Wiping the sweat from his brow with his free hand, Squall leaned forward and peeked out from the boulder he was crouched behind. He looked carefully at the Narshe mountainside for any sign of movement, his gunblade gripped tightly at his side. The blizzard had subsided a bit, but it still was not easy to see through the snow. He waited a few seconds, then suddenly darted out from the safety of the boulder and ran at full speed toward a nearby ditch. Almost instantly, a blast of fire shot out at him from just ahead. Squall dove towards the ditch, just making it as the fireball exploded on the ground behind him. Looking around, he saw that the ditch continued behind an outcropping of rocks, leading close to where he thought the fireball had come from.
"Perfect," he thought to himself as he slowly crawled in that direction, trying not to make any large movements so as to alert his enemy to his location. After crawling about 50 meters, the ditch ended, with a small path leading up to two large boulders. At the side of the nearest boulder, he could see the edges of a dark cape flying in the wind, just peeking out from the edge of the rock. He silently got to his feet and readied his gunblade. "If I catch him by surprise, I can probably end it in one blow," he thought to himself. He bent his knees slightly, and exploded up out from his hiding spot, ready to kill. As he swung up behind the boulder, a realization hit him, too late to stop his movement: "He can see my shadow."
As he came around the boulder and swung his gunblade down, it was met by the upward slash of a large scythe. The clash of steel rang out, seeming to silence the sound of the wind and falling snow around them. Magus smiled as he looked across as Squall. "You'll have to do better than that," he taunted. Their blades separated, and came together again in a flurry of blows as they fought through the blizzard.
Magus was fast, dodging and parrying blows and throwing blasts of magic at Squall whenever he had an opportunity. Squall was just as fast though, dodging the bolts of ice, fire, and lightning, and forcing Magus back slightly. Their blades came together once more, this time with such force that both of them recoiled slightly, taking a small jump backward as they prepared to engage again.
Almost simultaneously, they both noticed a flicker of light to their side. They turned their heads and saw a tall figure in dark clothing and a cape, standing just a few paces away. His back was facing the sun, making it difficult to see his face. In his right hand, he held what appeared to be a blade that was emitting a red glow. Surprised at how this man had managed to get this close to them undetected, Squall asked, "Who are you?", temporarily forgetting about Magus.
The dark figure didn't respond. He raised his blade and started walking slowly toward them. Squall and Magus both turned to fight this new threat. Suddenly, a burst of flame hit Magus from behind, knocking him to the ground. Squall turned to look behind him and saw what appeared to be a hulking reptile-like beast, breathing fire from his mouth. Unfortunately, that distraction gave the dark figure a chance to rush forward, swinging his glowing blade toward Squall. Squall turned and reacted just in time, bringing his gunblade up to deflect the blow...only to see the blade cut right through his weapon and continue through his body as his eyes widened in pain and shock.
Magus had been hurt badly by the blast of fire from the beast, but got to his feet and leapt into the air, intending to land on top of a nearby boulder where he could regroup and come up with a plan to fight his attackers. As he was landing atop the rock, a burst of magic sent him flying. He landed with a thud on the ground nearby. As he lost consciousness, he looked to his side and saw the man in the dark cape join the beast and a number of other figures he couldn't make out. The group turned away from him and started heading down the mountain toward the town...
---
Elsewhere...
"
Ultros!
" cursed Zidane. "She went out with
Ultros!
"
"It must be a mistake," said Jihl, as the two of them walked along the bank of the Lete River.
"No, it isn't," responded Zidane, shaking his head. "And the most distressing part of it is, not that she went out with him, but that
he
stopped seeing
her
. Do you understand? He, Ultros.
Ultros
stopped seeing
her
. Ultros never stopped seeing anybody. Ultros will see whoever is willing to see him. So the question then is, not so much
why
she did see him, as disturbing as that is, but why did
he
, Ultros, stop seeing her?"
Jihl paused briefly, glancing toward the sky with a thoughtful expression. Perhaps there's...more to Ultros than meets the eye."
Zidane turned toward her with a disgusted look on his face and said sternly, "No. There's less."
[/Seinfeld Mafia]
As the two of them turned their eyes back toward the path, they suddenly found themselves no more than a few steps away from a figure cloaked in dark blue, who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.
Surprised by the sudden appearance of this figure, Zidane and Jihl stood silent for a few seconds. Finally, the figure spoke: "Is this the way to Narshe?" The voice was that of a young woman. She lifted her head slightly when she spoke, revealing long, blonde hair underneath the cloak, and deep blue eyes. Despite the cloak, they could tell she was very beautiful.
Zidane was the first to recover from his surprise and said, "Uh...yeah, just back the way we came," pointing behind him. He looked down at his feet and scratched his head, his tail flicking out to the side. "So, are you new to these parts? I can take you on an airship ride sometime to show you some sights," he said with a grin. Jihl rolled her eyes.
"That won't be necessary," said the woman. Suddenly, she pulled a jeweled staff out from under her cloak and pointed it at them. A blast of fire shot out from the top of the staff, hitting Jihl square in the midsection and blasting her into the river. Zidane flipped back out of the way and quickly drew his dagger, prepared to fight. The woman pointed her staff at him as another fireball shot outward. Zidane leapt to his right to avoid the blast.
As he prepared to spring forward to attack, he heard a loud BANG! The dagger he was holding in his right hand was blown out of his grip and landed to his side. He turned toward where the sound had come from and saw a young woman standing on top of a large rock, holding a small gun in her hand. She was wearing a frilly dress and had a large bow in her hair. A thin wisp of smoke was trailing out of the barrel of her gun. Zidane gritted his teeth, knowing that he was in trouble.
Both women started walking toward him, their weapons drawn, backing him toward the edge of the river. "What do you want?" asked Zidane. Suddenly, he felt himself being lifted in the air by his tail. "Wha...?" he exclaimed. Another woman had snuck up behind him and was lifting him
with one hand
. She was oddly dressed and had long blue hair, a blank expression on her face. With casual indifference, she spun around and flung him into the air with far more strength than any normal person could possibly possess. The cloaked woman shot another fireball, hitting Zidane in midair, before he landed in the river.
As Jihl and Zidane's bodies floated away, the cloaked woman looked up the path toward Narshe...
---
Sample VT role PM wrote:You are
Jihl Nabaat
(Vanilla Townie)
from
Final Fantasy XIII
.
You are aligned with the
.
None
- You have only your voice and your vote.
You win when all threats to the town have been eliminated and at least one town player is alive, or when nothing can prevent the same.
Game thread is
here. Please confirm via PM.
