed her action.
GS: Hicalu Wilwisp takes a glancing hit from Ganondorf Dragmire's Dead Man's Service for 64 hit points!
GS: Juni Vandrer suffers a terrible blow from Solitaire Collier's No Vacancy for 189 hit points!
GS: Delay and Disrupt applied to Juni Vandrer!
GS: Eleanor Klein suffers a terrible blow from Ganondorf Dragmire's Warlock Blade for 187 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Eleanor Klein gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: Medli suffers a terrible blow from Ganondorf Dragmire's Punish the Defiant for 114 hit points!
GS: Mute applied to Medli!
GS: COUNTER! Gwen Whitlock counterattacks Ganondorf Dragmire with Counter Attack!
GS: Gwen Whitlock suffers a terrible blow from Ganondorf Dragmire's The Thief from the Desert for 308 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Gwen Whitlock gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Link takes a solid hit from Ganondorf Dragmire's The Thief from the Desert for 209 hit points!
GS: FP up! Power Burst activated!
GS: Link enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Ashley Winchester takes a solid hit from Ganondorf Dragmire's The Thief from the Desert for 254 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ashley Winchester gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Hyper applied to Ganondorf Dragmire!
<Pose Tracker> Hicalu Wilwisp has posed.

    "A-ahhh!!!" Hicalu yelps, and in this moment, he can't think of anything but catching that girl who offered him such kindness when the battle began. He stumbles back, and falls, with Medli in his arms.

    "Y-y-y-y-you LEAVE HER A-ALONE!" Hicalu -- he doesn't yell so much as he yelps, and carrying a girl he's not nearly as fast at getting on his feet, but somehow he manages to get himself standing anyway. He takes Medli and scrambles away from that blast, not quick enough to evade it --

    But quick enough for it to get him in the back, instead of hitting the both of them, at least.

    "Ow!! Aaahh! N-no way!" He whines, and wails, as he hides behind his pillar again. He crouches down, to let Medli onto her feet again. "W-w-w-we should hide!" He stammers out, shaking like a maraca. "T-that guy... the King of Evil's gonna take all these people for his army... against their will!"

    (It's a reasonable assumption, perhaps.)

    Just as he shielded Link, now he makes another set of hand gestures -- manages to stop his hands trembling overmuch, this time, even, since Ganondorf is out of his direct line of sight -- and invokes, again: "Phoenix Feather!" This time, those feathers fall on Medli's shoulders, that brave, brave girl.

    "E-even if you gotta fight, b-b-b-be really really careful, o-okay?!"

GS: Hicalu Wilwisp has attacked Medli with Phoenix Feather!
GS: Hicalu Wilwisp has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Hicalu Wilwisp gains 17 THP from his Cautious!
GS: Hicalu Wilwisp has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    The nature of Gwen's attack becomes.... alright, it's still very, very much something done on the fly.

    With her momentum wound up by her charge, Gwen's body meets the power of the Thief from the Desert, barreling through it with her right ARM, outstretched. The power her right hand nets is not even allowed to rest for even a moment; she expels it straight out.

    She regrets this, but it's a little too late for that.
    

GS: Medli accepts Hicalu Wilwisp's Phoenix Feather for 0 hit points!
GS: Hyper, Quick, and Shield applied to Medli!
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.

There is something to be said for the value of Power for Power's own sake. It's something that Ganondorf certainly has in abundance. Something that he can bring to bear with but a gesture. A pulse of raw force catches Ashley in the gut, sending him sprawling to the floor-- but not before smashing into one of the stone coffins. Not-- breaking it, because it's made of sterner stuff, but...

When Ashley staggers back upright, it's with more than a little bit of difficulty.

"A king who rules by just... turning people into marionettes is no king. A king has subjects, not slaves. This is just... becoming a puppetmaster. A slavemaster. Taking people, twisting them into useful tools--" Ashley grunts, steadying his footing. He lifts his Bayonet to the ready, defiance plain on his face, "--You once said that I was something to obliterate, just for what's inside me. This-- this is just doing the same as the Blazer would to me. If that's what you call Power--"

He lunges, leaping across the gulf. At the last, he dips into a baseball slide, Bayonet leveled to fire again and again and again. "--Then these people were right to shun you! To make the choice to turn away from you! We won't let you twist them as you like!" When he draws near, he kicks upwards, levering himself into the air by using his bayonet as a counterweight, "You won't have your way so easily, King of Evil!"

<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.

 
"it's hard to - have a civil conversation in the battlefield, you wretch!" Venetia snaps back. The Axe speaks at more length. The axe is on board? What Venetia has gathered about the crusade that Solitaire conducts has been sympathetic, other than the axe murdering.

Does that make her a supporter of the system? To not want to axe murder?

Venetia has wondered, but then, she is also possessed of a certain title. If she should live, the wicked are on the list. How long can they hide? Anyway, this woolgathering avails her of little.

Especially in the wake of bursting energy. Venetia raises up her arms; the Crest in her hand is called upon again, though the selenite crystals turn a sickly purple and melt into hot salt slag almost instantly. It buffers enough that Venetia is able to roll away rather than taking the corrupt light directly on the chin. And the roll makes her cough, spit up a little blood and phlegm, and snap back, "let me show you what slew my neighborhood and you can tell me if mine is bigger than yours," but it's more of an irritated mumble as she finally draws out a Crest Graph with a strange alloy-crystal-looking engraving on its front. It glitters as she raises it up, even as she rises...

A hot retort - the sort of thing you see in a metal foundry - appears above her head, and because Nidhogg is a fairly close entity and there is, let it be said, a whole lot going on, she simply upends it (dumping a bunch of molten low grade bronze down at the enemy ARM) and then wills it to slam down and try to buckethead the damn thing.

Where'd she learn that trick?

GS: Blitz! Ashley Winchester has attacked Ganondorf Dragmire with Shockwave Crash!
GS: Ashley Winchester has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Ashley Winchester has completed his action.
GS: Venetia Vuong has attacked Solitaire Collier with Foundry Sign ~The Statuary Garden~!
GS: Venetia Vuong has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Mute expired!
GS: Venetia Vuong has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Juni Vandrer has posed.

Juni Vandrer shakes her head and says flatly, "I'm no hero." as she lines up the next shot, "And while I find a machine hijacking a body... distasteful." She says that last word like she's spitting it out, "I also know she'd be doing the same thing anyway."
 
 The noxious wave does catch her without her mask on. Coughing into her arm, the bloody one. "Yeah. I know your sort. You become the very thing you claim to hate." She laughs as she keeps her footwork going for now at least. "Seen it happen going both ways. Can't please everyone-" she pulls the trigger. Firing a slug down range, "-But you can avoid working for a megalomaniac."
 
 As for pouring bronze and a molten bucket on someone's head... She actually shakes herself out like that's kind of unsettling. Another later problem!

GS: Juni Vandrer spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Juni Vandrer has attacked Solitaire Collier with Lights Out!
GS: Quick expired!
GS: Juni Vandrer has completed her action.
GS: Solitaire Collier takes a solid hit from Zhang Xiumei's Pulse Saber - Double Slash for 132 hit points!
GS: Gamble: Moderate! Solitaire Collier takes a glancing hit from Venetia Vuong's Foundry Sign ~The Statuary Garden~ for
90 hit points!
GS: Shieldbreak applied to Solitaire Collier!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Solitaire Collier takes a glancing hit from Juni Vandrer's Lights Out for 84 hit points!
GS: Quick applied to Juni Vandrer!
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.

    In this sequence, Ratatoskr's balance and landing is a bit rough when Clarine throws a reflective curveball against his aggression, giving space for those who have plenty to say back to his desire to bear witness.
 
     Lan points out which particular indiscretion is his.
 
     "Oh, that one... smells like cinnamon rolls? Smells like cinnamon rolls!" Ratatoskr scoffs. "The one with the tattoos and the fox tail... no, he smelled like something floral, like the paler yellow Heal Berries... oh, my shoulder? My shoulder!" He grins. "It's fine...!"
 
     It kinda-sorta is getting there, anyway, as he attempts to duck and weave through the oncoming rush of bright energy spheres in a chain. He only succeeds in avoiding the very start of it, but leans into most the rest as it staggers and scorches his blood red armor anew. (For the Metal Demon warrior culture, 'human blood red armor' is generally culturally the same as an adult human running around conducting their business in cute animal pajamas. HE CAN DO WHAT HE WANTS.)
 
     'That can wait,' Ida says, and Ratatoskr has all the youthful impetuousness of someone who simply does not desire to do so. Phantasms of Ida attack, and he falls for every one of them. Lashing out with skilled strikes at each which come up empty as they land solid blows across sternum, knee, and an armbar to hold him as the real Ida sweeps him off his feet.
 
     She's met with a swat of his segmented metal plate squirrel-like tail, which is a bludgeoning weapon in its own right but he doesn't quite free himself in full from the phantasm's armbar prior to winding up the strike.
 
     Also, because he's hearing Clarine incanting a Seraphic Arte and he thinks those are really neat even if he can never channel that same power. Maybe one day, another Light Seraph's ability to perform their artes in a critical juncture will rely on him remembering how one casts Prism Sword. The arm with the previously dislocated shoulder lashes out to catch the seventh blade, leaving him with the explosive prismatic lights of the surrounding sword-cage.
 
     Josie weighs in about why they're in a hurry, as she dispenses vital wisdom from the perspective of someone who was once her fellow co-conspirator in Odessa - someone he doesn't seem to bear that great malice towards, if any. He's only ever been seen being angry at Jay for refusing to fight him, Hicalu for roughly the same reason, and that incident with the fake bounties called which made him FURIOUS.
 
     Josie gives sage advice. Did he listen? Does he listen? If he doesn't, he can feel it as he overcompensates the dodge of her initial ARM shot and then leans to getting a bullet stuck at about hip level, sending debilitating poisons through him. The Hyadean body is strong, but the accelerating healing factor can aggravate the effect of certain poisons, and a lethargy starts to threaten to overtake him.
 
     Threaten.
 
     "...I was there when a Sage fell, too," Ratatoskr says, remembering the sheer anger and fury of a man whose sacred duty stood at the precipice of ruin before Ganondorf. Or the sheer terror of what he did to those Solarian soldiers that stood in their way, once.
 
     He looks to the side, once, to see how Solitaire is doing. He hasn't heard her speak. She has a hard time of it but there's a passion that drives her when she says her words under all the strain and it's unnerving to not hear her at all.
 
     "...He's really something, that Ganondorf..." Is it awe? Is it fear? Is it knowing he's standing in the presence of - in indirect support, just by virtue (sin?) of fighting against them - someone like this? He hasn't sworn fealty, but nonetheless... whether or not he really did take a good, closer look at all of this.
 
     He's still here, he's still fighting, slapping down his tail on the ground for support and boosting himself back with arms wide and a liquid metal patagium forming a 'shield' to hurl himself into Ida like a bludgeoning force.
 
     From there, he leaps up on high over Lan, sticking a leg downward as he seems to miss kicking her - but doesn't (yet) miss discharging another shotgun-like burst of compressed air, riding that to flip down before the Light Seraph.
 
     He (somehow) tries to take grasp of what parses as a person-shaped mass of light to his Resonance, holding her up if he can do so and then discharging those compressed air shotgun palms at point blank to try and launch her.
 
     Energy starts to build at the tip of his horn, casting its own bright illumination against these dreary environs.
 
