2024-04-05: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
- Log: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
- Cast: Gilgamesh, Chase, Jacqueline Barber, Seraph Cavall, Timu Guado, White Knight Leo, Rena Lanford, Claude C. Kenny, Zed, Margaret, Amaterasu, Ratatoskr
- Where: Lohgrin Desert
- Date: April 05, 2024
- Summary: The danger from another star moves to the Great Camelot Bridge. War comes to Lunar!!
<Pose Tracker> Gilgamesh has posed.
Just the other day, a rocket crashed in Lohgrin. The trio of occupants were subdued... and then the rocket exploded. It sent them flying, and a mysterious figure emerged: a swordsman, wearing heavily stylized, samurai-like armor, who promptly fled to the Great Camelot Bridge.
Which he took over.
Of course, this was a problem -- though somehow half a dozen different things came up between Monday evening and now. The bartender in Lohgrin needed twelve wild boar meats; the Starfall Saloon had a request for to deliver kegs of its house ale to November City; Corki was captured again.
But now!
Now, a group of Drifters are approaching the Great Camelot Bridge. Part bridge and part fortification, it has battlements and towers. These have all been cleared, save for a sudden infestation of cuckoos from Filgaia -- which are strutting all over.
And, in the center of the bridge, he awaits.
The four-armed samurai turns, his arms flexing. He has a shield in one; a blue steel katana in another; a silvery knight's sword with a golden, wing-like hilt in a third; and a gunblade in his last. His helmet is red, with four golden horns, and his mask is segmented, to move when he speaks.
"So... you've come!" Gilgamesh says. "I see that this is the start of our rivalry! For I have claimed this bridge... in the name of Gilgamesh! And I will relinquish it--"
A beat.
"Never! Gwahahaha!"
DC: Gilgamesh switches forms to Enigmatic Swordsman Gilgamesh!
GS: Gilgamesh has adjusted their boss level for 10 opponents!
<Pose Tracker> Chase has posed.
The portals between worlds have expanded the possibilities of Chase's Pokemon journey but a terrifying magnitude. Mercifully, after his adventures in the desert, he's more open to accepting company, deferring to Timu's knowledge while managing to keep himself from wandering entirely out of her line of sight and into some monster invested void. (There was a close call, once or twice.) Even Ponyta had been convinced to take a second passenger, if the need arose.
But right now...
At Chase's behest, Pikachu slams down the last chunk of wild boar meat on the barkeep's counter. "Pika!" Without waiting for rewards for her task, she bolts out the door. The last of the checklist is done. The quest is complete. There is only one left on the agenda and she will not be held back any longer.
"Pikapikapikapikapika!!"
She rushes to the bridge, skidding to a halt with sparking cheeks as she waves with her paw. "Piii Pikachu!" She hops and spins a whole 180 degrees before landing, waving now at Chase as he rushes to keep up with her. He stares up at Gilgamesh, looks to Timu for assistance in reacting to whatever this is, and then looks back at Pikachu's big, round, sparkling eyes.
Pikachu smooshes her cheeks, rubbing them to make them spark more. "Chaaachu."
Chase sighs helplessly, brings his finger to his lips, and whistles.
With a delighted cheer, his Pikachu leaps back around and charges this strange man and his cuckoos. Static builds around her before she leaps, spreads every limb and every toe out as far as she can, and explodes into a burst of wild electricity that lashes out in every direction.
There is naught but joy in her eyes.
GS: Chase has attacked Gilgamesh with Discharge! GS: Chase has completed his action. GS: Gilgamesh critically fails to charge Chase's Discharge for 156 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
That mysterious, four-armed stranger definitely needed to Addressed at some point. But... well, Jacqueline knows the importance of keeping to one's schedule. And naturally she's not going to say no when the Starfall Saloon needs help, and then all sorts of things happened...
It's fine, though. Everyone knows that nothing important happens until you take the first step toward addressing it. You can take all the time you need to take care of any unfinished business until you're ready.
And so, Jacqueline joins the others approaching the bridge, looking toward where Gilgamesh stands before them.
There's a lot of clucking. That's probably fine.
"Gilgamesh, was it? Jacqueline Barber - I never got the chance to introduce myself last time." Jacqueline greets. He makes his declaration - how he won't relinquish the bridge. Somehow, she had a feeling that things would come to this. "Ah... about that. That's awfully inconvenient, don't you think? I don't suppose you could... reconsider?"
But... Something about this situation makes her think he's not going to budge at all. So with that in mind...
"Perhaps if I offer an incentive? ...Think fast!"
And then she just chucks a bottle at his head.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Gilgamesh with Trouble Bottle! GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 2 Combo! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Cavall has posed.
There were, indeed, half a dozen things that came up between Monday and today--the needs of lost travellers do not abate in the presence of interlopers from other worlds. (Though they do abate across that bridge in particular, which is a problem, but at least nobody was lost on the bridge or the road leading to it.)
But once the lost traveler was found and lead back to safety, a family heirloom 'mysteriously' returned in the dead of night, a rare medicinal herb suddenly discovered after several days of fruitless searching, a caravan protected by a surprisingly from a surprisingly agitated (and Malevolent) animal by another surprisingly elusive savior, and a thief found inexplicably wrapped in vines...
Now Cavall could turn their attention to the would-be claimer of the bridge.
From the far distance comes an echoing howl, and in great, bounding strikes a wolf makes their way across the desert. Their orange fur marks them as a Seraphim of the Earth, and they have a thick iron chain wrapped around their neck, and a harness with a lantern hanging from it. Around their left shoulder two talismans lie, one made of a green stone and the other of blue, and on their right is stone with a pawprint in it.
The land in front of the bridge with a surprisingly light impact, and stand up to their full (quadrapedal) height. "I care not if your aim is a bridge or all of this star." They growl as they settle low into a pouce-ready stance, hackles raised and ears pointed forward. "You will be driven off as surely as your predecessors were."
They pounce for Gilgamesh, snarling as they open their jaws wide to clamp down on the intruder.
GS: Seraph Cavall has attacked Gilgamesh with Crescent Fang! GS: Seraph Cavall has gained 4 Combo! GS: Seraph Cavall has completed their action. GS: Gilgamesh mostly guards Jacqueline Barber's Trouble Bottle for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Gilgamesh gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple, Jam, and Mute applied to Gilgamesh! GS: Shield applied to Jacqueline Barber! GS: FP up! Power Burst!
<Pose Tracker> Timu Guado has posed.
Timu of the Guado has been accompanying Chase, which is a good thing as she's had a few months lead-up in learning the ins and outs of the concept of local currency - the silver coins she has on hand (a mix of Filgaian gella and the 'Lunarian' silver) helps smooth out some very awkward issues on that front.
She deals with her own awkward issues in following Chase out to the lands under the watch of Althena's Guard, and even getting to see more of its unique 'Dark Unsent' (read: Hellions).
She at least knows enough by proxy to help keep Chase out of trouble even if she's never fully visited the continents beyond Spira's shores, with her Fuecoco friend by her side helping keep her - and everyone else - safe.
"...Who's that on the bridge?" She asks, large hands up against her chest like she's taken aback by the sight of an enormous four-armed armored person. When she sees Chase's Pikachu rush off...
"Chase, be careful!" She says. "Those are cuccos there. Don't pick any fights with them...!"
It's a bit too late for that, as Pikachu takes off to Gilgamesh's challenge, but something about this has the Guado teenager taken aback.
"Gilgamesh?" She asks, as if this name rings a bell. "Gilgamesh... is the name we give one of the other worlds beyond Gaia."
...
Fuecoco stops and looks up with a tilt, as if trivia about the solar system were suddenly of interest to a creature who generally does not think that much further beyond 'food' and 'naps' and 'friends.'
"From closest to the sun to us... Yocun, Ohalland, and Gandof, after Summoners... and then Gilgamesh, closest to us." Timu recites the education that the Guado greatly benefitted from access to by their wealth and influence from Jyascal's idea to leverage the Yevon faith to the Guado people's benefit (and the rest of Spira's detriment, especially when his son took the reins).
"Fue...? Fueco!!" Fuecoco calls, jumping up and down.
Timu nods the once, as she draws her healer's staff and sets the tip gently against the bridge.
"Whoever you are, whatever it means," Timu finds the gumption to make the stand alongside the others even as cuccos threaten to do what they do just by being, "I-- we can't let you have your way. Fuecoco! Use Incinerate!"
Fuecoco nods, turns about-face, and opens up his big mouth in a big-mouth-to-big-mouth moment in an outward gout of flame.
GS: Timu Guado has attacked Gilgamesh with Incinerate! GS: Timu Guado has gained 1 Combo! GS: Timu Guado has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
It's been a week.
Perhaps it's ironic punishment for wanting to come out to Lohgrin in search of a simple problem with a violent solution, but there were so many requests. So many people in need of a hero. So many! But now, it's time to get to the quest that started this all:
What If There Was A Really Big Bridge And We All Fought On It? (TRIAL)
A big man in a pristine white uniform approaches the bridge at a leisurely but defiant pace, one boot planted in front of the other. The White Knight cuts a dashing, unmistakable figure. In the background, the citizens of Camelon take notice. Some cheer, others point, others speak amongst themselves in hushed whispers. Some retreat to cover and lock their doors.
Leo glances back. His smile is confident and bright, even if the fire in him is dulled.
"Gilgamesh," Leo says. His right hand reaches across his chest, and he cups the hilt of his sword in his palm. "Whatever designs you have for this place, I cannot allow them to come to pass. I am Leo of Raculi, the White Knight--one of the Four Heroes!"
With a bright, bell-like tone, Leo draws his blade, and steps into a fighting stance.
DUTY COMMENCED
"If it's a fight you want, then it's a fight you'll have!"
'Piii Pikachu!'
A familiar yellow rodent scampers up, followed by a familiar young Nedian. Leo blinks, and clears his throat. "Right. Where was I." His gaze darts to Jay, then Caval. (Is he a little annoyed he isn't going to be soloing this guy? LEO, THE QUEST SAID 'DUTY', YOU NEED A PARTY.) DEMON FANG!"
Leo's blade blurs through the air. A wave of vacuum force and bright gold light flies from the tip, striking the ground and racing towards Gilgamesh!
GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Gilgamesh with Demon Fang! GS: White Knight Leo has gained 2 Combo! GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action. GS: Gilgamesh fails to charge Seraph Cavall's Crescent Fang for 40 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Gilgamesh gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Shield applied to Seraph Cavall! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Reaction bonus! GS: Seraph Cavall drains Gilgamesh! Seraph Cavall gains 21 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lanford has posed.
A sudden streak passes through the sky, glowing bluish-white wings pressed to the body as a shape dives towards the bridge, growing larger, and larger - and larger - and stops, wings flaring out, the mechanical beast with long fin that terminates into an exhaust pipe, pronounced two-prong tail and powerful hind muscles with a stout body. It hovers there, as it calls out, "PSYYYYY!"
At first it seems like a THING has joined the fray but then a feminine voice calls out.
"We came as quickly as we could-" As Rena peers over the side, a little Psynymph chewing on her red cape as she crouches over to look down, a hand holding onto the fin, "-wait this whole... setup..." She gestures at Gilgamesh and the bridge, and then peers at the combatants
"That guy - Claude - did you ask me to bring you here so you can have a swordsman duel thing." Rena asks, incisively, "Are you wanting to fight a duel? With - that guy?" She points towards Gilgamesh, then looks at him, then back at her.
"He's got way too many arms for that to be legal." She notes, "Even by Lacour rules. Nope! I'm joining in."
And thus, does Symbological Power gather around Rena as she calls out, "Guard! Haste!" Rapid fire casting protective spells upon Claude to protect him as grabs her cape from Gabby and says, "Okay, we'll take care of this - if you could swing by later and pick us up?" She asks, "Yeah, you and the family have fun!"
She leaps off onto the bridge, rising into a fighting stance as Lady Brightwing calls out, "PSYYYYYYYYYYY!" And flexes her wings, before soaring off and rapidly becoming a dot in the sky, and Rena blinks as if she forgot something and cups her hands, calling out. "Oh and watch out for Solaris!"
She then bounces on her heels, "Alright! Hope you're ready! Because I'm not gonna hold back against four armed bridge hogging weirdos!"
GS: CRITICAL! Gilgamesh critically fails to guard Timu Guado's Incinerate for 124 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Gilgamesh gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Weaken applied to Gilgamesh! GS: Rena Lanford has attacked Claude C. Kenny with Guard! Haste!! GS: Rena Lanford has gained 2 Combo! GS: Rena Lanford has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Claude was there to handle the rocket. And then, he was busy. Super busy. There were a lot of important things to do, including one that is dubiously timed because it's in a superposition of having happened before and after that event at the moment. Wait, no--wafeform collapsed! Claude rides in on a PSYNARD!
Now, though, he's looking around at the cuccoful battlements. There, in the center of the bridge, the four-armed warrior...
"What?" CLaude asks Rena. "I mean, I could duel him," he says. "It's not like it'd be a bad thing."
But he does have a lot of arms...
"Well, it's not that little Pikachu didn't already start the fight anyway," CLaude shrugs, and pulls his sword. "I'm going in!"
He LEAPS from the Psynard, his blonde hair ruffled in the wind of his fall. "Hyah--" He swings, and, "AIR SLASH!"
Ahead of Claude comes a shockwave of martial power, aimed straight for Gilgamesh! Claude himself is not far behind.
GS: CRITICAL! Claude C. Kenny accepts Rena Lanford's Guard! Haste! for 0 hit points! GS: Blitz, Burst, Quick, and Shield applied to Claude C. Kenny! GS: Formation! Blitz! Claude C. Kenny has attacked Gilgamesh with Air Slash! GS: Claude C. Kenny has gained 1 Combo! GS: Claude C. Kenny's stances have changed from Counter to Avenger and Counter! GS: Claude C. Kenny gains 10 FP from his Daredevil! GS: Claude C. Kenny has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
A swordsman? From space!? IN LOHGRIN??!!
ON A BRIDGE!?!?!?
A shadow falls across Gilgamesh. There, atop a tower along the bridge's battlements, right as the sun has peeked over the lip of the wall... There stands someone who has been waiting for LITERAL HOURS and who has scrawled the most important equations on three world across the citadel stone with the tip of his sword-- all of which will confuse soldiers and scholars for years because the only math THIS MAN knows was taught in Hyadean glyphs-- all of which have told him exactly where the sun will be at the most opportune moment.
AND THERE HE STANDS.
FINALLY.
"YOU HAVE NO IDEA," Zed declares in a voice simultaneously booming and manic all at once, "HOW MUCH OF A PAIN IT WAS TO SET THIS UP."
--
The last time a mysterious swordsman fell from space, it ended up being Claude, Zed's bestest best sword buddy in all the world. The time BEFORE Claude, it was very possibly ZED HIMSELF (and the other Hyadeans, but let's be honest Glumzamber is a spear). Let's just gloss over the fact that Zed was born a little after that and then shoved into a locker/trash can/fridge/lockable trashcan fridge for a few centuries. IT DOESN'T MATTER. Because /TECHNICALLY/ Zed's sword WAS aboard the Photosphere when it fell, and its ANGRY GHOST OWNER was absolutely a master swordsman--
All of this to say, Zed has gotten along with at least 3/3 of the last mysterious swordsmen to fall from space.
CLEARLY this means that this particular meeting is both predestined, and preordained to make him Yet Another Excellent Friend.
BUT IN ORDER TO DO THAT, he had to make sure everything was perfect. He had to find just the right parapet to stand on, calculate exactly when the sun would be coming up to wreath his head and shoulders in a shining, majestic halo, AND make sure he was in position to both be there AND execute an awesome intro speech AND perform an even more awesome intro attack.
