Swift as a raging fire, Magpie launched herself across the grove, fists up as the warmth in her stomach surged out to the rest of her body. In an instant, her fists were aglow with white light and she unleashed a flurry of blows so swift that even Raime, with his buff activated, could only see the afterimages of her swinging fists. Before any of the oni could turn around, twenty [i]scorchmarks[/i] emerged on the back of the biggest of them, pulverizing flesh and crushing organs. Like smacking a tank of water that was already leaking, Magpie pounded more blood out of the fresh wounds of the oni. Viscous, black blood splattered out with a decaying stench that caused her nose to wrinkle, so potent the pungency was. But Magpie was already in it!

It was showtime, baby!

With a gurgling roar, the oni whipped around, his mouth still coated with gore, his eyes white with death-promising bloodlust. Both arms reached out in a bear hug, but before they could wrap around Magpie’s back, the creature was suddenly jerked backwards, hands clapping around her shoulders instead. Tendrils of magical power snagged onto his ruined flesh, intensifying as time continued to pass, and his companions howled as well. Amulak’s Arcane Vortex, centered on the group, clumped them up briefly. Their rotten flesh sheared away from the pale blue energy that wrapped around them, and their proximity enabled Raime’s rapid-firing. The Scout’s Dewsilk Shortbow practically sang underneath his fingers, arrows embedding themselves into the knees of a couple of the creatures. He could tell, however. Without any special skills to circumvent the issue, his paltry strength alone was what powered his attacks, and just like against the centipede woman, Raime’s arrows didn’t drive themselves nearly as deeply as he may have wished.

And though Amulak’s Arcane Vortex continued to shred at their bodies, these were no emaciated ghouls within some lightless tunnels. These were monoliths of physical might made flesh, and as loosened skin was torn off from their body, they advanced regardless. Two of them rushed past Magpie, hurtling towards the rest of the group like a pair of rampaging bulls, their tongues lolling out. In mere moments, they’d close in on the backline of Raime and Amulak, unless Klein or Ames tried to intercept. But how on earth did you intercept two semi-trucks? The ones in the back weren’t pausing either. With ferocious effort, the one grappling Magpie drew his head back and then slammed it into the brawler’s own. Once, twice! Skull cracked against skull, the monster’s forehead against the cursed material of her battlemask. It shook her thoughts clear outta her head, if she had any to begin with, and she received [b]73 damage[/b] from those devastating strikes. And through her dizzying vision, she could see that one of the remaining oni had buried their hands into the base of the creature they’ve killed. With sinew-popping effort, the bull’s corpse began to inch off the ground…but to what end?

More immediate, though, was the threat that the last oni provided.

His milky eyes locked onto Amulak, that dark-cloaked mage, and he punched.

At this range, it was physically impossible for a melee attack to hit him. But then, the fist got closer. And closer. And CLOSER.

The oni had punched with his arm so hard that his arm had [i]torn off[/i] from his shoulder, and flew at Amulak like a ballista bolt. What the [i]fuck[/i] was wrong with these monsters?
[sub][@Shovel][@Searat][@Psyker Landshark][@OwO][@Yankee][/sub][hr]
Zhi-Toren listened intently, nodding a couple times as Ari recounted the difficulties accompanied with sewers. It made sense, after all, for a level 1 newbie to fall prey to even the slimes the city employed in their sewers. It made even more sense, for someone with such little game sense, to then imagine that the sewers, rather than being an integral part of Nyu-Taro’s infrastructure, was actually a proper dungeon for adventurers to grind in. That didn’t answer, however, why the one that came with her had perished as well, and when Ari brought up subjects such as a palace?

The purple-haired woman raised a hand, one eyebrow raised inquisitively.

[b]“You’re talking about a palace? A bell? Apologies, Ari, but could you back up a bit?”[/b] Zhi-Toren slipped out a small crystal from her pockets, and placed it on the table. [b]“What happened, exactly? Could you run me through how you got to the place with the palace from the place you entered the sewers?”[/b]
[sub][@Greengoat][/sub]