Zenkichi Hasegawa & Sandalphon The Qliphoth Word count: 1,416 (+3 XP/Rapport)
When Sandalphon mentioned that she'd be returning to the Avenger, Zenkichi nodded in understanding. She was far from the most durable Seeker, and the fights they'd all endured had been pretty damn grueling. When she followed it up by whispering her plans to undo her previous fusions, he gave her a small smile.
”Hey, if that's what you think is gonna work best for you, I'm with you 100%. Humanity and being emotional can be..really complicated. You've gone your whole life until now feeling things completely differently. If you’re afraid of not being able to connect with us again…maybe we could work on that together? It might just take a change in perspective. People can change and grow, and I don't think that's unique to humans.” Giving a halfway-embarrassed smile, he gently squeezed one of Sandalphon's hands reassuringly.
The archangel’s pupils became bright green sparkles when Zenkichi held her hand. She remained quiet for a moment amidst the hubbub of the team as the Seekers wound down, caught up, and sorted through the spoils of war. “As ever, my loyalties are to heaven and humankind. That has not changed, and would not. Yet…” She looked around at her allies, from the good-spirited kids like Junior, Rika, Pit, and Roxas to the dependable warriors like Geralt, Goldlewis, and Roland. “Were I unchanged, however, I would not be here on the front lines.”
Sandalphon reached up and gingerly took hold of her halo, then brought it down to wipe at the xylem-drenched ring with a handkerchief. When the cloth passed over its surface, its luster was restored bit by bit, and she continued to speak as she polished. “It would be more efficient to remain aboard the Avenger, monitor the battle from afar, and intercede only when necessary. I have always wanted to stand alongside my teammates, though. To have…friends.” Her lips pursed together in a slight, sad smile. “Regina seemed to understand that, though I never breathed a word. She was too good to me. Reminds me of you, in some ways. Albeit…a bit more put-together.”
Laughing a little, Zenkichi replied, ”Ouch. Can’t really argue that one, but dang, hold nothing back, huh?” Nonetheless, he gestured for her to continue.
Sandalphon turned her eye to Zenkichi, her pupils shaped like carets. “Forgive me, I meant no offense. All I mean to say is…while humanity is a tactical liability, it offers a great deal of benefit, as well. I can feel more, want more. Be more. In addition, humans can grow and overcome their flaws. It is a daunting prospect to embrace weakness and fear in hopes of one day overcoming them, but if I reverted to my old, mechanical self for short-term gain…I feel as though I would be sacrificing much. So…I didn’t want to throw it away without discussing it beforehand.”
Nodding slowly, Zenkichi gave her words more thought. He’d felt that her mind was pretty set on this before, but now he was realizing just how much doubt she had. Taking a deep breath, he organized his thoughts before replying. ”I think I understand. There’s more to it than just what’s more efficient on the battlefield, or what makes you happy. You’re trying to balance those things, and to avoid getting yourself killed, or holding everybody else back, at the same time. I can tell you this much. Finding a group of people with the same goals, hopes, the same ideals as you, and working with them to do real good, to help improve the world…is an amazing feeling. The pride of knowing that what you’ve done mattered, the camaraderie of working with people you can trust with your life, and the exhilaration of actually doing it. Of fighting for what you believe in. Even after some days when I was sore all over, my feet were begging for a chair, and I could barely keep my eyes open, I felt more alive than I had in years.” He sighed, running his hand through his hair.
At that point, Sandalphon tilted her head, an intrigued look on her face. With her elaborate halo more or less clean she allowed it to slip from her grasp and bob back into place, as if it had been bound to its proper spot above her head by a stretched-out spring.
”Seeing the kids again, the other Phantom Thieves, really helped me remember just how important what we’re doing is. Beyond just…doing the right thing, ya know? The bonds we make with each other, the life-long friendships we forge in fighting for our lives together for a greater cause. They change us, make us better people. For knowing each other, for choosing to stand up and fight, even when it’s hard to.” He was smiling now, looking right into Sandalphon’s eyes as he took each of her hands in his. ”So I take back what I said. I think you should give being human a chance for a little bit longer. It comes with its weaknesses, yes, but now that we’re more aware of them, we can better work around them. Besides, you’ll have me there. Comedic misunderstanding aside, I accepted your covenant for a reason, Sandalphon. I trust you. You helped make sure Aurele got back to Sector V safely back in Midgar, even when splitting your concentration like that could have jeopardized the mission. I’ll be around to help keep you safe. I promise.”
