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World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Videogame Crossover)

Vs. Triple Juggernaut

Feat. Primrose and Ganondorf
^{@Yankee@Double}
Word count: 4481 (+5)

After being rather unceremoniously pushed out from the vein, Primrose had done her best to wipe the blood-like xylem from her face and wring out the hem of her dress - which is when Ganondorf found her, having been coughed out into the area from another vein. She glanced at the warlord, going through a mental checklist of his strengths and weaknesses that she’d observed so that she’d be able to better support him. Having arrived in this hollow a few moments before him, she’d unfortunately seen that conflict would be swiftly upon them.

"Separated, yes," she said. But then she raised an arm and pointed Ganondorf’s attention toward the far side of the area. "But unfortunately it’s not just the two of us."

The hollow itself was a disgusting place; pustules throbbed over the Qliphoth’s infected tissue all around it, and the whole area was a sickly yellow pallor. But more importantly, opposite the two Seekers were three hulking monsters. One looked as if it may have been human at one point, though its flesh was bloated and distorted. Another carried a mass of sagging flesh on its head and wielded two tentacle-like arms, and the last was a quadruped with skin so hardened it looked to be made of stone.

They lashed out at each other, none of them doing much damage to others, but it wouldn’t be long before one of them took notice of the two newcomers to their arena. Primrose and Ganondorf couldn’t just beat a retreat either, as around the infected walls a soft magic barrier rose up, allowing entry by denying anyone’s exit.

”So it seems.” Ganondorf agreed, forming a grimace on his face. He quickly sized up the hulking monsters before him as his lips curled into a smirk. ”I’ll keep them focused on me.” He said, a hand already grasping the hilt of the Sword of the Six Sages. He drew it from its scabbard and let its white blade glint in the horrid environment. He summoned his Moblins as well as Phantom Ganon and commanded them to stay on guard near the dancer, offering them to her as additional protection.

Then Ganondorf drew Litania from its scabbard and dual-wielded it alongside his Sword of the Six Sages, brandishing them together. ”You’re MINE!” He shouted as a warcry before he charged forward to engage in battle with the three Juggernauts. Immediately the quadrupedal one let out a roar, either some kind of battlecry announcement or an alert to the other two. Ganondorf targeted it first in order to shut it up. He made a leap and attempted to plunge both blades into the creature’s back and flanks. Of course, the other two didn’t remain idle.

The bulky one turned to throw one of its hulking fists with a punch, meanwhile the other swiped with its tentacle-like arms in an attempt to spear the warlord with the spikes on their tips. As for Ganondorf, he did successfully manage to mount the quadruped’s back and forced it into a run to avoid taking the incoming attacks. If Ganondorf could maintain his hold he might be able to turn this beast's strength against its own allies in some way. All the while, his Moblins standing next to Primrose leveled their bows and loosed their fire arrows to take pot shots at the bulky one. Phantom Ganon went on the move to try and strike with his nail weapon in an attempt to inflict Bleeding on the Juggernauts.

The bloated walking earthquake easily shrugged off the arrows shot at it, each one simply bouncing off of its body while it continued chasing after Ganondorf. Only the phantom version of the warlord earned its attention, and the brute turned to take on the new contender when it approached by throwing a nasty punch.

Back with the moblin squad, Primrose had gotten to work. Ganondorf's willingness to jump right into battle hadn't surprised her, and if he planned to take on all three of the juggernauts himself she wasn't about to argue with him. She had her own way of fighting, and this was the perfect situation to hang back to empower the Gerudo while striking from a distance with her magic.

She'd started with the Mole Dance as Ganondorf first charged. She moved with short, graceful and controlled motions. Ganondorf was plenty physically strong already, so a moment after the dancer completed her performance with a low spin the man found his defense boosted.

What next, she considered, standing fast with the entourage Ganondorf had lent her. Perhaps another dance, stacking her battle partner up with as much additional power as possible? She could boost his dark magic as well, or perhaps she could cast a spell of her own, catching as many of the monsters as possible in her attack. She settled on the latter, beginning to summon a large amount of magic to her hands.

All the while, one of the juggernauts had suspiciously pulled out of the fray. The spindly one had taken a step back, letting the other two fight to their monstrous hearts' contents while it actually seemed to be evaluating the situation. It took notice of all of its new opponents and judged which of them it should go for to maximize its killing chance, deceptively smart for how it looked.

It crouched, what little muscles it had in its legs tightening before it leapt high into the air, crashing down with a mighty slam at Primrose. Its landing squashed a few moblins and scattered the others, cracking against the protective barrier that formed around the dancer as she prepared her spell. The shell didn't hold up, it shattered and forced Primrose to abandon her planned magic for the moment and move.

She evaded backwards, now facing down the enemy only a few feet in front of her. The remaining moblins scrambled to get back into formation between her and the flood juggernaut, hollering at the overgrown parasite as they did. The fighting spirit she’d picked up didn’t allow her to flee and let the moblins try and handle it - she glared at the thing, preparing a counter attack.

Under normal circumstances, Ganondorf would have attempted some means of coming to the dancer’s defense. Unfortunately, he was rather preoccupied with two separate opponents and couldn’t spare the moment. His phantom, on the other hand…? Phantom Ganon began to glow red as he flew through the air after a lunging strike against the bulky one and aimed its attention on the spindly one attacking Primrose. Ganondorf had ordered him to act as her protection, after all, and he was nothing if not a loyal servant to his master’s commands. When he got close, Phantom Ganon engaged the spindly Juggernaut by trying to plunge his trident into its side. While glowing red under the effects of Ripping Bear, Phantom Ganon’s plunge was empowered to ignore all forms of invincibility, effectively allowing the strike to ignore armor. Then he struck while in close proximity with the N Corp Nail wielded in his off hand. If the spindly Juggernaut hadn’t been afflicted with Bleed before, it surely would be now.

Meanwhile, Ganondorf continued to contend with the other two Juggernauts. The quadruped had managed to shake him off, but the two swords remained plunged into its back. This forced the Gerudo to switch to his trident, Vaper - which he summoned to his hand with dark magic. The polearm’s long reach allowed him to strike at his opponents while keeping a short distance away in order to formulate a strategy. He noticed that the bulky one had indeed been suffering from Bleed thanks to an earlier strike from Phantom Ganon’s N Corp Nail. Good, so perhaps he could focus his attacks a bit more on the quadruped while the other bled away health over time, he could keep this manageable. Not that he wasn’t confident he could take them on fully himself, but quite frankly the warlord was getting sick of being in this tree and therefore wanted to finish this mission as quickly as possible. Ergo, pragmatism was taking precedence over pride… at least for the moment.

His opening move with the trident was of course to throw it around himself in a circular arc that would hit both Juggernauts as they attempted to close in on him. Naturally, the trident was also imbued with lightning during this time, adding to the strength of the attack. After this he spear-threw the trident at the quadruped, and upon landing a powerful lightning blast was called from above. Between the trident and the two swords stuck in it, there was no shortage of objects that could serve as lightning rods to attract the electrical blast. In the meantime he briefly engaged the bulky Juggernaut, who had thrown a punch at Ganondorf. But through a combination of Ganonfdorf’s own immense strength and the increased defense from the buff he received from Primrose, the Gerudo chuckled as he seemed to casually catch the incoming fist with an open hand before retaliating with a strong Gerudo Dragon uppercut that sent the Juggernaut stagger back some steps while Ganondorf re-summoned the trident back to his hand.

With Phantom Ganon's intervention taking the alien juggernaut's attention off of her, Primrose followed through with her own attack. A glowing aura enveloped her as she boosted her power, and then she brought a Black Fire Orb into being. When she threw the dark sphere at the monster its explosion pushed it backward, closer to the other two once more while Ganondorf's forces chased it down. The Flood juggernaut whipped its elongated arms around, fighting off the phantom and moblins by rapidly striking at everything around it.

With every opponent now occupied, Primrose had a second chance at her original intention. She took in a deep breath, burning another battle point to further increase the range of her next spell in order to make sure it caught every one of the three juggernauts. Once more she conjured dark magic into her hands, and this time once she had enough gathered she performed a graceful spin - and the darkness flew out, circling a wide area around the juggernauts.

"Be engulfed in my Spell Song!" she said, triggering the spell. The dark magic coalesced from the edges of the circle and burst apart, inflicting damage to the trio of monsters - while the lingering, glittering specks of black that now clung to them weakened their physical and magical defenses both.

