O Red if it were easy everyone would do it. Only a master class artist can rise to the challenge to paint such scene like yourself (if you don’t mind me praising your mad art skills). Thank you for being willing to push yourself to bring off these wonderful scenes once and awhile! I believe they are worthy challenges to yourself! Yeah you!
Tess steps forwards, charging her arm with lightning. Falst winces as she drives her fist into the Champion’s stomach, fracturing his Light wings and sending him flying into the wall under the wheel with the force of a bullet. Falst leaps upwards right before he connects, arcing into the air and landing next to the wheel.
“Erin, stop moving!” Alinua says, crouched next to him, Life energy pouring from her tattoo and encircling his wounds. “If I’m not careful when I heal your tattoos–”
“No, the storm– I h-have to–” Erin gasps.
“We have to dock the ship,” Kendal realizes. “Falst! We need a southeast heading–”
“The on-fire rocks direction? Are you serious?!”
“Rakhn is closest, and we can’t keep this fight on the ship!”
“In a minute there’s not gonna be a fight–” Tess growls, starting to walk towards the Champion, who’s struggling to rise from the crater in the wall, bits of lighting still weakly flickering around him.
Enough, the Light Dragon snarls. The Champion’s eyes shine bright, a circle of light forming around his head.
…yes, I do in fact like long words, long sentences, and stuffing my sentences full of adjectives, why do you ask?
Fracturing, fragmenting, splintering, pretty much all the special words for breaking, confounded, probably more that I’m forgetting…
Anyways… wow. Tess is just DONE with the Champion, you can tell. She may currently be mad at Erin, but he’s still family. NO ONE messes with her little brother.
E I G H T F O O T V E R T I C A L L E A P
This has been referenced like 8 times lol, I’m actually not sure when the original Eight Foot Vertical Leap was
I don’t think it’s good that LD is speaking in that last panel.
Good on Kendal for actually trying to have a plan (and save the ship). Tess is awesome as always but I’m worried she’s overestimating herself just a bit and will get another wing to the face…
Or Dainix for that matter. We’ve already established that the metal hull conducts all electricity. Did Tess only use cosmetic lightning when she hit the Paladin or something?
Dainix is touching the electrified hull in Panel 3 and Falst was literally wrapped around the Champion when Tess struck him in Panel 2. Unless he’s made of rubber, there’s no way he could avoid electrocution or untangle himself faster than current can flow.
I know there’s a suspension of disbelief here, but Red’s shown us the rules of her world and electrical conductivity is one of them.
Yes, but ‘ground’ is toward the water. That is where the electricity will flow once it is not under her control.
If you are not between the electrical energy input and the electrical energy output, very little electricity should reach you. You might tingle a bit though.
I mean, it wouldn’t be a fun tingle, but you should be fine.
Well, *some* people might find it fun. Sorry Red, electric play is another kink you now get to know about (assuming you read the comments).
Side note: My brain is starting to stir with a fanfic of Tess meeting my character Moriko in a cross-over, and them kicking ass together.
To the left we have a magical metal and lightning punchy-girl, to the right we have a chi-powered, flying, wind & lightning punchy-girl.
In the middle is some poor soul who made a big mistake.
Based on the fact that he isn’t unconscious or on fire he probably absorbed the lightning with his own magic somehow instead of discharging it out of him, which is my best guess. Admittedly he *might be* unconscious which is why the light dragon started controlling him and the rain might have stopped his clothes catching on fire.
But the rain might be what stopped them from getting electrocuted. The rail got electrified when Tess jumped from the deck to the crows nest and it was once explained on tumblr that Tess does this by magnetically charging her body to be repulsed from the ground upward to be launched like a rail gun, this looks like what she’s doing with her fist but not repulsed from the ground but through the air, the rail was shocked last time in dry conditions on a dry deck but when it’s raining electricity doesn’t always ground down but dissipates through the air through the rain, that’s what makes sheet lightning. which probably dispersed the lightning enough to not sock Falst or the railing.
With all this said and done you’re probably right that this doesn’t make a lot of sense and it’s probably more a stylistic choice than anything it but got me thinking about electric-charge dynamics so I decided to comment on this regardless.
