[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/5r7OTIh.png[/img] [b][color=Aquamarine]wordcount:[/color][/b] 2,017 (+3) [b][color=Aquamarine]Midna: level 8[/color][/b] EXP: [color=Aquamarine]//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color](81/80) [b][color=Aquamarine]Location:[/color][/b] Nyakuza Metro - Edinburgh [color=Aquamarine]Warp Charges:[/color] 0 [hider=warp locations] Virgin Victory teleport room Top of the Split mountain Outside the Convent of Our Lady of the Charred Visage Tostarena Town [/hider] [/center] It turned out that the train ride had not been a straight shot to the finish line. No, instead there were ‘routes’ and ‘transfers’ and all sorts of things that Princess really should not have to deal with. Really where was a personal carriage when you needed one? Well. Probably being much too slow if the princess was honest. The train had taken them across the world in the blink of an eye and though for the portal hopping princess that wasn’t unheard of it was impressive to have an entire transport network work that fast. Still, the need to hunt down these pons very much slowed things down, as the princess couldn't just hop on the next train they needed with the rest of her party without going on a pon hunt. Said party had accidentally gained an additional member in the form of Shovel Knight who they had caught up with just before he got on the next train. The noble knight had offered to stay behind and help them, which was very welcome, but it was still turning out to be quite the hunt around this place called Edinburgh. The most notable encounter on her exploration occurred when passing by a store called “Arcane Tempurr” which had seen, well, a touch of vandalism. A big s had been spray painted over the can of the title, and that was only the start of it: windows smashed, shelves overturned, inventory (which looked to be minor magic macguffins of various sorts) scattered about. The few poor [url=https://i.imgur.com/qZaoYH1.png]arcane mages[/url] who catted the store had been trying their best to clean up, but at the moment they were panicking as they various potion juices that had been being mopping up had started fizzling and sparking furiously in a bucket in the middle of the store [color=Aquamarine]”Hey, what’s going on here?”[/color] Midna asked, floating into the shop, avoiding the other goop and glass shards on the floor as she went to investigate. “Oh it;s a cat-astrpohe! Those Nyakuza jerks roughed up our shop and now the potions are reacting!” the closest store mage told her, while also trying to urge her back, only for the reaction to intensify even more and then explode before the princess could respond to this information. The blast tossed cat mages all around, and unveiled the result of the reaction: An undulating vaguely feline horror of [url=https://i.imgur.com/TTGHY5a.gif]pure shadow[/url]. It looked around for a few moments, before wandering over and swatting at a poor mage with its claws, toying with the poor downed kitty. [color=Aquamarine]”Stop that!!”[/color] Midna shouted at it, and when she was ignored added [color=Aquamarine]”I’m the princess of twilight, obey me you creature of shadow you!”[/color] This got it to turn to notice her, but rather than submit it narrowed its malice filled eyes at Midna for a moment, before slinking down into the shadows much like she could and rushing at her through them. [color=Aquamarine]”What the!”[/color] Midna said as a mage pinned by a shelf cried out “look out miss, it's a shadow cat!” right before the shadow reached her and suddenly rose up [url=https://i.imgur.com/cXg006J.png]too strike her[/url]. Minda raised her sabo shield, blocking a blow from one side, only to be struck in the back by a follow up sipe from the other side. She snarled and slammed her shadow hand down into the floor, breaking floor tiles but not harming the cat, which instead slunk away in the shadows and reappeared close by. [color=Aquamarine]”Get back here you copy cat!”[/color] the shadow hopping princess demanded, hitting the ground and sprinting after the cat with dragons clawed feet only for it to leap up on a shelf and saunter swiftly along it, kicking more items off the shelves as it went. The princess leapt after it, reaching for her knives in the twilight realm only to remember too late they were gone, melted in lava. She snarled and just tried to smash it with a shadow hand again, which ended poorly for a shelf, almost ended poorly for a kitty mage, and was a simple leap out of the way for the shadow cat to avoid. [color=Aquamarine]”Stop running you jerk faced little-”[/color] Midna shouted at it, only to have to go on the defensive again as the cat dipped into the shadows and rushed her once more, the princess dodging one, blocking another and being clipped by an unexpected third before it darted away. “Nya, don’t let it use that spell again, or the field will turn entirely black and it will be able to summon the mothership!” the helpful cat mage shouted from behind cover. [color=Aquamarine]”The what?”[/color] Midna asked, only to glance around and understanding what ‘the field turning black’ meant, as the area was becoming saturated with dark magics [color=Aquamarine]”oh goddesses, that can’t be good”[/color] The shadowcat had the audacity to look smug, which only made Midna mad [color=Aquamarine]”Spears! Skewer me that cat!”[/color] she commanded, summoning a horde of strikers behind her. Chilfos and Initiates hefted their spears of ice and psionic energy respectively and then rained hell down on the slippery kitty as it leapt and dodged about the store, Midna having to yell [color=Aquamarine]”But not the other cats!”[/color] when it began to use the stunned mages as a way to disade their fire. Still, by the time the fire was coming to a close she had managed to clip it a fair few times and it was definitely looking less than 100% held together. [color=Aquamarine]”Ha ha take that…”[/color] Midna gloated, before realizing [color=Aquamarine]”Wait… I should have had the Initiates root you!”