[center][h2]Tormentor[/h2]	
[color=salmon]Ace Cadet[/color], Blazermate, and Geralt
[b]Word Count:[/b] 6464 (+7 exp)
[/center]

At first the pressure pushed Ace and Blazermate up through the vein fairly quickly. Though neither of them were among the largest members of their group, they both had a fair amount of pointy bits on them (whether carried or integrated into their body), so it wasn’t long before one of said pointy bits caught on the wall of the blood vessel and tore open a hole. Crimson liquid spilled out and cut the blood flow, dropping the duo out into yet another hollow of the Qliphoth.

The Ace Cadet stood up, wiping the fluid from his eyes and spitting it from his mouth. The first time traveling up through the veins he was more concerned with escaping the demonic horde, and since he’d been immediately attacked by Neopterons after the morbid experience had ended, he hadn’t really thought about what he was covered in. Now going through it a second time, it seemed to him that the substance actually [i]was[/i] a lot closer to blood than anything a plant could produce. Especially if that hard, iron-like taste was anything to go by. It was quite a disturbing thought but he didn’t mention it aloud, just frowned and took in the area. 

The hollow was dark. Much darker than the bottom floor of the tree or the strangely clean area he and Blazermate had fought the empusa in. Though there were small patches of light filtering in from some membrane that formed the ceiling above them, the majority of the area was covered in blackness. There were various labored sounds that could be heard, but not being able to see what was making them gave the area an even spookier feel. What was visible were mounds of infected flesh; bloated and irritated they bubbled up from the floor and walls of the hollow. There was some kind of smell to the area as well, hard to identify with the stench of the Qliphoth’s blood still fresh in his nose. 

Though nothing immediately jumped out to attack, it would be an obvious mistake to think the area was safe. For now, the only things moving in the immediate vicinity were himself, Blazermate -as the two of them had managed to stick together during two vein trips so far- and a fellow monster hunter in the form of Geralt.

Blazermate shook herself clean of blood again, a bit miffed as her beautiful blue was now getting purple in areas and she looked like she came out of some weird slasher game or something. And coming into a dark room made Blazermate’s fear of the dark flare up, causing her to timidly hide behind Ace instead of the usual keeping a shield up and being a bit of a more confident healer.

“Ugh. Lost Goldlewis. Hope the big guy’s alright.” Taking a moment to cast First Aid to patch up his wounds from the Keeper fight, Geralt realized he should have done that for Goldlewis before they entered the vein, but what was done was done. He was still somewhat getting used to having actual magic beyond Signs. “Good to see you two are fine, though.” He greeted the pair, rummaging through his pockets to find a Cat potion. Opening it, he downed a swig and his eyes dilated to take in as much light as possible. 

[color=salmon]"You too,"[/color] the Cadet replied, though he hadn't really been worried about the Witcher in the first place. He knew Geralt was tough. Hopefully everyone else was doing alright as well.

[color=salmon]"'Course I lucked out getting paired with Blazermate here earlier,"[/color] he commented, attempting to work the dents out of his rigging. The proof of their victory was strapped to the hunter's back after all. Though when he turned to glance at the Medabot he was surprised not to find her beside him, but behind him. He blinked, surprised by the timidness, and laid an encouraging hand on her shoulder.

Too soon the fragile calm before the storm came to an end. Drawn by the Seekers’ voices, something moved. The arena trembled slightly as the sound of something huge brushed against its sides and stepped upon its floor. 

And then it paused. The air stirred and a horrific [url=https://i.imgur.com/9iOicxs.png]figure[/url] emerged, just barely visible from the darkness.

[center][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-Y_otp0iiU[/youtube][/center]

“Fuck, it’s ugly.” Geralt sighed as the Tormentor appeared before them, summoning his dual Hydro swords. The orange pustules on its shoulders stood out fairly well, and he narrowed his eyes at them. “It’s shoulders look wrong. Infected. Might be a good place to target.” He called to the others as he dodged out of the way of a massive clawed arm coming his way, stepping back to cast Quen to protect himself. 

