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"Miss Blue, Miss Blue why aren't you doing anything?! My fleet out there is getting destroy!?"
Regeant Cid said hopping up and down on Blues chest, causing her to open her eyes slowly to see the small oglop form hopping angrily infront of her eyes and she sighs grabbing the poor man as she stands up.
"You honestly want to know why I'm not interfering?"
She asks the regeant as she starts to walk outside and to the front of the airship where she places him on the railing and points out to the midgar fleet before she rests her head on her palms.
"You see that fleet belonging to the fool Shinra?"
The Regent nods showing he could see them, Blue the holds her palm out and points it towards the giant creature using a quick fire spell towards the beast. She looks at the regent in the corner of her eye for a moment as she speaks in an bored tone.
"Watch that fire spell"
She clicks her fingers quickly and the fire spell just explodes in mid flight with a medium sized explosion as she ignited the mana within the spell itself startling the regent as it explodes violently.
"I did that and frankly most of my abilities involve the destruction of Mana the stuff that powers magic itself. That is all I can really do now whether Shin-Ra admits it or not Mako is actually Mana in the simplest terms and I can also do extactly the same thing to Mako becuase of what it is. Now this means is that I could take out Shin-Ra's fleet right here and right now simply by using the skills I have that would affect this beast."
The regent looked at Blue in horror as she turns around and leans back on the railings looking up at the clear blue sky, she wasn't worried about the outcome of this battle really she trusted in Belzera's power.
"Now If I did that Midgar, Shin-Ra whoever could see it as me breaking our recent agreement, even though I was attempting to take out the biggest threat while helping you out, that would mean a war would be started by me which is not I want to happen at all."
Blue smirks softly and then corrects herself.
"Actually its not that I don't want a war, its that I want to stabilise Galbadia before I do anything else, in order to stabilise Galbadia I need its trust and how -"
Regent cid nods and cuts in finishing her sentence.
"Can you gain their trust if you break your own agreements, thats... I'll admit a smart thing I didn't think you think of"
Blue looks at the regent and grins before chuckling and picking him up again, holding up infront of her face.
"Doesn't suit me does it, but yeah you got it straight on, I'm not suited for politics really I'm too straight forward. If only this had happened before I made that deal, life would be so much simplier but anyway while I may not be able to do much against this beast regent, Belzera is out there fighting my share and I'll make sure at least you and me survive this event even if everyone else dies."
Blue says honestly as she stands up straight and heads back into the inside of the airship and tosses Regent Cid onto his throne and she falls back onto the floor relaxing once more waiting for the demon and the others to finish up this monster so that she could have some fun, figuring that once the beast retreats again it would leave some more creatures that she could let loose upon.
Blue count: 633 Total count: 1110 Solomon Total: 29483 Blue loses 100 Exp for summoning Belzera to battle.
And once again, there was a gigantic beastie in need of extermination. With a full retinue of airships that were, for whatever reason, in the area at the time, it seemed as though the great monster was on the ropes, especially with such a mixed bag of heroes and warriors clamoring upon it from every angle, like flies upon a dying carcass...
Kefka languished in the sight, enjoyed all the brilliant flashes of light and explosions and death from above as one or two airships at a time crashed into the mountainous ground. He gave little cackles of glee at the notion of human death upon a single one of those craft. The casualty rate alone would have been... quite high.The mad mage was reclining in a tree some distance away from the battle, his multicolor scarves and cape slung back behind a branch to flutter listlessly in the ozone-stenched breeze, a relaxed smile upon his harlequin features, and his icy blue eyes were barely kept propped open. This would have been considered odd by any who knew the mage, as he usually reveled in such senseless violence as what was presented today, and quite normally he was. But the previous night's activities had tuckered him out a bit, and so he decided to take a short breather and relax before he took his moment of jumping into the fray and bringing his own dash of death and destruction upon the great, ugly brute.
Suddenly, Kefka noticed another flash of light, but this was much closer to him, right beside the tree he was in, actually, and some shouting from a distinctively feminine but obviously quite powerful voice. His plumed head stuck out from the foliage of the tree he was sitting in for a moment to observe who it was that was attacking the beast from such a long distance away as this. Below him and a few yards away was a woman, a black mage by her choice of dress and weapon, which was a large staff that radiated a very powerful aura. She was scantily clothed, revealing more of her flesh than anything else, and was loosely covered with gauze scarves and armor which were bedecked with glowing blue stones. Her sandy blonde hair waved backward with each spell she cast, and her eyes were focused, determined, and Kefka was pleased to note, brimming with hatred. She threw out a powerful Comet spell that impacted the creature from far away, but seemed to do as much damage as tickling him. Her anger seemed to peak at this (and Kefka was quietly laughing to himself with glee at this particular observation), and she tried another tactic: calling upon magical servants seemingly from the very air itself, much like Exdeath and his undead minions. The mage vaguely wondered where that shambling armored hulk was at the moment. He was missing all the fun...
Anyway, as the black witch finished her marching orders to her metabeings and they charged off to square with the hulking goliath, Kefka decided to make his presence known to the lass. Hitching up his plethora of scarves so they wouldn't catch on any pesky tree branches, he floated down to the ground and inacted the runic abilities in his robes so that he hovered ever so slightly off the ground. The mage loved this feeling, as it seemed to signify his superiority over all other things. People that he didn't like, he could now look down upon, before hurling a Fira spell right in between their eyes! But the mage's icy blue eyes regarded the girl, and floated over to her side before saying, "My, my, what have we here? Quite an adept in the destructive magical arts, methinks! Uwehehehe!"
Kefka languished a single ruby claw-like nail from his white hand s he loosely gestured towards the creature that towered over everything in its path. "You use your hatred in battle well, my dear, using it to amplify your powers to their fullest potential. I am intrigued by such knowledge, for it seems to be an epiphany that the vast majority of this stupid world's populace doesn't understand adequately enou- GYAH!!!" Kefka's demeanor turned from conversational to bloodthirsty in a fraction of a second, as he pointed his nail at a nearby tree threw a Firaga spell upon it, literally obliterating it into ashes. The Court Mage huffed and puffed for a moment, gathering his breath at the small expenditure of Mana in so swift a time, and growled from in between his painted lips, "...Damn tree... was... annoying me...!"His eyes then shifted back immediately to relaxed as he continued where he left off. "Now, as I was saying, you seem to understand the true releas of power which hatred can provide. You show potential, and such potential could be cultivated to become something more... something beautiful and terrifying all at once!"
Kefka smiled a yellowed grin at her winsomely and replied, "I can provide such a power to you. I have quite a bit of knowledge of the arcane arts myself. I could give you a jump start to your strength. Now, why should I bother with this? I am currently wrapped up in a quest of... rather imperative importance, and I find myself facing a rather formidable array of challenges. Can always use another player on the team with a lust for violence and destruction..." Right then, the creature roared and cut off what the Court Mage was going to say next, and so he became livid with fury, threw out his hands, and unleashed his Ecliptus spell upon the monstrosity. A plethora of dark orbs materialized, zoomed in and crashed off the hide of the creature in a massive, rippling explosion. Now, the orbs could have hit some of the others who were fighting on the beasty, but then... Kefka didn't really care.
He yelled back at it, "HEY! I'M TRYING TO HAVE A CONVERSATION HERE! DON'T INTERRUPT ME!" The ad mage then turned back to the black mage and bowed elegantly, a smile back on his face. "I suppose introductions are in order, before any talk of recruiting, I suppose. Kefka is my name. And who may you be?"
Word Count: 1078 Boss Total: 30561
Last Edit: Feb 14, 2010 14:22:24 GMT by kefkapalazzo
Arcades walked up into the room where Sorceress Blue and Regent Cid had been. He felt a little nervous and worried about being near the Sorceress let alone royaty of two strong countries, but it did not matter, he felt that Blue would not harm him as long as he didn't harm her and Regent Cid liked him just fine, accepting his help to try taking down the monster with the help of his powers.
He saw them walk out onto the deck as she shot out a Fire spell and then destroyed the mana inside of it causing a decent sized explosion. The Regent, looked startled as she explained why she couldn't act. She then walked back in and threw the Regent to his throne and relaxes upon the floor carefree. Arcades said nothing but then walked up to the Regent.
"Oh, Arcades! I see you are prepared for battle?"
His voice was small and the large mustache upon his face made Arcades want to laugh, but he did not. Arcades nodded to the Oglop but respectful Regent, and gave a slight bow.
"I'am ready, to take on the beast your majesty."
"Well, then you have my blessings, good luck."
The Regent sounded somewhat happy. There were few people that Arcades told his origins to. Regent Cid was one of them, as was the Sorceress Blue, and a few others he had met. but otherwise he kept what he was a secret. The only person who he wished didn't know what he was, was the Gestahlian Empire, which was possible searching for him they spoke. regardless of a huge monstrocity attacking the Cetra continent was petty to them. All they wanted was power, and Arcades had the power they wanted.
He gave a bow to Empress Blue as well, acknowledging and giving his respect to her as well. He then turned and went to the observation deck and leapt up on top of the railings. He then played a grin upon his face as he turned to them, and gave them a salute as he flipped off the railing and fell through the sky.
He did several aerial flips, and then started free falling while facing the beast at hand. The beast was huge and stood at the very crater of the continent. it was the Northen Crater, said to be an area filled with mako, the planets living blood. It only made sense that the same monster that attack Lindblum, his last residence, would grow so much while in this area. Mako was said to have enhancing effects, hence why SOLDIER was such a force to be reckoned with. However, he did not like ShinRa that much. He found it frivolous that they would use the Planet's mako to fuel and energize eveything they had, when Gaia offered so many other resources they could use. But he did not hate them, they were getting by just like any other country or continent.
And at least they weren't using him to power up their refridgerator.
Arcade swiftly shot out one of his hands.
"Comet."
Soon hundreds of rocks flew down from the sky right down on the Solomon's Key knocking off pieces of its flesh and some of them burying their way into its skin. It was truly a gruesome move to be sure. He then cast it again, and more flying rocks rained down from the sky right onto it causing what looked to be an alot of damage. But even to the monster stamina, it was barely scratching the surface. He then flipped around looking down at the ground. The ground was close right now. Normally one would be freaking out by now because he did not have a parachute of any kind nor anything to catch him. He smirked, as the ground drew closer and he begun to gracefully do flips again.
Right as he was bout to hit he used an ability he coud use but rarely did. He levitated a couple of feet off the ground and then landed. He grinned a pearly white grin and ruffle his spikey hair. Most Espers had the ability to move through the air as freely as they wanted to. Being half-Esper he had this ability, but to a much lesser degree. In his Esperform, he could glide freely through the air. In his human form he could only barely levitate off surfaces, and ony for a short duration. Enough to keep him from impacting the ground. He then drew both of his sabers and then begun to run towards the monster, passing a weird clown guy and a scandalously clothed mage. They both had strong presences, but he ignored them continuing towards the beast at hand only meeting eyes with the clown man for a couple of seconds before passing them completely.
He then leaped up in the air, his sabers dissapearing for a couple of seconds.
"Comet."
More stones rained down from the air right above the beast again pummling it with enhanced magical space rocks summoned to rain down in a large amount on the foe. Arcades grinned with glee as he saw everyone hit.However he was slightly worried that they might hit another warrior fighting the beast. He was pretty much sure his accuracy was pretty good. Being hit was unlikely, unless they just walked right in its path. Which would be stupid to be sure.
As he neared it, its size was absolutely titanic. It was humongous, and the damage caused was slightly minimal to it.
Damn this thing, I can already tell is going to be a bastard to beat.
He quickly leaped up leaping on top of what seemed to be a weird growth on the side of the beast. The growth was alive and seemed to act like a dangerous snake and defense for the creature. It shook Arcades off and stared at him with venomous bright yellow eyes, and struck out at him.
"Blizzard."
Ice shot out of Arcades's hands shooting right at the beast's head, right into its mouth before shattering into an icy blast of shards which shot out of it's skin and through its brains. The creature fell quickly.
"Hahaha well that takes care of that does it not?"
He then swiftly aerially dashed over to one of the beast's arms. He then drew his sabers and then spun them through the air and stabbed them both into its hardened skin. Flames randomly jolted out of the black saber, Demonic Chaos, and light surged and blasted from the other saber, Soul of Harmony. While they caused minor damage it would still be enough to hurt it at least a little.
T he world had gone silent. As Miumi lay there harmlessly upon the ice for a while, his vision was blurred when those ghostly eyes finally cracked open, he was unaware of anything until a voice was speaking wihtin his mind. It was Ayamu, "come on wake up Miumi." as that occured his eyes cracked just a bit farther he noticed someone was hovering near him, a man that he had never seen before while Valefor seemed in pain. Miumi watched as the beast untangled itself from the mess that it was within it felt the pain that the aeon did. While suddenly he felt something it was cold and wet, it melted on contact with their skin. It was powdery white until it contacted with Miumi, the aeon and Ayamu, it began to glow a gentle blue, it felt sweet. The energy was coming back as slowly Miumi began to rise from his pathetic feeble state. The man wanted a ride, Suddenly Miumi's hand clutched his clothing just gently heaving him onto the aeon, which cawed with new renewed vigor and then Miumi took off from the ground with a flap of wings and roaring scream from the aeon. As Miumi's one hand slid backwards grabbing Valedus and bringing their arms to coil around Miumi's waist to gurantee they didn't fall off as suddenly a tentacle was coming down upon them. A silent prayer to the aeon and Ayamu as suddenly a sonic boom flew into the ice shattering it sending a wall of water and ice into the way of the tentacle.
The world around them had faded ever so slightly for the time being though. As they flared from the ground soaring rapidly into the sky as they did so the snow's effect was becoming more obvious, as their power flared for a moment suddenly Miumi's one hand shot up into the air within it htere was power, it was dark and radiating with full intent to destroy. There was a searing heat as slowly the fire began to burn it started out a dull red, but soon was blaznig blue. Miumi brought the hand closer to his face condensing the magical power, as he did so he smirked and divided the power into small explosive petals of magic. As he opened his hands there was a variety of small lengths of the flame, bringing his hand to his lips he blew and suddenly they would see a spiral of petals which glowed red hot and as they came in contact with the creature they exploded softly. Leaving large ash marks. Ironically this was just the beginning of the attack as he focused closing his eyes searching within the aeon for that power he had used before it was so close but just out of reach. As Miumi raised his hands he would have to do this part alone as suddenly arcs of electrical energy illuminated the area around the boy. And then it all began.
The storm of judgement, bolts of lightning flew from the sky slamming down upon the beast with the force of upper-tiered spells as he watched as other attacks bombarded the beast but his seemed to be doing quite the opposite it was healing itself, as he watched as small cuts and gouges in it's shell seemed to disappear. Was it him or was it the beast he wondered as he looked at the man. Soon the snow's effect was fading as Miumi's eyes felt heavy he leaned forward resting gently on the head the aeon's eyes slid upwards to look at him. The concern was evident yet Miumi just smiled.
"Ehh... Hello?" Vale stammered when the summoner didn't respond. Small, white, powder-like things began to fall from the sky as he spoke, covering him. At first, the Lucavi thought it was snow, but snow was usually cold to the touch instead of warm. And whatever the stuff was it was invigorating him, and Vale was pretty sure that snow didn't do that. As he was contemplating this, the Summoner Lucavi's hands shot out and wrapped Vale's arms around his waist, hoisting him onto the Aeon. Vale managed to shout out a small "WHOA!" as they took off into the sky. He was about to ask the Summoner what the hell his problem was when a gigantic tentacle smashed into the place where they were just sitting. Instead of yelling at the kid, Vale silently thanked him and made a mental note to make friends with more Summoners.
Suddenly, the kid's demeanor changed and his eyes were filled with bloodlust. Vale could only watch in awe as he felt the magical energies surround the kid, condensing and growing in strength every second until the kid's hand exploded into blue flames. The magic condensed yet again until it looked like a flower on his hands, which he blew at the gigantic monster. As the petals hit the thing they exploded, leaving large marks. Vale muttered "Impressive..." when gigantic lightning bolts also struck the monster. Vale was so impressed he actually let go for a moment to applaud the kid.
That is until the monster's wounds started healing.
Baffled, Vale looked back at the Summoner, who was now slumped over from exhaustion. He shook the kid, shouting worriedly. "Hey, are you all right?!" When he responded that he was simply tired, Vale smirked a little despire himself. This Summoner was younger (or appeared to be, Vale remembered that some Lucavi appeared to be younger than they actually were) than him and had been fighting longer. He let go of the kid, flapping his wings experimentally. Nodding to himself, Vale launched off the back of the Aeon, flying along-side the creature.
"Then rest. You've done your fair share, summoner." He grinned, turning to face the abomination. "I, however, haven't given my all just yet."
Blasting away from the Summoner Lucavi and his Aeon, Vale drew his flaming sword again and barreled towards the monstrosity in front of him. One of the tentacle things rushed at Vale, which he dodged promptly. Spinning mid-air, Vale waited for the thing to come back at him. Once it did, he waited for the last possible moment to dodge the thing, narrowly avoiding the snapping jaws. As he dodged the Lucavi thrust his flaming sword towards the open maw, catching the creature with his out-thrust blade. He began to fly along side of it, opening a gaping wound several feet in length. "Try swallowing someone now, bitch!" Not stopping at all, Vale pulled his blazing weapon from the monster and continued flying towards it's abdomen.
Once he landed on the thing's stomach, Vale thrust his sword into it and prepared to cast his spells into the back of the sword. However, before he could, a huge shadow crossed over him. Spinning on his heel, Vale saw one of the creatures gigantic hands swinging towards him. Without a moment's hesitation, Vale ripped his blazing sword out from where he had stabbed it and threw it as hard as he could at the oncoming hand to no effect. Frowning, the Lucavi held his right hand out in front of him, which had begun to grow a bright green. He snapped his fingers while mumbling incoherently under his breath, causing a massive Fire spell to blast the area before the hand. He snapped his fingers again, causing a large Blizzard spell to crash into the fist as well. Waving his hand at the monster, a gargantuan Thunder spell exploded onto the beast as well, stopping it's hand entirely.
Vale pushed off the monster's abdomen, flying towards the oncoming hand. His own hand began to glow red instead of green as he began to incant his Flare spell again. Sighting his sword, Vale made for the weapon and pulled it out of the monster. It was no longer on fire, but it still came out with a satisfying amount of ripping, squelching and tearing noises. Nodding, Vale ran along the hand until he reached the back side of the center of the palm. Upon reaching his destination, he sheathed his blade and jumped into the air, holding out his glowing red hand.
