[center][h3]Mercy Dreams - Solitary Confinement[/h3]
The Koopa Troop’s [@DracoLunaris], Primrose and Therion’s [@Yankee], Sectonia’s [@Archmage MC], Artorias and Osvalds’ [@Dark Cloud], Ms Fortune
[b]Word Count:[/b] 5860[/center]

Looking up from the ruined fragments of the statue’s decapitated head, Nadia sized up the monstrous perpetrator as it began to move towards her. [url=https://i.imgur.com/cUV7zdf.png]Ten Piedad[/url] stood about triple her height, taller even than the statue in whose cold arms it found some semblance of comfort. Too tall for her to leap over with her usual double jump, that’s for sure. With gnarly flesh somewhere between wood and bone, pierced by a dozen nails and crowned by a ghastly demonic skull, it looked like a paralysis demon come to life. It closed the distance in a floundering stumble, like a man in a drunken stupor or sleepwalking in the grip of an awful dream, cracking floor tiles and crunching dead flowers beneath its sinuous trunks.

Ten Piedad was nothing short of nightmarish, and Nadia had already tensed up in anticipation, but at the same time the smile on her face was one of genuine glee. Just today, the Seekers had already fought a reality-warping, miniboss-summoning maniac, a gigantic mechanical wasp plus the royal pain inside, a dance-obsessed necromancer, and an armada of alien robots. Pulling her hilts from her belt, she inserted the blades in quick succession. [i]Chkk-chkk.[/i] If the boss of Mercy Dreams was just some big tree demon, she could blow this joint in time for dinner. Providing her bad luck didn’t jinx things, of course. The feral flourished her boxcutters in the flickering candlelight, and assumed a battle-ready stance.

Sectonia hovered her way down, following Nadia but keeping some distance for now as the feral charged into battle. She unwittingly agreed with Nadia here, this was pedestrian considering what they had just fought all things considered.

Knelt down on one knee moving around as he stared down the Ten Piedad, Artorias looked akin to his namesake; a wolf circling its prey “[color=376877]Tis like the beast moves as though it were half conscious.[/color]” the knight observed quietly, the sudden bit of unexpected insightfulness took Osvald by surprise though he only raised an eyebrow. 

The scholar's hand glowed brightly flames dancing in the palms of his hands, the light casting a glint in Osvald's round spectacles ‘[color=A5988A]Whatever monstrosity this is, it looks as if it cannot hold up its own weight easily.[/color]’ not surprising considering that it seemed as if it were only just waking up “[color=A5988A]It should burn all the same.[/color]” the scholar shrugged “[color=376877]That shalt be seen.[/color]”

Both men stood at the ready, the knight held his hefty blade in one hand while he moved slowly waiting for the moment to leap at the Ten Piedad, the scholar meanwhile stood back standing with one hand out of pocket producing a ball of fire in his palm.

Long before it got into melee range, Ten Piedad raised both its arms, then bent and slammed them into the ground. The earth began to rumble, and thorny briars as tall as itself began to sprout around the arena with enough force to scourge the flesh of its enemies.

Being a flier, Sectonia was immune to the sprouted thorns, but this creature was much larger than other things in the prison for sure. It was a tad bigger than she was now due to that spirit fusion she had done earlier. And with the damaging ground below her, she knew her Antlers wouldn’t survive dealing with that. So instead she gave everyone her pipe of insight shield and haste to reposition. She also summoned her Homing Crystals, which floated about her as she apparently wasn’t close enough to have them launch off yet.

Meanwhile on the ground the melee fighters would need to compete with the spiked briars that shot from beneath the ground, Artorias fared better than his scholarly acquaintance. 

Osvald stumbled backward only narrowly escaping being impaled by the briars grunting the scholar scrambled for footing “[color=A5988A]Flames! Reduce them to ash![/color]” the scholar called out, the Ten Piedad suddenly became engulfed in a blazing conflagration as Osvald's spell took effect. 

Through the fire and the flames, the Wolf Knight rushed the Ten Piedad head-on expertly cleaving at the briars as he dashed at the monster.