Okay, that actually makes a good bit of sense. I’m not convinced that Falst and Dainix wouldn’t at least get a little shock, but I’m satisfied that most of the charge disappated into the water.
Plus, suspension of disbelief, rule of cool, etc. And it is VERY cool.
I think Tess used her lightning powers to move really fast, rather than electrocute the Champion. She lightning-ran, she didn’t lightning-punch. And since she ran across wooden planks, no-one was zapped.
But he’s being propelled by lightning in Panel 3? And the lightning was definitely generated from her fists, not her legs. Either way, she would still discharge it on contact through the Champion and into Falst, no?
I interpreted it less literally as Tess invoking Lightening’s higher elemental property of attraction and repulsion to propel the Champion into the bulkhead, rather than her directly electrocuting him.
Tess hits the stranger like the fury of the storm,
Falst leaps clear before he hits the wall.
Alinua heals Erin, his runes cut by the ice,
He tries to rise early from his sprawl.
Falst grabs the tiller at the end of his leap,
Tess approaches the enemy tough,
Kendal call for them to steer towards Rakhn.
Light flaring, the Lady growls, “Enough.”
Tess: (teleports in front of you) This IS personal kid.
Art wise, panel 3 is amazing, but it’s all the better with the buildup from the first two. The first’s lighting of Tess’s eyes and lightning, but leaving her face in shadow, gives off both power and menace. The second’s executed blow, forceful enough that even Falst felt some of it, and the Champion’s wings dissipating from his pain.
Then the third with the motion lines, SFX, lighting, and Falst’s mid-air flip to safety is a great conclusion.
Tess has felt very cold and harsh this chapter; I don’t remember her being this serious against Tynan, and Erin blew himself up in that fight. Erin’s previous comments to her and the Champion’s mission to kill her brother is really putting her though the emotional wringer. She wouldn’t hit a person that hard normally and her fifth panel dialogue makes it clear she wants to finish this right now.
Good news: Erin is still conscious. I was concerned for a moment when Alinua went to heal him it could be a repeat of the Tynan fight where V.D. took control and blasted her.
Bad news: The spell appears to have stopped with the rain getting in and the illumination gone. Plus it seems L.D. is done playing nice with the “deceived” innocents (echoing Life-Alinua’s “enough” from 1-14-14? See the two ticks on the speech bubble). Another Friday cliffhanger is coming, but to be fair, the action is moving at such a pace, any page would be a cliffhanger if posted on Friday.
Yeah, Tess seems *surprisingly* comfortable beating up an actual human(oid) being. But, certainly cares a lot more than when punching dragons. Would she be acting like this normally, to protect the people she cares about, if not for the dual existential threats to Erin of the Paladins and the void dragon?
Look at that flip on panel 3. My boy Falst is styling on this man
Usually, in battle, Tess is confident and playful, but here, she’s SO mad, it’s actually kind of scary. “In a minute there’s not gonna be a fight-” is straight up code for “I’m gonna beat this Paladin guy until he can’t move anymore”. She wasn’t even like that against Tynan. I love it
Squeeeeeeeeeee!!!
I love Tess SO much. I also love Falst very much; that jumpflip! And Tess-Falst combo? We need a name for this! “Fastball special” is taken, how about Ballin’ Blitz? Gosh, she’s so badass <3
Also, Erin? LIE STILL WHEN SOMEONE HEALS YOU stop doing the protagonist "only I can save us"-wriggle!
It automatically goes to Vash when he’s in starfire mode but if we look at some of the other characters I think Michael would have to be a close second. Or perhaps Alinua/life though only sometimes. Michael is the most consistent in his glow however so points for that.
Do I sense Alinua dropping a Chekov’s gun? What happens if she doesn’t heal the tattoos correctly? Are we going to see the “stuck constantly channeling” theory come to fruition?
There have been a lot of Chekov’s guns this arc so far! I’m excited to see some of them come to fruition. Maybe now is when the merpeople show up? Is someone going to get knocked off the boat?
I can’t imagine Merpeople would willingly venture so close to a storm. They’re as vulnerable to lightning strikes as anyone else. I think that foreshadowing might just have been worldbuilding. Besides, we already saw them in Kendal’s nap montage and it’s technically daytime.
