And we're in the fighting now :D
And we have another co-author. Or, this is when the third co-author gets in. Lethargic Insomniac joins into the plot now :D
"Monsters." Lloyd mumbles to Finas.
"I see 'em. And there's a shitload..." He grumbles.
"Does that mean I don't need to use the limiter?" Lloyd asks hopefully, although he does already have it in his hand.
Finas hands Lloyd a new one. "Anything up to Spiral Flare. Don't overcharge the novices."
"Spiral Flare, Spiral Flare..." Lloyd frowns. ".. .That's on level with Eruption... Explode... and Flame Lance, isn't it..." Lloyd's tapping his fingers on the red and gold hilt. He blinks then turns about. "Monsters! A butt load of them!" he rides back around shouting this. Finas and Nylen draw their swords. Fedrock looks sober.
"S-Sir, there's about 50 monsters." A knight reports to Finas. "They seem low-level, but there may be too many."
"Aha! I know one!" Lloyd starts glowing with a pale blue white.
"Burning furnace incinerate the enemies standing before me..." Finas is casting a fire. "Die! Spiral Flare!" The spell charges before firing a beam of fire and rock, eliminating about 15 monsters.
"Let's see if I can get this right on a spell I didn't practice!" Lloyd says, again like a chant without it actually being one, and throws his hand out. "Freeze Lancer!" This spell looks a tiny bit over charged, given the fact that the shards of ice were about as big as blades rather than arrows. Finas flinches as the spell soars over his head. Fedrock leads a charge of the swords and lances. Lloyd is distracted by his horse, who doesn't want to stay still. "I don't know how to do that, so stay put, thanks!" he grumbles to his horse as he stops working on spells. the other mages give him weird looks and cast more fire and dark spells. Lloyd hisses under his breath and maneuvers his horse away from the dark-casting mages.
"Strange power unleashed! Cast my enemies into a pit of nightmareish despair! Violent Pain!" Finas casts the high level dark spell. Lloyd yelps, letting go of the reigns to cover his face. Of course, at the same moment, his horse got it into its head that its rider didn't know what the hell he was doing, and reared. The result was that Lloyd tumbled off onto his back, and his horse pranced away from him. "Sorry." Finas says, offering to lift Lloyd onto his own horse. Lloyd blinks at him. There're violet marks on his face.
"You planning on casting any more dark?" he asks seriously, lightly touching his face and grimacing while he gets up.
"Not the high level ones." Finas is panting, visibly tired.
"Here." Lloyd passes him an orange gel, and takes up his offer of a ride. "This is a moderate, moral boosting Light." He eyes Finas. "Don't make any comments about me singing... Holy Song." the two words were actually the key for the song, and then Lloyd starts singing. There's a magic moral boost, some minor healing and turquoise feathers that cling to cracks in armor or wounds that didn't cover. Finas chews on the orange gel and shivers slightly at the unearthly singing. Lloyd's burns slowly heal as he keeps singing. Several of the knights are giving him weird looks, but since they aren't taking as much from the hits they take, they ignore his oddities in favor of monster extermination.
"Lone Wolf Charge!" Fedrock is fighting down numerous monsters, at once, by himself. The monsters, when whittled down in numbers to a handful, turn tail and run. Fedrock is coated in monster blood, panting. Many of the men who followed him are in a similar position. All in all, they lost one man. Who shot himself in the foot... And so Lloyd stops singing, and sighs.
"I think I need a drink." Lloyd's voice cracks.
"What do you have in mind?" Nylen says, wiping blood from his face. He has a youthful glint in his eyes.
Lloyd stares at him. "I wasn't thinking of alcohol."
"Neither was I..." Nylen says, frowning. He pulls a bloodied water skin from his belt, handing it to Lloyd. Lloyd blinks, looking a bit confused as he takes the water skin. He's still got a few of those purple-y burns on his face, but they aren't as vivid.
He wipes it off a bit, and takes a drink. "Thanks."
Nylen blinks. "Jeez...What happened to you?"
Lloyd blinks. "I'm still burned?" he hands the water skin back before fishing in his pockets. He comes up with a blade that isn't one of his regular two, and uses it like a mirror. "Yep, still burned.. crap. Someone know Photon?"
Finas looks shifty. "I do."
"Hit me with it." Lloyd says, sheathing the blade and re-pocketing it. He seems to have those fancy 'you can shove a lot of shit in this' pockets.