Nadia followed his example, racing through the vaulted subterranean chamber. Dead flowers crumbled beneath their footsteps, and their swift passage blew out candles not already toppled by the random outcrops of spiky vines, but the flame from Osvald that set Ten Piedad alight rendered it clearly visible to all. “Guess we’re both fired up now.” She darted around the briars rather than try to chop them down, so with her edge in speed over Artorias the two of them reached their target at about the same time. This monstrosity was downright scary up close, its height and demonic visage horrible to behold, but the feral didn’t lose her head just yet. Ten Piedad knelt, one arm raised. Its limb contorted, bending more like a tentacle than an actual arm, then lashed out with crushing force and much greater range. “Nice try!” Nadia uncoiled the muscle fibers in her legs to spring into the air, leaping over the enormous branch slash, then double jumped to somersault toward the monster’s head. “Here’s your treant!”

[i]Klonk![/i] Her flashing blades connected with the ghastly head, and stopped only a couple inches in. Though it looked like a skull, it had the consistency of a log, every bit as solid and durable as it looked. “Wood you look at that.” Nadia wrenched her blades loose, leaving a couple fresh grooves across the nightmare’s face, then planted her feet and flipped backward off Ten Piedad as its thrashing head brought one of its twisted horns within inches of her body. “It’s tough! Who’s got some serious chops?” 

Sectonia wasn’t much of a pun lady herself, but she got what Nadia was saying and summoned her new greataxe as she got into throwing range and threw the large weapon at the tree demon. She was sure Nadia had some kind of pun with axes and trees. Her greataxe hurtled through the air and slammed into Ten Piedad’s shoulder from above, its blade embedded about a foot deep into its wooden torso. The function of the arm on that side did not seem impeded though, and when Sectonia got close enough to trigger Homing Crystal Soulmass, the spiky orbs fired off of their own accord and shattered against the monster’s wooden body to barely any effect.

Not much for humorous vernacular himself the feral's jokes flew over the stoic knight's head however her words did illicit a raised eyebrow from the Seekers newest recruit ‘[color=A5988A][i]Is she always like this?[/i][/color]’ Osvald didn't linger on the thought long, the beastkin though weaving it into a play of words still pointed out something of value. 

Meanwhile the headstrong knight lashed out violently with his considerable strength, his intimidatingly large blade though hefty sinking deep into the Ten Piedad’s body causing its body to creak as the place where a human torso would be splintered. 

Artorias dislodged his sword, rolling backwards quickly to evade the wooden creature's strikes. Assuming a stance with both knees bent, he placed the palm of his hand on Finstertöter's hilt readying himself to leap and slam his blade down.

As the fight began in earnest, a few teammates waited outside of the danger zone. Primrose and Therion looked on, recovering their stamina and letting the fighters inside do as offered and take care of the beast - for now. They both knew that Ms. Fortune hadn't shown up at the last second during the battle with the two jailers; she and the others she'd had with her must have been waiting in the wings to assist, without getting in the way due to the narrow battlefield. So the two of them returned the favor, keeping an eye on what was going on inside should they be needed.

Then when they heard the several people approaching they promptly got out of the way.

Behind the team, the heavy weight that was Bowser slammed down, the turtle from a world of platforming casually leaping down a story to join the fight. His son landed beside him, wearing a set of headphones connecting to a cachet player. As Rika and Kamek both floated down to complete the quartet, Jr hit play, and transformed into a towering red armored [url=https://i.imgur.com/JPcnsP5.jpg]centipede[/url] that stood head and shoulders above his father.

With a roar from the two royal koopas, and a whoop from the ship girl princess, the troop came charging into the fray to provide backup. Ironically it was the slower and less enthusiastic Kamek whose influence was felt first, as a magical semi-translucent fist as large as the koopa himself appeared above Ten Piedad’s head and took a swing at its chest at his command. The blow left a handful of cracks in its chest, stretched out like spider’s web. A second after that a singular crack of gunfire joined the fray as Quiet, one of Kamek’s strikers, perfectly slipped a sniper rifle round in between and above the melee fighters, this too aimed straight at the towering brute’s skull. A handful of splinters flew as the bullet buried into and lodged somewhere within the wood, yet Ten Piedad registered the headshot no more than it did the body blow. Was there really a vital organ in there?

