[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/6W7bqko.png[/img] [h2][color=FD0000]The Koopa Troop[/color][/h2] [b][color=FD0000]wordcount:[/color][/b] 2,219 (+3) [b][color=FD0000]Bowser: Level 13 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=FD0000]//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color] (198/130) [b][color=SpringGreen]Bowser Jr: Level 13 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=SpringGreen]//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color]////////////////////////////////////////////// (86/130) [b][color=DeepSkyBlue]Kamek: Level 12 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=DeepSkyBlue]///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color]/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (65/130) [b][color=Aqua]Rika: Level 8 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=Aqua]/////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color]///////////////////////////////////////// (49/90) [b][color=FD0000]Location:[/color][/b] The Under - Termite Kingdom Ruins [hider=warp locations] [s] Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach [/s] [/hider] [/center] Though there were a few close calls, both from the Caretaker’s own attacks and each other’s, the team made rather swift work of the first phase, popping shut the vents, and popping open the eyes. At this stage Jr’s tractor tank really shone, as he drifted his heavy vehicle around to the right side and then got to unload the triple cannon right into the big glowing weak spot. Rather than try and keep up, Rika and Bowser ended up mainly radioing in which eye was open whenever one closed, giving the prince all the info he needed to bring the pain. With how (relatively) painless the first phase had been it was somewhat unsurprising that things really started to ramp up from there. Swarms of bots were their first issue, but the Troop had faced these before, and knew how they worked. Between Rika’s electro swarms and Bowser’s fire breath the shredders didn’t stand a chance, while the patrol bots were a bit tougher due to their narrow bodies, and so Rika ended up using all of her rifle ammo as part of trying to pick them off. The turrets should have been threatening, but being stationary targets made them incredibly vulnerable to Bowser’s slow moving but heavy hitting fireballs. Indeed the only reason why a turret wouldn't get destroyed by the great balls of fire would be because someone else blasted them before the slow moving shots arrived Those were threats they could handle. The phase bombs? Not so much. [color=FD0000]”Huh, what’s it doing now?”[/color] was Bowser’s first question. His second was [color=FD0000]”Huh what’s that noise behind me?”[/color]. His third was demanding to know [color=FD0000]”HOW IS THAT FAIR?!”[/color] after being exploded for the first time. He wasn’t really in any state to ask any more questions after the second destination, which was why he was ever so glad when Jr pulled up next to him and radioed in for him to [color=SpringGreen]”Grab on Pap!”[/color]. The king did so as best he could, magically reducing his own size as much as he could to reduce the load he’d put on it, before the metal attacker revved its tractor tires and rumbled away, keeping on the move well enough that the bombs weren't a threat any more. Of course, Jr couldn't exactly line up a shot while zooming around, but Bowser could, the King launching fireballs, shells, and spike missiles from the back his new ride as they raced around the cavern double dash style, though his self inflicted size down greatly reduced the power of these attacks. Rika meanwhile had a much more straightforward solution, and it was, as it often was since she got it, her [color=Aqua]”grappling hook!”[/color] That was what the ship girl called out as she shot it at Overhard while stabbing her spear into the ground with her other hand to use as an anchor point. Her hook clutched onto the dwarf, and promptly dragged him away from his impending detonation and towards the spear anchored ship girl. [color=Aqua]”It’s ok, I have you”[/color] she told him reassuringly, only for a shadow to loom over them as she tried to help him up. [color=Aqua]”Shields!”[/color] she cried out to summon up two strikers, her knight and cloyster, which together blocked the striking tentacle arm, giving her enough time to get Overhard moving. She didn’t stop there however, summoning her [color=Aqua]”Ichor Queen!”[/color] and ordering it to [color=Aqua]”Execute that thing!”[/color] The titanic Vespikan queen obliged at once, heaving her equally massive cleaver over head and then slamming it down onto the ‘neck’ of the arm, namely right where the claw ended and the limb began. While it did that, the engineer and ship girl booked it, expecting more bombs, only for Nadia to deal enough damage to the caretaker to end its second phase, and, as a result, the phase bomb barrage. [color=Aqua]”Oh, is it over?”[/color] Rika asked, and then when that seemed to be the case, declaring [color=Aqua]”Good. Those things were the worst!”[/color] It was a statement she made just in time for things to get, well, worse. But then also better. First a swarm of metal (instead of the usual chitin) came their way, which would have been about the same kind of threat as the glyphids were it not for the minigun walkers among them. Well, that and the fact that the bombs had scattered them all over, and left them unable to take a moment to resupply on resources, be it health for Bowser, or Sp and ammo for Rika. Fortunately the latter problem was suddenly alleviated by the appearance of a second Metal attacker, this one piloted by a potted plant and a rabbit rather than infectious growths, who used some combination of plants to make things funky. As the Wonder effect took place, Jr was one of the first to notice the effect that would solve the ammo issue, as the dials on his own metal attacker’s empty rocket supply suddenly display a single rocket in stock instead of none. [color=SpringGreen]”Huh, just one? Weak but i’ll take it”[/color] he commented before thumbing the trigger and blasting a hotrod before it could blast someone in turn- only for the ammo counter to not go down. A moment later Jr shouted in everyone’s ear [color=SpringGreen]”infinite ammo! We’ve got infinite ammo cheats! Let it fly, blast em all![/color] at the same time as the metal attacker started vomiting rockets out the back which flew up and then crashed down into his foes indiscriminately, the prince simply holding the fire button down and letting the machine auto target his foes. Rika also massively benefited from this. Having also spent all her strikers (she’d used the war