Oh okay, Tess followed up! Not who I guessed, but upon reflection, the most logical choice, given her relative health. Solid hit. Looks like she hit Michael square in the gut without whacking Falst, and Falst was able to leap clear safely. We’ll, uh. See how Michael and LD respond to that. Probably not well.
Volcano heist! Volcano heist! (probably) (possibly after a shipwreck)
Dainix! Because Falst probably got at least a bit electrocuted (and put himself in a very dangerous position) with that stunt and I give no rewards to self sacrificing idiots.
I love how Tess’s face has been mostly obscured this far. We haven’t gotten a clear look at her expressions, so our only hint to her emotional states is dialogue…which there isn’t a lot of. But oof, that line, “In a minute, there’s not gonna be a fight.” Just *chefs kiss.* Show-don’t-tell by barely showing and strategically telling. I love it.
Falst’s acrobatic display on panel 3 makes me think with their different skillsets and powers the Floof Squad could make a killing as a circus troupe.
Kendal (person) focusing on tactical leadership rather than jumping in with Kendal (sword) is an interesting display of his new perspective and priorities.
And since other people have compared this fight to the one against Tynan, a major difference to me is that while Tynan was a natural force of destruction who reveled in causing harm, LD and the Champion are making a choice to cause harm while feigning contrition.
Which for me makes them significantly more dislikable as villains than Tynan was, at least he was honest.
To be fair, what you call “causing harm” they call “saving the world”. And they’re not wrong. Erin said it himself: he is a walking, talking apocalypse event waiting to happen. If his first solution was to die, it’s no surprise that the Paladins are running with it.
I’m not sure it’s a false pretense. One thing the comic has shown us is how far removed the Primordials and even the gods are removed from a mortal level of thinking. Zuurith wasn’t an asshole for no reason, he literally couldn’t comprehend why anyone would be willing to live in a place that allowed lawlessness (…I didn’t say he was an asshole for a GOOD reason). Life has tried twice to get an idea of mortal life, with disastrous consequences. Even Kendal struggled (and still struggles) with comparisons of his mortal viewpoint with his gods-eye-view memories: not understanding communication at the mortal level, or the basic necessities of mortal life.
I think, in terms of the large picture, the Lady DOES think she’s being compassionate, in her way. She’s looking at the long view, and seeing not only the danger to the world, but Erin’s needless suffering at the Void Dragon’s hands. Claws. Whatever. She regrets she couldn’t prevent Erin’s possession, and to her mind, that makes her responsible to end it…and she may only know one way how. I very much doubt anyone thought Erin would even get this far, resisting Walter…persuasive, clever, horrendously powerful, and endlessly patient. Dumbass just happened to possess the most stubborn mage on the planet.
It’s also probably more than a bit of short-sighted hubris. She can see farther and knows more, so the poor mortal can’t possibly comprehend the truth of it. Erin simply doesn’t understand this is the only option that ends with one death instead of thousands.
…which is easy to say when you’re not the one going to be unalived.
Tl;dr: I think the Lady might have a better mortal “lens” with the way she spreads out amongst her followers…but she’s still a deity, and they don’t do so great with the ground-level stuff. Even when they try.
(Sorry, I’ve been thinking about this for a while XP The brief hiatus gave me WAY too much time to think.)
We dont even know If Lucy even has the Full picture, she probably doesnt know that alinua is life’s vessel and that Kendal and dainix have resistance to void magic, because those arent things you can see at a First glance (walter didnt knew why Kendal wasnt affected until he examined him,dainix is seasick and cant Go fire form without destroying the boat and we dont exactly know If Lucy can see life or If she didnt notice her yet
Ooh, Tess is…not happy. They knocked her for a loop, then threatened and injured her brother. I would have thought Michael qualified as “squishier than me”…unless the Lady can reinforce his body?
That whole middle panel is badass. Love Falst’s acrobatics. I’m guessing he may not have been electrocuted because of his resistance to magic? He recovered pretty quickly when Erin electrocuted him too.
Kendal showing some leadership qualities! And Erin, how DO you intend to deal with the storm if you don’t let Alinua heal you? He’s apparently dropped the spell, finally. But he’s more worried about the storm than the Paladin trying to kill him…that seems ominous.
