[center][img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/190924/544c85ab5c75bc61a4bb5ce40dc0caa6.png[/img] [color=salmon]Word Count: 359 (+1 exp)[/color] [color=salmon][u]Level[/u]: [b]9[/b] - [u]Total EXP[/u]: 175/90 [b]Location:[/b] Edinburgh MagicaPolis[/color][/center] The flash bomb worked just as well as if he'd been back home facing down a wyvern. Considering it was a toss up on when the parts of this world follow his experiences and logic, the Cadet couldn't keep the grin from his face as Artemis dropped. The stunning light and the fall itself should keep it grounded for long enough to do deal some good damage, if not defeat it altogether. [color=salmon]"Kept me around for a reason right?"[/color] he joked to Big Band. The detective and Albedo followed the demon down, intent to get right to work on finishing it off. Not wanting to miss out on that, the Ace Cadet made to join in - but at the edge of the twenty-seventh floor landing he turned back to Frisk and Wonder Red. [color=salmon]"Now's your chance to make sure all of them stay safe,"[/color] he said, nodding to the unite sword that the masked hero was still holding together. Although dropping from this height to impale the monster with that giant weapon would be pretty epic, he got the sense from Red earlier that using civilians was an emergency thing rather than the norm. Regardless as to what action he and Frisk took, the Cadet gave them both a smile and said, [color=salmon]"see ya at the bottom floor."[/color] The hunter pitched himself over the side of the landing to follow the action. He still had the great bow equipped, so rather than go for a melee strike he figured he would let the other two handle that. As he fell and gradually got closer to the ground, he fired the clutch claw at the building's wall a few levels below him. The chain pulled him in and he kicked off the row of bookcases to land on the floor just above the ground level. He stepped up onto the railing with the bow already drawn - it was a good angle, he could see the whole picture from there so he wouldn't be firing blindly. From his viewpoint there wasn't any trace of the weird thing he'd thought he saw in it's abdomen, just a monster writhing on the ground. He shot a couple of arrows into the demon's wings, pining it like a butterfly for good measure while the others finally got up close and personal. [indent][/indent] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/4DgO1VH.png[/img] [color=FFC6C6]Word Count: 862 (+2 exp) [u]Level[/u]: [b]8[/b] - [u]Total EXP[/u]: 109/80 [b]Location[/b]: The Under - Ruins[/color] [color=gray]𝙱𝙿[/color] [color=gold]●[/color][color=gray]●●●●[/color][/center] And so they went, moving through the dripstone cave to the enormous tree trunk on one side of it. As they walked, Primrose was informed of the 'blight,' a parasitic disease identified by an orange glow. Apparently it was something usually found farther down, but they'd seen (and destroyed) a bug infected with the blight in the cave. Though not a single emotion that would give her away showed on her face, Primrose seriously considered the bluggsac in the Ancestral Mound. It hadn't been that much further down, but she had descended to get to it. It had a glow about it, a soft color like a mixture of earth and fire. Had she run into the blight? Was she carrying it with her right now in the form of that rancid egg? She didn't feel any different... in fact she felt perfectly fine. Her magic reserves were just about fully recovered again, she didn't have wounds to speak of after healing from the battle in the colorless wood, and she certainly didn't feel as if she'd contracted any illness. Concluding that it was a coincidence, she kept the second part of her trek through the Ancestral Mound to herself. They found the false wall in short order, and a second after that. Through there the group came to a slightly more open area, extending both up and down with twisting branches crossing the space. Primrose breathed in, the air here much less stagnant than the ruins and cave tunnels they'd been in so far. [color=D34C25]"Once we're through underground, if we find our way back here we could burn through the brambles and climb the branches to the surface,"[/color] she observed, turning away from the thorny ceiling and making a mental note of it herself. That would come much later though, for now they had to go down both to find the other mask pieces and reunite with their friends. Although speaking of the latter... [color=D34C25]"It's obvious that the others didn't come through here,"[/color] she said, giving voice to what the the rest of her party were probably thinking. She glanced back at the chest, knowing that even if the other group of Seekers had passed it up for some reason that Therion would not have left any treasure un-plundered. [i]If it's worth locking up it's worth taking,[/i] she could imagine him saying. [color=D34C25]"But perhaps we'll find a shortcut to wherever they really went."[/color] She let some of the other Seekers descend first, following after them by floating down gently to whichever branches she thought could hold her. More than a foot taller than normal and with more muscle mass after her fusions, she had to keep in mind that she wasn't as light as she once was. The scenery in the great hollow wasa whole lot of the same: bark, branches, dreary gray light. So as she descended, she drifted towards anything that happened to catch her eye. The first of which was a small something that caught the dull light, lodged into the side of one of the massive trunks. When she approached, she found that it was just a shard of glass. [i]Curious.[/i] She glanced around but found no other pieces. Perhaps a part of some implement dropped by someone while traversing the hollow, shattered once it connected with the tree? Primrose pulled the shard from the wood, tossing it down below her where a large lizard creature was in her path. The glass clinked against the branch before falling farther down, drawing the attention of the reptile. She floated down by it while it was distracted, then kept going. There was still a long way down. The dancer's next stop, after avoiding a few more of the basilisks, was another shiny thing she spotted from the corner of her eye. She floated over to it, half-expecting it to be the same glass shard that she flung down there. Instead she found a beetle, one that looked more or less normal save for its shimmering shell. It crawled slowly over the face of some [url=https://i.imgur.com/iZleQPl.png]carved helm[/url], resting in a nook where branch met tree trunk. [i]Even more curious,[/i] she thought to herself, running her hand gently along the helmet's features. It was a little rusted, but not too bad. That wide bowl on its head... a ritual mask, perhaps? Not wanting to discount anything they found as mere coincidence, she lifted the helm and stashed it with the rest her pack, along with the little beetle that had stowed away inside the helmet's face. Continuing down, she didn't spot much more of interest on her chosen route. At some point she got a bit tired of avoiding enemies, and so she swapped to a more direct route. She still kept to the stronger looked branches, but ambushed any unsuspecting mushroom creatures with dagger and magic from above. Any that had been caught alone were quickly defeated, and she left their spirits where they came to rest. Those fungal humanoids that traveled in pairs saw one or both of them shoved from the branches if they dared get too close the dancer while she waited for her scarf to recharge. This way was faster going, if only slightly, and eventually she made it to the ground to regroup with her comrades.