[center][h2]The Cats Away[/h2]
Level 10 Nadia (84/100)
[color=BC8DBF][b]Therion[/b] level: 5 - Total EXP: 58/50[/color]
[b]Word Count:[/b] 6190 / Exp: +7
[sub][@Lugubrious][/sub][/center]
Another reunion outside of the last doorway. Therion didn't know if he'd say the enemies were "harder" as much as they were "more annoying," at least from his experience so far. Hearing that the monsters were getting tougher wasn't a good sign, but it wasn't really surprising either. That was the thing with dungeons: they started off simple, and all the really dangerous stuff was deeper in. Exactly how deep they had to go before getting back out though, none of the Seekers knew.

The thief waited outside of the "boss room" with one hand in his pocket and the other massaging the back of his neck while the little bug knight fought on the inside. That little guy sure had no issue diving right into battle with the nastiest enemies this place had to offer... not that Therion was complaining. As long as it could get the job done, it was less work for him. Not two minutes later the knight was finished, opening the way for the rest of them to continue on. [i]Oh joy.[/i]

Therion hopped through the opening, sparing only a brief glance toward what had spooked the others in the adjacent room. That floating face was pretty horrible looking, but given the way it was otherwise motionless there on a pedestal Therion figured it was some cursed thing rather than an enemy. Nothing he wanted to tangle with though. So down he went.

[color=BC8DBF]"...now it really feels like a dungeon,"[/color] he said once he landed, already on higher alert down here than he'd been on the previous two floors. The room they'd landed in was empty, with doorways on each side just the same as the last couple... but it was darker here, silent save for the muted echoes of clanking or scuffling from other rooms just loud enough to suggest that there were monsters close by. There was an eerie vibe to the area, but on the bright side the air was clearer and they could breath without wanting to choke.

The Seekers all knew the drill by now. There were enough of them to split up and tackle each direction, it was only a matter of who was going where. As usual Therion had no preference, though this time he did decide to go with another person rather than take a chance going at it solo again. Pairs and small groups were beginning to form, and it seemed like the two cat burglars would end up challenging a direction together. He turned to Ms. Fortune and nodded his head. 

[color=BC8DBF]"Let’s try not to choose a horrible room, alright?"[/color]

“We both know that ain’t happenin’,” Nadia snickered ruefully. So far she and Therion had yet to fight alongside one another while delving into this accursed place, but she got the distinct impression that he’d had just as bad a time down here as she had. In fact, his dourly sardonic manner made her wonder if something especially distasteful happened to him at some point, or if he just looked like that. A positive attitude worked wonders even in the darkest of times, as Nadia herself could attest; no matter what monstrosities lay beyond the next doorway, she’d be on cloud nine so long as no more literal crap presented itself. Then again, not everyone could cope with the trauma by turning everything into a joke to laugh at and offhandedly dismiss. 

“...Ahem.” Nadia cleared her throat, cracked her knuckles, and forged ahead. After her stunt back in the crossroads, she felt like she had something to prove.

Out of the available choices, the pair of purloiners ended up on the westward route. Their first door, expertly maneuvered through with a simultaneous back-to-back barge, brought them into a room that looked much like those before. Other than a rock in each corner, its only remarkable feature seemed to be a diamond-shaped arrangement of rocks and pitfalls in the room’s middle, inside of which pulsated a matching pair of hearts. Along with that restorative bounty came four matching [url=https://i.imgur.com/SyTzmzV.png]pale green pustules[/url] as well, and each Gut swelled with anticipation as they coagulated gooey green bombs inside. As they prepared to launch their volatile payloads, a gang of [url=https://i.imgur.com/txgxCGt.png]Rotties[/url] six strong made their way over to bid the newcomers welcome, their melting faces the exact sort of almost cutesy grotesque Nadia had come to know and love.

“Aw, it looks like they wanna piece of us!” Nadia grinned. She sharpened her claws and hopped  into a fighting stance, bouncing back and forth on the balls of her feet. “Let’s see if they’re up to slough!”

