War of Dragons: Shibuya - III

It is the midst of day. The sun overhead.

The forests up north have been seeing a lot of wear and tear over the past few hours. Landers, understanding the importance of Shibuya to the Adventurers, and heeding their plight - join the war. There are occassional parts of the forest where trees are being felled, were they obstructing the allied Yamatoan forces.

As they have gotten closer, the Palace Lands have been launching spells and long range arrow assaults upon the approaching Yamato forces. Shields and magical wards have been knocking these out of the air. With healers and crowd control specialists keeping people buffed up throughout their trek.

As they break from the forest wall, the heavily armored Paladins, Crusaders, and Peko Knights start their initial advance. Facing the Palace Land forces, springing powerful magics upon them. Detonations across the landscale spring, as magical traps are set off. Healers adjust!

But this group is not part of that frontal battle.

This group moves under the cover of the animal sanctuary. Hidden by trees and flowers and bushes. Using the typical patrol patterns that had been observed by a cabal of Haru, Mikage, Yeowang and Shiruba. The foursome lead the way in the midst of day, hidden by the sheer daring to approach like this. Coming up from the left flank of Shibuya. Mirages and illusion magic being used to further hide them.

It is like this that they come to the camp itself, where Hestiger and Middray are just starting to mobilize a group of warriors, attempting to reinforce their first line of defense!

Past the barricades, this relatively small team of ace combattants intends to cut off the Palace Land retreat, weaken their reinforcements, and to force their hand by disrupting their formations!

Working through the familiar territory of the game reserve, Mikage almost has a feeling of homecoming. Even if it hsa been a long time in the making, they have returned to reclaim what rightfully belongs to the Yamato Adventurers.

Moving quietly, she lurks behind one of the trees, keeping an eye on the enemy opponents. Hestiger and Middray are dangerous individuals, but perhaps if caught off their guard, they can be finally brought low. Rama's fur standing on edge, the little cat's claws extended as he does his best to remain quiet, stifling the urge to growl.

She slowly runs her hand along the cat's back, channeling some of her own elemental energy into the feline. The cold of ice starts to form on Rama's paws and across his muzzle. She motions her hand forward, indicating Hestiger, hoping to distract him before he is able to mobilize his forces entirely.

Out of the trees, Rama races forward, his paws quiet as he launches himself at Hestiger, aiming to latch on with claws and teeth.

Thanks to their survellience, and the amount of time she had spent in the hunting grounds helping to establish it, Shiruba has little trouble in leading the group through the rough trek. They only had one chance at getting the drop on their enemies, so they had to make it count. Just a little farther...

There's a camp. And some of the big names of the enemy army in it. That could be trouble... but also a blessing in disguise. If they can keep them from joining the main assault, the gathered army has much better odds at driving their foe out of Shibuya. So the risks, while high, would be well worth the reward if they can pull it off. Or as they say, nothing worth doing is done easily.

Shiruba lays eyes on her target, nocks an arrow and draws it back silently in her bow, remaining at the very edge of the treeline to not reveal herself too soon.

Instead, it's a tactic not unlike what her fellow ranger uses against Hestiger. Except instead of a big angry cat, it's a big angry bird that comes barreling for Middray, lightning crackling in the Windburn's wake as the peregrin falcon dives full speed for the Palace Lander.

It's at the moment she plows into them, the force of the dive combined with the electrical discharge from her talons enough to stagger their quarry, that Shiruba fires her own electrified arrow to take advantage of those brief seconds of vulnerablity.

Yeowang is sneaking in with the rest of the behind-the-scenes crew, dark hood pulled up to hide the mane of blonde hair, not that dark clothes are particularly useful in the daytime. It's fortunate, then, that she also owns a well-cut coat, snug but flexible, in forest green, with trousers in a slightly darker shade. The boots are the same black leather, and the expression is the same, which says that someone's about to get a kicking.

She looks to Shiruba, nods grimly, and advances toward Hestiger. She understood she was backing up Shiruba, but it looks like it's more of a 'spread out, we can do more damage this way' tactic. She's okay with that, too.

Advancing on Hestiger, she will leap fearlessly into melee. He's big and scary, perhaps to some, but she's entirely cool and collected, as if she'd been in this situation before. She has, more or less. She's been fighting MMA for 12 years or so, and if this is a bit burly for an MMA fighter, she's fought burly men before. She dashes in and strikes with a rapid flurry of punches, just to soften him up, and to get the feel for his speed and refleses. Not a particularly special attack, just an opening. This fight may go the distance, but she's OK with that, too.

This is it. The plan has been all laid out, all their cards are on the table. Either this succeeds and they drive the Palace Land forces back out of their home, or Shibuya may be lost forever. Kaydon does take time to thank those he can, especially those from the other alliances that are willing to come along and help free Shibuya. It won't be easy.

Hearing the front lines of the battle begin, Kaydon wants to join, but knows that he's better off in this smaller strike force. So he moves as quietly as he can along with the rest of the group. As soon as their targets are spotted, specifically Hetiger, Kaydon know they have to strike in order to keep Hetiger and Middray off the front lines.

Kaydon breaks from their hidden location as soon as he has a clear line of sight to the barbarian, crossing the distance as fast as he can. No sense in letting the element of surprise be ruined. He does know that Hestiger is tough, tough enough to break his custom built damascus steel, so he has to be wary and not strike him when his defenses are prepared again.

Strike Hard. Strike Fast. No Mercy.

Kaydon leaps once he's in range, and brings the gunblade down at the human barbarian's head, fully intending to set off one of the gunblade's explosive charges directly in his stupid face. Kaydon has earned his Blade Breaker moniker, he's not about to let some upstart from the Palace Lands steal his thunder and break his blades.

It was a good plan. While Arashi hadn't been about to really learn the path, she and the others had their leaders to follow through the reserve, and that was at least a place she was familiar with. When the attacks begin, Arashi vanishes from sight.

She remembered Hestiger. Before the war-horse and Daiyu had their fight with one another, the brute had managed to hit her with a tree. Possibly unintentionally but that didn't much matter to her. She wanted to get back at him.

Problem is, she misjudged her initial strike. When she emerges for her attack at him, the strike is a little wide. It may strike, but it isn't going to be for full effect. "Hell!"

The assault has been months in the planning. Getting resources together to move an army. Getting an army. Obtaining intel. Having a plan. Organizing forces. Engage with the enemy. Abandon the plan. Retake Shibuya. Haru works with Mikage, Shiruba, and Yeowang to navigate the pincer forces through the reserve and the enemies' flank. He takes the time to remind everyone of what the plan is, "Our main forces are engaged at the fore. We strike the side under the element of surprise. There are two known people of interest: Middray and Hestiger. Of the two, Hettiger must be split off from Shibuya." He looks to Mikage, "Mikage and a small detachment will engage with Hestiger, peeling them off. The remaining forces will come with me as we press forward, through Middray, and tackle into Shibuya. Our targets are their supplies, their ships save one or two, and give them no quarter between our forces and the main."

Haru takes a moment to direct people into their respective parties based off their preference and ability. Then they are off.

The Enchanter starts off with a whip of earth magic that causes the trees themselves to shake. It causes the dirt to rise. The Earth responds to the invasion with a ball of writhing vines as thick as an arm and with thorns as sharp as daggers. He makes the opening shot count, dropping an Earth-based fireball on Middray and his squad with the sort of force that makes cannonfire look tame in comparison.

Despite himself, Curtana continues to drum his fingers along the hilt of his battleworn longsword. A nervous habit from the usually stalwart knight, but this is a risky plan for everyone involved. But to those that do know the knight, it's a bit more than just battle nerves. After all, they're trying to rout the Palace Landers out of Shibuya.

The sounds of his plate mail is muffled by the magic spells casted upon the small task force, and the Pooka focuses entirely on what lays before them all. Shibuya has been in the hands of these invaders for far too long now, and the longer they are not repelled, the more likely the city will forever be out of their hands. He's even built several of these buildings in the early days, and he doesn't want his own handiwork kept out of the hands of those who needs it.

Curtana stays just out of melee range as the battle begins, but not without a plan. Slinging his shield outwards, the twirling shield slams into multiple warriors before flying back towards Hestiger. Keeping his face stoic, Curtana shoves down the nervousness before it can impeed him further. "For Shibuya!"

Everyone feels fear, but the brave act despite it.

Once more a clash between the Palace Landers and the people of Yamato was going to continue. She knew they were close to their home, she wanted her home back. She wanted her Inn back, she wanted to get back to the life she wanted to live. She had braced herself as they were sneaking in, she was ready and thankful for the scouting teams' efforts in the past. She sizes up her targets she's only going to get one chance to ambush an enemy. One who has proven to be very dangerous in the past, she'll chant a spell charging her notched arrow with magic. She'll take aim at Middray for a moment then let the arrow fly.

