JakezuGD

The wyverns and pirates fell in quick succession in a coordinated strike, clearing the path back toward the sea cave entrance, should they have to retreat. However, just as Tasha was about to turn her attention back toward the front, Miria seemed oddly fixated on the empty corridor, sprinting off back to where they'd come from. "What do you mean something? Hey-- Miria! Where are you going!?" Much as she wanted to follow and not leave any of the Tigers alone, they had to keep their forward momentum going, lest they lose initiative with their push. "Someone look after her and make sure she rejoins us in one piece!" Turning around to return to the doorway she'd been guarding with Christopher earlier, this time to push through it and keep going, she noticed the bovine girl from earlier... touching him? At least she wasn't attacking them, but that seemed highly inappropriate to do anyway, and Tasha wanted some answers as to why she was on the opposing side just earlier. Natalya moves to 17-25 and grabs Krystal. As the other cat rolled his platform to the side to fire, the tiger hoisted Krystal by her arms, closing their height difference by simply pulling her off the floor. "Hey, you. Mind explaining what that was about? And what were you doing on Kazran's side earlier?"

The attacking group having closed in more, now was their chance to turn that part of the fight back in their favor... Tasha simply left Sylmaria's apparent glee unbothered, knowing the reception to being corrected about it would be colder than whatever ran through Mercuria's veins, instead following Miria's lead to get one of those pesky wyvern riders out of the picture. "Now! Crush them and keep moving!" Natalya moves to 17-21 and fires her rifle at Wyvern 3!

Tasha's gaze pivoted between the pathway she and Chris were guarding and the hallway from where they'd come, just about seeing Miria from between the others bravely holding her own against an attack force trying to pincer them. Threatening as the fighter with the pure weapon was, the boy could hold on against a single enemy from the look of things, the south side needing to regroup to hold off the wave as Nyx astutely pointed out. "Pull back and form up! Let's show these bastards it'll take more than that to break the Tigers!" Natalya moves to 16-23.

The fierce strike that came through surpassed just about any expectations Tasha had for getting through someone so heavily armored, finding a crack in the steel right around the neck, lodging her prodigiously heavy axe head right into the weakness and cleaving the man clean in twain with absolutely no chance of survival. Crimson splatter stained her arms and armor, the instant of the act quickly shoved aside in her mind with the battle still in its early phases. Ugh, that's more hours for me to work on not getting these old plates rusted. She took a brief glance toward Krystal, and seeing her already being physically interrogated by an unfamiliar face, chose to let that situation play out however it would, instead offering her backup to the magical engineer holding down one of the cell exits. ...While seeing what she could do about triaging the condition of her armor. Natalya moves to 16-26, takes her rifle in hand while trying to clean her plates a little.

Three wasn't much, but it was much better than nothing. "Got it. Just stay behind us until we've captured the castle!" The man wasn't going to be useful in battle in his condition, but with Kazran's forces no doubt trying to get rid of the ship they'd sailed in with, getting out that way wouldn't be safe until after the end of hostilities either. Her gaze turned back forward, Natalya assessed their situation, but didn't get far before Sylmaria piped up again, even louder than she'd been earlier. Clearly there were some people she knew personally here besides her friend and Kazran himself, and this one she was none too happy about seeing... unsurprisingly, given that the woman she was shouting at looked to be another Clouded in the vile man's employ. He sure does have more of us around than I'd have expected of what I've heard about him... As toys or meat shields, I'm sure. I'll put a hole in him for everyone he's enslaved, gods willing. The situation with the bovine woman aside, there were enemies to clear out, and someone with a lance wasn't going to remain an obstacle for the tiger for long, especially with the assistance of her allies. She'd have to take a moment afterward to see if she couldn't convince Krystal to switch sides... Natalya moves to 16-24 and attacks Lance Armor 4 with her Iron Poleaxe!