     "...So, you're still going to keep going too, huh," he asides to Josie before whirling about-face to fire off a piercing blast of energy towards her, this momentary pause as he shudders to deal with whatever's coursing through him.

GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Reverse Ambush!
GS: Ratatoskr has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Lan Lilac with Overhead Shoot!
GS: Ratatoskr has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Delay expired!
GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Seraph Clarine with Skyward Scatter!
GS: Ratatoskr has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Yggdrasil Arrow!
GS: Ratatoskr has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ratatoskr gains 10 FP from his Daredevil!
GS: Ratatoskr takes 32 damage from Poison!
GS: Blind expired!
GS: Ratatoskr has completed his action.
GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Clarine solidly guards Ratatoskr's Skyward Scatter for 57 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Clarine gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Mighty applied to Ratatoskr!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.

Link... survives. The light shields him. Eleanor is so relieved. She looks to Medli and Hicalu for an instant, and she is afraid, too, truthfully. But they all have reasons to act. And Medli's magic suffuses her, power winding around the Sage of Light as she moves. Even as Hicalu manages to get off his spell despite his obvious distress, Eleanor is moving around to find her shot at Ganondorf.

"No!" Eleanor insists as her shot hits, trying to get his attention away from Hicalu and Medli both. And he turns towards her. His eyes blaze, and she stands against him nevertheless. She has no time to shout her defiance--she must live it, instead. His blades crash against her and she is forced back, but the enchantments suffusing hr hold. She is not destroyed, despite the great power of his blow.

"...You're a sore loser," she huffs to Ganondorf. "And you will always lose! So long as we hold hope!"

And then--he makes his declaration. He...

She hears Hicalu's fear--his fear, but... His action. It bolsters her, as surely as if he'd cast the spell on her instead of Medli, because it proves her hopes. And it emboldens her to act.

"That is not the way of any decent King," Eleanor declares of his own assertion. Ashley mentions subjects instead of slaves--but even so, "Which you've never been."

Then, as Ashley starts firing, Eleanor takes the opportunity to build on it. She gathers up power, Light surging in her hands, to keep at bay the darkness at work.

Gwen is doing something reckless. So Eleanor can't be left behind. She surges towards Ganondorf instead of away, blasting away point blank with shot after shot of brilliant radiance.

If she can keep his attention...

'When a Sage fell', Ratatoskr says, and Eleanor's steps slip for an instant.

GS: Eleanor Klein has activated Force Action: Snipe!
GS: Eleanor Klein spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Blitz! Eleanor Klein has attacked Ganondorf Dragmire with Incandescence!
GS: Eleanor Klein has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Eleanor Klein has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Medli has posed.

Ganondorf succeeds in yanking Medli up by the neck of her tunic, leading to a terrified shriek from the Rito girl. Frozen, she clings to her harp and stares back into the King of Evil's eyes.

 What does he see? What is he looking for?

 Whatever it is, Ganondorf finds it unpleasant, as he hurls her away. Medli crashes against the pillar of stone with a half-bird, half-human noise of pain and fear.

 Falling, Medli squeezes her eyes shut, ready to hit the ground, but--? She finds herself in someone's arms. Without even knowing his name, this boy acted to save her, carrying her away from danger. Medli's heart thumps in her chest, her eyes wide.

 "T--thank you, mister... Um, could I ask your name, please?" Medli asks, standing from his arms. She brushes her tunic off quickly, shyly looking at the ground. Red eyes dart up to meet Hicalu's gaze, then look down again. "My name is Medli. Thank you for saving me!"

 Hicalu is hurt, and terrified. Medli puts a hand on his arm again. "I know it's scary, but we have to save them! If the worst comes to worst, the Great Valoo will come to save us, don't worry!"

 Medli's faith in her dragon is unshakable. It brings her comfort when she's scared, so she offers it now to Hicalu. "He's as big as a mountain, and as red as the dawn. He breathes fire like you and I bring air, and he loves all his people. The Great Valoo gives us wings, so we can fly with him!"

 Hicalu's phoenix feather inspires the young attendant. Her eyes sparkle with thankfulness, and she bows low in gratitude. "I can be brave, because you saved me! I'll be careful. You too, okay, mister? I'll show you what I can do..!"

 A demonstration of faith, Medli slides her harp into its sling across her back and holds her arms out. Feathers cover her thin arms, turning them to wings. With a few flaps, Medli rises into the air, leaving Hicalu's hiding spot behind her.

 White feathers trail behind the young Rito girl, and she calls to them, urging them to her defense. Swirling around her, the feathers swarm, gathering into a squall of wind and feather. With a cry, she sends them toward Ganondorf.

GS: Medli has attacked Ganondorf Dragmire with Fledgling Turbulance!
GS: Medli has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Mighty and Riposte expired!
GS: Medli has completed her action.
GS: Josephine Lovelace solidly guards Ratatoskr's Yggdrasil Arrow for 55 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Josephine Lovelace gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Shieldbreak applied to Josephine Lovelace!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures and Guard bonus activated!
GS: Josephine Lovelace enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: CRITICAL! Lan Lilac takes a solid hit from Ratatoskr's Overhead Shoot for 131 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lan Lilac gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Hyper, Quick, and Riposte applied to Ratatoskr!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus and Gleam activated!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from Ratatoskr's Counter Attack for 65 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Power Burst and Evade bonus activated!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey solidly guards Ratatoskr's Reverse Ambush for 43 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Cover applied to Ratatoskr!
GS: FP up! Power Burst and Guard bonus activated!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Link has posed.

"MEDLI!"

Link calls out as he loses the interest of Ganondorf and she goes flying, but Hicalu catches her. He'll have to thank him for saving his friend later. For now...

Well, Link is being blasted backwards. He ripples back, shielding with his arms as he rises back to his feet.

With Ganondorf's attention elsewhere, Link has to do something against his usual style. He has to keep Ganondorf off his friends...

Using his small size and the number of foes rippling at the Great King of Evil, Link suddenly rushes past Ganondorf, sword swiping to try and slice his ankles when he least expects it, before...

Aiming a powerful rising slash for his back. It's not the most honorable.

It doesn't matter. People are at risk. And more importantly...

If Link can get off a weakening blow, all the better for everyone else!

GS: Link spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Blitz! Link has attacked Ganondorf Dragmire with Weakpoint Shot!
GS: Link has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Link has completed his action.
GS: COUNTER! Ganondorf Dragmire counterattacks Link with Dead Man's Return!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire takes a solid hit from Link's Weakpoint Shot for 245 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ganondorf Dragmire gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Cripple applied to Ganondorf Dragmire!
GS: Hyper applied to Link!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    GWEN IS DOING A TERRIBLE JOB OF BEING A PROTECTOR. Medli is being grabbed by the neck and thrown at Hicalu (Lan's brother, even!!), and Link be thrown aside by the same blast that claims Gwen, the courier has had her opening come and go, before being cast aside like some leftover debris to break against a stone pillar.

    And Gwen's ARM is already beginning to spark and twitch. The way here was a long one, and she took a few risks she could have avoided, some for sentimental reasons.

    Peeking open a buised eye, Gwen seeing Ashley nearby still get up, despite collapsing against those stone coffins. He lobbies his anger like an arrow, straight at the Thief King's face, and Gwen remembers her talk with Marivel, and the parallel natures of him, and Janus.

    She can't sit this out.

    ".... C-change of plans, eheh..." Gwen gets up and rubs her right ARM with her left, as if she's coaxing it to release some of that pent up energy straight into her veins. The energy pulls itself up her nerves with thorny prickles, popping into her right eye and rapidly swelling eye.

    "Ashley, never change, okay?" She gives a laugh, but her gaze is a little too serious to reflect that flimsy mirth.

    Please.

GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Bounding Flight!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Gwen Whitlock accepts Gwen Whitlock's Bounding Flight for 0 hit points!
GS: Amplify, Hyper, and Quick applied to Gwen Whitlock!
GS: Gwen Whitlock enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Solitaire Collier has posed.

When Xiumei looks over to Solitaire, she sees her snoozing right there!

When Ratatoskr glances over to look, she's no longer there.

Nidhogg's defenses are starting to crumble. Xiumei rips through a the handle, shearing a significant chunk just free from the weapon where the liquid metal dissolves into the floor, fading into nothingness. "GYhAAAAHRRR..." The axe howls. While he seems to prefer mental pulses to communicate, he can--at the very least--just scream. For a moment that head of the axe looks more like a screaming jaw than the head of an axe.

Then the axe is buried under a slurge of molten bronze. The screaming head of the axe continues, struggling to escape the burning metal, skittering across the floor despite no visible ambulatory movement.

Juni's slug then hits the head of the axe dead on, puncturing through in a spray of black liquid metal as the axe floats dazily backwards. He's struggling.

Don't.... Hurt.... Her.... I'll kill you.... Won't let her.... do something she regrets...

BGM INTERRUPT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHM1UdF8CDk&ab_channel=EthanRopp

At which point a slender hand reaches for and grasps Nidhogg's shaft from out of the black smoke and molten steam. Then very tightly.

The smoke clears and a wobbling Solitaire is revealed to having seized ahold of Nidhogg, eyes still struggling to open--but standing on her own power.

"For slaves..." She mumbles. Even when just barely not asleep, these words come to her as easily as breathing. "The Prayer Bells Will Not Toll."

She raises Nidhogg high up into the air and then slams it down hard, another surge of dark energy erupting around her and infusing her as she spins around to suddenly catch Xiumei in the chest before hand springing into the air, twirling in three rotations before she comes down hard, swinging the axe for Venetia's head, twisting on a her heel to fling Nidhogg at Juni, running after it and leaping on top as it aims to embed itself into her throat.

Solitaire lets out a tremendous yawn and then blinks her eyes open.

"I dreamt of my parents again." Solitaire says. To You? To Nidhogg? She tilts her head up to the sky, her facemask tumbling from her throat and revealing the hefty scars around it.

"But I still don't remember their faces." Solitaire says. "But I remember that warmth."

"That warmth...." Solitaire's eyes open. "Can accompany in any darkness. I understand, Patience."

"You didn't want me to turn myself in so you were willing to fight on your own."

"....But we are partners first before any ideal." Solitaire's eyes slowly gain focus. "Don't leave me behind again."

She slowly rolls her free shoulder back, extends her hand outward--

--and gestures for ARMS to come at her.

GS: Ganondorf Dragmire takes a solid hit from Gwen Whitlock's Counter Attack for 144 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ganondorf Dragmire gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Solitaire Collier has activated a Boss Action!
GS: Solitaire Collier has attacked Zhang Xiumei with The Prayer Bells Will Not Toll!
GS: Solitaire Collier enters a Counter stance!
GS: Solitaire Collier has attacked Venetia Vuong with The Prayer Bells Will Not Toll!
GS: Solitaire Collier enters a Counter stance!
GS: Solitaire Collier has attacked Juni Vandrer with The Prayer Bells Will Not Toll!
GS: Solitaire Collier enters a Counter stance!
GS: Solitaire Collier has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Gamble: Very High! Ganondorf Dragmire suffers a terrible blow from Medli's Fledgling Turbulance for 211 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ganondorf Dragmire gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: CRITICAL! Ganondorf Dragmire solidly guards Eleanor Klein's Incandescence for 126 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ganondorf Dragmire gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Blind, Jam, and Mute applied to Ganondorf Dragmire!
GS: Strain! Eleanor Klein takes 69 damage!
GS: Venetia Vuong partially evades Solitaire Collier's The Prayer Bells Will Not Toll for 140 hit points!
GS: Mighty applied to Solitaire Collier!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire suffers a terrible blow from Ashley Winchester's Shockwave Crash for 192 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ganondorf Dragmire gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Cripple applied to Ganondorf Dragmire!
GS: Mighty applied to Ashley Winchester!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.