"FOR YAMATO!"

Haru's plan was a good one she'll move in after taking her shot, it's time to fight and she dares not sit still.

    The town of Shibuya was quite nice and it even had cheese hidden about it, which was extra nice when you were hungry. Shirin himself had cleaned out at least three of those random cheese spawning stashes. However at the moment he had been going through the library as he walks out and sees all the town going to hell. Looking around slowly he looks at the book on pharmacy written by an adventurer, Proper Relaxing , or something like that . Tossing it to the ground and summons his crossbows. Putting a bolt of light into the book he then walks into all the chaos whistling to himself some american folk song.

    That is until he sees Haru flinging rocks at people and he shakes his head, " The one covered in darkness, if you truly think your cause is jus, come with me. " As if the challenge wasn't enough he fires a couple of cross bow bolts at Haru before he casually walks off toward the beach, the only proper place to duel.

Himari might be wondering why she signed up for this operation, or even what she was doing there in the first place. The Tanuki that's dressed like a Miko, has her ears pressed flat against her skull and looks around nervously as she follows the strike team in. However it does help her keep calm knowing that friends are nearby.

She follows the main group after listening to She takes a deep breath when they come across Middray, and she holds both hands out as she readies herself. She swallows hard, and once Haru has let his explosion ring out, she takes the time to summon a cloud of fine spores that float upwards and soon burst in the air around their target in a fine mist.

She moves, ready to try and evade any attacks.

    It's not like it wasn't obvious this was coming. Well, something was coming at least. In present company Shiyang isn't a commander of anything, just a soldier serving under Hettiger and Middray in the defense of the Palace Lands' interest. She's separated from her squad of high-level skirmishers, here for a strategy session to learn her role in carrying out part of the defense of Shibuya from the inevitable counterattack.

    It's perhaps unsurprising Shiyang is overlooked in this collection, given the much more obvious targets of Hettiger and Middray. She's done nothing to stand out in this small group so far. She's cloaked, covered, and relatively unspectacular. When the attack begins however, the salamander rises to her feet in a quick bound, trying to put herself in the way of the immediate rush. There's no chance to intercept any of the rushing beast companions, but she can get in the way of the charging attackers. She throws herself bodily into Arashi, trying to divert the horse-fang's attack, and lunging at her with a blade out of nowhere. "Not TODAY!" she bellows.

Haru moves his head to the right as a damage line appears on the side of his face from the crossbow bolts. "Shiruba, we can't have Shirin interferring," he says as he watches the man go. "I leave this to you," he says in a way that shows that trusting in someone else to do this is not easy. All that planning and he knows the best thing to do is to buy for time. "I'll meet you at Pela's Cafe when its all over. Lets get our home back," the Artificer says before rushing off.

#-1 ARGUMENT OUT OF RANGE was thankful that they would get the first strike. Merek of course takes that time to check his weapons while he sweeps along into combat with everyone else. He first strikes along Middray with a lift of the hand, "Firebolt!" The Monk that he keeps fighting, perhaps this time they will actually win. He does notice that Arashi is targetted by Shiyang, and then calls to her, "YOU! CHOOSE YOUR FIGHTS WISELY! I'M COMING TO FIGHT YOU." He then draws the weapon of his to prepare to parry while he waits to see the way the batlte will flow.

Rama dashes from within the illusionary space, traipsing with rapid motion of its paws and rushes Hestiger. The massive Barbarian spots it too late, as it ducks between some of his soldiers' feet, and bites right into his calf. The ice rapidly forming, causing the Barbarian to start freezing up;

"Enemy forces in our camp! PALACE LANDS, TO ARMS!" He shouts loudly, his boisterous voice causing a tremmor in the area around himself. A tremmor that pushes back against Shiruba's bird. But her feathered ally manages to push through the sheer physical force of that sonic wave.

It's in this weakened moment, that Yeowang gets in there, and starst punching that /wall of muscles/ with her fists. Strike after strike slaps against the man's flesh, slowly creating waves of red light across his body, as he begins to rise once more, staring down at Yeowang with sheer force of personality.

Kaydon gets in there, swinging their blade right at the Barbarian's head. It makes contact, and the Gunblade detonates - CRACK - sending a wave of flame out from that position...

And when the debris and black smoke clears of the Fire Enchantment, a hand breaches through towards Yeowang and Kaydon both, attempting to grab hold of them and to SLAM them into one-another, and then crush them into the ground. Releasing, and then boot-stomping towards their bodies, before the massive man grabs a nearby tent-pole, and sends it straight towards Shiruba's Peregrine, and then tries to football-punt Mikage's Rama right towards the edges of the camp!

And as Arashi comes in, emerging and trying to strike at him, he GRABS her arm, raises his knee, grabs the other side of her arm with his other massive hand, and tries to SHATTER her arm right over his knee! Then tries to throw her towards the tree-line and begins to rampage-rush Mikage's position. This brings him right into the path of Curtana's assault - as his shield buzzes across some of Hestigers' men and tears their lives apart. The Barbarian coming for Curtana's position with his elbow low, looking to literally /run him over/, grab him, and start using Curtana as a flail to use upon Mikage.

A bith more south in the camp, Middray hears Hestiger's cry out of enemies in the camp. The fiery monk turns with a mild look in his eyes as a flaming ball of earth detonates right near his troops, shattering some of their bodies and causing the blaze of white light to spring up where lives are lost. There are both Landers and Adventurers in the mix on the Palace Land side as well, especially within the camp right now.

He then strikes one of the arrows fired by Erufu out of the sky, flame-kicking at a second and burning it mid-flight, before a third manages to hit right into his shoulder, causing the man to stumble! A fourth is caught from the air, and the man flicks it right for Erufu's chest like firing a railgun!

But amidst retaliating against Erufu, he fails to spot the fine spores that fly and drift down on his position and his allies. The man begins to cough. The Salamander monk moving in an awkward and confused way, flames licking from his mouth and bursting out, attempting to undo the damage Himari Saito is doing internally to his body! Finally lifting his body, and then letting out a heated flare of burning flames for the Tanuki's position, a wave of fire threatening to swallow up her position!

Then, lightning cracks - sending a thunderous wave straight down through the man and into the ground - as Shiruba's falcon makes it through Hestiger's earlier shout and gets to Middray! An arrow loosens, and the Monk is STRUCK. The arrow shattering into his calf, causing the Salamander to go to one knee!

Haru follows Shirin to the beach. The two have met a number of times in the war already. They met during the attack on Eas. They met again on the outpost raid. Light and Dark seem destined to find a way to each other. "Shirin," the Artificer says as he accepts the challenge out on the Shibuya beaches. His foot crushes beneath the sand. "I'll spare you the empty words. By now I'm sure you've heard them all. How this war is one of ideolgy that others have to suffer. That you are a victim in this too, so long as your will is /commanded/ by others." He lets his hand roll out in that typical anime show-off fashion. Jacket pillows in the sea breeze. "You want proof that it is unjust?" he says as the air begins to rise. Heat. "Then I'll carve its existance onto your very soul so you can't look away from the truth, Shirin. Wake up!"

The final words resound as a large bird of fire emerges behind him. Not quite Middray's Feng Huang, but a fire sprite as big as a dire eagle. Burning feathers begin to swirl in the battle arena, searing, as Haru looks to Shirin with a single blue eye.

    Shirin grins as he heard his name, really he had been thinking about what he was going to do if the bait wasn't taken. It would have been a bit problematic if Haru had just ignored him and would have been problematic if the guy had refused. Had hoped someone else would have gotten pulled away too. Turning back with a grin on his face he tips his hat towards Haru, " Well Howdy there, I promise one day I will remember your name. " Then the phoenix appears, " I see so we are getting right into it so be it."

     As the phoenix comes flying towards Shirin, the Cait Sith raises his crossbows as a magical circle appears infront of the crossbow and fires the bolts of light through them. The beams of light grow in size and turn blue as they take on the element of water as well as light. As soon as the bolts of light are fired at Haru he begins to run from the phoenix to the best of his ability.

Having done her part Windburn pulls away, taking back into the sky and circling overhead, waiting for another moment to strike when needed.

Shiruba, for her part, narrows her eyes and grits her teeth. Naturally the Salamander starts throwing around waves of fire. So as she strides onto the battlefield proper now she draws her storm magic to her, creating a layer of frost over her body to fend off the heat and flames. She may be a ranged combatant, but she's also a leader, and she can't lead from the background. She wouldn't expect her friends and allies to give everything and more for this fight if she wasn't going to risk it as well.

Of course she's still going to keep some distance because that's her strength, so he stride is measured. Monks can do some crazy things against projectiles so she wants to be close enough he has the least possible chance of doing so, reading another shot even as she advances. A glint of the sun can be seen off the obsidian arrowhead as she draws the arrow back in her bow as she draws it back, takes aim at Middray once more, and fires!

