towerofanimus | 013 | So clearly lightning resistance needs work....

Entry tags:

013 | So clearly lightning resistance needs work....

Characters: Sephiroth & YOU
Passive/optional tag: Cloud, Hojo, Rufus - Side Effect: Forceful Jenova cell 'pull'.
Setting: Following evening after This - towards the end of the event. Locations below.
Format: Usual wordy prose but will switch to match
Summary: Aftermath: Sephiroth's 1st death in the Tower, at the hands of future!Hei. 1st reaction: WTF-with-the-not-moving. Later restless wandering around.
Warnings: It's late at night and it's dangerous in the Tower. Careful how you approach; edgier than usual Sephiroth

Part 1: Next Evening - Dorm 03-02
Suddenly Sephiroth felt again. He felt the familiar give of the mattress enough to know it was his bed in the Dormitory and he breathed slowly in the precursor to waking up. So he'd died; in all it's painful glory. It wasn't as if Sephiroth wasn't used to what death felt like, but now he couldn't move. Even his eyes won't open yet even though he feels like they are ready to. A heartbeat skipped, then Sephiroth remembers that he had experienced this once before; that day when he'd first woken up here. So this was the consequence of death in the Tower - a relapse to the paralysis. Great, he'd hated that enough the first time.

Though it hadn't been this long before. Or at least not as far as he could remember. He can't even tell how long it has been, and this waiting quickly gets old. There had to be something he could do about it. Sephiroth took a long inhale and settling his focus back inside himself he concentrated on wrapping his willpower around the already panicking jenova cells inside and PULLED.

Nothing. He still couldn't move.

Again and again he PULLED. Trying to will the great Jenova-web work to give him his motor functions back quicker; each time more desperate but all in vain. He couldn't let them get away with leaving him paralyzed like this - especially since there were others in the Tower with the cells that could be made to help him. Perfect opportunity to stretch and test his influence so to speak.

For the longest ten minutes these attempts went on. Sephiroth was trying so hard, that when suddenly the paralysis let go his eyes shot open with such speed that it made him dizzy. Whatever influence he'd held over the web snapped with the shock and Sephiroth lent up somewhat heavily on his elbows while his mind adjusted to being awake, peering around the Dormitory. So it was the next evening?

Part 2: Nighttime wandering: Hallways > Elevator > Floor 12 and back again
Once settled Sephiroth felt quite proud. Sure he hadn't been able to force himself to overcome the paralysis but stretching and feeling out what connections were available to him, through Mother's gifts, was something he really should have discovered sooner. He blamed it on having to settle into his new environment, and having to deal with the blinding questions that tended to circle around in his mind too fast for him to focus on one thing.

Apparently then, the meditation was helping to re-focus him, if nothing else. Maybe it was a case of that he couldn't see the wood for the trees; maybe if he stopped looking for answers he might learn something. Something to consider.

Having been 'dead' during the daytime - followed by the panic at not being able to move, it's not like Sephiroth could just lie back down and go to sleep. So instead he got up and equipped himself for a night time wander. Though he'd certainly watch his back a lot more in case that crazy lightning guy wasn't finished with his rampage. That had certainly been a very personal attack; if only Sephiroth knew what it was he'd done, it must have been heavy to have earned that response. Well there was a bit of strangeness going on after all, Sephiroth would wait for his time to exact revenge for that insult.

Sephiroth made his way down the lift from the Dormitories and then up stairwells. He'd avoid what monsters he could, though inevitably some monsters won't be avoided especially considering how dangerous the Tower is during night time. At least his first death here hasn't blunted his sword any, and his strength is as it was as well. Finally Sephiroth would linger for a while on the 12th floor, watching the projection from start to finish a few times before the frequency of shadow-based monsters appearing was ruining his chance to get the escape he'd come here for and then he'd return back in the direction he came.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

There had to be credit where it was due, this one was smart enough not to follow too closely at Sephiroth's heels. That would have just been overbearing and wouldn't have been a good indication for how positive this little adventure might prove. It was a good thing also bearing in mind should Sephiroth turn and have to attack something behind them then this 'companion' wouldn't be directly in the path of where Masamune needed to go.

