Maelstrom's Clutches [Nayru/Veigue, Black Ticket Event]

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

Nayru took in a deep breath, reveling in the moment as she and Veigue followed the trail of destruction, less worried about what lay at its apex than in taking in the atmosphere as they approached it. She could almost taste the electricity in the air, the excitement of the coming struggle sending its own sort of charge through her body, her instincts already kicking in out of reflex. But it wasn't just a metaphorical figure of speech; the strange creature that had been plaguing the forest of southern Bern actually had the ability to generate and launch electricity from its body, and while that was certainly not the sole cause of this tremendous destruction, the occasional flicker of static charge leaping off of burnt trees and charred rock lent weight to the tall tales she had heard.

At first, she had taken the tales as mere rumors - when that a rampaging creature was tearing through southern Bern, always from second-hand tales. That had been the prevailing opinion of most of the residents; that it was simply an old wive's tale, perhaps a rogue mage at worst.

That had changed quickly when an entire town was put to the torch, its inhabitants slain almost to the last man, and when a few days later, a scouting force from Bern's beleaguered army, they were utterly eradicated by a monstrous creature that could breathe fire and lightning.

The region was quickly gripped by panic, but the lack of attacks on any major cities, as well as the sheer weight of the Rebellion as it swept through Bern, had nearly crippled the joint Bern-Ilian army's ability to react to things happening in the outskirts of civilization. At first she had wondered if it was not a mad dragon, similar to whatever had happened in the arena, but when the few survivors of the scouting party had returned with fanciful tale of a beast more animal than dragon, with the ability to manipulate multiple elements, that hope had died stillborn.

With the army unwilling to sacrifice its already strained resources until the creature struck somewhere heavily populated, and the terror gripping the countryside. Etruria's sudden invasion of their neighbors had already drawn most adventurers and sell-swords who were not heavily involved with or against the rebellion - and so, in a country she had not been to in decades, Nayru and Veigue were now treading their way through the battered forest, in the midst of a massive swathe of fallen trees and shattered stumps, searching for the progenitor of this catastrophe before the problem that no one else wanted to deal with became a a walking tragedy.

And judging by the sounds coming up ahead - they weren't far from having a chance to test their mettle.

"Become monster hunters, they said," Nayru quipped to her companion with a wry smile on her face, her eagerness barely contained under a poor attempt at nonchalance. "It'll be fun, they said." She shook her head. "I'm still not sure if I should be grateful or disappointed that it isn't a dragon, but I've never heard of a beast that can control the elements like that. Dragons can only wield their natural element... using multiple at once is more akin to magecraft, and yet what manner of beast uses Anima magic as if it were natural?"

[Deleted]

What in the world was he getting himself into this time? While he liked the idea of being a monster hunter, he wasn't sure tackling some crazy, supernatural war animal-beast-thing was within their job description. With hearing the stories from survivors and seeing the aftermath...and still ongoing destruction, Veigue knew that this was just one of those "moments" again where he was going against the unusual. Quite ironic considering how unusual he himself is. Aaaand...that got depressing fast. Oh well, walk it off. They had a job to do, and one he was both eager and a little reluctant to do. Nayru's open thoughts on the matter seemed to be similar to his own concerns, though all that really did was just got his brain to try and think of some sort of explanation or conclusion he could draw.

"An angry god under the guise of a magical creature, perhaps? Sounds about right to me..." ...Though he didn't say that conclusion was going to come out making even the slightest bit of sense. And he was mostly just joking anyways...he HOPED that joke wasn't a reality, anyway. After all, no one knows what the hell this thing is...or where it came from for that matter. At the end of this, he just hoped they didn't get fried. Judging from all of the destruction this thing's been causing, they weren't going to be able to handle this thing the old traditional way.

Though as they were following this thing's trail, he couldn't help but be amused by what Nayru said before her thoughts on the creature. "Well...at least our first job is an...interesting one. If that translates to fun, then I'd say you're getting what you want...in a sense. Only thing we've got to worry about here is not dying." Just like the many others who tried to challenge this thing before them. But when he looked on the "fun" side of things himself, at least this gave him the opportunity to try out Kenji's awakened power for the first time in an actual battle. Man, he chooses the strangest times to actually enjoy combat...especially against something he possibly lacked the power to even deal any real harm to. But...the fight hadn't even started yet and he hasn't seen the creature for himself yet, so nothing to do but keep pressing on. It seemed like they were getting much closer to their target with each step, as the scale of damage was beginning to look more..."fresh".

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

Nayru chuckled at Veigue's little joke, amused at the thought. "It would be just about our luck..." the worst part was that it really probably was; one would THINK there was only so much that could go wrong, and yet she and Veigue seemed to exist in a parallel universe where that limitation simply no longer applied. A worrying thought. "If it is, we're pretty screwed, I haven't gone to church in centuries." Ok, that was a little lame, but they couldn't all be winners. And it was TRUE, dammit. Seriously though, she was SCREWED with a capital FU if there was a god and they demanded anything resembling faith.

Before she could respond to Veigue's other comment, a sudden burst of noise up ahead grabbed her attention, the situation requiring a certain level of seriousness. The grunts of something bestial, a hissing noise, and the sound of tearing flesh. Sounded like they were where they needed to be, though whether or not either of them would be very happy about it in the near future was up in the air.

The actual scene was more grisly than she had expected, several dismembered cows littering the area before she caught side of the beast itself partially obscured from view by a thick group of trees, at the side of the clearing. Nayru let out an involuntary breath when she realized quite how big the creature was, somewhat similar to her dragon form in fact, but that comparison fell apart almost instantly when she got a better look at the creature itself. In part it looked like a massive lion, at least the main body did, but massive leathery wings and the other heads put that notion to rest immediately.

