Sharp Exit

[innatelunacy]

They'd managed to avoid the worst of the trouble on their exit from Midgar's ruins, much to Saix's quiet disappointment. They ran into a couple of relatively weak Hollows, new and of low concern, which were quickly dispatched. Saix had hoped for a bigger challenge, but it was probably for the best when they were followed by a shellshocked flock of refugees.

The Turks left for Edge once they'd cleared the rubble, a silent, mutual understanding having been reached with them that it would help no one, now, to continue whatever unfinished business was on the cards. Some of the refugees went too, claiming family, or friends who could help them, but the largest number stayed with the party until they reached Palumpolum. This was, it was reasoned, as far as they could safely take them. Word would be spreading around Edge by now that there had been survivors, and that increased the risks. Rumour travelled faster than feet, and neither Axel nor Saix wanted to run headlong into a welcoming committee that might recognise them for Ryoka.

Aerith, fortunately, agreed. She'd been nervous when they first came out of the shadow of what had once been Midgar, but once they'd travelled further out, to where the wilds of nature shaped the land, instead of the technology of men, she'd seemed to relax and take it in stride.

"Do you want to bring her back to Rabanastre, or do you have somewhere else in mind?" Saix asked of Axel, once the city of Palumpolum was part of the horizon again, instead of breathing down their necks. He was, grudgingly, impressed; Aerith was a city girl, but she hadn't made a single grumble when they'd travelled, which was more than could be said for the refugees that had stayed with them.

Comments

[hearstheplanet]

Aerith cried out as the volley of spells hit, and hard. She fell to her knees, and gasped, wracked with pain she'd never experienced before, and never, ever wanted to experience again.

Then she made a noise of frustration and pushed herself back to her feet, glaring at Luppi. She drew herself together, and cast curaga, soon followed by haste.

She sent a dose of that one out to Axel and Saix, too.

If they were going to play meanieheads, then so could she.

[jawmask]

Grimmjow moved to avoid the retaliatory strike and came at him, sword first, slashing at him relentlessly and fast. He wanted to stop him getting any moves in, knowing that he was messier when enraged and considerably more powerful if his strikes connected.

He made doubly sure to attack and attack and attack when he saw Aerith buff him with Haste -- experience told him that he wasn't slow at the best of times, but he knew that the spell would make him that much more dangerous and he swore when it connected.

[gotitmemorised]

Axel cried out in pain when the kick and punch hit him and decided that he did not want Ulquiorra that close again. Of course, that was when Haste hit. He was fast anyway, only just behind Larxene for raw speed, and he fell back on his usual strategy: hit and run.

He put some distance between himself an Ulquiorra, darting away at a speed below Sonido but nonetheless very fast. When he was at what he considered a safe distance, he decided to raise the stakes. He took a second to channel his elemental power and razed the area of the battlefield that they were occupying. To follow this up, he called upon walls of fire that sprang up around some of the edges of the near molten ground. It was showy, it was flashy and it was utterly useless against Ulquiorra elementally -- he knew that now--, but it was restorative to him and provided a buffer between Axel and his opponent and obscured him visually, something that was more useful than he could ever know.

With this in place, he threw one chakram and ran at Ulquiorra with the other, using pyrokinesis to control the thrown one and attack from two directions at once. He didn't spend long in his immediate vicinity and backed off as soon as he had completed his swing.

[trepadora]

Luppi's eyes widened when he saw what Aerith did both for herself and the other two she was with. He gritted his teeth in annoyance.

Axel's damaging fire abilities didn't help his mood, either.

He switched tactics and fired off a shot of Wounding high-level Poison magic at Aerith. Haste was all well and good, but if she was unable to heal to maximum it would help their side. That Poison, if it took, would mitigate the Regen was just a bonus.

[innatelunacy]

Saix took damage, grunting and crying out with each impact. He fought to try and block the blows, knowing that if he could break Grimmjow's rhythm he could try for the upper hand again.

The haste spell connected, and Saix snarled, moving faster to block and counter, and then pulling away. His eyes flashed yellow as he cried out in exhilaration.

