[center][img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/546056855978377216/858843614732615700/hgtrfed.png [/img][/center] [center]Word Count: 2714 [/center] [center][color=00aeef][b]LEVEL UP x 2!!! Level 7[/b] [/color] - (7/70) + 3[/center] [center][color=darkgreen]Level 9[/color] - (87/90) + 3[/center] [hr][hr] [center][h1][color=00aeef]Link[/color][/h1][/center] [center][hider=Link Acquires] [center] [i]From Level 6: Combat Reflexes[/i] During the heat of battle if Link takes certain actions (aiming his ranged weapon at an enemy while falling through the air or dodging an attack at the last possible moment) he enters a state where he perceives time as running in slow motion. A melee attack, when performed in this state, will result in a [i]Flurry Rush[/i] where Link can deliver multiple blows at superhuman speed. [i]From Level 7: Cryonis Rune[/i] A Rune of the Sheikah Slate. It allows Link to spontaneously create pillars of ice from the surface of any body of Water, including Waterfalls. Link can create up to three pillars at once; raising a fourth one breaks the first. In addition to creating pillars, Cryonis can also be used to break these pillars. After using the Cryonis Rune to create a pillar, a timer gauge will appear which must fully restore before Link can use it again. [i]Strength from The Maw: Hide and Move Silently[/i] His time in The Maw has reawakened Link's instinct for stealth. Though not possessing the seeming invisibility in darkness of a master thief he is nonetheless hard to spot and makes no noise when moving slowly and methodically. This ability is dependent on what he's wearing at the time, with lighter clothing or clothes designed for stealth greatly enhancing his abilities. [i]Power from The Maw: Magnesis Rune[/i] The Magnesis Rune allows Link to harness magnetic energy to lift and carry metallic objects into the air effortlessly using a beam of magnetic energy that emerges from the Sheikah Slate and tethers to the object. Once lifted, Link can manipulate the object either by moving it in the air, dropping it, pushing, or pulling it. Despite using magnetism the beam is not a magnet and doesn't attract or manipulate anything other than the object that it has tethered to. [i]Famine[/i] While hungry, gain speed boost and stamina regain that ramps up the hungrier you are. [i]Weakness: Survival Guilt[/i] The countless close calls throughout the day, along with the losses suffered in The Maw, has clawed open an old trauma and left it to bleed all over. Link is unable to bear the thought of losing another friend. He considers his own life to be less valuable than any given member of his group and prioritizes their survival over all other concerns. He is quicker to react to perceived threats and harsher when he does so. He will twist any losses that occur as to somehow being his fault and react accordingly. He is afflicted with insomnia, nightmares, and a constant background stress for as long as any member of the group is in danger. [/center] [/hider][/center] [center]Location: Carcass Isle [/center] [@Potemking] [hr] It was cold here. That was the first ting he noticed. It was cold, and wet. He could feel rain falling on him, mud and muck clinging to his body. Despite it all, he somehow wasn't so numb that he couldn't feel the pain. His body was a patchwork of aches and pains, but that was the only thing that let him know he was alive. That was all right, he supposed. He had to get up. He still had work to do. He forced his eyes open. He wasn't surprised. The scene was exactly what he had expected. Green fields. A boundless sky, one that could be beautiful if it weren't for the storm blotting it out. The only lights he could see where the sparks that flittered across landscape from the fires, so distant yet so large. Hyrule was burning. His majesty was dead. All of his friend's had surly perished, taken as off guard as the castle had been by Ganon's overwhelming assault. The only living things on this plain were him and the crawling Guardian's the circled the tree he had been leaned against. Four. Five, it looked like. It was hard to tell, the way they crawled over and behind the dozen or so carcasses of the ones he had already killed. They circled him cautiously, like scavengers unsure of whether their next meal could still muster up the strength to still take at least one of them with it. The Princess, at least, must have gotten away. Sought shelter at Fort Hateno with what was left of the Royal army after he had fallen. The rest of the Guardians must have traveled on, leaving just these few cowards to finish him off. If he moved at all he didn't doubt they would fire on him, but for now they scurried and waited. Part of him wished they would just get their nuts in order and go in for the kill, he couldn't swing his arm to parry one of those beams if he had tried, but he also knew that every moment they were warily watching him was one more moment the fort didn't have to deal with them. He could hold on, just a little longer. For that at least. The staredown continued, with only the noises of the rain and their footfalls echoing across Ash Swamp. The longer it went on the more unnerved Link became. What were they waiting for? Were they really afraid? He had never seen them act like this before, had never known them to appear so...eager. It made no sense, but that was the only way to describe it. Thought their mono eyes betrayed no emotion he could tell. They were waiting in barely contained anticipation. What what going on? It was too quiet, as well. He should have been able to hear the sounds of battle from Fort Hateno, the rallying cries of men, the slicing sound the Guardians beams made as they shot though the air, the explosions from where they found their mark. There was nothing, though. Had the fort already fallen? Was Zelda all right? Why were they keeping him alive. It was then that, through the sparks and the bodies, he caught movement. Just a flicker of a shadow disappearing behind one of the Guardians corpses. He scanned the field, alert now, unease building