[color=BC8DBF]"You are way too excited about this."[/color]

The Guts let loose a volley of explosives, and the thieves split up. Nadia didn’t want to try clearing out the bombardiers until she got a handle on their attack pattern, so first she’d tangle with some Rotties. Three came her way, and after a brief moment she made her move. She veered to the side and launched her left arm to slug the second-nearest freak in the face, knocking it onto its back to give her quality time with the front runner. From there she launched into Cat Scratch to carve up the first foe, gouging a handful of sallow flesh out with each slice. “YyyyyUCK!” Nadia poured her disgust into an El Gato finisher, mulching the Rotty into the floor with her heavy axe kick. From the corpse rose a couple flies, but Nadia managed to clap them between her palms before they picked up any speed. Another Rotty approached, and after avoiding an ipecac blast the feral lunged forward to stab her foe with an anchor. She gave the chain some slack with a backstep, then hopped as she pulled the Rotty down, up, and over to smash it back into the stone.

To her surprise, a [url=https://i.imgur.com/OOjenXQ.png]skeleton[/url] pulled itself free from the oozy flesh and hurled a bone that clonked her in the head. Incensed, Nadia leaped forward to destroy it, only to be unceremoniously interrupted by another projectile. She stumbled and fall, but as the Bony moved in she noticed an ipecac bomb incoming as well, and without an ounce of dignity she scrambled out of the way to let the explosion take care of the problem for her. The last Rotty on this side tried to flank her, but Nadia checked it with [url=https://i.imgur.com/Y40GYe7.png]That’s Nuts[/url] in time and lashed out with [url=https://i.imgur.com/nictM28.png]Fiber Upper[/url]. Thanks to her new bisection, the double stretch kick went even harder and farther than normal, and the hapless Rotty got smushed into the ceiling.

Meanwhile, Therion had the opposite idea in regards to the Guts. Frankly tired of being shot at with blood and whatever else this place cooked up (and the gaseous green explosives that were currently being lobbed at them looked even less fun), he made a beeline for the fleshy pustules. First order of business was getting around the Rotties. The way they smiled while their skin sagged and threatened to fall right from their faces made them some of the more unsettling enemies Therion had encountered so far. On the other hand they were slow, and the obstacles in the center of the room forcing its occupants toward the walls gave their simple minds little room to maneuver.

As they walked toward Therion with their hands outstretched and almost gentle looking smiles on their faces, Therion also moved toward them. He sprinted, and then leapt - using his momentum to briefly run along the wall to his left and avoid the too-friendly monsters. The first couple he bypassed easily, the third he came down on with a harsh kick that sent the Rotty tumbling sideways, over a rock and down into one of the holes in the floor. While the others of its kind slowly came to a stop in order to turn, Therion had already moved on.

The Guts didn't have the ability to move from what he could tell, so he didn't have to chase it down. He dodged a volley of whatever it was they were shooting and, once in front of the closest one, stabbed it with his sword. He expected it to rupture, or squeal as air released from it at the very least, but instead the Gut shrunk in size.

[i]Weird,[/i] but with no retaliation Therion was free to stab it again - and once more it shrunk. He was prevented from a third stab by another volley of bombs from two of the other Guts in the room, their shots offset so that he had to backpedal, and then backpedal [i]again[/i] to avoid them both. Not only did the small explosion not affect the Gut he'd been attacking at all, but now that it wasn't taking damage it gradually began to grow in size again as if nothing had happened in the first place.

[color=BC8DBF]"Figures,"[/color] the thief growled to himself.

By that time the Rotties had caught back up to him. Maybe the Feral had had the right idea in taking care of them first, disgusting nuisances as they were. They trudged forward like zombies, and the first in line got a douse of Armor Corrosive just before blade met rotting flesh. Not very durable in the first place, it was cut up and reduced to ash fairly quickly while a pair of crimson flies took to the air and buzzed angrily around Therion. He ignored them while he strafed around the remaining Rotty, putting it between himself and the Guts.

