psychoshenanigans | GRATIA // PSL

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GRATIA // PSL

So, here's what Irahl knows.

He's alone in a dark, cold cave. He has most, if not all, of his gear. No one is guarding his location. As he heads away from the spot where he came to consciousness, no one tries to stop him, and no one gets in his way. The few people he finds down there seem human, and not about to approach the nearly-seven-foot man that comes stalking out of the lower tunnels. Honestly, everyone here seems a surprised and a little astonished about his... Entire scene.

There is a way up. It's a maze of twisting corridors and confusing passageways, half of which feel too small for him. It's bigger and bigger groups of people, some of which scatter like schools of fish, and some of which have to be pushed through to get anywhere. It's climbing up into streets lit with dingy lights, graffiti-covered hallways, warehouses, weird holes in stone walls that may or may not be windows. It's alarm bells, it's people yelling at each other down the street. It's just an absurd number of stairs. A couple of people make an attempt to stop him somewhere, and it goes poorly for them.

Elsewhere, events are being set in motion where Irahl cannot see. But he's on his way out.

Eventually, more people try to stop him. At the end of another long stretch of Underground city, a group of official-looking folks are putting a real effort into blocking off the obvious exit, and some of them have weapons.

Down a side alley, into another tunnel, and then the space opens up into a... Plaza, of some sort? The floor is made of stone. The buildings surrounding it are made of stone and are hard to distinguish from one another. At at least the ceiling (also made of stone) is a lot higher than before. Cavernous. There's some kind of sculpture in the middle of it, some impressive feat of geometric stonework that gives the illusion of defying gravity despite weighing literal tons.

This is where someone finally catches him. Sounds have been echoing unhelpfully down every passageway, making it hard to tell if people are coming or going - but this series of quick footsteps comes from an upward direction before someone hits the ground about five feet in front of Irahl.

His clothes are different. His hair is better-kept. Maybe if the situation wasn't quite so tense, there'd be time to see the ways in which his face is different, the way his eyes don't have quite as vicious and sharp a gleam as they used to. But whatever Irahl can take in of him, there is Robin, having hopped down from a rooftop to put himself between him and the exit again.

"...Holy shit."

Kind of weird that he looks absolutely shocked to see the person in front of him, though.

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Nikaro stays high, and hops from rooftop to rooftop when they can, clambering over buildings with as much stealth as they can muster given all the guns they're carrying. They try to stick close enough to the edge of the roof to at least be visible to their lone remaining teammate, but their attention is mostly on watching and listening for the guy they know is probably stalking them right now.

Minutes crawl on with no sight of the man. When nearly twenty have gone by, Nikaro takes a chance on one of those wild ideas of theirs. They bring up Rohen's radio, hit the call button, and start talking into it in the hopes that Seth might still have his channel open.

"C'mon man, why don't you just give up now?"

Startlingly, Irahl hears this coming from the rooftop across the street from him... But also tinny and delayed by about half a second in the room directly in front of him. It turns out that Seth didn't turn his radio off, but it also turns out he's got a great view of Nikaro from where he's crouching underneath a window.

He opens fire and absolutely coats the top edge of the opposite building in paint. Nikaro disappears from sight pretty quickly, but surely something from all that hit them.

It's a good thing that Irahl's reaction to being startled (as long as the offender isn't close enough to be grabbed by the throat) is to go even more still and calm, as the presence of a previously completely-unnoticed enemy lights up suddenly and dramatically in the next room over.

In that moment of surprise, he very clearly sees the options presented before him. He could go the stealthy route and line up a shot with his rifle from the doorway, which would normally be his preference, but the fact that he would have to set aside a massive shield in order to do so presents a huge risk of being heard. He has too much respect for the other man to assume that plan would work, especially as all Seth would have to do is pivot a little to obliterate Irahl with even a loosely-aimed shotgun blast. He could also rush in while firing around the shield with his sidearm. That could end up going very quickly in his favor, but it would rely on Seth somehow not adapting to the sound of Irahl rushing in enough to hit whatever isn't protected by the shield. Again, a shotgun makes things convenient for Seth, and Irahl would still be spending milliseconds on finding Seth in the room and taking aim. He would have to get very lucky. There's also the option of just blindly chucking a grenade into the room and hoping that he's as lucky as Nikaro had been, but if that doesn't work perfectly, it gives Seth a whole lot of warning and whole moments to react while Irahl sets up his next move.