Since the two bleeding juggernauts didn't need to recover from being electrocuted, they retaliated at once. The Flood juggernaut opened what constituted for its mouth, horrific little fingered tongues protruding out as it breathed heavily. When it next lashed out its speed was massively increased, its arms making for deadly flails that could extend to fall upon a huge area. It whipped at Primrose and Ganondorf both, as well as the minions conjured by the latter. At the same time the Infected juggernaut pounded the ground with both of its fists, unleashing a wide shockwave just before it physically tore up a chunk of the Qliphoth and hurled it at the Gerudo warlord that had been tangling with it so far.

A blast of dark magic was not something Ganondorf expected from the likes of Primrose. But he wasn’t about to complain about it either. A nice sizable hit that appeared to weaken their defenses to boot? He could definitely capitalize on this. While they were still near enough to him, the Warlord made another circular throw of his trident, letting it spin around him in a wide arc while empowered by lightning. That would be another decently strong hit. But before he could capitalize further, the Flood Juggernaut went on the attack, flailing its extended arms with surprising speed at both himself and the dancer. Ganondorf’s buffed defenses coupled with the Triforce of Power allowed him to block the attack coming for him and endure without too much issue. Meanwhile, the remainder of the Moblins were finished off, while Phantom Ganon moved to intercept an attack intended for Primrose, taking it himself instead. He wasn’t defeated just yet, but he wouldn’t last much longer at this rate.

And before Ganondorf could retaliate, the Infected Juggernaut pounded the ground and ripped a chunk out to hurl in the warlord’s direction. Ganondorf had to launch himself out of the way with Bullet Jump, but did so in a direction that would allow him to temporarily regroup with Primrose and Phantom Ganon. He brandished his Trident in a way that let him consecrate the ground where the two Seekers stood, turning it into Hallowed Ground. For ten seconds, this would give them an area they could make a stand in that would deal constant Radiation damage to the Juggernauts that stepped into it to attack them, and Ganondorf was reasonably certain that at least the Infected Juggernaut and the quadruped weren’t smart enough to recognize a hazardous zone when they saw it. He followed this by using Renewal. He released waves of healing energy that granted them temporary health regeneration for the next 23 seconds. During that time, and for the following 20 seconds after the Hallowed Ground wore off, they would also benefit from a 15% reduction to damage thanks to being under Renewal while standing on the Hallowed Ground.

”Now,” Ganondorf said, brandishing his trident and readying it while digging in his heels, ”let them come if they dare!”

And come they did. The juggernauts converged on them from three sides, eager to crush the interlopers now that they were gathered close together. The four legged infested juggernaut ground one of its front legs into the fleshy ground before setting off in a strong charging tackle. As Ganondorf had surmised, the Flood juggernaut did not enter his radiation field. Its long, powerful arms were more than enough to reach the three however, and it started off with an overhead double slam of its tentacles from the side opposite of the quadruped. Finally, the bloated juggernaut approached from the air - by abandoning its attempts to run after the group and simply directly at the Seekers.

Though Primrose was content to let the Ganondorfs on either side of her protect her from direct damage, she didn't intend to completely play a damsel in distress. She burned one of her last battle points, meeting the infected juggernaut's jump with another boosted Black Fire Orb. The spell crashed into the monster while it was airborne, the concussive force of the pyromancy dropping it to the ground before it could complete its landing. It landed hard on its back, but it wasn't yet defeated. As it struggled to its feet she turned her attention to the infested. While keeping in Phantom Ganon's shadow to prevent the Flood's slam from reaching her the dancer used her Vengeful Spirit. The small ghostly white phantom of her own flew forward from her, passing right through the animal-like juggernaut's hard carapace and burning it from the inside as it went. The thing howled in pain, but did not stop its charge.

When the quadruped made its charge, Ganondorf dispelled his trident and instead strengthened his footing and, with his monstrous strength, took the charge head on. His hands grabbed the charging animal-like beast by its head. And while Ganondorf did slide back a step from the impact of the charge, the warlord stood strong in the end. Seeing the infected juggernaut downed after its jump attack was thwarted, the Gerudo decided to seize upon the opportunity. He channeled the strength of the Triforce and lifted up the quadruped before slamming it back down onto the ground right on top of the recovering infected juggernaut. Then he reached for the swords still embedded in the quadruped’s back and pulled them free, dual-wielding them once more.

"Ganondorf, it's belly," Primrose pointed out to him, noting a soft glow from the now exposed area of the bull-like juggernaut. The entirety of the creature was covered in rock hard carapace, and though this section wasn't much different the subtle red light must have meant it was different from the rest of its body somehow.
The Warlord’s eyes narrowed as he quickly scrutinized the exposed area that the dancer had called to his attention. Then with a smirk he brandished his blades and proceeded to hack and slash away at the quadruped’s underside. If there was a weakness to be found there, he’d find it. Even if he had to physically carve it out of the beast’s hide by force. And for the efforts, it appeared to be doing the trick. The creature looked like it was suffering more massive damage compared to previous attacks that hit its sides or back.

Meanwhile, Phantom Ganon had managed to recover some of his strength thanks to the Renewal. But it was clear that he did not benefit as fully from the regeneration as Ganondorf and Primrose had. Still, he at least still had enough strength to defend the dancer from the Flood Juggernaut’s slam attack. But he began to become overwhelmed by the followup flailing attacks. Knowing his end was near, Phantom Ganon glowed red again and charged straight through the air at the Flood Juggernaut, aiming to get it with one more powerful lunging strike with his trident while under the effect of Ripping Bear before he could be dispelled from the battle. This left Ganondorf and Primrose with only themselves, which Ganondorf rectified by summoning a fresh squad of Moblin archers with fresh quivers of fire arrows. The moblins weren’t strong with their attacks, but they at least proved useful enough as decoys and distractions.

Ganondorf’s Hallowed Ground wore off at around this time as well. But while the radiation damage zone was gone, the defensive buff from Iron Renewal would still remain in effect for a further 20 seconds.

It was a buff Primrose intended to make the most of. She left Ganondorf to deal with the two Juggernauts he'd pinned and set her sights on the Flood monstrosity once more. She stayed within its range, a dangerous gamble with the speed and strength with which it flailed its arms around. Her saving grace was that it wasn't solely targeting her, so she managed to keep herself from being struck with a direct hit as she danced around the danger and looked for her opening.

It came when the limb slammed down on top of one of the moblins right beside her. She reached out, splaying her hands, and when she caught the juggernaut's arm flickering black flames immediately flared up from between her fingers. Her Black Serpent Pyromancy raced up the length of the tentacle, setting the creature aflame as it dove into the softest part of its body: its disgusting maw. The Flood Juggernaut jerked backwards, pulling its arm from the dancer's grip, but at that point it was too late. It still bled from the wounds inflicted by the Phantom, and the dark fire burned its flesh. It dropped down onto one knee, and the moblin firing squad pelted the vulnerable monster with arrows that further fueled the fire.

Meanwhile on his end, Ganondorf’s frenzied slashes with his sword slowed to a stop as he noticed the increasing glow in their blades. Good, that meant the Darkness energy was building up and could be spent on a strong explosive attack. And since he had these two Juggernauts pinned down together, he decided to do just that. He briefly rose up in the air a few feet as dark magic runes began to cover a circular zone below him which would indicate the radius of the attack he was about to use. Then he came crashing back down, plunging his blades into the floor and letting loose a Dark Explosion just big enough to engulf the two Juggernauts in its radius. But it wasn’t large enough to hit the Flood Juggernaut.

The moblins continued to loose their fire arrows in support of Primrose’s efforts against the spindly creature in question. One or two of them had fallen to the Juggernaut’s slams, but three still remained to take their shots when they were able to. It wasn't lack of trying on the Flood juggernaut's part that kept them alive. It, like the rest of the brutish trio, had taken heavy damage. If it was a lesser monster it would already have died. Even now it struggled to live, striking out at its assailants more sluggishly than before. It got back to its feet, taking a few staggering steps backward so that it could regroup. But Primrose didn't let it get far before she raised her hand, conjuring the dark magic of her Moonlight Waltz. Without ceremony a powerful pillar of shadows came down on the monster, forcing it back onto its knees. The dancer was ready to call forth another spell to finish it off, but seeing that it didn't react after the latest round of arrows struck it she lowered her hand. It had succumbed, its body was just slowly disintegrating from below.

There wasn’t much left of Ganondorf’s targets either. Between the Bleeding, hacking & slashing, and the Dark Explosion - they were just about down as well. And so the Warlord used his blades and finished them both off.

