[center][h3]Tora & Poppi[/h3]
Level 6 Tora (49/60) and Level 5 Poppi (44/50)
[b]Location:[/b] No-man's Land, the Land of Adventure
[b]Word Count:[/b] 586[/center]

[hider=For Koopa Troop]You have acquired:
[url=https://remnantfromtheashes.wiki.fextralife.com/file/Remnant-From-The-Ashes/open_cal545_ammo_remnant_from_the_ashes_wiki_guide_220px.png][b]Long Gun Bullets (10 pack)[/b][/url]
Ammunition to replenish physical projectile weapons that take two hands to use

and:
[url=https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51w2le2Q%2B5L._AC_SX522_.jpg][b]Bullet Sticker[/b][/url] x2
One of many fun sticky images. Plastering them on a weapon marginally increases bullet damage

and:
[url=https://gamepress.gg/dragalialost/sites/dragalialost/files/2019-02/Raging%20Tail-material-icon.png][b]Scorpion Tail[/b][/url]
Tough black shell and a burning, paraytic sting. Even in death the scorpion's lethal injecting days aren't over

and:
[url=https://gamepedia.cursecdn.com/deeprockgalactic_gamepedia_en/thumb/a/ab/GearGraphic_MediumFlare.png/1200px-GearGraphic_MediumFlare.png][b]Flare[/b][/url] x2
With a burn time of fifteen seconds, these chuckable flares are good for lighting up dark places

and:
[url=https://static-cdn.jtvnw.net/jtv_user_pictures/37c13bad-7690-451b-a5d6-bd403447e924-profile_image-300x300.png][b]Glyphid Slammer[/b][/url]
An adventurous mix of a cheap, powerful ale with an equally cheap, powerful energy drink. The result is almost, but not quite, entirely undrinkable. But it sure does put a spring in your step

and:
[url=https://gamewith-en.akamaized.net/article/thumbnail/rectangle/17040.png][b]Beetle[/b][/url]
Might look like a bug, but it's just décor. Still, it's got a little heft to it

and:
[url=https://res.cloudinary.com/teepublic/image/private/s--2p1DeuNP--/t_Resized%20Artwork/c_fit,g_north_west,h_1054,w_1054/co_ffffff,e_outline:53/co_ffffff,e_outline:inner_fill:53/co_bbbbbb,e_outline:3:1000/c_mpad,g_center,h_1260,w_1260/b_rgb:eeeeee/c_limit,f_jpg,h_630,q_90,w_630/v1503408845/production/designs/1842880_1.jpg][b]E Honda Sticker[/b][/url]
One of many fun sticky images. Plastering them on oneself marginally increases palm attack speed and power

and:
[url=https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/outlast/images/6/6d/Battery.png/revision/latest?cb=20140105153221][b]Battery[/b][/url]
Sometimes paired with assault, but best used for small electronic devices

and:
[url=https://i.pinimg.com/originals/fb/3f/0e/fb3f0eb588798459d5213a8b52edffad.png][b]Borboras Trophy[/b][/url]
A lovely little desktop memento of your fight with a Borboras. This one won't revive if you touch its base, but if it did, it'd be pretty cute

and:
[url=https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/left4dead/images/e/ea/Molotov-1.png/revision/latest/top-crop/width/720/height/900?cb=20190806094200][b]Molotov Cocktail[/b][/url] x2
What do you get when you combine gasoline and fire? A lot more fire. Light the cloth before throwing.

and:
[url=https://gamewith-en.akamaized.net/article/thumbnail/rectangle/17811.jpg][b]Fire Materia[/b][/url]
If embedded in equipment designed for it, and used by someone with at least a little affinity for magic, this allows them to cast bursts of flame so long as they have the MP[/hider]

[hider=For Sectonia]You have acquired:
[url=https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/outlast/images/6/6d/Battery.png/revision/latest?cb=20140105153221][b]Battery[/b][/url] x2
Sometimes paired with assault, but best used for small electronic devices

and:
[url=https://tr.rbxcdn.com/bb1cfcddaae3464938e047e6d5c07d85/420/420/Hat/Png][b]Little Fluffy Cloud[/b][/url]
Somewhat more plastic than a normal cloud would be, it's actually a hat, and is 'worn' by floating an inch or two over the wearer's head

and:
[url=https://bloodstainedritualofthenight.wiki.fextralife.com/file/Bloodstained-Ritual-of-The-Night/directional-shard-bloodstained-ritual-of-the-night-wiki-guide.png]Teps Oceus Shard[/url]
A shard of crystallized demonic power. If implanted into a Shardbinder, he or she becomes able to expend MP to use the spell Teps Oceus, a powerful but random and hard to aim lighting blast

and:
[b]Feyesh Fillet[/b] x2
A cut of monster meat. Tastes pretty tingly, and should probably be cooked. To ash.[/hider]