Finas jumps from his horse, starting to cast. "Oh, blessed light, cast the evil from these sinners..."
"Wait, you're doing...What?" Fedrock yelps, panicking.
"It's fine." Lloyd shrugs, standing there with his thumbs in his pockets. The other knights are half watching, and half picking up after the battle. Lloyd's horse was reclaimed, as well.
"Flee from the light! Proton!" Finas casts the spell onto Lloyd. Lloyd twitches but otherwise stays put. the purple burns eat some of the light about him, then fade. After a moment or two, he steps out of the spell.
"That's good, thanks." Many of the knights are staring at him strangely now. Finas and Fedrock are looking a bit uncomfortable at the stares. "It makes sense, dun it?" Lloyd stretches and scratches the back of his head. "Dark burns, so light should heal 'em, 'cause light and dark are opposites." Lloyd nods, and then distracts himself by eyeing his horse. "You need to behave."
"It's not that." Finas takes Lloyd away from the others. "Can you tone down the weirdness?"
"Weirdness, weirdness..." Lloyd mumbles. "Oh, the strange spells and talking to things and methods of healing?" Lloyd thinks. "I can heal the burns on my own time, I guess... but then I'd be walking about with them for longer..." Finas looks back. There are many knights with injuries.
"I'm sure that's not a problem."
"Violet burns aren't a problem?" Lloyd blinks.
"Lots of people have injuries."
"Oookay.." Lloyd blinks. "Personally, I still think purple burns are weird, but..."
"So is absorbing magic..."
"I wasn't absorbing the magic." Lloyd crosses his arms. "I was using the Light-oriented Aer to dispel the Dark-oriented Aer that was clinging to me and making the burns. I didn't gather, or keep any of that, more like... let it shower on me and wash away the other kind. It only looks like I absorb it because it barely hurts."
"Yeah. That's weird." Fedrock points out.
"Really?" Lloyd blinks. "I thought it was like using water to put out fire."
"..." Finas and Fedrock look at each other.
"Fine, fine, I'll do my best not to do stuff like that." Lloyd peers at them. "... Although, if I manage to find my dad, it's... going to get weirder."
"That..." Finas turns away. "Doesn't surprise me."
"Some things will." Lloyd mutters, but he's facing the horse now. "So!" he turns about again, smiling. "What do we do now?"
"Go to Halure." Fedrock comments simply.
"... Okay." Lloyd shrugs. "Uh. Should I offer healing?" he scratches the back of his head. "Or is that weird too?" The captains should have the feeling that this is going to be something Lloyd will ask often. Finas sighs. Lloyd frowns at him. "You want me to tone down 'weirdness' so, I need to know what's weird and what's not, cause I'm not sure what you think is weird."
"Fine. Just ask." Finas sounds deadpan, climbing on his horse.
"I'm going to take that as a 'ask if anyone wants healing'." Lloyd says, and wanders over to do so. Finas sets his horse into a trot, helping those who need help. Seems the knight has a compliment of healing gels. Lloyd heals a little, but more Knights head to the mage-knights with healing spells.
Finas waits for everyone to be healed. "Right. There's a sheltered site a little bit further, we can rest there." there's muttered chorus of agreement to his statement, and they remount and Lloyd's better with his horse this time. They move out to a covered cave in the edge of the mountain-face. And Lloyd manages to stay on his horse the entire time, much to his look of triumph. They set up camp. Lloyd pulls his pack out of his pocket, which definitely couldn't fit there, and then a bedroll from his pack that might have fit if nothing else was in there. The pack goes back into his pocket.
"..." Finas sighs. "That's a weird thing."
"Really?" Lloyd blinks. "That's bizarre. I've always had pockets like these. The tag calls them 'pocket of holding'."
"We mustn't have invented them yet." Finas says.
Nylen cuffs him. "Stop warping space-time."
"That's bad." Lloyd nods. "Screwing with space-time is very bad. Origin would be very displeased. I'll work about it then." he puts his pack on his back instead of on his pocket.
"..." Finas disappears into the gloom of the cave to explore. Lloyd looks a little at a loss about what to do he so sits by his horse and watches confusedly. The knights, however, do know what to do, and are setting up neat sleeping areas and starting cook fires and getting the lottery system for night watch ready.
