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Fin nods at Quasit, pulls his hood down, and leads Maka to the northern ruins of the temple, where he has some cover and concealment, in addition to LOS on both towers nearest the mist monster…
Nodding towards the mist monster, or monsters, he whispers, ”They’re all yours, Mistress of Fire; I’ll give you what cover I can. I pray Erastil keeps you safe…godspeed, Maka, take care…”
As soon as Maka jets off, Fin will track her, keeping an eye on the towers and the spooky mist, ready to fire at either if needed…
After about five casts of healing Bulvi waves Kal off. "That's enough, save the rest in case someone else needs it. By the time we're done planning and moving into position I should be fine again. Honestly if I wasn't worried about them sneaking up on us I'd have passed on any healing."
"Now, we watch that gate." says Quasit. "Except you Fin, keep an eye on Maka as best you can. If one of the towers targets her, try and lay down some suppressing fire. And let us know if she runs into trouble or needs help."
"Maka, if you get wounded -- like, badly-- I need your word that you'll come back here and get healing. One lucky bullet might get through, for all your skills. And we need you alive."
"Don't worry, I'll be fine!" Maka said as she gave Quasit a quick hug. "But I promise I'll come back if I get hurt." The fire monk quickly followed up.
Maka gave Bulvi a quick kiss before following after Fin.
Nodding towards the mist monster, or monsters, he whispers, ”They’re all yours, Mistress of Fire; I’ll give you what cover I can. I pray Erastil keeps you safe…godspeed, Maka, take care…”
"You got it Master of Arrows!" Maka gave Fin a thumbs before jetting into the sky.
Before everyone departs, Selena gives everyone one of her snowball minions, so once she gets setup in the ruins she can see what’s going with everyone. Hopefully Maka won’t melt hers.
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Sakitu crouches next to Quasit and peers out across the yard. "So you think they will be coming through that gate?" She imagines a small hoard of horsemen or soldiers or something flooding towards them. "And then what do you want me to do? I can make a pit again, would that help? Or a wall." She turns to Bulvi. "I've never mentioned this before Bulvi, but you know I can enlarge you. You know, make you grow really big. Kinda like Chest Thumber size? Do you want me to do that? It would probably make it easier for the soldiers to hit you but it would make you stronger too."
Bulvi considers "Not right now but it's good to know you can do it. They're hitting me enough right now, in some fights that would be extremely useful. The magical energy would be better spent in different ways this fight." He takes out his longbow and knocks and arrow. "I can see why their warriors don't use armour now, if everyone has guns they slow you down... well slow most people down."
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Sakitu crouches next to Quasit and peers out across the yard. "So you think they will be coming through that gate?" She imagines a small hoard of horsemen or soldiers or something flooding towards them. "And then what do you want me to do? I can make a pit again, would that help? Or a wall."
Quasit has settled behind a mostly burned support beam and is loading her crossbow. She looks toward Sakitu when her friend addresses her, then returns her gaze to the gate across the compound.
"Well, obviously you know your spells better than me. But we want them to come through that funnel at the gate. So don't wall it off-- at least not right away. Once Headless is through, if you want to wall off the rest or drop them in a pit, then by all means. I'm thinking maximum damage when they're passing through the bottleneck, then slow them down once they start toward us. Then we pick them off as they come toward us with a gauntlet of spells and arrows."
She looks back toward Sakitu. "Just do your best. This is a team effort."
"Bull, if that Headless horseman get through and charges us, it'll be your focus to pick him up and keep him off the casters. Just save the kill shot for Fin, he seems to have a personal grudge to work out." She spares a little smirk at this. "My guess is he'll hang back and bark orders and try to direct the towers onto us. But I've been wrong before."
In the quiet before the storm, Kalchine starts bolstering Chest Thumper for combat, sure that there will be some close fighting before the night is through.
"He might have a grudge but these guys are too dangerous not to put down if the opportunity comes up. Fin's arrows will get to him faster than my blade though I suspect."
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As she waits, looking around warily toward Maka, Findurel and the gate, Quasit chatters a bit. ”So, what do you think would happen if we grabbed General Headless’ head and stuffed it in a sack? And stuck a sock in his nasty mouth so he couldn’t yell orders? Do you think if we tossed it around like a ball, the rest of his body would just chase it around trying to get it back? Now that would be a hilarious game of Keep-Away!”
