Psyker Landshark

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

Ranbu no Izayoi

The surreptitious Esuna did its job, and the smith blinked in confusion for a moment at his vision and balance suddenly clearing up. After a few seconds, his mind cleared up enough to recognize that in this estate, anyone unfamiliar was likely a guest of the lord and refusing them would be a terrible, terrible idea. Suitably sobered up, he scrambled to take Galahad's armor in, swearing that repairs would be finished as soon as possible, as well as any other equipment the Kirins cared to have fixed up.

For her part, Izayoi just sighed, giving Miina an appreciative pat on the (good) shoulder before turning back the way they came.

"Well, come then. We can only hope the others have finished with their meeting by now. With any fortune, we'll not have to stay any longer than another night."

__

"A full day?" Izayoi murmured incredulously once the Skaelers had returned to the group and Esben relayed the gist of what had been discussed. "We're to tarry here for twice the amount I'd hoped for, then." Her face scrunched, as if she'd just bitten into something particularly sour.

"How unfortunate, though I can understand why he would have thought that, looking at the lot of us as we are." She sighed, shaking her head. "Very well. As I understand it, several of us could use the extra materiel he's promising, regardless." She looked towards Rudolf and Chisato in particular.

"Don't think I'd not noticed your lack of materia in recent days, boy. And you," Her head inclined towards Chisato. "-could make use of armament outside of blades and bombs, whether it be from materia or weaponry. Regardless, I would hazard to say we could all do with additional equipment, so long as it's being handed out. Two nights, then."

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

Ranbu no Izayoi

SMACK.

Izayoi dope-slapped Rudolf on the back of his head, sighing irritably.

"Enough cheek, boy. This patron of yours has taken you in for five years. One should think you would have learned something of gratitude in that time." Was...she sassing him? Regardless, she moved on quickly afterward, nodding to both Galahad and Esben.

"Very well. I take it Esben and Rudolf at the least will go to meet the Viscount. Galahad, are you to join them or otherwise?" She gave his kit a once-over, checking over his chestplate. "The damage the Behemoth did to you was not insignificant. A trip to the smithy would not go amiss, I'd think."

___

Regardless of who accompanied them, Esben, Rudolf, and Elly would be shown to a sitting room to take tea and await the Viscount's arrival. It took upwards of twenty minutes for the nervous, harried lord to finally arrive, murmuring quietly under his breath about how perhaps now he could finally stop making excuses that he was fairly certain one Lady Lambert didn't believe.

Meanwhile, what Kirins didn't join them had the option of either roaming the grounds or making their way to the castle smithy. Said blacksmith turned out to...be drunk. At midday. Izayoi took one look at the staggering, slurring mess of a bald man operating the castle forge and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Can I...ergh...help yah? Lord ain't the most friendly type, so yer here for something important, no?" He took one look around at Izayoi, those who came with her, and the state of their health and equipment. "...Yah look like shite."

Digimon: Recompilation

Vemmon

Location: Gateway
Skills/Items Used: None

Even through the haze of pain and recompilation it found itself in, Vemmon was just barely lucid enough to recognize when it was being addressed.

”Guu…” It groaned piteously, this time in analog. ”...query…acknowledge…initializing…status.”

Siobhan’s Digivice would buzz again, this time spitting out what looked to be a diagnostic log on its screen.


BIOLINK ESTABLISHED. LOADING…LOADING…

VEM.MON STATUS:
AUTOREPAIR INCOMPLETE. DEFRAGMENTATION REQUIRED.
ERROR: REPAIR TOOL INACCESSIBLE. SEEK EXTERNAL REPAIR.

Outside the confines of text, Vemmon managed to raise its head, peering at the woman curiously.

”Designation…Vemmon. Requesting…reciprocation…”

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

Ranbu no Izayoi

A few more days later, once everyone was as reasonably recovered as could be, the Kirins took their leave. Days passed. The climate grew colder to the point where snowfall became common. Dirt paths gave way to paved concrete, the occasional metal carriage passing by the party on the road with loud honks of a horn. Blightbeasts attacked twice more over the days, though only in smaller, easily dispatched raiding parties.

As bid by Cadmon a week ago, the party entered the lands of Viscount Breien. While not entirely out of the way of their intended path towards Falcon’s Nest, the party had to divert for a good few hours on the main road in order to reach this territory.

For the most part, the land was exactly as had been described: well-maintained and as prosperous as was possible for a snowy tundra close to the heart of Skael. Frost had already begun to set in for the season, with kale and root vegetables notably planted in the fields they passed. It was past midday by the time they’d finally reached the castle gates, with Izayoi shooting Esben and Rudolf a look as the guards verified their identity.

”This little detour had best be worth the trouble. I would be somewhat cross should Demet’s recommendation to come here result in something less than significant materiel aid, yes?”

Lancer [Mechs, Magic, and Intrigue]

Lieutenant Aria Dvalin

The alarm in her cockpit blared, and that was all she needed.