"I understand. I am well familiar with long stories." Clarine replies with a nod toward Josie. She nods, then. "...Yes. He is quite talented."

Her attention turns back to Ratatoskr. Ganondorf is 'something'.

"He is a monster." Clarine replies simply. Ratatoskr charges her, attempting to grab hold of her and launch her upward with a burst of air. At point-blank range, such an attack would be dangerous. Before he can close the distance, light shimmers over her form. The air is dampened by the light she has gathered - and he will find that she does not react quite as he might expect. The blast of air sends her upward - but gravity has always had a tenuous grasp on Clarine. She extends her hands outward and shines light down on Ratatoskr from above, highlighting him for her allies to make it harder for him to avoid them.

And then, she drifts slowly and gracefully back down.

GS: Formation! Seraph Clarine has attacked Ratatoskr with Spotlight!
GS: Seraph Clarine has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Seraph Clarine has completed her action.
GS: Ratatoskr takes a glancing hit from Seraph Clarine's Spotlight for 57 hit points!
GS: Drowsy applied to Ratatoskr!
GS: Shield applied to Seraph Clarine!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font, Evade bonus, and Gleam activated!
GS: Zhang Xiumei partially evades Solitaire Collier's The Prayer Bells Will Not Toll for 138 hit points!
GS: Mighty applied to Solitaire Collier!
GS: Drowsy expired!
GS: Solitaire Collier has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Juni Vandrer takes a solid hit from Solitaire Collier's The Prayer Bells Will Not Toll for 270 hit points!
GS: Mighty applied to Solitaire Collier!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Medli shrieks. Ida's eyes dart sideways, mid-leg-sweep, and widen as she sees the girl in Ganondorf's grip. She doesn't have the space to cry out. Ratatoskr presses the advantage; his tail glances off her side, turning a graceful kip up into more of a stagger. Ida lets out a hissing breath, and leaps out of the way as Josie takes aim.

    Ida does not know why Josie is fighting her former colleagues. Did she defect? Is Ganondorf Dragmire, the King of Evil, a bridge too far for her? Ida doesn't know. What she does know is that it's not wise to stay downrange when Josie opens fire.

    '...when a Sage fell...'

    Ratatoskr's limb (arm? leg?) glances off her raised forearm, sending her tumbling back. Ida doesn't lose too much momentum, but she stops all the same. There's something there. For a fraction of a second, Ida debates, but she decides to take the risk.

    "How do you know what a Sage is?" Ida says, with surprise and anger that aren't entirely feigned. "What do you mean, one 'fell'?"

    Of course, Hyadean debate is at its best when it incorporates the physical. As she speaks, her body moves with an eerie, practiced flexibility. She's suddenly right up in Ratatoskr's face, driving punch after punch at his midsection, as if daring him to get the words out while she's attacking him.

    There's more than a little fury, there. Her aunt is still suffering.

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Ratatoskr with Muscle Memory!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "Maybe sometime when we've got half a mo', proper, and I'm in the mood 'n all!" she calls back to Clarine, bright grin and all.

"Yeah," Josie answers, and at least has the decency for her part to keep her voice low. "I know. So was I."

    She refuses to apologize for it, as she'd told Eleanor. But she also won't run from the consequences.

    Her eyes hood as Clarine answers, herself, what Ganondorf is. He's a--

    "Yeah. Have to agree with her on this one," Josie says with a weary smile. "Don't quite get his deal or none, but I get his aim, all the same," she continues. "So if'n you're between us and them..."

    She trails off, leaving the threat just ambiguous enough.

    Does she intend to keep going, Ratatoskr asks.
    Josie grins.

    "Sure am," she says, dropping back half a step to cradle her shotgun in the crook of her right arm. "There's a little girl out there missin' her big sister," she tells Ratatoskr quietly, flinging her left hand out before her as lightning crackles down her arm to gather here before her as a makeshift shield.

    It absorbs some of the energy blast that comes her way.
    The rest cuts through the sparking barrier and sends her staggering back, bleeding.

    "O, thou lightning!"

    But not before she can gather up what remains of her voltaic shield and send it hurtling Ratatoskr's way in a jagged javelin of lightning.
    She is her father's daughter, in so many ways.

GS: 2 Combo gained from Boost!
GS: Surge added to Josephine Lovelace!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has activated Force Action: Boost!
GS: Josephine Lovelace spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Josephine Lovelace enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Ratatoskr with Bolt Lance!
GS: Josephine Lovelace enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.

"We're wearing him down!" Avile says, the gem mounted in Xiumei's armor glowing as she speaks.

"It's not done yet," Xiumei says. "She--" Her glowing eyes widen as she sees Solitaire move forward, waking and grabbing the handle of the damaged axe. Xiumei's eyes narrow for a moment, before she nods. "If you're going to stand in our way... then we'll cut through you!"

She makes the Barrier Cross appear in her left hand, even as she keeps the Pulse Saber in her right. The cross-shaped boomerang is thrown, sent flying through the air. It leaves a trail of green-white light burning after it, as it strikes at Solitaire, then rebounds back towards...

...towards where Xiumei was, not is. The cross vanishes into cubes of data.

Xiumei leaps up high, coming down with the Pulse Saber. She jumps off thin air, then comes out of the double jump in a fast, tight diagonal landing. The Pulse Saber slashes out, leaving a trail of light as she does one strike at Solitaire.

"Hyaaah!"

GS: Zhang Xiumei has activated Force Action: Lock On!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Zhang Xiumei spends 1 Combo on Link!
GS: Zhang Xiumei enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Formation! Zhang Xiumei has attacked Solitaire Collier with Soaring Cross Strike!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has launched an attack Link!
GS: Zhang Xiumei spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Formation! Zhang Xiumei has attacked Solitaire Collier with Rushing Pulse Blitz!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

 
    It's loud, even taking the ARMs fire into account. "Fine!! Cinnamon rolls and Heal Berry muffins! The point is--!" She doesn't get a chance to finish as Ratatoskr has already moved on to greater things, like defending himself from the others and Lan as well. He's really fast, and probably a better martial artist than Lan herself.

    "Yeah, Ganondorf is something, all right!" she counters, attention wandering briefly as Lan searches the room for Hicalu. She hears him, which means he's still relatively okay, but...! She counts everybody: Gwen, Eleanor, Juni, Ashley, the weird feral green kid--

    A sixth sense makes her body move, but just a hair too late; a blast of compressed air from above sends Lan to her knees for a moment, the shaman grimacing at the impact. "You know what, why don't you take five and maybe someone can explain to you why freaky reborn dictators" yes she knows that word "are bad news, especially when they come with a whole army of sleeping warriors! Like I can't even explain how bad!"

    He's so damn fast! Lan grits her teeth and focuses on her breath, the rise and fall of her chest, the beat of wings scraping against her ribs from within. She breathes out, a long and slow breath.

    A faint light glows briefly at her breastbone, motes detaching from herself and fluttering in dizzy patterns - one, a dozen, a hundred - before swarming to engulf Ratatoskr, to bring heaviness to his limbs, to slow him the hell down.

    "A Sage... fell...?" she echoes Ida, not understanding the gravity of it.

GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Lan Lilac has attacked Ratatoskr with Magic Lantern Butterfly Moth!
GS: Lan Lilac has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Lan Lilac has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.

 
Oh no, she's awake. The weapon is wielded once more; Venetia twists her way out of an immediate brutal strike, which may suggest to Solitaire that maybe her revival magic has failed her, or maybe she just doesn't want to get hit by an axe, which is honestly most of the problem.

More blood, this time more from her hip than anything. Venetia hisses for a moment.

"How sad," Venetia tells Solitaire. She snorts.

But -

There is a momentary pause.

"Does this help your anger, Collier? To help this devil to create an army of the dead? Is your purpose your goal or your anger? For it is a damnable thing; anger is a tiger you ride, and a tiger makes a poor mount. Especially once you've grasped its tail."

"Call me a slave if you will," she says as she straightens, and as Xiumei leaps. "But I came here of my own free will, for the sake of the innocent. And if you won't step away,"

Oh, she changed Crest Graphs while talking. As she raises hers up, her eyes gleam behind her smoke-dirtied mask. "I'll help you by making a 'Bridge' for you. Truly, your heart is great, and so my 'Bridge' will match it. Try this:"

The Ley breathes in! "HEXAGONAL PRISM SIGN--"

The floor gleams, like living honeycomb, in a trail towards Solitaire. Gleams and glows -- and then erupts! Surface tiles giving way to towering, tottering columns of black basalt, rippling like a flicked rug towards her position!

<Pose Tracker> Ganondorf Dragmire has posed.

Gwen punches him with stolen strength and Ganondorf staggers to the side, but is not thrown completely off. Having reclaimed space, he centers himself, power flowing around him.

He's buried in assaults a moment later. They burn away his power, forcing him to stagger and grunt. All of them roar their defiance. This isn't kingship, this is cowardice. Ashley peppers him with fire; Eleanor unleashes bullet after bullet, and he staggers back, again and again, the light burning him until he's in the path of righteous Medli, who bombards him enough that even he has to scream. His eyes widen in anger. He sees that green tunic duck behind him. He feels the sword carve up the length of his robe and spine, and while Link is at the apex of his jump, Ganondorf whirls around, fist glowing blue with an unreleased spell, and CLOBBERS Link in the face with it, a wild grin on his face.

"Is this the kingship of Wisdom?" he wonders.

"Irrelevant."

"I am their King by custom and birth. I am their King by power and creed."

"Their opinion is as yours."

He bares his right arm, and an icon appears there, an emblem of three triangles meeting at the edges to form a larger one.

Yet, for some reason, the top one glows brightest...and is empty.

"MEANINGLESS!" he roars, and a blaze of golden light erupts from around him and races away in all directions, scowering the tiled floor and carving away any who would dare stand near the King of Thieves.

GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Demon King's Gleam!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has attacked Link with Demon King's Gleam!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has attacked Medli with Demon King's Gleam!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has attacked Eleanor Klein with Demon King's Gleam!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has attacked Ashley Winchester with Demon King's Gleam!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has attacked Hicalu Wilwisp with Demon King's Gleam!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Venetia Vuong has activated Force Action: Lock On!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire takes 25 damage from Poison!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has completed his action.
GS: Venetia Vuong spends 4 Combo on Interrupt and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Venetia Vuong has attacked Solitaire Collier with Hexagonal Prism Sign ~Giant's Causeway~!
GS: Venetia Vuong has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Jam expired!
GS: Venetia Vuong has completed her action.
GS: Hicalu Wilwisp suffers a terrible blow from Ganondorf Dragmire's Demon King's Gleam for 179 hit points!
GS: Hicalu Wilwisp enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: CRITICAL! Eleanor Klein takes a glancing hit from Ganondorf Dragmire's Demon King's Gleam for 114 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Eleanor Klein gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: Eleanor Klein enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Mute expired!
GS: Ashley Winchester takes a glancing hit from Ganondorf Dragmire's Demon King's Gleam for 87 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ashley Winchester gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
GS: Ashley Winchester enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Link solidly guards Ganondorf Dragmire's Dead Man's Return for 83 hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Ganondorf Dragmire!
GS: Link enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Link suffers a terrible blow from Ganondorf Dragmire's Demon King's Gleam for 184 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Link gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Medli takes a glancing hit from Ganondorf Dragmire's Demon King's Gleam for 90 hit points!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font activated!
GS: Ratatoskr suffers a terrible blow from Ida Everstead-Rey's Muscle Memory for 144 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ratatoskr gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Mighty applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Gwen Whitlock takes a solid hit from Ganondorf Dragmire's Demon King's Gleam for 200 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Gwen Whitlock gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
GS: Solitaire Collier has activated Force Action: Accelerate!
GS: Solitaire Collier takes a glancing hit from Zhang Xiumei's Soaring Cross Strike for 62 hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Zhang Xiumei!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
GS: COUNTER! Solitaire Collier counterattacks Zhang Xiumei with Serves You Right!
GS: Solitaire Collier partially guards Zhang Xiumei's Rushing Pulse Blitz for 192 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Solitaire Collier gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Solitaire Collier enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Cripple, Entangle, and Slow expired!
GS: Solitaire Collier takes a glancing hit from Venetia Vuong's Hexagonal Prism Sign ~Giant's Causeway~ for 123 hit
points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Solitaire Collier gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Interrupt blocked!
GS: Solitaire Collier has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt!
<Pose Tracker> Link has posed.

As Ganondorf moves to clobber Link in the face, the shield goes up rapidly, taking most of the blow even as Link falls back. He tries to evade the golden energy, but it blasts into him, sending him flying back, burning harshly as he cries out.

"Aagh...!"

When Link rerises, he's a lot worse for wear, but he's not done yet. He's seething. Aryll...Medli...their friends...he can't let them down.

He switches his slingshot into his hand, trying to snipe Ganondorf in the face, before rapidly sheathing it, regrabbing his sword and shield, and use the petty distraction to rush Ganondorf with as much rage and frustration in his precise sword strikes as he can.

"HYAH!"

GS: Link has activated Force Action: Snipe!
GS: Link spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Blitz! Link has attacked Ganondorf Dragmire with A Brother's Rage!
GS: Link has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Amplify, Burst, and Mighty expired!
GS: Link has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Hicalu Wilwisp has posed.

    Hicalu saving anyone is a pretty big stretch, but he's doing his best.

    "I-I, uh, I... I-I'm Hicalu! Hicalu Wilwisp! I-I-I'm not a Drifter or nothin', I'm just a baker, but, like, n-not a cool baker like that guy," Ashley, presumably, "j-just some guy! T-the coolest t-t-thing about m-me's my sister L-Lan out there! Lan L-L-Lilac!" He peeks out from the pillar just long enough to point her out.

    He tries to smile, but it's far too wobbly. "H-he sounds nice..." He thinks, to himself: why can't the Great Valoo come save them now?!

    Oh, but that's not fair.

    Hicalu follows the Guardians, so he knows all about beings of great power and low influence over the world.

    His eyes grow big as Medli flaps, though -- what a wonder! If only he could be that strong -- if only he could be...

    But Ratatoskr was there when a Sage fell, and Hicalu is terrified, all over again. He pulls back behind his pillar, and slides down it, pulling his knees up to his face and having a good old-fashioned cry.

    He's entirely unprepared for light itself to become his enemy.

    "AAAAaaaahhhhh--!!" Hicalu cries, as he's found by those seeking lights. He scatters down, hands impacting the ground, though he doesn't have far to fall. He hiccoughs, and sobs, staring down at the stone.

    "It's m-meaningless... so, there's n-nothing I can do, okay..? I-I'm sorry, I'm j-j-just not someone w-who can...!"

    And who is he talking to, back here?

    His eyes scrunch shut. His fingers curl into fists.

    Painfully, slowly, he pushes himself up, and perhaps Eleanor's belief is not misplaced, after all.

    And even though that light punished anyone getting close to the King of Evil...

    ... Hicalu marches up to him.

    "Y-y-you... y-you'd crush them j-just so you can g-get what you want... b-b-but I, I..." Hicalu's expression twists to something more horrified, as he realises he's stepping towards those evil eyes. "I-I, uh, I, um, I... I-I... aaahhh!" He yells, as he plants his feet, and gestures, fiercely.

    He doesn't even need to start over in the middle.

    "DARK DEVOURER!" Hicalu invokes, and nothing less than a portal to Hell opens by Ganondorf, tentacles of some hungry demon erupting from it to curl about his ankles. The venom of those suckers will pierce in, even after the portal closes.

    For anyone keeping track at home, Hicalu usually summons his hell demon to eat the table scraps.

    It just so happens to also be a faithful defender in combat.

GS: Hicalu Wilwisp has activated Force Action: Fury Shot!
GS: Hicalu Wilwisp spends 1 Combo on Poison!
GS: Hicalu Wilwisp has attacked Ganondorf Dragmire with Dark Devourer!
GS: Hicalu Wilwisp has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Hicalu Wilwisp gains 23 THP from his Cautious!
GS: Hicalu Wilwisp has completed his action.
GS: Zhang Xiumei takes a solid hit from Solitaire Collier's Serves You Right for 196 hit points!
GS: FP up! SOS Overdrive activated!
GS: Zhang Xiumei enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Ratatoskr takes a solid hit from Josephine Lovelace's Bolt Lance for 168 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ratatoskr gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font, Evade bonus, and Gleam activated!
GS: Ratatoskr solidly guards Lan Lilac's Magic Lantern Butterfly Moth for 104 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ratatoskr gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Break, Delay, and Drowsy blocked!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Medli has posed.

"Mister Hicalu." Medli bows again, her long auburn ponytail falling over one shoulder. "I think you're pretty cool..!"

 From high in the air, Medli manages a little breathless laugh as her feathers affect the King. She's really making a difference! Her mirth fades immediately as Link is struck.

 "Link!" Medli cries, flapping down to the ground. Bringing forth her harp, she races to her friend's side. This close to Ganondorf, she blinks in surprise at the golden triangle on his hand.

 "What is... that?" Medli reaches out, almost touching Ganondorf's hand, before being startled back to awareness by the brilliant attack. Leaping to one side, she manages to avoid the worst of it.

 Still buoyed by her faith, Medli's red eyes glimmer with determination. "You won't stop Link here! I'm here to support him!"

 Again, her harp is touched, and again, fate-touched music fills the cavern. Hicalu approaches as she plays, and Medli watches him. Even as he stutters and panics, she smiles, trying to be encouraging. But when that... tentacle demon appears, Medli squeaks in fright, fingers missing a few notes.

 What is that?! Could Hicalu have done that the entire time? Does it eat Rito? Scooting back a bit, Medli finds her rhythm again. Closing her eyes, she guides the song to wrap around Link's form, hoping to ease his pain and strengthen him. They can't give up, not now!

GS: Medli spends 1 Combo on Reload!
GS: Medli has attacked Link with Curative Troubador!
GS: Medli has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Cover expired!
GS: Medli has completed her action.
GS: Medli heals Link! He gains 273 temporary hit points!
GS: Cover applied to Medli!
GS: FP up! Medli's Reload! activated!
GS: Juni Vandrer has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.

    Clarine helps fill in a descriptive blank about the King of Evil who is right over there. There is a great spotlight put upon Ratatoskr by her sorcerous might (and birthright, as light itself given life, desire, higher thought, and a tasteful aesthetic sense). At the tail end of his combination, he whirls and steps back to avoid the direct burst of light, but it trails and follows him anyway. It feels like the precursor of an intense interrogation.
 
     There is grounds for one based on his claim about a fallen Sage.
 
     'How do you know what a Sage is?'
 
     Ida dares to test his speaking skills as she drives punch after punch at his midsection, which he handles reasonably well with his own hands, if 'reasonably' is measured by 'will get words in.'
 
     "I met Darumaka, who called himself the Sage of Fire... like a great man made of stone...! A 'Goron--'" That's as far as he gets before Ida makes light of what defense he puts up and slams him up against a wall. Ratatoskr spits up quicksilver from something ruptured inside of him that will set itself back, wiping and... not flinging his blood on the ground, as if conscious of that. But, horrifyingly enough...
 
     Josie herself will know that Ratatoskr is speaking true, but more importantly right now, there's a little girl out there missin' her big sister, she answers with that grin into a lower voice.
 
     "...Ganondorf thought this 'Sage of Fire' was the last, so I made sure... I fought him and witnessed him with everything I had, and yet--" 'O, thou lightning!'
 
     Lightning is faster than Ratatoskr, shocking him back up against the wall he just left. It surges around him before finding grounding, but not without a few extra pained twitches - moreso than how twitchy he kind of already is when he's not on the verge of being electrocuted. That's two solid blows, and it looks like one could slow him down just enough they could cast him aside...
 
     Lan digs deep into herself, as faint light detaches into motes. Between the bearing spotlight, Ida managing to inflict some sort of internal injury that would've called an immedaite end to battle were he not a horrific bio-engineered soldier of unparalleled regenerative capability, and dealing with the toxins that Josie shot into him in the previous exchange...
 
     The wondrous, countless patterns of dizzying, mystifying light should have been enough to pacify a fighting spirit with the heaviness of fatigue and sting of injury.
 
     He bursts through it.
 
     "And yet there's another...!" He says, excitedly, swinging a leg out through the mass of lights to push much of it aside as he lands in a three-point stance closer to the gathered. "I don't know if they're all Sages of Fire... or if there's any other kinds... or how many there should be! Or were..."
 
     Ratatoskr hurls himself into it in the melee range with Lan and Ida, a flurry of punches, kicks, elbows, knees, and at least one tail swipe in a ceaseless storm of violence.
 
     "I don't know why all those in this tomb only depict women... or the way their warrior disciplines seem to encompass three different trades of scouts, sorcerers, and warriors...!" Energy builds at his horn, before sweeping a beam for those who tend to stay out of reach - Josie and Clarine.
 
     He can hear Solitaire's voice in brief, and something about that is a relief, but in the heights of his particular passions and aims, even as the King of Evil exercises fell power and menaces small children (and smaller not-children)...
 
     "...I just know I'm here now to see it all...!"

GS: Ratatoskr has activated a Boss Action!
GS: Ratatoskr spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Ceaseless Conflict!
GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Lan Lilac with Ceaseless Conflict!
GS: Ratatoskr has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Ratatoskr spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Josephine Lovelace with Yggdrasil Burst!
GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Seraph Clarine with Yggdrasil Burst!
GS: Ratatoskr has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ratatoskr gains 10 FP from his Daredevil!
GS: Ratatoskr takes 25 damage from Poison!
GS: Ratatoskr has completed his action.
GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Clarine partially evades Ratatoskr's Yggdrasil Burst for 176 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Clarine gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Hyper applied to Ratatoskr!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: CRITICAL! Ida Everstead-Rey partially evades Ratatoskr's Ceaseless Conflict for 154 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Power Burst and Evade bonus activated!
GS: Josephine Lovelace takes a glancing hit from Ratatoskr's Yggdrasil Burst for 93 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Josephine Lovelace gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Countermeasures and Evade bonus activated!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire partially guards Hicalu Wilwisp's Dark Devourer for 111 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ganondorf Dragmire gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Disease applied to Ganondorf Dragmire!
GS: Poison blocked!
GS: CRITICAL! Ganondorf Dragmire solidly guards Link's A Brother's Rage for 106 hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Link!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Solitaire Collier has posed.