to terror. He saw it again, the edge of some kind of robe peeking out from behind another Guardian that slowly slid behind it. Closer this time. Coming closer. The shadow flicked around the rows of Guardians, always just glimpses. A dainty hand, a slender form half obscured by a guardians still sparking leg. A flash of white that was gone the next moment. Closer. Always moving closer. Finally he spotted it full on, the form of a familiar woman gliding down the row right towards him. He struggled, tried to get his arms to move. This was it. This is what they had been waiting for. What was she doing here?!? He lifted his back off the tree for a instant, but felt himself slam back down as the lady increased her speed. She stretched out her black hand towards him, and just as she was about to break the semi circle of Guardians and force her way into the small patch of field Link had claimed with his blood one of the still living Guardian scurried past. He lost sight of her, and by the time the guardian had passed the Lady was gone again. But where? Where? His answer came in the form of a frigid hand wrapping around his chin and pulling his head to the right. His entire flied of vision was taken up by that dreadful white mask poking out from behind the tree as The Lady extended her other hand and laid her fingers upon his forehead. Immediately there was pressure, unbearable pressure, as his skin was forced flush to his skull, as as he felt cracks began to form in his bone. His head sang with pain as the force came down, crushing, crushing, crushing... [hr] Crushing pain seared its way into his cranium as Link's eyes flew open, his screaming half in terror and half in agony. He could move though. Now he could move, for as much good that would do against her. His hands flew to to his head, where he felt his knuckles knock into something metal. Metal? He grabbed onto it and pulled, and after a few moments of desperate struggle the pressure abated as he wrenched off the helmet and threw it forward. It bounced off the sand a few times before splashing down in the surf as Link sprang up, sword in hand and eyes wild. The beach around him was desolate, filled with dead animals and the wrecks of great sailing vessels. Where was he? He looked down to the sword in his hand and felt a sting of surprise. Why was that surprising? He looked over at what had been on his head and found his answer. The helmet from The Maw sat there, moved gently back and forth by the surf. So snug as it had been as a little child, as a teenager it had nearly crushed him. What a terribly embarrassing death that would have been. He signed. For one brief moment he had thought The Maw had been nothing but an awful nightmare, but it all came flooding back to him. The mage, the Kid's sabotage, the awful jolt as they had run aground. He instinctually reached down to make sure he still had his sheikah slate, and when he found it hanging there he caught a brief bout of euphoria. It felt like it had been months since he had been properly equipped. His spirit was lifted even more when he realized that it wasn't just he that had made it. He trudged over to where he saw Mirage, lying on the beach sharing warmth with some disgusting looking dead fish. Down the way he spotted Ms. Fortune, the Abyssal's, and their precious cargo trying the same thing to greater effect somewhere out of the rain. Bending down he shook the sodden man. "C'mon Mirage. Get up. You're gonna catch you death out here." Right, death. They were all still in danger here. He had to act quicker. "Butcher!" He commanded, but no craven cannibal appeared to aide him. What? "Were you looking for someone else?" came a voice from beside him. Cia stood there, concern written on her face. She reached out to pace her hand on his briny, mud covered face. He jerked back from it, instantly on edge, much to the sorceresses displeasure. "What happened?" "Help me with him." Was all he said. Maybe it was something in his tone but Cia complied, helping untangle the legend from his makeshift pillow and drag him part of the way to the outcropping before vanishing in a shroud of darkness and leaving him to drag mirage the rest of the way. He spotted a few more comrades on the trip over, and by his count it seemed like everyone was still alive. Everyone that hadn't died in the Maw, anyway. Geralt was going to be a pain to move for anyone that wasn't Bowser, and Bowser was in a hard spot anyway. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything, ladies." Link said as he laid Mirage under the corals before stopping to take a breather. It kind of looked like the practical exam of a [i]Voe and You[/i] class under here. "It looks like we all made it. Have you seen anybody else. The Chefs? The kids? Any of the guests?" He cast a glance as the massive, wrecked form of The Maw sitting just off the beach along with the of the ships as he shivered. He could probably climb back into the house of horrors to check if it wasn't for this rain. He hated the rain. The shipwrecks looked promising, though, even if they did cause images of Shippy in a similar state invade his mind. They needed a fire or heavier cloths to shake off this chill before it did any permanent damage. "Stay here," He said. "I'm going to go see if I can find a way to keep warm." With that he set out back into the rain toward the wreaked vessels to search for...he didn't know. Flint? Cloaks? Anything flammable? He would take anything. [hr][hr] [center][h1][color=darkgreen]Linkle[/color][/h1][/center] [center][h2][color=red]Merge Rate: 32%[/color][/h2][/center] [center]Location: Frozen Highlands ~ Wildwood Glades[/center] [hr] It was lucky for both of them that the Legends had never shown the hero to have any reservations about digging through someone's private things. In fact, to the critical eye, there were a lot of cases where The Hero had just outright gone into peoples house and taken things that weren't strictly his. Never anything big, but rupees, bombs, arrows they had lying around, a book one time. Linkle had gotten curious about this