World Tree MUSH

 Another call for mecenaries in Ivalice. Really, it's a near-constant these days. But it's a particlarly grim duty on ask: guard a fort that's undermanned and housing a group of criminals. The fact that these are rebels and soon to be executed is not spelled out to the hirees, but there /is/ this depression hovering about the small fort. 

 But the Order of the Northern Sky pays well, and are an honorable knightly outfit by reputation. Surely these criminals deserve it! 

 The fort itself looks recently built, a mixture of stone and wood lacking the height and design of more permanent places. This is little more than a walled camp. Northern Sky knights guard the small building that houses the prisoners as night falls. There's a few tents where other attendants and sleeping knights lay. 

 Those hired are variably ordered to patrol the walls, and occasionally across the front gate. It's been a long, boring patrol. Despite the worry of an attack by rebels? Nothing. 

 As night falls, a trio of darkly robed figures emerge from the road, waiting. Claudia awaits those set to join her tonight, as well as the inside man she's had bribed. They're down a hill, binoculars up, using what little light there is to eye the defenses!

A fortification that's not entirely up to constructional snuff yet. An attack you know is coming, but not necessarily when or how.

It almost feels like home. Okay not really, but it's a similar situation for the Red Flash. Mercenary work no one else wants to do. Also familiar.

He doesn't say much as usual, just enough to get the men on the walls to decently organize. Know your range, and position so you overlap. Watch the flanks of those next to you. It's not dissimilar to getting the watchtowers back home prepped.

The armadillo himself was patrolling/pacing near the gates. Not out of nerves, per say. But knowing an attack was likely but not having any of the forwarnings he's accustomed to has the Ranger a bit more on edge than usual. He's use to defenses being organized and then taking the fight pre-emptively to the field, not waiting for it to come to him.

    With Claudia is a tall man with short blonde hair. He wares a black leather overcoat, with visible pirate heraldry...he's not badly dressed, just dressed for someone who lives the life of a fighter and a criminal. The dark gaze falls on the fort itself, and then back to his employer. 

    "It's not going to be easy getting in or out. Unless you know a back way in. If you do...then it seems like a good idea to have one team engage them where they are expecting, and a second team to get in while they are distracted and extract your men. It's a risky gambit." Eizen says, taking a coin out of his pocket, and flipping it once. Making a face as he see's the result...the same result as always. Placing it back into his pocket, he speaks. 

    "Luck won't be on our side. Like I said, you travel with the reaper."

 Luckily the Knights manning the walls are competent sorts. It's a general assorting of archers, squires, and a proper Knight or two that's a little too old to be on the front lines. The young, the old, the wounded of a skeleton crew to keep prisoners in place. 

 And as soon as the odd looking off-worlder shows his competence, the commander of the fort sets to beside him, both to ensure no one thinks he's a goblin and to make sure the orders aren't scoffed at. 

 ~Hills Near Back Gate~ 

 Eizen gets a grin. "Now, I think you've the right of it, my good friend! Old Claudia here has it all settled!" Wink. 

 "Just wait for the signal, and then we make tracks for the gate, nice and easy. Distraction on two fronts is a good idea for something like this, don't you agree, Mister Reaper? Ajora says we aught make our own luck!" She tries to smack Eizen on the back companionably. 

 ~Front Gates~ 

 Torches light up suddenly, and out of the darkness of the roads beyond? Chocobos charge for the main gates. Archers, and black mages mostly, with a pair of dragoons in front. Their equipment's tattered. Brigade members? Raiding deserters? Hard to tell. But it doesn't matter as Dillon would find himself in the direct way of oncoming cavalry, and falling Ice 1 spells! 

 ~Back Gates~ 

 Suddenly, the locked back gate thuds open. A young squire nervously peeks back as he opens up the back way in. Then a tossed little sphere at a wall, and...WOOSH! 

 The wall farthest away from the guarded prison house is suddenly on fire. Screams and chaos follow. One of the knights spy the traitorous squire. Off with his head. 

 Claudia chuckles. "Shall we then?"

Dillon gives the commander a brief nod as he walks up. "Done good with what you've had to work with." It's a compliment, despite the gruff nature of his voice. Not that he gets time to say much more as lights are spotted in the distance. Head turns in that direction and spots the forces coming out of the shadows down the road. A head on attack? Brave.. or something else. Little chance to mull on it as they're already flinging spells too.

