[center][h3]Trial of Purity[/h3]
[b]Party:[/b] Ms Fortune, Geralt, Hat Kid, Ace Cadet, Delsin, Mirage
[b]Word Count:[/b] 9612 (+10)

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqjCz496o-Y&ab_channel=Reitsuna][img]https://i.imgur.com/atb3gYt.png[/img][/url]
[i]Click for music[/i][/center]

With all the horrible aquatic monstrosities that Nadia saw, fought, and worst of all, [i]smelled[/i] so far, Nadia had been expecting something so repulsive and disturbing that its visage might be seared onto her mind for all her days. In fact, if she hopped out of that tunnel to see an elder god face to face, she wouldn’t have been surprised at this point. Instead she found herself confronted by something strangely, elegantly ethereal. Beautiful, even. The creature reminded her of a mermaid at first blush, although it sported an aqueous body practically devoid of definition, as well as a glaring cyclopean eye that made it a far cry from the beguiling sirens of legend. Yet for its alien appearance, the voice that resonated through the cave after it shot its water blasts was female, and while it used somewhat ornate language the Oceanid professed a rather mundane desire. Namely, that if it was a fight the Seekers wanted, it was a fight they’d get. “Works for me!” Seeing a clear shot toward the miniboss by springboarding off a water-boar’s back, Nadia prepared to pounce.

At that moment the mighty main cannon of Geralt’s Breaching Bastion, pragmatically brought forth from the water just outside the triangular platform during the Oceanid’s elaborate entrance, filled the air with uproarious sound, acrid gunsmoke, and withering force. It put a quick end to Nadia’s plan, but as she uncovered her ears and turned her gaze upward to see the destruction the team Witcher had wrought, her heart sank in her chest. Rather than reduce the Oceanid to steam, the shell passed straight through her body without resistance and exploded against the cavern’s roof, and for a moment the whole chamber shook amidst a shower of dust and rubble from the shockwave. Without another word, the miniboss swooped to the right and dove straight into the drink, leaving her hydro mimics to deal with her attackers.

“Hey, come back!” Nadia called, jogging over to the edge to peer into the water for any sign of her target. “I thought you wanted to fight us? Water you waiting for, come on!” Noise from behind her prompted a one hundred and thirty five degree swivel of her head, just in time to see the water-boar charging her way. “Whoa!” She sprang up and over in an acrobatic backflip to let the creature charge on by. With a flourish and a mock bow she landed, seized her tail for use as a sword, and extended it ready to finish the floundering beast off, only to find her quarry walking on the water beyond the platform’s edge. A look of mixed annoyance and disappointment crossed her face. “Of course.”

No longer able to skim the surface like she used to, Nadia couldn’t do much about the water-boar beyond her reach, so she took a brief moment to check on her allies. Geralt stood before his Breaching Bastion, whose cannons blasted away at the enemy hawks to eliminate them one at a time. She appreciated his focus on the troublesome targets, but the Witcher seemed content to defend his blacksteel siege engine for now, rather than take the initiative with that silver sword of his. “Hey, we’re on the clock!” she reminded him, waving her time-marked left hand to catch his attention. At the same time she spotted Mirage taking on the crocodile with both his weapons and a few mimics of his own, which left the cranes for Hatty, although Nadia didn’t picture her having any trouble with the slow-moving, projectile-happy birds. That left just Ace, who she was only too happy to see and fight alongside yet again despite the terrible rush, and with his hunting skills on deck, getting rid of these summons would be a cinch. And once they were gone, the Oceanid would reappear to make more, leaving herself vulnerable in the process–or so Nadia really, really hoped.

That just left the boars as the main issue. Unlike the hawks, who hovered overhead and made for easy cannon fodder, they wanted to get too close for comfort. The first finished its turn and careened her way just as the second made its move, forcing Nadia to dodge one and then the other to avoid a nasty skewer from their tusks. She made sure that neither got off scot-free, however, with a few choice cuts from her claws and tail as they passed. Unfortunately, the slashes she left in their watery hide began to seal up straightaway. “They’re healing?!” Nadia exclaimed. “Guess I gotta pig up the pace. Need a hand, here!” She reattached her tail and picked out one boar to focus down. Time was not on her side.

Geralt watched the Breaching Bastion’s main cannon shot pass directly through the Oceanid with his heart in his stomach, and let out a deep sigh. Well, it was inevitable that something would manage to find a way to not be wounded gravely right at the start of a fight. As the smaller cannons took on the hawks, Geralt took a moment to guard the Bastion and get a better idea of what they were dealing with. She was right that their time was limited, but he’d rather take an extra few seconds, figure out what was going on, and get it done than just waste time fighting puddles of water. 

The hawks weren’t taking the Bastion’s fire very well, unlike their master, and the boars started to rush in and attack Nadia. It was there that Geralt decided to intervene, taking a few swift steps forward and lifting his sword up and through one of the boars from the ground, already turning and swinging the blade diagonally through the other as he moved. Turning to the one he’d first hit, Geralt moved his fingers in the Sign of Yrden, placing a magical circle on the ground. “That’ll slow them down a bit.” 

“This won’t be easy,” Delsin sighed, readying a fire grenade. Just as the elemental’s first wave of attacks began, the young Conduit threw the grenade, hoping the flash would stun their enemy long enough for everyone to spread out and begin their own attacks. 

Once he was positioned at its side, he began launching a volley of fireshots towards the monster. Despite most of his attacks hitting, he didn’t see much damage coming from his flames. He just hoped he wasn’t more of a hindrance than a help to his allies.

