Windtrace Dunes

[Porom]

Despite the dry wind and heat, Rikku shivered at the sound of the dragon's roar as they climbed the dune. It wasn't that she was afraid of fighting a fiend - you didn't make it long in the Spira they'd grown up in if the idea of a little danger got to you that much - but at the same time if you had to fight a fiend you didn't want to fight a big fiend. And that was definitely the kind of sound a super-big fiend would make. Glancing at the targes clipped to her skirt, she bit her lip and made a thoughtful noise, falling a few steps behind the others.

Dresspheres were still pretty new to her, since they'd only just been invented as a result of sphere hunting before she and Yuna got whisked away, so she didn't have much to her name yet. But she did have one which might be a better fit for the situation, and reaching for the blue orb in its pouch she hit one of the buttons on its grid. The change seemed to happen almost instantly to an observer, though for Rikku it always felt much longer than it seemed on the outside - like she was really going through a sequence of changing clothes when in reality it was just a split second.

Once it was done, though, she wasn't wearing the light outfit she had been, but a form-hugging and slightly better armored winered bodysuit, like the kind worn by Al Bhed working in hazardous situations. A pair of goggles had replaced her bandanna, and she was holding a small two-handed rifle in both hands as she climbed to catch up. "That's better. From the sound of that, I don't think I want to get too close to Mr. Cranky when we find him," Rikku commented in her newly changed Alchemist outfit, looking this way and that. "Maybe if we're really really quiet-like, we can sneak up on him?"

[Yuna]

Yuna saw the skeletons pass by, but wasn't quite sure what to make of them. Humanoid fiends weren't particularly common, and unsent always took the form of a ghostly apparition of the deceased - never before had she seen something stripped of its very bones. Of course, she would've primed her machina weapons had their leader not asked them specifically to avoid contact. She instead followed Rikku's suit.

"Oh, good idea." She commented as Rikku changed her dressphere. A gunner would make for a suitable combatant, but wasn't particularly effective in support, which their team seemed to lack - outside of the now - Alchemist Rikku. After finding her garment grid and the correct sphere, a bright light covered her body. When it dimmed only a second later, she was garbed in a long dress (that seemed to be made of pink and white leather sewn together) and arm warmers, much better suited to keep sand out of places. At her side also appeared a small dog with lion-like features that rubbed against her leg. She petted it, the rushed to join Rikku at the top of the hill.

"Not sure what the chances of that are," she commented, watching Selferas leap to battle with the skeletons passing by. "I don't think he'll be too hard to spot, though. The dragon-fiends back home were pretty big, weren't they?"

[Sephiroth]

From the top of the dune, where Selferas landed, the view to the east -- the direction they were travelling -- was of a hollow between several other, lesser sand-dunes. Across this hollow, beyond the dunes on its eastern side, a cloud of sand rose in the air, even though there was not enough wind at the present to create a sandstorm. The skeletons, whose numbers had grown to seven, were straggling over the farther dune and into the cloud.

Sephiroth had observed the leap with some surprise. Not everybody could accomplish such a feat, especially from a footing of deep, loose sand. Granted that the "humes" of Ivalice seemed to be stronger than the average person of the Planet, it was still something to remark upon, and the Judgemaster did, picking up his pace so he could reach the dune's crest before the eager warrior could go on.

"You do well in the desert."

Not bothering to wait for a reply, he looked down upon the vista. As he did so, the dune across from them shook as something heavy hit it from the other side. The skeletons stumbled as the sand beneath them shifted, but their continued their climb with mindless determination.

"It seems we found our monster." He looked at Selferas. "Wait for the others before engaging."

Given that there was still about a hundred yards and a sand dune between them and their quarry, engaging it seemed like an unfeasible thing to do anyway. However, Sephiroth could now guess that this Selferas could close the distance rapidly enough, and the Judgemaster did not want that. The lay of the land had given him an idea.

[Irvine]

Seirait sighed at seeing his comrade go. “Impulsive…” he muttered. He ran up he dune as quickly as he could, considering the loose sand and the extra encumbrance of Selferas’ Icebrand. As he ran he quickly maneuvered the blade so it would fit in his belt and leave his hands free.

As he reached the top to meet the others who had made it, he saw the dune in front of them shaking. Their quarry must be close. He pulled out his Dancing Wolf and kept it at his side. “Impressive, Selferas,” he said offhandedly. His mind was elsewhere though. So close to the target he could not afford to be ill-prepared. He thought of several plans, yet unfortunately they all required more information than he had. Information that would have to be found out in person. He kept them at the forefront of his thoughts should any become viable.

[Seru]

"This beast seems to be as large as we expected." He looked towards it, his eyes filled with a naked hunger. "If we are lucky, it will leave itself exposed, and we can end this quickly before it can reach the Mages."