"Space Samurai Gilgamesh," Zed calls, "How dare you seize this bridge! If you would never willingly relinquish it, then... I, Zed the Soul-Steel Swordsman, shall simply have to cleave your hands from your body! Then you'll have no choice but to UNHAND it! In the name of this shining sun, I shall put an end to your reign of terror! Nyahahahahaha--"
"TOOOOUUUU!" Zed jumps! His sword blazes as his scarf flutters in the breeze, seemingly igniting with the sunfire that leaps from the shining star above. "ENGAAAAAARDE!" He swings down hard as he lands, his sword as much a hammer as a blade, blazing with the light of the heavens themselves!!
...
(Zed absolutely came up with the title Soul-Steel Swordsman in the last, like, week or so. Nobody here has ever heard him call himself that before. It doesn't matter, because what's important is that NEITHER HAS GILGAMESH.)
GS: Zed has attacked Gilgamesh with Saint Arts - Starstrider's Valor! GS: Zed has gained 1 Combo! GS: Zed's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: Zed has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.
Margaret's presence in this area is difficult to fully explain. Nevertheless she had been travelling in Filgaia when the unfortunate event had happened, and perhaps there had been a dark shadowed presence observing the arrival of "that man" and "that man, two references, because he was quite a large little lad."
She may have been drinking from a flask.
But that was then and this is now. Margaret frowns to herself as she strides up the bridge. She is frowning in an ever-deepening way, a fractal expression of elegant, perhaps even stylish disapproval as her eyes rest on Gilgamesh.
They flick over the others. Jacqueline Barber. Cavall (ah, good, they'll handle it if this gets really stupid, thinks Margaret). Several others - she does not recognize Timu clearly. One of the young people from the Energy Nede and his minions.
Margaret sighs, and unsheaths her blade.
She bursts into sparkles and wreathed shadow a moment later and zips forwards to slash at Gilgamesh's side, do a backflip, and land back with the others.
Margaret sees Leo.
"..."
Margaret looks back towards Gilgamesh. "So you'll hold onto it for the rest of your life?" she calls to him. She smiles -- and then realizes that the back half of her sentence had perhaps been partially eclipsed by THE POWER OF ZED.
NOW she's feeling the fury.
GS: Margaret has attacked Gilgamesh with Weapon Attack! GS: Margaret gains 5 FP from Gleam! GS: Margaret gains 34 THP from Regen! GS: Quick expired! GS: Margaret has completed her action. GS: Access! Margaret takes 30 damage!
DC: Margaret switches forms to I Am The Starlight!
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lanford has posed.
Rena abruptly shifts stance to look at Zed, and his speech. Then at Claude as if this is his fault.
"Actually ... I take back the whole weirdo thing."
Is she apologizing to Gilgamesh or accusing Claude of something!?
GS: Margaret has canceled their attack on Gilgamesh.
GS: Margaret has attacked Gilgamesh with Nothing Can Beat Margaret's Mystical Powers!
GS: Margaret has completed her action.
GS: Gilgamesh mostly guards White Knight Leo's Demon Fang for 79 hit points!
GS: FP up! Power Burst and Reaction bonus!
GS: Gilgamesh mostly guards Claude C. Kenny's Air Slash for 70 hit points!
GS: Shield applied to Claude C. Kenny!
GS: FP up! Power Burst!
GS: Gilgamesh fails to guard Zed's Saint Arts - Starstrider's Valor for 180 hit points!
GS: FP up! Power Burst and Reaction bonus!
Amaterasu(#1029PeACc)
The first thing anyone would notice about Amaterasu is her height. The woman stands roughly 6 foot 5 inches in
height, and that's not taking into consideration the fact that she is in heels. Even with that aside, it would be
possible at first glance to mistake her for human... save for the delicately pointed ears and when she smiles or bares
her teeth, the fangs in place of canines.
Her hair is long, straight and golden, reaching to her lower back. She wears it loose, with only the partial
helmet favored by Veruni soldiers and operatives as ornamentation. This helmet covers her forehead, the sides of her
face and crosses around her chin and about the back of her head; a demonstration of Veruni technology, it can, when
willed, unfold into a facial mask suitable for combat operations.
Like her sister, she has green eyes; her skin is a tanned olive where visible outside her armor.
Like many soldiers of the Radicals faction, she favors a black-with-purple-accented uniform, favoring long
sleeves, gloves, and long leggings alike. Steel-like armoring features most prominently at the forearms, abdominal, and
shins sections of her uniform. The rest appears to be largely cloth though her movements suggest that there may be
something more rigid on just beneath. A small accent in the form of an overhang of dark purple cloth at the front and
back of her hips, as if to suggest a slitted skirt, is the one part of her attire that appears to be fully ornamental.
High-heeled boots -- typical of the Veruni -- round out her battle-ready attire.
<Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.
In the distance, there is a glint of light.
It matters not from who the challenge arises... or how great a distance she needed to cross. What had mattered, ultimately, is that there is a challenge to be had: a true warrior's fight, a test of one's mettle! For such a rare and rich opportunity, the only thing that might stand in abeyance of its fulfillment would be Amaterasu's duties themselves.
And there was, in this case, no prohibition against such a trial.
And so she descends from the heavens like a bolt from the blue, her Valkyrja's brilliantly burning edge snapping out like the bite of a serpent for the man who would claim the bridge. However the edge of her spear's blade might land, Amaterasu herself bounds backwards to alight along the crennelation along the bridge's edge.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiaZxCnLdgs
"I had heard tell of a man with four arms," Amaterasu speaks, the illumination of her battlemask's sixfold eyes blazing bright as she stares down her armored opponent and keeper of the bridge. A gentle breeze captures her long blonde hair. "Of a man of unparralleled strength in the arts of war! I, Amaterasu of the Veruni, would test your might this day!" she proclaims, leveling Valkyrja's blade of light at Gilgamesh.
"Do not disappoint me."
GS: Amaterasu has attacked Gilgamesh with Animus Nocendi! GS: Amaterasu has gained 2 Combo! GS: Amaterasu's stances have changed from Counter to Counter and Hero! GS: Amaterasu has completed her action. GS: Gilgamesh critically fails to guard Margaret's Nothing Can Beat Margaret's Mystical Powers for 148 hit points! GS: Quick applied to Margaret! GS: FP up! Power Burst! GS: CRITICAL! Gilgamesh marginally guards Amaterasu's Animus Nocendi for 181 hit points! GS: Hyper and Mighty applied to Amaterasu! GS: FP up! Reaction bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Gilgamesh has posed.
One Pikachu charges towards Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh is quite large -- well north of six feet tall and broad, fitingly for his four-armed frame -- and her towers over Pikachu. "This little thing cannot possibly--"
ZZZZZZZAP.
Electricity arcs all about; sparks explode and fly out from him, as he is thrown backward. "TRICKERY!!"
He lands on his feet with a huff. The, he thrusts a hand out towards Pikachu -- and punches the air, sending several rocketing fists of compressed air hurtling down towards her! Which is when a bottle hits his head, with a ringing.
He looks at Jay, then he frowns. "There is no reconsidering! There is only... battle!"
Then he shakes his head -- it's still ringing -- and then he leaps up high into the air. He comes crashing down, striking down with the knightly blade as he descends upon Jay. Then, he hops back, and looks at Cavall.
"Bah! They were simply Gilgamesh's rental service!" he says. "Discounted, at that!"
He turns, as Cavall's jaws bite into his armor -- and he swings them to the side, the vambrace damaged, and then chops down with the silvery gunblade across them. A flash of blue light explodes off it, as he strikes.
Then, he looks at Timu.
Gilgamesh blinks -- and then he blinks again. "I have an entire planet named after me!?" he says. "I must attend to it once I am done here!"
Then, he tries to bring his shield around in time -- but the flame gets past the Genji Shield and washes over him. Then, he whirls about, and catches the Demon Fang on his blue steel katana -- it explodes across it, sparks flying into the air.
"A hero, is it!" he barks. "Good! I need a worthy foe!"
Then, Gilgamesh blinks as he spots the Psynard's wings -- and Rena, then Claude. He swings out the gunblade, catching Claude's Air Slash and cutting through it. "A duel? No!" he says. "For Gilgamesh, the ultimate opponent..."
His eyes gleam. "...is a party!"
Then, he rushes towards Fuecoco, Leo, Claude, and Rena alike. His blades lash out; gunblade slashing across Leo, the Sword of Light swinging for Rena, the Genji Shield trying to bat Fuecoco backward, and Claude getting a chop from the Masamune. "Hyaaaaaaahh!"
And then the sun comes to just the right angle in the sky. Gilgamesh whirls -- looks up at Zed -- and his eyes widen with sudden, terrible realization. This... this is a destined meeting!
"GWAAAH! YOU!" he bellows. Zed leaps -- and his blade slams into Gilgamesh's Genji Armor, denting it, and driving him backward. "Then we will do battle! Because nothing will take my hands from my body, except a very sharp sword, and I have the sharpest of all!"
Then, the Sword of Light -- that's the two-edged knightly blade with a golden, wing-like crossguard -- strikes out. Gilgamesh slashes across Zed, four times, in a rapid blur of strikes.
And then he swings out the Masamune -- that's the katana -- to meet Margaret's strike. "Bwah!?"
...or, rather, fail to. For it strikes against his side, sending sparks up as it hits the armor, and his parry hits only the air. "For the rest of my life... or until I grow bored!"
Then, he slashes Masamune down across Margaret, before he turns -- and swings up both Revolver and the Sword of Light in an X-shaped parry, as Amaterasu's blade of light SLAMS into them--
--and slams Gilgamesh back, into one of the towers. The stonework cracks. "Disappoint? I would never! For I am Gilgamesh, and on this battle field..."
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNHq8Ic8a6w
"...I SET THE BACKGROUND MUSIC!"
He leaps into the air again -- and comes crashing down, this time swinging the gunblade straight for Amaterasu.
GS: Gilgamesh has attacked Chase with Rocket Punch! GS: Gilgamesh has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Jump! GS: Gilgamesh has gained 1 Combo! GS: Gilgamesh has attacked Seraph Cavall with Fang! GS: Gilgamesh has gained 1 Combo! GS: Gilgamesh spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Gilgamesh has attacked Zed with Tempest! GS: Gilgamesh has gained 1 Combo! GS: Gilgamesh has attacked Amaterasu with Jump! GS: Gilgamesh has gained 2 Combo! GS: Gilgamesh has completed his action. GS: Gilgamesh has attacked Timu Guado with Sword Dance! GS: Gilgamesh has attacked White Knight Leo with Sword Dance! GS: Gilgamesh has attacked Claude C. Kenny with Sword Dance! GS: Gilgamesh has attacked Rena Lanford with Sword Dance! GS: Gilgamesh has gained 1 Combo! GS: CRITICAL! Zed critically fails to evade Gilgamesh's Tempest for 343 hit points! GS: Disrupt applied to Zed! GS: Hyper applied to Gilgamesh! GS: FP up! Power Burst! GS: Gilgamesh has attacked Margaret with Fang! GS: COUNTER! Rena Lanford counterattacks Gilgamesh with Gravity Crush! GS: CRITICAL! Rena Lanford marginally charges Gilgamesh's Sword Dance for 221 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Gilgamesh fails to charge Rena Lanford's Gravity Crush for 240 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Gilgamesh gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Power Burst! GS: COUNTER! Claude C. Kenny counterattacks Gilgamesh with I Am The Wind! --Wait Wrong Game???! GS: Claude C. Kenny fails to charge Gilgamesh's Sword Dance for 216 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Gilgamesh! GS: FP up! Power Burst! GS: COUNTER! Amaterasu counterattacks Gilgamesh with Ad Hoc! GS: CRITICAL! Amaterasu marginally charges Gilgamesh's Jump for 202 hit points! GS: Charge!! You gain 40 FP! (That's 25 more than usual!) GS: CRITICAL! Jacqueline Barber mostly guards Gilgamesh's Jump for 125 hit points! GS: Timu Guado mostly evades Gilgamesh's Sword Dance for 69 hit points! GS: FP up! Reaction bonus! GS: COUNTER! Chase counterattacks Gilgamesh with :3! GS: CRITICAL! ROU|LET|TE: Ruinous! Chase marginally charges Gilgamesh's Rocket Punch for 260 hit points! GS: Misery adds Disease! GS: Disease applied to Chase! GS: Hyper applied to Gilgamesh! GS: Seraph Cavall critically fails to charge Gilgamesh's Fang for 213 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Gilgamesh! GS: CRITICAL! Margaret mostly evades Gilgamesh's Fang for 79 hit points! GS: FP up! Reaction bonus! GS: White Knight Leo fails to guard Gilgamesh's Sword Dance for 143 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Gilgamesh! GS: FP up! Power Burst!
<Pose Tracker> Chase has posed.
Without Timu's help, Chase may have become badly injured by the hellions. (Or arrested.) He's trying, trying not to be trouble. For the most part. At least his own Pokemon are able to assist in keeping everyone safe, and so, they manage.
But of anything Timu's taught Chase in their time on Lunar, she now identifies the most critical piece of advice he'll ever hear, even if might already be too late: do not pick fights with cuccos.
Chase startles, command given, and Pikachu off. But then Timu looks startled, and he frowns in concern at her. Gilgamesh... and... even more worlds?!
Pikachu spots Leo and dances in place with delight. "Pii pika?!" She paws at her own face, trying to contort her paws into a mime of a mask. She points at him, looking to Chase. "Chachu! Chaaachu!" Chase smiles and nods to her. Yes, yes, he sees the masked man...! Chase whistles again, and Pikachu's ears twitch. Focus, right!
She looks back up at Gilgamesh, and accused of trickery, simply falls down on her back and rolls around. "Pikaaaa...!"
* Pikachu used Down taunt!
Gilgamesh's flying fist smashes into her body, and she is indeed a tiny, little thing. She is sent nearly blasting off rocket style, screaming in an oddly delighted way for this blood pumping turn of combat event. "PIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!"
Chase sprints after her shadow, diving to catch her before she hits the ground. But he does not allow momentum to stop. He catches and spins with the downward force of it, looping back around up to toss Pikachu into the sky and back in Gilgamesh's direction with another warbling whistle.
Pikachu gathers electricity as she descends, rocketing herself down faster with a jolt of energy as she aims to smash down, through, and past Gilgamesh at absurd speeds, spinning around to hold her tail afterward and smoosh it with the same gesture one returns a sword to its sheath.
She is careful about the cuccoos this time.
GS: Chase has attacked Gilgamesh with Zippy Zap! GS: Chase has gained 2 Combo! GS: Chase has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Gilgamesh mostly guards Claude C. Kenny's I Am The Wind! --Wait Wrong Game??? for 126 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Gilgamesh gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hyper and Shield applied to Claude C. Kenny! GS: FP up! Power Burst! GS: Gilgamesh marginally guards Amaterasu's Ad Hoc for 109 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Reaction bonus! GS: CRITICAL! Gilgamesh critically fails to guard Chase's :3 for 171 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst! GS: Gilgamesh mostly guards Chase's Zippy Zap for 91 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst!
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lanford has posed.
"What about this is celebratory to you?" Rena asks him, shocked at him calling this a party, but as he rushes at her, she goes cross eyed as the-
SWORD
OF
LIGHT
Descends-?! Yet thinking fast, she shouts - "GRAVITY CRUSH!"
At the same moment he slashes her - BOULDERS FALL behind him and begin rolling towards Gilgamesh as if he was suddenly caught in an adventure film and set off a trap.
"Hey!" Breathing hard, holding one side of her light burned garb, she points with her other hand at the Sword of Light.
