Personality: He puts on a strong and determined determined front about fighting evil, but deep down it's just a facade. The truth is Axellus is in over his head, and he knows it. The power of the Masked Rider that he wields is one he barely understands, and he hasn't yet mastered it by a long shot. He's haunted by the mistakes he's made and would like nothing more than find some way to undo them.
Skills: As one of the protectors of the Edenoite Royal Family, Axellus is versed in combat basics that cover a variety of situations be it swordplay, shooting, and of course hand-to-hand techniques. As a Masked Rider, these skills are further enhanced by the power he wields and the Rider Armor also provides him a degree of protection in battle as well. But probably his most interesting power is known as the Rider Weapon Adaptation System. It's a mysterious power that allows his Rider Armor to transform any weapon he picks up into a powered up form that matches his Masked Rider powers, though they also revert back to their original state once he drops them from his hands. It was originally intended to allow the bearer of the power to be versatile and capable of adapting to any combat scenario or enemy fighting style.
Background/Brief Bio: Axellus was born on the Planet Edenoi. Peace seemed to reign for many years after Prince Dex's victory against Count Dregon. Now the King, Dex came a long way in rebuilding since the days of the rebellion he once led. He eventually he had a son of his own: Prince Lex. Fearing a potential resurgence of Count Dregon's surviving forces, King Dex assigned one his most reliable young fighters to act as Lex's companion and personal bodyguard. That bodyguard was Axellus, who was determined to prove himself and to prove that the King did not make the wrong choice. But that wasn't easy, Lex was an adventurous kid who easily found himself bored being cooped up in the palace. And so he would often rope Axellus into sneaking him out so he could explore some the landscapes of Edenoi.
During one such excursion, Axellus and Lex accidentally discovered a hidden cell of Count Dregon Loyalists. They'd based themselves in some unknown ruins and appeared to be excavating, as if searching for something. Before they could get away to warn the King, Axellus and Lex were spotted. They tried to escape but were outnumbered and ultimately captured. Axellus was able to put up a stronger fight but knew they'd use Lex as a hostage to get leverage over him. That was when he spotted something. Some kind of chest or casket that had been sealed up tight but broken open during the chaos of the struggle. Inside was a very old-looking skeleton that appeared to be wearing a certain belt around its waist. Axellus immediately recognized it as a Masked Rider Belt and quickly grabbed it and wrapped it around his waist. It instantly bonded to him and even transformed him into a Masked Rider, allowing him to fight his way out with Lex in tow.
The two returned to the palace where they then had some explaining to do. It was also discovered that Axellus was unable to undo his transformation, and was effectively stuck in his Rider Armor. Unfortunately, even King Dex had no knowledge of what this ancient Rider Belt was, and thus did not know why the transformation couldn't be undone. The best suggestion he could make was that Axellus journey to Earth. The King knew of several friends and allies who lived there that might be able to come up with a solution. In the meantime he would organize a larger excavation of the ruins the belt was discovered in, hoping to figure out its origins and maybe how to deactivate its powers.
Villain of Choice: Count Dregon
Sample Post: "Intruders!" shouted one of the Loyalists as he sounded the alarm. It looked like Axellus and Lex's covers were blown now. The two scrambled to run but it didn't take long for them to be surrounded. Axellus' training kicked in almost immediately and he got to work trying to fight off their would-be captors. He was a good fighter, but still outnumbered and outgunned. Plus there was the matter of him constantly needing to keep Prince Lex from harm. This was not going to be easy.
"Stop right there, intruder, or the Prince gets it!" during the chaos, the Dregon Loyalists manage to cut Axellus off from Lex and now were holding the latter hostage. Axellus had slowly stopped his fighting, unsure what he should do. That was when some gleamed inside a nearby casket that had been broken open during the fighting. A skeleton lay inside and... was that a Belt around its waist? Could it really a Rider in there? Maybe there was some hope left. But Axellus had to be fast, and he also had to hope that however old that belt was that it still worked.
"Not on your life!" Axellus suddenly proclaimed as he made a nice acrobatic flip over the nearby casket, reaching in and snatching the ancient belt in mid-flip. With no other time to think, he slung it around his waist and the thing snapped itself shut with a heavy clicking sound.
"He's got the belt! Stop him!" the Dregon Loyalists were suddenly frantic. They'd even abandoned their hold on Lex in order to try and swarm Axellus. But they were already too late. The moment the belt closed shut, before Axellus could even say or do anything else, he was surrounded by the somewhat familiar light and lightning of a Masked Rider transformation. The Rider's armor appeared to expand from the belt and... grow itself around the wearer. After he was fully transformed, Axellus felt the strength of the Masked Rider surge through him and suddenly, what was once a hard fight became much easier for him. These Loyalists were mostly all former grunts that had served Count Dregon in years past. They could be strong in numbers, but against a Masked Rider after being taken off guard, there was no contest.
"Unbelievable." said the 14 year old Lex after it was all over, "Look at you, Ax! You're a Masked Rider now!" it was pretty exciting to him. Typically members of the Royal Family were the ones who inherited the powers, but where had this ancient belt they found come from? It didn't look quite the same as the one King Dex wore, but similar enough that it was still unmistakably the power of a Rider.
"I... have no idea. The belt was just in that casket." said Axellus, "Like the guy in there was buried with it or something. But why would a Rider Belt be buried with a wearer like that? Why wasn't it passed down to someone else?" he'd been fiddling with the belt trying to deactivate its powers but so far was having no luck, "Also, how do you... deactivate this thing? Nothing I'm trying is working."
"Maybe Dad will know?" Lex suggested, unable to offer any other potential solutions, "We're gonna get in big trouble, aren't we?"
"Who knows? Maybe? Doesn't seem like we could hide this even if we wanted to." Axellus replied in solemn agreement. So reluctantly, the two made their way back home where they'd have to show this to King Dex, and to face the music for their sneaking out like they did.
Place: Sector 3, Suoh Word Count: 915 Level 4 Roxas: 7/40 Exp: 2 NEW EXP Balance--- 9/40
After they'd made it back outside, loud alarms started sounding off that seemed like they could be heard all over the sector, "Jeez, what is that alarm for!" Roxas asked, having to shout to make sure he could be heard. But he didn't need to wait for Lili to get his answer. A simple look upward told him all he needed to know. He saw specks way up high that appeared to gradually getting bigger. Except they weren't getting bigger, they were getting closer, because whatever they were they were falling down onto Suoh. And when a they finally started hitting the ground, Roxas could only tilt his head in bewilderment, "What... are they?" he asked, staring at two of them that had landed nearby. Bizarre creatures that resembled bouquets of roses but with human legs wearing high heel shoes. Just when he thought things couldn't get any stranger.
But whatever they were, they weren't friendly. People were fleeing and evacuating the streets. So obviously these things were a threat, "Well I'm not just gonna stand by. So here goes!" he summoned his two Keyblades and went charging out, not even waiting for Raz or Lili. The two Others were currently dashing up the shrine steps, which Roxas noticed had hand rails on each side. That gave him an idea.
"Think fast!" he shouted as he jumped up and proceeded to slide down by grinding the rail on his right hand side. He slid right past one of the Others, managing to clothes-line it with his Keyblade and send it tumbling back down the stairs. And then Roxas flipped his way over to the opposite rail so that he could do the same thing to the other, well, Other. Similarly he managed to knock it down the stairs where it's friend was now standing back up. Roxas of course kept on sliding down and used the built up momentum to leap clear over the Vase Paws. Once passed them he twisted around and aimed his Keyblades in their direction and fired off two orbs: one of Light and one of Darkness that swirled around each other until they eventually collided with one of the Others and exploded on it, dealing it heavy Light and Dark damage in the process.