Friday’s going to be a hell of a cliffhanger, isn’t it.
That “Enough” was short for “Enough, fine, let’s talk this out like reasonable people” and not “Enough, I’m using my ultimate attack now”, right? RIGHT?
There once was a girl of storm
Whose punches were all top-form.
The fight’s barely started
Against the cold-hearted
But she’ll end it before she gets warm.
As bad as it’d be for basically everyone involved, part of me wants Light-Dragon to somehow push Dainix into full-flame-mode. And then Walter pops out for just a second while they’re fighting to be like, “THAT’s why I’m behaving.”
On Red’s Tumblr, someone brought up the bit in her Paragons trope talk, about antagonist paragons, and Red made one of those coy little responses she does when she’s enjoying how much people understand her work.
But having someone coming after you, who will NOT listen to reason, or to ANYTHING, and who you can’t even FIGHT, it’s terrifying. Michael’s like something out of a horror movie right now. All they can do is run, and they’re on a boat, and the only nearby land is a volcanic hellscape…
To be honest I was getting neurodivergent vibes as in he’s awful at talking to people when it comes to casual conversation. To be fair though that might just be because we haven’t seen him in a casual conversation and me stereotyping. And you don’t have to neurodivergent to have those struggles.
Red, this page is stunning, and that’s not just because Tess threw a punch that would incapacitate any regular mortal. The WEIGHT and POWER behind that strike is incredible to see captured, and the large pov and word on small man makes it more impactful. The dramatic lighting is a good complement to Kendal’s seriousness as he takes charge. Everything, honestly.
Just something intresting that I noticed, Michael’s eyes glow white when they use light magic. Didn’t Alinua’s eyes do the same before they turned green permently
Doesn’t look like this is deescalating! Kendal’s right though, they can’t really keep this on the ship… I’m glad Erin’s tattoos can heal okay…
Panel 2 appreciation wow the glow effects throughout this entire fight scene have been brilliant
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: ask me how it felt drawing all these different bright glow effects except don’t because I’ll cry
Image source: fight
tumblr text: I think we got this one in the bag guys
If it makes Red feel better, the glow effects look really cool!
O Red if it were easy everyone would do it. Only a master class artist can rise to the challenge to paint such scene like yourself (if you don’t mind me praising your mad art skills). Thank you for being willing to push yourself to bring off these wonderful scenes once and awhile! I believe they are worthy challenges to yourself! Yeah you!
Once again, no one’s posted this yet.
Twitter/Bluesky text: I think she’s mad
Tess steps forwards, charging her arm with lightning. Falst winces as she drives her fist into the Champion’s stomach, fracturing his Light wings and sending him flying into the wall under the wheel with the force of a bullet. Falst leaps upwards right before he connects, arcing into the air and landing next to the wheel.
“Erin, stop moving!” Alinua says, crouched next to him, Life energy pouring from her tattoo and encircling his wounds. “If I’m not careful when I heal your tattoos–”
“No, the storm– I h-have to–” Erin gasps.
“We have to dock the ship,” Kendal realizes. “Falst! We need a southeast heading–”
“The on-fire rocks direction? Are you serious?!”
“Rakhn is closest, and we can’t keep this fight on the ship!”
“In a minute there’s not gonna be a fight–” Tess growls, starting to walk towards the Champion, who’s struggling to rise from the crater in the wall, bits of lighting still weakly flickering around him.
Enough, the Light Dragon snarls. The Champion’s eyes shine bright, a circle of light forming around his head.
…yes, I do in fact like long words, long sentences, and stuffing my sentences full of adjectives, why do you ask?
Fracturing, fragmenting, splintering, pretty much all the special words for breaking, confounded, probably more that I’m forgetting…
Anyways… wow. Tess is just DONE with the Champion, you can tell. She may currently be mad at Erin, but he’s still family. NO ONE messes with her little brother.
E I G H T F O O T V E R T I C A L L E A P
This has been referenced like 8 times lol, I’m actually not sure when the original Eight Foot Vertical Leap was
Brain Blast!
I guarantee Kendal will be unaffected if its a psychic and not physical thing
The Stormbreaker’s fist sends the Champion back
Kendal suggests they land, Lucy rises from the attack
At this rate, in a minute there’s not gonna be a ship either.
