[RP] The Adeline Family Excursion 1/2

The captain of the voidship that is transporting Maria, Anais, Illyana, Geoffrey, and Ranauld approaches the Adelines. The ship is currently docked on a Feudal World known as Acreage.
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Anais silently acknowledges his presence and waits for him to begin

She’s dressed almost as she always is in her full plate with her helmet slung at her side and her greatsword on her back.
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Illyana stands at the side. She is suspicious and watching the door.
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Ranauld stands close to his sisters, watching the captain and the ship.
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The captain walks up to Maria and gives her and her children a respectful nod. "I was hoping to take a moment of your time, if I may."
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Anais is dark-skinned woman with close braided hair and strong features. Maria nods back and asks, “We have time. What did you need?”
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He smiles and says "A matter of potentially some import to you. As you may be aware, we are currently in orbit of a Feudal world known as Acreage. Specifically, we are re-supplying and conducting trade with a noble called Prince Orcan. His city of Olrankan is the only sky port on the planet, and thus is of considerable importance. I have a cordial relationship with the man, and during our most recent discussion, he mentioned that a large pack of some kind of quote unquote 'monsters' were terrorizing the city at night, and he asked is I or my people could do something about it." He pauses here in case any of you wish to say anything.
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Anais tips her head and gives a small smile.

“Of what manner are these fiends.”

Maria looks to her with a glance.
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Ranauld: “Are they similar to those on our world?”
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"Some sort of xenos creature, if my intuition and experience are accurate. The reports have been scattered and inconsistent, but they appear to bear some small resemblance to canids, but much larger and with many legs and burning eyes. Analysis of the corpses they've left behind indicate razor sharp teeth, a terribly venomous bite, and enough strength to puncture plate mail."

The captain continues. "Unfortunately, despite the prince's request for my aid, Rogue Traders and the servants of Rogue Traders are forbidden to meddle in the internal affairs of Imperial worlds, and as the city is currently under siege, as it typically is, putting a force of my people on the ground would be unacceptably bad optics, should a rival choose to attempt to use this against me. However, if an independent group were to investigate out of curiosity or good will to the poor people of the city, no one would be able to object. And, of course, the gratitude of my good friend and trading partner would be rather valuable to me. I wouldn't be able to compensate these people, but it might very well put in the mood to be generous and forgive any debts currently owed to me."
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Anais was continuing to smile but then stops and says, “what debts?” Maria sharply looks at her somewhat brash question and chides, “Ana!” Then also gets curious what she means. Anais gives a glare to her.

Geoffery looks uncomfortable with the air of tenseness around the two.
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The rogue trader smiles thinly at the question. "Well, as a purely theoretical example, your husband promised me a considerable amount of value in terms of favors and materials for transporting you. Void travel is not cheap. Have no fear, I have no doubt he will be able to assemble my fee."
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Anais folds her arms and looks at him. “I will help with this fiend.” Maria is still a bit put off with this attitude Anais is taking but says, “I can also be dispensed to help. What of you three?”
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The captain clarifies "Fiends, plural. There appear to be a pack of these things."
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Geoffery pipes in and says, “I can’t leave you two on planet to face whatever this is alone.” He says almost with an exacerbated expression.
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Illyana raises an eyebrow. "I'm available but what of some type of back up? Will it be just us?"
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Anais coyly grins at her, “thinkest thou and us canst handle these beasts?”
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"If you find any willing to help on the planet, I suppose. But none from me, I'm afraid."
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Ranauld> Speaking calmly. “Is there a known number of these fiends? I hope against fighting a battalion.”
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"Someone needs to be practical. If we all die, who will tell of your greatness? Idiot."

:)
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Anais gives her a look of, “come on.” “Think mine pride overwhelms me, Lya?”

Maria rolls her eyes and gives a non-subtle cough.

