melodiesoflife | Event || The Empire Strikes Back

Event || The Empire Strikes Back

Characters: Everyone participating in the event
Where: Aqures Ixen
When: July 27th to August 02nd
Summary: The battle for Aqures Ixen is about to begin! The Heroes of Light are going to do their best to defend Aqures Ixen, but will this be enough? Feel free to participate and reply to appropriate threads. New top-level threads will be posted regularly as the battle progresses.
Warning: N/A, will be updated.

July 27th || Mingle
July 28th || Bomb Defusing / Imperial Assault
July 29th || Mingle / Attack on the 13th District / Aerial Battles / Imperial Camp
July 30th || 14th District on Fire / The Hospital / Mognet Office Attacked
July 31st || The Fire Spreads / Betrayals
August 01st || The Second Wave / Ultima Weapon
August 02nd || Final

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Yuna looks awful, there are cuts and bruises covering her and she isn't wearing enough clothing to hide them from sight. She looks tired and hurt but she continues to move through the burning city.

She casts watera as she moves trying to find the trail of fake fire that leads towards the Illusionist. It won't take her long to follow if she does so systematically but she's tired and she's pushing herself to her limits.

There are so many people here that she wants to protect.]

Yuna!

[Bartz suddenly pops up next to her. He keeps forgetting that running around invisibly means that you are very likely to startle people. Especially people who are in the middle of a huge battle and are already on edge.]

Are you okay? Did you find the guy yet?

[Yuna jumps and almost casts watera at Bartz before stopping herself. She places a hand over her heart suddenly feeling a lot more tired than she had before.]

Oh, you scared me!

[She takes a moment to catch her breath and then shakes her head.]

I haven’t but I’m trying to help put out some of the fires so we can see what isn’t really.

[Yuna points towards a flame to her right.]

That one was fake when I cast watera on it. It hasn’t changed but I’ve kept an eye on it.

Er, sorry. I keep forgetting when I'm invisible.

[He does have the grace to look slightly chagrined. When she indicates the illusory fire he pokes at it curiously. Yup, not real.]

So do you think he's nearby? He's gotta be, right?

[Not that Bartz knows the range of a crystal of illusion.]

[Yuna nods.]

I would think so but I don't know that job very well. I've never used it myself.

[Which means that Yuna doesn't know either. She turns to look out over the fires and sighs.]

I know it's dangerous but maybe if we split up?

Me either.

[At the suggestion that they split up, he glances around.]

Yeah, it might help. We could cover more ground at least.

[He points at the fake fire in front of them.]

Are any of the fires nearby like this one?

[At least that would give him some direction to go in.]

[Yuna points at two more fires, both to either side of the fake one that she had found.]

I guess we can each go both ways?

[Though she isn't sure if it will lead them in the correct direction.]

The Fire Spreads - Following the path

free_spirited_wind - 2015-08-04 21:30 (UTC) - Expand

The Fire Spreads - Following the path

whereishe - 2015-08-04 22:37 (UTC) - Expand

The Fire Spreads - Following the path

free_spirited_wind - 2015-08-05 03:13 (UTC) - Expand

[Yugi could only do so much given the marks and bruises he himself had gotten. He wondered the next time he saw Yuffie if she would yell at him or something. But as he ran, using a low leveled water spell he was trying his best to help out along with Buer. Skidding to a halt he couldn't help but stop seeing that not all the flames were being put out before seeing someone else near by.]

Excuse me, have you noticed that some of the flames aren't going out?

[Yuna nods.]

I think there is an illusionist. It's spreading us pretty thin fighting off the flames and determining which are real and which aren't.

[She casts towards another building and this time the flames go out with her intense water spell. The rain helps but somehow the fire keeps spreading into the city.]

An illusionist...

[He knew such a job existed but never had he seen anything they did first hand and he had to admit it was scary if one can't tell the difference. Trying his water spell on a nearby part of a building he noticed that it was real while the one Buer got wasn't.]

Interesting. But we can't let them keep this up, but at the same time we can't ignore whatever isn't fake.

[Yuna nods, that is the difficult part of all this. They need to find the illusionist but they can’t just ignore the fires that slowly began to overtake the city.

Even the rain couldn’t temper its furry.]

Use the rain to find the real fires and put them out. We should be able to follow the fake fires to the one starting them.

[He would have never have thought about using the rain to find the fake rain compared to the real rain.]

But what if we miss some real rain following the fake one?

[She paused slightly. Putting out another fire before looking around.]

I mean I am all for finding the person behind this, but at the same time I don't want it to spread and cause more damage because no one is here to take care of it.

[Yuna nods.]