Roxas landed on the ground and spotted something strange. The one he had hit with Dual Shot had stopped moving and a bulb thing had popped out of its body. Before he could begin to process this, however, the second Vase Paws was running at him and poised to hit him with a strong kick. Thankfully the kick itself was fairly choreographed and allowed Roxas enough time to cross his blades in front of him to block the incoming kick. With quick timing he was able to push his weapons forward the moment the foot made contact in order to push back the Vase Paws and briefly throw it off balance. From there Roxas lunged forward and performed a circular slash with his weapons while the blades were coated with searing Light.
He similarly saw the Vase Paw stop moving a produce a bulb thing from its body. But like before, Roxas wasn't given enough time to act on it. The previous Vase Paws had now recovered from being stunned and surprised Roxas with a kick in his back that sent him tumbling forward. But Roxas was spry enough to let himself fall into a somersault back onto his feet and he spun around to face his enemy. It was running at him, and so Roxas did the same. The Vase Paw went for another kick but it was met by a parry from one of Roxas' Keyblade. He then got off a short combo that the creature managed to jump back and away from. But Roxas wasn't about to let this thing escape. He shot forward, taking the form of a ray of light that whirled around and homed in on the Vase Paw. When it got close, Roxas returned to normal and unleashed a big Cross Slash in the shape of an X, while both blades were coated with Light.
That sent the Vase Paw reeling and once again revealed the bulb thing. This time Roxas was quick enough to stab it with his Keyblade and destroy it, which appeared to do the same to the Vase Paw as a whole. Like a moment ago, the other Vase Paw attempted to kick Roxas from behind. But the Keyblade Wielder had learned his lesson, and whirled around and parried the kick with his blades before again striking at the Vase Paws with the Dual Counter circular slash. This allowed him to lunge past the Vase Paw and then whirl around and get off a quick five strike combo before blasting it with a Firaga spell. That knocked the thing back down and gave Roxas the opening he needed to stab the bulb that appeared and similarly kill the creature.
"Two down!" Roxas said in celebration before he looked around and remembered the sheer number of Others that were falling down in other places throughout the Sector, "...And a whole lot more to go." he said with slumped shoulders. This was going to be a long afternoon.
"Huh?" Roxas nearly fell over, taken aback by having been followed out here. Even more so that Bede had apparently overheard what he was saying, "Oh, uh, well... I wouldn't say I'm bored exactly." he told the Pokemon Trainer with a shrug, then added, "Mostly just... overwhelmed. In my experience 'saving the world' is the easy part. You just have to defeat the bad guy. But all this politics stuff just flies right over my head, it's not in my wheelhouse at all."
And it was after this that Raz came out and joined them. The first things he'd really hit the nail on the head. Was it really that obvious that Roxas was getting overwhelmed by all this? It must have been, since not one but two of the other Seekers had now noticed it. But Roxas was surprised to learn that Raz had only joined the Seekers a day ago. A whole lot must have happened during that one day, Roxas figured. He started telling a story about climbing a mountain and nearly dying at one point. During this, Roxas looked to Bede and Raz on both his sides and was suddenly reminded of all those days he spent on that Clock Tower with Axel and Xion. They'd both be on either side of him, laughing about something or teasing one another while eating ice cream bars.
But he snapped back to reality after that fleeting moment, "I know... you're right." he said to Raz. Just because Roxas was second guessing his abilities didn't mean the others around felt that way, as Raz was clearly proving. But still, that part about the Organization gave him pause, "Look, I don't know what the Organization is trying to accomplish by helping you out, but I'm willing to bet it's not good. It never is with them." he looked down toward the ground far below them and then continued, "It's just... I've been there, I know how they operate. They'll tell you what you want to hear so that you'll go along with whatever it is they're planning. They did that with me and my friends for nearly a year before we started to figure out the truth, and they..." his voice trailed off and he looked away from them. He looked like this conversation was about to drudge some painful memories.
But Raz didn't stay on this topic for much longer. He instead brought up the plan for the Seekers to split up and go to too different Sectors in order to cover more ground. And he made it clear he wanted Roxas to go with him to see the Psych-OSF, It didn't take a genius or a mind reader to figure out why. Some of the people there were people Raz had known. Probably some of the friends he had once mentioned he was looking for. Well Roxas couldn't blame him, he'd be anxious to go there too if he'd found out that any of his friends were there, "Yeah, you don't have to say anymore. I've got your back. Promise."
He looked down at the black coat that had been draped over his lap. It still wasn't repaired yet, and at this point Roxas was beginning to wonder if he even should bother fixing it. He began asking himself if he really, truly, still needed to keep using it. After all, it was connected to some of the worst times he'd ever lived through. And yet... it was simultaneously connected to some of his fondest memories as well. Perhaps he'd better just think on it for a little longer.
The ride over to Sector 3 was mostly uneventful. Mr. Goldlewis explained a few of the sights along the way but other than that there wasn't much else to the trip. Through most of it, Roxas just looked over the gridLink thing he now wore on his wrist. It identified him as some kind of exchange student visiting from that Bullworth place all the way back in Gutsford. Once they were far enough into Sector 3, Roxas couldn't help but notice Raz acting a little strange. Goldlewis had told them something about this place being sensory overload for psychics, er, not that Roxas could tell obviously. But Raz certainly looked like he could tell, and it didn't look very pleasant.
Eventually they came to a stop, and then Roxas watched Raz wander off toward the steps leading to that shrine thing. Well, since Raz was the one who would have a better idea of what to do around the psychics, Roxas decided he should probably follow after him. Raz wasn't exactly hiding his excitement, not that Roxas could blame him. He'd probably be doing the same thing in his position. But in any case, he kept up with his Psychonaut friend and even reacted quick enough to help him back on his feet after Raz tripped on the last step.
After that was clearly a reunion. The girl he ran up was clearly someone the Psychonaut knew. For the moment, he hung back a bit and gave Raz his space. Instead he looked around at a couple of the others that were around here. Were... they all psychic? Just to be safe Roxas decided to keep his thoughts as quiet as possible. It'd be a real bonehead move to immediately blow their cover because Roxas's thoughts were too loud.
"Um.. Hi." he finally said to some other kids that were around, "Do, uh, you guys live here? I'm visiting from Sector 7." he was glad he remembered the Sector 7 story that Goldlewis had instructed them to use when introducing themselves.
Level 2 Ganondorf: 12/20 Word Count: 1,426 Location: The Under ~ Caves Points Gained: 3 NEW EXP Balance--- Level 2: 15/20
When the way forward appeared, Ganondorf waited a moment before descending into the Trap door. Namely Nadia was quick to volunteer to go down first, which she had previously done when the Seekers had entered the Basement. But he also decided to go ahead and be among the last to descend to the next level. By then, he reasoned, whatever traps that might have been tripped will have already been tripped. Underhanded, yes, but Ganondorf had no desire to make this place his tomb as it were.
"This place just keeps getting more and and more welcoming." he remarked at the more dimly lit caves he now found himself in. He also could swear that the stench in the air was worse down here than it was up in the Basement. When he heard Sectonia's remark about the person who hid the mask in the place, he found himself inclined to agree, "Well, you're not wrong." he said to her in response, "But I would imagine the only thing they had on their mind was keeping out intruders like us." Speaking from experience with the whole "hiding things in dungeons" routine, Ganondorf was willing to admit that a foul stench like this was probably just as effective of a deterrent as any monster one placed down here. Not that he expected to find no monsters down here, but there was a certain strategic purpose in using such a disgusting location that he could not deny.
