[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/6W7bqko.png[/img]
[h2][color=FD0000]The Koopa Troop[/color][/h2]
[b][color=FD0000]wordcount:[/color][/b] 4,717 (+5) 
[b][color=FD0000]Bowser: Level 14 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=FD0000]////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color]////////////////////////////////////////////////// (94/140)
[b][color=SpringGreen]Bowser Jr: Level 13 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=SpringGreen]//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color]////////////////////// (112/130)
[b][color=DeepSkyBlue]Kamek: Level 12 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=DeepSkyBlue]//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color]////////////////////////////////////// (91/120)
[b][color=Aqua]Rika: Level 8 [/color][/b] EXP: [color=Aqua]///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////[/color]///// (75/80)
[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
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[/hider]
[/center]

The rest of the mind flayers fell in short order, especially once Mimi copycatted their stun spell, which turned the four on one of Jr, her, Ganondorf and Bowser vs the coming at them in dribs and drabs squidmonsters from just unfair to a practical cakewalk. Add in Rika, Kamek and his shadow clones coming around the other way, and the whole enterprise was sorted out in short order.

Numbers, the monsters in the jail really had no answer to them. Or, well, the things down stairs probably did with their baleful light, but as it turned out the Troop would not be facing those. 

Instead they ended up grouping together outside the room Ganondorf and Jesse had come in after doing some spirit gathering, and happened to look inside. The heart that had dropped in alongside the hero and villain was not visible, and neither were the ugly centipedes that had crawled out of it, so the Troop had no idea those were there. Instead what they saw were a number of [url=https://i.imgur.com/hMNlfQy.png]huts[/url] and a trio of ritual pyres, all linked by plank walkways, seemingly built around a single much larger plank house. As in one 4 times the size of the others.

[color=FD0000]”Must be a big guy around to live in a house like that”[/color] Bowser commented, while Kamek was convinced that [color=DeepSkyBlue]”Surely no one sane lives in a place like this?”[/color] 

It was a question he immediately regretted asking when Rika helpful replied [color=Aqua]”I can go check!”[/color] before going to do just that, stepping onto the marshy water and then sailing across it towards the nearest hut before anyone could stop her. As she got close, two things happened at once. The first was the hut’s door slapped open, and large [url=https://i.imgur.com/r1UTOfO.png]fishperson[/url] came running out of it towards her, claws bared as it shouted “Glor! Go away!”

The second was that a large spiky [url=https://i.imgur.com/6crbn0j.png]tentacle[/url] burst from the water right next to her, which then attempted to whip her with its entire body.

The troop all called out in alarm, but Rika was already moving, maneuvering thrustering out of the way of the tentacle lash while thrusting a gauntlet hand towards it, palm raised. From the center of its hand, the gauntlet blasted out a burst of her grizco blaster’s ink shots (she’d freshly reloaded the spit supply before they went on the attack) while at the same time a torpedo dropped into the water from a hatch that opened on the underside of that same gauntlet.

The tendril didn’t seem too perturbed by the ink, but it was a sitting duck for the torpedo, which slammed into its base, and promptly blew it to high heaven. 

The princess then smoothly pivoted to deal with the fishman, only for the explosion to prompt three things that were gonna make the situation messy. The first was all the other huts popping open, divulging more fishmen, though oddly rather than all charging forwards, many simply stared at the intruders into their home. 

The second was a roar, as from out of a side chamber a [url=https://i.imgur.com/PopzJTR.png]giant red centipede[/url] who’s nap had just been disturbed emerged, looking for something to take its anger out on. 

The third was a series of just awful gurgling chittering, rasping sounds as the noise alerted the [url=https://i.imgur.com/FFGgSeL.png]man centipedes[/url] that they were not alone, prompting them to scuttle up the sides of the pit their hearty home had been dropped into.

All three of these groups of monsters promptly saw both each other and the troop, and none were pleased by what they saw. The big red centipede saw intruders into its reliable respawning food supply, while the man centipedes simply hated anything that wasn’t them. The fishfolk meanwhile were mostly panicking with cries of “Gloooorph!! Glurph glot! Glurph glot!” and “It come to destroy us!” at the sight of their red chitined butcher, but this did not stop the one coming at Rika from continuing to do so.

It lashed at her with sharp claws attached to powerful arms, and then was smart enough to kite back a bit when it missed. Unfortunately for it Rika’s new gauntlets made her far more versatile, and the ship girl promptly teleported her spear into her new hands and then thrust it forwards, delivering a nasty puncture wound to its chest with the needle sharp top. Unfortunately she misjudged where the heart was on the hulking creature, and it did not fall.