Meanwhile the Ace Cadet was glad to see that physical attacks did actually damage these things, unlike the one that had summoned them. Initially he had skated over to where the Oceanid disappeared to see if it was hiding under the surface, but there was no sign of it. He glared at the water to little effect. If that was the thing they had to beat, it was going to run their time down just by hiding! Still, he wasn't about to sit there on the off chance that it resurfaced. The Cadet turned his attention to the elemental-animals, zipping across the water to help deal with them. He steered clear of the speed trap Geralt set down, instead taking on any of the enemies that ventured off of the platform. At the moment that was one of the boars, who ran far when they charged - but no matter where he cut it, soon enough the wounds would close up again. They were made out of water, after all.

[color=salmon]"Do these even have a weak spot?"[/color] he questioned aloud while withdrawing his sword from the boar's head. It didn't seem phased. He kept slashing, trying to beat it's healing rate.

Left with the Crane flock that unwisely used their wings for little more than momentarily creating space for their tidal ranged attacks, Hat Kid proved to be something of a mismatch for the hydroform avians, numerical odds doing little to level them out. She practically taunted them on approach by virtue of the ease and finesse with which she circumvented the waves cast her way. She had dodged worse in the past, and much more of it at a time. In mere seconds she was over their heads, all but stomping on them as she bounced between targets, chaining kicks and Umbrella swipes between them, and by implementing Homing Attacks to chase them down with as needed, she maintained her airborne assault even as they moved to make room for themselves. She ended her onslaught with a Burning parasol thrust to drive her through one, followed by a similarly empowered angular rising then falling thrust to scatter another, both provided by Terry’s Cap. She finished by skipping through the scattered puddle of a freshly fallen Crane to kick off of one still standing, switching to her Brewing Hat mid-flip to lob an explosive vial at the remaining cluster in a fadeaway toss, and fluidly rolling to her feet the instant her upper back touched pavement, landing in time with the vial’s contact detonation. With a smug, cocky grin and a flourish of her hand run along the brim of her Hat, she turned her gaze on the rest of the battlefield looking for her next move to make, confident enough in her work to not look back ([i]because it was always cooler that way[/i]).

The deft bladework of both Witcher and Hunter helped to prove that the hydro-boars’ healing wasn’t quite as troublesome as it initially seemed, with repeated slices and thrusts accumulating much faster than the fake pigs could mend them. They, along with the other mimics, showcased a notable resistance to interruption, as demonstrated by Nadia when her attempt to claw one’s face to ribbons ended with it ploughing through her instead. She sprang to her feet with a scowl, frustrated by the emphasis these opponents placed on force over finesse. With raw power not her strong suit, it felt as though the feral wasn’t pulling her weight in this no-holds-barred race against the clock. “Nyyyyyagh! This is startin’ to boar me!” As the guys made mincemeat of the more distant mimic, she channeled her anger against the one softed up and slowed down by Geralt. She unleashed the dramatic tension in a rip-roaring Cat Scratch Fever and tore into the boar with a series of rapid-fire claw clashes, [url=https://i.imgur.com/E7KTQnv.png]back[/url] and [url=https://i.imgur.com/voUSLvL.png]forth[/url], until a [url=https://i.imgur.com/Qn6Xmre.png]point-eared headbutt[/url] finally burst its bubble.

Just then the last hawk swooped toward her, talons extended, but a final shot from the Breaching Bastion blew it apart before it got a chance to rake across her guard. That left just the other boar, on its last legs and soon to go down thanks to Ace’s assault, and Mirage’s crocodile. After narrowly avoiding a leg chomp, the Legend sealed the deal with a Wingman shot right to the dome, never once troubled by any kind of healing factor. “Whabam! Mirage one, water dinosaurs zero.” As he grinned, however, he noticed that water seemed to be gathering around the crocodile a little too late. He turned to run for the hills and promptly slipped, going down hard on the slick stone floor. “Oh, fuuu-!”

The watery blast hurled him through the air, off the platform and into the drink. “Mirage!” Nadia cried, turning to run his way. At high enough speed, an impact with water differed little from an impact with concrete, and he’d been perilously close to the center of that explosion. As she pattered over he bobbed to the surface, battered black and blue but still very much alive.

“-Udge,” he finished, wincing. A big hand from Geralt would be enough to bring him back out of the water and into the fight, but Mirage had lost his beloved Wingman, and when he tried to take a step he quickly discovered a broken leg. “Well, that could be better, but we don’t have the time to fuss. I’ll do what I can, but you all have to focus on taking that thing down!”

His plea coincided with the destruction of the last mimic by Hatty and Delsin, which prompted an instant reaction. A cry of pain flooded the chamber as the Oceanid burst up once more, her melodic voice now angry. “Ignorant ones! Let’s see what happens when you lose your foothold!” She dove into the platform, and though she passed straight through it as she did Geralt’s shot, her passage caused runes on a third of its surface to light up. Nadia hastened away as a whole section abruptly began to descend, sinking until it lay under a good five feet of water. With its absence, the battlefield was that much smaller.

The heroes scarcely got a moment to breathe, however. New hydro illusions appeared to replace the previous wave, including a self-healing [url=https://i.imgur.com/Y4cyPZW.png]turtle[/url] as tall as a rhinoceros, a [url=https://i.imgur.com/TGVct5h.jpg]water devil[/url] that dealt constant damage to in a small area around it, and a pair of [url=https://i.imgur.com/ILPakdJ.png]tigers[/url]. It was a lot to process, but little about the situation ultimately changed. Nadia made a split-second decision and ran at the tigers. “Here, kitty-kitties! Time to earn your stripes!”

The Ace Cadet chose to tackle the turtle, quite literally. He had zoomed towards the platform once the boar was taken care of, just in time for the reinforcements to appear. That water being sure kicked up a fuss when it's animals were destroyed, so if that's what it took to get it above the surface and defeat then he would oblige. He slammed shield first into the turtle, finding it sturdier than it's watery appearance suggested. Following that up with some forward slashes from his sword, he also found that it had the same kind of healing that the boars did. [i]Aw, seriously?[/i] he thought. He didn't even have a pun for this. Yet.