[color=salmon]"Sounds good to me,"[/color] Ace replied, unclipping the Breechshot from his side.

Geralt’s nose twitched and he took a deep breath, coughing slightly, and sighed. “Of course there’s poison in the air, as well.” 

[color=0072bc]”I can keep you guys healed, so the poison isn’t that big of a problem. Just keep that dark thing off of me!”[/color] Blazermate said, deploying her drone to help heal alongside her own healing beam. She’d need to build up her uber again, but she could do that without too many problems. 

Geralt nodded, running in to attack the Tormentor with his hydro blades, a quick slash doing little to even phase the massive Necromorph but applying the Wet status nonetheless. He backstepped to dodge a quick claw stab, then rolled to dodge a follow-up swipe that aimed to lop his head from his shoulders. 

Without the darkvision Geralt now possessed this would be a tougher time for Ace, but he stepped up to face the horror alongside the Witcher all the same. Though it was obvious this creature was huge, it was difficult to tell exactly how big, so finding its shoulders would take some trial and error... but the hunter was up for the challenge.

[color=salmon]"Back up, Blazermate!"[/color] he warned as the Tormentor's swipe came through. Its size was so great that even if it was focused on the Witcher right in front of it, its claws still threatened anyone too close by - and the Cadet dove to avoid it, coming up in a kneel and cycling through his gun's ammo.

The three Seekers formed a sort of line now, with Geralt taking the monster on in melee, Ace preparing for ranged support, and Blazermate in the back line to provide any needed healing and assistance. Between her cleansing and the inherent poison resistance in the Rathian pieces of Ace's armor, he did hope they wouldn't have to worry about the poison gas, otherwise this fight would turn into a time trial.

The Cadet opened fire at the Tormentor's face, and then followed logic to try and locate a shoulder joint from there. Of course there might be a better way to increase his accuracy, which would be asking the people who could actually see in this darkness.

[color=salmon]"Hey, how far off am I?"[/color] he called out, keeping a mental note of when a shot seemed to completely miss and readjusting.

“Adjust your aim to your left about a foot and upwards by half that.” Geralt replied to help direct fire as he slashed at the Tormentor's thinner legs, weaving in between them as it readjusted to try and grab him with its arms. “Never mind.” He followed up, sighing. “This thing might be too mobile for you to be at range, Ace. Blazermate, you have a light source we can use?”

Blazmerate shook her head, while her eyes glowed in the dark, she herself didn’t have a flashlight attachment or anything. If she got a good look at the boss though, she could put a marker on it that’d glow for everyone else to see. She knew where it was vaguely, but that was more because of her scan ability than actually looking at it. [color=0072bc]”I can kinda tell where it is, but beyond that nothing.”[/color] Wait, she did have one light move, but it didn’t illuminate much. She fired out her light wave ability at the creature she could ‘see’, and as the ray of light went out and hit it, for a second it was illuminated [url=https://i.imgur.com/povECmu.png]in full[/url] by the holy light… at least before the light wave turned into an actual wave and came back to Blazermate healing everyone for a bit.

That bit of illumination was all Blazermate really needed though, and she put a highlighted mark on the creature on where to hit it for critical damage which glowed through the darkness.

The little bit of temporary light was perfect. It was about as much as Ace could have produced with a flash bomb, and probably less blinding too, and it allowed him to quickly take stock of where his target was - especially since he was just now realizing that apparently his world used a different unit of measurement.

As requested he moved up, narrowly dodging the splayed claws of the Tormentor as it reached out to grab him. He didn't put away his gun just yet, only changing up the ammo type. By the time he'd swapped out his ammunition Blazermate had already set up her targeting, which would make things even easier. Though this gun was technically meant for longer range, close proximity had never inhibited a gunner hunter before, and it didn't for Ace now either. He aimed and fired off a few piercing shots as the Tormentor swung itself around to try and flatten both men at once. A few of the bullets bore into its bony arms, but those that connected with its festering shoulder shredded right through, tearing small holes into its body.