Rather than pull back, she teleported the spear back to her back and smashed forwards with a punch filled with Brachydios strength while pulling back and charging the other, and at the very same time having her hull claws lash out. Her first fist smashed it in the face, her claws raked its belly, and then she went flying forwards, delivering a vault breaker to it, smashing it up into the air, before pivoting and ripping open its back with her wrist mounted chainsaw when it landed, finally putting it down.

“Flurgle noooo!” came a call from one of the other fishfolk, but the rest were a bit too busy worrying about themselves as the man centipedes came scuttling across the bridges or through the water to attack them. Several got into a tussle with more tentacles bursting from the water, or tried to take on the larger red centipede, but the rest fell on the fishfolk, spewing acid, stabbing with their tails, or just bodily ramming them with their grotesque melted human faces.

[color=SpringGreen]”Good job Rika, you made a real mess”[/color] jr told his sister sardonically, but she didn’t pick up on it at all, and instead agreed that [color=Aqua]”Yup! Look at them fight each other, cleaning up should be easy”[/color] 

She did sort of have a point, but that didn’t mean there weren't still foes coming for them, mainly due to both Bowser and Kamek launching indiscriminate fireballs and a wide energy beam into the mix, which certainly got some attention.

[color=SpringGreen]”Dad! Might be time for that strategy with the cannon we talked about”[/color] Jr called out as the foes started coming, which got a nod from his father. 

The king promptly took a more turtle-y pose on all fours with his boy facing side on to the incoming foes. The side of his shell facing them slit, exposing 3 turrets which promptly opened fire, while a volley of spikes launched from his back to create a deadly hail, and the king himself turned his head to the side to spit fireballs. The new part of the strategy however, was twofold. First, the prince healed his dad despite him being fit and healthy, prompting a great deal of vines to sprout from his shell. Most of these he promptly slammed into the wet earth beneath the plank walkway, while the rest were wrapped into the port at the bottom of the cannon turret they had acquired.

All together this formed a stable, and not spike-covered, firing platform onto which Jr stepped, stabbing his paintbrush into the dirt and grabbing both of the turret’s handles.

His two pokemon, Mimi and Dazzle (the latter of whom had been called out while Bowser was setting up) joined him, and then together all four of them began blasting out at the incoming attackers with a hail of firepower. Despite all that, some of the man centipedes still got close thanks to their sculpting speed and monstrous durability, and at which point the other half of the plan came to fruition. When the first of the scuttling things broke past the no-mans land (having dodged past tentacles, shells, water bullets, electro balls, and more) an entire tree promptly  burst up out of the ground infront of it, which it promptly crashed into due to the surprise.

[hider=Bowser level up]
Rooting around (king tusk): Bowser can sink the vines from his shell into the ground, and then prompt rapid plant growth using them. This can be used to cause straight line waves of foliage, targeted bursts from a single point, or circular explosions of plant matter around himself. These plants can be anything from thorny shrubs to spearing roots to whipping vines to even small trees, though they will only last a few moments before decaying into nothing. The size and amount of plants, as well as the range they can be grown at, increases depending on how many vines are thrust into the ground, making an on all fours and overhealed Bowser very effective, while a bipedal and hurt one is not so much. Naturally Bowser’s burying of his vines to use this ability restricts his movement while doing so, though it does also make him a rather stable firing platform at the same time.
[/hider]

In the moment it was stunned and disorientated from unwillingly headbutting a tree, jr turned his gun turret towards the awful creature, and let it have it haf its own serving o f high explosive firepower. The other foes got similar treatment, being stabbed by roots, tripped by spiky bushes or obstructed by other foliage that prevented them from getting close. 

Even with how effective that was, if that had all they had, the troop might have still been in trouble. Fortunately Rika and Kamek’s additions made the battle against the charging man-centipeds and odd fish person a breeze, with Rika summoning her while whale via pokeball like spinner so it could unleash its cannonfire and adding her own disruption cannon blasts to the fire power, while Kamek decided on just start dropping some dark energy mines in between them and the foes, blowing the few that did get past sky high.

Unfortunately, in focusing on cutting down the herd, they failed to target the actual biggest threat in the room. The Beast, that towering centipede large as two Bowsers wo had been woken up from its nap, had made short work of anything and everything that had tried to take it on, and due to its life draining bites, it wasn’t even scratched. Worse, when it came for them they never saw it coming, because the first moment they were aware of its approach was when it burst out of the ground next to them, the Beast having borrowed over to them while they were busy with the lesser foes.