This might not actually go to badly. The guy seemed smart, respectable and -

"Sephiroth." -polite too, Sephiroth resolved as he answered Ienzo with a nod. Not stopping to answer or even turn around at all as they progressed through corridors; he wasn't going to check every five seconds that Ienzo was still there or not.

The Tower sure harbored names he's never heard the likes of before, and silver hair doesn't really seem a rarity here either. Sephiroth quite naturally likens Ienzo's appearance to Kadaj' what with the similar hairstyle and this ticks boxes with regards to Sephiroth's tolerance of him - not that it would ever be admitted. He did look the scientist stereotype a little though, Sephiroth gave him the benefit of the doubt for now, he was trying hard not to pre-judge too much.

Eventually getting to the elevators Sephiroth pressed the call button, holding Masamune in close along the back length of his arm as he turned back towards Ienzo. "1st floor?"

It would take an idiot to want to trail too close behind Sephiroth, to be perfectly honest. Even if Ienzo wanted to be within the radius of that sword for any conceivable reason, his particular brand of battling was better put to use in the back row. Raining down spells from above was a tricky business, and aftershocks could easily damage people and things that the caster didn’t want to damage — in this case, Sephiroth. He really didn’t care about the surroundings. They had lasted this long, a bit of swordplay and magic in the halls wouldn’t hurt anything too badly.

While they walked, Ienzo kept the Book of Retribution at the ready, flipping through it to find the spells. It had quite a wealth of information in it, this tome, much more than should have fit in the pages; as a result, the ink tended to move around on its own to form different words, mostly consisting of whatever Ienzo happened to need at the time... mostly. Sometimes it still refused to operate, eschewing the pages Ienzo knew he needed for cryptic messages scrawled in a hand that might or might not have been his own. It had really been too far back to remember by this point, assuming the Darkness hadn’t spotted out his memory.

“I don’t think that would be a very prudent idea,” he noted at the elevators. “Monsters don’t generally come down there, and if we get into a fight, then there may be some serious damage that can’t be fixed in time for tomorrow morning. Perhaps we should go somewhere less vital to the tower, such as the forest?” It was only a few floors up from the cafeteria, after all.

"Of course." That made sense, not that Sephiroth really gave much care at all to any damage they might inflict on the Tower itself. He'd punched a wall in rage once, it had cracked only and then within a few hours it was as if he'd never touched it - only the painful healing (and bone setting!) in his hand had left him in no doubt that he'd done it at all.

"Though, we have to take the lift right to the bottom first. It's the 6th Floor up I believe." Then the lift arrived and Sephiroth swept into it, waiting for Ienzo to follow. In truth Sephiroth was unsure about exploring the forest at night, it's not really one of the floors he'd spent a lot of time poking around. Especially with those animals that would be more challenging than usual. No, he wasn't afraid of the challenge, it was more to do with their detrimental effect on some of his abilities. At least he should still have sufficient physical prowess to deal with it though.

Unlike Sephiroth, Ienzo actually had some degree of respect and concern for the Tower and the populace within it, enough to care if he was responsible for ruining such a prominent area. Think of all the food supplies that could have been lost, Sephiroth! But from the tone with which he responded, Ienzo got the distinct feeling that the other silver-haired man really didn’t give a damn either way, so he left that subject alone. He’d already spoken his piece, and if Sephiroth didn’t agree with that piece, then it really wasn’t any of Ienzo’s business anyway. So instead he stepped into the elevator and immediately moved to the corner; even if he didn’t make a habit of doing that anyway, Masamune’s suddenly limited range of motion meant he didn’t want to be anywhere near where the blade could fit.

“Sixth floor, yes, for a given definition of ‘floor’.” Ienzo had a list of levels in one of his notebooks somewhere that he kept meaning to copy over into the Book of Retribution, but he’d memorized the first twenty or so. “As it is the place is extremely dangerous, but do let me know if you don’t think there isn’t enough light to see. I can fix that very easily, though you would be counting on the moon as well if you wanted to keep it up for any extended amount of time. At least they had the decency to create an artificial moon, or else I wouldn’t tread anywhere near the place.”

Did we mention Ienzo talks a lot, Sephiroth? Because he does.

