Welcome to Adventu, your final fantasy rp haven. adventu focuses on both canon and original characters from different worlds and timelines that have all been pulled to the world of zephon: a familiar final fantasy-styled land where all adventurers will fight, explore, and make new personal connections.
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year 5, quarter 3
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My life passes vainly by, as I watch the long rains fall.
The look on "Mr. Dreadlocks" face was enough to curdle milk. Kana-Ei made a gesture of apology - which he suspected would go largely ignored. Upon reflection, maybe just calling him Sir would have gotten him further...
He watched on tentatively as the musclebound blue man went about pressing into the murals. Kana-Ei hoped his hunch would pay off. After all, it would probably be a bit embarrassing if he called the man Mr. Dreadlocks and failed to advance them. One after another would steadfastly remain in place. Not even budging a smidgeon. Then he arrived at the mural with the large figure. It seemed as though the push was met with a little resistance at first, but soon a click that echoed through the cavernous space was heard. It almost made Kana-Ei excited. Until he saw Kahlil's reaction.
As at this point Kana-Ei was the furthest away from the group, he did not like where this was going. From what he could remember of the trials he had faced - none of them actively tried to kill the summoners. A small blessing in hindsight. There was already plenty in Spira that was more than willing to accommodate that niche.
Unsure of what to do, he hovered in a semi-crouch. It wasn't until the first spear nearly took him out that he threw himself on the floor with a bleat of terror. He began commando crawling as fas as he could towards the one called Cauis, barely looking up more than he had to to make sure he wasn't going to be impaled. He hoped that his protection spell would at least keep the party from outright dying should they get hit by a spear. He did not want to be the guinea pig in that experiment though.
According to Kahlil, there was a passage opening that was forming. A quick survey of the now trap infested room would prove this to be true. While this was going on, Kana-Ei could hear the distinct sound of stones sliding against each other. A sound that he assumed meant that the entrance they had came through was being sealed off. It was closing at a much faster pace than their exit was opening though.
Kana-Ei noted that the new pattern that the spears shot from the wall in were from the diagonal, leaving a fairly safe passage in the centre of the room. At least for the time being. Kahlil, seeming to notice this as well began to crawl. The backpack he had on afforded him some level of protection the others did not necessarily have. The visual was like that of an Adamantoise hopped up on chocobo feathers as he barreled off down the safe zone on his hands and knees. It might have been hilarious in other conditions.
Due to his distance from the newly formed entrance at the start of this abject nightmare, Kana-Ei would be the last to pass through. At some point during the chaos, he whispered a haste incantation on the other party members before himself. The logic being the others had far more body mass than he did - ergo he was a much smaller target to hit and did not need the additional speed as much. It was not a spell he was as adept with - so it wouldn't last a long time but should have been sufficient for the present situation.
Hopefully that eased their transition through to the next room...
...Go figure. He finds the buttons that he was looking for... and it activated a trap.
Spears suddenly shot out from all directions from the floor to the walls, their metal teeth attempting to sink into the bodies of everyone around them! The entire room became thick with missiles, projectiles that were no simple and thin darts! No, these were long-shafted spears being fired at high speeds from all angles, their length providing an additional obstacle as they got entangled with each other! Amarant growled lowly in anger, frustrated that THIS had to be their first trial! Out of everything that they had to encounter... it HAD to be spears...
Amarant, despite his utter distaste for the architect of this place, deftly dodged and shifted out of the way as spears FLOODED his position from all angles, their points SHATTERING upon contact with the walls and floors, their wooden necks FLYING off in random, dangerous directions! This was bad... Especially since they never stopped coming! Even with his agility, being 7 feet tall was NOT an advantageous! Even with his ninja-like agility and reflexes, even with his movements a blur and his hair like a blaze among the dark, Amarant still felt the sting of metal arrow-heads cut into his shoulders, the shafts of tangled spears slapping his legs like jaws trying to clamp down upon them!
