[OOM] The Westersand, First Day, with Jay. (Prethreading.)

[fluffiest_archadian]

The first hour or so out on the Westersand - an area more rock and clay than sand, but covered in a heavy layer of stuff nonetheless - is relatively uneventful. A few cactus-like creatures skitter across their path. Once or twice, something that looks like a burlap sack with a large, grinning tomato for a head gets too close and is shot down by an archer.

Sherral brings his chocobo alongside Jay's after a while, glancing over at him. "Are you dealing with the heat all right?"

Comments

[runningred]

"Shit!" Jay mutters, stowing the blade. "I've got armour piercing rounds but I need the rifle." Which he left on the ridge for fear of damaging it on the way down. "Think you can keep it distracted till I get there?"

[fluffiest_archadian]

"Shouldn't be a problem," Sherral says. "Go."

The dragon swoops around again, charging flames between its mandibles and firing a flurry of fireballs at them. Sherral moves between it and Jay, deflecting the flames away with a swing of his sword.

[runningred]

Jay scrambles up the ridge, racing towards the rifle. It takes him a moment to find the right ammo. These rounds are designed for putting holes in the side of armoured cars and denting tanks. He loads and aims for the dragon's head, trying to pick a gap between fireballs. He's only got two shot so he makes the most of them.

[fluffiest_archadian]

The dragon lets out a scream as the two rounds hit its head, and a spray of blackish-blue blood spurts out over the sands as it thrashes around, wailing and flapping.

As soon as its throes bring it down low enough, Sherral leaps up and drives his sword down through a gap in the armour left where the rounds went through, the point emerging beneath its jaw and pinning it to the ground. A lightning strike is summoned a second later.

After its faded, the dragon is still moving, it seems, flapping its wings and trying to gain altitude, even as its head is, between armoured rounds, sword and lightning, almost completely gone.

[runningred]

Jay jumps and slides, aiming to land on the dragon's back. He pulls a very sharp, wavy bladed knife, riding the dragon's thrashing to try to force the knife between the scales. He attacks the base of the wings, trying to cut muscles or tendons to stop the dragon's wings from flapping, trying to hamstring it.

[fluffiest_archadian]

Most of the armoured scales fit too tightly together, but there's one near the left wing that's slightly loose, leaving enough of a gap to get the knife in. It isn't long until the wing is useless and the dragon is lopsidedly crashing to the ground, claws raking at the sands.

Sherral moves in, charging lightning about his sword as he drives it up towards the dragon's chest. It hits armour at first with a crashing noise. "Obscura Dia Thundara Faram."

There's another flash, and the blade slides in, the dragon spraying blood.

[runningred]

Jay rolls out of the way as he and the dragon hit the dirt, ducking his head to avoid getting spraying with blood. "These things just don't know when to die!"

[fluffiest_archadian]

"They're rather stubborn, aye," Sherral says, pulling his sword free. The glow on it has faded now, so he tosses it aside. He'll pick it up later.

The dragon hauls itself onto its feet, crashing about.

"Your turn to be the decoy. Buy me two minutes," Sherral says, backing off a little.

[runningred]

"Got it. Come here ya big chicken!" He taunts, making a lot of noise to keep the dragon's attention on him as it thrashes. "Eyes on me, you ugly mook!" He pulls a throwing knife and aims it at the mangled remains of the monster's face, looking for tender bits between the broken scales. Anything to buy Sherral the time he needs.

[fluffiest_archadian]

The dragon bellows, crashing and flailing after Jay, letting out a few gouts of flame.

Sherral backs off until there's a little distance between them, and then takes a deep breath, drawing in the Mist around them. It appears as orange light tinged with green and gold at the edges, appearing from around him and being sucked into his body.

[runningred]

Thankfully Jay's suit is fireproof. He learnt the hard way after a round with Firefly so he gets away without so much as sizzle. "That's it, ugly! Come at me! Come on, you big chicken. I'm so taking one of your teeth home as a trophy!"

He watches Sherral out of the corner of his eye, waiting to see what he's up to.

[fluffiest_archadian]

Sherral keeps drawing in energy, while the sand around him starts to shift, as if being drawn towards his feet. It's not just his feet either - the flames on the buildings begin to flicker out, releasing clouds of Mist that billow towards his hands.