"Flare!"
The skin on the monster's hand began to bubble and blister.
"Flare!"
A small hole melted through the beast's hand as he slammed another spell into it.
"FLARE!"
At this, a house-sized hole melted through the thing's hand, the oozing flesh turning into a thick black ichor and falling through the sky like molten lead.
Breathing heavily, Vale flew back to the creature's abdomen and slumped down, as the airships were all too far away for him to reach at the moment. Wiping the sweat from his brow, Vale began to wonder why exactly he wasted three Flare spells blowing a hole through the monster's hand until coming to the conclusion that should anyone get grabbed by the thing they'd have an escape route. Glad that he did something for the good of others, Vale closed his eyes and leaned his head back.
"Hey, I'm stealing this."
Vale's eyes snapped open as a large raven-haired, golden-eyed man pulled Edelryn out of Vale's scabbard and ran off with it. Not having the energy to shout after the man in protest, Vale simply cursed his ill luck instead.
"If you want it back," the man shouted as he ran, "It'll be blasting out the other side of this fucker's head in about three minutes."
Not wanting to lose such a useful weapon, Vale cursed again and willed himself to his feet. He began counting the seconds in his head as he walked. Once he reached one hundred and twenty, he jumped into the air and flew up to the back of the thing's head, waiting for his sword to come "Blasting out of the other side of this fucker's head" as the man had so bluntly put it.
He scuffed at the scales on the things back and cursed his ill luck again, realizing there was very little chance of him actually getting his blade back.
Word Count: 1150 Thread Total: 2292
Boss Total: 32218/60000
Last Edit: Feb 15, 2010 22:12:21 GMT by kefkapalazzo
The Dark Guardian stepped up to the plate, in truth he wasn't here to help Lindblum or Midgar. He'd merely signed up to help for two reasons. Money. And the vague rumour that heretic summoner Miumi had also signed up to help. That person needed to die, he had already warned the demon about giving up the trip. However during the Blitzball event it began very clear to him that the foolish demon had no such ideas in mind. Which left only one road open for them. The road to the farplane. However he had been placed in a different airship. Which would cause issues.
But he knew the demon was here. Things had been boring in the other ship. The sailors and a few others had tried to talk to him, only for him to shrug them off. He wasn't interested in talking to them, only interested in his goal. However things never quite work out as they are planned as the dark gaurdian was to soon find out. For one. The fleet of Midgar was on the horizon.
And for two. Ever since he had been approaching this place a headache in the back of his mind had begun to throb. Like a constant ringing in his ears. They said that this place was full of what Shinra called mako energy. Which was of course just another word for a refined form of the life stream. The lifestream. A source of magic. And the souls of the dead. The life blood of the planet itself. As a cetra, he could hear the voice of the lifestream. But in such closequarters an untrained cetran like himself, who usually ignroed such a voice. Was merely met with incomprehnsable ringing. Which gave nothing more than a head ache.
He wasn't against Shinra harvesting mako, as strange as the concept sounded. But thats when something strange happened. He felt a change in the ringing. Only to look over the port side of the ship to see a huge creature emerging from the crater. Of course, thsi was the beast that Lindblum had been hunting so ferverously up till now. FOr awhile Shirna and Lindblum argued about who should be the one to claim the land. All up till the point where the beast destroyed part of both sides fleet. But again, Zero had no interest in this particular monster. His blade was destined for another beast. This one took more of a human form. But it could not hide its true nature from him.
He walked to the deck of his ship. And jumped off, moving from one ship in the fleet to the next, running across the roofs of the ships. The battles had begun, everyone bar the dark gaurdian seemed to be firing towards the monster that was their opponent. He felt a shift under his feet. An unnatural weight. Two waves of water crashing in, taking down the airship he was standing on as well. He grunted. It was an inconvience to him, he made another leap, and felt a weight on his leg dragging him down. He streched out his arm and managed to grab the side of the deck before looking down to see just what the weight was that had imposed his jump.
One of the airships crew holding on for dear life. Zero knew that he couldn't get up with the man weighing him down. The decision was made almost instantanously. He swiped down with his gauntlet claw. Cutting into the flesh of the mains wrist. Severing tendons. The hand went limp, and the crew member fell downards, to become another smear on the rocks. The Dark Gaurdian pulled himself up . He was one more airship away from the demon heritic when the Beast had launched another attack at him. A hand sweeping towards the airship. If it tocuhed then ZZero wouldn't have enough time to escape. He had no choice but to weigh up his options.
There would be another time to kill the demon summoner. For now he would have to devote his time to warding off this monster. He drew his blade, ran his hand across the edge and spoke. " Scatter....fallen dreams....". The blade was possessed by aa tainted wood elemental, he felt it write within the katana. He swooped the sword upwards, petals rushing forwards as if on a wind. rushing by the monsters hand. However as it did so, the cherry blossoms seemed to cut into the monsters hand, causing it to flinch and forego its attack.
There were a few familar faces fighting off this monster. For one the demon summoner. For two. The demon General he had fought with whilst working as a mercenary for Galbadia. And had fought against, whilst working as a mercenary for Midgar. Things however, seemed to be getting desprate. So he decided that it was time to launch a eep offensive using one of his latest techniques. The ability to speak to spirits had only really come in handy when he was able to force these elementals into his sword and give it devistating attacks. Recently he had uncovered a spirit of darkness. And had decided to try bonding that to his sword.
His attempts at controlling dark elemental fiends had failed before, but for some reason. Perhaps a greater resolve. This time it worked. He ran his hand along the blade, banishing the wood elemental, a sickeningly sweet aroma filling the air as it left. He ran it along the blade again, this time reverse. The dark elemental fiend rushed into the blade, a cackling filling Zero's mind as it did so. His blade grew black, And then disintigrated into nothingness. He crossed his arms.
" Despair for the future....Shadow of Death, Mortifer Umbra, attack one...Binding Resolution....".
With that, Chains began to form at the bottom of the beast. Rising upwards wrapping themselves around the creature. He made a sweeping motion with his hand. Two more chains appeared from what appeared to be the mountain side, peircing the hands of the monster and dragging its hands downwards. Leaving it bound and unable to move. Stricken down not just by the chains but the gravity magic within them.
He whispered under his breath. " Glory be unto yevon...second seal, magic destruction...". With that a large glowing mark of Yevon appeared on the monsters left hand. Leaving it unable to use any of its abilities.
He looked over at the rest of the groups. " Strike now whilst it cannot defend itself!". The Yevons seal would not last long, and he didn't know for how long his chains would keep the monster at bay...
Word Count: 1122 Total Word Count: 1122 Boss Total: 33340/60000
Ruien almost cursed aloud when he was forced to dodge several incoming attacks directed at the creature from others that were also fighting against it, a step back, narrowly avoiding a spell and the quick slash with the improvised blades of the VII Flame to kill another of those tentacle-like growths.
"Beh, damn it. I didn't think this through." He uttered to himself, he knew the risks of being on the front line but that risk was normally from the apparent enemy, not the people fighting against the same target. There was always the chance that they did not know he was there though he could not have possible seen how. He stood out against the creature, he was for a start walking on the creature with Black Fire enveloping his entire body, if that did not make him obvious then he had no idea what else would.
"Hmph." He felt the sudden increase in energy which only continued to slowly increase; the quick mental flash confirmed it was the same attack that Ruien had stopped in their last encounter with this thing. He began to make his move, plan the finest detail and it was prevented, he shook his head, well at least that meant he did not have to waste quite as much effort trying to reach a predetermined destination before he made a grand scale attack against this thing.
"Very well, let’s get started." He uttered to himself, beginning his preparations for another set of attacks he stopped dead in his tracks as he felt the creature stagger again, he looked down and cocked an eyebrow, he felt it stagger again, this time he was able to see the reason why, chains of darkness had wrapped around the creatures arms, he could only assume that the same chains were binding its ankles. He paused, he had seen these chains before, a technique that was both difficult to master and equally life threatening to the user as it was to his opponent.
"But where- agh!" A white light stole his vision and he lost concentration, the VII Flame enveloping his body fading rapidly as he began to fall from his position.
"While we wait, you feel up to a small sparring match?"
"Will you be the one to face me or does Heru-Soeki want another round."
"I think I'll take this one, it's been a while since I've fought someone powerful enough to truly test me." The fight began, and despite it being nothing more than a sparring match it was fierce, Ruiens own incredible healing abilities and Zero being dead already would allow them to make even the simplest fight potentially last forever, not that it mattered, Ruien enjoyed a good fight.
Ruien was almost shocked when those Chains of darkness emerged from the very darkness of this realm, their spiked ends piercing his body and dragging him into the air, Ruien was not defeated yet. He began increasing his own power, forcing it into the chains of darkness; he felt the two conflicted powers collide for only a second before his own took triumph and the chains shattered seconds later. Ruien smirked lightly as he stood up from the crouched position he had landed in and readied his blade to continue the fight.
Ruien came to his senses, still falling; he cocked an eyebrow at the short distance he had fallen.
"Either I was only out for a matter of seconds, or this is the tallest creature ever in the history of tallest creatures ever." He half joked to himself, he cast a glance back up to those chains still holding the creature in place and looked at the ships he could see from the position he was falling in, he shook his head seconds later, there was no possible way he was going to be able to tell which airship that had come from.
"So, Zero is here... Hmph."
"Ruien, you are still falling."
"Yes Atrum, I'm aware of that." Ruien flipped himself in the air so that he was at least falling as if he were stood up, but right now they had a major advantage, Ruien was going to make sure that the advantage he had was increased, even if it did mean making things a little bit harder for everyone else here.
"Atrum, I'm going to need you to inform everyone here not to touch the walls."
"What do you-"
"Just watch" And with that Ruien once more gripped his power, this time however, he gave it form on the very ground below moulding it into the shape of a large ring, with a small amount of effort he increased the power output to the highest he was able to control, seconds later large walls of Black Fire erupted from the ground and rapidly grew in size until they began to slant inwards and meet at the top. Ruien enveloped his body with the VII Flame once more and called out to the large dome he had just created, within seconds he was running on the dome as if it were perfectly normal. He contacted Atrum, both himself and Atrum pushed their telepathy to the limits, in order to ensure that everyone within the dome was able to get the message, where Ruien simply said.
"I would advise against touching the dome of Black Fire at all." Once that was delivered he quickly drew the telepathy back to its smallest and most powerful state.
"That felt... Strange."
"Takes some getting used to." Ruien ran up to the very top of the dome so that he was stood directly above the creature, there he trust an open palm down at it, whilst at the same time gripping several areas of the dome at once, the wave of Black Fire that was shot forward from his palm was accompanied by five sudden spikes of Black Fire which launched themselves at the creature in a pentagon shape around Ruiens' form which met in the middle as it struck the top of the creatures head, they held for a second allowing Ruien to further increase the power output of those spires alone which caused them to explode. He saw the creature flinch as it was forced to take the full force of the attack due to the chains of darkness holding it in place.
"Heh, this is going to be good" Ruien said calmly to himself as he gripped the VII Flame around his form in a small ring formation, again he thrust an open palm upwards in the direction of the creature. This time there was no wave of Black Fire, but the VII Flame he had gripped at his feet suddenly propelled forwards, creating a relatively small pillar of Black Fire that struck the creature in the head multiple times. This only lasted a few seconds before Ruien was forced to dissipate the attack, but due to the chains, once again the creature had been forced to take the full force of the attack. Standing on the spot Ruien knew that he had to take advantage of this so the time was now; he needed to make sure that his next attack was perfectly executed.
Wolfe had made his way to the Cetra Continent on a mission to obtain a summon he was wanting to add to his expanding repertoire of skills. He had just recently arrived on the far end of the continent do to a cashed in favor from a “friend” he had helped out about a year back or so. After landing and taking Lilith out from the cargo bay Wolfe said his goodbyes and started on his way inland towards here he had heard the summon could be obtained from. He was on his way inland when he got that feeling down in the pit of his stomach, the very same one that acted like a 6th sense about combat. Wolfe had always assumed from years of battle and training, and passed down from his mother he had inherited this sense for battle and conflict. It was like a compass that drew him to combat and vise versa, always seemed to draw combat to him. However this was one of those times when that feeling seemed to almost consume him and pull him, and despite Wolfe’s better instincts and judgment he decided to follow it.
Wolfe had made a decent amount of distance inland but this feeling was pulling him back towards the edge of the continent and the shore line. Wolfe sighed heavily as he changed his course and started heading back to the edge of the continent. At his speed it didn’t take him long to break the main inland and start his way towards the coast. As he rode along his ind drifted back to Rena, who he had left back in Lindblum with the promise that he would return, and he intended to keep that promise. However, his mind still wandered back to her. The more time he spent with her the mre attached he was becoming, which he wasn’t sure what to do about. Do to his upbringing, he had always been good at keeping his distance and staying detached fro others, the female race most of all. He had always enjoyed his simple pleasures, and the no strings attached relations he always had with them. Then along came Rena, and something about her made him feel different, made hi feel “human” so to say. Which human wasn’t something he felt often, as he was now a bit more knowledgeable about who and what he was and there were times he no longer felt he had anything even human like in him, but Rena gave him a different feeling. Maybe it was because she was so different, which was something he could relate to, something about her he could see in himself, but he didn’t know, but if he could pull it off he would keep her around for a while.u
His mind had really started to wander when it was kicked back into the real world by the sight of something he could swear was déjà vu. He had just cleared the top of a hill to see the sight of a large monster that had obviously come from the beach and was being attacked by a fairly large number of people. As he made ground closer to the fight his vision of the large monster got clearer and he could swear it was the exact same creature from Lindblum, but as he caught more features of it he realized it wasn’t exactly the same, but it was obviously the same creature, but had undergone some changes and upgraded itself. Wolfe just sighed as he kicked Lilith into overdrive and quickly closed the gap between himself and the battle. It wasn’t long before he had was almost upon the battle and he knew he was going to end up just jumping in mid battle.
As he reached the fight he came to a rolling stop and then turned Lilith off and dismounted the bike and he stretched a little and then he smirked and took off running for the main fray. As he reached the main fighting he took a quick second to look around and he remembered seeing some of the same faces from the last battle, but only a few really stuck out. However, Wolfe stopped in mid step as he caught one person in particular. Shinra’s main lap dog himself, Sephiroth. Wolfe knew of him and reputation well, and up to this poin the had been wondering when Shinra would actually send hi after Wolfe, but so far it hadn’t happened. Wolfe considered turning and leaving, cause he wasn’t looking to deal with Sephiroth at this point. He wasn’t scared but at the same time it was a fight he wanted to avoid at this point. As he pondered it his good side seemed to get the better of him and he just sighed as he took off running at the beast. As he rushed past some of the others he jumped aiming for the creature’s knee.
The last time he had fought this creature he had done the same thing he was planning to do now. As he landed on the creature’s knee he thrusted his sword into the beast’s knee, but before he would even give it a chance to realize it he was on the move again, He yanked the sword from the beast’s flesh as he took another leap into the air and this time he landed on the upper thigh of the other leg, and just like before he once again thrusted his sword into the flesh of the creature. Just like before he pulled the sword from the flesh of the beast as he leapt up aiming for the center of the creature’s chest, where he could see the core on it’s chest. As he reached the core he grabbed Cerberus with both hinds the thrusted it with all his force into the center of the core. As he felt the sword stab in as far he knew it would he used the sword as leverage as he gave himself a swing and as his body made a full swing he ripped the sword out of the beast as he went flying through the air. He landed on the arm of the beast on the opposite arm from Sephiroth. As he landed Wolfe just looked across at Sephiroth, Wolfe’s glowing blue eyes trying to pierce right into the soul of Sephiroth as he felt that on day it would end up coming to blows with him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Word Count: 1100 Word Total: 1100 Total for Solomon's Key: 35,666/60,000
For a while, Gerrick simply allowed himself to fall from the gargantuan creature, whistling a small tune to himself as he did so. Finally seeing an opportunity to reach the creature's leg, he fired his Blast Calibur one more time and landed gracefully on it's knee, just in time to see a man stab his sword into the creatures leg, pull it out and run further up it. Gerrick eyed the running man for a moment before shrugging and following his path.
After a few moments, he began to smell the reek of burning flesh and saw a small winged creature fly towards the stomach of the beast. Noting the sheathe around the thing's waist, Gerrick suddenly had a grand idea. He raced towards the winged man thing's destination, grinning madly.
He reached the thing after a moment of running and realized that it was nothing more than a child. A winged child. Who looked kinda funny. Shrugging, he dashed up to the semi-conscious kid and tore the sword out it's sheathe.
"Hey, I'm stealing this."
He noted that it looked rather nice, with it's crimson color and random markings. However, Gerrick cared very little for nice things and jammed it into his belt, completely ignoring the kid he had taken the sword from as he dashed off. He thought for a moment before shouting:
"If you want it back, it'll be blasting out the other side of this fucker's head in about three minutes."
He smirked to himself, shaking his head. He loved causing semi-conscious people discomfort, especially when they had dragon wings. Not that he had seen many people with dragon wings. But still, he enjoyed causing people pain and discomfort regardless of how they looked. And that dragon-winged-kid-thing looked absolutely exhausted.
As he ran gigantic chains rushed up the side of the creature that radiated dark energy. Gerrick wasn't expecting this at all, but instead of screaming something obscene like "HOLY HAIRY TESTICLES!", he simply looked at them, shrugged and grabbed onto the nearest one as it sped towards the fiend's shoulder.
The chains dug into his skin, but felt strangely good to him. They were infused with dark energies, something he rather enjoyed. He was very tempted to try and break one of the chains so he could take it with him before deciding against it. He had an un-killable monster to slay.
As the chain reached it's apex, Gerrick threw himself from the dark spined thing and grabbed onto the monster's thick scaled plates with his claws. He dragged himself upward and sat on the thing's shoulder for a moment, enjoying the view of destruction.
Unfortunately, his view was obscured a moment later as a gigantic dome of some sort of black fire surrounded the monster and everyone fighting on it.
"I would advise against touching the dome of Black Fire at all."
Frowning, Gerrick looked around to see where the voice came from. Seeing no one, he assumed that some do-gooder or another knew something or another about this black fire thing. He was very tempted to touch it, as DO NOT TOUCH buttons were usually pretty fun.