"Ah, but that mask isn't going to find itself, now is it?" he asked, no longer wishing to take up anymore time. The sooner they concluded their business in this atrocious pit the sooner they could leave it behind them. And so without even a shred of hesitation Ganondorf strode through the western door without even waiting for anyone to follow him. He'd just spent the entire previous floor teamed up with a pair of ladies and so for now he wished to work alone again. As such, the door he entered automatically locked itself behind him before anyone would even get the chance to follow him through it. All they would hear would be the sounds of eventual fighting on the other side.
As for Ganondorf, the first room he found himself in was occupied by 3 monstrosities that vaguely resembled the Fatties from previous rooms. Except these appeared to have to two heads, like two beings being forcibly smashed together into one.. Conjoined Fatty. Also occupying this room was a trio of skeletons, which... Ganondorf found kind of surprising. They were just skeletons, no disgusting or body-based gimmicks like the other creatures he'd seen so far. One of the Conjoined Fatties slowly started waddling toward Ganondorf, only to suddenly puke out a line of green, acid-like substance at him. Ganondorf quickly sidestepped to avoid the Green Creep and glared with disgust.
"You'll have to try harder than that!" he immediately lunged forward and in one lighting quick motion, drew out the White Sword AND sliced its blade right through the Conjoined Fatty, seemingly killing it. He was almost certain it would get back up again as some new enemy but for now Ganondorf needed to focus on getting rid of the other enemies first. He sidestepped again to avoid another line of acid-puke and then used the White Sword to bat a bone out of the air that had been thrown at him by a Bony. He angrily lunged for the Conjoined Fatty, impaling it on his blade and then using the sword to swing the enemy's body around and fling it into a nearby Bony, killing them both. Ganondorf then had to jump clear out of the way to avoid being hit by yet another puke attack and by 2 more separate bone throws. These ranged attacks were getting annoying. He leaped through the air and brought the blade down on the last Conjoined Fatty and cleaved clean in half. After that he whirled around and deflected another incoming bone throw. Then when a second bone was thrown his way he caught it out of the air in his hand and then threw it right back at the Bony with enough strength that the skeleton shattered into pieces. After that it was merely a matter of rushing the last Bony before it had a chance to throw another bone and he killed it easily enough. That was when he noticed the body of the first enemy appearing to slowly stand itself. But it didn't get a chance to stand for long before Ganondorf rushed up and obliterated it with a single Warlock Punch. Once it was dead, a single Full Heart appeared in the center of the room. Noticing the Fading Spirits that had appeared from the enemies he felled, Ganondorf went about crushing them all, having no interesting in keeping such weak spirits. As expected, none of them gave him any items worth keeping. Ganondorf also realized that he was still roughed up a bit from the fight with the Duke of Flies, so he was quick to take the Full Heart and benefit from the healing it offered him. After this, he immediately made his through the now-open door on the western wall.
In this next room, Ganondorf was met with 6 creatures that appeared to be a made of bloody pulp or goo. 3 appeared to be blind, but the other 3 looked like they had at least one functioning eye to see with. All three began began running at Ganondorf with surprising speed. But he was ready, he swung the White Sword and was able to seemingly take them all out with a single sweep of the blade, "Hmph, pathetic. ...What?" after being down for a short moment, all of the enemies appeared to reform themselves, as if nothing had happened. Well, now this was just annoying. It seemed he was going to have to be thorough about destroying them, and he had an idea for just how to do that. He let the Globins run at him again and like before he managed to down them with a sweeping cleave of the White Sword. But while they were down, he quickly retrieved the Spirit he had recovered in the Basement, "Alright, creature, from now you fight for me. Now get out and do your job!"
New Striker spiritbound: Duke of Flies A hideous husk that hosts a swarm of flies. It has only a few moves, but its short cooldown makes it useful. It can cough up three flies that surround Ganondorf, cough up a larger attack fly that homes in on foes, or send all summoned flies to attack an opponent. It can only spawn twelve surrounding flies around Ganondorf at once. It can also bodyblock for him using its bulk.
The Spirit appeared to vanish from his hand, but then the Duke of Flies appeared to live once more. It appeared in front of Ganondorf and immediately spewed forth twelve flies that all flew out and homed in on the piles of goo to attack them. In moments, the piles of goo were gone, to which Ganondorf surmised meant that the the creatures were now dead for good. Like in the previous room, Ganondorf once again crushed all the Fading Spirits and once again received nothing worth holding onto. But unlike the previous room, Ganondorf wasn't even gifted with any kind of reward for clearing it, "Tch! What a waste of time!" he muttered, both in reference to the Fading Spirits he had been crushing and to the fact that nothing appeared in the room after he had successfully cleared it. Maybe someone else was having better luck in another room.
He also noted that the Duke of Flies had now vanished, almost immediately after letting off its one attack it had done. That was something else he vaguely recalled Kamek explaining earlier at the Ruins. That meant that the Duke of Flies was now what he called a Striker, and would now fight for Ganondorf when he could be summoned. At this, Ganondorf gave a small smile. At least he got something useful out of this excursion. Perhaps if he could gather enough Striker Spirits, he could command his own veritable army with which he could exact his revenge from that detestable Galeem? Only time would tell. For now, the King of Evil had no choice but to continue to cooperate with the Seekers.
@Omega Man Well what I think would be the easiest route would be to look at some monsters and villains from Sentai that haven't been adapted and, well, adapt them. That and you've already got the groundwork for what could be an elite enemy: the actual thief responsible for stealing Tommy's tech for the Machine Enpire.
Level 7 Jesse: 27/70 @Zoey Boey Level 2 Ganondorf: 5/20 @Double Level 10 Nadia: 60/100 @Lugubrious Word Count: 6946 (+7) Location: The Under Points Gained: ? NEW EXP balance--- Level 7: 34/70 (Jesse) NEW EXP balance--- Level 2: 12/20 (Ganondorf) NEW EXP balance--- Level 7: 67/100 (Nadia)
Jesse watched the interaction with the cartographer, arms crossed. When asked for money, she just shrugged. Fortunately, Therion had some. Jesse would have to work on getting some gold on her. As for Sectonia’s offer, Jesse would consider it later. She didn’t need to get injured while she was down here and to be honest, ‘loot’ wasn’t particularly appealing to her. She liked to travel as light as she could, even with all this crap in her pockets.
They encountered some kind of fucking gross ass bug thing. Jesse pumped bullets into it from a far and with one big punch from Ganondorf the thing died. Or at least, went into a perma-coma. Which gave it just enough time to give birth to dozens of awful little creatures. “Dark.” Jesse said, switching her gun to Spin and sweeping streaks of machinegun fire across the field, preventing any from reaching her or the allies near her.
“Pretty hostile for a bunch of newborns.” Jesse said. “At least all the gross things we kill turn to ash right away. Usually gross things are even grosser when they’re dead.”
Afterwards it was just a trek- “Onward and downwards.” Jesse said. “Just like the good old days, right Polaris?”
Polaris shimmered encouragingly as they went deeper into the depths. Whatever secrets Polaris wanted Jesse to uncover, the Director trusted her instincts and wisdom as much as she trusted her own.
As they followed Nadia down, they encountered some pretty gross monsters with threads, which injured Nadia (she’d probably be fine) and Sectonia took care of while Jesse fired at miscellaneous hostile critters.
They dropped down into the basement, where there was a variety of directions to go. Jesse was just gonna guess, but every time someone went ahead of her, the doors slammed shut and she heard fighting inside.
“Uhh. Huh.” She was reluctant to use No Collide, not sure how the rules of this place worked. The doors opened up shortly thereafter and she figured Omori and Therion were pushing ahead, clearing the rooms of monsters.
