DracoLunaris

The Friestan Incident, a Fantasy Sci-Fi Fusion RP

Q-T Brackman

”Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! We’re actually doing this!” Q-T babbled in half panic-half awe as the dragon they were all atop suddenly launched skywards. And then she clung on for dear life for a moment like the others before activating pads on her hands and feet which let her effectively stick to the surface (the design of which was lifted almost directly from the terrestrial gecko).

That let her stop focusing on keeping herself somewhat stable on the dragon back, and instead focus on keeping everyone else onboard instead. While monitoring their gravity harnesses and their grasp on their mounting points, the bot kept one of her arms free to grab anyone who looked like they were going to fall. She probably didn’t need to worry about the experienced captain and trained soldiers, but she did anyway, out of a mix of concern and astronaut arrogance.

Down below, the small shoal of skimmers chased after them, and though their instruments meant that they went flying blind despite the fog, the pace over the unfamiliar train was slower than the denizen of the land carrying the captain and her escort. Galmira raced across the skies and brought them swiftly to their first contact with the humans of this world.

What they found did not exactly leave a good first impression. While Q-T might have been curious about the biology of dragons and how on earth they ticked, she very much did not enjoy the fact that she got her wish by the manner of seeing one in the process of being carved up by the group of humans right out of a fantasy film.

She was both amazed and concerned that Galmira was so calm about this fact that one of her kind was laying half butchered on the ground. Q-T personally considered it a travesty, but she followed the Captain’s lead and didn't display any open hostility or dismay at this. Instead she slipped off of the dragon’s back and listened to her orders about being ready in case things got ugly, which she responded to with a saute as confirmation.

Feeling quite ill equipped for that, having foolishly not considered that it was the humans who might be the threat, carefully turned down the dials of the anti-megafauna launchers to as low a setting as they could go. Then she took up position with the troops and, in lieu of having anything else to do other than stand there in nervous readiness, started murmuring translations of the negotiation to the others to keep them abreast of what was going on.

World of Light

The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 1,487 (+6)
Bowser: Level 10 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (173/100)
Bowser Jr: Level 9 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (143/90)
Kamek: Level 10 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(63/100)
Location: Bottomless Sea – Carcass Isle
Feat: Rika

Whatever the source or cause of the team’s spectral assistance, it was both dearly needed and highly effective as it turned what had been dogged resistance and evasiveness into a sudden burst of renewed fervor as the replenished and/or restocked fighters took to the rooftops and deliver a furious torrent of fire onto the titan.

The bloody armaments they had received proved particularly powerful on the monster’s main mass, which explained why they’d gotten them. Kamek’s little storm rained down its crimson droplets, leaving a lovely speckled pattern of gold all across the thing’s head of hands and shoulders. Rika meanwhile pockmarked the limbs with her own specs of gold, but it became clear after a bit that their effort to goldify the whole thing was better spent hammering the big obvious weak spot that was the blood drunk eye.

Thus, Rika joined Mimi in hammering the eyeball, her reserve of ichor ammo stripping some of its innate defense away, while Kamek and Jr focused on the balloons, Kamek’s rain popping several even as they spawned from the neck hole while Jr blasted those getting close with fireballs.

“Raaaaaaaaaaaaaa-hey wait come back that’s cheating!” Rika interrupted her wordless roaring alongside her gunfire when the eye suddenly pulled into the BT’s body, fleeing the fire it was taking.

”What happened?” Jr asked her, having been too focused on keeping them clear of balloons to keep track of the eye/

“It just shut the eye! It can’t just do that right? It’s not fair” Rika complained, before glancing and seeing it re-emerge far far away from them “oh no wait its back. Just all the way over there!”

”Time to move then. All aboard Kamek airways troop! We’ll leave the hopping to the heroes” the old mage told them, grouping up her clones to help lift the two youngsters. They did this by having two clones link arms and flying right next to each other, creating a pair of broomsticks that acted a bit like a chair for Rika and Jr to ride. Or as the prongs of a forklift. Either way, in quick succession the troop was airborne and heading for a better firing position.

This didn’t go entirely smoothly.

“Whip things coming after us!” Rika cried out in alarm as the thing lashed out after them, trying to take advantage of the fact that they had all had to get out into the open to move out. Then it succeeded, at least in part, when it clipped and launched the hat kid. There were several cries of alarm from on high, but fortunately Nadia was on the yarnball and launched herself, and then a clone of herself, forwards to save the falling child from a hard landing.

That she wasn't dead was a relief, that she was left just laying there was enraging. Moments later Troop hit the deck of a crashed airship that had risen up out of the muck and set to work extracting vengeance. Jr swiftly monkeys up one of the masts to get to the crows-nest from which to keep launching his fireballs and Rika climbed up and used its dilapidated turret as a firing platform while Kamek stuck to the nice and sturdy deck proper for her spell-casting.

From there they unleashed their fury, hailing the blood drunk eye with a cavalcade of magic and metal along with the rest until, at last, one of the team's shots chipped off that last sliver of health and it was, at last, truly over. The titan stumbled. Fell. and the golden crystallization took hold, bleeding its way across its entire body which first petrified, and then shattered upon hitting the sand.

After one final shadowy surprise, the Orphan’s spirit was left behind amidst a field of statuesque hands and glimmering golden crystals reflecting the sunlight of the ever so welcome dawn.