Middray is in for a nasty surprise when it hits, and the obsidian head shatters to dig framnets deep into his skin, Salamander scales or not.

It isn't particularly hard to pull Rama off of the massive, muscular man's leg, but flinging him into the air doesn't seem to have the effect he might have intended. Instead, the cat simply grabs on to one of the nearby tree branches and clambers up onto it, using his claws to make a relatively safe landing. The cat vanishes into the foliage, disappearing from sight.

As for the rampaging Barbarian looming in onto her position, Mikage already seems to have been prepared for this eventuality. Dawnbreaker is already in her hand, magical energy flickering through the electronic lines of the Elemental Machine parts that make up the unusual bow.

However, she doesn't utilize her arrows directly, not with the beast of a man barreling towards her and trying to use her allies as weapons. Instead, she seems to fade into the shadows of the forest. Where Hestiger had thought she would be, she simply is not. The Were Fang almost seems to have vanished.

Left behind, however, is a circle of energy which activates as soon as Hestiger steps into it, bursting upward with an explosion of elemental energy, drenching him in freezing cold water while spearing upward with shards of ice and a blinding flash of light.

Where is Mikage? Well, she's currently perched up in one of the nearby tree branches, with Rama at her side, giving her a good view of the action below.

Well. That was a problem. Twice over. Not only did Arashi miss, but then she got Shiyang AND Hestiger to come after her in retaliation. "What in the blue blazes did I do?!" At least her first move to retreat from Shiyang was met with success, if only just barely, but then it put her right into the grasp of the mountain of a man she had tried to attack.

And then he tried to break her arm.

There's not a lot someone can do when someone like Hestiger puts -both- hands on you with the intent to maim, The armor she wears there is obliterated, her arm is going to hurt for days, but at least it isn't entirely useless.
    It's also a good thing she can wield Starshadow with one hand, cause for now that's what she does, slashing one way and another with each edge of the weapon to try to get his hands off her arm, but to do some significant damage to his arms in retaliation.

Himari looked so smug and confident that her poisoning plan worked. However the salamander monk didn't go down. Both of her ears flick and she looks uncertain at what to do. Well, until there's a blast of flame coming straight at her. While she might have used earth first up, she soon shows that she's capable of other things, as she uses the air itself to speed up her movements to narrowly escape from the firely blast.

Well, except for her tip of her tail, which smoulders.

The Memorial Keeper glares at the Monk for a few moments, before pointing a hand directly at him.

"I curse you," she says softly as she switches her style of magic. "I call upon all those who have fallen and been forgotten to curse you! I call on all the desecrated memorials to curse you!"

Curtana thought he had a great on how to start this sneaky assault upon the barbarian by taking out several of his men. This part of the plan is going perfectly, since it means that there are less troops that can currently aid Hestiger. The problem with that plan is that Curtana forgot that Hestiger is easily the greater threat here. Attempting to dive under that elbow is only partially successful as well. The good news, he managed to evade getting clotheslined by a muscled behemoth.

The bad news is that he was grabbed by the leg and is now being used as a Cur-flail. The knight is supposed to use the flail, not be one!

Being slammed into the earth into the earth repeatedly is starting to cause worrisome red lights to form in Curtana's polished plate mail. It's taking the worst of all these strikes but it's not going to last forever. Curtana's hoping that the second part of the attack is incoming...there! In the middle of a swing, Curtana sees his trusty knight shield spinning straight for Hestiger's head.

Only for a swing of the barbarian's new Cur-flail has it just missing.

Yelping out, Curtana manages to just catch the shield with his left arm and starts to kick at the hand holding him in Hestiger's grasp. 'Not my finest moment...'

Kaydon gets grabbed after the explosive attack, and finds himself grunting at his own lack of preparedness. Still he manages to wriggle free after he gets slammed, but he brings the gunblade up between himself and Hetiger in order to block the stomp and shove away, rolling out of the path and getting back up towards his feet.

Growling he rushes back in, not intent on on letting him get a chance to get his hands on a weapon, at least not a real one. This guy is dangerous enough without his hands on anything, especially that axe he had before. Kaydon's gunblade flashes again, and sets off another blast, as he moves around to the side. Hard for him to attack all of them at once when he's being attacked from every side.

"I'm going to send you back to the Palace Lands in pieces! Get the hell out of my town!"

Yeowang looks alarmed as Hestiger tries to slam her into Kaydon. He's a friend and all, but that's just not appropriate. She shifts, subtly, and takes a step backward to avoid the grab, though she can feel the wind from it fan her. It's a very close call, but it's enough! She levels her gaze as she leans away from the attack, leaning to one side, then the other.

The grab avoided, she peers thoughtfully at Hestiger's form, choosing her target as Kaydon attacks him. Using him as a distraction, she strikes very precisely, her balance shifting back as she leans back in, and she strikes what seem like vulnerable locations, each hard blow struck with a deadly killing intent, aimed to do as much damage as possible.

    Merek takes a strike from the enemies while he begins to come about with his weapon drawing and he lifts up a hand while he tries to send a fireball into Shiyang, while he speaks to Arashi, "You take care of the others. I will guard you," he offers, then he takes a stance while he nods to the woman, "It's been a while!"

    Shiyang smiles grimly at Hestiger's fierce and deadly reaction. These New Worlders are going to find out the hard way they've made a terrible mistake, attacking him. Even this large strike force is bound to fail... probably. Hopefully. In any event the salamander Adventurer has no need to further defend the barbarian warlord, and instead faces off against Merek with some satisfaction.

    "Oh earth, defend your defender." the salamander chants, blocking Merek's fireball with an upthrust shield of earth. Behind the shield, she reaches down to her flask and quickly chugs a mouthful of foul-tasting brew, channeling fire into it and then rising up to spew the flaming mouthful at Merek, almost dragon-like in attack. And then she grins. "Too long. Well met, warrior, though your timing is poor. I salute the courage of you and your companions however."

Not knowing his name makes Haru smile. It is not a friendly smile. It is irony. "Right into it, Shirin," he agrees. The Enchanter does know Shirin's name. He has done his homework. Gathered information. A magical shell of combined elements forms around him as the alpha strike connects with his body and leaves a sizeable chunk of his health missing. A rare combination of pain. Lesser adventurers would be dead on the spot from that one.

When the light clears, Haru is standing there still. "Unlike you, I do know my opponent. Shirin, the love-lost puppy of the Palace Lands. Wielder of 'Light' and a self proclaimed hero with no victories to his name." He draws up the power of earth itself as the beach sand rolls into his hands, being hurled forward as the heat crystalizes it into molten glass. It is not the Wave Arte that is dangerous, its his floating stones. They pulse, they distract. They disable. "Its no wonder the Queen doesn't take notice of you. And wearing a crown to gain her favor? Pathetic. You give up the only thing that makes you interesting for someone who doesn't even know who you are, Shirin." Each time he says his name it almost sounds like he is calling Shirin a Karen. Shi-rin. Kar-rin.

Middray is proving to be as terrifying, Elf is one of the better shots in Yamato to be sure. It's the only reason even a single hit gets through. He even catches her last shot and fires it back at her. She's impressed but she's now worried about not getting killed by the Salamander Monk.

The good news is the elf is very fast on her feet. She's gotten very good at moving on her feet and not sitting still, this is what saves her as she picked up pace chanting an art.

"Sonic Acceleration!"

She will stop for a second to let off another attack.

"BURST SHOT!"

She has to pick up and move even as she lets the shot go, there's no time to sit around. She knows her weakness of her aim being poor on the move, she has to try to keep Middray from figuring that out...

Out to the West end of the camp, Hestiger arrives into the midst of the forest, unable to find Mikage. He literally kicks a tree down, trying to find her. Grabbing a boulder, throwing it at sounds he hears... and when that fails, as Curtana keeps kicking at his hand, he throws Curtana, shield and all, right for a nearby tree, because he's going to WRECK IT!

Only for the circle of energy beneath him to form up when she gets him right where she wants him. The man lets out an angered sound as she starts drenching him in freezing cold! The spearing ice and light shattering through his body as he cries out in anger and pain! The sheer volume of his voice bending branches and ripping the earth apart around him!

Pushing through the waves of force, Arashi and Kaydon manage to climb the distance with their weapons. The Starshadow and Gunblade slice into the man's both Hamstrings, causing him to go to the ground. But it also puts the two of them into a position where they can literally see that red glow fade, and the leg return back to normal, as if they'd never cut him there. His health dropped, but the man begins to rise again, like this unstoppable juggernaut!