She made sure to get ahead of the pack once the pace slowed down a bit.
“All right, wait up. I’m going in on this next one, I haven’t gotten into any real fights since the big monsters. I’m fresh. I could probably take the next few rooms alone but if anyone else is itching for a fight and doesn’t need a break they can come with.”
As Jesse volunteered for the next round, Nadia stepped up to accompany her. “Let me join ya,” she requested. “I’m the one who dove headfirst into this place after all, it’s about time I got up off my tail and lent a hand.” That said, the feral couldn’t help but have mixed feelings. After catching up with the frontrunners through the rooms they cleared, that repulsive odor that hung heavy in the stale, musty Basement air didn’t get any better. With the sudden lockdown. the moment any challengers stepped inside, she didn’t get a chance to see what kind of monsters awaited the group either, but she did hear some rather choice sounds with her ears pressed up against the doors. Two at a time seemed practical, but it also meant fewer allies to fall back on if they ran into a troublesome gimmick.
“Fine, I’ll make it three then.” declared the King of Evil as he observed the workings of this Basement. Each room appeared to hide ambushes and other surprises, not unlike the ancient Temples that dotted his home world of Hyrule. If that upstart Hero could conquer dungeons, then so could he!
“Okay!” Though she’d known the burly warrior for only twenty minutes, Nadia felt pretty confident in her assessment of his strength. “Full team ahead then!” Of course, her nose wrinkled at the room directly before theirs. “Ugh…a hero’s ‘duty’ is never done?”
The trio hastened through the malodorous poop room to the new exit and on a count of three, squeezed through the door. With Jesse floating above and Nadia hitching a ride on Ganondorf’s back as he barged in low, they all managed to make it before the door slammed shut. As Nadia dropped down she blinked in brow-raised incredulity at the grotesque monsters that awaited them. Eight floating heads hung motionless in the air around the room, their cheeks slick with ruby-red blood on account of gouged-out eyes and their mouths slack in a nerveless expression of agony. Half as many three-foot humanoids stood in a cluster, and as they turned to face the newcomers Nadia could see tears of blood wept around a creepy smile. The Horfs began to shoot globules of wretched blood across the room, while the Gapers ran toward the trio like children seeking the comfort of mothers’ arms.
“Jesus.” Jesse said, raising an eyebrow as she took in the entities coming towards them. The globules were a type of attack familiar to Jesse, she strafed to the side, avoiding them as they attempted to track her. Figuring her two fighty allies could take care of the Gapers, she focused her attention on the distant floating heads. The good news was, as long as she hit, it couldn’t not be a headshot. She lined them up in her sights and began popping them out of the air with well timed and even-tempo pistol shots. With each shot they popped like balloons made of ash, except for the ones that just kind of wobbled there and stopped shooting. Those, she had to shoot twice. Who knows what anatomy they have going on in there?
”How… grotesque.” was all Ganondorf could really say about the things they encountered in this room. They reminded him of several of the horror stories he had heard about the Well in Kakariko Village, and the atrocities that were said to have been committed in the Shadow Temple. But he had never let a few horrors stop him before, and he wasn’t about to start now. The man’s hand grasped the hilt of the White Sword he carried and he pulled it from its scabbard. While the floating heads remained stationary, the full humanoids instead moved around. As Jesse took her shots at the heads, Ganondorf bounded forward in long strides with his tall legs. With but a few mighty swings of the sword, Ganondorf managed to sweep its blade through a majority of the humanoids, save for a single one that managed to avoid it.
“Yeesh.” Nadia’s instinct to get out of the way at the last moment turned out to be a good one, as her new ally obliterated almost all the Gapers in one go. She watched the last one nearly trip as it stumbled away from the giant slash, then charge toward her. “Almost feel bad for ‘em.” The Gaper jumped at her, but she intercepted it with a five-claw thrust to its oversized head to stop it in its tracks. She steeled her arm to keep the dead weight aloft as it dangled, then brought her other hand around in front of her head. “Sorry chum, maybe necks time.” With one swipe its body hit the floor, and she flung its head away like a beach ball. “Yeugh…”
A blood globule hit her, which really stung, and Nadia turned to glare at it only for Jesse to pop it the next moment, and with that there were no more Horfs. While distracted, however, the feral didn’t notice that the headless body of the Gaper she decapitated stood back up, becoming a Pacer. “Whoa!” she yelled, hopping back as it began to toddle her way. She lashed out with an extended kick to send the little body flying, although touching it with her foot had one other effect. “Ow!? It hurt me just by touchin’ it?” Incensed by the idea of contact damage, she rushed the Pacer down and dispatched it with a downward slash. Meanwhile, two of the Gapers that Ganondorf killed rose again as well, one as a Pacer and the other as a Gusher, a fountain of burning blood exploding from its neck as it staggered the warlord’s way.
”Back for more?” scoffed the Gerudo when two of his fallen enemies rose back up and without their heads. He noticed the blood shooting from one of them as if like a projectile, and some of that blood threatened to splash his way, but instead would hit the Pacer. In a quick moment of decisiveness, Ganondorf had grabbed the nearby Pacer with his right hand and used it to shield himself from the incoming splash of blood. Grabbing the Pacer sent a stinging pain in his hands, but the King of Evil merely gritted his teeth and endured it until the splash ended. Whatever devilry this was would prove no match for the Gerudo’s resilience against it.
With a grunt, Ganondorf put his body weight into hurling the Pacer’s body once the splash ended. He sent it careening into the Gusher, his Triforce of Power giving him the strength to smash both of the creatures into a nearby wall and reducing them both to little more than a bloody smear upon it. He glanced at his slightly singed right hand and clenched it into a fist with defiance, ”Persistent little abominations, aren’t they?”
“If you put both types of them together, you’d get a whole monster.” Jesse said to Ganondorf as she looked around the emptied room.
As the doors both unlocked, there came a flash in the very center of the room. A single coin appeared from nowhere and began to fall toward the ground. “MINE!” Nadia yowled, throwing herself at the money head-first. She caught it in the palms of her extended hands before splatting down on the floor. “Oogh,” she grunted, wincing a little, but the weight of coinage in her hand brought her smile back quickly. The feral stood up, pocketed the coin, and joined the group grinning like she hadn’t just winded herself for a single cent. After seeing that, Jesse made to run over to it. When Nadia secured the coin, she snapped her fingers in defeat.
“Darn. Almost had it.” She said flatly, smiling.
Seeing the way they came, she then made for the exact opposite door from that one. “Not that the piggy-back strat isn’t the best idea we’ve ever had-” She began, cutting herself off. “Nah, it’s fine, it worked. Ready?” Jesse floated into the air and entered the next room.
”Hmph.” was all the Gerudo responded with before walking through the door and into the next room after Jesse.
Once again the three squeezed inside. This room featured two doors, one straight ahead and one to the left, and unlike the last one a number of yawning pitfalls in the floor. Scattered around were twelve Clotties, little more than sacks of flesh the size of stuffed-full trash bags with varying amounts of protruding bone, eyes, and mouths. They sloshed around the room and hopped in place to attack, which sent out blood tears in the four cardinal directions.
Nadia looked displeased, like she’d just found a hair in her food. “Guess this is where hot dogs come from,” she quipped. As projectiles flew her way she stepped side to side to dodge them before drawing out one of her anchors. “Meat your maker!” she cried, and with a big swing she brought what was practically a chain-axe down on a Clotty, her hand detached and extended along with the chain. By doing this she could easily yank the anchor back, then go for another round from a comfortable range.
