[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/5r7OTIh.png[/img] [b][color=Aquamarine]wordcount:[/color][/b] 2,361 (+3) [b][color=Aquamarine]Midna: level 8[/color][/b] EXP: [color=Aquamarine]///////////////////////////////////////[/color]///////////////////////////////////////////(39/80) [b][color=Aquamarine]Location:[/color][/b] Sandswept Sky [color=Aquamarine]Warp Charges:[/color] 3 [/center] [color=Aquamarine]”That… Ok?”[/color] was Midna’s confused response to learning about America and Jesse’s apparent subverting of the wills of the dead. She could pick a bone with that, but technically wasn't that exactly what Strikers were? She decided to leave that line of inquiry where it was, at least till later when they weren't being slow cooked in a desert. Though she did keep an ear out for whatever Riden’s response to that might be. [hr] [color=Aquamarine]”Well I can’t say no to your company now can I Prim”[/color] Midna replied to the offer/shared interest in checking out the mountain again after a bit of down time. If there was anyone who she knew she could trust to handle herself it was the dancer who she’d joined up with this team alongside of. [hr] Minda’s, or rather her wolfo’s, early detection of something weird going on out in the desert was followed up by the superior vision of Poppi, who clarified the weirdness as being incoming danger, namly a whole swarm of monsters coming at them in a unified front for goddesses knew what reason. That said, they had pre-warning of the attack for once, which was better than being ambushed for most. And for Midna, all the time provided to prepare was a warm welcome. [color=Aquamarine]”A few minutes? Ha, these stupid animals are going to regret giving me time to warm up”[/color] Midna declared, before setting about showing them her moves. Her dance moves. Or well. One dance move really, but when that one move was dragon dance you really didn’t need any other move, because by the time the swarm of spectrobes were upon them Midna was brimming with maximum Draconaion energy, quadrupling her speed and physical damage. Plus a nice little defense boost from Primrose and, on top of all that, a little tail whip from her wolf-dran for even more speed and an attack speed buff. As the horde approached, the Princess fetched her long knife from the twilight realm and charged it with electricity. Then she cracked her neck, and told the others [color=Aquamarine]”You all get on the ship, I’ll catch up. I’ve got some cacti to cut up”[/color] before taking off at speed, brazenly counter charging the incoming herd. The pint sized imp blasted forth with utterly inhuman speed, kicking up sand in her wake. Before her, a wall of spikes formed by the herd of Sabogar. Above it hovered the strange flower like Piximi and their Florami leader, along with a pair of Saboquill, who’s silhouette set of warning alarms in her mind back to the flygon encounter. That had been a close one, but she was stronger now. Much much stronger. Still, that didn’t mean she was going to take them lightly, or even take them at all. Really she just needed to act as a distraction long enough that everyone else got onboard, and then she could just shadow hop up to the ship. Of course, another way of looking at a distraction was just an easy target, and Minda rapidly became one as she raced forth. Through the lens of her mask she saw spines on the Florami’s chest begin to light up with a powerful glow, which was all the warning she got before a barrage of energy blasts lanced out, forcing the princess to hurl herself to the side to avoid being vaporized. The princess slid on the sand, maglev allowing her to preserve her speed rather than just grind to a halt, which was just as well because the Piximi followed up their evolved leader with a barrage of flash beams blasted from their visor-like faces, which left a sting of patches of glass where they liquidated the sand where Midna had been standing only moments ago. [color=Aquamarine]”That's all you’ve got?!”[/color] she shouted, only for the Piximi to lash out with their vines, tossing energy balls, while the Florami performed a grateful spin, firing out an 8-way blast of beams all around its pack. [color=Aquamarine]”Me and my big mouth!”[/color] Midna decayed herself as she narrowly avoided being blasted by the octo-beam, and then swatted aside some of the energy balls with a shadow hand while avoiding the rest. That was about the point the ground pounders were atop her, which should have been disastrous, but Midna just grinned viciously because here was [color=Aquamarine]”Finally something I can hit!”