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

[b]Level:[/b] [color=fed428]3 (1 -> 13 -> 16 -> 19/30)[/color]
[b]Location:[/b] [color=fed428]Dead Zone - Charnal Lane; Graveyard -> Cathedral Plaza - Entrance -> Inside the Van -> Cathedral Plaza[/color]
[b]Word Count:[/b] [color=fed428]1739 (+3 EXP)[/color]

[color=fed428]Power:[/color] Shock Spring Jump (Level), Beak Buster (Purchase)
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With some orchestrated assistance from the demon, Banjo and his allies were finally able to haul the van back onto solid ground. Stumbling, he ended up halfway underneath it with barely an inch or two of clearance where he laid for a second to catch his breath until Kazooie pecked at his head to urge him up and out. She meant only to remind him that he was lying face up on top of her, but he would be glad in a minute to have not lingered under the tire of a reckless driver like Nico.

For sure, rescuing the van took a lot out of everyone involved, leaving all three needing a minute to recover. Fortunately for them, they would have one afforded to them by a now gigantified Gene to take all the Suffering’s hits for them, while Blazermate, having returned at some point, held down the perimeter with the help of her striker, Ratchet, Bowser’s wizard, and a skeleton that showed up out of nowhere and started shooting down the horde with lightning. To say the least, the situation had developed at a staggering rate while they weren’t looking. The monk, demon slayer, and even his driver, were keen on taking advantage of this, brutally dispatching the remaining demon and leaving what was left of the horde masterless once more. The duo were slower to act, missing the opportunity to contribute to the action; not that their contribution was needed, and it didn’t bother Banjo in the slightest.

During the short period of respite between the battle’s end and resuming their trip, the duo went to recover their vehicle that they had abandoned mid-fight (again) to set everything back up on it as needed before takeoff, collecting a stock of stray [url=http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/31300000/Banjo-Tooie-banjo-kazooie-31352410-500-369.gif]red feathers[/url] while they were at it. A shame they would miss the opportunity to get acquainted with their friendly volunteer ally, Mr. Bones, for he and his traveling companion--who, even from a distance, harbored a [url=https://ih0.redbubble.net/image.174563390.8275/flat,550x550,075,f.jpg]foreboding[/url] air about him--were just as ready as Nero to get going. Though, looking at the shorter skeleton, despite having no basis for believing it, the bear and bird couldn’t shake the feeling that they were somehow supposed to have [url=https://i.ytimg.com/vi/JoAObkpsW5E/maxresdefault.jpg]met[/url] by now… or that they would eventually see him again.

Shortly after the skellies set off, Nero and crew did the same, only in opposing directions. Following closely, ‘safely’ behind the van would be everyone who wasn’t piled into it, which really just left Banjo, Kazooie and Kamek. With the trolley now free of Blazermate’s creations (except the teleporter?), vacant space was left in the bed that the wizard saw fit to take full advantage of, rapidly stockpiling it with a gathered assortment of loot, junk, and rubbish gained from destroyed spirits, and in so doing, impeding the driver’s view yet again. 

Upon arriving at the cathedral, Nero went ahead of the others to investigate, stopping just short of fully entering the area where it stood to caution them against advancing just yet. Although, they lacked Nero’s instinct for identifying or dealing with the demonic, Banjo and Kazooie knew an impending boss battle when they saw one; the atmosphere was usually a dead giveaway. Either way, whatever the demon hunter saw was enough to give him a moment’s pause, and that alone was worth heeding. He then advised the party to take whatever time he would afford them to rest, medicate, and resupply as needed before going any further.

[hr]

Following the demon hunter’s example, Banjo approached the statue, placing a hand on it, and him and Kazooie closed their eyes…

Their conscious visual awareness was taken to a heavenly backdrop on which a list of their moves--those unlocked and yet to be--were displayed with looping demonstrations for each of them.

[color=0aaaff]“Check it out, Kazooie; all of our old moves are in here…”[/color]

The slightly surprising development of the statue working at all with them prompted Kazooie to open one eye halfway and cast a shifty glance sideways in both directions to verify her unaltered corporeal surroundings before dropping down into the dark of her pocket/storage space where she could better concentrate on the ethereal vision.

[color=f60000]“Uh… almost. Where are the rest?”[/color] Kazooie added, noting the conspicuous absence of a certain few of their techniques.

[color=0aaaff]“Huh… I wonder why they’re not showing up,”[/color] Banjo wondered while observing the same. After nearly a minute of further inspection, they would conclude that the absentee moves were tied to those on display that acted as prerequisites for them, such as Beak Bomb and everything following Split-up.

[color=f60000]“Well, let’s at least get [i]this[/i] back,”[/color] Kazooie piped up, alluding to Beak Buster. [color=f60000]“We should have already had it by now anyway.”[/color] She may have been onto something. The system at work seemed to agree with her, given the triple-digit price point, making it the least expensive on the list.