"That's not yours! That belongs to Claude!"
SERIOUSLY?! Claude probably thought they were past this, he explained himself!! It's NOT a Sword.
"Claude - we're getting back your property!"
Rena suddenly runs at Gilgamesh, sliding under his legs, before attempting to leap onto his back and, wait is she trying to put this obviously enormous - four armed uber swordsman into an ARM LOCK?!
Well, his sword of light wielding arm at least.
"Drop it! DROPPPPPP IT!"
Why is she talking to him like he's a dog that just grabbed food off a plate?!
GS: Rena Lanford has attacked Gilgamesh with Jujitsu Infight! GS: Rena Lanford has gained 1 Combo! GS: Rena Lanford has completed her action. GS: Gilgamesh mostly guards Rena Lanford's Jujitsu Infight for 56 hit points! GS: Cripple and Disrupt applied to Gilgamesh!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline meets Leo's gaze - and then shrugs, before looking toward Timu. The names of other worlds... She listens intently to her lesson, but can't focus too much - her attention soon returns to Gilgamesh. No reconsidering, only battle...
"I'm starting to get the picture of what kind of guy you are..." Jacqueline comments. Speaking of that kind of guy, Zed's here, and if anything confirms her suspicions, it's that. Gilgamesh leaps - and with a gesture of her left hand, Jacqueline brings up a pillar of stone to protect herself. The knightly sword cleaves right through it - and smashes against her steelcloth cloak as she wraps it around herself, sending her staggering back. He's a good deal more dangerous than the other visitors... she'll have to be more careful.
She backpedals as he move to strike at the others, drawing out a bottle. With a Mystic touch the contents evaporate - and begin to waft over to Gilgamesh in a glimmering, lavender-scented, soporific cloud.
GS: Jacqueline Barber spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Gilgamesh with Slumber Solution! GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 2 Combo! GS: Jacqueline Barber gains 5 FP from Gleam! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action. GS: Gilgamesh mostly guards Jacqueline Barber's Slumber Solution for 37 hit points! GS: Delay, Drowsy, and Poison applied to Gilgamesh! GS: Shield applied to Jacqueline Barber! GS: FP up! Power Burst!
<Pose Tracker> Timu Guado has posed.
When addressed, Timu nods, holding her composure best she can when the four-armed man sounds a bit incredulous (but also interested). "The others were those who laid down their lives to a terrible monster we've only become free of," she continues. She doesn't see pyreflies or anything of the sort rising from Gilgamesh, and yet...
She doesn't have time to ask her question as of yet. There are all sorts of incredible sights happening all around Timu, and the most she gives is a tightening of her grip on the healer's staff when she sees Mauri's brother, and a bit more when Amaterasu appears. She is not completely bereft of the Guado culture's ingrained sense of stoicism, but if asked, she'd attribute it to sometimes asking herself what Yuna would do.
Yuna would hold strong and not scream and flail.
"Fuecoco, look out! The shield!" Timu calls the correct weapon and direction in that flailing mass, and Fuecoco hops back just enough that he gets struck where most of the momentum is already expended. It stings, and it's enough to send him tumbling to a kneeling Timu waiting to help catch him and set him on his feet.
"You're doing good," she says to Fuecoco as she rubs the side of his head and stands back up, her Pokemon partner leaping forward again eagerly with a smile in his eyes.
(Both Timu and Fuecoco would agree that the background music here is quite catchy, and in fact she is now fiddling with her Nedian 'flat Sphere' - it has a cool four-stripe pattern of three red and one cyan - to just record as much of what's going on as she can.)
She is startled out of this moment to watch others take solid blows from the boisterous four-armed man's counter-assault, looking to Chase with a nod. Taking in a breath again...
"You can't be a Summoner," she says of Gilgamesh as she tries to look the enormously armed man head-on, "so... did you sacrifice yourself for someone?"
She has no frame of reference for who Gilgamesh is, or was, beyond the world's name in the night skies, but... but it's the only likeness she can think of.
"Fueeee," Fuecoco calls, seeing his friends there getting struck about, and he wants to help!
"...You're right," Timu says to her Fuecoco friend. "Fuecoco! Use Bite!"
"Co!" Fuecoco nods, ambles forth, and looks to see which of those weapon-wielding arms look the most tasty, but in the end, differences in height and the amount of effort he'd spend to leap up to reach means he settles for a lower-hanging fruit.
The leg. Chomp!
GS: Timu Guado has attacked Gilgamesh with Bite! GS: Timu Guado has gained 1 Combo! GS: Timu Guado has completed her action. GS: Gilgamesh mostly guards Timu Guado's Bite for 81 hit points! GS: Delay blocked! GS: FP up! Power Burst!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Cavall has posed.
Cavall leaps in to rend fang against armor--but then Gilgamesh brings down a gunblade gainst their back, and though Cavall tries to press for another attack, to overwhelm this foe, they instead take the brunt of the attack, an explosion of blue light flinging them clear from the immediate fray. The wolf seraph lands hard, tumbling before slowly getting up to their feet (paws) again.
The seraph shakes their head. Bright, icy blue-green eyes fix on Gilgamesh once more. "'Rental service' or not, it is folly to think this world stands unguarded."
But Timu has a revelation to share, and Cavall glances her way. "Could this be the same world those of 'Shinra' came from? There are many more stars in the heavens than we once thought..." They mean planets. Between the discovery of Filgaia, Energy Nede, and then apparently wherever Gilgamesh and Shinra have come from.
"You possess more might, and yet you would settle for a bridge..." ruminates Cavall as they study their foe. "... But no matter." They crouch and then draw power from the earth, strength flowing into their body. Their form hardens, as their fur takes on a more mineral-like quality. Once their own 'armor' is ready they leap for another attack, snarling and going for another bite.
GS: Seraph Cavall has attacked Gilgamesh with Earthen Strike! GS: Seraph Cavall has gained 2 Combo! GS: Seraph Cavall's stances have changed to Stoic! GS: Seraph Cavall gains 28 THP from their Cautious! GS: Seraph Cavall gains 5 FP from Gleam! GS: Seraph Cavall has completed their action. GS: Gilgamesh critically fails to charge Seraph Cavall's Earthen Strike for 115 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Gilgamesh gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cover and Riposte applied to Seraph Cavall! GS: FP up! Power Burst! GS: Gilgamesh enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
The Soul-Steel Swordsman? Claude can go with that. "C'mon, Zed!" Claude calls. "Let's go!"
Because there is no justice in the world, he doesn't spot Margaret in the battle at first. Because he's busy going, "HEY!" at Rena. "IT's not MY fault!"
And suddenly Amaterasu happens, and that's extraordinary.; Claude glances her way--and has to look right back at Gilgamesh as the counterattack comes. The planets' names are interesting, but--
"A party, huh? Well, you better get your birthday hat on, because you've got a LOT of punches coming!"
Slash!! Masamune receives in return another slash, in the same moment--but Claude falls in the next, rolling as he hits the ground and kips up again. That was a nasty hit.
But it is what it is.
He stows his sword and--
"Rena!!" Claude shouts suddenly, "I thought we talked about this!" The Sword of Light... Rena just. Goes for it. "Rena, it's not even mine! Rena!!"
He looks to Pikachu. He looks to Fuecoco. He sighs. "...Your Trainers better not get the wrong idea..."
Then he narrows his eyes, and starts forward. "Fine, if you want a fight--"
Claude sprints, blade's point just above the ground, and then slashes up when he gets close, a full-body stroke, calling, "Sword of Life!"
He spins with it, and grabs the blade of his sword with his free hand on the backswing, cheering for the party.
"VICTORY!"
Green light surges off of Claude and towards those he deems need it most.
He lands near Cavall, readying his stance again a moment later. "Take that!"
GS: Claude C. Kenny spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Formation! Blitz! Claude C. Kenny has attacked Gilgamesh with Sword of Life! GS: Claude C. Kenny has gained 3 Combo! GS: Claude C. Kenny has launched an attack Link! GS: Claude C. Kenny spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Blitz! Claude C. Kenny has attacked Rena Lanford with Victory! GS: Blitz! Claude C. Kenny has attacked Chase with Victory! GS: Blitz! Claude C. Kenny has attacked Amaterasu with Victory! GS: Blitz! Claude C. Kenny has attacked Zed with Victory! GS: Blitz! Claude C. Kenny has attacked Claude C. Kenny with Victory! GS: Claude C. Kenny has gained 2 Combo! GS: Claude C. Kenny gains 10 FP from his Daredevil! GS: Claude C. Kenny has completed his action. GS: Claude C. Kenny heals Claude C. Kenny! He gains 241 temporary hit points! GS: Claude C. Kenny heals Zed! He gains 211 temporary hit points! GS: Claude C. Kenny heals Rena Lanford! She gains 215 temporary hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Claude C. Kenny! GS: Gilgamesh mostly guards Claude C. Kenny's Sword of Life for 99 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Gilgamesh gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hyper applied to Claude C. Kenny! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Reaction bonus! GS: Chase used Force Action: Mystic on himself! GS: Disease removed! GS: Claude C. Kenny heals Chase! He gains 220 temporary hit points! GS: Hyper and Shield applied to Claude C. Kenny!
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.
Margaret's blade hits the Masamune and there is a mighty--
Nothing! Ha ha! She evaded the parry!
She brings her blade up as she retorts to Gilgamesh, "Oh, you'll be board, alright; you'll be kindling t-"
The Masamune cuts directly through her blade.
Margaret stares at it. She turns the foreshortened blade to the side in the background of Pikachu's action. There's a sword of light in play, but Margaret's refurbished Celesti blade does not seem to be that light-durable.
Margaret's eyes cut towards Cavall as they engage with what it was that Timu just said. Margaret attempts to mentally replay it and does not meet with success, which makes her frown deeper, which in turn makes her age more visible in a rather choleric way.
"Rune blade ig------" Margaret says, drawing it backwards as she pivots herself around and brings her left arm back, waiting for Gilgamesh to turn to engage with another person. In this case it's Amaterasu! Lucky Amaterasu!
"nite," Margaret concludes, before hurling a fireball made out of jagged steel at Gilgamesh. "HA!" she declaims, already pulling out another sword.
GS: Formation! Margaret has attacked Gilgamesh with Throw Damaged Sword! GS: Margaret has gained 1 Combo! GS: Margaret has completed her action. GS: Gilgamesh mostly guards Margaret's Throw Damaged Sword for 77 hit points! GS: Quick applied to Margaret! GS: FP up! Power Burst!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
"Eh?" Zed stares agog at Rena, then follows her COMPLAINING toward Claude-- AND THEN AMATERASU. "Oh! Hey! You two! And a cool lady I might vaguely recognize! Helldyste! You all good? Came here to fight this mysterious space samurai too, huh? I knew I could count on you guys! You would never let this MANY ARMED MISCREANT go without a good boss fight to welcome him to Filunanedeia, right?" Zed, please, this is far too many contractions, you can't just CONNECT THE WORLD NAMES TOGETHER AD HOC.
(Zed can and Zed will, for Zed was never taught the rules of language, only how it might be used as a weapon. AND FOR FRIENDSHIP!!)
"Well then, let's do it! Together, none can--NYAAAARGH~~" Zed yelps as a SWORD OF LIGHT carves through him once... twice... THREE TIMES! FOUR! He staggers back, sparks erupting from each glowing scar. "So... this is what it's like..."
The marks... They form...
A Glowing G: https:'imgur.comaGUKQuOZ
...Where did the fifth stroke come from? DID ZED DO IT HIMSELF FOR THE FLOURISH? Addendum, did Zed set himself up to take the attacks in the exact pattern necessary to carve a glowing G into his body!? Why!??!
...WASN'T HE JUST DISTRACTED!?!?
...
Zed stumbles one more step back, and then explodes. Or rather, perhaps the G explodes. OR the pyrotechnics that Zed planted on his body to go boom at just the right time exploded. ONE OF THOSE. But as the smoke clears...
Zed is still there... Still standing... Sword still glowing... EYES STILL FIERCE!
"I'm not done yet...! That many arms, that many swords, you are truly a warrior worthy of the Method of Mercury. But I am not a practicioner of that hoary art. Instead... TAKE THIS!"
Zed rushes forward, the G-scar carved into his breastplate blazing with power, and flowing up into his sword! "Claude, I'm right behind you!" Power surges from Claude into Zed as well! A trifecta union of FRIENDSHIP ENERGY pours up Doom Bringer, its light surging brighter still! It FLASHES--
And in that instant, Zed darts to the opposite side of Claude's own approach--
And then again, a flash! He darts back! Again, another flash! Again and again! And each time his sword flashes, he strikes, delivering a rapid onslaught designed to distract and enable his BEST BUDDY'S full-commitment strike-- or to take advantage of Gilgamesh being distracted defending AGAINST said full-commitment strike to riddle him with a thousand wounds!!
GS: Zed spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Zed has attacked Gilgamesh with Forbidden Move - Astral Dance! GS: Zed enters a Counter stance! GS: Zed has gained 2 Combo! GS: Zed has completed his action. GS: Claude C. Kenny heals Amaterasu! She gains 217 temporary hit points! GS: Gilgamesh marginally guards Zed's Forbidden Move - Astral Dance for 170 hit points! GS: Poison blocked! GS: FP up! Power Burst!
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
A familiar voice booms across the battlefield. Leo's head whips up. He shields his eyes with his hand, squinting into the sun--perhaps the one downside to Zed's dramatic entrance is that the sun is very, very bright. Mere moments later, Lady Brightwing makes a dramatic entrance of her own. Leo stops in his tracks, attention captured by the magnificent beast before him. If he didn't know better, he'd swear it was one of Filgaia's Metal Dragons... but this is a vastly different creature. Leo's train of thought goes off the rails for a moment. He stares in awe as Claude and Rena dismount--Gabby gnawing on Rena's cape doesn't dull the wonder--and then clears his throat, focusing on Gilgamesh once more.
And then, Margaret. And then Amaterasu. Did everyone get the urge to challenge this guy?
Somewhere, buried in the Dream Chasers GUI...
FULL PARTY
Pikachu (Magical DPS) is on to him. "No," Leo says. "No. You must be mistaken. As I stated earlier, I am White Knight Leo, and--" And that's Gilgamesh rushing him. And that's a gunblade, and his heart twists in his chest as he realizes how much it looks like Rixia's. (He still can't bring himself to look Margaret in the eye.)
Leo sweeps his own blade up to parry in a half-sword grip, but Gilgamesh is faster. The gunblade darts beneath his guard, clinking as it cuts through his shirt and the chainmail beneath. Leo grunts, and shakes his head. "Your swordsmanship is strong," he says. "But let's see how you handle-- DOUBLE DEMON FANG!"
Leo switches to a two-hand grip and makes one, two cuts. Did he do the same thing he just did, but twice? He looks a little smug about it. Does he think he's a genius for it??
GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Gilgamesh with Double Demon Fang! GS: White Knight Leo has gained 3 Combo! GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action. GS: Gilgamesh mostly guards White Knight Leo's Double Demon Fang for 114 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst!
<Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.
Does she recognize Timu? Perhaps, but she has a different mark before her and a different reason to be present in this time and place. Should Timu again cross her path in a way that provokes the arts of war, then perhaps at that time she will test the girl's resolve once more.
Here and now, there is another she wishes to put to the test.
But Gilgamesh holds true to the rumors that had swirled about him. This one... will be no easy foe!
As he demonstrates. "It can't be..." Amaterasu utters, aware of but one thing as Gilgamesh comes crashing down towards her. The background music... has been overriden.