Fin's arrows shred part of the cloud he targeted, though as he might expect, it's not as effective as usual.
Maka's flashy move draws fire from towers C, E, F, and G.
The clouds... move so they can't be seen from where Fin is standing. There's no sign of a response from the south.
Maka soared through the sky, her body twisting gracefully as bullets whizzed past her. Her flames crackled with intensity, leaving fiery trails as she spun to dodge the gunfire. With a swift motion, she thrust her hands forward, launching a torrent of blazing blue fire at the shifting form of the smoke monster below.
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Almost in spite of herself, Quasit finds herself gaping toward the hellstorm of blue fire consuming the alley between the buildings to the east. She gives a low whistle and shakes her head slowly, then glances back toward the gate.
"Not coming General Shoulders? Gonna wait for us to come to you? That's fine, we'll just pick off your towers and your monsters one at a time." she says solemnly to the night air. She thinks a moment, then speaks more openly to those around her.
"The bear may not let itself be poked. He might be just waiting on defense for us to come to him. He knows we need to get to those two towers on the southern corners. Let's see how patient he's willing to be."
"If you want to get really weird with it put his head into a bag of holding or a portable hole. Having bits of him on a different demi plane might be less than comfortable for him." Bulvi peered off towards the blue glow, he didn't often worry for Maka but hearing the roar of gunfire in the distance made him feel a little concerned.
"Reminds me of a game we played back home called 'jugging.' It got pretty rough and the head usually didn't make it through the whole game," Kalchine says.
"And if he wants to let us deal with his other troops before dealing with him, so much the better. Picking them off piece by piece is safer than dealing with them all at once."
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Sakitu screws up her face. "Ew. You guys are gross. Like, I know he's dead and headless and all that, but still..." She focuses on the field in front of her. If there was a way to entice the soldiers to approach, that might help.
"I could make it sound like there's a large group of people out there. I can't make an image of them but maybe it will draw out the headless boss." She looks at Quasit with a raised eyebrow. "Is it worth trying?"
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Quasit shakes her head. ”Nah, he can already hear everyone shooting at Maka. Save you spells. I agree with Kal—if he wants to just sit out there while we decimate his forces in here, that’s good for us. Let’s see how patient he can be. He’s already lost those cannon-wagons, I bet he didn’t count on that.”
Selena spends a bit of time from arriving at the ruins to buff herself, with mage armor and ironskin. She’ll give such buffs to anyone else that wants one, including Maka if she stays still long enough.
Fin kills one of the soldiers in the tower he's aiming at. Maka's flames burn away much of the mist she's aiming at, letting her see the figures hiding within it more clearly. They seem much like the soldiers you've seen elsewhere in the camp from this distance, save for wearing some of the strange masks you've found on some of the soldiers you've killed.
The machine gunners continue firing on Maka.
The soldiers hidden within the mist also fire on Maka.
A voice suddenly speaks from behind the group waiting in the south of the ruined monastery. "I find it interesting that you clearly know this is my place of power, yet you seek to shelter here."
Rasputin (or more likely, another image of him) is here.
”Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer, as they say.” Selena responds with absolutely zero surprise, indeed she sounds almost like she is simply continuing an earlier conversation.
She readies herself to counter or avoid his next spell.
"If you are going to pester us you could at least chime in with knowledge of what happens if we put the undead fellows severed head into a bag of holding?" Bulvi adds keeping his eyes peeled in case Rasputin starts up something he can avoid.
Maka's aerial agility continued to be too much for the soldiers as she dodged the majority of their shots.
"Yeah, just keeping shooting at me!" She shouted as she continued to rain fire upon the mist monster.
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Quasit’s blood chills at the sound of the sinister calm voice of Rasputin, and after a stiff pause, her head whips around to look at him.
”So… that’s how you do it? Places of power? There are only certain spots where you can manifest these illusions of yourself but still cast spells at us? Like they’re windows where you are that let you watch what happens here and interact with it. That makes sense. The spot where the Hut is trained to appear on this world, your quarters, and this place.”