Chancing a glance at his partner for this room, Therion saw that Ms. Fortune was already done with the trio of Rotties that had gone after her. He called out, figuring she'd go for the Guts next. [color=BC8DBF]"Don't let up on those green things or they'll just grow back!"[/color]

As he spoke he ran the last Rotty through, pushing it back into the nearest Gut until his sword was driven through the both of them. The pustule shrunk, pulling the blade up through the Rotty's head. Its flesh sagged off of its face while it cheerfully gurgled, landing with wet plops on the ground around them until gradually turning to ashes.

“Then water we waitin’ for?” This sounded like another job for Purrge of Vengeance. Nadia pulled from her plentiful stock of Dramatic Tension to conjure a ten-foot orb of tempestuous Hydro above her head. “Drink’s on me!” She set it toward the isle of Guts like a massive volleyball, and though the pustules lobbed their explosive globules at her, they only detonated against the spherical maelstrom as it bore down on them. It exploded on contact, and after all the water sloshed around the room to slowly drain away into the pits, not so much as one green-tinted smear remained where the loathsome Guts once clustered. A half-heart plopped down in the midst of where they’d been. “We mopped ‘em up pretty quick.” Nadia motioned for Therion to take the healing if he needed it. Her regeneration would undo the bruises inflicted by that Bony in no time. He did just that, hopping over once most of the water fell from the platform and topping his health off. Once he helped himself and rejoined Nadia at the doorway into the adjacent room, the two proceeded to the next challenge - but neither anticipated what lay in wait for them.

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/dsqwlVJ.png[/img][/center]
In front of them stood an elaborate two-story chamber with a ceremonious, almost regal bearing, like some underworld cathedral. Faded maroon tapestries dangled above lit candlesticks that cast eerie shadows over the grief-stricken bodies of lantern-bearing statues, their faces covered by gaunt hands as emaciated, unwholesome figures clawed at their robes from below. 

[color=BC8DBF]"This is… different,"[/color] Therion commented, eyebrows pinching together while he considered what exactly that meant for them.

Nadia peered around, thrown for a loop by the room’s elaborate layout and decor compared to the far more simplistic affairs encountered thus far. She could see no enemies, but the slam of the door behind her and Therion suggested that they weren’t alone in here after all. After clicking on her Night Light, Nadia readied her anchors, and sure enough a ghostly [url=https://i.imgur.com/GWxJmqI.png]Wizoob[/url] faded in beside her. She turned in time to catch the sagging specter as it spit a cluster of spectral orbs, then sidled around it to slash it with her anchors before it could disappear. Instead, the appearance of a second Wizoob next to her forced her to jump away, and by the time she landed both were gone. In their absence, however, came a handful of [url=https://i.imgur.com/Zl16bje.png]Lil Haunts[/url] to chase the intruders down and fire blood tears that predicted their movement. Nadia ran for the stairs to get to the more open second level, but got intercepted by a shot to the leg, and she fell to one knee. A Wizoob appeared to take advantage. Its spectral blast forced her to block, which meant by the time she could hurl her anchor at it like a javelin, it flew through the ghost’s fading form to clink harmlessly off the stone pillar behind it. Haunt shots flew in, and the feral got moving.

The two Seekers naturally split up again as Nadia headed for the stairs and Therion went for cover. He wasn't keen on getting anymore blood soaked, deftly dodging the Haunts' projectiles he swooped in behind a statue then peering out to observe the room. Perhaps Ms. Fortune would make for a more appealing target, giving him a chance to fade out of notice and catch the ghosts off guard.

Unfortunately that wasn't the case. He was able to avoid the Lil Haunts circling the center of the room firing their blood shots, but one of the Wizoobs manifested itself right in front of him. Only a chill running down his spine alerted Therion to it's presence, and with his back against the statue's base he had to drop himself to the ground to avoid it's blast attack. Once out of immediate danger he twisted, swinging his sword around to try and catch the phantom - too little too late.