If he wanted to cram himself into the corner of the lift when there was plenty of room between them and Masamune was neatly tucked behind Sephiroth out of the way, well that was up to him. It was almost as if Ienzo expected Sephiroth to suddenly lose control of the great sword. He certainly wouldn't, every movement with such a weapon had to be completely intentional.

Careful Ienzo, being talkative is all very well and good as long as it remains relevant and useful. Sephiroth raised an eyebrow in Ienzo's direction at the tirade of words that poured from him as the elevator descended.

"Quite. I've never really spent much time in the Forest, so this should be an experience at least." Sephiroth replied somewhat dryly.

He probably was being a little overly cautious, but you’ll have to forgive him. It’s not often that one discovers a weapon as... striking as that. He can see that Sephiroth handles the weapon with care, but still, it seems cumbersome in a way that would put anyone ill at ease — especially in a tight, confined space like this one.

“An experience,” he repeated, watching the numbers tick closer to one. “Well, virtually everything in this tower could easily be called an experience. But we’ll certainly see how Floor Six ranks on the list, won’t we.” Right then, the door opened again to the stench of chemicals that Ienzo didn’t particularly want to know the name of (a rare occurrence in and of itself); the cafeteria hadn’t changed much at all from day to night, since the only light was provided by fluorescent strips either way.

“Empty,” he muttered to himself, fishing through his remarkably oversized pockets for a pen. “Even now.” There was no need to write that down, but anything could happen after dark.

Sephiroth didn't have much to keep talking to Ienzo about so he just kept quiet. Ienzo was right, of course - the Tower is an experience in itself. So this would be an experience within an experience. An experiment within the larger project. He took care to keep his expression neutral as the familiar sick feeling spun in his insides, he hated contemplating too heavily on this place for that reason.

When the lift stopped and the doors opened Sephiroth took the initiative and stepped into the 1st Floor - casting a careful glance around for any prowling monster first. Sure it might look the same from day to night but everything in the Tower seemed darker in general at night time. He fancied that it was the monsters making the atmosphere heavier.

"It's never empty for long." Sephiroth commented as he started to head towards the familiar stairwell.

Edited 2013-01-26 12:38 (UTC)

“Also true.” After another quick scan of the area with his eyes, Ienzo decided that it would be best to follow his new monster-slaying companion up to the infirmary. There was always something interesting to be found on this floor, medicines and machines that Radiant Garden had never heard of, but now was not the time; he was sure that staying in one place for too long would attract monsters to them. Floor Two was another very important location that couldn’t afford to be put out of commission for any length of time — even if it was a short one, before the drones or Tower workers got there to repair the damage. The monsters were going to die either way, so it was best to do it somewhere out of the way, right?

Quite unlike Sephiroth, Ienzo found it quite satisfying on a personal level that he now had a new experiment on a larger project — in this case, the project being his little bestiary. After a while he tended to grow unsettled if there was no advancement made, no new discovery. Keeping himself busy with helpful, calm, non-dangerous activities was more or less the only way to stop Ienzo from going completely batty. Then again, he and Sephiroth had very different experiences in the realm of science, particularly the questionably-mentally-stable kind.

Eventually, however, the two of them made it to the forest with no further incidents, and... oh, hello waning moon. Ienzo frowned in the dim light and muttered something under his breath; shortly afterward, a small bobbling mote of dim light popped into existence next to him, and flew a bit over their heads. Had to spread around the light without using up too much energy on it.

They must have been lucky to get all the way up to the 6th Floor with no incident whatsoever. But then, they had kept moving up the stairwells. No stopping for idle conversation or to 'check in' on any other floor on the way up.

Sephiroth sharpened his awareness as soon as they stepped out into the forest on account of the dim light, it's not like he has nocturnal vision but his senses are paired with an uncanny sense of intuition. A lifetime of training produces a fine tuning of ones spacial awareness. He examined every deep penetrating shadow at least five times before chancing even looking away from it, the problem was in the lack of a clear moon there were too many shadows like it to determine a guaranteed safe path.

