Chevaleresse

Hoshiko tried to hide the grimace that resulted from Luka's "helpful" bandaging of her leg. "Um, thank you, ally of justice! But I don't need your assistance! Seriously. Now, servants of evil, feel my divine wrath!" With the rush of energy from Luka's dance, she stepped up and let loose another shot toward a pegasus, swapping to a slightly more reliable weapon. D15, equip Iron Bow, shoot the pegasus

The, um, ministrations of the group quickly reveal a door, looking to be composed of aged wood. Sif notes that the composition of the rock differs significantly from the terrain they'd approached previously; indeed, it was actually colored differently on closer inspection, lacking the blue tinge the rock of Hollow Bastion typically held. It was inside the cliff, as if it lead further into the formation. A cave with a door? At the very least, it was worth investigating. The Hellfire Knight remained in their armored form, shooting a glance that still managed to convey discomfort at Alexandria through the dark visor of the helmet, shuffling awkwardly despite the bulk of the mech's frame. "Maybe we should just keep going."

The beasts burst into fragments of twilight as this last assault strikes them, a yelp of pain instead of a shriek sounding from. . . well, they don't appear to have mouths, but it has to be sounding from somewhere. The barrier drops, with a few fragments of a black-and-red something left on the ground from the orc's assault. The group presses forward as the shady creatures in their path seem to lost momentum, with the flow of enemies trickling down to nothing for a few moments. They come to what is apparently a dead end - the path simply terminates in a clump of boulders against a sheer cliff face - though something seems off. . . Either way, perhaps there was a wrong turn was taken? But the path didn't seem to have any turns.

i literally just said there's an issue with it

yeah no ragnar you don't get to just shut off their resurrection, thank you

"Tch. . . A good shot, but it won't be enough to slow me down! That much. . ." As much as the archer didn't like people, she liked being fried by magic even less. She skittered back toward the rest of the group, bow held at the ready. "Rejoice, for the goddess's chosen hero has rejoined you! . . . And, um, could possibly use some slight assistance. My holy chest is not supposed to be this color!" H15, overwatch

((As a note, Heartless don't really become corpses or anything. Once you kill one, it disappears in a burst of shadow, and Emblem Heartless release hearts that then vanish. The Twilit critters do, though.)) The party more or less effortlessly sweeps through the first wave of Heartless, making good progress forward. The Hellfire Knight swapped into their armored form, spraying the enemies with a withering torrent of hot plasma and bludgeoning anything that was unintelligent enough to close the gap with a weighty cannon arm, occasionally grabbing one and holding it in place while their shoulder cannons fired concentrated pain into them at point-blank range. There's no glowing or telltale arcane signatures that indicate a stable portal nearby, but the enemies still flow. Well, there wasn't, anyway. An array of nail-like pillars much like the ones that had greeted them earlier drops from the sky, putting up barriers that block the paths both forward and backward. They drop from another strange portal, but this time there's only a trio. They immediately set upon the party as the Heartless trapped in the arena with them move in as well, the small ones flattening - literally - themselves occasionally to avoid damage or sneak behind one of the heroes to claw at their legs, while the larger ones of those almost dance toward them with agility, darting in for a quick, vicious slash of shadowy claws before disappearing into inky blackness and reappearing elsewhere. The spiked ones alternate between spinning like tops and tossing themselves into the air or directly at the ones attacking them, landing with concussive force.

Haruki looked around at the situation. It looked like hell had literally dropped from the sky, or something. And now that lady was being all boring and stuff, talking about being "fire itself" and stuff. And people were dead? He didn't feel that bad, they'd been super boring anyway, but it was pretty bad in general that someone was killing Lumen users willy-nilly. He casually strolled toward Felis, fiddling with his lenses a bit. The light was a little screwy right now because of all the smoke and stuff, so he'd have to add some focusing to it. Maybe too much, but it's worth a shot. After a bit and a flicker of Lumen usage, he aimed the pair of lenses, one at the sun and one below it at an angle, reflecting it straight toward Li's eyes.

Leon popped in after everyone had gathered in the room. "Alright, everyone listening? I'm only gonna say this once, so pay attention. We've narrowed down the general direction that the Heartless are coming from. You all will be going down the main path while we sweep up anything that slips past you through the side tunnels. We're not sure what exactly you'll be looking for, but it'll be a building of some kind, or maybe a portal. Either way, you need to stop the Heartless from coming through. If it's a portal, you need to figure a way to close it, or secure the area so we can get Merlin over there to do it. If it's a building, then we're dealing with a Heartless factory. You need to go in, and look for the main machine that Heartless seem to be coming from. Turn it off, somehow, or just, you know, smash it to unrecognizable pieces. Do the latter, actually, then no one can turn it back on. I'll take you to the gate and open it up for you." With that, the man didn't even pause for questions. He simply exited the same way he'd come in, giving the group no choice besides following him if they didn't want to be left behind. He took them to a different entrance than the one they'd used previously; this one had a massive iron portcullis with a few magical-looking scribblings on it. He threw a lever, and the sound of various chains and pulleys moving echoed in the gateway before the thing ratcheted upward. As the group proceeded through the path - seemingly what was left of some aged castle hallways, roof torn off and exposed to the air, and mixed jaggedly with canyons through rock similar to the ones they'd followed to get to the town - a heavy downpour started, seemingly to announce the appearance of their enemies. [Freeform Battle Initiated] Objective: Reach the end of the path! Among the foes that appeared, a there were a large number of small, skittering things, vaguely humanoid with glowing yellow eyes. There was a smaller number of versions that seemed to be more "matured" or similar, with larger frames. There was also the occasional large, spiked thing, round and green, with that red and black heart emblem emblazoned on it. Backing them up from the air were strange birdlike things, making trumpeting sounds upon sighting the heroes. It wouldn't be easy going, following the path. ((Basically, this isn't going to be straight mechanics, just freeform combat RP. You can auto-hit things and such, these are weak enemies, but your goal isn't to beat them all.))

