high_seas | To go with your crew...

Entry tags:

To go with your crew...

Who: Everyone who is fighting in the battle to kill the witch.
Where: The Black Fortress in the East
When: Jan 24th-25th
What: The grand battle to get back what you have lost, get revenge for what was taken, and avert disaster.
Warnings: Language. Death. Victory. Defeat. True love. Miracles.
Style: Text or prose
Status: Open to all

The black fortress ripples with shimmering iridescent energy, the piles of black coral heaped on roped together barges around it, bobbing in the waves. On the largest barge stands a slender man with a copper belt, wearing a face mask, orange red hair flecked with black from ash or dust. As the dawn slowly folds over the ocean, he'll look up, as if hearing some hidden voice.

At the top of the fortress, a figure climbs into vision, a woman, dressed in gray, features obscured by a hood with impenetrable darkness behind it. She staggers a moment as if she is weary, then straightens to her full height. As she speaks, her voice comes out of the journals, echoing over the water, low but clear.

"This is no small task ye do. She that rots within'll do anythin' ta stop ye. Don't hesitate to kill what ye find. If they were human once, they hain't no more. Watch out for her golems, too, or they'll drain ye dry quicker'n a wink. But if ye can get rid of 'em, it'll weaken her." She hesitates, cants her head to the side. "And if ye lot aren't as much of a bunch'a idiots as usual, ye might come out alive through this."

That said, she raises her hands. After a moment so does the man on the barge. For a moment, nothing seems to happen and then iridescent light shimmers over the coral, seeming to match that which surrounds the fortress. It crackles and dances like a fire, and then without warning bursts into a furious life, slamming against the energy of the fortress. There is the sound like thunder and light snaps and crackles, zipping with energy. Then with a woosh the light flies upward, taking the figure with it. The man on the barge lets out a cry like a seagull and dives into the water as if intending to swim after her.

For the boats that remain, a part of the fortress will crumble away into the sea, revealing a small harbor and an open doorway. Enter all ye who dare.

[If things become too crowded, feel free to make another thread outside of these. Just put where you are in the header.]

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Musa glanced back at her rather small crew. "Alright guys, lets be prepared for anything and lets go." She said as she slowly reaches her for the door, slowly creaking it open as she was the first one to take the first steps. That seemed easy enough, or at least a little too easy.

Looking around she noted the look of the room and at the golden walls. "Apparently, one cannot have too much gold here."

"A really tacky taste." Ellen said. Already transformed as Cure Beat, she kept her eyes and ears open for anything. She wasn't looking forward to what they may be dealing with. "So far, so good... Just be careful."

Step by step. She had said that to Hachiken, and she believes it firmly, there would be time to take care of the consequences and to face the regret later. Still, it's hard, to stand there with Musa and the other girl whose name she hadn't had time, nor the sanity when she joined, to catch. Her mind fuzzes with questions that she tries to push aside, specially the ones that note how... Ciel isn't there. How he hasn't come for her, it feels like the definitive answer to her fears but she can't bring herself to ask Musa. They don't have time for that either.

Elizabeth wears a frown in her face, an uncute gesture but at the moment she can't worry about that either. She's worried about where Hachiken may have been, she lost him in the confusion but with everyone swarming the place she hopes that he will be okay. Her grip on the swords she had acquired is tight, and her knuckles go white due it as she looks around, ready for anything. "It reminds me of those new nobles who don't know how to constrain themselves;" she has seem some of their homes, the ballrooms that were filled with rich decorations with no taste or sense.

None could miss the impact of Scurvey Dog's attack on the fortress. Even within its heart, the fortress had groaned. For Xun Yu, it was a warning of the impending threat to the Pirate Witch's life closing in.

A fortnight of living with the full force of the Witch's indomitable voice interspersed with the haunting, endless lullaby in her mind had certainly done its work on breaking her. There was no way to reach her through the possession, no method of reasoning with the madness it wrought in her. Every last trace of resistance she harboured was eroded away. By this point she was wholeheartedly convinced that the Witch's death would ensure Cao Cao's death. If she was not there at his side to see all challenges to his reign put to end, to defend him against his enemies on the battlefield and outside of it, and especially to free him from his own folly, all would be lost. The Witch's promise was her only solution. It carried an absolute certainty of success.