The production of Ienzo's little bobbing dim light cast a welcome, if not very much brighter, contrast on the details around the two of them. Sephiroth didn't make any comment of thanks though, as his gaze had rested on a particular point nearby that was now less encased in shadow. There was a flash of teeth, then flurry of movement and only seconds later, at the end of it Sephiroth was a couple of feet away from Ienzo with a sharp-toothed, mutated rabbit at his feet. The creature had been expertly cut right up the middle of it's body and lay nearly split in two. Masamune hardly seemed stained.

That had been Ienzo’s plan, yes. After all, monsters cannot harm one when they are on the stairs; it’s only when/if they fall off that things begin to get spotty. And since Ienzo was keeping one hand on the railing at all times, there was nothing like that to be concerned with.

He shifted position immediately when he sensed the creature (whatever it was) coming closer, but it was too late by then; Sephiroth had already pulled the huge sword around and cleaved it neatly in two. Slowly, Ienzo walked closer to the killer rabbit, looking around for any more monsters that might be lurking nearby and waiting for him to look away. (He couldn’t depend on Sephiroth for everything, after all.) When none showed themselves, he calmly kneeled down in front of the creature — careful to avoid the seeping blood — and began to scribble furiously. If Sephiroth ever felt the urge to look over his shoulder at the Book of Retributon, he would find that Ienzo was noting everything in a practically unintelligible shorthand. Or maybe it was a different language completely. Either option was feasible.

Sephiroth swept Masamune back again and out of the way so that Ienzo could get to the corpse of the creature without risking any accidental nick on the blade. He only glanced once at Ienzo to notice he was doing something in his book but didn't pay it any further mind. He said he was compiling a bestiary and that did look like he was doing that.

Instead the silver-haired warrior cast his green gaze around and around them both, searching the darkness for the next threat which can't be too far away. It was such a rush, the Forest really does get the adrenaline going - Sephiroth would likely come here for a challenge again just based on how it feels right now.

After a time of nothing Sephiroth would look down over his shoulder at Ienzo. Daring to break the silence, though not looking down at the other guy for long.

"What sort of information are you collecting?"

“Oh, the average sort of things,” Ienzo said somewhat distractedly, his attention still mostly on writing down everything he could about the rabbit. The light mote moved closer to the page, increasing in luminosity so he could see better. From out of his pocket he produced a pair of gloves and pulled them on; after that he began to touch the creature physically, pulling back the lips so that he could observe its teeth. “First the time we found it, how we know it can be killed — slaying — and what floor it came from, apparent abilities and physical properties, etcetera. I don’t imagine that a rabbit can be exceptionally rare in a forest area, even a killing one with abnormally large fangs, but you never know.”

Eventually he decided that the information gathered was satisfactory. He pulled off the gloves and zipped them up in a bag (also from his pocket), shut the Book of Retribution, and turned back to Sephiroth. The mote returned to its normal level of illumination. “The sort of thing you would find in the typical bestiary, you know.” Ienzo had already resigned himself to the fact that he wouldn’t learn much about this animal’s fighting abilities with Sephiroth mowing down every single one they came across, but with the more powerful monsters he was sure that one strike would not be enough to kill them. “Have you done any information collection of this sort before, Sephiroth?”

Sephiroth listened intently to Ienzo, whilst not letting his attention fall from the darkness just past the edge of the illumination the mote provided. A dead monster was sure to attract more monsters after all, he was just getting a little restless of waiting. His itch to kill would certainly have to be answered again soon.

"I tend not to be in the habit of logging such information for the reference of other people." He answered with only a glance back, his tone indicative that Ienzo wouldn't get any further explanation if he asked for one.

As the mote died back to it's less bright lighting, more mutated rabbits flew at them out of the same area the first had come from. Though, they are only rabbits and don't even get inside Masamune's range before being expertly dispatched.

Mutated Wildlife, various group sizes of Miniblin and a few Imps seemed to be the common order of things, as the monster hunt continued. Perhaps a few Archraven. They are only on Floor 6 after all. Though it was certainly the exercise Sephiroth had been looking for, having to keep his focus and his mind clear as he advanced through the forest with Ienzo only a few feet behind. It hadn't been flawless either, as the small scratches on Sephiroth's face began to tell him as they began to heal up.

