Luan Fields — Battle of the Eagles.
Something, resonating, pinged within her breast as the capers and wails of the avians of might and splendor pierced the sky. Pain, and agony bathed their calls thick and wet in the throes of anguish and defiance, stubborn brutality and predatory inclinations baited them to continue this plight no matter how hopeless it was thus deemed. Evangeline's grip tightened thrice across Umbra, the registration of her grasp not coming to fruition as the gazed towards the Eagles falling and defying the strength of her comrades. Weapons were gleaming in the sun of Viera and behind her, she heard, and felt, the fear of the infantry in face of these collective powers. When the ping finally dissipated, it was thus replaced with a burning sting and Umbra spun deftly amidst her fingers, slicing the wind, spinning into a whorl of ebony and silver as she followed after Quill, memory and tactics compelling her to see their healer guarded. And, it was here, in the thickets of blood and plume of white, that she noticed something peculiar beneath the breadths of wings and talons, something that glowed ethereal blue and seemed to shine and reflect against the darkest of feathers. It created a chill down the ridged peaks of her spine, making her halt in her loping after their stationed medic and to review her discovery. She disengaged her visor temporarily to dispel the barrier of vermilion, and crouched down low, willing herself to become small to the predator as the azure threat seem to intensify and swell.
Evangeline knew to study and learn to dismantle the foe, to judge the tides and methods of battle to tear down the opposition with her elegance of death and perception. Her perpetual smirk was devoid on her countenance, a rare visual of spliced eyes glimmering with fissures of deadly grace and intention. Great wings continued to churn the air, stirring their calls of despair as they fought to bring down the SOLDIERS, despite all cues that indicated to ruin and death, and Evangeline would grant them such. She felt the compulsion to sunder their lives, to grant relief to their pain, it was tragic and beautiful and in that was a depression of sadness that such creatures had to pass. But, they were the enemy, and the enemy must sometimes fall.
One of the Eagles that loomed over two of the SOLDIERS she did not know, and Quill whom heralded her whip like a true dame of battle, reared itself high. Its chest deeply embedded with twins prongs of a lance, and the report of a blade having carved deep into its hide and one eye uselessly gaping and lined with scarlet tears. The Eagle still managed to rise, beak gaped wide in a terrible cry as its wings began to churn. Gargantuan gales were summoned, the aforementioned blue beginning to shine and manifest into a near white before suddenly winking out of existence as those powerful wings came together in the imitation of a clap. The action was hastened by something they had never seen or encountered, a line of pure, glowing luminescence suddenly rocketing towards the three SOLDIERS before it with the hollow pierce of thunder. Evangeline witnessed in a dawning mistake that she had not protected Quill, for once the line connected to the trio, a terrible gust was formed. It swelled and twisted, swirling around, tearing armour, hair, attempting to sunder them as she watched in near helplessness before she sprinted towards them. A terrifying wind tore through the threads of gold, disfiguring her former plait and tossing the tresses in a frantic glamour as she loomed closer.
She could not reach them, however, as the Eagle turned one, malicious golden eye in her direction. The eyes of the predator and the reaper melded into one, golden and blue crashing like sunsets on the sea until the black of the night swallowed it whole. And she could see herself within that gaze as it pinned her into place, daring her to strike. Intelligence thrived there, bridled with agony and a bestial nature she could not begin to fathom, and she arose to that silent stare with a challenge of her own. Evangeline paused, spear held before her and wore a grimace of an apology then before she trust forward, allowing her hand to slip just so into a depress of a switch, and heard — felt — the fracturing and splintering of bone. Umbra's emblazoned spear head never failed to strike true and with a vicious intent, the force of her impalement vibrating up the entire length of her arms, piercing to her shoulders and causing Evangeline to almost buckle against her weapon.
Blood stained the gargantuan bird as it thrashed in terrible throes of death, the reaper grasping dominance over its' soul and spirit and crushing the remains of its heart into a not—so—silent bereavement. Evangeline murmured apologies, various words and tones tumbling over one another as she leaned into the shaft of her spear, surrendering further into the Eagles' cranium with Umbra having been interchanged to its' full length. She shuddered, her endeavors not wasted as the vile, terrifying gust finally came to pass and she smiled, directing the blinding simper to the SOLDIERS and planted her foot against the Eagles' wounded neck to shuck out her weapon from the embrace of its skull. A sickening flush of membrane and tissue came free, bathed in a vicious red that tainted Umbra in leagues of rouge and black. She laughed quietly, expression peculiar as she threw out her inquiry of:
"You all right, yeah? Sorry about that, I mean, sad it had to die. But you know, at least you guys aren't dead. Right?"
