• Closed • Breaching The Place...

[Vega]

19th Cylus 720.

Event

- Kill the Breacher Beast.
A huge siege beast has broken through the gate, and seems focused on destroying any buildings it finds, opening holes for more beasts. Stop it before it breaks anything else! High Danger. (Refer to the Lightning Knights Mission Danger Rankings)

Breacher

Vega's additional prompt: These are high-danger creatures and there are multiples of them, so don't worry if someone has already killed them. The Breacher Beast seems resistant to even Vega's sword; the Courtyard Beast seems to possess an innate ability that allows it to sense combat ability, and immediately hones in on Vega should she appear nearby.

It was really a case, Vega thought, of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Of course, arguably, it was the right one, because it meant that they were able to act quickly. However, she and Arlo had been walking the perimeter in order to try and find good stones which could be used as "heat stores" - stones which would be heated up in the forges which were working night and day and then brought out in to the rooms in Storm's Edge. That was something that she'd thought about the trial before when she got back after working on the walls. They'd been collecting up stones and putting them in the Domain Bag and then, from there, they'd be able to use them.

Vega had barely slept in days now and she looked at Arlo with the slightest of grins. "I can feel you fussin', I promise you, I'm fine." She had, she told him, mastered the art of the power-nap and it certainly seemed true. She was grubby, her hair was tied back and not loose like usual, in order to allow her to get on, but she had been more or less indefatigable since they got here. He'd been busy feeding people and making sure that the soldiers and volunteers alike got a good hot meal inside them - that was a job of work in itself and then another one, as far as Vega could see. Looking at him with a serious expression - just for a moment - in her swirling eyes, she said, quite seriously. "I am fine, genuinely. I promise you."

With a slightly lopsided smile, she got back to work, adding, "An' hey, I met Vivian. Remember her? Well, turns out that she's Faldrun born too. Jus' like me an' Varlum. Evidently, he has a thing for V-names, though mine isn't, not really." She was grubby and unsure of what was going to happen here, but Vega couldn't deny the single-minded truth of her next words. "I don't think anythin' will ever feel quite as good as punchin' that loser in the gob, you know." Shaking her head, she turned to say something to Arlo and her eyes simultaneously widened and went white.

"ARLO!" Vega cried and there, charging through the defenses like they weren't there, was an enormous beast. "It's like a kind of fiery Brux!! Arlo! Look out!" She, of course, being who she was, stepped forward and pulled her sword as she did; Vega's movements were fluid and swift and she met the creature. It's horns down, it charged at her and she slipped out of the way at the last second, almost like she was dancing with it. Her sword sliced down in a graceful movement, and as she felt the resistance against her, she called, "It's resistant to blades, Arlo. Shoot it! I'll keep it busy!"

And hopefully, she thought, there were others close by. After all, they were out in full sight.

[Vivian Shiryu]

Vivian had spent almost the entire time since her arrival running around trying to figure who was supposed to be in charge of what. Unfortunately, the answer seemed to be whoever was doing something at a given time. Certainly, their volunteers were plenty busy and were a great help, but there seemed to be no focused leadership, especially among the knights were actually stationed there. Vivian was starting to get a sinking suspicion that she and Varlum were actually the two highest ranking knights in Storms Edge at the moment, and neither of them had been trained in base command yet. For now she was headed out towards the gates to have a look at them and see what was needed for repairs, but before she even got out there, the defenses were breached as some sort of flaming deer like creature bowled through their defenses.

Vivian was, thankfully, already in her armor and she charged out to meet the beast, drawing her sword and shield as she ran. Vega and Arlo were already there, and it looked like Vega was already engaged. But Vega, while skilled, didn't appear to be wearing any armor. She was fast and agile, to be sure, but one good hit from the beast would be all it took to lay Vega out. Vivian knew that she couldn't let that happen, Vega had made herself almost indispensable to the recovery efforts at Storm's Edge. There was also the fact that, as recently revealed, Vivian and Vega were half-sisters, and that did help with Vivian's desire to keep the redhead alive and uninjured.

So as soon as she was in range, Vivian used Rising Lightning and lept forward, swinging her sword at the back of the creatures back legs as she passed. The moment her feet landed, she used Rising Lightning again and lept out of the way as the beast turned to face her. "We need to find a weak point. I've got better armor than you, let it focus on me while you try to find a weakness." Vivian called to Vega when she landed. Then she used Rising Lightning again and charged the beast, this time aiming for the flanks. She got another hit in before she lept away, and she kept this pattern up, coming at the beast from a different angle with each attack. It was a strategy she had been pondering in the back of her head for a long time, but it required open space and she wasn't sure it would work against a smart opponent. For this flaming slab of venison, though, it seemed to at least keep her out of its range while it tried to turn and attack her each time she hit it. But, as good as her sword was, it wasn't doing much damage. To an uninformed observer, it might look like Vivian was winning pretty solidly. Vivian knew better, however, and she saw that all she was doing was distracting it. She also knew that, while Rising Lightning didn't really drain her to use in and of itself, each time she used it, she had to jump at least a little, and that's a hard thing to do in plate armor. Hopefully Vega found a weakness before Vivian began to tire out.