The lion head was tearing through the gory remains of what she could only assume had been a cow or horse, but a strangely horned goat head surveyed its surroundings silently, not yet noticing them, as what looked like a large horned snake of some sort ripped off chunks of the creature the lion was eating, swallowing them hole, and behind it a more 'normal' looking, albeit still quite large, snake seemed to act as a tail.

It noticed her before the other head did, emitting an intense hissing noise that seemed to alert the goat head, which swiveled almost instantly to face them. So much for stealth. Omnidirectional awareness... that might be a problem. She hadn't really had any plans for a sneak attack, that just wasn't how she rolled, but Nayru had been hoping to use the creature's size and girth against it if possible, and that option was entirely out of the window now. Then the right head swiveled to see them, and Nayru's blood chilled for a brief instant - that was a dragon's head, not a snake.

"What the hell?" Disbelief seeped into her tone, the experience completely beyond her frame of reference. It clearly wasn't the same type of dragon as her, not that many were, but it was just as clearly an archetypal dragon, just... only from the neck up. THAT was unusual. She had heard tales of chimeras before, but only now did Nayru begin to understand the natural sense of revulsion they evoked. Beyond simple confusion, but a disgust born of something that should not - could not - exist in nature. "I've never heard of something like..."

She trailed off, not really even sure what to say. Whatever this... thing was, she had never heard of anything like it, and she had a feeling that it was not entirely of this world.

[Chimera appearance]

[Deleted]

Welp, there was their culprit...and Veigue honestly couldn't tell if he was staring at something from one of his crazy dreams or witnessing something that was actually real. It had an ominous feeling to it, as if he was looking at something that really shouldn't be here in this world. It had an enigmatic air around it that he was almost afraid to even speculate on what it was. Judging from all...four...points of view it had, this was going to be something that was likely to be annoying to deal with in a battle. It's got multiple angles it can strike and react from, and that's just fair, isn't it? It's no wonder this thing is capable of causing so much chaos and destruction wherever it roamed. While he was interested in the unknown and of species that were different from his own, this was sort of...unsettling considering how bloodthirsty it seems to be.

The sight of the cattle being slaughtered and eaten by the creature was a disturbing sight, even for him. Sure, some people and animals eat them too, but not like...that. And now that mental image is going to forever burn in his memory. He'd begin repressing it by trying to destroy this creature to stop it's wanton destruction, but that was going to prove...problematic. He didn't even know where to attack it first. It'd seem like if they attacked one head, the other two - and the tail - wouldn't be too happy about that. It was strange to see a fusion of species sharing the lion head's body, and considering those wings probably weren't just for show, this thing could likely fly too...great. He'd only have Kenji's power to combat it's flight capabilities.

"Judging from the way they're looking at us...they're not going to give us anymore time to figure things out, I'm afraid." He didn't like attacking his opponents without some sort of plan first, but from the looks of things, that beast was about to lock onto them and make the first move, which would seem to be any moment now. Hopefully this would end up being the first and last type of monster they had to face in their future career.

Veigue cleared his mind as he allowed his hand to rest on Kenji's hilt, not trying to make any hostile movements yet to provoke it any further. At the very least, he could try and think about how he'd react to a possible attack while he still had a little more time to waste. He didn't know if it was going to use any of it's mysterious magical abilities right from the jump or just try to maul them both like a savage. He didn't have nearly enough practice with Kenji's lightning-based ability, but he had enough to at least know how to tap into it's power and use it properly, so there was that. Either that, or just let Nayru lift and throw him towards the creature in a last ditch effort to take it by surprise...as fun as that sounds, he likes living.

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

Nayru joined Veigue in resting her hand on the hilt of her weapon, though with dual kama of her own, only preparing one was probably more of a gesture than truly preparation. Not that she wasn't taking the fight seriously, but if nothing else, her constant practice with drawing, dropping, and picking up her new weapons had at least granted her the skill of, uhh... relatively quick drawing. Man, that sounded even less impressive in her head than she thought it would, and her expectations on that note had already been pretty low.

It was also, in some ways, a mental delaying tactic - an attempt to convince herself she was more ready than she perhaps really was. Truthfully Nayru had no idea how to tackle a creature of that size and ferocity, even if it didn't have any particular special abilities - but it did, and that would make their task even harder. Truly though, she had no idea what their approach should be to actually defeat it. Maybe they'd just have to wing it.

The lion head tossed the remnants of the corpse upwards, snatching it out of the air and consuming it whole in one crushing bite that sundered flesh and bone with equal ease. Playtime was over. As the colossal creature rose and turned to face the two would-be heroes, the impressive mane of golden hair rustling steadily from the sheer tensing of its muscles... christ, the whole thing looked like an engine of destruction.

The thought occurred to her that she might not have the strength or size to contend against it in her human form, but Nayru swallowed the thought, fervently against transforming again unless absolutely necessary - while she no longer feared it as she had, there was simply too much potential for an accident. Her last transformation had been uncommonly fierce, the destruction more severe than she remembered, and she didn't remember having been able to affect the weather, even fleetingly, in the past. She was changing - her power growing out of her control even as she learned to control it - and the prospect of going even further came with serious concerns.

"Veigue. Just... try to stay alive. It's more important you make it out of this than that we win." She meant well, she truly did, and the concern was evident in her deadly serious tone, but in her honesty Nayru didn't notice that she had prioritized his well being over her own again - a thought that would have been completely alien to the Nayru of a century previous, and little less strange today even after her actions on the plains that led to her first transformation in half a century.

