[center][img]https://i.postimg.cc/MKK5m0sX/Kid-s-Hat-2.png[/img] [img]https://i.postimg.cc/G2xPk9Gk/Jiggy-2.png[/img]

[b]Level:[/b] [color=8258fa]3 (18 -> 30/30)[/color] [color=yellow]LEVEL UP![/color] ---> [color=8258fa]4 (0 -> 2/40)[/color] | [color=fed428]1 (4 -> 19/10)[/color] [color=orange]LEVEL UP![/color] ---> [color=fed428]2 (9 -> 11/20)[/color]
[b]Location:[/b] Paved Wilderness
[b]Word Count:[/b] 758 (+2 EXP)

[i](Level ups TBD)[/i]
[/center]


Banjo’s stunting gambit proved successful. With a momentous step, he forcefully swung an arm wide into Grimm, knocking him from his feet to tumble to the ground with the duo. The combatants rolled to their feet to face each other, but Banjo and Kazooie were spared no chance by the reaper to make another move against him. Grimm mimed a ripping motion, and with it, the two stumbled forward as two spectral masses were forcibly drawn from their form--one a gentle blue, the other a soft red. They clung to consciousness as they lingered within a state of being between life and death while Grimm momentarily considered them. After a few seconds of quick consideration, he sent the two spirits spiraling back, coalescing into one as they made contact with their proper vessels and sent them tumbling a few dozen yards across the landscape at speeds just over what their own vehicle could reach. After Banjo eventually slid to a stop on his front, he then picked his head up to shake off the dizziness and assess what had just transpired.

[color=0001f2]“What just happened?”[/color] Banjo began with a groan.

[color=e60000]“I could tell you, but you might wish I didn’t,”[/color] Kazooie suggested, expecting the spare her partner the disturbing reality of their experience.

[color=0001f2]“It feels like we just had our souls stolen and thrown back at us.”[/color]

[color=e60000]“Er… yeah. That’s basically what happened.”[/color]

[color=0001f2]“Aren’t things like that a bit dark for us?”[/color]

[color=e60000]“Yeah, I can’t say I’m liking the implications here.”[/color]

As well she shouldn’t. While such happenings were principally little different from those that kicked off their previous adventure--Bottles’ death, Jingaling’s zombification, and their nemesis Grunty’s plan to literally steal the life force of others to restore herself (which resulted in the latter)--they had yet to witness just how much deeper it went than they realized. They were lucky enough to survive what they had just underwent. Whether there was something somehow keeping their spirits anchored to their being (i.e. will, vitality), the biker had some better reason for letting them go, or if they were thrown back at them just to prove a point would remain a mystery to them. They could see in the near distance that Grimm was finished; overkilled really. A few of their allies were gathered around the reaping biker as his last words and signs of life escaped him, followed by an upward explosion of scattering spirits.

Doing their best to keep track, Banjo and Kazooie were able to closely estimate somewhere between eighty-three and ninety-one spirits, but would otherwise need a third opinion to narrow it down. Hat Kid counted exactly eighty-seven. Though, aside from their explorative instincts, none of them were sure [i]why[/i] their minds chose to record such information as if they would be able to do anything with it; the spirits were surely well out of their reach. Shortly after the last of the freed souls disappeared, the duo’s attention was drawn to the prismatic flare that erupted where Peach stood, prompting them to hurry back to see what was going on. When the glow dissipated, the Princess emerged, transformed, bearing uncomfortably familiar features that weren’t previously her own.

[color=0001f2]“Your Highness?”[/color] Banjo started, squinting as if that would somehow sharpen his visual comprehension. [color=0001f2]“Is that you?”[/color] She affirmed that she was indeed herself whilst summarizing her new abilities, which the bear and bird had already experienced firsthand. Putting two and two together from the debriefing about ‘Spirits’ from less than an hour ago, they came to the obvious conclusion as to how Peach received her upgrade. While this news came with its own set of concerns, all the same, it was a relief to know that she wasn’t corrupted by her changes.

[color=e60000]“Just promise you won’t do what [i]he[/i] did. I’m already having traumatic flashbacks,”[/color] Kazooie added in dramatized reference to their incident from earlier. Besides a hard tumble, they managed to come out of it physically unscathed, but it stood the chance of leaving them scarred in [i]other[/i] ways.

In the meantime, with the cessation of activity, Hat Kid was free to comb the field as she pleased, and resumed doing so once the spirit fountain ran empty. She would keep a sharp eye out and her top hat on and active while riding another lap or two around the battlefield before regrouping with the others. Provided it wasn’t carrying anything that she might want, she would leave the sole remaining raider vehicle alone and allow it to flee without pursuing it.