melodiesoflife | Event || Esdham Under Fire

The Chocobo Rider saw the flailing arms of someone in a fancy red hat, and none of these other Imperial Soldiers were Red Mages so MarKus figured it was one of 'his own'. Coming up he stops before her.

"You headin that way kid? Get on!" The Blacksmith offersh is hand out to pull the girl up to sit behind him. Oh the perks of having time as Chocobo Knight already!

Battlefields have a habit of sweeping one away with them and on account of Sephiroth's exhaustion he quickly lost his bearings from where he had been helping near to the Coliseum. It was easy to focus on one thing -the next attack, the enemies next counter-attack, his follow etc- but if Sephiroth lost his focus from that the lethargy returned like a waterfall over him. So, he kept going. At least his coughing had recovered itself through his use of Lancet and potions when he had come across them, even if a dull ache settled throughout his whole body, within his battle-damaged and dusted-with-soot Dragoon-type armor. At least the helmet was still there, along the majority of his silver 'plume' that his hair scraped into.

But battle, certainly one such at this invasion, was not one he could easily shut his strategic mind from and it's a thought that struck him that brought him with all haste into the vicinity of the Presidential Palace. But X-ATM105 he had not been expecting.

It's spider-like shape was surrounded with an expected escort of Warriors, Mages and Gunners -the general rank-and-file of this invasion, Sephiroth had quickly learned- as they advanced on the building; he'd managed to approach from directly behind them. Sephiroth paused then, narrowing eyes at the arrangement to force his wearying mind to quickly conjure up a tactic.

Ib gratefully accepts the offered hand and scrambles up onto the chocobo.

"Thanks! I'm trying to get to palace. I heard some soldiers talking about..."

And then she sees it. It's big. Much bigger than she expected. It looked like some kind of hideous metal spider. And there's a whole lot of soldiers with it. This is not going to be easy...

"That thing... it's huge! Wh- what should we do?"

Yuna looked back at those running to attack the metal monster that rose before them. She was happy that there were others there but she wasn't sure if it was going to be enough. She only hoped that more people might join them.

She stepped back looking at the group as they got closer. "It's a machine, so use lighting if you have it!" She turned back towards the gather with a smile her bow held tightly in her grasp as she let loose a collection of arrows towards the men at the machines feet. She waited until the machine had walked closer to cast lighting. The spell was to weak to do any real damage but it was at least something.

"Nope sorry but..." he grins.

"I brought a wrench!" ANd he did. Because he's a mechanic long before he was any of these job classes. "Whatever you can do kid, do it! Just hang on!" MarKus felt more like a pilot while on Gundam's back. Making sure not to rattle Ib too much, he starts making his way around it's side.

Giving a swing of his hammer in the air, he strikes it down on the ground, using the Gaea's Hammer skill to hopefully mess up the machine's stance.

Lightning, huh? Well, that she can do. Clinging tightly to MarKus' back so she doesn't fall off the chocobo, she raises her other hand to cast a spell. This time she's not going to be scared little girl unsure of herself and in way over her head. This time she intends to fight bravely, like a hero.

"Thundara!"

It was something that he didn't want to do, seeing just how "cool" the strange mechanized spider looked, but there was a lot on the line if the enemy wasn't stopped, especially if he was attempting to learn more of the Queen and her whereabouts.

He'd somehow managed to find his way to the wall surrounding the Presidential Palace, catching sight of the beast and the small assortment of fellow "Pirates of Light", as he called them. Rushing at full speed, the young future-King of the Pirates leapt from the wall and soared at a great descent to land atop the spider just in time to feel the warmth of Ib's spell hit him.

Unfortunately, his body was no longer comprised of rubber, and thus the attack scorches him as well as the spider he now rides. His face is now a mixture of many emotions; glowing, star-filled eyes that marvel the robot he's prone upon, teeth going sharp as he yells at his pint-sized companion for attacking him, and a breath off smoke coming out of his gaping mouth as he screams.

"HEY! WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA, IB?! I THOUGHT WE WERE NAKAMA~!"

Yuna can't believe that she just watched that happen. This wasn't going to go well if they ended up attacking each other as well as the machine. She shouted up to the boy trying to get his attention. She didn't know what job he might have but they had to be able to hit it with lighting.