Perhaps it could read the mood, or perhaps it was simply growing impatient of waiting; whichever the truth was, the colossal creature before them took a ponderous step forwards, slowly beginning to pace sideways, beginning to circle them, all heads locked squarely at the duo. Nayru frowned at it before a thought struck her and that frown turned upside down into a dumbass grin. Seriously, it was like two macho idiots having a staredown across a barracks, completely ridiculous, and the amusement spilled into her voice as she continued. "We aren't gonna get anywhere just having a a frowning competition, let's see what tall dark and ugly over there can do. Maybe we'll be able to find exploitable weaknesses up close that aren't obvious now."

Nayru dropped her remaining hand to its matched kama, drawing both weapons with a flourish before lowering her arms once again. Adrenaline was already starting to pump through her, the real stuff that she had missed for so many years in that shitty-ass excuse for a body, as she faced down what looked to be her most dangerous opponent yet. Truly, she was finally starting to understand what she had disliked for so long - perhaps an unconscious response to seeing it in herself - the ability to feel so alive only at the edge of existence. Flickering bolts of electrical charge were already racing up and down her body as her power built, but so too did the chimera respond, wispy puffs of flame being breathed out by the lion head.

"You ready for this?"

[Deleted]

"Come on...no need to talk like that. You know I'd rather die than let you take something like this on alone. Don't worry about me. I won't let my story end here, and definitely not yours. We'll both make it out of this one way or another, even if we can't defeat it. We made a promise, after all..." Even though that was a bit hypocritical of him, as he'd do the same thing for her safety, they needed some positivity to take on this creature and live to tell the tale. That, and he promised to stick by her side no matter how grim. Even if she told him to leave her behind, he wasn't going to do it. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if he lost one more person close to him...and he was hellbent on making sure that wasn't going to ever happen again. This creature in front of them may have been beyond his own power, but that wasn't going to stop him from trying anyway. They needed to at least stall this beast, if anything. The less destruction it could cause, the better.

Veigue simply nodded his head in agreement as the beast seemed ready to attack them after it finished it's...meal. It probably had some kind of weakness while it fights, but they wouldn't know until the battle begun. As Veigue gripped Kenji's hilt tighter, he could feel the surge of electric energies coursing through him before brandishing his sword in a quick motion and the blade having sparks all around it. It was still going to take a little while to get used to that, considering this would be his first battle with the awakened sword. Thankfully the magical aura couldn't harm him, but he couldn't say much for if he ended up hitting himself with one of his attacks...if that was even possible. Only way that'd happen is if someone had the ability to redirect...

...Oh. God, he hoped this thing didn't have some kind of ability like that. Otherwise, he'd be utterly useless in backing Nayru up. "I'm forced to be ready." But ohh...here came the fire. Veigue knew that Nayru could handle herself, flipping away to the side in order to escape the range of the flaming breath. After regaining his balance, he needed to get a quick counter in. Kenji glowed as he swiftly swiped the blade, the magic taking form of a large sword wave coated in electricity as it quickly homed in on one of the heads.

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

"Yeah, well, no dying today, doctor's orders." She grinned at Veigue, but despite their casual chumminess there was a hint of tension in her words, Nayru not entirely comfortable with the subject matter - she truly was trying to keep things light and their spirits up, but she really didn't want to lose Veigue, she'd come too close to that too many times already, and even joking about it seemed to be a little much for her just yet. Not after all the crap they'd been through together.

On the bright side, it looked like the whole debate was going to be a moot point in about three seconds if they didn't get their asses in gear - not that she was complaining! Nayru was finding, these days, that this whole 'life-and-death struggle' thing was fantastic for helping her stop thinking about stuff she shouldn't be thinking about in the first place, and focusing more on important stuff... like not dying horribly in an apocalyptic hellstorm of fire.

Veigue was already moving in the wake of the chimera's movement, the lion head rearing back for a split second before a massive torrent of flame issued from its mouth, eerily akin to dragonbreath more than the petty magecraft of human anima mages, and Nayru was well was forced to hurl herself forwards and to the side as the devouring flames immolated the general vicinity of where she and Veigue had been standing. The waves of heat battered her in their passing, but she hardly felt them through the fire in her own blood as adrenaline poured through her like a drug. Now this was living!

Once again Veigue beat her to acting, sending a raging blade of concentrated light at the creature, and Nayru matched its direction, if perhaps not its speed, as she charged the gigantic creature without much more of a plan than trying to get close and see how it reacted. Out of the frying pan and into the... lava... huh, those heads were a lot bigger up close, oh god was she about to get eaten by a goat, oh god were her last thoughts I'm going to get eaten by a goat?

[Deleted]

The wave of lightning seemed to make a direct hit on the dragon head, much to his intent. However...all that seemed to do was irritate the thing as it shook off any kind of pain it may have received. Well...that was a little discouraging. Was he not capable of hurting it at all or was he not skilled enough to call on more of Kenji's power? The blade was preeeeetty powerful even with his smaller shockwaves, so it was safe to assume that it was both. Even if he could call on more power from the sword, he worried if he'd just be a burden here if he couldn't even inflict any serious harm to it. But this was only the beginning, and maybe he just wasn't trying hard enough with that last attack. It was more or less just to get a quick retaliation attack out, after all.

Still, that dragon head looked really peeved off as it deeply and fiercely hissed at him from where he stood. His attack probably did do something, though must have just given it a bad case of shocks...or internal explosions...frrrom something that doesn't cause explosions...Eh. One could hope.

Soon after, he saw it's mouth open wide, Veigue assuming it was ready to attack him with it's odd magic. They've only seen fire from the lion head so far, but nothing from the other two...err. Well, three counting the snake tail thing that's out of sight at the moment. He could see the chilly frost ready to form into some kind of blast, and before he knew it, the large ice blast was complete and already fired at him. Thankfully his evasion of the flames earlier put him at an already far distance, so he was able to have plenty of time to roll out of it's range and into the dirt. That would have been much more difficult to dodge if he was in it's face considering the sheer size of the blast...he could see both the earth being grazed and a frozen path left behind the aftermath of the missed attack. That would have certainly killed him either instantly or on the brink of death, at least...

