Post by Jade on Jan 7, 2020 0:16:28 GMT -5
Lilin Post #8 / Tally Post #8
The man's sword didn't even budge under the weight of her swing. Rubble from the partially destroyed ceiling above rained down upon her inky form, disappearing into the darkness only to clatter at her feet - and then the man's sword came down, slashing her down the front. To a degree, Lilin's darkness hardened, reducing some of the effect of the slash, but it was still all too felt.
She stood there for a moment, blood dripping down from her chest - and then her form grew, turning back to flesh. Where the Smoking Devil's hybrid form had stood a few feet higher than Lawrence before, now she was kneeling on the floor, one hand brought up to pull the slashed top together over her exaggerated figure. Her other arm was held outward, hand still clutching the hilt of her blade that was sticking up and out of the ground between them.
Lilin's eyes batted open after a moment, fixing the man before her with a sad expression. "Oh, you truly are a brute," she spoke, her typical grating accent and strange manner of speech gone. "A knight such as you, disrobing a woman..." She let her first two fingers move aside from holding her top together, leaning forward to show a bit of cleavage... And then that same old devilish grin, just a little too sharp at the edges, showing off those too-sharp teeth, returned. "Bet tha've heard that line before though, ain't tha? Or, a'least, similar. Kashashasha!"
With that, she tightened her grip on the hilt of her blade and flipped herself up and over it, bringing it over with her in another heavy two-handed swing in an attempt to batter the man into the floor. Gone was any attempt to actually slash at him - this was just an attempt to hammer into him with all the force she could muster.
The Tempestarii smiled, watching the heavens coalesce at her beck and call - and then the smile faded as every nerve in her body lit up at once as some premonition screamed at her to move. But no, this was her power, and this was her little battle to be won; that paltry little swordswoman wasn't going to be setting the tone.
Black armor appeared up Arii's right arm, black lightning crackling up and down her forearm, as she moved it into position to block Syphalia's latest endeavor against her. At the same time, her left hand rose, palm up, to the heavens, the clouds above taking on an ever-darker coloration, billowing outward and sending out peals of thunder that filled the air. And then the rookie was on her, blade pressed into her armored arm, heat and slashing force and power converging on her all at once. The Daibukai clenched her jaw, doing everything she could not to yowl in pain even as the rumbling noise generated as part of her maintaining her position in the air suddenly grew to a cacophonous level, keeping her from flying backward from the force of the blow.
Her right arm quivered - and then a crack of lightning, and her staff was back in her hands. The clouds above were, perhaps, not enough for the full blast she had hoped for just yet, but they would have to do. "Fulgora."
For a brief, sweet moment, silence. And then the clouds above crackled, replacing the light they had blotted out with a burst, and then the bolt surged downward, racing toward the witch's staff. In that instant, Arii slid her right arm down, clutching Syphalia's blade with her Haki-clad hand, and she flashed a cruel smile at the woman, so close and yet still so far beneath her. Then the lightning surged, ineffectually, through her own body, brilliant and booming arcs moving to wreak havoc on the woman they had been called down to smite.
Tally slowed her pace at the sight of a familiar face a little ways down the hall - Gyato, standing with his hand on the hilt of his blade, who had turned at the sound of people approaching and was now giving them a relieved smile. Before he could do anything more than give them a wave, the fishwoman was already calling out to him, a tinge of worry in her voice. "Is everything okay? Where are the others?"
Gyato cocked his head to the side, mildly confused, but then put on a reassuring smile as he shook his head. "Oh, they just ran up ahead. I came back to wait for you guys, that's all."
She gave a sigh of relief, and then turned back to Ophelia and Max. "Once we're in there, Max, can you watch over Lyn and Del Ray? I'd prefer to keep them hidden elsewhere, but once we're moving out of here, we'll want to be out fast." The deckhand gave her a nod, but she cut him off before he could give a verbal response. "Ophelia, I... Don't know what all you can do, but you'll help us however you can, yes?"
"Indeed," the lady thief replied, and then took her feathered cap from her head and held it over her breast with one hand while she made an "X" shape over her heart with the other. "Lilin hired me to see your captain to safety, and my job isn't done yet."