DracoLunaris

Pokémon: Feudal Legends

_@LostDestiny

---

”Ah you're spoiling me… but I ain’t gonna say no to that now am I?” Sanzoku replied merrily to the offer of a free reading. It did feel a bit like double, no, triple dipping into the town’s gratitude after being both paid, and promised a favor by William as a result of her last minute intervention into the morning’s incident, but she wasn't the kind of person to turn down what was freely offered.

Besides, there was a caveat in the offer that balanced it out and which she was more than happy to accept ”And I’ll be sure to keep my ears peeled for the next time you need the cash too. Plus you can be sure I’ll be joining the choir singing the praises of your services after this bit of kindness” she said, referencing the now dissipated queue of her regulars that the sell-sword had been at the end of.

While the woman talked, her Houndour’s curious eye wandered to and fro between whatever strange human thing his trainer was up to and the haunter that may or may not be up to no good in the back of the stall.

Sanzoku hmmm'ed for a few moments while briefly thinking over the two types of card reading on offer before going with the latter as recommended ”I think I’ll go with the six then.” The past, as far as she was concerned, was dead. No need to drag her less than stellar early years up into the light again, even via cards. What really mattered to her was what came next in life, be it danger or fortune or, as was usually the case for her profession, both at once.

”So how does this work then, am I picking the cards or are you?” she asked with curiosity and the will to go forwards with however this was supposed to play out.

The Friestan Incident, a Fantasy Sci-Fi Fusion RP

Q-T Brackman

Things did not seem to be going well. The first reason for that was because Galmira did not seem to be particularly pleased about the death of one of her kind at the hands of these adventurers and who could really blame her for that. Q-T certainly wouldn't, seeing as she was plenty upset about it herself.

The second reason it wasn't going well is because ‘seemed’ was the core part of the sentence, because the dragon had switched to another language which left them in the dark as to what was going on, something that was basically Q-T’s fault because she had not even considered bringing the translator with them. It was presently hurtling towards them strapped to Neilsy’s jet bike, but it’d be minutes till it arrived and if things were going to go wrong, they were going to go wrong fast.

Especially because what Q-T could pick up from the mix and mash language using her own, modern language, translation routines was that Galmira had said, ”Something about ‘die fighting’?”

”Sorry captain, trying to signal box, even when get, will be slow. Will try to do what can,” the bot, who had started wiggling her antenna around to try and get a signal back to her friend and the box, said. She had had to scrap most of the grammar in her sentence because one of the native humans, a blond and very pleasant to look at woman who seemed to be ‘armed’ with a plethora of vials of colored liquid (possibly acids or chemical explosives or something more esoteric) began to respond at length.

”She’s… confused? Disappointed and dismissive?” Q-T began with something she could translate easily, which was tone and body language, something that might be redundant but the fact that this was the person’s attitude did not really make sense to the robot. It also worried her, so she felt she had to air it before moving on to hacking together a translation mostly based on individual recognized words.

”They were here for the meteor, us I think, and then there is mention of trespassing and demands for gold. They tried to talk? Then violence happened anyway… I’m fairly sure she’s just insulting the dead dragon now” Q-T said, getting the gist of what happened but missing/failing to pull out much of the nuance of the situation and similarly failing to grasp Catherine’s philosophical waxing that went along with it. The latter was likely for the best, considering how abhorrent the child of the age of peace would have found the alchemist's outlook had she been able to grasp it at all.

What was clear though, was that ”I don’t think she’s much of a diplomat captain, so this, ah, might not end well”

Pokémon: Feudal Legends

_{Interacting With:@LostDestiny}

---

Having seen action first thing, Sanzoku felt more than fine in taking it easier in the morning than she had intended too. Oh they were still going to do some training, Marrow and her, but that could wait for a bit now. Instead she strolled back to the inn and picked up right where she’d left off, polishing off her now sadly cold meal while counting her unexpected payday.

”hmmm, not bad, not bad at all” she said to herself, as she neatly piled up the coins into countable stacks. Those would certainly keep her fed, watered and housed for a while longer than her existing reserves already would, but it also reminded her she should probably start looking for work again soon enough, which momentarily soured her mood.

”Ach, now’s no time to be worrying about money though is it Marrow?” she asked her mon rhetorically ”After you’ve cheated death another day and gotten paid for it, that’s when it's time to have some fun. Morning appropriate fun though” she still had some training planned, and she also had to pick up her order too, so day drinking was out of the question.

