timeandtides_backup | [Thread; Semi-open]

Characters: Celes, Sabin, Ashe, Rasler (Terra and Locke?) - basically anyone near Figaro
Progress: Ongoing
Summary: A Hunt and a talk
Location: Figaro and surrounding area
Date: Let's say after Heads of State Meeting to make it easier
Warnings: TBA

Celes had an agenda: Take Sabin to where Figaro Castle had last been seen and go find that Hunt. It was some cactuar if she remembered correctly, and at least she had some backup in the form of Locke. She wasn't sure if her other companions would come with her, but that was all right. Come to that, she wasn't sure who was going to raise the castle. Or what the deal was. But hey, she was there to help Sabin out and to make sure things were going all right with Ashe and Rasler.

At some point she'd end up doing both. The order was the only thing she wasn't sure of. So just outside Figaro, she stopped to figure out what was going to happen.

((OOC: Party style or however you guys want. I kind of wanted to stick both the hunt and the Figaro Castle stuff in one post but I can split it if this is too confusing.))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Locke pulled on his gloves and bared his dagger, grinning at Celes as he quickly made his way around to the rear of the cactuar. He rose his hand to acknowledge to Celes that he was in position and ready for their attack to begin.

Celes was expecting something small. But the thing that popped out of the ground was larger than almost anything she'd ever seen before. Oh boy... At least Locke wasn't going to get hit right off the bat.

"Goddesses..."

She took a deep breath and slashed into it with her sword, cursing softly as it jumped around. Her blade had barely nicked it. This... was going to be difficult.

As the Cactuar lept from the ground, Locke wondered just how tough this foe would be.

Instincts kicked in as he charged the creature from behind stabbing into the flesh with his dagger. Surprise shown on his face when he realize that other than knocking a few pins off, he had only succeeded in garnering his foe's attention.

Celes sliced in another time before she glanced up and noticed that it was starting to lean. More than lean. It was falling over and if she didn't move, it was going to land its prickly self right on top of her.

Training kicked in and she carwheeled away. Unfortunately, she couldn't get far enough away to completely avoid the resulting earthquake as it hit the ground, but at least she wasn't a thorny pancake. The aftershock sent her to the ground and she coughed out a lungful of sand before she could gather herself back up.

Definitely would be harder than she expected. "Locke, be careful!" she called to him. "It's targeting you this time!" Who knew what else it would be capable of. In an effort to distract the large thing, Celes darted back in to aim a couple of slices at the thing's legs. If those could be counted as legs.

Locke tossed his boomerang at the cactuar as it turned it's fury upon him with full vengeance in a devastating counter attack.

He barely managed to dive to the ground as the creature released 10,000 needles. Locke managed a grin before passing out as the creature stumbled from Celes' barrage.

A loud curse escaped from Celes as she noticed what was happening. The Phoenix Down was out of her pocket nearly before Locke hit the ground. As soon as she could make it over, it was emptied on his body with the hope that he would quickly wake up before she turned her sword against the Cactuar.

It promptly lifted a foot and tried to step on her, though she managed to dodge mostly out of the way, only getting thrust to the ground by the shock from that.

This was more than she'd bargained for, but she was not going to back out now.

Locke promptly awoke from his restful slumber. Having been through the technique many times before, he grinned asking Celes, "Did you leave a piece for me?"

With that, he took off running around the cactuar hoping to draw it's attention away from his friend and ally. As the cactuar began to step down again, he dove and flung his boomerang at his target again. Luckily, his dive carried him away from the creature's counterattack.

"More than a piece," Celes grumbled, the relief showing on her face when Locke got back up. "Don't do that again. My supply isn't that high."

And she'd worry if it got any lower.

Gathering herself again, she sliced a few more needles off the cactuar. "How much stamina does this thing have?!"

Locke was getting rather perturbed by the cactuar's resistance. "Should I ask him if he's thirsty?"

Placing his teeth between his knife, he darted in close to the creature before removing the knife to slice a nice LC into its hide. Learning quickly, he never stopped moving as he slid along the sand barely avoiding a nasty hit.

Celes smirked at Locke's words then, finding herself wishing Rydia was nearby. They could really use her summons right about now, especially Leviathan.

Reaching into her pouch to prepare an Ether, she dove in with a hard slice and a Blizzara. Unfortunately, the double attack made it nearly impossible for her to avoid the Cactuar's tilt-over counterattack. The ground shook her off her feet again and she faceplanted into the ground, sputtering.

Goddesses curse this stupid thing.

Locke knew better than to laugh at Celes' misfortune. Contrary to his instincts of protecting Celes, he used the creatures focused attention to dart in and slice once more. As the cactuar focused on him again, he hoped Celes would have a chance to regain her footing.

"You going to Eiko's party?" he asked as he lost his footing in the attack.

And regain her footing she did. However, the Cactuar was starting to grate on Celes' nerves. The faster they got this done, the better.

"I hadn't heard about a party," she replied, barely dodging the Cactuar's next giant step, which was aimed at her and threw her to the ground again. At least this time she'd been ready for it so she could use the momentum to somersault her way back to her feet. That didn't mean it wasn't annoying, though.

As Locke flew headfirst into the sand, he was unable to respond back to Celes. Spitting out the sand that had infiltrated his mouth, he looked up to see a foot coming down upon him. He had just enough time to stick his dagger up and cut their foe's foot as he rolled away from the step.

"You have now," he said as the cactuar stomped his full weight upon the injured foot causing it to stumble.

"You know how I feel about parties," Celes replied, darting in to swipe at the Cactuar again as it stumbled.

She was about to elaborate on that point when she suddenly noticed that it was turning its attention back to her and lowering again. It had done this once before, but she'd been on the opposite end. This time it was focusing on her and the general was the recipient of its 10,000 Needles attack. The little pinpricks were too much for her all at once and she felt her vision cloud up as her knees buckled. She hit the ground a moment later with a thud.

If there was one thing Celes hated about battle, it was the possibility of getting knocked out like this. It showed a weakness she hated having.

At least she had phoenix downs in her pockets.

[Thread; Semi-open]

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