The troop’s closer ranged fighters arrived a few moments later, the first pair doing so traveling atop a dozen or more legs as Jr in the guise of the Beast wove between thorny bushes charged in with Rika perched atop his chitin-armored back. The ship girl herself charged up a vaultbreaker punch as they approached, and then unleashed it when they got close, flying across the last remaining distance to deliver an unsteadying strike. Despite its power, the punch collided with Ten Piedad’s own swipe and lost, knocking Rika back just as the much larger target of Jr got into range. He followed up by delivering a Mountain Smash strike with his new horns, an attack that would reduce Ten Piedad’s resistance to further melee attacks, before both royal children got out of dodge, Rika launching herself into the air via feather fall rune and then grappling away, while Jr dove down into the earth, tunneling away from danger. As his long body worked its way in, Ten Piedad lifted its arms to pound his exposed tail against the floor, resulting in an earth muffled yelp.

Luckily, the Seekers also in this way got out of the way of their later arriving father’s own follow up, which was to leap up into the air and drive a powerful [url=https://i.imgur.com/RrGmx8o.mp4]dropkick[/url] into their foe’s torso, a blow that would launch him back a bit in the process, and free up more space for follow ups.

That mighty dropkick resulted in the first sign of actual poise damage done to Ten Piedad so far, as the monstrosity took a half-step back, its arms and head lolling. Then its gruesome skull snapped to the side, and as Bowser flipped back to land after his dropkick, Ten Piedad stepped forward. It lurched two gigantic steps forward, leaving Nadia’s own attempt at a follow-up in the dust as it did, and lifted its arms to bring both down on top of the Koopa King. “Watch out!” the feral yowled, hoping her warning came in time.

Ten Piedad’s arms descended, unyielding and uninterruptible as it pounded the earth. Immediately a forest of briars, tall as bamboo shoots, shot up around it in irregular and expanding concentric circles. Those thorny brambles tore through the ground itself, an agonizing snare both above and below ground. As she rushed in to try and stab the nightmare in its exposed back, Nadia got blindsided from below by the impossibly fast growth, sliced in a dozen places and launched off her feet. “Nyagh!” By twisting around in the air she barely managed to land on her feet, sliding a short distance in a crouched stance as she bled from fresh cuts on her arms and legs. Worse still, the plant-type attack inflicted Grounded on her, reducing her accuracy. She felt woozy and drained, far more than she ought to be. As the briars disintegrated, she sucked in her breath and stood, ready to push through.

Bowser meanwhile attempted to counter the monster’s plants with his own, slamming both firsts and then a flurry of thorny vines into the ground, prompting his own wave of growth to race forwards to do battle with the titans. Rika meanwhile avoided it by leaping up and grappling up to the ceiling, where she hung for a moment as she used her rigging guns to fire a set of 4 power sapping globules at the foe. The distance between herself and her target, plus the globules’ spread and Ten Piedad’s motion, meant not all of them hit, but those that did splashed and crackled against its massive frame.

Jr and Kamek meanwhile focused on empowering themselves, the mage summoning a quartet of doppelgangers to increase his survivability and firepower, while Jr, after bursting back out of the ground again to get the speed needed to avoid the rootsplosion, pivoted and flashed silver for a moment as he sharpened his Beast form’s natural weapons, readying to come in for another attack.

Artorias was unperturbed by the vicious briars, fearlessly rushing towards the monster the knight swung Finstertöter in a circular arc slashing the forest of thorns as they appeared in his way ignoring the pain as the briars that shot up beneath him caught his legs, with a howl both of pain and battlefury he leapt at the Ten Piedad whom seemed busy slamming its arms down, he landed an overhand slam with his blade that reverberated against the ground.

With laboring breaths he flipped into the air again bringing his blade down the clang of Finstertöter against the hard floor almost deafening. 

Then with one final guttural howl the knight somersaulted and brought his blade down like a lumberjack chopped wood. If the monster hadn't moved it would certainly be in danger, but not enough to cause it to fall. The impressive strength behind that heavy cutting edge worked to great effect, hacking so deep into one of Ten Piedad’s arms just above the elbow that when it withdrew the limb, it was dangling by little more than a strip.