[hider=For Geralt]You have acquired:
[url=https://www.ssbwiki.com/images/a/ac/SSBUBeamSword.png][b]Beam Sword[/b][/url]
Pretty and easy to use but far less damaging than being a blade of pure energy would suggest, the Beam Sword makes for a handy, dependable melee weapon. It also flies through the air remarkably well, enabling it to be effectively thrown.

and:
[url=https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/supersmashbrosultimate/images/a/a9/Hi_res_primid_render_by_connorrentz-dbg2z3t.png/revision/latest?cb=20171209230116][b]Primid Sticker[/b][/url]
One of many fun sticky images. Can be plastered on oneself to marginally increase barehanded strike power

and:
[url=https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/videogamefanon/images/3/38/SSBB_Sword_Primid.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/340?cb=20191006141128][b]Sword Primid Sticker[/b][/url]
One of many fun sticky images. Can be plastered on a sword to marginally increase its cutting power.

and:
[url=https://pixologic.com/interview/ryse-son-of-rome/1/img/Ryse-page1_03.jpg][b]Roman Helmet[/b][/url]
This finely and sturdily crafted protective headware is sure to weather many a blow. The pride of its wearer is symbolized in its crest.[/hider]

The sudden, drastic increase of danger, along with the instantaneous elimination of Euden, hit the newcomers like a sledgehammer. They collectively rushed behind cover. Two shots spaced mere milliseconds apart missed Bowser by just a hair, narrowly missing his head and shell as he pivoted directions. If two sharpshooters hadn't happened to pick the same target, one would have struck Banjo and Kazooie as they went up before taking shelter. Instead, one of Link's arrows arrived just late, pinging off the stone by Banjo's feet. Given the travel time of black arrows fired by the bow, he must have guessed their path and barely misjudged it. In a few moments everyone was gone, and the game had begun. The situation looked grim. Yet, the challengers would not be heroes if they let themselves be rocked by the realization of the challenge now facing them. Instead they rolled out, a number of the heroes immediately deploying their minions and proxies to distract and work against the snipers.

One of the trees swelled with magic, growing many times its size. Kameks flew beneath its branches, one of which took a shot the next instant from the Sniper. “Pah,” he snorted as he reloaded his bolt-action rifle. “Decoys.”

“Don't waste time on anything with more than one copy,” Imani advised, having just destroyed a Toadie. With no spirit of its own, the summon poofed into nonexistence like the Kamek clone her ally shot. A pack of zombies advanced from where Blazermate holed up, Geralt hidden amid their ranks, unknown to the snipers. She figured that Gough and Link together probably could take down the tree, but their focus would no doubt be better spent elsewhere. “Pick your targets.”

Wordlessly Quiet shifted her aim from the beetle attempting to lug Euden's trophy from where it fell, just as a couple Toadies arrived to help. Any hero spending time on recovery wasn't spending it on offense, narrowing down the number of threats the snipers needed to deal with and creating a neat order of priorities. If the heroes focused on revival, they would not win the race. She watched a transformed Bowser scamper across the open ground, almost fall to a led shot from Gough, and then disappear behind the tree. Everyone could hear the racket he created while climbing, making his course of action obvious. She did not worry. Despite the tree's newfound size even the reach of its thinnest, high branches fell short of the tower. If Bowser reared his face, he wouldn't be able to feel it for long.

A few sounds reached the snipers' nest, including the yelling of Banjo and as he floated up behind the protection of the mountain spires bordering the area, and the ringing of Bowser's bell, not nearly as loud as its wearer might have hoped. First to show up however, was the Koopa King's son, popping out from the canopy of the embiggened tree with a Pokemon at his side. The End locked on only to find out his quarry appeared with an attack already loaded, nothing less than a mimicry of Gough's own greatbow, and it fired the instant it hit sunlight. Copying a move at full power did not mean copying the skill it took to use it, however, and the speed with which Mimikyu loosed the arrow meant it didn't get any time to aim. Momentarily wary, the End judged that the arrow would miss the second it fired, and he pulled the trigger. He didn't even need to think about his choice of target; only one of the attackers showed off the ability to fly. Junior and his clown car went down a half-second later, Mimikyu flying off the rigid trophy as it plummeted. Its arrow hit the tower itself, lower than intended, shaking the structure and dislodging a few stone bricks. For a brief moment, the snipers could not fire as they focused on keeping their footing.

A couple seconds later, Banjo and Kazooie flew out from behind cover, having reached the apex of their Trowlon juice-assisted ascent in safety. The high walls surrounding the valley itself allowed them to get high enough without risk of getting shot, but now it meant they needed to cover a lot of air to reach the Tower. Imani scoped in on them and started to fire. Her shots came close -too close- but the duo kept up a constant torrent of aerial maneuvers to throw off the sniper's aim. Imani missed several times, reloading between each shot. The Sniper smirked, his gaze otherwise trained on where Linkle was hiding, and he shifted to the left to avoid a thrown Bytan Ball that bounced off the floor and over the other side. “Ya need a hand?”

