[center][img]https://www.mariowiki.com/images/thumb/b/b2/Koopa_Troop_artwork.png/658px-Koopa_Troop_artwork.png[/img] [h2][color=FD0000]The Koopa Troop[/color][/h2] [b][color=FD0000]wordcount:[/color][/b] 2334 (+3) [b][color=FD0000]Bowser: Level 10 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=FD0000]////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color] (105/100) [b][color=SpringGreen]Bowser Jr: Level 8 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=SpringGreen]///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color] (118/80) [b][color=DeepSkyBlue]Kamek: Level 9 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=DeepSkyBlue]//////////////////////////////////////////////[/color]////////////////////////////////////////////(45/90) [b][color=FD0000]Location:[/color][/b] Bottomless Sea – Carcass Isle Feat: Rika and [color=lightblue]Link[/color] (+3) [/center] And that was the end of them. Well. almost all of them. You could almost forget that the giant half dead beast was laying there, looming over them all, until the violence came to an end and the quiet of all but the rain allowed its haggard breaths to be heard and drawing the attention of the koopa king while the traditional post fight spirit distribution/mulling over was going. [color=FD0000]”We should do something about that”[/color] Bowser said, with what might be seen as uncharacteristic empathy for the horrid beast. Or maybe him doing stupid things to help monsters was entirely expected, this one just coincidentally didn't happen to also look like a curse child. [color=FD0000]”Kamek!”[/color] He barked [color=DeepSkyBlue]”Yes sire?”[/color] The mage in rather bedraggled robes replied. [color=FD0000]”Shrink that thing for me so we can toss it back into the ocean.”[/color] Kamek glanced at the giant monster, then back at the king. He looked like he was going to object, but thought the better of it, instead drawing his wand and waving it slowly while chanting. [color=DeepSkyBlue]”This fish’s size is truly obscene, I’d much prefer if it was the size of a sardine!”[/color] Before thrusting the wand forwards and sending a shimmering projectile towards the beached monster. Stuck as it was, it proved unable to avoid the slow shot which stuck home with ease. For a moment it seemed to be taking effect, but before the creature could get even a few percentage points smaller, the hex broke and returned it back to normal size. [color=FD0000]”Hey what gives!”[/color] Bowser complained as the mage looked down at his wands, up at the fish and then back at his wand. [color=DeepSkyBlue]”I’m sorry sire, this has never happened to me before!”[/color] the old mage replied, before trying once, twice and thrice more. [color=DeepSkyBlue]” I think my magic isn't strong enough to affect it sire.”[/color] [color=FD0000]”Gahhh. Do I have to do everything myself!”[/color] Bowser complained as he stomped forward and demanded that Kamek [color=FD0000]”Size me up and I’ll push it in!!”[/color] [color=DeepSkyBlue]”I’m not sure that that is the best… oh dear”[/color] Kamek tried to stop him, but knowing that the king would likely stubbornly march up to the jaws of death at his usual size if he didn't do his job, the mage was forced to comply A distant observer, if there had been one, might be taken aback as the beached titan was joined by one more seemingly out of nowhere, the king expanding under his mage’s magic to be a towering juggernaut standing face to face with the almost dead thing which he told [color=FD0000]”Alright stay still, this’ll only hurt for a second”[/color] before trying to rudely manhandle the thing back into the water. Instead the leviathan’s six tentacle arms lashed out, directionless but dangerous, to beat across the rain-soaked koopa king’s face, body, and limbs. Though devoured, harvested, and otherwise abused to the fullest extent of marine cruelty, Scylla tenaciously clung to life, animated by sheer malice and spite to exact whatever punishment it could on those around it. As incredible as it seemed, covered as Scylla was in grisly wounds and filled with both parasites and blight, this creature was just too angry to die. [url=https://i.imgur.com/k7RLWEe.png]Broodlings[/url] crawled from its body to protect their mother as Scylla wrenched back and forth in death throes, trying to attack whatever it could get its claws on. [color=DeepSkyBlue]”Oh dear”[/color] Kamek sighed as he palmed his face with his free hand in contrast to the panic of the other two members in the troop who raced to his defense by hammering one of the leeches with gun and firepower. [color=FD0000]”Ow hey no I’m just trying to help you stupid fish freak”[/color] Bowser yelled right before getting stabbed in the mouth. “You really need to learn your lesson” Marie Korbel, the former skullgirl now striker informed him as she materialized and summoned a horde of skeletons that charged in over the king's shoulders before stampeding over his thick dome and leaping onto the oceanic titan “this one doesnt even look like kid” [color=FD0000]”It’s not my fault it made me feel bad laying there!”