Energy seemed to spark around Amarant, a dark purple glow that SPARKED across his body! With a swift KICK, Amarant SHATTERED an oncoming volley of spears to splinters... or should it be several kicks... If anyone was watching the warrior closely, they would see mulitple rapid strikes taking the spears, each one snapping it into a smaller and smaller piece... With a wave of his arm, a purple flash SLICED through several projectiles as Amarant shot for the exit... his speed abnormally increasing as the white-mage cast Haste upon him!
With one final DASH, the red-headed man ZIPPED Into the next room... his pale skin drippling with blood... her teeth bared... emerald eyes flickering between their natural green... and a sinister, cold silver... Anger and frustration flooded his mind that he was almost KILLED by his OWN arrogance... that he had nearly killed THESE IDIOTS with the same mistake!... an old power was very close to snapping lose within him... closer still to taking control.
The Haste spell was appreciated and Caius acknowledged it immediately as he seemed to know what the spell was as soon as it activated. But it didn't save him just yet from these things. When the patterns continued to change, Caius was forced to change tactics. Holding up his hands, a barrier emerged in front of him, as while Caius couldn't move much while using it, he could at least change its position as he saw the spears coming. The magical Glaive Barrier was rocked with each hit, but it held fast. As soon as Caius saw an opportunity between them though, he took action. A dagger would appear in his hand as if from thin air and he tried to toss it between the spears, using its small size as a means of a quick throw that wouldn't be intercepted as it rocketed toward the opening door. Taking a deep breath, Caius activated the Warp ability as he disappeared in a brilliant blue light, blipping forward and catching the dagger in time to roll forward and dive into the doorway.
When they arrived though, Caius realized that Kahlil had gotten there before them. Quirking a brow, he had to ask.
"How did you know the patterns would change?" Caius asked. That had to be the only way he got there so quickly. Kahlil had seemingly no method of defense, no combat capabilities he could see, and no abilities of his own. The only thing he could have had -- was knowledge of what was to come.
"You could hear the mechanisms before they started changing their patterns" Kahlil explained as he dusted himself off. "You didn't hear them?"
Caius' eyes widened. He supposed he hadn't. He hadn't thought of listening for potential changes. Clearly he had misjudged Kahlil. To know these kinds of things came from experience. “You know, Goldylocks, I honestly thought you were bullshitting me” Caius remarked toward their host. “An expression that doesn’t look like you’ve explored for a day, way too cheery for exploring a potential death trap under the sands, and a knife for a weapon. I figured we’d be doing all the work here, but you have incredible foresight. Honor dictates I at least acknowledge that."
Kahlil laughed in turn. "I get that a lot, boy! But alas, yes! I am a legendary explorer, do not worry about the authenticity of my status! Now, shall we get going?"
Caius nodded his head. Though it was mere seconds later that Kahlil's feet began to sink. He had stepped on a pressure plate, it appeared. And as the plate pressed down, a door began to open...
And out came a massive stone golem. And it didn't look happy. If that didn't warn them of what was to come, it charging at them with arms smashing downward certainly would.
My life passes vainly by, as I watch the long rains fall.
Kana mildly regretted giving the other men the haste spell before himself. As the rest of the party sped off, the youth felt that the closing door was impossibly far away. Managing to muster enough concentration to perform the spell on himself, he began ducking and weaving through the flurry of spears that threatened to end him. The occasional infuriating puzzles of the cloisters seemed absolutely magical by comparison. How he desperately wanted to be back in Macalania getting irritated as yet another podium slid off into the abyss as the half formed bridge mocked him with its incompleteness.
The pathway down the middle of the room changed to a diagonal line. Trying to adjust the course of his movement to match with this, Kana felt a searing pain shoot up his right forearm. A trickle of red spurt forth from it. It was a superficial cut, but it was apparent that he had been grazed by one of the spears. Cursing under his breath, Kana kept running. Cauis and the other man had entered the room by this point in time. He managed to pivot mid-stride and go into a forward tumble as a spear shot right past him, landing horizontally in the adjacent wall. Apparently another change had happened. This was getting increasingly lethal. Thankfully the door was getting closer. However it was rapidly shutting, he was going to have to crawl through it. He threw his umbrella onto the ground and watched it roll through the door. Lying as flat to the ground as he could Kana commando crawled through the rest of the nightmarish room.