[/color] which made the cat ever so smug at having taunted her into a bad move. Especially because it was now it's turn to go on the attack again. The cat lunged through the shadows, and though the princess blocked each hit this time, and did a nasty amount of damage back thanks to her spiky Sabo Shield, it didn’t matter. The last hit point was the only one that mattered and the shadow cat still had it when it appeared atop a half destroyed shelf, sat down ever so proud and smug, and then meyowled a dark melody. Black light pulsed outside the shop, and then to the terror of all in the station a house sized [url=https://i.imgur.com/wOx6xtq.png]vessle[/url] descended out of nothingness and began floating just above the ground (fortunately not squishing anyone). A scanning beam of red light flashed from it, lancing into one of the broken windows of the store and then began sweeping across it, searching for its target. Said target did the only logical thing in this situation. She hid in a shadow and hoped it would not shoot if it didn’t find her. It banished those shadows as it passed over the store, but found, somehow, nothing. Then the beam flared, banishing every shadow and again, nothing. The entire station. Nothing. Then it suddenly locked onto the bathed in red shadow cat and began charging its cannons, which spooked the hell out of the cat, and with another dark pulse the mothership was gone. There was a pause, the shadow cat looked around, and with no princess to be found, it shrugged and moved to finish off the cat mages. It raised a paw over the cowering kitty that had tried to help Midna, preparing to strike. Then came a [color=Aquamarine]”Ha”[/color] as the princess materialized out of the only shadow that had withstood the red light: that of the shadow cat itself. The monster spun in a panic, only to met its end as Midna’s purple glowing dragon claws cut down that last hitpoint to the sound of [color=Aquamarine]”See how you like it!”[/color] The cat fell, disintegrating into ash, as footsteps came running towards the store. Braum rushed into the scene, and then paused, and sighed in relief and said “Ah Midna, Braum can't leave you alone for two seconds eh?” before looking around the (now even more) wrecked shop and asking “did, ah, did you do this?” [color=Aquamarine]”No. Well. Yes. Some of it?”[/color] Midna admitted as the rest of the party showed up, along with some onlookers. These include, she noticed, another big cat guard who gave her a look and started advancing through the crowd towards her. “She saved us from the shadow cat though” the cat mage who had been moments from death piped up “so it's ok!” The cat guard stopped its advance upon hearing this, and then gave Minda the second ‘I’m watching you’ gesture she'd gotten from one of those today. It looked like she was getting a reputation. Best to try and make it a better one [color=Aquamarine]”I mean I did. But I still feel responsible. So we can help!”[/color] she said, before turning to her cohort and adding [color=Aquamarine]”Right boys?”[/color] “Verily!” declared the shovel knight, which got the rest followed up with a slightly less enthusiastic round of agreement with the notion. [color=Aquamarine]”Excellent, here, you lot, help as well”[/color] she said, snapping her fingers and re-summoning her strikers to help out as well. As they started picking up the junk and rescuing kitty mages the one who had stood up for her said “Are you sure you want to help. More than you already have? The Nyakuza did this, and if they see you helping, you’ll be on their bad side for sure” as the princess helped pull her up from where she had been trapped. [color=Aquamarine]”Those the people that roughed this palace up? Don’t worry. If they come after me I’ll deal with hem the same way I dealt with that shadow cat in the end, don’t you worry”[/color] “By hiding?” the cat pointed out [color=Aquamarine]”Hey! Ok I mean I might… but what about you? ”[/color] Midna asked, as much to get off the subject as out of concern “Us?” [color=Aquamarine]”What are you gonna do if they come back?”[/color] “Come back…” the cat replied before being horrified “Oh mew. They might come back! And they’ll be mad that you helped! And what if they think that ufo was us!?” [color=Aquamarine]”Well. Maybe say it was to scare them?”[/color] Minda suggested duplicitously “Huh. Hmmm. Oh but what if they call our bluff? Our magic is not all that great. We’re mostly a novelty shop, a bucha fraud according to the big shot magic schools upstairs. I don't even know how that cat got made out of our stuff. I just read about them” the cat replied, a moment of hope drowned in dejection. [color=Aquamarine]”Hmmm”[/color] Midna thought for a moment, and then glanced down at the shadow cat spirit, and then she had an idea, bedding it over and picking it up. Then she had another thought and asked [color=Aquamarine]”Hey what’s your name by the way?”[/color] “Me? I’m Lana” the cat mage replied [color=Aquamarine]”Well, Lana, how’d you like to get stronger much faster?”[/color] the twilight princess offered her a bargain, hand held out with the shadow cat spirit in it and adding, informatively, [color=Aquamarine]”There’s only a few minor side effects”[/color] The mage looked at the spirit, then at the princess of a realm of eternal darkness offering her the deal, then at her wrecked store, and then, finally, nodded. [hr] Quite a bit of time and one big ol construction job later and the shop was looking as fresh as could be. Tiles and windows replaced, its shelves and sign cleaned and repaired, stock all back in order and, on top of that, a new bit of security thanks Lana and her new new orange glowing ears and tail tip. While she had given up her spirit prize, the princess didn’t leave empty handed, the thankful kitty mages having thrust a shopping bag of items into her hands before she left. This consisted of a set of weak healing potions (all of which she used to undo the cat scratches on her) and the field magic spell: Fraidy Cat. Probably not a good trade, but it was the one that felt right, and that was enough to put Midna in a good mood as she and the lads headed onward towards Twilight town to catch up with the others.