The Lunatic Pandora

[timenpcs.livejournal.com]

Characters: Lufene, everyone who wants to go after her
Progress: Ongoing
Summary: The intrepid heroes of Gaia seize their chance to board the Lunatic Pandora and attempt to stop its progress.
Location: Lunatic Pandora (over Fum)
Date: 19th April, 1805
Warnings: Violence

Since it began its journey two days ago, the Lunatic Pandora had made its way slowly but surely across the Outer Continent, nearing its final destination with every passing second.

The sky around it was soon dotted with airships, come to track its progress. But none could yet halt it. To even make such an attempt, a party would need to get inside - and in the heart of the Pandora, Lufene was waiting.

[ooc: See this post for plotting! I will put up threads for the different groups. Feel free to start your own subthreads - and please, threadjack away! No posting order, let's do this party style. \o/]

Comments

[trinitycrusades.livejournal.com]

Cecil remained entirely focused on the battle. He stepped back to give Frimelda the opening she needed, not for the first time impressed by her swordsmanship. She made it look so effortless, to wield a longsword in each hand in such a way; he'd never even attempted such a feat. He moved around to the monster's flank to try to strike while she distracted it, but a wounded beast is a dangerous one. It gave another vicious snarl and turned with alarming speed to sweep the two paladins with its tail. The Blink spell had no effect against such an attack and Cecil hadn't expected such fast movement. Its tail impacted, ploughing him into the nearest wall.

Dazed by the force of the hit, he gritted his teeth as he staggered and pushed himself back upright. There was going to be bruising, but he'd fought alongside his wife enough times to trust her completely to keep up with healing.

"Frimelda, let's try a pincer attack! Go for the flanks!"

[pathtowalk.livejournal.com]

Frimelda saw the tail sweep coming - but not the speed, which caught her completely by surprise. Whilst she did manage to jump it, the thing lashed its tail back, recoiling, and got lucky, slamming her back to the ground where she was: she winced in pain, but there was no time to pay attention to that. The T-Rexaur, clearly seeing where she was, roared in triumph, and it was all she could do to roll to one side, lifting herself off the ground in the process, the beast catching one of her doubles instead.

Its howl of irritance was all she could hear as she stood upright, finding herself bruised, but not unable to fight. At Cecil's voice, she looked over to him, calling back. "Right. Let us do it!"

She backed up two steps, before rushing towards the thing, blades clearly on the offensive, matching her speed to Cecil's.

[byhissidealways.livejournal.com]

Cecil's trust in Rosa was well-placed. She missed no time in casting Cura on the entire party; everyone felt the healing spell land. At Laguna's question, she glanced at him and shook her head. "I do not," she answered, turning her attention back to the fight at hand.

She couldn't blind it, per se, but she could do a myriad of other things to it. Concentrating hard, she cast Slow on the creature, hoping to cause its speed to lower. If that held, their Haste status would make the battle much, much easier.

[blue-desperado.livejournal.com]

Laguna glanced over his shoulder as the others continued to fend off the T-Rexuar, frowning to himself as he continued to try various buttons. No results yet, at least not that he could see. "Huh. Okay, what about... this one?" He bit at his lower lip and reached out to slam his palm against another large button, only to feel a sharp pain shoot up his right leg immediately afterward.

"Urgh!" He dropped to one knee, cringing. "L-leg cramp! Too much pressure! I don't think these buttons are doin' us any good, folks!"

[trinitycrusades.livejournal.com]

Although the monster was somewhat intelligent, it wasn't that intelligent, and the paladins attacking from both sides confused it greatly. It thrashed from side to side, not knowing which way to turn and its movements impeded by Rosa's Slow spell. Cecil raised his blade and seized the opportunity to impale its side.

The beast gave a howl of pain and staggered, but quickly spotted the vulnerable member of the group and fixed on its new target: Laguna.

"Run, Laguna!" Cecil called, barely having time to pull his sword from the beast's side before it charged.

[pathtowalk.livejournal.com]

Frimelda watched as the beast swayed, keeping one sword at full length: she didn't want to be caught underneath a toppling monster, and, if anything, the sword would deter it, or would allow her enough time to move.