Still, after two nasty surprises from the boss, no one assumed it was over till it really was, certainly not the troop who kept a tight formation as they dropped back down to the beach as the ruins sank away along with the tar polluting the world, all of it returning back to wherever it had come from. Yet moments passed, more than had passed after the monster’s physician form faltered, and eventually it looked safe to say that it was all over.

All that was left to deal with was the spirit and, fortunately enough, Geralt volunteered for that task, sparing them all the trouble of arguing over that cursed boon or, worse, finding out what happened if it was simply allowed to lay and fester.

He got some well deserved praise and thanks for his sacrifice, along with a ”Better you than me” from Jr.

”What the young master means is, thank you for your bravery, Geralt” Kamek insisted to the Witcher while elbowing Jr, which got her a grunt of agreement from the prince, and then after a hard stare, a quiet ”Yeah. Thanks” delivered to Geralt, along with a genuine “and good luck!” from Rika

As it turned out, the man didn't actually suffer too hard from the transformation, at least noticeably. Kamek had to give a little snort of a laugh at his joke about it being anticlimactic, before becoming the focus of a question about the state of the Atomos. This prompted a glance back to where Bowser had dumped it, which confirmed that it hadn't been devoured by the oil. Neither had Jr’s clown car incidentally, which sat on the ridge line as basted as ever and with the sentient meat hook Hook reeled out of it;s mouth and waving down at them in an attempt to make sure it wasn't left behind.

”Well, it’s still there, but it was being muddled by something on the island and it might take a fair bit of work to get it running again, if it even will” kamek replied. She assumed killing the boss would have lifted the interference preventing it from taking off, but there was no guarantee that was the case from where she was standing

Fortunately they had two other options for getting out. The first was Blazermate, who mentioned she had her teleporter exit still set up back in Limsa. She also mentioned the possibility of checking out the area for spirits, but at least as far as the troop was concerned, this was of no interest at the moment.

Jr for one was 100% done ”Screw waiting or doing annnnnnything else here. I wanna find my papa and then I want to go for a three day long nap thanks. You guys can muck around or wait for overalls to do his thing. I’m gonna go paint us a way home” he announced, ignoring Kamek’s whisper of ”Language!” in response to the use of ‘screw that’ and setting off for the cliff wall back near the entrance.

He vaguely gestured to one side as he got close, summoning a massive tower of goombas to retrieve his clown car, and then gave a tired twirl of his paintbrush and set to work doing a quick and dirty sketch of Alcamoth. Kamek and Rika joined his side as the clown car was slowly lowered down beside them and watched him work. While doing so Kamek glanced back the way they had come and wondered aloud ”I wonder if the wave of shadow hit all those minions who were bowing down back there?”

“Huh?” Rika asked, not knowing why that was relevant.

”Oh, I haven't mentioned this have I? When a boss dies it sends out a wave that frees everything in the immediate area form Galeem’s grip, so I was wondering it it reached though there?” she explained, before thinking a bit more and glancing at the in progress painting before adding ”maybe we should wall this back up? Just in case something tries to get through?”

“What? No! Shouldn't we go help them. And, you know. Explain stuff?” Rika demanded loudly, leaving the tired mage swaying slightly before she shook her head and found her empathy fighting its way up to the surface of the sea of sleep that was filling her mind now that the adrenaline was gone.

”I- Yes you are right. They must be very confused, and I’d hate to be like them in that state, lost in this dreadful place” she agreed, before cutting of Jr’s disagreement with this plan by saying ”You take someone with you and go find your father junior, we cant have him worrying after all. We’ll take a careful look and see what’s going on back there” which placated the boy, at which point he went back to finishing up his return method.

After that, all that was left was to see who was going to go check in on the cat saved folk, who was going to go and do one last mission of mercy, and who was just done with all this and wanted to hit the hay as soon as possible.

Pokémon: Feudal Legends

The Persian lunged at the unflinching Sanzoku, jaws wide and fangs bared, and received the length of her Kanabō as a bar gag for its efforts, the sellsword pushing forwards to keep its maw occupied even as the heavy clawed paws slashed and batted at her armored form.

”Gotcha!” she laughed in the face of danger, before loudly requesting aid by shouting ”Now if someone could-” and getting it before she could even finish the request when Lady Hanabi stepped around her (and a fire spitting Marrow) and delivered a final blow to the attacking beast, brutally and effectively parting its head from its body.

The great cat’s body slumped, its severed neck spraying Sanzoku’s armor with blood as it fell while leaving the head hanging from Sanzoku’s Kanabō by its teeth. The one eyed sell-sword blinked once at the climactic ending to the conflict and then gave a bark of a relieved laugh that caused the head to drop from away from her guard and hit the dirt.

She let out a little sigh to release the last of the tension and then, with considerably less grace than the one who had performed the killing blow, stashed her Kanabō back by her side.

Then she did her best to wipe/shake the blood off of her armor, during which William approached to thank her for saving his life.

”Ah, it was nothing” Sanzoku said, modestly waving off his thanks, before quickly adding ”Not that I’m going to say no to being paid mind,” because of her profession. As a mercenary she didn’t exactly go around doing selfless heroics after all, at least if she wanted to cover her expenses. Such fixing as the dents and claw rends on the armor that had allowed her to pull off the little life saving maneuver.

Speaking of getting paid, it turned out that would not be a problem, because the local lady (and expert head chopper) tossed her a bag of coins for her efforts, but giving little else in terms of pleasantries. While she found her treatment a little rude and dismissive, the coin purse the sell-sword had received without even asking more than made up for any unpleasantness.