Jesse touched down and kicked off, making to stay in the air to take advantage of the space said giant holes in the ground provided her. From above she once again fired pistol shots at the Clotties. “They’re giving up so much blood already- I guess we’re just damaging their structural integrity?” She said aloud, briefly pausing her gunshots to line up another hopping target.
Ganondorf rotated his torso to one side to avoid one of the blood shots, ”What next, a walking pile of bone meal?” he scoffed, still not really taking these enemies very seriously. But with projectiles like that and pitfalls to watch out for, remaining at a distance was the ideal strategy here. Well, Ganondorf may not have wielded some fairy bow like certain heroes, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t attack from a distance. It was all just a matter of… sending someone else to do it for him, ”Very well then… appear before me and prove your worth!” he commanded, concentrating a large amount of dark magic in his hands and holding it out before him. This almost appeared to rip open a dimensional hole in front of him, and from it stepped forward… himself? No, it was not him. It was an armored phantom that looked nearly identical to the Gerudo, save for the horned mask it wore on its face and the long spear it carried as a weapon.
”Serve me well, and I may yet forgive your previous failure, now go!” the Gerudo King ordered with a threatening point of his finger. The Phantom he had summoned nodded his head and obeyed its master’s orders. It stepped forward a couple of steps before lifting itself up with some kind of levitation magic. After this it floated around, using its ability to move through the air to easily avoid the shots of blood while occasionally dropping down to skewer Clotties with its wicked spear. As for Ganondorf, he simply stayed back and watched. Sectonia was not the only one capable of commanding minions.
While Ganondorf had his phantom run amuck, Nadia kept practicing with her chain anchors, trying to get used to their weight and balance in order to improve her aim. Using them to deliver solid slashes and slams was tricky, and she missed more than a couple times, but at least these foes didn’t pose much of a threat. After lodging one anchor into a Clotty across a pit she dragged it into the hole, then reeled in the anchor to shake it clean. “Shame it’s not gonna stay this easy,” she predicted. By the time the others wiped the Clotties out she got just one more kill for a grand total of three. Less than average? Maybe. But being a contact fighter, she wanted to be touching these little horrors -and getting their blood near her own- as little as possible.
Rather than choose between the two doors, Nadia readied herself for another coin. Instead a bomb with a weird smirk appeared, already lit. “Whuh!?” Panicked, the feral backpedaled as fast as she could.
“Whuh!” Jesse reached out with Launch and flung the bomb against the wall of the nearest pit. The explosion echoed from the pit, the weird little prank failing. “...I guess that’s not that much weirder than a coin appearing out of mid air, is it? Not sure why I only question it now that it’s something bad.”
Jesse landed on solid ground and looked around at the door. They had a couple options. Once again her instinct was to just keep pushing forward in the opposite direction of where they came, instead of turning now. “Eenie-meenie miney that one?” She pointed at it and floated above so they could do their signature technique, which Jesse found amusing every time.
Once in, she raised her gun and prepared for enemies, only to not see any.
Ganondorf dismissed the Phantom with a wave of his hand and simply decided to follow Jesse’s lead. With this group already split up it was probably best not to split it up even further. He was equally surprised to not see any enemies in the following room, ”Wrong direction, then?” It did, however, have something interesting. Across the room, between two campfires, sat a stony, petrified figure with its head rolled back and its mouth agape. In front of it lay three items, each with an amount scrawled out next to them in chalk. Five cents for a beating metallic heart, five for a normal bomb, and fifteen for a shiny red heart with an arrow through it inscribed with the letters ‘BFF’.
“Oh, I guess it’s a shop?” Recovered from the bomb jump scare, Nadia looked at the merchandise but came away with her ears dejectedly flat. “I don’t have enough money.”
“Aww. It’s like a creepy lemonade stand.” Jesse said, endeared by the little doll that’s been left there. “Hellooo?” She walked up and waved her hand at the doll. “Anyone home?” She waited for a beat. Nothing happened.
“Maybe it works on the honor system?” Jesse asked, smiling at Nadia who had been defeated by the little chalk sign security system.
The feral looked back at her, perturbed by the smile. Was Jesse asking Nadia to try to rob the store? Well, she would, but not because Jesse wanted her to. Unfortunately, when Nadia crouched to grab the bomb her hand went straight through it as if it didn’t exist. “Magic,” she snorted.
”Did you expect anything less?” said the Gerudo with a slight chuckle, ”With all the trickery and devilry in this Basement, an enchanted shop should hardly come as a surprise.”
“I can’t believe you violated the honor system.” Jesse said, shaking her head in shame. Nadia stared at her like she’d been stabbed in the back.
To the left lay an interesting room. It was long and narrow unlike the rectangular ones before it, and featured a number of big, bulky rocks and blazing campfires arranged along its length to interfere with forward movement. Inside, a couple Fatties patrolled it, heaving their naked bulk around while glowering. Even more distasteful were the the pale, blood-soaked Blubbers that wandered aimlessly among the rocks, spewing showers of blood tears, and the equally headless Hoppers that jumped erratically around. Those that happened to jump into a fireplace burst into flame, their hops becoming much farther and faster.
Ganondorf wasted no time. It would still be a bit of time before he could summon the Phantom again so for this room he’d have to get his own hands dirty again. He drew out the White Sword and charged forward, setting his sights on the two Fatties. But he was no fool, the King of Evil noted the similar appearance of the Blubbers, and quickly surmised that it was likely the Fatties would resurrect as Blubbers if he did not also destroy the bodies, ”Let’s see you rise from THIS!” he held the weapon straight up and came down on the first Fatty with a mighty leap that put all his momentum into a single, giant slash that vertically cleaved the Fatty into two halves. He quickly locked onto the location of the second Fatty and lunged for it, this time attacking it with a pair of diagonal strikes that would cut it in an X-shape. Of course, that left the head intact. But the Gerudo took no chances, even if merely touching it caused him pain as before, the King of Evil grabbed the dismembered head with his hand and used the strength of the Triforce to crush it into a bloody pulp. He flung some of the blood from his hand, the rest of it being burned away by the glow of the Triforce.
A third Fatty emerged from behind a rock, announcing its presence with a big fart. At the same time a Blubber came at Ganondorf from a different angle, spewing blood.
Ganondorf had to think fast for this one. The best he could do was cover himself with his cape and let it take the bloody spray so that it wouldn’t directly burn him. The moment it was over he flung the cape back behind him and lunged forward, skewering the Blubber all the way through. Hearing the Fatty approach from behind, Ganondorf lifted the Blubber up on the blade and proceeded to bring it all the way and up and over his head and eventually slamming it down on the charging Fatty. The King of Evil’s strength was tremendous, enough that both of the fat opponents burst into bloody stains on the floor upon impact. Just as he predicted, none of his corpulent foes got the chance to return as a Blubber or Half Sack.
Jesse rolled her shoulder and once again took to the air. This time, she picked up one of the big boulders with her mind and Launched it towards one of the Blubbers, crushing it into dust. Next, she took a moment to do away with several of the campfires, scattering the one nearest to the Hoppers with launch since the little guys seemed to like the fire. That was all the Power she could use for now, except for Levitation which was free.
By that time, three of the flaming Hoppers had gotten close. Two of them bounded over the rocks toward Jesse and Nadia, but the third took a different tact. It sprang off one wall and into the other, back and forth in a hard-to-hit zigzag until it came flying at Jesse from the side just as its fellow jumped up in front of her.
Waiting, Jesse anticlimactically blasted them both at the same time with a flashing shock of psychic energy. They landed on the ground in a heap, and Jesse kicked up dust and stone around each of them as she Shattered them with her shotgun Service Weapon.