It seemed to laugh at their shocked surprise, and then lunged its horned head forwards at Bowser’s back. Jr, Mimi and Dazzle all abandoned the ship that was Bowser, tossing themselves out of the way, but the rooted King himself could do no such thing. Instead the Beast was free to slam its noggin into the turret, smashing it to bits and smashing the king into the ground in the process. 

It then pivoted, trying to snap up Dazzle in a single bite, only for the water pokemon to leap into the marsh’s waters and swim out of reach. It growled in frustration in response, and was in the process turning to find another target when Rika vaultbreaker punched into it, knocking it back a few steps. 

[color=Aqua]”Papa! You ok?”[/color] she asked as the spent gauntlet hung by her side. The king grunted in affirmation as he started to pick himself up only for the Beast to breath in noisily as if to say, no you won’t be, before it unleashed its poisonous breath upon them all. Bowser, Rika and Mimi were all left coughing and choking, their lungs and veins burning from the poison, while Jr had managed to pull his bib up over his nose and mouth to block most of the attack.

He fought back now, shooting small iron spikes from his wrist, and then when that did nothing, forming and hurling a hammer at its head, which did do enough to piss the Beast off. Sick of trying to bite through the vines protecting Bowser’s back anyway, it pivoted and charged the prince, smashing him aside. 

Now it was Kamek’s turn to get involved, the untouchable flying mage smashing a summoned magic fist down on top of the beast’s head, knocking its face into the dirt for a moment. It took this as a cue to bury itself in said dirt again digging under it with alarming speed and protecting itself from harm.

Not that this actually gave the Troop a moment of rest. With the beast itself no longer splitting their attention, the man centipedes had won the battle against the fishfolk and tentacles, and now their remaining number came streaming towards the last targets in sight.

They were, at least, not uncontested as they came in. Rika’s great white whale had slipped into the marsh’s waters, and along with sea-lion like Dazzle, unleashed its firepower upon the man centipedes. Cannons roared alongside much less impressive watergun shots, but when the abominations got close, that was when both of them showed their aquatic metal. 

The great whale, large as the centipedes themeslves, could surge forwards in the water with alarming speed, open its jaws wide, and deliver a devastating multi jawed bite to them, which was often more than enough to take the wounded ones down. Meanwhile Dazzle’s dire penguin fusion combined with its aquajet move allowed it to leap out of the water and then crash down atop its foes with breakneck speeds, staggering them and letting him then kite back away from them while hitting them with icy winds and its disarming voice.

Still, despite their efforts, several of the man centipedes got through, making an already messy fight even messier, as the still reeling from having their position blown apart by the Beast’s bursting into it Troop scrambled to recover.  

Jr raised a crude shield through which a pointed tail of a man centipede stabbed straight through, the wicked tip stopping only a breath away from his eye. To his credit, the prince only flinched for half a second before wrenching the shield aside, and promptly hucking a fireball right into the monstrosity's many faces, leaving a patch of napalm burning on them all. The creature shrieked in pain, stumbling back, and giving the prince enough space to form and fire a shotgun blast of iron shards into its core for good measure. Then he promptly turned his attention to curing everyone of the poison that was eating away at them.

[color=Aqua]”I’ll hold them off!”[/color] Rika called out after she was cleansed of the toxins, stepping onto the water again, and then summoned her cloyster striker to turn that specific patch of swamp into a [color=Aqua]”Whirlpool!”[/color] which dragged in and slowed the man centipede trying to cross it. Then she used her rune to leap over one that came in to flank her, floated above it charging a vault bearer, and then came slamming down right on top of it, sinking it into the muddy water, before leaping off, but not before leaving it an explosive present that finished it off when she was clear. 

Bowser and the Beast meanwhile were now duking it out, the towering mass of chitin slamming its horns down to bash the king on the head, snapping off one of the king’s tusks in the process and eliciting a roar of pain from the koopa king. Fortunately he was not fighting alone, and a full restoring burst of healing followed by poison curing from Jr got him back in the battle, while a shimmering amber shield wrapping around him courtesy of Kamek ensured he’d not be taking hits like that again.

It took the Beast a moment or two to realize this however, as it first boldly charged the king, only to find itself stopped by a palm strike, and then going horns to tusks again only to find itself coming out the poorer of the two afterwards. Then it was Bowser’s turn, and the king wasted no time in slamming a rocket assisted right hook right into the Beast’s raised front half, smashing it back and away. 

It roared at him, but rather than come back for another go, it dove back underground again, no doubt looking to sneak up on a softer target to chow down on to restore its health.
  
