King Of The Mountain

King Of The Mountain
Date of Scene:	20 April 2013
Location:	Mythril Mines
Synopsis:	There is a Behemoth on the prowl. It has decided to go explore the Mythril Mountains, problem is, so have some others who want it captured.
Cast of Characters:	Riku, Tifa Lockhart, Avira, Cirra Constantine, Zargabaath, Kim Possible, Eclipse Behemoth, Montag, Evja, Souji Murasame, Caran Steel
Tinyplot:	Heart Of Power

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Eclipse Behemoth has posed:

The Mythril Mines is a large mountain range that was one used for massive mining operations. Or so it was once told. However bad things happened here and the mines were closed down. Yet at times, people still venture these old mountains and troops of ShinRa at times also climb here to make sure trouble makers don't try to back down into Junon.

Yet something very strange is roaming these mountain tops this time. A massive creature that stands around ten feet tall. Its dark, almost black purple fur blowing in the wind. Its black under belly scales shimming when the light hits it just right and its black mane, along with mohawk that runs down its spine also easily moving in as the wind blows.

The massive bone structures that stick out from its fur are polish black like, much like the underbelly scales, and have strange gold runic markings into the bone itself.

Yet off in the great horizon was an odd sight breaking through the clouds. It was a extremely large metallic ship that was known as the Alexander; one of Archades mighty ships of pride and joys. Massive metallic spinners could be seen even from the great distance with a gentle blue glow from the very magicite that powered its engines. Though it broke through the clouds and was starting to bank around. The ship itself seeming to be keeping its distance from the mountain range; a good distance.

(( http://images.wikia.com/finalfantasy/images/3/38/FFXII_Alexander_airship.png ))

Though they seemed very aware of where the Behemoth probably had gone off too.

Yet as the Behemoth starts to climb, it lets out a mighty howlish roar that carries through great distance across the terrain. Enough to get attention of travelers, soldiers, and explorers alike. Sadly a few people who got a bit curious found the beast and found themselves being met dead on by glowing gold eyes; glowing solid gold eyes and a snarling fanged muzzle.

Soon those poor hikers were on the run and a massive Behemoth chasing right after them. Remember kids - When you meet a large predator. Don't run from it!!!

(BGM: http://www.listenonrepeat.com/watch/?v=Rbuto9wfEHE )

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart was on the patch between Junon and Midgar. Its a needed trail to follow between her two bars, no shortcuts here sadly. Atop her trusty red chocobo, Premium Heart, it doesn't take that long at least.

When there's no bigger monsters than a chocobo that is.

Most monsters keep clear of chocobos, but there's a few that are more likely to scare the chocobo off instead. And a behemoth counts among those, more than likely.

Yet the barmaid doesn't know about it yet. She has no idea of the experiments conducted, nor why it was free inside of the mines, but whens he passed through them, the loud ROAR that greeted her, reverberated by the cave's walls, was enough to spook her chocobo from entering any deeper.

Sliding off its back, Tifa pets the chocobo's mane with a smile "Stay here Premium, I'll go take a look." The chocobo nods understandingly (or so it seems), waiting there as the barmaid moves toward the entrance.

Before she enters though, she notes the airship nearby, and hmms. "There shouldn't be any huge monsters in the mines, I wonder if its their doing..."

Avira has posed:
An abandoned mythril mine? Perfect for a looter-errr, treasure hunter.

Yes, Avira has heard about the horrible rumors surrounding this particular mine. She was aware of the fact that this mine was closed down and thus pretty dangerous to venture forth in. She HAS heard the rumors that a terrible monster has moved in recently. Does this deter her? Does her previous terrible experience in the mines of Narshe turn her away?

Hell no!

In this case, however, she has alerted the rest of VALKYRI of her location, should something unfortunate happen while out here. The huntress hasn't even crossed the 'threshhold' of the cave yet, tying her chocobo to a post she has pounded into the ground, before unfortunate things begin to happen. The first thing that Avira actually notices is the descent of the Alexander from the clouds. Having spent several months living in Rabanastre, the sight of an Archadian airship wasn't a new one to her, but it was still one met with extreme discomfort.

Then the roar follows and Avira feels a shiver down the length of her spine. Yet moments later, she puts two and two together. She had seen the postings for the behemoth mark, put up by Archadia. "...hmmm." she says thoughtfully, hesitating for but a moment before she sets off into the mine, keeping her hears open for the beast.

Kim Possible has posed:
Also riding on her chocobo was Kim Possible, a young teenaged secret agent who's learning how to master the art of chocobo riding, while hanging out with her BFF Tifa (OK, one of her BFFs.) Of course, with strange things happening in the area, Kim may not be afraid, but her chocobo might be another story. In fact, as soon as the roar sounds, Kim brings her chocobo to a stop before petting it gently. "That sounds totally uncool, but don't worry about me, OK? Just wait here and I'll be back for you faster than you think." Kim dismounts and gives her chocobo another petting.

"Wa-a-ark." Kim's chocobo seems to acknowledge her, before heading off to a patch of large grasses, most likely to either hide or just rest while it waits for Kim. She then looks to Tifa and says, "I dunno what's in there, but we're gonna prove that we can do a badical job taking it down!" She grins.

Riku has posed:
Riku has gotten here by the usual method he gets anywhere. A stain of darkness opens in the surroundings and he and anybody who came with him.

He is wearing traveling clothes and a cloak with the symbol of Archades on the back. He immediately takes a look around at the situation around him, trying to look for any other people who have come into the vicinity.

He waves a hand in the direction of Avira, walking quickly towards her as he makes his way across the broken terrain.

Souji Murasame has posed:
The Alexander is not the only airship present.

The Ame-no-Torifune, flagship of the Murasame Corporation flies in formation with the Alexander. The alien, sleek design is very different from that of Archades, the ship itself sustained with lightning magics.

The head of the Murasame Corporation (it will upgrade back to Zaibatsu later), Souji Murasame, looks down at the surroundings with narrowed eyes. He, too, has had interest in the mines. The presence of the Behemoth is an obstacle that must be removed. "I'm handling this one... /personally/."
5rSouji leaps from the fore of the ship, spinning throuth the air. "Murasame, let us drink tonight!" With a ringing noise, he draws the katana of black metal, the crimson runs glowing dully with a deep hunger as the heir drops through the clouds, descending towards the Behemoth. The others are arriving just in time to see Souji falling towards it with blade outstretched.

Evja has posed:
Another figure stepped out from behind Riku through the portal and looked just a little off-balance momentarily. It wasn't much, however, just enough to show they didn't suit the means of transport the best. A tall imposing figure in black and gold Judges Armor with wide horns atop the helm. Those who have seen this particular set of armor would recognize it as the armor of the Vieran Judge of Fluorgis rather than an Archadian Judge/Magister, despite the Archadian make to it.

"Such a means of travel, Riku, shall rend your soul one day." Or so Evja would like to imagine at least, voice deeply echoing towards the boy before the echoing roar of the Behemoth can be heard and Evja shoots a look up towards the sound.
This is followed by him looking at the Alexander... and the other airship that looks familiar. "Damn it all, that is the airship that was assisting the Glabados Church in their hunt of that man. I am off, Riku, be safe!" and Evja begins taking running leaps here and there, pouncing high into the air up to thrice in a row before descending. Occasionally the armored figure would flicker in and out of sight on the way up, appearing at his destination rather than jumping to it, as he went about trying to close the large distance that there was currently between the Behemoth and himself.

And those going towards it.

And those running from it.

Caran Steel has posed:
YESTERDAY

Caran stands around a beach campfire with Will Sherman and others. "Anyway...if you need a place to stay, tonight, we can put you up at the TDA until you get a place." says Hobo-lad.

TODAY

Caran peruses the bulliten boards in taverns. That's what adventurers do, right? That's how he's going to make a living, after all. "What do you think of this one, Car?" The flying cat flies up to the board and places his paw on a notice. Caran leans in for a look. This one looks promising. Monster sighted at the mythril mines. Black lightning crackles around Caran's fist. Yes... He takes out his tablet and snaps a picture of the ad, then walks out of the bar, Ketan gliding after.

NOW

Caran leans close to the neck of the black chocobo he's riding. Ketan peers out of his messenger bag. "It's cold up here..." Caran mutters, casting a warming spell. He took the summoned chocobo out for a couple of flights around the Academy grounds, but never actually used it for transport before! But, he needs to get from the nearest portal to the mines, and what better way is there than flying?

Caran had been told that the World of Ruin was like his own, but it's a pleasant surprise to see an airship, a sign of some decent technology! At the roar of the behemoth, Ketan perks up his ears. "DID YOU HEAR THAT?" the cat shouts over the wind. Caran nods, guiding the chocobo in towards the Behemoth. As a magical effect rather than a true creature, it has no fear. Caran sees other chocobos below, and people. But are they adventurers, or bystanders?

Judging by the fact that they are running /towards/ the monster, they must be adventurers! Who will his allies be today, on this first adventure in a strange new world? Hey, wait, is that... that guy's from his school! "Hey! Hey there! I'm gonna help!" He takes Blackwing into a dive after the boy, taking one hand off the reins to cast protective spells over himself and the fellow student charging the dragon!