As he spoke, Sandalphon’s pupils looked like loading rings, as if the archangel were downloading every last word. For the most part at least–when Zenkichi held both of her hands, her telltale eyes seemed to glitch, quickly cycling through various symbols until they became sparkles again. Many people had trusted her with their lives throughout her storied career in the Illian Church, Lateran Church, and beyond, but Sandalphon had trusted very few in return. Why put stock in such an abstract concept, after all, when logic and numbers provided such firm footing? But being able to trust in Regina had been an invaluable experience, and now she had the chance to place her trust in someone new. Thanks to their shared covenant, she and Zenkichi were united no matter how far apart they might be. She hadn’t used their bond to spare herself during the fight against Lilith, but the option had been there. Sandalphon believed this man when he said he would keep her safe. She did trust him. When she realized that, a weight seemed to lift from her, and something deep within her was moved.
For a brief moment, the archangel’s pupils became hearts.
Then they reverted back to normal, and the archangel nodded. “I will hold you to that promise, detective,” she told him, her tone solemn. “In accordance with your advice, I will remain as I am for a while longer, and seek the betterment of bonds. Thank you for your counsel.” Though about as stiffly formal as usual, she did not retract her slender fingers from Zenkichi’s grasp.
Zenkichi had gotten pretty good at keeping an eye on Sandalphon’s pupils since that first conversation after the Quarantine Zone, but even still he barely caught the hearts in her eyes, his own skipping a beat at the sight. His lips pulled into a bright smile even as her normally-stoic demeanor started to reappear. ”Of course. I’m just glad to be here for you. I…care deeply for you, Sandalphon. It feels like we’ve known each other longer than we really have.” Gently squeezing her hands again, his gaze turned towards the hole in the Qliphoth that she’d pointed out earlier, where she had planned to have the shuttle return to evacuate Emily and Snake. ”I am really looking forward to getting out of this place. And…if it’s not too much to ask, would you be able to check on Akane? I know she worries, especially with us going up against a Guardian pretty soon.”
Without a moment’s hesitation Sandalphon nodded her agreement. “Consider it done. And…I care for you as well. All my allies, of course, but you in particular.” Her eyes lingered on Zenkichi’s for a moment longer before she looked away. She spotted Grimm on his way back to the group, and observed that the others seemed ready to move on. Sandalphon returned the man’s squeeze and then let him go. When she got to her feet, she seemed steadier than before, and her newly-polished halo shone extra bright in the gloom of the Qliphoth hollow.
Zenkichi pushed himself to his feet even as he began to reload his revolvers, breathing heavily from the damage he’d sustained, even through his defensive buffs. ”Come on, come on, come on!” He hurried himself, pausing to dodge out of the way of a dark lance thrown his way, and finished reloading the first gun. ”Good enough! It’ll have to be.” He sighed, lifting the firearm and letting loose, firing all six shots into Malphas’s bird body, before Ragnell was summoned again. ”Should’ve dropped a Heat Riser…no going back now.” He muttered, firing another series of energy blasts as he rolled past a dark magic lance and rising. ”Valjean, Triple Down!” He called, another healing burst emanating from him as Valjean fired a trio of gun blasts at Malphas and the bird demon body.
After being forcibly brought back down to the ground due to Malphas' dark wave, Primrose found her feet just in time for a swirling portal to open up next to her. She knew what was coming, but the demon bird was fast. The talon that struck out through the portal grazed the dancer as she twisted out of the way. Rather than wait for another portal to appear next to her, Primrose's eyes flickered to Malphas' main body and she quickly crossed the arena with her own teleportation skill.
With Ravaging Confession it wasn't Roxas that appeared behind Malphas, but Primrose. She'd seen the magic the third torso was casting and countered with her own, Black Fire Orbs crashing against the demon's orbs of darkness, showering the immediate area in shadowy embers. She'd cast with one hand, the other wrapped around the hilt of her dagger to follow through with her attack.
"You underestimate us," she hissed at Malphas as she slashed at the demoness.