After their defeat, the infested hollow grew quiet save for the tittering of the few remaining moblins. Primrose made to regroup with Ganondorf, but she found that as soon as she turned her head her vision was overtaken by darkness. She nearly startled, wondering if she'd been pulled into a spell or a dream, but... it didn't quite feel like that.

Floating nearby were three cards, each with an image and text below them.

For Primrose

Smolder Ring - magic spells also inflict Scorch, a fire DoT with a short duration that can be refreshed and intensified by repeated application.
Torch of Anti-Lag Ignition - after using your ultimate, the next attack you launch deals 50% more damage.
Oil Blood - you're immune to fire, and you bleed black oil, but you bleed more when wounded. This oil can be ignited to cause severe fire damage.

They all appeared to be useful effects of some kind. Rewards if she had to guess.

One of the options was a little questionable. Oil for blood...? Primrose thought, raising an eyebrow at the card. The immunity to fire it supposedly would grant almost made up for turning all of her blood into oil. She hesitated, actually considering it, her drive to grow stronger fighting with her increased vanity that recoiled at the mere idea. After a moment she reached out for a different card, selecting the leftmost.

When she touched it, the other two swiftly disappeared back into darkness. Then a woman that seemed to embody iron and fire appeared before her.

"Well, look at you, hot stuff!" The woman grinned at Primrose, her smile warm and somehow comforting. Like coming to rest by a hearth after a cold night. "You've got a spicy spark in you, I can just tell. So, what say we make a cozy little fire, then put all our enemies in it?"

She faded out of Primrose's vision before the dancer could reply, taking the darkness with her. Between one blink and the next, Primrose was back in the hollow with Ganondorf and the trio of juggernaut spirits.

After the juggernauts were gone and Ganondorf cleaned his blades of their blood, he too found himself overtaken by visions of darkness. Before him floated a trio of cards, each depicting a different name and image associated with it.

for Ganondorf

Shrine of Recovery - after not taking damage for 5s, regenerate 5% max HP per second. Regeneration stops when taking damage, with a maximum of 50% HP regenerated per instance.

Rewards? Spoils of victory? The warlord wouldn’t say no to more power, of course.

All of them seemed rather useful, but two of the three appeared to be associated with some kind of god or similar being. And since Ganondorf had no interest in becoming beholden to a god, he chose the third card. His vision faded back to normal, and as he stood there paused, Ganondorf could already begin to feel the beneficial effects of the card he chose.

”Well, that was… interesting.”

Primrose was not surprised that she and the King of Evil seemed to have experienced the same type of vision.

"Nice of whomever is in control of this tree to reward us," she said, assuming that that was the case. Though she appeared flippant with her comment, there was an edge of suspicion in her voice. After all, it begged the question of why they were being offered more strength regardless of whether they'd earned it or not, when the whole reason they were here was to kill the Guardian that made the Qliphoth its home.

”I does make one wonder, doesn’t it?” Ganondorf observed. ”About who actually controls this tree? I assumed it was the Guardian, but why would the Guardian be giving us powers that will ultimately help us defeat it?”

My thoughts exactly. After gathering up the spirits and brushing herself of dust and debris the dancer set her eyes on Ganondorf, answering his question whether it had been rhetorical or not.

"Perhaps we've unknowingly stepped into a trial," she suggested. "Whenever we've gotten close to a Guardian, that giant hand appears to us through our paces. Maybe this is part of the latest one."

”’Giant hand’...?” Ganondorf asked, a subtle grimace of recognition appearing on his face. He narrowed his eyes and then, ”Which one?” He suddenly asked.

'Which one?' Now that was a curious question. Primrose regarded Ganondorf carefully. She knew that Midna took exceptional issue with the man, though the dancer herself had yet to learn the full story. She also knew that when they found Ganondorf he'd been chained up by that old kingly goat who had told them point blank that the man was evil. And, of course, she'd seen the ferocity and fits of anger he was capable of first hand while fighting together with him. Still, she didn't see any reason that he would betray them, and so she did not keep the information from him.

"A disembodied white glove, larger than a person," she said. "Connected to the Consuls and the Guardians in some way... and a right hand, if that matters."

”That would be Master Hand, then.” Ganondorf clarified. “”I’m quite familiar with the entity, you see. And you all should be aware that there’s another hand like it out there most likely. Crazy Hand, I think it’s called. A left hand that moves much more erratically and chaotically than Master Hand does.”

Now that was news to the dancer. She blinked in surprise before her features smoothed to casual indifference. "How lovely," she said sarcastically. So they had to watch out for yet another threat.

She spoke again after a little sigh. "Regardless if we're caught in some kind of game or we just happened to come upon some luck," which she doubted, "I suppose we'll just have to keep playing, hm?"

Ganondorf nodded, his lips curling into a smile of agreement. ”Indeed.” He also noted that the veins that were previously closed off were now opened yet again. Ganondrof made a gesture forward. ”Ah, our way forward has opened, it seems. Shall we?””

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Videogame Crossover)

Vs. Empusa Queen

Feat. Ace Cadet and Blazermate
^{@Yankee@Archmage MC}
Word count: 3164 (+4)

There was no time for strategizing. While the pair of green empusa took wing, hanging back and looking for openings, their aggressive queen was already on the offensive. She snapped her razor sharp forelimbs out at the pair of Seekers, but her strike found only the steel of Yato. The sword flashed as the Ace Cadet met each of the demon’s quick slashes and stabs with a rough parry, until the monster had enough and leapt backward. The empusa queen landed on all fours, and slowly, menacingly, began to circle around.

It was then that the Cadet glanced back at Blazermate, giving the medabot a confident grin. Out of everyone that could have ended up with him in this arena, she was one of the best to be paired with. Although he figured she must have changed in the few weeks since he’d seen her last, Blazermate’s support style -all technological in nature last he knew- would make this a piece of cake if he focused on the offense.

"Ready for this?" the hunter inquired of her.

”Of course, I’ve got a fun trick that’ll help, get into position!” Blazermate said as she cast Disruption on the Empusa Queen, banishing it in a dark void for a couple seconds before it reappeared with two illusions of itself, those illusions clear to the duo and clearly hostile to the Queen and attacking her. And as Ace went in to do his things, Blazermate stacked on another debuff on the Queen, Disseminate, making it take more damage from every source for a short while.

Under threat by three enemies, even if two were copies of herself, the aggressively territorial queen began to rampage. She slashed and stabbed with her scythe-like arms, viciously cutting down the inferior clones as though to prove they were no match for the real thing. And in a manner of speaking, it was true - they were not as powerful or tough as the true empusa queen, and it wouldn't be long before they fell to the demon's might even before their timer was up.

Which made the biggest thorn in the queen's side the red haired monster hunter. Although wary of the copies Blazermate had produced (and maybe feeling a tiny bit betrayed that it turned out she did have some forms of magic now), the Ace Cadet did not squander the openings they provided. Each stroke of his sword cut deep into the empusa queen, opening up wounds on her legs and abdomen. His defensive options were limited with his current equipment, but he generally tried to keep between the demon and Blazermate. In doing so he relied more on his physical strength than his evasive ability, continuing to parry the queen's slashing when she aimed at him. The queen's movements were not completely predictable however.

The empusa queen suddenly sprang straight up, flicking her legs out as she did and crashing back down on top of one of her copies, crushing it into nothingness. Then she dipped down, lowering her body and striking low at the hunter. It caught him by surprise, though both sides of his rigging extended and closed in towards his front to block the razor arms. That was how he found out the hard way that though they were steel, his rigging couldn't truly replace a good shield against a powerful foe - the demon dented the metal and flung Ace backwards, leaving her free to take care of the last illusory copy.

At that point, the queen's entourage made their moves. One flew in close, hovering over the empusa queen and spraying a green dust over her that began to heal up the demon's injuries. The second green empusa got closer as well, waiting to deliver its own healing and spitting globs of some poisonous substance at Ace and Blazermate to keep them away while the two insectoids worked on undoing the progress the Seekers had made.

The Cadet had recovered quickly, side-stepping one of the projectiles. His rigging was much slower to reorient itself, struggling to properly aim their mini cannons after taking damage. "Those things are gonna be a pain in the buzz," Ace said, eyeing the green empusa. "Let's get rid of them first."

”Ok, use some big hard hitting moves, I’ve got Kritz all ready!” Blazermate said, noting that she had her medigun charged and ready. She also had a way to break the Empusa Queen’s defensive line so Ace could get in there and do some damage to the healer. What helped out a lot as well, is that since the Empusa Queen was focused on Ace, Blazermate’s engineer could safely build his buildings and now a sentry gun was plinking away at her dealing low but constant damage from its large caliber rounds.