Veigue wasn't in the position to charge at the creature since at this point, he was separated from Nayru and she was doing exactly that. It wouldn't go after him since Nayru more than likely caught it's full focus. Since those things shared the same body, they must have had some kind of complex synergy going on there that he wouldn't be able to comprehend. They all must have had to move the body on one accord, but he was just guessing at this point. He was no expert on weird creatures. Regardless, he was sure that Nayru would need his help as she seemed to challenged them head on. He just hoped he was strong enough to make a difference, regaining himself before sprinting back into the fray.

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

If she survived this, she was going to eat every goat from Bern to Etruria just for petty vengeance.

Dark thoughts of terrible vengeance and destruction (of goats) filled her mind, but Nayru didn't exactly have the opportunity to stand around plotting her revenge, not with an angry goat head - which sounded even dumber in practice than she had thought - plunging towards her. She hardly even had time to move to react to it, her weapons too low to react in time, so she was forced to hurl herself to the side as it came slamming down at her, barely avoiding the strike.

But it was from the frying pan and into the... lava... as she realized a little belatedly, her movement taking her closer to the snake head which was already speeding at her with fangs bared. It was a serious effort to get her kama up in time to try to block it, and even then the impact sent shudders through her frame, the reinforced metal screeching from the stress though her essence flowing through it kept it from breaking. One of the few times she was actually grateful to have the weapons, the thought occurred to her; while her reinforcement was generally fine, a snake with fangs nearly a foot long might still be able to inject poison through it.

The defeaning sound of a sort of chirping interrupted her thoughts, but it wasn't until the snake head suddenly withdrew and a sudden realization that she actualy managed to react, only just in time to drop below the torrent of golden light that streamed through the space she had been occupying a moment before, emitted by the god damn goat head that had apparently not forgotten about her. Actually thinking straight was starting to get hard with all the adrenaline pumping through her, but that was still useful information that she managed to store away - the heads had little issue with friendly fire since they apparently synchronized well enough to avoid it. But that had been relatively close, and if she had been able to react in time, she might have been able to use it against them?

The snake head hissing venomously at the goat almost sounded - angry if she could attach that feeling to it, leaving her alone in favor of what almost seemed like a sort of bickering that confused Nayru and left her uncertain of her 'understanding' of a moment before. Maybe they didn't have perfect understanding?

[Deleted]

This was getting pretty close already. He knew he had to get over to Nayru as quick as he could to back her up, but there was just one tiny...big...problem. As the swordmaster closed the distance, the lion and dragon head both had their sights locked on him while the goat and snake were busy giving Nayru a hard time. Was this creature more intelligent than it let on? It almost seemed like they were trying to separate the duo from each other, and it was actually working. Veigue knew that he'd just cause more trouble for Nayru if he rushed his way through to help her without any regard to both his safety and the two crazies that won't let him get any closer. But if there was a will, there was certainly a way to break through and turn the tides.

...That wasn't going to happen any time soon, he feared. With each step he took, the more the lion roared ferociously at him as if to strike fear and paralyze him...and that dragon head still seemed more pissed off than anything else. Talk about not knowing how to get over something. Veigue figured if he could just get a little closer, that might stop them from resorting to their long ranged breath attacks. They didn't look like a cake walk to fight up close either judging from Nayru's experience at the moment, but it was better than getting either instantly incinerated or frozen to oblivion. As Veigue paid close attention to the two heads, he realized they both were channeling more energy into their breath attacks again. Wait...BOTH at the same time? Nope. Not going to run into that one...

Veigue decided to not approach any closer, knowing he wouldn't dodge that at point blank range. Instead, he called on more of Kenji's power as he felt more electricity surge through his body from the blade. In swift, calm motions, he swiped his blade a few times as he formed multiple concentrated waves of lightning, all aimed at the lion and dragon head in attempts to stop them before they could fire their breath attacks. The most he could get out were four waves...as when he tried for a fifth, the wave lost it's form the moment it left the blade. Guess four at once was his limit for now...he needed more practice and experience before he could go complete psycho with it, he assumed.

Oh, but the surprises didn't stop there, it seemed. The crazy heads decided to fire their breath attacks anyway, the combined power of fire and ice completely obliterating his four lightning waves, but caused their attacks to lose some power. The flames didn't look as intense and the ice blast wasn't as big as it was due to the collision. Veigue knew he'd probably survive if he got hit now, but he wasn't going to take that risk, side stepping out of the range once more as the breath attacks zipped right pass him and struck the ground, dust clouds forming instantly. Well, there was his chance...sprinting forward through the smokey dust while they still couldn't see him for that moment. But instead of attacking the dragon and lion heads after emerging from the smoke, Veigue quickly sliced out another wave of energy towards the goat head to confuse them, only to divert the goat's attention away from Nayru briefly to see if she could take advantage of that at all.

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

If she had had the time and attention span to do so, Nayru might well have kept up a running tally of her rapidly-growing list of grievances with the accursed hybrid creature, her temper running ragged in remarkably short order from the start of the battle as she was constantly harried by both heads - even with Veigue distracting the others, she simply couldn't land a decisive blow on either the main body or either of the snake or goat heads, one or the other interjecting each time she thought she had a chance at it.

It was frustrating, but she was rapidly being forced to come to terms with the fact that she was simply outclassed - all of her experience and training and strength and durability availed her little against a foe that out-numbered, out-powered, and out-coordinated her, even before counting in the acidic poison of the snake's breath or the thunderous fury of the goat's lightning breath. She had escaped serious harm so far, but patches of burning land and bubbling acid were already starting to cover the ground nearby, and she had some singed hair on her left arm from one near miss.