Alas, this was no button and the dark flames looked as if they'd hurt an awful lot should he allow them to touch him. Sighing, Gerrick stood up and continued heading towards the creature's head, whistling to himself. Just then the dome warped in some way and exploded downward at the head of the creature. Gerrick jumped back, unfazed yet frowning. Why were so many people getting so close to almost killing him?
Another pillar of flame (these one's a bit different) crashed into the creature. Gerrick waited patiently as the creature was wracked with spasms of pure agony. It was a miracle he had even managed to stay on the monster's shoulder, much less stay standing at all.
After the assault, Gerrick rushed forward and leapt into the still incredibly heated air. Somehow this thing's head managed to stay intact, but it was blistered and burned all over the place. He used his Blast Calibur to launch himself into the middle of the fiend's forehead. He pulled the blade out of his belt and jammed it into the creature's skull, stopping himself from flying past it's head. He then pulled himself to his feet, stomped on the hilt of the blade, embedding it up to the hilt in the charred flesh. He then pulled out his Sanguinis and cocked it.
Blasting clip after clip of ammunition into the hilt of the sword, the blade shot through the colossus' boiled skull with relative ease. After the sword had gone several meters into it's head, Gerrick jammed Sanguinis into the hole that was left behind.
"Release!"
A huge explosion blasted from the barrel of the gun, propelling the weapon embedded in it's skull straight through the thing's head. Gerrick nodded approvingly to himself before jumping off the thing's head to avoid anymore black fire blasts of death and destruction. He coasted through the air, vaguely wondering whether or not the strange kid had actually bothered to go around to get his weapon back. Spinning midair, Gerrick grinned as he saw the winged boy darting after the red sword Gerrick had stolen from him earlier. He chuckled sinisterly to himself, shaking his head.
Asher was feeling particularly growly. After all, every time he made a leap to get up closer to the thing, he had to avoid this fire spell or that chunk of space rock. People kept shooting energy balls and this that or the other at it, and frankly, he did not like having to play dodge ball with things that could quite frankly, eat him alive. Mages! They were so stupid! All staying away and such.
Of course, he couldn't talk much - he could do the same thing, though he doubted regular old bullets would do much to this creature. It was why he was power housing it, playing front line Genome, trying his damnedest to hurt this thing, all while avoiding certain death at the hands of those casters.
He performed a rather graceful backflip, landing next to his King Behemoth friend. Glowering, he wished he had something else he could do. Shoot a giant laser beam or something. Several feet behind him, black fire began to pick up, growing in an ever-widening circle. His eyes widened, as blackness began to blot out what little sunlight was left, from the inside.
Combined with the big black chains that came from God knows where, the only lights left within there were the Pyreflies, the soft glow of that Core piece, and now, the energy that his Fiend summon was wielding. The floating Asher tore forward, as the telepathic instructions were more or less ignored - he wasn't going to touch fire, no matter what color it was. Fire had a tendency to burn, and he... well, didn't like burning.
Still, he could use the chains. He bounded up, letting out a sharp breath as he did so, feet eagerly allowing him to bounce and grapple. Granted, he had to make the occasional slash against the tentacle creatures, decimating their wide-open maws with an overt flash of his Spearshot. Everyone was aiming for the head right now - he could see various figures playing their games up there. He? Well, he was going for the shiny bit. After all, he could see that.
Night had almost completely fallen outside the dome, he knew, which would only serve to make this particular venture a bit more difficult. Granted, with a big glowing target, it might not be quite so bad. But he intended to put that light out, with everything he had.
Sparks flew, as he tried to assault what felt like something stronger than stone. Gritting his teeth, he changed his tactic. Spinning his blade high in the air, he brought it down once more on the flesh and ichor nearest the thing's surface, though not directly on the core. The bullet that came flying out of it was meant only to draw as much damage as it could, while providing Asher with two things.
He couldn't punch a hole through this whole thing's chest, but he could certainly try to do some extra damage to it. He withdrew the Spearshot, and began furiously and repeatedly jabbing the blade end in to the hole he'd made, trying desperately to widen the area around it. Shifting, he grunted, while the paralyzed beasty was forced to accept his blade, directly in to the place that housed his power.
Asher was hoping that perhaps, by severing the place where his power came from, he might be able to end this fight quickly. Glancing down, he yelled a quick command.
"Come up here and help me!" Which, amusingly enough, caused the creature to blink. It was not lithe like Asher was. Lightning crashed down on to one of the creature's arms, but the Behemoth King was already moving. Large hands and a roar of anger and exertion tugged him upwards, using those terrifyingly massive claws to push his way upwards. Asher could tell, though, that this was not going to be easy. It dropped on to a chain that ran over the monster's chest, just along the side of the crystal core.
"Can we dig this thing out?" He called, as he continued to hack away at the flesh of the beast, occasionally striking an edge of the core, which forced him to rise a little higher, and move to the side of his current hole. He watched, for only a moment, as the King Behemoth brought a hand back, and drove it's claws right in to the flesh and bone of the monster's chest cavity, moving much more quickly than poor little Asher could. Though it's motions were less controlled. Slashes, gouges, rips, tears. It was simply using brute force to try and get around the edges of it.
Asher grunted, as he put more force and weight in to his blows, working to make sure that the thing did not heal it's wounds so quickly and efficiently. Eyes narrowing he found what could only be the edge. Apparently, so had the King Behemoth, who, in such a short time, had carved out a much larger swath in the gore of the creature.
With all his might, Asher shoved the blade 'behind' the core, while his large, bestial companion simply plunged both large, clawed hands in. Asher worked to pry it loose, while the King Behemoth simply pulled muscles tightening as it bore fangs of aggression.
Asher was grunting with effort, too... if he could just get the thing out, the thing might certainly weaken enough to make the fight much more easy.
Sweat beaded his forehead, while the King let out yet another roar, that rocked the chain it was standing on in an almost dangerous manner. But Asher couldn't complain - the roar helped the Behemoth, just like his grunts of frustration helped him. He could feel his own muscles straining, and whatever force that gave him such enhanced strength working over time against this particular foe.
He almost felt bad for his friend Val, whom he'd seen, but hadn't had time to acknowledge, what with all of his desperate dodging. He knew just how powerful he was, but all he could do was hope it was enough.
Still, it was nice to know he was close to him.
[/blockquote][/blockquote] ( Word Count: 1055 Thread Word Count: 4066 Boss Word Count: 37666 )
I find it extremely likely that your quarry is involved in all that brouhaha off to the west.
"And why would you be finding that extremely likely?" Eve sat naked on the floor of the cave, her clothes laid out to dry behind her. Not ten feet away sat the clearest, coldest spring in the region. In her hands was Chronos, broken down and being cleaned. Her hair, loose for the first time in weeks, glistened as it dried. "Or are you just trying, once again, to get me to do what you think I need to be doing rather than what I know I do?"
Look, I said I was sorry.
"But I didn't accept that apology, did I?" Eve stood, Chronos back together. After sighting down the gun to ensure straightness, the young woman flipped the gun across the various axes to ensure correct balance. Satisfied, she turned back to her clothes and began to dress.
God, you are a stubborn bitch, aren't you. Fine. Don't go over there. We both know the leads went cold in Galbadia.
"Yeah, well if you hadn't distracted me when I was interrogating that merchant..."
Oh, is that what you were doing? I thought you were just committing random acts of violence!
Gathering her hair into a tight bunch, Eve tied it back, using her mother's ribbon with the ease of long practice as she replied. "Pistol-whipping is an accepted way of getting information out of people. Anyway. I'm going to go find out what all the commotion is about over there. It's as good a chance as anything else." Chronos slid home with the satisfying slap of leather as Eve finished her preparations. **************************************************** Eve quickly hit her stride as she ran across the moors. She covered the twelve miles between her and the battlefield in less than an hour, and she was still well composed, hardly out of breath at all. Glancing about, she noted the downed airships and the giant figure in the distance. Even as she looked at it, it flailed in agony, hit from several directions at once with black chains. She was fairly sure she saw a figure grab one of the chains and ride it up to the beast's head, but her eyesight wasn't tuned to distances of more than 700 yards, that being Chronos' maximum range.
Climbing to the top of a downed airship, her ponytail flying behind her, Eve surveyed the battlefield. She saw several survivors, but she knew she couldn't help them herself. Besides, there was only the slightest chance that any of them would know anything about Gerrick. She moved on, heading towards the beast.
The sheer scale of it nearly defeated her senses. It was truly ridiculous in size. Shrugging, she kept walking, hoping she'd run into somebody important shortly.
Suddenly, a huge tentacle slapped down right next to her and wrapped itself around her. She had the presence of mind to get her arms free, but Chronos was all but trapped in it's holster against her ribs. Only the barest hint of the grip showed.
Never one to let adverse situations affect her unduly, Eve nonetheless managed to get it free and silently thanked her presence of mind for pre-loading it. Pulling back the hammer, she concentrated fiercely on the bullet in the firing chamber.
Slightly annoyed by the ease with which she'd been captured, Eve muttered, "I am no-one's damsel in distress. SNAP!" With the barrel settled right against the tentacle, the hyper-chilled bullet bit deep into the core of it, ice quickly spreading from the wound. Flexing her abs, Eve shattered the suddenly brittle limb before dropping to the ground.
Opening her gun and disposing of the spent shell, Eve decided the best place to meet people would be up at the top of the monster, where they were no doubt attempting to deal massive damage to the thing.
Grabbing onto a chain nearby, Eve winced slightly at the dark energy pouring from it. Pushing through it, though, she began her climb to the beast's head.
I would advise against touching the dome of Black Fire at all.
Eve nearly lost her grip on the chain of darkness when she heard another voice in her head. "HEY! What do you think you're doing, switching colors on me? I've told you not to startle me like that!"
It wasn't me, I swear! I think it was someone fighting this thing!
"Well Christ, if they have a telepath that strong why isn't there shit flying at the beast's head? Oh, there we go." Eve was less than surprised when pillars of...something not unlike fire smashed into the thing from several directions. Then she saw something fairly interesting.
It was Gerrick. Only he would use a gun to use a sword. He was stupid like that.
"Alright, you were right, happy?"
Honestly, I'm more worried that something this size might break the fabric of reality. What? Oh, yeah, him. Go to it, I'm chatting.
Rolling her eyes and holstering her gun, Eve stood on the chain and launched herself on an intercept course with the man she'd hunted for five years.
And instantly regretted it. "Eyurg...forgot how much I hate heights." Shaking the nausea away, Eve focused on her target, trusting her body to move her correctly. Her cone of vision, usually somewhere around 220*, narrowed to one or two degrees, focusing her completely on the falling figure of Gerrick. ***************************************************** Word Count: 993 Thread Count: 993 Boss Count: 36673
The sun had barely set - there were still ribbons and trails of daylight available to her - but that was not how this arrangement worked. It was officially night - more darkness than light, and all that. Twilight was the only time she really got to see the last bits of the dying sun. She always loved to see it go.
Or at least, she would have, had her vision not been interrupted by a massive, moving mountain of tentacles and spines. She clicked her tongue impatiently, the cape that was currently caught about her throat still despite the wind that continued to press against her. She shook her head uncertainly. This wouldn't do - a giant beast, a fight between Airships...
And not a one to take advantage of the spoils?
She allowed herself the softest of grins to cross her lips, as she started forward, feet carrying her gently over the otherwise pristine earth. As she approached, she noted, with some amusement, a man who was fiddling with his sword. Oh-so-serious, calling on something even her incredible ears could not pick up on. She slid closer, until she finally managed to see the trick he was playing on the giant beast.
Chains of darkness at the man's behest. She found herself rather surprised, taken aback - that sort of magic was beyond even what she'd seen in Ivalice, and she'd been around a few of the Magisters therein. Still, it made for interesting times - she had nothing better to do, but she would slip up next to him, quiet as a thief in the night.
After all, she could be nothing else.
Bare flesh of her chest, revealing not too terribly much of her cleavage ( but still plenty enough to be considered 'alluring', if not a little more ) rose as she took a breath, the still-sweet smell lingering in the air.
"Now, I think you have the right idea." Her voice was gentle, meant to make sure she didn't startle him. After all, he had a big sword, and obviously big magic to back it up. Still, she could only assume he was good at what he did. Close enough to be seen, not close enough to be reached without at least a single step in her direction, the woman knelt with calculated motions. The cape fell round her shoulders, covering almost everything about her.
She wasn't as good at Transmutation as her 'friend' Tenor, but she was certainly a capable hand when it came to something like this. Her brows furrowed, and she touched the earth.
A small spark, not quite of electricity, and not quite not, ran along the earth, spanning in what seemed like all directions. It wouldn't even phase the man in question, or anyone else that it might encounter. Rather, as it ran over steel and metals from fallen airships, it seemed to linger.
She had multiple targets, but that was never the problem. The problem was keeping contact. Through the earth? She would have plenty, provided she was careful. Eyes that glittered in the still-decaying light betrayed the smile that was added to her lips.
"Let's play..." She murmured. Only seconds after the energy, whatever it was, passed over the metals, they seemed to glitter for a moment, before exploding upwards. The steel seemed to have taken on a life of it's own, changing shape in to large chains. Not the size of the dark ones, perhaps, but certainly chains, as well.
Though, these had a nasty kick to them. Rather than simply wrap around the beast, the leading link of the charge was a rather nasty looking spearhead. Each would plow in to flesh, exploding in to it, and in some cases through it, expanding within or on the other side.
In several cases, she ran out of material to work with, and so the blow was dealt, but it lost strength, and so the chains simply fell away in certain places, as they lost their transmuted form.
But the ones that were still rooted to the earth held fast, so much as tugging against the thing's flesh, as well. The thing was a veritable bondage slave, thanks to the ministrations of the Dark Guardian and the thief next to him. She rose, keeping her concentration on the chains, connection established even through her feet.
Taking another deep - and cleavage revealing - breath, she nodded.
"What is that thing, that it's taking so much punishment from so many people?" She asked, though the interest in her voice was mostly feigned. Unlike some thieves, she was not foolish - she did not charge blindly in, and she very rarely stole from a person directly. She preferred to steal from homes, belongings, office places, all of the good places where people felt walls protected them.
She remained carefully rooted, arms slipping across her midsection. Between the two of them, there was no way that thing was going to budge... right?
Of course, she had yet to feel the full force of this thing's strength, currently being restrained. Letting out that same breath, she let her eyes move over to the warrior next to her, investigating him.
He reminded her of something she couldn't quite place her finger on. For now, she'd let it pass - as thinking too much could ruin her concentration. That alone would be enough to thoroughly ruin this particular situation.
[/blockquote] ( Word Count: 921 Thread Word Count: 921 )
"I would advise against touching the dome of Black Fire at all."
An alien thought popped into his head as he dodged several cosmic rocks flying from the sky. He grumbled to himself as he leaped up onto another body formation only to escape a horrid sound crack as the skin and armor like plating shot out everywhere beneath him.
He was very lucky indeed, considering there were spells flying out towards the beast like a barrage of missles. First there were several Comet spells flying towards the beast nearly hitting him while he was mid-way up the torso. Then there were what seemed to be dark energy blasts that flared around the beast and nearly knocked him off. Then there were sparks of lightning and blackflames, huge black chains of magic, and even more comet spells raining down from the sky. It was almost utter madness, and if Validor wasn't careful he would surely meet his end against all these experienced fighters.
But he would use these to his advantage.
As he ran up close to the core, more Comets fell from the sky seemingly out of nowhere. And he saw Asher and his friend trying to uproot the core. And that was when Validor came up with an idea.
As a Comet was speed close Validor shot his sword, Voix de la Terra up as it, leaving it stuck. Validor then swung out with all his might using the very strong and extremely durable white linen cloth, and using the momentum from the Comet's fall along with him swinging swung it at the core with extreme velocity.
"Watch out Asher!"
He wanted to make sure his little friend would be safe along with his extremely large helper. Surely they would be able to dodge in time. The Comet and Sword impact hit extremely hard against the Core of the giant. While the comet shattered into released mana a huge crack started to grow from where them impact hit. several large chips fell off, leaving if more exposed and weakened against attacks.
Validor grinned as he shot out his hand while dashing over to it.
"Aero!"
Almost invisible speeding swords of air shot towards the crack causing more damage than usual, send several mini tiny shards of the core falling down to the ground.
"Aero!"
Even more aerial wind swords came out of no where impaling the crack and causing even more damage and causing even more cracks to appear. The core was most definately weakening against the blows and magic. But Validor had another idea, to possibly shatter the core to beyond being able to be active again, despite the huge chains of darkness that surrounded it anyways, preventing it from moving.
Validor then hefted up his sword that started glowing bright green again, calling upon the power that it possess through its mako energy. Validor then leaped up high and then dashed at the cracking and weakening core. His face was determined and the sword, Voix de la Terra, was basically flowing with incomprehensible energy.
"Gaia's Anger!"
He nearly made impact when he thrusted his sword into the crack deeply and then did and aerial kick to the hilt part to jam it inthere harder. The Sword then shot out several violent vibrations through the core causing the cracks to widen and eventually shatter. Large shards of the glassy core of the Solomon's Key flew out everywhere, causing major damage to the beat, making it roar loudly and struggle agains the chains fiercly. Validor swiftly pulled hard on the cloth linen that acket like huge roap and tugged Voix de la Terra back to his hands. He then swiftly threw his sword into one of its arms and swung back quickly back to its body.
As he landed he took a good look at the beast's core now. The core was quite large compared to human or normal mortal standards, but Validor combined with Asher and his lizard friend, along with all the other previous attack had caused quite a bit of the core to shatter and plummet down to the earth in pieces. Validor guessed that now, even should the chains not hold, it wouldn't be able to fire its large blast of energy to kill anybody. Which was quite a good thing indeed. At least no one would be dead indefinately. It was probably a relief to the Airships as well, considering that thing had caused half of their losses.
He bent over from fatigue, driving his sword into its skin to keep him up right. He breathed heavily and then stood back up straight to look at Asher and his beast and give him a thumbs up. He then looked back to the head, but it wasn't long before more of the regenerative snake like creatures came back to haunt him. Validor gave a curse at the snake creature as it lunged at him, only to be evaded. Validor then sliced across the side of its face leaving a long scarring cut. Voix de la Terra gleamed despite all the gore, and its sharpness never dulled. Validor then shot out his hand.
"Aero!"
