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Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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“Really could be worse!” was Éliane’s simple quip to both Izayoi and Galahad. Of course she still disagreed with the circumstance—and the metal dragon being able to teleport was indeed a high degree of bullshit. At least it was the kind of bullshit that the pink-haired woman to roll with.

The others in the party that were faster than her were already moving into position to intercept the creature before it could bring its full might to bear against a very hapless Miina. Between Rudolf, Esben and the faeries, they were managing Adrammelech… and lining it up for Éliane to exploit the opening they had created for her.

She had been skirting closer to the action up until now, but as she finished pounding it in the chest with one last round, with a dash hop, and a jump, she closed in, lobbing a pair of explosives at the large gash in its chest. “Watch out. Bombs away!” she announced, already underway in getting somewhere safer. Éliane was getting somewhat better at announcing her explosive tendencies.

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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This level of magic theory, the stuff that dealt with how life and succor was sustained by the world itself was beyond Éliane. She trusted the others to verify Cid’s words, not entirely trusting the Eidolon of Thunder, but seeing that her companions were satisfied with his explanation, she was.

She still thought that Cid was a right bastard by error of omission though and would hold a grudge for a while.
The others might have not been too enthusiastic, but after the mess that was Leviathan, Éliane could get into a true –lower stakes—trial against Ramuh’s attendant.

With a flash and a jump her weapon glinted dramatically as she quickly dodged the opening bolts of lightning, giving Miina an unseen wry smile that quickly turned eager as she fired back. Her gunblade barked throatily as she drifted towards the flanks of the creature, her battlefield experience already guiding her before the others’ words.

Éliane’s gunblade clacked as she reloaded, slamming a fresh barrage in to add to the others’ volleys to keep Rudolf in the fight.

“Charging in was my move,” she commented idly.

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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At the sight of Cid and blightbeasts, Éliane didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She was truly getting sick of the old man, no matter how helpful he had tried to be. Everywhere he went it seemed trouble was following him. Éliane was fine with that to an extent—it was a good excuse for the thrill of combat and to keep herself and the rest of the team on their toes and their blades honed… but not when it came bringing leviathans, titans, and enemies that required literal armies and heavy weapons to even contest.

In that way, seeing Cid being beset by blightbeasts was actually a breath of fresh air. Cid hassled brought some petty schadenfreude, and she could shoot and stab malignant fauna all day. The only worry was the giant sage, but he only seemed hostile towards the monsters for now.

“Esben, isn’t this fun?” She commented with some mirth, chuckling as she watched Cid shake off one of the creatures before she surged forward.

Unsheathing her gunblade, she sprung into action, but she held herself back slightly, allowing the newest member of the party to overtake her. Éliane wanted to know what Chisato was capable of.

Shooting into the densest part of the pack, she whistled as the small ninja blew up some of the beasts. “I like your style, kid!” Cackling, and not to be outdone, she lobbed one of her own explosives towards another group of the monsters, watching with satisfaction as it exploded among the group, scattering them further.

If it happened to be close enough to Cid that it singed his clothes a little bit, it was purely accidental, not intentional at all.

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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With the very short girl named Chisato vouched for by Izayoi herself, any concerns Éliane had left her mind as her attention turned back to the far more pressing issue of Drana Asneau. It was good to know the team had yet another assassination expert waiting in the wings if (and when) it came time to remove the grovemasters from their unearned perch, however.

The discussion quickly moved towards more tactical and practical concerns, and the pink-haired woman nodded along at this, following the discussion closely. “Getting into the city itself shouldn’t be problematic with careful planning,” Éliane concluded. “A city like Drana Asneau isn’t a very secure settlement. Even with regular patrols and checkpoints, with the amount of forest and canopies it should be a cakewalk to sneak in at night.”

She didn’t say it, but Éliane thought that even if she was outright wearing her uniform she could still sneak into a city like that.
Esben’s plan sounded satisfactory, although her eye visibly twitched when he specifically forbid assassinations. Her annoyance increased when she realized her involvement of the plan would be very passive. Too passive.

“I remember him. Just barely. Don’t tell me this is all you want me to do.”

She stared at Esben, impassively, but intensely.

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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Éliane remained blissfully unaware of Esben’s thoughts as the small Ospreyan woman was revealed. Still fresh off the earlier talk, she deeply shared Miina’s sentiments at being denied a chance at having a go at removing the rot from the top of Drana Asneau. Nonetheless, the fact that they had been followed all the way here was hardly lost on her. Despite the hospitality they had received from the resistance there, the divided loyalties and the continued occupation of Osprey meant that this Chisato could still be anyone.

Of course, Éliane’s uniform made finding her very easy, but it was among the principals that she would not give up, no matter what Esben said.

No matter what the small woman’s allegiances were though, it was obvious what she was. The brightly-uniformed woman groaned, running her fingers through her pink hair. “Another spook? Why in the seven hells does it feel like half the people I encounter on this journey are godsdamned spies…”

Like the rest of the kirins, Éliane turned towards the Osprean women in the party, waiting for them to pass judgment on this newest ninja that had appeared before them.