Montag has posed:
Montag is here in the mines he's totally not got plans for mithirl bullets okay he does but he'd just buy the ore for the project straight up. He's not some hobo adventuring sort he'll buy his materials. Anyhow here he is and he looks over at Tifa. "Sometimes mining does disturb the local wildlife. Don't like caves like this...brings back bad memories."

Avira has posed:
"Riku!" Avira is, in fact, not surprised to see him here. She wasn't unaware of why the teenager was in need of collecting Sunstone, after all. She promptly stops and waves over to him. "You're here to chase the mark too, ri-"

Evja appears. Were Avira still a mutate, at this point her ears would suddenly be folded flat against her head. Fortunately, the viera runs off.

She holds her hand out to Riku, "I think I have a way to help with this. We need to get in close to that monster."

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Unfortunatly, the Behemoth wasn't inside of the caves, but on the mountain side. Yet, the roar managed to reach all the way through the cave, and reach the ears of Tifa and Kim as they were passing through. Searching for the source eventually got them up through the cave, an exit near the behemoth. At least they found it without having to climb the cliffs.

She nods to Montag "Behemoth isn't really 'natural wildlife' around here though, so either it was moved here, or got attracted by something." She looks over to Kim "Well, we'll see. We don't need to punch everything we meet either, just if they are a problem or a danger. Which we don't know anything about right now."

Riku has posed:
"Yeah, I know Evja." Riku snaps but then manages to nod and wave off the lancer. "Thanks!" is a little more genuine. "Take care yourself. And remember.. /capture/."

Riku snaps his head around at the movement he catches at the edge of his perception. So he catches the descent of the adventurer that leaps from the other airship. He grits his teeth so hard his entire head vibrates and pulls himself up very short from throwing himself forwards towards the behemoth. He smiles in a very strained manner at Avira.

"Hello again Avira. I need a favor from you, if you don't mind. Could you get ahold of the other adventurers on this mark and tell them this is a /capture/ mark, not a kill mark?" he rubs the back of his neck. "I'd appreciate it, if you can."

He heads the slower way up the mountainside towards the Behemoth with Avira. "What's your plan?" he calls out to Montag. "Hey! You got sleep rounds for that thing?"

Kim Possible has posed:
"Well, if we don't have to fight, then that'll be cool," Kim comments to Tifa. "Still, this place totally makes me feel uncool. It's kinda like what being on detention is like I bet. Thankfully that's never happened to me..." She folds her arms and looks to one side.

Eclipse Behemoth has posed:

A behemoth was no dragon. It was more like a cat, wolf, lizard-- thing. But still rather big and still very impressive. This one in particular was unique cause of those jotting bone structures.

As Souji came down from the sky above, the Behemoth quickly leaped up to a higher peak and roared at Souji before growling at him. Then noticed the other adventures starting to close in. Thankfully the distraction was enough for the hikers to get away, who ran into the cave system.

This is where they ran into a few of the adventures in there, a few ran by them screaming 'BEHEMOTH' while others tried to take a hold of the brave adventures begging for protection from the angry monster outside that was going to eat them!

For now the Behemoth doesn't attack its massive sharp onyx claws digging into the rock. Its fur bristled before it rumbles lowly, then lets out another roar in defiance toward those starting to gather.

As for the Alexander up high, several lights flared up on the 'wings' before several ships were suddenly lined up along the wing, before those airships were lowered down and then their noses rotated down to be ready for launch position. Though for now they seemed to be on stand by. There was several more ships also getting lined up.

Yes folks, the Alexander is the Archades Airship carrier of the skies. It also didn't seem to mine the other odd, unique airship following it. Most likely communications already took place between the two and Souji may have been told, or perhaps someone on-board, that the Behemoth was their target-- and probably any help capturing it would be accepted.

Though why Archades was interested in capturing was left unknown beyond for 'Investigation reasons'.

Not that Souji had to listen to this request. Actually, he could ignore it too. After all, this was not Archades territory and they had to hope ShinRa wouldn't mind them being here.

Avira has posed:
"Well I'd love to do that, but of the adventurers I've seen here, I only recognize Tifa and Kim. That other airship I've never seen before." Avira says sheepishly, shattering any perception out there that Avira knows every damn person imaginable.

Easily, she keeps pace with Riku, unbothered by the terrain. It's like she practices this kind of thing by spending hours hunting monsters or something! "Well...I have a particular set of skills..." she says, though sounding slightly unsure, "I haven't practiced on any monster this dangerous before but it can't hurt to try. It's hard to get practice, really, since it doesn't work on Heartless. I need to get in close and if it's tired, then that should help."

In spite of these words, Avira has armed herself with the Spine and a small shield strapped to her forearm.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart looks at the other adventurers. Avira and Riku, Evja too. Plenty of firepower. She hears the word about the capture, and nods "Well, that settles it. Just need to knock it down, not kill it here." She wasn't here for the mark, but doesn't mean she can't help out, since there are people she knows about here and wouldn't mind seeing them coming out of his safe. Behemoth is that kind of monster that numbers will help against it.

"Well Kim, you ready?" She moves over to Avira's side before going in for the strike "Any plans or strategy before we rush in there?" She asks of her friend. "I'm not too worried about killing it with my fists at least."

Souji Murasame has posed:
Souji has no problems capturing a Behemoth. The problem is that you have to beat the living daylights out of the thing in order to make it even /theoretically/ capturable/ One does not restrain a Behemoth with a box on a stick.

He's pretty sure Dragonius tried once.

As he descends, he hears a familiar voice, and he looks up in the middle of his fall, his eyes narrowing faintly.

He gets back to business, the magics woven by Caran causing Souji's form to shimmer and blur as he streaks down and past, though the legs of the massive beast as he leaps to the opposite side. He lashes out with a powerful blast of lightning that threatens to send even the Behemoth flying, as he drops into his combat stance. "Steel." He says to his former classmate. "You lived... I admit, I am surprised."

Souji then cuts outwards, unleashing a series of crackling bolts of lightning that arc through the air towards the Behemoth. "Let's get down to work!" Souji calls. "Focus fire! Take out the legs!"

Kim Possible has posed:
"I'm ready when you are," Kim says, obviously having her gadgets ready too. "I say we see what it has to offer and then take it from there. That's how any good secret agent does it!" She assumes a mock martial arts stance, although true fans of her would know it's her Kim-Fu stance. "We can do this! We can do anything!"

Evja has posed:
As Evja finally starts to get close to the Behemoth the Viera glows faintly in the evening sky as he begins to prepare for the encounter, simple self-centered buffings targeting himself as he often did. Landing and skidding to the side, Evja hopped up as high as he could manage and pulled out two of his lances, one in each hand, looking towards this Behemoth with a bit of uncertainty. Certainly it didn't look like any Behemoth he knew. "Try not to injure the beast if at all possible, too severely anyways! It is needed to help find a lost important person and we cannot afford it getting killed!" He wasn't /quite/ sure if those two knew not to try and kill or maim it since he came through with Riku rather than on the Alexander.
And he could only hope that this Souji fellow who came from that familiar airship wasn't going to turn on him mid-fight 'For the Church' since he aided them before.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart sees the attacks starting on the beat, and shrugs "Well, guess no need for a real plan then, as long as we don't kill it, right?" She puts a hand against her shoulder, charging up a magical spell for herself and Kim, starting up the fight with a bit of buffing, as red and green glows surround the two fighters.

Caran Steel has posed:
The monster isn't attacking? Odd. But it's a danger, nonetheless. Slay monster, collect bounty -- that's what Adventurers do! Still... If it's not attacking yet, he's going to take the opportunity to try and weaken it! Souji's comment gets a shrug, but the order is followed. The Chocobo lands in front of the Behemoth, Caran raising a hand with a flourish as he directs spells to dazzle and disorient the beast! 'A thousand shining shards! Glitterdust! Power of lightning, stagger and strike! Caran's Thunderwave!" Sparks of light swirl into existance arounds the Behemoth, trying to dazzle its eyes, while a wave of electricity swoops out from Caran's hand like a giant ribbon of magic, trying to wrap around the beast and then pulse electricity through it to stun it. Caran pulls on the reins and the chocobo flutters backwards. 'Hungry earth, take your fill! Quake!' The earth rumbles -- it doesn't open into a massive fissure under the beast, though, instead crumbling and becoming unstable footing, full of jagged rocks for the creature to hurt itself on!

"Have you done this before?" Caran shouts, over the clamor of battle.

Kim Possible has posed:
"Let's do this, Tifa!" Kim says as the buffing takes effect, and Kim feels more determined than before. "We're gonna show this thing that we aren't afraid of it!" Kim fires her grappling hook at a nearby object that allows her to swing towards the behemoth and deliver a swift kick at it, before following up with a series of carefully coordinated attacks, then another kick, albeit this one with a bit of signature to it.

Riku has posed:
Riku continues to hike up the mountainside. He has forced himself to walk slowly and carefully. His fists are clenched and shaking but his voice is light and calm. "Well, then let's hope you have a chance to try it out. I don't want anybody to get hurt, but I also don't want it to get away again." he gives a stiff shrug.

