settle down with me by the fire of my yearning

[tenacious_stray]

Who: Gabranth, Roxas, Kefka, Xion
What: search party!
When: after Xion leaves Gabranth hanging
Where: the ragged wood
Warnings: there's gonna be a Heartless fite

Comments

[sandinmyboots]

Kefka has sobered up after his drinking with Xigbar and is now is on the hunt. He needs new boots since Xigbar blasted them and money to help buy more alcohol--he doesn't care about the bar but a drunken Xigbar is a Xigbar Kefka finds amusing and one he can...he can't remember much but it would keep him able to get in the hotel. And he can rub it in Saix's face.

So he's hunting. And sensing. And searching. And as he looks, the familiar tingle of darkness starts to creep up the back of his neck. He casts Float to keep him steady in the fight and Vanish to keep him hidden, then follows the heavy stain on his senses.

Whatever this thing is, it's big. And he's going to kill it and wear whatever hide it leaves behind before it poofs into smoke and hearts as his boots and Saix can suck it. And he can hear stomps as he approaches now, and it sounds bighugepowerful and ohimself he can't wait to fry it until his nerves sizzle with magic and the air is filled with a keening death cry--

[tenacious_stray]

Gabranth has no cause to notice the presence of another, even if he could pick apart the Vanished Kefka from his surroundings. All that matters to him now is the beast before him, which is already pawing the ground as it stares at him.

Even if he flees, it will find him eventually-or it will find Xion. He has no choice but to destroy this creature.

He charges at the thing, limbs granted speed by the anticipation of battle, and darts between its monstrous legs to slice at its underbelly-

-only to have his blade glance off entirely.

He can afford barely half a second of surprise before the creature's stomping legs force him to roll out of the way. The blade struck true, he had spared none of his strength... Could this thing truly be so powerful?

[sandinmyboots]

He comes into the clearing through the treetops and sees--first the creature, a dark humanid doll that made him flash Atma before Behemoth, but then he sees the horn and jagged lips and feels the hunger in it.

Kefka scans the scene. One, two, three targets: the creature, the creature's horn and...was that a flash of metal on the other side? The tinny ring of magic from it is familiar...

Well, he could use killing something sentient for a change. No one will ever know. He gestures, thrusting his hand into the air, and casts:

"Thundaga!"

For horn, for beast and for the man in a can.

[tenacious_stray]

Gabranth hears the cast and crackle of Mist in the air, and he quickly dives back under the monster to avoid the burst of lightning that follows. But he can't stay there for long, and as one part of his mind wonders just who the hell cast that spell at him, the rest fixates on immediate survival; he darts back out from beneath the beast, to the other side this time, and quickly reconsiders his plan.

No, he has no time to worry about whoever was working against him-the monster took greater priority.

As the creature turned to face the direction of its invisible attacker, apparently unaffected by the spell, Gabranth charged it again, this time aiming to stab it above one of its hooves-and was sent back with a surprised cry as his blade, once again, bounced off its hide. What was this thing...?!