Kana-Ei crawled into the new space, just as the door closed behind him. Picking himself up, as well as the umbrella, he brushed himself off.
"Well...that was a wake-up call I was not exp- Oh...give us a break!" He exclaimed as a stone golem, much like the ones in Zanarkand, and the murals from earlier. He knew that the image was bad news, and his hunches did usually prove to be right. He stashed his umbrella and produced his staff and fan. How he wished he still had Bahamut. This creature would have fallen to the powerful aeon in a few hits.
Kahlil let out a wild laugh in response: "This is the life of an adventurer, Kupo! Wouldn't change it for the world!"
"Then why don't you fight it by yourself?" The dark haired man muttered darkly under his breath as he began to conjure a bolt of frost before propelling it onward with his fan. He hoped it would slow the creature down a little. The man started to scan the room for anything that looked like it could resemble the stave or piece of equipment that the figure in the mural was holding. Perhaps that would either quell the fiend. He hoped that Cauis was good at drawing the fiend's attention in the interim. Kana-Ei was very sure that this creature would shatter his bones in one hit if it came rumbling towards him.
"If you can outmaneuver the beast, you might be able to stop it!" Came the suggestion from Kahlil in turn. "The blonde one -- Caius might be able to use his little warp trick. And Amarant..."
It was there that Kahlil seemed to realize that the large red-haired man was nowhere to be found.
"Amarant?"
For one reason or another, it seemed that he had either fled and abandoned them, or had simply gone missing. Or perhaps he had died when the arrows had begun to be fired? Caius knew that wasn't the case, as the familiar buzzing in his head when he tried to recollect where Amarant had last been seen told him everything that he needed to know.
"He's most likely safe" Caius spoke up, as his sword materialized into his hand. "He's just... Home, most likely."
Kahlil didn't really know what he meant by that, and most likely assumed Caius to just be thinking irrationally in the pressure of the moment, but he just shook his head and stepped back.
"Well, this is where you two earn your keep. Good luck!" Kahlil spoke up, and Caius shrugged his shoulders. Kahlil didn't look like a fighter, so he wasn't surprised by that. Caius had been expecting to carry the load in combat for this trip regardless, so this wasn't a problem to him. Kana appeared to be looking for something to stop the beast with, so Caius took that and Kahlil's hint as a cue to draw its attention.
"Affirmative" Caius spoke, his expression turning to stone as the mercenary seemed primed to get to work. The frost spell seemed to slow the monster's movements a little, but it managed to break through the ice that formed on contact before long, and it brought its large arms up. Caius knew immediately where it was going with this, and he responded by flicking his sword behind him. Disappearing just as the monster brought its mammoth mitts down on him, Caius re-appeared and caught his sword, before taking aim and firing a blast from the gunblade's tip at the golem. The attack hit, though he wasn't sure if it did much. But Caius knew full well he was just buying time while they thought up a plan. A small smirk spread across the corner of his mouth as the golem let out an enraged roar and started to hurtle full speed toward Caius.
My life passes vainly by, as I watch the long rains fall.
Was there another member of their group? He couldn't clearly remember. A blue man with red hair had been there just before? Hadn't he? It mattered not. Kana-Ei and Caius had something much more important to focus on right now. That consisted of not being trampled by the fiend in front of them. Kahlil was somewhere in the background providing advice that Kana had every intention of following.
The ice magic that Kana attempted to use was initially somewhat effective in its goals. It didn't last particularly long though, as within mere moments, the ice that locked the golem's joints shattered with an audible boom. Kana was quickly gathering that while it might have been a useful tactic, it was unlikely to be a sustainable one. Perhaps lightning would provide a more potent effect? He supposed the only way to find out was to try.
Which he was about to when he saw that the blonde haired man teleported out of the way of the creature before delivering what seemed to be a significant blow. From what Kana could see, another few successfully placed blows like that would completely cripple the fiend's arm. Like that Caius vanished again as the golem tried to bring down its colossal hands upon the man. Such a strange combat style... He thought to himself. He'd never seen anything like that on Spira. It seemed to do the job though. He wouldn't want to have to fight against the man though. He was unsure of his ability to keep up with such an unpredictable foe.