“If not for the reference of others, what about for your own?” Ienzo had always planned to share this bestiary because it was something that everyone in the Tower could benefit from, but most of his life had been spent taking notes for... other kinds of experiments, the secret kind which could not be shared with most other members of society. In fact, only six other people had ever laid eyes on them, and all of those people ended up in an extremely undesirable situation which he will not start thinking about now thank you.

Some spells were fired when Ienzo caught sight of a monster before Sephiroth did, but he mostly focused on keeping their light source alive and functional. After a while, however, Ienzo stopped. He didn’t touch Sephiroth’s arm or anything to indicate that he should do it as well (fearing, of course, that he would be cleaved through like one of the monsters), but hopefully the lack of boots crunching on the leaves and twigs would serve as enough of an indicator. And if not, there was always fact that the temperature had suddenly gone up — way up. Having spent a fair part of his young/adult life in a practically subzero laboratory, Ienzo had become very sensitive to changes in the surrounding temperature, and that combined with the now-familiar scent of monster... well. The Book of Retribution snapped open extremely fast.

Faint sparkling came from the trees, the light mote reflecting through — something. Ienzo straightened it. Some sort of black lizard he couldn’t identify appeared in the murk, and it didn’t look at all pleased to see them. (It was a Ryu Dragon, of course, but he couldn’t know that.)

"Exactly why we're here." Sephiroth replied a little flatly. Surely Ienzo must have had some inkling by now that Sephiroth is not in the least a people person. At least a bestiary filled with entries that he himself had participated in killing for would have accurate information, Sephiroth wouldn't trust anything that he's not seen for himself first. Such entries in Ienzo's bestiary he would occupy himself by hunting down to prove the information himself.

It was a moment in time when no sound was made between them but Sephiroth wouldn't really have been concerned about Ienzo not following him - he'd made it clear earlier he wasn't playing guardian. However, being somewhat more sensitive to temperature changes now after that vile sickness he'd had before, the significant temperature change was Sephiroth's main indicator to the Ryu Dragon lurking in the gloom just outside of the light-radius of the mote. The very air around them seemed to get heavier with dread.

With every small hair on the back of his neck on end, Sephiroth froze, inspecting the black creature carefully as it started to come towards them and so more light was shed on it. Masamune was raised defensively as eyes narrowed at those purple spikes this creature had. Instinct more than knowledge told him that, as with any dangerous creature - bright color tended to be the indicator of something to avoid. Sephiroth was forced to retreat a few steps back towards Ienzo as it's mouth opened and a medium-sized fireball was sent at the place where Sephiroth had been moments before.

"Interesting. Some sort of cold magic, I would guess..."

“Yes,” he responded. “Exactly why we’re here.” That was not entirely true; Ienzo did intend to share his findings with the rest of the Tower when there was enough content in the bestiary to meet his standards, which may not ever happen because they were his standards. Really, though, if Sephiroth had a problem with this he didn’t mind that much; it was great to have someone backing him up in expeditions like this, and he was certainly an accomplished fighter, but there was no one on this earth who was going to tell Ienzo what he could and could not do with his own notes, thank you kindly.

The dragon’s tail was dragged along on the ground behind it, but it twitched every so often. In anticipation? Maybe. This monster could be intelligent enough to anticipate a kill; it was certainly powerful enough to pose a threat, and the glint in its eyes told Ienzo that it was violent enough, as well. Slowly, cautiously, Ienzo began composing quick appearance notes in the Book of Reribution. Ink appeared on the page in a formation similar to his handwriting, but in such a concise shorthand that he could throw down the basics of the monster in the time it took for the fireball to touch down. Ienzo did not move when Sephiroth did; in fact, he moved closer.

After a few moments, a shimmering energy shield appeared in front of them, and then dispersed. “It won’t stop direct attacks,” he whispered very quickly, “but that should weaken magic. Move freely, it will follow you.” With such a stout body, Ienzo didn’t think that anything except the jaw and tail would be used as a weapon — and even those were more trouble than they were worth compared to just spitting a fireball, as the creature could clearly do.

“Can you perform magic?” Ienzo asked. Two columns appeared in the book: ‘Weakness’ and ‘Resistance’.