An answer, though, she did not expect as she turned to witness the rest of the battle field. Her parrying with the Eagle had only last seconds, in what felt like minutes to her, and from where she stood she could witness the same blue glimmering and beginning to manifest in some of the other creatures. Her face fell and she gnashed her teeth into a grimace as she engaged her visor once more and the Libra Scan diagram glistened to life. Another gust like the former could, potentially, rip them all apart and she was beyond thankful for her armour and their own constitution to see this battle endured.
However. . .
Silent and deadly, elegant and almost artful in arterial spray; this was the masterpiece of a rifle, metal and sinew conceiving the result of death like lovers intertwined in thread of scarlet fate. Evangeline witnessed another Eagle fall, screeches of fury and pain eclipsing the wind as throes took the creature over. The cranium was beyond recognizable already, splintered and bloodied, bashed with a ruthless and blind rage. Evangeline glanced to the man responsible, his beautiful shield bathed in the taint of the fallen, he was righteous and almost glorious in the thick of battles, but she could witness a terrible wealth of sadness about him — as if he had something to prove. Her spliced eyes fell away from the SOLDIER she did not know and glanced to the Behemoth looming in the distance. The infantry soldiers were poised still, watching them just like birds of prey, and she didn’t like it. Brows surrendered over a bi—colour stare as another cry rent the sky asunder, more bullets flying true to their mark as an Eagle intended to swoop low, talons poised to take them all.
She saw the Eagle nearly fall, the pain submerged into the gold of its’ burning gaze flickering with the manic intelligence of heavens and too quickly she saw it swivel a massive glare towards the vehicle. She could almost witness the pieces coming together, the fallen flock, the evidence that two Eagles bore wound and death from the gaping holes that had impaled beyond feather and bone. The wounded bird shrieked, a wail that surrounded the entire battle field, it was a call of defiance, a battle cry that demanded vengeance and pain and the bird took flight, great wings glowing a righteous cerulean. Evangeline’s face countered into frustration, her lips twisting into an unbecoming frown.
“It’s going for the Behemoth!” She shouted, throwing out her limb, delicate fingers of deadly efficiency following after the avian in question that climbed higher into the heavens of Viera. And like a king before his throne: it cried and threw its beak wide in a terrible, shrill caper and immediately dove for the vehicle. But, she did not see Hally there until almost too late, she did not notice him simply gaping and observing the field like the true scientist that he had once been. Her eyes peeled wide as she saw the Eagle descend closer and closer, talons open, wings aloft, those jagged, serrated edges of its mouth yawning open. She screamed and ran towards him, summoning an agility that came with grace and fear, adrenaline that swept her ligaments into over drive as she tumbled and shoved past her comrades; ignoring James’ shouts of fury and battle, of Kain standing like the Sentinel he was, even forgetting that two of the Eagles remained, and were preparing their attacks for more. Evangeline dove, her shoulder driving into his sternum and her arms embracing him whole as the Eagle shrieked, wings coming together as that familiar white line bloomed and then winked out of the realm. The air from her lungs were immediately ripped away as the terrible wind surrounded them, she clung to Hally all the more and heard the terrible screams and shouts riding through the gale as the maelstrom also encompassed the Behemoth, tearing the infantry troops apart with ruthless whorls. Skin flayed, bones cracked and splintered, scarlet malice bathed the fields of Luan in red and for many years would that stain remain: the Battle of the Eagles.
Evangeline shouted, knowing very well that some of their fellow SOLDIERS yet remained aboard the multi-terrain vehicle and while bodies fell, she realized that she felt nothing — no pain. Her own life did not join the taint of the dead, and she glanced down to Hally pinned beneath her, noticing he too did not bear a single wound. The maelstrom died with the Eagle falling from the grievous effort and wounds, the massive force making the ground quake as it fell from the palace of the sky. The Eagles remaining attempted their escape then, the rest of their brethren having fallen, dying and lost, their feathers marking the field with blood and pain. The Eagles with James' found on its' spine bucked to throw him off, trying to climb the heavens to retreat as the Eagle who had intended on attacking John and Beatrice made haste in flight towards the spires of Esper Ridge, screeching for the other to follow. This battle was lost, with both sides suffering injury, bodies given to either opposition - it was their first battle, and the memory would last for both bird and man for a long while.
