A Regular Occurance -

It had been a time since Drake had travelled off on his own since meeting Danwe and Xeik, and with the search for Rhenakos under way, Drake found himself restless while waiting in Jayou. Luckily, Raile, his new employer, had gone on a business trip to secure some much needed supplies, which left Drake and Danwe free to do what they wished. Since Danwe had her normal freedom, she had agreed to watch a now stir crazy Osiria, letting Drake take a small trip to Baltil to explore.

The flight there was trivial once Drake wrestled with the dragon’s soul inside of him for access to his black wings, though as he neared the ground, the dragon revoked it’s permission, forcing Drake to crash into the ground and tumble for a few feet before stopping. Luckily, even without the dragon’s influence, Drake was sturdy, and he stood up, dusting himself off.

“Fine,” he said with a growl, his viridian eyes glaring to nowhere in particular. “Be like that then. I swear, you’re such a child sometimes!” He looked up at the grand entrance of Baltil, the swirling gears and glass walkways providing an extravagant view. He briefly forgot his spat with the dragon, and instead focused his attention to the Hall of Gears. He had never seen anything like it before, having entered Baltil a different way the last time he visited. The transparent glass showed how the gears worked, meshing together to create a system powered by Gods know what.

“I wonder if they provide tours…” he pondered as he walked through the entry way. Finally, he made his way through the main gates, and was greeted with friendly dwarven guards. While Drake had met several in his time, he had never seen so many of the shorter species in one place.

“Thank you,” Drake said as he walked onto the main street of Baltil. “Er…where to go from here, though?” he wondered.

As if fate itself had terrible timing, there was a loud explosion off in the city. The sounds of gears grinding filled the air as metal caught against metal. The ground shook, and off in the distance Drake heard the resident dragon roar in complaint. There were screams of shock, but it seemed no one in the vicinity had been hurt. Yet.

“What…was that?” the draconian asked. Without a second thought, he raced to the scene to see the damage, and if anyone needed help.

Baltil was amazing! Every time he came here he found something new to obsess over. How anyone could stay still for more than five seconds was beyond him. Despite his years the great city of gears took him back to childhood curiosity and excitement. However, his eagerness was that of a watcher only. For as much as Naota had learned over the decades on Revaliir, he always stayed an observer. Sometimes it was easier said than done to keep his hands clasped behind his back. Literally and metaphorically.

However, today added an extra layer of excitement. There was supposed to be an unveiling, but truth be told he wasn’t even sure what it was for. All he knew was that the people were abuzz with anticipation, and sometimes it was hard not to get caught up.

As per usual, he looked nothing like himself. His marks were hidden and the almond shape of his eyes that gave away his Ataiyan heritage were round and a modest topaz rather than their shining emerald. His hair was a dusty blond; a constellation of freckles danced across his nose; the usual angular shape of his face and high cheekbones were softened down to a youthful roundness. His attire was completely black and the only shred of himself that wasn’t disguised; people just weren’t accustomed to seeing him garbed in the rough darkness of his former hunter’s clothes.

It was those same hunter’s instincts that clenched his stomach the closer he came to the growing ring of people. Something was wrong, but he couldn’t quite pinpoint what exactly. Torinasu was invisible at his hip -the blade a dead giveaway to anyone that might be a follower of his temple- but his fingers brushed its woven hilt anyways for comfort. Where there had been childlike wonder, there was now concern.

He noticed every child in the crowd, dotted throughout, spaced just enough to be easy marks should something go wrong. Elderly were ushered to the front where there would be no strain to see: a perfect scenario for disaster since they would be so vulnerable in such a space. Yes, there was danger, but not organic danger that followed the usual risks of machine work.

There was a light tremor beneath his feet, unnoticeable to anyone else, but might as well have been an earthquake to his senses. He looked down before kneeling and running the pads of his fingers along the stone that made up the streets. It felt as if the ground itself were humming. What was that? With no ounce of self-consciousness, he leaned down and pressed his ear to the ground. What was it…? A rumble? Thunder? Whatever it was, it was getting closer, louder.

His breath caught in his chest and he reacted too late: straightening up and parting his lips to cry out, but the words would never be heard as a great monstrosity of a device shot up through the ground, sending some flying back and others to get caught in the crater it had created. The screams of children cut through first, his ears trained to hear the distress of them after having had so many of his own now. Both hands shot out and a sphere of light encircled the crowd; suspending those that had not fallen victim to the battering in midair. They looked around, dazed, confused, terrified, but safe.

What lay ahead of him was a creature, if you could even call it that, over twenty feet high: bulbous, comprised of metal and flesh, but those metallic eyes held no true life to them. The two stared at each other for exactly half a second before it rose an arm as thick as a tree’s trunk and shot two alchemical blasts his way. He disappeared in a flash of rainbow light just in time to miss being hit and was only able to redirect one of the attacks towards the sky. The other, unfortunately, exploded through the wall of a nearby building.