Big moves, huh? Ace could do that. So far the maiden fight of his new sword, so to speak, had impressed him. The blade was sturdy, strong, sharp, and well balanced on top of being a beauty. Giving it a real test with some flashier moves would be fun.

"Here we go!" Ace sprinted forward, directly at the empusa queen. She reared up and slammed both of her scythes down at him, only just missing the hunter as he swung the sword and himself to one side with a fade slash. Then he climbed the demon, using the spikes on the back of her arms as stepping stones to propel himself upwards. At her shoulder the Cadet leapt off towards the green empusa that lingered by her, a mid-air round slash slicing through its delicate wings and sending it tumbling to the floor. The monster hunter followed it down (not that he had a choice in the matter), flipping the sword into a reverse grip. As he landed the blade stabbed into the grounded empusa, impaling it through the abdomen.

Once she got the signal and Ace began his rush down on one of the healers, Blazermate got ready to pop kritz the moment he attacked. Likewise, she saw the Empusa Queen turning to advance and gave her something to deal with, summoning Armstrong to bull rush her down and knock her into the far wall with an explosive dash ending with an explosion that put the healers off guard as well.

One deep cut drawn up from the green empusa's abdomen through its neck and mutated head was enough to slay it. The toxic substance inside of it spurted out before it died, making the Cadet grimace and turn his head away as it splashed up at him. These things were particularly nasty, especially with the distorted human-like faces they wore.

Following the explosion from Blazermate's striker, the second green empusa seemed almost frightened. It flew in an erratic circle before it darted over to where the queen had been pushed, and so the Cadet ran after it. He considered loading a flash bomb into his slinger, but settled for just leveling the clutch claw at the flying demon. He fired, the chain and claw extending out to catch the empusa by one of its legs. The hunter then skidded to a halt, yanking the chain backwards and staggering the empusa's flight.

He was a little too late to stop its healing payload from reaching its queen, especially as the much larger demon began charging back towards the Seekers as soon as Armstrong disappeared. The Cadet quickly took hold of the slinger's chain with both hands, giving it another hard yank and pulling the green empusa completely from the air. It hit the ground in front of the hunter and continued bouncing back along the ground behind him. He released the clutch claw’s grip on it, because at that point the queen was upon him once again. Ace took the slinger's chain in hand once more as the claw parts restructured themselves, swinging the newly formed metal anchor at the queen. The flail clocked the side of her face, pushing her slightly off course. Her scythes dug into the ground and then she heaved, bulling forward and splaying her forearms out in an attempt to grab the hunter.

One down, one to go. Although with one of her minions down, perhaps now they could overcome her healing. As Ace had been taking the queens attention, the engineer’s sentry had been upgraded to level 2 and was now really piling on the sustained damage. Blazermate herself really didn’t have too much in the way of things she could do besides healing or throwing out her new healing bolt that did some okish healing on the return.

Something she could do however, was when the Empusa Queen was going for a big heavy attack on Ace, to yank him away from the attack with one of her newly gotten spirit abilities. ”I think we can just overcome her healing with one of them gone. I’ll keep it in my projectile shield, you do big damage, she should go down?” Blazermate said, putting forth her plan and using her projectile shield to protect from the spit of the minion, while dealing some hefty damage to the Queen herself, a bit more than the sentry was doing.

At first it seemed like the hunter might not have heard her. Blazermate's Leap of Faith ability had pulled him from the danger of a grapple, but once he was back by her side it took the man more than a moment to recover. The feel of her agenllic pull had been chilling, and it took the raging scream of the empusa queen to seemingly make him come back to his senses.

"Huh? Oh, yeah - let's go with that." With a click the slinger's chain retracted, snapping back into place on his arm. He placed a hand on the hilt of Yato, more than ready to test how it handled iaijutsu.

But it turned out that the Seekers wouldn't have to try and beat through the remaining green empusa's healing. It had taken flight again, returning to its monarch's side as she scuttled backward away from the painful projectile shield, but after it delivered its latest healing pollen the queen jerked forward and snatched it from the air. It struggled in her grip until the empusa queen opened her mouth and bit down on its body. Her blunt teeth crushed its flesh, pressing harder until demonic blood gushed out which she began to drink deeply.

The Ace Cadet's eyes widened. He appeared to recognize the behavior, or something similar to it, and without any hesitation he sprinted towards the monster. "Let's go with that right now!" he said, urging Blazermate to follow after him and bring the demon back within range of her shield.

The empusa queen's body began to glow, a harsh red light seeping out from inside of her and showing through her exoskeleton. Then she threw away the body of her healer, which broke down into dust as soon as it hit the ground. A moment later the Cadet had reached her, flicking his sword out towards her throat with intent to end the battle as swiftly as possible. But the demon was faster now, and with a parry of her own she caught the jagged guard of his blade with one of her scythes and forced him away. The hunter took a step back, re-sheathing his sword and taking a ready stance as the demon reared up on her hind legs.

As the Empusa Queen crashed down on Ace, Blazermate tried her other new ability. Summoning a dome of pure holy light with the phrase ”We Stand as one!”, the Empusa Queen’s attack hit Ace directly, but nothing happened. In fact, Ace was healing from any damage he had taken and could move normally. While the dome didn’t last long, it was essentially an AoE ubercharge that Blazermate could throw out whenever…. Although it had a hefty cooldown.

The protective wave came at the same time that Ace drew the long sword into an iai spirit slash, and where usually monster and hunter would have traded wounds the impervious dome gave the Cadet a significant advantage. The draw attack was already a powerful one, and without being hurt or interrupted Ace forced the demon to relent when he completed the wide slash. He followed up with a swift thrust into the queen's shoulder as she landed heavily on all fours again, then pulled the sword up in a reverse overhead slash that sliced a deep line through her neck and chin. Though the queen bled, it wasn't enough to end her reign. If anything it only made her angrier. She roared and lashed out with rapid strikes, her scythes cracking the ground where she missed and crashing hard against the Cadet's armor when she didn't. At this point though the hunter entrusted his well being completely to Blazermate, and he retaliated against the empusa queen in kind.

Throughout the drawn out exchange, the sealed sword performed even better than the Cadet had hoped it would. It bit painfully into the demon's body and refused to yield when struck, mitigating any reverberation from being passed on to its wielder. Ace had gotten used to the feel of it very quickly, and the general way the empusa queen moved and attacked, so he knew it would just be a matter of time before he took it down. He side stepped another of her stabs, barely avoiding a heavier strike as the sharpened arm sliced a cut across his cheek, and dove in for what would be the final round.

The hunter breathed out, shifting his grip on the sword. Thinking he'd given her an opening, the enraged queen raised one of her arms overhead and drove it down towards him. With a flash the golden blade had flicked up in a Critical Juncture, meeting the demon's scythe and then slipping under it, severing the insectoid limb at the joint.

The empusa queen screeched in pain and indignity. She wouldn't have backed down even if Galeem's thrall allowed for it - she lashed out with her remaining arm, giving the Cadet another leg up as he met it with his sword once more. He'd swung it overhead, strong enough to force the demon's arm down and use it as a staircase for the second time. He pulled the sword up hard in a cross slash, adding to the wound on the queen's neck from the opposite angle. This time she did stagger, though she didn't suffer for long.

After putting the demon down, the Cadet flicked the ichor from his blade and sheathed it once more. When he trotted back over to Blazermate with its spirit in hand, he could already feel her healing beam patching up the last of his wounds.

"And that's three more bugs squashed," he said, offering his hand for a fist bump, which Blazermate did. She also saw upon the defeat of the bugs that besides the Empusa queen spirit she could grab, she was also offered one of three cards. Mint Condition, Anointment, Sunflower Crown She didn’t know what these meant, so she chose what sounded the best, or rather, cutest with the Sunflower Crown. At first it felt like nothing happened, but she did notice herself getting a bit more durable. Weird for a sunflower crown to do, but things were usually weird here.

Meanwhile, Ace had a decidedly different experience. And upon closer inspection, the cards had text on them denoting multiple different effects.

For Ace Cadet

Sweet Surrender - foes inflicted with Weak also take 15% more damage.
Constellation Surge - at the start of a fight, movement speed is boosted by 30% until attacked.
Garnet Staff - increases the damage of special arts by 20%, grants 1 second of invincibility, and erase projectiles in a radius when special arts are used.