[tozasemurcielago]

Ulquiorra's frown deepened for a moment as his opponent threw up a wall of flame. It was a rudimentary healing technique, but an effective one, and Ulquiorra regarded Axel coolly. Haste, with this person, would prove to be a problem.

The fire overwhelmed his sense of smell, and he could feel the heat, even if it didn't hurt him. The tails of his uniform wavered in the warm air. It was hard to track Axel through his chakra, because now Ulquiorra was surrounded by it, and while he easily held off Axel with one hand it was only sharp reflexes that let him dodge the other incoming chakram without using his other hand.

In the instant that Ulquiorra was distracted, Axel got away, and Ulquiorra was left waiting for the next attack, a little disgruntled.

[hearstheplanet]

Aerith was hit, and it hurt. She whimpered, but grit her teeth. She couldn't get too distracted and caught up with this guy; that would be too easy, and was probably what they wanted.

She felt the chakra spikes from Saix and Axel, seeing them both calling on their reserves and unleashing some of their power.

She focussed, and healed herself, knowing that she'd be no use to them if she dropped, and between ruin and poison, she was in worse shape than the other two.

Then she aimed Bravery at both Saix and Axel, knowing the physical boost would be a bigger help to them than a magical one.

With that done, she turned her attention to Luppi again. She had a chance to exchange blows with him for a little while, now, but she'd have to keep an eye on Saix; he was getting more hurt than Axel was.

[jawmask]

It was impossible for Grimmjow to miss that transition from regular Saix to the berserked alternative. That, combined with Haste, would make the fight a hard one, but he didn't release just yet. He went back in for another barrage of attacks and attempted to stay out of the firing line from the claymore as much as possible by using Sonido when he needed to.

He knew that staying close enough to prevent Saix swinging his weapon would be his salvation, at least until he was forced to break that pattern of attack.

[gotitmemorised]

Axel dived into one of the flame walls and observed his opponent for the second he needed to.

It looked like he wasn't sure to battles of this style, if not necessarily calibre. It seemed to Axel like he used his calm demeanour to wrong-foot opponents and was used, ultimately, to enemies that attacked head on and with one weapon. That put Axel at a stylistic advantage. The fire may be useless in terms of causing him extra damage, but that wasn't important - it had other functions that were already doing their job.

He streaked out of the flames and attacked once again, keeping both weapons in his hands that time, one held at the outer ring and one with the cross-shaped handles at the centre. He kept his centre of gravity low and his stance loose as he slashed at Ulquiorra with both chakrams. He struck with each in quick succession, then turned to attack him again with the first he hit with.

[trepadora]

Luppi's anger grew as she kept buffing her team mates. "Let's see how you take this," Luppi snarled at Aerith while he concentrated his chakra to cast a spell.

The spell in question was Fog.

[innatelunacy]

Saix didn't even notice when Aerith's bravery spell landed, too busily lost in the fight. He roared and snarled like an animal, bringing the claymore down hard on the ground and ejecting streams of non-elemental energy that looked like dark blue flames with every impact.

[tozasemurcielago]

Ulquiorra dodged the first couple of strikes with swift steps, but he had to bring his hand up to block the next attempt at a strike...

and his other hand out to block the next strike.

Axel was fast at the best of times, but now he was under the influence of haste, and, Ulquiorra would judge, a strength boost, too. Their white mage kept buffing them. It was time to bring this back under control.

He jumped back, out of Axel's way, and raised a hand. A spark of green collected on the end of his outstretched finger.

[hearstheplanet]

Fog was not something Aerith wanted to be hit with, and she cringed, but her luck was in and the spell failed to take.

"Right," she said, drawing herself up and concentrating. Axel had a nice field of fire going, and this little rotter was wood and poison elemental.

She called on the fire, and sent as much as she could manage Luppi's way.

[jawmask]

Grimmjow backed right off and took damage from the blue flames. He gritted his teeth against the discomfort it caused and gripped his sword tightly.

He kept back and tried to keep Saix at a distance by firing off a few consecutive bala blasts while he caught his breath. They weren't as strong as the cero that Ulquiorra was charging, but they were fast and extremely powerful.