“Shh...” Gough whispered. He seemed intent on something, but wasn't aiming at anything in particular. A Bytan ball bounced harmlessly off him, and he didn't even notice. “Someone talketh to herself. An attack hitherto unseen, thought to be able to eliminate us.” The giant briefly pointed at the boulder behind which Blazermate prepared her assault.

The End grunted, then shifted his aim to watch out for her. He didn't flinch as the last couple Bytan Balls hurled by Banjo rebounded off the battlements with twin [i]pong[/i]s. Gough, however, wasn't done listening. “Thou art moving swiftly...” he murmured, albeit to nobody who could hear him. “Staying, it would seem, out of sight. Yet I need not see thee. The beat of thy wings...” After confirming his target, he nocked a great arrow and pulled back on his bow's mammoth string. “Betrays thee.”

He loosed his arrow at the hat of the giant Gruntilda head. It ripped through the old, improfessionally-laid bricks, collapsing the hat's entire upper third in a shower of dust and green rubble. In so doing he flushed Sectonia from her cover, perhaps even stunning her with the shock. In that moment Quiet took her shot.

Meanwhile, Banjo and Kazooie got a little too close. Link turned and loosed an arrow that practically grazed Kazooie's head. Imani stood unwavering in their path, her scope trained on Banjo. This time she wouldn't miss, and Kazooie knew it. Rather than take the shot she dove downward, narrowly escaping elimination as she went for the moat. Link stepped toward the edge of the tower and shot downward, his arrow exploding in spherical blue blast when it hit the surface of the water.

Next up, Blazermate emerged to unleash her medibeam. With nothing to go off but her own intuition, her attack turned out to be inopportune. Having lain in waiting, the End put her in his sights. She would fire the next second, and the End could have shot just then, but instead he gauging her trajectory with an expert's eyes. “Down,” he grumbled to Imani. 

Having been frustrated with her inability so far to hit Banjo and Kazooie, the huntress was out of the zone enough to hear him, and she ducked just in time to avoid a brilliant ray of pure power blazing forth. “Whoa!” For a solid couple of seconds the beam remained, radiant in its deadliness, and the moment it petered out the End fired. Weakened by her attack and not yet back to safety, Blazermate went down.

Tora leaned back, having been using a bush by the cliff wall to shield his surveillance, and plopped down with his back to the rock by Linkle. He took a deep breath, unsteady. Already some of his friends had leaped into the action, and a couple paid the price for it by becoming trophies. He knew he missed the chance to rush out and start doing something along with the first wave, when the snipers' attention would be the most divided. Unfortunately, he just couldn't think of anything to do. Even Geralt, just about as close to an ordinary man as you could get with this group, used his brain by joining Blazermate's zombie pack. Tora couldn't exactly do that now, although even if he did he figured he'd stand out pretty strongly among that group. More or less on his own, with his steadfast partner Poppi several hundred feet away behind a hill, he lacked options. “What to do, what to do? Meh, meh, meh!” he fretted, watching Linkle drag Euden in. When he got close enough Tora moved over to help pull the petrified prince behind cover, at which point he took Bowser's advice and smacked the trophy on the base. A golden light shone from it as it dissolved, and with a [i]vwoooooo[/i] Euden turned back to normal.

“What in the world was that? Some kind of cursed arrow?”

Though poised to shake his head, Tora thought better of it and just nodded. “Shootypons taking down anything that moves. If friends stand still in open for even short moment, we cooked.” He glanced over to where Poppi hunkered down. The artificial blade waved to him, so close and yet so far. Without her to channel ether into it, his drill shield retained only a fraction of its former power. After the way the black arrow went through Euden and his armor, Tora did not want to see if blocking worked. For the first time Tora regretted not getting any new powers or strikers. 

At about the same time, Peach stepped out from behind Bowser's tree. Using a broken-off branch as a bat, she wound up and slammed a grenade in the direction of the tower, then dove for cover as shot from the Sniper blasted the ground between her feet. For that stunt time she called upon her vast sports history as Peach rather than any power of Mr. Grimm, and it did not fail her. The grenade zipped through the air to explode against the base of the stone tower, a home run by anyone's account. It didn't directly harm the snipers, or even leave them unsteady, but every little bit helped. And Peach couldn't really do much else.

That lit a lightbulb over Tora's head. “Meeeh,” he murmured, thoughtfully. “If friends keep at it, maybe can knock over tower. Am going to try it.” The Nopon gave a resolute nod, only to glance nervously at Linkle a moment later. “If Tora get hit, please bring back and cure!” After taking another deep breath, he re-entered the bush by the side of the boulder and prepped the drill shield. A moment later, a boom biter soared out to detonate against the base of the tower, doing a little more damage. There was a long way to go, but it could conceivably be done. Unfortunately for Tora, he didn't get the chance to celebrate. Instead a Sniper shot nailed him square in the face, and his trophy fell forward out of the bush.