”Guys we can’t do anything to him here. Let’s move. Let’s head for those tents to the south east. We should still be able to keep up surveillance of the Gate from there.”
Quasit gathers up her gear and moves to the southeast corner of the ruin, then turns to make sure the others are following.
Kalchine jerks as that haunting voice sounds behind them. He turns slowly, though not in fear, rather almost in annoyed resignation.
"After we eliminate all your troops, we'll deal with you," he says. "Unless you want to save their lives and come face us in person, now?"
Assuming the mad monk does not take him up on the offer, he falls in line behind Quasit to head to different cover.
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Sakitu jumps at Rasputin's voice. She moves to partially hide herself behind a broken piece of furniture.
"If you are going to pester us you could at least chime in with knowledge of what happens if we put the undead fellows severed head into a bag of holding?"
Sakitu cocks her head sideways and stares at Bulvi. "Bulvi! Don't provoke him!"
”So… that’s how you do it? Places of power? There are only certain spots where you can manifest these illusions of yourself but still cast spells at us? Like they’re windows where you are that let you watch what happens here and interact with it. That makes sense. The spot where the Hut is trained to appear on this world, your quarters, and this place.”
”Guys we can’t do anything to him here. Let’s move. Let’s head for those tents to the south east. We should still be able to keep up surveillance of the Gate from there.”
"After we eliminate all your troops, we'll deal with you," he says. "Unless you want to save their lives and come face us in person, now?"
Sakitu nods her head. "Yes. Let's get out of here."
Bulvi moved off after Quasit but attempted to spread out a little.
Maka finally finishes burning away one of the clouds of yellow fog. The five soldiers that had been hiding within it come marching out towards the ruined temple, their motions unnaturally stiff. The other cloud and its soldiers drift south.
Fin kills two more of the soldiers in tower E, leaving only one. The remaining machine gunners continue firing on Maka.
"Your mockery rings hollow. It is how you wish to spend your last breaths?" Rasputin says. He follows as you head towards the outside exit, casting a spell as he does.
A ring of translucent blades (radius 40') springs up around your group, some of the blades shearing effortlessly through the ruined walls of the structure.
Maka continued to attack the yellow clouds. As another bullet grazed her, Maka remembered her promise to Quasit. Preparing to break off her attack if she got much more injured.
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As the wall of whirling blades materializes around the party, Quasit instinctively jumps back away from them. Briefly, she studies the chaos of deadly churning metal and gauges her chances for slipping through them with a deft twist and roll, but then her shoulders droop in defeat. She might be able to dodge through -- and even that wasn't a sure thing-- but the others would never make it.
The rogue grinds her teeth in frustration; not only were they trapped, they could no longer monitor the gate! Not to mention that they were cut off from Fin and Maka. She takes her crossbow and levels it at the apparition of Rasputin.
"Saki, cast a fly spell on Bulvi so he can lift Selena and Kal out of here. Kal, you may want to shrink Thumper down and carry him out too. Help Maka as best you can, then teleport out if you have to."
Poke the bear was still the order of the day. Just a different bear. She summons her courage, fires her crossbow and begins walking toward Rasputin as she reloads. "Bring it jerk. Or are you gonna vanish again?"
After nearly countering the blade barrier, Selena flies up. ”Did you really think this would hold us?” and she casts obscuring mist to hinder more targeted spellcasting.
"Saki, cast a fly spell on Bulvi so he can lift Selena and Kal out of here. Kal, you may want to shrink Thumper down and carry him out too. Help Maka as best you can, then teleport out if you have to."
"Don't worry about us, we can get out on our own!" Kal shouted as he cast a spell on Thumper. Thumper rapidly shrank down to a small figurine, which Kal promptly put in his pack.
As Saki cast her magic on Bulvi, the fighter grabbed her and Victor and took to the sky for the hopeful safety of Selena's fog cloud.
Maka starts burning the other cloud. Meanwhile the machine gunners keep up their fire on Maka.
The soldiers(?) that had been in the burned-away cloud march stiffly forward, then stop, raise their rifles, and fire a volley at Fin.
Rasputin chants, and the cloud of mist is engulfed in flames.