cleric to heal Overhard), she’d been down to just her spear and gauntlets vs the very heavily armored targets, and it had not been going well. Now she simply held down the triggers, rifle blazing bullets at whatever distant targets she pleased while her grizco blaster splattered anything that got near, repeatedly going into all out assault mode and unleashing rapid fire triple shot doom without any fear of it running dry like it had in the last fight. She also got use of her rather situational torpedo bays, jumping over bore holes and dropping the explosive charges inside to collapse them with timed detonations. Things got even better when happened to step on one of the flowers that had showered down, which caused her to regenerate SP, and let her start adding her rigging guns and electro swarms to the mix. However the person who really benefited from those flowers did so when Jr’s metal attacker ran over one of said plants. [color=DeepSkyBlue]”Do that again, if you could young master, I just got a mana boost!”[/color] Kamek told his jr chauffeur, and the prince had little problem obliging, power sliding over a few more as he rained down hell. Soon enough the Mage was back in the game, and together all three riders (Bowser was still holding on) came up with a quick plan. The tank was suddenly enveloped in a shimmering shield that protected it from the bot swarms physical attacks, and then skidded to a halt as the hatch popped open, and Kamek wooshed out of it. Right after he did, Bowser leapt down off of the back and into view of his son, who cast [color=SpringGreen]”Benediction!”[/color] on him to fully heal his dad in an instant. The moment after he was cured of all wounds, the King slapped the hatch shut, and the tank sped away to continue its rocket rampage. Now fully healed and sporting fresh vines to boot, the King charged into the fray under his own power, re-enlarging himself as he rampaged forwards on all fours, firing off unlimited spike missiles from his back as he smashed into the robot ranks. With his new tusks he sent several of them flying right into that barrage, while his vine tendrils lashed out, zapping foes that did not get trampled or gored in is charge. Naturally they struck back, but with the way he tore through them, his new vampire charm kept restoring his hp, and causing fresh waves of vines to sprout from his back to boot. Up above an energized Kamek called out [color=DeepSkyBlue]”here’s a little something I cooked up while you were fighting,”[/color] as he chanel his power, forming a magic circle just over his shoulder, which then unleashed a shower of cosmic rays. The multicolored beam spread out as they flew, striking a several meter wide area on the opposite side of the battlefield, engulfing a swarm of bots in its blast zone. Then the beam swept to the side, gradually wiping clean an area as it fried anything that failed to get out of the way. [hider=kamek level up] Magical beams (Cia/Tigran Sorceress): Kamek can form floating magic circles that, after a brief charge, fire out an energy beam at a targeted location for a few seconds. He has two options for this. The first is to create up to 4 small ones that only have a 10 meter range but can be individually targeted at their own foe/location. Should these dark purple streams cross they will cause an explosion at the point of overlap and then fizzle out. Deals dark magic damage. The other is to form a single large magic circle and from it to unleash a cosmic spray: a wide multi-coloured beam of cosmic energies that deals an equal mix of physical, blight, frost, fire, light/holy and electric damage to anyone struck by part of the spray. The cosmic particles spread out as they fly, starting as a 1 meter beam that increases in diameter by an additional meter for every 5 traveled. The damage potential of the beam spreads out as the partials do. Once firing, the beams can only be adjusted by making slow sweeping movements and they are, naturally, rather mana intensive to keep running. [/hider] It took a lot of mana to unleash that devastation, but all Kamek had to do once he was spent was swoop through the skies to catch falling flowers to regenerate his supplies. Doing so brought him close to one of the entrance holes still spilling out bots. To deal with that he formed 4 smaller circles, all of which fired out lasers that converged somewhere within the tunnel, causing an explosion at that point which collapsed it atop an unfortunate Smallfry. While this all helped keep down the bot population, it wasn’t really doing anything to the caretaker itself. Fortunately, they did have a plan, and part of their splitting up and cutting down bots was met to cut through bots as well. Under Jr’s directions the troop spread out to the 4 corners of the cave, and then radioed in that they were ready. Once they where, Bowser reached into his pocket, pulled out a C-Foam Tripmine and tossed it like a discus, masterfully aiming his throw so that it landed directly under the caretaker, at which point Rika sniped it with a rifle round, setting it off. The mine detonated, filling the area around, and above it with globules of freezing, weblike C-Foam that engulfed the caretaker and brought it to a complete stop. [color=SpringGreen]”Take it down!”[/color] Jr commanded when the inverted pyramid paused, and on cue the 4 troop members each targeted a vent with as much firepower as they could muster. The prince’s own metal attacker unleashed a hail of cannon fire, along with a stream of missiles that pounded his vent, while around him his Primid and Chef Bro strikers used super scopes and hurled pans to add to their prince’s firepower. Kamek got close and created another cosmic spray, the close range meaning it hit a much narrower area, namely that of the vent, allowing all of its multi element damage to be pumped right into that smaller target. Rika fired everything she had, rifle, spear base cannons and rigging guns all blasting, while behind her her Vespikan Queen striker charged and then unleashed a lightning bolt over her head at their chosen vent. Finally, Bowser had preemptively used shell smash to increase his offensive capabilities at the cost of his defensive ones, and now unleashed all his power, fury spike torpedoes, explosive shells and a flash cannon beam laser all blasting out while Marie Korbel unleashed a bombardment of skulls. If that didn't bring the hurt to the caretaker, nothing would. That said, it also took all of them away from bot killing at once, along with anyone else who also took advantage of the situation, and so the 4 of them had to immediately switch back to that rather than being able to follow up on their icy assisted strike.