lutheria & ceres: COEURL MOB. like a flash mob, but fun.
Now this was a fight. Ever since the ring Lutheria had been itching for a real hunt, a real opportunity to sink her teeth into something, literally or figuratively. When the call went out to head to the city walls, she had been lounging in her shitty apartment, feeding scraps of meat to Ramza the Dog—a worthy pursuit for a Wednesday afternoon, to be sure, but not terribly fulfilling, barring the unavoidable pleasant feelings of Ramza barking happily at her hands. Ajora. Fucking dogs.
But the call came, and out she went. Guild members were milling towards the walls in semi-ordered chaos, weapons drawn, magicite crystals ready. There was no chance to find Gillian in this soupy mass of half-baked fighters and thieves and Faram fucking knew what else; she'd have to report in later. She followed a group towards the walls, out the gates, listening to reports from some grizzled older fighter—Coeurls, and Killer Mantis, and Dreadguards. Beautiful.
Outside the walls was chaos—not semi-ordered, not ordered at all. Lutheria emerged from the gates, gunblade in one hand, pistol in the other, and it was all she could do to choke back against the stench of beasts on the field, their bellies split open, their blood rising in heated mist into the cool evening air. She grinned with wolfish teeth. This—this was her element. She launched into battle as easily as putting on an old coat, well worn, its edges frayed and familiar. Her gunblade lashed into Mantis flesh; she fired three bullets into a Coeurl's speckled crown; her body twisted and moved in thin air like a dry leaf, but controlled, and strong, for all its errant flipping.
She landed atop a Coeurl with a steel-toed kick to its left eye that sent the beast reeling, shrieking in pain. There were at least half a dozen of them now, circling in like birds of prey, their whip like whiskers licking out in the air, charged with electrify. She could take them (probably), but it'd be messy, and she'd rather not waste the bullets. So it was fortunate that at the corner of her eye she caught a flash of blonde and steel, a shield held high, a hapless beast beneath a familiar blade.
Ceres. Lutheria grinned again, black blood streaking her face and armor. "Look who showed up," she said, in that clipped Ordalian twang. "Come to join the party?"
A Coeurl launched itself at her and Lutheria, teeth bared, dove straight for it.