[color=0aaaff]“Erm… okay. How are we going to pay for it? We’re basically broke, last I checked.”[/color]

[color=f60000]“With [b]that[/b]...”[/color] ‘That’ being Red Orbs, indicated by a counter in the corner that, surprisingly, wasn’t resting at zero, contrary to their initial assessment. In fact, it just barely broke the quadruple-digit margin.

[color=0aaaff]“Strange. I don’t remember us picking up any of that… and what is that, anyway?”[/color] Banjo, rightly confounded by the finding, speculated on how they could have come across the necessary currency, as well as what constituted such.

[color=f60000]“Demon blood... I-I think,”[/color] Kazooie conjectured half hesitantly as she tried not to overstep her awareness with informed assumptions she had no reason to make. [color=f60000]“Must’ve stepped in some along the way…”[/color] While oversimplifying it out of ignorance, Kazooie wasn’t exactly wrong. It would be easy to miss or ignore the crystallized essence falling from slain demons in the heat of battle for anyone who isn’t looking for it. Without understanding its value or knowing it had any, why would they be?

[color=0aaaff]“Eugh. I could’ve done without hearing that,”[/color] Banjo declared, forming the wrong mental picture as he backtracked his memory to make sense of their gains. Shaking the thought from his mind, he returned his focus to the envisioned storefront of lost techniques and opted for the only one they could afford at present; Beak Buster. Upon confirming their purchase, another move--Bill Drill--appeared on the list with an accompanying preview right below the newly acquired one, confirming their suspicion about prerequisite unlocks. Satisfied and spent, they withdrew from the statue with scant enough orbs to bother Nico with. Physically manifested, it would barely amount to enough in size to match a dainty faberge egg, so rather than try to haggle and stretch their buck, they decided to kick back and put their feet up (figuratively, in Kazooie’s case) while they spent the remainder of their allotted preparatory time relaxing before the upcoming fight.

[hr]

As the party proceeded up the steps leading into the plaza, the duo could almost hear that [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pewpmq7gMx8]familiar ominous tune[/url] that preluded their past boss battles. The great tree creaked, cracked and moaned to life at Nero’s provocation, and with a mighty bellow, the non-diegetic music cut off, and the battle was officially underway. Banjo initially joined Gene in fending off the Hollows while others went to work on the Ent. Putting the thus far underutilized cricket bat to use, he held off their armed offense with his own, cracking a few of them in half with broad and narrow side alike, but it otherwise showed that he was unpracticed and unstyled in the use of melee weapons. Thankfully, they wouldn’t be on crowd control duty for long, as Kamek and Blazer quickly saw fit to relieve them of it, clearing the way for them to advance on the Ent itself.

Just as they started to approach, it lifted its arms above its head in anticipation for what the duo correctly guessed to be a radial ground-based attack, and responded accordingly by flipping over the shockwave while they continued forward. At the peak of their jump, a green, coin-shaped platform depicting an avian talon spawned beneath Kazooie’s feet, and they were held suspended in the air for a moment before launching high above the now hunched over treant, emerald sparks accenting their ascent. Kazooie flapped her wings to drift them closer toward the creature and position them directly above the glowing red weak point on its back that Blazermate had identified for them. Then, in defiance of physical law, the two inverted, tucked, and went into a forcibly accelerated freefall in which they instantly achieved terminal velocity, straight down, beak-first onto the Ent’s soft spot.

When Nero followed their example, they were glad to have bounced off on impact and not been in his way while he savagely whaled on the creature, but his fruitful assault didn’t go unpunished. With the last hit of his combo, he was sent from the treant’s back with an explosive discharge of toxic pink ichor that left him helplessly sick on the ground, unable to move. While others rushed to his aid, Banjo and Kazooie began Trotting evasively around the clouds of Rot left by the Ent’s bombardment and away from the Warts chased them with threat of the very same infection that ailed the demon hunter. They would try to draw them close enough to Blazermate’s sentry and through Kamek’s fireball volley to dispatch the diseased pests without having to risk themselves unnecessarily by dealing with them directly. Should they manage to shake them, they would double back towards the living tree, bounding over the second shockwave…

Where Jak went high, they would go low for its feet, where it--and no one else--was aiming. The red, venous cracks in its ankle stumps gave a similar, if lesser impression of weakness to the spot on its back, so while it was busy defending itself from Jak above, they would hit it from below where it (hopefully) wasn’t looking. Charging in out of Talon Trot, the bear and bird reared back and slammed into the treant’s feet with a running Beak Barge, trying their best to keep their momentum going forward with minimal loss. While creature was provenly made of tougher stuff, and would likely take more than one hit from them to topple it, the duo would try to see if they couldn’t put enough weight into their strike to ram at least one of its shins to splinters, trying for both if they could manage.