Geralt was quick to move to Mirage’s aid, grabbing the man about the waist with one arm and dragging him back to safety, though he noticed the man’s lack of armaments. His own plasma pistol from Tora had grown in size with him, so he wasn’t sure handing that over would be a good idea. 

He was forced into action, however, with the sinking of a large portion of their platform, forcing him to redirect the Breaching Bastion at the horrific amalgamation of tentacular terror and fire the main cannon on it (with another warning to the others to cover their ears, first, of course!) while he fished the plasma pistol out. “Don’t know if this will work, but it’s better than nothing!” Stooping to place the weapon on Mirage’s lap, Geralt moved to help Ace take down the turtle creature with his silver blade. 

Geralt’s heavy ordnance did the trick, obliterating the vicious but slow water devil in one fell swoop. Then, recognizing that an enemy with both defense and self-sustain might very well prolong this fight past the point of no return, he set his sights on assisting the Cadet with the Carbonemys mimic. Fighting a giant tortoise was an exercise in getting around its nigh impregnable, spiky shell, which took an equal measure of focus and coordination from both monster slayers. Unfortunately, that left Nadia on her lonesome against the tigers, and despite her bravado the cat didn’t exactly fancy her chances against two savage jungle beasts. The paired predators attacked her ruthlessly, pressuring her such that she could barely strike back between dodges, and before she knew it she found herself pushed to the edge of the platform. Sensing weakness, one tiger pounced, its cruel claws poised to cleave through her neck. Instead Nadia launched her head, bopping the other tiger in the nose as she did, and got off with a glancing slash to her chest instead. Then the farther mimic batted her head away painfully, bouncing it across the platform. “Guh!” she snarled, willing her body to flip and airdash out of the corner.  This wasn’t going well.

And it only got worse. After another few moments of frantic scramble, a flurry of plasma shots flew in from the sidelines where Mirage wasn’t content to lick his wounds, each superheated bolt evaporating the tigers’ aqueous hide where they struck in a sizzling spray of steam. Given the creatures’ positions Mirage mostly landed his shots on just one, and with a snarl the mimic turned on him. Spectating from where her head lay on its side, her cheek squished against the stone under an inch of water, Nadia breathed a sigh of relief between spits of seawater. With just one tiger to deal with, she could actually focus and turn the tides. Her gratitude turned to horror, however, when the tiger’s furious rush toward Mirage made clear the consequences of his distraction. “Mirage! No!” Her body took off after the rogue tiger in a mad sprint in hopes of defending her ally, but the other beast intercepted her with a savage side-swipe and carved deep into her belly. “Nyaaaah!” she cried, her body staggered by the ostensibly fatal wound, but it did not fall. Nadia Fortune was more than a fighter–she was a survivor, and in this crucial moment, she needed her allies to help her teammate rather than her.

Though pain knotted her voice, she yelled, “Leave me be, save Mirage!” As the tiger lunged toward her body for the kill, she sprang into the air, hooking her claws into the mimic’s snout as it passed below so that she’d come down on its back. Its condensed form held beneath her weight, and though it tried to buck her off, its instincts did not allow it to sacrifice its footing, so Nadia’s body kept hers. She span up both forearms into drills and drove them into the back of the tiger’s head, reasoning that even if it lacked a weak spot, she could deal enough raw damage to put it down.

Progress with the turtle was slow going even with both Geralt and the Ace Cadet tag teaming it. The latter was doing a mental walk-through of his inventory, wondering if there was anything he had that could speed this process up at all. The sword and shield's sword dance wasn't a defense-breaker per se, but even if he took the time to swap to a weapon focused more on dealing damage, they all lacked the kind of power to break through the turtle's shell in one blow. As for items, he listed them all in his head; coatings, berries, potions, a dung pod, a shock trap... wait, that might work!

He paused his attack to pull the shock trap out of his bag when pained shouts from the other side of the platform drew his attention. He didn't think he would ever [i]really[/i] get used to seeing a friend decapitated, even if it wasn't the first time that day and said friend still could function perfectly fine without her head. The Cadet disengaged his current target, intending to go help Nadia and return the favor from earlier, but she screamed of a more pressing concern. He spotted the tiger rushing Mirage and changed course.

[color=salmon]"Hey Geralt, catch!"[/color] He tossed the shock trap the Witcher's way, an item a little bigger than palm-sized that resembled a mine. The Cadet was already in the process of turning away as he spoke, rushing his words in order to get them out before he raced away. [color=salmon]"That trap is made with Thunderbugs, it emits electricity so just stick it on the ground or break it open to give that thing a good shell-shock, that might soften it up!"[/color]

Or so he could only hope. He broke away towards Mirage, intercepting the tiger a moment too late. It had pounced on the man, sinking it's watery jaws into the arm he'd hastily brought up to stop it from mauling him completely. When the Cadet arrived it was with a jagged slash that would have been visceral had the tiger not been conjured from water. He cut from its neck along its length, forcing the beast to back away after shredding what it could of the Legend.

Catching the offered shock trap, Geralt looked at the device curiously. He trusted the Cadet to help Mirage and Nadia deal with the elemental tigers, and instead turned back to the turtle. He vaguely remembered the Hunters from Ace’s world using devices like this to capture monsters, not that he was around for long enough to get a grasp on how exactly they worked. Nonetheless, he quickly placed the device on the ground and stepped back, goading the turtle into walking over it. The device promptly went off in a shower of electric arcs and furious sparks that surged through the Carbonemys’ aqueous form. Although typically capable of no more than immobilizing a large monster, the shock trap both paralyzed and dealt constant damage to the hydro mimic, which gave Geralt all the opportunity he could want to make good use of his incredibly conductive silver blade.