“Multi-lock achieved! Firing for effect!” Aria depressed the trigger, and a veritable swarm of micro-missiles came screaming out of the Armatus’s shoulder-mounted launcher.

The pirates scattered as they noticed, to little avail. No matter how many they evaded or eliminated with point defenses, the nature of the SPAMRAAMs meant that eventually, one or two would get through. And even if they did, it left the pirate ACs distracted and open enough to be dispatched by her lancemates, as evidenced with the Baron.

For her part, Aria swapped from rifle to saber as soon as her salvo was launched, manuevering the Armatus in at high speed in order to bisect one of the pirate machines right after it was rocked by a missile barrage.

“Kill confirmed!” Right afterward, the tactical situation changed once more, and Aria glowered from her cockpit as she checked the readout. A frigate in reserve? Pirates weren’t this smart. Something was wrong here. At least their resident stealth expert was doing her job correctly, which left it up to Aria to make up for any hole in the line, lest the others be overwhelmed.

“Lance, Armatus. Complying with Indomitus’s request, intercepting enemy frigate. AC lock maintained, firing one more salvo for effect!”

Another burst of micro missiles to distract the pirate ACs and hopefully leave them vulnerable for the rest of the Lance to take advantage of, and Aria broke off. She swapped the Armatus back to its rifle, boosting haphazardly and erratically to try and throw the enemy frigate’s lock off while she attempted one of her own. In the meantime, Aria leveled her mech’s rifle, took aim, and began to fire, hoping to knock out more than a few of the ambushing frigate’s turrets before starting an actual attack run.

Digimon: Recompilation

Akaishi Azumi

Location: Gateway
Skills/Items Used: None

The crashout lasted only as long as it took for the angel’s voice to book in exasperation. As it turned out, seeing such an exalted figure immediately descend into barbed snipes and high school-level gossip was enough of a shock to the senses for Azumi to get out of her own head and actually start paying attention.

And it was funny as hell. The little bat lady thing was a natural banterer, dropping heat as good as she got. With that kind of presence, she’d be an insane collab partner for stream…if she could stream. Damn. Damndamndamndamn-

Before Azumi could doom spiral again, she forcibly shook herself out of it and decided to distract herself as best as she could: by acting out.

”Aww c’mon, Auntie, you heard the big grumpy angel guy!” She snuck up on the hag-sounding bat sphere thing while it was distracted with banter and wrapped it up in her arms like a plushie. Against its struggles, Azumi began to drag DemiDevimon over in the direction Dominimon pointed, yappering away all the while.

”I mean, it doesn’t hurt to at least hear him out, y’know? Gives us time to think of how to extort him later! Can’t squeeze him for all he’s worth if we don’t know the stakes~”

”This is just like one of my light novels, really. Ooh, does that mean we get cheats? C’mon, c’mon, stop struggling, I wanna find out my cheat skill faster!”

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

Ranbu no Izayoi

To channel and control the effects of multiple separate materia all at the same time would have been a tall order for even a practiced, formally-trained mage. Gravity strained to slow the meteor down, even as Miina began to centralize and combine the effects of the various materia the Kirins were channeling. Multiple layers of wind and fire combined with time and lightning, concentrating into Izayoi's hurricane blade. With flame and levin added to the mix, the vortex began to combust into flame, Izayoi gritting her teeth as she struggled to control the stack of spells alongside Miina.

"All is ready!" Izayoi bellowed above the roar of her blade, blood spurting from her nose as she sustained damage from the strain of controlling so much aether. "Clear out of the way, now! I cannot promise there will not be backlash! With me, Miina!"

The cyclonic pyronado reached its zenith, and Izayoi screamed in pain as she struggled to swing the titanic strike, collapsing the moment the blow was loosed. With her greater control over the spellwork, Miina suffered even greater damage, the aftershock of channeling so much aether hitting her nerves with the force of the very hurricane she helped loose, causing her to seize up in agony and writhe on the ground.

Chisato's explosive blade strike surged up to meet the firey hurricane at the very apex of the strike, providing the last spark needed before it all rose up to collide head-on with the Behemoth's Comet.

Crack. Boom.

The meteor shattered. Not merely into smaller, still deadly rocks. But into a shower of pebbles that came raining down over what remained of the village they'd just saved, the militia and fleeing villagers looking skyward in awe at the miracle that had just saved their town, thought to be doomed only moments ago. As the last of the party collapsed from the wounds and aetheric strain they'd all collectively suffered in fighting off the horde and the Behemoth, Goug's panicked voice could be heard as he approached on chocobo-back.

"Och, don't just stand there, ye kupo muppets! Help them! Get them tae a bed, a kupoing healer, whatever local quack ye bumpkins have out in these sticks! Move, kupo, move!"