[i]This isn't gonna work,[/i] he thought. Rather than try and land a blow on any Wizoob that appeared beside him, it would be a lot easier if he went after one that was already corporeal and was after someone else. Given that the only other person in the room was Nadia, he'd have to keep an eye on her [i]and[/i] keep an eye out for any ghostly ambushes on him.

His ears strained and his feline pupil widened into a circle to let as much light in as possible, Therion darted from statue to statue using the macabre marble figures as cover from the Lil Haunt's surprisingly accurate shots. He fired back with his throwing knives, sticking the little ghosts where they flew. His focus extended to Ms. Fortune as she moved for the second floor, ready to catch a Wizoob or two off guard.

Nadia’s ascent met with stern resistance as most of the six Haunts in this place ganged up on her at one, their cunning shots forcing her to zigzag back and forth as the mean little ghosts closed in. Her claws flashed in the candlelight, but without blood to shed or muscles to sever the Haunts just bounced slightly out of range to shoot again, then charge in once more. That quirk made it almost impossible to combo them, and with so many targets Nadia found herself overwhelmed. She managed to finish one Haunt off with an x-slash, but beneath the ensuing barrage of bloody tears she then had to hunker down in a crouch block. The shots pummeled her arms, followed shortly by the Haunts themselves, which after a charge bounced off her guard just a little to come at her again less than a second later. A ghostly sound from behind her announced just what she feared: the arrival of a Wizoob.

Luckily the feral had a plan in mind. “Get off me!” As the crowd of Haunts came in again, she used a pushblock to send the squirts much farther away than usual, then whirled around to block the opposite direction. She spun in time to defend herself from the Wizoob’s shots, but then Fortune’s fortunes took a turn for the worse. By slowing down the spectral burst, Nadia increased the amount of time she needed to block for, and during that helpless extra second of agonizing blockstun the second Wizoob appeared to lock her down even longer. That gave the Haunts enough time to rush her down and lay into her unprotected back, hitting her over and over. Pain and panic filled Nadia as the damage began to pile on, but a familiar sensation amidst the chaos reminded her of a seldom-used last resort. “NO MEANS NO!” Nadia screamed, throwing all the Haunts off her with [url=https://i.imgur.com/YEeQvL4.png]Infinity Breaker[/url] The small specters got flung far and wide, and even the Wizoobs got thrown for a loop, giving Therion just the chance he’d been waiting for.

It was then that he struck, diving out from his cover towards the specters in a blur of white, tinted blue and black. What flashed in the dim candlelight of the stone hall was not his blade but his claws. He'd shifted into his Beast form, figuring it would be the fastest way up. Having built up his Battle Points throughout traversing the dungeon, he used a couple now to ensure that the most troublesome opponents would be taken care of in one go. One Boost for speed, and one for pure damage output, resulting in a rippling glow that surrounded his feline form. [i]Let's see you fade away from this.[/i]

He tore through the nearest Wizoob like it was wet tissue paper, claws cleaving the ghost's sagging body into strips with each swipe. It didn't linger in the world much longer, each piece of its body beginning to disintegrate. One down, one more to go.

Therion leapt over Nadia to take on the remaining Wizoob before it could fully recover. It was only beginning to come back to its senses and was just starting to fade when Therion's fangs sunk into it, his jaws snapping closed between its arm and droopy eye hole to keep it rooted in its corporeal form. The Wizoob began to gather spectral tears in its mouth to spit at point blank range, but a harsh jerk of the cat's head jarred the ghost enough to interrupt its attack. 

By this time a pair of the Haunts floated close enough to fire their own attacks. The beast weathered the blood shots as he raised a paw and slashed at the Wizoob trapped between his teeth, claws cutting it to ribbons. Therion spat the last of the ghost out where it crumbled away with the rest of it.

He turned around with his tail swishing back and forth and his fangs barred at the Lil Haunts. He jumped to one side to avoid their next shots, and then toward them to bat them out of the air. He kept at it in his Beast form, going after the remaining Haunts with his fur speckled with blood.