She gave her a respectful bow in response and a ”My thanks to you as well, Lady Yasashi, a few more moments and I might have been in trouble” regardless, the thanks a mix of genuine appreciation for the assist/save, and a subtle bit of marketing/politicking. It never hurt to try and get in the good books of the rich and powerful in the sell-swords opinion, considering that's where all the best employment opportunities are.

After that she carefully stashed her earnings away (she’d count them later, doing it right now would not look good and she had a vague idea just based on the weight anyway) as people started to drift off away from the battle site. She had no interest in engaging with the argument surrounding William’s attempt at capturing the monster vs its death. A few weeks ago she’d have been solidly on the side of death, but little Marrow had changed her, and so as of now she didn't really have a firm stance on the matter.

As if knowing she was thinking of him, the Houndour gave a muffled yip, which drew her attention down to him.

”Hello little one, you did so well in your first real battle” she told him, a little guilty about not checking in on him earlier, crouching down next to the pokemon and giving him a scratch behind the ear, before frowning and asking ”Oh? What do you have in your mouth?” upon seeing what had muffled his yip. She reached out and the mon obediently dropped the, now slightly drool covered, pokeball William had been prevented from using to try and capture the Persian into her hand.

”Huh. I guess he forgot about it?” she said as she tossed it up in the air once while thinking and then, upon catching it, stashing it in her pouch. ”You're a good boy, finding that for me Marrow. We’ll give it back to William when we see him again later today” she told Marrow, giving him a rewarding pet before standing and stretching.

She briefly considered whether she could get away with looting the severed head of its valuable forehead jewel, and then decided against it. If there was any justice it would go towards supporting the dead guard's family. She’d gotten plenty out of the situation already after all.

Pokémon: Feudal Legends

Sanzoku’s table guests dropped away one after the other. William, the only one of them with actual duties to see too during the day, got through his meal as quickly as could be and saw himself out.

”Take care. I’ll see you later” she said to the man in farewell, before joking to Rintaro ”Cheerful one isn’t he” once the grumpy merchant was out of earshot.

Rintaro was saved from her assailing him with more conversation however, because a few moments later news about the cause of the sounds that had Marrow on alert reached the inn they were in. An alpha pokemon attack, news which had the sell-sword raising an eyebrow for two reasons.

The first was that it was not the kind of thing she expected to happen right next to the capital. Out on the roads or too some unfortunate isolated village sure, but she had to wonder why any pokemon thought such a concentration of humans would make a good target.

The second was that her dinner guest excused himself upon hearing about this and headed right for the door, which was quite the interesting response for someone who didn’t look like a warrior. Maybe he was just worried about family or something, but it was still quite the odd little reaction.

Either way, her curiosity peaked, she decided to see what this was all about. Unlike the younger folk however, she didn’t run heedlessly into danger right away. Instead she shoved one final load of rice into her mouth, slapped down a few coins on the table and then grabbed her pack and then got moving.

”Come along Marrow, let's see what this is all about shall we?”

---

Battle was in full swing, and even possibly coming to a close by the time Sanzoku showed up, both due to the delay in finding out about it and the fact that she had taken the time to clad herself in her armor. Years of experience meant she’d managed to do so while on the move, but it was still a delay nonetheless. The kind you made time for if you wanted to ever retire in her profession.

What she found when she arrived was a mess. Bodies on the floor, troops in disarray and a bunch of unarmored folks and their pokemon trying their best to survive and fight off the lone alpha Persian’s attack on a scattered merchant convoy. Several of them were from the inn she had been in, she noted, and none of them were soldiers. There were princesses, mystics and battered Ronin in the fray too, but it was her two table guests who had most of her attention.

”Fancy seeing you here” she said cheerfully to the one who was sensible enough to not throw themselves into combat. She didn't miss the knife the guy was holding behind his back with intrest, but that wasn’t a concern right now. Instead the armored titan of a woman shoved past him and all the other onlookers with ease and entered the fray, Kanabō in hand and Marrow hot on her heels .

”Stay behind me like we practiced little one” she instructed him before she started running forwards with a speed that always took people by surprise, right as William had a poorly timed confrontation regarding him trying to catch the pokemon that was about to kill him with a kid he she had heard him shouting at about the fact that she shouldn't be here.

”Same goes for you, tinkerer” Sanzoku shouted as she came thundering in to intercept the rabid Alpha Persian, her cloak billowing behind her as she ran. She raised her gauntleted arms up in an x shaped guard with the Kanabō gripped in between them like a cross bar as she skidded to a halt by them and yelled ”Pick on someone your own size kitty” at the oversized house cat in an attempt to Obstruct its murderous onslaught.

---

Interacting with: @AThousandCurses@AdmrlStalfos19@Rethel34

World of Light

wordcount: 825 (+2)
Midna: level 7 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (44/70)
Location: Sandswept Sky - Graveyard of the Peaks

”mmf cmmm ommm” Midna complained through a mouthful of sandwich and threw up her hands in frustration when the other fliers blasted off, all in a big hurry to put the glowey light surrounding them to use. Then she chewed and swallowed and added ”don’t come crying to me when fighting on an empty stomach comes back to haunt you!” to her complaining.

If they wanted to run brazenly into danger when an opportunity for rest and strategizing presented itself then they could suffer the consequences the princess thought to herself as she watched them get stuck in. Or squinted up at them as they approached the titan. She started to get a little nervous as the true size of the thing became clearer with the people approaching and assailing it, but her fear was unfounded.