'If you do not take your place at his side then he will give it to Diaochan. Winning over her heart consumes his thoughts and he refuses to harm her. But she is Liu Bei's lover, and she will stab him in the back once domination is in his grasp, so that Liu Bei may ascend regardless of Heaven's Will. No one else stands any chance of saving him. Yet you are trapped in this realm... unless...'

She was utterly oblivious to her own possession, to how skewed and unnatural her thoughts were. All she felt was the determination to protect her Emperor, the man that she loved. No price was too steep.

There was no choice, as she saw it. Interlopers would destroy all that her painstaking years of service had accomplished, and more importantly, all that she lived for. They simply had to die.

Xun Yu was prepared to fight long before the throne room's doors were opened and the sound of three distinct female voices carried across the hall to where she stood guard. Without word she left her post by the throne and moved quietly to occupy the position between the “Witch” and the entrance, the best place to stage her defence.

She floated up into the air, the high ceilings allowing her the space to do so. Only then did she announce her presence, calling out to them sharply as she gathered her magic.

“You have no right to be here! In this throne room, or in this world!”

Xun Yu's power resonated in her voice; it sounded as if she spoke with two voices simultaneously, one contrasting her natural pitch, echoing beyond the limits of their environment. A small ruby shard was set in the collar closed around her armoured throat. It glinted as the light of the luminous aura that flamed from within her touched it.

Ellen winced a bit as she heard Xun Yu's threat, a little surprised by the fact that she was hovering in mid-air. She also couldn't make out the odd feeling - was that a second power in here? If it was, then they had their worked cut out for them.

"We don't want to fight, alright?" She said. "There's really no reason to!" That wouldn't work, which is why she summoned her weapon, the Love Guitar Rod. "Stand down or you'll regret it."

Musa glances over, her hands pressed against her waist and her wings fluttering slightly, but not yet taking flight. It seemed like her advantage of flying was pretty much out of the question as she watched the other float into the air.

"Neat trick." She muttered slightly, somewhat impressed and yet somewhat annoyed as she glanced at the other. The power that she had felt seemed very different than what she was use to, even Valtor didn't feel that powerful. She knew full well that because of that the battle would be hard.

Flying up slightly in the air she held up her hands. "We don't want to fight you, but if you try we won't back down and give it our all."

Having seen Musa, a woman floating makes no impression on Elizabeth, even if the lack of wings makes it slightly surprising. She looks at the other with worry in her eyes mixed with determination before she looked at the Witch sitting on the throne for a moment.

Unlike the others, Elizabeth has no will to try to reason with the armored woman, because she knows it will be useless. If what the woman is going through is anything like that she suffered, then there's no way to reason with her. It's not a matter of being controlled but of having been twisted from deep inside, thoughts and morals wrapped up and turned until it just... Made sense. Until the words of the witch were clearly just the undeniable truth. She doesn't want to fight the other, but there's no other choice if they want to go for the Witch and even if the defender was distracted long enough, she doubts the Witch will just allow them to strike at her without retaliation. The armored woman will have to go down first.

"Don't waste your breaths... Just try to simply knock her out, we can't reason with her while she's under the witch's control;" she readies herself, not liking the luminous aura that was forming. She prepares to dodge first whatever may come her way, she has no magic to defend herself or to warrant her to be able to take head on any sort of magic. Dodging and attacking right away is her only option.

"There is every reason," Xun Yu retorted. "You interlopers have no choice."

If she heard Elizabeth's comments over the noise in her head then she did not react or respond to them -- the nature of the possession prevented her from speaking of it to anyone other than her fellow possessed at any rate.

Instead, she began to cast.

Xun Yu chanted and rapidly focused her magic with precise, fluid forms of her arms, absorbing small, bright comets of magic from the air. Around two dozen shards of ice between one-and-a-half and twice her size manifested around her; with a thrust of her palm and a luminous shock wave of magic she released her spell, and the shards rose higher yet before they rained down in an immense, destructive hail.