As the stone giant ran at the taller man, Kana closed his fan before snapping it open with a violent crack. A bolt of white-blue thunder spurt forth from the now open fan and struck the creature at the base of its spine. While it seemed to cause the creature to temporarily falter in its advance, Kana was unsure if the Thundara spell had been effective.
Not wanting to waste any more time, the youth scanned the room with a more keen eye. He noticed what appeared to be a small altar like structure towards the very back of the room. As he ran towards it, while casting another blizzard spell, he saw there was a circular recess. He decided that would probably be enough magic for the moment, lest he draw the creature's current ire away from the much more adept mercenary. It seemed to match up with one of the panels in the other room. However he couldn't for the life of him see anything resembling the stave in that mural.
"Caius! Kahlil?! Can you see anything resembling a staff?!" He called out, hoping that maybe they were a tad more observant than he was. He found himself wishing for another abled body soldier to help them fell this thing.
Damn did Maxi have absolutely nothing but bad luck.
Waking up in the desert and meeting a Turk first thing was already a pretty ill omen. But, when he and her parted ways, he hoped things would have started going his way. A few hours into his trek he was relatively confident that he was reaching near the edge of the sands, which ideally meant out and the barrens and into some answers. Wouldn’t be long until he could figure out whatever the hell had happened him.
But then he made a bad step, and suddenly he found walking oddly laborious. He looked down at his feet and noticed that they had suddenly disappeared under the sand. Not only that, his legs were, rather quickly now, sinking deeper and deeper into the dirt. It was at that point he realized he had stepped in literal quicksand.
“You’ve got to be &$#%ing kidding me!” he managed to spit out as the ground crawled up and over his chest. Maxi tried in vain to grab onto anything, even throwing out his chain to try and latch onto any sort of rock or tree that might have been nearby, but to no avail. The only thing he managed to grab was fistfuls of loose sand before he finally vanished under the desert.
For a few minutes, sand was all Maxi could see as he quickly fell into the earth, his body pinballing off various buried rock formations until he finally found himself sliding down a tunnel at a breakneck pace. All he could do was swear as he tried and failed to find some purchase in the rock around him, as he was unable to grab hold of anything that didn’t give way to the speed he was going. Realizing he had little choice other than to see this path to the end, he braced himself to either get deposited somewhere safer than where he was right now... or to splatter into some unforgiving rock.
Instead, Maxi’s future ended up somewhere between those two possibilities. Though he hadn’t been killed, he was certainly far from anywhere safe.
A hole was suddenly punched through the ceiling of the cavern the three adventurers were currently fighting in. Following the dust and loose rocks that dropped out of it came Maxi’s large and audibly swearing self as he started to free fall into the fray. He had ungracefully managed to to turn himself so he was just about to belly flop to the ground, which wasn’t extremely ideal—if the impact didn’t kill him, the shame would have.
That’s when he saw a man locked in combat with a giant charging rock monster.
Instincts Maxi didn’t even know he had took over at that point. As he fell, he drew his chain and lobbed the hooked end of it towards the golem, piercing onto its chest. With one firm, powerful yank of the linked rope, his descent was halted as he instead launched himself in an arc towards the animated creature. He drove into the monster’s head with a mighty, fire wreathed kick, in the hopes of halting its forward momentum. The hook embedded in the creature then started to glow red and vibrate brightly after that attack, until a blast of flame suddenly exploded out from the steel. A cloud of smoke momentarily surrounded the golem, one that was quickly dispersed by Maxi’s propelled form flipping out from gray shroud and landing next to the blond swordsman, skidding to a halt.
He brought his chain back to his side, his face fierce and resolute... for a moment, at least. He blinked multiple times as he looked down at his chain, still glowing red hot yet somehow not burning him, and curiously tilted his head as he took in everything he had just done. Guess that’s all new too...
But, there were more pressing matters at hand. He eyed the three folks in this place--the swordsman, an older looking feller, and somebody he could vaguely make out at some sort of alter. He flashed each of them an apologetic smile, sheepishly bowing his head. “Hey, y’all. Sorry for interrupting, uh. Well. This.”
