Falcon's Shadow *Plot thread 3.1*

[Monthu]

Monthu was knowing true fear alright. The simple sight of the huge armoured horseman galloping towards him had initially frozen him in his tracks. Then he shook his head, remembering that he was not some mere fool to be tossed aside! He would make his stand. Nocking an arrow he let fly towards the horse, intentionally letting the rider dodge the strike, buying him some time. Turning to the other rider, he could make out with his sharp eyesight, the prints in the dirt where Bast stood. 

Reaching to his back, he pulled out three C4 lined arrows, these were the big boomers, made to kill rather than distract like the others he used in Alberisato were. Nocking all three, he pulled back on the string and nodded his monocular over his eye, giving him a more accurate shot.

"Bast!" He cried "Wherever you are right now, run!" he relinquished his grip on the string, and tree explosive arrows launched themselves towards the Ice Wolf.

[Bast]

And she zipped back behind Monthu, tapping him on the shoulder as she passed him to let him know she'd made it out safely.

"Impressive," she whispered into his ear.

[Alessia]

"I'm alright," she nodded toward Gensayce before he took off after another enemy. She watched the fight proceed, one thing she was sure was the fact that these people knew fear... so it was time to put the fear of god into them.

She stepped back a bit, doing her best not to draw any attention to her as she began to dance. The she had only used a couple times, once during the battle against Duo and the other against the Heroes when they kidnapped Harumi.

Little light orbs started to dance around Alessia, the sound of them moving made something of a musical note. The soft music spread throughout the battlefield as long started to move around her, replacing her clothes for a light armor. In mere moments the Falcon's would be running from light itself.

[Ra]

Ra looked passed the giant running towards them, and stares at the dancing girl. That is when he noticed her glowing tattoo on her back. "That must be where her power comes from..." Ra said quietly to himself. He ran past Riliath, and towards Alessia at a fast pace. When her dance had her back towards him, he quickly raised his Mana blade and swung down at the tattoo.

[Gensayce Zidjiai]

Boom. Boom. Boom

The three arrows detonated around Gensayce, engulfing him in smoke which eventually settled and was pushed away by a glowing, pale blue light, emanating from within. Gensayce Zidjiai stretched up to his full height, his armour now covering his full body and spiking backwards like crystals of ice, his helmet was gone, replaced by an edged headband and long, spiked back white hair. Gensayce had channeled all of his energy into this new form and his spear remained in his hand.

Hearing footsteps approaching, he swiftly disappeared in a blue flash, before appearing in front of Alessia and raising his weapon, blocking off the strike that Ra had swung towards her he locked blades with his opponent, his spear had an aura of mana pulsating around it.

"This is the power." He said, with a scowl. "That helped kill Trucido! Leader of the Sumata!"

[Riliath Infernus]

Riliath had to quickly pull Kasai to the side to dodge Monthu's arrow, before watching him launch three more at Gensayce. Frowning at his channeled form, he spoke.

"So... You're using that already?" Shaking his head to bring his thoughts back into focus, he continued his charge towards the archer, with his halberd raised, he would not yet use all of his power, he doubted that this archer was an issue.

[Alessia]

It was too late to move, Ra would know doubt land a powerful blow on her. Thankfully, Gensayce's blocked the blow and allowed her to continue her dance.

I hope Roxa is paying him enough... She thought as Gensayce once again saved her.

She continued the dance, the light around her started to dance around faster and faster until it started to take a form into a giant Phoenix, with Alessia in the middle.

The giant beast towered over the falcons while it flew into the air, breathing down a wave of fire on all the Falcon's in sight.

[Monthu]

Monthu shuddered when Bast whispered to him. He scowled in the general direction of her voice.

"I really hate it when you do that, my dear." he grumbled as he looked across at the smoke clearing around Gensayce and nearly dropped his bow. He stood there with his jaw agape as he swiftly moved to Alessia's rescue with little effort. 

"I'll tell you something Bast..." He muttered as he nocked another arrow. "I thought you going invisible was cool." He motioned to the now glowing Gensayce, his crystal looking armour and spiked hair. "But I think he tops that..." He looked behind him, again not quite sure where she was.

"No offence! I mean, you have the whole 'cat thing' going on which is still cute! But he has a wolf thing going on, and that's scary!" 