Though their group managed to clear out that wave of opposition fairly easily thanks to Sylmaria's powerful assist, the next one was already approaching, the defenders obviously not making it easy for them. At the same time, the cell they'd passed by earlier opened up, and even if they couldn't find any new allies to bring with, they could maneuver to better positions. Fortunately, the group in front of Tasha had some of the Tigers' most resilient fighters - Laniva, Miria and Üllr - as well as Owen to command them if necessary, allowing her to break alongside the irate dragon and the other Gaffney to see what they can get done. "You handle keeping that side at bay, Boss!" The tiger gave her tactical decision and turned around to cover for Cass while she was healed. Calling any form of royalty besides Iseria her boss, much less an Islexian warlord, was a new feeling for Natalya, but not one she actually minded in the slightest. The short time they'd spent talking had dispelled her apprehension about his motives regarding this assault, and even if he had a fox's tail under his arm in some sense, the ideal and possibility of an Islexia that welcomed Clouded was too good to pass up on. Natalya moves to 17-20. Speaking of which, the jail cell had a Clouded in it, grievously wounded by the look of things... if that injury was fresh, there was a solid chance they were a survivor of the attack, and Tasha could hear impassioned dialogue from the other side of the wall as well, ears rapidly pivoting around to try and keep up situational awareness. "Hey, you! Are you crew of the ship we saw on the way in? If yes, how many of you are left?"

Now that both sides were mask off, Tasha felt no need to speak further on Sylmaria's matter. She didn't want her concern, Kazran's men were just as disdainful of her as expected, and they needed to focus on the fighting. Though she wanted to back up Alvira, they'd already split up, and as much as the white dragon tried to convince otherwise, the tiger felt she'd end up pushing too far in on her own without help... which meant her gun needed to be pointing at whatever Sylmaria couldn't finish off herself, impressive as her show of magic was. Natalya moves to 20-18 and fires on Merc 5 with her rifle!

Sylmaria's fiery response came as no surprise to Tasha, even having to stop herself from rolling her eyes at the dragon's single-minded insistence on taking Kazran's life with her own hands. Sure, it was only understandable due to what she'd gone through, but the tiger wasn't about to let her charge into her premature demise. "Yeesh, I'm only saying it so you don't get a sword through the chest before actually getting to kill the bastard," she replied, taking the lead and rounding the corner to see a soldier coming their way. "C'mon, follow up on me!" Natalya moves to 16-17 and fires her rifle on Myrmidon 3!

Though Tasha was prepared to take out the last remaining soldier from the initial group, Amera swiftly decked them in the back of the head to open the way for everyone to move up. Focusing her efforts on backing everyone up and keeping an eye out for any new arrivals in front, she however couldn't help but notice their new ornery dragon acquaintance almost visibly boiling ahead of her. "Doing alright? Focus your fury, no overextending. Putting yourself in a bad position against real soldiers only gets you cut down for nothing." Her worry may have been unneeded and unwanted, but her motherly side wouldn't allow her to let it go unchecked. Natalya moves to 15-13.

The mystery ship didn't remain a mystery for very long, with Roxanne immediately recognizing it and heading in to see if anyone was still alive. Obviously, things hadn't gone to plan, and now that they were able to land, the others weren't waiting for the orders they more or less knew already... Tasha shook her head at both the signs of prior combat and the sheep's grieving, but figured she should at least confirm their attack after Cassandra already went ahead and drew everyone's attention. "Go, go, go! Don't stop at anything until we have Kazran's head on a pike!" She herself would have to use her sharpshooting abilities more, given the likely prevalence of pure weapons amongst the rabble... ...and then Roxanne came in to brutally shred one of the guards, bordering on torture with how meticulously she dismembered and eviscerated the man, getting a grimace out of the tiger. Remind me to not get on her bad side, yeesh. As disconcerting as that may have been, these were people who truly deserved death when they were responsible for stories like Sylmaria's, and she'd do her own part in taking down as many of them as possible, even if her own preference was for a more surgical approach. Still, she couldn't deny having been about as angry when they'd attacked the Underground's compound before, feeling a thirst for blood that only her axes could sate... perhaps she'd get more reasons for an appetite, going through the bowels of this foul man's bastion. Natalya moves to 14-9. "Alright, ladies, let's do this! Take no prisoners, because they wouldn't give you that dignity either. Keep an eye out for any survivors from the fight that happened before we got here." Tasha took aim over Alvira's shoulder, giving her a brief pat of encouragement. "I've got your back. Let's raise some hell."

