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Entry tags:

loz,
sin-spawn

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Character(s): Loz, Sinspawn, anybody else in need of a thread and some violence?
Content: poor hapless Sinspawn thinks Loz is prey.
Setting: A Nifleheim area alley just south of the G9/G8 border
Time: twilight
Warnings: probably violence

Michael had been as good as his word, and had shown Loz around a little. One train ride later, and he introduced Loz to the O Pastor hotel, as well as to how to pay for his stay. (The money situation here was by far the strangest aspect of the entire place, so far as he was concerned.) Loz didn't care that the floor creaked or that the wallpaper was peeling or that the bed was held up by a block of wood at one corner; there were no bugs, no invasive cleaning people, the shower worked, and the door could be locked. It was better than a lot of inns that he and his brothers had used.

It had been a few days, and in that time, he'd explored the area around the hotel a bit. There was another gate, different from the one he'd come in through, close enough to walk to. As soon as he found it on the map, he headed there, and spent a lot of time wandering around close to the gate watching the people come in. There'd been something like a series of explosions off to the north - or what seemed to be north according to the maps - the one night, but he hadn't investigated. People weren't exactly fleeing the city or anything, so it couldn't be that important.

There were still way too many people, and he hadn't run into anyone he knew yet outside of the journals, much less his brothers. And there weren't any animals at all, so far as he'd seen - not even bugs - except the painted ones in the artwork all over the place, and most of those were ones he'd never even seen before. And he hadn't seen sky since he'd entered the city, except what could be seen though the gate. Knowing that the sky was still out there was a bit of a comfort, but being in the city still felt like being kept captive, somehow.

It was easy to scavenge for "money" on the way to the gate and back. Loz wondered how long such easy pickings could last.

He was exploring a bit on his way back from the gate at sunset - at least, the dome overhead claimed that it was sunset - when he wandered into a weirdly silent little courtyard off of an alley. He liked alleys; there weren't nearly as many people in them. But it seemed like a strange place for a courtyard with "plants" and a statue of a woman missing her arms in the middle.

He moved into the courtyard before he realized that the back of it opened out into a passage of archways, staggered in a dark, larger space beyond. He slowed and peered at the dark for a moment, but it seemed unoccupied. It'd be fine if he kept an eye out, right?

[[OOC: again... just holler if I screwed anything up...]]

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It was safe in theory at least, if not in practice. After all, things hadn't exactly been truly safe since the Sinspawn had started shoeing up in the city at the very least. True, the most of them had failed to kill anyone of real importance in the city but that hardly stopped them from trying. The did as they had been born to do, and nothing more.

Therefore, it wasn't entirely surprising that one of the wandering Sinspawn had decided that perhaps Loz would make a good target. Just another death to add to the pile, another to save from the pain of life. Of course, its approach wasn't exactly hard to miss - while it had speed on it's side there was no way to hide the humming crackle of lightning that followed it wherever it went. But it didn't care. Let him know it came, there would be a death today all the same.

Loz had acquired messenger bag - bought would have been too strong a term - that he used to carry the mostly-unused electronic journal and whatever else he needed or scavenged. He was just latching it shut again when he heard it. Heard something. It made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.

He turned in time to see movement - fast movement - in the dark of the passage, and just barely had time to throw himself aside as something came at him. He found himself standing with his back to the statue, staring at another creature he'd never seen before.

It didn't matter. He dropped the satchel and raised his gloved fists, a smile creeping across his face. Finally, some entertainment!

Ah, so it was a fight the strange silver-hair wanted? Well, that was just fine as far as the Sinspawn was concerned. Fighting led to death and death was what they had all been charged with.

There was a brief pause as the low hum and crackle of lightning ramped up in intensity and then the Sinspawn launched itself and Loz, lightning crackling ominously in its gaping mouth and around its claws. Needless to say, it managed to land a blow it would be something less than comfortable.

Loz's grin widened, his slitted pupils dilating a little more. So it was a lightning elemental! Nothing wrong with that - just made this even better. He'd been getting bored here!

He dodged and dropped into a low spin kick when the thing leapt at him, hoping to send the thing flying. But he didn't see the outcome - the electrical charge from one claw caught his foot. For a moment there was nothing but involuntary tension, every muscle going rigid, no room for thought... and then the contact was broken.

Finding himself sprawled less-than-gracefully on the flagstones, Loz cast Haste on himself purely so as to rise and whirl to face the thing again, hopefully avoiding an attack. He had to be more careful...

Admittedly the spawn didn't attack Loz while he was down, but this was more due the fact that it had landed in the meantime than any real charity on its part. And by the time that Loz had climbed back to his feet the spawn was already leaping again.

All it needed was one good hit, one good strike with claws or teeth or thunder. Just one opening. One good opening.

And if was sooner rather than later, so much the better.

