battlefield: the enraged ones [open]

[hatesdragons]

Who: A. Anyone!; B. Mostly those who have shown interest in fighting the Dragon, but even if you haven't posted in the OOC interest check, feel free to jump right in anyway!

What: A. Let's talk about Heralds; B. It's time to fight a Dragon daemon!

When: Late June. A happens before B.

Where: A. The Iris Network; B. A small town found within the Mount Lebanon mountain range, Lebanon.

Warnings: There will be fighting, likely with blood and possible gore.

Note: Will match format!


A. UN: murakumo_emille | Subject: Heralds

A. Colleagues and Students,

I, Head of Research Emille, have been looking into the beings known as Heralds in order to prepare for our eventual showdown with Utultar. There are records of battles against a previous Herald, Xelvak, and we cannot forget that a baby Herald resides with us within the walls of the Academy.

Therefore, for anyone who has fought with Xelvak or Utultar, or have interacted with the baby Herald, I would like to hear your story. What was your experience like? What was the Herald like? How do you feel about the baby Herald that resides with us? Is it an abomination, or worth training to fight with us?

As for myself, I will admit that I am wary of the baby Herald. As long as it does not become a threat, it can remain with us, but the moment it becomes dangerous we will need to take action against it. Besides, I do not believe it likes me much. That is my opinion. What is yours?

--Emille


B. Codename: Sleepy Hollow

[One June afternoon, Emille receives a dire phone call from Murakumo HQ in Tokyo. They've detected signs of a butterfly-like Dragon daemon in Lebanon, and they're asking if she can mobilize a squad from Daybreak to nullify the threat. By the next morning, she and a select group of students are on a Murakumo-funded helicopter flight to the Middle East.

Upon touching down at the foot of a mountain range, they are taken in rugged ATVs to a small town within these mountains. The surrounding area is densely wooded, and snow-capped peaks can be seen off in the not-too-far distance. As for the town, it is a mess. It is obvious that something strange is going on, that a battle has been taking place. Burn marks can be seen on some of the buildings. Chunks of earth have been gouged out and strewn around. Small medical tents have been erected near the entrance to the town, with Murakumo doctors aiding wounded humans. And, of course, swaths of orange flowers have sprung up in various places, from the ground to the rooftops.

Emille and the group are greeted by a member of Murakumo as soon as they step out of the ATV. The uniformed, ventilation-masked man gives a quick debriefing: the Dragon daemon, codename Sleepy Hollow, has used some sort of ability like the shedding of its wing scales to turn the people of the town against each other, verbally and physically. Murakumo is currently working on providing an antidote to this problem, both for the victims and for those gearing up to fight the Dragon. Sleepy Hollow itself has been chased off for now, but it will be back anytime.

He then points to three stations: A larger tent set up next to the smaller medical tents where the antidote is being created, a small table with a nurse outside of the medical tents, and the biggest tent of all in the center of the town where the anti-Dragon briefing is about to begin.

Which station will you join? See the toplevels below for details!]

Comments

[heromedal]

[ Ordinarily, Rex would be inclined to agree with Hornet- better to let everyone play their role. And with Emille, that waiting for the right moment is probably best.

Except he's still a bit excited. So he's going to hit the thing with his Sunday best. The wind kicks up even harder for a moment as all that flame and air is sucked up, compressed and undergoes a rapid transformation. He's long since mastered creating rocket fuel out of air and interestingly, all that carbon from the ash has its uses in other formulae. So instead of throwing the ball of concentrated fuel, he uses it to propel himself down.

On the way, the black box that faithfully follows him launches his sword at his hands. Catching something of Eternal Sunlight's incredible weight makes him start to spin as he descends, flames ejecting from the sphere now held in his feet (the toes are not just for show) but that's also part of the plan. Just adds momentum. His shape is distorted to the eye, like a spinning top with the broadest section the gold of his six foot sword.

He didn't know Eternal Sunlight could also turn into a rocket, but she has decided this incredibly stupid plan is worthy of rewarding by revealing one of her abilities. Vents open on his sword, further flames blasting out to increase the torque of his spin. It's dreadfully difficult to aim, so his meteor strike of a sword swing is aiming form Sleepy Hollow's centre mass.

...If he hits or not, he's still flying off into the distance and crashing into a rock headfirst. It's his first time, leave him alone. ]

[hatesdragons]

[Encouraged by the tightening of the net around the Dragon, Emille readies herself for a final charge against her wearied prey. She herself is also looking worn, with scratches and gashes evident on herself through tears in her clothing and dents in her armor, but her movements aren't hindered at all. She moves back a few paces, grips her rapier in both hands -- thankfully they're small enough to allow her to do that; rapiers aren't exactly two-handed swords -- and begins dashing towards Sleepy Hollow after bellowing a battle cry.

