[tumbling with a yelp, yes--letting himself fall out of the immediate shadow of that hand, and then flinging out his arms and legs and activating his glide to level out]

[but, good--looking around, trying to very quickly take stock--where are Mau and the survivors, where is ground, exactly how ridiculous will the platforming and aerial work be to keep up this fight]

[and pretty much automatically as a result of casting that spell, a circle of light flares around him again, and his glow changes to pure white, light boiling off his skin, six swords of crystalized light bursting into existence, orbiting his shoulders like wings]

There is no ground in sight, but Locaha... well, it's hard to make out what is going on with him, exactly, since he seems to have no real body, and bits of him are indistinguishable from the night, but he is the equivalent of waist-deep in the water, his great grey wings still taking up the sky, and the hand containing Mau and the sandbar is cupped close to his body... it's a long fall to the sea from there, but certainly not a deadly one.

(Mau is coaxing everyone who is able to make the jump, and Locaha, focused on you, does not seem to have noticed.)

But that free hand is smashing through the air towards you again, preceded by a shockwave, attempting to smash you into the surface of the water as if you were a mosquito.

[good, stay focused on me, stay focused on me and don't kill me, fucking shockwaves--he wishes he could be down there helping Mau, healing people, but he barely has a spare second to see whether they're getting out--]

[mashing square air sliding repeatedly, darting about twenty feet in an instant with each one, pushing desperately to dodge--he's losing altitude bit by bit, but he can use all his tricks to keep himself up the air as long as he can, he doesn't want to waste a second of the time he has in Wingblade--he barely escapes the hand itself and the shockwave batters him, yelping with pain]

[and as soon as he can, as soon as the hand's gone by, whipping around and attacking the wrist with those six blades of light, swirling and circling around him, humming like fine crystal, it's like attacking with six keyblades at once with a major attack power-up]

Edited 2012-08-25 04:38 pm (UTC)

Thunder rolls, a sound like the sky itself is cracking, and, somehow, also a pained sound, a wounded roar. It gets lighter, and Locaha blurs... you can see stars through his grey wings, and sound is coming back into the world, the rush of the sea.

(As the people leap into the water they become dolphins, and now there is only one person left besides Mau, still standing in the curve of Locaha's hand. If you have a second to spare, you may realize it's the man who was standing so still by himself, and Mau is pulling at him, but he's clearly resisting...)

But in point of fact you probably don't have a second, because that wrist is slamming toward you in a vision backhand to swat you out of the air, pushing a raging wind before it.

[ugh ugh too much wind to dodge properly, too big to dodge, he spent a split second too long noticing Mau and Selenia--]

Wind!

[and a circle of his own wind bursts around him, leaving him in the calm spot in the center, he's not expecting it to do any damage, just serve as a bit of a buffer. crossing both his arms over his chest, left on the outside, wingblades forming a shield of light, gritting his teeth. this is gonna suck, probably break at least one arm, but he doesn't care how much he's hurt as long as he's conscious enough to heal--]

Locaha's hand crashes into you, a wall of blackness -- it's like getting hit by a semi truck, to use a completely anachronistic analogy. Even with the shielding, it knocks you out of the sky, and if his skin makes contact with you it's like being slashed with razors, burning cold.

(And his other hand is squeezing shut around Mau and Selenia, while Mau futilely tries to drag him away.)

[probably only minimal skin contact, but ow, shouting with pain, not much use in his left arm right now--but that, that's unacceptable, letting his keyblade shift to glider mode as he falls tumbling through the sky, the wingblades disappearing, righting himself in midair with a catlike flip within a second to land on top of it, pushing through the pain and blasting towards Mau and Selenia at top speed with a battle roar]

The hand holding Mau and Selenia is... opening again? Yes, opening and rising toward you, turning sideways -- Mau and Selenia are slipping, sliding down, but not fast enough, because you're between Locaha's hands now and he is clapping them together.

[and this when I only have one working arm, and can't spellcast because glider, and I could try putting up my barrier shield but they'd still be fucked--]

Jump--!

[last-ditch charge to try to scruff--he doesn't even have time to decide, whichever is closer--and throw him out of the way. he knows he's dead, there's nothing he can do about that, but he'll be damned if he doesn't go down trying to save his friends.]

You reach Mau -- he's flung free, screaming your name and Selenia's -- and then you are crushed between two slabs of onrushing darkness.

[welp. that. isn't my best death ever, but at least it's not my awfulest. I just wish I had time to say that I'm sorry 8(]

There's pain only for a moment, and then nothingness and darkness...

But you -- your mind, your consciousness -- you're still here.

You're alone, floating in the dark, bodiless... but somewhere near you, somehow, there's a shining silver thread.

Mau...I don't know if you can even hear me, but...I'm sorry. I did everything I could.

[focusing on that then, seeing if it's possible to follow it]

There's no answer, no sense of any other presence. Once you focus on it, it seems to pull you along. Slowly, the darkness around you lifts, fading little by little to a murky grey.

[figured that, but it was worth trying]

[following then, letting it pull him...okay light, any light is good]

As the light increases, so does your sense of self. You can perceive your own limbs again. You slow to a stop, the silver thread fading, and then gradually you become aware that you're not hanging in space, you're lying face down, eyes closed...

[oh hey I even have an icon for this]

[stirring very weakly, if such is possible]

It is! You're lying on sand, battered and so sore that any movement is an enormous effort, but definitely alive, on this beach.