"The last time it ran after a fight, I got turned around and lost track of it. I don't know how you do it with forests. I really don't." he chuckles. "Maybe you'll have to show me sometime."

"I think a good plan would be not to die, and not to kill it." Riku says to Tifa, his teeth grit slightly. "Although, as far as strategy goes trying to keep it pinned down and immobilized and away from those hikers in the caves would probably be for the best."

Montag has posed:
Montag pauses for a moment as he spys Evja there's a bounty on them a pretty big one that would have poltical pluse for the Shinra if he brougght the rabbit in. Objectives first the slobbering monster first. He puts those thoughts away as he noe moving in with his allies and he calls out to Riku.

"A Timeless plan that has served me well against Terrorits. Cultists and monsters!"

He looks down at the creature as he brings up his rifle and gets ready for trying to get a good shot.

"Right, give me a moment to line up a shot on this thing."

Cirra Constantine has posed:
The temporary Magister stands on the bridge of the Alexander, looking donw on the mountain below with her arms crossed.

"This isn't proceeding smoothly, there is already interferance from others and civillians are in the line of fire." ShinRa's civilians at that.

The Judge Magister turned and walked to the lift, "Maintain postion, only move under orders."

A moment latera ship descends from the Alexander's bay and swoops down to the entrance of the Mithril Mines and... Drops a person.

The armored person lands in a crouch, spideweb cracks spreading out on the rocks beneath her. Standing up, the armored Judge takes a scyth from behind her back and glares at the monster through her helmet. "Hmphm..."

THe Judge runs, leaping across stones and stalagmites to reach the Behemoth and swings her scyth, but it's not for the monster, but for the stone he's standing on, aiming to cut the ground out from beneath it and send it back down to the ground.

Eclipse Behemoth has posed:

The Electrical bolts from Souji slams into the Behemoth before he can make another stable landing as the beast tries to move away. The Behemoth yelps in pain as it tries to land down to stable itself, but it is knocked off balance once more, almost starting to slide down. Its massive claws digging into the rocky surface, as it tries to climb back up, only finding its claws slipping.

However the Behemoth suddenly lifts himself up, just in time to avoid the brilliant lights and the next thunder zaps. Then as the mountains shakes and attempts to break under the massive beast. Yet the the massive beast comes right at Caran, slamming its Onyx claws down at the man with a dark aura around those very claws like channeled dark magic.

Then Kim comes swinging. Her kick was strong enough with enough velocity to actually knock the Behemoth over to his side, yet as he rolled over he swung that dark aura claws right for her attempting to slam her down to the very mountain ground.

The Behemoth however corrects himself in the air, yet here comes Cirra to help smash the massive beast into the ground once more. Though its goes to slap her with those dark aura claws of his.

Meanwhile....
Zargabaath probably just gave Cirra that look when she stated some orders somewhere on his ship, before shaking his head at his captain's chair. Back to staying in waiting pattern. Le sigh.

Back at the battle!

As the massive beast lands down with a hard slam into the ground, dust kicking up around, which it then swings out its large bludgeon like tail to smack people around it, before suddenly it charges in several directions at people while they are off balance, attempting to claw them with its massive claws. Trying to shred into their bodies before lashing out more with its dark aura claws.

Avira has posed:
"Well, as long as I stay conscious..." Avira says, thumping a fist to her breastplate. "I took some levels in 'hard to kill' though. I'll do anything I can to help. As for the forest thing...well, sure, I'll definitely show you sometime."

Tifa asks for a strategy and Avira looks pensive, "...if you had magic or items that could just weaken it and tire it out that would be the best. If not, then go for some percussive maintenance, if you know what I mean." Avira winks.

Avira doesn't even get to get in close before the creature actually manages to hurt her with its dark power. She tries to guard with her shield, swiping out her weapon to send out a sudden blast of force in response.

As if following up on her own words, Avira is quick to begin her attack from afar, jabbing the Spine into the ground. She lifts both her hands, stretching one arm out before her while drawing the other back as if she were pulling upon a bowstring. Along the length of her arm, a blue shaft of light appears that quickly solidifies into a shard of ice. She releases the 'bowstring' and the projectile is launched forward just like an arrow. When it strikes, the arrow unleashes a binding layer of ice upon whatever it hits.

No sooner than she has fired off her arrow, she takes up the Spine in hand and charges in, ice magic encasing the length of the unusual weapon. Though the behemoth is cleary very fearsome and very strong, the petite woman shows no hesitation in darting in to engage in close combat fighting with the monster.

Caran Steel has posed:
Caran's focused on throwing spells, and doesn't get out of the way of the claw in time! "Agh!" He cries out as he's nearly knocked off his chocobo, but he manages to have it fly out of the way of the follow-up strikes. "Darnit... well, I'm just getting warmed up!" He draws his sword, a long, thin blade that is suddenly wreathed in flame! "Get it?" Seeing the beast sent skyward by Riku, Caran rides the chocobo upwards, flying in for a couple of quick ride-by strikes at its arms and legs!

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Even with the series of attack, the barmaid doesn't let a chance of getting close to it go to waste, sending a kick square between its eyes as she uses the momentum to jump backward. It still grazes her enough to be painful, but if she's going to get hurt, might as well stay on the offense doing so.

She nods to Riku "Not being killed is kinda part of my projects for the future, mind you." She rushes in, being a close distance fighter, she always gets in the monster's face to apply her own brand of punishment. Sliding under the monster's belly, she gives it a two legged kick. Even at that size and weight, she seems able to lift the monster upward. That's because of the other attacks raining on it, it makes the monster's weight shift, and she can use that opening to throw it entirely off its feet.

While its airborne, the barmaid rolls backward to her feet, and then jumps, surpassing the lifting speed of the behemoth so she can 'float' just a bit over him... and then one of those powerful legs come down crashing straight on top of its head, hurtling it back down into a mass of mountain rocks.

Out of those rocks, Tifa picks up a larger one, and flipping it while in the air, she uses that as an tool to inflict even more pain on the hulking monster, crashing down into it rock first. "Let's see if that calms it down some!

Kim Possible has posed:
Kim is caught in the middle of her attack attempt and finds that things just aren't always how you want them to be. She goes flying into the air, but recovers quickly and uses the momentum to pull back from the Behemoth. She lands with a skid before looking up at the Behemoth and shaking her head. "You're so totally uncool!" Kim says with a scowl. She then sees what Tifa is doing and grabs a large rock of her own, then heaves it at the Behemoth!

Montag has posed:
Montag has somehow avoided getting smited by the monster of the day, and he's not going to complain he pulls his grapple and fires latching on to teh roof of the mine shaft and up he goes as he rides it up he snaps off his first shoat at the huge creature.

"Hey fluffy over here!"

Souji Murasame has posed:
Souji cares not for Shinra. If they're not going to use this land, /someone else/ will. That's why Murasame is here. He pauses as he watches Caran engage his assault. "You're making your own spells?" Souji says, pausing for a moment. "So you're finally reaching breakthroughs. Interesting." Souji backflips, trying to evade the incoming assault from the Behemoth as he rains down lightning upon the massive beast. This doesn't prevent the strike, however, from glancing him, creating a painful strike that sends him bouncing off of the rocky wall. Souji hits the ground rolling with a grunt, and he gets back to one knee. He looks over the other adventurers, listening to their actions and what they plan, and he nods. There shouldn't be any problems here.

Souji, in the meantime, works his way over next to Caran. "Hope you have more tricks up your sleeve, Steel." Souji replies, as he unleashes another massive blast wave towards the creature, trying to knock it backwards and keep it from using its brutal melee attacks. He then raises his blade and throws it, the weapon becoming a hissing, bright discus as it flies in towards the Behemoth, delivering a powerful shock upon contact.

Riku has posed:
Riku is more than prepared as the behemoth comes after him. He backs up a step or two, flipping backwards as the claws slash and tear through the air where he should have been a moment before. "It's a good project to work on." he replies to Tifa after he catches his breath for a moment.

He seems a little out of sorts and unsteady, putting a hand to his head as he watches the behemoth almost to the exclusion of all else. He steadies himself almost into a crouch. His hands shake for a moment as his hands spasm and then relax.

He straightens up and shakes his head minutely. A howling wind works it's way up the mountainside, curling around him and Avira as he positions himself farther up the mountainside near the cave system.

Evja has posed:
Crap, tail! Evja leaps backwards away from it but not before smacked and sent flying into a nearby rock. It didn't hurt /that/ badly, but it did leave a nice dent in the Vieras freshly fixed armor. Still, it did leave him free to try and slip in to deal with the Behemoth more personally once again. One thing about him was that Evja was quite good in clustered fights. Fighting in a clan for many years did leave him used to avoiding others in his team and still getting in hits.

Which is why Evja jumped down and, like Tifa tried to do, used his spears and strength to try and off-balance the Behemoth enough to knock it from the rocks into the air long enough to spin around and crash into it with lance and wind, followed by a high leap and slam down towards it with his spear aimed at the tail, trying to pin it to the ground in some fashion.