Evangeline suddenly fumbled away from Hally and fell back to her heels, unable to fathom what had occurred only seconds before the dawning realization. She had seen the gust tear around Quill and the wounded SOLDIERS, and yet she was unharmed? A terrible tremor shot up her arms and pounded into her shoulders until her eyes fell on Hally and rage immediately shot over her expression, disbelief violating the depths of her eyes as she reached forward and grabbed him by his shoulders, the very depths of her enraged soul sputtering out.
“What in the fuck are you doing?!”
Evangeline knew to study and learn to dismantle the foe, to judge the tides and methods of battle to tear down the opposition with her elegance of death and perception. Her perpetual smirk was devoid on her countenance, a rare visual of spliced eyes glimmering with fissures of deadly grace and intention. Great wings continued to churn the air, stirring their calls of despair as they fought to bring down the SOLDIERS, despite all cues that indicated to ruin and death, and Evangeline would grant them such. She felt the compulsion to sunder their lives, to grant relief to their pain, it was tragic and beautiful and in that was a depression of sadness that such creatures had to pass. But, they were the enemy, and the enemy must sometimes fall.
One of the Eagles that loomed over two of the SOLDIERS she did not know, and Quill whom heralded her whip like a true dame of battle, reared itself high. Its chest deeply embedded with twins prongs of a lance, and the report of a blade having carved deep into its hide and one eye uselessly gaping and lined with scarlet tears. The Eagle still managed to rise, beak gaped wide in a terrible cry as its wings began to churn. Gargantuan gales were summoned, the aforementioned blue beginning to shine and manifest into a near white before suddenly winking out of existence as those powerful wings came together in the imitation of a clap. The action was hastened by something they had never seen or encountered, a line of pure, glowing luminescence suddenly rocketing towards the three SOLDIERS before it with the hollow pierce of thunder. Evangeline witnessed in a dawning mistake that she had not protected Quill, for once the line connected to the trio, a terrible gust was formed. It swelled and twisted, swirling around, tearing armour, hair, attempting to sunder them as she watched in near helplessness before she sprinted towards them. A terrifying wind tore through the threads of gold, disfiguring her former plait and tossing the tresses in a frantic glamour as she loomed closer.
She could not reach them, however, as the Eagle turned one, malicious golden eye in her direction. The eyes of the predator and the reaper melded into one, golden and blue crashing like sunsets on the sea until the black of the night swallowed it whole. And she could see herself within that gaze as it pinned her into place, daring her to strike. Intelligence thrived there, bridled with agony and a bestial nature she could not begin to fathom, and she arose to that silent stare with a challenge of her own. Evangeline paused, spear held before her and wore a grimace of an apology then before she trust forward, allowing her hand to slip just so into a depress of a switch, and heard — felt — the fracturing and splintering of bone. Umbra's emblazoned spear head never failed to strike true and with a vicious intent, the force of her impalement vibrating up the entire length of her arms, piercing to her shoulders and causing Evangeline to almost buckle against her weapon.
Blood stained the gargantuan bird as it thrashed in terrible throes of death, the reaper grasping dominance over its' soul and spirit and crushing the remains of its heart into a not—so—silent bereavement. Evangeline murmured apologies, various words and tones tumbling over one another as she leaned into the shaft of her spear, surrendering further into the Eagles' cranium with Umbra having been interchanged to its' full length. She shuddered, her endeavors not wasted as the vile, terrifying gust finally came to pass and she smiled, directing the blinding simper to the SOLDIERS and planted her foot against the Eagles' wounded neck to shuck out her weapon from the embrace of its skull. A sickening flush of membrane and tissue came free, bathed in a vicious red that tainted Umbra in leagues of rouge and black. She laughed quietly, expression peculiar as she threw out her inquiry of:
"You all right, yeah? Sorry about that, I mean, sad it had to die. But you know, at least you guys aren't dead. Right?"
An answer, though, she did not expect as she turned to witness the rest of the battle field. Her parrying with the Eagle had only last seconds, in what felt like minutes to her, and from where she stood she could witness the same blue glimmering and beginning to manifest in some of the other creatures. Her face fell and she gnashed her teeth into a grimace as she engaged her visor once more and the Libra Scan diagram glistened to life. Another gust like the former could, potentially, rip them all apart and she was beyond thankful for her armour and their own constitution to see this battle endured.
However. . .