Delsin had spent enough time watching and waiting. Even if his fire wasn't doing much damage, it was still something and it was better than nothing. "I have an idea!" He ran up behind the tiger facing Mirage and swung his chain hard, hoping to draw its attention, then turned to repeat the same motion with the tiger being ridden by Nadia. Seeing her headless was concerning but she seemed to be at least somewhat fine. "Attack them from behind! Work together! Try to attack just as they're about to and keep their focus changing!" He stole a glance over to see the turtle was being dealt with a lot better. 

The Conduit’s chains, swept into the hydro-tigers as they struggled against Ace and Nadia, performed better than even an optimist like him could hope. Lacking the turtle and boars’ flinch-free hardiness, both mimics reacted instinctively. Nadia’s only leaped out of range, but the other rounded on Delsin with a vengeance, lunging toward him to rake its claws through his flesh before he could bring his chains to bear. Nevertheless, that moment of distraction gave Ace the chance he needed to really pay back Mirage’s attacker. The hunter followed it as it moved, slicing a matching line down it's other side. One or two quick slashes after had the mimic agitated and rounding on the Cadet, but he finished it off with a forward thrust into it's skull. The tiger's form rippled and broke apart, just in time for the others to take out their own beasts.

Geralt took advantage of the creature’s paralysis, swinging his blade rapidly through the hydro mimic, sparks flying off the creature and the silver of his sword. The runes on the blade seemed to glow as the electricity sparked over it, but Geralt knew this meant nothing more than the blade conducting the energy around it. His whirlwind of attacks continued, the oversized Witcher focusing the thing’s head on the hope that they worked at least somewhat like real creatures. If not, it wouldn’t hurt much to be here, and he could always move to evade as the paralytic effect of the shock trap began to fail. 

Fail it did not, as Geralt’s blade combined with the electricity quickly reduced the hydro mimic into nothingness. Nodding, Geralt turned to the others, who were handling their own enemies.

A little extra damage on her own tiger, meanwhile, granted Nadia the leeway she needed for a final push. With a guttural cry she pushed the spin of her arms into overdrive, reaching full mrow-tation, and in a huge spray of the mimic’s vital fluid she drilled clean through its neck. Its body lost cohesion beneath her, and she sank down to the floor, chest heaving from the effort. Her head breathed heavily where it lay, even if her lack of connected lungs at the moment made the action pointless. After a moment she took a deep breath and used a jet of blood from her neck to zip over the floor back toward her body. As much as she wanted this to be over, this fight being just two rounds seemed a little too good to be true. If the Rule of Three was in effect, she needed to be whole for whatever came next.

What came next was another appearance by the Oceanid, soaring out of the water in a majestic arc. When her voice echoed through the flooded cave for a third time, it conveyed not just pain and anger, but also an undertone of fear. “Defilers of peace and purity!” it wailed. “Know that one who is ignorant of water's treasures fails also to comprehend its horrors!”

She dove into another third of the platform, forcing it to sink just as the first had. Nadia’s eyes widened as she realized that the wounded Mirage was going down with it, mere seconds away from being pulled under. “Hey! Somebody grab him!” she shouted, too far and weak to rescue him herself. After the aquatically-challenged Seekers hastened to relocate to what solid ground remained, they found themselves with barely any room left over to work with as they anticipated just what the Oceanid had in store for them now.

Their opponent did not disappoint. Three new hydro mimics manifested on the water’s surface around the platform, each bigger and badder than any from the previous batch. One was a spike-covered leviathan, [url=https://i.imgur.com/iUWJ79J.png]the fearsome Gobul[/url], its cavernous mouth wide enough to swallow Nadia whole. The thought struck Nadia as so singularly terrifying that she froze on the spot, shivering like she had hypothermia. Along with it came a [url=https://i.imgur.com/Vp6lRsx.png]tentacled, eye-covered Mojadrak[/url], a dragon twisted into an abomination by the mutagens of the deep. Finally, there appeared a [url=https://i.imgur.com/ypSMInX.png]giant eel[/url], simple and unremarkable compared to its fellows as long as one could overlook its remarkable size–from belly to dorsal fin, it was as tall as Nadia. The huge mimic slithered across the surface, snakelike, a living torpedo that sought to snap up anyone it could in its jaws. It bore down on Nadia like a runaway train, but try as she might to flee, the feral couldn’t move.

Cursing, Geralt sprinted over to the sinking platform, silver sword stowed on his back. “Ace! Grab Nadia and [i]move[/i]!” He shouted, massive boots splashing water all about the place as he ran to grab Mirage, stooping to pull the legend up and onto his shoulders, pausing a moment to take and stow the plasma pistol so that it wasn’t in their way. [color=salmon]"Don't have to tell me twice!"[/color] Came the quick reply. The Cadet had already started moving as soon as he realized that Ms. Fortune wasn't. 

As their platform began to sink even further, Geralt nearly up to his hips in water, he pushed himself to get to the parts that remained, rudely dumping the Legend onto the stone before pulling himself up with a groan. 

Refusing to apologize, Geralt cast Quen upon himself, drew his silver blade, and growled before calling out to the others while pointing the Breaching Bastion, literally, at his target. “One more shot going out! Cover your ears!” As the turret bore down on the spike-covered Gobul, he did not hesitate to unleash the main weapon on the thing.

As his ordnance platform took aim, however, the hydro-Mojadrak took action. Whether imbued with the memories of the Water Devil or merely more intelligent than the average mimic, it turned away from its enemies to attend to its endangered Gobul ally with Shelter from the Deep. At its command the water swelled around its bulbous compatriot, creating a formidable barrier with as much vitality as the Mojadrak itself. When Geralt’s mighty cannon thundered through the cavern once again, it struck the shield with absurd force, but even more incredibly, the shield held. Once robbed of all its force, the blacksteel shell plopped down into the water to sink like a rock, and the unharmed Gobul pressed on.