The dragon is entirely focused on Jay, scrambling after him, screaming and thrashing at him.

Almost exactly two minutes have passed when Sherral holds out one hand, palm outwards, towards the dragon.

"Out of the way!" That's about the only warning Jay gets before a beam of light issues from Sherral's palm. In a long streak from his hand to the dragon, it turns the sand to molten glass, before it collides with the dragon at a sidewards angle. The remaining wing is incinerated instantly. The rest of the dragon screams and pushes back against the beam, before the light intensifies and cleaves it in half at the waist. The two halves fall burning to the sand, while the beam continues onwards until it hits the cliff.

Which proceeds to split down the middle, leaving a fissure about fifteen feet deep.

With a flicker and a crackle, the light fades. Sherral makes a raspy noise, holding it up. The gauntlet on that hand is wrecked, and the exposed flesh beneath it has mottled burns across it. He doesn't seem too concerned.

[runningred]

Jay doesn't need telling twice. He rolls out of the way, giving Sherral a free line of fire.

He can't help but whistle under his breath, impressed by the wreckage in his path. "Nice!"

He crosses to Sherral, nodding to his hand. "You okay?"

[fluffiest_archadian]

"Nothing that medical attention later won't fix," Sherral says lightly. "I believe we have bandits to pursue."

[runningred]

Jay pulls something small from his belt, tossing it to Sherral as they head after the last of the bandits. "Here, spray coolant for the burn. It'll take the edge off."

He spots the first bandit ahead, throwing a knife and landing it through the guy's throat.

[fluffiest_archadian]

Sherral grunts his thanks and sprays the coolant onto his hand, before tossing it back. His discarded sword is picked up and sheathed in short order.

The last few bandits have set up barriers of boxes, sandbags and wooden planks on the hill, firing arrows at them from behind them. Sherral pulls his own bow from his back, notches an arrow, and fires, catching one between the eyes.

[runningred]

Jag catches and pockets it, hoping the analgesic added to the spray will help Sherral till they get back to the rest of the team.

The bandits hiding behind their little barricade seem silly after messing with a dragon. Jay ignores the arrows, using a technique he learned from Arsenal back in the days he still called himself Speedy to dodge between them. Calculating the distance with a quick glance, Jay steals one of Sherral's arrows and attaches the spare heads from his crossbow bolts - a grey cylinder about the width of his thumb. A small explosive device. "Try that." He hands it to Sherral.

[fluffiest_archadian]

Sherral turns the arrow over in his hand, then notches it to his bow and fires it. He does look appreciative of the resulting explosion.

There's only about three bandits left. Sherral takes one out with an arrow to the neck.

[runningred]

Jay pulls one of his pistols and snaps off a shot, taking another guy down, leaving one. "Would you like the honours or shall I?" Ha asks, almost flippantly.

[fluffiest_archadian]

"By all means, go ahead," Sherral says lightly.

[runningred]

Jay grins under his helmet and waits patiently between desperate arrows to fire, taking the last man down quick and clean.

"So," He turns back to Sherral. "Dragon! That was cool. Never done that before."

[fluffiest_archadian]

"It's all downhill after the first dragon, I'm informed," Sherral says.

[runningred]

"Really? That's sad. I was looking forward to killing one better next time. We're coming back this way, right? Because I'm totally claiming a trophy." Kid on a sugar high? Maybe...

[fluffiest_archadian]

"We will be. Not for a while, though," Sherral says. "Maybe find a tooth or a scale now."

He taps the side of his helmet. "Move in through the front gate and secure the area. Check all the buildings - if you find any survivors, take them alive."

A moment later, the rest of the expedition rides in and gets to work.

[runningred]

Jay grins under his helmet and holsters his gun, all but skipping back to the dragon's corpse to pry himself free a trophy. He manage to score a scale and a tooth, taking a sample of wing as well. Might yield some interesting info when he has time to study it.

He wanders back to Sherral, stashing his scores in his pack when they rejoin the group. He's totally going to turn the dragon's scale into a breastplate for Yanna when he has time to work on it.