It's at about this same moment that Rex and Eternal Sunlight are hurtling through the air up above the battleground. Emille is able to slice into the flailing creature's neck moments before Rex plows into the Dragon's midsection, effectively cutting its snake-like torso in half. As he continues to fly off into a rock (owch), Emille also finds herself being catapulted into the air from the impact and unable to do anything about it.

Sleepy Hollow's bodily halves twitch about on the ground, with its head also halfway detached from its neck. Though it seems to be in its death throes, its body begins to glow, and the ground becomes carpeted in deadly orange Bloom flowers.

In the midst of all this, a wave of searing fire comes barreling towards Unit Daybreak from behind -- the Psychic mage from before has managed to burn his way through the silk, and he has also freed the sword-wielding Samurai and gun-toting Agent, who are standing at the Psychic's side.]

[silksoul]

[ Hornet doesn't have a lot of time to watch the collision, because fire - heat, light, brightness - is something that she reacts to faster than anything else.

Rather than rely on silk, she leaps on the mage, driving her knee into his stomach in a calculated move to try and knock the wind out of him. She might be smaller than some adult humans, but she's learned from her travels that anything that wears its flesh on the outside tends to be remarkably sensitive to high impacts.

She spins the kick into lashes of silk, aiming to knock the other two off their feet. She backs away somewhat, just to put space between them all, watching intently. ]

[heromedal]

[ There's a moment of stillness from Rex, but it ends with him hauling his head back from the small crater his head has made, trailing dust and debris like some kind of terrifying Ariel hair flip, if she was a stone elemental instead of a mermaid. He does a quick shakedown to knock the dust off, Eternal Sunlight over his shoulder. ]

Well, that was fun. I would have appreciated a warning, though.

[ He says that last bit to his sword, because she keeps doing things he has no idea she can do. He only has a general idea of where Emille flew off to and decides to focus on stopping the flames reaching her, or starting a second forest fire. He lets Hornet deal with the rough stuff. Now it's Blue Moon's turn. Holding his hand out, his gauntlet flies from the black box to fit over his arm, the beautiful blue crystal expanding a silver disc of a shield. Getting between the flames at the... general direction Emille went, he's also scanning for her. In case, you know, he accidentally knocked her out or some embarassing shit. ]

[hatesdragons]

[As Hornet tries to fight off the Murakumo members, the Bloom flowers expelled from Sleepy Hollow's glowing body continue to spread out towards the town, permeating the air with a thick haze and sickly-sweet smell. Thanks to Rex's scientific know-how, anyone who has shared in his Bloom-counteracting serum will be mostly immune from the coughing fit that the Psychic mage falls into once he hits the ground and inhales the Bloom pollen. He is no longer a threat, instead grabbing at his throat and thrashing about wildly.

The Samurai and Agent, still brainwashed by Sleepy Hollow's scales, attempt their own attacks against Hornet. The Samurai gets into a battle stance, but is whipped by her silk and is forced to jump back a little and thrust his sword into the ground to keep his balance. While he is recovering, the Agent is able to agilely leap over the initial wave of silk and send two shots from her twin pistols from the apex of her jump towards the bug warrior. However, she ends up landing directly on the silk, and if it's connected to Hornet...]

---

[Emille, on the other hand, is laying on her back in a forest clearing, her fall cushioned by a patch of orange Bloom flowers. As she has tested the Bloom immunity serum on herself, and is still wearing her ventilation mask on top of that, she is currently breathing normally. Her body is sore, the wounds sustained during the confrontation with Sleepy Hollow finally catching up with her, and she can't really see for the smoke in the area. Emille continues to lay there, hoping to arise when she can in order to finish that Dragon off. As long as Bloom flowers are still in the vicinity, it's still alive...]

just to wrap this up -- Dragon defeated!

[hatesdragons]

[As the Agent is preparing for a second round of attacks and the Samurai is regaining his footing, the sudden rash of Bloom flowers that have spread all around the battlefield explodes in a bright light, leaving only floating orange petals swaying through the air. The Murakumo members are left staring blankly up at the sight, freed from the Dragon's brainwashing.

At the moment the flowers dissipate, the body of Sleepy Hollow finally does the same, erupting in a white flash that leaves only Bloom petals in its wake. Congratulations! Imperial Dragon Sleepy Hollow has been defeated!]

---

[Meanwhile, Emille is back on her feet, slowly pacing towards the town. She's definitely sore, but she'll be okay. If it wasn't for the enchanted ventilation mask and other various vaccines and antidotes she's boosted her body with before the battle, she wouldn't have made it.

Clutched in her hands are a few samples she was able to take from the Dragon while battling it -- a few scales and scraps of its wing. She'll have to give some of them to President Hikasa, but there's no way she'll give all of her specimens away. Her research is just as important and viable, you know.

She'll return to the group, beaten but not broken, and they'll leave the cleanup to Murakumo. As long as the Dragon was eliminated, it was a successful battle.]