In the brief moment that Nadia took to catch her breath after nearly getting overwhelmed, she realized that that she’d been too impetuous again, always charging off on her own. But she also realized it wasn’t too late to change things up, and with Therion on the offensive in tiger form against the Haunts, she saw the perfect opportunity.

When the other burglar struck them the troublesome little spooks bounced away as usual, but this time Nadia jumped the way Therion sent them. “Comin’ atcha!” With a razor-sharp slice she smacked  the first haunt right back into Therion’s waiting claws. Then he returned it again, and after a quick adjustment Nadia returned the favor. With their pincer maneuver and catlike reflexes they ping-ponged the haunts back and forth, so fast that they couldn’t fight back, until the last one went high enough for Nadia to leap up and deliver a flashy El Gato axe kick as the grand finale.

“Whew,” the feral sighed, her chest heaving from the strain. This room turned out to be a hell of a lot trickier than she first though, and it left her the most breathless she’d been thus far. She wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead and crossed her arms. “Thanks for helpin’ meowt there. Jumped in over my head again, I guess.” While she wore a joking smile, she couldn’t help her eyes narrowing ever-so-slightly. She wouldn’t admit it, but she felt a little sore that her accomplice just hung back to use her as bait. “It’s gonna take me a minute to heal back up. Whatcha think, wanna do one more?”

A flash of light later and Therion was back to his regular self, rolling his neck and shoulders as he regrouped with the Ms. Fortune. His mouth twisted slightly and he turned his head to spit on the ground to rid himself of the phantom taste of Wizoob, wiping his mouth with the back of his sleeve before he looked back to the Feral.

[color=BC8DBF]"Don't mention it,"[/color] he said, ignorant to Nadia’s veiled disapproval of his methods. [color=BC8DBF]"It worked out, that's all."[/color]

He took a moment to sweep his gaze over the room again before he answered her question. The fact that it was so different from the rest of the area had to mean they were headed in the right direction... hopefully. The only doors in the hall were the one they'd entered from, now reopened, and one ahead of them at the stairs landing, implying to Therion this was a corner room. A good chance that they'd find the "boss" perhaps. He couldn't imagine that it would just lead to some kind of trap, but wouldn't it be just his luck if it did?

Therion stopped overthinking it. This room had been tough but they got through it, so one more shouldn't hurt - especially if it got them closer to getting the mask and getting out. And if there were any of the same kinds of disappearing enemies in the next room, then at least they knew how to handle them.

[color=BC8DBF]"...sure,"[/color] he finally answered. [color=BC8DBF]"If you're up for it."[/color]

Maybe all the splatter from the bloodshots was making it look worse than it was (he knew from experience this was the case, the tacky drying stains on his poncho said as much), but his fellow thief did look like a mess. [color=BC8DBF]"I don't do healing but I've got some potions... if you need them."[/color]

“Weeeeeell, if you’re offerin’, I sure ain’t gonna say no. I heal fast at the start, but the more blood I lose the slower I heal up. If I go anemic, it won’t be purr-etty.” Though confident enough that she felt she could risk another room as-is, this two-floor mausoleum had already taught her not to underestimate the foes she’d be facing in the Necropolis. A health potion would kickstart her regeneration and top off her stock of blood, meaning she didn’t need to worry about using her Copycats more, either. When bequeathed the other burglar’s healing tincture, she gulped it down like a cold beer after a long day’s work, and wiped off her mouth with the back of her hand. “...Urk.” Not the most pleasant, but she could feel fresh blood flowing through her veins.

Therion was not above using that time to check if their room clear had rewarded them any change to nab. His visual sweep of the room brought his gaze back down to the bottom of the stony staircase, where he found the compensation he’d been looking for. This reward, however, glittered far more than loose change. He found himself staring at a [url=https://i.imgur.com/GTaF90b.png]brass shield[/url] with an almost golden luster, its color and radiance a stark contrast to the room of gray stone and dust that surrounded it.