It's body would certainly be in rougher shape than it had at the beginning of the fight, meanwhile behind the knight Osvald contested with the thorns doing as much as he could to avoid them “[color=A5988A]Fire burn these weeds away![/color]” the scholar called, flames exploded outward from the Ten Piedad the knight kicked himself off the monster and into the air narrowly escaping the flames, landing on his feet already assuming a fighting stance.

Sectonia meanwhile summoned back her axe and used it to conjure her massive Rings of Light, which she threw at the tree demon, taking some hits from its erupting briar shoots as this attack kept her stationary for its short duration. With all the others getting into melee, there really wasn’t much room for her at this time, so she was stuck using this attack for now.

It seemed like the entire fifth layer had shaken as the wood monster struck the ground in its room. It was about that time that Primrose and Therion thought that they should lend a hand.

Primrose was already in motion, preparing another buff for her allies. The thing they were fighting seemed to shrug off most physical attacks, but rather than increase the Seekers' physical strength to account for that she chose to give them a boost to something she thought would work out better. She danced, her steps flowing into the powerful, provocative Peacock Strut. Kamek, Osvald, Sectonia, and all other spell casters in their group including herself would see a bump up in their magical power.

Then she entered the room proper, leaving the narrow walkway behind and dashing inside. She flung a Fire Orb at Ten Piedad as soon as it had formed in her hand.

Therion did not enter the room immediately. He might be able to survive in there, avoid the worst of the monster's attacks, but he could tell he'd have a hard time dealing damage to it. And at that point the only thing he'd be able to do is maybe act as bait, which he wasn't about to do.

He could feel Primrose's dance magic increase his fire power, so if it came down to it he could join in and set this massive pile of wood and bone to torch. For now though, he had at least one thing in his arsenal that might work.

[color=BC8DBF]"Get in there big guy,"[/color] he told his striker as he summoned it, giving it a push with his foot to help it get going. The junicorn rolled into the battlefield, with its hard iron shell to protect it from Ten Piedad's attacks as well as any crossfire from the Seekers themselves. It came to a halt when its blood red limbs popped out of the shell, along with the massive lance-like horn. It fired that horn off at Ten Piedad.

Osvald’s conflagration had set Ten Piedad alight, igniting the flames that now smoldered across its body, but it took Primrose’s Fire Orb to really get the beast burning. Now the nightmare was engulfed in an inferno, a truly hellish vision and yet it neither languished nor agonized, just lurching forward toward the nearest Seekers to beat them into the dirt as well. Nadia recoiled from it, giving up on offense for a moment to backpedal toward safety. That Grounded status interfering with her depth perception was even more of a thorn in her side than the actual thorns, making her swings miss frustratingly often. And now she was loath to approach Ten Piedad’s burning body, remembering what happened when the illuminator’s red-hot iron hit her. That gave her an idea, though.

Just after Junicorn’s horn slammed into the demon’s hip, Nadia stuck her boxcutters in the ground and charged forward. “The only spike I need…” Putting her palms together, she conjured a maelstrom sphere of Hydro power that she tossed up into the air. Then she leaped after it and brought her palm down on its roiling surface like a giant volleyball. “Is this!”

Empowered by Peacock Strut, Purrge of Vengeance struck Ten Piedad’s burning body in an explosion of magic water that immediately caused Vaporize, dealing an extra burst of damage in a concussive blast of steam. It also put out the fire, putting the pyromancers’ efforts back to square one. Now that she’d figured out a better strategy than just hitting the thing, though, Nadia was on a roll. She had just enough tension for another Purrge of Vengeance, so when Ten Piedad turned toward her she threw it and ran away. While it hurt less, it left her enemy Wet, so when Nadia grabbed her boxcutters she bolted into and through the monster with Charge. “Just call me the branch manager,” she joked, whipping around to deliver two critical electric slashes that also turned Wet into Electro-charged. “‘Cause here’s some budget cuts!”