Cirra Constantine has posed:
Cirra Constantine brings up her scyth, using the shaft to catch the first claw strike and swings up both feet, kicking off the monster's massive claw to flip backwards, landing with both feet against the wall of the cavern, her posistion maintained by inertia just long enough for her to run along the wall, out of the reach of the Behemoth's next flurry of attacks.

She leaps again as the claws impact the wall, tearing the stone to shreds, giving her just enough cover to close to the monster again. Leaping from chunk of stone to chunk of stone straight through the air, Cirra launches herself across the last gap at her target and swings her scyth up udner one of the monster's legs to slice at it, and try to bring the monster down again.

Eclipse Behemoth has posed:

The adventures and judges alike come in with their own counter strikes of many. Many extremely painful, yet the Behemoth was moving, swaying, slashing with its claws. Even sometimes snapping its massive jaw of teeth at them.

Avira and Caran come in with their own attacks. Avira's blade slashes through the thin lay of fur on the Behemoth and shaves off a few of the black scales from under the fur. Even nicking the softer tissue under. Caran's flaming blade move in, but the Behemoth swiftly moves itself away, before slashing its massive claws for the sword swinging mage as it slams back down onto the ground.

Tifa then attempts to perform some fancy moves on the Behemoth, however the creature seems to almost move with her, which she tries to off center him, it rolls with it and then swings around to actually avoid being completely knocked off. When she goes to send him flying for the mountain, it flips in the air, landing hard on the rocky surface and then claws the massive boulder thrown at it in half with its claws before it roars in her general direction.

Kim's rock however slams into the Behemoth which was enough to actually off center from its perching point and it actually starts to slide down. Shaking his head, trying to correct his vision, those claws scampering a bit across the rocky surface.
The Behemoth then notices Montag and as his shot fires, the Behemoth attempts to leap up after him, slashing his claws to try and knock the man the down with a ferocious growl. However in his attempt, Souji's own attack slams into the Behemoth and sends it right off the edge of the mountain. At least that is what it looks like.

However the Behemoth leaps straight up into the air, before driving its massive front clawed pawed hands for Souji and trying to slam them down on him. Snarling and snapping his massive teeth at the human. As it goes to move away. Evja then leaps up and straight down. Slamming the spear into the tail. The Behemoth lets out a massive howl of pain into the air. It tries to pull its tail free but only causes more injury to itself, which makes a soft hissing sound in protest. Before Evja however can leap back up, the Behemoth's massive claw hand comes for the Viera and tries to slam him hard into the ground. Before it reaches over and tries to slap at the spear holding its tail to knock it out. Which partly works, but the spear is still in the tail.

The Behemoth drags his tail a bit, blood staring to slide from where the injury is as it huffs a few times in protest. A dark aura fluxing off it and around it. Those with electronics on their person may notice them starting act a little wonky and seeming to go on the fritz for a moment.

Thanks to the fact of the now injured tail, Cirra seems to get a chance to move right in and slash the back leg of the behemoth. Like with the tail it howls in pain, before spinning around quickly slashing its claw in direction more in annoyance.

The beast limps for a moment, before it tries to leap away from the group, attempting to see to try and get some distance, slamming it tail against a few rocks in attempt to free the lance from its tail in annoyance before it manages to do so at last.

Then quickly the Behemoth suddenly seems to charge, before leaping into the air and diving down for each member here, even Riku who is attempting to get some distance. Attempting to fling them into the air, almost all to the same location with sheer speed and somewhat grace perhaps for a creature of his size, which was 10 feet on all fours and nearly 12 to 13 when leaping like he was.

Before they could all impact the ground, the Behemoth moves in once more, this time ramming its horns into some, trying to bit and fling others, and slashing its claws at those who it couldn't get its teeth around. The whole time a dark aura pulsing around it.

Caran Steel has posed:
"Tch!" Caran is aggravated at missing the beast again and getting smacked for it, but with a sudden burst of speed he and his chocobo dash out of the way of the behemoth, Caran swinging his sword as it passes before they dive down after it! "I'm not out of tricks yet!" But... He can't use /it/, not yet. He needs more time. He raises his sword as he dives. "Strike with the judgement of the heavens! Thundaga sword!" Lightning strikes the blade, which glows and crackles as he charges down after the beast, trying to stab it in the back, discharging the lightning... and amplifying it, focusing the power in another attempt to stun the behemoth! "HYAAAAAAH!"

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart is a bit angry that the behemoth evades her attacks so easily. Especially when she thought she had it good too. But she's not giving it the satisfaction of striking back, she jumps up atop a set of rocks, letting the behemoth strike at the hard surface instead of her. Let's hope that it gives him a lesson about chasing the nimble barmaid at least. Probably not.

She jumps back toward it after her defensive move, kicking a rock in its direction to distract it, as she shifts to the side, right under one of its huge paws, moving in to strike at its chest near where the arm connects, hoping to hit at weak, less protected spots. Maybe she can affect its mobility more too.

Kim Possible has posed:
Kim is also caught by the behemoth. She goes flying big time, and hits the ground even harder than usual. But now that Kim's gotten her adrenaline going, she's really mad now. Her eyes are glowing with flames that could easily be borne from her hair. She clenches her fists and says, "I'm totally done with playing around! It's time I showed this thing what I'm truly capable of!"

Kim rushes towards the behemoth, attempting to demonstrate just what an angry Kim is capable of: Namely a flurry of punches that would make your average Final Fantasy monk look like a slowpoke!

Avira has posed:
The black wind howls...

Oddly enough, the wind whipping by Avira seems to actually help speed Avira along to what could very easily be an early doom. She manages to hit, it seems, but only cleaves off a bit of fur and hair for her trouble. On one hand, it was good-sure, she didn't want to kill the creature. On the other, she really was hoping for a bit higher damage output. As the behemoth turns its attention to others, Avira slips along its side, diving for the ground. One hand reaches out, scooping up some of the discarded scales out of the dirt before she tries to manuver herself into a position behind the behemoth. With this many targets, it'll definitely get distracted-

The behemoth leaps into the air and, though Avira dives for the ground and tries to get out of the way, the behemoth is just too large. The huge form crushes down on the huntress and she struggles against it, pinned by grasping claws. Huge teeth bite down upon her right arm and start to tear. Avira shrieks out in pain and starts pounding the side of its face with her buckler shield until it releases her.

Squirming away, she staggers to her feet and backs off, "More, we need to burn out that aggression!" she says breathlessly, grasping her right arm with her left. Limply, the grip upon the spine remains. "Faster! We can do this."

She releases her hand, fingers splayed outwards as she directs magic upon others here-time magic, apparently. Seems like someone's got herself a new license. "Haste!" The magic is, in fact, directed outwards to others fighting: Riku, of course, and Tifa. The magic is also turned upon that kid with the katana that throws about lightning. Sure. He was fast. But he can be FASTER.

Souji Murasame has posed:
Souji sends the BEhemoth blasting off... But what goes up, must come down. Souji looks up, throwing himself back as he leaps away, the shockwave of the impact once again slamming him into the rocky walls around the Mines. "Ugh!" Murasame hisses, instinctively trying to contain his pained expression... But what does he have to prove here? The Behemoth surely doesn't give a damn. Souji staggers back up, falling back as the Behemoth falls upon him, and with a meassive implosion, the Behemoth is sent sliding past, the violence of its passage barely avoiding Souji.

The Murasame heir holds back, pushing himself forward as he begins to focus himself. "Get ready, Steel!" Souji says. "It's almost time...!"

Cirra Constantine has posed:
Flung into the air, the Judge of Wrath attempt to cast a spell on herself to absourb the attack she knows is coming, but the shell spell is only half formed when the Behemoth impacts with everyone.

The spell shatterns under the force of the Behemoth's horns, only absourbing a fraction of the impact and Cirra is sent flying through the air to hit the cavern wall, the stone cracking as she hits it full on and slides down the wall.

Dazed, and severly out of it, Cirra finds it hard to get back up. Instead she mutters under her breath, reforming the spell that she couldn't finish and splits her attention as she raises her hand, focusing outwards on one other: Riku to try and creat a protective spell around herself and the other Judge.

Souji Murasame has posed:
Souji also receives a Haste spell, his motions becoming faster as orange-gold light builds around him. He smiles. "Your assistance is... appreciated." He says to the unknown woman.

Riku has posed:
Riku continues to hold back, watching the battle rather than participating in it. He tries to keep up with the flow and rhythm of the combat, eyes darting from face to face. He watches Cirra for a long few moments then Avira for the same.

He keeps his distance and stays on higher ground near the cave system. No matter what he simply can't seem to commit himself to the attack. He closes his eyes for a moment.

This proves to be a nearly lethally mistake.

When he opens his eyes again the behemoth is inches from his face and already fully committed to the attack. He stares at it for a frozen instant instead of jumping or even teleporting away and that proves to be an instant he can't afford. He goes flying for a few weightless instants before a bright flare of red pain lances across his arm and shoulder. The behemoth's teeth tears down into his shoulder and unarmored arm, flinging him bodily across the rocky landscape to come to a bloody smearing stop amongst a outcropping of stone and low brush. He lets out a gasp, the world having blacked out for a moment as he struck his head hard against the stone in his flight.