[i]Wow, nice,[/i] he thought, making his way down to claim the prize while Nadia recovered since it didn't appear to be cursed. Honestly he might have chanced it anyway for a piece like that.

[center][hider=Reward][b][url=https://i.imgur.com/GTaF90b.png]Greed Shield[/url][/b]
A successful parry with this shield on a melee attack will knock out an enemy’s tooth. This can only happen once every ten seconds. A successful parry on a small ranged projectile like an arrow will turn it to gold.[/hider][/center]
He inspected the shield up close, running his hands over it and squinting at the mark on the front. [i]Is that supposed to be some kind of money sign?[/i] he wondered. With those two lines drawn through it the mark was reminiscent of the symbol for Orsterran leaves. It made the shield pretty garish if that was the case, but a shield was a shield. Besides, it might fetch a pretty penny if nothing else.  

Meanwhile, Nadia was talking as he went back up to meet her. “Feline like a million bucks. Shall we press on?”

[color=BC8DBF]"No reason to stick around. Let's go."[/color]

The door that awaited them looked like any other; without ominous skeletal ornamentation, it seemed unlikely that a boss lurked behind it, so the two thieves could enter at their own leisure. Even before they stepped beyond the threshold, they could see that this room broke the mold too in terms of appearance, in a way not unlike the ghost-infested tomb that came before. This [url=https://i.imgur.com/jFysqMR.png]chamber[/url] looked like more of a proper cathedral, with pillars and pews, fine rugs, and even an altar, all bathed in the rosy glow of stained glass, however impossible that ought to be this far underground. The occupants of this place were anything but holy, however. Behind the altar stood an evil-looking [url=https://i.imgur.com/MXN6Djs.png]Ammomancer[/url], attended to by a handful of [url=https://i.imgur.com/Ihb9vp2.png]Skullets[/url] and [url=https://i.imgur.com/jsWY55v.png]Shelletons[/url], more of which it would happily summoned if given half a chance. Nadia also saw that no other doors seemed to branch off of this room; they’d hit a dead end.

But that also meant they could go all-out, and Nadia decided to start with a bang. “Three’s compurrney!” she announced, creating two Copycats by spreading her arms in a spray of blood from her wrists. At the other end of the room, the gundead began to shoot, but she split to one side with a clone while the other went with Therion. “Let’s pinch ‘em!” Compared to charging straight down the center aisle, using the pillars along the sides of the room as cover was a much quicker and safer way to close the distance. Then the fun could begin.

His surprise at Ms. Fortune's copycat ability did not stall Therion's movement, and he darted off after the clone with a quick, [color=BC8DBF]"On it."[/color]

Instead of globs of bodily fluid, what these enemies were shooting seemed to be glowing, and fast moving. The look of the rounds suggested they might be more dangerous than the more disgusting projectiles, though it wasn't like the two Seekers were planning to get hit in the first place. They sprinted along the edge of the room, ducking behind cover as needed. The bullets tore chunks out of the wooden pews and blasted against the stone pillars, and in between volleys Therion fired back with his knives. At a distance it was hard to tell if they were doing any damage as they bounced off the skulls and bones, but at their current pace the now quartet of thieves would be closing in on the gundead within a few moments.

In an effort to prevent that, one of the Shelletons stepped forward. Its eye sockets glowed with a menacing light, and from its skull a concentrated beam of light shot out. The laser crashed against the pillar that Therion and one of the copycats were huddled behind, little chunks of stone flying off from the impact point.

[color=BC8DBF]"Great, one of these troublesome things,"[/color] Therion complained in regards to the laser. He didn't know the word for it, but he did know they were deadly. The comment was made to the watery clone of Nadia, and he didn't particularly care if the original could hear him through it or not. Surprisingly, the copycat gave a furious nod; it seemed her innate hatred of keep-away endured even to these doppelgangers.