Sephiroth may have spent longer taking notice of the magical shield that Ienzo called around them, if he wasn't taking very careful note of the more immediate threat. Unlike many other monsters in the Tower, that Sephiroth has encountered plenty of until now, this one actually felt threatening. He wasn't going to get caught with his guard down.

Once Ienzo confirmed he could move, Sephiroth began to widely circle the dragon - Masamune poised like a great stinger of his own curving down at the monster. To keep it's attention locked in his direction he would occasionally tilt the blade a little to catch the light.

"No I-" Then the dragon charged, much faster than Sephiroth was expecting it to. Sephiroth had to jump over the tail as it came swiping at him. He aimed in counterattack for the spikes on that tail but the attack was batted away with the monsters next tail swipe. At the same time it headbutted those spikes on it's head at Sephiroth's leg.

Sephiroth grunted painfully as those deadly spikes bypassed leather, skin and bone into his shin as far as they would go - like slicing through butter. Dancing backward and putting the injured leg behind him, he hoped Ienzo would throw some sort of spell at it soon.

Just him testing the weakness, then. It made a bit more sense, in hindsight, that Sephiroth was not magically gifted; either he came from a world where such things did not exist, or his mastery over the BFS was in compensation for some other skill. It didn’t matter that much to Ienzo — he always tended to be the ranged attacker and support when fighting with someone else, so he now fell into the habit of watching only Sephiroth’s health instead of his attacks.

’Highly violent, fireballs, tail attacks, ripping spikes’ appeared in the Book of Retribution. A moment later, Ienzo did indeed send a Cure his way; from only one attack, he hoped that it would suffice. If it didn’t, he prepared to throw off another one, and maybe upgrade to Cura in the future. The monster was completely distracted by Sephiroth, it seemed; Ienzo was standing further away, so it didn’t seem to care about anything unless it was within tail-whacking distance. That suited him just fine.

It sent out fire attacks, so it was obviously a fire monster; would Ice work? Maybe. He sent a Blizzard its way; the attack was a seeker, so it honed in on the monster without hitting Sephiroth. That was the primary reason he used it, really; if it turned out to be effective, then he’d move on to stronger attacks and just aim better to avoid Sephiroth. And if not, he would just keep going until something else came through.

Judging from the monster’s reaction, it didn’t at all appreciate that Blizzard; ’Weak to ice’ wrote itself out. Ienzo took a moment to check on Sephiroth again, and then began hovering in the air a bit so he could move to a more opportune location; didn’t want to hit anything he didn’t mean to hit, after all. From above, the Dragon hopefully couldn’t get him as easily; letting out its wings might earn them a slicing from Masamune. And from there, he fired off a Blizzara.

The familiar tingle feeling of Cure magic soon made short work of the injury to Sephiroth's shin, after all it really did give his own natural regeneration a kick. Sephiroth noted for perhaps the first time that Cure magic in general seems to have a very similar feeling to him, regardless it seems of what world it's come from. By extension, it would be advantageous to say the least, to have the possibility to learn magic without the need for Materia.

Expertly he shifted the weight back onto the now-healed leg and with great focus now on the monster was able to dodge the spike-attacks quite well. Though being such on a defensive didn't leave him much room to be able to get an attack in with Masamune.

Finally an ice-y ball of Blizzard magic came hurtling into Sephiroth's vision and he made a point to step back as it connected with the Dragon. Well, if Ienzo was thinking to be able to not get it's attention - that was out of the window now. The Dragon wasn't interested in Sephiroth very much anymore and turned towards the magic-user. He took the opportunity for a measured slash at the base of it's tail as it turned but it surely wasn't enough to kill it - it wasn't even enough to turn it's attention back towards him.

As Ienzo started to float, Sephiroth watched for a few moments - taking a swipe at one of the Dragon's wings when they came out to try and take off as well. Quite logically they needed a stronger ice attack and that was probably what Ienzo was going to do, so Sephiroth manifested his own black feathered wing and hovered back and up a little ways in order to give Ienzo more room.