Old Templar instincts flaring, Selferas gazed at the Cloud, memories coming back to him now. He drew his Blood Sword, and his Rune Blade. "So fel a beast... Why to the dead not assault it? They attack anything invading there home." He still remembered the feeling of there knife like hands, grazing his arm.

"Thankfully, given there state, there is no more powerful undead in the area commanding them." Though I may need to try "Do you have any thoughts on this, Magister Sephiroth? Is it possible there is something else in this desert we should be worried about?"

[Sephiroth]

"Not in this area," Sephiroth replied, his eyes still on the shuddering sand dune. "I think the dragon should be sufficient." As though Selferas were worried that the beast would not provide enough entertainment.

There came another roar. Then, with an explosion of sand, the sand dune burst inward, and the Nether Wyrm thundered into the hollow amidst a cloud of dust, bones, and shimmering armour.

It stood well over ten feet at the shoulder. It was very bulky; it was framed with large bones, wrapped in thick muscle (though a hollowness about its ribs implied it could use some food, and some of its scaly skin hung in folds). Its head was long, studded with horns along its loewer jawlins and the bridge of its snout. A particularly long horn jutted out and slightly up from its nose, perhaps making it appear even larger than it was, but there was no doubted its maw could take an average-sized man in one bite. Its body was about thirty feet in length, not counting the heavy tail, which was about another ten feet. On its back, on either side of a spikey ridge, a pair of wings were furled, either vestigial or long atrophied. Set into its head were a pair of red eyes, apparently small in its bulk, but large enough and filled with malevolent intelligence. And the thing was, from front horn to its tial, completely black.

One other feature it had: a large, flat, golden ring or wheel about its stubby neck, the lateral surfaces of which were written about with ancient sigils which glowed white, transfusing the light given off by the gold. The ring was seemingly driven into the beast with seven spokes, set equidistant from each other.

"Now you may engage." Sephiroth dry voice seemed to over-ride the roar of the beast as it set its eyes on the dune top. "Selferas, Seiralt. Assault it with me. Yuna, Rikku, Kefka; bombard it from the dune tops. It cannot climb, so you will be safe, unless it makes the dune collapse. We shall try to prevent that.

[Irvine]

“Thought it was going to be bigger…” Seirait muttered. Half of his plans were blown away by the lack of size. Still going for the throat. “And Judgemaster…its Seirait... Watch for dancing steel…” He bolted forward, Dancing Wolf in hand, finger on the trigger. Though the sand tugged at his feet Seirait moved towards the Nether Wyrm.

As he ran his left hand began to crackle and burn as a Flare spell began to charge. It’s not going to like having its throat ripped open. As he got within twelve feet of the beast he spun and released his blade, the circular force sending it to wrap around the dark dragon’s neck. He kept his finger on the trigger to retract it once it had wrapped around, flaying the flesh from its neck. No, this beast is not going to like this at all. He kept the Flare spell ready as a countermeasure for the Nether Wyrm’s probable retaliation. Given how its size had disappointed him though it might not even counterattack; in that case he’d cast the flare anyway.

[Seru]

Selferas took to the skies in an explosion of Sand. He was climbing higher, and higher, and shifted his weight gently, before plummeting downwards. He had his Rune Blade drawn, ready to transfer all the force of his leap into the blow, and once it was sufficiently wounded, his fangs would sink into the beast's undefended body.

"My thirst..." He was quickly losing his ability to control himself. He could feel it, his fangs coming out. But at this point, it was do or die. And Selferas was already dead.

[Sephiroth]

The beast did not exactly expect Seirait's attack. The extended blade wrapped around its neck, snug against the wheel. When it was retracted, it unleashed a whirl of shattered scales and gobs of flesh, adding a necklace of blood to the beast's golden collar. However the dragon not seem particularly hampered by this.

It did roar in anger, but then it reared back onto its hind legs. It sank a good bit itno the sand, but it was still extremely impressive. The stream of fiery-seeming breath he spat down at the man was not. Up close maybe it could have done serious injury, but at that distance it would only singe, even if it hit. The monster roared agian, apparently confused by its own weakness.

---

I guess I won't do that move, then. Sephiroth had been going to jump at the monster's back himself, but there was no point to having two people employ the same tactic. Instead he jogged -- for him it could not be called running -- down the slope behind Seirait, observing the new recruit's attack and the creature's response.

Impressive, thought Sephiroth as he saw the weapon utilised. That was one the Shinra hadn't thought of. Seeing the dragon rear up -- not unlike the ones on the Planet, though this one was much larger -- he looked at Seru, calculated his angle of descent, then swung Masamune up to his left shoulder and then out in an arc. A shingin crescent of energy tore off from the blade, flying above Seirait's head and timed to miss Seru, as Seru would miss the dragon. Then he reached across, grasping the lower hilt with his left hand as he began running in earnest, past Seirait on his right and into the area were the beast would fall when he dropped from its current posture.