The man then grabs onto the tree he ripped down earlier, tearing it apart with his hand as if it were a blade, and carves a partial log off of it which he swings for Arashi with one hand, then for Kaydon, before using his foot to kick up the rest of the tree as he hears another sound which he thinks to be Mikage, and /SOCCER KICKS A TREE AT HER/. The man then begins to grab at Kaydon and Arashi. Not for their bodies, but for their weapons, attempting to divest it from them so he might use their weapons against them!

Luckily, unlike Kaydon and Arashi, Yeowang has no weapon to be divested from her. And right as he tries to grab the two blade wielders, she comes in with her precise strikes, slamming right for his stomach!

There is a pause, during which the man tries to grab Yeowang's head and CRUSH it, only for there to be a moment of weakness, and a splatter of red glowing mist to come from his mouth, spilling forth in a small ripple of glowing red that comes down from his mouth to his chest... as he tries to recover.

Shiruba guessed right. When she fires her obsidian arrowhead straight for his position, he catches the arrow with his bare hand, holding it right to his chest. He's about to throw the arrow immediately to the side in order to prepare for the next counter, when the obsidian detonates and shatters right into his skin, leaving various red marks all throughout his chest and sending him gasping for air - a most precious resource for Godhands such as him!

The Adventurer Monk then rises back up as the Memorial Keeper points at him with her hand. Glaring at her. "Curse me? With such meaningless words? Let the Forgotten lay still!" He answers as the wave of her curse waves over him... and he pulls his hands together, slowly 'absorbing' her spell between his hands, turning it into an orb of dark energy!

Within this orb, he ends up /catching/ Erufu's show. It is eradicated within the orb itself, as flame begins to boil to life around it. It spills into the cursed magic, disrupting, then destroying it, before suddenly swelling into a MASSIVE orb of flame.

"RAGNAROK WISDOM - ALTER!" The Monk demands, lifting the orb into the skies, followed by enormous flaming dragons rising from the orb itself, flourishing and moving about, before descending towards Erufu, Shiruba and Himari's positions, attempting to decimate them with utter and very literal /firepower/.

    Shirin blinks at the Human at the mention of being the love lost puppy, and the hero with no victories. It wasn't anything he hadn't heard before, at the same time Shirin didn't need to really care about any of that. He knew who he was and who his heart belonged to. Looking at Haru he simply shakes his head, "Words spoken by the heartless can never understand the matter of the hearts." The rocks come and Shirin takes it to the face, the pain was there but it was light. All he can do is walk forward through it all and stare Haru in the eyes as he reaches him, "Living without love is the greatest injustice one can face. If you would simply give up and die, I would be happy to introduce you to the goddess that will give you the love you deserve."

     The rocks stop and Shirin moves on to the offensive as he fires a single bolt into the ground which causes compression waves through the sand in all directions. Shirin is already prepared though for his own tactics as he leaps into the air and fires another barrage of light at his opponent, however this time hidden within the bolts of light is an actual crossbow bolt. "I am ready to accept your surrender now."

There is definitely some kind of sound that is coming from the trees, but it doesn't seem to be from Mikage or Rama. No, instead, it is an obnoxiously large squirrel which ends up becoming entirely flattened by the tree being thrown in the poor creature's direction. The nut rolls away...

Still no sign of the Ranger and her companion, however. That has to be frustrating. That is, until a roar sounds in Hestiger's ears and seemingly out of nowhere, a massive rush of storm energy barrels into him from behind.

Standing near the edge of the trees, Mikage has her bow held before her, the string quivering from the arrow that had just been shot from her previous stealth position. Like a massive implosion of water and wind, the vortex strikes against the Barbarian's back, threatening not only to do damage, but to pull his attention.

"Were you looking for me?" She asks, a smirk playing on her features. The Were Fang is clearly trying to taunt him, perhaps hoping that furthering his anger will cause him to make more stupid mistakes.

Well, she felt Starshadow bite into the man, but again, his seeming invincibility knows no bounds! Realizing this as Hestiger rises, Arashi starts to backpedal, fairly sure she knew what was coming. Yup. Tree, sure, but the attempt to snatch -Starshadow- ignites something rarely seen in Arashi. That weapon is far, far to valuable to her and in an instant she is just -gone-. Teleported, and with a nice line of sight behind the massive man, it makes it easy for her to prepare her next attack, one literally NO ONE has seen her use.

Good reason for that. It's because she wasn't able to use it not long ago. With the blade brought up, the black blade turns as white as the other before she lashes out with a blades blessed by her own health points. And that's when she lunges forward, lashing twice at Hestiger.

Yeowang has guessed correctly when choosing her target, Hestiger's attacks are mainly versus the weapon-weilders in our group, though she still needs to avoid the massive damage springing from huge, sweeping attacks and broad swathes of the area left far too dangerous to stand in. Her preternatiral defenses, though, are on high alert, and she slips away, finding a place clear for a moment, sheltered from the blast, then another, closeby, that's safe from a sweep of weapons. At the end of the dance, she is back where she started, the route took some clever figuring, but she's always been as much a strategist as a fighter.

On the other hand, she's quite a potent fighter also, and none would say she's not fully involved in the battle, stepping in as Hestiger steps aside, and almost dancing with him, it seems. It's a dangerous game she plays, but the ballet ends with a telling strike, one he won't be laughing off easily. She clearly means to see him in a grave today, and she's going all out to deliver as much harm to the Palace Landers as she can.

    Merek nods a bit to Shiyang, "Well, we need our land back. I will take that crown of yours and make sure you don't hurt anyone again like you all do." He then takes the time to adjust his gloves while he swings with fist and kick to sweep into that warrior with the fury of his power, flames coming from the place. "RAGNAROK'S WISDOM!"

Shiruba watchs the blazing orb rise into the air and dragonic forms uncoiling from it. Her ice armor trick isn't going to be able to withstand that alone. With a determined focus she digs her heels into the ground. "I of the Storm!" she calls, practically barking it out. The winds respond to her call, wailing as they wind in around her, kicking up bits of rock and brush that has been disrupted by the fighting into the spiral around the wolfgirl.

A flaming dragon slams into the meteorlogical barrier, flames licking about as the wind tries to pull it apart. Until the flaming attack detonates against opposing elemental barrier, the resulting blastwave sending Shiruba skidding backwards until she digs an end of her longbow into the ground to halt her motion. Smoke rolls off her form from the fire damage as she stands, hurt but unflinching in her determination.

"I figured you would be a hot shot," she finally quips. Though her tone is so calmly angry it sounds more sardonic than anything else.

Shiruba reachs back for her quiver. And pulls not one, but several, pinched in a specific way between her fingers so the trio doesn't interfer as she draws one back in her longbow as she points it towards Middray. "That catching arrow trick was good. But can you catch this?" She fires the arrow.

And then her training in ranged combat really comes to shine as she nocks the second arrow and fires it before the first, despite it's speed, as even reached it's target. One Two Three Four in such rapid yet precise fashion, Shiruba is banking on him not being able to catch or deflect them all. Especially when he has other people attacking him.

    "You think this war is about land!" Shiyang roars, abruptly enraged at the very idea. Oh sure, the Palace Landers did launch an invasion. They took Shibuya, they took Mac Anu... but at least in Shiyang's possibly crown-warped head, this is a war of ideas not territory.

    The affronted anger causes Shiyang, weak on defense at the best of times, to rush forward instead eagerly. "RAGNAROK'S WISDOM!" she choruses with Merek, perfectly willing to take it as long as she also gets to dish it out.

Kaydon had been trying to keep himself in the fight as best he could, but this was like trying to beat a stone wall to death with a stick. No wonder this guy was undefeated in the arena. But they had to keep pushing, it was more important than any titles or awards, this was about home, and the people who's home it was. Lander or Adventurer, this was their's and they were going to get it back.

That's what kept him in the fight when the man grabbed the Jaeger gunblade and tried to pull it away. He had to fight for his life, because giving your enemy your weapon was death, he knew this from everything he'd done in this world and the other.

But he had to let go, for a moment. But if he picked the right moment, it could make all the difference. When he sees that spray of red come out of the man's mouth, Kaydon knows its his moment. He lets go with his right hand, and rams his fist upwards, a massive uppercut, aiming to make impact with that chin, and fire the reforged blade upwards. It would have to be perfect, in that moment of weakness, it might just be.

He was depending on the strikes from his friends along with him, because as much as he wants to, he knew he couldn't do this alone.

Himari just wasn't quick enough to avoid the dragons that burst out of the firey orb. With a crack of thunder, she moves position again, but her body flashes where the fire had hit her prior to her attempt of evasion, and even the stem of her leaf hat is burning. It hurts, and her courage starts to faulter, especially after considering that Middray easily got rid of her curse.

At first her voice is shaky, but she soon starts to sing loudly as she glances towards her allies that are fighting, hoping that her attempt of the Song of attack will not just be in vain as she continues to sing.