The monstrosity screamed. Clearly Geralt had been right about its weak point. The Tormentor whipped many of its limbs out, its main arms and small ones both, aiming to snatch any (or preferably all) of the three pests in its crushing grip.

Blazermate wasn’t an easy thing to grab with her speed, so the Tormentor had little to no luck there. However the other two weren’t as fast as her. However when Geralt was going to get grabbed by a tentacle, Blazermate banished him with Disruption, causing the tentacle to completely go through the black shadow ball Geralt found himself in. And after being banished for a couple seconds, he was back with 2 illusionary Geralts who helped him with his next play whatever it was. 

She also during this time grabbed Ace with her Leap of Faith, causing him to quite literally slip from the grasp of the creature. Having felt the pull of Leap of Faith once before, the hairs on the back of Ace's neck stood on end as the magic rescue ability was cast. It was too quick to avoid though he tried, and as soon as he was deposited by Blazermate's side the Ace Cadet turned to her.

[color=salmon]"You don't have to use th—"[/color] he started to say, but as they were all still in the thick of danger his attention shift proved to be a mistake. Not a moment later the necromorph swatted him hard with the back of its arm as it continued its rampage. The hunter was flung into the darkness and the Tormentor lunged to slam its claws down on the remaining Seekers.

Geralt cursed as Ace was flung away, his two shadow clones drawing their steel swords to hack away at the Tormentor's legs, while Geralt himself made some distance and drew Odysseus’s Bow, firing arrows at the glowing orange pustules to trigger a lightning attack, and the Electro-charged reaction that dealt some electric damage over time. Continuing to fire away at the weak point, Geralt coughed. Whatever was in the air was starting to irritate his throat. “Might be worth seeing if we can get rid of this gas.” He advised. “Not as big a deal now, but could also clear up some visibility.”

[color=0072bc]”I can’t really help with that. All I can do is keep you guys healed through this toxic fog. It doesn’t seem to be growing in strength.”[/color] Blazemate said, her robotic body completely immune to the poison in the air. Although she was still mostly on healing duty with the occasional damage taken debuff applied to the boss to make it take more damage. 

While the toxicity of the gas remained constant, the level of it did slowly rise. Either the vapors naturally rose up or something was pumping more into the hollow at a steady rate. Around the arena there was debris and patches of swollen plant matter, breaking up the landscape and making it hard to pinpoint anything that could be producing the poison smog. Not that anyone could afford to take their eyes off of the main threat for long.

The Tormentor ripped through one of the illusory Geralts with its fangs, a vicious bite that snapped the fake clean in half before it dissolved. The damage it had sustained so far to its right shoulder caused it to stagger slightly with the next arrow shot into it, but it still had plenty of other limbs with which to strike with. It lashed out with its two thinner arms, raking against the other Geralt copy and forcing it away from its legs while its larger arm struck out in a wide range swipe, deadly claws poised to slash apart anyone caught in their wake.

Gunfire rang out from the necromorph's opposite side, signalling to the others that the Ace Cadet was alright even if still enveloped in the dark. His piercing bullets continued to bore deep holes into the monstrosity, weakening the tendons at its shoulder. Those weak points were still easy to see thanks to Blazermate's targeting, and even if the aiming was tough at this angle and low light, the hunter focused as much as he could on them. The Tormentor itself was too busy with the group in front of it to bother turning around anyway.

Ace steadily moved up while firing, trying both to get a better angle and to reunite with the others. It was slower going than he would have liked with the landscape dotted with obstacles as it was. He bumped into once such polyp, though when he pressed against it to steady himself and keep on it shifted under his hand.

While at first glance it appeared to be just another cancerous growth of the Qliphoth's flesh, the bio-mass slowly turned to show that it was alive. Noxious gas and fumes leaked out from the open maw of the [url=https://i.ibb.co/x8bMbFZ/DSR-Wheezer-Close-Up.jpg]mutilated humanoid[/url] as it wheezed noisily, but other than that it made no attack. If it could even move at all beyond swiveling its head, it didn't.

The reveal near startled the Cadet, and without a second thought he put the thing out of its misery. Then he shook his head and continued to move. The fact that it wasn't any easier to breathe in the hollow implied there were more of those poor souls around.