There is an explosion resounding from the crenelated edge where Amaterasu had stood, followed by a detonation of light itself. Gilgamesh's bladed strike hits true, yes, tearing a great rend across her advanced Veruni body armor, but Amaterasu is not one to let blood be drawn without taking her own in kind. Blade answers for blade, and erupting upwards through the air, she soon lands atop one of the taller towers that line the bridge, her hair billowing behind her like a cape.
She does not glance down even once at her damaged body armor. There is no need to inspect what someone already knows to be present.
From below there is a warcry. A cry for victory.
And at her side (in precise elevation, that is, if not in actual proximity) is the presence of another she has met before. "...You are... Zed, of the Hyadeans. So you have come as well..." Amaterasu bows her head as if to consider this turn of events. "...Very well. This is how we'll settle it. Whosoever claims his blade shall honor the other with a duel," she decides, as if that's something you can just get to decide on the spur of the moment. "Now!"
So she shouts as she again descends from a great height, Valkyrja smashing into the bridge below first as if to thereby break her fall. Using the force of that impact, she launches herself thus at Gilgamesh only to snap out blow after cutting blow, testing his defenses and reactions instant after instant. "Can you withstand this, Gilgamesh of the bridge?!"
GS: Amaterasu spends 2 Combo on Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling! GS: Amaterasu has attacked Gilgamesh with Vis Major! GS: Amaterasu has gained 1 Combo! GS: Amaterasu gains 5 FP from Gleam! GS: Amaterasu has completed her action. GS: Gilgamesh fails to guard Amaterasu's Vis Major for 286 hit points! GS: Blind blocked!
<Pose Tracker> Gilgamesh has posed.
"Gwaah--!" Gilgamesh bellows, as Pikachu goes zipping by. Electricity arcs off her and into him, and then slams him to the side. His feet stumble; he looks after Pikachu.
"Deceptively fast, this one...!"
First, he gets struck by a couple of boulders -- then stumbles -- and then one arm is grabbed by Rena Lanford. His eyes bulge. "Gwuh!" he grunts, before he starts trying to shake her free.
"Unhand me! This is the blade of the legendary warrior Erdrick! Or Loto!" he says. "I forget which!"
He keeps shaking his arm, then throws her clear. While shaking his arm, though, he makes eye contact with Jay. "And what kind of guy is that? A warrior!?"
Until a lavender cloud settles over him -- he sucks a breath in, then sneezes, hacks, and coughs. "G-gwaah! Trickery! TRICKERY!!"
Then, he looks at Timu. "Guh?" he asks. "No! I, Gilgamesh, am above such things! I fight fairly! USUALLY! I--"
Fuecoco bites his leg.
"GAH! OFF! UNHAND ME, STRANGE CREATURE!" he cries, shaking his leg to get Fuecoco off. Then he turns -- and Cavall, with their earthen form, slams into him. He is smashed backward, with a spray of stone chips.
"Who wouldn't settle for a fine bridge!?" he calls to them. "I have an affinity for them, you might say!"
Claude sprints in close -- and the Revolver swings down. He only just parries Claude's blow, sparks flying when blades meet. That doesn't stop the burst of green light that surges out across Claude's allies.
But not Gilgamesh.
One of his other arms swings around the Masamune. The blade slams into the half-molten, fiery sword hurled by Margaret. Her hurled blade is cast to the ground, though sparks and flame wash across Gilgamesh's armor. "A clever ploy! But not enough to fell me!"
His eyes turn. He looks at the glowing 'G.' And at Zed, as he stumbles back, then explodes. "Why--that man!" Gilgamesh says. "He just exploded! Is this common on this world? Your healers may need to be advis--AH, HE LIVES--"
Doom Bringer slams down, repeatedly, opposite Claude's strikes. His katana strikes a couple of times, his counter-blows beating them back, but others slam into his armor. "Guh!!"
And then Leo strikes, with two cuts of his blade -- and two fangs of white light that hurtle towards him. He swings the Sword of Light across them -- and they are cut apart,but the impact smashes him backward.
"Twice the demon, twice the fang!" he shouts. "But I won't be deterred...!"
Then, he looks up.
Amaterasu descends -- and her blow slams into him, Valkyrja pitching him back into the battlements. "GAH! Oogh--oof--" He stumbles away. "Perhaps... I have underestimated all of you..."
A beat.
"NOT!"
Then, Gilgamesh leaps back. He lands, his feet and four arms wobbling, before he straightens himself out, and nods.
"Now!" Gilgamesh says. He holds the arm with the Genji Shield up -- and his fingers squeeze about something. It's familiar to some of them, perhaps: the smooth, green crystalline orb that was in the bracers of the soldiers they fought earlier in the week.
"Witness my power!" he yells. "And... BE CHANGED!"
The glimmering green orb shines. Then, there is a puff of smoke around everyone -- and for a few precious seconds, they turn into frog. The colors and exact looks vary -- and there's a thick pink smog.
"Enkidu's brethren!" he yells. "GO!"
And the cuckoos lunge -- in a flurry of beaks, feathers, talons, and squawks. The Filgaian chickens rush for all of them.
The good news is, getting hit once will turn them back into human and Pokemon form.
GS: Gilgamesh spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Gilgamesh has attacked Chase with Toad Song! GS: Gilgamesh has attacked Rena Lanford with Toad Song! GS: Gilgamesh has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Toad Song! GS: Gilgamesh has attacked Timu Guado with Toad Song! GS: Gilgamesh has attacked Seraph Cavall with Toad Song! GS: Gilgamesh has attacked Claude C. Kenny with Toad Song! GS: Gilgamesh has attacked Margaret with Toad Song! GS: Gilgamesh has attacked Zed with Toad Song! GS: Gilgamesh has attacked White Knight Leo with Toad Song! GS: Gilgamesh has attacked Amaterasu with Toad Song! GS: Gilgamesh has launched an attack Link! GS: Delay expired! GS: Gilgamesh takes 32 damage from Poison! GS: Jam and Mute expired! GS: Gilgamesh has completed his action. GS: Gilgamesh has attacked Chase with Hylian Chicken Dance! GS: Gilgamesh has attacked Rena Lanford with Hylian Chicken Dance! GS: Gilgamesh has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Hylian Chicken Dance! GS: Gilgamesh has attacked Timu Guado with Hylian Chicken Dance! GS: Gilgamesh has attacked Seraph Cavall with Hylian Chicken Dance! GS: Gilgamesh has attacked Claude C. Kenny with Hylian Chicken Dance! GS: Gilgamesh has attacked Margaret with Hylian Chicken Dance! GS: Gilgamesh has attacked Zed with Hylian Chicken Dance! GS: Gilgamesh has attacked White Knight Leo with Hylian Chicken Dance! GS: Gilgamesh has attacked Amaterasu with Hylian Chicken Dance! GS: Gilgamesh takes 44 damage from Poison! GS: Disrupt, Drowsy, and Poison expired! GS: Gilgamesh has completed his action. GS: Rena Lanford fails to charge Gilgamesh's Toad Song for 0 hit points! GS: Misery adds Mute and Poison! GS: Mute and Poison applied to Rena Lanford! GS: FP up! Arcane Font! GS: Rena Lanford enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: CRITICAL! Margaret mostly evades Gilgamesh's Toad Song for 0 hit points! GS: Misery adds Jam and Jam! GS: Jam applied to Margaret! GS: FP up! Arcane Font! GS: Margaret fails to charge Gilgamesh's Hylian Chicken Dance for 157 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Margaret gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hyper applied to Gilgamesh! GS: FP up! Arcane Font! GS: Margaret enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Rena Lanford critically fails to evade Gilgamesh's Hylian Chicken Dance for 206 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Rena Lanford gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hyper applied to Gilgamesh! GS: FP up! Arcane Font! GS: CRITICAL! Claude C. Kenny mostly evades Gilgamesh's Toad Song for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Claude C. Kenny gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Misery adds Break and Slow! GS: Break and Slow applied to Claude C. Kenny! GS: Hyper applied to Gilgamesh! GS: Claude C. Kenny critically fails to guard Gilgamesh's Hylian Chicken Dance for 202 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Claude C. Kenny gains 1 additional Combo! GS: COUNTER! White Knight Leo counterattacks Gilgamesh with Counter Attack! GS: White Knight Leo mostly charges Gilgamesh's Toad Song for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! White Knight Leo gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Misery adds Blind and Entangle! GS: Blind and Entangle applied to White Knight Leo! GS: White Knight Leo mostly evades Gilgamesh's Hylian Chicken Dance for 52 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! White Knight Leo gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Reaction bonus! GS: White Knight Leo enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Jacqueline Barber mostly charges Gilgamesh's Toad Song for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Jacqueline Barber gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Misery adds Slow and Break! GS: Break and Slow applied to Jacqueline Barber! GS: FP up! Arcane Font! GS: Jacqueline Barber critically fails to guard Gilgamesh's Hylian Chicken Dance for 173 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Jacqueline Barber gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Arcane Font! GS: Jacqueline Barber enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: COUNTER! Zed counterattacks Gilgamesh with Starry Night - Starbow Rodando! GS: CRITICAL! Zed fails to charge Gilgamesh's Toad Song for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Zed gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Zed's Cripple Ward may block the effect! GS: Misery adds Hex and Cripple! GS: Hex applied to Zed! GS: Cripple blocked! GS: Hyper applied to Gilgamesh! GS: Zed critically fails to charge Gilgamesh's Hylian Chicken Dance for 251 hit points! GS: Chase critically fails to charge Gilgamesh's Toad Song for 0 hit points! GS: Misery adds Poison and Poison! GS: Poison blocked! GS: Hyper applied to Gilgamesh! GS: CRITICAL! Chase fails to evade Gilgamesh's Hylian Chicken Dance for 147 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Chase gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Hyper applied to Gilgamesh! GS: FP up! Reaction bonus! GS: Timu Guado marginally charges Gilgamesh's Toad Song for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Timu Guado gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Misery adds Disease and Mute! GS: Disease and Mute applied to Timu Guado! GS: CRITICAL! Timu Guado mostly evades Gilgamesh's Hylian Chicken Dance for 94 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Timu Guado gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Reaction bonus! GS: Seraph Cavall fails to charge Gilgamesh's Toad Song for 0 hit points! GS: Misery adds Poison and Shieldbreak! GS: Poison and Shieldbreak applied to Seraph Cavall! GS: FP up! Arcane Font! GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Seraph Cavall receives 100 temporary hit points. GS: Seraph Cavall enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Seraph Cavall fails to guard Gilgamesh's Hylian Chicken Dance for 137 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Cavall gains 1 additional Combo! GS: FP up! Arcane Font!
<Pose Tracker> Chase has posed.
Filgaia has a bloody history, Chase has learned. Timu's people, on this other moon, have theirs as well... Even as the world explodes around them in color, magic, and violence, Timu holds fast. Chase follows this lead, doing little more than steel himself with a deep breath. He is no Guado, but he does have a small advantage of natural stoicism himself.
Summoners and sacrifice... this is all something he should ask Timu later.
Chase addresses Pikachu and gets a, "Pika?" for his efforts as she paws at her own ear. Somewhere behind her, Chase panics for half a second before the wrong idea is exchanged for the right idea. It helps that Pikachu is doing another tappy dance and going, "Chaaaa~!"
Leo denies his identity. Pikachu's head turns on its side. She crouches down and leaps up, stretching out her paw for a high five.
However that resolves, she is cheering and bouncing for Fuecoco's bite. Yeah, get him!! But she stops suddenly, blinking her black eyes up at Gilgamesh's green orb. "...Pika?" Chase rushes forward in alarm, which proves particularly foolhardy when --
Poof.
"Ribachu?" A yellow frog with brown-orange stripes tilts her head and looks to the side to see... a very quiet frog with red, white, and black splotches wearing a small, red cap. Frogachu blinks a few more times and then come... the birds. She's quick to leap in front of her amphibious trainer, giving a cry of "Chuuuuu -- uuuuu...? Pikachu!!" as smoke engulfs again, returning her to her original form -- swirly eyed as she might be -- before recognizing all these cucco are still after Chase...!
She picks up his froggy form and dashes upright around the arena, screaming, "Piiiiiiika piiiiiiiiiiiiika!" while Chase's froggy legs dangle with the momentum. Pikachu stops, throw ones of Chase's Pokeballs with an unhanded lob, then resumes her scream-and-carry from the pursuit of Enkidu's brethren.
Nidoran pops out, shaking out his large ears, and blinks up at Gilgamesh before cowering back with a tremble. He looks back at Pikachu and squeaks frantically.
"Piii PIKA! Pi pika!"
Nidoran protests, and Pikachu shouts back (still dodging cuccos in panic), and after a bit of back and forth, Nidoran looks back up at Gilgamesh, spreads out his own stance for stability and begins... to... crackle...? Sparks gather, and with an adorable howl, Nidoran launches a bolt of lightning from its horn into the sky.
It comes right back down, aiming for Gilgamesh.
Nidoran used THUNDERBOLT! ...?
(Well, what else would a Pikachu tell him to do?!)
GS: Chase spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Formation! Chase has attacked Gilgamesh with Thunder Bolt! GS: Chase has gained 2 Combo! GS: Chase has completed his action. GS: Amaterasu marginally evades Gilgamesh's Toad Song for 0 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Amaterasu gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Misery adds Cripple and Cripple! GS: Cripple applied to Amaterasu! GS: CRITICAL! Amaterasu fails to evade Gilgamesh's Hylian Chicken Dance for 189 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Gilgamesh! GS: CRITICAL! Gilgamesh mostly guards White Knight Leo's Counter Attack for 191 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst! GS: Gilgamesh marginally guards Zed's Starry Night - Starbow Rodando for 119 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst! GS: Gilgamesh marginally guards Chase's Thunder Bolt for 178 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.
"What is he made out of, cast steel?" Margaret complains when despite being repeatedly assailed Gilgamesh does not go down like an ignoble wretch! Instead he -
"Wait," Margaret says, suspecting something, but then pink fog rolls over her and there is a great bursting pouf.
When the pink mist thins slightly, a mottled frog with a big purple streak on top of its head stands there. The frog's throat wob-wobbles several times. Froggy eyes turn around. The frog's mouth opens and closes a little. The eyes turn downwards.
Left front foot comes up. Right front foot comes up.
The frog seems to relax... and then rears back to stand upright, head contorting downwards.
Eyes that are suddenly far more intense and focused turn towards the approaching chicken.
"*ribbit*"
(So it's polymorphic magic, is it? This is an act of desperation... doing anything you can to even the odds...)
"*ribbit*"
(Ha! I'd almost respect this. It's too bad that this has to happen like this. I suppose it's already awkward to cross paths with the White Knight when I was here to smuggle lumber.)
The frog sweeps one fore-foot up over its head as if to sweep back hair which is, notably, absent.
"*ribbit*"
(Now then...)
The eyes of the frog widen as it erupts in a luminous aura. And -- flops forwards onto its forelegs again because standing up isn't how a frog is built.
"*ribbit*"
(HAVE AT YOU.)
INSERT BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0GIc4sGsms (turn volume down to about 12)
That frog begins to move too fast to really be seen. There are horrible noises, noises of wet amphibious flesh striking against feathers with occasional blurs, if one were to focus on the conflict, of a frog moving with unwonted alacrity and crushing force against the released chicken.
The chicken, of course, is easily ten times the size of the frog, and the force disparity is not enough to simply destroy the bird outright. However, this is not how the chicken imagined this going, so there is a lot of cawing and some spilled feathers. That bird runs around letting out distressed bukaw's as the swirling zwee-zwee blur coheres onto their back.
"*ribbit!*"
(HORARARARARARARARARARARARARA)
The frog appears to be chain-slapping the back of the chicken's neck.