[color=FD0000]”Not this time!”[/color] the king roared, before more or less belly flopping forward, slamming all of his shell sourced vines into the ground at once and sending a rolling shockwave of foliage bursting out the ground before him, some of which caught the digging Beast as it grew out of the soil and dragging it back to the surface. It scrambled in the treetops for a moment, incredibly disorientated, before being unceremoniously dropped down to the ground as the foliage evaporated beneath it, leaving it sprawled on the ground as Bowser came charging in on all fours.

Regrown tusks met the Beast’s body, and promptly hurled it into the air. As it flew, it sailed past Kamek, who had been spending all this time freely blasting foes from on high. Explosions prompting quad beams, dark energy mines and shadow clones of Bowser had been dropped from the sky atop the hapless man centipedes, along with a fair number of basic fireballs. He’d also picked up Mimi from the ground battle at one point, and the Pokemon was now riding at the tip of his broom like a witch’s cat, merrily copycatting his most powerful spells and using her tail stick like a wand to direct her own devastation down upon their foes. 

That had been quite a boon, because Kamek himself had been running dry of mana, but at that point hardly mattered, because all but the last of the swarming foes had been dealt with.

That left only the Beast as a real threat as it crashed down again onto the marshy ground. However, despite the beating and the fall, it still promptly rolled over back onto its legs again, and once more looked for a target. It found one when a young prince piped up with [color=SpringGreen]”Wow that thing is pretty tough huh? Oh! I know! I should make a recording of it!”[/color] and then proceed to pull out and click on the relevant button on a tape player.

The Beast lunged for the boy, only for vines to sprout up from the ground and to lash around its tail, halting it in its tracks for a moment. Then came a cry of exertion and a rapidly flying woman as Rika vaultbreaker into it right as Bower’s plant based bindings broke, smashing it up into the air again for a moment. 

Despite this knock up, it landed cleanly and whipped its head around to try and take a bite out of her, only for a spear to appear in her unstunned hand, its shaft paced right in the way of the incoming bite. It didn’t stop the lunge forwards, but it did cause the shipgirl to be pushed back as the Beast ended up pushing the spear forwards with its jaws, and her along with it Then right on time the gauntlet she had vault breakered with came back online, letting the ship girl bring it up and blast the Beast point blank in the eyes with her grizzco blaster. 

It pulled back, hissing in pain and shaking its head to clear the ink, before having half a mind to curse the spear in its jaw, only for it to jump back to the princess’ hands. She then thrust it forwards, but sadly for her the thin tip harmlessly glanced off the Beast’s red chitin. Something that did not glance off of it however was the spray of acid launched from Bowser’s shoulder cannons, which caused the natural armor to fizz and hiss as it was weakened. 

Having fought other foes that used acid both today and in the past however, the Beast knew what to do, and promptly rolled over in the swampy water, diluting and/or washing off the acid in a single move. Then it went for Rika again, not with claws or horns but simply careened into her with the force of a van, smashing into her arm as she tried to dodge, and sending her spinning across the water.

Before it could capitalize however, Bowser had charged back in, forcing it to face the barrier encased king once again. Going on what had worked well before, the Beast sucked in air, and once again unleashed its poisonous breath, which bypassed the physically resisting shield and set Bowser to coughing and thumping his chest as if that would clear the toxins.

With the king’s charge halted by the poisoning, and Rika batted away, the Beast tried to return to its original target, the child with the tape recorder passively documenting the fight, only for those who had just finished dealing with the other centipedes to come to his aid. Magic bolts and electro balls lashed down from the sky thanks to Kamek and Mimi, while Dazzle and Rika’s white whale blasted it with water gun shots and small cannon shells.   

It tried to dive under the surface again to escape the deluge, only for Bowser to slam the ground again and pop it up out of it using rapid tree growth once more. Unable to back off, it made a final lunge for Jr, only for Rika to come smashing into it again using her still good arm, knocking it up, and then having her ichor queen striker cleave down onto it with her massive four handed sword. 

The blow split the Beast’s armor right across the neck, in what should have been a killing blow (and Jr complained as much by moaning [color=SpringGreen]”Hey! I was recording that”[/color]) only for the Beast to not fall. It too seemed confused by this, and the way the massive singer benign jabbed into it and filling its veins with poison did nothing either, but it was more than happy to capitalize, lunging its jaw forwards and crushing the leg of the ichor queen, both healing itself somewhat and harming RIka a fair deal in the process.

Bowser smashed it in the face before the Beast could take another bite out of the now wounded on two limbs Rika, and followed it up with two more strikes before it just powered through and smashed him in the face with its horns again. 

Kamek swooped over, dropping a dark energy mine beneath it, blasting it to high heaven, and then even air dropped his diminutive Tonberry striker onto its back so the little thing could deliver its incredibly lethal knife blade stab to the Beast, only for this to do seemingly nothing as well other than give the Beast another striker to chomp on inorder take it off of the death’s door it seemed to have no interest in passing through.