Blades of wind then shot out and added to the damage. But the snake shook it off lunging at him again, and only to be parried again, and slashed, this time vertically. The blade sliced across its eye this time blinding it. It writhed in pain shaking and roaring at Validor. It then lunged blindly at Validor but he swiftly, and with a smile leaped over onto its head and kept gauging at it with long, stong and deep slices, untill it eventually fell away retreating, or possibly dying. As Validor stood though watching it, he was sneak attacked. Another snake quickly opened its mouth and ate him.
After several moments, people who perhaps saw this event possibly thought that Validor was gone. Then a blade shot out of its head, multiple times, causing it to open its mouth as it fell dead as well. Validor swiftly dashed out of it. His eyes were widned with half fear and surprise. Validor panted as he began to make his way over to asher in his summon to see if they could formulate a plan of defeating this thing.
(Word Count:1057) (Thread Count:6254) (Boss Word Count:40637)
Relena continued her ascent toward the head of the beast, moving as a blur to on lookers. Her golden locks whipped around behind her, trailing her head like sparkling streamers. Durandal swiped left and right ahead of her making gashes in the beasts flesh. Her progress was hampered though, by the creatures attacks and movements. She had to shift left and right to avoid falling. Her path was all progress however, the beasts attention was hardly on her, so that made his attacks offhanded. More like a subconscious need to swat a bug on it's arm then anything she speculated. She preferred it that way. She would probably gain it's attention again once she made it up to the monsters head.
Unfortunately, the monster wasn't the only one slowing her progress down. The attacks of so many others were bombarding it's body and it felt to Relena as if she were attempting to cross a war zone. The insanity was that despite it all, the creature fought on. The thing was clearly a creature beyond any other. How something this powerful even existed was a mystery, but Relena wondered if it was the massive amount of Mako that existed here. Perhaps it had been feeding on it? Whatever the case, the thing needed to be put down before it unleashed hell upon the world.
Suddenly, the sky was full of snow. That was impossible though, it was no where near cold enough for snow. Perhaps it was ash then? That seemed more likely, considering all of the explosions that were going on around the beast. Perhaps it had been caused by all of the attacks from the airships. The ash like substance fell downward and Relena felt it land on her face and body. It suddenly invigorated her. The mako in her blood felt empowered. Like it had been super charged. Her movements became faster, her strikes stronger. every action she took was improved by the strange snowy-ash that touched her. Relena deduced that it was some sort of powered Mako. It was the only explanation for the effect it was having on her. She enjoyed a brief thought of the effect it must be having on Sephiroth. If she was feeling this good because of it, he was probably tearing the monster to pieces.
Looking up ahead of her, a small explosion resulted in a cascade of shooting star looking fireballs. Great. More stuff to dodge. Relena propelled herself left and right, dodging past the 'shooting stars' as they impacted the beast's epidermis. It wasn't so much of a challenge to dodge the friendly fire, so much as it was annoying. Couldn't be helped really, there was no plan behind fighting this beast. Everyone was just hitting it with everything they could and anyone who was in the way was just unlucky. Fortunately, Relena was skilled enough to overcome unlucky. Unfortunately, she had to take a detour as some large attacks made contact with the monster.
She ran along it's massive body, moving around to the back. There were fewer attacks going on back here, so it was easier to avoid the current chaos on the front side. She started her ascent again, but that's when some massive chains came out of the ground and began pulling the monster down. So unlucky. Relena uttered a small growl, that might have actually sounded cute to someone hearing it, given the high tone of her voice. It sounded a bit like how a playful little puppy's growl sounded when you tried to take a sock from it's mouth. She turned around and ran back to the front side as the beast became captured within the chains.
Well, that was quite the helpful maneuver. Despite the fact Relena had almost been crushed against the mountain, that is. The monster seemed completely incapacitated. Relena didn't know who had done this, but whoever it was she or he had to be extremely powerful. At any rate, the monster was helpless and an easy target. Maybe people would aim their attacks a little better knowing it couldn't hurt them back. Probably not. Relena began running up across the chest again.
"I would advise against touching the dome of Black Fire at all."
Relena immediately dodged to the side when she heard the words. She paused and looked behind her. Nothing. The message must have been sent to her. Then she saw the massive wall of black flame. Well, she hardly needed a warning to not touch that. She personally didn't go around touching unidentified black flames, that really didn't seem smart. The warning was appreciated though, at least this way she knew the user wasn't a complete jackass. It was always better when high powered magic was used by the more caring types. At least there was no danger at the moment.
Scratch that.
Relena twisted around and made a horizontal cutting motion with Durandal. The tentacle like thing cut in half and withered on the ground. Err, on the monster's body. Relena wasn't near the ground. Relena looked upward from where she now stood. She was in the middle of the chest between the glowing area in the gut and the head. Looking over, she saw Sephiroth on the shoulder of the monster. A known ally was a welcome sight in this chaos. Looking over at the the other shoulder, Relena saw someone she didn't know land there. She watched as he looked over at Sephiroth and glared at him. Her own eyes narrowed at him. He wasn't about to start attacking other people now was he? Not a smart idea all in itself, let alone against Sephiroth. She wasn't really sure what the guys issues were that would make him look at the platinum haired warrior like that, but this certainly wasn't the time for such things.
Looking around, she saw a young man and a summon attempting to pull the glowing area in the gut from it's place. A good plan in theory, but probably one that would require a little more force then the two of them. A whole army for instance. Things like that tended to be extremely adhered to what they were apart of. This is assuming, of course, that the glowing area was actually important to the creature. Then someone else flew in and pummeled the glowing area with as much power as he could, severely damaging the thing. Impressive, but would it matter in the end, that was the question.
Relena turned and continued her way up to the head of the beast. This was still the most likely vital area she altered her direction to the collar area of the arm that Sephiroth was standing on. Better that side then the one with the guy who seemed to have an ill will towards her comrade. Now that she was finally in rage of the head, the real attacking began. Durandal sang as it sliced through the air, cutting through the side of the beast's face. Relena went on a flurry, then jumped off the face, pushing back to the shoulder area. As she descended backward, she unleashed Durandal's energy, sending a hyper slash into the side of it's head.
Sonzai stood there as the people around him made their move. Too many things going on at once made him hesitate when moving, with fear that if he attacked he could get others hurt. It was rather unnerving for him not to have the reflexes necessary for attacking a monster when the scale of the fight was this big.
Given the magnitude of some of Sonzai’s attacks, he knew at once that it would be difficult for him to attack without hurting others, the explosions and the lack of visibility form the smoke were primary reasons why getting in somebody else’s way would simply happen.
A warm snow had fallen on Sonzai, pure white and invigorating to the touch, it lasted for a while, long enough for him o recover the amount of power he used not long ago. Chains sprung up from the floor, as he saw one of the fighters cast something on the beast’s left hand. It was now apparently unable to use its abilities, at least, it seemed, the special ones.
Everybody was attacking the giant now. Sonzai looked at the situation, and gazed at the scene as he looked at where the others had started to attack, so he could make his move on the places nobody reached and deal the damage the could deal to it.
“Strike now whilst it cannot defend itself!” said the warrior who had summoned the seal, as Sonzai wondered what kind of attack would allow such a thing to happen, as far as he knew, no physical nor magical attack worked the way this one did.
As the opportunity came Sonzai hefted his scythe and muttered “Wise Sage Barrage.” The scythe’s blade turned form the blue-orange shade it had into a pitch black color, unstable black magic that was waiting to explode once released, Sonzai’s current Ace for any fight he faced.
“May every ailment affect you, for you have caused much suffering to others, and much damage to this beautiful world” Sonzai rushed and jumped to one of the closer ships, closer to the monster itself, and jumped up as he attempted to reach the head.
Thanks to the strength he had received from the present after defeating the snowman Sonzai’s legs had, surprisingly, enough strength to get him to the head. Facing the colossal monster as he was in the air, Sonzai looked at the beast straight into its eyes, the gaze that met his, a bottomless pit devoid of any emotion as far as he could understand.
Maybe he saw glimpses of hate and anger, or annoyance at the people who kept on righting against him. Key of Solomon, this was the name that he had been given by the people, Sonzai remembered the image given to him when the monster was defeated and he was simply going toward the area. Tombs, lots of them, all nameless; almost as if the people buried there were forsaken. The amount of people who had died was probably unbearably large. Was this a vision of the future if the beast was not stopped?
Sonzai shivered at the simple though of this many dying a senseless death, one that had to do with this monster attacking everything for no apparent reason.
With the scythe raised up Sonzai slashed downwards with his scythe, connecting a hit with the beast’s forehead, a large explosion created by the instability of the black magic, the blade directly making a connection with the beats, the explosion expanding outward, away form Sonzai.
Pieces of rock shot out within the explosion, raging thunders and flowing water making a contact with the beast’s skin, burning fire and freezing ice, a complete elemental attack performed on it, and not to forget status ailments of every kind, stop, curse, poison, sleep, among others.
If the monster was unable to protect itself before, now it was definitely unable to do anything. The monster, unless immune to these ailments would be forced to stop in its tracks, would be unable to move a muscle because of the time magic.
The force of the attack pushed Sonzai backwards and a little up. As he fell down he noticed that he would not land on any of the airships, creating some major troubles for him for he didn’t know how to fly. As a reflex, Sonzai made a horizontal slash at Solomon’s key and forced himself backwards as he landed on a nearby ship further back from where he was positioned.
Sonzai took a deep breath and a small sigh, it had been a close call, who knew what could have happened to him if he didn’t react fast enough, or notice what had happened to him.
With more confidence in his face now Sonzai rushed back toward the front lines as he passed the multitude of warriors that were in the battlefield. Jumping form one airship to another as he made his way to the back of the monster. The more damage he could make the better it was. It would pay for all the destruction it had caused before, and now, it would pay for all the fear it caused to the citizens of that other continent.
With the scythe lifted once more Sonzai jumped on the monster’s back and used the butt of the scythe to dig into the skin of the beast and helped himself up, moving alongside the spine of the beast until he reached the shoulder.
Once up, Sonzai held his scythe in battle position and slashed at the beats, spinning the scythe as he connected a flurry of attacks at the now immobile beast, ach hit with an extra explosion added onto it, a nasty surprise hidden within the blades that the scythe would eject out from it’s sharp edges, the very same edges that Sonzai used to attempt dealing some major damage, in the hopes that he would get through the skin and hit it’s palpitating vein, if it even had one.
Sonzai kept unleashing his attack on the neck of the monster, and as he found himself getting tired he jumped back down as he landed on one of the airships. Wondering how long would the beast stay immobile before the effects of stop would die out on him, allowing the great monster to move freely again.
He wondered how long would the seal on the beast’s left hand would remain there, as he realized that the young warrior had performed a spiritual attack, a kind of attack he had read, could only be performed by monk warriors who went through a long arduous training.
-------------------------------------------- Word count: 1100 Total: 2580 Boss count: 42982
Tifa's hands shot up to her mouth, covering over her luscious pink lips to stop her from say anything else. Once she was sure she was safe, she lifted her left hand and attempted to rub the top of her head, which had just smacked on the roof of her hiding place: a little storage compartment on a Shinra airship.
"Owwie..." she mumbled, feeling the sore spot. What the hell were these Shinra pilots thinking!? Hadn't they ever flown a ship before, what was with all the turbulence!? Tifa sighed. This was such a bad idea, but nooooo, Barret just had to be Mister Reckless.
"It's when Shinra will least expect it! They ain't nevah gonna see us comin' all the way out there!" Yeah, but what happened when the surprise was gone? Shinra had packed up quite a good deal of soldiers for this little camping trip, they were against really bad odds. Barret's plan was to blow up their airships and supplies, leaving Shinra stranded and unable to start their work. That was probably only step one though, Tifa wasn't really sure what kind of long term strategy he had. He probably had nothing, he wasn't much for planning to far ahead. Barret was more 'Boom, next!' then anything else.
The worse part was when he had said it would be easy. Lies, lies, LIES! Tifa knew she should have said something at the time...
***************
A couple of days ago:
"It'll be easy!" Barret shouted with enthusiasm. He was looking forward to dealing out a huge blow to Shinra. Tifa was all for that but it seemed like a big job for a group of five militia style rebels to accomplish. She looked around the room that was the secret basement of her bar, the Seventh Heaven. It served as the headquarters of the so called 'terrorist' group, known as AVALANCHE. 'Terrorist' was Shinra's word for them. She supposed from their perspective, they were. Plus, their predecessors didn't exactly give them a good name, they were a lot more... extreme in their actions. Not that this group wasn't able to be extreme, they just weren't quite as aggressive.
The television set was on mute, and the news from Shinra was reporting on the same thing it had been all over for a couple of days now: Shinra had found the 'promised land'. A land supposedly holding an unlimited supply of mako energy. That was unlikely, nothing was ever unlimited. AVALANCHE's goal was to stop Shinra before they hurt the planet any further then they already had. If this 'promised land' actually had that much mako, then it must be important to the planet and if Shinra got their hands on it... Well, it was possible they would kill the Gaia, all for their greedy desires. It was these thoughts that were holding Tifa back from commenting about the massive out-numbering that was AVALANCHE versus Shinra. The fact was they had to do something.
Tifa looked at the other members of the group. They were excited as always about a mission. Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge were usually just as gung ho about his plans as Barret was. You could almost see Jessie's brain working on the bomb designs. Tifa's eyes shifted past Jessie to Marlene, sitting in the corner, watching her father with adoring eyes. Tifa sighed. While they did have to do something, she also had to say something.
"Shinra isn't going to be going there with minimal security. They'll be there in force to defend the place and make sure no one tries to take it from them." Tifa expressed.
Barret brushed her off like it was nothing, waving his only hand at her, "Nothin' we can't handle. We're gonna give those Shinra #@$&s more shit then they can handle!" He was completely confident in his plan. Tifa wished she could be too, but it all still had her worried. She could see there was no way she was going to convince him to change his mind though, so the best she could do was go with them and try to make sure they all made it out alright...
***************
And now here she was, on her back and crammed into the small storage compartment, unable to see because her chest was blocking her sight and smacking her head off the top of it every time the ship had hit a bump. She had no idea where Barret, Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge were right now. They had all ended up going separate ways during their stealthy boarding of the ships. They could be anywhere right now. It had all been so hectic...
***************
Earlier today:
"Alright, listen up!" came Barret's voice over her earpiece, "Pick a ship. Get on it. We'll meet after they land. And don't get yerselves caught!" he ordered.
"Ah! Barret, quit yelling!" Tifa retorted. It was bad enough when he did it in person, but he have to do it right in her ear? Tifa swore she was going to be deaf by the time she was thirty because of him, "We can hear you just fine!"
"Ya, ya, whatever." Barret responded, "Just get on a ship!" There were several reports of acknowledgment from the other members of the team and Tifa added her own 'Right' to it. She let out a sigh, this wasn't going to be easy.
Tifa continued on her way. It had been a long journey so far. They had had to sneak aboard transport back in Midgar and use it to get where they were now. Junon. This was where Shinra kept most of their airships and it was here that the fleet would be leaving from. AVALANCHE had made it though, and now they just had to get on board a ship. That was Tifa's next goal as she stood on the roof of an elevator. The team had split up and were all trying to get on in their own way. Barret thought this would be a better idea, that way it was easier for them all to sneak around, and if they were caught, the rest would still be safe. Tifa had to agree with that plan, at least. Though she was worried about the others.
She pushed it from her mind though. They were all capable of handling themselves and Tifa was just going to have to trust that fact. She looked down at the elevator beneath her. It hadn't budged in the last couple of minutes and it was a bit frustrating. What was no one going to come this way all day? She let out another sigh. She was going to have to do this the hard way then. She got to her feet and looked up at the long tunnel ahead of her. She took one deep breath and then charged at the wall. Once she got there, she allowed her spirit to flow through her. She controlled her energy flow to allow her body to move at it's top performance. It was a method taught to her by Zangan back when she was a student of his in Nibelheim.
It was almost as if things slowed down, but instead, she was moving faster. She put her foot on the wall and began running straight up the long shaft. Gravity was ignored completely as she ascended up the metallic tunnel, though she occasionally found dips in the path that she was able to use to recenter her gravity and add more velocity to her running. She blurred her way up, looking like she had been launched out of a canon more then she was running. The stale air of the shaft tasted bad in her mouth and whipped her long dark auburn hair behind her, the leather band she used to tie it danced back and forth at an unviewable speed.
Suddenly, from far back below her, she heard a sound. A bad sound. A terrible sound. A horrible horrible sound. A sound she should have expected, given her luck. The elevator was moving. Well, of course it was. Why wouldn't it move just at that most inconvenient moment. What the hell kind of hack, unoriginal writer was working on this story anyway? Of all the lame ass things to do just for a higher word count! Obviously, Tifa was pissed. But hey, it's not my fault this thread slowed down and I need to try to get in as much as possible so we can win. Anyway where was I? Ah, yes. The elevator.
Tifa ran up the shaft, trying to push herself even faster. Unfortunately, the elevator was quicker then she was, she could hear the echo of it pulling it's self ever higher behind her. Giving up on the run, Tifa had to work fast. She stopped herself at one of the elevator doors, and stood on the tiniest of ledges with her toes. She put her hands on the doors, and pushed forward and apart with all of her strength. It was slow going, but they started separating and opening up. Tifa could hear the elevator getting closer and closer as she worked. She could feel her heart beating against her chest like it was trying to breakthrough her ribcage and hop through the gap she had already made in the doors. Her fingers curled around the doors in the gap to give her a better grip and she pulled as hard as she could. The elevator was close now, but so was the gap. Almost, almost... yes!
Tifa rolled through the now big enough gap just in time for the elevator to go rocketing past. Yep. That would have hurt. A lot. She turned around to see where she was now, and found herself face to face with three Shinra guards. They looked completely shocked. What, they never see a beautiful girl barely avoid becoming a beautiful puddle on an elevator before, just making it into the corridor as she got out of the way of the speeding metallic block? Apparently not. They were starting to recover by the look of it though, and Tifa couldn't afford to be caught now. She was still in control of her energy flow though, and she dashed forward at them.
She charged right at the one in the middle, and jumped up at him, bringing her right leg up, folded in so her knee was aimed right at his face. There was a crack as her made contact and the man headed for the ground. Tifa however, while still in the air, now extended her leg out, a powerful kick that connected with the guard on her right's head. He went straight back into the wall. At the same time, her left hand went in the opposite direction and her palm found the guard on her left's face. It bushed it back and it too collided with the opposite wall. There were crunching noises involved as the to hit the cold, smooth, metal wall and they both feel to the ground, unmoving.