Any other time, Ellen's first reaction would be to raise up Beat Barrier and block those shards. But, those are huge ass ones. Thus, she's going to do the best thing she can do.

"Everyone, SCATTER!"

Without a second thought, she leaped into the air, using her Cure form's speed and agility with the intent on hopping from one to another, closing the gap and punching Xun Yu in the face. Hard.

Holy moly, those shards were massive and something Musa knew needed to be dodged rather than attacking them and wasting energy by doing it. With wuick movements, she looked over to Elizabeth, she trusted the other was moving fast enough to dodge them all, but she wasn't so sure about Elizabeth.

So flying over quickly she went to protect the young lady as best as she could, knowing that while magic drained her energy it was a good to protect those first, rather than jump into a battle knowing little to nothing about ones abilities.

As she unleashed an attack to try and shatter the shards to as tiny as possible, she looked to see where the other was. "Wait a...." She was about to yell when she realized what the other was doing. She knew by now it wouldn't get through to her as they had already gone to attack, so instead she looked at Elizabeth with a smile smile.

"We might not know much about their abilities, so shall we work together and figure it out?"

She was ready to dodge, but she hadn't expected such a large amount of things to dodge, neither so big. Elizabeth is fast and agile, more than what one would expect from a girl like her, her legs and arms have a strength bigger than what her frills and lady-like appearance suggest. But even so, the amount of shards puts her at a disadvantage. She runs, trying to discern the trajectory to avoid them, maybe she could have done it, maybe not but she will never know because Musa leaps to protect her and, while Elizabeth knows it's a waste of Musa's energy, she's still grateful.

Specially after everything that happened. It isn't just that Musa lets her be around in those specific circumstances, but she still cares for Elizabeth's well being. The blonde girl smiles back at the other, nodding, mentally noting what the other girl had done as it seemed like a better way to deal with an attack like that for the next time. "You can count with me. She was chanting something a moment ago, wasn't she? Maybe her magic is something she can only do if she has time to conjure it;" in which case the best way to deal with it would be to try to stop her from using it.

She doesn't stay still, though, there's no time to sit and talk calmly about strategies and the like. Elizabeth runs, leaping against a pillar to try to reach the armoured woman; "I'm a close range fighter, so I'll try to distract her, you get her from afar!"

Ellen's display of agility and speed was impressive, but the attack was doomed to fail because of two main advantages that Xun Yu held: she could float, which meant that she had a wide range of movement in mid-air, and the reach of her sword was longer than Ellen's natural reach.

Once Ellen lunged for her, Xun Yu simply shifted out of the girl's direct path as she drew her sword, and then slashed at Ellen with exact timing.

Whether Ellen managed to overcome her own momentum to avoid Xun Yu's sword or not, Xun Yu didn't linger in place; easily avoiding Elizabeth's attempt to reach her because of her advantage in the air, she then swooped down and descended upon Musa, attempting to strike the apparent lone flyer with her blade.

Xun Yu's opponents were not the only ones assessing their foes and strategising accordingly. Elizabeth had all but announced that she would come to Xun Yu, and so she anticipated it, making sure that her angle of attack kept the other two girls within her field of vision.

She trusted fully in her battle-honed instincts.

Ellen was caught off guard by Xun Yu's evasion, barely having enough time to try to dodge the warrior's sword. Instead, Ellen found herself screaming in pain as the blade made contact, cutting into her uniform from the side, a nice gash now visible.

She barely had enough focus to at least land on her feet, taking notice of what Xun Yu was doing next.

"Everyone...!"

Musa barely managed to dodged the swoop of the sword, grazing her so slightly and drawing blood. But Musa wasn't going to for a moment let the pain get to her as she kicked moved her leg into what appears at first a close kick, but instead unleashed a purple soundwave attack.

"Music kick!" With that, she managed to move back, her hand moving to it's side as she looked at Ellen "You okay? Listen, we're going to try and figure out a way to hit them, but to do that we need to work as a team. Elizabeth suggested we do far range attacks. Do you think you an do that?"