Stop. Pummeling. Super powered beings. Into. the. Ship!
I second that wholeheartedly, I know they’re gonna break the brand new magic boat but at least try to make it last as long as possible!
Exactly how many panels does the ship have left before it get’s wrecked and or sunk.
atleast 2
Panels or pages?
‘Cos I’d give it a week or two of pages max
Its Tess with the steel chair, only she is both steel and chair!
for some reason this comment gives the same vibes as the Floof-Trauma-Himbo chart Red made a while back
This sounds awesome. Do you have the link?
Found it! https://x.com/AuroraWebcomic/status/1422027835116597253
….I think a few of those characters need to be moved over from the just Floof to the Trauma + Floof region.
I don’t think it’s good that LD is speaking in that last panel.
Good on Kendal for actually trying to have a plan (and save the ship). Tess is awesome as always but I’m worried she’s overestimating herself just a bit and will get another wing to the face…
The glowy effects are very well done and I love them!
Okay, nevermind. They’re still fighting each other. They still can’t work together. Great stuff guys.
Also, not sure how Falst wasn’t just electrocuted.
Or Dainix for that matter. We’ve already established that the metal hull conducts all electricity. Did Tess only use cosmetic lightning when she hit the Paladin or something?
He jumped off the champion just as they were about to hit the side
Dainix is touching the electrified hull in Panel 3 and Falst was literally wrapped around the Champion when Tess struck him in Panel 2. Unless he’s made of rubber, there’s no way he could avoid electrocution or untangle himself faster than current can flow.
I know there’s a suspension of disbelief here, but Red’s shown us the rules of her world and electrical conductivity is one of them.
Yes, but ‘ground’ is toward the water. That is where the electricity will flow once it is not under her control.
If you are not between the electrical energy input and the electrical energy output, very little electricity should reach you. You might tingle a bit though.
I mean, it wouldn’t be a fun tingle, but you should be fine.
Well, *some* people might find it fun. Sorry Red, electric play is another kink you now get to know about (assuming you read the comments).
Side note: My brain is starting to stir with a fanfic of Tess meeting my character Moriko in a cross-over, and them kicking ass together.
To the left we have a magical metal and lightning punchy-girl, to the right we have a chi-powered, flying, wind & lightning punchy-girl.
In the middle is some poor soul who made a big mistake.
Based on the fact that he isn’t unconscious or on fire he probably absorbed the lightning with his own magic somehow instead of discharging it out of him, which is my best guess. Admittedly he *might be* unconscious which is why the light dragon started controlling him and the rain might have stopped his clothes catching on fire.
But the rain might be what stopped them from getting electrocuted. The rail got electrified when Tess jumped from the deck to the crows nest and it was once explained on tumblr that Tess does this by magnetically charging her body to be repulsed from the ground upward to be launched like a rail gun, this looks like what she’s doing with her fist but not repulsed from the ground but through the air, the rail was shocked last time in dry conditions on a dry deck but when it’s raining electricity doesn’t always ground down but dissipates through the air through the rain, that’s what makes sheet lightning. which probably dispersed the lightning enough to not sock Falst or the railing.
With all this said and done you’re probably right that this doesn’t make a lot of sense and it’s probably more a stylistic choice than anything it but got me thinking about electric-charge dynamics so I decided to comment on this regardless.
Okay, that actually makes a good bit of sense. I’m not convinced that Falst and Dainix wouldn’t at least get a little shock, but I’m satisfied that most of the charge disappated into the water.
Plus, suspension of disbelief, rule of cool, etc. And it is VERY cool.
I think Tess used her lightning powers to move really fast, rather than electrocute the Champion. She lightning-ran, she didn’t lightning-punch. And since she ran across wooden planks, no-one was zapped.
But he’s being propelled by lightning in Panel 3? And the lightning was definitely generated from her fists, not her legs. Either way, she would still discharge it on contact through the Champion and into Falst, no?
Fantasy physics, rule of cool, and Michael may be a poor conductor, while Falst leapt clear almost immediately.
My assumption is Tess has enough control over lightning if she wants to, so it only hits what she wants to hit with it.