The first guard wasn't out yet though. He got up, blood dripping from his mouth, and went for his gun. Tifa was too fast for him though, and she gave him a powerful roundhouse kick to the side of the head. The same side, in fact, as the knee shot she had given him earlier. That had to hurt. The guard hit the ground, this time unconscious. Tifa stood up and ready for another attack, just in case. When it was clear they weren't going anywhere, she relaxed with a sigh. Now she had to move them somewhere. Luckily, there was a room off to the side. She dragged them into it and hid them in a closet that was in there. That would keep them out of the way for now at least. She turned and continued on her way.
Except, she was a bit lost. On the bright side though, she knew she had to go up. The elevator was a no go right now, but maybe the stairs would be good. She took off at another extremely fast run and made her way to the stairs. She shoulder tackled her way through the door, and flew up the steps. Luckily, she had already covered a huge distance in the elevator shaft, so there were only a couple more floors left. She tackled her way through another door and was finally on the top floor. Unfortunately, she ran into another guard and this one wasn't as prone to surprises as the last. Tifa felt a large arm collide with the side of her head, and she fell to the ground. Her earpiece landed on the floor beside her, destroyed by the impact.
Tifa looked up at the beast of a man before her. He was about six foot seven and had to weigh a good two hundred and fifty pounds or more. He laughed as he looked down at her, flexing his muscles and cracking his large knuckles. From the look on his face, Tifa didn't know if he was going to kill her or kiss her. Probably both. The much shorter, yet feisty brunette got to her feet and stared up at the brute. He laughed again and then charged at her like he was going to give her a tackle hug. Tifa held her ground. She didn't move until the man was almost on top her. His shadow loomed over her face and then she was gone. He let out a confused grunt and looked around. Right, then left. He found her behind him and turned with a growl. Tifa was ready for him and she charged right in between his two massive arms and then did a back flip. Her boots caught the large man in the chin and there was a loud cracking noise to accompany the impact.
The man was dazed after that hit, as Tifa landed on her hands and feet. She used her new position to launch herself forward as if she were running a race, and went right for the man's gut. Using his confused moment to her advantage, she kneed him in the gut causing him to lean forward. She then wrapped her arm around his neck, putting him in a headlock. She grabbed his pant waist to help her support the weight, then lifted him up so he was looking down at the ground. She allowed herself to fall backward, and his head collided with the hard metal floor. His own hulk of a body was used against him as all of his mass went onto his neck. He flopped to the floor and laid there.
That one could have been fatal, but Tifa didn't have time to worry about it. Nor did she have time to lug him into a room somewhere. She would have to leave this one where he lay and hope for the best. She took off again, but now she had to figure out how to get into the city. Looking around, she noticed a vent up at the top of the wall. That would work. Without a moment's hesitation or pause in her speed, she ran up to that wall, put her foot on it, then pushed off to the wall opposite. She did the same on that wall, allowing her to get up to the height of the vent with enough velocity to dropkick her way through it. The grate broke under her powerful impact and flew backward, allowing her access.
Now that she was in though, she was forced to slow down. She crawled through the grate as quickly as she could until she found a way up. She pulled herself up along that path and once she got to the next grate, found that it led to the city street. Finally. Tifa pushed it open and climbed out. Now that that part was out of the way, she now needed to get to an airship. Without her earpiece, she wasn't sure what the other's were doing or where they were. She was alone until she could find one of them later. Just another complication on this day that was going so well.
Tifa ran along the street, but she noticed it was full of Shinra employees. That was bad. She darted into an alley way before someone saw her and jumped up between the two walls to get to the roof. She'd be safer up here. She ran across it, then leaped to the next one. The following roof after that had a pipe line that went between them, so she ran across that. Then she saw her target. It was difficult going, trying to follow the roofs of these buildings to get to the highest one in this wall of a town. She did get there though, and had to run up a cliff face to get to the top. She climbed over her final ledge, and there they were. The airships. Tifa let out a sigh of relief at seeing them. Not that she was safe yet, of course.
She ran as stealthily as she could across the platform, and dove behind some crates. Tifa poked her head out and looked around. There were Shinra employees everywhere, how was she going to get on bored? A guard patrolled his way over to her area and she ducked again. When he got close, she let out a low whistle to grab his attention. He looked around, then walked around the crate to see what had made the noise. Before he could even register anything with his eyes, Tifa somersault kick connected with his jaw. She landed then jumped up and pulled his face down on to her rising knee, knocking him out. She threw him to the ground behind the crate and followed, where she removed his uniform.
He was about her height, so the clothing fit alright, though it was a bit tight in the chest area. It would have to do though, as she placed on the helmet. She just needed to blend in a bit. She hid the man away, and then attempted a fast but casual walk toward one of the airships. The closest one to her, in fact. The employee there taking inventory didn't even look up from his notes as she walked past and onto the ship. And she was aboard... That's it? Everything had been so hard before, what happened there? Hopefully her luck was changing and she'd be okay for now.
Tifa looked around the storage hull of the ship. She needed to hide so no one would ask her any questions or anything. Or wonder why a Shinra soldier was wearing a too small uniform with her chest. That was probably going to get her noticed fast, in fact. She couldn't afford that, so she hid among a few stacks of crates, and waited. Once the ship was fully stocked and ready for take off, Tifa dashed over to one of the left over storage compartments, and hid within. It was a bit cramped, but it would have to do. At least no one was going to be looking in here until they landed...
***************
"Ow!"
Tifa smacked her head on the top of the storage compartment again and it brought her out of her pointless, yet convenient and entertaining, flashback daydream. She rubbed the top of her head again. Seriously, was the pilot of this ship drunk or something.
SMACK
"OW! DAMMIT!"
Tifa thrust herself on the door of the compartment and knocked it open. She felt, spun around, then landed on her rear with an 'oof!'. She was really sick of smacking her head on that container, there was no way she was staying in there any longer. The brunette fixed her hair and grabbed the helmet she had had to remove due to it being to big to fit on her head while she was in there. Unfortunately. Now she was curious as to what was going on with all the turbulence. They had to be getting there already, they'd been flying long enough as far as she could tell. Tifa looked out the little window of the storage hold, but all she could see were other airships... But they weren't moving forward. In fact, some weren't even Shinra's. What the hell was going on!?
Tifa put the helmet back on her head and began heading for the deck. It was risky as hell, yes. But she had to find out what was going on out there. As she ran through the ship, people were running around frantic and scared. So much so in fact that Tifa doubted anyone would actually notice her. This had her really worried now. What could possibly be causing this much fear in them? Well, Tifa was about to get her answer. She burst her way through the door leading to the deck and saw for herself what was causing all the chaos.
"HOLY CRAP!" Tifa couldn't help but shout as she looked upon the massive monster before her. Airships were burning down, getting destroyed left and right. Soldiers of all sorts were all over the thing, attacking it in their own way. It seemed the beast had taken quite a bit of damage already, though it was still looking ready to fight. This was bad. Really, really bad. Tifa's thoughts went to her companions? She had no way of knowing where they were or if they were okay. Clearly the idea of coming here was an even worse idea then she could have possibly imagined.
What could she do though? She could run anywhere, especially when she didn't know where her friends were. She couldn't stand around here either. The more ships that went down, the more likely one of her friends would too. She had to do something. Tifa removed the helmet and tossed it aside. This get up would only get in the way, so she stripped it off to reveal her white tank and black skirt. She reattached the accessories she had stored in the pockets and put on her leather gloves. Her green marble looking haste materia gleamed in the slot on her right glove. It glowed even brighter as she activated the spell and tapped into the mystical powers of the little emerald orb. Tifa's speed increased and she darted forward, initiating her control over her energy to increase her speed even further.
She flashed by the panicked Shinra members and jumped off the air ship to the next one over. The one she had flown over on seemed to be hanging back during the fight and Tifa was going to need to hop across some of them to get to the creature. She ran across the deck, and some scared out of his mind moron got in her way, looking very much like he'd lost his marbles. Tifa jumped in a spin and kicked the guy in the side of the head to get him out of the way. Some more Shinra idiots decided to attack her too after she took out their friend. They charged at her and Tifa ducked into one, then elbowed him in the face. She used her momentum to flip over the guy, then spun to the other and gave him a good right hook to the jaw. That sent him flying back and put him out of commission.
Tifa didn't want to hang around the crazy ship an longer, so she jumped over to the next one. This one was different and certainly wasn't Shinra. She was greeted with fear again, though these people seemed more in control of themselves. Tifa ran by them and no one moved to stop her. She liked these non-Shinra ships much better. She continued her progress hopping to the ship, then the next. She landed on the back of one then ran across the deck, passing a giant insect in a robe and a girl who seemed to be relaxing. Interesting time to do it, but Tifa didn't have time to speculate what she was doing, nor why she had a pet insect in clothing. She just ran past as a blur and jumped off the bow of the ship to the next one, which was lower then that one.
She eventually and finally made it to the lead ship that wasn't a ridiculously high distance from the ground, then leaped off with all of her might at the creature. She went hurtling threw the air toward the thing's mid section. There was a glowing area there that was looking like it had been a favorite target for people. It was looking pretty destroyed, but it wouldn't hurt to add to it a bit. Good place to start at least, she needed somewhere to land anyway.
Like a missile that was launched from some sort of super canon, Tifa rocketed past a couple of people and a beast, probably the ones who had been working on this gut-crystal thingy, and flew, fist first, into the glowing red stomach. The impact was thunderous. The crystal cracked even more and it lost a extra shards of it as they cascaded to the ground. Tifa shook her hand.
"Owwie." she whimpered. That $^#@&%$ hurt! Arms were not meant for that kind of impact. Luckily, she was made to take more then normal people. She'd have to remember that kinda of impact though. She had a theory she could channel her energy behind a punch and create the same effect with less pain for her and torpedoness involved. She crawled out of the pit in the beast's stomach to where the other two were.
"I don't recommend doing that, you two." she told them. She paused a moment catch her breath after all of that running and using her body as a human bullet.
Word Count: 4419
Total Count: 4419
Boss Count: 47401
Last Edit: Feb 21, 2010 8:05:01 GMT by Tifa Lockhart
The silence of the void echoed around the demon as the mega flare formed to its full size. the demon had been out of the flow of battle for several minutes and he couldn't know the damage the beast had done to the fleets, he had only accounted for its walking speed. Belzera breathes in slightly as the outer edge of the mega flare now hit the small portal he had opened earlier, the violently crackling energy would appear in the air infront of the creature yet the demon didn't fire yet instead he pushed the mega flare forward and out of the portal, slowly forcing the portal wide open. To most people they would see half of a large ball of purple energy quickly appear in the air infront of the creature. The demon then smirks as he lets out a glass shattering roar as the Mega flare is fired off instantly ripping into the creature and through its defenses of the heavily wounded creature, he then opens his eyes and holds Eden low at his side as he flies through the portal, making it seem like the demon just suddenly appeared in the air right after the flare hit. The edens pommel was glowing faintly with the number IV as the mega flare's energy vanished.
"Right."
The demon mutters as he hovers in the air before the creature, his eyes quickly scanning the battlefield, both aerial and ground. He could see many more people now engaged with the beast. The demon quickly shoots upwards into the air above the creature avoiding a wild swing. The demon's eyes focusing on the airships now, both sides had lost a great deal of airships since he had entered the void yet the flagships on both sides where still here, luckily the demon mentally added. Blue had not taken to the field so things must not have become dire enough just yet. The demon spreads out his arms and his wings widely as purple mist spun out from him before moving behind him and forming into copies of the Adonis as 32 blades stand still in the air. The demon points Eden down at the creature, at this so called Solomons key. The demon puased for a moment as he recalls the words of the last battle, those words and that image.... The confirmation of Persephones demise. He couldn't help but feel something was wrong about this battle, he was missing something he was sure of it, there was something more to this creature and its movement. The demon bites his lip before he screams and fires forth the demonic barrage, the sonic booms blasting away all trace of his words as they impacted into the collosal creature with heavy bangs like the sound of cannon shots.
The demon glares at the creature, his mind racing rapidly as he moved lower to the ground, moving under an airship quickly as he tried to think properly, why had it taken him so long to realise he was missing something important... The demon breathes in and then looks up at the airship he was under, a Midgar vessel. He sighs and pushes his hands into the void slowly, opening up a portal at the bottom of the ship big enough for him to fly through, once it was open he quickly flies through it as he had opened the exit of the portal on the creatures arm appearing infront of the two SOLDIERs only noticing them as he steps onto the creatures arm, closing the portal behind him, the two would only have seen the demon emerge from the creatures arm.
The demon turns his head and see's Sephiroth smirking softly at the SOLDIER elite. The demon allowed himself to sidetrack himself using the knowledge he had gleaned from the old Gaia about Hojo's and Shin-Ra's experiments the demon would try to push him, he didn't trust this man who on the old Gaia had been an enemy of Gaia due to poor mental strength and this new one had not proven himself to be different yet.
"I should of guessed that if Shin-Ra was here the bastard son would be here too"
The demon then shut his wings and looks up at the creatures face away from the SOLDIER elites as something occurs to him. His eyes widen at the potential realisation.
"Could it be? Are you? A Sin created from the old worlds darkness and desire?"
The demon growls and summons forth Adonis to his hand. The blade forming from purple mist that leaked from his body and curled around his hand, The demon then throws the blade towards the creatures neck with great force.
"WELL ARE YOU?!"
The demon shouts as the Adonis hits the things neck and digs itself in slightly before it vanished back into the mist before the mist too vanishes. The demons face contorted in anger as more mist forms into a dozen copies of Adonis, which then fly off at the creatures neck sharply as the demon shouts again.
"Are you a shell of anger!? Of Desire?! Of Greed!? Of Jealousy?!"
At this point the demon is continually summoning forth barrage after barrage of Adonises and firing them at the creatures neck trying to break through it.
"Are you in there Morona?! Covered in the shell of such malice and contempt that the blight cuased!? WELL!?"
The demon's anger continues to grow and as such the barrage quickly becomes as demonic barrage as the number grows from twelve blades each time to thirty two. The sonic booms shattering the air continually as the demon continually forms and fires barrage after barrage at the creatures thick neck still screaming at the form.
"ANSWER ME MORONA!? HAVE YOU FALLEN THAT FAR!?"
The demons rage continues to grow as he ignores his surrounding while continually hitting the creature with demonic barrages. The demon had seemingly lost himself to the rage at the idea that Morona had fallen so far. The idea that this was Morona Solomon, wrapped in the darkness of the old world much like Sin was supposidly Zanarkands retribution upon Spira, the idea of such a thing... Of a man who tried hard to save a world from itself becoming a blight upon a new world, if it where true then Morona Solomon truely had fallen.
"COME ON YOU BASTARD!? FACE ME!?"
The Demon screams as the sonic booms continue to occur, partially covering the demons words as he continued to rage upon the creature, throwing all of his fury at the possible revelation and betrayal of trust.
Belz Count: 1113 Total Count: 2186 Boss Count: 48514
Post by August Krasnow on Feb 21, 2010 10:56:14 GMT
The brilliant beast, though bound, still lashes out at the airships buzzing around it like hungry flies, blasting away with whatever is in their arsenal. From the iota of safety the airships provide, the sight of those ‘heroes’ bold enough to take the beast on head to head can be seen scurrying about like ants upon the monstrosity’s surface. Though all that is of little concern of August’s from the safety of his airship, keeping its fair distance from the beast after a close encounter with the monster’s appendages. He has since focused his fire away from the center of the creature’s chest – where the majority of the other attacks have been centering, to that of the more dangerous aspects of the beast’s physiology. Eruption of energy rays blast forth from the tiny Hijrah’s broadside, slapping at the beast’s tentacles and whipping lashes like some sort of carnival game of skill. Blast, blast, blast, knocking the menacing snake back in an endless charade of a deadly dance.
“Kane!” August calls back from his station as he takes pop-shots at the beast in the distance. “I’m running low on Mist, prepare the next charge, now!” He commands to the man behind him, to which he obliges, charging up the ladder back into the belly of the vessel. Soon after, the Eastern Star discharges the last of its stores and fails to fire. Cursing to himself, August knocks the pin away that holds it fast to the pedestal and begins a quick check of the device, looking for any fractures or incurred damage. This distraction proves near fatal – having failed to inform the captain of the situation on the keel weather deck, the vessel remained within close proximity of the beast’s reach and without August keeping the creature’s appendages from lashing out. Without warning but the sound of the wind being cut in two, a large tentacle, snapping from the beast lashes out and strikes the Hijrah broadside, knocking the vessel away like a swatted bug. The ship spins wildly, smoke and fire erupting from its hull as it streaks through the sky in a brilliant spin. August, off guard, is thrown from the deck and over the railing, just catching the fractured guard with his left hand. He dangles from the bottom of the ship, nearly helpless with one hand gripping tightly to the ship, the other to his precious rifle.
The force of the jarring hit and August’s fateful grasp to his ship left his shoulder dislocated, he could just hold on and not bring himself back onto the ship – though with the chaotic spin the ship was in, the force acting on him may as well prevented him from doing such despite the injury. He could, he figured, let go of his rifle and use the hand that clutches that to bring himself back on deck – yet to loose such a priceless invention as the Eastern Star seemed nearly inconceivable. His head looking desperately to his weapon and to his slowly slipping grip, his head a flurry of indecision, surely the fall would kill him he figured but there was always the chance that he may survive or someone would come to his aid in time. Where was Kane? Damn the man, damn himself, why had he choose then to tell Kane to leave.
“Kane! Kane!” August called desperately, looking up to the fractured ladder and hatch it leads to. “Kane!?” Urgently he yelped, begging for his manservant to return in the nick of time. With each passing moment his grip slipped away yet he holds out hope that Kane will arrive. A frantic moment seizes him, the realization that this predicament may indeed cost him one way or another, he panics, not knowing what to do. The gun or his life; a lifetime of work to be lost by a mere fall or his own life – where should one draw the line in situations like this, least one with such dedication to his creation?
With the ship seemingly out of control, August dangling by the mere muscle and disjointed tendons of his shoulder, a tiny glimmer of hope emerges as the hatch leading to the keel weather deck stirs. It jars, shuddering with a blunt force impacting it from the other side. August’s eyes and ears turn a promising ache that his salvation is at hand. He grips his hand tighter to the rail, claws digging into the wood as he holds for his life and love. The hatch jars open then, Kane dropping down to the wayward deck and leaping upon the rail where August hangs, the man’s beefy hand clutching tightly around August’s by his wrist. “The charge! Toss me the charge!” August calls, “Quickly! Snatch me by my collar and throw me the charge!”