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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Éliane’s bitter mood persisted long after the fight, an angry fugue that wasn’t helped by her waterlogged and sand-coated state after washing up on the beaches of what she concluded was a terrible and barbaric foreign nation. The weather and the scenery might be nice, but it was all for nought if those that governed it were so utterly and infuriatingly malicious and incompetent.

She very dearly wished she could contact the Overseer and recommend that he send ships to glass Drana Asnaeu back into the dark ages for their warmongering activities. They were no better than the Valheimians—just weaker.

Unfortunately for them, they had more immediate problems to worry about, even if their itinerant moogle had somehow found them by studying the ocean currents. Éliane wondered if that was even a method that existed. Although most of her weapons had managed to stay on her body after the fight, her rotary cannon had briefly slipped away and in the chaos had partially disassembled, leaving her to comb the beach together with Esben to find the remaining parts for the gun. It was miserable work that left her cursing Isolde even more.

The two of them stopped in front of a metallic object half buried under the sand. “No, that looks like it,” she replied, taking the shaft and crank, frowning at its sand-covered state. “Not really. I would really like to talk to the Deputy Director again.” There was a slim chance she was still in Costa del Sol, but with Isolde having put out an alert for the guards… there was hardly a chance of returning to the city. “We should speak with Galahad. I want to see what we can coordinate with Edren…”

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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Perhaps Rudolf and some of the other Kirins might have extra words for Éliane’s style of diplomacy –authority imagined or not—but given the situation, the threat had been the best chance they had for talking themselves out of a situation that they did not have the answer for.

It hardly worked on a barbarian zealot that couldn’t grasp the concept of basic logic, though. Even with the full remaining salvo from her rotary cannon, the entire remainder of her ammunition, with the cascade of bullets slamming into the Grove Paladins, combined even with her team’s quick response and assault… it wasn’t working.

Isolde’s layered spells were too damn hard to break through. Éliane snarled as she saw man after man being dealt a killing by herself or her teammates, only to immediately heal and fight again due to the treacherous grovemaster’s magic.

Her gun powered down, out of ammunition; with a curse, the pink-haired woman immediately switched to her gunblade as she slammed explosive rounds into the weapon. Through the sounds of combat, she quickly caught onto the plan being formed by Izayoi and Galahad.

“Concentrate on one spot!” she yelled in agreement, rushing in. She even began charging the shells with her fire materia, bringing them dangerously close to instability as their explosive power was enhanced. It wasn’t exactly the simple stun that Esben might have wanted, but big explosions was what doctor Éliane was prescribing. With six consecutive cracks, she rushed in, firing from just above the minimum safe firing distance as each shell crashed against and exploded against the Grovemaster’s position, sending fire, flame, and shrapnel onto her position before Éliane herself rushed in to capitalize, slashing and hacking at the demented woman.

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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After everyone else had said their piece—after Grovemaster Isolde’s horrifying dispel, and treacherous words, even Éliane was left with her mouth wide agape. That creature’s actions were so far beyond the pale that Éliane was well and truly incensed, her features formed into a scowl at the audacity of this bitch to meddle in affairs like this with such self-satisfied, sanctimonious rambling, as if she knew better.

“Denied. You do understand,” Éliane replied softly, but with her voice raised loud enough for the grovemaster to hear. “That this is a literal act of war, correct? You are declaring war against Skael and Edren?”

The pink-haired woman tilted her head, her cannon now pointed directly at the grovemaster. She had thought Isolde had been the sole voice of reason among the twisted and misguided leadership of this country, but she had been gravely mistaken. This woman was the worst of them all.

“I was not joking when I said that Skael would invade your country to protect ourselves. Isn’t it nice of you to provide an extra cassus belli by declaring on us all on your own?”

Éliane decided to break the standoff. There was no way her party was going to agree to her demands, and she was so literally done with this country and this woman that she would just about do all in her power to have Skael actually come with her dreadnoughts and roll this country over and turn it into a parking lot for her country to take the fight to Valheim.

“Right then…” She clicked off the safety of her cannon, and pressing the trigger, began firing right at the bitch, protective warding be damned.

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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Given the urgency of the situation, sadly Éliane had not had the chance to cackle like a maniac as she poured in the high-volume fire, but she could settle for the barrier being broken through their combined firepower. She was also going to bemoan the loss of so much ammunition after just restocking the expensive and hard to find stuff, but that was a problem for future Elly, not present Elly.

Thankfully, the gambit by extreme firepower worked, as things should be… but that hardly calmed down the giant leviathan. Maybe they would have to put it down after all? Sad days when the water bitch was better served pointing her anger at Valheim…

Éliane finally paused her fire, conscious of her dwindling ammunition as she eyed up her still enraged foe and as her team began to make their own play. Seeing Miina’s surprisingly bold attempt, she was already on it when Esben called out.

Pulling out couple grenades, she eyed Leviathan’s head speculatively, frowning when she realized that the creature was out of throwing distance…

But not batting distance. Unsheathing her gunblade and dropping into a batting stance, one after another, she pulled the pins on the explosives and tossed them in the air… and smashed them with her weapon to explode against Leviathan’s face.

Robin was in the same geographic area, but no doubt she would be fine…

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

Still feeling kind of miserable but I don't want to get left too far behind, so I'm hoping to catch up on reading tomorrow and then see where I can make another post.