Just as the Witcher ran to help Mirage, the Conduit joined him, wrapping his chain around another of Mirage's limbs to help pull him out, though with great difficulty. Once Mirage was safe, Delsin began running, covering his ears at Geralt's command. Once it was safe enough, he pulled his hands from his ears to wrap his chain around the top jaw of the eel as he leapt on top, riding it. He heated his chain as much as he could, hoping to evaporate off enough of the water to kill the monster chasing Nadia. 

Geralt took notice of the water shield that had appeared, but refrained from reacting until after his shot failed, and even then he only let out a curse.

The Ace Cadet had taken a direct route to Nadia, racing over the water and remaining platforms alike until he reached her. He scooped the woman up into his arms and kept on going, narrowly avoiding the full brunt of the giant eel's charge. It's teeth glanced his armor, denting it in and sending him spinning. It was sheer force of will that kept the Cadet upright, keeping a tight protective hold on Nadia while his feet dragged on the water to finally stop the momentum. 

[color=salmon]"Phew."[/color] He was ready to deposit Nadia back on solid ground, trade a smile for a joke and get back into it - but when he looked down at her and saw her petrified expression he was overtaken by concern. They had precious little time, he knew, but still he hesitated to bring her back to the battle. [color=salmon]"Hey, are you alright?"[/color]

Once snatched from the jaws of defeat, it took a second for Nadia’s brain to start working again. When it did, she suddenly found herself in a bridal carry, and in the strong arms of her crush, no less. Under normal circumstances she might have offered him her thanks along with a little teasing, her cat-eyes bright and a more than friendly grin on her face, but now wasn’t the time. In fact, when she realized that she must have not only frozen in fear at the sight of the sea monsters’ enormous maws, but also put Ace in terrible danger as he rushed to save her, the frustration already perilously close to boiling over inside her erupted into genuine anger. “[i]Mierda[/i]!” she swore, clapping both hands to her head with a grimace and a groan of self-loathing. “Aaaagh! I’m okay, I’m okay, I need to get my head in the damn game, that’s all!”

With a look of gratitude she extracted herself from his arms and hopped back onto dry land. She spared a moment to watch Delsin’s enthusiastic -and optimistic- assault on the giant eel’s head. By taking a page out of Nadia’s book he found himself a safe place to attack it from, and once on top the lashes of his chain left steamy, sizzling furrows in the monster’s aqueous flesh, but it would take longer than the team had to put the it down like that. The freakiest beast of the lot, the Mojadrak, seemed content to hang out a short ways off and not attack for now, though that struck Nadia as more of a concern than a blessing. Then her eyes fell on the Gobul as it heaved toward the Seekers’ platform, fearless thanks to the hydro-Mojadrak’s enduring Shelter from the Deep. Mirage laid into it with everything that his weapon had, and Hatty blasted it with a charged beam from her umbrella, but it wasn’t enough. Recognizing the danger, the heroes other than Delsin moved to help, but the Mojadrak interfered once again. With a roar it conjured Glacial Waves, sending out a pulse of frost across the water to freeze its enemies for a few seconds on contact. Nadia’s speed allowed her to spring over the wave with a somersault, but Mirage couldn’t save himself, and the feral couldn’t reach him in time.

Mirage turned her way with something in his hand. “Here!” he called, slinging his Arc Stars for safekeeping. He flashed his friends a heroic smile despite the slavering monster mere meters away, as if urging them to be brave and never say die, just like him. Then the Gobul rolled over and brought its spike-covered back down on the Legend in an enormous flop, crushing him beneath its bulk.

“[i]NO![/i]” Nadia launched herself at the monster, only to bounce off its weakened but still active shield. She came down on her stomach in the ice-cold water atop the platform, but when she looked in anguish toward the spot where Mirage vanished she saw not a pile of ashes, but a stretcher being borne away by a team of rescue Palicos. Ace’s furry felynes had saved the day, just as they did for Mr. Brineybeard back at Blackwater Bay, despite Nadia forgetting about them. A wave of relief swept through her, washing away the chill that settled over her heart. “Oh, right! Purr-fect timing, fellas!” In a flash she was back on her feet, but contrary to what her pun might suggest, Nadia was not at all in high spirits. Mirage would be okay, after all, but what about them? Three monstrous mimics still stood, and according to the numbers on her hand, only about two minutes remained. She looked down at the Arc Stars in her hand, remembering the devastation they wrecked back at the start of the Bottomless Sea, and held them tight. “Okay.” Her angry face turned toward the Mojadrak, staring daggers into as many of its eyes as she could. “First things first, that horror movie reject needs to die!”

As Delsin’s monotonous fight with the eel raged on, Nadia sprinted over to Geralt and began to climb him like a hungry kitten. In a flash she was crouched on his shoulder. “I’ll back you up!” she told him. “If you see an opening, throw me!” 

Having been too late to prevent Mirage’s untimely ‘demise’, Geralt nodded to Nadia as she climbed him. The water around him was freezing cold, and he could feel it sapping the heat from his body with each passing second. Still, no self-respecting Witcher would be slowed for even a moment by such trifling concerns, and once he managed to break the ice around his feet, he stalked towards the Mojadrak, sword in one hand, and Nadia in the other. 

With a yell, he tossed the feral at the monster before him, following with a charge, silver blade held in both hands, and began a violent barrage of strikes against the creature that had so thoroughly frustrated their efforts in this hopefully-final group of foes.

“Whoa, already?!” As Geralt pulled his arm back, Nadia curled up, and the next second she sailed off like a fastball. Trusting in her friend’s aim, she squeezed her eyes shut and blasted out jets of her own blood to speed up her spin until she became a blur of sharp ears, tail, and claws. She carved across the top of the hydro-Mojadrak’s snout and into its central eye like a woman-sized buzz saw, shedding such copious amounts of its essence that its attempt to put up a Sea Guardian shield around itself faltered. That allowed Geralt to get close and begin his offensive, targeting all three eyes on one side of its body. As Nadia’s spin lost momentum it gathered water for an Aquablast, but despite the feral’s dizziness she managed to hitch a ride on the Witcher once more, hiding behind him as the stamina-leaking attack erupted in a conical blast.