Much of Tasha's time following their training session was taken up by additional preparation, but things were lined up already, and most of it went into getting things onto the ship itself in the right places. While Owen's people would handle general outfitting, it fell to her to get everyone's equipment and stationing sorted, especially since the lord himself was coming with them. Something about Islexians not approving of the idea of a leader who wasn't fighting on the front themselves, like the barbarians many of them were - she didn't quite approve of the idea, but knew she couldn't do much about it. The country's situation was what it was and the tiger wouldn't pretend to be more knowledgeable about it than her current employer. Now actually underway to their destination, the commander was on point at the helm, trying to use her strong eyesight to their advantage... but the sea fog was so thick, she wasn't being of much use. Approaching the cave mouth, she could at least keep her rifle dialed in, yet there really wasn't anything she could see. A slight confused shrug came from her in response to Aegean, briefly turning her head to give the actual reply. "The call is can't see shit, captain. If this is a trap, they're being real patient about springing it on us." Actually getting to know her fellow mage in service to the same lord brought Bella's spirits up a little regarding the upcoming excursion, but at the same time it raised some questions she hadn't thought of properly since she came back to Islexia. Despite their cordiality, they had been assigned to different parts of the assault team, and so she'd spent the trip on her own, making sure she had enough potions available for a technically non-magical triage for anyone who might need such. Defending the ship wouldn't be too difficult for her either... still, a small sigh left her, looking out at the foggy coast from the crew cabin. She wouldn't get a direct chance at what she left Eslcas for, but she could help the people who would do it in her stead regardless.

Elisa watched Alvira's exuberance at the show with a somewhat sheepish smile. She's really pushing herself just because I decided to show off, huh... I really should try to teach her a little more now that her affinity's coming back. Still, just like Tio's praise indicated, the dragon's showcased ability was quite good, considering she could barely even call upon her fire on command without heavily exerting herself... and doing her best to mimic how the Evoker had cast her own spell was a good enough mood booster, with how dreary things had been ever since Sylmaria had shown up. "That's a really good effort, Alvira, but you should try to keep things in moderation, don't want you collapsing just out of excitement, do we?" Her concern punctuated with a small laugh, the strawberry blonde refocused her attention on Jesse, now that she had come up to show off her own thing. Though the form was certainly different to that of Miria's armor, both in looks and function, the actual underlying mechanics felt very similar at first glance. Just looking at the effects didn't feel like a guarantee that everyone who was able to use these things would have the same abilities manifest, more like something that took the person using them into account somehow... how that could have been was beyond Elisa's understanding of magical engineering and circuit-resonance amplification, even when she was a relative expert on the latter. "I do get the same feeling that I did from Miria's armor, but that magic of yours seems to match its affinity, unlike hers. It's difficult for me to tell exactly what's going on, but it's clear to me that yours is wind-based, while although Miria's is earth-based, it comes out as fire magic in her case, to which I can only speculate as to why that is." Speculation best left in her head for now, and maybe something to talk about with Tio later. She cast a brief look toward Sylmaria, who seemed to only continue being distressed, now being spoken to by... him. Well, if he was out and about, and managing to pull the waterworks out of the downtrodden dragon, they could probably leave him alone for the moment. It didn't take long for another person still to grace them, the same Clouded who had put on something of a show against Jeremiah earlier with her rather flashy style of magic, getting a small twirl from Elisa as she pivoted to meet her. "You'd be correct! Elisa Candialia, wife to this lovely lady right here and the Alliance's foremost fire mage as well as expert on magic circuits and spell development. You left a bit of an impression with your fighting earlier, the technique feels similar to how Tio does things but in a more kinetic fashion, even if your control isn't quite at the same level yet." Behind everything, this time it was Alriana and Versaris's turn to push Jeremiah a little by the look of things, but that one felt like they'd easily contain things on their own. This girl was pretty cute, and also very useful, if she was a proficient healer. They'd gotten into a much better situation recently in terms of medics than just having to rely on Renais, for sure, but you could never have too many, unless they were all you had. Still, the request seemed... a bit gung-ho, for lack of a better way to explain the thought to herself, to Tasha. This was a real military-on-military conflict they were heading into, and she wanted to be certain that much was understood. "I won't say no to having the assistance of more medics, but I want to make sure you know what you're getting into. We're heading into a full-on military assault, and I'd rather only have people with combat experience with us at the front, yeah? If that sounds like too much for you, we'll still appreciate having more people doing field hospital stuff, so your contribution would be welcome regardless." Tasha found her gaze drifting again as Aly and Sari put up a fierce fight against Jeremiah, definitely again looking more like a real battle than the training matches he'd had against the others, but she was reasonably confident that those two knew where their limits lied. Still, the teamwork between the white bullet of a monster and the swift swordsman was a thing of beauty to watch, almost enough to make her a little jealous her and Alvira's fighting styles differed so much... but such limitations were designed to be worked around.