[/color] Bowser tried to say, but the blood in his mouth made it mostly unintelligible. “Bowser!” Link called out, his voice reaching the troop just moments before he skatted up quickly enough to impale one of the parasites that had crawled out of the wounded monster with his trusty brandistock. As the monster dissolved he looked up at the titanic struggle playing out before him and wondered just what the Koopa King had expected to happen. Luckily this was only the third biggest sea monster they had encountered today, but the sight of Bowser’s bleeding mouth still sent a prickling feeling crawling across his brain. “I need to get up to it’s head.” He said, hoping Kamek or Junior had a solution for him. He couldn't climb Bowser himself to get up there in the weather. [color=SpringGreen]”I can bring you up!”[/color] Jr called over and down and was about to descend to do just that when Marie, finding her legions unable to finish the job and ruining out of time, decided to speed things up as as she summoned a wall of skeletons beneath the hero of the wild, launching him up about a third of a way there before Jr swept Link’s flight to catch him and bring him the rest of the way, following the hero’s directions as they ascended to help his father, clown car straining under the additional weight but managing to climb nonetheless. They ascended up, up, up, and as they leveled with the monster's head Link urged the boy to go higher still, until they were above the creature's thrashing head. Thanking Junior, Link leg go from where he had caught onto the clown car and whipped out his bow as he dropped. He knocked an arrow, pulled back, and a familiar feeling of calm washed over him. The wind rushing past his ears seemed to quiet as his perceptions and reaction time sped up. Time, for Link, slowed to a crawl as he aimed at the creature's thrashing head. Eye’s were always a weakness, and this thing had six of them. He let three arrows fly, each one burying itself into one of the creature’s red eyes. They burst like Chu’s, and the combined shock stilled the creature’s head for a moment. Link felt time move normally again as he swapped the bow for his Sahagin Trident and dropped, prongs down. He drove the Trident down into the creature's skull as he landed, the weapon absorbing most of the impact as it sank in. Though no legendary weapon, and damaged catastrophically by the weight and strength that drove it home, the well-aimed polearm did the trick. It plunged through weakened, brittle armor and malnourished, diseased flesh to break bone like an eggshell, and pierced the yolk within. Already on death's door, Scylla couldn't sustain the critical hit, and with a wretched howl that rolled across all of Carcass Isle she finally died. Her body began to disintegrate, aided in it's dispersal by the pounding rain, but it would still be a long time before the monster melted away completely--long enough for anyone to honor the tradition of picking over the corpse for anything that might be of use, if anything worthwhile still remained. Link tumbled off as Scylla’s head crashed to the ground, again finding himself at the feet of the Koopa King. “Are you alright?” He called up to him. [color=FD0000]”Gah, mouth hurts”[/color] Bowser complained, clutching the side of his mouth as he started shrinking down again as kamek ended the spell and shooed his healer clone forwards to see to the kin’s wound, only for it to be added too when a bone bonked him on the head. He grunted and looked up to see and hear Marie shouting “Learn” before peaceing out. He grunted again and then sighed [color=FD0000]”That’s what I get for trying to help, huh? Stupid fish monster.”