[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] 1,112 (+6) 
[b][color=FD0000]Bowser: Level 10 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=FD0000]////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color] (149/100) 
[b][color=SpringGreen]Bowser Jr: Level 8 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=SpringGreen]///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color] (162/80) 
[b][color=DeepSkyBlue]Kamek: Level 9 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=DeepSkyBlue]//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color](93/90) 
[b][color=FD0000]Location:[/color][/b] Bottomless Sea – Carcass Isle
Feat: Rika
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[color=FD0000]”What? No, I was just going to… do something way smarter than that. Obviously!”[/color] Bowser insisted when Geralt interrupted his attempt to initiate the fight via shoulder tap. The blustering from the king that the Witcher caused gave the heroes/professional monster hunters of the group time enough to put themselves in front of the Koopa King so they could put their expertise to work in handling the grotesque creature. 

As Ace gave them some weather based support, Link cautiously edged into the boss’s line of view. The battle began with a howl of rage from the orphan, who charged forwards with monstrous speed as soon as he saw Link and in doing so leaping clear of the volley of fire from the ranged shooters, resulting in the team getting no kind of alpha strike on the boss. 

[color=SpringGreen]”OH COME ON!”[/color] came a frustrated shout from jr, who, along with Rika and Kamek, were loosely spread out on and around the rocks on the far right of the beach. It was a deliberate attempt to try and get more angles of fire on the monster, the Troop to the side while others where more directly behind it, but despite their efforts the Orphan quickly thrust itself into the cover of the melee fighters, preventing much of any shooting from going on, at least from their current position, at least from the volume over accuracy strategy that the troop employed.

While them being in close proximity to the orphan stopped their allies from shooting, it was probably better this way, because if they had all been shooters the unflinching horror would have been on them and tearing them apart in moments. As it was, it first had to tear apart the brawlers, which, to be fair, it seemed to be more than capable of doing.

Its first blow with its horrid bioweapon rent the earth where Link had been standing, and though the hero dodged that first swing he was swiftly grabbed and hurled aside by its free hand with inconceivable strength. That was only the beginning. The monster began swinging its blade like a man possessed at Geralt and Bowser, both of them big obvious targets for its ire.

The King stepped a half step back, Ace’s rain giving the bit more speed that he needed to avoid the first wide sweep. Slow on the uptake and still arrogant as ever however, he used the motion to wind up a punch and then drove the strike forwards, only to get cleaved in the side by the Orphan’s back swing as his blow connected. 

The flash of the Malow sticker boosting his punch's power was little consolation as the king’s eyes went wide as an almighty cracking resounded through the cove. As the King was physically hauled to the side by the remainder of the force behind the orphan’s swing there came a collective gasp from his family who could see that one quarter of the king’s shell was a labyrinth of fractures, the Koopa’s royal armor ruptured from that one blow alone, its guns and tendrils utterly crippled. A second segment joined its ruptured state a moment later as the Orphan swung a third time, cleaving the reeling King’s other side this time, and then came in for a third that might have been the end, only for magic to suddenly pulse through the king.

To the side, Kamek’s white mage doppelgangers had raised their wands and pulsed a burst of healing magic into the king. His shell stitched together just in time to be broken again, but this pulse gave the king just enough time to stumble back and for someone else to get the focus of the Orphan. The healing magics also had one more effect, which was that Bowser’s long ago acquired Spore Shroom Charm ate a little of the excess magical energy and pulsed out a burst of fungal spores in response, the resulting foe eating cloud acted a smoke bomb to cover the king’s retreat. 

He stumbled back, clutching his side, as Bella came in and learned that the blows of the beast could not even be blocked, her hand being shattered for her efforts. Their only real consolation was that the Orphan wasn’t using its horrific speed to try and dodge, relying instead on its repulsive durability and sprays of blood gushing from its wounds acting like reactive armor and forcing away strikers and preventing them from comboing it or even sinking their hits in deep.

[color=FD0000]”Urgh, Ok, I take it back, this thing is worthy of being a boss”[/color] the king groaned between coughs as Kamek directed his white mages, who he was decking out all of his clones as after seeing just how bad things were going to be, to restore both the King and then any who Blazermate could not reach during the first few moments of the battle.

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”All the power of that dragon packed into a small frame. Quite a dastardly foe this one”[/color] Kamek agreed, the mage much more calm than she had any right to be.

[color=FD0000]”Mmm.”[/color] Bowser agreed through clenched teeth, before getting a worried look and asking [color=FD0000]”Wait, where are the others?”[/color] only to get a finger pointing up in reply

The Orphan’s strategy of carefully keeping the melee fighters between it and the shooters was a clever one, that was for sure, but despite being born of the sea it had failed to take in the vertical element in its scheme. So, as it swung its weapon around like a flail and forced the fighter’s to clear space around it, the young prince, his own little horror, and the mass produced mook gave it a lesson about looking up.

[color=SpringGreen]Look out below![/color] Jr shouted as he hovered high above, well out of what he hoped was its jump height, alongside a Toadie carried Rika, before the fliers let rip. A quick burst of stinging, slowing goop from Jr’s freshly fueled spattershot hailed down alongside  an electro ball from Mimi and a torrent of cannon and poison inflicting rifle fire from Rika. The shots showered down amidst the sweeping swing, and then again as it blasted people clear with the bloody sandy eruption, ensuring that even when it cleared itself some space, it was never truly safe from harm. 

Down on the ground, Bowser was back in fighting shape, but at the urging of his advisor tried to play things a bit smarter, taking another moment to unfurl his shell back mounted turrets and raising them towards the moon, drinking in the eerie light of the cove so he could burn it all into the Orphan once he was good and ready.