At this point another chicken pecks the accelerated frog directly in its ass, which causes a sudden (small) gout of blood and a burst of pink smoke as the enchantment resolves itself and Margaret reappears in all her glory. Since it is now Margaret who is the much larger party, the chicken, now freed, flaps away from this madness. The bird has perhaps gone mad with this experience.
But birds are all howling servants of chaos, aren't they?
Margaret gets back to her feet.
"Alright," she says. "Nice technique, Gilgalad, but I'm going to show you how we do it in Neo-Vane." Margaret draws another blade outwards, the second of her belt of four, and then--
Winks at Gilgamesh?
And blows a kiss at him?
THE KISS (which takes the form of a little purple heart flying at him, because of course it does) IS A LIE. Touching that heart, much like touching a refined piece of pure evil, will unleash its spell -- in this case a massive and selective enhancement of various aspects of sensory experience. Technically, it's positive! Intense hallucinations can be psychologically liberating and just plain fun with friends and trusted trip guides.
MARGARET IS NOT A TRUSTED TRIP GUIDE. "Ignite!" she commands, before leaping up in the air and looking down even as Nidoran unleashes a burst of thunderous force -- which is perhaps inadvertently cross-crissed when Margaret shouts out "HYAAAHH!!" and simply whips the blade downwards. The blade, already ignited with magnesium-flare light, obligingly bursts and rips downwards, superheated metal roaring down with thundering force upon the Man with the Swords in his Hands.
DC: Margaret switches forms to Rune Blade IGNITION!
GS: Margaret spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Margaret has attacked Gilgamesh with Illusion Kiss! GS: Margaret has gained 1 Combo! GS: Margaret has launched an attack Link! GS: Margaret spends 2 Combo on Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling! GS: Margaret has attacked Gilgamesh with THE GREAT DIVIDE! GS: Margaret has gained 1 Combo! GS: Margaret gains 5 FP from Gleam! GS: Jam expired! GS: Margaret has completed her action. GS: Access! Margaret takes 30 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Cavall has posed.
Cavall gives a nod to Claude as they land next to the seraph. The wolf recognizes them from the other day. "Well met," they utter, before turning their attention back to Gilgamesh. To Gilgamesh, however, there is another snarl. "We shall not give one ilm of this star over to intruders, no matter your affinity or your aims."
But Gilgamesh brings out a curious orb. Cavall's eyes widen as they can sense the magic potential within it. "No!" They charge forward, hoping to cut it off at the pass--but they are a moment too late, and transformative magic washes over them, as it does everyone else.
And when the magic clears there is a small orange frog in its place, on all fours (whereas others may be standing upright.) They snarl. "How odious a form this is... You will not get away with this, cur." They reach down into the earth, muttering to themselves as they try to draw out some magic from the earth--only to be set upon by Cuccos.
"Foul--beasts--" Cavall does their best to weather the storm of pecks but are pushed back, their earthen defneses chipped away with each peck--until suddenly the magic wears off and they are back to their normal, wolfish form. Cavall leaps back.
Runes appear beneath them as they actively draw more power from the earth, but then diffuses it through the rest of those gathered. "Receive the blessing of the land, thy vigor restored."
GS: Seraph Cavall has attacked Margaret with Renewal of Life! GS: Seraph Cavall has attacked Chase with Renewal of Life! GS: Seraph Cavall has attacked Amaterasu with Renewal of Life! GS: Seraph Cavall has attacked White Knight Leo with Renewal of Life! GS: Seraph Cavall has attacked Zed with Renewal of Life! GS: Seraph Cavall has attacked Claude C. Kenny with Renewal of Life! GS: Seraph Cavall has attacked Seraph Cavall with Renewal of Life! GS: Seraph Cavall has attacked Timu Guado with Renewal of Life! GS: Seraph Cavall has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Renewal of Life! GS: Seraph Cavall has attacked Rena Lanford with Renewal of Life! GS: Seraph Cavall has gained 2 Combo! GS: Seraph Cavall gains 25 THP from their Cautious! GS: Seraph Cavall gains 5 FP from Gleam! GS: Seraph Cavall takes 37 damage from Poison! GS: Poison and Shieldbreak expired! GS: Seraph Cavall has completed their action. GS: Seraph Cavall heals Seraph Cavall! They gains 114 temporary hit points! GS: Gilgamesh critically fails to guard Margaret's Illusion Kiss for 0 hit points! GS: Misery adds Mute! GS: Jam, Mute, and Slow applied to Gilgamesh! GS: Gilgamesh mostly guards Margaret's THE GREAT DIVIDE for 119 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst! GS: Seraph Cavall heals Claude C. Kenny! He gains 117 temporary hit points! GS: Restore! Break and Slow removed! GS: Shield applied to Seraph Cavall! GS: Seraph Cavall heals Timu Guado! She gains 26 temporary hit points! GS: Restore! Disease and Mute removed! GS: Seraph Cavall heals Jacqueline Barber! She gains 112 temporary hit points! GS: Restore! Break and Slow removed! GS: Seraph Cavall heals Chase! He gains 113 temporary hit points! GS: Shield applied to Seraph Cavall! GS: Seraph Cavall heals White Knight Leo! He gains 104 temporary hit points! GS: Restore! Blind and Entangle removed! GS: Shield applied to Seraph Cavall! GS: Seraph Cavall heals Margaret! She gains 113 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lanford has posed.
"It's not?"
Rena freezes, mid arm-lock, and looks Gilgamesh in the eye, then at the 'Sword of Light'. "Are you sure that's not your phaser?" Claude may wonder if Rena knows what a phaser actually is in this moment. "Like... sure sure?"
Rena sort of just, loosens her grip and pats his arm, "Aha - there's been a misunderstanding - I'm not some sword thief! Promise! Carry on with-" Suddenly her grip tightens again, "WAIT A MINUTE WE'RE FIGHTING!"
And thus Rena just hangs on him tight as he moves around the battlefield, trying to keep him in a chokehold but his neck just being a LITTLE TOO HARD TO GET HER ARMS AROUND. Claude's Sword of Life, suddenly infuses her with green light that causes her to steady despite her injuries.
"Thanks Claude!" She calls while still hanging on trying to put Gilgamesh in a chokehold even as he moves around that battlefield, swinging her to and fro.
A green orb suddenly descends and she is DECISIVELY forced to let go.
As the ground rises up to meet her, and Rena rolls, or at least half leaps over.
Croakkkk (Why do I feel so weird?)
Rena has been replaced with a frog with ridges at the side of her head that seem to represent her prominent Nedian ears. There's still the Crescent Moon hairclip, stuck to the side of her head, and a red cape descending down her back.
She's also got her knuckles fitted onto her back.
Her amphibian eyes just blink.
Rib (Eh?) bit (What?)
And then she shrieks, except it comes out like:
CROAKKKKKKKKKKKKKK (AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA)
She hardly has time to process though before a Cuckoo descends and she shrieks again.
CROAKKKKKKKKKKKKKK (AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA)
And finds herself with a Cuckoo in pursuit, pecking at her wildly, she tries to hop frantically out of the way, but has a talon suddenly grasp her and smack her against the ground.
And the Nedian Girl is back.
"Ribbit...?" She says dazed from the searing pain as it KEEPS ON PECKING HER, "HEY OW- OW OW OW- STOP IT!" And abruptly tosses a Pokeball at the Cuckoo.
The Cuckoo vanishes.
Wobble.
Wobble Wobble.
Wobble Wobble.
... With a puff of smoke, the Cuckoo reappears, because such malevolence won't be maintained by Nedian Hypertech.
But it does give her time for symbological energy to well up as she shouts, "Condition... CURE!" The energy arcing around to pass over everyone, which she hopes will bring a decisive end to that toad... nonsense. "Oh you are gonna get it!" She may cry later over you know, everyone seeing her like that-! But first-
-ULTRAVIOLENCE!
GS: Seraph Cavall heals Rena Lanford! She gains 113 temporary hit points! GS: Restore! Mute and Poison removed! GS: Shield applied to Seraph Cavall! GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Cavall heals Amaterasu! She gains 134 temporary hit points! GS: Restore! Cripple removed! GS: Rena Lanford has attacked Amaterasu with Condition Cure! GS: Rena Lanford has attacked Chase with Condition Cure! GS: Rena Lanford has attacked Claude C. Kenny with Condition Cure! GS: Rena Lanford has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Condition Cure! GS: Rena Lanford has attacked Margaret with Condition Cure! GS: Rena Lanford has attacked Rena Lanford with Condition Cure! GS: Rena Lanford has attacked Seraph Cavall with Condition Cure! GS: Rena Lanford has attacked Timu Guado with Condition Cure! GS: Rena Lanford has attacked White Knight Leo with Condition Cure! GS: Rena Lanford has attacked Zed with Condition Cure! GS: Rena Lanford has gained 1 Combo! GS: Rena Lanford's stances have changed to Sage! GS: Rena Lanford has completed her action. GS: Rena Lanford accepts Rena Lanford's Condition Cure for 0 hit points! GS: Pray adds Shield! GS: Shield applied to Rena Lanford! GS: CRITICAL! Claude C. Kenny accepts Rena Lanford's Condition Cure for 0 hit points! GS: Pray adds Burst! GS: Burst applied to Claude C. Kenny! GS: Seraph Cavall heals Zed! He gains 109 temporary hit points! GS: Restore! Hex removed! GS: Shield applied to Seraph Cavall! GS: Zed accepts Rena Lanford's Condition Cure for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Disrupt removed! GS: Pray adds Shield! GS: Shield applied to Zed! GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Zed receives 100 temporary hit points. GS: Zed enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Jacqueline Barber accepts Rena Lanford's Condition Cure for 0 hit points! GS: Pray adds Hyper! GS: Hyper applied to Jacqueline Barber! GS: Chase accepts Rena Lanford's Condition Cure for 0 hit points! GS: Pray adds Shield! GS: Shield applied to Chase! GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Chase receives 100 temporary hit points. GS: Chase enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Amaterasu accepts Rena Lanford's Condition Cure for 0 hit points! GS: Pray adds Blitz! GS: Blitz applied to Amaterasu! GS: Amaterasu enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Rena Lanford heals Timu Guado! She gains 39 temporary hit points! GS: Pray adds Regen! GS: Regen applied to Timu Guado! GS: Timu Guado enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Margaret accepts Rena Lanford's Condition Cure for 0 hit points! GS: Pray adds Lock State! GS: Lock state applied to Margaret!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline pauses for a moment. She... doesn't want to say the first thing that comes to mind, so she instead settles for...
"Yeah... let's go with that. The kind of guy who never who never gives up." The way she says it makes it hard to tell if she means it as a compliment. "The kind of guy who loves fighting more than anything."
He accuses her of trickery, though - and that's an accusation she can't refute.
"Sorry, I'm not much of a warrior, myself." She admits. She watches him and the others carefully. They're fighting them with all their might - and there are some surprising faces here, too - but it looks like he has some trickery of his own...
A green orb shines! And then with a puff of smoke...!
"Ribbit...?"
Translation: 'What was that...?'
Where Jacqueline once stood... is now a little, sea-green frog, her lower half an earthy brown. A pair of tiny, frog-sized glasses are perched upon her nose in front of her eyes, equally tiny, frog-sized satchels lining her form, and frog-sized gauntlets.
"Ribbit... Ribbit - croak!"
Translation: 'Wait, transformation sorcery... I underestimated you - everyone, be careful!'
But she has her own need to be careful, for Gilgamesh has called upon the land's most dangerous beast - the Filgaian cucco. Even in her normal form this would be a difficult foe, but in a tiny, squishy, froggy body...!
Jacqueline braces as she's engulfed in a terrible cloud of feathers and fury, and when it clears, she's returned to normal - though certainly looking a little worse for wear.
"I'm not going to croak that easily, ribbit..." Jacqueline starts - and then coughs, clearing her throat. Maybe she - Maybe she has a -
...Never mind, moving on.
Healing settles over her, courtesy of Cavall and Rena both. She feels a lot more capable, now - she was still feeling a little slimy and sluggish from Frog.
"Thanks, you two." Jacqueline says, sending them a grateful nod. "And as for you...!"
With a gesture of her right hand, she sends a bolt of lightning crashing down toward Gilgamesh!
GS: Jacqueline Barber spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Gilgamesh with Lightning Strike! GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jacqueline Barber gains 5 FP from Gleam! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action. GS: White Knight Leo accepts Rena Lanford's Condition Cure for 0 hit points! GS: Pray adds Lock State! GS: Lock state applied to White Knight Leo! GS: Gilgamesh fails to guard Jacqueline Barber's Lightning Strike for 269 hit points! GS: Quick applied to Jacqueline Barber!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
"That is obviously not Claude's Sword of Light," Zed protests on Claude's behalf. "His sword of light produces a lance of all-consuming radiance that crashes straight into the enemy!" Beat. "That is obviously a cutting sword, Claude's is a piercing weapon. So it cannot be his. Hm hm."
"That's correct!" He speaks now to Amaterasu, even as he dashes from coordinate to coordinate, slashing all the way. Some kind of... slash and dash! "I could never NOT come! Ahahaha! Hm." She has a proposition. Whoever steals a sword... "...Very well. VERY WELL! I ACCEPT! Ahahahahaha! Do you hear that, Gilgamesh, you--"
...He's... giving up?
Just like that??
Zed works his jaw before finally deciding to snap his mouth shut. "Of course... who could resist the power of one of Filgaia's unstoppable exploding men--"
<ENFROGGENATE>
(Eh??) Zed, now a frog with an oversized sword mounted to his (tiny) back. (What is this? What is this!? WHY DID I GET SO SMALL--)
(No, more importantly--)
(WHY AM I SO BERSERK-SHAPED!?! THIS IS A TRAVESTY! A GRIEVOUS INSULT!!)
SQUEEEEEAAAAAAAK
The sound... is unexpected. And yet...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBxn56l9WcU
...So very, very angry.
...And then come the cuccos.
(What? These are... These are...)
(...)
Zed... allows himself to be taken by a cucco. But he does not immediately turn back. No. Somehow... Somehow more cuccos swarm in, drawn by their indefatigable rage, drawn to Zed. Drawn in... And accumulating.
Building.
BUILDING.
It begins small, tiny even. One cucco. Then two. But it grows, the pile GROWS. More cuccos. A dozen. Two dozen. Three! Six!! The sphere grows ever larger! Ever fluffier! Ever more powerful! And at its heart...
A frog sits, eyes wide as if dazed. No...
...A state of mind, a technique mimicked long ago from one who Zed respects most highly.
A pale imitation of that state. The one that saw all of Adlehyde painted in the foul-smelling white of cucco poop.
This is... The Trance of the Cucco Cuween...
...The ball rolls forth upon Gilgamesh.
...And upon impact, explodes. Zed is jostled, the enchantment is broken. He lands in a three-point stance as cuccos rain all around him. "Feigning defeat and then reversing at the last moment... Such fowl play... And yet, respectable none-the-less, Gilgamesh. Now... Let me show you. What it means to be marked by a letter...!"
Zed lunges forward! He swings once-- a horizontal cut! Again, a diagonal! A third time, horizontal again! Power streams forth from both Seraphim and Nedean, restoring his body, empowering his arms! He strikes, one more time, and dashes through!!
Zed... leaves a <Z> in his wake...
...
"AND THEREAFTER," he declares, as the <Z> begins to blaze with light-- "TO EXPLODE!"
...And explodes.
GS: Hyper added to Zed! GS: Zed has activated Force Action: Boost! GS: Zed spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Zed has attacked Gilgamesh with Split Ladle - Sakura Supernova! GS: Zed has gained 1 Combo! GS: Zed has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
"Don't worry," Claude says. "Zed explodes all the time. It's part of his warrior's mystique."