Maxi turned back to face the golem that was surely getting ready to attack again, a confident smirk replacing regret with grit. He could feel his blood pump red hot through his body, could sense electricity coursing through the air, the same way it always did right before he got into a scrap. Sure, he had no idea what the hell was going on here, but he knew all he needed to—these three were being aggressed by this big, bad bastard, a bastard that needed to go down. Now, the guy next to him looked more than capable, likely didn’t need his help... but what kind of man would Maxi be if he sat on the sidelines and left them to fend for themselves?
“Don’t know the situation, but I hate the look of this punk,” Maxi drawled, wrapping his chain around his hands, the metal still radiating heat as he raised his fists and assumed a combat ready stance. He briefly eyed the swordsman next to him, giving him a friendly nod. “You mind if I lend a hand?”
Caius Dragelion @ephemera //hope you don't mind me crashing in~
Caius was starting to think that maybe, just maybe he might be one of the unluckiest people around. Not only did he have a group of crazy bandits after him trying to cash on a bounty their boss set, but people seemed to either turn out to be yellow, or traitorous, or just plain flat out disappear at the worst times. Well, considering he had the misfortune of growing up in a world where all was darkness and everything was miserable, at least he was used to it by now.
It seemed he was just going to have to make the most of his misfortune. As he always did.
At the least, it seemed that a replacement party member had joined them. Or was he just imagining it? It was highly possible that the heat had begun to get to him and he was just hallucinating, but Caius tried to shake it off as he tried to focus solely on the golem for now. If he could manage to put this thing down, then they could deal with the newcomer -- if they were still there when they did.
The newcomer and the other man managed to deal some damage to the Golem, causing it to then begin to glow red and attack far more violently and quickly. But at the least, it was beginning to careen toward the newcomer instead of Caius or Kana-El. The man asked if he could lend a hand, and Caius nodded his head toward him.
Of course, Kana's request had not gone unheeded. Kahlil had begun searching around, and before the golem could reach the newcomer, Kahlil suddenly tripped over something, causing the Golem to suddenly flicker a few times, stopping in its tracks for a few moments. Caius took the opportunity very quickly. "Blizzard!" He called as his sword was imbued with an icy hue. Warping forward, he began to slash at the Golem's centerpiece on its head, until finally the creature shut down and fell.
Caius landed in a pile of sand, gasping for air as he dug himself out.
My life passes vainly by, as I watch the long rains fall.
The words had barely left his lips when a rumbling came from the ceiling. Anticipating another trap of some discription, the youth prepared himself to flee. Where to, he was unsure, but he most certainly was not going to be crushed by the ceiling coming down. Debris began to fall as an unexpected visitor came tumbling down. Unsure if the man was a friend or foe, he watched as this stranger managed to stop himself from plummeting to his demise, and make moves towards the Golem, or Caius.
"Oh come on!" He exclaimed loudly, voice filled with exasperation. It was probably safer to assume the man was ill-intentioned. He was also going to be constantly checking the roof for any sign of unwanted company plummeting into them. This is perhaps a little too much adventure here.
Readying another Blizzara spell, he watched as this newcomer proclaimed his intentions of helping them. Relaxing off of the desire to send a spike of solid ice hurtling at the man, he redirected it at the Golem. It struck hard against the creature's spine, exposing more of its subcutaneous layer. He then followed this up by providing the stranger with the same defensive protect and shell spells he had provided to everyone else. It seemed only fair, given that the man was to be their ally for the time being.
In the midst of this, he did not notice Kahlil collect the staff off of the floor, causing the Golem to shudder for a moment. It was not until the man had ran up to him and handed it that Kana-Ei was aware of it. The staff was quite similar in appearance to his own, though he could tell that the carvings into it were either culturally or religiously significant. What exactly was the purpose of this place?
Kana-Ei slid the staff into the recess in the podium. There was a loud click, though it was drowned out by the other two toppling the Golem (from what it looked like, Caius had landed the decisive blow). In some ways, Kana-Ei was disappointed. He was somewhat curious to see if the mechanism would have had any effect on the monster. At the same time, he was glad that it was not fixing to flatten them all into a bloody pulp.