Anais looks at Maria with disdain. Geoffery still doesn’t understand why things are the way they are between them.
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"Honestly?" Illyana looks down and smiles before looking to Ranauld. "Anyway, so do you think there is a chance to recruit anyone else?"
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“With luck, and their pride on the line. Mayhap they can rouse a force to beat the fiends back.”
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"Perhaps."
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Maria looks at him with kind eyes and is about to say something when Anais butts in and says, “doubtful. Especially in the middle of a siege I doubt any force can be levied in aid.”
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The void ship captain clears his throat. "So, will you do it?"
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"I fear we dont have a choice do we?" Ilyana looks to her siblings softly.
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Maria give a grimace to Anais again before saying, “yea. Place us upon a machine spirit and let us hound the beasts.”

Geoffery looks unsure but tries to give a confident nod.

Anais nods.
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“Dear sister that is the most pivotal time to ask for it. Their backs are against a wall and an enemy at their feet, I thought you of all people would know that makes a person more dangerous than any beast.”12/15/2019

“A man with his back against the wall hath no recourse to look back against the stones, brother.”
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"Speak kindly. But you're not wrong."
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Anais looks at her with a glare, “I will speak honestly, thank you.” Geoffery finally gets upset and says, “enough with this chin-wagging. Thou hath more false grievance to bear than an old castle maid. Let us begone.”
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The captain smiles winningly. "Excellent! I will arrange a shuttle to take you down."
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Anais looks at him with surprise he spoke up like that and just grunts and goes along with the group.
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Illyana looks distressed but follows.
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Maria looks to Geoffery thankful he spoke up.

She follows.
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Ranauld nods to Geoffery and follows the herd. “We shall not know till we set our eyes upon them.”
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“Shall not know what, Ranauld?” Geoffery says genuinely confused.
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“Hm? Oh nothing. My apologies, I allowed my words escape me.”
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“Let thine words flit from thy tongue. Tis no wasted air here.” He smiles as they all continue to the shuttle.

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“I was merely answering a question I’ve asked myself. Nothing more I fear.”
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He nods in understanding as he walks on with him.
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The captain gives Maria a pouch full of shiny golden thrones. "While I can't give you any aid, I'd say a little money to spend on planet would be included in your board. For any expenses, you understand." He turns around and departs. The shuttle has no windows, and the pilot ignores or bluntly deflects any attempts at small talk. The lighter flight is fairly short and untroubled, and you soon arrive at your destination. As the doors open, you are all greeted by the salty smell of the sea and the mingled scents of rust, oil, and human decay. As you look around, you see that you stand atop a vast landing platform that appears to be stabilised against the fickleness of the ocean to remain perfectly level. However, beyond its edges stretches a heaving mass of structures not unlike a vast island of flotsam and jetsam.
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Chaucer is going to beat this man if he treats them like they owe a debt and not as if he hasn't spent a good fortune to get them to him.
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Anais continues forward and then realizes she has no idea how to start.

Geoffery and Maria look to each other and Geoffery says, "where to begin with these fiends? Perhaps the local shire reeve knows." Maria smiles at Geoffery's resourcefulness. "I agree, Anais, come with us." Anais silently follows them.
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Ranauld follows suit, examining the state of affairs currently around him as they walk.
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Geoffery asks the local enforcers if they know of such fiends that had been mentioned.
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Illyana follows Maria on guard. She distrusts her surroundings and tries to stick beside her mother.
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The area immediately around you appears to be mainly landing zones. Each different pad is on a layer of constantly moving stabilizers to counterbalance the constant moving of the island. It's actually a little difficult to move, the less agile among you may even fall over once or twice. There are a few surly-looking tech-attendants around the place doing things if you want to try and talk to them.
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Geoffery also keeps and eye out while Maria is more focused on her children.
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There are a couple of guards standing around. Upon being asked about the monsters, they glance at each other and one says "We haven't really heard much beyond the fact that the city down below is having some kind of wild animal attacks. Not an uncommon thing, during a siege."
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Anais goes up and says, "even some mongrel-looking thing with a larger frame and many legs and burning eyes?"
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Illyana coughs."Watch yourself."
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The guard blinks and draws back a little. "I, uh, hadn't heard anything about that." He looks surprised and a little alarmed.
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"Worthless." Anais mutters, "let us be off and find someone with knowledge."
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The guard looks a little aggrieved but doesn't say anything to the heavily armed group.
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Maria walks along with her and says tiredly, "Anais." Anais looks down at her and waits for her to speak. "I need thee to keep thou humours in check or keep the speaking to me or your siblings. We cannot afford an incident sparked by your cholera."