Even as lightning coursed across its frame, Ten Piedad didn’t seem too impressed. No sound issued from its head, but for a moment, Nadia could swear that she heard something issuing from inside its torso. It sounded like whimpering, or maybe crying. As she tried to press her advantage, the monster shrugged off her attack and struck Nadia with its dislocated elbow, knocking her away in a corkscrew. “Gah, this thing just doesn’t budge at all!” When Ten Piedad continued to fight, it attacked in a frenzy somewhat faster than before. 

Staying out of range of this frenzy was Kamek and his doppelgangers. The latter risked themselves more, as 4 red hued ones swooped in and started flying around Ten Piedad while pelting it with magical blasts. The monster’s incredible reach meant that it gave a lot better than it got, though. Their ranged firepower was joined by a swarm of lighting bugs launched by Rika, and a bolt of lightning fired from the tip of her Ichor Queen striker’s massive blade, both attempts to follow up on Nadia’s soaking of their foe. Unfortunately the latter missed, and while the former hit, the feral had already used up the Wet status she applied to cause Electro-charged, making the lightning bugs no stronger than normal.

Kamek himself meanwhile turned his magic to support, wrapping Jr in an amber sphere of protection that would reduce any physical damage the prince’s large form would take to but a fifth of what it would have been. He did so just in time, as the prince went charging in a moment later to try and sink his sharpened teeth into one of the titan’s arms inorder to steal its hp and restrict its movements for a moment. 

He was joined in this by Bowser, who, having ‘won’ the plant war, now went on the offensive, forming grappling roots that tried to intertwine with the ones on their towering foe’s feet to trip up their movement. At the same time he deployed two cruel cannons and unleashed a supersonic bombardment to try and confuse Ten Piedad for good measure. Ten Piedad was nothing if not stubborn, though, and in a way it already seemed confused. It threw its weight around with nigh-unstoppable might, overpowering Junior and dragging him around while the roots only slowed it down. However, Junior’s weight on the arm already carved into by Artorias put extra stress on the remaining material. Any more and it might very well snap off.

It seemed like the elemental attacks had some effect on Ten Piedad, but only after several of them had combined in a volatile way. Was the creature resistant to magic as well? Primrose could certainly keep using her pyromancy, but she could also leave the fire to the Seekers' newest addition. When she attacked next it was to add to the magical bombardment with another spell entirely.

First she had to make it through the monster's frenzied attacks. She leveraged her dexterity to avoid most of its wild swings and the thorny vines it summoned. They were quicker than she'd expected, but at least she ended up with cuts instead of impalement. Then her hands lit up, not with flames but silvery moonlight. Her entire body followed suit when she used up one of her battle points to further increase her magic power.

[color=D34C25]"Luna!"[/color] Glittery moons shaped by the spell converged on the monster. As that glittering moonlight blast cut not just through Ten Piedad’s magical resistance, a very muffled scream issued from inside its torso. For a moment the monster spasmed. 

As all this was going on, Therion's striker had just enough time left to roll in and try to stab Ten Piedad in melee range before it was knocked away and disappeared.

Around the same time Therion himself slunk into the large room proper. He stuck to the walls and darker areas, avoiding the monster's attention and keeping out of the way of its vine attacks. With so many allies giving it their all, and the monster itself on the offensive, it was difficult to find an opening for himself to get in close. So he watched and waited. When he got the chance, he could at least try and soften the thing up for the others. And as he watched and waited, he spotted something odd. Another one of those paper butterflies fluttered around one of the nondescript, candle-festooned altars at the periphery of the fight. He’d seen enough of them in Mercy Dreams that it almost didn’t register, but in here it was the only one, and this one fluttered weakly on torn wings. He knew those things had information written on them - and it was possible that there being one monster and one butterfly in the same room wasn't a coincidence. On the edge of the battlefield the thief made a beeline towards it to snatch it up and see what it read.