Which only leaves one other option.

Irahl does in fact charge into the room. However, he has no weapon drawn. Aside from taking a moment to hit a bunch of little buttons on a fistful of little darts, Irahl runs in with nothing but shield, directly at wherever he spots his enemy to be.

And once he does spot him, he doesn't plan on stopping until he slams into him. Then the handful of armed proximity darts will be flung from behind the shield. He's hoping that all of that will be enough of a distraction to allow him the second he'll need to draw his sidearm and start shooting.

Seth has seen a lot of things. Seth has survived a lot of things. In his relatively long line of service, this can't he the first time this has happened to him. But it's definitely the first time this has happened to him in a while.

He adjusts very quickly, darting away much faster than a normal person's reflexes would allow--but the thing is that he's just as surprised to see Irahl (or rather the large shield barreling towards him with Irahl behind it) as Irahl was to hear him, and so his reaction is just a split-second too slow.

The shield makes contact with his shoulder with enough force to knock him off-track. A bunch of proximity darts are flung too close for comfort, but with this very bad angle and sudden lack of space, Irahl's able to shoot him with his pistol before Seth is able to angle his gun up and around the damn shield to to the same.

He kicks the shield (and Irahl) away from him pretty forcefully, but doesn't pursue. He's already looking down at the mark on his coat and frowning.

As soon as there's been even a few seconds of silence, Nikaro calls out from the roof across the street.

"...Didja get him...?"

Edited 2024-10-30 02:34 (UTC)

Irahl grunts as he's knocked back, catching himself after stumbling a little, but he doesn't relax until he's absolutely damn sure that he did in fact inflict a successful kill-shot. And then, he doesn't come out from behind the shield for a few more seconds.

Because, as Nikaro calls out from the rooftop across the way, they're answered by the sound of a bunch of little proximity mines popping off.

After that, Irahl will finally straighten up and move the shield off to the side.

Luckily, his mask is hiding the pleased little smile on his face.

"Good game."

Seth does not scamper to get out of the way of the proximity mine blasts as he should. He would rather get paint on his shoes than look like a fool moving out of the way of something relatively harmless. But that doesn't mean he needs to look pleased about the paint on his shoes.

Instead of responding right away, he brings his radio up to his mouth.

"Call it," he orders, before turning the thing completely off. With that business taken care of he finally address what just happened with any amount of grace.

"Creative," he says, completely devoid of mirth aside from whatever's implied by the fact that he's still standing here and bothering to say anything at all, "Good to see."

Irahl has gathered enough about his new boss's personality to appreciate the unnecessary comment. So, he gives one in return.

"Anything less would have failed."

With an entire conversational exchange now completed between them, and the game over, Irahl wastes no more time. He holsters his weapon, picks up Rohen's shield again, and turns to head out of the building.

However the rest of the day goes, he'll tally it up as a success after this win.

Seth also wastes no time and has no further comments. He shares Irahl's sentiment that there's nothing more that really needs to be said.

Eventually the paint-splattered teams regroup and divide up for a second round. Irahl gets shuffled over to a team with Seth and Rohen, while Jandru gets traded over to work with Finn and Nikaro. The rules are the same, but the game plays out much differently.

Rohen, for her part, is eager to redeem herself after last round's embarrassing defeat. For as unfalteringly upbeat as she is, she takes orders well and stays focused on the task at hand. Seth is naturally very reserved and almost makes Irahl look chatty by comparison--but when he does speak, it's decisive and gets something done.

They agree to use their strong defense to their advantage. Rohen will try to draw out the other team on the ground, while Seth will keep the other team from getting up to Irahl's roost. At the top of the building, Irahl can snipe at anyone Rohen draws out--and between the two of them, they can hopefully pick off the whole team.

The first one to go down is Finn, who Rohen spots and shoots before he can quite get past Rohen's defenses. Nikaro had planned on taking a similar approach to Irahl--but quickly realizes they're going to be out-sniped if they don't take some bold action to dismantle the other team's tower position. They lead Jandru to where they know Irahl is hiding, abandoning the thought of taking out Rohen entirely.

Nikaro quickly gets tangled up with Seth, which is a game they don't have a real hope of winning, but can at least keep at a stalemate long enough for Jandru to slip past them. Irahl takes advantage of the chaos and takes out Nikaro in the midst of their fight. That's when Jandru gets a little payback and shoots Irahl in the shoulder.