"Thank you," Solitaire says to Xiumei. She seems to take it as a sign of respect. She has no idea what Ganondorf is talking about for the most part. Anything she has to say to Ganondorf can wait. Patience seemed to think lending a hand here would be better than being wholly without allies.

So it goes.

Xiumei darts in with the Barrier Cross. Solitaire sidesteps it as it slices across her upper right arm and then turns her gaze up at Xiumei who is coming down fast after jumping... IN THE AIR?

Solitaire wishes she could jump twice in the air. She can think of so many tactical possibilities if she could change the direction she was jumping midjump!

She slides a foot back and steps into the Pulse Saber strike, the blade slicing from her left shoulder down across her right side--

--but that seems to have been planned for to some extent by Solitaire who steps into Xiumei's guard and swings the blade up hard to try and inflict some serious damage to Xiumei--taking care, strangely enough, to avoid those gems so that Xiumei, rather than her partners, take the brunt of the damage.

"I respect your resolve."

Venetia meanwhile speaks to her anger. Solitaire quirks her head at her. She keeps on listening. Anger is a tiger you ride and a tiger makes a poor mount. She imagines riding a tiger. She likes the idea of it because Venetia made a crucial error and forgot...that tigers are fucking awesome. And so Solitaire forgets that this is a metaphor that Venetia is using to tell her that relying on her anger is bad for a moment and just sort of imagines riding a cool tiger mount wherever she goes.

She shakes her head out of it.

"Don't think you are a slave." Solitaire says, simply enough.

Venetia unleashes her HEXAGONAL PRISM SIGN. Solitaire weaves to the side, weaving between pillars until one in the center slams into her dead on.

She clambers up to the top of the pillar with her bare hands, holding Nidhogg's handle with her teeth as she clambers up to the top.

She pulls Nidhogg free. The weapon grows larger in her hand, growing to twice then three times its size as if it remembers something of what it used to be.

"Why would I be angry?" Solitaire asks. While there is passion in her voice, she doesn't seem to be particularly furious. She might be a little sour on NIdhogg right now, but she isn't going to get into that in front of others.

"I remember my parents love," Solitaire says. "So I'm fine. But if I don't like the world that is--the world that enslaved me..."

Her eyes narrow. "Why should I defend it against its enemies? If you wish for me to, forge a world that is worth protecting--build it with your own hands and I will give my last breath defending it."

"Until then. I seek strength. Strength enough to build the world I desire. A world of equals."

How does that factor in with working with Ganondorf? Well, Solitaire will work with what she's been given.

And in this case, she's been given a giant Hyadean-forged waraxe.

She leaps into the air.

And she slams that axe downward. The crackling black energies explode around her like an Ultima, erupting at both Xiumei and Venetia despite them being on opposite sides of her landing point.

Solitaire sinks to a knee after her strike.

She exhales slowly.

"This is the extent... of free labor." Solitaire says softly, throat aching.

GS: Solitaire Collier has activated a Boss Action!
GS: Solitaire Collier has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Solitaire Collier has attacked Zhang Xiumei with True Malice Striker!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Solitaire Collier has attacked Venetia Vuong with True Malice Striker!
GS: Shieldbreak expired!
GS: Solitaire Collier has completed her action.
GS: Zhang Xiumei has activated Force Action: Accelerate!
GS: Zhang Xiumei takes a glancing hit from Solitaire Collier's True Malice Striker for 97 hit points!
GS: Zhang Xiumei's Jam Ward may block the effect!
GS: Zhang Xiumei's Slow Ward may block the effect!
GS: Zhang Xiumei's Weaken Ward may block the effect!
GS: Cripple and Mute applied to Zhang Xiumei!
GS: Break, Jam, Slow, and Weaken blocked!
GS: Venetia Vuong takes a solid hit from Solitaire Collier's True Malice Striker for 195 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Venetia Vuong gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Venetia Vuong's Mute Ward may block the effect!
GS: Break, Cripple, Jam, Slow, and Weaken applied to Venetia Vuong!
GS: Mute blocked!
GS: FP up! SOS Overdrive activated!
GS: Venetia Vuong enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.

"All bakers are cool!" Ashley rejoins to Hicalu, "Don't sell yourself sh--nnngh!" The Golden Power is something... incredible. An artifact from a time long, long past. Even now, though seemingly stripped as he is of the Triforce of Power, the barest dregs of that ancient might that Ganondorf can conjure is enough to scourge stone and melt steel. A wave of that self-same power crashes into Ashley Winchester, searing his flesh and threatening to grind him into so much dust.

Dust.

Dust. The same thing that Ganondorf regards him as being. Dust. Detritus. So much ash.

But--

That's not the case, is it?

At least, not for him.

He still has so much left to burn.

"If power-- if power is all you respect...!" Ashley grits his teeth through the searing pain. He clenches his own hand, holding forth his own arm. But what consumes it is not the golden light of sacred power, but...

Something quite different.

"If <<power>> is all you care about-- if force is the only way we can stop you-- then, for these people's future-- for the sake of the lives they have yet to live--!" A pulse of flame washes back into the golden gleam, parting it like a river. There, standing in the wake of flame, is a knight in black and red armor, shoulders trembling with exertion, with the raw strain of having conjured this power twice in such rapid succession--

But it's necessary.

They can't fail here. They can't. Not when so many are at stake.

His blade is held aloft, resplendent with eschatological flame, flecks of golden light fluttering in its wake as if trapped in a heat haze. "I'll wield this power against you, King of Evil! I deny-- WE deny your authority! These people will never again be your puppets!" The blade vanishes, sheathed into the Blazer's shoulder. The power this demon wields-- could very well spell doom for every Gerudo still trapped here.

Ashley... reaches for his chest-plate, hinging it apart. A cinder of raw oblivion ignites, shining the end into the world. Unleashing that here is absurd. Insane. A beam of that power is too much. Too much.

And so Ashley does not unleash... a beam.

"They deserve to LIVE!" Throbbing apocalypse-furnace exposed, the Blazer kicks off the ground, launching into an arms-wide-open tackle to seize hold of the King of Evil-- or at least, to get close enough. Close enough...

That he can unleash a full dose of the Blazer's power directly into Ganondorf at point blank range...!

DC: Ashley Winchester switches forms to Knight Blazer!
GS: Ashley Winchester has activated Force Action: Lock On!
GS: Ashley Winchester has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Ashley Winchester spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Blitz! Ashley Winchester has attacked Ganondorf Dragmire with Banisher!
GS: Ashley Winchester has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ashley Winchester has completed his action.
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has activated Force Action: Guard!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire partially guards Ashley Winchester's Banisher for 192 hit points!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.

Xiumei isn't quite sure what to make of Solitaire's thanks. But, she hasn't usually felt sure of what to do with an opponent that compliments her. Battle has never been something she particularly enjoys -- or sees as more than a necessity.

Solitaire's blade slams into her armor -- hard enough to bruise, but the metal and metal-mesh bodysuit keep it from drawing blood -- and she gets pitched backward. She lands in a three-point stance.

When Solitaire comes down after her exchange with Venetia, the blast of energy slams into Xiumei. It hurls her backward, sending her flying back towards one of the walls of the place. She bicycle kicks off it, though, and swings back the Pulse Saber with both hands. She goes flying in towards Solitaire with a leap.

And she swings out, the Pulse Saber chopping, and leaves a brilliant green flash in her wake, as comes down at Solitaire.

GS: Zhang Xiumei has activated Force Action: Lock On!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Zhang Xiumei spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has attacked Solitaire Collier with Pulse Saber - Charge Slash!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Zhang Xiumei has completed her action.
GS: Solitaire Collier has activated Force Action: Accelerate!
GS: Solitaire Collier suffers a terrible blow from Zhang Xiumei's Pulse Saber - Charge Slash for 204 hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Zhang Xiumei!
GS: Lan Lilac solidly guards Ratatoskr's Ceaseless Conflict for 74 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Lan Lilac gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Hyper applied to Ratatoskr!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: Lan Lilac has activated Force Action: Lock On!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    "Keep going, guys!" The glow of the Mockingbird's stunted boost glows in Gwen's right eye, making it look odd as her eyelid continues to swell shut. ".... he can't throw magic at all of us!"

    Ganondorf can, in fact, do that. However, Gwen still tries to spur her companions' spirits as long as she can. Pain is a persistent messager, and it will catch up, very, very soon, if her own consciousness doesn't just shut down the entire show right there.

    Which it very well might, when that infernal light catches her, throwing her into a haphazard spins away from Ganondorf. She should have borrowed more from her ARM, but with it being in that unstable state--

    Colliding with cold ground yet again, the pale redhead leans up on one arm. Her left eye can still see Ashley-- no, Lord Blazer. A body that could hold oblivion in its chest, and shoot it straight out at its opponents. Such a demon like that, being in plain sight, hidden in the body of a baker...

    She sits up.

    ".... Just know this, Ganondorf...." Gwen sticks her index finger into the air. "All of these people came here, _just to try to take you down_. Only *one* of them can be that hero of fate, if that person is even here."

    'I fought him and witnessed him with everything I had, and yet--'

    "... And we ain't gonna wait for fate; we'll keep comin' back, time after time!"

    'And yet there's another...!'

    The point of that right index finger hangs in the air, drawing a white light like she was drawing a sparkler from thin air. "Because all we really need to do.... is stop you!"

    Gwen then draws a glowing circle in front of her, scribbling the inside of that circle with indecipherable white gold lettering. Pressing the center and affixing it to her now splaying right hand, she crouches onto her left knee, keeping her arm steady with her left.

    "The eternal circle which has no end... Ringshine!"

    Her scream cuts out as she fires after Ashley's blast, hoping to press that moment to everyone's advantage. Especially those captive.

GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated Force Action: Lock On!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Gwen Whitlock spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Gwen Whitlock has attacked Ganondorf Dragmire with Ringshine!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.

Ganondorf staggers... but is not stopped. He asks a question, but it does not matter to him the answer, it would seem. What he says instead...

"That's--"

The triangle at the top glows brightest, emptiest, and that stolen light races away in all directions. She throws up a barrier, but the barrier is crushed--crushed instead of her, at least. Even so, the impact drives her back, forces her out of melee range and farther.

As Link seethes and strikes again.

As Hicalu justifies her belief, with a bravery he would himself claim he doesn't have.

...As Ratatoskr reveals his knowledge of the fallen Sage, Darumaka.

As Medli buoys Link as her faith is bolstered in turn...

She does not call out to Ashley, in his difficulty. She sees her opportunity--she Sees what must be done. And so, eyes flashing gold, Eleanor moves at the same time as Ashley. She is moving already as he transforms, as his flames respond. As Gwen speaks to what they won't wait for.

Eleanor has more reason than most to oppose Ganondorf; not only her duties, but her own family is imperiled by this plan. She is the heir to the legacy Ratatoskr speaks of nearly destroying. And she is... Somewhere, in this battle.

Meaningless, he had said. But it is not so.

Eleanor, while the others engage Ganondorf, slips past him, towards the barrier, towards the unholy magic seething there to take this army, to finish this desecration. He had said... That they did not have a 'Hero' yet.

But she claims a different title, and with that knowledge, Eleanor begins to trace runes of her own, carefully but quickly. She draws on the surface of the barrier itself, and it flashes against her, burning her hands as she presses them against it. But her own runes glow, with brilliant Light.