Meanwhile, Delsin’s battle with the eel continued. Though his superheated chains vaporized a small chunk of the mimic’s constituent water, he was running out of fire, and the eel showed no signs of tiring anytime soon. He looked around for anything that he might be able to use to his advantage, and in the course of his search happened to find something odd–an unfamiliar figure in a long black coat, armed with an odd, vivid [url=https://i.imgur.com/v7sB53Q.png]scythe[/url] as she stood at the mouth of the entrance tunnel. With the stranger’s hood up, Delsin couldn’t see their face, but they were clearly human, and any aid in this tiresome battle would be invaluable. They beckoned for him to try and steer the eel their way, after which they readied for his coming by conjuring a duo of clones from flurries of flower petals, each with their own scythe at the ready.

Once the Ace Cadet ripped himself free from the ice, he found the tentacle dragon being assaulted by Geralt and Nadia, the giant eel tangling with Delsin and Hat Kid (the hooded stranger off to the side he failed to notice), and one bulbous leviathan unopposed and getting ready to try and make a meal out one of the Seekers once it found an opening. Of course it would have to get through the monster hunter first, as the Cadet hurried over to intercept it before it could interfere with any of the others.

[color=salmon]"Just you and me big guy, and I'm not letting you off easy,"[/color] he told the mimic. Even without it's distinct bright colors, the silhouette and movement of the mimic informed the Cadet that this was indeed a monster he was familiar with. He hadn't tangled with too many Gobuls in the past, and technically this was just some watery copy, but he figured it was more or less the same: avoid it's spiked back, needle-like teeth, and whipping tail while piling on the damage. Though familiar or not he would gladly take up the fight against the thing that petrified one friend and very nearly killed another. Thank goodness for those felynes, really. 

The Gobul sized the Cadet up, and apparently came to a decision quickly as in the next moment it hurled itself toward him. It turned to roll onto its side, aiming to crush the Cadet with it's spikes like it had with Mirage, but it was met with the shield of a prepared opponent. The force of the roll drove the both of them forward, but once it stopped the Cadet was left with little more than some scratches and dings. He wasted no time retaliating, swinging the blade of the Master Bang against the Gobul's hide. Unfortunately the hunter's attack was met with a 'shield' of the monster's own. The water barrier around it was growing faint, but apparently it was still enough to stop the sword. [i]For now,[/i] the Cadet's brain supplied helpfully. If the barrier was getting weaker then he just had to break through it. The area around them became a wild flurry of splashing water, the Gobul lashing out with tooth, claw and tail while the Cadet let his sword dance against the watery shield.

Delsin nodded to this strange figure before beginning to lead the eel towards them to the best of his ability, which wasn't very good. Seeing the person and their clones with scythes and flower petals getting closer, though slowly, he put all his strength into a jump to try to slam it on the water in front of the newcomer. While jumping off the eel did little, his fire shots and flaming punch did a little more to knock it down into the reach of the scythe. 

The conduit soon found that he need not go to such extremes. As he directed the eel closer, the black-coated interloper’s copies swung their weapons one after another, sending forth blades of blood to bite into the hydro mimic’s liquid flesh from afar. Each visceral wave left a gash in the creature as tall as a man, eliciting a robust spasm, and when it careened close enough the original stranger flung her scythe itself. It pinwheeled through the air to cleave a grievous furrow through the mimic, and as it flew its wielder leaped after it, producing a simple but elegant [url=https://i.imgur.com/Q6dOGIn.png]twinblade[/url]. She landed at a run and sprinted down the monster’s length in a flurry of slashes. When she ran out of runway she leaped once again, but rather than sail through empty air to splash down in the open water, the hooded stranger caught her scythe and disappeared into a well of churning darkness. Only flower petals -and the devastation she’d wrought- remained to mark her passing.

Delsin smiled at the display of strength and agility, both concerned for the strange visitor and in awe of their attacks. Seeing the state of the eel, Delsin made the dangerous choice of jumping in its mouth and firing as many fiery shots towards where he thought an eel's brain would be, expending the last of his fire until his next recharge. If the eel still wasn't dead at that point, he'd just continue with swinging his flaming chain, though the flames were weaker. Now that the mimic was flagging, Hatty could hit it with sustained, repeated blasts of her umbrella beam, so the two kept at it until the softened-up sea creature was well and truly smoked.

Though the destruction of the giant eel mimic near the entrance to the cave made for quite the spectacle, the other Seekers remained otherwise occupied, so much so that the mysterious benefactor’s whole appearance went unmarked. A loud crash rang out as Ace’s one-man slobberknocker dispensed with the last of the Gobul’s shield, and with the Mojadrak under Geralt and Nadia’s intense scrutiny, the monstrous fish wouldn’t be getting more support any time soon. The rolling water barrier splashed into the waters of the cavern, creating shallow waves - and from these waves the Gobul came barreling again. Without it's extra protection, the only thing it could do was employ an "offense is the best defense" method and attack. It's opponent still had his shield though, and despite the beating it was taking the steel was unyielding. The monster crashed against the shield, doing chip damage and putting itself well within reach of the Cadet.

[color=salmon]"Gotcha!"[/color] There was a bright pink flash before the Crush Shot slammed into the Gobul, sending ripples throughout it's aqueous body to weaken it. In the brief moment that it paused in confusion the Cadet went in again with his blade. The deadline must have been drawing close now, so he wasted no time in trying to put the thing down.