"Huh." Dillon dives as the first ice spell comes crashing down. It's not just a dodge, as he hits the ground rolling up as armadillos do. Only to spin in place for a few seconds and take off like most normally armadillos don't do. It's not hard to see how he got the nickname of 'The Red Flash' as even at high speed the barreling red and tan ball of armor has enough control to veer aside the spells and make a beeline for the lead calvary like some kind of living bowling ball and those chocobos would make a mighty fine set of ten pins!

    Eizen gets a slap on the back. He moves very little, and feels like he was a rock or something. However, a smirk crosses the face of the Reaper. 

    "Well, that's the spirit." he says, and it appears that preperations were already done. As fire spreads, and a force appears at the front gates, it appears that the two part distraction was perfect for the extraction...provided they were fast enough to escape before the fire spread too far and killed or choked their targets to death. 

    "Lead the way." Eizen says with a wry grin. The Reaper will start following once she starts walking. Of course, he gives a second look towards that wall...just in case part of it decided to fall down at them, or the fire spreads at an alarming rate.

 ~Front Gate~ 

 Dillon's rolling charge is...well, /new/. So much so that the chocobos kweh in terror and the armadillo arrests their charge! A bit like pinballs, birds and riders go flying. The dragoons get away, only to be peppered by the wall archers' shots. A few mages are tossed too, that quickly rethink their strategy. One teleports away. 

 Dillon and the gate guards at the front are handling stopping that charge, but soon enough, shouts of 'Fire' and 'Traitors'! Ring out through the fort. The few remaining mages are picking themselves up, concentrating on making a wall of flame for Dillon and the guards to contend with. 

 ~Back Gate~ 

 Claudia is up, pretty quick given her size. "Right you are!" Adds Claudia enthusiastically, and she abandons most attempts at stealth for a flat run. She slow down at the back gates, using her cloak to avoid breathing in too much smoke. Eizen and Claudia have a nice, straight shot to the Guardhouse. Only one of the knights isn't on fire suppression duty now. But an archer on the wall gets lucky. She's already aiming, and the second knight advancing! 

 Twang! Goes the archer's crossbow, missing Claudia by an inch. A wink to the Reaper, and then to the Knight. With this much chaos, only two opponents is good! Fist rising, glowing with holy energy, she smashes the ground! A column of chi rips it's way up the wall and into the Archer's face, who rolls off the battlement to the ground. She's alive, but dazed and severely wounded.

As birds and riders go scattering Dillon spins around and drops his claws into the ground as he unrolls and uses them like brakes to stop. Then pushes himself up to stand, absently adjusting his hat so it's not hanging in his face as it sometimes does after a charge. One guy teleports away while the others are for the moment in disarray.

"Shoulda followed his example." Does that count as witty? The snappy one-liners is still something he's working on. Point is, they're shooting at the wall much like Gungrocks would. So he's going to deal with them the same way he does said Gungrocks.

For a passing moment his stance is almost identical to the one in almost every western showdown ever. Legs apart, arms aside from his body, eyes narrowed beneath the hat brim like sizing up a target.

Just that when he reachs for his belt instead of drawing a gun he pulls, of all things, a lump of crystal out of the pouch. He gives it a brief but thorough shake, and then flings it towards the mages.

The crystal goes bouncing and rolling near their feet, glowing brightly for a few seconds before exploding.

    Eizen is already moving forward as the arrow is shot. Luckily Claudia is better at not dying than many people he has been with over the years. That works to his favor as he closes the distance to the one knight not on fire suppression duty. He moves in, aiming to dodge the sword strike and instead of drawing his own weapon, a object on his upper arm falls to his lower arm. There is a flash of his own fists, as a yellow energy surrounds them aiming to punch him right in the gut. 

    The force of the blow is mightly, just like any sword or weapon strike, with the force of the very earth that they were both on, for that brief moment it was like being struck by adamantine. The force behind it easily enough to knock someone on their back, if not outright out from the force of that blow directed right onto it's gut. 

    "Lets keep moving."

    Mercenary work didn't really seem to be the thing to do at first. Indeed, Terra still feels a little weird doing something like this for money but if others are going to put themselves in harm's way for her sake then dammit she's going to return the favor!

    So, here she is. The guards are nice enough even if her odd demeanor might put the soldiers off. They don't seem to judge based on appearance so much so that's nice, right?

    Then things are very suddenly not so nice. There's fire, there's shouts of alarm and Terra is alert and sprinting toward the flames along the wall. Several meters ahead, an unfortunate archer lets loose at something just out of her line of sight and then the devastating return draws a line for her toward the trouble. She draws her weapon and with her free hand begins to channel the first of several spells she's likely to use tonight; a quick blast of healing to hopefully stabilize that fallen companion as she continues to try and close the gap. 