And then there is a deafening CRACK.

GS: Eleanor Klein has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.

 
"Hmf," Venetia says, a hand on her hip. "I would love to do so. I wouldn't expect you to cooperate -- but if not for you I would --" There is a brief interval here, as Ganondorf erupts in furious golden light, though they are, at least, far enough away from the epicenter to avoid direct harm.

"Exactly," Venetia says, gesturing that way, but then Solitaire is leaping. Naturally enough, she raises up a Crest Graph and dives out of the way. In the scintillant glow it is hard to tell what exactly it was - though it doesn't stop Solitaire - but one might make a reasonable guess.

Venetia is flung to the other side of the chamber hard and lands. She is still for a few moments.

... and then she pushes herself up.

"Hnnnh," she says. "Every bloody time. You're strong, you know that?"

"How can I build a better world," Venetia says, voice raising querulously, "IF I HAVE TO KEEP BATTLING THESE ANCIENT EVILS JUST TO BREAK EVEN??"

She stamps the ground. "Pyroclasmic Sign!" she says as she does. The ground grumbles, once, like God's stomach if he were to become hungry. (But that's ridiculous. Why would God need to eat?) The echo goes downwards, into the already stirred-up great depths of Filgaia that play by different rules than the surface dwellers -- and the ground ruptures beneath Solitaire with a burst of fiery rock!

GS: Venetia Vuong has activated Force Action: Lock On!
GS: Venetia Vuong has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Venetia Vuong spends 1 Combo on Poison!
GS: Venetia Vuong has attacked Solitaire Collier with Pyroclasmic Sign ~The Bursting Fury of the Land~!
GS: Venetia Vuong has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Venetia Vuong has completed her action.
GS: Solitaire Collier takes a solid hit from Venetia Vuong's Pyroclasmic Sign ~The Bursting Fury of the Land~ for 234
hit points!
GS: Entangle applied to Solitaire Collier!
GS: Poison blocked!
GS: FP up! Evade bonus activated!
GS: Solitaire Collier has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire solidly guards Gwen Whitlock's Ringshine for 110 hit points!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

 
    There's an unsually firm shout from a voice that's usually anything but. Lan looks up from her spot on the ground, squinting at the place where a portal to hell briefly opened up, but is gone now. "--Was that the kitchen demon?"

    She's scrambling to her feet as Ratatoskr comes out the other side of her spiritual Laser Zeppelin Experience, and just in time - as always, he proves that age and enthusiasm will always triumph over youth and treachery. ...Wait, isn't that wrong, somehow? She doesn't get a chance to ponder it, as Lan is too busy desperately trying to parry as many of his blows as she can. When Ratatoskr is infodumping is when he's the most dangerous...!

    She should reach for it, shouldn't she. Gwen is here. Gwen can stop her. The ink in her veins is there, as always, waiting. Patient. Black begins to twine up her arms, pouring out from beneath her fingernails.

    It feels good, now. Right. Like this was what she was always made for, like Lan could let the Stranger's madness and darkness wrap her up like a hug. It feels...

    Lan reaches out for Ratatoskr and black ribbons leap from her hand, seeking to snare him out of the air and slam him bodily against the ground.

    ...like things are getting better.

DC: Lan Lilac switches forms to Black Fairy!
GS: Lan Lilac has attacked Ratatoskr with Ashen Palm!
GS: Hyper expired!
GS: Lan Lilac has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    She'd talked to Eleanor about it.

    That she'd helped kill a Sage, a strange man called Darumaka.

    "He ain't lyin,'" she asides to Ida, Lan, and anyone else who's listening in.

    What can Josie do but fly?

    She leaps, twisting about in the air as the beam cuts across the space it had occupied, feeling its heat lick against the back of her legs; the pain floods in moments after. A moment slower and she might not have been able to get off the ground at all. As it is, she lands in a roll, using her upper back and shoulders to take the energy of her plummet to propel her back up onto her feet. She does not have her shotgun: it lies a distance behind her, on the ground.

    This, Josie appears to realize at a slight delay, glancing first downwards then back over her shoulder.

    "Well," she says, and not for the first time this day, "here's a how-de-doo." She spreads her hands to either side as if to underscore the circumstance she's in.
    Someone not watching her closely might well miss the sidelong amused twitch at the corner of her mouth.

    Her left hand dives for her thigh, where there is holstered a... revolver. "Been a dog's year since I shot someone with this, right," Josie drawls, thumbing the lever at the back of the odd revolver. "Consider it doin' me a favor!" She braces herself, draws on Ratatoskr and fires.

    What erupts from the ARM's barrel is not a bullet but a cloud of grapeshot. In normal circumstances, this might alone be harrowing to face. But Josie's aim is off: but she directs her ARM's focus slightly above her opponent. Her intent is to disorient, while--

    She spins the revolver in her grip before thumbing the lever at the back again.
    This time, when she fires, there is a bullet. This time, the recoil sends her staggering back a step.

    "Good to know if it's still holdin' up just fine!"

GS: Josephine Lovelace spends 1 Combo on Link!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Ratatoskr with One Last Midnight!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has launched an attack Link!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has activated Force Action: Snipe!
GS: You have activated the Force Action Snipe!
GS: Ratatoskr suffers a terrible blow from Lan Lilac's Ashen Palm for 202 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ratatoskr gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: Lan Lilac drains Ratatoskr! Lan Lilac gains 97 temporary hit points!
GS: Josephine Lovelace spends 3 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 1 into Gatling!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has attacked Ratatoskr with Blue Moon!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Josephine Lovelace has completed her action.
GS: Gamble: Highest! Ratatoskr suffers a terrible blow from Josephine Lovelace's Blue Moon for 260 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ratatoskr gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Cripple and Jam applied to Ratatoskr!
GS: FP up! SOS Overdrive and Gleam activated!
GS: Ratatoskr suffers a terrible blow from Josephine Lovelace's One Last Midnight for 0 hit points!
GS: Dispel! Cover, Mighty, and Riposte removed!
GS: Jam and Slow applied to Ratatoskr!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.

"Of course." Clarine replies with a nod to Josie. She would like to catch up - but now isn't the time. As Josie has made clear, there are lives in danger.

"You encountered the Sage of Fire." Clarine notes, as Ratatoskr speaks. "...I see. You fought him. Was it worth it?"

She shakes her head.

"...You see it as respect, but your willingness to participate in such actions endangers the world. Do you acknowledge this?" She states.

He attacks - and Clarine finds a beam sweeping her way. ...It's coming at her too quickly - she cannot reflect it at this angle...! Clarine glides back to try and get out of the way, but some of it still sweeps through her form.

Now, she produces her mirrors again.

"One thousand divine lights, arise and light the path to tomorrow..." Clarine incants. Her mirrors disperse throughout the room and light begins to build around her. "Radiant Cannonade!"

And then, the light erupts from Clarine. It scatters in all directions, beams of her own emitting from her form. They aim for the mirrors, hitting them and bouncing around from one mirror to the next. Which each bounce, they pick up speed, and then - the mirrors reorient themselves, sending a barrage of lasers toward Ratatoskr from every possible angle.

GS: Seraph Clarine spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Ratatoskr with Radiant Cannonade!
GS: Seraph Clarine has completed her action.
GS: Ratatoskr suffers a terrible blow from Seraph Clarine's Radiant Cannonade for 228 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ratatoskr gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Arcane Font and Gleam activated!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Again, there's an internal wince as Ratatoskr spits up quicksilver. Again, Ida remembers what Riju told her, and the sight of her aunt's face contorted in agony. "You helped kill him," Ida says, and it is much a statement of fact as it is an accusation. "For Ganondorf." Her voice tightens.

    'He ain't lyin.' Josie's either complicit or she heard that from Ratatoskr; either's possible.

    But Ratatoskr is far from finished. The Hyadean immediately forces Ida back on the defensive. She throws her arms up; his foot slams into her forearm, and the impact jars her shoulder. The knee vents a moment later, and Ida twirls to the side, her waist twisting almost ninety degrees. The explosive force rushes past her, her face stinging from the heat. An elbow strike, which Ida meets with an open palm. Ratatoskr's violent momentum is a fearsome thing, but she faces it with the sort of calm, ever-flowing grace characteristic of Method Mercury--and Ida's own take on it.

    Ashley unleashes the Blazer. Ida's eyes dart sideways as Eleanor steps up, and that great CRACK echoes through the room--

    '...I just know I'm here now to see it all...!'

    --And Ida realizes that Eleanor is vulnerable, and they need to end this. "All right," Ida says. "I've got one more thing for you to witness." Exoskeleton flows from her sleeve, covering her right arm and hardening into armor. She flexes her fingers and curls them into a fist. "Lan, Clarine, cover me." Even though a moment later, something positively skin-crawling starts radiating from Lan, and she doesn't trust Josie to watch her fire.

    A brilliant golden-white erupts from Ida's right hand. She takes off like a shot, racing toward the (recovering?) Ratatoskr, her body blurring from the speed of her charge. She doesn't stop. The air HOWLS as she drives her fist right at Ratatoskr's chest, a spray of white phantasmal petals erupting from the point of impact. Hit or miss, her charge carries through, ending behind Eleanor.

    Ida huffs out a breath, takes up position behind the Sage, and raises her arms. The message is clear: Ganondorf will have to go through her if he wants to get to Eleanor. (This might not be much of a deterrent. Ida doesn't care. Her aunt's in one of those crystals.)

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Ratatoskr with Unbroken Lotus Fist!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey's stances have changed from Stoic to Avenger!
GS: Hyper expired!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ganondorf Dragmire has posed.

Is he immortal? Unstoppable? Their defiance rings out, but the Demon King does not slow down. Link snaps him in the face with that slingshot but other than a flinch and a snarl, he doesn't seem injured. The HELL DEMON looks like it bothers him more, but even this, he fends off with sweeps of his sword. Medli grows yet braver still, and her harmonies bring strength to the boy-hero. Gwen's Ringshhine is an awesome thing indeed, but the King of Evil turns into it and CARVES through it, and starts marching toward her with full intent, unsilenced.

But nothing turns his gaze like the arrival of the Blazing Demon's champion. He's put fully on the defense. He smashes an arm aside with a blade, but it's not enough to stop a grasp, and he's HELD, and then, a BLAST of awesome power fills the space where he had been, a pillar of light obliterating all. This is a power that does something that is not death.

Yet when the light fades, the King of Evil still stands, eyes wide, teeth pulled back in a snarl.

He screams, and a horrid light erupts behind him, an evil beyond reckoning filling the air, filling HIM, and at its core, dregs of carefully managed gold.

He draws steel, blades flashing to thrust Knight Blazer's arms away, and then grasp the warrior-god's helm by its face.

"No gods," he commands, and evil light fills Knight Blazer, seeping out of his every seam, an awesome, horrible power filling him, just as Knight Blazer had done to Ganondorf before.

Then he turns, and surges at Gwen, sweeping his blades around in a thousandfold cuts to wear down her guard. "NO MASTERS!"

"If you call me tyrant, then you have never seen the world for what it is!"

He slams a sword into the ground and then FLIES at Link, fist reared back, to SLAM into the young warrior, simply slamming him across the face with a fist full of blazing magic.

And then he sees light. Eleanor, runes tracing on the barrier to the booth -- "NO!" Ganondorf roars, and he moves, so fast. On his way he finds and smashes aside Hicalu and Medli, knocking both aside and rushing to Eleanor to drive both swords straight into her.