Well... seize the day and all that. With a lopsided grin, Nayru faced the charging goat head head on, trying to fake it out by making it guess which side she would dodge to.

It didn't work.

She had about zero seconds of "oh fu-" before a freight train of giant murder goat impacted her, one arm, slamming into its left horn as the other held against its nose as she was swept airborne by the living battering ram that apparently had never bothered learning tactics. Nearly knocked the breath out of her too, the shock of getting hit by something that hard was pretty serious even if it didn't actually do serious damage thanks to her unnatural toughness.

The goat didn't seem any more excited about the ongoing developments than she did, even less so when Veigue's attack came crashing into it and interrupted whatever the hell it had been planning to do with her by sending it reeling. On the bright side, this was kind of like a rodeo, Nayru mused as she pulled herself atop the goat's head by the horns, holding on desperately for dear life - on the downside, if this was a rodeo, it was made by lunatics, she hastily amended her thoughts of a moment before to include as the snake head came screaming through the air close enough that she had to duck to not get beheaded by its gaping fangs.

"HOW'S IT GOING DOWN THERE," Nayru yelled over the ringing in her own ears as she tried to deal with the constant jerky motion, not really sure how to follow up on her brilliant master plan and awkwardly aware that her time on the ride would probably be up soon.

[Deleted]

Well, it was at least good to see that his attack was successful in stopping the goat head, if only for a few seconds. But the last thing he expected Nayru to do was ride on top of the thing. "Well, at least one of us is having fun..." If he tried to do something like that, he'd more than likely get split in half or something, and that didn't sound like any kind of fun he'd like to go through. Seeing that Nayru did get struck rather fiercely before her ride, he wanted to ask if she was okay, but from the look of things, that'd be a rather dumb question for him to ask. Also, not to mention his little trick on the lion and dragon head didn't last forever. He was sure they haven't completely forgotten about him yet.

There wasn't much more he could do for his partner at the moment, so getting burnt and frozen over thinking about it wasn't going to solve anything. The lion head continued to growl underneath it's breath, obviously still trying to strike fear into him. The dragon head...still hissing. Go figure. But despite all that, Veigue wasn't sure how to attack this thing anymore. He knew damn well at this point that head-on attacks from a distance weren't going to work on this thing. They just simply had too much offensive might at their disposal, and comparison wise, Veigue fighting this thing was like a kid with a wooden stick trying to break a general's armor. No matter how much he attacked this thing, he wasn't capable of harming it or inflicting a serious, direct hit.

So the only thing that came to mind is that the thing had to have some kind of vital point to expose. But the chilly torrent of ice from the impatient dragon head wasn't going to allow him to dive deeper into that thought process. The lion head seemed prepared for another wave of flame as well...awesome. Veigue saw no other way than to keep advancing. Keeping his distance just made things more complicated. And he never saw what he could do up close. Maybe Kenji had better luck damaging it with it's own raw steel. Not to mention after it's awakening, it's deadly blade was probably a little stronger by default. Veigue had to get a little clever to get closer.

Dodging the icy breath's incoming path, he made sure to flip to his left, purposely baiting out the fire breath so it'd cross paths with the dragon head's attack. Then in a quick motion, Veigue sprinted towards the dragon head, getting Kenji ready as he was prepared to go for a direct attack on it. Thanks to his natural speed, he got there before either of the heads could try to bite him or something, as they still had their mouths wide open from the aftermath of their attacks. But little did he know, that didn't account for their reaction time of their...body. Just as he jumped forth to try and impale the dragon, the body's giant paw quickly whipped towards him from the side, smacking him hard enough to send him flying away several yards and slid in the dirt. Veigue saw it coming, but he just wasn't in the position to react.

Well, that wasn't good. That REALLY hurt. Thankfully, it didn't hit him anywhere that would seriously damage him internally, but Veigue did hit his head a little after the rest of his body collided with the ground. This wasn't going to be good at all if they took advantage of his down time.

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

Yup, her brilliant master plan would come to fruition any moment now, blowing the chimera's mind figuratively and literally and carrying them to certain victory... just as soon as she figured out what it was, and optionally, managed to avoid barfing. So far so good, but the snake head was starting to get more accurate with its shots and the goat had already nearly dislodged her twice by ramming the ground. It was all very confusing, honestly, and she was rapidly getting disoriented to the point that she was having trouble figuring out where Veigue even was, much less how things were going.

Not exactly how she had envisioned her first hunt to go - while Nayru had always though the concept of a rodeo was kind of interesting, she'd never actually tried it. Maybe she should have. At least then she'd have some idea what she was doing. Probably wouldn't help, but at least she wouldn't feel like a complete idiot, or at least not as much of one.

They say that you never see the ballista bolt that kills you, or the human variant of arrow, but in a cosmic sort of irony Nayru almost had time to swear when she realized the oncoming cloud of gaseous greenery was actually going to hit before it was pretty much already there. There wasn't really any way to dodge it from where she was, and at this point she wasn't even sure which way was down and how far away it was - but she'd seen what that gas did to the ground, and while it probably wouldn't melt her into a puddle, she didn't really want to find out the hard way.

...But she really didn't have many options to deal with it. She couldn't exactly 'block' a spraying cloud of acidic poison, and she couldn't really dodge it from where she was.

Which, also slightly ironically, was what provided the solution.

Considering praying for the first time, Nayru let go of the horns momentarily before she cloud hit her, and was rewarded for her trouble by being hurled off, glanced by the cloud anyways, and then immediately sideswiped by the goat's head into directions unknown all in rapid order. She could already taste the acrid stench as she fell, leading to the horrible realization that she had already breathed in a bit of it by the time she got out of there - just one more bit of disappointment to add to her aching body, nausea, and flying through the friggin' air.