As the Mojadrak unleashed a blast of water at Geralt, he simply ignored the attack at first, continuing his swiping at the monster. It twisted back and forth in an attempt to rake its own bladed spines across its attacker, which made for an unusual sword fight. After a few moments, though, he noticed himself getting tired much more rapidly than felt natural. As his sword dipped, the Witcher stepped back and called over his shoulder, “How you holding up back there?” 

“I’m feline fine,” Nadia replied. Assuming his backpedal and hail to be her cue, she vaulted over his shoulder and sprang forward. The switch-up allowed her to flip past the Mojadrak’s ill-timed counterattack with a smile, and before the beast knew it Nadia loomed directly above it with her head in her hand. She revved up her head like a power drill, and gravity brought her down with all her weight -as well as what blood she’d managed to repressurize while Geralt took point- behind it. The beast’s fake scales yielded readily beneath the savage onslaught, and in a matter of seconds Nadia tore a pit into its cranium. Yet a hydro mimic had no vital organs to damage, so before the cat burglar could pull herself clear and leap to safety, another Aquablast erupted beneath her like a geyser and sent her flying sky-high instead. The Mojadrak, having weighed its options, then elected to ignore Geralt and gather its energies for a cast of Rain Water, a skill that promised to grant the beast both more stamina and another precious shield.

Geralt, having taken a moment to collect himself after the blast of stamina-sapping water while Nadia attacked, stepped back in with sword in one hand, and the other making the Sign of Igni. Rather than just unleashing a quick blast of fire and being done with it, however, Geralt put a bit more focus behind the attack, transforming the magic into a steady stream of flames, blasting directly into the hydro mimic. The blazing torrent kicked up a wall of steam, vaporizing the Mojadrak’s front one inch at a time, but it couldn’t quite interrupt the cast. As he felt the magic becoming a drain, Geralt cut the mental connection, ending the stream of flames and following up once again with another volley of slashes. They fell upon a mimic with fifty percent damage reduction, which gave the thing enough poise to steel itself and charge forward. Though not quite as tall as Geralt, the steam-shrouded seabeast bulled straight into him, relying on a low center of gravity and substantial mass to knock him down. It was at that time that Nadia fell nearby, and without any blood for an airdash she could do little more than yell “Cannonball!” as she splashed down into the chilly water beyond the platform.

Geralt was unceremoniously bowled over, grunting as the shield provided by Quen promptly dissipated. It managed to protect him from serious harm, surely, but the biggest downside of the thing was that if never managed to keep him from being thrown about like a ragdoll. Rolling to a stand away from his enemy, Geralt pointed at the thing and called out to the others. “Another shot! Watch your ears!” Doing a quick check to make sure nobody was in the line of fire, he called the Breaching Bastion for another shot of its main cannon. Even if it only broke the shield, it would have to be enough to keep their momentum. The next second, the hydro-Mojadrak’s back half disappeared, its freakish form reduced to mist by the deafening might of the Bastion’s most immense ordnance. It staggered, every tentacle writhing, only able to stand thanks to Rain Water’s protection and its natural tankiness. With a rippling cry it gathered what it had left for another Aquablast, but with its front shaved off, its back blown away, and its top tunneled into, it wasn’t long for this world.

Geralt hummed as he watched the Mojadrak be blown in half by the cannon shot, and stalked towards it with his blade in both hands. As he descended upon the thing, he put as much as he had into every blow, vaguely aware that the group’s time was now running dangerously low. If they didn’t destroy these things soon, Blue Team would be a thing of the past. They’d, if lucky, avoid being turned into Spirits and used by the horrors that dwelled in this place. The simple thought of being turned into a Striker for somebody else made Geralt’s skin crawl, despite his own use of the things at points. 

Speaking of which, as Geralt hacked into the weakening Mojadrak mimic, he thought of one of the Strikers he’d just recently added to his collection. Calling on the Judicator, he stepped back a moment to give it room to attack, stepping back in once the thing had found its own rhythm. As the eldritch horror belched spectral flames from its scales, Geralt hacked into the mimic with greater and greater ferocity, practically cleaving off chunks of water with each blow. As he felt the Striker’s short time limit coming to an end, he had a particularly inspired idea and ran atop the monster’s back as Nadia had his, landing atop the creature and creating the Sign of Aard with his free hand as he landed. The sheer force of the telekinetic blast scattered the remains of the Mojadrak’s aqueous body like it was merely a puddle while the Judicator vanished into motes of light in the background. 

As the mimic’s body melted back into the water from whence it came, an utterly soaked Nadia pulled herself from the water and onto the platform, wide-eyed and shivering like a lost kitten. Nevertheless, she managed to put on a congratulatory smile for the victorious Witcher. “Yeah, you go, big guy!” With a cough she removed her head and shook it, emptying water from the neck, then popped it back onto her shoulders. “One down, two to…[i]hostia puta[/i]!” She gawped at the figure inscribed on her hand, a horrified look on her hand. Then she set off at a dead sprint toward the Gobul, her chill quite forgotten. “We’re dead in like [i]forty seconds[/i]!”

Meanwhile, the battle between the monster hunter and his current quarry was nearing it's close. With it's attack strength weakened the Gobul was at a disadvantage, doing less damage to the Cadet than it was taking. Much less, as it's movements were being read and it's attacks avoided wherever possible. It was a bad match-up for the Gobul mimic. In a last ditch effort it spun around to whip the hunter with its tail, and then sucked in water until it's size expanded even more, becoming bulbous.

[color=salmon]"Konchu go down already?"[/color] The Cadet huffed. It's inflated size did not make it any tougher, and as far as the Cadet was concerned it only gave him a bigger target. It was time to get to the point and poke a hole in this thing so they could finish off the creature they really came here for before time was up. He went in with a leaping attack, slashing a line down it's front and following that up with a flurry. He put as much power behind each stroke as he could, opening deep cuts in the hydro mimic. 