The clicking noise was followed by a loud grinding noise as the floor immediately around the summoner began to spiral downward further into the ground. The staircase descended out of sight before the entire mechanism stopped, signalling that it was safe to advance. Not particularly wanting to take the lead, he waited for the other men to meet up with him and Kahlil.
Turning to face the stranger, he appraised him cooly. The man was absolutely massive. At least Kana had further physical protection should they be accosted by another fiend like the golem. It appeared as though he was some form of warrior by the way he fought. The weapon the man used was an odd one. Not many people in Spira were fond of such weapons. He offered the man a customary prayer to Yevon.
"Shall we, gentlemen?" He asked, peering down the twisting way forward. He hoped that the invitation was very unsubtle in advising them that he had no intention of leading the way at any point of the venture.
That big stone bastard was charging right towards Maxi, and he couldn’t be happier, striking his chain-clad fists against each other as he prepared to face the fight coming his way. Of course, the fight stopped dead in its tracks over before it could even reach him. An impressive spear of ice pierced the stone beast’s hide, blasting a chunk of rock out of his back. Maxi followed the direction of the spell and noted that it belonged to a rather fair-faced man in odd robes, who followed up that attack with some defensive magic he had sent Maxi’s way. Before he even had the chance to voice his appreciation, the creature running straight for him shuddered to an abrupt halt--why, he wasn’t sure. Hardly a second later, the blond swordsman was suddenly warping over Maxi’s head and gracefully striking the monster’s head with a cold-touched blade. That was the clincher--the beast topped over, looking hardly any different than a pile of debris. The battle was over.
As slightly disappointed Maxi was that he couldn’t get the chance to test himself and his newfound strength against the giant, he was far more impressed with the way these two other guys handled themselves. He jogged over to the pile of sand the blond swordsman had landed in, an incredibly effusive look on his face. “Here I thought you guys needed my help,” Maxi chuckled, offering him a hand to grab so he could help pull him back to his feet. “Real kickass move you did out there, man! That... teleport-y thing or whatever that was you did really rocked that moron’s world in a big, bad way!”
(Dense as Maxi was, he would only realize the stupid pun he made moments later, and bit his tongue as soon as he did.)
Soon as the swordsman was up and at ’em, Maxi walked over to where the robed fellow and another man, an older, scraggly looking guy, were standing. Immediately, the massive brawler tried to give his thanks to the man in robes, but was caught off guard when he noticed the cryptic lookover he gave him. For a moment, he was worried that he had already offended him... but then he saw him make a rather strange, practiced motion with his body that culminated in a bow with his hands over his chest in Maxi’s direction. It took him a second, but he quickly assumed that was some sort of customary greeting from where he was from, and that maybe Maxi was supposed to have done it first? Already anxious he was making a bad impression, he tried his best to replicate that gesture, precariously teetering off balance several times through the movements until finally finishing in his own shaky bow. As soon as he felt he was done, he raised his head to eye the man in robes, giving him an apologetic smile.
“Sorry if I was rude, don’t quite know the proper mannerisms ‘round here,” he muttered nervously to the smaller man before straightening himself out. “Just wanted to say good work with that ice thing. And thanks for the assist spells! Probably woulda been the only thing that kept me from getting totally clobbered had that boulder bastard not sputtered out. I owe you one, pal.”
Soon after, Maxi tried to see into the spiral staircase that had appeared in the middle of the arena, only to see it terminate into darkness. Instinctively, he reached into his pocket for a cigarette and put it to his lips, lighting it up with a simple touch of his index finger. “Is, uh... that the way out?” he asked, whipping his head back to eye the other adventurers, his gaze naturally falling on the older, scraggy fellow since he seemed the most learned. “Hate to ask, but what’s going on? You guys get stuck down here too or something?”
Not that it mattered much what they answered with. To Maxi, these guys seemed like they knew what they were doing, something that assured him greatly after having just sprung up wherever this was a few hours ago. If they wanted to go down, he was ready and eager to follow, standing at the mouth of the staircase and prepared to descend as soon as they were.