Things had been a mess. There were things everywhere, dark skinned monsters that made Mercedes' skin crawl with disgust. She'd flown high up in the skies, avoiding contact with any of them. She knew that she had to conserve bullets and energy. Phozons were scarce here and keeping alive was important - but wasn't she dead already?

But there was a part of her that wanted to protect, that needed to protect, so when the Fairy saw a man being beaten by one of those... things, she didn't hesitate to fire at the monster, crossbow cocked and firing continuously.

Loz turned and crouched again - ready to spring - but pulled back just in time, glimpsing what seemed to be a barrage of projectiles streaking down toward the creature. Someone was providing backup.

He neither questioned nor paused for gratitude; it was simply a new factor come into play. He ran, avoiding the foreign attack, taking two steps up a wall and flipping backward. He curled in the air, bringing the force of his entire body down in one powerful strike to the creature's head.

In the air, he glanced upward, looking for the source of the other attack, but couldn't pinpoint the origin. He simply had to trust that whoever was helping wasn't interested in taking him out as well.

[[OOC: my sincere apologies for taking so long -_-
Attack by no means has to be a killing blow even if it lands ^_^; ]]

Loz's attack would have hit rather neatly had the Sinspawn's reaction to the barrage of arrows not been to dodge out of the way and cast Haste on itself. True, some arrows had hit it in the process but not enough to make too much of a difference yet. Consequently, by the time Loz's attack would have it, it had already moved on to somewhere else. Dealing with two people would be harder, but not impossible. All it would take was a slightly different way of going about it.

Attacking both in the same motion would therefore likely be the best plan of actions; a flicker of the spawn's trailing antennae the only indication the two would get before it was leaping into action again, reaching out to strike at Loz even as it sent a blast of lightning arcing towards Mercedes - with luck, the metal in the arrows would serve to attract it and if not, well... no harm done.

Grimacing and settling on a roof to recharge her weapon, Mercedes kept a wary eye on the monster. There were no Phozons here to do a quick charge mid-flight, but she could use the Phozons in her weapon, limited as they could be, but it had to make do.

Hefting up the large weapon again, she barely dodged the lightning sent her way, feeling the air crackle and lets out a cry of distress, ducking low and covering her head, the tips of the flowers on her headdress turning dark.

"That's it," she muttered, crawling over to the edge of the roof deck and aimed, charging for a maximum hit. "Just stay still already."

_{[ooc: so sorry! I didn't specify. The 'arrows' Mercedes uses aren't arrows at all, but bursts of red light/energy. D:]}

The stone that Loz struck, instead of the creature's head, shattered satisfyingly. It took him a fraction of a second to process what had happened - it had moved. It was using Haste too.

This was a far more even match than he'd expected. Grinning, he leapt after the monster again, heedless of any further possible "friendly fire" from above. But the creature was already lashing at him once more. Loz flung himself down, the blow missing him by a hair's bredth, and rolled and kicked at the thing's underside. If he was lucky he'd overturn it, at least.

[[ooc: np! psst - what does Mercedes look like at a glance, size-wise and all? I saw one of the icons had her next to a frog. ^_^; ]]

[[ooc: size-wise? She's tiny. Well, short, actually. At a glance, she'll look like a small girl with lotsa green and with wings. This (http://www.atlus.com/odinsphere/chara/big/img/mercedes.jpg) is what she looks like. And comparison (http://www.atlus.com/odinsphere/chara/big/img/big05.jpg) with her mother.

And yes, that was a frog. Her love interest.]]

[[ooc: Awesome, ty :-)
(the fact that her love interest is a frog is even better XD ) ]]

[[... They both die. It's so... so... SAD.]]

Unfortunately for Mercedes, the Sinspawn had no intention of staying still - more so now that it had cast Haste on itself - and even less intention of making a target of itself for any longer then it had to. However, things didn't always happen as it would prefer; Loz's attack striking it rather neatly, sending it flying. As luck would have it, the blow didn't actually overturn it, but it definitely left the spawn disoriented for a few seconds.

Needless to say, once those seconds had passed, it would once again be jumping back into the fray, but until they had it would be quite unable to protect itself.

So fast...

Her eyes were barely able to track its movements but she persevered, soaring into the skies for a clearer shot, grateful that the other man was able to hit it enough to disorient it and open-fired, sending larger bursts of crackling red energy at the first opportunity.

Mercedes shot at its prone form incessantly, nearly flying backwards from the recoil and landed on the ground when she ran out of energy, taking the time to recharge.

She hoped it was enough.

Loz recovered from his strike, rolling away - the thing wasn't overturned but it had still been a good hit. He glanced up - the creature was wobbling directly in front of the statue of the armless woman in the middle of the courtyard.

He cast Haste on himself again and ran, swinging wide to pass the monster without it lashing at him - though another barrage struck just then, further distracting the creature. Nearly bouncing off of the back wall of the courtyard, he flung himself forward with a calculated punch toward the ankles of the strange statue, hoping that it would be enough to shatter the stone without the aid of his lost pilebunker.