Their victory is short-lived, partly because Irahl's automatic reaction is to shoot them back. Shocked and offended, they can't even tell him off properly before Seth catches them in his shotgun blast and effectively ends the game.

Exhausted, dirty, and now very sweaty, everyone returns to the vehicles to hose off and drop off their paintball equipment. Then, as Nikaro had stated earlier, they break for lunch.

Instead of someone breaking out a cooler of food, they all pile back into their vehicles and follow Nikaro out into the dunes in the direction of the Capitol. Around the halfway point, they're intercepted by a semi-armored mobile food truck, which quickly breaks out an entire operation of tent covers, tables, and grilled foodstuffs for them to partake of.

Despite the fact that they just spent a couple hours trying to kill each other, everyone seems to be in good spirits. Many people recount what happened from their perspective, for the benefit of their teammates who weren't around to see.

"I was so surprised," Rohen explains, pausing halfway through what is essentially a cactus burger, "It happened so fast, I think I shot the grenade before I even realized it wasn't someone's hand. Oh--"

Rohen turns, a big grin on their face, to look towards Irahl, "And how was my shield? Did it help?"

Irahl is hungry for the second day in a row, which is a pleasant change from the norm. It's nice to be expending enough energy to need to refill it, even if part of that drain might be coming from how absolutely elementally opposite his surroundings are.

So, he is zoned-out and methodically devouring his way through cactus burger number three when he belatedly realizes that he's being spoken to. He pauses to wipe off his gloveless hands and take a gulp of water, (which he finds strangely wonderful in this climate,) before he answers.

"Great battering ram." And then, to Finn, whether they're paying attention or not. "Mines were fun too." He makes a little motion of his hand to imply the underhand toss he'd delivered the mines to Seth with.

Look at that, he's in such a good mood that he's deigning to participate in workplace banter. He's practically chatty compared to the unfriendliness of this morning.

Rohen seems pleased to hear it, and Nikaro chuckles from a table over, barely heard to remark towards Seth, "So that's what happened..."

Seth does not deign to respond, of course. He's found a way to avoid participating by leaning against a counter instead of sitting or eating--he's busy idly observing his teammates or appearing deep in thought when no one's actively trying to bother him. This must be pretty normal behavior from him, because no one seems bothered or offended that he's not joining them for lunch.

At the same time, Finn--who chose to situate himself at whatever corner of the table would be considered the least-obtrusive diagonal to Irahl--laughs in response to Irahl's mimed tossing of explosives. He's taken off his own gloves to eat as well, which reveals his very weird hands. He's got one-too-many joints and fingers that end in nubby folds of skin, which in turn house a set of dulled, curved claws. He can retract them, but it involves bending the tips of his fingers backwards in a freaky hypermobile way that isn't super-great to look at. It's honestly easier for him to just leave the claws out.

But that reveal was a while ago. He's been doing his best to not look at Irahl's claws, and he assumes that Irahl's probably doing the same thing to him. The situation is almost starting to feel normal when he answers.

"Glad to hear something of mine was a help. You should see the real ones--they probably would have blown a hole in the floor."

"Oh, speaking of that," Nikaro pipes up again, turning so that they're mostly facing the whole team, "We wanna debrief? Rohen, let's start with you."

As Rohen suddenly has to hurry to finish her bite of burger, Nikaro turns to clarify what's going on in Irahl's direction specifically.

"Since you're a guest today, I won't make you participate... But you're welcome to pitch in if you're feeling inspired."

Pitch in to what is a question that gets answered pretty quickly. The group begins a... Casual, yet constructive review of each other's performances in the paintball game. Rohen starts by summarizing how she did from her own point of view, expressing her honest disappointment in how she was taken out in the first round, as well as admitting that she felt a little lost without a clear target to defend. The second round went much better, in her opinion, since her objective was clear.

Then, everyone who interacted with her provides additional feedback. A couple of compliments, a couple of points she could improve on... Nikaro doesn't bother to soften their criticism as they question her choice to wedge herself into a corner, but they also go out of their way to point out how much quieter she was compared to last time, and that they can tell she's been practicing. Jandru, always the problem-solver, asks a couple of questions of Rohen and the group at large to see how they might help her get a clear understanding of her role in the fight for next time. Rohen absorbs all of it appreciatively, clearly working to commit these comments to memory.