Anais scowls at her and then looks away and keeps to the back of the group.
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Illyana coughs a laugh into her hand.
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Geoffery looks uncomfortable and pipes up, "perhaps we can go to this undercity and then start at a tavern or something."
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Ranauld looks to the guards and will try to diffuse. “Apologies for my sister, her temper runs hot as a smelter.” He nods in agreement to Geoffery. “That seems to be our best course of action in this moment.”
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Geoffery nods back as he goes to ask for directions to the undercity.
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Heading downwards into the mechanical sprawl, you eventually reach the bottom of the huge, mechanical island you're on. With a stomach churning shake, you all realize that the structure you're on is suspended hundreds of feet in the air, tethered in place by an enormous chain attached to the base. There are a number of much smaller landing pads here, where small, largely low quality flyers and skyboats take people downwards to a city sitting on the far away ground below, where the other end of the chain terminates.

The docks are teeming with people, there must be hundreds arriving and departing.
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The group makes their way to a tavern as Anais and Geoffery keep a vigilant watch for any pickpockets and the like.
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There isn't so much a proper tavern down here as a bar built into a wall, serving drinks to travelers as they arrive and depart the Imperial port. There a couple of bartenders and a fair number of people drinking or waiting to drink.
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Geoffery goes up and buys some bottom shelf stuff with no intention to drink it and asks if they've heard of the fiends with many legs and burning eyes that look like dogs.

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Illyana sighs heavily at Geoffrey.
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He looks back confused.
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Illyana shakes her head and looks at the ground.
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Ranauld goes up towards the most friendly group if there is one and tries to gain any information of the fiends and the goings on of the area.
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A few of the people around him respond. Parsing through the varied response, it seems that a) they're fairly well known in the city down below, b) they've killed several to over two dozen people per night, and c) nobody has survived an encounter with them. They're spread out all over the city, though, not focused on any one district in particular. The city of Olrankan is currently besieged on the ground by the forces of Barnoness Falatrish, one of Prince Orkan's political enemies. She wishes to take possesion of the one city with the capacity for off-world trade, but due to the city's vastly superior defensive equipment, has gained basically no ground. The city itself is mostly waiting for the season to change so that she'll return home with her soldiers, as they're needed for the harvest.
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Maria asks which districts have they hit in the past and have they focused on the same one at any time?
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Illyana ask where they go missing from. Walls? Battlefront? In the alleys?
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Geoffery asks if there has been any sort of recurring pattern with the dead.
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None of the bar patrons knows of any. The consensus seems to be most of the corpses are eaten by the beasts at the site of the kill, though.
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Geoffery tries to think of a way to draw them out.
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Ranauld asks how long the attacks have been going on, and how long the siege has been at their doorstep.
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Geoffery thinks he knows what this is, or at least the closest thing to it and his spine chills.

But also thinks about how a "pack" of them couldn't sustain themselves on the dozen or so kills every night and that daemons don't normally have to eat the things they kill.

So it might not be that.