At the same time, the remaining copy of Geralt revealed another environmental hazard. On the nearest wall to the Seekers, a cyst began to expand once the illusion of the Witcher got close. A moment later the blister split open, expelling a disgusting and volatile mass into the thick of the battle. If they could dodge the Tormentor's swipe, the bomb would pose a problem - and vice versa.

“Some kind of explosive traps?” Geralt grunted when he saw the cyst explode, frowning. The infection in this place had clearly developed some strange counter-measures. Reaching up to his neck and pulling off the bleed amulet, Geralt let out a sigh of relief as its magic ended on him, resulting in him regaining some poison resistance and the ache he was feeling easing. “Not sure if it’s this big thing gassing the place up or more traps, but I’ll be alright for a while longer.” He reported, transforming into his newest identity. If he could get a charged hit off on any of this thing’s legs, it would probably be enough to break it clean off. 

“Ace, can you keep it busy a minute? I got a big hit ready!” He called, running forward and sliding under a swipe of the Tormentor’s main arm, circling around its body towards the back. 

[color=0072bc]”If you stay behind my shield, the explosions wont be a problem if you wanna focus more on the boss.”[/color] Blazermate said, activating her projectile shield and shielding Ace and Geralt from an explosive trap going off, the explosion bouncing off her shield. She could also help them advance and even stick the Tormenter inside the shield, dealing some decent damage to the creature as long as it stayed inside the shield.

[color=salmon]"You got it!"[/color] Ace said as he and the Witcher swapped places, circling around opposite sides of the Tormentor. [color=salmon]"And I think I found what's making the gas, there must be a couple of them around, stuck to the floor!"[/color]

As he rounded to the Tormentor's front, the Ace Cadet dipped into the shelter of Blazermate's projectile shield to avoid another explosive bio-bomb. With the amount of Geralts back down to one, the Tormentor's head trailed after the original until the Cadet shot a few rounds off that drilled into its face. It screeched and turned back, raising a claw and slamming it down at the hunter. Ace dove to avoid it, making sure to stick well within the monster's sight and buy Geralt the time he needed.

[color=salmon]"You're biting off way more than you can chew!"[/color] he said to the necromorph as it surged forward at him with its teeth and fangs.

Taking position near one of the Tormentor’s back legs, Geralt kept his footsteps as quiet as he could, moving with its head to stay out of its field of vision while he waited for the right moment. It couldn’t be moving too much or he might miss the shot. With a sword, he could always flow into another strike or a parry, but with this beast of a weapon, he had to put his back into every charged blast. 

Once it reared back and swung its main arms at Ace after reaching him, Geralt struck. The pile bunker let off a pneumatic hiss as it reached full charge, and the harpoon head exploded into the right rear leg, just where it forked into its strange wishbone shape. The limb was blown off with little fanfare beyond a splash of blood, and a screech of pain from the Tormentor as it lost its balance slightly and leaned backward. Geralt was already moving away into the arena at large, eyes darting to and fro, searching for what Ace had called out.

Of course the hunter had failed to describe what they looked like, but if Geralt couldn't rely on finding them by sight and the clouds of poisonous gas prevented him from following his nose, he could always rely on his ears. The harsh, pained gasping and wheezing was easily distinguishable from the Tormentor's stomping and shrieking once he got close enough to them. The first of the remaining Wheezers looked listlessly up at Geralt with one bulging eye glazed over.

The noise wasn’t hard to track, and after following the wheezing gasps to their source, Geralt looked down at the thing with pity. It looked like a human with its lungs twice the size of its torso that had burst out through its back. Its entrails spilled out onto the floor, blood and viscera coating the ground around it. Transforming back into his normal Identity, Geralt drew the Sign of Igni in the air and activated it, focusing the flames into a stream of fire that incinerated the toxin-spewing Necromorph, slowing the buildup of poison in the air. “Wonder how many of those are around…” he mumbled, before taking off to search for more.