While Sylmaria and Tio continued with their impassioned stances from earlier, Elisa had other things to pay attention to. Alvira's description of her current state regarding her magic was certainly a vivid enough one to grasp what it likely felt like, and a cursory use of her own link confirmed almost to an exact degree what the dragon had posited about how much it took from her to use fire at the moment, nodding along to the explanation. "Yeah! Progress is progress, especially when there's less overbearing hostile deity in your head stopping you. We can only really speculate about what the nature of your link to her is, or what exactly happened to it as a result of what we did with the sword, but if things are getting closer to matching your natural affinity, it can only mean good things," she replied, putting on a small smile herself. After all, she'd be much more helpful with practice and rehabilitation if Alvira got her full fire affinity back, being a fire specialist. The speculation about Fomalhaut she couldn't offer much insight into one way or the other, and simply filed it in the back of her mind for now. The other arrival was a more curious one. Jesse had a similar ability to Miria's, that much was obvious, though differently aspected -- wind, judging by the pattern she felt -- with that being the obvious reason to Elisa why she would approach her. If she was anything like Miria, she too didn't have much of an idea about how exactly that armor of hers worked, and any lead into it could potentially help her use it better. "No, it's fine, for me at least. If it's about your armor, I've helped with Miria's before, and while I can't tell you too much about the specifics, I could try to offer you some insights beyond what you already know. Or maybe you know something I don't?" The latter possibility was one that she couldn't ignore either, since if there was something, they could use it to help Miria out more than they could before. In the background of everything happening, Jeremiah was still training everyone who stepped up to fight him, which seemed to be going rather well. Syta had brought out Kisara for her spar with Lani, understandable enough... but soon came a somewhat concerning challenger in the form of Kise, who clearly wasn't holding back at all and took the opening shot with almost excessive force. Anyone magically attuned could've easily told that, and while she wasn't altogether too concerned for the man, Elisa's hair still flared a deep pink just in case. This was still training, there was no need to go properly all out! But, Jeremiah proved her intuition right in short enough order, making her let out a small sigh. Deary me, the fox can be troublesome. I hope Renais is dealing well with that... considering Kise is clearly strong enough to wipe the floor with anyone here besides us and Jeremiah, it wouldn't end well for anyone if that wasn't the case. Still, she hadn't let go of her powered-up state just yet, figuring she should stretch her metaphorical legs a little. Her magic hadn't been back for very long, but the fact she could call upon it at all meant there was a good chance she was combat-ready... and she figured giving a small reminder about not messing around too much by sheer fireworks was in order as well. Besides, Tio had just told Sylmaria to watch, right? "If you'll mind me for a sec, I thought I should try out something on the simple side just to see how much my own strength is back," Elisa said to Jesse and Alvira, turning around to face the training dummies and taking a few steps past them. Of course, what was simple to her was very much on the contrary to almost anyone else, something that became incredibly apparent as she lifted her arms above her head, grinning a little as a great swirling fireball formed in the blink of an eye between her open palms. As quickly as she'd made it, Elisa threw the smoldering flames at one of the dummies, landing at its base... and exploding into a towering eruption, instantly vaporizing her target and leaving a small scorched crater where she struck with her spell. Sure, it was the same one she'd demonstrated to Miria before, but that was without being at full strength -- this was a proper Bolganone from a master of the element, flashy and destructive yet contained to a very specific radius so as to not damage anything unintentionally. Satisfied with that, her coloration returned to the usual strawberry blonde, and she turned back around with a nonchalant smile. "Yep, looks like I'm doing fine. Didn't even break a sweat~" "True. If she's still living for someone, she probably won't cause any issues as long as they can reunite, and it's not like we have any reason to not give her what she wants in that respect, yeah?" Tasha agreed with the rest of Owen's musing on the matter as well, and even more than that, cracked a smile at seeing the man's convictions come to the surface. That an Islexian leader felt that strongly about protecting Clouded, to make the country a place where everyone could live as they were, gave her hope that things could actually change given time and effort, or at least there was the chance. Having witnessed first-hand how the local pirates often attacked Glacies just because it was a relatively safe haven for her kind, she knew that it was an incredibly uphill battle. Another new arrival showed up in the middle of their talk, though addressing her took a bit of a pause as Tasha's eyes went to the clash between Kise and Jeremiah, like most seemed to. She had no idea how strong exactly the fox was, even if she clearly was very strong, considering the immediate change in the man's stance and combat style compared to his previous simple spars with the other Tigers. When he went for it, he was far too fast to follow, leaving the tiger blinking before scratching her head at how quickly the tension defused, somewhat reminding her of a more pointed version of the time Kise had asked her to return the tome she hadn't known was originally stolen from her by the Underground. "Well, I do have a moment, but I'm not sure what you want me for. You're acquainted with Lord Owen, it seems, so--" As she was saying that, another even more eye-catching show of magic literally erupted toward the side, clearly Elisa's doing. As awful with magic as the tiger was, she knew that there wasn't anyone else among them who could casually pull something like that out, unless someone was really holding back on them, easily eclipsing the fiery explosion Miria had caught Jeremiah off guard with earlier. "If nothing else, it's good to see they're back in good condition... though I could do with less being interrupted. Anyway, like I was going to say, we're in Owen's employ, so I'll listen to anything you might ask of the Tigers, though I can't promise you'll get the answer you want."

