There was a quite the maelstrom on new commotion going on. From higher up on their path, where Vash and Archer had ended up going to argue, came again the System Lord, that vampire and some sort of... odd, zombie creature. Well, then. Unfamiliar were the gun-slinging, thick-accented lady, the very-obscured masked muscleman, and the absolutely revolting giant rat perched on the undead thing's back. Sazh could only assume they were also challengers who had somehow managed to get roped into this.

Between the now wholly present group, there was a couple of folks consoling the very distressed Whitney, Vash, Archer, Ba'al and Sorin arguing over semantics and righteousness, Nonon still being a snarky wise-ass, Saber managing to dispel her awkwardness around cats by focusing her disapproval of the zombie, and that freakin' viking falling out of the sky with a painful but apparently harmless crack. In the midst of it, Sazh could only consider once more how able this group would be of actually working together at all, when it came down to it. His whole idea of trying to get the folk together to gauge their abilities had taken one step out the gate and fallen flat on its face, so...

Sazh didn't get that chance to finish that thought. The entire sky area around them suddenly began to twist with shadowy clouds, a storm of dark distorting that hung thick in the air. Black power was flung in chunks from.. somewhere, soon revealed to a massive, sinister-colored... thing. 

Was that their dragon, come early to snuff them out? It looked more like some giant cat, a quadruped creature cloaked in a fur sleeve. It touched down lead, spreading hundreds of violet particulates everywhere and tainting the environment with its very presence. With a crackling twist of the fur cape, out was unfurled two colossal wings, cutting the battlefield dangerously short and spreading yet more of that choking miasma. A roar, then a furious storm of venomous orbs was unleashed, and the battle began.

The cat-like had mentioned that perhaps the dragon might be weak to fire. Noting the apparent abundance of fur on some aspects of this thing's body, Sazh vouched a good guess that those were quite flammable. Quickly, he conjured a magical shell around himself, only barely able to outcast the barrage of poison. Without even drawing his pistols, the l'Cie charged up a surge of heated magic energy in his brand. Moments later, Sazh finally unleashed the blast in a huge flaming sphere; that hitting the dragon dead-on would result in a huge flaming explosion, with great stopping power and the distinct possibly of catching its furs aflame.