It didn't really seem to have a way to fight back other than trying to shake them off, which was reliving in the short term but that also gave Midna a sinking feeling that something was off with the situation. Still, that things had not gone disastrously wrong quite yet meant she could finish her food by eating quickly rather than wolfing it all down in one or simply abandoning it. At least she wasn't the only one who was taking a snack break as Therion took her up on her offer for food where the old man had turned it down. Even though he didn’t exactly have the option to fly off into the fray, she suspected he would have been the kind of guy to take a moment to relax even if he could have rushed ahead. She could respect that

”We’ve got lots of stuff so, hmm, here maybe you’ll like this?” she said, picking one of the items from the pile sitting in her extra-dimensional storage cave at random,and handing him an egg and mayo sandwich.

Then she finished up her own food, flicked the rubbish from her meal back to the twilight realm, stood up, rolled her neck once and then prepared to get going. The feeling of niggling dread was still there, building now, and so she felt like she had to air it before she moved out.

”Is it just me or does this all seem a bit… off? Just… keep your guard up down here while we’re up there. I don’t trust that pit.” she said, mostly aiming her words at Prim and anyone else who was heading down into the bell.

Still, even if stuff was a bit weird, the boss was in front of them and it was best to try and deal with it as quickly as possible before her bad feeling became justified. So she walked around into Therion’s shadow, and then in the blink of an eye she was gone from there and dropping out of the shadow of one of the sky serpent’s fins. Just in time for it to give one of its shakes and toss her right off with an ”eek” as she spun end over end which felt extra unpleasant due to her recently filled stomach.

Fortunately she didn't hit anything, and so one quick summoning later and the princess was stable in the ear wearing her Vibrava like a backpack: its legs around her torso like straps, its tail wrapped around hers so she could direct it with but a thought, and body pressed to her back and giving the princess the look of an impish fairy with how its wings splayed out behind her.

She’d been thinking about this little maneuver for a while now, and this was the perfect time to put it to use. The winged princess buzzed after the titan with the sun at her back, which gave her the ability to inspect its form properly and see how the gang were rather ineffectually slamming its heavily armored and gargantuan form.

She was reminded of an inexperienced or frustrated Link, hacking at a boss and not really achieving anything with swordplay alone. She smiled a little at the nostalgia, and then looked thoughtful, skimming over the titan again with the same mindset she had had when helping Link in those times and spotted something interesting. Sigil hidden under dorsal ridges. Three of them, to be exact, which was quite the significant little number in this kind of situation.

Now that she’d spotted them she realized she’d spun right past one while being tossed off it, and remembered a brief feeling of magical power radiating from them, which more or less settled things. Being in the open air, there weren't exactly any shadows to jump from back to the ridge however, so the princess was stuck chasing after it and relaying her hunch via yelling ”The sigils under the fins! Try hitting them!” at those who did have a shot.

World of Light

wordcount: 498 (+1)
Midna: level 7 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (42/70)
Location: Sandswept Sky - Graveyard of the Peaks

Midna pulled down her scarf, ripped off her mask and took a deep relieved breath of the fresh and clear mountain air as she took in the scenery. They’d made it. All of them. Through some miracle all those that had fallen had been drawn up to the heavens where the air was merely crisp rather than frostbite causing. Where the vistas were bright and glorious rather than bleak and barren. It was a fair bit too bright for Midna’s taste, but she was more than happy to put up with a bit of squinting if it meant not freezing to death.

”Goddesses. That’s a beautiful sight” the princess had to say, taking it all in, before looking a little closer at the murals on the walls on the ‘inverted bell’ as the strange man called it and frowning ”but I could go without the excessive depictions of suffering though. Never a good sign those, at least on their own.” Generally you wanted there to be some depiction of release from suffering in your religious imagery, or at least a building out of it as her people had done in their prison turned home.

She squatted down to gaze into the depths, and in a mixed mind of whether being able to see properly would be worth putting up with whatever sacreligious nightmares awaited down there, when the man who had identified the location made a request and brought their attention to the grand floating serpent soaring high above them.

”Well that’s convenient. Guess we won't need to go down there after all.” She said, squaring up for a fight with what was clearly the area boss, and then after a few moments dropped the fighting pose upon realizing that the titan was content to mind its own business while they were all the way down here.

”Huh. Well if it’s happy to wait then so am I. Gives us time to prepare… oh. right” she snapped her fingers upon remembering their whole plan, and, within a few moments, she had popped down the Portcrystal that could be used as a beacon that its smaller kin could teleport too.

”There we go, that should let everyone else come-” she was saying while dusting off her hands when Ciella popped into existence right in front of her, something she wasn’t really a fan of. ”- oh. Right. You're with us” she said dismissively, and then waited a few moments for literally anyone else to appear. Unfortunately it looked like the madwoman was the only person on the ball with her transportation rock. Or who had nothing better to do than keep checking it (which was Midna’s assessment of the situation).

”Well if we’re going to be waiting for a bit, and the big dragon’s looking like it's fine with just floating around for now, might as well camp up and get some rest and energy back” she said, floating down to take a seat on the edge of the inverted bell, legs swinging over the abyss as she summoned up a convenience store sandwich and a bottle of water from the twilight realm.