”Well we’ve got cash to burn and now that I think about it, all those merchants we help ‘ll be setting up show around now, yes? So about we see if there’s anything of interest before we check in with William” she said, and so it was that a little while later the sell-sword (who had taken the time to change back out of her armor after eating) and her pokemon found themselves strolling through the freshly open market, casually pursuing the wares on offer to see if anything caught their fancy.

Ironically it wasn’t one of the newly arrived merchants that ended up catching her eye first, but instead the white haired young women and her haunter who the sell-sword had seen already seen in the inn this morning and then after that during the little incident with the alpha Persian, who she now found manning a fortune telling stand, and a quite popular looking one at that. Both interested in the novelty of this and, subconsciously, hoping this might help with her current lack of direction, the towering woman joined the queue and, after a bit of gossiping with her fellow waiters in line, she met Himaru in person for the first time.

”So you must be the rarely in business fortune teller I’ve heard people swear by” she said warmly as she stepped forwards, presently holding Marrow in the crook of her arm so he could see what was going on, and then added ”now I don't know much about that kind of stuff, but I do have a little spare coin to spend so, tell me, what’s the fanciest bit of fortune telling you can do for me? Be nice to know if life has any more surprises or, ah, opportunities coming my way, if that’s a thing you can do?”

”Oh, and I’m Sanzoku Shōkan, mercenary for hire, pleasure to meet you” she belatedly introduced herself, before saying ”I’d pitch you my services, but you and your Haunter there looked like you could handle yourselves just fine out there this morning” knowing full well that the fortune teller wasn't the kind of person who would want/could afford to hire mercs of course, it was all just a lead in for the compliment.

World of Light

wordcount: 453 (+1)
Midna: level 7 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (46/70)
Location: Sandswept Sky - Graveyard of the Peaks

Just as she had predicted, the princess got plenty of grief for her attempt at preventing them from making what she saw as a mistake. She could maybe put it down to the fact that they had been in the thick of what felt like a fight for their lives when she had had time to observe, but it was still disheartening to be belittled like this by all of them, being called ‘crazy’ and a ‘bleeding heart’ wasn’t exactly pleasant, even if they did relent.

The generally kind hearted Tora being against this stung deeply, but she took particular issue with Sectonia’s comment, despite her agreeing with her suggestion at leaving it be for now.

”Last time my bleeding heart prevented several people from being needlessly killed. My only true failure of my was not being able to save each and every one of them from that goddess damnable floppy eared rat-” the Princess was prevented from completing her tirade against Ciella when the women herself unknowingly interrupted it by shooting a massive hole in the side of one of the titan’s air sacs, causing the dragon to suddenly lose a portion of its lift and begin sinking down towards the mountain.

”That lady is going to be the death of us all I swear” Midna seethed as she gripped the now sinking behemoth as it struggled to maintain its altitude alongside continuing to try and get them off.

”Could someone please call her off?” she requested, still clinging to the beast and holding her shadowhand over the fin defensively, and then realizing how this looked added ”It’s not that I don't trust you” technically a lie, she did not trust Band’s crazy friend/daughter/person for whom he was a social worker one inch, ”it’s that she and I don’t really see eye to eye… so could one of you maybe try and enlighten her? Tell her we’ll all be cursed if this dragon-worm-thing dies or something” she suggested, and then only after having done so thinking that that might actually be a real risk here.

It could be they had been about to kill some world’s own Spirit of Light or other sacred being, and if there was one thing they did not need, it was being censored by some god or other for that misdeed. Considering something akin to divine intervention had saved them from freezing to death, it wasn't the most unlikely of scenarios, at least in the princess’s mind as of this moment.

World of Light

The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 997 (+2)
Bowser: Level 10 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (176/100)
Bowser Jr: Level 9 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (146/90)
Kamek: Level 10 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(68/100)
Location: Bottomless Sea – Carcass Isle
Feat: Rika

Link's suggestion drew their attention to the little fleet of abyssals Rika had escorted the two princesses out of. The wretched dregs of the fleet, broken amalgamations of shiprightery and fragments of human woman that stood there, near motionless and making little to no attempt to recover from the dual shock of liberation. They were the lowest on the totem pole, broken patched together husks and it was perhaps a blessing that they exhibited nothing akin to human intelligence.

“Hey. Psst. Is anyone home?”

Better they be mindless than have thinking and feeling people trapped within those twisted shells, or so Kamek thought as she watched Rika, who the mage had come to realize was something of an expedition among the abysall’s soldiery in that she had a form close to human/the princesses, try and fail to rouse any kind of personhood from them. At the very least, they didn’t attack either, simply stared at the shipgirl, as if awaiting orders.

That would have to do.