Apparently though, he wasn't working fast enough. He heard Nadia shout the remaining time and cursed as the Gobul thrashed around and reared up on it's hind legs. It was going to throw it's full body weight down to crush the Cadet. At that moment he made a split second decision to tank the body slam rather than run and waste even more time. With just the right timing he should be able to pull it off. He hunched down, pulling his sword arm back, and met the creature with circular slashing motion of Round Force. The sword cleaved through the hydro mimic's body, toppling it over. Yet it still lived, floundering on the surface and struggling against the Cadet, who'd stabbed his weapon into it to try and finish it off. [color=salmon]"It's almost dead, come on!"[/color]

Approaching as quickly as her not inconsiderable base speed would allow, Hat Kid began priming and lobbing vials skyward rather than directly at anything, aiming to circumvent cooldown to manifest multiples. She made about three before she had to switch hats to get in gear, Sprinting and bounding to catch the bundle mid-fall (two in hand, one by foot) and throw into the mimics gaping maw as it inhaled. Switching again for Power as she hit the ground with a boosted somersault, she skipped forward still, a glow of blue and yellow flame briefly licking her step before she bounced backward off of the downed monster for altitude, then pausing midair for a second to focus the energy she had built in that instant. With its release, signaled with a pronounced glint, she willed herself darting forward at speed with a tiny Burning fist extended, aimed for the monster’s exposed underbelly with the intent to punch through.

Explosive concoctions and a tiny Homing Dunk paved the way for the arrival of Geralt and Nadia, pushed like Hatty into a panicked frenzy by the promise of the clock. The feral spiked her head into the mimic’s cratered stomach like a volleyball, which struck and started biting without delay. “Omnomnomnomnom!” she garbled between mouthfuls of water. As she did her body, following in her little friend’s footsteps, double jumped to rocket downward in an all-out [url=https://i.imgur.com/kKsB3BA.png]Feral Edge[/url]. Her tail skewered the Gobul, then ripped loose a jiggling chunk of its mass as it  [url=https://i.imgur.com/N0kprDV.png]sliced free[/url]. Finally, her head sent itself flying with a [url=https://i.imgur.com/PtkGCcE.png]vigorous sneeze[/url], clearing the way for Geralt.

Geralt followed after his feline ally, silver blade slashing through the mimic’s aqueous body like a hot knife through butter, adrenaline and the need to prevent the Seekers’ untimely demise fueling his attacks.

The Cadet had kept his sword firmly planted in the mimic's body to keep it from wriggling away while the other laid into it. As it started flagging closer to it's demise, he ripped the blade out, leaving a ragged hole in it's body. He wound up for a powerful slash, cutting through the esca and fin then deep into the mimic’s face. 

The Gobul dispersed immediately, annihilated by the heroes’ overwhelming combined power. For all their effort, however, their kill count still amounted to just two. But when Nadia turned to look for the eel, fighting the urge to look at her hand the whole time, she saw nothing of the sort anywhere in the cavern. “What? Where!?” Had Delsin really taken care of it by himself? If the mimics were gone, all that was left was…!

Her eyes were drawn upward to the Oceanid as she drifted overhead, her liquid body weak and wavering. “We seek but a small haven of tranquil waters... is that so much to ask for…?”

“WILL YOU PLEASE HURRY UP AND DIE?!” Nadia shrieked. Her joints bubbled with blood, ready to pull out Fifth of Dismember if it meant bursting this absurd timesink of a boss down.

With a final groan the Oceanid complied, dissolving into rain to fall over the weary, wounded heroes atop their platform. Nadia paused, momentarily stunned as the other thirds of the platform began to rise from the depths. Then she glanced at her hand, saw what little time remained, and took action. “Fifteen seconds, we can do this!” From the water a [url=https://i.imgur.com/bAnFQoE.png]trounce blossom[/url] grew, then opened its petals to reveal the Rhodeia’s spirit. Nadia snatched it like a pearl necklace, which started its dissolution, then took off that hand and hurled it, aiming for Hatty.

Motivated by speedrunner’s stress and the mortal threat that failure promised, Hat Kid was already running for the chamber's entrance before Nadia made her pass, jumping to intercept it as she went. She literally didn’t have time to be put off by the fact that she was carrying her comrade’s severed hand, focused instead on seeing them home free at the last possible second, which her agility and experience (doing just that, as it happened) made her naturally the most qualified for. As she bounded from the platform’s edge over an open body of water she couldn’t clear in one move, it became apparent that she wouldn’t be able to make it back in time on her own…

Only for a massive pair of hands to grab her mid-jump, Geralt having followed after. As he landed on the other side of the gap, his massive size and mutagenic strength having propelled him to safety, he tossed the Kid like he had Nadia, trusting in her supernatural agility to right her mid-flight, and get her to their goal on time.

Her flight path, she could control; her speed, she could not. Down to the single digit mark, she realized she might not make it back after all, but daunted she wasn’t, because the Spirit in Nadia’s hand in [i]her[/i] hand could still cross the finish line ahead of them. So far as she could tell, that was all the Master Hand needed, or wanted for that matter. As she cleared the exit and touched solid ground once more, she left it just as soon on contact by boosting herself forward still, rather than skidding, sliding or running. She preferred not to waste an ounce of the momentum she had been granted. She applied her acrobatic ‘boost’ technique to skipping along the walls on every round turn she hit on the path back, gradually losing control with each step as she effectively pinballed her way through the tunnel. On the very last push, Master Hand in sight as she reentered forward flight for the last time, she mustered what strength she could minus resistance or leverage, made up for by momentum, and pitched Fortune’s mitt as hard as she could toward their waiting taskmaster before hitting the ground in a reckless tumble. In and out of three sets of hands (including Geralt’s), and on its way to another, the Spirit would find its way home. It was, quite literally, out of their hands from there. They could only hope they weren’t a second too late…