What are these? Prizes? Was that something caused by the empusa queen's defeat or just an effect of fighting in the Qliphoth, he wondered. As he read over the cards, the Cadet's eyes kept wandering to the first of the three. Compared to the other two, its stated effect was a lot less enticing. But the pink shape stamped on the card was vaguely familiar to him, he just couldn't place it. He re-read it again, and after a few long moments it eventually clicked. This was just like back at the restaurant in Limsa weeks ago! So this card is... a boon from that woman? Aphrodite, I think?

The 'cast' she'd given to him was a useful thing, not that he'd been able to bring himself to use it for a while now. It was some kind of divine magic, or something similar enough that the thought alone gave him chills. But since she had bestowed the boon in the first place, if he could talk to Aphrodite again maybe she could remove it for him?

He reached out to grab the card, but it burst into sparkles as soon as he touched it. A soft pink light extended out from where the card had been, encompassing the area and banishing the blackness completely. In place of the cards, a beautiful woman stood. Though nude, her long hair trailed down her front to tastefully cover her sensitive areas. Adorned with gold and flowers while sporting a spear and shield in each hand, she was even more gorgeous than the Ace Cadet remembered. He fought to keep his eyes on her face. Her gaze then flickered over to him, at which point she smiled sensuously.

"Well, you certainly made me wait, didn't you? I was beginning to think you stood me up~"

"Ah-" The hunter's face began to color, a dusty pink to match the background of the vision. He coughed to clear his throat. "Aphrodite, right? About your pow–"

The goddess tipped her head and raised her spear, interrupting him with a knowing twinkle in her eye. "My power, mm? I've just the thing to help keep you warm and tingly."

The Cadet began to protest, but the vision began to fade away. There was a brief feeling of elation that gripped the man, which mixed very strangely with the apprehension he felt about the one bit of magic being stuck in him just getting stronger. Before she disappeared completely, Aphrodite winked at the Cadet and bade him, "keep following your heart."

And then he was plunged back into the real world.

"Great. Just groovios..." he sighed, pressing his palm to his forehead. He had a jumble of conflicting emotions now, and his cheeks were still pink, and the exact opposite of what he'd wanted to happen, had happened. If he’d known talking with Aphrodite would be no use he would have picked one of the others! But there was nothing he could do about it now, and no use in complaining.

He looked down at Blazermate, wondering if she'd gotten the same choices. It didn’t seem like she’d encountered anything strange, so maybe not. Before he could ask, the medabot noted that the path to the next vein up the tree was now clear, and she hurried towards it. The Cadet followed after her, stopping only to quickly scoop up the spirits of the green empusa (and somewhat comically the severed royal scythe) before the two Seekers hopped into the fresh xylem vessel.

Nocturnal Memoirs: An Urban-Fantasy Mafia Epic

Woah, High Card...and here, I thought I was the only one (on the site).

@ERode

There's at least three of us apparently

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Videogame Crossover)

Vs. Core Stone

Feat. Therion and Edward
^{@Yankee@DracoLunaris}
Word count: 7197 (+8)

Thankfully for Therion, xylem (or whatever it was that actually flowed through the Qliphoth's veins) was not water, so as he traveled through the demon tree's bloodstream he was unharmed. He was pissed off though, not to mention drenched, so he cut himself free from the vessel as soon as the pressure began to decrease. He burst out of the vein, making a three point landing on the uneven ground with his dagger raised and ready to shred anything that might jump to attack him.

But nothing did. Actually, the only other living being in the room at the moment was... one of the new guys. Therion didn't know his name. Had he introduced himself? If the man had, Therion had forgotten already.

Washed of mud and grime but now covered in crimson, Therion's shaggy wet hair and sad waterlogged fur gave him a drowned cat appearance to go with the man's disheveled pigeon look. After a moment of calm Therion stood upright, studying the arena the two of them had found themselves in. It looked like a cave more than anything, with sloping walls and chunks of stone jutting out of the walls and floor, and some kind of aura surrounding the perimeter. In the center was the only thing of note, something his partner had already picked up on: a dark crystalline structure. Once his eyes adjusted, the thief could make out something encased inside.

Therion didn’t stow his weapon just yet, but he did relax slightly once it was clear nothing was coming up after them for the time being. He glanced at the other man, and the magic circle he was fiddling with, then went over to the only other visible vein. He attempted to place his hand on it, but as he suspected - the barrier prevented him from doing so.

Finally he made his way over to Edward, crouching down a few feet away from him.

"Do you already have a plan or something?" The thief asked, eyes flickering down to the magic circle.

”Only the simplest one: to face whatever that is with as many forces as can be mustered” the man replied, before the spell circle on the ground blinked, and he excused himself for ”one moment” before completing the pair of rituals.

First, the spent rifle that had been sitting in the circle vanished in the blink of an eye, sent back to the armory after the somewhat lengthy return sequence was completed. Then he raised a hand and pulled at the copper wires stuck into the floating magic circle, extracting them from it and then, with his other hand, flicking some mechanism at his waist that caused them to reel back in to a coil sat nested among 12 small batteries that thrummed softly as a result of the mana that had been compressed into them.

Enough time had passed, between Therion’s scouting and Edward’s surveying that it was rather clear that ”It looks like it will just be us”

As such the commander requested ”Could you give me a quick summary of how you fight? You seem to be something of a skirmisher, but I’d like to ensure I construct a supporting regiment that best compliments your capabilities” before adding, as something of a formality ”oh and could have your name as well? Mine would be Edward Portsmith”

Therion didn't answer immediately. Since they actually had the time to prepare, he took said time to consider how best to answer the man. Skirmisher seemed right, but he hadn't really thought about it before.

"It's Therion," he started with. "You've got it about right. I'm quick and accurate, way faster than I am strong. I've got some magic, and I can weaken my opponents. Among other things."

Listing out everything would be a pain, so he left it at that for the moment. Normally he might have been more guarded with even that basic information, but hey, he was a team player now. And if the two of them had to work together to get through out of this area, it'd be better if Edward knew what he was working with.

"And I can turn into a giant cat," the thief added, deadpan, with a flick of his ears. Now it was time for the dreadnaught to return the favor. "And you're some kind of… wizard? Golem-mancer? You don't really look the part."

"Like the Tigran mystics once did" the other man replied to that last piece of information without missing a beat, before he retrieved a pair of tomes that hung at his waist.

"Dreadnoughts are generals who make practical applications of magic for the common good, rather than mages who plumb the depths of the arcane. Without an industrial base I am, however, relying mostly on golomancy, yes. A few army wide enchantments and an instant spell as well, but I think given the situation, giving you a defensive line to dart in and out of, or pin your foes against, might be most optimal. Plus something to break that stone"

With a plan in mind, the two tomes flipped open, and the man began incanting from them, first repeating the spell he had used outside to form a singular cannon, and then began one as of yet unheard:

"Since before history began, the humble spear has been raised in defiance against all manner of monsters. It is a great equalizer, and yet, also, oh so often, a burden thrust in the hands of those least prepared for war who then suffer the greatest from it. No more! Let us build bristling walls to shelter the living behind! Let us send forth mechanical might, the likes of which will make the horrors of the night know pause, and in that pause, we shall break them, once and for all!"

A dramatic speech for sure, though perhaps it would have been something of an over embellishment when the much lauded ‘mechanical might’ came in the form of a somewhat spindling looking man sized copper golem.

It helped that they came in packs of six. It also helped that the man proceeded to forge six total packs of these, for a total of 36 additional combatants added to their ranks. He spread them out in an arch defending the cannon and himself, both of which had their backs to a piece of cavern wall. Lanes were left between them, enough space for one man to shoot or slip through, but thin enough that the spears could deny entry with ease. One of these lanes naturally pointed directly towards the obelisk, with the cannon pointed straight down it.

With a defensive perimeter formed, Edward added that "I have reserved 2 mana fuel cells for spells that will briefly make a target more vulnerable and easier to strike as well" before inquiring if "this will be suitable?"

At the beginning of Edward's conjuration spell, Therion had raised an eyebrow. Now that he was seeing these things up close, they didn't seem as impressive as they had from across a battlefield. But as more and more were gradually summoned into being, Therion's doubtful expression morphed into one of mild surprise. Sure it had taken more than a couple of moments, but being able to create a small army on the field was one hell of a skill.

"Yeah, this'll work," the thief replied. He noted Edward's comment about the mana fuel cells, his brain taking a moment to parse out what a fuel cell could be. Then he stretched his limbs out lightly in preparation for what was to come before making his own final comment. "Call out to me if you run out of mana, I might be able to help with that."

"Interesting."