[Varlum]

19th Cylus 720

"Easy, don't strain yourself" Varlum said as he helped a few men lift some supplies around, making sure they didn't strain themselves. All of them were strong enough to be soldiers, but for the most part the rubble and supplies they moved were heavier than most ought to try and lift alone. Soldier or not, none of them were superhuman. Even Varlum had his limits, and by comparison to a lot of them he could lift much more. At the very least, people would expect the twelve-foot tall alligator to be lifting more than the humans around him. Though Vega had proven that wasn't always the case. For someone much smaller than him she was much stronger, and much better with a weapon - and much louder. If she put her mind to it, she might be able to roar across two miles too.

As soon as he heard the shouting and a large creature burst through the gate, however, Varlum dropped the supplies in his hands and told the others to run for help. All of them followed the order immediately, something Varlum knew he was going to have to get used to. He was a Sergeant now. It was a weird change, one that he had initially refused to take on in his career as a Lightning Knight. Leadership hadn't been for him. At least at the start. After everything with Ellasin had gone down Varlum started to realise there might be more to him than just the muscle on his body and the axe in his hand - though that was also a big part of it.

Vivian and Vega had already started to fight the thing, Arlo also close by to Vega. Odds were, he would be joining this fight too, though Varlum knew nothing of his combat abilities. "Vivian, stay on the offensive, I'll keep it busy!" he roared out as his body started to crack and shake a little, pain surging through him as he grew. After a few trills, the Ithecal was at his peak, standing over twenty four feet in height. As soon as he was big enough the Ithecal used another of his Mortalborn powers, roaring out at the creature, the sound echoing across two miles. It was a risk, it always had been. Everyone that heard it was afraid, some terrified. But he had to make sure that creature stayed on him. He was big enough and covered in stone, he could tank what it had to offer. The others were more precise. They had to find that weak spot. Better they fear him, their ally, and see him do good than fear this beast as it destroys their cities.

As soon as Vivian was out of the way, Varlum rushed the beast, using his spark to bring the Earth under it to wrap around it's feet and hold it in place. As he rushed, however, the creature's feet slammed out of the earth Immediately, slamming it's head forward into Varlum's side as the two met. When he glanced down, the beast had shattered his stone scales and blood was starting to form. "Ethelynda, be with me now" he shouted as he called on Nobility's Endurance. Everyone around him that he considered an ally would be safer, taking more punishment than before, which meant he could keep going. As a precaution, the Ithecal called on Serpent's Hood, an aura appearing around him to make him bigger and more of a threat. If these horns planted into someone else, someone smaller, Varlum didn't imagine it would end well.

As he gripped the beast by the horns he turned it's head, holding it in place to try and prevent it from moving, the Earth wrapping around Varlum's feet to help push him forward and hold him in place.

[Arlo Creede]

It seemed to Arlo as if he and Vega were, as often as not, in the wrong place at the wrong time. If not by their own choices and actions, then some Immortal or other for reasons all their own, tended to snatch them up and drop them into the thick of it. This time though, so far as he could tell, was all them. And all they'd been doing was looking for rocks.

So far as Vega not sleeping as much as he was accustomed to her doing, Arlo hadn't been quite as concerned as she might have believed he was. Or, more specifically, he wasn't surprised. Marks, blessings, curses, they all tended to come with their quirks. She had them, so did he, and as time went on, the oddities piled up. "I'll take your word for it," he teased her. "As gospel." Still, she was overdoing it so far as he was concerned. And she knew his thoughts on the matter without him saying as much. And yet Vega wouldn't do it any other way, and they both knew that too.

But yes, he remembered Vivian, though the interaction had been brief when he'd met her. As for Varlum, Vega had spoken about him, though Arlo himself hadn't had the pleasure as yet. "You'll always be Vega to me," he said. "It's the way I first knew you, the way I always will. So yes, lots of v's." Except for him, of course. He hardly had a chance to say more, at any rate, and as Vega's eyes widened, he turned quickly on his heel to see what was the matter. A Brux? Well, technically maybe. But one gone mad and angry, at the least and he reached for his bow without a thought.

Good thing. He'd done it before she informed him that his sword would do very little good if any. But would his bolts do any better? They were about to find out. He'd loaded up a bolt almost simultaneous to pulling his bow, took aim and drew back the string. Just as he'd have released his shot, from the corner of his eye he spied Vivian racing by him, and then the figure of what/who, must be Varlum following suit; and quickly Arlo readjusted his aim in order to fire past and around them.