Another Shelleton prepared to fire its own laser at the intruders on the other side of the room, the glow of its eyes blinking momentarily just before it went off. Therion summoned the junicorn and sent it to roll into the middle of the room to draw the rest of the gundead's fire, hoping to provide an opening for Ms. Fortune, himself, and the clones to get into melee range.

The thief’s gambit worked exactly as planned. His burly Striker rumbled down the underground cathedral’s central aisle through a shower of wooden splinters and stone dust, totally unbothered by the sudden and desperate concentrated fire put out by the gundead around the altar, then smashed into the skeletal gang to scatter them like so many bowling pins. Even the ammomancer failed to escape the chaos, getting momentarily pinned beneath the bony ridges of a Shelleton that the nightmarish armadillo sent flying. Those who did get spared by the gigantic impact turned their attention on the junicorn, the thieves skulking in the shadows now a secondary concern to the metal-plated monster in their midst. Their opponents, meanwhile, could scarcely have asked for a better outcome.

From behind the chipped stone pillars both sides the quartet of cat burglars burst onto the scene. “Drop anchor!” At Nadia’s call both copycats unleashed a rippling anchor shot into the mayhem up front, dealing a little extra damage, but Nadia had big plans to finish this quickly. After striking, both anchors and chains plopped to the floor, which left a trail of glistening blood all the way to the altar. “Purr-ouette!“ The copycats then sped along the blood trails straight into the thick of it, [url=https://i.imgur.com/3vaZBQ6.png]spinning like ballerinas[/url] with their tails and arms extended in a three-way lariat. A chorus of smacks, slaps, and bonks rang ensued; the doppelgangers’ crowd control and lockdown meant that the gundead wouldn’t have a moment to themselves. “Ahaha!” Nadia laughed. “How a-mew-sing!” Nadia herself came in hot on their heels, using her ability as a shipgirl to zip along the blood trail. Using that momentum she leaped into the air, sailing over the chaos to land on the stained glass window. For a split second her shadow hung over the disarrayed enemies like death itself. Then she shot downward with [url=https://i.imgur.com/hgNvdAS.png]Feral Edge[/url], an anchor aimed straight at the ammomancer. “I’ll take a stab at it!” she cried, and the next second she’d driven her weapon through the summoner’s head. In the blink of an eye, the ringleader had been assassinated; all that remained were its lackeys.

It was quite the spectacle of carnage, one that Therion had been content to sit back and watch. Ms. Fortune seemed to really be on a roll in this room; if he was so inclined Therion could probably leave it all for her to take care of from here. He seriously considered doing just that, but ultimately decided to help out if only to get the area cleared out faster.

Nowhere near as flashy nor as talkative as his companion, Therion swooped in to finish off the Skullets. It turned out that a blade was effective enough, and the living (if that was the correct term for it) bullets that had hung on throughout the junicorn and Feral's barrages were put to an end by daggers in the back.

Though the Shelletons proved tougher enemies, they couldn't withstand the combined onslaught of the thieves and Copycats. Therion only darted in and out of the combat to strike at the joints between bone when the dopplegangers gave him an opening, sending the metallic skeletons tumbling into a pile. They appeared defeated, laying still and in pieces like that, but by now the Seekers could tell that anything not reduced to ash was not truly finished. The Shelletons' eye sockets barely had time to start glowing again before they were ran through and their skulls were destroyed.

And with that, the feline duo had another room cleared. Therion's ears flicked around, listening to make sure there weren't any surprises that he couldn't see. [color=BC8DBF]"That could have gone a lot worse,"[/color] he said, which was basically his way of saying things had actually gone pretty well this time.