But not before the barrier on the booth flickers, turns blue, and then fails.

Agahnim stands at the center. Many of the runes in this place turn red at his touch, seeping toward the Gerudo in their capsules.

But now, Ganondorf's Shadow is undefended.

GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Ganondorf Dragmire has attacked Ashley Winchester with Behold the King of Evil!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire spends 4 Combo on Poison and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has attacked Gwen Whitlock with No Gods Or Masters!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire enters a Counter stance!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has attacked Link with Warlock Punch!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has attacked Hicalu Wilwisp with Blade of the King!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has attacked Medli with Blade of the King!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has attacked Eleanor Klein with Blade of the King!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire takes 22 damage from Poison!
GS: Poison and Shieldbreak expired!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has completed his action.
GS: CRITICAL! Medli suffers a terrible blow from Ganondorf Dragmire's Blade of the King for 150 hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Ganondorf Dragmire!
GS: CRITICAL! Hicalu Wilwisp takes a glancing hit from Ganondorf Dragmire's Blade of the King for 72 hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Ganondorf Dragmire!
GS: Hicalu Wilwisp enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Link suffers a terrible blow from Ganondorf Dragmire's Warlock Punch for 262 hit points!
GS: FP up! Power Burst activated!
GS: Strain! Ganondorf Dragmire takes 58 damage!
GS: Link has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey used Defend! She takes Ganondorf Dragmire's Blade of the King attack on Eleanor Klein on herself!
GS: Ashley Winchester partially evades Ganondorf Dragmire's Behold the King of Evil for 154 hit points!
GS: Ruin! Hyper removed!
GS: RUIN! All positive status effects and temporary hit points purged from Ashley Winchester!
GS: Ratatoskr suffers a terrible blow from Ida Everstead-Rey's Unbroken Lotus Fist for 270 hit points!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: Ratatoskr has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey suffers a terrible blow from Ganondorf Dragmire's Blade of the King for 118 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ida Everstead-Rey gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: FP up! Power Burst activated!
GS: Gwen Whitlock suffers a terrible blow from Ganondorf Dragmire's No Gods Or Masters for 118 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Gwen Whitlock gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Poison and Reaper applied to Gwen Whitlock!
<Pose Tracker> Link has posed.

Link finally tries to evade an attack, as the punch comes for his face.

He should have blocked.

It smashes into the boy, sending him ragdolling backwards. He lands on his side, conscious and breathing, but out of the fight. He only doesn't get back up because it hurts way too much.

Is he suited for this? He's only a child. And yet...

"Aryll...I'll save you..."

He stays down for now.

<Pose Tracker> Hicalu Wilwisp has posed.

    All bakers are cool...!

    Or, at least, all bakers are concerning.

    Hicalu is glad for Ashley's power, even if it is frightening.

    But more frightening to him, personally -- "Lan!" Hicalu cries, as black pours up her arms. "LAN!" He screams, and he doesn't sound like he thinks this is any better.

    He almost misses the way Ganondorf charges RIGHT FOR HIM, distracted by her inky veils -- but at the very last moment, he manages to scamper such that he's tossed aside and nothing more. He yelps, and screams, and runs away, only to realise --

    What was he running for?

    "E-E-E-E-Elean-n-nor!!!" Hicalu chokes out, as he realises she's to be skewered. She isn't, thanks to another Drifter, but there's no less horror in his eyes.

    He wants to run to Lan -- to Eleanor, to Link -- to anyone, and he's not sure if it's to hide behind them, or...

    But in the end he runs up to that Shadow, though his heart hammers in his chest, and he feels he'll throw it up right through his throat.

    What can he do? What can someone like him do?

    "All bakers are cool," he whispers, strained and harried, to himself. "All bakers are cool, all bakers are cool..." He gestures, with his hands, though he's more terrified than he's ever been.

    "Flare Bolt--!!" He yells, as he releases the Symbology -- an arrow of flame lancing right into Ganondorf's Shadow.

    Fire releases light, too.

    Is that why he killed the Fire Sage..?

GS: Hicalu Wilwisp has activated Force Action: Fury Shot!
GS: Hicalu Wilwisp spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Hicalu Wilwisp has attacked Ganondorf Dragmire with Flare Bolt!
GS: Hicalu Wilwisp has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Hicalu Wilwisp gains 21 THP from his Cautious!
GS: Quick expired!
GS: Hicalu Wilwisp has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Solitaire Collier has posed.

"That's just it, isn't it. You battle those ancient evils so the world turns tommorow. I'll do this work." Solitaire says. "Between the cracks at the end of the world if need be. I will fight alone if I must." Though a glance over to Ratatoskr suggests that she doesn't really feel she has been. Perhaps it's Ratatoskr's presence that keeps her going here.

But Venetia does say something that gives her pause. She calls her strong.

Solitaire's grip loosens ever so slightly on Nidhogg.

"Nnm." She says. "The man with the golem arm is still out of my reach." She presses her fingers to her throat. It throbs painfully. "That is the least strength I need."

Her throat is starting to seize up again so she stops talking. Talking too much only leads to people misunderstanding her more and hurting her throat.

She goes back to being silent. Let the world wonder.

The ground rips out from underneath SOlitaire, burning her across her arms and legs.

And perhaps Solitiare would have considered that to be enough 'free labor' for someone like Ganondorf but then the Demon King says something.

No Gods.

No Masters.

No Slaves.

Solitaire's resolve fills the gap and what was a calm warrior now properly frenzies. She she steps forward through the flames in a single movement slamming her burning foot into her chest and leaving it there. The world has seen what makes Ganon a King but Solitaire, for a moment, recognizes the 'of Thieves' within Ganondorf.

But Venetia keeps getting in her way.

And Venetia just keeps surviving. Solitaire was able to down one today. Improvement. Progress. Maybe sleep helped?

She feels Xiumei approaching, feels the tremor of Xiumei rebounding off a wall.

Solitaire pushes Venetia back, her speed diminished significantly in the face of her wounds from her before and the wounds from today catching up to her

She swings up Nidhogg, pressing against the Pulse Saber and pushing the chopping blade away from her slowly.

Her throat aches so much. It is unbearable from the strain of battle and speaking and screaming.

And so, involuntarily, she coughs. The pressures keeping Xiumei's blade at bay tremble at the worst moment.

And Xiumei's blade sinks through her body and out behind her even as Nidhogg presses gently against Xiumei's neck.

"....Through.... Me...." Solitaire murmurs. "No Gods. No Masters."

But rather than try to push Nidhogg further into Xiumei's body, Solitaire grabs for Xiumei's hand and pulls herself free from the plasma blade, splatters of blood splashing to the floor. Her grip on NIdhogg is lose.

SOLI!!!! Patience screams in her head, terrified that he has failed his partner utterly, that she will die and he will burn in this Fortress for his failure.

Solitaire turns away from Venetia and Xiumei to look at Ganondorf Dragmire. LOOK at him.

"No Gods. No Masters." Solitaire breathes out.

She takes another step towards the demon kind, splashes of blood trailing behind her thickly.

But she keeps walking towards him.

"No Gods." Solitaire says. "No Masters."

She hobbles towards him, repeating these words like a mantra. Over and over and over again.

"No Gods. No Masters."

Solitaire gets almost close enough--

--and she touches that ginormous sleeve of his, leaving a bloody handprint before she sinks to her knees, no longer able to stand.

"No Gods. No Masters."

"No Gods." Even though her voice is hoarse. "No Masters."

<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.

Considering how long Ganondorf has apparently lived, the King of Evil being immortal is not beyond the pale. Even moreso when he shows himself capable of withstanding the catastrophic release of the Blazer's power. Or, as much as Ashley thinks he can channel-- as much as the safeguards in his soul and psyche will allow him to channel.

But the result is the same. Ganondorf still... Still lives.

And Ashley pays the price.

But that's fine. That's fine, he tells himself as his arms are knocked aside, as his head is seized. As...

A wave of terrible, awful power incinerates him from the inside out. Ashley's voice is nothing more than a blood-curdling scream as he's cooked from within by the invasion of that terrible, unholy energy. So much. So much. The pain is indescribable. Incomparable. It devours the fringes of his consciousness. His mind is on the verge of utter collapse, but--

But--

He promised.

He promised, didn't he?

That he'd get home. That he'd come home. Alive. No matter what. Nothing would keep him from it, from fulfilling that promise. From--

From the woman he loved--

--From the one he opened his heart to, monster and all--

Ganondorf goes to rush towards Eleanor. But, smoldering, ruined by the lingering dregs of light still bleeding from every seam in his being--

Knight Blazer is there. Grabbing tight to Ganondorf's shoulder at the last. Keeping him from powering forward with his full momentum.

"You... you don't see it... King of Evil...?" Ashley Winchester's voice creaks out, bereft of the Blazer's reverberation. He feels faint. Like he could flicker out and fade away at any moment-- but he doesn't. He holds on. His grip tightens even as his knuckles burn white-- around consciousness and Ganondorf both. "'No Gods... No Masters...' But then, what are you...? You want to make yourself... the Master of your kin."

"How can you hold so much hate for beings that dominate our lives, all while seeking to dominate yourself...? Or-- or are you being dominated too, even now...?"

And then, from where the Blazer has seized its grip--

Flame. Just, pure flame. Nothing like the spark of oblivion that shined forth a moment ago. This is just the blaze that issues forth from the projectors on Knight Blazer's wrists-- but deployed at the closest possible range.

"Eleanor...! We'll hold him for as long as we can! Save them! Save them all!

GS: Ashley Winchester spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Blitz! Ashley Winchester has attacked Ganondorf Dragmire with Cataclysm!
GS: Ashley Winchester has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Blitz expired!
GS: Ashley Winchester has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.

    Lan is the first to intercept Ratatoskr as he seems ready to keep whirling into more and more of a counter-offense, as black ribbons grasp around him, gingerly (not at all) lift him up, and gently (nope) crash him bodily against the ground, bouncing him a few times. He forcefully retracts the claws of his left hand - something he generally does not do - to avoid scratching or scarring some of the markings on the ground, keeping him off-balance and further away from Josie as she lines up her shots.
 
     Him staying low seems to do the trick, but she doesn't have to aim that much higher to set off the cloud of disorienting grapeshot before a powerful single shot pierces his chest armor and lodges itself in there. (This would be a cause for alarm, but, that's not the first time he's had bullets in places he shouldn't let stay.)
 
     It stings, though. Will this form of pain teach Ratatoskr anything? Odds are... not high.
 
     "'The world' means a whole lot of different things, everywhere I look..." Ratatoskr responds to Clarine as he spits up some quicksilver, and he misses some of her incantation in the immense chaos of power going on behind him that he is simultaneously missing in the moment, as the Radiant Cannonade considers all possible angles of approach before deciding on a single point of 'eff this guy,' where they indeed eff up. This guy, scorching smoke rising from him.
 
     Ida puts it plain. He helped kill the Sage of Fire, for Ganondorf. In that moment he may have proven a far more reliable and capable minion than Ganondorf has had in eons, just for that. (Excluding the two in the current era who have done a great job of this same feat!)
 
     Ida has one more thing for him to witness, and golden-white erupts from Ida's right hand. She punches the bullet lodged in there right back out (missing the heart... but wow!), white phantasmal petals erupting out from him as he's released from being wrapped around Ida's fist.
 