[hider=Inscribed upon the paper butterfly…][i]I'm still inside the creature. I can hear its roar outside, I can hear the thunderous beating of its heart. I just wanted to sleep, but I saw the Miracle in my dreams. It spoke to me. That is why I lie down in the Lady's open arms. But the Miracle appeared to me again. It was more and more tangible. Then I woke up, but I was no longer myself. I was a prisoner trapped inside a rooted body. A body immersed in constant anger. In constant pain. I am awake in a sleeping body.[/i][/hider]

Sectonia meanwhile changed her tactics from her rings of light or axes, to try the whole fire thing and electric thing the others were trying. They seemed to elicit some kind of reaction when the creature was hit by them, so Sectonia teleported above it to rain some lightning and fireballs over it before retreating to see what effect it had. Naturally, the wooden demon burned better than it got shocked.


Grounded once again, Nadia quickly learned not to waste any energy or resources on big attacks that her disoriented state might cause to miss. Instead she played a noncommittal hit-and-run game, dashing in for a couple chops with her boxcutters and then hightailing it away from Ten Piedad’s crushing blows whether she connected or not. Although the nightmare flinched for almost nothing, the Seekers’ efforts seemed to be having an effect, especially heavy slash damage and fire damage. She could see a couple cracks across its torso, some with small holes deep enough that she couldn’t see anything but darkness inside. The problem was that Ten Piedad didn’t behave like something alive that felt pain or needed vital organs. It was more like wood animated by some mystical force. But Nadia could swear she heard a voice from inside it, and Primrose’s magic actually got a reaction. So what was this creature’s deal?

When the monster lifted its leg and brought it down for a massive stop, sending a line of thorny vines racing across the floor, Nadia dropped her boxcutters and rushed in. “Grub’s up!” She hurled Athame, which thudded into Ten Piedad’s rib cage and lowered its defense, then jumped up. Without thinking she transformed her right arm with Fluffy Soft, swelling it into the striped limb of a white tiger with a paw as big as her head and kukri-sized claws. “It’s a rib dinner!” Her big swipe ripped out a bunch of wooden chunks, but beneath she could see nothing but petrified flesh. “Tch!” she snarled, landing the next moment. Ten Piedad chased her off with a much bigger, much more dangerous swipe. “Looks like I’m a ‘shallow’ person after all,” she griped. When she pulled out her Free Lemonade, she found it magically refilled, and splashed it on Ten Piedad to do slight damage over time.

At this point the group's other thief actually entered the thick of battle, if only to deliver some information. In light of it, he wasn't sure that his debuffing would have any real effect anyway. Therion weaved through the vines that erupted and spread out, stopping when he was in a close enough position that most of the Seekers would be able to hear him.

[color=BC8DBF]"There's someone inside of it,"[/color] he told the others. He was confident that was the case. He still had the unfolded paper moth in his hand and its contents, like that of a prisoner's firsthand account, explained the noises that his sensitive ears had been picking up. The faint, muted sounds of pain that had seemed like they were coming from the monster, but not [i]from[/i] the monster itself.

[color=D34C25]"Like a mecha?"[/color] she suggested, using the term Jesse had used in regards to a smaller entity controlling a larger one. The look Therion threw her clearly said he had no idea what that was. Regardless, now she definitely knew what to do. She could use her Vengeful Spirit or continue to cast Luna to get through the outer shell. She prepared to do the latter.

[color=BC8DBF]"They could be trapped,"[/color] Therion warned before she cast. This he had no basis for besides the writing, but given everything he'd seen in the prison so far, he wouldn't be surprised if this was some other, extremely unique kind of torture device. He didn’t make any suggestion to free that person; they were probably just yet another unfortunate stuck here, but if anyone else was so inclined and actually had any ideas for how to go about doing that, he’d help out.

Primrose had no such ideas. [color=D34C25]"Noted,"[/color] she said, and conjured another round of moons.

Having a potential weakpoint exposed, Sectonia wasn’t as worried about there being someone ‘trapped’ inside this creature, in her eyes it was the thing inside piloting this thing. And seeing its super high defense, she had to start using something that got around that. She had a spell just for that, and started throwing her void globules at the creature, the dark energy bypassing its resistances much like the moonlight did beforehand. Being assaulted by both light and void probably wasn’t too comfortable for it.

The Troop members were not exactly sure what they could do about the person within either, particularly given they had been beaten back in each attempted assault. Kamek’s doppelgangers were down, Jr had been hurled clear of the fight despite his damage resistance, and Bowser had uprooted and backed off to avoid being stomped on. They were also rather lacking in coordination, which is why Jr proceeded to group up with and then drop out of his Beast transformation to strategize.