[color=0072bc]”Oh, I can go look for those, one of you guys use up my current uber first though!”[/color] Blazermate said, [color=0072bc]”I can use their defenseless bodies to generate another uber for free.”[/color]

After Geralt had snapped the monstrosity's back leg off, it compensated by using the smaller arm on the same side to stabilize itself after reeling. It still proved ferocious and even down to three arms The Tormentor was a force to be reckoned with. The Ace Cadet continued to keep it busy, steadily dealing damage to it - though it was also steadily dealing damage to him too. When the Tormentor's massive claws were coming at him quick and cloaked in shadow, he couldn't escape every time. He was clipped, pushed, slashed, and cut, his armor suffering and and the exposed parts of his body even more so, but so long as he could avoid a pin that would lead to near certain death between the Tormentor's teeth, he'd be alright. Plus there was always their stalwart healer Blazermate to patch him up even in the thick of battle.

At this point the Cadet was firing with his rigging as well. Every bullet he shot came with a brief flash that illuminated the immediate area for the Seeker that couldn't see well in it, which was just enough for him to keep doing what he was doing. The breechshot, though not as advanced as the bowguns he was used to, was a pretty high damaging firearm. In conjunction with the pierce ammo it was doing a fine job getting through the bony exoskeleton of the creature. It might not be sustainable for a drawn out fight, but it didn't need to be. Since targeting its glowing weak points the Tormentor had been lurching more and more. It would give out before the Seekers, especially if the Cadet any say in it.

Then Blazermate announced she intended to go take care of the poisonous gas issue. It had been building up for a while, and even with the men's poison resistance it was only a matter of time until they were afflicted. If she changed priorities that would be alright - and when she called out for someone to take her buff, the Cadet responded quickly.

[color=salmon]"If you're swapping with Geralt, give it to him!"[/color] he said. The Cadet dared to dart beneath the Tormentor, making sure its attention was pulled down and away from the medabot if she planned to move. It snapped at him with its jaws, missing as he threw himself to the side. It managed to seize one of the Cadet's arms with its own smaller one, but the hunter slammed the butt of the gun down onto what constituted its wrist to break free. Then he was backing up, and calling out his latest observation at the same time. [color=salmon]"Its shoulder joints are softened up, they'll pop with enough force just like its leg!"[/color]

It was true. The marked areas on both arms were oozing blood and pus, significantly weakened after having been fried and filled with arrows and bullet holes. If Blazermate tagged Geralt back in, the Witcher could get up to them and sever even more limbs while the monster hunter kept it distracted.

[color=salmon]"Let's get this thing on the chopping block already!"[/color]

Trading Geralt for herself wasn’t all that difficult, and Geralt would get a nice Uber or Kritz, depending if he wanted defense or offense, to attack the Tormentor with before Blazermate went off clearing out the poison.

“Alright, then give me the invincibility when I say to.” Geralt agreed, returning to the site of the battle with the Tormentor to go with the adjusted plan. He pulled the Hateful Flesh out, grunting and making sure to re-apply Quen before reaching the massive Necromorph. It roared before scuttling forward, slashing out with its primary arm which Geralt rolled under before calling out to Blazermate, “Now!” 

With the ubercharge granting him a few seconds of invulnerability, Geralt could forgo defense to unleash an unstoppable offense. He leapt from the ground, easily clearing the Tormentor's head, and landed on its neck. While the Necromorph thrashed to try and dislodge him, the Witcher paid it no mind and summoned Monsoon to target its remaining back leg. At the same time, he unleashed a stream of Igni flames at the shoulder on the same side of the leg he'd broken, to weaken it before his strike. Once the Sign ended, he hefted the cleaver in his hand and struck, driving it into the oozing flesh like a butcher trying to separate a joint off a hog. 

The eldritch weapon tore through the ruined shoulder slowly, agonizingly, as the ubercharge began to flicker. Geralt grunted, planting his boot onto the back of the weapon and pushing, pressing all his weight onto it before he was suddenly falling, the severed arm dropping to the ground next to him, an instant before the invulnerability ended. 

