vulpeculaet | (no subject)

[Ibakha the Wanderer is, well. A wanderer. No points for guessing that. But it also means, between aetherytes and her own propensity to just aimlessly travel, she can be found almost anywhere.

You may find her in Ul'dah, where she stands outside the walls. There's guards on either side of her, shouting at her for daring to steal some bread... Which, well. The guards are blind to it, but with her anger, aether is starting to swirl around her. There's a very distinct chance the guards might be about to get annihilated. Someone should step in, probably.

You may find her in Coerthas, in the Sea of Clouds, where she's currently ~~in a FATE~~ being dogpiled by a seemingly-endless stream of birds. She seems to be doing fine for herself, but, well. She's seriously outnumbered, and one red mage can only do so much.

You might find her in the Azim Steppe, sitting on the edge of the Dawn Throne, feet hanging down off the side as she looks over the Dotharl lands. If you approach, she'll pat the ground to let you sit beside her, at least?

Or you might find her underwater, in the ocean near Sui-no-Sato. In a rare moment of open excitement, since she believes no one can see her, she's having so much fun with the new blessing to breathe underwater. She's flipping, twisting, generally having a blast playing in the water. You, uh, might not want to approach though. She has dignity to keep.

She might be anywhere, even. Kugane, Doma, Coerthas, Limsa... Any possible location in Hydaelyn is a place she could be, just wandering about. Come talk to her!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Danger.

Every single instinct in Ibakha's mind is screaming at her. This is wrong. This is wrong. This is not how someone fights. This is fury. This is rage. This is something dark. This is--

This is a monster unlike any she knew.

Every instinct, every piece of experience, it's all in agreement. She's bound. She's caught. Ibakha is a free spirit. Ibakha must never be bound. And this monster in front of her... This is a bad situation. She has to escape. She has to survive.

White light descends from above, as heavenly orbs descend and explode... between them. Blasting the chains, blasting Ren, and most importantly, blasting Ibakha far backwards, away from the beast in front of her.]

Ah...[For a second it seems to have worked perfectly, Ren staggering back from the burns of the verholy.

But here's the problem: warriors have a gap-closer now. She moves far faster than she should be able to, aiming the butt of her axe for Ibakha's gut as she closes, grin unholy. The wind shrieks with her as she moves and--is that a different axe? The one she had is stuck in a rock behind her. The one she's holding seems formed of a shrieking, cackling wind...

Anyway she gonna bop you with it.]

Ahahahaha! Yes, yes!! Fight, struggle, rage! Show me everything!

[Hm.

That's bad, but instinct is a powerful thing, and moreso for a Dotharl, who does not fear death. Ibakha has walked with death for a thousand lifetimes, and knows it is not to be feared... But it should not be recklessly courted as well.

She leaps. She leaps, and kicks off of the axe, using Displacement in an elegant backflip off the axe, flying back...

And she lands right in the waters under the Dawn Throne's shadow, disappearing below the surface.]

[...well.

She. She didn't expect that. And she doesn't give chase, not really, she just sort of stands there, staring into the lake, almost contemplative, as her aura dies out.]

...Too much?

[Maybe a little, Ren.]

[A little. But, well. Ren isn't the only one who's a bit Extra.

Before Ibakha was a Red Mage, she was a thaumaturge. Her mastery over the black was always greater than that over the white. And she was, of course, nowhere near as powerful a thaumaturge as Sadu, but... Well. She never had to be.

A waterspout rises from the lake, and Ibakha leaps from the top, into the air like a fish as she hurls aetherial swords, and then uses those swords as footholds to climb into the air...

Sadu's most powerful thaumaturgy calls down the very heavens, a rain of meteors. Ibakha can't do that. But with the water-aspected aether of the lake? She can do something else.

This is a very fancy way of saying she's combining Blizzard IV with gravity to drop a very, very, very large chunk of ice on Ren's head from very high up.]

[We need a lesson in Appropriate Levels of Force, clearly. Because Ren's caught off-guard, but as clearly demonstrated in several places, an Egi can and will come to the defense of it's master--and Ren's axe, was, in fact, an egi.

Garuda-Egi's not a great tank, as things go. But that's still a tiny primal releasing a whirlwind to try and blow that ice back in razor-sharp shards at whomever's assaulted her mistress.

I think we might wanna wind this down before it gets dumber.]

Ah. Well, then...

[Especially since the aether in the very air around them is beginning to shift. Laced with something as it has been since the day the moon fell. And now all of it because to align towards Ren.]

Very well. Allow me to show you everything.

[Veraero blunts the blow. But... Well. Ibakha has been keeping a trump card in store this whole time. The razor shards of ice assault her, but as the aether begins building up...

Manafication. It instantly doubles the amount of mana she has built up. It completely resets her movement. It's an incredibly powerful skill, even normally. But when combined with someone of Ibakha's talents?

The cord of light from Corps-a-corps pulls Ibakha in at maximum speed, as she burns off aether to push herself faster. She's going to have her rapier's point at Ren's neck before she can finish drawing upon Bahamut's aether... But she's not gonna stab or anything, just. Trying to take a win here. Ren can still, in fact, Bahamut her if she so chooses.]

...Need to watch your surroundings better, you're not planning for all contingencies.

[Ren's holding still, not so much as a twitch. Garuda-egi, on the other hand...

YEAH KNOCKBACK TIME. BACK INTO THE LAKE WITH YOU!]

[Well, then.

She rights herself in the air, and hurls another round of aetherial swords... Contre Sixte, the giant pillars of aether and light blinding.

Or it's a diversion, so she can throw her sword straight through the damn bird before she lands in the water.]