From there, it moves to the next person and it follows the same pattern. Jandru leads by confessing they need way more sleep, which gets a chuckle and an "I told you so," from Nikaro. Finn sighs about being the first one out with zero kills in either round, but the group takes some time to dig into what went wrong and which tactics might better suit his strengths. Not even Nikaro is exempt--at first they start joking that they did everything right, but Rohen of all people smiles and tells them, point-blank, that their cover work was sloppy. Nikaro gets in maybe half an objection before Jandru flatly accuses them of abandoning their post the moment they got bored in the second round.

"Hey, hey--" They laugh, pretending to be offend but clearly enjoying the sudden turnabout, "So I wasn't being as careful as I could have been. I did a very cool thing with a grenade, though. Does anyone want to talk about that?"

"Your radio stunt was stupid," Seth states from behind them.

"All right, I see I'm outnumbered here..." Nikaro shrugs and gives up the bit, finally offering up their real feelings on how things went. It's surprisingly critical, and they admit that it's hard to focus on what's in front of them when they know Seth is stalking around on the field somewhere. This gets a couple nods of agreement from around the tables, since this is definitely a shared sentiment among the group.

Nikaro also takes a moment to extrapolate on why their radio stunt was stupid--since it worked, but it only worked because of extremely lucky circumstances. If things hadn't happened to line up the way they did, the only thing they would have accomplished was giving away their own position. Those with feedback then give it much more constructively, and Nikaro takes it all with grace and patience.

Irahl has never been one to take comfort in others with similar circumstances to his own. However, with how excessively human everything has been in this bizarre pair of cities, he now finds that a corner of his attention keeps drifting to the set of claws partially in his eyeline across the table. Whatever part of his brain is responsible for this, it feels slightly more like curiosity than loathing, which is an discomforting experience.

So, he's glad when the conversation around him becomes more actively interesting than only passively so. He'd been observing and absorbing the group dynamic all along, but this 'debriefing' session gives him a much more direct example of how this little machine really works.

The very first thought that he has on the whole thing, is that this habit of constructive criticism between them is going to be a problem. Of course, he has plenty of opinions on their various performances himself that he could share--and he even briefly considers actually sharing them--but he has zero interest in hearing anyone else's thoughts on his own work, unless it's a specific idea or plan on how they might work together in the field.

The only opinion he would consider accepting is if Seth feels compelled to bring up something to him in private. Otherwise, as much as he does have an adequate amount of respect for each of them, and hopes that they can all work well enough as a team, he could not care less about what they think of him or his work.

It's probably a dragon thing.

To play it safe and avoid encouraging anyone to begin including him in this critique, he sticks to judging things which are not his teammates when he does finally speak up.

"The stunt shouldn't have worked at all. Your radios are bad. Why don't you use earpieces?"

Perhaps an exception can be made for Irahl when it comes to feedback. After all, Seth was in both rounds and no one's said anything about his performance.

"Wow..." Nikaro remarks, shaking their head, "No mercy. Listen, if you're willing to hand over your fancy little earpiece, I'll get it straight to R&D myself."

Nikaro probably knows Irahl's equipment list better than they know Irahl, at this point. They have a copy of it in their shop. They're acting pretty casual about it, but they've been hungry to get a look at more than just Irahl's specific sniper rounds.

Finn looks curious about whatever this 'earpiece' could be as well, but they don't ask about it. And thankfully, no one else takes any of this as a queue to start in on critiquing Irahl's work today, just as planned.

Well, that explains the 'why,' then. These people really don't have headset radios. He'd be shaking his head right now if he ever emoted that much.

Nikaro hardly finishes their sentence before Irahl is leaning down to drag his gear bag out from under the bench he's seated on. If this will speed up getting some more quality gear into the team, he's more than happy to hand it over. It's not like a radio does him any good without anyone else using one too.

Without a fuss, the sleek little device is passed across the table. He's still wearing his visor so his eyeballs don't melt in the sun, but it's at least pretty clear how the headset would hook onto it when worn.

"Incoming communications are almost silent from the outside. But if you make it scream you'll blow someone's eardrums."

So, use your powers for good, Nikaro.

"Interesting," Nikaro says in such a way as to neither commit to being good nor fully broadcast that they're interested in being bad, "I'll see what we can do."