For a few moments he stares with red and black spots in front of his eyes, unable to know where he was and trying to get his bearings back. Riku slowly pushes himself with his armored arm into a sitting positon, gasping as he clutches his chest, face almost white with pain and concentration. A wash of dark energy and unnatural frost leaks out from around him, freezing the surrounding shrubbery as he forces himself back onto his feet, arm hanging limply to his side. Streamers of dark mist stream up from him as he shakes slightly, eyes blank yellow and staring at the behemoth with a mixture of anger and despair. "Okay." he hisses between tightly grit teeth. "Not..looking away then." he chuckles very, very lowly. "Not the best idea I've had is it, your honor."

He reaches out the armored hand towards the Behemoth, crushing the air abruptly as spikes of cold form dark spears of ice that crash down and around the behemoth. Each cutting edge is a sword of dark ice that leaves a flashing red trail as they apparate, slash in multiple arcs and then disappear back into mist.

One sword pierces towards the foreleg which several more go for other joints, slashing and stabbing, the touch draining streamers of energy away.

Evja has posed:
This wasn't good, not at all! Even though he had successfully managed to pin the beast down, he hadn't expected him to so easily dislodge the spear from the rock and just leave it in his tail. Not to mention when the Behemoth came charging, Evja had no chance to avoid it. The swiping claw caught his armor just right that it grabbed a hunk from the corner of the breastplate only to rip it free just as he charged.

Much like a matador who had taken on a bull who was a bit too rowdy the horn caught Evja right in the side and with a scream of pain the Viera was flung upwards and crashed down, only to be smacked again by the rampaging beast.

With the grevious injury, however, and the armor quite simply ripped apart, Evja didn't have much in the way of anything protecting himself. Not to mention it was probably now quite obvious that this woman was either quite flat-chested... or simply not female at all, given they were wearing a mens tunic beneath the outfit that was now pretty well damaged and bloodied.

"Hah... hah... damn... I can't... kill it..." Whining out worriedly Evja begins to glow once again, darkness in the surrounding area seeming a bit heavier as the light is sucked into Evja, charging himself for an attack, getting ready to strike. Then the Viera vanished in a bright flash, streak of golden light arrowing towards the Behemoths tail as he tried to grab it and use momentum to not only unbalance it, but flick it high into the air. And much like Tifa had tried earlier...
Evja streaked into the air with a large lance in each hand and slammed them down towards the creatures limbs, trying to pin it like a frog to a vivisecting board. Of course, that was followed up by him spinning another spear around and coming down as hard as he could, attempting to smash the blunt end into the crown of the Behemoth and knock it out in one strike.

Montag has posed:
Montag is just not fast enough the beast gets on him and he lets out a scream of pain as the creature rips through his chest plate and sends him crashing back to the groundd from the force of the hit. He's bleeding pretty bad and is clearly very badly as he reies to reise he finds himself going for a potion tht surived. It styems the bleeding a little bit but he's firing off a burst from his rifle but it's not very well aimed.

Eclipse Behemoth has posed:

The Behemoth landed down on the ground after trying to gnaw on everyone in some form or fashion. Those gold eyes glowing brightly as it suddenly notices the chocobo riding 'red mage' charging at the Behemoth. So the Behemoth attempts to do the same. Playing chicken with the chocobo rider.

However Caran lucks out as his lighting blade impacts the backside and the Behemoth goes sliding across the ground, almost rolling over itself as electricity coarse around it. As he starts to get back up, the nimble bar maid slides right under the Behemoth and slams her boot right under the 'arm-pit' of the beast, which is enough to also throw off its ability to slash at her, as the Eclipse Behemoth nearly topples over itself.

Yet the creature roars in defiance and forces himself back up. Almost crashing back down again, yet it tries once more to correct himself. They may be indeed wearing it down or at least causing it to have trouble. Though you do know what they say about cornering an animal, don't you?

Then Kim comes in with a flurry of punches. Each of them smashing into the Behemoth's body and face. She is slowly pushing it back with her aggression. However though she gets the Behemoth to bleed a bit from its maw, it stares at her with its glowing gold eyes. Looking directly at her, as if trying to pierce through her. Her final fist strikes, knocking it slightly off kilter, before the Behemoth turns right around and goes to bite for her arm in return protest for her fists of rage.

Then Riku summons up a powerful spell of his own. The Behemoth suddenly roars loudly, before attempting to charge right at the boy who not only took care of him, but he for a time accepted. Something had changed and in those Behemoth's eyes, they were far more primitive then they have ever been. Whatever intelligence was granted to the beast was no longer home.

The swords slam into the Behemoth just as it is about to charge. The way they jab and pierce send it directly off coarse and right into the rocky wall head on. The very rocky terrain starts to crumble down and a few rocks slam onto the Behemoth's body. Slowly though the beast tries to pull himself out, the magical impacts leaving gashes in his body, fur matted from the areas that were starting to bleed and yet, the beast forces himself to stand once more.

Then Evja leaps up into the air summons lances to pierce down the Behemoth. Yet the creature was suddenly on the move. The lances slammed down around the massive creature, some of them impacting into his body this way and that way. Which caused the creature to slam hard into the ground, howling in pain. At a part where it actually tried to get back up, almost kicking the ground. Claws digging into the ground. Lances jammed into his side, tail, and even one into its very upper arm.

For a moment the Behemoth lays their struggling to get up, yet Montag's rifle shot interrupts this attempt causing the Behemoth to fall right back over. Then slowly the Behemoth starts to rise back up, before it suddenly staggers about a bit, shakes its head and then huffs a few times. Like someone trying to catch their breath. It even licks its hurting chops, before it lets out a loud howl into the air that echoes across the rocky region, before it turns to look at everyone. Snarling his teeth like a mad wolf, before suddenly leaping up onto one of the rock ledges, and then vaulting itself off. Ignoring the pain from its arm. Ignoring the fact that his speed is impeded.

Instead it seems to be charging blindly this way and that, attempting to ram into anyone and almost anything, including even the rocks (those poor rocks), and even his claws swing out wildly as it limply runs around in an almost circle, before nearly staggering over like a drunk throwing a tantrum.

Caran Steel has posed:
Playing chicken? Or playing... /chocobo/?

Caran's chocobo dodges this way and that, avoiding the rampaging beast's wild attacks. "You want to see a cool trick? Alright..." Caran shifts his grip, holding his sword with two hands... and then he sees that mysterious armored man get slammed by the beast. Caran winces, that didn't look good! "Hey! Hold on!" The chocobo dives down. "Life's refreshing breeze, blow in energy!" Caran calls down the healing sparkles, and makes Evja blurry for good measure, then turns to face the monster again. "Now..." he adjusts his grip on his sword and takes a deep breath.

Avira has posed:
"You're welcome!" Avira calls out to the teenager with the katana. Yes, holding back and giving support right now felt like a good thing to do. After the spell is cast, she takes a second to stuff the behemoth scales into one of her pockets.

This beast, though, as Avira carefully watches it and studies it, notably does not seem to be getting /tired/ at all. It's pretty disconcerting, actually, because it seems to be getting stronger and stronger with more damage. Maybe damaging it in the first place wasn't the best route to go?

Rather than continuing to jump in to attack, she falls back onto observation-learning this beast and memorizing its mannerisms would be the way to making that ability successful. But as the beast continues to rage, she finds herself unable to evade it as it wildly storms his way around, attacking indiscriminantly.

The huntress is flung into the air, sailing over the behemoth's back, landing wetly on the ground, her injured arm leaving a large bloodstain on the ground. "Augh!"

She rolls up to her feet and drags herself away. Her left arm grasps her right again as she steels herself, trying to sooth her wounds with a bit of low-level, basic healing magic. Avira still hung onto the first aid 'ability' though most would have 'outgrown' it by now.

"Keep at it!" she rasps, "It's gotta get tired eventually!"

Cirra Constantine has posed:
The shell spell holds this time, and the monster's impact slams against it, concentric rings surrounding the Judge of Wrath as she holds out one hand, concentrating to reinforce the spell as long as she can. Pressing back against the attack she struggles up to her feet as her gaze glares at the monster before her.

"If you won't come quietly..." she nearly growls.

A flex of her legs and the Judge jumps up on to the behemoth's back and up into the air again, swinging her scyth around as she comes down. "Then I will drag you kicking and screaming for your own sake!" The blade of the weapon comes down in a huge downward slice as Cirra spins and lands squarly next to the beast and spins around, slicing the weapon horizontally as she moves around the Behemoth to entrap it in a cage of slashes and comes to a stop.

With a swift flick of her wrist, Cirra lets her gauntlet come of and she steps in, and with a yell at the top of her lungs, lungs her fist right into the Behemoth's side, where the contact made allows her to drain the creature's life force.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart was pleased that she was able to hurt it, lightly, but she aimed at disrupting its movements. Which apparently worked. Good. Except that she was surprised by the sudden charge from the behemoth, and didn't have time to properly react. She gets slammed hard, and she's thrown back against the rocky wall, crunching against it pretty painfully. And if that wasn't enough, the rocky wall crumbles right on top of her, nearly burying her over. Now that one must have hurt, alot.