Kane wasn’t one to object, it was his duty to obey and so he does, letting the charge drop as he readjusts his grip. August let’s his only fixed tie to the ship go, dropping his dislocated arm to his sad – painfully snagging the charge in its flight. He releases the spent copper reservoir, it falling away and the new one snapping into its place. A pressurized whistles emanates from the rifle and then August begins to charge the weapon for a burst. “Let go!” Kane, again not paid to disobey, releases his grip from August, sending the Burmecian into a freefall – for just a moment. A blast from the rifle, a Widow’s Son shot launches the noble skyward, vaulting near over his vessel, coming to a hard landing on an upper deck – rolling to a stop against a bulkhead. Immediately, as if instinctive, August slams his shoulder into the metal wall he landed against, snapping his shoulder back in with a sickening crunch – yelling out in the moment of shooting pain. He stands, gritting his teeth and hobbles to a nearby hatch, stumbling inside as his footing gives way under the frantic jarring of his dying airship. Smoke filled the passage way, burning his throat, nose and eyes and the sting of heat tickled at his exposed fur. Something was burning, whatever the beast hit must of exploded he concludes but presses forward none the less towards the bridge in hopes of stabilizing the vessel before it plummets from the sky.
His passage proves troublesome, fire blocking the quickest route. His small crew tries desperately to control the blaze, using what they can get a hold of to combat it while August just pushes past or around them, being forced to take service hatches and ladders. With a handerkerchief covering his nose and mouth as he climbs a smoke filled ladder locker till finally reaching the bridge through the emergency hatch. The bridge is in chaos, his captain knocked unconscious and being tended by one of the deckhands while the navigator tries desperately to regain control, though his inexperience proves his efforts futile. August rushes him and knocks him away, pushing him aside and takes the helm. Setting his rifle down beside him, he takes control of the wheel, turning it hard into the spin and slamming back on the throttle to half astern and riding the spin. Seconds later, he throws the helm opposite and jams the throttle to full ahead, snapping the airship out of its spin with a jarring shudder. Winded heavily out of anxiety and strain, August slumps over the wheel to regain his breath. After a few seconds, he turns to the conscious crew members with a commanding scowl slapped across his face.
“To your posts!” He orders, pointing to the navigator. “And take the helm.” Paying them no more heed, he snatches up the Eastern Star and walks to the flybridge to resume his barrage on the beast, leaving the care and damage control of his ship to his crew.
--------------------------- Word Count: 1324 Exp: 132.4 Total to boss: 49838
They say, "Evil prevails when good men fail to act." What they ought to say is, "Evil prevails."
He was falling. Not far, but far enough to make him pause, for a second. A torpedo - a bomb... something had collided with the stone that he'd been working on, more or less forcing him and his good friend get thrown a little bit. His large friend was not easily movable, but the damage was done - it looked weakened by simply having to remain standing. Asher was in a worse condition.
He gasped, and luckily, had a tail. His tail wrapped around one of those helpful chains that kept the monster somewhat contained. Letting out a brief noise, he glanced to the side, and noted energy. Brilliant, purple, glowing... growing. Aimed directly at the group of people. His breath vanished - In an instant, he swung his way up, pushing off of the massive chest of this beast. He landed between Validor and Tifa, and shook his head.
"HOLD ON!" He yelled, tail snaking out to snatch his loosened weapon, while both his hands grabbed either person. He'd never transported two people before, and this was going to suck a lot. But better them landing rough, than being completely and utterly obliterated by whatever the hell that was. Arms wrapped around Tifa's midsection ( just beneath her ample breasts, though that was the furthest thing from his mind) and Validor's waist. Squeezing his eyes shut, the three of them would vanish.
When they appeared - much less gently than his usual appearance, the wave of purple destruction powered through the place they'd been. He let out a yelp as he barely avoided one of those terrible tentacular creatures. He spun a bit and stabbed it right through it's mouth.
Breathing was haggard between the two - they were really heavy together. Asher fell to a knee, looking up to where his poor friend the King Behemoth still stood, a smoking wreck of the majesty he had been at one point. Energy began spiraling around it, as Pyreflies released from it's body. His brows knit together, uncertainly, as his neck gave way.
Ultimately, Asher was a warrior, but he was still more or less a child. He'd over exerted himself thoroughly. But, he'd managed to get his two friends out of danger, which was a super bonus, in his opinion. His mind was swimming, as was his vision.
/
Above the boy, the King Behemoth was growling, a deep, full bodied thing that was by far one of the most terrifying sounds in the Fiend world. It's mission was to destroy this creature... and it was defeated in the process. This was okay, however - the King Behemoth was new to life, and inexorably bound to the child. But it knew precisely how to go out with a literal bang.
Sharp teeth were bore to the world, as it focused on something much further away than this monster's head. There were people on top of it - but that was far beyond it's care, now. It would kill anyone other than that boy that had made it. With each and every Pyrefly that poured from it's body, it felt another part of it slink away, fading into the ether.
Though most of these thoughts were much more primitive, they still ultimately amounted to one thing.
The sky was darkening, even moreso than the clouds that had coalesced to release that gentle snow. Finally, the creature released that energy in to the air. It fell from it's chain-bound perch, unleashing a roar that would easily strike fear into the hearts of mortals and Fiends alike. In it's last breath, it could see the sky beginning to part.
It had brought the heavens down upon this creature's head.
/
Asher watched as his King Behemoth hit the ground, vanishing into a cloud of Pyreflies.
Already, he was starting to feel better - an effect of his own personal cadre of Pyreflies, no doubt. Coupled with that energy-snow, and Asher was certainly feeling right as rain. A very bruised rain, but rain nevertheless. Glancing between the two people he'd plucked from the very jaws of death, he gave them both an honest smile.
"Let's get back to work!"
Easier said then done - the sky was blighted. Blades from Belzera, who had seemingly appeared from nowhere, and something else, up so much higher, coming down so much faster.
He remembered now, what he'd read about King Behemoths.
When defeated, he will unleash Meteor, which will do a large amount of damage to all enemies.
Shit. Shit shit shit. He didn't know what kind of impact that would have, but he could see now the colossal stone that had been rocketing through space just starting to break cloud cover. His teeth gritted unceremoniously. "Uhm. I think I might have done something bad." He murmured, pointing up at it.
No sooner than he'd done that, did he have to swipe to parry an assaulting tentacle. They were getting on his last nerve, to tell the truth. His blade swung around, easily maiming it. Considering this was such a large monster, to have such annoying, aggravating, red-coat killing tentacles seemed almost like a big waste of time, rather than a terrifying testament to it's power.
His tail waved eagerly as he hopped back. Melee power was starting to dwindle, specifically because there was so many people assaulting it with large assaults from a distance. So, Asher pretty much felt the need to do... something. He really wanted to clear out, because he didn't know what kind of damage a Meteor could really do to him... and everyone else. Especially if they didn't notice it coming. It was falling from the sky on the same side as the ShinRa forces.
He wanted a better gun, at this point. Just bullets seemed pretty lame.
With a hesitant though, his body contorted, in to a delicious looking backflip that would make even the most hardened of acrobat's jaw drop. He landed and continued the bouncing, as his feet never actually touched the ground. It was ultimately a delicious effect, the Haste-Empowered monkey boy using every bit of his dexterity. Despite his worries, he was heading back towards the beast.
It was almost impossible, the way he was flipping and hopping up along the beast's thick hide, occasionally catching a chain to swing himself higher. He ran upwards, carefully slipping between waves of those treacherous purple blades, purposefully bouncing off the crystal. With a small, studded trail of Pyreflies following him, he looked like he was his own personal comet, rising up through the dust and smoke and snow. As he got to the top of the creature's head, he looked up at the meteor, which was still coming, looking as though it was getting ever larger.
He was amply going to mimic that. The idea was simple.
He teleported four times, straight up, He went up almost three hundred and sixty feet into the darkened sky, until he was barely visible from that high up. That was when his body began to descend.
He let out a wild yell, at the excitement of free falling. That, of course, was not the entire truth. The boy was sky rocketing down towards the creature, with his blade grasped as tightly as he could. He was angled towards the back of the thing, tail whipping almost madly behind him. This was going to hurt like a bitch - he was relying solely on his current recuperative powers and his incredible strength to see him through his little predicament.
There was a tower of Pyreflies that he was passing through - which only further increased the pleasure he got in this little downward 'spiral'. At that thought, of course, he started spinning, for his own benefit, as well as the additional damage a spinning projectile would add.
As he spun, he counted the seconds. At the very literal last second before he hit the creature, he tugged the trigger, firing a smaller projectile from the much larger one. Blade carved a deep, terrifyingly effective swath through the top of the thing's shoulder.
As much as it hurt, he kept pulling the trigger, which only served to allow him to penetrate deeper, burst further, tear wider... everything that was basically capable of maiming a regular human being.
Unknown to him, of course, was the problem of two arms that would no doubt be either dislocated or broken - he continued to slide down the creature's back, until the clip was expended, and he was nearly at the ground.
It was amusing - from the place he'd hit, he'd cut a giant line that looked much worse than he'd anticipated it doing. But this served a secondary purpose as well - it allowed him to destroy, AND not die.
Granted, his arms were more than a little sore, but that was a little bit besides the point. He was more than aware of what he'd done, and he was a little bit excited at the prospect of doing as much damage as Tifa, or perhaps even Belzera. There was no doubt in his mind that at this point, there was no way this creature was surviving this time. There was too many people, too much happening.
With a visible effort, he tugged his Spearshot from the nice new ass he'd just ripped this monster, wishing that his arms weren't as numb as they felt.
At this point, the meteor was close enough that the skies were truly parting, and he could see what looked like a fiery, blazing aura wrapped around the thing, heading right for the monster. He took a deep breath, and whispered a little word of hopefulness, as the Meteor spell his fallen comrade cast came to fruition.
The giant space rock crashed in to the Solomon's key with thunderous effects, as it quite literally tore space asunder to wreak absolute havok on the monster. He hoped there would be no collateral damage from that, but he was fairly certain his hopes were not placed in the appropriate realm of possibility. The noise was absolutely deafening, as what appeared to be chunks of stone that were tailing the Meteor also careened in to the monster, strangely centered in comparison to what he'd been expecting.
He wondered, vaguely, if it would crush the whole creation. He didn't know if it was possible to crush something this big, even with something as immense and massive as a giant friggin' planet chunk. That, too, was another question he found himself pondering as he turned and started running away, acrobatically avoiding another snapping tentacle, and crushing another beneath two well placed feet.
He could feel the heat that was enveloping the meteor, and could only wonder where it had come from. After all, it had to come from somewhere - or was there just a ring of giant space stones hovering above the planet, waiting to come crashing down on reckless opponents? Or had his beasty simply managed to tear a piece of another planet off, and send it hurtling through the sky to this particular location? Either way, the idea was simply mind boggling. Especially to someone like Asher.
He glanced over his shoulder, noting a small wave of tentacle monsters biting at his heels, which could only serve to be more problematic in the future. He teleported his full distance away, ejecting his clip as he did so. Spinning, skidding, and coming to a full halt, he tugged the grip on his Spearshot down, slapping another clip in as he did so.
Leveling the weapon at eye-level, he smirked.
Then he proceeded to pick off the 'heads' of eleven of those ugly, slimy, tentacular monsters, hell bent on snapping off some small part of him.
[/blockquote][/blockquote] ( Word Count: 2002 Thread Word Count: 6068 Boss Count: 51840 )
Kefka would have delighted in nothing more than to simply learn the promising young mage's name and hopefully chalk her up with the little team he was creating, but at that moment, several things began to happen quite surprisingly, which even took the colorful and warped magician out of his destructive reveries. For one, there now appeared to be a change in weather around the Cetra Continent, as snow started to fall delicately from the sky in lazy patterns and configurations, covering everyone and everything within a long radius of the beast. Normally, this wouldn't be much cause for concern to the Court Mage himself, he who made entire towns and cities crumble beneath him, he who wielded destructive magics at his very beck and call, he who would become the destroyer of all of Gaia. However, there seemed to be an added side effect to this particular weather pattern, as suddenly the mad mage felt something deep within him. Something stirring, turbulent, and ever powerful. He could feel the course and bucking of his own Mana reserves within him at any given time, and was very familiar with its feel and power limits. Yet he always thought that such limits would never, ever hold him back. He always knew, deep within the recesses of his black, withered heart, that he could always accomplish more, so much more, than what those annoying lab rats in Vector could show him on a pie chart and clipboard. He knew, he knew that he was more than that, would always be far superior to any other mortal being, had strength and gifts that such measly pond scum could only dream of wielding in their most fanciful dreams. He was the epitome of power. And as he stood there, his colorful wardrobe becoming dusted with the strange, exotic snow, he finally felt his body acknowledge that simple little fact. Within his veins, the reservoir of raw Magicite coursed and pumped through him like a tributary forcefully pushing its way through the waking land in the wake of winter, while the spring thaw is melting away the snow in the tundra. The force behind this push reached up into Kefka's mis-wired brain, instilling him with a feeling of sheer and exuberant bliss and ecstasy. His joints felt like trapped lightning, his muscles felt coaxed by a raging inferno, his icy blue eyes widened with the sensation of power finally rippling all over him in every which way possible, his face cracked into a huge and joyous grin. And from his throat, a laugh, subtle as the first song of birds on a clear summer day, started to bubble forth from him, and then, the songs started to turn twisted, laced with utter madness and euphoria of power. His eyes boggled as he rocked back on his heels, his mouth open wide, and cackled out uncontrollably with evil and self-satisfying mirth. The Court Mage rocketed up into the air with the aid of his levitation ability embroidered on his robes and crowed out over everyone and everything at this new and incredible rush of magical power that surged into him like the breaking waters of a reservoir breaking free of its restraints, ready to flood the town. The veins in the clown's neck stood out in stark contrast to his makeup, and indeed if he wasn't wearing makeup just then, his face would have been beet-red from the excitement he was experiencing at that moment. His breath came forward in ragged, uneven gasps, his heart rte was elevated to a level that he had never experienced before, not even during his most frenzied and beautiful killings and plundering, when he set people aflame with a mere thought and caused spears of lightning to pierce through their fragile, fleshy little bodies, allowing them to crumple to the dirt in death and acceptance of his superiority. He always knew that he was a god among men, but this was the first time that he actually felt like it.
As he floated there, high up in the air, the clear, bright, invigorating snow-things still swirling around him and granting him mind-numbing strength, it was only natural that the exuberant Court Mage would begin to feel just a bit giddy at the proceedings that had just occured. From within, where his heart was working overtime to pump the necessary blood to the entirety of his overexcited body in such an excited state, his mind began to see things... peculiar things, especially upon the creature itself, so far away from where he was watching it and still somehow standing despite being continuously pummeled by the airships and the numerous amount of warriors that assaulted its sides, like it were some kind of impregnable and living fortress waiting to be conquered by one of them. Either that thing was more powerful than the mage had previously deduced beforehand, while he was reclining in the tree and perfectly content with the other fools handling the grunt work, or the warrior themselves were nothing more than a bunch of lazy, weak, pretentious children who never ever contributed a single thing in their measly little lives! Had they simply kept up the pressure on the great beast, it would have been destroyed by now. As it stands, it showed signs of battering, but it wasn't quite ready to throw in the towel.
Well, Kefka would chang that little factoid himself. He was quite ready to sit this entire battle out in the pursuit of simply adding this interesting and quite deadly young mage to his ranks of chaos and world obliteration, but now, with the newly shown inadequacy of the warriors facing off against this beast as well as his newfound abilities coming to light within his mind, he was more than ready to face off against such a beastie and make sure it kissed his boots before he granted it the death that it so very rightly deserved. Not for simply causing carnage and destruction and what have you, not merely for that. Simply because it was a part of this wonderful world of Gaia, and as such, it had to go. Not to mention the fact that Kefka remembered the baddie from his little escapade in Lindblum a little while back. He clearly saw this lumbering clod destroy everything in its path before it was conveniently put down by the little sandbox warriors, and Kefka had been upset at such carnage. For as he put it, once this thing destroyed everything, what was going to be left for him?
However, before Kefka could rocket on over to the big bad, uh... thing, and enact his little chaotic shpeal on it, he needed to address the problem of the mage standing below him, who hadn't semeed to move an inch or become even fazed by the situation at hand whatsoever since sending her magical puppets to do her bidding earlier on. Perhaps it was just him, but he felt as though she wasn't even present in the battle, her mind off somewhere else, as if someone had lifted it right out and gone somewhere with it. Kefka merely chuckled at that silly thought. What an odd, yet very funny notion! Nevertheless, he needed to make some kind of farewell to the mage who's mind seemed to be in another place at the moment. So, floating back down from his perch atop the air currents, he plopped onto the ground in a colorful flourish and gave another one of his yellowed smiles at the girl.
"So sorry, my dear, but it seems that we need to do this another time," he said in his most consoling voice, exaggerated to the highest degree possible, like he were a stage actor performing what a goodbye should be like... if the main character was suppose to be hamming up the apology in the script. "Right now, there's a great best which needs my attention. So, until then... toodles!"
Like a multicolored bullet shot out of a clownish gun, Kefka was speeding off, levitating right off the ground at great speed to get upon the lumbering beast so he could do some real damage to it. Hiding in the background, upon reflection, wasn't the mad mage's particular cup of tea in the first place, as he always posessed a personality that had to be known, had to be seen by everyone he found, usually right before he singed their eyes clean out of their sockets. And so, as he rocketed right at the lumbering landmass before him, dust kicking up behind his fleeing red cloak, and plumed white feather streaming behind his head almost laid flat in the blowing wind, Kefka began to notice other things about the battle. Now, he saw that the airships surrounding it were unleashing huge salvos of ammunition upon it from above, filling the air with explosions and projectiles whizzing past in a brilliant and chaotic display of power and bloodlust. As the clown got closer and closer, he also began to notice all kinds of different warriors craling upon the beast in greater detail. Some guys with big swords, that was hardly surprising, a silver-haired man with a really big sword (heh, must be compensating for something with that one, bucko...), a blonde, buxom woman running circuits around the thing with a peculiar weapon of her own, slicing and chopping the skin off of it like peelings off an onion. But as he grew closer, he then noticed something akin to a torpedo slamming from above right into the beast's chest, causing it to roar out painfully, and dislodge itself from the crater it made, taking a human shape. This was another woman, smaller and equally as well-endowed as the other blonde woman earlier, no, even more so! Long auburn hair tied into a ponie tail at the end to resemble a dolphin's tail, and dressed in appallingly skimpy clothing, but the Court Mage hardly paid it any mind. After all, when you had it, you ought to flaunt it, much like with him and his godlike powers, he thought with a smirk.