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”Ack! This is absurd! How tough is this thing?”[/color] Kamek cried out in disbelief through the pain of the recoil.

[color=FD0000]”Why won’t you die!?”[/color] Bowser demanded as he delivered a series of rapid (for him) punches concluded by a kinetic strike module empowered blow he delivered in tandem with one of Rika’s vault breakers, the two of them slamming the Beast back.

The Beast itself didn’t seem to know either, looking rather confused about its still functioning body, before laughing at them with the madness of something that had just found out it was indestructible. That laughter was cut off however by a call of [color=SpringGreen]”Got it!”[/color] from Jr, and a click on the tape recorder reaching the end of a tape, at which point the beast promptly exploded as it received a dozen delayed death blows all at once.

[color=FD0000]”What?”[/color] Bowser asked after a few moments, putting words to the question on everyone’s mind as the ash and spirit of the Beast slowly settled on the marshy ground.

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”Did you know recording monsters did that young master? Is that why you sounded so confident?”[/color] Kamek asked, having worked out the source of the Beast’s deathlessness, and was about to demand to know why he had held that information back when the prince shook his head and informed him that  [color=SpringGreen]”Nah. I just thought that no matter how strong that thing is, it wouldn’t be able to take both you and a copy of itself on”[/color] 

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”I see. Well then…”[/color] Kamek replied slowly, before sighing and concluding that [color=DeepSkyBlue]”Well, at least we know now, and got something worthwhile out of this mess at least”[/color]

[color=Aqua]”We also got a load of spirits!”[/color] Rika pointed out to which Jr also added [color=SpringGreen]”Plus there’s those bonfire things, bet if you light them all something good happens”[/color] indicating to the ritual pyres, two of which were already glowing thanks to stray fireballs.

[color=FD0000]”Also it's a bit weird how the big hut never opened, huh?”[/color] Bowser pointed out, which got them all looking at the fishpeople dwelling that was 4 times as large as all the others. 

After a short rest, the troop acted on that information. At the end of it everyone was healed up, and positioned around the hut in a close but not clumped up this time formation, at which point Kamek used a fireball to light the last pyre. It blazed to life, and then it and the two others roared hotter and brighter before three beams of light lanced into the giant hut. An eerie glow started to peek out of the cracks and under the door, building up and up and then spilling out when the door was flung open, causing a giant fishfolk shadow to sweep across the marsh, causing all to tense up.

At least until they saw that the shadow was coming from an ordinary sized fish person who was just close to the light source inside the hut. It was however wearing some cultist like robes, which made Kamek to start calling out a warning not to take it lightly, only for Rika to step out from the side of the door where she had been positioned in ambush, at which point she stabbed it clean through the eye with her spear, stab it in the gut with her hull claws, blast it with her disruption cannons, and then finally just cave its chest in with a punch using a her gauntlet. 

[color=SpringGreen]”Well that was disappointing”[/color] Jr commented as he relaxed, before thinking and then admitting [color=SpringGreen]”Though I guess an oversized one of those fishguys woulda looked kinda silly”[/color]

Other than the fishperson cultist, the other things of note inside where a book called ‘on tentacles’ which seemed to be somewhat magical, and a [url=https://i.imgur.com/kqOcARZ.png]scroll[/url] titled poison cloud which could be used to cast the spell of the same name a few times. There was also a pile of food, including a large number of spiky durians, but also notably no meat. These made for a good after battle snack, particularly for Rika who needed the fruity hydration after refilling her grizco blaster again. Bowser meanwhile was a bit disappointed by the lack of meat initially, but found he rather liked the spiky and pungent durians, claiming they were the him of fruits.

As they did that, Kamek had some toadies collect spirts, adding them to a bottle store to be used for crushing down the line. In the process he actually discovered the heart, now lacking any man centipede defenders (or rather parasites, not that they knew that), which once they were done eating the Troop promptly bombarded into oblivion from the top of the pit and then added it to their spirit collection.

All in all, despite all the commotion, their little root around the room could summarized by stripping it down to just what Kamek relayed via earpiece to the others: [color=DeepSkyBlue]”No silver keys or boss progress items in the marsh room on floor three, but we did acquire a fair few new spirits, though I do not expect anyone to be interested in fusing with them, as they are quite grotesque. The young master also made a cassette recording of a large red centipede, so if you see one in future please check that it isn’t him before attacking if you please. Oh, and finally we did find a magic scroll that can be used to make poison clouds, and one that seems to be able to summon tentacles. Please inquire if you are interested”[/color]