”I think they recognize you as one of the fleet’s leaders?” Kamek drifted over to say. They certainly seemed to be looking at her rather than either of the rescued princesses or even Bella who was keeping them company, ”Specifically Pacific?”

“Huh? Oh…” she replied, reminded of that unnecessary death. Kamek would have consoled her, and indeed she would later, but right now they needed to act.

”I know it may not feel right, but we should try and follow Link's plan. Take command of these minions, and we might be able to resolve this with less death and injury” she insisted

“Ok but how do I…” Rika began to ask how she should lead, before realizing she had an example to draw from. How good an example Bowser and his son were to draw from was highly debatable, but, well, that's all she had to go on.

“Um. Ok. So,” she began faltering almost immediately before clearing her throat and tapping into the bits of her hack job of a personality drawn from the Brachydios and the Pacific princess. Namely loud and stern.

She stepped one foot up onto one of the squat abyssals, planted her hands on her hips and commanded loudly “Abyssal feet to attention! From up into a defensive posture around me, on the double! Then hold your fire until I command it!” before glancing over at Kamek and whispering “was that good?”

The answer spoke for itself, as the wretched mass of ship-mutants crawled, flopped or hoovered towards her, forming, as rapidly as they could, a wall of guns and far too human maws in front of the tunnel leading towards the dead sea and their way home.

Of course, this shouting drew the attention of a lot of the other creatures as well, stirring them awake. They had to act fast, and Kamek did so by hovering up and over the fleet and shouting

”We mean you no harm unless you mean it to us! If you want to leave, you are free to do so. If you want answers, step to the side and we will treat with you once only you remain. If, however, you wish to die senselessly” he raised her hand and beckoned the true monsters closer to Rika’s new army ”come and meet your fate”

---

The smoke cleared soon after. The dead where tallied, the fled where long gone, and the friendly moved off of the walls they’d pushed themselves up against to stay clear of the fighting.

Of the living, there where:

One hulking river zora who briefly thought he recognized Link, and then when it became clear they hadn’t met before, offered to sell him a set of flippers like he had one of the hero’s past reincarnations.

Some incredibly ugly but otherwise unremarkable Lungfish Citizens who reacted to the whole situation exactly as a bunch of panicked humans would and had to be placated with promises of safety and modern conveniences.

Much less ugly but just as helpless band made up of various fish-folk who called themselves The Chirpy Chips.

A friendly talking fish who introduced himself as Freddy and asked if they’d be able to help him leave the restrictive tide pool he was in.

And finally a mermaid who seemed to have no issue moving around on dry land despite her lack of legs who called herself Irenes and who, along with the Zora King, and another mermaid called Yumei had kept the lungfish folk and (non combatant) musicians safe at the sides of the cave.

The dead consisted mainly of Pelagic Plague victims, Squirts, eldritch undead and Ocean Crawlers, along with some surprisingly dangerous dire penguins and dolphin wielding zombies. These spirits where piled up along with the Dreugh spirit and a fair number of fallen abyssal minions, while Kamek kept the Tonberry for herself.

The various xenophobic fishmen, from murloks to pelagics to aquatoids, had taken one look at this mess and decided to leg it in the name of self preservation, while the hulking diving suit had crushed everything dangerous near it with cold brutality and then left without a word, ignoring any thanks or questions called out after it.

”Well. That’s the end of that” Kamek sighed with relief, not knowing how much more of this she could take, before saying ”now maybe we can finally rest?” before wincing at Rika shouting “Minions, make way for the friendly people” to her remaining fleet troops.

As they obeyed and the friendly folk hurried over to ask questions about where they were and where safety might be found, and where directed back to the painting to get such things, Rika reminded Kamek that “We still gotta find New South, remember? Like Link said”

The mage sighed, gave the hero of the wilds a dirty look and then with a groan agreed, saying “Well at least she can’t have gone far.”

She turned out to be quite wrong about this.

World of Light

The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 1,328 (+3)
Bowser: Level 10 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (176/100)
Bowser Jr: Level 9 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (146/90)
Kamek: Level 10 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(66/100)
Location: Bottomless Sea – Carcass Isle
Feat: Rika

Soon enough, Jr had finished up his bit of artistry, though considering he’d painted the city several times over at this point, it was more by rote than by any kind of inspiration that it turned out so well.

”Good luck I’ll, uh, meet you back at Peach’s castle yeah?” He said to Kamek and Rika.

”Stay safe young master. We’ll see you soon” the mage replied with a tired nod, while Rika waved and said “yeah, see you soon!” and then a few moments later after jr had vanished into the painting she asked “Wait, Peach has a castle?!”