I interpreted it less literally as Tess invoking Lightening’s higher elemental property of attraction and repulsion to propel the Champion into the bulkhead, rather than her directly electrocuting him.
Tess hits the stranger like the fury of the storm,
Falst leaps clear before he hits the wall.
Alinua heals Erin, his runes cut by the ice,
He tries to rise early from his sprawl.
Falst grabs the tiller at the end of his leap,
Tess approaches the enemy tough,
Kendal call for them to steer towards Rakhn.
Light flaring, the Lady growls, “Enough.”
guys do you think the ship will survive
Oh absolutely not
No. And neither did Tarren.
I thought you meant Tarren was dead for a moment.
Who knows? Maybe I absorbed their power by making them my Grav. Now there is no Tarren, only I! MUAHAHAHAH!!!
Identity theft is not a joke, friend. Millions of families are affected every year.
If we’re lucky, it might have 2 whole pages left to live
Tess: (teleports in front of you) This IS personal kid.
Art wise, panel 3 is amazing, but it’s all the better with the buildup from the first two. The first’s lighting of Tess’s eyes and lightning, but leaving her face in shadow, gives off both power and menace. The second’s executed blow, forceful enough that even Falst felt some of it, and the Champion’s wings dissipating from his pain.
Then the third with the motion lines, SFX, lighting, and Falst’s mid-air flip to safety is a great conclusion.
Tess has felt very cold and harsh this chapter; I don’t remember her being this serious against Tynan, and Erin blew himself up in that fight. Erin’s previous comments to her and the Champion’s mission to kill her brother is really putting her though the emotional wringer. She wouldn’t hit a person that hard normally and her fifth panel dialogue makes it clear she wants to finish this right now.
Good news: Erin is still conscious. I was concerned for a moment when Alinua went to heal him it could be a repeat of the Tynan fight where V.D. took control and blasted her.
Bad news: The spell appears to have stopped with the rain getting in and the illumination gone. Plus it seems L.D. is done playing nice with the “deceived” innocents (echoing Life-Alinua’s “enough” from 1-14-14? See the two ticks on the speech bubble). Another Friday cliffhanger is coming, but to be fair, the action is moving at such a pace, any page would be a cliffhanger if posted on Friday.
Yes! I’m really excited to see more of Tess’s emotional journey. She has a lot going on beneath the surface.
Yeah, Tess seems *surprisingly* comfortable beating up an actual human(oid) being. But, certainly cares a lot more than when punching dragons. Would she be acting like this normally, to protect the people she cares about, if not for the dual existential threats to Erin of the Paladins and the void dragon?
Look at that flip on panel 3. My boy Falst is styling on this man
Usually, in battle, Tess is confident and playful, but here, she’s SO mad, it’s actually kind of scary. “In a minute there’s not gonna be a fight-” is straight up code for “I’m gonna beat this Paladin guy until he can’t move anymore”. She wasn’t even like that against Tynan. I love it
*bonk*
Squeeeeeeeeeee!!!
I love Tess SO much. I also love Falst very much; that jumpflip! And Tess-Falst combo? We need a name for this! “Fastball special” is taken, how about Ballin’ Blitz? Gosh, she’s so badass <3
Also, Erin? LIE STILL WHEN SOMEONE HEALS YOU stop doing the protagonist "only I can save us"-wriggle!
(I just love all of this comic. All of it.)
FALSTball special
Aaand there we have it 😀
Although maybe that should be when Tess yeets Falst at someone?
That’s a punch I’m pretty certain normal humans wouldn’t take well.
This guy just won’t stay down.
Aurora Question #8: Whomst is the glowiest character so far?
I say Vash
It’s gotta go to Vash. Man was literally completely glowing and it looked really really cool
I also vote Vash. Boi has that starfire blaze.
It automatically goes to Vash when he’s in starfire mode but if we look at some of the other characters I think Michael would have to be a close second. Or perhaps Alinua/life though only sometimes. Michael is the most consistent in his glow however so points for that.
Although Vash is pretty glowy I think Dainix is more glowy in his soul fire form.
Do I sense Alinua dropping a Chekov’s gun? What happens if she doesn’t heal the tattoos correctly? Are we going to see the “stuck constantly channeling” theory come to fruition?