The barmaid grunts as she forces herself out of the pile, clearly hurting now after that one. "I can't get a braek, can I..." She sighs, holding her side. Its old wounds, it seems that that particular spot is often wounded in her case. At least she wasn't alone on this one.

She grrs, and slides to a more prone position, before leaping in once again. She never gives up easily after all. If she's going down, she'll go down fighting. She'd like to worry about the others around here, but the behemoth is kinda taking the entire field of vision right now.

She goes it for a weaker set of blows, just looking to build up some momentum in this fight, getting some footing back and readying another powerful attack soon.

Riku has posed:
Riku nods to Avira for the spell, the haste speeding up his movements and he braces himself for another attack, gritting his teeth against the pain in his torn arm and shoulder. "Avira. you okay?" he winces slightly. Yeah. Stupid question. Behemoth."..Right. Not making this easy." he snarls, trying to keep in control. He consumes a potion to keep the worst of the pain at bay. He could do this. He WOULD do this. The Alexander was counting on him to do this right. Blood still streams down in rivulets onto the mountain as the behemoth bears down on him.

He looks it in the eyes, which turns out to be another mistake. That battle ready and hardened expression becomes a numbed, almost despairing stare in less than a second. Something dies in his eyes as the behemoth bears down on him. "..gabranth." his lips mouth the words. He says it so softly. Then cries it out as the creature rams straight into him, claws catching against his chest and already torn shoulder.

Riku goes down for a second time and now dark mist is pouring off him in streams. He pushes himself upright into a sitting position mechanically. Tears stream down his face as he springs to his feet with a defiant roar, patches of darkness beginning to form on his skin as the slowly clenches his armored fist until the nails bite into the flesh, the dark mist forming around him and swirling.

There is a pulse of storm pressure that extends from around him. Riku's expression softens and then fades to nothing, his expression preternaturally calm and composed as he pulls himself together. "Enough." His head cants slightly to the side and the feeling of storm pressure breaks as the threads of shadow that has coalesced in a tempest around him forms into a solid wave of darkness.

The rogue wave reaches up and extends behind him before smashing down on the behemoth with every inch of force. Surrounding. Binding. Choking. Striking with the same brutal, unyielding force as a tidal wave.

Souji Murasame has posed:
The Behemoth rampages again, wounded, pained, and feeling the impact of the intense amount of overwhelming force coming in after it. Souji tenses, waiting for the incoming attack, and slashes once more, the aie crashing as it splits again, deflecting the Behemoth away from him. "CAN YOU EVEN APPROACH ME TO HARM ME, BEAST?" Souji yells at the Behemoth, riding high on adrenaline and success... And then he reverses the blade, bringing it up to his palm.

"It's time to end this..." Souji intones. "Blade that eternally hungers, consume!" He draws the palm along the blade, the runes flaring as dark power begins to surge forward. "MURASAME! COME FORTH!"

There is a sudden crack, and a surge of blackness as a tear rips in space around the Behemoth, crimson spectral claws lashing out and rending into the Behemoth, drawing away portions of its life force in great deadly scything blows, before it all drains away in a red cloud, that is drawn into the blade and absorbed.

Evja has posed:
At this point, Evja barely had a chance to move he was so weak from the fight. It was a quick fight of course for him, but... well, he'd been hit hard, multiple times, and by this point he was barely still standing. Landing in a heap from the reactionary strikes from the Behemoth, Evja pushes himself to a stand and barely manages to stay that way. Carans attempt at helping certainly wasn't met with any distaste, and in fact Evja nodded his way before shivering as he watched Riku attack the beast. That Darkness... it was the same technique that Heartless used at Manhattan.

"What are you, Riku?" he asked softly, mostly to himself, before trying to help finish the job as best he could. Summoning the last of his energy, Evja leaps straight up and crashes down with two spears, once again attempting to hit the Behemoth right atop the head with everything he has. Including his feet.

Kim Possible has posed:
Kim's agility allows her to evade the incoming attacks, but her patience is wearing thin. "I can do this!" Kim says to herself. "I can help my friends finish this guy! I can do anything!" Kim literally begins to glow orange as she says those last words. "I can do anything!" Then she looks to Tifa and points at her. "We can do anything!" Her glowing seems to extend to Tifa.

Kim Possible has posed:
Kim's agility allows her to evade the incoming attacks, but her patience is wearing thin. "I can do this!" Kim says to herself. "I can help my friends finish this guy! I can do anything!" Kim literally begins to glow orange as she says those last words. "I can do anything!"

Montag has posed:
Montag does something prehaps a bit foolish he counter attacks as the beast attacks him and he, drops back out of the way of the huling creature's fearsome attacks. "...I'm not getting paid enough for this." Seriously what the heck was this thing being fed? Super atomic wheeties? He has no idea and isn't sure he'd want to try what it was if he knew about it. he's still got a good line of up a shot finally as he looks down the scope of his rifle and he taieks aime to fire a single breach round at the huge thing as it engages his allies.

"Come on beastie enough of this!"

Eclipse Behemoth has posed:

The Behemoth was actually very tired, just the creature seem to refuse to show any sign of its weakness. Even as it rose up its one front leg a bit trying to keep weight off it, even going as far as trying to remove the spear from its leg now.

Yet as Tifa rushes in, the Behemoth gets a good smack down, but the bar maid is returned with the Behemoth actually pounce on her and then hopping away, which was a near mistake, because on re-landing he almost, falls over. This gives Cirra enough time to come in with her deadly slashes. The Behemoth scuffles back from a few of the scythe's swings. A few of the swings snipping away the fur of the beast and her hand almost makes impact, yet the Behemoth was on the move, trying to leap away.

Like before, but this time, it does fall over and has to force itself with his own momentum to roll back uDOOM</span> race for the beast. The behemoth can only roar in return and tries to actually ram its body into the claws in defiance. Perhaps not the most intelligent thing to do as it flips the mighty behemoth right over.

The Behemoth lands down hard, actually onto its backside, which doesn't help its situation any. Those gold eyes don't see it. They don't even register the building of darkness around Riku; yet the sixth sense does. Something is very wrong and the Behemoth snarls at Riku. He snarls in the boys general direction before he lets out a loud roar. Teeth bared. Fur bristling.

Then Evja leaps up and tries to come down with the lances. The Behemoth quickly notices his shadow more then him and swiftly moves. The lances scrape across the bone skull of the beast, clipping one of the horns that apparently had been chipped before, but this time break it off directly.
This however places the Behemoth directly in Montag's line of fire, the shot nearly goes clean through the Behemoth back leg, which causes it to howl in pain and almost crash over onto the ground. There it stares at Riku once more. The darkness surging ever so much more dangerously. The beast then howls at him, before the Eclipse Behemoth tries to get up, tries to find the strength to maybe leap at the youth.

Yet it is to late. The darkness plunges down just as the Behemoth tries to re-stand. The beast is suddenly surrounded by the pool of darkness. It hacks, struggles to breath. The beast crashes over on his side and actually kicks, struggles, claws. Hacking as his ears pull back. Panting for air, before slowly the Behemoth's eyes close as the darkness starts to pool away.

There the massive behemoth lays. Bleeding, bloodied, and barely breathing, what sounds to be a very staggering breath from something this large.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart phews as she slumps backward a bit, falling on her butt on the ground tiredly, and hurting all over after this fight. She wipes her forehead, watching the behemoth about to keel over. "Might want to do something about this before he dies, if you want to get it alive. It wouldn't give up before almost being dead."

Kim Possible has posed:
Kim kneels beside Tifa. "You OK, Tifa?" Kim asks. "It was tough, but we did it! We can do anything!" She supports Tifa a little and gives her a smirk. "That was a totally badical job we did!"

Evja has posed:
Just as suddenly as the fight ended, Evja staggers back and the half-armored figure wobbles a bit before their legs buckle from beneath them and they simply collapse where they are, rather bad wound on their side probably the source of their inability to carry on at the moment. May be conscious, but... well, not moving much of anywhere.

Avira has posed:
Avira continues to watch, waiting for that moment to intervene with the voice. Except...

Everyone lays into it fiercely, unloading power that she watches with jealousy. For now, the most she can do is stay out of dodge and wait for her arm to heal. But when Riku comes to attack, she finds herself immensely concerned, not just because of that particular skill, but due to the darkness it pours upon the beast.

"Oh <goosehonk>!!!" she calls out, "Watch out, you'll kill it!!" When she thinks it's all clear, she sheathes her weapon and drags herself over to the behemoth. Slowly, she reaches a hand out for it, but hesitates when she sees it move slightly. After another moment, she steels herself and puts a hand upon its head. "I think it's pretty thoroughly whipped. I won't need to use that experimental technique." she says, looking over to Riku.

Caran Steel has posed:
Alright. With the armored man back on his feet, Caran's ready! He sheaths his sword and hops off the chocobo, standing with his hands before him as if holding an invisible two-handed sword. Souji... Souji's calling forth something powerful, and Caran... well, Caran's about to show off for his old classmate. "Darkness beyond blackest pitch. Deeper than the deepest night!" Wind swirls around Caran...