Elisa watched very closely as the dragon went to showcase her magic further. Obviously, she had magic that was also elementally attuned, yet still very strange in form, not anything you'd expect to see from the average practitioner. Only people like herself or Tio, who had high enough affinity and skill with the spellcraft itself, typically bent the form of spells around in ways like that, like how she tended to use her skill with polearms to form fire spells in close combat into spears. Then came the biggest surprise of all of them, as Sylmaria targeted her with what seemed like a formless spell. A cold sweat broke on her brow, a shiver running through her body, and for the slightest moment she felt as if her vision was growing darker, until everything turned back to normal in an instant, leaving her blinking in confusion. What the hell was that!? If she's really telling the truth, and she has magic that can alter fate, that's messing with fundamental causality... Incredibly strong, if limited in scope. Tio took the lead on reviewing Sylmaria's spells while the younger Evoker was still a bit stuck in her head over what had just occurred to her. Everything her wife said was just about in line with her own thoughts, even if the matter of that strange spell and the non-attuned energy blast eluded their analysis - they were simply something they hadn't had a chance to really see in the wild, even if they knew that such magic was possible in theory. However, before she got a chance to display her own variations on magic for reference, having shook off her stupor, they were interrupted by... well, someone who was going to have a very bad time. These two were only ever going to fight each other, purely because of Sylmaria's disposition, and it took less than two sentences from the white dragon to make things aggressively awkward. Alvira's response wasn't quite what she expected, though, choosing to treat the matter as absurdity rather than insult, it seemed, to the point where she actually managed to hit a critical nerve for Sylmaria. Now with the topic firmly away from the matter they'd come here for, after thinking through it a bit Elisa thought to try and calm Sylmaria down herself like she had before, but Tio again got a head start on her. Likely for the best, even if they were so strongly opposed, because that same reason meant her wife had a personal stake in getting someone like her to see the error of her ways, no matter how difficult it might be. While she knew that Tio was correct, the strawberry blonde couldn't help a nagging feeling Sylmaria wouldn't accept it, even as she did her best to use her motherly comforts... but while the two were in the midst of that, the other dragon was still there too, and from how she'd looked before all of this went down, she had been in fairly high spirits. Supposing it fell to her to get things sorted out there, Elisa approached Alvira and gave her a brief, whispered run-down. "Look, I'm sure it's obvious at this point, but it's probably for the best that you keep away from Sylmaria for now. She's... had it really bad." She turned to look at the dummies that Sylmaria hadn't been blasting apart, and seeing one burnt to a pile of ash, quickly put two and two together to steer them away from that conversation. "Is your fire back enough to use combat spells with?" Elisa's passing shake of the head was a bit of an indication, but Owen shed enough light on the situation for Tasha to get what was going on. "So the bastard is leveraging Clouded under him for suicide missions. If it wasn't so messed up, I'd even call that smarter than I'd expected from someone as seemingly boorish as Kazran, but knowing that just makes me want to kick his shit in more than before. Maybe that's saying too much from someone who isn't supposed to be politically involved in this whole matter, I just really can't stand people who think of us as being below human... I'm sure you can agree with that, Lord Owen." The tiger's attention was split a little, listening to the lord of the castle while paying attention to the fight between Gean and Jeremiah, which the former looked to come out on top in, though looking quite a bit more intense than usual. Meeting family like this must have been an awful lot of emotions for her, emotions that Tasha felt she might want to talk about later, if she didn't go over it with her partners first. She was a big girl now, she wouldn't need to come to the tiger for things like that anymore... Then, her attention shifted back to Alvira, now talking with Sylmaria, and clearly having gotten the latter upset, which didn't come as a surprise given what she'd just been told. Just like Owen said, she'd have to leave the matter to the Evokers for now, as her getting involved would most likely only have caused further problems... but that did bring up in her mind the issue of what to do with her during the actual operation, an uncertain look on her face. "That raises a good question... considering the Evokers are going to have to stay behind while we attack Kazran, do you think she'll actually listen to me? The assault's being headed by myself and Cassandra for our part, after all."