What was this monster? Half-life, half machine, all threat. A great scream bellowed from its depths, a sickening blend of screech and metal on metal. At the center of its breast plate was about the only clean thing attached to its body: a pentagon of glass pulsating with colored light…and it had just flickered red. Red was rarely a good color.

As Drake made his way towards the disturbance, crowds of people ran past him, making it a challenge to wade through going the opposite direction. Damnit! he cursed, finding his way through the streets blocked. He let out a growl, and despite the situation, closed his eyes.

No time to argue. Change. NOW! He opened his eyes, the bright viridian shifting to a violent red. Flames burst around his flesh, and he leapt into the air, great black wings exploding out of his back in a fury of fire. It took him no time at all to shift his momentum, rocketing forward above the crowds.

Now that he could see what the problem was, he halted in the air, taking a moment to look at the beast. The problem was, that it was less of a beast, and more of an amalgamation of flesh and metal. The sight was something to behold, though it was unsettling. If the draconian had to guess, it was a golem of some type. And it was huge, even bigger than Drake’s full dragon form.

“Just my luck,” he muttered, rolling his eyes, Judging by the destruction it had already caused, it was something that needed to be taken care of. “Auugh, curse my good heart,” he said, and launched forward.

Wait, there are still people here!? Drake yelped in surprise as more tried to evacuate the now battleground. And someone’s already fighting it? He drew his blade while it seemed distracted, and tried to strike at it’s head. A good place to start when one’s dealing with something possibly sentient.

Sadly, that was a bad start. The blade bounced off harmlessly. Whatever the flesh was, it was tough. Drake reeled from the shock of the bounce, giving the amalgamation time to swat him out of the air. The draconian took the blow head on, and crashed down to the ground a few feet away from the monster, the ground cracking as he slammed down.

“That….that could have gone better,” Drake gasped, rolling to try and stagger up. “Ah..Gods….” He groaned. There might have been a broken rib or two, and he definitely felt as though he had been hit by an airship. That was when he noticed the crystalline glass piece at it’s chest, glowing a vibrant red.

“Oh….”

Just as the monstrosity was about to advance on him, it was momentarily distracted by- Well, he couldn’t really tell at first sight who or what it was. His eyes narrowed in concentration, able to make out the face just before the hit came and knocked the new fighter to the ground. That face, where had he seen it? Certainly, he would have remembered someone that could fly like that. His lips parted with realization: Drake! He’d only ever conversed with him once, but his heart lurched all the same as one does when they see a familiar face being hit full on.

But he was disguised right now, should he just go ahead and drop it since the two would be fighting this thing together until others could join in? It didn’t matter in the long run and he didn’t bother dropping the illusion, all that mattered now was that charging red. If the creature’s arms could send blasts, heavens knew what that breast plate was capable of.

A high-pitched whine struck his ears and he cried out, slapping both hands over his ears and peeling his eyes opened just enough to see the red growing brighter, getting closer to white as the whine heightened. Oh no. He was instantly to his feet but after half a step he’d teleported in a ray of blinding light, reappearing at Drake’s side just in time to wrap his arms around him and teleport him with him to safer ground. When they rematerialized it was on a rooftop just behind the beast.

His arms were still protectively wrapped around the other man and his wide eyes, now glowing completely white, were transfixed on the smoking crater that would have been Drake had he not taken him. That was close, far too close. He quickly realized himself and unwrapped his arms, taking a good two steps back from him and straightening out his own clothing before doing the same with Drake’s collar. “There you are, no worse for the wear,” he said, making light of the deadly situation they’d just narrowly escaped.

He moved to the edge of the roof, glad that they hadn’t yet been spotted. This thing was strong, extremely powerful, but didn’t seem all too bright. They could use that to their advantage at least. “How close do you think you could get midflight without him turning around do you think?” he inquired.

From the moment Drake had initially hit the ground, things had moved at a breakneck pace. The beast was charging something, and Drake could know feeling the mana swelling. Whatever it was, it was going to be big, and the draconian didn’t have the time to move. And just like that, before anything else could happen, he felt someone grab him, and his world lurched.

Now disoriented, Drake tried to grasp what was happening. The world shook for a brief moment as the mana he had felt expelled, It was about that point where he finally realized that he was no longer underneath the hulking monstrosity. He looked to see where he had been moments before, and saw the smoking crater.

Well…lesson learned, Drake thought as he looked to his savior as he was released. He looked the man over. “Thanks,” he said quickly, turning his attention back to the golem. Physically tough. Mixture of metal and…flesh. Aim for the flesh, an- His savior though, seemed to formulating his own plan, and started to speak as well.

“I could probably get right up on him, if I need to,” Drake replied. He had been training with his wings a lot, and he was confident he could pull forth a burst of speed that would get him very close. Because of it’s size, it wasn’t as fast as the draconian had initially thought. “Why…have a plan?”