Haru has but one eye to stare into. It is blue and as cold as the barriers of alchemical ice he is capable of summoning up. Blue and burning like chemical fire. His other eye is covered by a monocle, purple lens with a silver trim. It stares down the archer as sand covers him. Light covers him as the barrage descends.

"Was ki ra chs arhou merra." It is not said so much as heard. The sound chimes in from the sand itself. Not of Haru's voice. Metal resonating in a chorus. When the dust settles, Haru is wearing a crown of his own. It hovers above his head like a halo in four elemental colors. The attack barely scratched him. "Unlike you, Shirin, I do know love. See how we retake our city right now, for the love of all the people who live here. To protect their way of life, thier freedom to chose what life they wish to live," he steps out of the sand and dust. "I may be the Darkness, but it is you who is blinded by the Light." No singing. Not allowed! Instead it is his phoenix that rises back up from the ashes and dives down to attack anew, invigored by the Summoner's resolve as the very ground itself begins to piston spikes up to impale. Above and below in concert.

As Curtana is thrown through the air, he manages to righten himself in midair. This allows him to see the rather sturdy tree that he's being thrown at. "BULWARK!" Calling forth earthen might, Curtana hardens his body to an impressive degree. Instead of taking a massive abount of damage from the impact, the tree is uprooted and falls to the ground. Groaning from the close call, Curtana stands up to catch his breath and shake his head as he Inspects the hulking brute. "Keep this up, he isn't unstoppable!" At this rate though, he will wear everyone down before they can take down the Lander.

Then it's time to pull out the big guns.

Taking in a deep breath, Curtana starts to channel the power of Hamon throughout his entire body. While this power is meant for the undead and unholy creatures of the night, it's still quite effective at empowering a person's body.

Drawing his longsword, Curtana yells out to be heard over the chaos of battle. "We are the vanguard of those reclaiming their land! You and your talents are not enough to hold back those who hold justice strong in their hearts. Those who willingly serve the Crown will face the light! HAMON...OVERDRIVE!" With that, Curtana leaps into the hand, swinging the Hamon-enfused longsword in a jumping slash.

Sometimes things just do not work out the way you want. The monk just is earing magic now? Oh, he's turning it back on her own attack taking the shot out. She's not sitting still, nay she's moving as fast as she can to not want to sit sill and get caught in that. Oh and here comes the pain as he uses Ragnarok Wisdom. She just barely gets clear, she's a bit singed but that's pretty good given what would have happened had she not hauled elf butt. She does not have time to line up a shot, so she does something she hopes her foe does not expect.

"Sonic blow."

She ruses in with her long knives and will just attempt to do as much damage to the monk in a series of blows, if she's lucky this change in style might catch him off guard.

    Shirin looks at the bird and laughs at the comment about being blind, " I remember being like you. I remember so many like you. So many who thought like you thought. So many that I helped kill for her." Shirin doesn't avoid the phoenix, or the spikes, again he stands there and lets himself be devoured by the attacks. For a moment even opens his inventory and draws out a toothpick of all things before placing it in his mouth. As the attacks fade and the calmness of the beach returns he shakes his head for a moment. "I am not blind persons who name I don't care to remember, I am just your future. We took this city and now we don't need to keep it. We took the better city now, and you can't do anything about it. Soon we will move on, Fort Ouph, Breg Epona, Dun Loireag, Carmina Gaedlica. Each one, then you will have no where to go. None of your friends will have anywhere to go. "

    Taking a deep breath as magic begins to swarm around him, " One of your friends will slip, one will die, and then they will be ours. It is easy to fight me but could you fight Uta? Could you fight Kauchemar? Kaydon? Who could you fight, and if you did and won could you do it again? Again and again and again until they are shells. How long until you slipped?" Reaching out with the toothpick he puts it into the fire for a moment to char one end and get a flame on it before putting it back in his mouth. "Then once you slip, you are the new me."

     Taking a deep breath he raises his crossbows out as if he is pulling a long bow, and then a bow of light appears in his hand as ice and light mix together to form a giant arrow before Shirin launches it at Haru. As he lets it flies he stumbles to a rock and catches himself before looking at Haru, "You better do it. If you don't I am going back in to town to find someone from Mac Anu. To start this, just for you."

Poor squirrel.

"Stop hiding and fight like real Adventurer!" Hestiger demands of Mikage as she asks him whether he were looking for her or not. The man's anger seemingly just empowering him further, as his body keeps healing. It's as if someone just put points in VIT and STR, and nothing else! DEX be darned!

The man then rips the arrow that'd been shot into his chest from his body, red glow leaking from his wound. His entire face turned into a vile scorn-filled visage. He snaps the arrow dramatically between his fingers. It shatters into light, after which he STOMPS upon the ground, sending a shockwave outwards to Arashi. But she keeps her balance, spearing her blade into his back, which then detonates into a holy cross of light, SEARING across his body and forming that cross shape along his entire back. Even after the red glow of damage disappears, his body remains burnt!

He quickly sweeps at her, trying to grab him with his massive meaty hands, sweat dripping off of him with each movement. The swing at Arashi carries through, trying to stab through her with Kaydon's blade and to use her as a shield while his other hand also comes to strike back. Yeowang's strike ending up slamming into Hestiger's FIST! The slicing and sheering ripping force of the attack cutting right between his middle finger and his index finger, CUTTING Hestiger's hand apart!

The man tries to throw Arashi upon Yeowang as he pulls his other hand back, trying to recover! Still holding onto Kaydon's weapon. He hasn't figured out the secret trick behind it, so he wields it as a blade, trying to turn the blade downwards and to STAB Kaydon right through the shoulder while the wielder slams his fist right into his chin! This ends up with Hestiger releasing the blade, allowing Kaydon to retake it! This is when Curtana gets in there!

Her blade stabs through his slowly recovering hand, as he attempts to stop her assault. Stabbing right through. Pulses of black and light cut through into him, halting his regeneration!

The man stares in shock at the realization that his healing has just been halted...

And just for a moment, fear plays out in his eyes, as his mortality is challenged. Only for him to grab for Curtana's head in utter anger to try and slam it down upon his knee and shatter her skull in retaliation. The man then slams his foot into the earth, pulling up a huge clumb of granite, and kicks it for Mikage's position. He then jumps /faster than he kicked the stone/, using it to airboard it to her position to try and grab her by the hair and attempt to rip an arm off!

In the meantime, Shiruba and the rest are facing Middray; "There's much more where that comes from." The monk answers Shiruba with a fierce grin on his face. Though he also quickly becomes aware of a massive detonation up north!

No, it's not a detonation. It's more like an implosion, as the land itself seems to almost come to life and starts DEVOURING those that were upon it!

The grass, the ground itself, right where the main battle is going, suddenly gives out! Palace Landers falling into a series of highly lethal traps, as a singular man steps out from the wreckage of it all, at the edge of town. Shiruba and crew can see the weasely looking man in a grey uniform come up, holding what looks like a crown in one hand, and a Palace Lander in another.

"Okay, I think that's about enough of this, don't you think?" The man remarks... as Li Gan makes himself known.

"What the!?" Middray demands to know, as Himari's Song of Attack rolls over the area, and starts affecting a large creature also rising from the imploded land. A /Massive Manticore/ making itself known, slowly approaching Middray from the north.

"Eat." Li Gan demands, followed by a vile streak of green poison blasting towards Middray, soaking him in weakening poison!

Middray doesn't give in to the assault however, as Shiruba fires her arrow for him. The shot pairs with Erufu's, Shiruba's stabbing into one shoulder - while Erufu's stabs into the other. The second arrow being cut from the air by the Monk between his hands.

The man, realizing that their position is being overrun, fires a flaming bolt into the air, that detonates like Fireworks. And immediately at the coast, there's another flaming detonation, suggesting that the signal has been received. The ships starting to launch boats towards the coast in order to receive retreating forces!

Middray however stands his ground, stomping both feet to the ground and going deep through his legs. The entire earth starting to tremble beneath him. Shibuya shakes!

As he lifts his hands to the skies and starts to summon a massive Meteor from the air. A burning sphere slowly growing beyond the skies, starting to make the entire battlefield turn from 'afternoon light' to 'Fearsome Crimson Light'. Small meteorites already starting to come down towards the ground, slamming and detonating upon the ground, focusing on the area around him - launching upon Erufu, Shiruba, Li Gan and Himari Saito.

"See, this is the problem with you Palace Landers. You don't know what a real Adventurer even is." Mikage's response drips with her own sort of venom to her voice. There is a faint growl that rises up from the Were Fang girl, as if she were just at the edge of shifting into that mysterious monster form. No such luck, however.