Silent and deadly, elegant and almost artful in arterial spray; this was the masterpiece of a rifle, metal and sinew conceiving the result of death like lovers intertwined in thread of scarlet fate. Evangeline witnessed another Eagle fall, screeches of fury and pain eclipsing the wind as throes took the creature over. The cranium was beyond recognizable already, splintered and bloodied, bashed with a ruthless and blind rage. Evangeline glanced to the man responsible, his beautiful shield bathed in the taint of the fallen, he was righteous and almost glorious in the thick of battles, but she could witness a terrible wealth of sadness about him — as if he had something to prove. Her spliced eyes fell away from the SOLDIER she did not know and glanced to the Behemoth looming in the distance. The infantry soldiers were poised still, watching them just like birds of prey, and she didn’t like it. Brows surrendered over a bi—colour stare as another cry rent the sky asunder, more bullets flying true to their mark as an Eagle intended to swoop low, talons poised to take them all.
She saw the Eagle nearly fall, the pain submerged into the gold of its’ burning gaze flickering with the manic intelligence of heavens and too quickly she saw it swivel a massive glare towards the vehicle. She could almost witness the pieces coming together, the fallen flock, the evidence that two Eagles bore wound and death from the gaping holes that had impaled beyond feather and bone. The wounded bird shrieked, a wail that surrounded the entire battle field, it was a call of defiance, a battle cry that demanded vengeance and pain and the bird took flight, great wings glowing a righteous cerulean. Evangeline’s face countered into frustration, her lips twisting into an unbecoming frown.
“It’s going for the Behemoth!” She shouted, throwing out her limb, delicate fingers of deadly efficiency following after the avian in question that climbed higher into the heavens of Viera. And like a king before his throne: it cried and threw its beak wide in a terrible, shrill caper and immediately dove for the vehicle. But, she did not see Hally there until almost too late, she did not notice him simply gaping and observing the field like the true scientist that he had once been. Her eyes peeled wide as she saw the Eagle descend closer and closer, talons open, wings aloft, those jagged, serrated edges of its mouth yawning open. She screamed and ran towards him, summoning an agility that came with grace and fear, adrenaline that swept her ligaments into over drive as she tumbled and shoved past her comrades; ignoring James’ shouts of fury and battle, of Kain standing like the Sentinel he was, even forgetting that two of the Eagles remained, and were preparing their attacks for more. Evangeline dove, her shoulder driving into his sternum and her arms embracing him whole as the Eagle shrieked, wings coming together as that familiar white line bloomed and then winked out of the realm. The air from her lungs were immediately ripped away as the terrible wind surrounded them, she clung to Hally all the more and heard the terrible screams and shouts riding through the gale as the maelstrom also encompassed the Behemoth, tearing the infantry troops apart with ruthless whorls. Skin flayed, bones cracked and splintered, scarlet malice bathed the fields of Luan in red and for many years would that stain remain: the Battle of the Eagles.
Evangeline shouted, knowing very well that some of their fellow SOLDIERS yet remained aboard the multi-terrain vehicle and while bodies fell, she realized that she felt nothing — no pain. Her own life did not join the taint of the dead, and she glanced down to Hally pinned beneath her, noticing he too did not bear a single wound. The maelstrom died with the Eagle falling from the grievous effort and wounds, the massive force making the ground quake as it fell from the palace of the sky. The Eagles remaining attempted their escape then, the rest of their brethren having fallen, dying and lost, their feathers marking the field with blood and pain. The Eagles with James' found on its' spine bucked to throw him off, trying to climb the heavens to retreat as the Eagle who had intended on attacking John and Beatrice made haste in flight towards the spires of Esper Ridge, screeching for the other to follow. This battle was lost, with both sides suffering injury, bodies given to either opposition - it was their first battle, and the memory would last for both bird and man for a long while.
Evangeline suddenly fumbled away from Hally and fell back to her heels, unable to fathom what had occurred only seconds before the dawning realization. She had seen the gust tear around Quill and the wounded SOLDIERS, and yet she was unharmed? A terrible tremor shot up her arms and pounded into her shoulders until her eyes fell on Hally and rage immediately shot over her expression, disbelief violating the depths of her eyes as she reached forward and grabbed him by his shoulders, the very depths of her enraged soul sputtering out.
“What in the fuck are you doing?!”
BATTLE SUMMARY
.Eagle A uses its' Phantasm against Castor, Quill, and Sable.
.Evangeline pierces Eagle A's skull with Umbra, killing it.
.Eagle B dies from Dach's bullets.
.Eagle E suffers injury and attacks the Behemoth with its' Phantasm before dying.
.More than half of the infantry grunt soldiers die.
.Eagles C and F try to flee the battle scene.
.Evangeline pierces Eagle A's skull with Umbra, killing it.
.Eagle B dies from Dach's bullets.
.Eagle E suffers injury and attacks the Behemoth with its' Phantasm before dying.
.More than half of the infantry grunt soldiers die.
.Eagles C and F try to flee the battle scene.