As the third came for Nadia, she leaned back and lifted her knee, grabbing her ankle at the same time. The middle section of her leg burst out with two blood-jets’ worth of thrust to smack the miscreant mid-leap. “Knee deep!” She then pulled off that same forearm to juggle the monster with a blast of hydro-infused blood. Vaporize occurred, laying on the pain as the critter’s fire went out, and Nadia finished by jumping and bringing her forearm down on the hopper nails-first like a dagger. “MYOW!” Pierced through the middle, it disintegrated, and Nadia shook off the ash as she stuck her hand back on. “Alright, that one was fun!” Three Hoppers down, three to go. She took off running and pounced on one as its jump came to an end.
“Good job, you two.” Jesse encouraged, seeing the melee fighters go to town. Try as they might, Jesse figured the Hoppers weren’t smart enough to take cover, so she predicted where they would land and sprayed the area with Spin, shredding the stone and the undead creature into pieces.
That stone happened to be of a different shade than the rest, slightly darker, and bearing a small scratch mark shaped like a cross. When Jesse broke it, a metallic blue heart fell out, just like the one she saw in the shop earlier. After Nadia finished decimating the last Blubber with her anchors, she looked over. “That the reward?” To her surprise, a tarot card manifested in the center of the room as well. “Aw, shweet. I was just thinkin’ this wasn’t excitin’ enough.” She picked up the card and flipped it over to reveal a grisly illustration. “The Hanged Man.”
”Hmph, what is this, a dungeon or a game?” scoffed the Gerudo.
Nadia shrugged. Just by holding the thing, she felt a strange urge to rip it in half, which made the hairs on the back of her neck rise. “I got no clue what the hell this does, if anythin’. Either of you want it?”
”Very well, I’ll take it. It does not frighten me.” Ganondorf offered, and he was duly given the card. He was no stranger to curses and dark magic. He’d basically grown up around it his entire life.
Jesse studied the metallic blue heart shaped heart. Not like the organ, like the drawing of a heart, thankfully. She didn’t want any curses, but when Polaris didn’t object, she nudged the heart with her shoe and then went to pick it up. Upon touching it she absorbed it, gaining an extra bit of impermanent armor on top of her existing barrier.
The next room was big, easily four times as large as the typical dungeon chamber. Much larger pits lay in the four corners, and one in the center with a little platform in its middle–upon that platform, a glittering dime. In addition to rocks, piles of actual crud festooned the place, and there were at least a dozen flies around. Their round little bodies flashed red whenever anyone got close enough to provoke their pursuit. There seemed to be more Gapers as well, two groups of five, and two Full Flies flew around ready and willing to explode into radial shots on death. Nadia grimaced, her face one of absolute disgust. “Aaaaugh. I knew I shoulda stayed home today.” The nearest Gapers turned at the sound, and hustled on over.
”There goes any element of surprise we might have had.” said Ganondorf as he readied the White Sword, ”Try to destroy them as thoroughly as you can. Otherwise they’ll just rise back up as floating heads or headless enemies.” he advised the other two Seekers, sharing with them the discovery he’d made in the previous room about destroying the bodies before they could resurrect.
He took a step forward, deciding not to charge ahead this time due to the enemies being more clumped together into what could be dangerous groups. Instead he let the Gapers came to him and did not hesitate to slice up the first two that came in his direction, again being careful to slice up the bodies as thoroughly as possible to prevent any resurrections.
“Or!” Nadia footstooled off Ganondorf and blasted her arms down to sink her claws into two more monsters. She executed a front flip that yanked them off the ground and abruptly dunked them into the room’s central pit. “To hell with ‘em!” Before the last one could grab her she jumped and airdashed to the central pillar to grab that shiny dime, leaving that Gaper and the nearby flies to the others.
Jesse kept on Spin and fired many bullets at the flies, so she didn’t need to have enough accuracy to literally shoot the wings off a bug like some kind of cowboy legend. The spray of machine gun fire traveled to the last of the first group of Gapers and shredded it up the middle. Then she refocused on the flies, as when she popped one it exploded into blood. Jesse figured that made her the most qualified to quickly take care of them out of the three Seekers there. She floated into the air to get a better angle and to free her friends of worry of friendly fire, bursting the bugs from above with controlled sprays of bullets.
Meanwhile, Ganondorf had moved forward. He maneuvered around the central pit and then made a charge for the last group of Gapers. When he got close enough he managed to get a surprise attack on one, using his Gerudo Dragon technique to strike it with a dark-magic-infused uppercut that knocked the head clean off and sent it flying upward and splattering onto the ceiling. He then grabbed the headless body and hurled it behind him into the central pit. Two more Gapers moved toward him but were met with by the White Sword and promptly chopped into bloody bits. But the remaining two Gapers had maneuvered around the first pair in such a way that they threatened to attack Ganondorf from his flank. He’d been keeping an eye on them and whirled around with a spin slash that kept them from getting close. Then he used his tremendous strength to kick one of them into the wall and then Warlock Punched the other, exploding it with dark magic.
In a much less impressive turn of events, Nadia was being bitten by flies. “Ow, ow, ow!” she yelped, swiping at the bugs furiously. The air current created by her movements, however, kept brushing the flies just out of her attacks’ way. While Jesse had taken care of plenty of them already, these ones just wouldn’t leave Nadia alone. “Uuuugh! I’ve had it up to here!” She jumped into the air and clapped her hands together. When she drew them apart, a swirling orb of condensed Hydro power formed between them, and once it swelled to ten feet in diameter Nadia hurled it straight down. The orb burst in a watery explosion, killing the rest of the flies outright, and once Jesse gunned down the stragglers the room was clear. A silver key popped into existence on the central spire, and the doors flew open. “How much farther?” Nadia muttered, shaking herself off.
Up next lay another normal room, albeit one stuffed with yet more flies. “Oh, joy,” Nadia groaned. Eight gray-bodied Pooters -so sluggish they did not even deal contact damage- and six bloated Suckers flew slowly over arrays of floor spikes, occasionally shooting shots.
“Just keep on truckin’.” Jesse said, strafing to the side as one of the shots splashed against the wall behind her. She plucked one of the spikes from the distant floor and pulled it towards her, stabbing through one of the Suckers. Lining up a shot, she ripped through two more with the spike. After that, it was machine gun city, Jesse zapping these flies out of the air with a spray of psychic lead.
With the situation almost perfectly suited for her, Nadia and Ganondorf didn’t need to do much but watch Jesse mow the flies down. A red heart appeared in the center of the room, and after she’d hard her breather the feral busied herself navigating around the spikes without stepping on any. Touching the heart replenished some of the blood she’d lost or spent, allowing Nadia to breathe a sigh of relief. What did concern her, however, was the bigger, more menacing door on the left wall, adorned with a skull aglow with red light from inside. “He-hey, maybe this is it!” she declared, perking up after a moment.
Ganondorf was also not against giving himself a breather. In fact, this allowed enough time to pass for him to be able to summon his Phantom again if needed. And perhaps he would need to very soon, judging by the door that waited for them at the end of the room. Ganondorf stared at it almost as if the sight of it were familiar to him. If this Basement were anything like the Temples of his home world, then something much stronger waited for them beyond it, ”Perhaps we should make sure we’re in good form first before blundering into that room? I sense something a little… bigger is waiting for us inside.”
“I think I’m okay,” Nadia ventured. “I guess I could run back to that shop and get somethin’, but I kinda wanna get it over with.”
“Ready when you are.” Jesse said simply.