When Primrose took it upon herself to attack from behind this time, Roxas responded in kind. Rather than open with StepSword again, he instead transformed into a streak of light that zigzagged at Malphas and opened into a Cross Slash from the left side of one of her lower bodies. He got grazed and was knocked back by a couple of incoming spikes, but the Nobody reacted quickly enough. As soon as his feet were on the ground, Roxas summoned Kayano again. But instead of shifting everyone’s positions, she instead swapped Roxas with Primrose. This allowed the Keybearer to resume his assault on Malphas a mere moment after the dancer had neutralized the dark orbs and slashed at the demon herself. And it would hopefully protect her from the inevitable retaliation that Malphas was sure to hit back with.
Once the thundercrack of Valjean’s gunshots echoed off the hollow’s walls, the exasperated detective found himself staring down the demon bird alone, for Grimm had disappeared as well. In a scarlet flash, the Troupe Master warped in to take the fight to Malphas as well. After Primrose’s dagger cut deep through pallid, wormlike flesh and Roxas beat the devil out of Malphas with his key-shaped bludgeon, the nightmare flames of point-blank firebats blossomed amidst the dancer’s darkness. With all three bodies besieged by vicious close-quarters combat, Malphas couldn’t cast. She could only force her lower half forward in a desperate bid to buck the Seekers off, but no matter how it thrashed, the Seekers persisted.
Grimm, especially, would not be dislodged. His savage claws not only slid through her flesh like wet paper, but also set her alight thanks to his reward from the Gaster battle. That kind of punishment could not be tolerated, and in a brief moment between two of Grimm’s attacks, Malphas found her chance to retaliate. A portal appeared behind him, through which the hatchling’s leg extended to snatch the Troupe Master and pull him through. Once lifted up through the second portal beneath the demon’s bird body, the portal closed and the monster’s leg slammed down with Grimm beneath it. He burst into a swarm of tiny bugbats that streamed out between the wicked talons, swarmed up past Malphas into the air.
New ability: Pufferfish While suspended in the air, Grimm can turn himself into a paper lantern in order to inundate the arena with twelve waves of scarlet fireballs, all stronger than their small size would suggest. Each wave has only a couple openings between the fireballs, randomly placed, and the waves come fast, one every .9 seconds. Grimm cannot defend himself otherwise, but he’s extremely difficult to stagger in this state
When Grimm coalesced, he enclosed himself in his cloak, which then bulged outward, covered with spikes and alight with inner fire like a scarlet paper lantern. ”Ssaire!” A deluge of scarlet fireballs rained down indiscriminately, with openings small enough that agile allies could get through, but not Malphas. The demon shrieked as she burned, her attempt to take back some momentum ruined, and the Seekers could finish the fight–as long as they could weather the firestorm.
Left alone on the ground while the others launched themselves into the air to attack Malphas’s actual body, Zenkichi focused on taking out the chicken demon thing again. One, putting this thing down again would take Malphas’s focus off killing them, if only for a few moments, and two, he didn’t fancy his odds of not accidentally hurting one of the others. He’d mostly gotten lucky this far, but her actual body was rather small, so the risk of friendly fire with his more area-oriented attacks would be fairly high. So, he ran in, swinging on and unleashing a combo on the demon’s body, even as Malphas used her portals to attack Grimm.
Roxas followed up on his attacks against Malphas’ actual body by continuing his own assault. When gravity inevitably pulled him back toward the ground, he turned into a streak of light that zagged back upward so he could use Cross Slash and continue his string of Keyblade attacks. Sensing the end wasn’t far away, Roxas became more liberal with throwing spells like Firaga and Blizzaga as well. He noticed them growing in size as they lurched toward their intended target thanks to the boon he had acquired in the previous room. Whether this increased their actual power, he wasn’t sure yet, but increasing a spell’s area or reach certainly had its uses regardless.
After Roxas had shifted places with her, Primrose was in a much more advantageous position from which to avoid Grimm's fiery rain and keep up her own casting. She glanced up at the troupe master's pufferfish form to see if she could note any type of pattern to the fire balls, but finding none she'd just have to rely on her evasiveness as they came down. She moved this way and that, turning gracefully in the space between the troupe master's falling flames as she once more conjured dark magic to her hands. When the Moonlight Waltz was ready she let the spell fly, bursting against Malphas and her bird.