[/color] The wall of spiky deaths bore down on her, the leader of the pack lunging at the puny looking Princess, only for her to bolt right towards it, draw out a massive shadowhand and then to finally bring it down in a massive slap that pulped the triceratops-like beast in one shot. That wasn’t all it did, oh no, because Midna leapt right as the slap struck down, using the limb attached to her head to pole vault up over the two following beasts, who crashed into each other and then got a quartet of down thrusting chilfos dropped on top of them for good measure. As those two cried out in pain and tried to get the stab proof undead off of them to little avail, Midna performed her killer landing somewhere at the back of the pack, driving a long knife blade into the neck of another Sabogar, right between its horns, the tough flesh being no match for a dragon and gravity assisted stab, the charged blade then hammering it with a flurry of lightning bolts till it popped to ash. Midna, a touch sore by what she assumed was the mundane recoil of her powerful strikes, reached out and caught the spirit in her free hand before sending it to the twilight realm for storage. While she did this she was blasting sand from that same realm into the eyes of a pivoting Sobogar to buy her enough time to do her loot pickup, which she followed by sicking an overused wolfos on the spiky thing. Unfortunately, the twilight beast faltered when it tried to work out where in the world it could even attack the spike covered spectrobe safely, and instead primarily acted as bait for an attempted bombardment by some of the fliers. It fled yelping back into the twilight realm a moment before the dragon like Saboquill came swooping down, swinging its dragon fruit shaped tail like a wrecking ball. The bright red mass bowled through the sand, kicking up a wave of spikes as it went, forcing Midna to flee the only direction she had, which was up. She jumped, and then summoned her Vibrabva (sized up) and grabbed its tail as it buzzed up and away from the Saboquill which was slowed from giving chase first by its tail being lodged in the sand and then also by a quick blast of dragonbreath from the Vibrava. Before her arial taxi vanished Midna kicked off of it, tossing herself at one of the hovering Piximi. The primarily ranged attacker flailed at her with it’s vines, but the princess thrust her shadow hand and grabbed it. Rather than crush it or kill it in some other way, the Princess used it as a springboard, tossing herself up and around, away from the pursuing Saboquill and towards the majestic Florami. It turned from its dule with Sectonia and charged its laser in a desperate attempt to keep her away, but Midna summoned her Mimic minion mid air and kicked off of it right before the laser was fired, sending her and the murderous chest flying to either side of the beam. Then she reached out with a shadow hand, grabbed a petal and pulled herself into the graceful titan’s foliage [color=Aquamarine]”Sorry, can’t have you blasting the ship!”[/color] she shouted at it as she climbed up it even as it spun around in a panic, firing wildly. Then she got to its neck and started stabbing it while yelling [color=Aquamarine]”Get pruned!”[/color] Further stabs where unfortunately prevented by the Saboquill she had barely avoided coming heroically to the beleaguered flower’s rescue, forcing Midna to toss herself off of it rather than be plucked from her target’s back. At least Sectonia was there to pick up her slack, the queen bee re-engaging the floral flier and bringing it down soon after. That, of course, left Midna the problem of the Saboquill which was relentlessly chasing her even as she fell towards the ground. [color=Aquamarine]”Buzz off!”[/color] she demanded, thrusting her knife out and shooting a blast of lightning into it. Yet not only did this not dissuade it, but Midna felt the same pain she had felt after striking down two of the Sobogar, only intensified, as half the harm she did to the dragon reflected right back at her. [color=Aquamarine]”Goddesses! Die!”[/color] she cried out in anger and pain, summoning her mimic, sized up, and slammed it upwards into the Saboquill right before she hit the ground. She arrested her fall with levitation, and then watched in horror as the sized up Mimic slammed into the Saboquill, dealing ferocious damage, and then burst into ash, the ambush predator having not evolved to take anything close to what it dished out Still, in its last moments it had hit like a truck, and it sent the dragon crashing down into the sand close to Midna. After a few pained seconds, both of them pulled themselves up out of the sand and faced each other down, seconds that allowed Midna to understand the problem she was facing. Midna reeled backa shadow hand, and then hesitated. Her overwhelming power from her dragon dances had just become a curse. Because she, like the mimic (whose spirit was slowly drifting down to the ground as a poignant reminder) was not built to take the amount of damage she could do to this thing with one punch. She had other options of course, but she didn’t know at that moment if she wanted to risk sacrificing more of her beasts to this fight. The Saboquill had no thoughts to give it pause, just bestial and Galeem fueled bloodlust, and so it roared a (slightly strained) roar and then charged the dilemma stricken princess, whose decision was made for her when a shape hurled over her shoulder and into the dragon’s path. “Braum is here!” the muscular mustached man declared as he slammed down in the sand before her and raised his icy shield in its path. [color=Aquamarine]”What are you doing here! You need to get on the ship!”