She glanced over to Elizabeth, she knew that girl could handle herself, but she couldn't help but worry because unlike her and Ellen, she had no magic way of protecting herself. So with her standing up straight, ready for the next attack she might bring. They had to be prepared for anything.

"Tsk!" Elizabeth's not surprised by Xun Yu evading her, she would have been far more shocked had her charge worked. The woman could fly at will, which gave her an obvious advantage over Elizabeth, furthermore fighting in the air had never been among the things she ever studied. As the other evaded her, Elizabeth twirled in the air, seeking support on another part of the room mid-charge, finding it on the top part of another pillar.

She could try to give chase, but that would quickly reduce her to nothing but a leaping monkey. And even if the other engaged in combat with her, Elizabeth's sure she would try to keep the other two in her field of vision, at least it's what she would do if the situation was the other way around. If she wanted to be able to work as a real distraction, she would have to try to anticipate the other's movement and keep the actions of the other two girls as a mystery.

It was with that in mind that she launched herself in apparent chase after the other. She was chasing her, sword readied for a strike at the woman. However, Elizabeth was using a lower angle in her jump to reach the floor right when she would be in front of her opponent. If she was quick enough to avoid the other to start avoiding her before she reached her, she would be able to use her legs to land, crouch and jump in one fluid motion to change the angle of her attack and aim for the woman's neck. But even if that didn't work, she should have room enough to change her movement to either dodge an attack or increase the chase in whatever direction the woman decided to go.

Quick and clever. Still, Xun Yu twisted side-on and avoided Elizabeth's strike, before she rapidly kicked the back of Elizabeth's knee with an armoured foot, looking to stagger her opponent. She swung her sword in a sweeping arch and deflected Musa's curious sound wave with her blade – another benefit of her great magical power was her ability to counteract all but the most powerful magic – and continued the motion through to attack Elizabeth, which she followed up with a backhand slice, applying heavy pressure upon the swordswoman.

Her most prominent advantage over Elizabeth on the ground was her full body armour and the years of conditioning that let her move swiftly and lightly in it, with the grace of a swallow in flight.

Did Musa think that she couldn't hear them? Even with the Witch's voice and continuous music tormenting her mind, she was well aware of their plan. If they wished to underestimate her, then that was their folly.

Ellen was about to agree to Musa's plan before she watched everything just fall apart, especially with Elizabeth in trouble. Fight the pain! You can't let these people die...! Ellen mentally chided herself. Standing up, she went for her weapon and struck a panel on it. "BEAT SONIC!" She shouted, a series of energy music notes appearing around her, turning into arrows and firing at the warrior. They needed to work together. They needed to regroup.

Fighting to keep her balance would only leave her wide open to an attack. Allowing herself to fall and roll away would still leave her open even if she trusted for the others to do something and keep Xun Yu busy long enough for Elizabeth to stand up again. She was taught to not give up or run away, but sometimes it's needed to do so even just for a moment, so using her unharmed leg Elizabeth just jumped forward as fast as she could, away from Xun Yu's reach. She could still feel something rip on her back, the beautiful dress Musa had given her, now damaged on top of dirtied, but she had no time to cry over it.

The girl jumped, bouncing against the wall to go back after Xun Yu. Elizabeth knew well that with the full armor, the magic and the flight, Xun Yu was too far away from her reach in terms of battle. There's just too much difference, too much advantage on the other's side. But giving up wasn't an option, not when she knew that the woman was just as trapped as she had been, even if the witch was out of their reach, Elizabeth wanted to at least help Xun Yu. One sword sliced through the air as she aimed for the woman's neck, and face the only areas uncovered by the armor.

Thing were really much harder than they seemed and Musa knew if things were going to get worse then she knew at least one thing she could try. But right now it was best to make sure they don't hurt her any more.

So lifting her hand she gathered sound energy and aimed it at the possess in front of her. This time she wasn't going to play nice, not if it wasn't called for at least.

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To go with your crew...

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