While Zenkichi struck from below, the others bombarded Malphas with elements, and their sheer volume of magic quickly whittled the revived demon’s health back down even after Grimm’s Pufferfish attack concluded. For all of her tricks and sorceries Malphas just couldn’t regain control, and not even an emergency escape through a portal could stave off the onslaught when these Seekers stuck to her like glue. With her challengers going all-out on offense, this fight was a race to the finish, and the heroes turned out to be faster.
At last, the detonation of Primrose’s Moonlight Waltz seemed to do the job, eliciting a distorted wail from the demon as one of her three torsos withered and died, driving the rest of the fused monstrosity to thrash in what seemed to be death throws. Grimm wasn’t taking any chances, however, and whether or not it might be needless excess, the Troupe Master warped in to drive his claws into another torso and tear the pallid scion from the trunk to which it had been grafted. He leaped from the body with his prize just before the frenzied bird slammed to the ground, a wretched croak issuing from between its rotten teeth. Motes of dark magic rose like the sparks of a dying fire, and the demon began to disintegrate into dash. “How…how do you have so much…power!?” The last torso slumped down atop the ashen carcass, and the battle was over.
Grimm narrowed his eyes at the one-armed growth he’d excised as it began to dissolve in his grasp. ”An impassioned dance…I am nearly spent.” He’d lost two thirds of himself amidst the feverish revelry, so while he didn’t appear to be in bad shape, appearances could be deceiving. He tossed the corpse aside with a dramatic air.
"Impassioned is certainly a word for it."
When it was over, Roxas decided to use the last of his MP to cast Curaga. ”Heal!” Similar to when he was casting Firagas and Blizzagas earlier, the green ring for the Curaga expanded outward slightly while the spell took effect. So that Super Nova card he picked up could help his Curaga reach more allies to heal? He couldn’t deny the usefulness of that. The spell washed over the group, Grimm included, and provided those who needed it a solid amount of restoration to their health. A moment, cards appeared from the either, three apiece for the victorious few.
Burnt Offering - increases max life by 50%, but you must sacrifice an ability Funeral of Sensory Pursuivant - whenever an enemy takes damage from your DoT, applies 2 stacks of Suspicion, which increases damage suffered by DoTs. 1 stack of Suspicion is lost every 5 seconds Pie of Five Fruits - all your elemental status effects now deal instant damage instead. This also applies to elemental status effects done to you
Dying Wish - whenever Hitch-afflicted foes are slain, nearby foes take 15% extra damage from the killing blow Frenzy Charm - can be pinned to a persona, a striker, or summon to make it perform its next action twice, but prevents that same action for the rest of the fight Point Blank - ranged weapons fired in melee range deal 30% more damage
Lucid Gain - you slowly regain MP while in contact with your own spells VEP-18 Occipital Lobe - when using a Limit or Limit Break, you penetrate 20% of your targets armor and elemental resist, and each additional enemy caught in the Limit increases that penetration by 3% Old War Stealthkit - every 30 seconds, falling below 25% health will boost your movement speed and make you invisible for 5 seconds (any attack or spell reveals you)
Slow Cooker - deal 2% more damage per Nightmare Flame or Hestia boon Spinal Spur - your basic attacks have a 24% chance to crit Fire Enthusiast - when inflicting a burn, receive a burn, and restore 20% health when burned
For Grimm, this was an easy choice. If burning his foes meant that he’d be burned, and being burned would restore him, then the fact that his previous reward gave him burning attacks meant that he could expect constant healing from now on. Once he made his pick, he felt deep within him an extravagant, soul-soothing warmth, as one might expect of a bowl of warm stew on a cold day. ”Shaaah. May the heat of battle stoke the flames of war, and the fire in our hearts sustain us evermore.”
Roxas stared at the cards before him for what felt like forever. Between the three of them, he was looking between Lucid Gain and VEP-18 Occipital Lobe. On hand, he could increase the hitting power of his Limits and Limit Breaks. On the other hand, he could potentially mitigate his MP consumption, even if only a little. After his gaze shifted between the cards a few more moments, the Nobody finally reached out and touched one, choosing Lucid Gain in the end.
But he didn’t return immediately. Instead the guy who was depicted on the card appeared before him. And then spoke. “Greetings from Olympus and well met, there, sunshine! Look, we can’t get to the Guardian, but if you truly mean to stop it, then the least I can do is light your way down!” But before Roxas could even say anything back in return, things went back to normal and he was among the others in the hollow again.