But it didn't topple over; it headed for Laguna.

Grimancing, Frimelda held both blades to her body, as she sprinted from her side of the room to where Laguna was, making it there mere miliseconds before the beast made contact, drawing both her swords up in defense to cover both her and Laguna, as it threw its whole body weight at her.

This time, she really did wince as pain shot through her arms, making her double over as the monster pulled back for another go. She was strong, but there were limits. "Laguna... how do you fare?" she tried. She then looked to Rosa and Cecil. "It is still dizzy! If we attempt to knock it off balance, it will give us time to end this!"

[byhissidealways.livejournal.com]

Rosa's reaction to the sudden mess was to follow the beast's movements with her eyes, backing further away from the battle so she could cast another two Curas - one on Cecil and one on Frimelda - without incurring the creature's wrath.

Remaining silent, Rosa thought through what else she could do to help. She offered a nod to Frimelda. The other woman had a valid point, but Rosa didn't dare get any closer. Though it was a long shot, she attempted to cast Hold on it. At the very least, she might be able to trip it up a bit before it broke free.

[blue-desperado.livejournal.com]

Oh, Hyne. That had been close. He offered Frimelda a most grateful smile as he forced himself back to his feet, ignoring the stiffening pain in his right leg. "I'm alright! Thanks! But I don't think we're getting anywhere with these controls. The course seems to be fixed."

He reached to pull his machine gun from the holster at his back, immediately fixing it on the T-Rexaur. "Let's take care of this guy, then we can smash it up!"

[trinitycrusades.livejournal.com]

Cecil breathed a silent sigh of relief when Frimelda stepped in to protect Laguna. They made a good team. Silently grateful for the Cura sent his way from Rosa, Cecil sent a confused glance to Laguna. "Destroy the controls? Are you sure that's wise--?" He paused before he could finish, looking back to the T-Rexaur as Hold took effect. It was rendered completely immobile and open to attack. The perfect opportunity.

"Frimelda, now! Join your powers with mine!" He levelled his holy sword at the beast and readied to move in and strike once more. If it worked, the two of them would be able to Band and defeat it.

[pathtowalk.livejournal.com]

Having pulled herself to her feet, Frimelda nodded to Laguna at the fact he appeared to be alright. Before she could contemplate long over the controls, though, her attention was brought to Cecil.

"My powers with yours?" she queried, but only for a moment; it was clear what to do. And somewhat of a blessing the T-Rexaur was still: the knock she had had sent her balance a little off ways, but it was improving the more she focused. Doing so, she pulled back a step, like a tiger readying to pounce, both blades held up together in front of her, ready to strike.

She ran forward, in one fluid motion, slashing, and slashing, and slashing, the beast roaring with each blade making contact, as she spun them around her, almost effortlessly, momentum increasing. Whenever she was to duck out to the side, the way would be clear for Cecil to deal the finishing blow.

[byhissidealways.livejournal.com]

Rosa watched the unfolding scene before her, holding back on her actions once the creature froze in place. Her spell had worked and that was the important thing for her at that moment. She kept a hand on her bow and arrow, ready to strike with that if she needed to, and concentrated on her magic at the same time. Whatever was needed next, she would do.

Cecil's call was not lost on her. She knew what that meant, though she was honestly surprised such a thing would work here on Gaia. But if so, maybe the others she knew would work, as well. For now, she had to hope this final blow would be enough to kill the beast.

[blue-desperado.livejournal.com]

Laguna offered the pair of paladins cover fire in short bursts; one drawback to Gaia was that it seemed more or less impossible to get enough ammunition to supply a machine gun synthesized. He wouldn't be leaving with much, but taking down this T-Rexaur was now top-priority. If they couldn't get past it, nothing else mattered -- but they had to be getting close. He carefully metered each hail of bullets, cautious so as to avoid any friendly-fire as well as the possibility of exhausting his supply of rounds too quickly.

"Alright, Tiny's lookin' a little worse for wear, guys!"