Would you stay here then? I’ll keep looking, putting out fires along the way?

[It’s the best option she could think of and with so many of them working it would increase their chance of putting out the fires.]

If you run into trouble throw up a signal. I’ll come running.

Edited 2015-08-03 14:54 (UTC)

(no subject)

sizedoesntmatter - 2015-08-04 08:19 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

whereishe - 2015-08-04 14:38 (UTC) - Expand

Allow me.

[without further notice, K'pandolu casts Cure on Yuna. Most of her attention, though, is on the flames.]

Have you found anything suspicious?

[The cure helps a little but it doesn't give Yuna back the energy that's she's lost. So much has happened and she keeps pushing herself forward. Her gaze looks over towards K'pandolu and she nods gesturing to a nearby flame that seems unaffected by the rain.]

It's an illusion.

[Though she isn't able to pin point where it is.]

[it's something, at least. Though there's not much she can do for Yuna's energy… The best she can offer is resolving this as quickly as she can.]

False flames amid real ones… [she shakes her head.] Is there any way we can counter it?

[Yuna shakes her head.]

I’m trying to put out the real ones so they don’t spread but there is no telling when the false flames become real. I haven’t seen any just vanish…

[She doesn’t know the best way to handle this but she’s trying her best.]

So they must still be maintaining them.

[she glances at the flames, taking note of as many details of the flames unaffected by the rain as she can.]

How close would you have to be to start and maintain an illusion like this?

I don't know. I'm not familiar with the illusionist job.

[Yuna's never equip it so she doesn't know for sure.]

Do you know anyone who might know?

The Fire Spreads - Following the path

unyieldingspirit - 2015-08-03 03:38 (UTC) - Expand

The Fire Spreads - Following the path

whereishe - 2015-08-03 12:51 (UTC) - Expand

The Fire Spreads - Following the path

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The Fire Spreads - Following the path

whereishe - 2015-08-03 14:25 (UTC) - Expand

"Watera!" came from behind her as Albel held out his gauntlet, taking on the next building. Another illusion.

The warrior panted and wiped his brow with his good arm. Magic was hard, and it was so hot amidst the flames. Not to mention that he'd sprinted back to his unit after checking on Mognet -- which he had run to from the hospital. Bangs plastered to a sweaty forehead and gasping for breath, the cocky swordsman definitely looked worn down.

He wasn't sure which Yuna this was, but he supposed it didn't matter at the moment. "Are the others sweeping the other streets?" he asked, assuming there must be a group hunting down the illusionist.

Yuna turned, her long braid flipping through the air as she took in the sight of Albel's worn form. She didn't remember meeting him before but it was obvious that he was on her side.

"Yes. I don't think the illusionist has been found yet." She looked up towards the sky as if looking for some sort of signal. "I've found several fake flames trailing from that end but I can't find there source."

Yuna was tired and her tone betrayed the wear that she felt from being active for days with little to no rest.

"From that end..." Albel followed her gaze. If he could cast Shunshin, he could run ahead, try to get a better look, possibly rout out the one responsible.

Still... there was no guarantee the illusionist was there, and it was a large area to cover. And the girl was in bad shape. Perhaps it would be wiser to stay. He wasn't in the best condition, either.

"Alright. I'll stay with you," he decided, wiping the sweat from his eyes again. "We'll keep moving that way. The illusions might be stronger the closer we get to him."

Yuna just nodded, she wasn’t in shape to argue and she’s talked to so many who took a different direction than her. She was a little thankful that someone would work with her. She gave him a small smile and a nod.

“Sounds like a good plan. I’ll keep casting water on the builds as well. I keep thinking that the fake fires might turn real if we aren’t careful.”

The rain was helping some but it wasn’t enough to stop the roaring flame. Yuna stepped towards their destination, holding out a hand as water flooded from the earth and onto the fires.

"Whether through the illusions or not, if we can't halt this or find the source, the fires will spread." Albel grit his teeth and moved on to the next building, casting Watera again.

"I hope most of those fools left their homes. At this rate, we'll lose a considerable amount of the district."

It wasn't that they weren't trying their hardest; when there were so few of them, spread so thin fighting this, the incoming troops and airships, the Moogle Killers... It didn't matter how hard they fought, they weren't strong enough to save everything. That last thought of weakness knotted Albel's stomach, pushed him to try harder.

Edited 2015-08-10 23:36 (UTC)

Yuna followed after Albel keeping an eye where he couldn't her eyes moved over the city glancing around at the buildings before casting watera once more.

"I think most have been sent to the temple for safety." She turned again putting out a flame as rain fell from the sky.

The flames around them seemed to have been real and together they manged to put them out before moving along the fires path.