Instead, she simply seems to sense the response coming from Hestiger. There is a quick flicker of her eyes and a flash of lightning energy that almost gives the impression of something more pure and elemental in nature. She manages to evade being caught by the Barbarian by only a hair, but as she skids to the side, there is a glowing aura that looks as if it were an after image of a Kirin, stomping one foot and throwing its head back before vanishing into particle effects.

"Real Adventurers fight intelligently. Something you won't get a chance to learn from." Drawing another arrow from the quiver at her side, she channels up yet more mana, drawing it into a swirling mass of elemental water that forms around both the bow and the arrow as she takes only a split second to line up the shot with Hestiger.

"Fuck you in particular." Mikage fires, the force of the Tsunami slamming home and aiming to drive both Hestiger and his stone platform back towards the trees.

Oh no no no, Hestiger, you aren't getting what you want today. Right after she takes note of the damage left behind by Grand Cross, she's quick to transmit it to the raiders here before taking off on a sort of slide of water, running, gliding, skating, away from the man's attempt to put the pain into her by throwing her at another. Nope.

Soon as she's managed that, she's using the gliding on the Tidal Gallop to gain speed. Lots of speed. ALL THE SPEED. Before she introduces her sword to the man once again at break neck speeds. "DIE YOU BASTARD."

Himari Saito looks distracted when Middray demands an explanation for the massive manticore. "I-I don't know!" she stammers. She blinks and stares at the giant manticore that's approaching, and then takes a step back. She blinks when Li Gan makes himself known and looks even more confused. However that doesn't mean that she misses the meteors that's slaming all around those fighting against Middray.

She calls on the Earth, and forms a rocky arch over the top of herself, protecting herself from any harm from the flaming projectiles.

She steps out, and takes a deep breath as she draws her arm across her body. A disc of water starts to form near her fingers, which soon starts to spin rapidly. "Whirling disc!" she calls out, as she throws the disc of water towards the Monk.

Yeowang's crippling strike seems to have angered Hestiger, which is fine. An angry opponent makes mistakes. An angry opponent also throws people at her, unfortunately, and she's got to duck aside hastily, attempting to field Arashi before she can be thrown too far, letting the action back her up a few steps. Helping Arashi back upright, Yeowang pats her ally on the shoulder, and resumes her attack.

Taking a deep breath, she eyes Hestiger, and decides that she's got to put this away in a hurry, so she takes a long breath, focuses, and without a word, dashes in, and performs a leaping kick, spinning around in the air to catch the target with her best velocity. Very few people can walk that kick off, and she's been relying on it for much of her time in the game, where more people /can/ walk it off, though it's still a damn hard hit.

Erufu takes a moment to look at Middray.

"We are far from spent..."

What in the name of Elrond, Middle Earth and Garry /is this/. She's never quite seen an attack like this before. With the detonation? She's got to think about that. She's She will have to think about it later when it comes down to it. She'll be having to worry about the big freaking meteorites. She is fast, just fast enough to get out o harm's way as the thing impacts she leaps back and will ready her weapon again. She notches another arrow in her bow and takes aim to fire off another shot.

"Heart Seeker!"

Growling as he strains to keep his head, Curtana slams his kite shield into Hestiger's grasping hand and forcing a pulse of air magic to make sure he couldn't be disarmed. Leaping out of the way of the barbarian's foot slam, he nods in satifisation as he realized just how effective Hamon was here. They have a way to wear him down completely! "We're making ground! Victory is at hand!"

That is when the path to the north is torn asunder by a cloaked figure. While it's not one he recognizes, he is clearly in support of the liberators. Putting that out of his head, Curtana starts to make his longsword noticably spark with Hamon, becoming a beacon of light despite the midday sun.

"Hit him with everything you can, and i'll make sure he doesn't recover from it!" Narrowing his eyes, Curtana starts to charge toward Hestiger and holds his overcharged sword for an overhead swing...

...before redirectly all that built up Hamon though his body and into his kite shield! Sparkling heavily, the Pooka Knight slams it hard at the behemoth Lander, intending to weaken the regeneration power this barbarian wields. "Celestial...Hamon...OVERDRIVE!"

Kaydon's pain is evident on his face as he continues to scuffle with the massive human, "You said you wanted a fight that was worth something. I think we've given it to you!" He growls, snapping his jaws as he finally gains control of his weapon, and pulls back, taking a step back. His attention is pulled to everything happening at the main battle, but he can't allow that to distract him, not while he's so close to victory. He crosses the distance between himself and Hetiger, spotting the healing having been cut off.

"You're mine!"

He unleashes a series of rapid strikes, each one detonating the last of the Jaeger's charges, multiple explosions ripping through the blade to enhance the strikes. He said he was going to send this guy home in pieces, and he intends to follow through!

The thing is, Haru has fought Uta. He has fought Kau. He knows the answer to that question. The cloth wearing, low defense Enchanter stands as the powerful attack winds up. "Shirin," he says as the attack is released onto him. His crown radiates something unfamiliar to combat. It is not determination nor malice. It is something the Light element is familiar with. Hope. With that hope, a beam of ice and fire is released back against the massive attack. The attack meets as the sound of shattering ice adds dazzling diamond dust to the Shibuya beach. The red damage line in his chest over his heart shows that it struck him. A hand goes over it, "I pity you."

Stumbling against the earth, where Haru is strongest, is used to his advantage as he conjures up a prison of kelp, sand, and limestone. The natural prison holds tight as the silver haired man approaches Shirin. "My Root Town is Mac Anu," he lies, "I risked plenty to meet you here. I gave you a chance to win favor with a woman who does not recognize you. I pity you because you are in love with her. She pens your story. You are a puppet who was once a man. The reverse of a children's fairy tale." He reaches out to take Shirin's hat off. A trophy, perhaps? He sets it on a nearby rock as he looks at the crown on Shirin's head.

"If my friends would fall," the Artificer materializes a lapidary hammer and a chisel. A naive sentiment that basic tools can do anything to a Crown of Control. His monocle lights up, white lines in semicircles that hone in on the object, finding its weak point. The crown around Haru's head begins to swirl so fast that the colors merge together in a prism. "Was ki ra chs arhou merra."

And then he strikes, hammer to chisel. Chisel to crown. Crack. "I would save them."

    Merek takes all the strikes while he's taken back through the ranks of the fight, only for him to lift up the potion he keeps with him. He will light a fuse, then he throws that into Shiyang, while it explodes. "Well, however this fight will go, it doesn't matter. I know that I can't reach you like this. I also can't let you win. For all the people... I will keep on fighting." He then begins to engage with Shiyang!

When Middray starts moving the very earth to hurtle rocks upon them like a star shower, Shiruba's response isn't to ready her bow. Instead she pulls the Glaive of the Fallen Hero from her belt, and flings the throwing weapon into the air. It cuts a wide arc, slicing through several of the meteors and knocking them away from the Cait Sith before returning to her hand. It is quickly reslung in its spot, and she regrips her magic longbow with both hands once more

"Bring all you want," Shiruba retorts between clenched teeth. "It won't be enough." But before she can follow that up at the moment there's a tremendous detonation from the other side of the battle. She dares a glance to the side, expecting the worst... But instead seeing prehaps the least expected reinforcements possible as the eldery man steps from the chaos. And sics a manticore voraciously upon the fight.

She gives a nod in Li Gan's general direction. "Your timing is exceptional, and much appreciated!"

Then turns her attention back to the matter at hand, that being Middray. "We came to your land in peace. To explore, to learn, to help each other. But you repaid it in deception and betrayal, and invasions..."

She flicks one of the conductive alloy arrows from her quiver, sparks arcing as she pulls it back in her bow. Thundersnow Howl's enchantments draw on her Spell Fletcher abilities to channel more and more electricity into the projectile as it's drawn back. Literally filling it with the force of a mighty thunderstorm.

"We didn't start this war... but we are damn well going to finish it! For Shibuya, and Yamato!" The twang of the longbow's line is like the crack of thunder as she fires the arrow into flight.

It doesn't matter if Middray is hit, or catches it, or whatever. The harpoon shot is just the carrier.

It's the series of violent discharges that it releases, each one like a stroke of lightning, to electrocute the Monk to the very core!

The Barbarian rests upon a sturdy branch for just a moment, before it gives beneath his weight. This gives Mikage the perfect moment to aim her arrow at the falling mass of muscle, even as the man digs his fingers into the tree and slows his descent!

The force of a Tsunami suddenly detonates upon his position, and explodes the tree he was on just moments ago. Debris being cast into every single direction, splintered apart by Mikage's powerful magical force!

From behind him, Arashi jumps, getting up and parsing through the splinters, stabbing her blade right into the man's spine through his back! "Real adventurers are not smart! They- GUUURK!" The man's voice caught by Arashi's blade stabbing out on the other side!