"Get down! We need to hit it with lighting!" She didn't want to stop her attack so she aimed her arrow at the soldiers at the machine's feet. Hoping that Luffy wouldn't continue to block their efforts to cast spells at the beast.

"Luffy?!?"

Her cry is a mix of shock and dismay. Ib stops casting immediately, not wanting to hurt her friend.

"I'm sorry!! I didn't- I didn't know you were up there!"

She'd been trying so hard to help and now it seemed like she was just messing it all up.

Still stood a ways behind the actual fighting going on, Sephiroth was still just observing the fight going on. He spotted Ib and Yuna with no problem at all, and even MarKus he had seen around Aqures before on his rounds. They seemed to have come up with something of a tactic and as the first strikes of Lightning were cast, Sephiroth gripped the hilt of his long sword again as if reminding himself it were still there. He shouldn't just stand there...

Movement caught the corner of his peripheral vision and a second later he turned to swiftly cut down a Warrior who had thought to use the fight before them as a distraction to take another kill.

Luffy. That pirate. The one from that night in the Forest. Sephiroth squinted as he looked back to X-ATM105 and sure enough there he was - trying to ride that giant robot and getting in the way. He needed to get clear if they were going to have any chance at damaging it, but it was quite obvious as well that getting clear wouldn't be so easy either. Not with all the other fighters still escorting it.

Somewhat annoyed, Sephiroth grunted and spread his stance, casting Spirit Surge a second before he sprinted in.

"Get clear!"

He opened with Crescent Moon - executed in a long circular sweep of Masamune and suddenly half of the escort turned their attention his way. Break-Break-Crescent seemed to be the way he's learned to deal with mass enemies, with a Decimate popped when it seemed as if one were about ready to drop.

The problem Sephiroth was having with this chain is if repeated too often it drained at his already near to exhaustion energy levels. That and the X-ATM105 had quickly also turned it's attention on him, and after adjusting it's position to make sure it wouldn't kill any of it's allies, raised it's guns in readiness to fire-

Here was not wanting to feel like a one-trick pony, but there wasn't much that could be done with his Monk abilities, or at least that he thought. It had been some time since his body last felt the taxing effects of activating his Limit Break. Steam begins to billow up from his limbs as he clings to the mechanic monstrosity with a tight grip of one hand.

"IB! CAST IT AGAIN! THE STRONGEST SPELL THAT YOU'VE GOT!"

The Break goes off, sending a minor rumble through the joints of X-ATM105 as his skin turns a bright shade of red. His free hand meets his teeth, biting down into the digit and dragging in a deep breath of air in the process.

"GEAR THIRD-!"

His fist is inflated to a size that easily dwarfs the height and girth of the metal-spider he rides, growing up above the small assembly of heroes that have gathered to stop the assault. Doing his best to shift the air through his rubberized bones, the enlarged fist is shrunk down as the injected air is channeled down through his body and into his left leg. The limb hangs up above, looming like a tree that had been felled as it began to tip down towards the relentless beast. Seeing the guns take their aim at the silver-haired Hero, Luffy's urgency to his friend becomes all the more severe as he calls out.

"NOW, IB! CAST IT ON MY FOOT! DO IT!"

Yuna had seen some strange things but nothing exactly like this. She didn't have the time to gawk and while she thought that this boy might be silly she also blindly trusted his words. She casted her thunder spell at the same time as Ib hoping that the combined effort might have a greater effect.

"I hope he knows what he's doing." Her voice was soft, talking mostly to herself as she watched the attack on the mechanical monster.

Once the spell was cast she looked down at the people at the monsters feet and Sephiroths skills. It was strange seeing him fight and even more strange being on the same side but she didn't pause for too long, drawing her bow and aiming at those soldiers that still stood at the machines feet.

'The hell are you doing you stupid...' MarKus gets to think to himself a moment before noticing the guy's arms and such swelling up.

"Oooh... Hey kid, when you're done with that... aim for your sword next." MarKus orders as he hops off his chocobo and goes as far to steal Ib's sword. "I'll make you a new one! Gundam, stay with the girl!"