[/color] “Nothing that comes out of the water in this sea turns out to be friendly.” Link said, dismissing the spear and gesturing at Rika. “Wait till we get back to where the water is blue. People there, at least, seems to appreciate your help.” [color=DeepSkyBlue]”Well I suppose it's another few spirits for the pile”[/color] Kamek said, trying to get a bit of positivity out of the situation, before looking at Link and nodding towards them, to suggest he take first pick, both as the slayer of the beast and as thanks for bailing the King out. Link looked back at the slowly dissolving monster, considering. The situation seemed like it was finally quiet and he felt, at least for now, the anxiety flow out of his body and be replaced by the old curiosity. “I wonder if it had any more surprises in it’s stomach?” He said, walking around the beached beast to the hole Tidehunter had made when he had extradited himself from it, which had only widened as the monster began to turn to ash. Hopping up and holding his breath, he took hold of the squishy edge and pulled himself up to peer inside in search of treasure, more survivors, or possibly the spirits of those that hadn’t been hardy enough to survive inside the monster. Spotting something interesting, he unequipped all his armor and pulled himself inside despite the blood, guts, maggots, and blight pooling within. [center][hider=For Link]You have acquired: [url=https://i.imgur.com/T69RyTO.png][b]Gold[/b][/url] x1325 [i]Yellow like fading hope. Valued by all, if not as currency, then for its utility[/i] [url=https://i.imgur.com/wocQyAO.png][b]Scraping Spear[/b][/url] x2 [i]A barbed, bladed polearm whose myriad reverse points are adept at causing damage in passing, rather than directly. Excellent at harvesting organic matter in bite-sided slivers, but also nasty for its tendency to degrade the durability of weapons and armor[/i] [url=https://i.imgur.com/TLnbVW1.png][b]Scissorman’s Shears[/b][/url] [i]A pair of enormous, bloodstained scissors whose sharp blades can cleanly sever soft targets, although their size and the precision needed make them impractical in combat[/i] [url=https://i.imgur.com/xsHFVEh.png][b]Harrowing Crescent[/b][/url] [i]Grants a charge every 10 seconds, up to 3 charges. If an ally is nearby, damaging abilities and attacks against enemies consume a charge to manifest 20 gold. Alternatively, ‘casting’ the hook consumes a charge to create a Stealth Ward that grants awareness of anyone in its small radius. This hook also confers minor increases to physical attack damage, health, and mana regeneration. After eleven charges are consumed, the hook will break[/i] [url=https://i.imgur.com/VF5iyGI.png][b]Abyssal Lantern[/b][/url] x3 [i]Lanterns that shine with the eerie bioluminescence of severed murloc lures. Since they function on a chemical level, no fuel is needed, and the lantern will neither explode nor stop working if broken[/i] [/hider][/center] In just a few moments an eerie blue light started shining out of the hole, and you could track Link’s movements inside the monster from the movement of the light and the squelching sounds as he walked around. A few minutes later a wickedly barbed spear came flying out of the hole, embedding itself in the earth. Link followed, pulling himself back out of the hole covered in gunk but with a look of satisfaction on his face. As he put his other arm over the lip of the edge he was holding onto a pair of shears even gorier than him, the bloodstains caked on and uneaten even by stomach acid. After dropping out he clipped the shears a few times. “I’ve used a lot of weapons, but nothing ever like this.” He said dubiously, before dropping them and lifting up the spear instead before sharing the rest of what he had found inside the monster’s belly. “You guys want these scissors? I can’t carry any more weapons in the slate. Apparently, this doesn't count.” He said, producing the Crescent and offering it freely along with the scissors and two of the lanterns. “I think these might be magic. They glow without fire.” He was keeping one, definitely. He’d attach it to his belt as soon as the rain was finished washing him off. [color=DeepSkyBlue]”I could take one of those”[/color] Kamek replied, getting his toady to take one of the lanterns and then combined it with the pole lantern he had uprooted before to make a biolumions lantun on a metal pole that, carried by the Toadie, made for a nice hoovering lightsource. [color=FD0000]”I uh, guess I’ll take these?”[/color] Bowser said, before picking up the oversized pair of scissors with one hand, seemingly intending to wield them more like a bludgeon than anything else, and then sort of awkwardly handed them to his tentacles for them to hold (the tendrils wrapping around the blade like a sheath) while he wasn't using them. That still left a lot of things on the table, including the host of spirits from the battle, to distribute.