[Bast]

"That phoenix is also scary!" she hissed, pulling him backwards and into a depression in the hills, so the fire went over them as much as possible.

"I'm beginning to admit, I think they have us outclassed, power-wise..."

[Monthu]

Monthu jumped back towards the same depression, launching an arrow up at the Phoenix as he did so. Sliding on his back, he felt himself lightly slide to a stop at Bast's feet and gave a small grunt as he turned over and stood in a crouch, staying as low as possible.

"I can't disagree." He said with a nod pulling out some spare shafts and arrowheads. He quickly started to assemble more explosive arrows, some awl pike arrows which would help against the heavily armoured Riliath, and a 'tazer' arrow, which was a blunt arrow head with an electrical current travelling through it, provided by batteries on either side of te head, to take down that Phoenix when he could. I bet if the woman went through enough pain, her tricks would stop.

"Not going to lie, Bassy." He said with a shake of his head as he put his new arrows in his quiver. "I'm bloody scared witless at the moment. I'm out of my league. I'm used to assassinating war criminals and people who die with one explosive arrow. Not men who turn into crystal giants, glowing knights, giant armoured horsemen and a bloody Phoenix." He frowned in her general direction, it was difficult to hide the dread in his expression.

"Still. You've got to go down swinging, right?"

[Bast]

"I don't plan on going down at all," she admitted, shimmering back to visibility again as she watched. "But I agree. This is, as you soldiers put it, far above our pay grade, and the pay grade for this mission was pretty good." She looked over the lip at their formidable opponents. "I should've just stabbed the woman in the back and been done with it," she mumbled.

[Monthu]

"Don't worry about it." He said with a nod and a smile.

"It isn't easy to kill someone in close proximity... You can see their face, hear their last breath. I suppose I liked that about being an archer, you don't have to look them in the eye if they can't see you. I've only ever killed up close twice, and I'll never forget either of them, both were under..." He paused to look over the lip to see if they were in danger.

"Under dangerous circumstances." He continued "One was when I infiltrated a base, and killed my target. A guard walked into the room and I had to throw a pen through his eye, it was the closest thing." He gave a chuckle "That deserves to be on my highlight real. The second one... The second was when I'd made camp and was preparing for the Kill..." He leaned over the top and launched a normal arrow at his opponents, forcing them to keep their heads down. "I didn't realise that I'd camped near a hunting path, some random man spotted me and asked me what I was doing, he risked blowing my cover if he was spotted, so I had to drive my knife into his neck... I'll never forget his eyes. They'll haunt me until I die.

[Bast]

"You don't see a lot of death in my business," she admitted. "Honestly, I came because of the thrill and the challenge. The theft of the most precious, most elusive resource in the world... I never thought we would actually see combat. Of course, I'll kill if I must, but really, I prefer not to must, if you know what I mean..."

SHe shook her head. "I suppose that would make me weak in the eyes of a hardened killer like you, bt perhaps we are more alike than I first assumed." She smiled. "If we see tomorrow... we should explore that 'perhaps', maybe."

[Monthu]

"Hardened killer?" He asked with a snort "Like I said, I'm an archer because you don't have to see the targets face, when you're a good 200 paces away from an opponent, you can easily just pretend that he's a target back home." He nodde solemnly to himself. "You're lucky. You have skills in an occupation that not only are you good at, but requires less morality than you would think. Anyone can resort to theft when they're desperate, but not many can do it well, Bassy." He said, giving her a wink.

"You've plunged head first into this world for a challenge, in my eyes, that makes you stronger than I will ever be, you've done everything in your profession and now you want more. I respect that. And I would be honoured to pursue that 'Perhaps'." He gave her a small smile before it dawned on him the prospect of not seeing tomorrow, giving him one last thing to say.

"Lü Jin." He said bluntly.

[Bast]

"Maeve Powell," she replied with a sweet smile, one more genuine than she had thought she could give.

"They're not contacts," she added with a secretive, playful grin, not sure why it seemed so important that he know that before their possible deaths.

And yet, flirting with death gave her an intense thrill she'd only ever rarely gotten elsewhere in her life, and then only artificially. Perhaps she'd try skydiving if she made it back home...