Fedrock groans, drawing night watch. "Dammit..." He mutters.
"So... What should I do?" Lloyd asks Fedrock. "Cause... uh.. Not exactly... part of the group, so..." Lloyd grimaces.
"Uh." He looks about for Finas. "Help cook?"
"All right." Lloyd brightens and wanders over to the cook fires to help.
Finas appears, dripping slightly with blood. "A few bats. Nothing hard." Lloyd's helping them make stew. There is the sound of clanking behind them. All the knights have weapons drawn and pointed. Lloyd included, but he's the non-knight.
A decorated Knight with brown hair and a unique orange uniform holds up his arms in mock surrender. "I give up."
"..." Finas looks the man up and down. "Captain Damuron, correct?"
"Pretty sure." Lloyd straightens, frowning thoughtfully. "Only seen him from afar but... That'd be weird so I won't explain."
Damuron looks at Lloyd. "Damuron Atomais, First Captain of the Imperial Knights. And you are?"
"Lloyd Aurion, not Knight, not Guild, currently something the lines of... 'potential knight but insanely stubborn on refusing'." Lloyd shrugs.
"Commandant Alexei said your brigade would be joining with ours..." Finas says.
Nylen nudges Finas whispering "Did he?" Damuron nods at Lloyd, then turns to Finas.
"Yes, the Commandant sent my brigade to join with yours." He looks around. "They're here somewhere."
A long whine of "Captaaaaaain" sounds from outside. "Waaaaaait."
Finas steps forward. "Captain Finas Scifo. It's an honor, sir." He salutes. Damuron nods, but stays put until more men in orange-themed uniforms reach them. It looks like that brigade is on foot, and most of them not quite in the shape that Damuron himself was. Or perhaps Damuron had left earlier at a walk and his brigade had to book it. They also seemed to be a bit mismatched, and very varied in size. Lloyd blinks, then turns back to cooking, as they now had more to feed. Fedrock walks up.
"Captain Nylen Fedrock, sir!" He fakes too much effort at it, wanting to see Damuron's reaction at the near-mocking greeting.
Damuron nods. "Nice to see you're enthusiastic." He turns to direct his brigade into settling about theirs. Lloyd's staring at the pot as if he was wishing it would spontaneously multiply.
"I like him." Nylen comments.
"So does most of his brigade." Lloyd mutters, wandering back. He'd been kicked from cooking duty as some of Damuron's men started to do aid. "So what do I do now?" His hands are in his pockets.
"Everything seems to have been taken care of for now." Finas says looking over the camp.
"... So that means... nothing." Lloyd deflates. "Ok."
Finas shrugs. "Sorry." Damuron looks around, then decides it's slightly awkward. He goes for the food. Finas and Fedrock sit somewhere, back to back, both smoking at their pipes.
Lloyd lies there on his bedroll, staring at the cave ceiling. "... Hey, Nylen." Lloyd gets up and stares at the captain. "Lemme take night shift." Damuron waves away several of his brigade, moving to the mouth of the cave to take night watch as well. The rest of the brigade sleep as only soldiers who have been on the move all day can.
Nylen looks up from a book he was reading. "Why?"
"Because I'm bored." Lloyd mumbles.
"Why don't we both take it, then? I already drank 6 cups of coffee."
Damuron looks around "What is that smell?"
"Coffee, sir." mutters one of the tired brigade. "We don't let you have it."
Lloyd blinks. "Okay then." he migrates over to Fedrock and Damuron and sits down. It doesn't take him long to pull out a chunk of wood and start carving again.
Fedrock is still reading. "Bored..." He mutters.
Damuron looks at Lloyd and Fedrock. "Okay. I guess we're sharing watch." He puts his hands behind his head and kicks his legs out. "First watch is the best. You never get woken up in the middle of the night."
Lloyd throws a wood shaving at Fedrock. "Mmhm." He agrees with Damuron. And Nylen retorts by throwing a rock back.
Damuron watches this exchange and yawns. "...So..." Lloyd catches the rock and tosses it away.
"Sooo...?" Lloyd asks.
"..." Nylen yawns. "Wanna spar?"
Damuron looks up innocently. "Who, me?"
Lloyd blinks rapidly. "Uhhh... Probably."
"Well, I'm certainly not fighting Lloyd."
"Why not?"
"I have a problem with magic control." Lloyd grins.
"He nearly killed me and Finas."