Claude says this with a completely straight face.
FRIENDSHIP ENERGY pours out, and while Claude's strike can be guarded, Zed's strikes home! Claude grins. "That's the power of teamwork!"
He is not left to his VICTORY for long, though. Not least because Amaterasu challenges--
"Hey, you're not going to just leave me out! If we're claiming swords, I'LL get the duel!"
Wait, wasn't he going to not take the sword? Don't worry about it.
But--That orb. CLaude recognizes it. He prepares for fire. What he gets is... not fire. Instead, he gets turned into--
A crimson frog. He has a headband! Ribbit. Ribbit. He starts to hop away indignantly, disoriented by the change.
Hop. Hop. Hop.
RIGHT INTO A CUCCO!! The red Claudefrog is PECKED and goes flying three times faster than another frog might. He hits one of the crenalations and--
POOF!
He is human Claude again. "Gh--"
"OK that is ENTIRELY enough of that," Claude says. "You want a Sword of Light?"
He stows his blade and pulls out the small object at his hip instead. This scene chose Rena as the main character of their game, so he doesn't have the power to change the background music. But there is a sudden NOISE as the Phase Gun starts to charge up power when Claude points it at Gilgamesh.
"I am VERY SURE that that sword is not my phase gun, Rena!"
The light explodes into being, a huge column of brilliance erupting forward.
GS: Claude C. Kenny spends 4 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling! GS: Blitz! Claude C. Kenny has attacked Gilgamesh with Phase Gun! GS: Claude C. Kenny has gained 1 Combo! GS: Claude C. Kenny gains 10 FP from his Daredevil! GS: Blitz and Quick expired! GS: Claude C. Kenny has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
"So be it," says Leo. The gravitas takes a direct hit from Pikachu, who reaches out for a high-five. A bead of sweat forms on Leo's forehead. Does he leave this precious creature hanging, or risk--
No. He's not going to let her down. Leo reaches out and plants his palm on Pikachu's.
'Witness my power! And... BE CHANGED!'
Smoke envelops the White Knight. There's a moment of dizzying vertigo as his proprioception fails him. When the smoke clears, another frog sits in Leo's place--a mostly-white frog, with a little red cape and a horn protruding from its forehead.
"Gribbit." '(...What the...?)' The Leo-frog shifts upward into an awkward bipedal stance, blinking as he takes stock of the battlefield. "Gribbit...?" '(A polymorph spell. And everyone's...?)'
"BUC-AWK!"
The hungry eyes of dozens of barnyard fowl fall upon him. Leo remembers the time he went out to feed the chickens, only to find a rat had gotten into their pen. The carnage...
Raw terror seizes his heart.
A frenzied chase follows. Leo leaps with all his strength to stay ahead of ravenous beaks and sharp talons. One lucky chicken clips his side with a claw, and in another puff of smoke, the White Knight returns to his proper shape, wide-eyed and gasping, but alive. (The cuccos may well be disappointed.) Curative sorcery washes over him, and the disorientation of rapid unplanned shape-shifting fades.
"Many thanks," Leo says, glancing at Rena and Cavall, since he knows it's important to show gratitude to your healers.
Leo glowers as he turns back to Gilgamesh. "As for you, miscreant..." Light dances on the surface of Leo's sword, forming a brilliant pattern. He drives it for the many-armed swordsman, in what looks like a direct stabbing attack--and then Leo twists to the side, whirling into a slashing twirl, then flowing from that into the actual direct stab.
GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Gilgamesh with Light Spear Cannon! GS: White Knight Leo has gained 2 Combo! GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Timu Guado has posed.
"Fmmcphcph!!" Fuecoco mumble-calls while trying to clamp onto Gilgamesh, to not much avail, doing a cute little mid-air flip when flung back to land on his feet. He opens his mouth and closes it a few times, trying to figure out whether he enjoys the taste of Genji Armor or not as Timu gestures him back closer to keep out of immediate striking range.
"Whoever named it after you must have been someone who thought highly of you," is as far as Timu can imagine. Someone who must have been so important to be put in the same breadth as the former High Summoners... but there's no figure that resembles Gilgamesh in Spira beyond the name.
Chaos continues to erupt, until they seem to have Gilgamesh on the back foot, as he seems to have underestimated all of--
'NOT!'
"...What is that Sphere?" Timu is drawn in by the size and its strange color, and Fuecoco leans a bit closer in equal curiosity. Timu can't quite put a finger on it, but something about that 'Sphere' looks like it might be made of something like--
* poof *
Timu, now a big orangeish frog with blue stripes. Fuecoco, a smaller (yet rounder) deep red one.
* ribbit * * ribbibit*
The former stands up on their hind legs awkwardly, looking to their hands and the rest of them as the other (the Fuecoco one) tilts their upper body inquisitively rather than in alarm. Timu's Pokeballs and healer's staff all lie on the ground nearby.
The cuccos start to swarm.
* RIBBIT * Comes the alarmed Timu, leaping up as Frogcoco attempts to follow. It feels like every strike of a beak that comes shy of catching them is of enough force to make the entire ground rumble, and from here, a strategy in place--
Frog-Timu rushes for one of the Pokeballs, hurling against the little white button in the center as one of her friends appears in a bright light...
"HOOLIGRE!!" Shouts the large, dangerous-looking green-skinned brute, slamming fists on the ground as he looks to the two frogs to either side of him. He scratches the top of his head in confusion. "Hoo?"
* Ribbibit * * Ribbit *
It takes a moment for Hooligre to rub brain cells together. Looking into those eyes of the larger orange frog with blue stripes... just as a cucco snatches the backside of Timu-frog, a great snarl escapes him.
"GRRRREEEEE!!" He bellows as he punts that cucco, while Timu reappears in a puff of magic. Fuecoco, not too far behind, but there's still a cucco trying to fit their beak around his cheek. (He thinks it's cute and fun, so he does a playful little 'fue~')
Fuecoco is released when that cucco sees what that Hooligre did, and several others...
"Hoolgire," Timu murmurs as she picks up her staff...
"Hoo." Hooligre just gives a thumbs up, and proceeds to be mobbed. (He'll be fine, question mark in parenthesis.)
Cavall gives the blessing of the Earth, and Rena further reinforces with Condition Cure - a Nedian Symbological masterwork of healing - as it all settles upon Fuecoco and Timu alike. (And... we're going to be kind to the off-screen, possibly mauled Hooligre.)
"Fue!!" Fuecoco calls, balling up his tiny little fists and looking to Gilgamesh as he awaits Timu's orders, as so many people unleash their greatest assaults. Together, they'll...!
"Fuecoco," Timu's voice lowers as her expression hardens, "stay."
She trusts Hooligre to be okay, if he thinks so.
Timu takes her staff in hand as she strides up carefully, looking to Chase and his Pikachu companion once before drawing closer.
"Gilgamesh," Timu says the name sharply, "you're not a kind person, are you?"
She punctuates this by just swinging her staff - one wrought of lightweight metal by Seraph Yvain for her, topped with decorative flame-like accents in accordance to bearing the White aspect of Fire - up against Gilgamesh.
"I'm not going to forgive you!" She says, with teenaged fury.
GS: Timu Guado enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Timu Guado has attacked Gilgamesh with clonk! GS: Timu Guado enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Timu Guado gains 36 THP from Regen! GS: Timu Guado has completed her action. GS: Gilgamesh mostly guards Zed's Split Ladle - Sakura Supernova for 150 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Reaction bonus! GS: Strain! Zed takes 102 damage! GS: Seraph Cavall accepts Rena Lanford's Condition Cure for 0 hit points! GS: Pray adds Hyper! GS: Hyper applied to Seraph Cavall! GS: Gilgamesh mostly guards White Knight Leo's Light Spear Cannon for 127 hit points! GS: Cover applied to White Knight Leo! GS: FP up! Power Burst! GS: CRITICAL! Gilgamesh mostly guards Claude C. Kenny's Phase Gun for 211 hit points! GS: Hyper and Shield applied to Claude C. Kenny! GS: Gilgamesh mostly guards Timu Guado's clonk for 106 hit points! GS: Hyper applied to Timu Guado! GS: FP up! Power Burst!
<Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.
Zed accepts her proposition, and it is a certain thing that behind her battlemask, Amaterasu's mouth curves in a smile. "Do not disappoint me, Zed of the Hyadean People."
From below, Claude chimes in. He doesn't want to be left out in the cold, is it...?
"Very well! Whosoever steals a sword must face the other two in battle!" she declares, well and truly in her element. Is this what happens when Yue isn't around to intervene...?
Can he withstand this? Perhaps not. Or at least, so it appears, as he seems to crumple after receiving from Amaterasu her attack--
"...So soon? I heard tell of a mighty warrior, but I see none before me. Stand and fight, Gilgamesh of the--"
He leaps away from the lot of them. Amaterasu cuts her own line off to move to harry his position, but she never once gets close.
*poof*
Where there had stood a Veruni commando there now sits a single (large) green frog. "Ribbit," Amaterasu emits, froggy eyes turning towards her fallen Valkyrja and understanding -- to some degree! -- what fell amphibian fate has befallen her. "Ribbit," she croaks again, her froggy face seeming as deeply contemplative as a frog, well, can. In what way might a frog fight a man -- a four-armed man! -- and win? But ah, this is a challenge--
If one that is compounded by the fact that a large chicken is bearing down upon her. "Ribbit!!" calls Amaterasu, who never once has shirked a fight, even if it's against a chicken as a frog, as she leaps into the fray. The fact that she gets a chicken foot to the face does little to dissuade her, and she continues to fight...!
*poof*
...For all of five seconds, before the enchantment wears off and she's just about to deck a chicken, which even for her is a little absurd.
"I see," she tells Gilgamesh upon gaining her own form once again and reclaiming her fallen weapon. "So it is true. You are no mere warrior. You are a tactician. Runes of light hang in air about her, bestowing unto Amaterasu their power. Then there is light chasing her own luminescent trail as she first begins to run then charges for the point Gilgamesh now occupies. Her blade cuts through the air, its own brilliance seeming to hang in the air as she cleaves again, and again.
And again, into that point where all the cleaving arcs of light slam home.
GS: Amaterasu spends 2 Combo on Gatling, loading 2 into Gatling! GS: Blitz! Amaterasu has attacked Gilgamesh with Ex Aequo Et Bono! GS: Amaterasu has gained 4 Combo! GS: Amaterasu's Hero stance ends! GS: Amaterasu gains 5 FP from Gleam! GS: Amaterasu has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Gilgamesh fails to guard Amaterasu's Ex Aequo Et Bono for 372 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Gilgamesh has posed.
Jay resumes her form -- and Gilgamesh looks at her. "Not a warrior? I would disagree--AH, ELECTRICITY!"
The lightning strikes him. His body jerks; and the green orb falls to the bridge, bounces twice, and then falls into the water with a splash. He stumbles.
The Nidoran comes out. Gilgamesh stares at Nidoran for a moment. "What manner of creat--" And then a blast of lightning slams into him, pitching him backward.
"AAGH!" he cries out. "More electricity!"
He shakes himself out -- then flexes all four of his arms, blades swung out. "I see! It will be necessary to stop... clowning around! Very well!" He strikes a pose, blades across him. "For Gilgamesh..."
He salutes with all three blades and the shield. "...it's MORPHING TIME!"
Blue and white light explode out from him. Then, he leaps -- and comes crashing down, and slams Revolver down for Nidoran. It explodes with a burst of light when it impacts.
Then, he whirls to face Margaret. "Gilgamesh," he corrects. Before he blinks.
"Ah...?" he says, to the blown kiss. Before she rushes in, her blade ignited, and with a brilliant blast strikes across the Genji Armor. He stumbles backward, before he surges forward.
And his three blades lash out, in an intricate spinning slash across both her and Cavall, before a whirlwind erupts from his three blades -- and tries to pitch Margaret and Cavall both away from him.
"You'll have to catch me first!" he answers Rena. Then, he slashes down with his katana -- and Masamune sends a massive burst of blue light across the ground, which hurtles towards Jay.
"Only some items! At the proper time!" he says. "I am a man of culture, not some axe-wielding, father-murdering brute!"
What?
Then he turns. His eyes widen, as he sees the Cuckoomari Damacy rolling straight for him. "Aah! Hoisted by my own petard!" he cries out, smashed into and hurled backward. He rolls, comes up kneeling -- and then Zed descends.
His blades slam and slash down, each strike hitting the armor -- and he catches some of them, before his eyes widen. "Marked by a--AH! I see!"
The explosion knocks Gilgamesh backward. He lands in time for Claude to bring up his phase gun. Gilgamesh's brow furrows. "What infernal contrap--"
The blast of white-gold light slams into him, hurtles him backward, and smashes him into another battlement. "Aagh!" he cries out. "That sort of infernal contraption! Well, allow me to be the gum in the works!"
He surges forward, and then slams the Sword of Light down for Claude. When the blade hits, it sends a massive shockwave off towards him -- blasting back debris and stone alike. "HWAH!"
He catches the glimmer of light on Leo's blade, but can't well stop it. The White Knight's sword stabs -- and he tries to parry, but then it turns into a spiralling cut. Gilgamesh swings Masamune around, just barely catching it, and then he darts backward.
"Miscreant!?" he cries out. "You wound me!"
Then, he looks back to Timu, as she comes towards him. "N-Not kind? Why--I am a man of honor! And a warrior who is driven! I--"
BONK.
"Guh!!"
He stumbles back, one hand on his helmeted head; that helmet has a dent. And then, to make matters worse, light explodes around Amaterasu -- and then it comes crashing down into him. Light explodes out all across the bridge, before he grunts, and then cries out:
"KYAAAAAAAHH!"
He slashes with Masamune, cutting through the light with his katana. And then he swings down -- and a shockwave explodes towards Timu and Amaterasu both. Sakura petals waft after.
"A tactician... and a swordsman!" he says, before he leaps back. His legs wobble; smoke wafts and rises from his battered armor.
"And I won't be brought low here!"
Finally, Gilgamesh brings all three of his blades together -- crossing them into an X-shaped formation, with the Sword of Light down the middle. Then, he cries out: "ULTIMATE TECHNIQUE!" he cries. "Through the dark of the void! Strike true! God-Slaying Blow...!"
He brings them together -- and then chops down as one. The blades cleave straight down -- and a bolt of blue-white light hurtles between Rena, Zed, and Leo.
Then, it explodes in a titanic burst of blue energy that reaches up into the heavens, and engulfs all it sees.
"STOOOOOOOOOOOORM SPLITTERRRRRR!"