She hit ground hard, still disoriented but with enough presence of mind to already be attempting to right herself before her mind had even placed up and down in opposite directions; while her mind was having trouble keeping up, Nayru's instincts worked overtime to try to keep her alive. Skidding to a halt over an unknown amount of bumpy earth, she had a vague glimpse of green and brown while trying to triage the situation - there would likely be a followup attack - the poison; it shouldn't have done too much to her skin, but her insides weren't nearly as tough; how did she get rid of it before it could do serious damage, and what would it actually do?

Again her instincts worked where her mind faltered; her power welled up, flowing through her, her body naturally trying to expel the foreign substance by any means possible. The former Nayru might well have seriously injured herself in the attempt, but in a moment of clarity, she had the beginnings of an idea, channeling it upwards, spitting out burning flecks of substance and sparks of electricity as she coughed once, twice, still trying to regain her bearings. It took a few more blinks for her eyes to begin to adjust, still a little sore from the gas despite not having actually been hit, and the first actually distinct thing she saw was Veigue not far from her on the ground, lying there - was he dead? No, certainly not, he was just fine, especially after all they'd been through - where was the chimera?

Still a little dizzy, she looked up, and for better or for worse rather quickly located the chimera - not a difficult task when the dancing lights of a triumvirate of elements was already forming near each other, the three forward-facing heads already prepping an attack.

Welp.

crap.

Nayru pushed herself off the ground - literally pushed, unable to find that amount of force in her legs for a moment, staggering when she reached full height, and tried to assess the situation accurately. It was hell, her head felt like it was full of mush, but she could also feel her blood boiling, singing, and she wasn't dead yet. But Veigue was defenseless, and she didn't have any real counte... well, the thought erupted with a sort of snide "I told you so" ring to it, this was about as good a time as any to go for broke with the whole breath thing. Her throat was already damaged somewhat, she thought, but better risking a little more pain than having both her and Veigue die horribly in a torrent of the elements.

She wasn't sure what exactly Veigue's deal was, but she didn't exactly have time to give him CPR if the apparently-very-angry chimera had anything to say about it. She interposed herself between her fallen comrade and the monster regardless, forced to assume that he was alright; she didn't see enough blood to assume otherwise anyways, but addressed him nonetheless... for her own sake as much as his, given that he'd be ill advised and quite unlikely to disobey her instructions even if she didn't offer them. "Stay behind me. I'll take care of everything."

The white tattoo on her arm was glowing, as it had begun to when she was channeling a great deal of her power - Nayru had first noticed it when training trying to find her new limits, and it appeared that her body was already reacting to her will. Much nicer to have reflex and instinct help her out for once, rather than the other way around.

The torrent of ice, fire, and thunder was already coming at them, mingling into a strange conglomeration of mutually exclusive elements as the three heads fed their attacks into a single beam, when Nayru leaned back a bit herself, her chest expanding a bit as she took in a deep breath, almost relishing the burning pain in her lungs as the aftereffects of the poison continue to try to destroy her even after her makeshift cleansing - it was a reminder of what failure would bring, an omnipresent reminder of how quickly their adventure would end if she didn't manage to pull this off.

And then she breathed out and the world went white as a torrent of golden light erupted from her, a tiny pittance of an attack compared to the destruction she had unleashed at the fort in Sacae, but by human standards an impossibly intense beam of destruction that slammed directly into the coming beam with monstrous force.

The pain was immediate and intense, her throat burning like she had never thought it could - mortal bodies were never meant to channel dragon's breath in the first place, much less her own un-mastered variety, and the damage to her throat beforehand by the poison simply exacerbated the issue... but failure was no longer an option.

Her right arm began to change almost immediately, the tattoo's glow intensifying as the light began to consume her arm in intricate patterns, arcane designs that must have held meaning that would have been completely lost on her if she could even see them. For her, 'the world' was simply the blinding light in front of her and the savage pain and overwhelming heat in her throat and the beating of her own heart and the fire of her blood. Nothing more, nothing less.

[Deleted]

Veigue didn't know why the pain of the chimera's paw smack damaged him so badly to where he couldn't stand. It knocked the wind right out of him...and the thing was, he wasn't even badly injured or even close to it externally. It seemed like it dealt more aching pain internally than he thought. Perhaps it was because it was the first time his body had ever felt an impact so strong and needed to adapt to the pain...and for good reason, too. This chimera was NOT something natural, and he's never faced anything like it. He doubt few humans or other monsters could give them this hard of a time. But if they somehow walked out of this victorious, this would be one heck of an experience to put under their belts as monster hunters. But first...it was time to shake off this pain, and it looked like the chimera wasn't going to give him any time.

...Wasn't until then that Nayru stepped in and decided to handle it alone. While he'd otherwise have a disagreement about that, it was a realization that he was powerless in the most dire of situations that was more painful than the physical pain. He could barely even move to sit up straight, watching the clash while halfway sat up. He couldn't take being such a burden all the time, enveloped in disappointment at his own weakness as he was forced to stay back for his own safety, and for Nayru's as well. "Damn...even with this newly acquired power, I'm still too weak...I have no real adept control over it yet. I refuse to stay so powerless!" Though for now, it was something he had to deal with and accept for this battle. He had to live to see another day in order to get better, after all.

He noticed Nayru's arm glow and her performing an attack he never expected her to be capable of while not transformed. She brought many mysteries to light often, it seemed. He knew he couldn't afford to just gawk all day, but at that moment, he still needed time to let the pain settle down before doing anything, and from the looks of things, he was better off staying where he was quietly without interrupting his partner's concentration. Otherwise, they'd both get fried.

