Monsters and children and...more monsters, oh my!

[tidesnpc]

Characters: Everyone in the Badlands fighting!
Content: The Badlands is being attacked by monsters! And children!
Setting: Various places in the Badlands, plus the Convoy itself for gunners and powder monkeys
Notes: Remember, the Convoy and the Amestris are heading for the south, while Serenity is in the Garrettstown/mountains area. However, if you

Comments

Derps to the rescue! Or not.

[beforethescar]

Politics was happening. It hadn't escaped Isa's notice, although a lot of it went over his head. One of the doctors was running the ship, now, but that made no practical difference to Isa. They had a new captain, or didn't, Isa wasn't sure and didn't much care, and that was because the old one had run off because....

Isa wasn't sure of that either, but he understood that there was some kind of connection to what was going on, and all of that was connected to what had happened to Radiant Garden, and it was all getting serious.

Isa wanted to help. So did Lea, or at least Isa thought Lea did. But Isa wasn't good enough, or strong enough, to take on any of the big, ugly monsters that he'd heard about. He hadn't even needed Ulquiorra to explain that to him, not when Lea was coming along, too.

So instead they'd both headed out for the badlands, where the beasts were playing havoc. They wouldn't need to get far from the town to find trouble, and they knew it. Isa carried his sword strapped across his back. It was heavy, but he refused to complain. Complaining would be weak, especially right now.

He drew his sword slowly when he saw something ugly and unhappy looking in the vicinity. He'd killed a monster before. It might have been made of paint, but he'd still done it. He could do it again.

[rascalflame]

Lea had absolutely no interest in the politics of the situation. Bad things were happening and that was enough for him. A giant snake had appeared and was threatening to squeeze the continent in two and now monsters were everywhere and Reial had gone to hell. Politics, weirdly, didn't factor into his view of the situation.

Luckily he had picked up proper weapons in the last town they had gone to. Upon discovering Isa's newly bought sword, he didn't want to be stuck with plastic frisbees -- that wasn't cool enough. As such, he'd bought himself a pair of weapons in a similar design. They were round, metal, heavy and had sharp, spiked edges. The person who served him in the shop had called them Chakrams, but that didn't matter all that much. They were cool, and he was already partway used to them. That was the main appeal. Even so, he thought he'd get more of a chance to practice with them before he had to go head to head with something equally as spiky and dangerous.

"Oh boy," he said, scratching his head.

The chakrams should have hung at his hips where his frisbees used to sit, but he had kept them close at hand the entire time they had been on the ground, just in case.

[beforethescar]

Isa, when he'd seen Lea's choice in weaponry, had linefaced. Spiky frisbees were not, in Isa's opinion, much better than plastic ones, except for being heavier. Maybe Lea could give some monster a nasty concussion with them, but he couldn't see them doing much damage other than that.

On the other hand, Lea could really hurt with his frisbees when he wanted to, and at least they were familiar for him, even if they would be a bit useless at close quarters.

Not that Isa intended on letting anything get close enough to Lea for that.

It looked like the monster had seen them, which made Isa cringe a little, but he suppressed it. "You go for its face while I go for its legs, right?" He muttered, checking with Lea. Isa could stop it running about, while Lea could stop it from seeing what Isa was up to. They could work as a team.

Isa hoped.

[rascalflame]

"Yeah, sure," Lea muttered, looking at the monster unhappily. "Make me go for the face."

Suddenly, he rather wished that he had considerably longer weapons. Making the guy with the short, spiky wheels go for the face was a bit on the mean side, but he was determined not to wimp out and run away.

As if he could. They were saving the world.

Well. A little bit of it.

[beforethescar]

Isa looked at Lea, and for a moment was achingly serious when he said, "I won't let it get you."

I'm not losing anyone else. I've decided.

"Come on," he said, immediately afterwards, as though he hadn't just let his teasing, bullying friend mask slip for a second and show how much Lea mattered to him, or how far he'd go for him, "don't wimp out now."

He raised his sword into position and headed purposefully towards the monster, which was watching them both as it bared its teeth.

[rascalflame]

Lea nodded. "We can take it, got it memorised?" He steeled himself.

He, unlike Isa, had never experienced any formal training, nor had he ever been in a real fight. He'd never drawn blood (except, perhaps, accidentally) and he'd never gone through the very real fear that a fight could be his last. He wasn't feeling very confident, but he was determined to be brave.

He advanced on the monster, a chakram in each hand. One was held by the cross handle in the middle, the other by the outside frame. He glanced at Isa and then raised the former.