    She was warned there'd likely be trouble, right? Still, so much for a quiet night of contemplation.

~Back Gate~ 

 Terra's spell is effective! The healing blast gets the archer on her feet, who smartly drags herself away from the initial fall. She finds herself a crate to hide behind where fire isn't happening, and downs a potion! Yup, she's cowering a bit now. 

 Eizen meanwhile meets the knight head on, and with a flash of his fists, the knight's armor shatters! Sent back flying, he lands in a heap. Yup, out right cold! Still breathing at least thanks to the armor. Claudia scowls. Deeper in the fort, people are starting to get their act together. 

 "Healer! Stick the mage if you have to! I'm makin' us an entrance, Mister Reaper!" Claudia then shoulder checks the prison house's door right off it's hinges. There's no one inside, other than their targets of course. Pardon her while she deals with breaking metal and generally starting to get the prisoners free. Sadly no key! Fists will work. 

 ~Front Gate~ 

 "Father take you, monster!" Yells one of the few mages left with a chocobo. This quickly ends up being /not/ the case as Dillon neatly chucks that crystal at the feet of the man. Blink. "What in..." 

 KABOOM! One less black mage in the world. 

 The frontal assault is fading away now, in a full rout. There's still fire to put out, and sounds of chaos still. Something might not be right!

    Eizen looks up the healer spotted. Makes no difference...green haired girl, or hardened soldier...in the field of battle there isn't any room between who is friend or foe besides what side of the fight you are on. 

    His wrist with the strange object over it comes up, as something starts to channel around him. Those attuned to the elements could feel it, Eizen both casts magic, but it is also as if it were a natural part of his body. He pushes a hand forward, summoning the elements... 

    Disks of wind appear, green and flat as they aim to fly into the flames. The intent behind the spell was not to aid the putting out of the flames, but instead put enough wind into them to SPREAD them farther out and attempt to scatter it along the entire side of that wall. They were losing one force, so Eizen would improvise. 

    "I got this. Get your people and I'll buy you some time. Don't think about leaving without me either." he says, and starts walking calmly through the flames towards the other side. 

    He doesn't make a speach, or overly dramatic introduces himself. He simply waits for the soldiers or the others to stop him...before he makes this fire spread even more.

That was... too easy. Sure, some of it could be chalked up to Dillon being an unfamiliar opponent to them, with unusual tactics. Something about it still doesn't sit right with Dillon about it, especially when things still sound hectic.. from inside?

With a huff Dillon runs back towards the gates. But as he does so he reachs into another belt pouch, this time pulling out a glimmering blue crystal, which he tosses at some of the fire as he's running by.

This one explodes not in a bang per say, but in a burst of frost and ice not unlike the spells earlier. Fire and ice doen't get along very well, and while it might not put it out as well as water would maybe it can cool things off while he tries to find out what else is going on.

    One small victory. Terra can't help but feel the tiniest bit of elation when the archer gets up and runs for better cover. She catches a glimpse of Claudia, though the smoke and flames make it hard to tell exactly who that was smashing into that door below.

    Eizen's display both against the knight and in blasting the flames into renewed vigor is where her attention falls. Something in her rouses from the feel of magic being hurled and she squints against the smoke. Eizen isn't exactly easy to pick out, so before she leaps from the wall she covers the lower part of her face with part of her cloak and leaps! She touches down almost too lightly and though she's likely cut off from the intruder's true objective she'll do what she can. Her face set, only her eyes uncertain, she strides forward.

    "Please stop this! I don't want to fight." One hand grips her sword in a ready position while her other hand cradles a swirling sphere of fire. Well. She may be giving up the initiative but she has to /try/ talking first right?

 Apparently the knights here don't have a geomancer on site, else Eizen would probably be SOL on this trick. It's working though! Flame spreads quickly, and Claudia peeks out of the guard house with a smile as she tosses aside a piece of prison bar. 

 "On it, my lad! You keep doing your geomancer thing!" She offers, cheery as you please. There's more sounds of punching, metal tearing, and cheers of joy from within the gatehouse. 

 A pair of grubby clad Corpse Brigade members walk out of the place, huddling under tattered robes. One grabs the fallen knight's sword as they hurry for that open gate where Claudia told them to book it for. They're tired and scared, though, a little dazed from imprisonment. ANd there's more prisoners to free. 

