[center][h3]Geralt of Rivia and Phoenix Wright[/h3]
[b]Location:[/b] Pelagic Lake, the Land of Adventure
[b]Word Count:[/b] 1326 (+3)[/center]
[@Gentlemanvaultboy] [@Stern Algorithm]

Taking advantage of the moment where the large fish-man was stunned by Linkle’s bomb arrow, Geralt raised his empty hand and made a symbol with his finger, causing a shimmering field of energy to surround his body. Now protected once more by Quen, he moved forward and aimed a stab for one of the fleshy sacs on its neck, hoping that it would be a softer target.

The tip of his sword slipped into the bulbous nodule, piercing it to draw blood but losing speed quickly as it traversed thick, fatty flesh. It reached just far enough to penetrate to the other side before the guardian started to move. With a gurgle it wrenched its body sideways and pulled its shield around to bash Geralt’s sword arm.

Geralt managed to react to the attack quickly enough to avoid having his arm broken by the shield, but he was hit in the hand by the bash, knocking him off-balance and damaging his own passive Quen shield. The hit wasn’t enough to shatter it, but even a glancing blow would do the rest after that. 

Deciding to make a bit of distance instead of risk further attack, Geralt used what momentum he could take advantage of and rolled towards the beast’s side, raising his sword in between them as he stood. His foe saw him on the defensive and bulled forward. Using its size to its advantage to force Geralt to retreat, it advanced a short distance before taking a wild swing with its bladed cestus. The blow cleaved through the air, leaving a white swipe-mark in its wake. 

“Damn!” Geralt cursed as he turned his sword arm, barely managing to catch the oversized cestus on the flat of his silver sword, a loud ‘TWANG’ sounding out across the battlefield. Knowing that he couldn’t let himself be overwhelmed by momentum, Geralt took a risky tactic: while their blades crashed into one another, he quickly reached into his grenade pouch and pulled out a small grapeshot grenade. He took a quick step back and to the side while tossing the grenade between the legs of his foe.

The guardian’s dull red eyes flickered towards the object as it rolled between its tentacles, but only for a moment while it raised its shield to crack the Witcher across the skull. Before it could his grenade went off with a rattling bang, piercing its tentacles with beads of metal. Blood flew as the pelagic groaned, stumbling backward as it tried to make sense of what happened. 

Unfortunately, it wouldn’t get the chance. As the guardian got its bearrings, a voice rang out from above the fight. “Look out below!” It was the blue-suited, spiky-haired man Geralt had come to save! Perched on the metal claw attached to the house, Phoenix stomped hard on the raft hanging in the air. A few good kicks got the boat dislodged, falling straight on top of the guardian - and Geralt.

The boat came down on the unprepared pelagic with a tremendous clatter, not just stunning the beast but knocking it to the ground. Spittle flew from its mouth as it disappeared beneath the debris.

Geralt didn’t expect the call from above, causing him to be caught off guard by the falling boat. He was lucky enough not to be completely crushed under it, however, thanks to his enhanced reflexes and above average strength allowing him to leap out of the way. His leg [i]did[/i] take a glancing blow from the falling object, however, resulting in Geralt hearing the familiar cracking sound of his Quen shield failing. Shaking his head as he stood up, he called to the man above him. “Good idea...could work on the timing.” He gave the boat a good look, hoping to see a crack or a hole that he could stab his sword through without exposing himself to a counterattack. 

More than a few openings existed for him to explore. Tentacles writhed under the debris as the guardian’s eyes lolled, but after a few moments it began to stir. Gathering its strength, it threw off the wreckage, but the lawyer’s tactic had taken a toll. Frothing at the mouth, the pelagic flailed about to force Geralt to back away before raising its shield again. Phoenix, the lesser threat, went ignored. After a moment it threw a straight lunge punch.

Geralt saw the frothing, desperate flailing for what it was, and tried to find the closest distance he could remain at without being at risk of taking a shield or cestus blow, and waited for the right moment. As soon as the fish freak threw a punch, Geralt twisted his body to the side of the monster, lifted his blade, and stabbed for its throat, hoping to deal an even more serious blow than his previous attacks.

The Witcher’s perceptiveness and reflexes allowed him to slink past the lunge and counterattack. His blade slipped right in, piercing the pelagic’s scales like a rapier would chain mail. Geralt’s expertise well informed him that piercing, rather than ineffective cutting, constituted the best form of attack; the guardian gurgled as it swung its arm back, desperately aiming for Geralt’s head even as blood gushed from its throat. 

Abandoning his attack in favor of not dying, Geralt desperately pulled his sword and himself down and away from the monster, the blow barely managing to not crack his skull, instead slicing hair, a bit of scalp, and air as Geralt scrambled backwards, eyes narrowed at his foe. “I’m too old for this,” he commented wryly as blood dribbled down the side of his face. 

Displeased at the way things were currently going, Geralt sheathed his sword and drew his hand crossbow once more, racking a bolt and building some distance between the two.

Though having displayed an extremely limited intelligence so far, the pelagic guardian hefted its shield the moment Geralt produced a ranged weapon, but the sagging of its fishy flesh suggested that its strength was leaving it. A raised shield plus the armor on its belly meant that no vital points could be shot, but the champion could scarcely pursue Geralt now.

From above, Phoenix watched the fight, clinging frightfully to the metal beam supporting him. Sure, he’d been in many dangerous situations before, and he was punched in the face at least a few times during his career, but giant monster fish with spears were a whole different league. While he was more than fine hanging around up and out of harm’s way, Phoenix figured he should at least try to help. It was his fault this white-haired guy was fighting, after all.

“Hey! Uhhh, fishsticks!” Phoenix shouted down at the guardian, and chucked one of his shoes at the thing’s head. “Pick on someone your own… hue?”

In its prime the guardian might have shrugged the shoe off, but it was wounded and alert when Phoenix’s makeshift projectile hit. The pelagic sputtered and turned partways toward him, lifting its shield higher out of dumb instinct.

Geralt had to stop himself from laughing at the dumb luck that he had. From nearly getting scalped and a boat dropped on him, to a dude in some posh-looking clothes actually being [i]helpful[/i] in a fight. He took aim at the distracted monster, allowing himself a moment to get a truly good shot, before firing a bolt at the fleshy orb on the back of its neck.

The bolt hit home, lodging up to the feathers in the pelagic’s glinting, blood-speckled flesh. With a final, low rumble, the creature sunk to the ground, deteriorating on the spot. It decomposed to a certain point and stopped [url=https://gamepedia.cursecdn.com/darkestdungeon_gamepedia/thumb/a/a7/Pelagic_Guardian_Dead.png/120px-Pelagic_Guardian_Dead.png?version=3838717638e85b5057ef77f359c36262]dead[/url], a sodden corpse.

“I-Is it safe to come down?” Phoenix asked, staring at the deflated corpse below. Maybe it was better to stay up anyways...

Geralt ignored the decomposing monster and the man above him, instead turning to the fighting going on around him and getting ready to keep going.

[hider=Results!][b]Party:[/b] [@MULTI_MEDIA_MAN]’s Geralt of Rivia, [@Truthhurts22]’s Phoenix Wright
[b]Encounter Reward:[/b] +4 EXP
[b]Loadbearing Bonus:[/b] Geralt of Rivia
[b]Loadbearing Reward:[/b] +2 EXP[/hider]