The two men were as ready as they could be. Therion snaked around a couple of the golems towards the front of the line so that he was in a better position to go on the offensive when things kicked off. He didn't wait long for it - as soon as Edward was ready the man set his magelock cannon to light, and the wicked artillery weapon blasted a condensed ball of magic at the core stone in the center of the room. The firing shook the arena slightly, and on impact the hardy dark crystal broke apart.

The encased core stone was then freed, itself unfortunately undamaged by the blast. It remained suspended in the air, floating ominously while it began to form a dark glow around itself. Along the walls behind itself a similar glow began to form, rapidly ripping open portals from which creatures began to surge out in droves. They were roughly humanoid, appearing part man and part deep stone, and they ran on all fours directly towards the Seekers and their golem guards.

"Of course, fresh horrors" Edward noted with casual resignation, before tapping the Amory screen interface he’d had open (having said he’d use it so select appropriate weapon when they knew the nature of the threat) and summoning his magelock rifle into an empty hand. He then rested the barrel against his buckler for support, lined up a shot, and sent the magical round slamming into the skull of one of the creatures- only for the round torichet off the beast’s armored cranium.

It still staggered it, and then prompted it to roar in anger/defiance, skull splitting right down the middle and open exposing a host of squirming tongues and feelers, and revealing the head to be more of a 3 part jaw than an actual, well, head.

Delightful" Edward called this display, before pumping a second round right into the creature's open maw, putting it down for good. Its blood splattered to the floor, a purple goop that shimmered like the gateway and looked mighty unpleasant to step in.

This was confirmed a few moments later when the creatures reached the spears. They rose up on their hind legs, roaring, and then came slashing both front limbs downwards at the golems. It was an attack style that let them hit a fair way above their weight class, but the nature of it left them very exposed to being struck before they could land it, and striking first was exactly what the spears were built for. As one, all six golems took a step forwards when an attack was incoming, driving six sharp points into the foes, and at least some of these got lucky hits, spears driven right into the maws of the beasts.

It was after this that the spears suffered. Those that had failed to take down their attackers inevitably lost members of their unit to the blows, while those that stopped the attacks found their positions splashed with the distorting goop, forcing them to take a step back lest it devour from the feet up.

The creatures that survived lept back, seeming to prefer hit and run tactics, which proved perhaps not the best strategy when a pair that had made the mistake of lining up had a cannonball rip through the pair of them. Edward would have joined in on trying to take down the wounded, but unfortunately he was trying to stem a bigger issue: the creature's ability to climb on and leap between the chunks of cavern littering the area, which they were attempting to use to reach the chunk the formation was using to cover their rear inorder to bypass the spears.

Recognizing the threat the crawlers posed if they got behind the line of golems, Therion targeted these opportunistic monsters whenever he spotted one. A well placed reaver bolt would drop a leaping one from the air, where it could be swiftly dealt with by himself or a round of spears.

Although debuffing was Therion's niche, without Primrose to spread the effects to every enemy at once it would take too much time and energy to go about weakening every individual creature in the pack. So he'd been focused entirely on offense, blitzing in and out of the wall of golems to strike at the core crawlers. In his right hand was the dagger Bronllavyn, and in his left the spectral Wraith Blade. Therion had quickly learned that while the creatures had extremely tough face plates and their backs were near impenetrable, the rest of their body featured no such armor. Though the thief preferred a quick take down through the weak points in their head behind the face plate, since they still died when their necks or bellies were cut he wasn't going to be picky with where he attacked them. He easily finished off any of the wounded crawlers, and took out his fair share of fresh ones by employing the same tactics they did: land a hit or two to a critical area and then dart away only to repeat the process. Therion escaped between the copper golems, letting them take any retaliatory slashes aimed at him and using their bodies to physically block any of the residual goop left behind from the crawlers' bodies.

A summon of an angelic striker by Edward patched up the squads all at once, fallen golems being replaced by freshly printed duplicates foged using the excess healing magic. This, however, did not give them back any of the ground they’d had give up, gradually tightening the formation step back by step back.

Although able to deal with the host of crawlers in the short term, once it looked like the flood of creatures coming in through the portals wasn't going to stop any time soon it became obvious that the two Seekers weren't going to be able to hold out in the long term. It stood to reason that the source of the portals was the core stone itself, so as soon as he took care of the closest few crawlers that were attempting to leap over the remaining golems, Therion broke away from the formation and made a beeline for the stone. Some crawlers turned to chase after him, and those he passed lashed out by raking their claws against him as he ran by. As soon as he was close enough Therion leapt at the stone, clinging and climbing up onto its rocky top half while driving both of his weapons into the glowing bottom half.

The core stone stuttered, its glow flickering but remaining lit. A pessimistic thought, or more of a hunch occurred to Therion, but attacking the stone was definitely the right way to do this.

"Aim at this thing!" The thief shouted at Edward as a handful of crawlers converged on the stone.

The man didn’t need to be told twice. With a flap of his wings he launched himself into the air, only to be surrounded by a circle of runes that momentarily anchored him in it, holding him steady as he aimed, while he also designated the target with a blood red aura. Right before he fired, his cannon rang out, its own round curving slightly in the air as a result of the debuff, before it detonated in mid air and sent its wide burst pulsing through stone and crawlers both, clearing the way for Edward’s magelock rifle round to slam home into the stone.

Therion had leapt off of the stone ahead of the dreadnaught's attack. Able to observe up close he noted that the stone's flotation was starting to falter now too, though it was able to stay airborne. The portals it had summoned remained open and more core crawlers continued coming through into the arena, and on the floor beneath the core stone Therion spotted some kind of rumbling. He narrowed his eyes, his ears turning to lay flat against his head. Shit.

The meaty interior of the tree, the bloodstreams they'd had to travel through, the infected enemies they fought... it all unpleasantly reminded Therion of everything that had happened in The Under. There had been something like this in the Under too, a concealed device that called forth hordes of enemies to protect it. The similarities could have been a coincidence, but when combined with everything else? It gave the thief the feeling he knew exactly what was coming next.

"Portsmith!" Therion barked, bringing both of his weapons up and lunging at the core stone once more. "Hammer this thing quick before it rebuilds its—"

Too late. The same dark crystal that had surrounded the stone when they first entered shot up from the ground violently, slicing Therion as it emerged. It reformed around the core stone, shielding it from any further harm. It'd have to be broken again it seemed, but worse was that it did not reset the state of the battlefield. The portals remained open around the arena, and more began to form on every wall spilling yet more crawlers. I hate being right, the thief thought.

”Focusing the cannon on-" Edward started to call out, only for one of the portals to open on the stone he was using to guard their rear. To his credit, the man must have expected this inevitably, as rather than panic or be taken by surprise he pivoted on the spot and pumped a maglock round into the shoulder of one of the emerging crawlers, before dropping from the fringe pose and using the enchanted buckler to block a two clawed swipe from another.

Another rushed past him, slamming its claws into the back of the magelock cannon, disrupting its attempt to blast the piller. The construct was fortunately fairly durable, but it couldn’t exactly fight back against melee attackers, and if it went down, they would be in trouble.

”Moving the formation! Therion, help clear some untainted ground!" Edward called out as the cannon uprooted itself and began to roll forwards, spears marching ahead, doing their best to hold the perimeter even on the move.

Behind them Edward attempted to hold the rear of the formation while the copper golems repositioned to try and convert the semi circle it had been into a full one. His strategy seemed less focused on killing, and more about enduring and exploiting the creature’s psychology. The man hurled himself in the way of foes, in order to prompt them into retreating after delivering that attack against him, and in doing so, preventing them from slipping in between him and the spears and going for the cannon.

A shallow pool of water began to spread underfoot then, gradually healing up Edward and the golems in place of the featherstaff. Therion's striker Nayan stood in the center of the defensive circle, her palms pressed together as her Calling Spirits completed the revitalizing water well encompassing the formation. Any of the core crawlers that did manage to get lucky and slip through slowed down as soon as they touched the water, ripe for being picked off if they couldn't escape in time.

After passing through to drop off the striker, Therion circled around the perimeter like a predator, swiftly taking advantage of the crawlers' retreats or lunges. Unlike the dreadnaught he aimed to finish the monsters off - and each time their bodies crumbled into ash and left a mote of light behind, the thief's wraith blade sliced the spirit in two. Being on the outside of the healing pool, this was how he kept himself fighting fit. The spirits were absorbed into the sword, and in turn the cuts on Therion's body began to cease bleeding and stitch themselves together slowly. Stamina was still going to be an issue, but for the moment he kept clearing out as many core crawlers as he could get his hands on, twisting and stabbing across the arena until the herd was thinned enough to give the cannon room to work.