The Tormentor screamed. With only its spindly middle arm remaining on its right side it was unbalanced, and it fell over with its heavy impact scattering debris and gasses. The Ace Cadet went to let out an encouraging whoop, but halfway through it turned into a fit of coughing due to the smog.

The Seekers were making quick progress against the monstrosity now, but they couldn't let their guards down. The Tormentor stretched its neck out suddenly, its mouth open wide to try and catch Geralt in its deadly fangs.

Geralt was caught, the Necromorph’s large fangs quickly cracking through Quen’s shielding and earning it a crash of lightning as a reward, but it held fast, trying to drive its teeth through his armor. The Witcher, for his part, did not take this lying down, and he almost immediately drew his hunting knife with one hand and plunged it into the Tormentor’s eye, the other lifting the Hateful Flesh and slamming it into the monster’s neck, just above its head. Stabbing and twisting his knife, Geralt pulled the blade out and used it to stab one of the tiny arms holding his torso like crab’s claws, his armor creaking from the pressure. “Fucking…dammit! Judicator! Heal!” He cried out, summoning his abominable Striker to grant him some sustain, as he desperately stabbed and struck at the monster holding him. “Ace! Armor’s not gonna last!”

[color=salmon]"I'm working on it!"[/color] the hunter called back, voice slightly strained. As soon as he'd seen the creature lurch at Geralt, barely illuminated by the light filtering into the hollow, he'd gone for its neck. He had run into the same issues that the other man had though, and no amount of slashing or shooting seemed to dislodge it. It was time to try something different.

Ace turned and fired his slinger at the Tormentor's remaining shoulder joint, pulling himself up onto the beastly thing. It had gotten its large arm back underneath itself, but while it was focused on trying to bite Geralt in half there was little resistance it could offer - which was good because there was no time to lose.

The Cadet slammed the blades of his rigging into the open shoulder wound, wedging them deep before pulling them apart inside to stress the joint further. He couldn't just rip the limb from its body as is, but there was nothing to stop him drilling right through. His mini cannon batteries swiveled downward as he stuck the barrel of the gun right into the pustule and opened fire. The rifle's piercing ammo flew through the joint and out the other side, opening more surface area for his cannons to tear away at. With the seconds ticking it seemed to be taking way more time than they had, but then Ace felt something essential snap under his feet.

[color=salmon]"And with no further decay...!"[/color] Finally the glowing weak point on its left arm popped, dropping Ace to the ground and splashing viscera as it too was severed from the Tormentor's body. The blow shook the monster and it couldn't help but let out a high pitched roar, its hold on Geralt loosened as it opened its mouth to shout its pain.

Blazermate meanwhile had been using her remote drones to heal the others, healing that was a bit less than her actual medigun as she zoomed around dealing with the toxic spewing creatures around. The miserable things gave no resistance as Blazermate mercilessly stabbed them over and over with her Ubersaw, gaining a large amount of uber from each one. And as she killed them, the toxic gas lessened with each eliminated. 

Once the last one was defeated, the toxic gas started to clear out and Blazermate could rejoin her allies in dealing with the main boss again, having farmed another full ubercharge. 

Geralt crawled out of the Tormentor’s jaws as it roared in pain, peeling off and tossing in a flesh bomb from the Hateful Flesh for good measure, limping behind Ace to put some room between himself and the mutilated Necromorph. Once he was satisfied with the distance, he paused to cast a First Aid on himself, healing back a good chunk of the damage he’d taken. “Fuck. Much better…” he sighed, standing back up fully. “Okay, I’ve had enough of this thing already. Air’s clearing up, let’s finish it.” 

It might have been a little early, but there was a triumphant look on the red head's face (as stained as it was) which he turned on Geralt and Blazermate. [color=salmon]"I'm right there with you. Doesn't look like there's much gore to go."[/color]

The Tormentor was in a sorry state as it struggled to hold itself upright. It stood on one hind leg and its two smaller arms, swaying due to its elongated torso and neck holding most of its weight in its front. It drooled blood from its toothy maw, and its disturbingly human eyes glared at the Seekers. Without warning it threw itself forward at them with its claws outstretched, at last ditch attack or just compensating for the fact it could barely have walked.