But then, as he got even closer to the beast, he noticed another peculiar oddity: chains sprouting from the ground seemingly made of the shadows themselves, intertwining constrictingly around the monster's limbs, rooting him in place so that the warriors could seemingly have an easier time of defeating it. But as the airships rained hell and flames from above upon the green beastie, and the warriors upon its body diligently chopped and swung away at it without rest or pause, Kefka knew that they weren't gonna beat it before it would kill all of them. They needed something to make up the difference to their side. They needed a touch of chaos to bring this monstrosity down.
Kefka would oblige. Happily.
He was almost there, almost within reach of the beast so he could begin his slaughter upon it, but then something began to show itself on the area around the creature, something even odder than the chains rooting it to the spot. A circle of black energy seemed to surround it and everything that was on top of it, and it suddenly began to form inot a dome which rose up from the black shadow circle around the beast and create a black barrier to the rest of the world. A pang of fear went into Kefka's mind at this, and klaxons began to blaze throughout his body to go faster, faster, before the gap closed up! He was almost level with it now, almost there! The black wall was rising up faster than he thought possible! He neede to get in, he needed to destroy this creature, HE NEEDED TO DESTROY!!!!!
Kefka flew right over the passing barrier right before it closed up behind him, just barely missing the fringe on his cape. Turning around in midair, the Court Mage crowed in triumph at beating the blockade before it could ruin his chances at a good time, punching the air with his white fist, and cackling madly, filling the air around him with insane giggling as well as the continual sounds of battle and bloody yells. In fact, the harlequin mage was so exuberant that he didn't notice that he was coming right in for a very unpleasant landing right into the beast's thick hide, until he turned around, and it was too late to shift his position. Kefka crashed right into it with a sickening clump, flattened out against the muscled side of the creature, almost in a comical fashion, his limbs splayed outward and starting to curl into themselves with pain. After a few moments, the mage suddenly found himself sliding off of the body of his quarry and fall right to the ground, or rather, the foot of the massive monster, without a sound. After a moment of laying there, the mage allowed a pained and agitated, "Owwwwwww..." to come from his throat.
...I would advise against touching the dome of Black Fire at all...
As Kefka brought his head up from the questionably sanitary skin-ground of the monster, this telepathic thought rippled through his addled brain. His icy blue eyes, half closed and dizzy from the fall, were shaken back to some modicum of clarity and his face made a disgusted expression and said aloud to the annoying new voice in my head, "Thanks for the update, chief, I'll be sure to log that away." Nonetheless, he figured that whoever sent that message was the one who conjured the dome in the first place, not the monster. It would seem prudent to keep the warriors alive by telling them, or at least hinting, that the spell would be just as dangerous to them as to the creature. And so, the mad mage would abide by the disembidied voice's decision and have his fun, though prudence was hardly ever in the equation when there was just so much bloody good work to be done everywhere he could see. He had to remark to himself that even though the dome of "Black Fire" was now completely surrounding all of them, monster and warriors all, it was still as bright as a sunlit day in here. Extremely strange. Whoever had made this definitely had powers that were powerful beyond measure, possibly even more powerful than Kefka's. The mage didn't sense any kind of Mana or Magicite aura rippling from the dome when it shot up, but it certainly wasn't physical at all. No, this was some kind of alien, metaphysical power, something that was probably even more advanced, or more ancient, than Magicite or Mako. Very intriguing. In any case, should Kefka meet up with the master behind this strange phenomenon, he would be sure to keep his distance. No sense in provoking a being whose power is completely unheard of and is untraceable by one's own means, eh?
Kefka brushed such thoughts aside for now in order to focus on the humongous monster right in front of him, seemingly staring him down, him among all the other warriors running upon it like ants on a large oak tree. The Court Mage simply smiled back up at it and gave a high pitched giggle, floating right off again in search of higher ground where he could begin his assault. Scaling right up to the massive monster's chest, the mage halted for a moment in order to gain some semblance of direction, when he found himself beside three other people next to the monster's failed core. One of them, he recognized from his rush over to the beastie. The girl with the long auburn hair. Looking upon her now, Kefka had to admit she seemed to posess a fair bit of beauty around her, which wasn't enhanced in any way by makeup or cosmetics, though the revealing clothes did do their part to show off mosty skin on her. But then again, there was something else. As the mad mage's icy blue eyes looked directly into the girl's big honest brown ones, he began to have something akin to a precognative feeling, something that was hard to describe, and yet seemed exactly real and powerful at the same time.
This girl would be his enemy, his nemesis, his exact opposite. She was everything he wasn't, as likewise, he was everything she wasn't. Two sides of a single coin. They would face upon the field of battle one day to the death, and only one would walk away.
Or... something like that. Thsi was the first time that Kefka had ever felt something like this. Normally, he would simply allow the euphoria of death to consume him in killing his foes and that would be that. He would go on killing and gutting without delay or pause. But here... it was different. It was a whole new type of chaos, a whole unique experience other than mindless violence. Kefka was... afraid of it. Afraid of this feeling of... fate. As long as he could remember, he could always destroy anything and anyone in his path with his godlike powers and abilities with Magic. He never had a care in the world, just going on killing and scarring the face of Gaia, secretly wanting it to disintegrate into ash until nothing was left. That was his greatest goal and aspiration in life. To end all life. And there was no other more fitting goal for him to accomplish in this fleeting and all too vanishing existence. It would be the climax, the pinnacle moment, his crowning achievment.
And now, he, Lord Kefka Palazzo, Court Mage of the Gestahlian Empire, wielder of a power far beyond man's imaginings, and future destroyer of the whole world... was afraid of this single woman!
And why? She looked to be nothing special! She seemed more at home in a brothel than in a battle! Why should someone as mighty and powerful as Kefka Palazzo, Court Mage, ect. ect., be afraid of a small, tiny, harmless-looking bitch like this one!? And yet, the fear in his chest began to grow, began to constrict around his stomach, sending ice water through his veins instead of that ever-present inferno that burns all emotions away. He was losing himself to this fear, this terror of helplessness against this one woman. There was something very weighty about this feeling, something that made it seem more like an edict, or... destiny. A rule that could never be broken.
Kefka hated rules.
And so he hated her. Hated her with the fiery intensity of a million suns! All at once, the fear turned to rage, the cold melted into heat, and he was suddenly back in familiar territory. Kefka was never a stranger to hate. It was his boon companion, his stalwart friend, the one thing he could use in life to make things... simpler. Burn everything down until they were charred black, making them easier to deal with. And this chalatan was now the focus of his most intensive hatred he had ever felt. Damn her! Damn the Fates for creating someone who could face me! Damn everyone and everything! I hate hate hate HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE ALL OF IT!!!!
All of this emotional flux occured in the span of about three or four seconds, where Kefka's outward appearance hadn't changed as radically as the chaotic turmoil that was happening within him. To the three beside him, he would only appear to have mild twitching problems. But should they have looked closer, right into the mage's crazed, icy eyes, they would have only seen a fraction of the madness that dwelt within him, but a taste of the true horror that hid within the skin of a man.
But then, the reservoir of emotions ebbed away, the fear and the hate were supressed behind fragile little floodgates of self-restraint, and the mage slowly allowed the feelings to exit him for a time. He listened to reason, for a change. The feeling of destiny with this woman was nothing. Just a case of anxiety, which might have been a side effect from the newfound power provided by the happy snowflakes from earlier. It was nothing at all to get worked up over, nothing at all. She was nobody, a mere delusional parasite who would die along with the rest of them, once the Black Materia was his. No one knew of his plot, save for his partner Exdeath, and therefore, no one would be able to stop them in obtaining it. For a single moment, the harlequin mage wished that Exdeath was there with him. That armored destroyer always served as a type of anchor for Kefka's insanity, kept things in perspective for him.
After a moment of this, the Court Mage noticed that the other three were probably looking at him, and so straightened out his shoulders and gave a wide, yellowed smile at them.
"Well," he said offhandedly to them, "No use waiting around, wasting our time. I came to have some fun, and this monstrosity is going to give it to me!"
With that, the colorful mage sprung right up into the air and reactivated his levitation powers, speeding right along until he was floating right in front of the ugly brute's face, seemingly an insect, a mere gnat, in front of a fully grown human. Floating there, Kefka merely smiled wildly at the monster's seemingly unresponsive face, and dove right at it, firing off a Thundaga right on it's snout. The explosion was so tremendous that it knocked the creature's head back just a bit before it growled at the insane little bug buzzing around it and proceeded to shake its horned head violently, trying to swat it away. But Kefka was a bit too nimble for it, swaying to and fro in order to avoid the incoming spines, as big around as office buildings in comparison. The mage proceeded to needle the beast's neck with a plethora of minor spells to get it hot under the collar, laughing and giggling all the way. He was in his element, a chaotic warlord beating back a huge beast in order to test out the creature's mettle against his own. The harlequin mage loved ever moment of it, and when the best swiveled it's head around once again to regard this peculiar and quite annoying little bug, Kefka merely blew a giant rasperry at it and turned around smacking his rear a couple of times mockingly, taunting it, humiliating it, showing his superiority over it. The monster growled even more threateningly at this fact and opened its mouth wide, seemingly going to engulf the mage in one all consuming chomp.
Kefka simply floated there, the grin on his face still present, and wagged a finger at the creature. "Tsk, tsk, you big brute! Didn't your mother ever teach you not to play with your food?"
His warning seemed to be reaching deaf ears as the creature leaned closer in, ready to devour the mage. He merely shrugged and charged up a Firaga in his fist. He allowed the euphoria of Mana ever present within his veins to fill him up, reaching every cavity, bleeding from every pore, leaking from every orifice until he was like a beacon of magical energy. The snowflakes from earlier stuck with him during his ride, and so added to the equation, increasing his magical output, amplifying the growing fireball burning fiercely in his white hand. Then, feeling that the Mana was about to explode from all the charging, he released it, a welcoming sense of relief, as his body served as a conduit to channel the destructive power of the Firaga out from his palm and right at the beast. The blast itself was fairly small, wouldn't do much damage if it hit the skin, but Kefka wasn't aiming for any old place. His target was significantly higher.
The blazing crimson ball of magical flame arched right at the creature falling, falling, until it hit smack dab into the monster's right eye socket, causing a massive explosion to ensue, as well as having a great deal of gelatinous goo to splash outward from the wound and fall to the ground far below. Kefka watched the gory spectacle with giddy satisfaction, and wondered idlely if that girl with the auburn hair from before would be drenched by the surprise concoction? Oh, wouldn't that just be a hoot?
Kefka laughed riotously at his scoring hit, as the creature gave a long, low roar at its new, painful, blinding wound. The clown mage held his sides and leaned back in the air, his feet kicking with glee and ecstasy. Flipping around, he brought himself back to face the creature directly, which was still reeling, and zoomed right to the top of its head, which was crowned with horns. Kefka settled himself down amongst the throny top and, grabbing two of the horns for support, he crowed out over the great expanse that the creature made, laughing loudly and wildly in his triumph. He felt on top of the world, literally and figuratively. He had reasserted his dominion upon this creature and even forgot completely about the earlier episodic pangs of fear he felt around that woman. No other human had ever affected him like that. No other human held his attention for longer than it took to kill them, anyway. And yet, that one instance was so radically different from anything else that Kefka knew, it scared him. And thus, his feelings rushed from fear into hatred, and then into the gleeful euphoria of violence, over and over in a never ending cycle of madness. Looping continuosly through his body like a tesla coil of unfathomable emotion.
But right now, he had just proven to her, had just proven to the beast, that nothing could stand in his way. There was nothing he couldn't do! Nothing he couldn't accomplish. And they would pay for such idiocy with their own lives. Kefka would be stopped by nothing and no one.
No one at all...
Word Count: 4485 Word Total: 5563 Boss Total: 56325
Last Edit: Feb 21, 2010 16:44:53 GMT by kefkapalazzo
Ruien had to make sure that his aim here was perfect, from his vantage point above the creatures head it would have been all too easy to miss and hit someone he had not intended to be a target, not that he cared about them, he just did not need to be considered another enemy to this lot right now, he had his own goals to complete before he would let them think that. He shook his head, no, not the time nor place, he was fast to react and pressed himself to the top of the dome as more attacks were launched at the thing, one person in particular caught his eye, a man, dressed in a ridiculous fashion, hovering right in the creatures face.
"What? Does he have some kind of death wish?"
"You've already made the mistake of underestimating someone once just wait for it." Atrum had been right, this man may have dressed like a clown, and looked as though he was quite insane but he was no pushover, Ruien cocked an eyebrow as he watched the performance a short distance away from his purchase on the dome.
"Impressive." Ruien thought, a mage with that kind of power might one day become some kind of threat.
"Kind of makes you re-evaluate your opinion on regular magic." Ruien could have almost laughed out loud at Atrums response, since there was no sarcasm in his voice, Ruien almost felt as though he had missed some kind of joke, it was only when Atrum did not make a follow-up comment that Ruien realised he was being serious.
"Hardly." The creatures head snapped back as an explosion took out its right eye, Ruien caught his opportunity and swiftly sent several lances of Black Fire from around his feet into the creatures left eye, he held them there for a moment, allowing the immense amount of outward power to destroy the thing almost completely, at a finger snap the power drew into itself, taking some more of the creatures eye with it. It was blind now, at least for a little while, for a brief moment he dismissed the VII Flame that he had enveloping his form and dropped onto the top of the creatures head as it recovered from not only the mages immensely powerful spell-weaving, but Ruiens own power. As he landed he once again enveloped his body with the VII Flame, he did not plan on staying here for very long he just needed to-
"Psh. Annoying creature." Ruien uttered as two of the tentacles rose to meet him, their mouths opened in unison revealing the sharp teeth, Ruien shook his head as they lunged forward, this little plan of his had already fallen apart so he was just going to have to alter it, he reformed and extended the VII Flame from his palms so that they roughly resembled blades, their intended use clear. A swift leap into the air and he was stood back on his dome, the two tentacles following his position shift, the first tentacle to reach him soon had its jaws separated from each other as Ruien cut through them the second one was dodged. It slammed into the dome and immediately felt it since the creature began to squeal in pain.
He was fast to act he quickly planed his hands on the tentacle as the creature tried to withdraw from the VII Flame, Ruien was not going to give it such a chance. He enveloped the entire appendage with the VII Flame and at once Ruien could tell that it had, had the desired effect. He released his grip; now that it was covered with the VII Flame he had no need to keep a hold of the thing. However, along with this dome Ruien was unable to coat the entire body of the thing with the VII Flame, so he would just have to settle for this. The creature was going to be in enough pain as it was since a part of it was now being slowly torn apart, not very practical but the pain should serve as a further distraction.
"Ok, let’s try this again." Once more he landed on the top of the creatures head and as he had hoped the pain he was already inflicting on the thing was all the distraction he needed. He placed several segments of his weapon around the creatures head and another several of them hovering in the air just above the first set and then a final set in closer proximity to the dome. He leaped back to his point on the dome and at another finger snap increased the power of the VII Flame still slowly taking apart the tentacle so rapidly that it simply looked as if it had turned into ash.
"Are you sure that will work?"
"Heh, I know it will, I've used this weapon to amplify the VII Flame many times before, this is where it gets interesting." He knew it worked and what he was trying to do was trying to emulate the kind of power that wall of VII Flame had held when he had taken it down. He was unsure if he would be able to achieve that kind of power output, but any damage he could inflict upon this creature would be enough to help bring this fight to its conclusion.
He brought several thin streams of VII Flame out of the dome and sent them straight into the spherical diamond-like objects he had placed only seconds ago. The VII Flame lingered in each sphere for only seconds at a time before moving on to the next one, the amount of power being amplified greatly for each sphere the VII Flame passed through. The VII Flame reached the creatures head, where Ruien left it for a moment, he kept it steady and then.
The resulting explosion of Black Fire once more caused the creature to recoil, or, recoil as much as it could while those chains held it in place. Its head snapped forwards from the force of the attack, Ruien, however, was not done just yet. No, this creature still had more to endure.
"That was pretty good Ruien. How did you acquire that weapon?"
"I killed three bitches to get it. I can't remember what they said their names were. Mo... No... Mai... That wasn't it. Moir.... Screw it, three bitch sisters after I 'died'." There was a long pause from Atrum and then.
"Moirae?" Ruien thought for a brief moment, trying to recall exactly what they had said to him when he had arrived in their domain, he did remember them saying "You shouldn't be here." or "This is not your place!" a lot. Then he merely nodded, more to himself than to Atrum.
"I think that's what they said. I can't remember it off the top of my head, not like I was really listening to them anyway, their voices got on my nerves."
"Perhaps you are stronger than Riuu gave you credit for. Not only did you survive a fight against the Three Moirae sisters you killed them. You've defied fate." Ruien rolled his eyes, it had not really been that big a deal, the only reason the fight had taken so much out of him in the end was merely down to the fact he lacked a weapon and that his control over the VII Flame was weak at the time.
"Fate? An empty, meaningless word created by humans so that they could blame another being entirely when their life fell apart." He could tell almost at once that Atrum was shocked by his response and half expected some kind of 'he needed to respect fate more' lecture, however, no such response came which caused Ruien to smirk. He had the feeling that Atrum agreed with him, he looked back up at the creature, it still trying its best to recover from the slaughter. That was not going to happen, Ruien was going to make sure that he was not going to give the thing the opportunity to recover, at all, it had escaped him once and he had no intention of letting it happen again.
He dodged out of the way as once again a tentacle tried to strike him, once more it slammed into the side of the dome and once again the reaction was noticed, blinding it entirely had been a good move. In fact Ruien would have shaken that mages hand for giving him the opening he needed to finish that job. He shook his head.
"I'm letting my mind wander more than usual." He checked to make sure that the creatures back was clear, he had noticed others going around the back to try and avoid other attacks while they attacked the creature themselves, it seemed as though they had done so only once, however, since the area around the creatures back was empty, this was going to be grand.
He gripped the entire side of the dome that the creature had its back to and began to give it form. He nearly missed the tentacle coming back for another attack, Ruien once more managed to dodge it just in time and then produced a large "spike" of VII Flame from the part of the dome it hit.