But they pick up the earpiece and stow it away somewhere safe, in a case that won't get jostled around like the rest of their stuff.

"Is the plan still to head out to the nest next?" Jandru asks, curious about whether or not Irahl's made it far enough to come with them for the rest of the day.

"Yeah," Nikaro replies, gesturing towards their sunglasses-wearing party member, "Finn, do you want to go ahead and break out the map?"

"Oh, sure..." Finn says, ducking down to grab something out of his gear before moving over some bags of potato-like sides and breaded-meat-nuggets to make room on top of the table to roll out a hand-drawn map. It seems to be depicting some kind of canyon, with a few notable side-caverns denoted with scribbled handwriting.

As everyone else leans in to look at the map (except for Seth, of course), Finn glances up over the rim of his glasses at Irahl with those bright-green eyes of his.

"You ever had to deal with a Canyon Crawler before?"

Nikaro has every right to be as cagey as they want. And now that the warning has been given, if they ever decide to make Irahl's radio scream in his ear, he will calmly repay them with violence.

As Finn unfurls the map, Irahl momentarily appears helpful by reaching across with one long arm to slide one of those deep-fried sides out of the way, but it's mostly to have an excuse to pull them much closer to himself. Three burgers were not enough, apparently.

Having something to casually devour also has the benefit of making it easier to pretend to ignore those eyes.

"Don't know." With how weird this place is, who knows what bizarre names they have for things out here. "What are they like."

Finn may have been a weak link in combat, but combat was never his specialty, even when he was a proper member of the military. This was much closer to what he was good at. His gaze lingers on Irahl for a moment before he pushes his glasses back up, putting that barrier back between his eyes and the rest of the world.

"Segmented reptilian types. They're known to climb up vertical surfaces and smaller ones can even travel upside-down on ceilings. Size ranges dramatically between individuals and we're not sure why, but they otherwise have a fairly predictable single form from generation to generation."

They point to one of the larger caves, which has been marked with a red X for emphasis.

"At the center of the nest is the mother, so to speak, and it spawns more Crawlers about once a lunar cycle. The mother looks kind of like a giant moth and a snake got fused with a pillar of smoke."

Then they point at the back of their own neck, tapping where it connects with their head.

"That mother will naturally generate a cloaking effect that puts it somewhere between here and the Haunting, unless you're able to pull it here with enough trauma to a spot right between its head and thorax."

For a few long moments, there is no acknowledgement from Irahl, other than thoughtful chewing while he stares vaguely through the map on the table.

With a description like that, there is a lot that he could ask or comment on. It's certainly more than would fit in his usual word-limit. So, it takes him a little bit of time to think through things and choose his battles. He'll pick a couple of priorities, and save the bigger questions and criticisms about the creatures in this neck of the world for later.

"Weaponry just teeth and claws? And what are their senses like?"

Especially while he's in subpar camouflage and gear for the desert, he would love to know how likely he is to be spotted or otherwise picked up on their radar while sniping, and how much it's going to hurt when he is.

While Irahl thinks over how ridiculous the creatures in this neck of the woods are, the silence is filled with a couple of other murmured comments about the canyon, a question about elevation, as the other party members also assess the situation laid out before them.

"Claws and mandibles," Finn corrects, miming some horizontal pincers with those weird hands of theirs, "They dig through stone with those things. The mother is less-armed but has some ability to kick up winds."

Which could potentially be very challenging in a canyon, where the wind can whip things off of any perches they choose to set up in.

"Their senses are... Largely smell, not very good eyesight. If we can stay downwind, they may not pick up that there are humans around until we're within about a hundred feet of them."

Which is good information for the rest of the group, but Finn knows that there was probably more to the question than just eyesight and sense of smell. He glances briefly at Seth before saying what he's really thinking.

"As for the rest of us... They usually mistake me for one of their own. And Seth is pretty good at staying off their radar. You, I'm not so sure..."

Irahl has been very difficult to read. He shrugs, trying to appear casual, despite this being one of his least favorite topics.

"I don't think you'd be confused for a human, but I also don't think you really ping as one of them, either. Maybe they won't care about you at all, but I don't think we'll know for sure until we're down there."

Likewise, Irahl pretends that his hunching into his shoulders as he leans forward is just him shifting to get a better look at the map. It has nothing to do with the uncomfortable topic.