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

While she was undeniably happy that her idea had worked so far, that the risky use of her breath hadn't consumed her body entirely yet, Nayru couldn't help but feel her frustration mounting as she was slowly pushed back, both physically and in where the clash of beams stood between them. It seemed that not even all the growing she had done recently was enough to actually be 'strong enough' - as if she had wasted her time and gotten her hopes up with all these fancy new toys that she still didn't really understand and couldn't really master.
Was that it? Was that REALLY all she could do? Talk like she was some big shot badass, then get slapped down like an unruly child the instant she tried to take on something that could put up a bit more of a challenge than mere bandits and poorly-armed assassins? The concept grated at her, needling what pride she had managed to establish in recent weeks, burning away at her patience and logic and restraint alike. It was frustrating, unbearably so, to see how little all that anything she had done mattered - that no matter what she did, that no matterhow strong she got, she would always be weak.

But she couldn't be weak. It was all well and good to wallow in her own failings when nothing else was at stake, but she finally had a reason that she needed to be strong - Veigue. If she failed here, she wasn't just failing herself, she was failing him too. Essentially killing him herself. No, not essentially, she WOULD literally be doing that, since it was her actions that would directly lead to his death - from dragging him along on this ill-fated expedition to challenging the chimera's power directly instead of trying to distract it to let him get away.

She couldn't even solve this by transforming, usually her last ditch solution - not in the midst of this clash. If she relented, even for a moment, Nayru and Veigue would both be dead long before she could finish transforming. It was an... unusual dilemma for her, Nayru realized; normally she always had the 'nuclear option' available to her, the knowledge that as little as she might want to she COULD just transform and survive... but for once, maybe the first time, she couldn't.

So she had to solve this now, as herself, with the tools she had available to her now.

There had to be more. She could still feel the... block on herself, the strangely ragged nature of her power as it leaked from her core, but rather than a mere curiosity, it was now life and death. It was strange that she had never realized it before, not before recent weeks, but the dragon's best guess was that she only now understood her power well enough to notice that part. But how could she overcome it? If it was a seal, it was one she couldn't break herself; if it was a mental block, she couldn't understand it; if it was simply her own weakness, the actual limit of her power... no, that wasn't it. She KNEW that much. Nayru had been forced to recognize that she didn't know nearly as much as she had once thought she did, but she knew there was more behind that block... she just didn't know how much.

Do you really want that power?

The voice was quiet, calm, soft; feminine like she had never been. Young. Alien and yet more familiar than anything she had ever known. It sounded kind of like a younger her, actually.

Yes.

Are you sure? It's a darkness that can swallow you whole, something that I could never control. It consumed me... a darkness so vast I never saw the light. But you're not like me. You have the choice to run from it, to hide from it, to just... live. You've seen what even the slightest hint of it can do to you. Do you want to go back to hurting people again? Is it worth hurting Veigue with it? Elly? What if it's more than you can handle, more than you can imagine - a darkness so vast it could cover all of Elibe under its black wings?

Nayru could taste - feel the fear in those words. Not empathetically, but literally experience it as if it was her own. Hm... not just fear. Resignation. Knowledge. The overwhelming feeling that the voice in her head that she was casually holding a conversation with, the quiet and meek and young girl that she apparently shared a head with, knew what was in there. It had destroyed her completely, and rather than trying to hold Nayru back, she was trying to protect her.

It's only thanks to you that I ever knew anything more than that, Nayru. You have the chance to be more than I ever was... a force for good. To make up for my weakness. But you can't do any of that if it consumes you too, and even as strong as you are now, I don't know if you can. You're more than I ever was, but I don't want to see it take you too.

I don't have a choice.

Her response was simple. Short. Firm. It was the Truth - an immovable object, a tower that stretched into the sky beyond eyesight, an implacable force that no force on Elibe could gainsay. It didn't matter if the voice was right, if she was scared, if the girl was scared, if the cost would be beyond repayment in the end. All that mattered right now was that Nayru finally understood that she could no longer be afraid of that power. No matter what it had done to her in the past, or what she had done with it. It didn't matter if the voice was right, if the horrible power that had taken her so many times in the past was nothing more than a transient glimmer of the horrors that lay at the base of her power. She needed it now, and she would do whatever it took to control it.

...Please. I have to protect Veigue, and I can't do it without your help.

There was a brief silence. She wasn't sure if the voice was ignoring her, and then the sounds of a girlish giggle broke that pallid pause. Huh? I'm sorry. I just realized this would be the first time I ever actually did anything good with my power. I always thought that the only thing I could do for Elibe would be dying so I couldn't use it... but it turns out that using it was the only thing I could do to atone.

There was a terrible loneliness in those words, a darkness all too familiar that Nayru could empathize with more than she could express. She had thought simialrly, once, and she too had never been able to summon the courage to end herself for the good of Elibe. Apparently they had more in common than just the same head. ...It's kind of funny. I was jealous of you for being able to just live, and lately, having things to care about, to protect. Now I finally do too... and I think I finally understand how you managed to overcome it. There was no more laughter, only a combination of sadness and joy that was at once mutually exclusive and yet perfectly interlaced, as if both were simply two sides of the same coin.

I wonder, if... if I had had something to protect, could I have been real too? The voice was tiny, weak. She could feel the fear and regret and longing emanating from it so very strongly. I... I wish that we could have met and talked for once, Nayru, that I... I could have been friends with Veigue and Elly and - and you too. I'm jealous of you, I always was, but I think I can finally be happy for you too. It's a funny feeling. It's... warm. I wish I could have felt like this before... but it's only thanks to you that I ever saw anything but darkness.

Her voice hardened - still young, but no longer an idyllic girl so much as a young woman who had glimpsed adulthood. Nayru felt as though she had just experienced something important, monumental, but she still didn't understand it. Thank you, Nayru. For everything. And, um, I'm sorry for... everything. There was more to this than just schizophrenia, she was sure of it - it felt as though she was talking to someone else, a dark mirror of herself rather than simply a 'dark side' or a hallucination, but she simply had no frame of reference to understand it.

