Is Wakka really that easy to manipulate. Incredible.

"It does seem relevant to our mission statement," Edmund says instead.

    "Very well. May Yevon guide your blades," the crusader says, and steps out of the way.

Zei unclasps his staff and cracks his knuckles and neck joints. "How about we let Edmund take point? I want to watch him show off."

Wakka has... a ball of some kind? As his weapon. Apparently. And he starts spinning it on his index finger. "Testing the new blood? Fine by me."

To the extent Kimahri has an opinion about this—and facial expressions to express them—he seems to approve of this choice.

"I'm for it."

Edmund will take point! He walks forward casually, keeping Oni-Goroshi drawn at his side until the ochu seems to have noticed him -

at which point he bursts into flames, and flashes forward, and starts slashing at the fiend like a maniac with a blade which, at this point, might have literally turned into a column of living turquoise fire.

The fiend was clearly not expecting this level of assault! It's tanky and slow, not fast and agile, so it doesn't really have any direct counters to someone like Edmund.

However... Edmund is less effective than he probably expected. He slashes, for sure, and that cuts through... except that next time he looks the gash is no longer there. Not even healed, just not there. And he burns, for sure, which causes the leaves to blacken and shrivel... until he looks at them again, at which point they're whole again. What is noticeable, though, is that the creature seems to be getting weaker somehow? Its tentacles droop a bit more, it is a tad slower. So the attacks are having an effect, just not a... physical one.

After a couple of seconds of this assault, the creature starts hopping from "foot" to "foot", bouncing to the sides with its enormous weight. While this does cause localised tremors, the main effect is the release of a cloud of purple-pink dust from its "mouth".

Shit, poison. He's bad at that, there's too many different kinds for his kind of magic to effectively counter them all. (There are ways to get around it - "chaos resistance", it's called - but he's never invested heavily.) He zips back to the party, still burning.

"How much of a solved problem is poison with your magic," he asks Zei rapidly.

"Entirely," Zei says, promptly.

Wakka does—something—to the lumpy ball he's holding, and it gets surrounded by frost, at which point he launches it up into the air, jumps, and kicks it directly at—

—a huge bee? A huge bee. There are now a few huge bees coming out from the denser parts of the woods towards the plant fiend. The ball is enough to completely crush the bug fiend it hits, though.

"Don't worry about it," Zei adds. "We'll keep the bees off your back and I'll deal with you getting poisoned."

"Grand."

He's no longer on fire, how inconvenient. He catches fire again and leaps back to fricasseeing the ochu lord. 

The air smells and tastes foul, and the poison is... definitely magical. It feels like burning from the inside, or something. But Zei keeps a steady and low stream of magic flowing in Edmund's direction that keeps most of the feeling at bay and keeps him relatively undamaged. The fiend itself has no hopes of actually getting to seriously damage Edmund, he's too agile, so all it keeps trying to do is slow, long-reaching, "inevitable" tentacle blows.

The others continue to cull the other bugs the plant is attracting, although Lulu occasionally assists Edmund with targeted applications of constant fire.

Edmund focuses on solid blows to the bulb rather than attempting to sever tentacles as he ordinarily might. Oni-Goroshi's flames sear at his flesh, but a steady stream of vital essence flows through him, healing him even as he burns. (It's partly draining out of the ochu due to the blade's enchantment, and partly just a natural result of his engaging in violence and sharing in the Goddess's exultation.)

(And there's at least some enhanced regeneration courtesy of the local summoner.)

The creature does not... last very long at all. The incoming bug fiends are not quick enough to keep the others occupied too much of the time, which means that everyone gets to take part in whittling down the bigger monster's hitpoints little by little. Or lottle by lottle. One of those. And as that happens, the ochu gets visibly weaker and slower and less capable of resisting, which does not help its cause at all.

After only a few minutes, the creature can no longer keep its own cohesion, and with one last shriek starts turning to dust, and the dust to pyreflies. It's gone.

When it dissolves, Edmund leaps back, still blazing, and looks around.

"Is it over? Are we done?"

"Should be, for now," says Zei, grinning.

    "A summoner and his guardians," says the older crusader, humming appreciatively. "Very impressive."

"...acceptable," Oni-Goroshi mutters thoughtfully. "Though I would have preferred something with blood."

"Anything big as this left around? We could well clear it while we're here."

    "Nothing has been reported, my lord," he says. "Beyond that fiend we should be able to handle whatever else." He extends both arms to the sides, then rotates them counter clockwise, spiralling them in towards his chest and shaping his hands as if they were holding a sphere there, then he bows while holding his arms in that position. The other crusader mimics the gesture after a second. "Thank you for your assistance."

"It's what we're here for," demurs Zei with a nod. He clicks his staff back onto his back and turns around. "Onwards to the temple, then."

"Onwards!" 

Edmund murmurs to Zei as they leave, "What was that - gesture? It seemed very elaborate."

"It is Yevon's gesture," he replies in a similar undertone. "Meant to invoke Yevon's goodwill and to wish fortune and happiness upon others and all that."

"Huh. If I don't do it will people think I'm heretical or just reticent? I'm kind of already committed."

"Damned right."

"No one will really notice," Zei says, shrugging. "You look at least half and maybe full Al Bhed, which regardless of relationship to the church reads foreign enough. The ronso," nod in Kimahri's direction, "and the guado have their own customs and don't use the gesture as much, either."

"Well, being plausibly Al Bhed has its advantages, then. I'm not sure I could pick that gesture up without some kind of crash course."