A strategy that mostly boiled down to [color=SpringGreen]”Burn it!”[/color] which in hindsight should have been the obvious strategy vs a plant monster, but a desire to try out new tricks had been rather suppressed. Fortunately they had plenty of firepower in their back pockets to pull out now.

Kamek switched to furling blasts using his Fire Materia, while alongside him jr used a combination of his paintbrush and his Ferromancy to form and then fire burning goop coated spikes at the towering tree.

As they did this, Bowser and Rika closed in again. The ship girl made use of the same burning goop that Jr was, but fired at a much more rapid rate from her grizco blaster, at the cost of having to get in close, meaning she had to also focus on dodging and throwing out blocking strikers to avoid getting smashed. All she wanted/needed was to fire 8 however, at which point her all out assault kicked in and hammered their foe with a rapid fire spread shot wave.

Bowser was right there with her, coated in defensive vines thanks to a heal from jr, and had a much more straightforward way of bringing the flame. Fire breath. Admittedly there was a slight increase in complexity, namely that he summoned his trowlon striker, and had it float him to and fro evasive while he focused on burning down the tree, as well as blasting it with armor melting acid from his shoulder cannons while he was at it.

While the beast was pelted with either flame or sword the Koopa Troop seemed to fair just fine without the need for Osvald's magic “[color=A5988A]So that's what could be making that noise…[/color]” the scholar muttered under his breath overhearing the dancer and thief's conversation. 

The plume upon Artorias’ helmet whisked this way and that, breathing heavily as he crouched low. The knight's attention solely focused upon the enemy, Artorias ignored the words of those around him. Drawing in one last sharp breath, he filled his lungs. Muscles tensing as the Wolf Knight pushed himself off the ground with a beast like roar, the knight leapt into the air raising his weapon as he went down to strike a deadly blow. If his crushing weight didn't somehow make the creature fall then the length of his blade as it plunged through the Ten Piedad’s body surely would.

By the time Artorias mustered up his ferocious might for a final effort, his strength was practically overkill. At this point, Ten Piedad was missing most of one of its arms, and its wooden flesh -already carved into and gouged in a dozen places- was charred black by the abundance of fire the Seekers inundated it with. His greatsword pierced through the nightmare’s torso, sinking up to the hilt and protruding from the other side. Ten Piedad froze, its back arched. It convulsed once, coughing up a lot of blood, and as more began to seep from the deepest holes in its torso it slowly turned toward the kneeling statue. It took one staggering step, then fell, its one remaining hand outstretched in a final plea for mercy.

“Whew, there we go. Now that’s what I call an unpleasantree.” Nadia let out her pent-up breath, relaxing her shoulders and stance somewhat. Yet she didn’t ease up completely. Though she watched the giant corpse rapidly age and crumble away for a moment, she turned her narrowed eyes around the shadowy room, searching. “Well, take a breather while you can, guys. ‘Cause that felt just a little too easy.” 

Therion approached the corpse while it rapidly cooled and disintegrated. He was looking for the sign that this was the prison's boss, something like that item they were sent here to fetch in the first place. So far, the only thing he saw was the monster's spirit - one single spirit. He'd probably never really know if he was right and there had been someone stuck inside of it, but in the grand scheme of things he supposed it didn't matter either way.

He did get the feeling that Ms. Fortune was right, especially because as he sifted through the ashes he found nothing besides the spirit. No keys popped out like when they'd defeated the zombie jailers outside, and no mask fragment fell for the Seekers to claim.

[color=BC8DBF]"Yeah. Plus there's nothing here, it didn't drop anything."[/color]

[color=SpringGreen]”Seriously? After all that? Uuuuurgh”[/color] came a whining from jr, and although the other troop members where a little less high pitched in their complaints there was certainly a fair bit of frustrated grumbling to be had.

[color=92278f]”Hmm… Or this could just be a magical construct like my Antlers, possibly by the boss itself.”[/color] Sectonia pointed out, noting the lack of a spirit.