There have been a lot of Chekov’s guns this arc so far! I’m excited to see some of them come to fruition. Maybe now is when the merpeople show up? Is someone going to get knocked off the boat?
I can’t imagine Merpeople would willingly venture so close to a storm. They’re as vulnerable to lightning strikes as anyone else. I think that foreshadowing might just have been worldbuilding. Besides, we already saw them in Kendal’s nap montage and it’s technically daytime.
Oh okay, Tess followed up! Not who I guessed, but upon reflection, the most logical choice, given her relative health. Solid hit. Looks like she hit Michael square in the gut without whacking Falst, and Falst was able to leap clear safely. We’ll, uh. See how Michael and LD respond to that. Probably not well.
Volcano heist! Volcano heist! (probably) (possibly after a shipwreck)
Falst, that is one impressive leap. The MVP award goes to….
Dainix! Because Falst probably got at least a bit electrocuted (and put himself in a very dangerous position) with that stunt and I give no rewards to self sacrificing idiots.
I love how Tess’s face has been mostly obscured this far. We haven’t gotten a clear look at her expressions, so our only hint to her emotional states is dialogue…which there isn’t a lot of. But oof, that line, “In a minute, there’s not gonna be a fight.” Just *chefs kiss.* Show-don’t-tell by barely showing and strategically telling. I love it.
Falst’s acrobatic display on panel 3 makes me think with their different skillsets and powers the Floof Squad could make a killing as a circus troupe.
Kendal (person) focusing on tactical leadership rather than jumping in with Kendal (sword) is an interesting display of his new perspective and priorities.
And since other people have compared this fight to the one against Tynan, a major difference to me is that while Tynan was a natural force of destruction who reveled in causing harm, LD and the Champion are making a choice to cause harm while feigning contrition.
Which for me makes them significantly more dislikable as villains than Tynan was, at least he was honest.
I don’t think they’re faking. I think they genuinely believe this is an unfortunate necessity.
I think they just don’t want to admit how ignorant they are on the purple dragon and are doubling down or whatever on their self-appointed role
To be fair, what you call “causing harm” they call “saving the world”. And they’re not wrong. Erin said it himself: he is a walking, talking apocalypse event waiting to happen. If his first solution was to die, it’s no surprise that the Paladins are running with it.
I’m not sure it’s a false pretense. One thing the comic has shown us is how far removed the Primordials and even the gods are removed from a mortal level of thinking. Zuurith wasn’t an asshole for no reason, he literally couldn’t comprehend why anyone would be willing to live in a place that allowed lawlessness (…I didn’t say he was an asshole for a GOOD reason). Life has tried twice to get an idea of mortal life, with disastrous consequences. Even Kendal struggled (and still struggles) with comparisons of his mortal viewpoint with his gods-eye-view memories: not understanding communication at the mortal level, or the basic necessities of mortal life.
I think, in terms of the large picture, the Lady DOES think she’s being compassionate, in her way. She’s looking at the long view, and seeing not only the danger to the world, but Erin’s needless suffering at the Void Dragon’s hands. Claws. Whatever. She regrets she couldn’t prevent Erin’s possession, and to her mind, that makes her responsible to end it…and she may only know one way how. I very much doubt anyone thought Erin would even get this far, resisting Walter…persuasive, clever, horrendously powerful, and endlessly patient. Dumbass just happened to possess the most stubborn mage on the planet.
It’s also probably more than a bit of short-sighted hubris. She can see farther and knows more, so the poor mortal can’t possibly comprehend the truth of it. Erin simply doesn’t understand this is the only option that ends with one death instead of thousands.
…which is easy to say when you’re not the one going to be unalived.
Tl;dr: I think the Lady might have a better mortal “lens” with the way she spreads out amongst her followers…but she’s still a deity, and they don’t do so great with the ground-level stuff. Even when they try.
(Sorry, I’ve been thinking about this for a while XP The brief hiatus gave me WAY too much time to think.)