Edward did his part in this in the end as well, having taken so many blows from them that the crystals on his buckler had begun to glow with stored energy. Mustering it, he left forwards with a flap of wings and slammed into the ground in a superhero landing, sending out a circular shockwave that knocked crawlers down and cripled limbs.

With the thinning of the herd by Therion, and the moment of space granted by the drednaught’s shockwave, the spears finished forming a hexagon around the cannon. The gaps between them were larger, the space between smaller, but still, better than having the wall you’d pressed their back to betraying them, and thus the guns could sound once more. Targeting. Naturally. The obsidian pillar, into which cannon shots began to pound, chunks being blow free til once again, the stone took to the air once more.

”Marking the target in five! Let’s take it down post haste!" Edward called out before he leapt into the air with a flap, freezing himself up there with the magelock’s accurate boosting self buff. Once more the bloody aura surrounded the stone as he designated it as their target (expanding his last mana fuel cell in the process). Once again its defenses were lowered and shots struck truer against it. Once more Edward’s mage lock sang and slammed a round into it.

Therion sucked in a breath and chased after the shot, this time tagging the stone with Armor Corrosive as he slashed at it with his dagger and piling on the defense lowering debuffs. After the initial strike he kept some distance between himself and the stone, wary of it suddenly sprouting a new crystalline shield again. He swapped to using his own projectiles, a mix of reaver bolts and crystal darts that he powered up with a soft silver glow. This was the most reliable way for him to deal damage at the moment, and it kept him free to deal with the every increasing numbers of core spawn crawlers as well. He back stepped as a pair leapt at him, switching his focus to protecting himself. It was a vicious cycle; if the pair of Seekers didn't deal with the swarm, the core stone was likely to just build its protective shell back up. But if they focused only the stone, the portal-summoned monsters would threaten to overwhelm them.

A fiery blast heralded Therion's return to the inner ring of the golem circle. More than one of the crawlers had been getting too close for comfort, lucky claw swipes catching him in his blind spots while he fought off those in front of him. When eventually too many bunched up close to him, the thief lashed out with his Wildfire to scatter them. With the wall of golems in front of him once more, reduced as it was, he redoubled his efforts on the stone - and as expected, once the build up of damage got too much the crystal's growth rapidly accelerated and surrounded the core stone, throwing the men into round three.

”Focusing the cannon’s fire again" Edward announced, because that was their only option right now. With it no longer blasting between the lanes of golems however, the inevitable eventually happened. Thined, and rendered less effective because of it, their attrition had accelerated, and then, now, right when they needed the formation the most, one of the squads was wiped out, and there was no bringing them back from that.

Edward ditched his rifle there and then, drawing his machete and accompanying flintlock and planting himself in the resulting breach, demanding the remaining golems ”Hold fast! They’re almost beaten!" in a way that would have been inspiring had his troops been flesh and blood soldiers. As it was, it was likely the words were primarily called out to bolster his own morale as claws crashed against his armor, blade and shield and his troops fell around him.

While Edward focused on protecting the cannon, Therion set about to clear its firing line again. If they were in danger of losing it then they had to make the most out of it before it was gone. Therion remained in his human form if only to keep getting use out of his wraith blade, mitigating a small portion of the damage being done to him. For every crawler he ambushed, one ambushed him. For every few he killed, more just poured in.

"Set it off!" Therion called back whenever he managed to clear even a slight opening, figuring the cannon blast could get through a few monsters on its way to smash against the crystal. Each time it struck, a host of crawlers took the opportunity to move in on them with their claws and maws snapping.

Things weren't looking good to say the least. But Therion did have something up his sleeve that all of the fighting so far would allow him to use. If he was lucky it would solve a couple of their problems all at once.

The thief cast his eyes about the arena, swiftly settled on a course of action, and then abandoned his post. The unit of golems he'd been assisting would have been swallowed up soon anyway, and the first of them crumpled as soon as he moved. Therion's direction meant he was heading for the nearest cavern wall, moving fast and dodging as many claw swipes as he took. He made a detour only to snatch Portsmith by the collar and drag him along too at the last moment. He hoped the man wasn't going to ask questions, because he wasn't going to answer them at the moment. A bright aura began to form around the thief, rapidly shifting from white to gold to holy blue and getting larger as it did - and when they'd exited the center of the arena for the most part and the majority of the crawlers were in front of them, Therion used his divine skill.

Dozens of spots in the air around the thief began to shimmer, forming small pockets of what looked like they could have been portals of his own. What came out of them were almost too fast to see - a storm of daggers that ripped through the air like divine bolts of light. They covered a huge swath of the hollow, slicing through core spawn crawlers and copper golems alike, and despite the devastating force it was over just as quickly as it had appeared. It may have taken a sacrifice of the last of the dreadnaught's forces, and a not insignificant chunk of Therion's remaining energy, but in return the majority of the monsters lay dead or dying. Those that had been lucky enough to avoid the kill zone lingered on the fringes of the arena, hesitant but slowly creeping forward while looking for a chance to continue the attack.

It wouldn't stay that way for long, however. Aeber's Reckoning had done nothing to put a stop to the spawn portals themselves, and the next batch of crawlers were already pulling themselves out of the swirling purple masses.

Therion took a few deep steadying breaths through his nose as his battle boost aura bled away. He'd released Edward as soon as he was sure the man wouldn't get caught in the Reckoning, and now he re-summoned his wraith blade to swipe it through the small collection of spirits in front of them. It wouldn't get him back to full health but it was better than nothing, and as his wounds slowly began to close Therion looked towards the core stone. At the very least the pillar encasing it had broken under the cannon fire once more, and the dagger rain had chipped away the last remaining chunk of it. The core stone floated ominously, its glow daring the Seekers to continue fighting.

”Seems I will need to replace-" Edward began to say, before pausing as his bent in half magelock rifle (which had been left behind in the rush) fall out of the sky from where it had been blasted and bonk one of the Remaining Crawlers on the head, and adjusting too ”-repair that then"

Despite its miraculous survival (if it could be called that) the man’s main ranged damage source was in no state to be retrieved, let alone fired, and so there was really only one thing to be done: charge the stone.

It wasn’t going to make that easy however, as a fresh rift opened right in between them and it, and fresh horrors spilled out to bar their way, or to at the very least slow them enough that the older horrors could catch up with them.

Without hesitation, Edward started moving forwards, leather boots trapping against living flesh, wings unfurling, flapping as he made a running liftoff to try and get over the Crawlers. Naturally, they disagreed with this course of action, and attempted to leap up and swat him out of the air. He hacked at one leaper with the machete, deflecting its reaching claw, and then pumped the flintlock round that slash had loaded into another, the recoil from the shot boosting his height enough that he cleared the rest with ease.

”Intriguing" he mused, through a somewhat labored breath, before tilting his flight and beginning to glide down towards the stone. The flintlock was holstered, the machete gripped in two hands, and then he banked at the last moment, burning all his momentum for hight, and delivered a downwards gravity assisted chop to the stone, before flapping his wings at the last moment to prevent himself from breaking his ankles upon landing beneath it.

Around him, the crawlers closed in from all sides, converging to come to the defence of their summoner.

Without the benefit of a pair of wings to boost himself over the masses, Therion had to keep to the ground. He fought as ruthlessly as possible, pushing to put an end to things. They could only hope that once they took out the stone summoning them, the waves of crawlers would cease. With that in mind Therion took shots at the core stone whenever he had a decent line of sight to it, silver empowered darts and bolts striking its glowing section. Eventually the crawlers got wise, using the time he aimed at the stone as a safer time to pounce. He already had his hands full with fending them off, especially bad as his attack and defense were reduced in such close quarters and getting rougher by the moment now that it was just he and Portsmith with no support.

Suddenly Therion took a heavy strike from the side, one of the crawlers tackling him to the ground instead of the usual dart-in-dart-out swipe of its claws. It moved to escape back to safety and let its brethren have a go at the thief, but on the way down he jabbed it in its back leg with his dagger, drawing its vitality out of it and siphoning it back to him. He twisted the knife and pulled the creature back to shield himself with its body as pairs of claws came down at him, then sprung back to his feet through the ashes in order to dispatch the monsters around him. Another crawler rounded at Therion, its hard nails connecting with his manacle and bracer as he raised his arm to block it. He chanced a glance at the stone Edward was fighting under. Damn it, we're so close, he thought. The floating rock's light was flickering, and surely it didn't have enough energy to conjure yet another crystal.