...Apparently Cure did fit the bill. It fit much better than he expected, actually. Ienzo was unsure if that tiny spell would be sufficient to let Sephiroth keep on fighting, but it looked like he was actually completely healed instead. Even if he couldn’t cast maggic on his own, there was clearly something funny about this guy; could it be connected tot hat sword? Ienzo made a mental note to ask him about it later (couldn’t spare the paper space on his physical notebook), but to be honest, he wasn’t complaining. Healthier Sephiroth plus more-MP Ienzo equals profit.

Which turned out to be just as well, because that Blizzard turned the dragon’s attention away from Sephiroth and onto the more immediate threat — him. Well then. Ienzo took the opportunity to throw up a physical-attack shield, as well as recast the special one, foreseeing that he would be needing it; Sephiroth may have been resistant to those spikes (and most other things the Ryu Dragon can throw at him), but Ienzo certainly wasn’t, knowing full well that he was a bit of a squishy wizard when it came down to it. There was a very good reason he learned all those buffs.

Thus prepared, Ienzo fired off another Blizzara to keep its attention while Sephiroth mounted the sky as well... with one wing. Okay, wings were cool, Ienzo had no problem with people who could summon wings. But, uh... flight doesn’t work that way, Sephiroth. Another thing Ienzo would have to ask him about after this mess was over. Meanwhile, the creature roared in pain when Sephiroth put a sword to its wing, but unfortunately he wasn’t able to rip the appendage off — if that had happened this fight would have ended very quickly, and very easily. Normally wings were very easy to fracture (don’t ask Ienzo how he knew that), but this one seemed to have extra thick skin.

Ienzo let himself drop a bit as the dragon lunged for him in midair; it seemed like it couldn’t decide which of them to attack first, so it just went for whichever happened to be nearest at the time. Stopping himself a little bit below the creature’s underbelly, Ienzo fired off a quick Blizzard — there was no time to charge up anything else — in the hopes of hitting its unguarded flesh for the kill. But of course, no such luck. The dragon roared again, spat a fireball right at him (which was too close to avoid) and flew off to do battle with Sephiroth instead. Meanwhile, Ienzo was left scrambling to compose himself from the obvious difficulties presented by a fireball to the face. Including falling back to the ground again. Ouch.

Would it have been helpful or not to have interfered with Ienzo's spat with the Dragon? Sephiroth wasn't sure whether him and/or Masamune would have simply gotten in the way of Ienzo's more powerful magic attacks. He certainly seemed to have geared himself up in terms of magic shields to mitigate the Dragon's attacks quite well. It was clearly damaged by cold attacks, a magic user should be able to finish it easier than the keen edge of his blade that doesn't do much to the thick skin.

And so Sephiroth had just remained a few feet in the air, large black feathered wing occasionally beating at the air to the one side of him as if it were keeping him there. Of course in truth it has nothing to do with it. His natural telekinesis counter-balances and has a lot more to do with keeping him afloat than the Jenova-given mutation does.

Masamune was quickly risen back into a ready position the moment that Sephiroth saw that Ienzo was about to take a way-too close fireball to his head. He had enough time to register that the mage had fallen back to the floor before the Dragon got back into his range. One thing about being airbourne with Masamune; there is no floor to get in the way of a potentially cleaving attack. Wasting no time Sephiroth dodged upwards away from the stream of fire that came from the Dragon's mouth like a fire-jet. He aimed powerfully for the wing joint that he'd managed to nick at earlier, this time putting some of that telekinetic force behind his strike.

For additional forcing of the issue Sephiroth followed with a strong boot to the back of the creature; hoping to impair it's flight enough to force it to have to land. In the meantime, the Dragon forced multiple spikes on it's head through Sephiroth's opposite foot but while agonizing the pain was almost a side-thought. What was important now was to kill this monster before their fight drew out other monsters.

Perhaps you could get that blade checked out, Sephiroth. Infused with some kind of magical ability, perhaps? If it were within Ienzo’s range of capability, he would certainly help out, if only because he now knew that there were monsters in this tower that had elemental weaknesses just like the ones back home. But, moving back to the more immediate matters at hand, Ienzo pulled himself to a kneeling position on the ground and cast Curaga. Overkill? Maybe. But Ienzo certainly felt those effects enough to justify it on himself, and besides, it was the first spell that came to mind that could cure Sephiroth as well without Ienzo having to focus directly on him. There was no telling what had happened while he was trying to regain his bearings.

