[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/tfV5JeK.png[/img]
Level 7: 17/70
Word Count: 1753
Location: The Under
Points Gained: 3 (+5)
NEW EXP balance--- Level 7: 25/70 [/center]


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	With an appreciative thumbs up to Primrose and Therion, and a consolatory thumbs up to the koopa troop, Jesse followed the others onto the elevator. As they went further and further into darkness, a small part of her wanted to hop off the elevator and head down in front of the others. But there was no reason too and she didn’t want to get split off for whatever reason. So she stayed put, leaning against the railing of the elevator and watching tunnels pass by.

	A Consul made their grand entrance. 

	[i]Shit. That’s not good. He’s gonna- yep there he goes.[/i]

	There were lots of fliers on her team, but not all of them. As the elevator fell out from under her, Jesse tried to act fast. She let herself fall and reached for her Tool Gun, which wasn’t exactly a quick unholster mid flight. After a few misses she managed to get some balloons on her falling teammates, only for some stray magical bullets to pop them.

	“Shit.” Jesse swore, and went into a head first dive to fall faster than everyone. The ground was coming up fast- she could see it now. “Sven!” She called out. Landing with a thud that tossed up motes of light, she had the alchemist throw elastic ooze on the bed of flowers she had landed on.

	It sank between the petals but it didn’t matter. The first person that fell landed softly and was merely disoriented for a few seconds. The rest followed suit. 

	Jesse stood up straight, exhaling. Relieved, of course, but also unhappy by how that went down. Holstering her Tool Gun, she peered about the cavernous area and up to the swirling cavern they’d fallen from. “We’ll have to be more careful in the future.” Jesse said. “It had to have been the flowers.” 

	Their troubles weren’t over. The cackling Consul seemed to have wanted to organize some fun, and a parade of what could only be described as ‘Under-Your-Bed and In-Your-Closet’ style monsters came out of the darkness to eat them. 

	“Oh, ew. What the fuck?” Jesse said in an oddly enamored tone of voice, almost laughing. Then she was back to business, rolling her shoulder and producing her Service Weapon.

	“Let’s separate them.” Jesse said, and sprinted to the left to where the purple, frog-like brute traveled forward. She made eye contact with its main eye and it seemed to follow her.

	The Director paused in a brief moment before either made any moves. “Peace in our times?” She offered with a shrug. The frog-like brute, Ang, more than twice her size, responded by lashing out with its ocular tongue. Jesse moved her torso to the side with a non-magical dodge, throwing herself out of the way. She stared at the tongue, and only some of its eyes looked back at her. The ground dissolved, and its sticky nature dragged dirt and rocks back into its gaping mouth that didn’t even seem to have the capability to close all the way. Acid bubbled in the back of its maw, threatening to spill over, and secondary rows of teeth awaited any prey. 

	“...Yummy.” Jesse said dryly, squinting one eye. Even with her psychic shielding she’d be digested immediately. She couldn’t get pulled in there at all costs- best be hit by any other attack before that one. 

	[i]I wonder what would happen if it ashed me while I was in its mouth, and if it would get any sustenance. Theory? Maybe eating my spirit and ash itself would provide the creature with enough life energy to eat someone else up. Seems like big purple here is way more interested in testing my hypothesis than I am, though.[/i]

	Once again it lashed out with its tongue, and Jesse leapt over it and began to float in the air before quickly dropping back down, not wanting to be a mosquito to this creature’s frog. In return, she raked heavy duty machine gun fire across the tongue, ripping into the soft tissue. It made a grating, shockingly high-pitched creaking noise in response, eyes whirling around. 

	Angered, it leapt to her as a blur, its powerful hindlegs supporting its ferocious jump. It brought its weird little fists onto the ground, kicking up dust where Jesse had just been. She had Evaded away. Even its impressive speed couldn’t match a properly timed dodge- nothing physical could, as far as Jesse could tell. Still, she could only evade six or seven times before she ran out of Energy and had to cool it for a few moments to recharge, and a mis-timed dodge could leave her vulnerable. Still. She’d defeated monsters far larger than this one. 

	Despite lacking opposable thumbs, it gripped large chunks on the ground within its…paws? Foot? Hand? 

	It chucked them at her at high speed, and Polaris guided Jesse to react instinctively. She reached out her hand and plucked both rocks from the air. They zipped over to her side, bending to her will.

