And When John Was Lost... So Too Was She.

John moved forward so quickly into the still-dissipating smoke and chaos of battle that he was lost to them entirely for a few moments, despite the small crowd they were facing off against. Moira wished she could say she was the first one to move, but she wasn't even the second - Vallya tore over her shoulder, floating through the air with a blue sphere hovering in the palm of her hand. Lerianna was behind her only a moment later, eyes alight with a fury that would've nearly matched Sophia's, were she still there.

Moira's mind was still reeling with that fact. It was a bit silly to worry about at a time like this, but… how many of John's powers did she not know about? Such a fusion of two beings wasn't unheard of, but it was fairly rare, and to do so with one of his creations, with a Barrier creature...

"No, there will be time enough to worry later, Moira," she thought, forcing her shock and awe away for the moment. John's abilities were impressive… but they were still not enough for her to believe he could take them all alone. So as a proper Warden should, Moira raised her shield to defend the innocent, and leapt into the fray as a golden light wreathed itself around her hammer.

She tried to follow John through the breach he had made in their lines, but although he had successfully struck at their leader, the others were already forming back together to block the rest of them from pursuing. The Albidians' leader and the metallomancer were in full retreat under an onslaught of repeated blows from John, heading toward a door at the far end of the room. Moira wanted to follow after them, if only to keep John from committing to a fight he could not hope to win on his own, but as she charged forward to join the others, the rather hulking man with the shield and axe stepped forward, standing in her path menacingly.

"By the Lady's will, you shall kneel!"

Moira pulled her hammer back with killing intent, fully visualizing her own blunt instrument smashing through the defenses and skull of her opponent, in that order. But despite her excellent follow-through and stance, none of it ended up mattering. Rather than meeting her hammer head on, her opponent adjusted his stride and caught her hammer by the haft, hooking it under the curve of the axe and pulling her weapon aside to crash into the floor with a resounding explosion of tile and steel.

Moira's balance was thrown by the somewhat unexpected interception, and before she could properly re-orient herself, a shield was thrust into her face. Steel met flesh in a direct and painful way, and Moira was sent stumbling back, even the weight of her armor not enough to hold her ground against the blow. The man looked like a walking gym advertisement, and it was certainly no illusion spell.

The battle had yet to spread out enough for Moira to be comfortable; as she was struggling to regain her balance, she bumped into Lerianna, throwing off the bunny-girl's balance and causing her to stumble her way out of a kick she was preparing to launch. By her left side this new woman she had met, this "Layla", was only a few feet away, bobbing and weaving to avoid the repeated assaults the tattooed man was pulling from his runic bindings. She was holding up fairly well, considering that John had not even allowed a moment's rest for her to explain the abilities of the foes she had faced earlier to any of them… Moira wished John had bothered to wait for even a few minutes for this ****; she had prayed to the Lady that he would see reason, but he had that look in his eyes.

The same look her father had worn so many nights after the **** of her mother, his blade and face flecked with dried blood, sinking into the arms of his chair to be tended to by Order healers. It was not the look of a man who could be reasoned with…

The battle was too narrow. Their foes were trying to hold them back so that they could not assist John, but the enclosed space was turning each side into its own worst enemy, as they jostled for position with each other. Surprisingly the Albidians were faring quite well with the close quarters; they moved together, almost in unison, with a discipline and coordination that would have made the troops of the British Order jealous, much less her new American squadrons. If they were going to turn the tide, they needed to separate these Albidians…

"As I raise my shield, so too does the Lady raise hers!"

Moira cast her gaze to each of her three allies in a moment - the shifting, lithe form of Layla, the springy, bouncy form of Lerianna, and the flittering, dancing form of Vallya. A wave of light washed out from her body that took on a very tangible form, sending a golden wave of **** outwards. It passed over her allies without issue, but where it met the bodies of the Albidians, it exerted a tremendous ****. The only one that seemed to be able to resist it was the new face of the man opposing Vallya, whose ever shifting body was flickering in and out of her expanding radius of power as she continued to push it out further.