He doesn't particularly want to get into the details of how creatures often don't seem to notice him at all, while sometimes they detect him much more quickly than they pick up on his teammates with diluted magical blood. So, he keeps it simple.

Now that he has gotten a better glimpse of--and been disappointed by--the level of technology around here, he's going to guess that he has another piece of equipment that they don't.

"The armor helps." He taps a finger against his own chest, right where an important electronic component is imbedded in his chestplate. "Have a cloaking charge if things get bad."

And speaking of things potentially getting bad and the scarcity of specialty equipment around here, he also needs to know how he should be rationing his less-replaceable supplies, such as ammo.

"Threat level of the mother?" Because he's pretty sure that a well-placed arcana round would pull her here real quick.

Nikaro glances over when a cloaking device is brought up, since that's another item of significant interest to them, but they're not about to interrupt everything for the sake of their own curiosity. If this guy ends up joining the team, they can grill him on how all his equipment works to their heart's content.

"Cool," Finn responds, eyebrows raising slightly in surprise. He's not as familiar with Irahl's gear as Nikaro. "Good to know. I won't worry so much, then."

Not that he... Would have been worried if Irahl didn't have the cloaking device. He's under absolutely no obligation to care if Irahl thinks he's a worrier or not and he's definitely not bothered about it. Hey, look at this cool map he drew. Yeah. Let's all look at the map.

"It's a modified level three. Which is... On a scale of one to five, five being of least concern. And one being inconceivably dangerous. Normally it's a four, but if it lives past being pulled here it becomes a three."

"It's good exercise," Rohen translates, looking up at Irahl with a scarred smile, "But no one's going to die, or anything."

"...Okay, well, don't jinx it..." Finn mutters.

To all of this, Irahl gives an all-purpose sound that is half grunt and half scoff, and it covers the whole range of reacting--from Finn's 'lack' of concern, to the supposed threat level of his upcoming target, and finally to the subsequent jinxing.

No arcana rounds, he decides. It'll be more informative if their fun isn't ended early.

It seems that this concludes his round of questioning, as he settles into finishing off his snack and focusing on the map instead of further engaging with his teammates. If there's anything else important that he should know, he trusts they'll bring it up. Otherwise, he's ready to go.

There's some talk of tactics and positioning, but no one really bothers Irahl about any of that. After all, they've come this far without a sniper and there's nothing to say they're going to keep the one that they're currently borrowing. They don't exclude him, exactly, but his role in this battle feels theoretical for now.

Eventually, Nikaro calls for everyone to finish their food and pack up. A couple people grab some sides for the road. Rohen grabs two whole extra burgers, one of which she hands over to Irahl with a "here you go!" as if he'd asked her to grab him one.

Even though the group had been fairly blasé about this mission, it quickly becomes apparent that the things they're fighting are extremely dangerous. They may not be as versatile or resilient as the dragons Irahl is used to, but their nightmarish proportions don't reflect just now fast or strong these creatures are, nor how eager they are to devour any humans that cross their paths.

Like any serious operation, the team aims to end the fighting fast, and from as far a distance as possible. Finn plans to go in and do something that will briefly make the mother visible. Irahl can then take advantage of that to draw it the rest of the way out of the Haunting and into this reality, where it can be stabbed and shot and otherwise normally dispatched. Other than that, the team's hoping he can keep an eye on things from above and provide cover fire for the guys on the ground.

He'll have front row seats to a very interesting show; the monsters are fascinating in and of themselves, with their own set of behaviors and patterns to catch on to, but here Irahl is really going to get a sense of what this secret special task force can actually do when they're fighting the things they've been trained to fight.

Seth is notably absent from the skirmish. It's not that he isn't participating--there is a very specific job that he's doing while the others fight--but from an outsider's point of view, it looks an awful lot like he's just waiting at the edge of this canyon, leaning against a wall with his eyes closed while his team risks life and limb out on the battlefield.

As everyone is taking their positions, Finn takes a deep breath, walks along the canyon floor, and simply vanishes as if he'd stepped through some invisible curtain. He appears again somewhere different about a minute later, then vanishes again. His presence and the use of this ability doesn't seem to have any affect on the idling monsters whatsoever--until he shoots a crossbow bolt exactly where he'd described to Irahl. Then all the monsters care a whole hell of a lot. Especially the mother, whose irritated nerves send it momentarily rippling into existence to confront whatever's dared to disturb its nest.