The giant bird squawks out and backpedals a bit, turning Ib into a spellcasting turret. MarKus himself hurries in while Luffy and Yuna work to do... "the thing" and Sephiroth wails. The Blacksmith heads for one of the machine's legs and, upon finding a joint, he jams the sword into it. To pile on the effort he uses his hammer to smash it in further!

MarKus proceeds to do his own thing, trying to steal parts of any fashion off the machine before reeling back and unleashing a wrenching swing of his hammer in the form of his Tool Blast one time before scampering off out of range of the next slew of lightning spells. With the sword jammed into it's leg acting like a lightning rod, it just needed a little magical juice to do it's job!

As she approached on foot, Summoner Yuna was in wide-eyed awe of the scene just ahead. On second thought, perhaps it was a little more horrified realization than awe. With her staff in front of her, she came to a halt, firing off Protect, then Shell in the direction of all those present -- except Luffy.

It seemed as though that man riding the enemy. Although the brunette gripped her weapon tightly in worry as her brows screwed uptowards together, she stood back, ready to prepare a barrage of healing spells towards him, once his attack was released...

Things are moving far too quickly for Ib to do much more than try her best to keep up. Losing her sword is no big deal, she barely uses it anyway. But Luffy actually wants her to hit him with lightning again?

She isn't sure what Luffy or MarKus is planning, and there's no time to waste protesting or asking questions. So she casts her spell again. First on Luffy's foot, then on her own sword. Lightning crackles through the air, charging the atmosphere so much that she almost doesn't notice when the protection spells wash over the party.

The lightning crackles through the air, charging his rubberized appendage as it continues to loom high above the gathered crowd of fighters. With the full strength of his lungs, the pirate cries out as the whirling sizzle of electricity illuminates above those below like an elemental light show.

"GIGANTO~ THOR~...!"

The wind rips, the enlarged leg cutting through the air as great speed is given to the drop. The direction in which Luffy swings his leg is downwards, aiming his heel at the body of the spider on which he rides, the coursing charge of his leg intent on not only making its mark but hoping to short circuit the beast as well.

"AXE~!!"

Bone had been expanded, stretching out to make his foot and leg to a monstrous size. The mass still held the same properties are regular bone, but had been amplified due to the nature of Luffy's body. The weight of a dozen bulldozers plowing forward at an unimaginable speed, like the might of the largest giant, careened downward until the heel crushed down upon the mechanical monstrosity as an explosion of electricity erupts in a bright flash of light.

Moments pass before the smoke clears, a plume rising up rapidly with a small figure causing the trail to loop around and linger in the air. Lips flap as the air is forced from the lungs of the miniature person, causing a rather crude noise in the process before the body bounces and collapses on the ground. Where once stood the height of an average young man had now been replaced by what appeared to be a small child, sharing Luffy's appearance and clothing. The same scorch marks that had been given to Luffy from Ib's previous attack now covered the pint-sized pirate, his body having shrunk now that his Limit Break had been expended. Looking at his hands while taking not notice of the effects of his attack on the X-ATM105, the higher pitch in Luffy's voice now presides over his tone.

"Geez.. That was pretty scary. Phew! Thanks, Ib!

Edited 2015-01-23 04:50 (UTC)

Yuna saw the others preparing for the attack and then there was the rush of white magic rushing over her. She turned for a moment looking back at her mirror image before pulling her attention back towards the fight.

The smoke had cleared just enough for her to see the sight of the attack. It was clear that it did a lot of damage to the mechanical monster that loomed before them. Her eyes went to those at its feet knowing that they were unharmed, hidden by the clearing plum of smoke. She pulled back her bow and waited not wanting to hit Sephiroth or anyone else who was close to the soldiers that were accompanying the machine.

Rikku joined the fray only to freeze in a fear at the deafening zaps and rumbles of the maelstrom of lightning spells. Of course, it had to be a bunch of lightning everywhere. Of course!

She could handle Lulu casting the spells - she trusted the woman with her life and frankly, could not imagine the black mage doing anything wrong. Ever.

That didn't mean the crack of them didn't still turn her stomach. To make matters worse the rather disorganized handful of heroes seemed to be hitting each other. Rampaging machina were her specialty back on Spira but she wasn't going to get near this thing only to be zapped. No way!