She popped open the bottle, took a deep draft of it’s continents, sighed happily as the hydration it revitalized her, and then asked ”Anyone want something? How about you, Redento?” happy enough to rustle up some post mountain climb grub for whoever wanted to tap into their stores of rations.

---

The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 1,654 (+6)
Bowser: Level 10 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (173/100)
Bowser Jr: Level 9 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (137/90)
Kamek: Level 10 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(57/100)
Location: Bottomless Sea – Carcass Isle
Feat: Rika

“Hmmmm. Balloons huh? I’ll keep those off of us, you focus on the eye?” the End offered, glancing over at his compatriot and getting the briefest of thumbs up from Quiet’s grip holding hand. She never ceased firing to do so, instead professionally and unflinchingly hammering shot after shot after shot into the titan’s weak spot.

The gave a little faint “hmm” to let her know he got her agreement, and then, unknowingly taking after a certain cadre of monkeys, turned his tranquilizer gun to the heavens and started using the darts to pop balloon after balloon till he and Quite ran out of time.

Down below the tar slick sand, having regurgitated its ruined cargo of monuments of a lost age, now hungered, threatening to draw anything and everything it had not sent out itself down into the muck. One of the group was finding this out the hard way.

“Oh nonononono I’m sinking, I’m sinking!” cried Rika, as her natural floating ability failed to fight the omnivorous oil which gripped her boots and tried to drag her and her wounded cargo down into oblivion. She tried to haul her weakened legs up out of the tar, but like quicksand, all her attempts just drew her deeper.

Jr’s own struggling didn't help much either, the boy in her grasp wriggling out of it and then more or less climbing her to try and get away from the muck.

“Jr stop you're just making it worse! Wait what are you-” Rika said as the wounded boy hurled himself clear of her and landed in the oil as well. Before being sucked down into a sticky end he thrust out his paintbrush, the end of which was caught by the quadrant of chef bro strikes he summoned, who worked together to haul him up to the safety of a half sunken building via an open window. The boy fell in through the window and onto the carpeted floor of the room, panted for a few moments, and then picked himself up and tried to reach the brush back out to Rika.

The sinking ship girl grasped for it, but it was too far to reach, even with the chef bros holding jr so he could lean out as far as he could. Then Kamek returned right in the nick of time. With a ”Hold on! I‘ve got you” she swapped down on her broom and bridged the gap with her body, grasping the brush with one hand and Rika’s outstretched hand with the other.

With a great deal of strain the shipgirl was hauled up to the half sunken family home, specifically a dreary looking child’s bedroom, within which the two youngsters more or less collapsed while Kamek landed and tried to regain her strength with more dignity.

While war raged outside of the room, inside of it the trio were more or less safe, at least initially. The snipers on the roof kept their building clear of gasbags, while the whirling lashes of its strange fingers were not designed to break through the concrete of their domicile based hiding spot (though they did lash Kamek’s remaining doppelgangers, who had been rendered sluggish due to Kamek’s lack of mana reserves, out of existence).

The golden wraiths however, were a whole other story, as one of them swooped down in a wide arch and then plunged right in through the window of the room and grabbed Kamek, which caused a whole lot of screaming.

As the mage struggled Rika drove her bayonet into the wraith and held down the trigger, hammering bullets into it (and forcing Kamek to cover her ears) until her rifle started clicking empty. Then she just started punching it while Mimi clawed at it until Kamek managed to get her want and pump a spell bolt into it, causing the golden wraith to stumble backwards and release her. A final wide swing from jr’s brush batted it back causing it to tip out of the window and into the muck below, into which it sank.

The troop were left panting, or in Jr’s case coughing as he tried to pant, from just that exertion.

”How is this not over yet” the prince complained, supporting himself on his brush in a mirror of Kamek who was doing the same with her broom. It was Rika then, who first saw what looked initially like their demise. The fact that the person at the center of the quintuplet of specters who had arisen from the muck was the abyssal sun princess herself certainly made it look like this was the end.

Rika started back in alarm and raised her rifle at the sight of the arch abyssal, only for it to click uselessly once again, still entirely spent. The princess shook her head and then raised a skeletal hand towards her along which, of all things, a trio of pixi sized repair crew women ran and then jumped onto the windowsill.

The three of them looked up at the agog ship girl, hands on their hips, and then all gave the sign of engineers looking at a machine that had really gone through the wringer and was going to be one hell of pain to fix up. Which was, when you got down to it, an entirely accurate assessment of Rika. Then they all had to duck as a specter of the Delsin tossed a red crate over their heads to Kamek, while Mikuma, the Pacific princess and B’giotahmo the white mage, all of whom’s spirits where confusingly inside members of the troop at that very moment, tossed Jr an oversized drumstick, Rika a bag of bright yellow ichor laced bullets and Mimi a little red berry respectively before they all turned away, giving at most a parting wave over the shoulder, and leaving the Troop very very confused.

If it weren't for the items they had left behind, the entire event might well have been a fever dream. Considering the trio of little chibi humans standing on the windowsill still, it might well still be. Then one of them pointed impatiently at the ship girl and gestured for her to sit down and at that point they more or less just had to deal with the situation rather than standing around staring in shock.

”Well… can’t say no to free food I guess?” Jr said as Rika numbly did as she was told and took a seat on the bed.

”I’m not sure if that is such a good-” Kamek began to say, but by that point it was far to late, as Jr was already ravenously chowing down on the king sized drumstick, the berry had vanished underneath Mimi’s disguise while no one was looking and Rika was in the mist of having the little ladies run around giving her a rapid fire fix up (as well as painstakingly loading the new bullets into her rifle).