Arashi's weapon is pulled out, and Hestiger alls towards the ground, right towards Yeowang as she dashes in and spin-kicks in the air, getting around him, and then SLAMS him towards the ground, causing all of his mass to hit the ground and create a small /crater/!

He gets up, bleeding, his health low, only to have the kite shield slammed into his head, causing him to stumble and... turn!

Hestiger begins to run! To truly flee from the battle, as his healing is unable to take effect. Leaving behind a thick trail of red glow upon the ground!

But Kaydon catches up, crossing the distance and slashes across his back. Across his leg. Kaydon lays the man down, pushing him to the ground once more with his strikes...

For a moment...

For a moment there, it looks like Hestiger is slain. Light shimmering from him...

Right before he grabs Kaydon right by the throat, biting down with his fingers, trying to literally /squeeze/ the life out of him. "I WILL NOT GO DOWN THIS EAS~ HU~"

When one more hit impacts. It's a small hand. Just a small hand, coming right through his chest. Holding a glowing red glowing orb of sorts. It then gets pulled out of his chest and the red orb 'shatters', and Hestiger's grip on Kaydon's throat eases up, before his body falls to the ground and shatters.

For just a moment, the Forest Team can see her. A young looking Cait Sith with red gleaming eyes. A white breath escaping the purple haired woman, before she practically /disappears/ into the forest. Darting to the nearest tree, and then begins to bounce away westwards!

An ally?

Within the camp actual, Himari's whirling disc cuts towards the Monk, and he's forced to bring both of his fists to bare to grab the fierce cutting watery magic. Holding it between both of his hands is all he can do to stop it from cutting right through the Adventurer! "I will not give in so easily! FOR THE PALACE LANDS!" He demands!

The man remains standing with fierce grit in his eyes, continueing the summon of the massive Meteor overhead! And even as the Heartseeker STABS through his body, lighting his body with the red wave of damage, enough that it /sprays/ out behind him... he remains standing. Unlike a Lander, he has the dampening power of an Adventurer. Yet even this much is a lot to take!

"Yes yes, someone had to deal with this mess, hmm? Oh... you've got an army." Li Gan looks north-eastwards. "Well... someone better help fix up my Catacombs again when all of this is over." The unreasonable researcher demands of Shiruba, before looking up at the big Meteor being cast. "Ah... Explosion Magic."

Shiruba's longbow activates, and the harpoon shot flares through his body, right through the same spot that Erufu's bolt did. It then discharges, and starts electrocuting the monk. His entire body starts spasming! His teeth clattering; "I will... not.... give!" There's parts of the Palace Land army that are managing to make it to the south. Some of them caught in the sea of Meteorites coming down. Perhaps far more than if they'd weakened Middray in time for all of this!

When finally, the enormous meteor starts to descend, splitting apart and coming down like an enormous wave of flaming stone upon Middray's enemies, before the Salamander manages to weakly get to his feet, and begins to flee southwards towards the ships!

    Shirin is caught, he had no energy to fight and is wrapped and bound Shirin awaits his death. Closing his eyes he takes a breath and readies himself for the death that is coming. Then it doesn't come. In fact he feels the hat taken off his head and his eyes shoot open. He is about to call Haru some dirty names before he realizes the real truth and begins to panic. He tries to move to avoid the chisel and keeps trying to move his head and then the crack, and Shirin screams. "No! No no no !" Shirin even begins to try to slam his head around, it is a straight up tantrum on some levels. A few more good hits though and that crown is going to fall off though.

    Shiyang can respect that determination, certainly. And that brief fury of hers gutters out, swallowed up by the focus needed to launch her previous assault. Blows traded, burns suffered, red scars crossing the features of both. The salamander is undaunted though, only casting a brief worried glance towards Hestiger as the Yamatoans pour on their attacks against him.

    It's not her place to make tactical decisions in this battle however, and she returns her focus to her own opponent. "We will both fight then!" she says, not quite cheerfully. A vial of liquid fire engulfs her, adding more injury, but Shiyang seems not to care. Instead she stomps her foot, causing the very earth to tremble, a shockwave lashing out at Merek to destabilize him. And she's ready, sword in hand, for his guard to break so she can attempt to plunge her duelling blade through his heart.

VICTORY! The behemoth is defeated! And all it took was almost breaking an arm. .... Ow. .. will have to get some sort of medical individual on it later. It was just that. damn. satisfying to put down the brute of a palace lander. Even if someone did take the kill shot. That's fine with Arashi.

What she does not expect is getting absolutley lit up by Middray's attack. A Meteor? OUF. Don't mind Arashi's sudden disappearence from the battlefield. She's over there. On her back. Taking a breather.

        "...Ow."

Clang!

Clang!

Cracks red as volcanos. Light of magic peering out.

Clang!

Clang!

The cracks spread until finally it loosens. It crumbles. It falls like shards into the sand at Shirin's feet.

It is done.

"Shirin," the Artificer says as he grabs the man's face with both hands, "listen to me. Maybe you do really love her. Blindly. Completely. Devotion that would stain your soul darker than mine and call it the light of justice. Steep it in the blood of the lives of others. Is that who you are, Shirin?" His hand releases as he takes a step back. "We all make mistakes. Choices are made on what we know or believe at the time. We continue to live after that choice. We learn new things. We believe in new things. We grow. Not having the freedom to make new choices on new thoughts or belief robs us from right to chose the life we want to live. You deserve that right. Everyone does. It doesn't matter if we are friends or enemies. You deserve to chose." Haru takes Shirin's hat from the rock and places it back on his head.

"And if you chose to return to the Queen, tell her that we have a means to remove her Crowns," the Moonlight Goldsmith says, "that we do not live in fear. We wish to talk. Baroness Wake wishes an audience on neutral grounds to do so. Let this bloodshed end. Save hundreds of people, Shirin, possibly thousands." He offers a light laugh as he steps away, "Of course, you'll have to remember my name to tell her, won't you. Guess you might be better off just getting a drink with me in a tavern and we can share stories about our romantic interests. Embellish on our adventures. Give you a better reason to remember me than this."

Haru walks away, heading back to Shibuya, "But whatever it is you decide on, its your decision to make. The world begins with you. Right here and now." Thats Haru for 'Goodbye' as he leaves Shirin there with his thoughts. The prison won't last forever, held by magic that has a duration to it.

Shiruba glances over her shoulder in Li Gan's direction once more. "I will personally help make new woodwork for you if that's the payment you want." It's a charge she can at least pay with some of her other recently learned skills!

A lupine ear flicks at 'explosion magic', but before she can ask farther her focus is drawn back to Middray, who is making a run for it but leaving a really nasty parting give in his wake. She can't knock out that one no matter how hard she throws the glaive or shoots at it.

She gives a quick shout, sending Windburn flying back into the forest to get out of the air when such a massive and volatile attack is being dropped towards them. Then with the limited time she has left draws as much elemental fire energy into herself as she can, until she's briefly glowing from the heat. From the spell, the meteorite crashing down, or both.

It's not enough. Shiruba knows it's not enough, but she's trying to diffuse what little she can. The detonation still throws her hard, slamming backwards into a tree and yowling as she drops to the ground afterwards, sprawling on her side.

Tense moments pass, feeling like forever.

Then after a painfully long pause her fingers curl and she pushes herself up from the ground even though her entire body stings and hurts. "Is that it... did we win?"

    Shirin screams through all the clanging and struggles and fights and at one point even tries to swallow his toothpick to choke on it. Unfortunately even that doesn't work. Shirin sits on the beach now, in utter silent. He isn't sure what to make of it, he isn't sure what to think on the matter. All he can do is sit there and let his brain process being crownless. There is so much. Haru doesn't get an answer, it is as if Shirin is catatonic for the moment. Time passes and Haru walks away.

Still sitting there.

Still sitting there.

A beam of light...

Yeowang's kick connects, but it's the strange girl who seems to have struck the killing blow against Hestiger. Well, after this ferocious a fight, she's in no position to complain about help. She's watching her carefully, though, people who show up unexpectedly in the last moments of a knock-down-drag-out like this are worth watching, maybe. Unfortunately, that means her eyes are off the actual threat, and that retributive strike bursts, hurling her tumbling across the ground until she slams into the wall of a building. She picks herself up as quickly as she can, though, alert to see if there are more threats that must be dealt with. But it looks like he's fleeing to the ships, which she supposes, based on her earlier conversation with Haru, had been left unguarded so that the Palace Landers might choose to escape rather than trying to make a stand here.

Curtana pants heavily as he stares after the Cait Sith in confusion, not sure as to who that was. The fight has been very intense, and while he is certainly glad that the the Lander they have been fighting has been finally slain...her sudden appearence is concerning.