___

Two days later, when next they came to, the Kirins would find themselves on the mend, laid up in the village headman's home. None of them were fully healed as of yet, being treated solely with herbs, poultices, and the local healer's low-grade Cure materia. But at the very least, they were treated to a hero's welcome and any amount of hospitality the desperately grateful villagers could give. It would be some days yet before they were well enough to move on further into the Skaellan heartland.

Lancer [Mechs, Magic, and Intrigue]

<Snipped quote by Bentus>

I dramatically over-estimated my free time this week, sorry for the hold-up everyone!

Been loving the posts in the meantime. Wernher, Psyker, Arnorian, how are y'all feeling with the mech combat around the Venture? It's been great reading you all writing the fighting scenes, but let me know if it would be helpful for me to write up responses for the pirate combatants.

Also, a question for the whole group, I tend to avoid adding new Discord servers when I can afford to. I'm thinking of setting up a dedicated channel for this RP in an existing server for a larger group of loosely-connected roleplays. If there's any objections to this (or a preference for a dedicated server) speak up now or I'll go ahead and click the big red button.

@Bentus

1. Don't mind doing it this way but specific responses to throw curveballs or direction in combat scenes wouldn't go amiss

2. no objections

Will have a post up within a few days

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

Ranbu no Izayoi

Rudolf's glob of flame choked the Behemoth, distracting it just in time for Galahad's halberd to find its mark and for Chisato to strike true. Her katana plunged deep into the Blighted beast's flesh before its store of aether detonated, releasing firey gouts straight into its body directly.

The Behemoth bellowed and writhed in agony, a hastily-formed fist punching Chisato to send her flying with enough force to break bone without external mitigation. In that moment, Ramuh struck, bringing the judgment of eld crashing down upon the creature. When the smoke and ash cleared, the Behemoth could be seen gasping for breath, clearly on its last legs.

It charged forward in a last, desperate ploy, great bounds sending it barreling towards the dragoon that had thrown its weapon away. Just before it could bear down upon Galahad, Izayoi intercepted it from the flank, a spinning, whirling battojutsu draw lopping off the fist it was about to bring down in a hammer blow. Even as the samurai landed in a crash, disgracefully tumbling against the ground in pain from her injured chest, the Behemoth collapsed as well, sliding past Galahad as Blighted blood spurted from its now hand-less limb.

With one last defiant roar, the Behemoth released a pulse of aether from its mouth, surging into the air while its creator breathed its last. From the sky came a flaming boulder, descending at a rapid pace while aimimg to crash into the densest concentration of life available: the militia, having managed to hold the Blightbeasts long enough for them to begin to disperse and rout with the death of their mightiest.

Looking up into the sky, the only reason Izayoi didn't scream in frustration was out of fear of aggravating her broken ribcage. Instead, she pushed herswlf to her feet with a determined scowl and raised her blade skyward with both hands. Wind began to rotate and surge around it in a repeat of her strike that split the sea weeks ago. Her intent was obvious: shatter the Comet before it could descend and cause untold casualties. But her wounds were clearly hampering her: the winds were building slowly, too slowly to accumulate in full before the Comet fell.

There was only one solution apparent: throw everything they had at the Comet before it could make impact. With its size, it was already too late to flee; the shockwave from its landing would cause untold devastation for miles around.

Lancer [Mechs, Magic, and Intrigue]

Lieutenant Aria Dvalin

"...Yes, Your Highness. Heard and understood. Baron Wilhelm, good hunting." Aria could only give a professional response before she cut her end of the comlink, raising a fist to smash into the side of her cockpit. That goddamned idiot! For a moment before they launched, she allowed herself to indulge in the mental image of wringing Cassian's neck and shutting his smarmy mouth for just two seconds. The moments passed. She shook herself back into reality, leaning into her mech controls as Lucia gave final marching orders and the Lance began to deploy.

Five confirmed enemy AC readings closing in on their own boarders. Friendly ACs were outnumbered by one, then. She sucked in a breath, centering herself and steadying her nerves. More than doable. Considering their Lance's makeup, the Baron and Marcellus just had to live long enough for Aria and Tanne to hit the flanks and lock them in. Classic hammer and anvil. And judging by Baron Wilhelm's orders, he was already thinking along much the same lines. Old age hadn't dulled his wit, then. Only fueled his fire to dangerous levels.

"Ironside, Armatus. Orders confirmed. We'll be sure to keep up, over."

Now fully deployed in vacuum, thrusters hot, Aria maneuvered her Core as bid, taking up a flanking position as Ironside and Hippo made their charge. She raised the Armatus's rifle, bracing it against the shield the mech held in its other hand. Confirmation blares rang in the cockpit as she got an initial lock, the AC's targeting suite already automatically microadjusting the mech's aim as Aria pulled the trigger, firing in bursts at the AC furthest out in the side of the enemy's formation.

"Lance, Armatus: getting tone on multi-lock! Firing once I have a solution on all of them, glory to Sol!"