And then the eldritch claws tear into the beast, followed by attack after attack from the others, and the behemoth collapses. Caran glares at it... Is it going down?

It lies there, bloodied and barely breathing. Caran drops his hands, and the wind stops. He'll show off another time... What's important, is the monster is defeated. And he helped, right? "So..." he steps forward. "What now? How do we claim the mark?" He gives Avira a confused look. "We don't want to kill it? It was gonna kill those people, right?" He gestures at the opening to the mine the explorers ran into.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart waves a hand to Kim "I'll be okay, just need to rest a bit. I got knocked around hard by that thing." She phews.

Montag has posed:
Montag lowers his weapon seeing it's no longer a fight, at least form the Behmoth and turns to eye Evja for a moment now isn't the thime to collect who knows how others here might react to it and frankly most of the other peiople he' got no desire to shoot.

"...So... we caught this thing...now what?"

Souji Murasame has posed:
The hunger of the Murasame Blade is quenched... for the moment. Souji turns away, sheathing the weapon as the Behemoth falls. "A job well done." Souji says, looking over the others present. He's not so arrogant as to think that he did this alone. These adventurers... are quite competent. He will have to remember them. "The Alexander will send in their men to contain and retrieve the beast, Steel. Have no fear. Our job here is done, and we will be well paid." Payment... takes many forms, to the heir. He has in fact refused monetary compensation in exchange for a more... esoteric form of payment.

"... You've actually accomplished it, didn't you?" He says, looking over to Caran. "We'll have to talk more later. Have you met the others?" He asks, before he pulls out a card and supplies it. "This has contact information, as well as the channel frequencies for the other students. Talk with them if you like... But I will have need of intelligent and comptent people, Steel. Consider working with me in the future if you wish a chance to shape the world."

Riku has posed:
Sorry, but the Riku you have dialed is temporarily out of service. Please hang up and call again later.

The teenager approaches the behemoth slowly until he's only a few feet away. His eyes glance towards Avira, and no recognition can be seen in his face. He looks at the behemoth and narrows his eyes slowly.

He blinks hard several times, as if trying to focus on her from the other end of a long tunnel and not really understanding what he is seeing. There's more than just one predator in this assemblage and this one is trying to figure out if she would be worth eating.

"..give him back." he mumbles to himself, swaying almost literally on his feet. He grumbles this down at the wheezing Behemoth, saying it again several times as sanity recollects around him like slowly condensing fog.

Riku gives a pained gasp as if he'd been held underwater and shakes his head hard, almost falling. He looks around and blinks several times, wincing and grabbing his shoulder and arm. "..Right." he gasps quietly. "Okay. Let's... let's get back to the Alexander. Thank.. Thank you Avira." he says in a shaky voice.

Caran Steel has posed:
Caran listens, and nods. At the comment about payment, he replies, "I was thinking of doing this for a living, now... Does it pay well?"

At Souji's questions, he nods. "It's called the Gigas Rave. I've met Myla and Dragoon Man... how many are there?" He takes the card, glances at it, and pockets it. "Shape the world?"

Ketan, meanwhile, climbs out of his bag and flies over to the injured, channeling healing energy through his paws. "That was some nice fighting! Here, this should make you feel a bit better..."

Avira has posed:
"The mark description said that Archadia wanted it captured alive." Avira points out to Caran. "Why, I don't know. It's frankly not really my business." Debatable, really. The business of Archadia was her business when she was getting paid for it. "Regardless...we're good." she looks up to the Alexander, then to Official Judge Cirra.

Unable to really help herself, Avira idly starts to pet the fur upon the behemoth's head. A second later, she feels the hair on the back of her neck stand up. Slowly, she looks over to stare at Riku.

"Riku." she says, her voice low, "Riku, snap out of it." That look on his face wasn't right. It wasn't the Riku /she/ knew.

He seems to come to and inwardly, Avira breathes a sight of relief. "...y'all might need a forklift for this one."

Caran Steel has posed:
Caran frowns slightly at Avira, then pulls his tablet out of his bag and brings up the picture he took of the mark description. "...Huh, so it did. Whoops. Well, good thing we didn't kill it then!"

Riku has posed:
Riku slowly looks towards Caran with an unpleasant expression on his face. "...whoops?" he asks with a raised eyebrow. He grits his teeth and lets out a breath through clenched teeth. He's in no position to argue so he just snorts.

"..hey. What's your name?" he asks Caran with a tic of annoyance flashing over his face. He looks very much on the edge of just tipping over, so he kneels by the Behemoth.

"..I'm okay, Avira." he murmurs softly as he looks back towards her. "..yeah. I almost wasn't but.. I'm here."

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart picks herself off the ground after a moment of resting, sighing. Well time to get back on the road. Premium is wiating down the mountain after all. "Well, good thing its dealt with at least.

Cirra Constantine has posed:
When the fight is over, the Behemoth falls and Cirra slides the scyth back on to her back. She reaches an arm around the beasts neck and feels for a pulse. But while making sure the behemoth is still alive she glances sideways at Riku.

Eclipse Behemoth has posed:

The Behemoth remains very still. The breathing was shallow and wheezing. No eyes opening, the tail wasn't even moving. Just laying there completely cold.

The shuttles can be seen being retracted in from the Alexander on high, however another bay was getting ready to be opened from the looks of it. Most likely whatever was going to transport this big boy to the massive airship high above.

As Avira petted the fur, the Behemoth stirred a bit. One of those gold eyes opening. At first those eyes still seemed primitive, yet slowly the gold faded down a bit and a cat like pupil could be made out, a hint of a much deeper intelligence within them.

They close again for a moment, before the Behemoth hacked a cough, blood dripping down from the side of the muzzle. Once he opens eyes again, they seem to fade almost back to the primitive, state until those eyes lock onto something around Riku's neck. Those eyes seem to stare at the charm there, staring at it, before those eyes switch back over to an intelligent look once more.

Those gold eyes seem locked onto Riku, the claw paw clawing at the ground for a moment, before the Behemoth slowly starts to close his eyes once more, huffing out a large bit of air as his body shivers softly.

Cirra would notice the pulse of the beast was there, but the heart rhythm may be seen as a bit slow for a creature this size. Its tail gently tapped the ground before stilling again. There was even a soft rumble that escaped from the beast.

Riku has posed:
Riku narrows his eyes, returning the look that Cirra gives him with a flat expression of exhausted anger. Then his eyes fall on the behemoth again as it stares at him.

He blinks very, very slowly. He sucks in a breath and hisses it out through his teeth, reaching out a hand to lay against the heaving fur and bone.

His eyes go dark and he seems to withdraw, no longer responding.

Caran Steel has posed:
Caran blinks at Riku. "I'm Caran Steel. ...Hey, what's wrong?" He looks at Riku, and Cirra, and at the monster. "That... look, I'm new here. I understand that... that there's intelligent life, there's _people_, besides Humes here. But this... it was attacking people, it just lashed out, it didn't talk..." He stops.

It didn't attack first.

"It didn't attack first..." He kneels by the behemoth. "I don't know what's going on here, but... do you want me to heal it? It won't attack us, will it?"

Riku has posed:
Riku's eyes have a peculiar empty look to them, as if whatever life that was there has withdraw so deeply that he doesn't hear Caran.

He doesn't even move and barely breathes, just staring down at it and into the distance. He swallows, as if it is difficult for him to focus and nods softly.

"He.. " he coughs. "..I don't.. know.. probably." he clutches his fingers around the fur, his voice sounding very far away. "Can you put.. them to sleep first?"

Cirra Constantine has posed:
"It may not be entirely under it's own control." Cirra says. She lets Riku look however he wants, outside of fights she has this annoying stoicism. "And it may react to magic."

Caran Steel has posed:
Caran looks at the behemoth. Was it a beloved pet or something? Ketan flies over to perch on his shoulder, and he puts the tablet away. The red mage shakes his head. "I didn't... learn that spell. It seemed too unreliable." He looks at Cirra. "So... better to wait, then? It's alive now, at least..."

Eclipse Behemoth has posed:

The Behemoth doesn't really move, though its breathing seems to be trying to stabilize or slow down. It was hard to tell which one it was really. Soon another type of carrier ship can be seen moving out from the Alexander's front bay doors. This one was of white steel and was more of a box in shape, known as the Atomos ((http://finalfantasy.cc/dewfish/XII/airships/atomos.jpg)).

As it started to move in, no wind was kicked up. Just the hum of the Magicite turbines that allowed the carrier to float in the air. Several ropes were dropped down as a few Imperial troops slid down the rope. They quickly started to kick a few rocks off to the side and checking over perhaps where to have to the Atomos move in close enough so they could at least land down, or perhaps stick a ramp on in order to slide the Behemoth into the cargo hold of the airship.