Alright, you guys have until I'm done with my shit today to get back to the meeting area before I move things on.

"False holy men, feel the wrath of one of the Goddess's TRUE servants! Divine Striker Arrow, go!" L15, shoot the monk

The Hellfire Knight frowned - not that one could actually, you know, tell. "Huh? No, the Fourth God doesn't give me any power. It is all my own." Vehement, again. "I know that we are teammates, or at least that we're supposed to be. But I don't think we're here to make friends." And that's a good thing, I was never good with people. . . "Also. . . No, that's not important. So you get power from the god of your plane, then? How does that work?" The evasion of the start of a question was painfully obvious - something that made her wince underneath her cowl - but it was better than being rude. But did it matter if she was rude? Someone called the Hellfire Knight wouldn't be expected to be polite, but a scared little girl would be. . .

A burst of static assaults the ears of those nearby once again as Hiroki snorts at that last from Snow. Book idiot, indeed. Wasn't that a waste of good literature? And not a very effective fighting tactic, either. . . "My power seems to have been reduced too, like I have lost favor. I should regain it soon; I won't lose to anyone here." The defiant note came through even with the interference of the electronic voice; in fact, a particularly sharp ear might have been able to hear the Hellfire Knight's true voice hiss the line louder than they intended just before it was drowned out by the mechanical interpreter.

The shopkeepers would direct anyone who asked about Cid to his garage, in the lower level of the town a short distance from the house they were to meet in. The Hellfire Knight inclined their head toward Snow in greetings, and tried not to shy away from Kagari as she shimmied in next to her. Sitting silently for a few moments, she pondered an internal quandry, until. . . "Snow. You mentioned something earlier about a Crimson Knight? Who is that?" She wondered what kind of world Snow came from. It didn't seem like she used favor, or at least if she did, not in nearly the same way the denizens of Tempest did. It was strange, really, the thought of being out of Tempest. . .

Fairly high.

I'm pretty sure it's not that it isn't supposed to do that, it's that it doesn't do that at all. I am fairly certain beer's alcohol content isn't high enough for it to work effectively as disinfectant or an accelerant.

There's a bit of booze available in town but Cid has the good stuff.

The cloaked figure simply nods in response. It sort of just. . . stands there, awkwardly, for a bit, wanting to leave but not really having a valid reasom to do so. The Hellfire Knight eventually elected to head into the house and weight; at least there'd be a place to sit.

"Um. Favor is used in a few ways. It's used to create and operate mechs and powers a lot of other things too. Defeating people earns you more favor, and making people like you does too. It's. . . kind of like magic, I guess?" She cursed at herself inwardly, at her stumbling explanations of her own world. She wasn't prepared for anything but fighting, and now she'd been dragged all over this strange plane and was talking to this dragon that probably viewed her as an idle curiosity at best. That thought incensed her, the fact that this was yet another individual she'd have to wrest respect from, an entirely new species to deride her and her abilities. . .

The Knight carefully descends the remaining stairs before replying. "Tempest? I don't really know how to compare it, I guess. It is divided into eight planes, and each plane is ruled by a god. All of the gods were human, and there have been ten so far. I am fighting to become the Eleventh. There isn't really intelligent life besides humans, and some AIs. A lot of technology runs on favor. . ." They trail off for a moment, standing silently for a bit. "I apologize, I do not know what to say aboit it."

It, once again, took the Hellfire Knight a large amount of effort to avoid jumping, which in this case would have resulted in a nasty tumble down the remainder of the stairs. As it was, Eon was treated to a nice burst of static as the person beneath the cloak attempted to recollect themselves. "Um. There doesn't seem to be a problem with them, but I have no idea if they would work on a . . . dragon?" The voice changer masked much, but not all of the questioning tone. Certainly, Eon was an unusual sight.

The Hellfire Knight simply shrugs and walks up to the commercial area, stumping up the stairs rather slowly. After reaching the top, the cloaked figure approaches the owner of one of the item shops, and issues a short request for supplies for three people. They disappear into the back, and return quickly with three small bottles of a greenish substance and an armored brace of some sort. The Knight accepts them with a slight bow, and begins the slow process of descending the stairs without overbalancing.

You can have regular shopkeepers and stuff, that's fine. EDIT: And highly belated Mikah notes: -Specify if Red Strings is a free action. -SYN scaling on your coins is kind of insane. STR*2 is a looot of extra damage for a gear bonus like this. Having that on top of life drain is. . . yeah. -Aced that Defense! is an INT, not a SYN quality, as is the status res. I really don't like how the status res goes to a 75% chance after you get your roll modifier. -First Aid can add your SYN to the heal. -Reduce the heal scaling on Chance of a Lifetime to just SYN for now. -Demon Coins is literally a ranged basic, you can do more with it than that. Make it AoE or higher damage or something. Complexity: (+3 from having to note every die result+1 buff tracking+2 extra rolls on multiple actions+2 from further roll modification on everything+1 for tracking damage for healing)=9, possibly low estimate.

Can you, in the future, at least run the creation of NPCs that can't reasonably be assumed to exist (shopkeepers, random bystander villagers) by me, first? Also, there's no way that man would know anything about angels because they don't exist in this universe, outside of maybe some obscure summon materia

The Hellfire Knight shook their head in response to Magna's second question. "No, I am fine. As for what I was doing, it was fighting in the greatest tournament Tempest has ever held. The winner will receive the right to challenge the Tenth God and become the god of whatever plane you want." The figure fell silent once again, Hiroki retreating to her thoughts once more.