Who are you? Do you have a name?

There was a pause again, and what finally broke it was a quiet voice, resigned and sad despite playing at optimism. It was a poor attempt, and it broke her heart to hear it. ...I'm no one. There was never a real me. It's only because I clung to you that I can even pretend to have a 'me', and soon I won't even have that.

She broke off for a moment, then continued before Nayru could respond. We're out of time. I'll break the seal that was put on us, but it's up to you from there, Nayru. Live, for both of us. The life I could never have, the life you earned... I wish I had been as strong as you, that it didn't have to be like this, that we could coexist and maybe even be friends. But I finally have a chance to be something more than a monster, to do something GOOD for once in my life, and I... I have to be strong like you, to do the right thing even when it's scary.

Another giggle. Nayru could feel the desperation from it, the heartwrenching terror, but also the truth in it, the sort of merriment in the face of death that she could recognize. Hehe. I should have been the big sister. But you do a much better job of it than me, and I'm just happy I got to have a family, even if it didn't last long. Thank you again Nayru, for everything, and... goodbye. Live on for both of us.

And then... nothing.

It felt sort of like a candle had been blown out, Nayru realized. The warmth of the other presence had simply vanished without a trace, a surprise even given the finality of her words, leaving the dragon still confused about exactly who or what she had just held a perfectly coherent and seemingly normal conversation with in what had outwardly been only a few moments at most. It was very surreal - as if she had been separated from her body, reduced to a separate entity inside her own mind. Not imprisoned, but a certain level of... disconnect.

But as she slowly regained control of herself, as reality came flooding in through the broken walls of the trance, so to came something else - a tiny warmth somewhere, it took a moment to even place it at her core, a momentary familiarity and pleasant heat suffusing her power as it continued to flow.

The echoes of a voice, barely heard, tiny and weak as it faded into oblivion.

Good luck.

And then the dam broke.

It wasn't just fire running through her veins, or lightning that danced through her, but a solid tidal wave of oppressive darkness that was as blinding as it was all-consuming; a fire whose light was shadow, where darkness beyond black and crimson red as blood were one and the same, where there were not whispers of evil but a will that suffused it and her alike with the essence of destruction itself. Nayru was familiar with the general concept of a kind of power that sent her berserk, she had a certain level of experience with that, but this was something else entirely.

It wasn't magic, or 'essence', but a force that could only be compared to the very concept of power. And yet she couldn't shy away from it; the darkness was familiar, an old friend. Not evil, not sentient; simply destruction itself. But in its simplicity, so too was its fear; power so great it warped the world around it, spilled out like an ocean.

Outwardly the effects weren't nearly as obvious as she had assumed, not that Nayru could really see that over the clashing light dominating her vision, but the obsidian tattoo on her left arm had come to life for the first time. Like the mouth of a tainted grail, it seemed to leak shadow and crimson, the viscuous mass blurring the line between energy and matter as it dripped down her arm, snaking forever onwards in alien patterns that formed runes that no language in Elibe could claim as its own.

Her light was fading, the golden light that had seen so almighty moments before dimming as the clash of beams slowly but steadily moved towards her. And yet, even staring death in the face, Nayru could not but smile, whether at the irony of the whole situation or out of some perverse joy.

This was her birthright, eh?

The clash of beams was nearly upon them when the golden light flickered for the last time, dying down in one last hiccup, and then everything was consumed by crimson as a blood-red ray of shadow whose crimson glow was so intense that it was blinding lanced outwards, the tremendous power trying to escape her allowed to do exactly that in a moment of clarity. It was over in the blink of an eye, the chimera's tribeam ripped apart in the same instant that the goat's head simply evaporated; the creature had paused its only assault and attempted to dodge in the moment of clarity, but while the main body remained unharmed, the goat head had been just a hair too slow. Nothing was left above the boiling stump, and yet the ray went onwards, carving through trees as far as she could see until distance and collapsing wood in its wake obscured her view.

Nayru's head jerked back as the beam abruptly ceased, managing to stem the flow with a great deal of effort as she stagged backwards, almost tripping over Veigue before she managed to right herself. She couldn't do much more than blink at first, her vision still blurred by the overwhelming light of the duel of beams, but the sensation invading and overwhelming her body was impossible to ignore. Where drawing what she had thought to be her 'full' power before had felt like fire in her veins, this new sensation was more akin to her entire body boiling.

But it was the fire creeping through her arm that drew her attention most, forcing Nayru to grab her left hand with her right as she bent over in a desperate attempt to deal with the pain. When she looked it it, it was the first time she actually noticed what was happening to it, the strange black-red light already having drawn its strange designs across the entire arm, but stranger yet was the ghostly black wind that seemed to blow off of it in smoky wisps... it was almost as if the arm itself was flaking off, she thought, and yet the limb itself seemed perfectly undamaged aside from the arcane runes covering it.

She was breathing hard too, she couldn't believe she hadn't realized that before this. It was all very strange, but the pulsing, boiling mass inside her was only growing as it went - not controlling her, she could sort of shape it, but there was vastly too much of it for her to simply hold back.

Hmm...

"Veigue, you alright?" Her voice was rough, a relic of the damage to her throat, but audible enough. She looked at the chimera, seeing the horrific devastation in the furrow in the ground where the beams had passed... and hers had consumed them both. "I think I have a solution to distracting this thing. If I can keep it busy, think you can take it apart, 'partner?'"

She grinned, turning her head half in his direction to try to keep it obvious that comment hadn't been sarcastic. "Either way, you might wanna stand back a bit. This is about to get a little messy."