After a few moments the light faded, and their foes were left in place unmolested at last. Moira's own opponent had held his ground fairly well; the blonde-haired man stood across from her with a disgusted look on his face, already attempting to stride forward to meet her. The tattooed man and the man whose skin glistened like metal were the most affected, shoved so violently against the far walls that they could barely hold their footing.

Moira took advantage of the opening, striding forward the moment that her spell was finished. Her hammer was still glistening, her body still perspiring, her efforts still at maximum… yet as soon as she was within striking distance, her bulky opponent seemed to gain his balance again. The man struck her hammer in mid-stroke with the edge of his shield, sending the head of her warhammer into the ground by pushing her striking motion to the side, diverting her **** rather than absorbing it. Then he struck outwards with the shaft of his axe, taking advantage of the pointed head to hammer at her breastplate.

Moira's Order-crafted steel held its own against the powerful strike, but she was still pressed backward by the incredible **** leveraged against her, and she felt the wind nearly leave her from the blow. Scraping sounds filled the air as she felt her stance giving way before the strike. She was pressed back almost a full yard, several inches of it travelled after the man's blow wasn't even in contact with her anymore. The Nordic bodybuilder seemed unimpressed by her resistance to the strike. Instead he was already halfway into following up, leaping forward to meet Moira as she brought herself to a stop.

Moira snarled and held her hammer aloft as she strode to meet him in turn.

Lerianna followed her instincts as John plowed forward, leaping to pursue him as quickly as her instincts would allow. Unfortunately, she seemed to have underestimated his abilities - particularly when added to the Harpy he once called daughter. John was so far ahead of her that by the time Lerianna was ready to lash out and snap their foe's jaw with her outstretched kick, there was already a body between Lerianna and her target, the strangely shiny man. At first she thought nothing of it, assuming that her blow would simply snap an arm instead of a skull… but when her foot met its intended target, she felt something more akin to steel than flesh.

Instead of striking true and dissipating the **** of her kick into her opponent's body, Lerianna felt herself pressed backward aggressively, only just managing to hold her ground as she tried to mitigate the recoil of her own strike. She stumbled and hopped back to balance herself, spinning and lashing out with a side kick aimed at her foe's lower half. The strange-looking man didn't bother to block this time. Instead, Lerianna's kick connected firmly, her calf meeting his knee - but it was Lerianna who suffered again, with her entire body rattling from the impact and her bone feeling like it was about to shatter.

Lerianna tried to situate herself for a straight-on kick, but she bumped into Moira while doing so, and the Warden's momentum had enough **** behind it that Lerianna had to stumble to keep from falling. While she was distracted her foe decided to strike out; Lerianna moved to catch his fist, but although she had the strength to stop the blow, her entire arm jolted with the ****. His hand and arm hit like…

"You're not human, are you? The strength and defenses are one thing, but..." Lerianna growled, leaning back and bringing her leg up on his opposite side, bringing it down as hard as she could on the man's skull. The heel of her foot struck true, and once more, she was the one suffering. The man only bent slightly from the impact, while Lerianna was now fairly sure that she'd just hairline fractured her heel. He wasn’t using any obvious spells, and there were no signs of natural defenses.

The man didn't answer her accusation, his face never changing. He barreled forward - but was finally accosted as a golden wave of light slammed into his body, hurtling him into the distant wall. Lerianna threw her gaze toward Moira, noting the Warden's glistening shield and the wave that had thankfully passed over her without harm... then she turned back to her foe.

The man had been thrown so hard he actually dented into the cinderblocks of the wall, but despite that, he didn't seem in the least inconvenience, pushing off of the indent and stepping forward, taking the briefest seconds to brush off the debris coating his body. Lerianna grit her teeth as she prepared to face down the man once more. Her body was already warm from the adrenaline flooding her system; it dulled the pain, but it also set her instincts alight. Her lower half was on fire, and she was no closer to damaging this creature.

She'd find a weak point, though. For what they did to Mithra, for what Seras died protecting Lerianna from… she'd find a weak point or break every single bone in her body.