[gotitmemorised]

Axel darted back behind the wall of flames and threw one ignited and brightly glowing chakram while Ulquiorra charged ... whatever that attack was. After throwing it, he moved, disguising his true position with an attack thrown purely for the sake of misdirection.

[trepadora]

Luppi suffered.

Fire was his main weakness and between Axel and Aerith, he was suffering greatly under both the barrage of fire sent by the latter and the area effect put into play by the former.

[innatelunacy]

Saix rampaged, continuing his pounding strikes until he jumped and threw his claymore at Grimmjow again. When he landed, he was struck by a bala blast, which knocked him off his feet, and back to his senses.

For a vulnerable moment, which went on much too long for safety, Saix was weaponless, and half dazed.

[tozasemurcielago]

Ulquiorra would have preferred not to shoot blind. When a flaming chakram burst through the wall, pinwheeling its ways towards him, Ulquiorra took it as his best estimation and fired.

The noise drowned out the sound of the flames, and the green cero broke through them where it hit, leaving the earth smouldering where there had once been impenetrable fire.

[hearstheplanet]

Aerith felt the spike in foul chakra before she heard the cero, and saw the blast of green. Her attention quickly slipped from Luppi.

She couldn't see to know if Axel was hurt or not, but Saix was temporarily vulnerable, and already injured, and Axel... well, he wouldn't be harmed by a healing spell, she was sure of that much.

She calmed herself, and then sent them both the most powerful doses she could cast.

[declaregamuza]

Nel, meanwhile, was thinking along similar lines, and was already in the process of ending out a hefty curaga to Grimmjow.

She then applied the same to Luppi.

The Arrancar were doing okay, for the moment, so she didn't need to step in for anything aside from a heal. Besides which, Ulquiorra would take umbrage with the insinuation that he couldn't manage, and Grimmjow....

This was Grimmjow's fight.

As for Luppi, she was not prepared to attack a healer who was simply defending herself.

[jawmask]

Grimmjow was knocked off balance and to the ground by the claymore that Saix threw at him, but he defended against the bulk of the attack with his own weapon. Nevertheless, he was bleeding. He snarled as he pulled himself to his feet faster than Saix recovered and grabbed the claymore by the handle.

He hefted it surprisingly easy considering his usual weapon type, left Panthera blade-first in the smoking ground and ran at him.

"Let's see what you make of this, huh?!" He taunted. With that, he used it against him, hitting him with all the fire and fury his of usual attacks. They were considerably worse when administered with something other than a thin blade and he began the attack by using Launch and followed it through with his usual relentless vicious abandon.

[gotitmemorised]

Axel breathed a short sigh of relief as his ploy worked. He saw the flash of green light even through the flickering walls of yellow and heard the low sound through the crackling roar of the flames. He would not have taken getting hit with that well. He narrowed his eyes in concentration and ran back onto the battlefield, from a different direction to the one that the Cero was fired in.

He raced at Ulquiorra, one weapon in hand at the start of the run and the other in place by the time he reached him. He swung them hard and fast and close enough to singe Ulquiorra's clothing.

[trepadora]

Luppi dragged himself back up, enraged.

He'd had enough of the humiliation of being beaten during a back row battle between himself and a medic. He gripped the hilt of his sword and pulled it free of the scabbard.

It was then that he advanced on her.

[innatelunacy]

Saix flew into the air, and was helpless against the onslaught. He cried out with every impact, unable to defend himself in any way, accruing injuries that would normally leave him crippled and weak.

But it wasn't without its benefits, and when Grimmjow finally stopped, and hit Saix one last time, throwing him to the ground with a final smack, Saix picked himself up.

His reiatsu flared and flooded the battlefield for a moment before he transformed, growing significantly in size, and, from the feel of it, power.

As well as the fur.

[tozasemurcielago]

Ulquiorra turned to face Axel as the man burst through for another attack. He could feel the heat, which didn't bother him, and the smell of burning simply meant he was going to need a replacement uniform, which was a low level bother, but it was quite enough bother from this opponent for one day.

Ulquiorra frowned faintly, turning and ducking as he weaved out of the way of the chakrams, and thrust his hand forward and slightly upwards, aiming for Axel's heart.