[open]Fire-Starter

[Zaxton Books]

~Open~
Location: Lindblum
Theme: Next Poster Sets
Time: A week after Chaos Lands in Jenovah
~Open~

The Temple of the Acheron was a small temple by the standards of this city, and now that the Order of the Acheron had moved the seat of their power into the deserts of Alexandia, it was all but abandoned. Still, a few templar patrolled the area, dressed in their black uniforms and silver armour. The vast majority were armed with pikes, but one, the commander, denoted by the gold spike on the "nose" of his helmet, carried a sword of the Ragnarok design.

From the spire of the nearby but much larger temple of Addremelech, a black-robed figure looked down at the smaller temple. The quietest chuckle escaped his lips.

"All right then... Let's have some fun."

Then, at that moment, several cages littered around the square opened, and a swarm of antlions stormed the area, attacking monks and civilians alike.

[Aredjay]

A Fighter and a Black Mage (no, not the 8-Bit ones >_>) were wandering through Lindblum when the attack started. Caught off guard, they fled into a nearby building.

[Zaxton Books]

In said building, a rather large human, dressed in a tank-top and ragged combat pants, was eating lunch with a moogle, who had blue-grey fur and was dressed in combat fatigues of the same color as the giant. The fur on her head was longer, styled almost like human hair and dyed a brilliant red. The giant was covered, from bald head to toe, in some sort of black tattoo. The ruckus, however, had disturbed their supper, and even as the two took cover, the moogle was climbing onto the human's back, drawing a handgun.

The human said something in a strange language, and stood up.
The moogle nodded to the fighter, "Hey, you, what's your names?"

Perhaps surprisingly, almost as soon as his templar were in the square, the OA commander called out to them, calling them back. As soon as all but three were indoors, the door was barricaded, and the three turned around, to hold the security of the door.

"Protect the Tome at all cost! That must be why they're here!"
"It's just Antlions."
"Yeah, well, everyone thought that the assault on the Order of Karen's temple was just some bombs, and now the First Book was lost."

[Aredjay]

Startled again, the two whipped around to see the diners.

"Oh, uh...hello. I'm Mark, and this is my wife, Stephanie. Do you know where all of those antlions came from?"

Steph looked out the window, surveying the situation. She figured she'd need at least five Blizzaras to clear a street...

[Zaxton Books]

The giant mumbled something.

"All right, follow us! We'll cut a path for you!"

They dashed out into the street. Even as they ran, a weapon formed in the giant's hand, a spear of ice. Most of the antlions in the way, though, were cut down by the firepower of the moogle on his back.

"Well? Come on!"

[Aredjay]

"All right!"

Drawing his weapon, Mark charged behind the giant, stabbing stray antlions in the face if they got too close. His wife followed, blasting things with Blizzara to support the moogle on the giant's back.

[Zaxton Books]

The last antlion ran toward the giant while the moogle was reloading. He span the spear in his off hand, before taking a low stance. Stupid bug charged right into the head of the spear, and a slight push from the giant ended its suffering.

There was little time to relax now, though, as the figure from the top of the spire bounded down, gliding on crow's wings into the square. He stayed well above normal reach, and fired a shot at the giant.

The giant had noticed him, however, and as soon as the pulse from his strange rifle reached him, a plate of ice appeared between the projectile and himself, protecting him. He threw the moogle up and backward.

As the moogle sailed through the air, toward the roof of a temple, it opened fire on the strange creature with both handguns.

[Aredjay]

The two humans froze, looking upward at the strange figure. Who was it? And why was the moogle shooting at it?

Whatever the case, they were currently allied with the moogle, and so they began attacking the thing with carefully aimed Air Renders and black magick.

[Sol the 1337th]

A boy with dark hair who looked about fifteen entered the square, holding a long knife; however, rather than use it, he started yelling rude things at the figure with crow's wings.

However, the (usually) harmless (unless you were sensitive about how your feathers looked oily and worm-infested) shouts quickly magnified beyond all compare, and the buildings around them began rocking violently in the ground.

[Zaxton Books]

The birdman flew backward, rather elegantly avoiding the vast majority of the attacks. As the sonic waves approached, he rolled so that backwards was now forwards, and used the air pressure involved in such massive sounds to send himself clear through a window at the Temple of the Order of the Acheron.

The moogle cursed, and dropped behind the ledge of the roof, reloading her handguns, "Bardok! Panka di noko!"
"Asai!"

Spinning his spear around to hide it behind his back, he ran toward the temple, following the two guards into it. By now, the moogle had reloaded, and dropped down to the square, using the fall to glide part way on her wings, "Nume buddy, is that you?"

[Aredjay]

Mark and Stephanie were knocked to the ground by the sharp noises, but luckily didn't go deaf.

[Sol the 1337th]

Nume cringed at seeing Mark and Stephanie. He hadn't directed the blast near them.

"Er, yeah. It's me. Want me to go after birdy?"

[Zaxton Books]

"Yup. Take me with you!"

With that, the moogle hopped up, tucking one of the handguns away to grip his shoulder.

[Sol the 1337th]

In a matter of seconds, Nume had changed into a gray, bipedal wyrmlike creature. He spread his wings and shot after the crow-person.

[Aredjay]

The elder of the couple helped the younger up.

"Looks like that bird thing went into the temple. Shall we investigate?" inquired Mark.

"I don't know...I mean, that one kid just turned into a dragon of some sort."

"Good point...but we've already started helping; we can't stop now."

Sighing, Stephanie reluctantly followed her husband to the temple.