[Irvine]

Seirait saw the fiery breath coming towards him. The distance was just enough for the breath to do anything to him besides make him sweat a bit more. Still the flaming breath obscured his vision and the Flare spell needed to be used. He sidestepped just enough to get a clear shot before casting it.

He watched as Sephiroth's energy arc surged over and and caught his movment as he ran past. He said that it's resistant to elemental but I doubt these ancient chroniclers were able to get inside the dragon. Blade at the ready he followed Sephiroth, seeing exactly wherer they were headed. He intended to fire the blade into the wound he had made and sent a Thundara spell down the length of the steel and into its blood. We'll see if it's resistant on the inside.

[Zell]

Boltden stood dazed as the massive pitch black dragon appeared before them just as angry as he pictured it, almost in an instant everyone was moving to attack the dragon, he then shook himself back to reality Better start pulling my weight! Boltden jogged ahead and slid down the side of the dune on his way down he materialized the King's Glory but then jumped to dodge the fiery breath heading his way.

After regaining his balance Boltden reviewed the battlefield, the new kids whip like weapon had shredded the dragon's neck, Selferas was trying to tear into the dragon's back, and Sephiroth had unleashed a signature slash at the dragon. "Try this one, you stupid beast!" One of the materia on Boltden's bangle began to glow and several black holes appeared around Boltden's body and began to fire off multiple comets aimed at the dragon's exposed underbelly

[Seru]

Selferas slammed into the sand, and propelled himself straight at the Creature's body. "I AM GOING TO TEAR YOU APART!" He waited until he could get his hands on the beast, and once he could, would latch on, and drive his fangs into the beasts body.

[Sephiroth]

The dragon took the flare spell, swaying on its feet but not apparently harmed.

It started to fall forward, eyes on the man with the whip-sword. Too late it saw the shining arc of energy; not that it could do anything anyway. The attack struck it in the belly. A red line appeared, and a second later a cascade of blood poured out and turned the sand into crimson mud. The beast roared, now stepping backward so as not to be impaled upon the silver-haired man's long sword, which it anticipated.

Then it was hit by Boltden's meteors.

It roared again, but this time in pain. The beast overbalanced, and fell, twisting in a pointless effort not to fall on the warriors' weapons. It crashed to earth, sending up a huge cloud of dust which, when it cleared, showed the dragon laying with its right flank towards the heroes. A flank which was soon under attack by Selferas.

Nothing would resist him plunging his fangs into it; but he would find no blood, only loose folds of dead flesh. And maybe a chipped tooth if he happened to strike one of the healthier scales.

---

Sephiroth's mouth compressed into a thin line. This was an ancient terror? He did not let his disappointment brake his charge, however. He continued to run, before leaping into the air. He reversed Masamune's blade, thrusting down a seocnd before he landed on the massive skull. The shining sword struck straihgt into the dragon's brain. The beast's eyes opened wide, and it gave one final roar before stiffening, its muscles locked by the fatal blow.

Sephiroth hopped down. His long hair was sullied, and gore dripped from his uniform and weapon. He glanced over at Selferas. "What are you doing?"

[Zell]

The eruption of sand blinded Boltden but he drove his spear into the ground to keep himself from being knocked off his feet. Boltden wiped his eyes until his vision cleared up only to see Sephiroth drive his massive blade into the dragon's skull. Even an ancient dragon wasn't a challenge for him, what makes him so powerful? Boltden pulled his spear from the dune and looked over to Sephiroth.

"This is the ancient dragon? This thing couldn't even stand up to us all attacking together. I expected a lot more from a dragon, the ones back home could take a major beating before they would drop." Boltden then noticed Selferas tearing into the corpse with his teeth. "Are you...trying to eat it?" Boltden rubbed his eyes again thinking the sand was making him see things someone wouldn't try to eat something like that.

[Irvine]

Seirait watched as the meteoric fragments slammed into the dragon's abdomen, toppling it and sending up a cloud of dust. Someone else must have joined the fray. He crouched down and shoved his blade in the sand with one hand and covered his face with his arm to weather the dust cloud. As soon as it was over he stood up only to see Sephiroth standing over the dragons corpse with his blade in its head.

"Trash..." he muttered as he cleaned the sandy gore from his Dancing Wolf. "Not even as strong as a T-Rexaur," he continued, the disappointment in his voice palpable. As he finished he scanned the corpse to find Selferas apparently feasting on dragon flank. Somewhat surprised at this turn of events he quickly put it to being that there were a plethora of weird people in Ivalice. At least I chose a strong one for an ally, he thought, looking back at Selferas' jumps.

He walked over to the beast and spat at it. "I assume we're done with this waste of life," he said with contempt.