Bracing herself with a shaking breath, she sprang into action, taking point near Yuna where the white mage stood healing the group. A swift thrust of her a dagger slipped through the eyesocket of a charging enemy, no sooner was he falling down than she had lept to bite the blades fiercely into the throat of another. Keeping Yuna safe and healing would help the people crazy enough to get close enough to the lightning and fight, she hoped.

Cut-cut-slash, the fight with the accompanying soldiers around the robotic spider had proved more difficult than Sephiroth had found fighting over the last couple of days. No surprises really if he dared to pause to consider it. He was without the stat-raising buffs that Genesis had granted him before, out of the assistance that working through the Coliseum teamed up in one capacity or another had granted him. Not to mention the exhaustion that rippled through his frame with almost every sword-strike. Sephiroth didn't know if he looked that exhausted or not, and to be quite frank he wouldn't care - they needed to protect the presidential palace or it would all have been for nothing.

He hadn't seen the barrels from the robot be pointed in his direction, and only vaguely had he been aware of the shouting, yelling and the respective actions of his comrades in this fight. It all had blurred into the constant chink-chink of metal on metal as he battled away.

But it was impossible not to notice Luffy and as the explosive, blinding white of his electric-charged limit break went off Sephiroth had no chance to react. He was blown back away from the epicenter with the force, along with many more of those he were fighting- crashing into the pavement further back and the momentum rolling him thrice before coming to a stop on his front.

Pushing up with his arms, Sephiroth was acutely aware of the dull throbbing that intensified throughout his frame now that he'd been brought to an abrupt stop - all of it rung in time with a cloud of nausea just on the inside of his awareness. More than a little dazed he peered around from within his dragoon-helm, forcing his head to turn as he sought not only to locate where Masamune had been flung to but also what were the outcome of the limit break had been.

There's so much going on that it's only by chance that Ib sees Sephiroth get pushed back by the shock wave. Her first instinct is to try to reach him, to see if he's okay, but there are far too many soldiers around. Not to mention the spider robot. She might be able to do something about the soldiers though...

But they said to use lightning. And this would be ice. But it might be the best thing she has. And situations like this? This is why she picked up the summoner job. And maybe enough ice would slow that thing down. She closes her eyes, concentrating, calling for aid from the icy goddess.

"Shiva!"

She feels the cold wind rushing in, accompanying the Diamond Dust.

Edited 2015-01-29 02:19 (UTC)

That thing again... last time he saw that huge blue bi-- woman was in October. But at least it seemed to be on his side, and not ready to try and ice him over. At least the girl was putting his chocobo to use.

MarKus too was knocked back by the impact of Luffy's madness, shaken and dazed himself. He felt a sort of ringing and heard some odd noises as he shook his head but passed it off for the time being. Reaching to pick up his hammer, instead his hand grasped around a long blade. He'd found something the white-haired Dragoon was looking for.

It wasn't going to help him much, so instead he sought to get it back in the hand of someone far stronger than himself and grabbed it by the handle, making a bee-line for where he could see the huge mane of white kneeling and reeling. Naturally as he ran he saw how busted up the sword was. Trash quality... but now's not the time to be whining about that...

"Hey! You... git back to work." he says with a smirk, bumping the handle of Sephiroth's sort against his breastplate. "Work it till it breaks"

A plume of smoke, as if by some strange magic trick, and Luffy is back to his usual build. Covered in the scorch marks from the repeated spells put to his body, the pirate makes a short run towards the group of heroes as he keeps the hat to the top of his head with a hand.

It isn't until he's started into a run that he sees the large, blue-skinned female appear out of thin-air, making his eyes go wide as he comes to a screeching halt.

"WUUUGAH-! WHAT-.. WHAT IS THAT?!"

Feet make for the opposite direction, turning to speed off away from the oncoming wave of winter that approaches. The rush of a chill wind is nearly upon him as he dives to jump away from the robot he had attacked, as well as a few of the lingering invading soldiers.

"IB! I ONLY SAID TO CAST THUNDER! WHAT DID I DO TO YOU?!"