And that's where the distractions come in. Nikaro isn't well-suited to the position of a patient sniper, but they are extremely well-suited to being a pain in the ass. They deliver several well-aimed and devastating shots to the mother, if Irahl isn't already taking care of it, but otherwise to the biggest and meanest-looking guys left in the bunch. They continue to take out monsters from behind the protective wall that is Rohen for as long as they can get away with it.

Rohen is a mobile defense unit all on her own. She's found the best bottleneck they could possibly take advantage of. She's littered the ground and some of the walls in front of them with proximity mines. She's got these posts she drills into the ground in front of her position, which seem like they'd be only a minor inconvenience until something tries to crawl over them and suddenly has a hydraulic spike jutting through its thorax.

If these creatures get through all that, either by wits or sheer force, they get to contend with her heavy shield and even heavier-looking mace. The smile vanishes while she's fighting. Honestly she seems to go into some kind of feverish rage while smashing these bug-like lizard monsters apart. Whatever it is, traces of magic occasionally spark from her weapon, crippling whoever makes contact with it and giving pause to the others left alive around it.

Once long range isn't really an option, Nikaro switches to their real weapon of choice, a glaive. They target everything not immediately crumpled by Rohen, making up for her lack of speed with their own quick flourishes. Unlike her, Nikaro just can't seem to keep a smirk off their face once the fighting starts.

Jandru has been told to hang back and not get too far into combat, but they creep around the edges of the fight with their pistol and pick off any monsters that somehow survived the onslaught from Nikaro and Rohen. They and Finn seem to be on similar levels of 'do your job and then get the fuck out of there', providing cover fire for each other as they pop in and out of safety.

Edited 2024-10-31 20:27 (UTC)

Irahl really could not have asked for a better show. He spends some of the beginning of the fight just watching. As much as he's feeling uncommonly energetic, (maybe it's the extra burger fueling his system thanks to Rohen,) he forces himself to shake off the morning's lighthearted game of kill-your-friends, and fall into the patience and seriousness he needs in order to work.

There's a lot to see. It has been quite some time since he has dealt with either a new team or new targets, so he takes his time in beginning to work it all into his reflexes. He needs to ultimately be able to predict the movements of his allies just as much as those of the enemy, so he's observing them just as closely. Soon, all of the participants in the battle begin to make their imprints on his instincts.

Seth is counted in this as well. Irahl isn't planning on keeping track of him, given how far outside of his general eyeline that the other man is standing, but he can't help sensing the fact that he is doing something.

Whatever it is, there is a latent, dull pressure in his head that he doesn't love to begin with, and he knows that the way it begins to ebb and flow in a noticeable way has something to do with his new employer. It's especially distracting after how clear-headed he has been lately. After making a mental note to ask Vincent about it sometime, he cranks up the volume on his music player and really gets to work.

So, after the others have found their strides and settle in, their sniper suddenly makes his presence known.

His overpowered rifle remains mostly trained on the mother, but he also visits around the battlefield to take out whatever creatures are posing the most immediate threat to his various teammates, now that he has seen how they each work. He keeps the creatures from ganging up on either of the small, stealthy ones, though he heavily prioritizes Jandru over Finn. He mostly leaves Nikaro to their fun, but he does pick off a few that seem too big or too fast for comfort when the creatures charge forward in force. He only directly helps Rohen once, when a small and agile creature decides to climb straight up the front of her shield and stick there, which gums up their mobile defensive wall. When it leans to attack her over the top of her shield, that's when the thing dramatically loses its head.

The mother truly does remain his primary target, however. It isn't the easiest thing to hit, or to even know where to hit, but this is what he's best at. Since he knows this won't be a one-hit kill, he first spends a shot or two trying to take out a wing or otherwise cripple it, which should speed things up by quite a bit.

Jandru needs the help. They're a capable marksman, but they're not an extensively-trained soldier like Nikaro, nor do they have any magical tricks like Rohen or Finn. Once or twice they find themselves in uncomfortably close range to a monster only for it to be shot down from on high a moment later.

It's not only a relief to them, but to Finn as well. He's supposed to be keeping Jandru safe so Nikaro doesn't have to split their attention, but sometimes his own attention is divided between whatever's trying to skewer him in the normal world and however he keeps phasing in and out of the Haunting. Having an extra set of eyes on everything is a huge help.