Ienzo looked up in time to see Sephiroth kicking the monster, which must have been already reeling from another attack — otherwise, he couldn’t imagine a fighter like that lowering himself to common brawl tactics. Whatever happened, the Ryu Dragon spun around in the air a bit drunkenly, and promptly proceeded to sink like a rock to the floor. Seeing an opportunity, Ienzo leapt up and took about five feet of air between himself and the ground. Then, with the Dragon still recovering from the crash, he sent a powerful Blizzara point blank in its specific direction. ...And then, thinking that perhaps was not enough, another Blizzard right behind.

The creature roared and flailed at the first attack, and the second one silenced it. Not wanting to stand too close in case it was just pretending to be defeated, Ienzo moved himself back up to Sephiroth’s level, watching intently. There were several monsters he could think of that would try to pull a trick like that and, say, reach out for his face once he got close enough to examine it in the Book of Retribution. He was silent for several seconds, breath held, waiting.

...But no, the creature was really dead.

Almost casually, he glanced over at Sephiroth, hoping for a second opinion on the matter.

Well if there was one thing about having Ienzo around, healing was helpful. Sephiroth had had to make himself back off from the Dragon though as Ienzo popped up into the air out of no where to finish the monster off. He'd have followed it to the floor for an attempted impale, else.

Sephiroth was left hovering with Masamune relaxed to the side but not overly so, eyeing the fallen Ryu Dragon carefully. He didn't pay much mind to the fact that Ienzo had moved back level with him though it seemed they both had a similar idea. Wait for a while to make sure it was dead first.

"Well, that was unexpectedly entertaining." Sephiroth commented as he lowered himself back to the floor. The black feathered wing was folded in and back before being dismissed into nothing at a thought, a few black feathers left in it's wake for only a moment before they dissolved into the air. Just to be sure though, before Sephiroth would allow Ienzo to get any closer to the Dragon - he'd prod at it with Masamune a couple of times.

Everybody loved free healing. It was a lesson Ienzo had learned quite a while ago, where even the staggeringly dickish members of the Organization were suddenly a lot warmer to you when you were good to them as support on a mission. He smiled as Sephiroth talked, the closest thing he would allow to laughter in the middle of a fight; he was right, though, this was entertaining.

He stood back to let Sephiroth poke the creature, though had a word of caution. “Please don’t do too much to it,” he noted, letting the Book of Retribution flip around. “I still have to take notes on this one, remember.” But while he waited, he began throwing down some more basic information about the fight. ‘Level of difficulty’ was omitted until he got some more information from different tests about how powerful it was — that is, asking other people in the Tower with different skill levels how their fight went. And once Sephiroth had finished, he pulled out the gloves again and swooped in to make the same observations he had for the rabbit, and several more.

"Relax."

Don't worry Ienzo he hasn't forgotten the purpose for them being in the Forest at all. Only two stabs with Masamune were given before Sephiroth stepped away. He turned so that his back was to the researcher and would keep a keen eye on every angle of their surroundings; it would be troublesome to say the least to have to deal with more than one of those things at a time.

Occasionally he would glance over Ienzo's shoulder at whatever he was writing in the book.

Floor 6

grimgrimoire - 2013-02-18 03:17 (UTC) - Expand

Floor 6

neverbeamemory - 2013-02-18 20:43 (UTC) - Expand

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

013 | So clearly lightning resistance needs work....

Hallways > Floor ?

Hallways > Floor ?

Re: Hallways > Floor ?

Elevator -> Floor 6

Re: Elevator -> Floor 6

Floor 1 -> Floor 6

Re: Floor 1 -> Floor 6

Floor 1 -> Floor 6

Floor 6

Floor 6

Re: Floor 6

Floor 6

Floor 6 - If it's OK to let this advance a little?

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Floor 6 (sorry for the lateness)

Floor 6 (no problem!)

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Floor 6 (almost lost this tag, omg)

Floor 6 (no problem. I love your wording btw - reminds me of MMO playing "squishy wizard"....)

Floor 6 (All credit goes to tvtropes.org for that particular term. xD NOT VERY SCIENTIFIC, BUT W/E.)

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