One of the Imperial soldiers walks up to Cirra and gives her a salute, "Your Honor. We have medical personal on board the Atomos. Should we request for them to come down and tend to those in need?" The Imperial soldiers does glance over to the Behemoth, to Avira, then to Riku, before back to the Behemoth. "Bloody hell-- that is a big brute..." He then looks at everyone gathered. "..you are all very fortunate. I heard this thing killed.." The Imperial soldier quickly quiets up when the other soldier gives him a look from across the field. "Right."

The Behemoth however seems to open his eyes once more, they are drawn to the airship as those eyes seem to flicker. A low rumble escaping from the Behemoth. Perhaps not to happy to see the airship or maybe it was the very sound of it?

Avira has posed:
Avira's about to say something else to Riku when the behemoth starts to move. Her heartbeat quickens and she stares down at the behemoth. As it continues to move, Avira drops down to her knees ans rests her arms around its head. She puts her mouth near its ear and begins to murmur softly to it.

The murmuring is mostly gentle shushing sounds. Otherwise, it's something along the lines of 'there there, it's alright, go back to sleep'.

Eventually, she looks back up to see the approaching Imperials. Deep within her there's a visceral kneejerk reaction of wariness, grown in her from days spent watching the Rabanstre guard.

Caran Steel has posed:
Caran JUMPS back away when the Behemoth rumbles. Ready to cast magic... but it's not getting up again. FALSE ALARM. He glances around. Man, can /someone/ explain to him what the big deal about this monster is?

Cirra Constantine has posed:
Cirra also glares at the soldier thats running his mouth, temporary Magister or not if they say to much, she'll eat him alive. Possibly litterally.

When the beast moves again Cirra uses her considerable strength to keep it in place. But she follows its gaze at the airship.

Eclipse Behemoth has posed:

Avira's words in the Behemoth's ear seems to cause not only the ear to flick gently, but the large beast does indeed seem to calm down and slowly close his eyes once more. Seeming to slowly go back into a resting state.

The Imperial soldier who was clearing the way motions for the ship to come into a point and makes a quick hand gesture. The ship slowly moves in before the ramp is lowered down and touches the ground. A few more troops come off the airship, a few even riding on a type of wheeled device, perhaps for fun, or just cause its quicker to hitch a ride on it. They get a few chains and start to place leather on specific points to help probably wrap around the Behemoth in order to move it up on the wheeled device.

"How heavy do you think it is?" One of them asks.

"Like it matters?"

"What if it causes the ship to.. you know.." and he gestures with his hand a 'sinking' motion.

The other solider just gives him a dead pan look as he tightens the leather piece.

Montag has posed:
Montag stares for a moment and is just trying to recover he got his armor trashed on his off time this is coming out of his pay check. He inwardly swears but it could be worse the creatre could be on the lose still. Though thought passes in his mind he finds it silly and dismisses it was too damn silly.

Zargabaath has posed:
"If you have time enough to worry about something so absurd, soldier, you are neglecting your current task."

The authorative bark from the Judge of Reason preceeds his actual appearance as he steps down from the Atomos, his gait more akin to marching than walking. Medics disperse from the airship amongst those who helped capture the behemoth, offering healing magicks or bandages should they not otherwise be occupied nor assisting. Judge Magister Zargabaath himself issues no verbal orders to the soldiers, instead heading towards the group itself.

He offers a salute once he gets within decent audio range. "Well met, one and all. The Alexander is prepared to receive once the behemoth is secured."

Avira has posed:
The quickened beating of Avira's heart gradually slows when the behemoth grows still again. Once she thinks the Imperials firmly have their hands and chains upon the creature, she backs off and rubs a hand through her hair.

She hears the familiar voice of Judge Magister Zargabaath and she steps away further. "Well, looks like you'll all take it from here." she says, mostly to Riku. "So I should go. I've got to prepare for later."

Riku has posed:
Riku pauses for a long time.

He barely looks up at Avira, furrowing his brow slightly and then looking back down at the behemoth silently with the faintest nod.

Eclipse Behemoth has posed:

The Imperial troops did indeed get to work and the soldier concerned of 'sinking airships' only snapped to working faster when Zargabaath spoke up. The started to tie the chains around the Behemoth carefully. Trying to not only bind the beast, but also make sure they could pull it up without harming the Behemoth.

One of the Imperial soldiers passed by Riku and gave him a funny look; a look of actual concern for a moment, but said nothing as he picked up a far larger chain and hooked it back of the device they had wheeled out. Then the soldier made a quick motion.

There was some yelling before suddenly the large chain could be seen tightening up. Soon the Behemoth was slowly, carefully being dragged up onto the device. A few shouts of 'careful' including an easy from time to time.

While they pulled up the Behemoth, some blood that had yet to be dried up was being dragged across the rock and murmurings between the soldiers for those willing to listen. Something about 'cutting open the Behemoth' and 'Remains' and questions like, 'do you think they will find anything' or 'this was a waste of time'.

Seems not even the Imperial soldiers know the truth behind any of this. It was also obvious not all of these were Zargabaath's men. Some where from another fleet and a few others even from the 9th bureau. Though those of the 9th were being /extremely/ quiet.

Caran Steel has posed:
Ketan has sensitive cat ears! He looks over at the Behemoth being dragged away. "They're gonna cut it open? Did it eat somebody?"

Caran Steel has posed:
After a moment's thought, Caran looks at Ketan, then at the airship. "Then why did they want it alive...?" A sudden feeling tells him not to be directly between Riku and the soldiers or the ship -- He takes a few steps back towards his chocobo.

Cirra Constantine has posed:
Cirra follows along besides the bound behemoth as it's dragged into the airship. The chatter around her makes her frown, slowly until she finally moves ahead and turns on them.

Her gaze through the helmet could peel the paint off a battleship and it stops on each of the soldiers.

"No more chatter. Just do your job, my position maybe temporary but I will not abide by sloopiness and foolishness."

Some of them might have heard the rumors about her, that she volunteered for something, something that made her stronger. Some of the rumors might mmake it sound like she's as dangerous as the behemoth. Those are exagurations.

But she might be capable of as much anger.

With that done she turns and salutes properly to Zargabaath, "Your Honor."

Souji Murasame has posed:
"Maybe. You'll have to keep working at ti for a while." Souji replies to Caran. "And yes... Shape the world. It's not enough to simply have power, Steel. You need to use that power for a purpose. OTherwise you're basically going to become Dragonius, and that's just sad."

Caran Steel has posed:
Caran looks back to Souji, and nods. "Yeah. That's why I'm gonna help people. Restore their worlds, stop these 'heartless'... restore /our/ world." He suddenly stares off into space. "I was without purpose, before. Now, I have one. Dragonius doesn't?"

Zargabaath has posed:
Judge Magister Zargabaath inclines his helm to Judge Magister Constantine's return salute. "Your Honor. You've done well." His helm cants slightly to regard the adventurers as well. "Everyone has done well, it seems."

He lets her deal with the soldiers' continued chattering, only intending to bark again if her authority is challenged, looking instead to Caran and Ketan. "To answer the question. No, it will not be cut open. The rumors of its impending death are... highly exaggerated, I assure you."

He simply gives Avira a nod borderlining on a faint bow, acknowledging her presence if not her departure, and leaves it at that. He then walks over to Riku, resting one hand on his shoulder for a moment intending to catch his attention. "Judge Riku. I suggest returning to the Atomos and getting some rest."

Riku has posed:
Riku rises mechanically and turns, eyes darkened and distant.

"Alright." he says listlessly. "I will do that, your honor." he moves towards the Atomos without another wor.d

Souji Murasame has posed:
Souji emits a lous bark of a laugh. A short, simple one. "Hah!" He shakes his head. "You have determination, Steel. Let's see how far it takes you. Go ahead and ally yourself like that. Good luck in your work."

Eclipse Behemoth has posed:

Once they get the Behemoth on board, they start to motion for the others to load up. One of them however walks over to Souji and Caran, with two pouches in his hand. This one seems a bit more armored then the others, including wearing a cape. It happens to be one of the Judges in charge.

"Thank you for your aid in capturing the Behemoth. If you have done us a great service in your aid." He extends out the pouches. "Though we do not know if you partook in the mark, but if so. The office will handle that reward. This is just compliments from Archades."

The same is done for others who happen to stick around as well. Seems within the pouch is a about a good sum of 35,000 gil and including a merchant coin with the a letter attached stating it was good for a single item purchase at any Upper Archadian store.

Souji Murasame has posed:
Souji nods to the man. "Thank you. I will be in touch. Do not worry about me." He turns away, looking back up into the sky, towards his own ship. "It's time for me to move on." He says to no one in particular. "Farewell." Wind builds around Souji... And he leaps up into the air, flying up towards the Ame-no-Torifune. Archades will indeed be contacted later about his desired payment...

Caran Steel has posed:
Caran is a bit taken aback at the laugh. "Hey, what's funny about that? Don't you want our world back?" To the judge paying him, he nods. "Thanks." At the pouch's weight, he raises an eyebrow and peeks inside before putting it in his bag. "Good luck with... whatever it is that's going on with that thing." Aaand Souji's off. Seems he doesn't want to talk further. What the heck?? Man... So much is going on in this world... He climbs back on to Blackwing and takes to the sky, heading for the nearest portal back to Traverse Town.