He thinks and just says, "want to just wander around at night and see if we get attacked?"
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Illyana doesn't seem enthused about the "siege" in general.
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Geoffery is his father's son.
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A couple of weeks and a couple of months, respectively. The former is a lot more worrying to the people at the bar.
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(What is our current load out?) Ranauld looks to Geoffery and looks as he is about to protest, but after a few rushed thoughts cannot come up with anything better. “Though riddled with danger ‘tis our best chance I believe.”
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Swords and boards
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For the most part, yeah. I think Anais has a great weapon, though.
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"Should we try to get outfitted with chain, flame, and the like?" Geoffery asks. Anais lights her expression at "Flame".
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You can manage to track down a single flamer and a chain sword, but it will take most of the funds available to you. The rest would be required for getting down to and then back up from the city.
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The chainsword is given to Ranauld.

Geoffery has his stub automatic from the ship. Illyana and Maria has their sword and shields. Anais hefts up her greatsword. Anais, Illyana, and Maria need to keep to the front. Ranauld with the fast and mobile strikes, and Geoffery to the back with his pistol.

They go hunting in the night.
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All of you spread out through the city during the night. As you prowl along the walls, near where a group of musketmen were slaughtered, a cannonball impacts on the fortifications right next to you! A group of Olrankan soldiers rush over and start firing at the group of soldiers who have begun a night assault on the walls of the city.
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Geoffery looks to the others and yells, "we need to be away, this is not our fight!" Maria and Anais nod.
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Illyana frowns. "Were here aren't we?"
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Maria looks at her, "this is planetary politics, Lya. We have no business in this."
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“Our quarry is not the soldiers but the beasts, sister. We have no stake in this battle.”
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Illyana visibly flexes her grip on her shield looking at the soldiers.

"Fine."
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Anais puts a hand on her shoulder, "we will opportunity plenty to save others. This is our opportunity right now, finding these things."
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Illyana nods, still looking at the soldiers. "It's fine, I know."
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The sound of fighting can still be heard until they are a considerable distance away. Hunting through the streets, you eventually hear sounds of screaming and the tearing of flesh in an alley close by.
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Anais looks to her mother and Illyana and nods as she takes to the middle with her greatsword. Maria moves up carefully with her shield up and Geoffery has his gun out and pointed down as he nods at Ranauld.
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Illyana closes ranks and draws her sword and shield to advance.
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Chainsword in hand, he looks to the three in the front and gets behind Anais. Finger on the trigger ready to rev it to life.
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You all see a pair of horrific creatures, covered in blood (or maybe their fur is simply the color OF blood) tearing apart a man and a woman. The remains of the group they were traveling with are splattered all of the walls of the alley. They do slightly resemble canids, with a fair splash of felids as well. They have eight legs, with cruelly long and sharp claws, and two rows of serrated teeth, dripping with blood and a rust-colored fluid.
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Anais charges forward with Maria in tow.

Geoffery takes a shot
Illyana advances behind the two prepared to strike as back up.
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Okay, Ranauld is gripped by fear, but can force himself forward with only moderate terror inhibiting his actions.
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Shaken, he advances with his family. Gritting his teeth as he readies a strike.
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Anais is the first to strike as she gives a downward slice that sings through the air. Maria goes for a shield bash to keep the cur off balance. Geoffery aims and fires at the other one that's not engaged.
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One of the beasts dodges his shot with astonishing agility, and they turn to face down the group attacking them. Geoffrey, the most perceptive of the family, hears a grinding sound that's almost blotted out by the revving of chainswords and the roar of the guns and the howling of the foul beasts. He barely has time to dodge as a third example of the monster lunges down at him from where it had been perched on the side of the buildings around them, anchored in place by it's claws.
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"Bloody hell!" He says as he begins to back up and fires shots at the thing. "Ranauld, I need help in the back!"
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He turns from the front line and charges the cretin attacking his brother. “On it brother!”
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Illyana plants herself infront of the third one and tries to strike it across the face with her sword to distract it.
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"Illyana! Don't break form-" she is cut off as she has to parry a blow with the edge of her shield and Anais tries to follow up to the same beast with an upward swing.