Blazermate was a bit ready for this though, and as it launched itself forward, Blazermate hit it with a Disruption, banishing it for a couple seconds before it could hit Ace. This time gave everyone a bit to prepare for it to re-emerge, Kritz ready to pop so they could really wreck this thing… especially as it came back with 2 illusions of itself that attacked it alongside the seekers.

Geralt kept the Hateful Flesh at the ready for when it reappeared, and with little delay the cleaver slammed into the thing’s head, knocking it into the ground as Geralt circled around the back, aiming to take the other rear leg off while Ace and Blazermate dealt with the head. With the illusions keeping its attention split, there wasn’t any resistance to speak of as the heavy weapon severed yet another limb, the Tormentor’s roars filling the hollow they were in. If this were almost anything else, Geralt might blink at the savagery they were employing to kill it, but it was like this thing was…designed to be cut apart. 

The Tormentor squirmed rather like a salamander -a giant, spiky, dangerous salamander- after being so thoroughly dismantled. It swiped and grabbed at the illusory copies of itself on either side of it with the two skinny arms it had left. The display would have been pathetic if the necromorph was any less dangerous. It still attempted to fight viciously, and with its copies even weaker than it had been when they were made, they couldn't last very long. But they served their purpose in keeping its claws away from its front, where Blazermade and the Ace Cadet were determined to put it down for good. With the kritzkrieg bestowed on him making his weapon deal even more damage, Ace drilled as many holes into the monster's head as it took until it gave up the ghost. He stopped firing only when its face slammed against the ground and it lay unmoving, bleeding from its bullet wounds and amputation points, and finally its body slowly began to dissolve.

Around the arena there was still the subtle sizzle of the explosive cysts on the walls, but otherwise all seemed quiet. The poisonous gas had been draining away since Blazermate had dealt with the last wheezer, and the way forward must have opened up for the Seekers somewhere in the darkened area.

It didn't take long for Ace to break the silence.

[color=salmon]"Man, that thing ate a ton of ammo,"[/color] he said light heartedly, taking the magazine out of his gun to unload the piercing rounds. Maybe things would have gone a little faster if he'd used his long sword, but he hadn't wanted to take the chance that he or Geralt would trip each other up in the melee. Yeah the Tormentor had been big, but not so enormous that running into each other would have been impossible. That, and it was always refreshing to swap weapons.

The hunter grinned at Geralt and Blazermate. All three of them were completely filthy, and at least two of them probably still needed some additional patching up, but they were also alive and well. Things couldn't really have gone much better, all things considered. [color=salmon]"Gargwawesome job, team."[/color]

[color=0072bc]”Uh, give me a bit and I can have the engineer make a dispenser for you to replenish your ammo.”[/color] Blazermate said, trying to brush off all the gore that had accumulated from this fight off of her, the faint sound of metal scraping metal being heard.

Ace waved his hand in front of him a few times in a dismissive motion. [color=salmon]"Don't worry about it, I can make more later."[/color] Especially since all these spiky bone bits that had been broken off the necromorph could probably make a decent catalyst for his alchemy barrel.

Much like Blazermate, Geralt was wiping some of the blood and gore that had built up on him, sighing. “Wasn’t too bad, all things considered. Getting eaten wasn’t exactly part of the plan, but I’ve had hunts go worse.” At least he didn’t get his throat gouged out this time. 

Then, the air shifted. It was delayed as if making sure that the Tormentor really was defeated, but similar to what each of them had experienced in a floor below a darkness swept in and a choice of rewards was offered.