GS: Gilgamesh has attacked Gilgamesh with Embodiment of Epicness! GS: Gilgamesh has gained 1 Combo! GS: CRITICAL! Gilgamesh accepts Gilgamesh's Embodiment of Epicness for 0 hit points! GS: Mighty applied to Gilgamesh! GS: Gilgamesh has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Gilgamesh has activated Force Action: Fury Shot! GS: Gilgamesh has activated Force Action: Lock On! GS: Gilgamesh has activated Force Action: Snipe! GS: Gilgamesh spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Gilgamesh has attacked Chase with Giga Jump! GS: Gilgamesh has gained 1 Combo! GS: Gilgamesh has attacked Margaret with Whirlwind Slash! GS: Gilgamesh has attacked Seraph Cavall with Whirlwind Slash! GS: Gilgamesh has gained 1 Combo! GS: Gilgamesh has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Masamune! GS: Gilgamesh has gained 1 Combo! GS: Gilgamesh spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Gilgamesh has attacked Claude C. Kenny with Bitter End! GS: Gilgamesh has gained 2 Combo! GS: Gilgamesh's stances have changed to Avenger! GS: Gilgamesh has attacked Timu Guado with Bloomshower! GS: Gilgamesh has attacked Amaterasu with Bloomshower! GS: Gilgamesh has gained 1 Combo! GS: Gilgamesh spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Gilgamesh has attacked Rena Lanford with Stormsplitter! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Gilgamesh has attacked Zed with Stormsplitter! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Gilgamesh has attacked White Knight Leo with Stormsplitter! GS: Gilgamesh has gained 4 Combo! GS: Gilgamesh's Avenger stance ends! GS: Cancel Bonus! Gained 5 FP! GS: Gilgamesh has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: Moderate! Margaret mostly guards Gilgamesh's Whirlwind Slash for 157 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Margaret gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Margaret's Mute Ward may block the effect! GS: Misery adds Mute and Break! GS: Break applied to Margaret! GS: Mute blocked! GS: CRITICAL! Claude C. Kenny mostly guards Gilgamesh's Bitter End for 249 hit points! GS: Misery adds Slow and Weaken! GS: Weaken applied to Claude C. Kenny! GS: Slow blocked! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Reaction bonus! GS: Strain! Gilgamesh takes 150 damage! GS: CRITICAL! Chase mostly guards Gilgamesh's Giga Jump for 198 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Chase gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Misery adds Disrupt! GS: Disrupt blocked! GS: Hyper applied to Gilgamesh! GS: FP up! Reaction bonus! GS: CRITICAL! Amaterasu mostly guards Gilgamesh's Bloomshower for 165 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Amaterasu gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Misery adds Weaken! GS: Delay and Weaken applied to Amaterasu! GS: Jacqueline Barber has activated Force Action: Guard! GS: CRITICAL! Jacqueline Barber fails to guard Gilgamesh's Masamune for 321 hit points! GS: Misery adds Entangle! GS: Entangle applied to Jacqueline Barber! GS: Cover applied to Gilgamesh! GS: FP up! Reaction bonus! GS: Strain! Gilgamesh takes 147 damage! GS: Timu Guado has activated Force Action: Accelerate! GS: CRITICAL! Timu Guado mostly evades Gilgamesh's Bloomshower for 133 hit points! GS: Misery adds Interrupt! GS: Delay and Interrupt applied to Timu Guado! GS: FP up! Reaction bonus! GS: Timu Guado enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Gamble: Very High! Zed mostly guards Gilgamesh's Stormsplitter for 215 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Zed gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Misery adds Mute! GS: Mute blocked! GS: FP up! Power Burst! GS: White Knight Leo has activated Force Action: Guard! GS: Gamble: High! White Knight Leo mostly guards Gilgamesh's Stormsplitter for 143 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! White Knight Leo gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Misery adds Shieldbreak! GS: Shieldbreak blocked! GS: FP up! Power Burst! GS: Chase used Force Action: Mystic on Zed! FP up! GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: High! Rena Lanford fails to guard Gilgamesh's Stormsplitter for 450 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Rena Lanford gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Misery adds Hex! GS: Hex blocked! GS: Seraph Cavall has activated Force Action: Accelerate! GS: CRITICAL! Gamble: Low! Seraph Cavall fails to evade Gilgamesh's Whirlwind Slash for 239 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Cavall gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Misery adds Shieldbreak and Disrupt! GS: Disrupt and Shieldbreak applied to Seraph Cavall!
<Pose Tracker> Timu Guado has posed.
"...Coco..." Fuecoco looks a little nervous watching Timu actually be angry, and also in sympathetic wince of the staff to the helmet. (Somehow, the horror of Hooligre dealing in a deeply uncertain fate doesn't register.)
5t'KYAAAAAAAH!'
Timu gasps as she tries to turn and run from the impending shockwave. Her Guado leg strides don't fully accomplish it, as she finds herself tumbling in the shockwave--
Into the waiting arms of Hooligre, who is bruised with a funny bump with a bandage on his head. (He spits out some feathers.)
"...Hooligre," Timu says, as if in shock of what she only narrowly just took a dangerous tumble to. "I'm glad you're all right."
"Hooligre." Hooligre grunts. Timu is worth putting himself out to greater danger than his own kind in the wild were, as he helps set her down upright (once he puts his body in the way of the shockwaves of the Storm Splitter, unflinching).
Timu stands up straight as Fuecoco comes to her side, where she strides a few steps forward. Sure, the time of day doesn't make it all that clear, but with the way the things in orbit have gone, one can squint and see a particular world in the distance behind her. (despite present time of day)
"Gilgamesh...!" Timu looks up, eyes hardened as she taps her staff on the ground with an echo. "There's no divine power to make up for what you're doing!"
She does wipe her left hand over her brow with a brief wink, trying to get moisture out of there.
"In the name of the world someone felt worthy to give your name to...!" Timu calls, and indeed, that's Gilgamesh in the distant sky, standing at the ready. "You'll be punished!"
Beat. Crickets. Hooligre points to himself.
"That's right," Timu asides. "Hooligre, use Punishment!"
A well-animated stock footage sequence follows of Hooligre growling his name as - despite the interruption and delay of theatrics - ambles up to Gilgamesh with a big hand raised up high.
"HOO!"
He slams that hand down in a chopping motion.
"LI!"
The way the air is sliced, it kinda-sorta resembles a tiara as impact is imminent.
"GRRRRREEEEEEE!!"
The Guado teenager considers doing something like this every week, while Fuecoco just stands there confused with a tilted head.
GS: Timu Guado has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Timu Guado has attacked Gilgamesh with Punishment! GS: Timu Guado has gained 1 Combo! GS: Timu Guado gains 25 THP from Regen! GS: Timu Guado has completed her action. GS: Interrupt! Attack weakened! GS: Gilgamesh mostly guards Timu Guado's Punishment for 118 hit points! GS: Cripple removed! GS: Hyper applied to Timu Guado! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Reaction bonus!
<Pose Tracker> Chase has posed.
Pikachu smiles big at Leo. She got the high five!! ...It's unclear if she considers this proof, or at some point forgot what she was doing and is excited over having gotten a high five.
But then FROG CHAOS!
Nidoran joins an impromptu team attack with Margaret! The small rabbit lizard of a creature looks up at her right a bright eyed, buck toothed smile that holds the few seconds it takes him to realize he is in the presence of a powerful sorceress. His large ears flop back down as he makes a tiny squeak.
With the energy of Rena's Condition Curse, Chase puffs, tumbling back into human form with a wince as he rubs his face. His Pikachu leaps onto him, latching hold in a hug as she excitedly chatters to him -- all while Nidoran is scrambling away from Gilgamesh without a trainer to direct him. Light catches up to him like an encroaching wave as he squeaks out and goes flying...
... caught by Chase with a heaved sigh of relief and swirling eyes. Chase gives him a small pat, and powers of the earth rise up to deal with the scuffs and bruises of battle. (Pikachu blows a kiss to Cavall. Chu!)
Chase only has moments to observe the new state of the battlefield after his disorienting -- but rather comfortable, all things considered -- time as a frog. He scans the flurry of blades and surveys over the remaining flickers and traces of sorcery, breath unsteady and uncertain. But then there's light from his coat pocket, blinking, iridescent... Chase pulls a red core from his pocket, looking to it with wide eyes. Then, he understands.
...
Chase approaches Gilgamesh, Pikachu perched on one shoulder, and Nidoran on the other, effectively signaling that they are not a part of his challenge. He looks up at the large, four armed man, determination in his eyes, and a nod given.
He pulls back a small orb. Not a Poke Ball. He does not throw it, he swings it, and brilliant, prismatic light shines and sharpens into a five pointed star shape that lets out its own passionate cry... A cry that could only belong to one with a true warrior's heart, that could only be awakened another true warrior in turn.
"HIIIYAAAAH!!"
Wielded like a chakram, Staryu aims a blow for Gilgamesh, continuing its trajectory into a throw. It flies through the air, spinning and sparkling and looping back around to aim to strike Gilgamesh from behind.
GS: Surge added to Chase! GS: Chase has activated Force Action: Boost! GS: Chase has attacked Gilgamesh with Staryu Joins the Party!! GS: Chase has gained 1 Combo! GS: Chase gains 5 FP from Gleam! GS: Chase has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lanford has posed.
Claude produces his phase gun, Rena looks at it. Then back at Gilgamesh's Sword of Light, then back at it. Then at Zed who weighed in, then back at Claude's phase gun.
"I could have sworn it was bigger..." She says, as if second guessing her memory in that regard.
But realizing that Claude could hear it and might think she has no faith in his Sword of Light she backpeddles, "Ah I mean - it's fine - it's not like size matters or anything!"
Her head snaps back to Gilgamesh, "Oh I'll catch you alright!"
Gilgamesh brings his sword together however in that moment as if to contradict Rena's own statement in that regard.
And the blade descends, into an enormous burst of blue light into which she vanishes, crossing her arms at the last minute, but finding that defense wholly inadequate.
In the silence of the aftermath, Rena seems like she's well and truly gone, but there's a noise, pained - and small, as the Nedian Girl notes.
"... pretty... pretty good... but..."
Her clothes are still smoldering, but abruptly she takes a step forward, then two, still gasping for breath, and she smiles just a little too wide.
And her eyes gleam strangely, as she draws her fist back, "...I'm no god." Abruptly she's trying to lay into him gaining momentum, as she punches once, twice - thrice, then abruptly turns a standing somersault into a bicycle kick, trying to smash Gilgamesh into the air.
And mid-pivot she shouts, "Star..."
Energy gathers in the air, singing a symphony of radiant creation.
Unfortunately it's the ouchy kind of creation in the form of her symbology creating a tiny star, right on top of him.
"... FLARE!"
Which bursts forth surging to create solar hell around him.
GS: Rena Lanford has activated Force Action: Full Clip! GS: Rena Lanford spends 1 Combo on Link! GS: Rena Lanford has attacked Gilgamesh with Star...! GS: Rena Lanford has launched an attack Link! GS: Rena Lanford spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Rena Lanford has attacked Gilgamesh with ...FLARE! GS: Rena Lanford gains 5 FP from Gleam! GS: Rena Lanford has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
"Indeed, just as Claude's preference for peaches over pears, penchant for conjuring draconic aether-entities, and catastrophic photonic firepower are part of his. This is simply the way of things." Zed nods slowly. He Understands. This is the bond that he and Claude share-- a bond which manifests in their peerless teamwork.
"We can all duel each other," Zed agrees, sealing the deal between himself and Claude and Amaterasu. There is no avoiding this now. Gilgamesh has three swords, and there are three swordmasters here. Ergo, each of them should endeavor to take one. "Dibs on the sweet samurai one though, that's absolutely my style."
But then... Then...! Gilgamesh gets serious.
As if he wasn't already serious when he decided to come to a fight with four arms and three swords. It takes some doing to get more serious than that. Zed can respect it. But when he crosses all three of those blades over one another, forming a singular, indefatigable symbol of strength in the process-- a X-Blade, if you would-- the pressure of it all suddenly becomes overwhelming. Zed's eyes widen, he knows the storm is approaching and sees it for what it is. "Claude, everyone, on your guard. He's doing... Somethi--"
The swords blaze. This technique... He knows it. He's used a variant of it for some time. But rather than combining two powers into one, Gilgamesh has mastered a version which fuses THREE into one. Tremendous...!
"Magnificent...!" Zed's voice is hollow with awe. He lifts Doombringer forward, the ancient blade screaming as it divides the storm of azure light. "But... But...!" He steps forward. Again. AGAIN! He darts INTO the hellstorm of heavenly radiance, and emerges from the other side...
...In his hands...
...Is the Masamune.
...And in Gilgamesh's...!
DOOMBRINGER EQUIPPED
LUCK WAY, WAY, WAY, WAY DOWN!!
Disrupting the combination of energy with one wholly unfamiliar... THAT'S how he beats it. Zed smirks, body smoldering. He whirls the foreign blade overhead and brings it into a ready stance, "I know... That attack's weakness!! Now! Doombringer, hear my call!"
"AWAKEN!"
SOMEHOW -- THE CURSE GROWS EVEN STRONGER!?!?
"Nahahahaha! Doombringer and I have an understanding!" Zed cackles as he races in. "It's just like that young man and his monsters! We are partners, it and I! And of course... Our coordination can continue, even while we're apart! My swordplay with your blade may be clumsy... But how shall you fare with MY blade!?"
GS: Gilgamesh marginally guards Rena Lanford's Star... for 147 hit points! GS: FP up! Reaction bonus! GS: Gilgamesh enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Sneak! The true nature of Chase's attack becomes clear! GS: Gilgamesh mostly guards Chase's Chase and his Pokemon are breathing in perfect sync! for 119 hit points! GS: Infect! Debuff durations extended!! GS: Blind blocked! GS: Quick applied to Chase! GS: FP up! Power Burst! GS: CRITICAL! Gilgamesh mostly guards Rena Lanford's ...FLARE for 160 hit points! GS: Gilgamesh has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight! GS: Zed has attacked Gilgamesh with Unsealed Blade - Demon Breaker! GS: Zed has gained 1 Combo! GS: Zed has completed his action. GS: Gilgamesh critically fails to guard Zed's Unsealed Blade - Demon Breaker for 252 hit points! GS: FP up! Power Burst! GS: Zed drains Gilgamesh! Zed gains 98 temporary hit points! GS: Gilgamesh has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Margaret has posed.
Margaret is twice blessed. Thrice, really.
Once by Cavall's enchantments. A rune draws power from the Earth (though it may be a little bit far away given that they are on a bridge...) and pours it into the somewhat battered Margaret.
Once by the enchantments of Rena Lanford; Symbological energy pours over Margaret, easing bruises and the consternation that Gilgamesh's own arts have revealed.
And the third time?
It's simple. The secret is that the greatest blessing Margaret can have...
Is <s>being beautiful</s> all of the friends who have come into her heart over these strange few years.
Anyway, a thunderous whirlwind throws her invigorated carcass back against the stout railings of the great bridge; she actually topples for a moment, rolling over the side, which should be pretty decisive except that the treasure of her dear old friend ALSO lets her access a forbidden technique - AIR DASHING - and lands ina crouch.
Margaret gives Nidoran an approving nod and a passing wink. She does not really think about that, it just *happens*. This is what happens when your combat style prominently includes "method acting."
"Ah, you did the old swordie-swappie," Margaret comments to Zed, parenthetically. "Well done. I'd clap, but, well," a sudden rise in that nebular aura and Margaret suddenly becomes a purple blur aiming to shove her sword into Gilgamesh and then hasten past him to the other side of the bridge--
"Hands full," Margaret calls to Zed.
DC: Margaret switches forms to I Am The Starlight!
GS: Margaret spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Margaret has attacked Gilgamesh with Coiling Impale! GS: Margaret has gained 2 Combo! GS: Margaret has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Claude nods firmly to Zed. Their bond--it is this way. "That's just right."
Fight both of them??? ...Well, he's decided it now! "You're on!" Claude calls to Amaterasu. Maybe he's a little too pumped up. It's a good chance to test his skills, though...
That kind of infernal contraption. Claude is briefly satisfied before he has to throw his shielding arm up to guard against the shockwave, infusing his body with his own life energy as he does. He's weakened--he's HIT--
And he is forced back, dragging a trail in the stone as he does, still standing at the end. Claude lowers his arm, holsters his gun, and looks up, resolute.
"That..."
Huff. "...If not for Cavall's magic that might've been it," he admits. "...But it wasn't. So if you want gum for the works..."