 Dillon's frost-crystal does a number on the main flames, arresting some of their movement...until Eizen's actions have that ice slowly melting. Perhaps Eizen is the true threat here, as Terra seems to figure out! 

 Dillon might just catch those fleeing, ragged prisoners too off in the distance. A jailbreak, not an assault!

    Eizen's eyes focus on Terra as she comes, sword in one hand, fire in the other...while saying she does not want to fight. 

    "Then don't fight." Eizen says, taking a step towards her. "However, if you don't want to fight, then you've made a poor choice in being here, and being in the way of the Reaper. Your choices are your own, and they brought you here, just as they brought me here." he continues before another arte is used... 

    Eizen goes from being far away, to being rather close to Terra, with a single spell, he crosses the distance between the two and is RIGHT THERE, his fist moves, aiming to try and smash right into her chest like the last man he punched, aiming to try and make the fight mercifully quick...if possible. 

    "Don't disrespect my choices because you can't put your own hands on your own wheel." he says, cooly, looking to see if others were focused on the fire, or aiming to surround him.

Chaos inside, and more men fleeing. Or more like escaping. Is that--

Dillon stops for a moment as the realization of putting 2 and 2 together hits him. He knew that frontal attack felt off, it was a very dangerous front for a much more sinister sneak attack to free whoever it was the knights were holding. One of the other mercenaries is dealing with the culprit though, or at least readying an attempt to.

It's okay, Dillon is faster anyways. The Ranger wheels around and takes off after the fleeing prisons, running a few strides to get going before lunging once more into his rolling rush in an effort to catch up to them and get to the bottom of this.

    Prisoners escaping? Of course. Terra grimaces while she stands before the enemy, eyes moving away from Eizen. She can't really move to stop the escapees, even she knows that, yet she still watches them for entirely too long.

    "What? You're releasing people imprisoned for a reason! I-" Then she's cut off.

    That gap is closed so fast that the only warning she gets is the tingle of magic being slung. Her sword comes up in a mechanical, well practiced fashion and the blow crashes against the hilt. While it stops the attack from felling her outright, she's still struck and slides back several feet. "Nngh!"

    The glowing, curved blade falls from her nerveless fingers and she hugs that arm against her body. Her free hand whips to the side, spreading a roaring curtain of fire toward Eizen! Even if it only keeps him at bay for a moment so she can fix her hand and defend herself, it will hopefully be enough! Right?!

    Right? It seems those words, though, make her hesitate. Hands on her own wheel? Seems she's likely to lose the initiative again at this rate.

 Dillon is swift indeed, and would find himself catching up to the pair of prisoners quickly! One of them turns around, though, noticing the rushing ball of /something/! Arcane words spill from the beraggled woman's mouth. The warrior beside her pulls her along, trying to keep as non-linear a path as he can to make the charging Dillon's job that much harder! 

 Then a grey clock forms near Dillon, trying to Slow his roll to a crawl! 

 Finally though, the side of the Guard House smashes open. Claudia walks out, being trailed by four more ragged figures. 

 "There we are! Off we go then, step lively me lads and lasses! Bunch of bluebloods and their moneyed ilk lik to stick the lot of us for this! I've no desire to hang, and Ajora willing you won't either!" A glance to Eizen, and then...Terra!? 

 Claudia is playing overwatch for the group!

    "Do you know the reasons?" Eizen says, cutting off her attempt to moralize at him. "Do you just accept whatever other people tell you as truth, or do you find out yourself?" He says, even as her sword and his fist clash. He shakes the numbness out of his hand...it was a good swing, though it appeared that his blow came out the victor. 

    His eye catches the fact that Claudia is moving as fast as she can, and he focuses on Terra again. He starts advancing, but she throws flames out. He covers his face with his hands, and aims to blow through them. Not unscathed, as burns surge across his body but as he comes out the other side, his hands move from over his face and lands infront of her. He moves, aiming to come low, and land a quick punch right in the center of her chest, aiming to try and knock the air out of her lungs, and trying to mercifully end this fight before it goes too far. 

    "Don't draw a blade unless you're willing to fight for your life, and with your life." he says, "And don't fight for a cause you know nothing about, lest you be used like a pawn." He speaks, evenly.

As he closes in on the fleeing prisoners Dillon leaps out of his rolling charge, one arm coming back with the motion to ready and strike with his claws.

Except that's when time comes to a crawl.

The slowing effect is enough that the swipe, intended to catch the mage's leg and knock her down, falls short as he's moving like trying to swim in quicksand. Her companion yanks her out of the way in those few moments.