[/color] the briefly panicked princess demanded to know “Not to worry, Buam has his ticket already” Bruam told her, holding a badge with two fingers to show her it “So it is you who should be hurrying along to be getting on the ship” [color=Aquamarine]”Not until this thing is dead.”[/color] Midna insisted, mostly out of pride and a desire of vengeance, but in par it was because she was also fairly sure this thing was going to chase her to the edge of the world and back if it wasn't dealt with [color=Aquamarine]”Just be careful, it reflects damage”[/color] “Ah like Thornmail… eh sort of” Braum replied as he dashed an icy blast into the Saboquills face as it tried to bite past his shield, causing him to flinch “Oh. Yes, Braum sees” before advising her to “Hit it quick and light” [color=Aquamarine]”Huh?”[/color] Midna was confused, but she did as suggested, darting around and slashing it lightly, while summoning her Vibrava and having it buzz around the other side where it delivered a crush to one of its juicy leaf wings. The dragon roared and looked to be about to deliver a mighty swing with its spiny tail when Braum bopped it on the snout, causing it to sudden freeze, literally and figuratively, as four consecutive hits caused Braum’s concussive blows ability to prock, stunning the monster. [color=Aquamarine]”Oh! Now lots more”[/color] Midna said as she got it, summoning her wolfos and wolf-dran and having them smack at the dragon alongside the three already doing so, all of them doing light damage individually but getting a lot through together while spreading out the hit reflection. They got about two second of this before the dragon broke out of its confinement and then swung its spiky tail around, slamming it into Braum’s shield, causing the big guy to stubble back and be right open for a bite or claw attack [color=Aquamarine]”no no no!”[/color] Minda cried out, before thrusting her blade forward and sending a stream of lightning blazing into the dragon, even as the recoil burned at her. The Saboquill, already in dire straits, withered under the multi second electric bombardment, stumbling back and then, at last, with a blast of dragonfire from the Vibrava, it fell for good. And Midna fell with it. Not dead, but slumping under her the pain and the over exertion. “Bruam has you” Bruam declared, moving swiftly to her side, grabbing her under one arm and then activating the badge, sending him and her warping up to the Virgin Victory, moments before some of the remaining beasts closed ino to try and finish them off. And leaving the Vibrava behind to fend for itself. It swooped out of the way of a sandworm, snatched up the spirits of both the Saboquill and the fallen Mimic, and then slipped back home to the twilight realm before it was turned into dinner meat by the remains feral beast horde. [hr] Had that been irrepribly stupid and uncessiery, Midna asked herself when she awoke onboard the ship. The answer was, of course, yes, but, if she couldn't stand up to some random monsters, let alone the titan-like red eye, then what chance did she have against whatever stood in their way next? That was her justification anyway, but it was as likely stubbornness and heat stroke that had made her refuse to pull out of a fight that, at the point which it had turned bad and already cost her, she hadn’t actually needed to fight. Braum having his badge at that point proved it after all. Still, the jovial man did not disparage her foolhardiness one bit and, in the end, she did have her prizes thanks in no small part to her Vibrava’s actions. It was an asset, and one she decided to invest in. The Sabogar spirit she infused its heart with might not be a perfect match now, but if she understood how this whole evolution thing worked, then the resulting flygon-saboquill evolved form would be an absolute beast. Her fallen mimic and Saboquill she used in conjunction with Sectonia’s greed hat for itemization, the previous discussion of gear sticking in her mind. Plus, with Flygon already in her, she did not want to find out if having two dragons in her would tip her over the edge into becoming some kind of lizard woman. No offense to Asbestos meant. After that was all set, she followed Primrose’s lead in looking for a bath. After being frozen, scorched, sandblasted and thoroughly roughed up, it was definitely something she needed.