"HEY!" He shouted at the monster, to get its attention on him to give Isa the chance to get in and go for the legs.

If it attacked, he would strike with the other disc, the one that put more distance between it and himself.

[beforethescar]

If Isa was going to say something positive about Lea, which he rarely did, especially not to his face, it would be that he made a good distraction. Loud, brightly coloured, and fast moving; Lea was a brilliant decoy.

Isa wasted no time taking the opportunity and darted to stab his sword at a hind leg.

The monster had made to go for Lea with fangs, but changed its mind and went for Isa when he moved in to attack, and swiped for him with claws, and an angry snarl.

Isa barely managed to block in time, and was forced backwards, but still on his feet.

Then it went for Lea again.

[rascalflame]

Lea, when the monster's attention turned for him, didn't hesitate as he struck out at its muzzle. The steel ring hit with a sickening thud and Lea couldn't hold back a brief look of horror as one of the points dug into its flesh and drew blood. It shocked him, but he knew he couldn't wuss out, not at this point. He made himself unfreeze and leapt back as it shook its head, roaring at the pain in its face.

He didn't hesitate before hacking at it a second time.

[beforethescar]

The monster reared back, and went to strike at Lea with a clawed paw, but Isa took the opportunity to strike at the hind leg he'd been aiming for, driving his sword into the muscle sharply, and then drawing back.

The beast howled, and then whirled to strike and bite at Isa, apparently considering him the more immediate threat, or at least nuisance.

Isa blocked again, the animal's claws making an unpleasant noise over the metal of his blade, and he braced himself to fend it off.

[rascalflame]

Lea felt, for a moment, half relieved as the monster drew back. Sadly, that feeling left him quickly when he realised that it wasn't leaving him alone for a moment, but going in for an attack instead. When it stopped short of swiping at him, relief came back in a wave, until it switched targets. That was bad.

"Hey! Ugly!" He called, waving both of his chakrams to get its attention again. "I am so much tastier than him!"

Well, making himself a loud, moving, bright-red target had to count for something, right?

[beforethescar]

The part of Isa's brain that was keeping its attention on Lea, to make sure he was okay, and not getting hurt, paused, and then decided that no, Lea couldn't have said something like that, because that was ridiculous.

Totally Lea's style, but ridiculous all the same.

Still, what Lea could not possibly have said seemed to have worked, and the beast took another swipe at Isa before turning back towards Lea and advancing on him, though with a pronounced limp in one leg.

Isa felt a urge of adrenaline, or fear, or panic, or all of those, and quickly moved to hack at the already injured limb, hoping to largely immobilise it and slow the animal down. Or at least slow its back end down.

[rascalflame]

Lea took a few swift steps back and swallowed hard, as though suddenly realising what he had spurred the monster into doing. The idea of distracting it was an easy one to deal with. What it would do when he did that was a whole other matter. He held one chakram up to defend himself and swiped at it with the other, ensuring that he was an interesting and moving target for a while.

[beforethescar]

The monster went for Lea, one large, clawed paw coming in to put him in his place, and then Isa's sword bit hard into the flesh of its leg and it howled, and reared, and then turned and snapped.

Isa managed to defend with his sword, and even got in a decent swipe at the creature's muzzle in retaliation, and then one paw came up out of nowhere and knocked Isa off his feet.

Fortunately he landed on his butt, and when the beast tried to stand it yelped. It couldn't bear weight on that leg easily, now.

[rascalflame]

Lea turned in horror as Isa got knocked over, but the look faded considerably when he realised that he was okay and the monster was doing pretty badly. Still, it could have hurt him. He ran forward to get an attack in now that it was practically immobile, just as a revenge-hit.

[beforethescar]

Isa got back to his feet as the monster took an annoyed snap at Lea. He was lucky, he knew; he'd be monster chow if he'd been on his own.

He struck at the beast's flank, slicing into its flesh and earning himself a howl from the creature, and immediate retaliation that knocked him off his feet again, this time sending him onto his back with a winded, "Oof."

[rascalflame]

Lea held up one of the chakrams like a shield as it snapped at him.

"Stay on your feet, Isa!" Lea called out.

He stood ready, his weapons brandished and a focussed look on his face. It was odd -- he hadn't imagined that monster killing could be so... messy. There were endless stories of beast-killing heriocs in all of the books and comics he'd ever read, but none of them ever mentioned or showed how much blood there would be. Or how hurt and angry the monster would end up sounding whenever it got hit.

Still, it was him or the monster. He attacked while Isa was knocked down, to keep him from being an easy target.