"That's the best kind of sparring...for...new captains." He looks away
"I went overboard." Lloyd grins. Nylen stares blankly at Damuron and Lloyd.
Damuron stands up and stretches. "I haven't really gotten much exercise today." A still awake soldier rolls his eyes. He walks just outside of the cave.
Lloyd shoves Nylen with his foot, grinning. "You asked." Nylen stands, grabbing his sword. Damuron fingers his red sword and looks at them lazily. Fedrock just has his plain sword. "No Strike Artes or magic sound good?"
Damuron looks at him. "...No magic, sure, but what am I supposed to practice if we don't use Strike Artes?" Lloyd watches, amused with his whittling.
"...Okay. Base Artes. No Arcanes."
Damuron shrugs. "Whatever you want." he launches into a rapid series of sword strikes. Just like Dancing.
Fedrock reacts. "Ghost Wolf!" He still gets hit by a few of the strikes.
"I'm just going to sit here until it looks like you need healing..." Lloyd says, carving absently. For all he's not watching what he's doing, he's not doing badly. Damuron jumps to the side of the Ghost Wolf and strikes towards Fedrock, glancing at Lloyd. Fedrock gets knocked to the ground by the blow.
He gets to his feet, whirling around. "Destruction Field!"
Raven flips backward, but his feet catch the edge of the field. "Hot," he notes. He surges forward. "Violet Weasel!"
Fedrock attempts to attack back. "Azure Edge!" Damuron flips behind Lloyd as the Azure Edge comes straight towards them. Lloyd blinks, looks up and gets knocked back. His head hits Damuron's shins as he falls over.
"... Ow." Lloyd mutters, oh so very enthusiastically.
"...Sorry." Damuron shrugs. Lloyd stares blandly up, and puts his carving and tools in his pockets.
"All right then." He jumps to his feet from lying on his back and grabs his blades. "I guess I'm part of this now?" Fedrock backs off, looking a bit scared.
Damuron looks at Lloyd. "Why do I suddenly feel the urge to run?"
"No idea." Lloyd's grinning. "Lightning Tiger Blade!" The Material Blades are out and he doesn't exactly try to hit.
Damuron dodges and frowns. "Is that even a base arte?" Fedrock is still backing off, still looking worried.
"Well, it's an Altered Base." Lloyd shrugs. Damuron keeps backing up, then rolls to the side and strikes upwards.
"Oh, Resplendant...Mystic Drive!" A cry comes from the sidelines. A seal forms under the three, lifting them up into the air before dumping them on the ground.
"Oi, oi! Cheating!" Lloyd points as he sits up. "You can't join in like that!"
Damuron sprawls on his side. "I thought we made RULES."
"I never said to wake the entire camp." It's Finas. And he's been woken by the sparring and not best pleased.
Damuron spares a look towards the cave. "Oops."
"... I only said two things..." Lloyd mutters.
"It was you who woke me." Finas says to Lloyd. Lloyd makes a very mature face at him. Damuron snickers. A rock gets thrown out of the cave and hits him in the back of the head.
Someone yells, "We heard you too Captain!" Fedrock says nothing.
"Get in the cave." Finas says. And one shouldn't disobey a pissed off, sleep-deprived mage-knight.
"Hai, hai..." Lloyd gets up and picks up his blades and heads in.
Damuron rubs the back of his head. "Don't throw things at your captain's head!"
"Wear a helmet!"
"..."
"That means you two, too." He points at Damuron and Fedrock. Fedrock hops to it.
Damuron stomps into the cave. "I'm too tired for watch now." He steps on the toes of a sleeping soldier. "Your turn!" Lloyd laughs a little, sitting just inside the cave mouth and carving again. Damuron slips out of his boots and picks one more solider to keep watch. He selects this man by falling onto him and shoving him off the bedroll.
"Captain! Use your own bedroll!"
"I forgot it. Go keep watch!" Lloyd's covering his mouth to try to stop from laughing. It's not really working.
"Shut up!" Finas' voice rings out. "Next person to make a noise other than snoring will regret it!" Damuron kicks the solider he woke up, who scowls at him but gets up and goes to keep watch anyways. Lloyd firmly focuses on carving again. It's starting to look like a familiar human now.
Blaze/Leon is of the opition that Fedrock and Yuri share Artes, as they are passed through the Blastia or something like that.