And then things snap back to normal speed as the claw's miss, pitching Dillon forward off balance and tumbling into the ground on his back.

"Oof." A moment of silence as he fumbles off to one side with a paw, then sighs with relief as he finds his hat. Sits and reachs up to put it back on his head. "The hell was that?" Certainly a trick he's not familiar with.

    "No, I-" Terra manages enough of a heal to warrant a scramble for her weapon. She gets fingers wrapped around the hilt and looks up, her blast of fire parting around the man charging through it right at her. A miscalculation on someone's part!

    Turns out she's not as up for this as she thought. The second blow crashes into her body and she groans as the air heaves out of her. She falls backwards, sword tumbling once again from her fingers and sliding a bit out of reach. The fight doesn't leave her eyes though! She's still got magic!

    Then the real crushing blow lands. The lecture she might have stood a chance against. The last part sinks into her heart like a dagger and the fire leaves her hand and eyes all at once. That just leaves the matter of regaining her breath, though she almost doesn't even seem to have the heart to do that. Luckily, the body is kind enough to reject psychological states at times and force itself to survive. She makes no further attempt to get up or even make eye contact.

 The rest of the forces in the Fort by now are actually organizing a proper assault. It's a slow thing, but Eizen and Claudia both can see the dregs of the skeleton crew coming to deal with the two interlopers! Shouts about prisoners and escapees fill the place. 

 As Dillon pitches out of the way, the time mage proves her worth yet again. Another spell? And they're moving more quickly than some exhausted prisoners have any right to be. The cheeky little stick-thin mage has the gall to even stick her tongue out at the armadillo. 

 She couldn't be more than sixteen. An adult by the standard here, but woefully young in many places. Such is Ivalice. 

 Claudia is a bit more forward than that. She picks up a rock, spies the downed Dillon, and chucks it right at him. Otherwise? She's shepherding out her compatriots! 

 At least Terra...seems to be alive from Eizen's strike? Claudia isn't dead enough inside yet to wish the girl dead. No doubt she's another victim of these bluebloods! 

 "Oi, Mister Reaper! How about we leave? Got our wayward souls! As much as I love blue blood laid out on a field, no need to stick a few mercenaries when they're down, eh? Owe you a drink my friend!" There's no humor in her tone, that oncoming reinforcements worries her. She urges the prisoners along!

    Eizen's head looks up...well, it seems that things were wrapping up. 

    "I'd suggest getting away from the fire. You can't change anything being dead." He offers one last bit of advice, before he once more uses that Arte. Spirits of wind and earth aid him from moving from his current postion, to near Claudia. 

    "She wasn't part of the contract. Anyway, we got what we came here for, you don't have to tell me twice." he says, and starts pulling out. The show down between Eizen and Armadillion will happen another day.

Well, that didn't go so well. Though now Dillon is wondering why a kid would be in this mess... Granted he wasn't exactly the upright outstanding sort in his youth either, but this feels... awkward for some reason.

He gets to his feet... Only to get a rock to back of the head. Fortunately his natural armor does go all the way up his neck and head, so the rock is at most rubbing salt in the cuts.

Also the other hired fighter is down, and the fort is still dealing with the fire and such. That's more important than trying to chase down some scrabbling crooks or whatever they were prisoners for. He best go back and see if anything can be done about that first.

    It takes a while for Terra to get it together. Even after Eizen is out of sight it's hard to push aside his words. She moves slowly, recovers her weapon and makes her way over to the knight that was felled by the man's blows. Even as she heals the fellow, she'll no doubt look shaken. Easy to mistake for fear, perhaps!

    The look she offers to Dillon upon is return isn't reassuring but she at least tries to smile. "Sorry. You were counting on me and I couldn't stop them." Barely slowed them down, really.

Dillon takes his hat off for a moment and gives it a swat against the other palm to clean the dirt off. "Tryin's better than not at all." The hat is returned to his head and straightened out. "Shoulda realized it was a double wammy comin'."

 And thus, Claudia and Eizen are gone with the Brigade members in tow. Fire, chaos, and death left behind, the fort's walls are singed and frozen. It's purpose not quite ended, but this will be a sore spot for the Order of the Northern Sky. 

 The Commander finally rolls in, sighing. Glaring out at the shadows fleeing, he turns to the pair of mercenaries. 

 "By the Father...can't ever predict these damn rebels! Come on you two. Let's get everyone healed." Well, at least it sounds like the two will get paid and healed.