The mage sighed, shrugged, and then cracked open the crate she had received, which revealed it contain a wand tipped with a crimson jewel surrounded by a brass crown, 6 blue potions, a couple of gold coins and, for no good reason 15 ingots of iron.

”How odd” she said as she picked up one of the potions and gave it a sniff. It smelled like mushrooms and magic. ”Well then. Bottoms up I suppose” she said, and then drank down its blue contents, feeling her Mana reserves swelling with each gulp of the potion.

”By the stars, that was effective” she gasped, before tuning and asking others ”how are you all?”

”My mouth’s on fire from spice but sooooo much better” Jr reported, (and he certainly looked it, his shell healed and his had been spirit energized back to his boisterous self by the memory of when he’d tried his dad’s own spicy fare one dinnertime and found it similarly too hot to handle) which Mimi echoed with a “kyu”, her reserves of pp all stocked up by the berry. Rika meanwhile stood up, carefully flexed an ankle, and then reported that “I think I’m all fixed up,” before turning and bowing to the little repair crew and telling them “thank you.”

The team gave her a mix of thumbs up and salutes before vanishing in a puff of smoke, leaving the team alone in their bemusement.

“Well... That was weird?” she said as she leaned back upright, pointing out the obvious.

”Who cares, let's just go teach that big jerk a lesson he’ll never forget!” Jr declared, which got an all around agreement from the rest of the gang.

A few moment’s later a roof access hatch to the building they had been in was thrown open, and the troop piled on out of it to rejoin the fighting. Jr and Mimi immediately set to work, the prince hucking homing fireballs from his spicy mouth at the floating balloons, while Mimi took advantage of her electroballs ability to inflict more damage the faster she was than her opponent (and the titan was nothing if not slow) by sending fastball after fastball buzzing towards its big old eye.

While Rika put her hefty supply of ichor infused bullets to work trying to crystallize and disable one of the titan’s hands, Kamek grasped her new wand, waving it to summon a quadrant of clones holding the same wand, and then declaring ”Now then’ let's see what you can do” before doing just that.

She and her clone pointed their wands up at the titan, pulsed power through the implement and sent five little balls of cloud sailing forth. She wasn't impressed at first with the fluffy projectiles, but then the clouds came to a halt above the titan and expanded, forming a little bundle of storm clouds above it, down from which a stinging crimson rain pelted onto/into the ring of hands that where where its head should be.

Pokémon: Feudal Legends

Marrow and Taeru’s little one sided confrontation ended amicably enough both thanks to Sanzzoku’s intervention to correct her mon‘s attitude and because Taeru getting his own meal served put Marrow’s mind entirely at ease. Soon enough the two of them were chomping away at their food without any complaint. Unlike William who simply had to take a moment to insult their host’s cooking.

Sanzoku gave Ikoma an apologetic smile and a shrug over the boy’s shoulder. She for one found her meal perfectly fine, though that was likely in part due to her rarely eating anything but commoner fare during her life, and having an understandable eye for quantity over quality. The titan of a woman needed all the energy and protein she could get after all, and while spice was nice, regularly spicing the amount of food the sell-sword was currently loading into herself to a satisfactory degree would quite literally bankrupt her.

Not that she was the kind of person to leave her taste buds completely out too dry however. The woman would, on occasion, indulge in a little sweet treat when she could afford it (both physically and financially) but breakfast was certainly no time for such things. It was a time to fuel up before facing the day and, if Sanzoku had anything to say about it, chatting in between generous mouthfuls of rice.

She rolled her eyes at Williams attempt to shut down her not at all nosy inquiry to Rintaro about his climbing equipment, then gave him side tild of her head a look that said ‘see it was fine’ when the young man who she’d questioned supplied an interesting answer to her query about his climbing equipment order, though he did seem a little nervous about it, judging from the stuttering. She put it down to either being embarrassed by William’s intervention on his behalf or being intimidated by her size. Or both.

”Oooh those. Yeah, I’ve heard about em, and been up that way a few times. Never seen any myself though. You’ll have to tell me about how your climb goes if we happen to meet again somewhere after you go up there” she said, but left it at just that rather than risk making him more nervous about being the focus of their attention, having found her tact about 20 seconds to late.

It also helped that a little confrontation involving a haunter and the establishment’s furret server drew her attention for a moment. The sellsword’s hand went to her mace on instinct upon hearing and seeing the start of it, but then gave a short bark of a laugh and released it as the source of the little incident merely being the mon’s impatience became clear.

”That one needs to learn table manners it seems” she joked before saying ”not like you Marrow, your the fastest little learner, aren't you sweetie” to her pokemon while giving him a little scratch behind the ear as she praised him.

She still having a fair bit to learn about him however, she missed how the mon was a little bit more on alert than he had been a few moments earlier, the houndour’s ears perked up in response to distant and, to most, inaudible sounds of combat occurring outside the town’s walls.

---

@AThousandCurses@Scribe of Thoth@LostDestiny

World of Light

The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 856 (+6)
Bowser: Level 10 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (173/100)
Bowser Jr: Level 9 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (131/90)
Kamek: Level 10 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(51/100)
Location: Bottomless Sea – Carcass Isle
Feat: Rika

The heroes (and one big spooky mon) swarmed the orphan and put into practice all they had learned over the long, hard, grueling fight. With masterful grace hard ingrained by the Orphan’s punishing cleaves the fighter’s danced around it in sync, delivering blow after blow after blow until, at last, the miraculously revitalized Sakura came sprinting in and gave it a stomp to the cranium that would have made Mario proud. Or left him mortified considering the headshot straight up decapitated the abomination, causing it to sink to its knees and then start to dissolve into ash and dust.