     Ratatoskr bounces off one of the countless sorcerous wards placed around the chamber, a booming 'thoom' sound and a fountain of energy as it deflects and hurls him further along the chamber in a direction that is of no consequence beyond 'not in-between everyone else and helping save their loved ones.'
 
     The light of his eyes starts to dim with his consciousness, watching Solitaire take steps towards Ganondorf.
 
     She was hesitant to approach him - or fight for him - when they last spoke outside of this cursed chamber full of souls that only desire to rest.
 
     "Solitaire...?" His Hyadean regeneration is keeping him alive, barely conscious. He can, at this juncture, only witness what comes next.
 
     To bear witness was, ultimately, his vow - and still is.
 
     There have been very few times this has proven difficult.

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    In the blink of an eye, Ida is between Eleanor and Ganondorf, staring down the King of Evil. Her guts twist, but her body moves regardless. One hand reaches up to thread between those blades, and grasp Ganondorf's right hand. The other arm, the one with the exoskeleton on it, drives low to intercept the other blade and smash it aside.

    It doesn't work. Ganondorf has momentum on his side, as well as terrible, terrible strength. There's a horrible ripping noise. Ida's body jerks back from the impact. Crimson and quicksilver splatter Eleanor's back, the floor, Ganondorf's hands. One of Ganondorf's blades has stabbed clean through the side of Ida's stomach. The other is embedded in the center of her chest.

    In one of the crystals behind her, Anna Everstead-Rey screams, and starts slamming fists into the crystal with renewed, desperate resolve. She's fading.

    Ganondorf pulls his swords free, and more blood spurts out, pooling on the floor beneath her. Ida's head droops. Her body wobbles. "...No Gods," she croaks--

    Ganondorf undoubtedly knows what it's like to stab someone in the heart. This is not that. This was like stabbing through flesh and glancing against something wrapped in steel.

    Ida's heart moved, because she made it move. The lining turned to armor at her will. So did the outer lining of her lungs. Already, the blood flow is slowing as arteries constrict. Stem tissue moves in to seal the wounds: biological emergency patches to keep her from bleeding out.

    "No tyrants. And that includes you."

<Pose Tracker> Solitaire Collier has posed.

Solitaire smiles at Ratatoskr upon realizing he's looking at her. Her first friend.

She tinks this is it, really, so she asks him, "Was I...strong?" She asks softly. "...Was I... at all like those warriors...you speak of?"

She reaches for him, pulling him into a hug, thinking this might very well be the end for him as well.

She can't quite hold him tight, but she holds him all the same.

<Pose Tracker> Medli has posed.

Despite her best efforts, Ganondorf tears through her song's protection, sending Link flying backwards. Medli reaches out for him, only to be struck herself. Her small body goes tumbling away, the golden harp falling from her grasp.

 A high-pitched noise fills her ears. Someone is shouting, but Medli can't quite work out who. Through a haze of pain, she sees Link, unmoving, and pulls herself over to him.

 "Link, please--" Red eyes fill with tears. "Please, be okay!"

 It takes a moment to find her harp. Medli hangs onto it, and just as she's about to begin to play, there's a blur of movement. Medli glances up--

 "MISS IDA!" She screams, tears now pouring down her face. She can't leave Link, not when he's defenseless. Medli sobs, her shoulders heaving. It interferes with her attempt to pluck the strings of her harp.

 "P--please, everyone, p--please!" Music swirls around the young girl. It builds, as she breathes in and out. The notes lock into place with one another, strong and sure. Unbreakable. As long as she's alive, she'll play her harp, she'll support her friends!

 Ever so subtly, the rocks around the young Rito girl shift. She doesn't notice, her gaze locked on Ida and Eleanor. Every movement, every heartbeat, is focused on praying for help and healing.

GS: Medli has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Harmonic Glissando!
GS: Medli has attacked Eleanor Klein with Harmonic Glissando!
GS: Medli has gained 4 Combo!
GS: Hyper, Mute, Quick, and Shield expired!
GS: Medli has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Medli heals Eleanor Klein! She gains 118 temporary hit points!
GS: Blitz applied to Eleanor Klein!
GS: Cover applied to Medli!
GS: FP up! Gleam activated!
GS: Medli heals Ida Everstead-Rey! She gains 90 temporary hit points!
GS: Blitz applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
GS: Cover applied to Medli!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    Lan is calling on the black ink gifted to her from the Stranger. If Gwen wasn't on her last leg, she'd say something, other than 'good'.

    The blades slash and wear against Gwen's guard. It's a miracle that her ARM isn't sliced to pieces in the fury of it.

    It won't be able to last for much longer than that.
    
    She draws her last bit of energy, as her right hand seizes in protest. ".... Don't give up yet!" she yells, to Ashley, to Lan, to Hicalu, to Medli, to Eleanor, to Ida, defending her, to everyone still standing. "If you can still stand, you have a chance! Grab that oppurtunity, with your own two hands, and *yank* that victory back! Those people are comin' home, because, on my name as Gwen Whitlock, super courier, I don't screw up my deliveries!!"

    Ashley calls for Eleanor to keep going. Gwen straightens out her ARM, and aims, just past that body that's supposed to be Ashley's, but isn't. He has to keep going; he has someone waiting for him.

    Just like Medli is pleading for Link.

    "NHGH!" Releasing the first bit of her energy in one final bright flash, what follows is the last of what she has, her right palm delivering that beam until her body is too unsteady to safely fire.

GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated Force Action: Full Clip!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated Force Action: Lock On!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated Force Action: Snipe!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Ganondorf Dragmire with Coil Cannon EX!
GS: Gwen Whitlock takes 29 damage from Poison!
GS: Gwen Whitlock takes 46 damage from Reaper!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.

 
Solitaire echoes the words of Ganondorf... and turns away and... Venetia feels herself sagging. Why? Fatigue, stress, blood loss. Many reasons. She sinks to one knee, and gasps for breath for a few moments, looking towards Xiumei for a moment. Then ahead.

Dinoginos I am exhausted, she thinks. I suppose the blood loss isn't helping.

He's...

He's done something and his shadow... They're around him, I can't... I can't just erase him with -

Her head tilts down. Is this weakness? she thinks.

An abrupt end of the road? Her teeth grind together. Ought to stop that, she thinks. Might get cavities. Ha. Ha ha.

Nobody is coming to rescue someone like you, Venetia thinks. She brings one hand down, curled into a fist, and rests it against the ground... and pushes upwards, and forwards, panting for breath.

SO DO THE RESCUING YOURSELF!!

She gets to her feet. "Don't lie to my face, you withered old overlander," Venetia mutters, slapping a hand onto her Crest Pouch. "Where... ARe they... This planet doesn't need a 'liberator' like you. Curse you with boils, do I have to - do every -" A brief dip and sway, "Do everything --"

Her voice doesn't carry over.

<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.

    Ratatoskr finds himself gripped, weakly, by someone who has summarily refused to be meek or servile ever again. His eyes brighten some as he tries to focus on the image of Solitaire reaching out to him and then giving him a hug. He's expecting to be suplexed or something like that, based on all the deeply ingrained body language being a soldier of the Metal Demons gives someone.
 
     To date he still doesn't understand how the natives of Lunar and Filgaia enjoy softly biting one another without using their teeth.
 
     "...Was?" He asks, almost incredulous. "Was!"
 
     ...
 
     "...You're still here though... you're not history yet." The Sage of Fire is history. Nidhogg is (technically) history. Lots of people are history!
 
     In absentia of a more thorough understanding of gestures of comfort and decoupling them from aggressive actions and thoughts - something his mirror in the Shadow Trial touched on briefly about how hard a time he has engaging the world outside of the context of 'a fight, or something you fight' - the refusal to refer to her in past tense is the best he can give in encouraging and comforting her.

<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.

Ganondorf roars at her, but Eleanor has a grim smile on her face. Eleanor hears Hicalu's call for her, but it is too late for her to move. The barrier fails. It is all Eleanor can do in the moment to do that much, but it might be enough. ...But she doesn't suffer the cost of this particular insolence. By the time she recognizes Ganondorf's attack, it is done--and the one struck is...

"Ida!" Eleanor looks up at her and at Ganondorf, and realizes the heat against her back is blood, crimson and quicksilver both. It's not a comfortable realization. "You--"

Ashley calls out to her. Anna Everstead-Rey screams behind the crystal prison. Both draw Eleanor's attention back to the Shadow at work. And Medli with sobs slowing her still begins to build her unbreakable melody. Eleanor does not see the stones moving--but it feels right, to work with her all the same.

"...I won't waste your support," Eleanor promises her and the others. She can still stand, after all; she still has that chance, as Gwen said. So stand she does.

Eleanor stands, and sprints forward, gathering magic as she does. She doesn't have a fancy chant for it this time, but golden Light spreads at her footfalls, starting to oppose the red. She doesn't look to the crystals--can't focus on them, because then she couldn't save them.

So instead, Eleanor puts the full gaze of what power she can on Aganihim.

"SHADOW, BE GONE!"

GS: Eleanor Klein enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Blitz! Eleanor Klein has attacked Ganondorf Dragmire with Revelation!
GS: Eleanor Klein enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Eleanor Klein has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Ganondorf Dragmire solidly guards Hicalu Wilwisp's Flare Bolt for 54 hit points!
GS: Blind applied to Ganondorf Dragmire!
GS: Quick applied to Hicalu Wilwisp!
GS: CRITICAL! Ganondorf Dragmire solidly guards Gwen Whitlock's Coil Cannon EX for 100 hit points!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire partially guards Ashley Winchester's Cataclysm for 166 hit points!
GS: FP up! Guard bonus activated!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire critically guards Eleanor Klein's Revelation for 62 hit points!
GS: Drowsy blocked!
GS: Ganondorf Dragmire has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Ganondorf Dragmire has posed.

Ida interferes. He watches her bleed.

Her spite earns her nothing more than a rough shake to force her out of his way, and he moves to strike Eleanor again. But this time Knight Blazer is there, searing the King of Evil with unimaginable heat. Not transthermionic oblivion, no, but power just the same.

He charges forward, but Gwen blasts him next, firing shots that strike the King of Evil just hard enough to force him to stagger, and that's all it takes.

Solitaire stumbles toward him, but in his haste, he has little and less to attend to her. His sword flicks up and carves the air for Eleanor's throat.

Shadow, commands the Sage; be gone.

The light that shines upon the meditation booth that controls the whole structure is sent from purer shores than this. Agahnim's depthless darkness resists mightily, lasting long enough to hold up both arms and repel even this.

But not for long. After a moment's struggle, his truth is revealed:

He was never anything at all. And so he vanishes without even a whisper.

And then, the power he controlled whirls together into a point, and ERUPTS in a dazzling shockwave of light.

Ganondorf snarls something amid that light...but when it passes, he's gone.

Solitaire is, too, whisked away by the King's power.

Silence reigns. The King of Evil is bested, for now.

Presumably a heart container shows up.

<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.

    Ratatoskr, incidentally, is still there.
 
     If interacted with he'll just make '...' dialogue boxes.

<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.

Ashley is also still here, but:

He is just Ashley once more. The power of the Blazer has withdrawn into the embers burning at the baker's heart.

He is also: very much unconscious after having been repulsed by that triumphant burst of light.

...

He'll probably be fine. Best shove that heart container into someone who needs a full refill ASAP. Like Link!