We dont even know If Lucy even has the Full picture, she probably doesnt know that alinua is life’s vessel and that Kendal and dainix have resistance to void magic, because those arent things you can see at a First glance (walter didnt knew why Kendal wasnt affected until he examined him,dainix is seasick and cant Go fire form without destroying the boat and we dont exactly know If Lucy can see life or If she didnt notice her yet
Next panel is surely Light Dragon saying, “I yield. Let me join the Floof Squad, please.”
Right? That’s what they mean by “Enough.”
Right?
Ooh, Tess is…not happy. They knocked her for a loop, then threatened and injured her brother. I would have thought Michael qualified as “squishier than me”…unless the Lady can reinforce his body?
That whole middle panel is badass. Love Falst’s acrobatics. I’m guessing he may not have been electrocuted because of his resistance to magic? He recovered pretty quickly when Erin electrocuted him too.
Kendal showing some leadership qualities! And Erin, how DO you intend to deal with the storm if you don’t let Alinua heal you? He’s apparently dropped the spell, finally. But he’s more worried about the storm than the Paladin trying to kill him…that seems ominous.
Friday’s going to be a hell of a cliffhanger, isn’t it.
AND IT’S TESS WITH THE EVEN HARDER, *SHOCKING* STEEL CHAIR!
seriously though that looks SOOOO cool wow
“In a minute there’s not going to be a fight” Tess if you keep this up in a minute there’s not going to be a SHIP—
Op- spoke too soon
Today is my birthday. Thank you Red for the wonderful present of Tess’s punches.
Falst go “whheeeeee!”
That “Enough” was short for “Enough, fine, let’s talk this out like reasonable people” and not “Enough, I’m using my ultimate attack now”, right? RIGHT?
And wouldn’t it be “and it’s tess with the steel her!”
That halo seems to point to option number 2 and it would be bronze her
-me as i was fighting yozora who was trying to “save” me
Or maybe “I’ll leave for now, but come back better prepared and with more information.” That’s fairly frightening too, but not as immediately.
There once was a girl of storm
Whose punches were all top-form.
The fight’s barely started
Against the cold-hearted
But she’ll end it before she gets warm.
As bad as it’d be for basically everyone involved, part of me wants Light-Dragon to somehow push Dainix into full-flame-mode. And then Walter pops out for just a second while they’re fighting to be like, “THAT’s why I’m behaving.”
I just… I simply cannot handle this paladin.
On Red’s Tumblr, someone brought up the bit in her Paragons trope talk, about antagonist paragons, and Red made one of those coy little responses she does when she’s enjoying how much people understand her work.
But having someone coming after you, who will NOT listen to reason, or to ANYTHING, and who you can’t even FIGHT, it’s terrifying. Michael’s like something out of a horror movie right now. All they can do is run, and they’re on a boat, and the only nearby land is a volcanic hellscape…
This is bad. This is *really* bad.
I’m still holding out some hope that he’ll agree to hold off if they’re looking for a cure.
Unlikely. Expect dialogue to the effect of: “There is no cure that can be found fast enough to save you. I’m sorry; this is the only way.”
Their biggest problem is the location. I think on normal ground they’d be able to handle him. Relatively soaking, he has the terrain advantage.
A horror movie villain called Michael?
Is the Paladin’s surname Myers, by chance?
This is such a neurotypical paladin and i mean that as an insult…
Those meddling neurotypicals!!!!
To be honest I was getting neurodivergent vibes as in he’s awful at talking to people when it comes to casual conversation. To be fair though that might just be because we haven’t seen him in a casual conversation and me stereotyping. And you don’t have to neurodivergent to have those struggles.
These characters keep saying enough when they get real mad. It never ends up actually being enough though.
she’s my favorite character for a REASON, DANGIT!
Red, this page is stunning, and that’s not just because Tess threw a punch that would incapacitate any regular mortal. The WEIGHT and POWER behind that strike is incredible to see captured, and the large pov and word on small man makes it more impactful. The dramatic lighting is a good complement to Kendal’s seriousness as he takes charge. Everything, honestly.
Just something intresting that I noticed, Michael’s eyes glow white when they use light magic. Didn’t Alinua’s eyes do the same before they turned green permently
TL;DR: Punching it isn’t enough, we need to make a pit stop
I want to jump on the admiring tess bandwagon
Uh oh… is Erin going to be if hit by the nerf bat?