It was. The resultant crack shot through the stone, chips of ancient marble spraying from the point of impact, and a simple push was all it took to send the statue toppling over toward the vicious creature.

Well. That was certainly among the more painful things the spawn had experienced - not that its experiences stretched all that far, but still, having a statue rather unceremoniously dropped onto you was not anything remotely near comfortable.

Nor was the fact that it was all but pinned under the weight of what had until recently been a statue, claws scrabbling desperately at anything it could reach in an attempt to get out, where it could actually attack the ones it was supposed to.

And in the meantime it would just send lightning arcing towards the pair once again. With luck, it would hit at least one of them.

The Fairy Queen wiped sweat from her forehead and took a deep breath, taking to the air to glide closer, tilting her head curiously. Was it dead? Had they defeated the fiend?

Landing close enough to the fallen statue, she took a few slow steps to investigate further, her bow ready but lowered. "Is it over?"

No soon after she said those words did lightning soar out of the cracks and Mercedes jumped back, but it was too late. Screaming when it hit, she flew back, landing on her back a few feet away, feeling pain everywhere.

It wasn't until she approached the creature that Loz got a look at his current ally. She was tiny. Armed and clearly a capable warrior, but tiny, the size of the little girl he'd taken from the Church in Midgar. Except that this girl had what were apparently functional butterfly wings sprouting out of her back...

The monster suddenly spat an arc of electricity again; the girl was too close and was caught, screaming and flung back. Loz was still standing back and off to the side, and dodged, running close to the monster from the side and raising his fist. this blow should put an end to the damned thing...

Should and did, the Spawn's twitching stopping as abruptly as if someone had flipped a switch.

It wasn't long thereafter that the creature's corpse vanished - exploding into a myriad points of multicolored light, which floated their way up towards the what would have been the sky, if the domes hadn't been in the way.

If one listened very closely, one could hear a faint hollow fluting as they went.

She was in pain - so much pain. Taking a shallow breath to avoid choking when it was so hard to breathe, Mercedes rolled onto her hands and knees, tears rolling from her eyes as she dug into her pouch, pulling out what a man had told her was a potion, swallowing it haltingly, mostly spilling despite her best efforts.

Stumbling to her feet and reclaiming her weapon, she winced, lifting a hand to her chest and felt the effects of what she had drank. Like a painreliever, only not quite doing the job but healing the damage done.

The fairy coughed, watching as the monster dissipated into air and let her Psypher absorb its life-essence, recharging her weapon. "Thank you," she addressed the tall, tall man with pale hair, moving closer.

Loz felt a most satisfying crunch of exoskeleton under his fist, and the creature finally stilled. He barely spared the tiny girl a glance as he stepped back from the corpse.

And then the corpse dissolved, drifting apart into small specks of ascending light, and his scowl deepened. If it was doing that, it must be a Summon...

"Thank you."

Loz's head snapped to look at the winged girl. What was she thanking him for? She'd come in on his fight. Unless she was thanking him for killing the thing? But that didn't make much sense either, since he would've done it anyway...

He gave up trying to figure it out and gave a noncommittal grunt in response. "You know what that thing was?" he asked hopefully. "Besides a Summon, I mean. I haven't seen that one before."

"No, I'm sorry." She turned away from the man and stared at the place where the monster had disappeared, wings fluttering in slight agitation.

Whatever this... summon... was, it was strong, reminding her too much of the Netherworld's minions of undead. Hiding away her weapon, Mercedes offered the man one of her potions. "This is the first time I've ever seen these creatures." They were unnatural.

"Oh." Loz was vaguely disappointed; he'd been hoping that she'd say that monsters like that were common here. It would've made this place a lot more interesting.

He waved off the offered potion, though it didn't escape him that she'd offered in the first place. And jumped in on his fight. Still, when you were as small as she was, you probably couldn't do much all on your own. Maybe she was just looking for an ally.

Loz was not looking for an ally, or at least not for one that wasn't also a brother, really. But maybe she could be useful. She could fly. That could be good.

And he was pretty sure she wasn't a native of this place, considering her odd construction. "This is the first time I've seen something like you," he offered after a moment. "But I haven't been here that long. You from here?"

"Huh?" She tilted to look up at him, frowning as she pocketed the bottle again. Didn't he need to be healed? She herself needed it, but perhaps it was because of their difference in size that made him far sturdier than she would ever be. He looked almost upset that she didn't know if there were more.

"There are more, though," she added cautiously, watching him. He, like the Aesier, seemed as if he thrilled in a good fight. "I avoided them in my flight."

Mercedes turned over his statement in her head and found it just a bit rude. "I am not." If she got a bit huffy, it was no fault of hers. "I had arrived only recently." But she had to admit, though. It was rare for her kind to be anywhere at all.

Assuming that was what he was talking about.

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