With the strange situation seemingly settled, Tasha had turned to simply observing how the group handled their training. Though Jeremiah was clearly holding back, it looked like the lot of them were holding up pretty well, in the other sparring sessions as well - paying extra attention to their new ally in Roxanne, since she hadn't quite seen what she was capable of yet. And boy, could she put on a show! More magic stuff that went over the tiger's head, for sure, but it looked very impressive and atypical in just about every sense, at least as far as she'd seen other magic-users do their thing. Kind of similar to what Miria could do, but far more focused on the magic... and hell, they might not be even slightly related in technique, that's just what it looked like to someone practically illiterate at magic. And speaking of magic, a glance off to the side had her notice Alvira resting, as well as an extra crispy training dummy. Less of a surprise than if they hadn't talked about it before, but the fact that the dragon was feeling well enough with her original affinity to obliterate a dummy with surely meant things were properly on the up-and-up for her. Though she had half a mind to just go over and give her a hug, she figured her duty here was to keep supervisory watch, since Owen had been momentarily indisposed... or at least, was for a while, as the group came back soon enough, and the troubled white dragon beelined to the unharmed dummies seemingly to train herself. Best not to get too close to her for now, given the earlier heated comments. "So, hey, Owen, what's the deal with her?" Tasha asked, figuring the Evokers were probably going to follow the girl. Frustrated as Elisa was, it had paled in comparison to the downright righteous fury her wife, and even Owen to an extent, had launched into in that discussion with Sylmaria. Tio was right, sure, or at least by any reasonable measure she was, but that had been a matter there simply was no calming her down in, even if pushing it was obviously only causing more pushback in return than achieving anything. Regardless, the dragon was about to show them her magic, so she might as well actually do her job whether it involved her special abilities or not, only offering Tasha a small shake of her head with the same exasperated look she'd given her wife earlier as they passed her by. That girl was a terrible mess, one tangled so badly neither of them was probably going to make much headway in fixing. That aside, getting to actually see what Sylmaria's spells were like was exciting in and of itself from the scientist's point of view. Setting aside her feelings for the distorted views that were expressed for the moment, Elisa honed in on the dragon's mana signature, looking closely at the effects of the magic she used, only to figure out that it... wasn't really a spell as they understood it in orthodox terms. A seeming lack of elemental affinity, and an almost concerning lack of form on top of it, besides just being a blast of projected mana. "It's certainly nonstandard, that's for sure. Not many people can actually utilize a raw form of mana in casting, nor does it look like it has the same kind of properties that most normal spells do. Does it feel strange for you to use in any way?" That inquiry was more about trying to figure out if this odd form of magic had some sort of inherent downside to it, given that it deviated from standard magic in composition... but as she processed everything and came a bit closer to Sylmaria, part of her mana flow had a strange sense of familiarity to it. Huh? That's... really weird. I know I haven't seen anyone use raw mana like that personally before, but it feels closer to when Tio uses Luster Purge than anything else...