One final time, the trio pushed through the door. Metal gates slammed down behind them, but all eyes were on the thing up ahead. A bulbous mass floated in the air, larger than a wrecking ball, its stain-riddled flesh sutured together. Instead of eyes it possessed mere craters, alongside a smorgasbord of protruding, eking pustules. Drool leaked out across rotten gums full of missing teeth, and within its cavernous maw buzzed the eponymous swarm of the Duke of Flies.
Nadia blanched. “...Holy hell.”
Jesse whistled appreciatively. “That is revolting, huh?”
“For real. I’m blankin’ on fly puns…” Nadia furrowed her brow. “...And it’s really buggin’ me.”
The Duke began to move diagonally, happy to bounce off the walls. Flies emerged from its mouth both to orbit around it, blocking shots, and to chase its opponents down.
”Then let’s just get straight to the point, then.” Ganondorf temporarily sheathed the White Sword in order to free up both his hands. Like he had done a few rooms ago, he channeled a great deal of dark magic to open another dimensional hole. But unlike before, this time his Phantom came riding in on an equally ghastly steed, ”Obey my command! Help me crush that disgusting abomination!” and obedient as ever, the Phantom Ganon galloped forth on his horse, aiming to attack the Duke of Flies with a full speed charge with his spear. But he did not stop galloping, and instead disappeared into a dimensional hole only to reappear again to charge the Duke from a different direction. And this would be his role for this battle, to repeatedly charge the Duke with straight on or glancing blows while his master fought it alongside the Seekers, while the numerous attack flies whittled down his vitality.
As for the King of Evil, he wasted no time in once again drawing out the White Sword. His Phantom would provide occasional surprise blows to the Duke and could even serve to draw the attention of some of the flies. And that at least allowed Ganondorf to attack the Duke himself. His first attack would be an upward slash of the sword, trying to time it to coincide with an incoming charge of the Phantom.
Jesse watched the magical attack, scratching her head. She wondered if that would be enough to do it. In case it wasn’t, she decided to go on the ever noble task of fly-shooting duty, getting a good angle on them and gunning down their number to clear a path for the party.
While Ganondorf and his doppelganger took the monstrosity head-on, Nadia flanked around to the side with her anchors in hand. It looked like the Duke wasn’t content to sit still and be punished; not only did it move incessantly, but when struck it rebounded the opposite way, evidently not caring where it went as long as it could spew flies and wallop anyone it ran into. Nadia swung her chain like a lasso to deal sweeping slashes from out of fly range while Jesse zapped the bugs, although the feral needed to keep her distance from Ganondorf to make sure he didn’t get a faceful of steel, either. To take blows and bullets like this, this Duke must be pretty chunky. But it had to have a weak spot, and it sure didn’t look like the nightmare’s eyes or mouth.
Torn and bleeding from stabs, slashes, and Service Weapon fire, the Duke blithely kept up the flood of flies, spawning so many that its body just about disappeared in a living veil. From there, larger attack flies flew out to pester the three from different angles. Luckily this problem had an answer Nadia used before. “Right, I’m up,” she declared, moving in. She guarded her head against the flies until she got close enough to cash out her tension on another Purrge of Vengeance. She bumped the Hydro orb upward, them somersaulted after it to spike it down and wipe out all the Duke’s orbital flies in one go. “It’s open!” she called just before the Duke rammed her with its vile mass, flooring her momentarily.
A superheated psychic bullet tore through the Duke and out the other side, leaving a red hot bullet hole in the wall on the other side of the room. Any flies inside the duke and in the path of the bullet would be turned to dust even if they weren’t in the World of Light. Jesse stood at range, Service Weapon shimmering with heat.
After Jesse’s psychic shot finished, Ganondorf took the opportunity to get in a devastating blow of his own. He lunged forward, slicing cleanly through the Duke of Flies just as his Phantom used the last of its vitality to skewer it from a perpendicular angle. Once it vanished, Ganondorf used his right hand to charge up the strongest Warlock Punch he could muster in order to give the grotesque one more final oomph of an attack from him.
Before he could land it, however, the badly-wounded Duke floated out of range across the room, and the Warlock Punch hit nothing but air. As it drifted away, Nadia hopped to her feet, her eyes bright with mischief. “I got a great idea!” She ran toward and around it, predicting its movement, then called upon one of the aces up her sleeve. “I’ll stop it’s movement!” Her ghoulish striker Idea appeared to catch the Duke with its gangly arms, then further ensnare it with over a half-dozen muscular tongues from its array of heads. Nadia pulled out her anchors as she dashed toward the monster, slid underneath it, and jammed both weapons into the sutured flesh on the Duke’s belly. “Hey Muscles. Here!” As Idea faded, she closed in on Ganondorf to toss him the other ends of the chains, but he was only able to catch one of them. One of them floundered unluckily, twisting closer to Jesse. With a flick of her wrist she telekinetically lobbed the chain back towards him, assuming he needed both to execute whatever idea Nadia had- unless the only idea was the pun. Now with both chains in hand, Ganondorf had a feeling he knew what Nadia had in mind. Using the raw strength granted to him by the Triforce, the King of Evil spun himself around, consequently whirling the monster around as well. He put every ounce of his mighty strength into bringing the captured Duke around into a giant slam into the Basement’s floor.
The massive impact squashed the Duke of Flies like a water balloon against the ground, and the stitches in its underside ruptured in a wave of pulpy flies. The gruesome, deflated husk could only moan hideously as the swarm inside it drained away, and after a moment it too crumbled to ash. As its spirit came to rest in the heap the doors flew open, including a previously-unseen hatch in the floor. Just as expected another reward appeared as well, but instead of a mask, it appeared to be an odd floating sigil, like a blend between the lowercase letters ‘t’ and ‘h’.
Breathing a little heavier than she expected, Nadia reeled her chains back into the drum on her waist. “I guess gettin’ the first mask within half an hour woulda been too easy.” She made her way around the sigil, peering at it dubiously, then crouched at the edge of the hole.
”This place is called the Basement, yes?” asked the Gerudo as he knelt down at the newly formed Spirit and proceeded to claim it for himself, ”That suggests to me that this is likely but one of multiple floors. We’ll likely find the mask in whatever the final floor is.” he examined the Spirit for a moment, considering his options for what to do with it. Ultimately he decided simply to hang onto it for the time being. He was told these things would fade away in just a few short hours, but that still at least gave him some amount of time to think it over.
Jesse smiled, satisfied with a job well done. Err, so far, at least. “The good news is, and I don’t wanna jinx us, I doubt we’ll be seeing an amount of flies greater than what we just encountered. Unless there’s like…two giant flesh balls of flies in the next room.” Jesse said.
Jesse went over to the podium and observed the floating sigil. “What do you think this is? Some kind of Object of Power? It’s very…two dimensional.” She walked around it in a circle, trying to observe its properties.
Carefully, she reached out with her parautilitarian abilities and with her hand, too, looking to grab the sigil. It flashed when she touched it, inscribing itself painlessly onto her palm. A faint ring appeared around her a few feet in diameter, softly shining like a distant belt of stardust, then went away.
You have acquired: Saturnus When faced with combat, a dim ring of light appears around Jesse. Seven small chunks of debris are torn from the environment to orbit around her, moving slowly along this ringed path. They can be used to hit targets, which destroys them, be pulled from orbit to be thrown, or potentially block shots. Slow-moving projectiles that aren’t too strong can also be caught or deposited in the orbit if they touch the ring, making them Jesse’s
@Omega Man I'll be honest, I find the idea of helping with villains and monsters to be more appealing than playing one of the Rangers. Plus every Ranger storyline usually has to have That One Villain who's a cut above of the others and who can give the Rangers a run for their money for the duration of an entire story arc before finally being defeated. Wouldn't mind playing as THAT guy if at all possible.