He'd been focusing on the center of the beast's great chest, but a care for not firing into the bodies of allies forced him to choose otherwise. So instead, it was the fiery beast's right eye and Arlo released his shot. At the least, his mark was close enough to have sunk into the eye socket. It remained to be seen whether or not that was a killing shot; probably not; but at the very least while in the grips of battle with the newly arrived pair of Vivian and Varlum, the thing jerked back it's head and howled in pain and outrage. So Arlo pulled another bolt from his quiver, loaded it up and watched for the next likely opening.

[Vega]

19th Cylus 720.

Vivian came charging up and started bouncing about on lightning as she tended to do. Her half-sister - fellow daughter of Faldrun - made a suggestion, and Vega agreed. As their brother, Varlum, turned up and shouted his acceptance, Vega agreed. "You got it!" It was all they had time to and she glanced at Arlo as he fired into the creature's eye. "That hurts it!" Vega shouted and then the thing lifted it's head and howled.

Vega was very much of the opinion that most - if not all - things were squishier on the inside than the out. That made sense, since the inside of people was where all the gooey things happened, and where all the splatty-stuff lived. So, that being the case, there was a simple solution.

Of course, it involved getting closer than anyone wanted to be and pulling off the kind of manouvere which would probably lead to some rather lively discussion between her and Arlo later. But that was fine, as far as Vega was concerned. The lively discussions were the best ones. The creature lifted its head and howled and that was the moment that Vega needed. She jumped, acrobatically, into the air and pointed her sword downwards. Twisting her body as she leapt, Vega put her body weight behind her movement and she cheekily used the creature's horns to propel her foot as, mid-air, she twisted. This gave her the leverage to put all her weight behind the sword which she embedded in the creature. It sunk deep in it's mouth and ichor-like deep red blood started pouring from it.

The sword sunk deep but, unlike the creatures in the cellar, Vega knew immediately that it's external armour meant that she would be better off - would do more damage - by leaving it in. So, that was what she did, she let go of her sword and carried on the acrobatic leap, twisting over it and landing. It roared and thrashed and blood poured. "This thing won't damn well die!" Vega yelled and stood on the balls of her feet, watching for the moment that she -or anyone else, come to that - could run in and finish it. "Keep shootin' an' lets sink that sword a bit deeper!" Maybe Varlum or Vivian could do that, Vega wasn't sure, but if not, she'd grab at it next time around.

"Stop it chargin'!" she yelled, as the creature seemed inclined to start trying to break through the wall in what must be it's final moments. If it would just hurry up and die, Vega thought, then that would be just fine. Instead, it continued to howl and thrash it's head around, even with a sword embedded deeply in its throat. As it did that, it also prepared to charge at the wall, presumably with the aim of breaking it down. They couldn't allow that to happen.

[Vivian Shiryu]

It seemed all three of Faldrun's children were ready to fight this oversized buck as Varlum joined in the fight. The Ithecal was already the biggest person Vivian knew, but evidently, he didn't feel he was big enough as he doubled in height and let out an utterly terrifying roar. It was, put plainly, the most terrifying sound she'd ever heard come out of any living creatures mouth, even including the time her grandfather had gotten drunk and tried to sing opera. Fortunately, Vivian had faced several of her worst fears before, including nearly drowning not even an arc ago. So she was able to stand firm and keep fighting. "Big enough yet, Varlum?" she called to her brother as Arlo joined the fight and sunk arrow into the breachers eye. "Nice shooting, Arlo!" she called, just in time for Vega's little stunt.

The redheads bravery and sheer audacity brought Vivian to a pause as she watched Vega's acrobatic little stunt. She had to admit, part of was awed at the sheer display of skill, and she knew that Vega would be a quick legend among the rank and file if she kept doing things like that. It was the kind of show-off stunt that Vivian herself liked to pull, barring that Vivian was nowhere near capable of doing that. However, there was another part of Vivian that had a very different reaction, and that was the part that spoke up. "Are you trying to get yourself killed?" she shouted at her sister as Vega pulled away, now without a weapon. "What you going to do now, punch it to death?" she snapped as she charged back in.

Then Vega said to drive the sword in deeper and Vivian paused for a moment to watch the way the beast was moving. "Okay then, maybe you don't plan to punch out a flaming deer." she said, taking another lightning powered leap to the creatures side. "Varlum, you're stronger than me, you go for trying to push the sword in." she called, before raising her shield with both hands and taking aim the eye that Arlo had shot. When she had an opening, she used Rising Lightning and charged at the injured eye, slamming her shield into Arlo's crossbow bolt and driving it even deeper into the creatures eye socket. She didn't believe for a second that this stunt would kill the breacher, but she hoped to create a blind spot that they could exploit. All she could do for the instant though was jump back and take a deep breath. She was starting to tire out, and that was not good.