---

A swarm of colorful bubbles appeared in the air just in front of the entrance to Alcamoth and then coalesced into the form of jr, who dropped to the ground and nearly toppled over from the weight of his busted up clown car that he was carrying.

”Geeze I am tired” the boy complained, getting a “Mi kyu” of agreement from Mimi as he stepped forwards to let other people land. Just going off to bed was oh so tempting, but the little prince was too worried about his dad to throw himself onto the nearest soft surface. Or to be more specific, he was worried about what his dad would do as a result of him worrying about his son.

So he shook his head, yelled at the closest person he could find to get them to babysit his broken vehicle, and then pushed forwards, leading the way back to Limsa via another warp painting.

Upon his arrival, the prince looked up at the looming city and realized he might have a problem.

”Wait… where in the world is he gonna be?!”

---

Back on the haunted island Rika and Kamek lead the way in going to check out the state of the strange prostrating sea-folk/monsters. Or, to be more specific, Kamek’s doppelgangers lead the way well ahead of the rest of the group, because the mage would be damned if anyone even took a scratch at this late an hour.

Fortunately this proved to be unnecessary, at least initially. The scout clone meandered into the cave and found those within had been freed both from Galeem and from whatever power had been making them bow down towards the orphan and its corpse of a mother, but left dazed and confused by the result. Even the undead/mutated horrors and Pelagics which Kamek somewhat assumed would be hostile weren't doing much more than stumbling around or sitting still trying to recover their senses.

That said, soon enough they would regain them, and then this place would go off like a powder keg. The mage said as much to the others in a whispered tone ”We need to be very very careful here. Things could get nasty at any second”

“Then we’d better get the nice people out before it does…” Rika replied, before scanning over the mass of sea life and realizing that would not be an easy task at first glance. Kamek started boiling down the crowd of creatures into groups of things they knew were hostile and/or mindless, while Rika just went with the answer she knew was right, which involved strapping her gauntlets to her back and then moving into the mass of creatures, carefully picking her way through them towards the two dazed Princesses.

“Psst. Hey. Hi, I know you're confused and stuff but we need to go before things get messy, ok? You’ll be safe with us, I promise” She said, once she’d snuck up to them, gently taking each of them by a hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze, and then trying to gently guide them back towards the relative safety of the exit of the cave.

Kamek meanwhile wasn’t going to take the same risk, both out of self preservation and out of the pragmatism that someone needed to be standing back and ready to intervene if things did go wrong. So instead he was using his clones to test the waters with the other creatures. Or quietly eliminate the worst of them, which a pair of red clones were doing by shuffling around non threateningly and then point blank spell blasting the horrifically mutated victims of the Pelagic Plague into dust.

For the others she used a pair of greens as envoys to attempt to gauge their friendliness, which didn’t get any particularly good result.

On awoke an atlantean fish man by waving friendlyly in its face till it got his attention. The fish man took one look at the situation and then promptly mounted its giant lobster of a steed and rode it on out of there with nare a word to anyone else.

Another gently poked a Tonberry and offered its hand to shake, only for the deceptively cute creature shake its head clear, give the most fowl look at this stranger and then it draw a large kitchen knife from its robes with which it proceeded to shank the green clone, killing it in a single hit.

Then it turned and stabbed the nearest thing to it, which was a massive crab like Dreugh... and killed it in one hit too.

”Oh dear” was the mage’s understated response to this unintended first domino he’d tipped.

---

Out on the waves beyond Limsa, the Koopa King slapped himself fully awake as he heard the rumbling towards him from behind. The king, who had been sailing back along the route they had set off that morning at a painfully slow pace, turned, bristling for a fight, then growled at what he saw and proceeded to yell ”Go away! You couldn’t stop me going after my boy once Brinybeared, and you ain’t gonna pull it off this time either,” at the approaching form of Shippy.

“Ah give it a rest you stubborn seashark. You’ve not even gotten outa sight of the city” the old sailor shouted back, “besides, I’ve got your boy right here. Told you you shoulda just stayed put, ya had him worried sick, going off all on your own like that!”

”I couldn’t just sit there, waiting and biting my claws off while… wait what did you say?” Bowser shouted back, only for his own tired mind to catch up with the latter half of Brinybeared’s sentence, just in time for jr to appear, hopping up and hanging off the railing to shout ”Papa!” at his dad.

The king blinked a few times and then went racing back towards the ship, jumping aboard and scooping up his son with a ”Junior! I’m so glad you're ok!” before the two embraced while the old sea dog laughed quietly to himself and turned them back towards the safety of the city.

