[center][img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/546056855978377216/858843614732615700/hgtrfed.png[/img][/center] [center]Word Count: 953 [/center] [center][color=00aeef][b]Level 5[/b] [/color] - (66/50) + 2[/center] [center][color=darkgreen]Level 9 [/color] - (48/90) + 2[/center] [hr][hr] [center][h1][color=00aeef]Link[/color][/h1][/center] [center]Location: The Bottomless Sea ~ The Maw[/center] [@DracoLunaris][@Yankee][@Dark Cloud] [hr] Link was right about the noise. The monster had no sense of stealth at all, rising out of the water and swimming right for the platform where Link had sounded the dinner bell. He didn't stay to marvel at the grotesqueness of the thing plowing toward him, beating feet back toward the steps as soon as it made its presence known. He hadn't had a moment to spare, either, as he felt the wave thrown up by its movement hit him in the back and send him sprawling, soaking wet, through the doorway. He was face down on the ground when the plan came to fruition, but just because he didn't see it doesn't mean he didn't grin in satisfaction when he heard the wet smack of metal on flesh, accompanied by a noise that was disturbingly similar to what you heard when dropping a boulder of a pack of Chuchus. He was kind of glad he hadn't seen that. The thunderous shrike of agony that echoed through the depths was the last thing he heard before he turned to see the thing retreat back into the safety of the water. He pulled himself up, proud. After the last monster it felt so good to be able to combat the horrors this place threw at them. A viscous slick of fluids floated on the surface of the water where it had dived, proof as anything that they could be fought. That they could be defeated. All it took was subterfuge and a willingness to use anything to your advantage. Of course, looking at the sorry state of the platform, it didn't seem like they were going to be able to pull off a trap like that again. Signing, he shook himself off and, with a quick thumbs up to Ms. Fortune and Ace, he turned and disappeared back into adjacent chamber. "It worked." He said to anyone the cared to listen. The gnome, which had busied itself while they were gone constructing a small hovel out of the furniture they had cleared from the doorway, just menaced him again. He thought for a moment about just taking that bomb from it now, but decided against that in a space this enclosed. Instead he turned his attention the the boxes in the room, tearing them open to try and find anything that might be of use. "It's not dead, though. We have to find...something. Anything that could keep it busy. Help me." [hr][hr] [center][h1][color=darkgreen]Linkle[/color][/h1][/center] [center][h2][color=red]Merge Rate: 31%[/color][/h2][/center] [center]Location: The Cold Monastery[/center] [hr] Linkle hadn't been cursed, because she the goddess wasn't angry. It was worse, she was afraid. Linkle watched as her word warped the woman's face from happy obviousness to agonizing denial, and the guilt that twisted up in her for it was just shy of physically painful. It was just like with Minako, it wasn't the sort of emotion a hero should inspire in someone, and the sight of it left her completely unsure of how to proceed. Lucky for her Albedo was there with a way to proceed she wouldn't have considered. The prospect of wreaking bloody vengeance against the Stanger drew the Goddess back in, and aside from a helpful prod Linkle could only sit back and contemplate what she reveled to them. They were Norse, whatever that meant. A people, she guessed. But when it came to The Stranger, Skadi had been in the dark. She didn't know him, and he hadn't known her in return. Even still, though, he had wanted to kill her daughter for what "she had done to him." The daughter of a goddess had to be a goddess herself, or at least divine. Linkle thought back to what The Stranger wanted, and the divine origin of his affliction Albedo had proposed. That could be it, couldn't it? The dumb brute could think that the best way to end his "curse" was to stop it at the source, and from the evidence in front of her he certainly had the strength to at least inflict great pain on god. Skadi's daughter could be the key to everything! Unfortunately, between the pain of reliving he memory and Albedo asking the very question floating around in her head Skadi bottled herself up again. The dreamy look came back into her eyes, but as she turned her attention back to her dog something she said made white hot anger flash through Linkle's. It not for that the Skullgirl might have been content with letting the woman sink back into her daydreams, but as it stood Linkle made her way forward and knelt beside her and her doge. "Don't lie about that." She said, in the tone of a disappointed older sibling. "Not to yourself. Not after what you went through to protect her. I know you must still be trying to protect her even now, but you're not. He's invincible. He can search forever if he wants. If you just leave things like they are, he'll find her eventually. We have to stop him first, and I think she knows a way how. If I'm there, with her, I know that I can beat him. I've done it once already, and with her help I can make sure he never hurts her, or you, or anyone else ever again!" With that she bowed her head to the woman, her tone switching to something resembling reverence. "In the world I'm from when a Goddess, for whatever reason, can't handle the task at hand she calls upon a hero to take up his sword and face the challenge. I know I...might not look it much right now, but I am that hero. I'll be yours too, if you'll only have faith in me." Like the wriggling of a pit of snakes, she could feel the voice of the skull heart sliding across her mind. [i][color=ed1c24]Do not swear yourself to others Do not make promises you cannot keep You are my chosen hero You are my sword You already belong to me Spill blood in my name if you are so eager to do so for the broken wretch before you [/color] [/i] She shut them out. "Please, Skadi. This is what I'm for."