"Damn it, this requires too much of my attention." Quickly he ran to the part of the done he was preparing to attack with. He gave it form and then forced it forwards, the amount of power was almost enough to make Ruien withdraw his control just to make sure that he did not lose it, however, no such thing happened, it was an easy task to keep it under his command as the entire part of the dome to the creatures back, bar the part Ruien was stood on launched forward as a mass of spikes which Ruien had refined to look like translucent black energy.
He heard the spikes pierce the creature and as he had hoped the attack had taken more than enough of a toll on the thing, it lurched forwards slightly, almost snapping back to its original position as the chains still held fast. The creature had been too far away from the dome so the spikes had not managed to pierce right the way through its body, but the damage had been done, this one was nearly over, there was no way that this thing could take too much more. Well especially considering the amount of pain it had already endured before things had reached this stage.
Ruien drew in a shuddering breath as the power from the spike dissipated and they faded seconds later. That little move right there had required him to concentrate on what he was doing so much that it was beginning to dawn on him that he was not yet able to fully handle such big and complex power manipulations like that, he needed to learn everything he could in order to fully master this power.
"Not bad, it took Riuu some hundred years to learn how to pull off moves like that." Ruien kept silent, deciding that what Atrum had just said was intended to be a compliment, Atrum had of course overlooked the fact that it had taken Ruien nearly one thousand years to get to this kind of control, but Ruien was not going to make the correction.
"Hmph, a durable thing isn't it?" Ruien thought to himself. He released his grip on the VII Flame enveloping his body and dropped to the ground blow, landing softly. he paced around the field, getting clear of the creature, and for a moment he merely stood looking at it, he could almost swear he could feel the presence of someone he had met long ago from within the creature, but exactly how that was possible he did not know. Hell, Ruien could not even tell who the familiar presence belonged to; just that he knew it from somewhere.
Validor qickly jumped to the side with a grim frown on his face. He then did a backflip dodging the snake like creature that was after him. This one was a little larger compered to the rest he had fought, which usually ranged from pretty big to huge.
He quickly parried a lunge from the beast but even as he struck it, it didn't seem to do much. He quickly slashed again knocking it back a few feet but it quickly went in for the attack again, its bright yellow eyes glowed fiercly at him. Validor quickly slashed blocked its razor sharp teeth from slicing him. However it just merely shook its ugly head and rammed him against the monster's body.
Validor hit its body hard and cried out it pain. He turned to look at his right shoulder which had been impaled upon one of its thorn like body formations on the tip that seemed to cover its entire body. Validor quickly lifted his sword and stabbed itinto the creature, which made it pull back in pain. Validor grunted as he slid himself off the thorn like structure. His shoulder dripped with blood as Validor hoisted his sword up and took another stab at it. And another....and another. He was releasing his frustration upon the beat with every stab and swipe, not giving it enough time to recovery as he delivered swift slash and gorey stab. He finally started to spin his sword around like a chainsaw again and dealt the finishing blow against the snake like creature, sawing its head in half.
Validor then landed on another ne of the Solomon's Key giant thorn like structures. He then set Voix de la Terra down quickly and then placed his left hand over his limp and bloodied shoulder. He quickly tore off a part of the cloth that surrounded the sword and wrapped it around the wound neatly and tightly making sure he didn't bleed out considering the wound was pretty bad. He sighed deeply as he looked down at his sword.
He was nearly at his limits. Nearly able to defend himself much longer. Fighting this creature had taken so much energy out of him.
He wondered if he would even live through this.
However the beast looked like it had taken such a rough beating and was at its limits as well. Of course with all the strong warriors out here beating it to death with their brutal attacks it didn't really surprise him.
He quickly gripped onto his sword and stabbed it into the monster for support as a thunderous ripple and huge boom hit the Solomon's Key. It had seemed it had gotten hit by Meteor, and ancient spell that was not common to see. A shudder went through his spine as he watched it hit against the monster. Somehow he felt deep down, that this wouldn't be the last time he saw that spell....
As the impact and shockwaves stopped, Validor slowly and shakily pulled out his sword and started making jumps towards Asher, who seemed to be picking off the snake like creatures, like he was a sniper. Validor quickly leaped up also causing some damage of his own sending aeros rocketing in different directions to hit tha beast and stabing his sword, Voix de la Terra into its skin just to cause some at least minor damage.
He could feel his muscles tightening and tiring.
"So....tired..."
His fighting capacity was almost exhausted. He could only hope that the other fighters of Gaia could end this battle without his help. With that he gave up on trying to catch up with Asher, who seemed to have more energy than he did. He quickly threw his sword into the Solomon's Key's arm and then grabbed th cloth and swung himself down toward the ground on the edge of the crater. He then turned around and pulled his sword out of the beast's arm, and yanked it back to his hands. He slowly wrapped it back into its white cloth linen sheath, and sat waiting to see the beast fall, and build up his strength, so if need be, he could enter the fray again.
She was somewhat disappointed, as was evident by the slight scowl that touched her lips. Keeping her arms crossed, she watched him, waiting for something but it seemed unfortunate that he was either ignoring her completely, or simply not interested in carrying on a conversation in the middle of a warzone. That was more than likely the case, so for now, at least, she wouldn't hold it against him. Under normal circumstances, he might have made her unhappy enough to actually do something to warrant his attention, but as it stood, there were so many things going on now that she didn't really want to throw off his concentration.
As it stood, she was keeping her chains on the beasty as well - though it was distinctly more difficult for her than it might have been for Tenor, as much as she hated to say it. Her eyes closed, and she could envision the inside of their mutually shared mentality. She mentally called Tenor forward, shaking her head a little bit as she did. Internal monologueing was more than a little aggravating, and required a little more concentration than she was usually willing to give him.
'Any suggestions? This thing isn't going down.' She whispered, in that echoing, madness-inducing voice her mind always gave her. It was funny, because normally, she was the sane one when she took 'back seat' to Tenor. Probably just had something to do with how they saw each other.
When he wasn't in his brilliant gold armour, he was actually quite handsome to look at, which of course made her feel rather awkward - because she and he were more or less the same person somehow. She didn't really know this whole deal very well, but ultimately... who cared?
'Not sure. Honestly, you're doing quite a lot - more than I thought you were capable of in the first place. But I think you're spot on in how you're approaching this. Perhaps...' He motioned towards the earth, tapping it gently with his foot. That was the beautiful thing about the innards of their mutual mind - it could shift and change to whatever they liked. To better emphasize points, meanings, desires.
'No, if I mess with the earth, I might throw a few of the fighters down there off track. I wouldn't want to accidentally kill them and be a murderer now would I?' She asked, which elicited exactly the sort of response she was hoping. He turned a light shade of crimson. After all, he was usually the smart one when it came to things like this... he often came up with plans and things that had to do with wartime and combat and all of those things she very rarely allowed herself to feign concern with.
He scratched his chin absently, and shook his head.
'I'm not sure then, Alienda. The odds of a fight working favorably up close are low, especially since you'll lose your connection to the chains, and potentially let loose the beast. Is there anything else you can come up with?'
She started thinking, quietly. If the thing were covered in metal armour, this would be easy as pie. But as it stood, covered in that living material - or at least, what appeared to be living material - made it impossible for her to actually come up with something that she could do to it directly. Of course, the opportunities were endless - she had quite a lot of metal she could work with, and thusfar, it hadn't hurt for her to be messing with that.
Stepping back in the physical world, and thus out of the 'mental' world, she turned to zero.
"Well, this conversation has been absolutely wonderful. I can't tell you how helpful you've been to understanding the current circumstances." She murmured, still managing to maintain a completely serious, seductive tone. Though the words were meant sarcastically, one wouldn't be able to tell based on how she spoke, merely the contents of her words.
She began to stride forward, as more lights and explosions fell through the monster. The chains that she commanded slowly started to fall away, as she let her concentration on them dwindle. No, instead, she'd be working on another sequence of actions. As she reached the edge of the black dome of apparent doom, she leaped upwards, and came back down in a perfect diver's form.
Face first towards the earth.
As if by magic, she simply slid in, a soft, silky trail of golden particles where her body had vanished. She came up on the other side in much the same way, drawing herself out of the earth's warm confines, within the black fire's constrains. Easing out of it, she stepped up as though the world's earthworks were simple air. She started moving, completely ignoring the occasional chomping tentacles, which would find itself cut open or laid out every time one got too close.
She had two elongated, curving knives, made of the strongest Ivalice steel she could steal - and they were more than up for the task of paring each and every monstrous head down to size, thus rendering them no longer a threat. Every so often, with a foot step, a simple black spark would spread out from her foot, and a tentacle would find itself impaled on a hardened, earthen spike. She knelt down, after a few seconds, and touched a pile of scrap metal - what used to be her chains.
They'd begun to devolve back in to their usual plate forms, resuming what they had been before she transmuted it. That was a problem for dear Tenor to figure out - she just reaped the boons of his study, not the work behind it. Granted, he got the advantage of her ability to walk through solid matter, so ultimately it was a fair trade - at least in her opinion.
'No... no it isn't. You did---' She rolled her eyes, calling off the mental connection, until his voice was nothing more than an incessant buzzing in her psyche. That, was the other downside to this little accursed arrangement - when they weren't sleeping, they were fully capable of pestering each other. It made for aggravating times, especially when she got a little... extra drunk. It made her mental abilities a little weaker than usual, and so she wasn't quite able to suppress his aggravating voice. She didn't know how many times she had to endure him scolding her for whatever reason he felt was appropriate.
Damn judges and their judging people for whatever the hell they felt like.
She wrinkled her nose, the smell of burned and charred body rather aggravating, actually. She wished she could clean the air somehow. Kneeling, she reached out and placed a hand on the other side of it, trying to find a good grip. Black sparks flickered along it's surface, drawing and she nodded. The chains returned, this time shooting out and tagging every available source of metal, thus making the chains ever longer. Each one spiraled out, grabbing each pile of scrap, until there was nothing left on the ground, or even falling from the sky.
Her eyes were alight, with some sort of flickering darkness. It sparked down her cheeks, and passed in to her hands. This large of a transmutation was actually going to be more than a little difficult. The last one was nothing compared to what she was planning. Taking a deep breath, she let out that blackness. She asked him on several occasions, as to why her transmutations were black, where his were gold.
He could never give her a straight answer, which always made her feel a little more nervous than she ever let on. Did her soul alter how well she transmuted? Or was it because her basis was not in pure transmutation, but simply a shadow of his?
Nevertheless, the energy sparked sharply. She took complete control over the chain, swinging it around her head, until soon, the entire length of chains were spiraling in the air, kicking up dirt and steel. It was like a world of metal and power, black sparks traveling up and down the links. She took a deep breath, and began to focus.
This was the big part. She was using her transmutation to not only keep the form, but to keep it in motion, to. She wasn't strong enough to do it on her own. Already, her subtle power was starting to waver - Tenor could do this. Her uncertainty was starting to seep in to the transformation, and the links were beginning to quaver, making noise and irritation.
"You HAVE to focus. You have to make sure you keep everything centered an in order. I can't help you in any way other than this. Relax. Focus on what it is, and what you want it to do. One step at a time. Keep them chains. Keep them moving. Then... do what you need to do."
His words were helpful, even though it was a slight bit of aggravation involved. After all, she thought he'd been silenced. But, this time, at least, he was being somewhat helpful. It was definitely such an awkward situation, and he was trying his hardest to make it easy for her.
Letting out a low growl, she reformed the chains. They became sturdy, actual chains. Her eyes narrowed, and she began to focus her will. Stay chains. Stay moving. Letting out a deep breath, she let those blackened eyes open. And with one quick, vertical tug, she brought the chains crashing forward.
It was a terrifying lash, as the links followed her swipe. However, mid-flight, the chains at the tail end bunched together into a powerful looking sphere, almost perfect in it's completion. Spikes spread out from it, as she changed it from a simple set of chains to a more dangerous, deadly looking flail.
She smashed it, as hard as she could. Directly in the center of the cracked and faded looking crystal.
[/blockquote][/blockquote] ( Word Count: 1728 Thread Word Count: 2649 Boss Count: 60816 Boss Count, 60,000 Achieved)
Last Edit: Feb 21, 2010 18:25:34 GMT by kefkapalazzo
Wolfe was so lost in the moment as he stared down Sephiroth that he wasn’t even paying attention to the events going on around him until his attention was momentarily shifted to a massive explosion from the creature’s chest. Wolfe broke his visual contact of Sephiroth to take a quick glance down, but by that time all he could see was the crazy aftermath of the explosion, and he couldn’t really make anything out. Wolfe decided that it was in his better interest to help finish off this creature before there was tie for anything to happen between himself and Sephiroth. Just as he was about to make his move he saw as a new person appeared near the head of the beast on the other shoulder, near to Sephiroth. Wolfe instantly noticed the glowing blue eyes and knew she was another Shinra dog just like Sephiroth. However, Wolfe got the impression that she wasn’t a typical low end Soldier from watching her movements and attacks. Wolfe was a little taken back at first though, as she was very attractive, but even Wolfe’s natural male drive was pushed aside by the fact that he knew she was a Soldier, and therefore with Shinra, and no matter how attractive she was she was his enemy. Even if it was oly by association.
Wolfe watched as she made her final attack at the creature’s head and then came to rest on the creature’s shoulder near Sephiroth. Wolfe shrugged off his thought as he decided he would deal with them when this was over, if it cae down to that. Wolfe swung his sword out in front of him as he brought his other hand forward so his free hand met with the side of his blade. He then shifted his hand and slid it along the side of Cerberus and there was a soft *clink* as Wolfe detached the front blade from the main blade. Wolfe now stood with a blade in each hand as he readied to make another attack. Wolfe couldn’t help but smirk as he brought his left hand out and turned the blade down, and then stabbed straight down into the arm of the beast.
Wolfe then took off running towards the head, making sure to drag the blade along the beast’s arm as he did. As Wolfe closed the gap between himself and the creature’s head he made sure he was ripping the creature’s arm open with his blade as he dragged it along, cutting open the beast’s arm. Wolfe picked up the pace a little. As he reached the head he ripped the blade from the beast’s arm as he jumped out and away from the beast. As Wolfe flew through the air he twisted his body and spun himself so he was facing the beast. Wolfe then focused all his energy to his center and then started to push that energy out towards his hands. He felt as the energy flowed through his arms and started focusing in his hands.
Wolfe smirked as he swung both hands out to his sides and then he made his attack. First Wolfe swung his right hand up and then forward making a diagonal slashing movement. As he did a burst of energy errupted from his blade and was heading right at the center of the beast’s chest, right at the already busted up core on the beast’s chest. As his swing came to a stop he repeated the process with his other hand as hw swung his arm across also in a diagonal direction, and once again causing an erruption of energy from the blade. The two burst of energy formed an X shape as they continued moving at the creature.
Wolfe swung both blades out again as he he watched the the X shaped blast of energy collide with the beast’s chest with an explosion. Wolfe smirked again as he swung both his hands in front of him. As his hands came together he slid the front blade back onto the main blade of Cerberus with a soft *click* sound. Wolfe then flipped his body in mid air as he continued his decent towards the ground. Moments later he landed on the ground in a kneeling position. He looked up at the creature to see it’s next move, and to make sure he could still make out if Sephiroth was on the creature’s shoulder.
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Word Count: 737 Word Total: 1837 Solomon's Key Total: 61, 553/60,000 (i know it was un-needed, but i already had about 4/5 of the post typed up before Tenor posted, so i figured i should at least post it)
The monster had taken so many attacks, from so many people. And yet...it still stood. Seemingly without fatigue. What was so powerful that could take so much? The chains of darkness summoned by the Dark Guardian begant o strech and strain. A look of shock, broke the face of Zero as the chains snapped under the pressure of the creature's pure brute strength. It opened its gaping maw and let out an earth shattering roar of both pain and fury. It shook itself free of the chains, and those upon its hide would begin to fall, forcing them to retreat back to the airships, or the ground below. It began to step outside of the crater...approaching the dome of black fire.
It appeared as if it was trying to make its escape. It raised its clawed arm and stroked downwards towards the dome of VII Flame. Likely Ruien was expecting it to be trapped. But the moment its claw touched the flaming dome, the blackness parted. Creating a rip in the whole thing. The dome began to collapse and finally...disappeared into nothingness.
To everyone it would appear that the creature had torn through the barrier. But Ruien would be able to feel the truth....the thing had parted the VII Flame not with its brute power...but by using the VII flame itself....by opening it up of its own free will. Something that was...practically impossible. However..it seemed Regent Cid and President Shinra wern't going to let it get away so easily. Cannons fired into the creatures back, and inuries began to open up...and close again. However the creature froze, and began to eminate a purple/crimson energy.
This energy suddenly shot outwards engulfing the area....in this field of energy..there was a whispering in everyones minds. However...it began to condense in front of two people in particular. Ruien...and Zero. Shadowy forms of the two warriors appeared out of this condensed energy...both grabbed and overwelmed the two, forcing them to the ground and shouting in an incomprehnsable langauge. The field began to draw backwards...and the two spectres that had assualted them went with it. all drew back into the monster.
For a moment it was still..and then began to move forwards...leaving the area. The ships were about to give chase...but both commanders ordered against it. Whatever the Beast had done...it had seemingly drained everyone. The field of energy...it had felt disgusting...like....pure evil. Malicious thoughts and feelings ground up into an energy source. Leaving those it touched shocked, well...all but maybe Kefka. He was probably going to be loving this.
With the monster gone, things turned back to politics. Cid and President Shinra aruging over the comm systems about the area and who it belonged to. That was until...over the comm came another voice.
" This is Judge Magister Gabranth of the Arcadian empire....I hereby stake the claim of the empire over this land...".
Outright confused both leaders fell silent. On the horizon...began to appear several airships.....far more than were in both fleets. Then one single large one. What would soon be learned to as being an Alexander class ship. Upon it. Judge Gabranth shouted over the comm once more. " This is your last warning...retreat now...or we will be forced to seed this land with your flaming wreckage...".
Both Fleets retreated...grudgingly.....and a new power was revealed. The Arcadian Empire....from Ivalice.
Boss Complete Rewards: All involved gain 3 new combat abilities or upgrades + 2 magic spells/ upgrades.
Last Edit: Feb 21, 2010 20:29:35 GMT by kefkapalazzo
" This is Judge Magister Gabranth of the Arcadian empire....I hereby stake the claim of the empire over this land...".