[i]Nice! I’ve missed that![/i]

	Jesse promptly Launched both rocks at high speed right into Ang, shattering its teeth and bludgeoning its tongue, fraying and swelling its tissue. Once more it screeched and leaped towards her. Jesse didn’t want to underestimate its intelligence, but she felt she had no choice but to Evade once more. That was when it used its tongue to lash out of the side of its mouth to where she ended up, its many eyes tracking her movement. 

	“Damn!” It burned into her and she found herself being yanked back towards her death at break neck speed. Jesse evaded forward, using its own momentum to double her speed and yank herself free of the beast, just barely avoiding its maw as she flung herself hard into the cave wall. “Oof. Yuck.”

	Ang kept up the pressure, diving forward once again. Jesse narrowed her eyes and Evade again. The creature lashed out with its tongue, and found purchase. Not on Jesse, but on something much smaller and made of glass. It pulled the Fire Flask Sven had provided right into its mouth, igniting it. Yowling as its tongue and eyes burned, it hit the wall and rounded on Jesse as she fired Grip shots at the inside of its mouth. It closed it as best as it could and raised its hands to defend itself. It swallowed, gurgled, and vomited a shower of eyeballs in her direction. Amazed, Jesse raised a Shield to defend herself, watching them pop like juicy acid grenades against her invisible psychic wall that ripped stone from the ground. They sizzled, dealing damage to the wall, but the acid slid off and pooled to the ground, leaving her barrier mostly intact. Apparently tired of getting close, its eye began to glow as a thin beam of light emitted from the stalk-eye, burning against her Shield as she strafed to take cover behind a Stalagmite. Dropping the Shield, she switched Pierce and wanted to give herself more time to recover her Energy.

	It circled around from a distance, trying to spot her while keeping the eye beam focused. Jesse circled the pillar, briefly poked her head out on one side, and then lunged to the other side of the pillar, luring the beam and juking Ang out to let loose a powerful Pierce shot. It blew out the inside of its mouth, spraying acid blood out behind it and leaving a red hot tunnel out one side and through the other. Gurgling with fury, it reeled from the attack, and Jesse switched to Grip just long enough to land a few well placed shots into its eye stalk, severing the connection and stopping the eye beam. Reduced to only a few remaining eyes in its tongue, it furiously threw stone after stone at her, but the Director weaved easily enough between them without using her Energy, placing stalagmites and pillars between her and the stones. Forcing it into action, she outpaced its ranged damage output shredding into it with machine gun fire from Spin. Acid blood sprayed everywhere, but Jesse was well out of range. Forced into aggressive action, it leapt forward through the fusillade, right where Jesse wanted it.

	“Sven.” The alchemist shattered an Elastic Ooze at her feet where she used it and a combination of Levitate to be flung high over the creatures’ form. With no eye-stalk, it was forced to tip its mouth up to spot her, opening it. There it witnessed Jesse plucking three stone stalactites from the ceiling of the drip stone cave, her face obscured by shadow. 

	It raised its hands but she had already flung the deadly stone spikes towards Ang in a blur. They ripped through and broke its arms and one large spike stuck in its mouth, spewing acid like a grotesque fountain. Jesse landed next to it and picked up the health elements it was dropping to repair her psychic Health. The Director had an annoying tendency to come out of fights unscathed. 

	Rolling her shoulder, she tested her powers one last time on the dying beast. Extending out her hand, she saw in her mind’s eye the white outline that signified her control over the beast's physical form. She prepared to Launch the creature, splattering it against the wall, but she thought better of it. Primrose and Therion had battled against two monsters on their own. With a little more help, they could be done. The heavily wounded, faceless horror named Dizy was looming towards them both, and they seemed fairly tired after their previous fight. 

	“Heads up!” Jesse called out, and Launched Ang towards its doom. The beasts collided, and Ang practically burst like a balloon with the stone spike acting as a needle. The dizzy was slammed into and knocked over, scrabbling as it dissolved under the corpse of its ally. Jesse revved up Pierce and fired an unaimed shot at Dizy as the acid melted it, the sound echoing throughout the cavern. Still melting and now with a large hole in it, Jesse approached and emptied her clip into Dizy with a series of short range Shatter shots. At that point Dizy’s structural integrity was compromised and the regenerator fell apart and was reduced to ash. All the gore and chunks, gunshots, slung spells and unsettling silence faded away.

	Jesse looked up at the Travelers. “Sexy.” She said flatly. 

	Jesse turned her attention to the rest of the battlefield, switching her Service Weapon to Grip as it reloaded, and maneuvering to aid her comrades in securing the area.