[hider=For Ace Cadet][b]Life Affirmation[/b]  - all healing you receive is worth 40% more
[b]Tide of Devastation[/b] - after losing or gaining 40% of your life, attacking a downed/broken/stunned enemy will deal Super Break damage (170%) 1 time
[b]Intimidating Presence[/b] - killing an elite enemy will cause all weaker enemies within 7m of that enemy to singlemindedly attack one another for 5 seconds[/hider]
[hider=For Blazermate]
[b]Positive Outlook[/b] - while below 40% health, take 20% reduced damage 
[b]Construct: Sentinel[/b] - when entering battle, receive a free shield for 16% of your max health, lasting for 20 seconds 
[b]Hardcover Textbook[/b] - you can equip 2 more strikers without suffering consequences[/hider]
[hider=For Geralt]
[b]High Voltage[/b] - your lightning deals damage in a larger area
[b]Disciplinary Flicker[/b] - any time your health is lowered to anywhere between 1% and 35%, regain 12% of your health
[b]Tainted Flask[/b] - downing the contents of any flask also increases damage by 20% for 12 seconds. If all flasks are empty, killing 12 enemies will refill the flask
[/hider]
For the Cadet, the choice was a simple one. He was still kind of kicking himself for not choosing a different card last time, but he really thought he would have been able to speak with Aphrodite. Now that he knew she'd probably talk right over him again he would be avoiding her boon, as useful as it might be. "Super Break" intrigued him - if it would make it easier to shatter a monster's shell or horns he definitely wanted that... plus it would probably be more useful more often than the last card. After all, breaking and severing limbs had helped a lot in the battle they'd just fought!

He wasn't expecting to get another vision when he touched the [i]Tide of Devastation[/i] card, so genuine surprise hit as another being took shape before his eyes. Coincidentally this person was equally as topless as Aphrodite had been, but they did not speak - and their presence inspired a much darker feeling compared to the goddess. The sound of steel being drawn and pieces of something being scattered into a smoldering fire accompanied the [url=https://i.imgur.com/Ari64Wo.png]vision[/url], but it lasted all of a few seconds before it vanished, leaving the Cadet back in the darkened hollow with his allies once more.

Blazermate took a look at her cards. While they were kinda good, there was one that struck her as odd. “2 extra strikers with no downsides.” That was really odd, how did this tree know about the mechanics of the world itself? This would have to be made for this world, as she was pretty sure this wasn’t like whatever world it came from. And as such she chose that. Plus it could help her get a bit more offense.

Geralt looked over each of the cards intently. Each was extremely useful, actually. The first would work with him having a few sources of lightning attacks, between the effect on shield break, as well as the Orphan’s scream, though something about the figure on the card rankled him. The second would keep him going longer in dangerous fights, especially because he was loathe to continue to rely on whatever effect kept bringing him back from the brink of death. The final card would make his potions gain an effect like Thunderbolt, though having to rely on emptying out all of his potions, [i]then[/i] finding a dozen enemies to kill to get them all back was a steep price to pay, even if the benefit was similarly great. If he went with that option, best not to even bother trying to utilize that aspect of it, frankly. 

Thinking it over, he chose the second option, as the automatic self-healing would suit his style best. He didn’t necessarily want to focus too heavily on any type of attack, and the many sources of healing and the rarity of using Cat meant that his potions were not terribly often used. Twelve seconds was also simply such a short duration for the boost to his attacks that he couldn’t quite justify it, even if doing so might have brought him to use his potions more. As he touched the card, however, a vision of a man appeared before him. Unbeknownst to either of the monster hunters, it was the same man that appeared to Ace, his chest open and leaking sand like blood from the “wound”. 

[color=0072bc]”So with these rewards all done… I guess we gotta go up again. More blood veins, yay…”[/color] Blazermate said, her voice dripping with sarcasm as she stabbed open a blood vein using her ubersaw and gestured for the boys to go in first.

After scooping up some of the larger bone shards and entrusting the spirit of the Tormentor (and the Wheezers if they were so inclined) to the other two, Ace was the first in. Though he couldn't help but try and cheer his battle buddies up before they possibly got separated in the bloodstream.

[color=salmon]"Well we knew we'd have to take another one up e-vein-tually. But c'mon, we've got a good win streak going - let's keep up the flow!"[/color] he said with a grin before squeezing into the xylem vessel.

Making sure to snag the Tormentor’s Spirit, Geralt followed after the pair. They could go over what to do with it later, but not even Geralt was willing to fuse with [i]that[/i] thing.