Once more Nadia found herself breathing heavily, but this time she had a smile on her face–the smug smirk of someone who’d executed a plan to the letter and had utterly demolished the competition. When Therion spoke to her, she turned that grin on him. “Oh no, by all means, hold your appaws.” As the last of the gundead rusted away into ash, the underground cathedral settled back into a solemn silence, although now in a state of pitiable disarray thanks to the short-lived firefight. For the first time she spent more than half a second looking at one of this nightmarish dungeon’s fallen enemy spirits, that being the ammomancer. Nadia crouched over it, staring into the prismatic light with furrowed brows. “Hmm…” She hadn’t given the diminutive dark mage the chance to work its magic, but it looked every inch the stereotypical monster summoner. That could be useful, at least as a Striker…but on the other hand, Nadia could not put aside her deeply-ingrained hatred of the undead, skeletons in particular, and anything that brought her one step closer to the Skullgirl could not be tolerated.

She turned up her nose at the Ammomancer spirit, which meant that Therion could pocket it. He’d been itemizing the Shelleton spirits one by one, picking them up and crushing them in his fist. The golden sheen of their bones, still visible in the prismatic orbs of light, drew his eyes. He thought that maybe he could get some valuables out of them and ended up with one nickel, three pennies, and a [url=https://i.ibb.co/wy81RW5/Mediumammo.png]box[/url]. No luck this time, he stowed the coins and the box after checking it’s contents, and the spirit of the Ammomancer went with them for safekeeping if only because he deemed it useful, just as Ms. Fortune had.

As Nadia stood, she spotted something on the altar that she didn’t notice before: a [url=https://i.imgur.com/fY5NGM6.png]strange gun[/url]. Neither sleek nor compact like the average pistol, it featured a weirdly thick barrel, and what looked like a dish on top of it. “Hey, what’s this?” Something related to the gun-toting foes she and Therion laid low here, maybe? Without a second thought, Nadia picked it up, took aim down the church’s shrapnel-littered central aisle, and fired. The gun gave a [i]foom[/i] sound, and a juicy slab of steak sailed through the air to unceremoniously splat down on the dusty carpet, roll over once, and lie still.

Nadia blinked a few times, taken aback. “Steak!? It shoots steak!? Hell yeah!” She glanced at Therion, who returned her look with a less enthusiastic expression. “D’you think it’s clean? Ah, who cares? Time to meat…!”

Out of nowhere, a huge [url=https://i.imgur.com/OieTvOV.png]Bengal Tiger[/url] poofed into existence, landing next to the meat. Nadia petrified, her eyes as wide as saucers and her mouth frozen agape. Therion was a near mirror image, his tail puffed out and entire body shocked still at the sudden appearance of the wild cat. With angry eyes the tiger stalked around, but there were no enemies for it to maul, so a moment later it vanished again. It took a couple seconds for Nadia to relax, but the moment she did she burst out into breathless laughter. “Ahahahaha! Whoa man, that’s furr-eakin’ awesome!” She shook her head as if clearing out some sort of delirium, gazing at the spot where the tiger disappeared. “...And we keep the steak!”

[center][hider=New item obtained][b][url=https://i.imgur.com/fY5NGM6.png]Bait Launcher[/url][/b]
[i]A gun that fires steaks. When a steak hits anything, it leaves a small pool of red liquid and a tiger will appear, run to the nearest enemy, and maul it. The tiger that appears won't necessarily chase the meat, but rather targets the enemy closest to where it lands, no matter how far the target actually is from the meat. This is very useful for attacking enemies from behind cover, as the damage dealt by the steaks themselves is negligible. The tigers don’t attack allies. The Bait Launcher has 50 shots total, a 1 shot magazine, and 1 second reload time. The steaks are perfectly edible and pretty tasty, but the quality varies[/i][/hider][/center]
Therion shook his head, exasperated. He should really try and stop being so caught off guard by the crazy things this world cooked up. [color=BC8DBF]"Aim that at a stove next time and we’ll be all set,"[/color] he said, his tone flat. [color=BC8DBF]"...except for the tiger thing."[/color]

He was finally beginning to loosen up a little after the firefight and the surprise tiger, and after a few quick stretches he met Nadia’s eyes and nodded his head back towards the door they’d come in through. With nothing else to do now but backtrack, they could regroup with the others and see what progress had been made in the Necropolis’ other directions. The feline thieves took off, retracing their steps.