What should be even more concerning is the massive meteor raining down from above...oh. Oh dear. That's a problem. Chanting frantically under his breath, the Pooka Knight calls up a curved barrier of light to form around him. A fragment of the Meteor aims directly for the knight, and while the barrier holds for a moment, it quickly shatters and presses on through.

A small crater forms from the impact, and it takes a few moments of straining before Curtana is able to throw the burning rock off of himself. Standing out of his crater, Curtana takes a moment to make sure that there's no nearby enemies before he pulls out a large crimson bottle and starts to quickly chug the contents. A few moments of potion quaffing before he lowers the bottle. If he's smarting, he's absolutely positive there are going to be allies that need aid. "Quickly, anyone need aid or healing?!" This is still an active warzone, and he needs to make sure everyone can get healed up before more enemies arrive.

Anything to help distract him he aided in murder, even if it was an enemy.

There is a tense moment where Mikage reaches back for another arrow, ready to fire it at the fleeing form of Hestiger, but then that stranger seems to emerge out of nowhere and finish the job. There are mixed feelings that come with that... wanting to have earned that victory themselves over an enemy they had faced time and again, and also relief that it is over without truly having blood on her own hands. She would have still done it, though. So it doesn't really make it any better, does it?

That's when the meteors begin to fall from the sky. "Shit." Having pulled out some of her most powerful techniques, Mikage doesn't have enough mana to channel more than a bit of mist around herself, which seems to momentarily obscure her from view. However, it isn't enough to really soak the damage entirely. Fire rips along one of her arms, burning up along her armor and searing to the flesh beneath it.

With a growl of pain, she looks around, trying to guage the others before spotting Merek still fighting with one of the Palace Landers. "Rama!" While it would be impossible for her to close that distance to help, her feline companion has more mobility and is already closer.

So, when the blade comes in towards Merek, it instead finds fur instead of the alchemist's armor. Rama falls to the side, a gaping wound across his forelimb, causing him to barely be able to stand on three legs. Mikage gives a cry of pain that echoes at the same time as her companion's snarl of challenge. The two share a health bar, and it is quite obvious in that moment.

How does someone protect themselves from a meteor? Himari certainly doesn't know, and she kind of looks around and tries to find a place to hide or run to. She doesn't seem eager to chase after Middray now there's something bigger coming down.

She's knocked aside by the explosion, and ends up laying on the ground face down. Her leaf hat destroyed, while she flashes red. She winces and makes a face, as she looks towards Shiruba. "Maybe?" She takes a short, jagged breath. "Sorry, I'll make it up to you later!"

She closes her eyes and concentrate, as she reaches a hand up towards the sky. "Ola Repth," she murmurs, as she casts the healing spell on herself. As she feels herself starting to recover from her wounds, she realises she's too exhausted to do much else.

Kaydon was not going to allow Hetiger to escape this time. He was either going to take him down or die trying, hopefully keeping him engaged long enough for that bleeding to finish him off. He strikes until he's out of charges, and is about to strike one last time when that hand grabs around his throat. He can feel his life dropping rapidly, and he's trying to get one last strike in, if he can before everything goes black.

Then suddenly that grip begins to loosen, and Kaydon looks down at the glowing red orb sticking out of his chest, and then the person holding it. He can't believe it, but he's not one to look a gift cait sith in the mouth.

He drops to his knees once the hand releases him. He looks up at the cait sith who saved him, "Thank you." He says, with a cough, before he falls over onto his back. Which gives him a perfect view of the massive fire blast coming towards him from Middray, "God damnit." He sighs, and closes his eyes, waiting for the inevitable.

    Merek looks like he's about to take the strike from the shockwave, and he prepares for that. Instead, it looks like Rama takes the strike. He looks around a bit, noticing that there are people fleeing from combat, while he looks up to Shiyang who is preparing. The man takes a moment to pick up Rama and pull him away over his shoulder, while he tries to take off away from the woman, into the safety of the combatants that can still fight, "MAKE WAY! REINFORCE POSITION!" This should make Shiyang rethink the staying to fight.

Hearing that one of the heroes of her side has fallen, Shiyang raises her sword to strike. A swift blow, a merciful death. A death for a death, a hero for a hero. Only for a different warrior to leap into the way, foiling Shiyang's thrust.

    The salamander woman could continue to fight. Could probably still try to finish off Merek. It would be fitting. But ... no, it would also be petty. And no doubt it would cost Shiyang her own life as well, not that her life means much. With Middray fleeing the field, it's time for Shiyang to get out as well. "Another time then, warriors." she offers instead, and it's not clear whether she's speaking to Merek or to Rama - and through Rama, to Mikage. Possibly both. She spits fire into the ground at her feet, causing a small explosion of smoke and ash, also stirred perhaps by mystical energies... and when the smoke bomb clears, she's already some ways away. Not quite ninja-like stealth perhaps.

Rama gives a very surprised yowl at being scooped up, but he knows better than to flail as most cats would, given the circumstances. Both Ranger and animal companion look worse for wear, although it seems that much of that damage had come in the last moments of the fight for Shibuya.

The girl steps forward, still looking to be experiencing some pain from the burn wounds across one side of her form, reaching out to take Rama from Merek. "You need to be more fucking careful." She's said this to him before, and it doesn't seem like this will be the last time, either. However, Mikage doesn't have the energy to press that point.

"Cyrus better get his butt down here and get to healing. I want to try to track that Cait Sith before the trail goes cold." In her experience, strangers appearing out of nowhere on the battle field are always suspect. She isn't about to let that go without at least looking into it.

Erufu is well aware of how dangerous Mid is but did not expect this. WAit what is he doing worse there's the Meteor, not again. Then she hears the word explosion magic? Wait what? Oh, this is bad she also caught out of the corner of her eye, what's happened to Kaydon. He appears to be a mess, she makes up her mind of what she has to do. The far smaller elf will charge towards Kaydon to shield him with her body. She's got more HP right? Sides the only one that counts is the last one.

She will cry out in pain as she takes the hit her body becoming a mess of damaged red wireframes but she holds on.

"Are you all right?"

She might need a wee bit of help now, she wonders what would Goblin Slayer or anyone from her party say about this.

Shiruba weakly gets to her feet and walks over to pat a hand on Himari's shoulder. "Don't be sorry. You did plenty to help us." A glance is given towards the spot where Hestiger had last been standing. ".. A shame they couldn't be saved. But if we held back simply because they were Landers, they would of routed us for sure. The tolls would be far greater, on both sides."

Windburn had made it into woods. So when the meteorite detonated she was only knocked out of a tree, not nearly as lethal a fall as being blown out of the sky.

Even then, it's several minutes before the falcon finally flies back to Shiruba, perching on her shoulder... and when the wolfgirl winces, politely moves to the opposite shoulder.

But as guild moderator she can't rest quite yet. "Any word from the main seige? Or Haru?" She lost track of him when he was dealing with one of the other Palace Land officers...

    "I apologize, both of you. Normally, I am doing a lot better with that, I just thought that it'd be bad if she was aiding the forces," then he nods a bit. The man takes the time to look to the field and where the man that went down was. There's a sigh, "This war... I want it to be finished I will admit." He pulls on his cape about him at the shoulder and will take the time to heal people that need it.

When Kaydon realizes that he's not dead, his eyes open up, to find Erufu having shielded him. He puts himself back to his knees, and reaches over to help her, "I'm not dead, but I think that's only thanks to you." He pulls the last health potion he had in his inventory out and gives it to her, "Take it. You need it more than I do." He says, and then he grins, "I owe you a drink sometime."

Himari remains on the ground, trying to rest and letting her magic heal herself a bit more. She rolls onto her knees and looks up towards Shiruba as she rests a hand on her shoulder. "It is a waste of life," she comments with a small frown. "But their memorials will be looked after like anyone elses." It seems that she's talking about all that have fallen, and not just Hestiger. "I bet it'll keep me busy in the future."

At the question about Haru, she glances towards the wolfgirl, and shakes her head. "I haven't heard back from Haru-kun. He didn't go down did he? I was too busy with Meteor-chan to keep track of people."

Haru returns to the main conflict theater. Where there was once two, there is now one. He walks around and looks for the familiar party to regroup before going exactly where he told Shiruba he would be: Pela's Cafe. After all of this, a good drink is exactly what is needed.

Once the fight is over and the Palace Landers seen to be really gone, Yeowang will organize first aid stations and triage the injured, ensuring the most injured people receive the most immediate aid. The Red Chain has not come down for the fight, but there -were- Red Chain supplies here that can be gotten a hold of, and there are those here that know how to use them. Yeowang knows a bit, but it's more like sports medicine than actual treatment of injuries. But she will do what she can, which is mostly organizing the people who can help to help in the most efficient way.

Erufu downs the potion and replies. "Thank you and prehaps we can do so at my Inn when we do?"