"Move out of the way!" Yuna ran closer to Yuna, Rikku and Ib with her bow out and ready. She knew this summon and Luffy wouldn't do well being stuck on top of the machine when diamond dust is cast. She felt so helpless running towards the fight without her abilities from the past. If she could still use the chaos then she would be able to do something.

She skidded to a stop looking back at her cousin and other self as they stood in the back of the fight. It was a strange feeling but at least for now they had support. Everything was chaos.

She watched Soldiers stand from the blast and began to aim her arrow to fire at their rising forms. There wasn't much that she could do except protect those casting from a safe distance away.

"Yuna." It was weird calling herself but it wasn't the time to dwell on that. "Can you cast Shell on him?" She pointed up towards Luffy.

Chaos was putting it lightly... while the white mage couldn't be sure of all the things she was seeing, the trickling cold that Yuna felt was a familiar one as she watched as Shiva appeared. She shot her head from side to side as the aeon spun her magic, waiting perhaps a moment to long to see what would happen -- the sound of her own voice calling her name broke her from the sudden bout of tunnel vision as she gave her head a shake, eyes narrowing in Luffy's direction.

"Right!" she replied quickly, staff encircling as she sent a combination of both Shell and Protect towards the man atop the machina. "And... this too!" the mage cried, trying to land a cure, and cura on Luffy as well, even knowing their effects would be dampened.

Given their situation, being in the midst of battle, MarKus would be forgiven for not having the time to inspect Masamune that closely as the sword was far from trash. It's legendary nature aside, that sword had been arguably the best caliber of blade available on Gaia and even since Sephiroth had arrived to Crystallis he'd been taking care of it like he had always done. Sure it was more than a little battle-scarred currently due to the fact he'd been fighting for nearly three days straight but it was certainly not going to break any time soon. The gleam caught all down the long, sharp edge was still undeniable.

Sephiroth had managed to scrape his legs underneath him and get to his feet as the chilling air of Diamond Dust swept around the area out from the blue-skinned eidolon. The cold burned at his tired eyes but thankfully he was far enough out from the activity that he was relatively safe. His gaze found the spider-robot, -the other soldiers' dead bodies littering the space around them- noting how it seemed to struggle with it's regeneration in the wake of Shiva's attack. Kind of half-going through the moves to do so but then the energy not stretching far enough.

It was probably a good thing that MarKus couldn't see the immediate scowl from behind Sephiroth's helmet at the way that the pommel-end of Masamune's handle was bashed against his breastplate along with the accompanying comment. Just who did this guy even think he was talking to? 'Get back to work-'- how rude could this guy get? 'Work it til it breaks'- hmph, whatever.

What resulted was nothing but a half-snort of a grunt as Sephiroth closed his hand around the handle presented, and both pulled harshly away from MarKus and stepped into a stance away from him. Apparently having little regard to how close MarKus was to the keen edge of his sword, but in reality having perfect control; even though MarKus might have expected it to cut him, it did not. Still, it expressed how unimpressed he was without causing any injury.

"You should get back." He commented lowly, with just a hint of sarcasm before Sephiroth turned his attention completely back to the robot, resetting the grip on his sword. Spirit Surge took a beat longer than he liked for it to be cast, but gritting his teeth and blowing air out of his nose Sephiroth executed Leap once more-

-he came down Masamune first, like a great pincer into the middle of the mass of metal that was still trying to execute it's self repair.

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her_rose_is_red - 2015-02-01 02:01 (UTC) - Expand

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victorix - 2015-02-01 05:04 (UTC) - Expand

Event || Esdham Under Fire

Attack on the Presidential Palace (Boss Battle)

Attack on the Presidential Palace (Boss Battle)

Re: Attack on the Presidential Palace (Boss Battle)

Attack on the Presidential Palace (Boss Battle)

Re: Attack on the Presidential Palace (Boss Battle)

Re: Attack on the Presidential Palace (Boss Battle)

Re: Attack on the Presidential Palace (Boss Battle)

Attack on the Presidential Palace (Boss Battle)

Re: Attack on the Presidential Palace (Boss Battle)

Attack on the Presidential Palace (Boss Battle)

Re: Attack on the Presidential Palace (Boss Battle)

Attack on the Presidential Palace (Boss Battle)

Re: Attack on the Presidential Palace (Boss Battle)

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