Jandru makes sure to repay the favor; once they know about where Irahl is hiding, they keep an eye on the vertical canyon wall just underneath and quickly dispatch anything that tries to sneak up on their sniper from below.

It's hard to tell if Rohen notices the help, and Nikaro's not about to take their eyes off what they're doing... But if Irahl's paying attention, he'll catch a thumbs-up from the second-in-command when one of those monsters that would have dropped on them from the ceiling simply falls in a pile on the ground next to them, dead long before the impact.

Having a grounded target makes dispatching the mother much easier. Irahl's powerful shots make quick work of its upward mobility. As if on queue, Nikaro signals for Rohen to start wading in, and they quickly push their operation forward to go dispatch their main target. There isn't a weak point, exactly, aside from the pull-them-out-of-the-haunting trick, nor is there any obvious brain or organs to puncture. They just have to keep cutting into its body until it finally loses enough of whatever it's made out of to stop moving.

They can tell when it happens because suddenly, all of the monsters stop moving, all at once. Then, just as suddenly, they all begin to retreat further back into the canyon, disappearing in dark shadows and slipping back into the Haunting they came from.

Most of the team takes potshots at the creatures as they leave. In theory, each one they kill today is one they won't have to worry about in the future. Eventually, though, there is nothing left to shoot down, and the strange tension just under the surface of reality begins easing up.

Everyone got a little beat up, with Nikaro looking the least brutalized and Rohen looking the worst. Jandru goes to join them near the dead mother as they begin to check each other over for injuries. Finn should probably be helping with this, given that he's the one with the most medical experience, but he immediately scrambles over the mother to go digging around in its corpse with a hunting knife, looking intently for harvestable parts.

Being that Irahl had fully expected to be forced to temporarily abandon his post at some point to fight something by hand, he is pleasantly surprised when he catches Jandru taking care of the problem before it happens.

See... this is how to mind your sniper. Especially with the team that he's currently stuck with back home, (who he is realizing that he truly hates with each passing day), he can't remember the last time he hadn't had significant complaints after a battle about his teammates' sniper-related etiquette.

It makes for an overall pleasant fight, all things considered. He even has room at the end for a little more observation, watching how there seems to be little rhyme or reason behind where they're hitting the mother, and the exploratory holes that he methodically blasts into the creature all seem to be having about the same effect no matter where he shoots. It's interesting.

And then, all at once, the fun is over. He doesn't miss the creatures when they go, though. As enjoyable as the fight was, it's a relief when the pressure in his head begins to retreat along with the creatures.

Instead of wasting ammo on fleeing monsters, Irahl gets a head-start on packing up his gear. So, he's ready to rejoin the group at about the same time that he notices Finn deviate from the behavior he'd expected, to go wading elbow-deep in a giant corpse.

The scene immediately resurrects memories from back when he'd still bothered to take trophies of his kills--back before he'd kept having his things taken from him and the enjoyment of his work smothered. The nostalgia is surprisingly strong.

So, as soon as everything is safely packed away, he makes his way down the canyon, again dropping from heights that are a little beyond what is recommended for mortal ankles. It's definitely the most readily that he has returned to a team post-battle in years.

This unit may be a little touchy-feely for Irahl's tastes, what with their interpersonal relationships and structural group bonding, but it does make for a group that takes care of its people.

By the time Irahl drops down to rejoin everyone, Nikaro's helping wrap an injury on Rohen's upper arm, mostly to staunch the bleeding until Finn can get a better look at it. Rohen looks exhausted, and Jandru's leaning on a boulder-like chunk of rock and trying not to fall asleep where they're standing.

None of them really respond when Irahl comes over, though Nikaro does quickly glance over him and give him a nod. It could mean "nice shooting", or it could mean "good, you don't look like you're bleeding", but neither of those require them to stop what they're doing to converse with him.

"Hey! New guy!" Finn calls out from where he's struggling to pry open a massive set of jaws, "Wanna give me a hand?"

Finn's trying to get a couple of teeth for the road, and he knows Irahl's a lot stronger than he is. He also gets a feeling that Irahl's not as squeamish about digging around in a dead monster as Jandru or Nikaro. Rohen's never minded, but she's busy coming down from whatever she had to do to fight that hard. If he can just get a hand, he can be in and out of there in just a few seconds.

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