There was little energy left for jubilation, only an overwhelming sense of relief from the troop, best reflected by Kamek breathing ”thank the stars” and then lowering her raised wand down, leaving Mimi to shrink back down to her usual size.

”I gotcha” Jr told the little mon as he reached down and carefully picked her out of the, for her, deep water. The prince gave a little grunt of pain as he did so, but soon enough Mimi was back on his shoulder, shaking herself as dry as she could while the prince hobbled up the beach clutching his side. Rika trudged alongside him, her legs still a little shaky from the shock, while Kamek herself hovered down and landed among the others.

“Well. Glad that’s over” Rika said as Jr gave a very tired little cheer to Peach’s little speech and Kamek leaned on her broom for support. All of them were looking forward to getting out of here, while also starting to worry a little bit about how Bowser was holding up on his own now that the adrenaline was leaving their bodies. The faster they got out of here, the sooner they could reunite with him and then get some well deserved rest.

Unfortunately, reality had other plans, because things were not over yet. Nadia realizing that there was no spirit to be found tipped them off to the start of the problem, and then a few moments later everything went to hell. Or perhaps hell came to them.

Fog swept in and black tar started swelling up from the sand like a bursting oilfield. Ruins and derelicts followed the muck in its ascension and then it arose. A titan of sludge, who began gazing down at them from the waves with an eye reminiscent of the sickening moon in the sky. It’s glare bore down on them for a few scant horrifying moments, and then it started moving towards them.

The protective link moved first, picking Jr up (with a ”wow” from the heavy boy) who found himself quickly passed off into Rika’s hands, who strained a little more under his weight than she had last time.

”Hey, I can still walk!” he complained, and then grimace as he tried to wiggle free to no avail

”Perhaps not for much longer with the beach going the way it is” Kamek said as she remounted her broom and hovered up above the rapidly deteriorating land. She was impressed with Link's seemingly bottomless well of energy, which he put to work helping Blazermate out next. She might be younger now, but she was nowhere close to hero in terms of reserves. Jr, who was presently up far past his bedtime, had a similar problem, leaving only the nebulously aged Rika with any amount of reserves still going for her.

“Mmm, if I can float on it, this’ll be safer than you riksing sinking into it” Rika agreed with the koopa, hugging Jr to her chest so he could hold onto her as she carried him, before asking “but what can we even do against that thing?”

”I. Uh.” Jr said, entirely unsure while Kamek had one basic idea and that was ”Distance first, I think. The more time it has to spend walking towards us the better”

The others nodded and soon enough they were retreating back up the beach while Link wailed on a rock for a reason the troop were too tired and worried to put together. As the burdened Rika navigated the mess the beach was becoming, Kamek had one other idea. She hovered over to the nearest table looking building and then summoned his pair of sniper strikers.

Neither looked pleased with where they were, and the End was more than happy to vocalize that by saying “Would it kill you to give us a bit of sunshine?” before shrugging and saying “Ah well” and kneeling down next to Quiet to ready a shot.

“The eye, I take it?” he said, as the pair got a good unsettling look at the titan’s torso bound socket.

”Those are normally weak spots, yes” the mage agreed, to which the old man mused “Didn’t take you as someone prone to gouging eyes out” in response.

Kamek cocked her head in confusion at this little comment, but she didn't have time for clearing up misunderstandings, instead drifting down and heading after her wards while the pair of sharp shooters lined up their rifles, checked the wind and the distance, and then began delivering lead and darts to the titan’s eye at high velocities.

Pokémon: Feudal Legends

”Good morning to you William! Rude as ever I see” the sell-sword said cheerfully to the merchant apprentice, grinning down at him as if his attitude was some grand joke that she found very amusing.

”Ah yes that… I most certainly remembered that!” Sanzoku replied convincingly to the information supplied to her about the status of her order. She would have remembered it eventually. Probably in the afternoon.

”Anyway, I’m sure everything will be fine and dandy with my new kit, same as everything else I’ve gotten from your uncle. Guy’s great at what he does” she said as she gave her trick mace a pat before turning to look down at her mon with a hint of concern when she heard him growling at Taeru while standing defensively over his meal.

”Ach, don't be like that little Marrow, he ain’t gonna steal your grub, and even if he does, I can just buy you some more” she told her mon while giving him a reassuring clap on the side. The houndour looked up at her for a moment and then, suitably reassured, dropped his defensive posture and gave Taeru a little yip of “dour!” in greeting and an attempt to mimic the Wynaut’s wave with his own short doggy ears.

”Good boy” Sanzoku praised Marrow while giving him a little scratch behind his false skull, before both of them turned their eyes to check out the stranger joining them at the table. Stranger to Sanzoku anyway, it looked like William and this Rintaro knew each other. Business wise anyway.

”Climbing gear huh? You don’t look much like those spelunking folks who seem to think being up to their eyeballs in zubats is a grand way to make a living” she said loudly and nosily to the man with strange purchasing habits, before wandering of on a tangent ”Not that there's anything wrong with it, I just can’t stand the agile flappy buggers myself. Once fought a guy who had a whole swarm of the things in his back pocket. A right pain in the neck that was. Literally, ha!”