Gilgamesh's ultimate technique is powerful. THe god-slaying blow, storm splitter... Claude shields his eyes against a power that could rend the very earth. And of course Rena survives it. Claude has faith in Rena. Of course Zed survives it. He's too hot-blooded to die. And Leo...
Well, Claude thinks Leo is pretty stubborn. That'll do.
And--And suddenly all Claude's cool just evaporates because, "RENA!" Claude exclaims. "That's--"
"I am NOT having this conversation right now," Claude concludes, and his longsword is in his hand again. "Instead, we're going to FIGHT!"
Star Flare happens. It's incredible. But so too happens--
Claude leaps into the air, and extends his arm and sword, "DRAGON ROAR!"
THe draconic entity that Zed mentioned manifests, a cloud of ki shaped with great wings all in blue.
Claude falls in with a slash a moment later, on the opposite side before he's finished--
GS: Claude C. Kenny used Force Action: Mystic on himself! GS: Weaken removed! GS: Hyper added to Claude C. Kenny! GS: Claude C. Kenny has activated Force Action: Boost! GS: Claude C. Kenny spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: Claude C. Kenny has attacked Gilgamesh with Dragon Roar! GS: Claude C. Kenny has gained 2 Combo! GS: Claude C. Kenny gains 10 FP from his Daredevil! GS: Claude C. Kenny has completed his action. GS: Gilgamesh critically fails to guard Margaret's Coiling Impale for 192 hit points! GS: Cripple and Poison applied to Gilgamesh! GS: Mighty and Quick applied to Margaret! GS: FP up! Power Burst! GS: Gilgamesh has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight! GS: CRITICAL! Gilgamesh mostly guards Claude C. Kenny's Dragon Roar for 172 hit points! GS: Hyper and Shield applied to Claude C. Kenny! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Reaction bonus! GS: Gilgamesh has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
"I'm really more of a chemist..." Jacqueline explains. She's not sure why that particular job title came to mind, but it felt right in the moment. Gilgamesh receives quite the shock, and then - it's morphing time!
"Such power...!" Jacqueline gasps. "Even after all that, you still had more to you..."
Transforming in the middle of battle in the face of powerful foes...
...She has to admit she does secretly find that kind of cool.
Not that she gets much time to dwell on that, as Masamune sends a burst of energy her way! Jacqueline braces herself, wrapping her cloak around herself and staggering back as it impacts her.
But what he says... Jacqueline shakes her head, aghast.
"That's... well, I respect a little leniency, but still! There's no shame in using items - people should be free to use them whenever they like, and how many they like. And they certainly shouldn't count against your grade!" Jacqueline replies. "...Here! Have a sample!"
She draws out another bottle - and this one she shakes until its bubbling violently before hurling it at Gilgamesh's feet, where it erupts into a cloud of strength-sapping smoke...!
GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Gilgamesh with Diminishing Draught! GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jacqueline Barber gains 5 FP from Gleam! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action. GS: Gilgamesh mostly guards Jacqueline Barber's Diminishing Draught for 92 hit points! GS: Weaken applied to Gilgamesh! GS: Delay blocked! GS: FP up! Power Burst! GS: Gilgamesh has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
Leo sinks back into a defensive stance, his blade held in half-sword style. His gaze darts sideways at Timu. His eyes widen. He wasn't expecting her to join the fray herself. He looks back to Gilgamesh, and his lips tighten. "Holding a bridge ransom to draw out fellow warriors--low, but not unforgivable. Unleashing the demon fowl of the Blue Star upon us, however..." His left eye tics. Amaterasu makes her move, and for a moment--the second, thanks to Claude's Phase Gun, earlier--Leo is forced to look away.
"Fine then," Leo growls. "Show me your worst!"
Gilgamesh shows Leo his worst.
Three blades descend as one. The sound of screaming steel echoes out over the bridge. Leo is a silhouette in that pillar of light, holding his sword with both hands--one on the hilt, the other clutching the flat. His whole body strains as light pours down on him. Sparks fly from the clash of sword on sword. Leo grits his teeth, and fights through the pain of fighting against such raw force. His arms feel like they're about to pop out of their sockets.
It is extremely metal.
But then, a wash of familiar dark power. Leo glances at Gilgamesh's blades. He glances sidelong at Zed. What did he do? But the light fades, and Leo is still on his feet. He glances about, taking in the state of the other combatants. They're giving at least as good as they've gotten. The White Knight sucks in a breath, and grips his sword's hilt with both hands. "A cataclysmic attack," he says. "Worthy of my strongest, then. The ultimate technique of my master." A bittersweet note there.
Leo shifts his stance forward. "LION'S--!" Bright gold billows out around him, forming a brilliant battle-aura. It surges down his arms, and down his blade as he rushes forwards. "HOWL!" It erupts from him, taking the shape of a great lion's head, fangs bared.
GS: White Knight Leo has activated Force Action: Fury Shot! GS: White Knight Leo spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! White Knight Leo has attacked Gilgamesh with Lion's Howl! GS: White Knight Leo has gained 1 Combo! GS: White Knight Leo gains 5 FP from Gleam! GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Gilgamesh mostly guards White Knight Leo's Lion's Howl for 247 hit points! GS: Misery adds Delay! GS: Delay applied to Gilgamesh! GS: FP up! Power Burst and Reaction bonus! GS: Gilgamesh has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.
And then, just like that... Gilgamesh has transformed.
"To think... you were still holding back," Amaterasu utters. "A fine foe you are, indeed! But how much longer can you keep this up, and against so many? That is the answer I seek!"
But of course, Gilgamesh is a swordsman and a tactician.
"Astonishing," Amaterasu utters, bringing her Valkyrja about as she prepares herself. "To master the blade and the way of the battlefield both... I would expect little else of the keeper of the bridge!"
From anyone else, such a statement would seem like mockery. But the way she moves, cautious of the next attack he might make yet eager for it and the way she speaks of her foe... it could be nothing further than the truth.
Into this moment, Zed intrudes and Zed... achieves victory. Which is to say, he steals one of Gilgamesh's blades.
"Ah, then we have a winner," Amaterasu declares, her six-fold gaze turning upon Zed in this instant. "Well then, human swordsman!" ...does she not know Claude's name? "It would seem we are destined to be allies! But first, we must finish what we have started here..."
And her head turns to Gilgamesh even as he unsheathes that katana and unleashes that rending shockwave across this battlefield. Slamming the butt of her ARM against the stone, Amaterasu stands fast though the force of the blow seeks to unseat her from this place.
"Mightily struck, Gilgamesh of the Bridge. But I have not yet given my all! Prepare yourself!"
Her hand moves over something -- some part of the component that projects Valkyrja's hard-light blade and readjusts it. Her hand slides down the pole of her ARM, finding a well-balanced point along its length where she can hold it firm, and the reason for this soon becomes apparent as Valkyrja's 'blade' doubles, triples, quadruples in length. "--For judgement is at hand!" Both arms wheel the weapon about and swing it forward.
And here comes Amaterasu's very own blade of light, brought crashing down upon Gilgamesh.
GS: Amaterasu spends 2 Combo on Headshot! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Blitz! Amaterasu has attacked Gilgamesh with Res Judicata! GS: Amaterasu has gained 1 Combo! GS: Amaterasu gains 5 FP from Gleam! GS: Mighty expired! GS: Amaterasu has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Gilgamesh mostly guards Amaterasu's Res Judicata for 205 hit points! GS: Blind applied to Gilgamesh! GS: Hyper applied to Amaterasu! GS: Gilgamesh has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Cavall has posed.
Cavall provides their blessing (or, one might suggest, they provide their blessing), and then Rena provides a blessing of her own. Cavall accepts the offer of magic, feeling it course through their body as it invigorates them further. "Your magic is masterful. Thank you." Jay and Leo both have thanks for the healing, and Cavall nods at each in turn. "You are most welcome."
But the battle continues quickly enough--Gilgamesh morphs, and a whirlwind formed from the slashing of blades comes for them. Cavall is, when they want to be, appropriately heavy, like the earth--but they are also of the mountain, and winds stir around them as they attempt to use swiftness to evade Gilgamesh's own winds. Cavall is too slow though, and they are sent flying back as they are caught in the attack, but this time they do manage to touch a paw to the ground, leaving long gouges in the earth as they right themselves and settle down on all fours.
"If thou would deal in changes and transformations, then mayhaps I shall show a transformation of my own." Cavall shakes their head, and where there was formerly only an iron chain wrapped around their neck (the very observant might note that though it loops twice, it is, seemingly, all one chain--who would forge a chain like that, in a loop?) suddenly there are several loops of chain... and an anchor, the tine hooked over their neck in a way that would absolutely crush any normal wolf but that Cavall bears comfortably. (Oh that might explain it. Maybe.)
"I am the Seraph Cavall, born of the Goddess' Blessing, charged with shepherding this star, and you will not prevail. Not in this bridge or in any other part of our world!" And with that they grip the shaft of anchor in their teeth, wrenching it off of their neck and into the ground with a heavy thud, along with several loops of the chain. They bite the end of the chain and begin to swing it around in great big sweeping circles over their head. Faster and faster it goes, with a low pitched whoosh... woosh... woosh... on each pass.
Suddenly they leap up, and the horizontally spinning anchor turns vertical, as they pitch into a rapid somersault. At the apex of their leap they let the anchor fly--not at Gilgamesh but back towards the land. The anchor sinks into the earth, and still in midair Cavall wrests it back and upwards.
A great massive chunk of the earth is torn free, and as Cavall continues to pull in midair it lifts up, up, up, until the anchor, chain, and earth are all vertically above the wolf... and then as Cavall continues to exert their might it comes smashing down towards Gilgamesh.
Don't worry, the bridge will be fine.
GS: Seraph Cavall spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Seraph Cavall has attacked Gilgamesh with Continental Shift! GS: Seraph Cavall has gained 1 Combo! GS: Seraph Cavall gains 30 THP from their Cautious! GS: Seraph Cavall gains 5 FP from Gleam! GS: Seraph Cavall has completed their action. GS: Gilgamesh mostly guards Seraph Cavall's Continental Shift for 115 hit points! GS: Gilgamesh has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Gilgamesh has posed.
"Wha--"
Gilgamesh looks at Hooligre, eyes blinking as he swings his hand down in a chopping motion -- and the blow slams into the swordsman, knocking him backward. He hits the ground, rolling a couple of times.
And he's a little slower to push himself back up to his feet. He looks down at chase, then at the ob. "What is--"
Staryu flies, like a chakram, and slams into him. His helmet gets another dent from the impact. "Agh!"
And then solar flame descends upon him. Gilgamesh is blasted by it, hurtled back again, and all four arms flail. His grip is weakened -- and Zed comes in. He hops back, the glow of blue light reflecting. "Ha! You barely scratched me!"
Then, he spies Margaret coming. He swings out what he thinks is Masamune--
--and it's Doombringer.
"WHAT IN THE--"
And that does not stop the storm of violet energy that comes with Margaret. It blows Gilgamesh backward, and Doombringer falls to the ground, clattering. "G-Gah!"
Which is when a blast of blue light, shaped like a dragon slams into him. Gilgamesh stumbles away from Claude, blown back, and his eyes are wide. "Such ferocity!"
Then, another botle conks into his head, and explodes with smoke all around him. "GAH!" he cries. "Again! I-I concede that... perhaps reducing grade is--" Then Gilgamesh starts hacking and coughing, trying to stumble out of the cloud of smoke.
"Your master?" Gilgamesh asks with a rasp, looking at Leo. "What--AAGH!"
The Lion's Howl explodes outward, bright golden light erupting -- and smashing the armored swordsman back into the cloud that Jay made.
And then out the other side.
"Guh...!" Then, he looks at Cavall. "Goddess? I don't know about any--GWAH!"
The chain tears earth free, and it slams down, smashing him to the earth; torn chunks of chain, stone, and debris batter him. Gilgamesh groans; he takes a moment to rise.
But he does. "Not bad!"
Gilgamesh dusts himself off. "Now, then! I have only began to fight!" he declares. "You saw my true form! Now... prepare to see my TRUER form! I--oh, balls."
That would be when he sees the enormous blade of light from Valkyrja, coming down for him. It catches his midsection.
His eyes bulge.
And then he goes flying off the bridge. He shoots high into the air, crying out: "TACTICAAAAAAAL RETREEEEeaaat...!"
And there is a distant 'ping.'
And he is gone.
Doombringer rattles, where he dropped it. But Zed notices something about the blade in his hands: the blue metallic paint, sprayed onto it, has chipped here and there. This reveals the rusty iron underneath. And on that iron, there are kanji.
Declaring this blade to be a legendary katana. Or, perhaps not. The emblem of a chef's hat with the kanji is suspicious.
No one, after all, has heard of the Masamenu.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
"Hyahaha--!" That obnoxious, youthful laughter. It can only be...!
"I'm in time...! I'm in time...! Surely I won't miss this--"
A tall, lanky silhouette of a horned squirrel-like Hyadean appears on the other end of the bridge, looking winded like he had to run the entire way (somehow). He stops to notice that there is a distinct lack of a multi-armed bridge-hogging menace. His solid glowing yellow eyes dim, and the most his grin descends to is into a smile.
"...I can't believe I missed it by that much..." Ratatoskr's segmented plated tail descends into a pile on the ground to drag.
Maybe he'll catch him in the next game.
<Pose Tracker> Chase has posed.
Chase and his Pokemon look to the sky as Gilgamesh tactically retreats off into it. They all blink in unison, except for Staryu, who has to blink its core light on and off instead. Only once it quiets does Chase kneel down by Staryu, who shakes itself back and forth and raises up the rays that best parallel arms. "HIYAAAA!" Pikachu mimics the gesture with equal boisterousness. "PIKAAAA!" Nidoran squeaks. Even Ponyta is willing to come out of his ball to snort. Friendly, for Ponyta.
Staryu regards them all with a bounce and ray raises each, stopping to look (how DOES it look...) at Chase's offered phone. There's photographs of the shores of Cerulean City... the place where Chase had found the core. Staryu's light glimmers and then it straightens to look up at Chase, shaking back and forth rapidly in a solidly communicated no and nods toward Chase's belt.
Chase gets an empty Poke Ball and holds it out. With a simple bow of its top ray, Staryu becomes light and rests in its new home with a soft, decisive ping. Chase holds the ball to his chest, then looks up over the remnants of the battle. Such displays of sorcery and combat...
He checks on Timu first to make sure she and her Pokemon are all right, with berries to help. Not that they'll be particularly clutch with Rena and Timu herself present. (And wasn't there another mysterious force?) Pikachu is already gone, pawing up at the Masamenu futilely.
Tentatively, Chase offers Ratatoskr a large, yellow Sitrus Berry.
... But you can't fight a Sitrus Berry.
<Pose Tracker> Timu Guado has posed.
Timu is quietly decompressing from all of the melodrama and incredible power on display. She gives a nod to Chase as he passes by, while Hooligre snorts and Fuecoco gives a little wave. The three of them are, more or less, all right between one another.
"...We might never know why it's called that," Timu looks over her shoulder to the faint image of the planet named Gilgamesh, and maybe... that is for the best.
<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
Ratatoskr stops mid-leave to see Chase hand him a Sitrus Berry, at which point the Hyadean turns around and stares down at the Nedian boy with growing intensity.
"Oh... is that how you challenge? Is that how you challenge!" He starts, rankles starting to raise with equal parts irritation and excitement. "...I was wondering what the deal was over in that place..."
The best he has is a shriveled Heal Berry.
"...I'll find one just like that... and then you're on...!" He says to Chase, heading off with only slightly more of a spring in his step.
He has no interest or need in a Masamenu.