Edward for one did not seem to want to find out, and so, even as the Crawlers threatened to overwhelm him, the man, wings bloody, armor dented, limbs burning from exertion, raised the flintlock that was his main source of damage up above his head and pulled the trigger.

The crack of gunpowder barked, the round flew, straight up, and into the core stone, resulting as a second all mighty crack as it shuddered, wobbled, and then its light died, and it fell from the sky.

As it fell, the Crawlers wailed and then collapsed, life gone.

A moment later, and the core stone landed right on top of Edward’s head, and then everything went dark.

Well, dark except for the three floating boons that were presented to both the seekers for their victory.

boon choices for Edward

Soot Sprint - while sprinting, a fiery aura burns away most projectiles and inflict Scorch on those responsible, a short-lived but fiery DoT that intensifies based on instances applied
Disruptive Pulse - when HP falls below 50%, restore 50% of your cells. This can only be triggered one every 40 seconds
Gas Blood - grants immunity to poison, decreases fall speed, and causes you to bleed gas instead of blood, which can be ignited by flame to cause explosions that don't hurt you

Edward was not, it had to be said, in the best state to be frozen in time like this, what with his blood leaking from his wings and his head ringing from the core stone’s impact with his cranium. Said stone floating in the air, frozen in time, in front of him certainly didn’t help his cognition at the moment. Still, it was a little reminiscent of how tome research worked, with three options on offer, so he leaned on that familiarity even while his head threatened to kill him.

His eyes briefly skimmed what was ahead of him, reading two things involving blood and injury, and one that did not, and given his current state went for the option that did not require being in this state to be made use of.

He was rewarded by a vision of an woman of quite the age, but who nonetheless had plenty of fire in her. Also on her, considering the hat of burning coals she wore.

“Oh, dearie, you look like you’ve been through a lot, and so far from home though. No time for longing for that though, you’ve got horrors to burn. So chin up sonny, and keep pushing through, because Hestia, goddess of hearth and home, is watching over you”

And then she was gone, and the world was back once more.

When darkness overtook his vision, Therion assumed there actually was some fourth more dreadful phase to their battle. He was tense, locked into fight or flight mode until three cards appeared a little ahead of him. This too was familiar - it wasn't entirely similar to the Basement rooms that had featured mysterious items on pedestals, but it was close enough that the thief lowered his guard enough to read the text on them.

For Therion

Exit Wounds - physical weapons/ammo lodged in an opponent is dislodged after a couple seconds, dealing an extra burst damage on the way out.
Excitatory Gland - increases your basic attack damage by 30%. When using BP, there is a 15% chance to regain 1 BP.
Plague Rats - enemies killed near you have a chance to spawn hungry plague rats that will do your bidding, but will disappear after 20 seconds. Also makes rats unwilling to attack you.

So they really were rewards of some kind. Interesting, he thought. Assuming there were no strings attached, any one of them seemed like they'd make decent benefits. Therion usually went with his gut however, and his gut was telling him to take the middle choice. The power reduction he now experienced when he was fighting in close quarters was annoying, and he wasn't sure exactly which spirit was doing it to him. This way he could fix at least one of the drawbacks, with a bonus to boot.

As soon as his fingers brushed the card he was treated to a vision of some kind. A huge, insect-like figure accompanied by the sound of hissing and skittering took over his senses for a moment. The next, it and the dark space was gone.

With their duly earned rewards chosen, light and color filtered back into the men's visions. Time resumed, and the energy barrier around the perimeter of the hollow had disappeared. They were left with each other, piles and piles of ashes and core spawn crawler spirits, and the core stone itself depleted of its glow.

Therion stood still for a few moments, once again making sure nothing was about to jump out at them now that all seemed quiet. Then he sighed, stowing his dagger until the next hellish fight they would surely have to go through. The wraith blade was still tightly held in his fist, and he swiped it through part of the mountain of spirits to heal up the various cuts and gouges he had on his person.

That had sucked, but they prevailed, somehow. The way forward was clear, but there was nothing stopping them from taking some time to regroup first.

Edward certainly seemed like he needed it, given he was still losing a fair bit of blood from his tattered wings that had absorbed more than one flanking strike by the crawlers. A healing potion from the armory kept him standing long enough for his feather staff striker to come off of its lengthy cooldown, loath as he seemed to be to waste resources oh himself like that.

As for what they had gained, well, after examining the core stone, Edward reported that ”I am fairly certain it is actually inert and not playing dead" something he determined via poking it with the tip of his machete a few times.

”Best we pile it up with the spirits and my rifle, and send them to the avenger for assessment/utilization?" he suggested, something that would give him time to recharge his power banks as well.

The questioning tone Edward added to the end of his sentence made Therion throw a curious glance his way. Was he asking the thief's permission or something?

"I guess," he responded. He couldn't really see the use of a bunch of spirits like these, but then again they could always be made into something else that might be more useful. When he looked back over the arena however, he noted just how many were still left. Suddenly he was loathe to assist Edward in sending them back. "All of them?"

”That does not seem timely, no, but there’s a fair concentration over there, which should provide Sagi plenty of fodder for her ‘Wyverian Melding’ technique, the results of which I am quite interested in seeing" he pointed at the point where the spearwall had spent most of the battle, where indeed, a host of spirits that had died in close proximity that ”We can simply place the returning rituals under those"

Therion could deal with that. He left Edward to scoop up the core stone and went about gathering a few handfuls of spirits on his way over to where the dreadnaught would construct his magic circle, dumping them into the largest pile. He continued to drag his wraith blade through others until the only evidence he'd been in a battle at all were the ripped parts of his outfit. Best to save the more limited healing options while he could. Finally he dispelled the weapon and stepped back, giving Edward room to do his thing.

The pile of the core stone, the dead Crawlers, and Edward’s bent out of shape rifle were all swiftly surrounded by the glow of a large arcane circle, a convenient time in the form of a final ring being gradually drawn letting them know how long it would take to finish. As it did, Edward took it to plug himself in to be recharged, and to talk a little. Starting off with ”My thanks for hauling me out of the defensive line, I and it would have not lasted much longer" tacitly saying that there were no hard feelings about his constructs and rifle being blown to hell a few moments later.

Since it seemed they'd be there for a little longer, and it wasn't like Therion was all that eager to jump into the next vein anyway, the thief had taken a seat on the (somewhat gross) ground and leaned his back against a boulder. His ears flicked towards Edward before his eyes did.

"Don't mention it," he said, and it sounded like he actually meant it. He'd been running with the Seekers for a little while now, but if they got thanked it was as a group, usually, if they were ever thanked at all. Therion was still a bit unused to direct gratitude. It wasn't his style either, so rather than thank the man for summoning them in the first place (they both knew that without the golems or the cannon they wouldn't have even stood a chance), he somewhat awkwardly followed with, "good work..."

And, after a beat, added a cheeky, "...newbie."

"I am aware the power differentials are quite large" the man replied plainly, again entirely honestly it seemed, but he did also have secondary motive for this line of reply, which was "Speaking of, I don’t suppose you were also offered a (supposedly) divine boon for this victory? Is that a common thing?" said with a bit of skepticism about the entire prospect.

"Common? No," Therion answered. He did not seem confused about the question, implying that answer to Edward's first inquiry was a yes. "But anything can and does happen. Just be glad it was something randomly good for once."

"Dice upon dice" he mused, before actually replying "Agreed, any favorable fate in this place of all places is more than welcome"

At that moment, the two spell circles they had been waiting on both filled up their loading circles, recharging Edward’s mana cells, and sending the items back to the Avenger.

"Your patience is appreciated" he said, the time devouring tasks done, before he enquired "Onwards and upwards then?"

Therion pushed to his feet, his tail swaying behind him. "Onwards and upwards," he agreed, though his tone was decidedly lacking in enthusiasm.

Hello there!

Welcome to RPG! If you have any questions feel free to ask!

Nocturnal Memoirs: An Urban-Fantasy Mafia Epic

Since the start of the RP is officially approaching, I'd love to start filling out some pre-existing relationships. I mentioned a little in my CS what Adel's general reputation is to people he's never directly dealt with, buuut I'm sure he's probably met a few of the other player characters at least once before. I'll gladly PM people that are interested in that so we can hash some things out, just let me know

Nocturnal Memoirs: An Urban-Fantasy Mafia Epic

Popping in to say after talking with Estylwen in PMs, my character was approved and it's in the CS tab now for anyone curious!