”So anyway, what’s the gear for huh?” she asked, getting back to the point and then paused and thought to herself for just long enough that he might get the impression she was suspicious before she unintentionally dispelled that notion herself by saying ”Oh! Are you heading west? I’ve crossed the range that way once or twice, it can be quite the challenge if you don't prepare or the weather is bad. Looks like you’ll have the one half of that you can control yourself sorted if that’s the case, so good on you” and making it clear that she was mostly just very chatty.

---

@Scribe of Thoth@AThousandCurses

World of Light

The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 858 (+6)
Bowser: Level 10 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (173/100)
Bowser Jr: Level 9 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (125/90)
Kamek: Level 10 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(45/100)
Location: Bottomless Sea – Carcass Isle
Feat: Rika

”uh oh” went Jr as the shells didn't really do much individually to the monster. No karts were sent spinning here. Instead the Orphan only received a series of annoying bonks that served to get the it’s attention and draw it to the prince who was wheeling around giving a volley of fire and alongside Kamek, Mimi and Peach, with Rika edging around, still hurt, trying to find a line between safety and usefulness. A line the prince failed to balance upon.

Blasting boils hurled by the monster failed to strike him down, but a brutal swing caught him on the shell, launching the small prince out into the waters with a cry of fear and pain, along with his sholder-born companion.

“I got you! I got you!” Rika cried out as she used her remaining strength to dash into the prince’s path and catch him in her arms, an action that fortunately only bruised her torso rather than impaling it on the prince’s spikes.

The light little Mimi meanwhile found herself drifting down onto Kamek’s palm, and as effectively the only member of the troup not hurt and/or worn down to the bone. Getting to ride the battle out on your trainer’s shoulder would do that after all. The other three members still on the field looked haggard to hell and back, and yet the fight still wasn’t over.

Closer to the beach the others pulled up what might well be their last reserves in a series of attempted finishers. Nadia got herself all wrapped up around it and then seemed to more or less blow herself up, which was an alarming desperate looking play. Even more alarming was the fact that Blazermate’s massively blasting mega beam got her struck by lightning for her troubles. Which rapidly become everyone else’s troubles as another wave of lighting washed out over the bay.

“Oh shoot not again! Uh, Uh,” Rika panicked as she found herself holding a hurt and groaning Jr as the lighting approached with nothing but water behind her rather than a nice safe cliff to scale.

”Up here” Kamek called as she drifted down with Mimi riding at the tip of her broom once more. The mage held out an arm and said ”young master! Take my hand!”

”uuuugh, everything hurts” the prince complained as he reached up, gripped the mage’s offered arm by the wrist and was grabbed by his own in turn. ”I’ve got you” the prince’s long suffering caretaker insisted as she strained to haul him up into the air and up out of Rika’s supporting arms. To the prince’s holder Kamek asked ”You’ll be alright too, won’t you?”

The shipgirl nodded and gave her a not so reassuring “mmm” as she backed away into the sea, leaving the koopas to just barely manage an ascend high enough that the lightning swept under them.

The ship girl got as much distance as she could, took a deep breath, and then sped back towards the wave of energy. Not exactly being built for jumping or athletics, when she jumped and tried to clear the hurdle leg power alone wasn't enough. Even as she turned all her guns and cannons downwards and blasted them into the waves, using both the recoil of the guns and the updraft of the explosions to give her extra height to it was just not quite clear the electrical shockwave.

Rika cried out in pain as the lighting arched up from where her feet clipped the wave of lightning, and then stumbled her landing, winding up with one gauntlet down in the surf. Jr dropped down from Kamek’s lift to try and help, but he too stumbled his landing, and found himself up to his knees in water and clutching the side of his shell where a crack ran alongside it.

Ahead of them, the attempts to finally just end the Orphan continued, as the previously stunned Link came in with a hail Mary of an uppercut, the ace cadet wielded a frozen hat kid as a hammerhead and the Witcher clad himself in spellcraft. All of them assailed the beast with all his fury and skill, seeking that last blow that would end this fight.

”I only have a bit of mana left, but it will have to do between me and you” Kamek told Mimi, deciding she’d best put it back to work with the old reliable spell.

Under her orders the little mon lept off of Kamek’s broom and plopped down into the, for her, rather deep waters as the mage chanted

”
You who once was littlest,
And now will be largest,
Show this child of the grave
of whom it should be afraid!”

And pushed the remains of her mana reserves into Mimi, causing the pint sized pokemon to grow and grow in size till her cotton clad bulk formed a cloth barrier between the hurt young ones under Kamek’s care and the child of Kos.

With a grand and deep “Miiii Miiii” the now towering hidden horror extended her kraken’s tentacle of an arm and then plunged it into the surf. At first it might be thought that she was simply standing there, until you noticed how her engulfing shadow began to stretch out further and further, blocking out more and more of the moonlight as it snuck its way beneath the orphan and the heroes fighting to bring it down.

Then a specter joined their dance of death, a hulking thing of ghostly might reaching up from the darkness at their feet and clawing at the orphan's back again and again and again, adding the oversized Mimiku’s power to the battle without ever getting in the way of the others, or her leaving her towering guard over the tired and hurt troop.

At least that is what she would do until Kamek overtaxed magic reserves finally gave up the ghost, and that would not be long, of that the mage herself was quite sure.