---

Kamek carefully stepped around the dazed denizens of the weld and planted her wand against the back of the Tonberry’s head, the serial knife murderer fast asleep thanks to an expertly placed sleeping dart in its neck, courtesy of the End. The mage’s two red clones joined her, and together they put a permanent end to the endlessly vengeful creature’s life with bolt after bolt of point blank spellpower.

”Ech, I am quite sick of this place” the mage cursed as she picked up the spirit of it and the crab thing it had killed and hurried her way back towards the far end of the cavern, where Rika was trying to explain things to the two princesses.

”I don't suppose anyone has a better way of dealing with this, because I’m starting to think this might be a lost cause. Baring the two we've already pulled out of this mess, every one/thing in here does not seem to be of the friendly variety” she said, conscious of how her own attempt was causing a stir among the nearby survivors. Somewhere slinking away into the depths of the weld like the lobster rider had done, but while Kamek had done her best to dispose of the close by guaranteed threats, it was only a matter of time before things went completely pear shaped.

World of Light

wordcount: 709 (+1)
Midna: level 7 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (45/70)
Location: Sandswept Sky - Graveyard of the Peaks

Prompted by her guesswork the aerial crew surged forwards and aimed to strike at the three great glowing runes half hidden by the titanic wyrm’s ridge-like scales. Sectonia struck first and fastest, driving her blades into a nearby rune, causing a spray of black blood and a great cry of pain from the titan.

”Knew it!” Midna cheered as she saw this happen, and then braced for whatever retaliation was going to come in response to that wound. That response turned out to be… a corkscrew of a turn. While it might have been quite the effective shake off strategy, tossing the queen bee aside and forcing everyone else to cling on for dear life, but that turned out to be about it.

”Where’s the fury and the fire? The, I dunno, swarms of kees or something? Anything? What is going on here?” the princess asked herself as she drew closer, confused by the lack of any offensive abilities on the great snake. She was getting a bad feeling about this, one that only grew as the second rune was attacked and eliciting only more shaking.

More writhing from the wounded beast.

Then the time for reflection was over for the moment as Midna’s vibrava assisted flight caught up with the titan, and she shot out a shadow hand to grab hold and pull herself aboard.

She immediately regretted it.

”Oh goddesses, I think I’m going to be sick” the princess groaned through a hand cupping her mouth and puffed up cheeks as the shaking disturbed her recently filled stomach. With dragon clawed toes, hand and shadow hand gripping tight she fought for control of her body and after a few moments shoved down the nausea through sheer force of will.

After that first trial, it certainly felt like more of a life or death struggle now that she was aboard and climbing threehandidly up along its fur, vibrava wings buzzing behind her to keep her pulled down (or sideways, or up) into the dragon’s body, but it still felt like a reasonable reaction form a wild beast being hunted than a battle with a captain of the enemy.

Her extra limb, her vibrava’s wings and the power of her levitation certainly made her climb easier than it was for some, even if her light little body meant that every buck was ever more treacherous, and so soon enough she’d gotten to the last fin.

”Almost over. Almost done.” she muttered, still a little queasy, as she grasped the fin with an oversized shadowhand, and then heaved with all her magical might. ”Come on come on just a little crack and- gotcha!” she shouted as her heave drew the fin up just enough to open a little gap between it and the fur. Seizing this bit of progress, the princess summoned her two sized up wolfos on either side of her via portal to aid her.

After scrambling to find purchase on its back for a moment, the wolfos and wolf-dran both managed to sip their lower jaws into the gap she’d created. Then both clamped their maw shut around the fin and together, along with the princess, wrenched it upwards, cracking it open to expose the Sigil beneath ”like shellfish, and there’s the meat inside”

The princess drew the longer of her knives from the twilight realm, almost lost it to the wind for a second, and then hefted it to strike what might well be the final blow… and hesitated as her doubts suddenly crystalized at the last second.

”Ah… goddesses damn it I am going to eat so much grief for this if i’m wrong” she cursed with a sigh, before pulling back and letting the fin snap shut in front of her.

”I’m calling a timeout! We aren’t in any actual danger, so lets hang back and think this through, because something is off here, and I really don't want to murder some giant defenseless animal without being sure we actually have too!” She shouted out to the others while clinging to the fur for dear life, slapping a shadow hand down over the fin to keep it sealed shut, at least for the moment.

She did not need anymore avoidable deaths on her conscience.

The Friestan Incident, a Fantasy Sci-Fi Fusion RP

Q-T Brackman

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

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

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

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

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

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

World of Light

The Koopa Troop

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This didn’t go entirely smoothly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pokémon: Feudal Legends

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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