The Keyblade Wielder's shoulders slumped ever-so-slightly. This wasn't exactly the answer he was hoping for on either front. It sounded like the bus driver wouldn't be jailed for long, but would still get put through a pretty bad experience anyway. And his question about the coat was given an even less satisfying answer. It sounded like an Organization Member had indeed been here to Midgar, but not one that Roxas knew. And no leads at all on the Master of Masters or any of his friends. Those were all long shots, he knew that, but he still couldn't stop the feeling of disappointment, "Zato, huh? Right... thanks." he tried his best, but Roxas didn't exactly have a good poker face for hiding his disappointment. Still, if the Organization had been here, that meant he was at least still on their trail... even if it was cold.
He just sort of slipped into the background as everyone else started asking their questions. All this talk about Sectors and Factions and Politics, most of it flew right over his head. He just wasn't used to this sort of thing in the slightest. In his experience most problems could be solved by simply wielding one's Keyblade and never losing sight of the Light. But this was going to be a lot more complicated than that, and Roxas even began to wonder just how much good he would be here. Throw him against Heartless, Nobodies, or any denizen of the Darkness, and he would thrive. Here? Not so much.
In fact it was all so much to take in that he felt an overwhelming urge to get out of the room. All the questions and talk of what to do was making him unable to hear himself think. And so he found himself slipping out of the discussion and returning outside to the helipad that they had entered from. He went to the edge of the roof and sat down, letting his legs dangle over the edge. It wasn't the Clock Tower, but at least he could hear himself think at last.
"Jeez, Roxas... what did you go and get yourself into?" It was only now that basically everything he'd been learning was beginning to sink in. And the more it did the more he felt like he was in over his head. Freeing people from Galeem and defeating Guardians in order to weaken him sounded simple enough. But doing so while trying to make sense of this mess of a world he created? Easier said than done. And then there was all the confusing politics of this city to sift through before they could even have a chance of finding a Guardian.
"And who the heck is this Zato person, anyway?" Even Organization XIII - the one thing he was supposed to understand better than anything else - was riddled with questions that he had no answers for. Everyone else on that team still understood their elements very well. Whether it was Raiden recognizing and explaining Desperado or Raz being able to identify half the leaders of the Psych-OSF. And here Roxas was, the one who was supposed to be their expert on Organization XIII, unable to actually explain anything of value to them about the Organization XIII they'd been encountering because of how different it was from the one he remembered.
"Some help I turned out to be." said Roxas, effectively talking to himself at this point. "What a joke." Between getting ambushed in Nyakuza Metro and getting an innocent bystander arrested, he wasn't feeling like he'd been of much help to the Seekers at all. And on top of all that, there was this inescapable feeling he had. That despite being surrounded by these teammates, he still felt... alone, somehow.
Level 2 Ganondorf (3/20) Location: The Ruins | Temple of the Black Egg -> Crossroads Cavity @DracoLunaris Bowser & Kamek | @Scarifar Rubick | @Isaac The Adventurer Word Count: 1,025 Exp: 3 + 2 = 5/20
"That 'triangle power' as you put it, is the Golden Power created by the Goddesses Din, Farore, and Nayru. But the Golden Power is now split into three aspects: Power, Wisdom, and Courage. Each one now carried by a chosen bearer." Ganondorf didn't really need to explain all this to the wizard, but something about hearing the Triforce be referred to as a mere "triangle power" was almost insulting to him, "Princess Zelda carries the Triforce of Wisdom, and her wayward Hero carries the Triforce of Courage. As for the third... you stand before it now."
Bowser may have had a chuckle, but the simple truth was that he was no better off than Ganondorf. After all, they all were crushed by Galeem when it first appeared. And that made Ganondorf reconsider his current position with a sly smile, "Laugh all you want you bumbling Koopa," said the Gerudo to Bowser, "but that Galeem creature clearly knew which of us was the greater threat to him, did he not? Why else would he go this much trouble to lock me up down here? It clearly means he must fear me."
But Bowser didn't hang around, and instead it fell to his advisor to explain things to Ganondorf. And while Bowser may have been a bumbler, this magikoopa clearly was not. Galeem was something Ganondorf was already familiar with thanks to his previous actions with the Smashers. But these Guardians were a new development. Thirteen in total, and now there were nine left. That meant these people had only defeated four so far. And their fifth target was believed to be sleeping in the Black Egg.
"Then it sounds as though we have no time to be wasting." Ganondorf finally said after the Magikoopa finished her lengthy explanation, "Those Guardians are not to going to slay themselves." while it was definitely true that Ganondorf was infamous for his inability to work on a team, there were certain goals that were more than worth letting himself join a group for. Galeem was one of those goals. He wouldn't enjoy working with Bowser again, but the King of Evil wasn't above doing so anyway for the greater goal of revenge.
But as their group left to catch up with those that had gone before, Ganondorf let himself lag behind momentarily. He stared intently at the spirit in his possession, knowing he only had a limited time to decide what to do with it. He doubted he could successfully command the Spirit as a striker, and potentially changing his appearance or even personality didn't seem appealing either. That left him but one option. He took the spirit in his hands and with his great strength he crushed it.
You have acquired: ButtsPie Butterscotch-cinnamon pie, one slice. Scarfing it down fully restores one's health no matter how much the eater might have, and doing so in the presence of certain characters will weaken their resolve.
The Gerudo king couldn't help but chuckle. Something about this outcome seemed incredibly appropriate. She always did go on about food and cooking when the opportunity arose. But in all honesty this slice of pie probably wouldn't do Ganondorf any real good. So instead he decided to do something else with it. With Ganondorf as the last one to leave the Ruins, the only thing left of the commotion that had taken place was a single lonely slice of pie sitting on its plate, in the very spot that spirit had been standing when she was cut down. Perhaps it was there to serve as a memorial of sorts? Or perhaps it would eventually be found and taken by another passerby later on.
A bit of time later, fighting broke out in the Crossroads Cavity. One of the Seekers had awoken a slumbering Gruz Mother and now appeared to be struggling. So far, Ganondorf had not bothered to fight any of the small insects the group had come across, seeing them as a waste of effort and not worth his time. The rhino-sized Gruz Mother on the other hand... that might prove mildly interesting. He drew the white sword and moved to intervene on the behalf of the struggling Adventurer.
Ganondorf attacked the insects from behind, able to use to element of surprise to cut down the Gruzzers with ease and even get in a good slice on the exposed face of the Gruz Mother. The beast reeled back but then began it's charge forward. But Ganondorf wasn't one to dance or roll around his opponents. Instead he stuck the tip of the white sword into the ground in order to free up his hands so that he could pull his fist back in order to wind up for a punch. As the charging insect came ever closer, Ganondorf's fist steadily became charged with fiery dark magic which allowed him to meet the charging Gruz Mother with a powerful Warlock Punch.
His attack sent the big bug sprawling, squirming in place while puffs of orange smoke exploded outward. Eventually the insect was dead, and was a reduced to just a Spirit and a pile of geo, both of which Ganondorf decided to ignore in favor of retrieving the white sword and returning it to its scabbard. The Adventurer could have the spirit if he wanted it, Ganondorf had no need for such weak things.
The Gerudo King caught up with the others in time to overhear the bee explain something about her hat. Evidently it allowed spirits to produce stronger items when crushed. Certainly useful, but Ganondorf had no desire to grovel or pay for the privilege of using it. Instead he would rather take his chances. If Sectonia had been expecting to use this as a way to make Ganondorf bend a knee, well, she would be sorely disappointed.
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