once, asking why it was okay for him to take other people stuff. Her grandmother had made a curious expression, then explained that it was "like taxes." People could afford to chip in a little bit of what they had lying around the house when it came to saving the world. Linkle had then asked why the Hero didn't just tax the potion shop, or the bomb shop, because surly they had some extra just lying around. Her grandmother had then quickly whether or not Linkle wanted her to finish this story and Linkle had clamed up and had never brought it up again. The point was stealing was okay so long as it was for the sake of saving the world, provided you didn't steal too much. The witches hut, unfortunately, didn't really have anything worth stealing. As Linkle searched, being sure not to make even more of a mess than she already had, she just found a lot of normal stuff and a ton of herbs she was sure a [s]witch[/s] god would know what to do with but whose purpose eluded here. There wasn't even any real food, and considering it was lunchtime by the way Galeem hung in the sky that was almost as disappointing as the lack of clues. At least, there wasn't anything strange until they discovered the basement. Even the basement wasn't so strange until they found the alter. Linkle lit up as they approached. "Now [i]that's[/i] what you should find in a witches house." She said as she approached. She leaned over the alter, thinking this must be where they find something, and as she did the pair of bones on the alter began to quiver. She tilted her head, then jumped back with as "Aack!" as the two bones jumped up at her and spilled onto the floor. [color=red] [center]Interesting. [/center][/color] Linkle looked down at her chest, scowling. "Did you do that?" [color=red][center]You did that. Your power grows steadily, and the bones wish only to serve. That one especially.[/center][/color] Linkle got the impression of the shadow of a finger moving across her eye pointing down at the round one with the odd carving. [color=red][center]Your nature goddess has been consorting with something dark. And the other bears the stench of undeath.[/center][/color] Linkle frowned, and decide to get a second opinion. "Albedo, do you smell anything on those? The Skull Heart says they're evil." Regardless of the Alchamist' opinion, she wouldn't object if he wanted to keep them. They were the closest things to clues the pair had found. The only other thing of note was the sad worm. Linkle crouched down next to it, staring through the glass as it wriggling its arms at her. Linkle had never particularly liked bugs. She had eaten a few on dares before so it wasn't like they disgusted her or anything, but she had never been into collecting them like some of the village boys had. This one, though, she to admit was kind of cute. "If she doesn't come back, poor little thing is gonna starve." She examined the top of the jar to see if there was any mechanism to open it, but failing to find one she just hopped back and and kicked the side of the jar. The side of the jar shattered, then the whole thing crumbled around the grub. It managed to hump twice in the air, arms spready joyously wide, before diving into the earth in front of her and burrowing away as she watched. "You're welcome." She yelled down into the hole, only to find it refilled behind the grub. That was it if they didn't want to keep going deeper into the cave, and Albedo didn't think the witch would have left anything behind anyway. If they wanted answers they would have to search another spot. Linkle considered her options. The Mystic, The Dungeon, or the Hospital? "Albedo, you've seen all these places." She said, happening upon an idea. "Did any of them look, you know, 'modern?' Like Mr. Kashiwagi's place or those pictures that are hanging in the hotel rooms?" She flashed back to the cityscape she had hanging on her rooms wall. "Father Guerra was dressed pretty modern too, like my friend Michael. If we go to a place that's modern, we could find an internet and ask it about all this." [hr][hr] [center][img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/546056855978377216/823270229936832512/erferfwfd.png[/img][/center] [center][color=f26522]Level 2 - (8/20) + 3[/color][/center] [center]Location: Hammerhead[/center] [@Yankee][@Dawnrider] [hr] New Red Team pulled back into the town of Hammerhead, no missing people stronger but also no worse for the wear if you didn't count some bruising, some wrinkles, and a few new grey spots hear and there. They had certainly come out much cleaner than the last two teams that had tackled the Dead Zone, but then the other two teams hadn't been chased out almost immediately by accursed rain that killed anything that got caught in it. All things considered, after their bumpy escape, it was decided that they should take the opportunity to stretch their legs before the return trip to Smash City Alchamoth. When the door opened Yuri was the first to step out into the badlands heat, a sensation she almost appreciated after seeing the rainstorm that protected the Qliphoth tree. She noted with satisfaction how calm and cloudless the sky was here as she stretched. This wasn't just a pleasure stop, though. Yuri had something in mind, now that they had confirmed that nothing living was hanging around the former Dead Zone. She stepped aside as the others cam out, turning to Banjo. "You did say that this Linkle girls bike was being repaired here, right?" At the bear and birds conformation Yuri nodded her thanks and set off toward the garage the pair had indicate with a "Thank you. I'll be right back." Along the way she passed by the garish purple convertible they had initially driven in here, which looked to be under the care of the pretty blond woman that had given them a tow. The mechanic spotted her and gave a quick wave before going back to her work, one Yuri worked up the nerve to trepidatiously return. "Um, excuse me." She spoke up, wary about interrupting the woman's work. "I was told that a girl left a broken motor bike here. I was wondering, may I see it?"