Primrose looked over her own card choices. Elemental statuses... ah, like the 'scorch' from the last choice. In the thick of battle she'd paid little attention to that boon, especially with the fire of her own and Grimm's magic a consistent presence. Primrose didn't much feel like giving up any of the abilities she'd gained, and though the thought of a slow torture by fire over time had a certain appeal to it, especially for some people she could think of... she wouldn't say no to some instant gratification, particularly if it meant she wouldn't have to suffer any similar effects herself. She selected the last card, and once warped back into the hollow she let out a small sigh.
Another battle won, another trio of cards to choose from. For Zenkichi, the choice was actually fairly easy. While the charm could prove useful in certain situations, losing out on flexibility in combat was not something he had any desire to deal with. And while he sometimes used his revolvers in close quarters as a sort of hidden strike to seriously injure opponents, it wasn’t something he was keen on doing often enough to make that boon worth it. No, the boon that showed the same woman as last time would reinforce his best strength- against large groups of enemies. And who knows, maybe if this sort of thing happened again (once was odd, twice was a pattern), focusing on one type of benefit could start to really work up how useful it was. He chose Dying Wish. Rather than return to the battlefield like last time, however, the woman depicted on the card appeared before him, speaking.
“Pleased to make your acquaintance finally, my dear! Already had enough of this world, yes? Heh, well I promised myself that once you demonstrated your resolve to us, I'd take you under my wing. And I always keep my vows.” That was…ominous, Zenkichi decided. Once she was done, though, he reappeared with the others, confusion evident on his face. ”Did…any of your cards talk to you?” he asked.
”Wait yours did, too?” Roxas almost immediately responded. ”So it’s not just me?”
"I was spoken to briefly before, but not this time," Primrose said. That was curious. Visions aside, it appeared that the rewards were still simply just that: rewards following the battle. And with everyone having chosen said reward, it also stood to reason that they could keep moving on. But before they did, the dancer went to collect Malphas' spirit, and when she returned she produced a small flame of Warmth.
"Does anyone else need a little more patching up?" she asked. Roxas' healing pulse had certainly helped, but she would rather go into whatever next awaited them as healthy as possible.
Zenkichi nodded, and so Primrose pressed the healing flame to him, though his faraway expression indicated he was still thinking about what those cards and the people that spoke to them all meant. If he saw one of them again, he’d have to try and ask.
After being restored by Roxas, Grimm definitely seemed to relax. ”Ssehhh…” Untroubled by any inexplicable visions, he lifted his arm beneath his cloak, and when the fibrous curtain fell open it revealed the Grimmchild dangling from its father’s limb like a bat. Grimm bowed his head to Roxas. ”You could learn much from the spiky one, child,” the Troupe Master rasped, gently prodding the insect’s belly with claws as soft as silk. Seemingly in reply, his progeny let go, then fluttered over toward Roxas to sit in the pointy blonde nest atop his head. After a moment, Grimm glanced over at the spirit of Malphas, then to an untouched Qliphoth vein nestled amidst the iridescent oil shell. ”If this pattern of escalation holds, this next dance may be our most spectacular yet.”
With that Primrose agreed. Though it technically did not bode well for them, it also must have meant they were getting closer and closer to their goal.
"It stands to reason that we'll reunite with more of the others as well," she said. "Moving around like this has been quite... disorienting, but we must be nearing the top of this tree."
”If we are, I can’t tell. This whole tree’s been a confusing mess.” Roxas said, tilting his head in thought. ”It’s weird though. We got split up into twos, then I guess we got put into fours? Almost the exact same thing happened to us in Midgar. Talk about history repeating itself.”
Zenkichi shrugged. ”Yeah, it’s pretty weird. Last time it made sense, super-high tech security system and all that. This is just…weird demon tree thing.” He definitely found it strange, but complaining about it wouldn’t get them anywhere. ”Let’s just hit the top and get this done with. I hate this place.” He started off without further delay, and the others fell in behind him, curious -but not optimistic- about what awaited them beyond this next bloodstream.
Lvl 14 Ms Fortune (126/140), Midna, Edelgard, Lvl 4 Captain Falcon Word Count: 2800 (+3)
”Of course it wasn’t going to be that easy” Midna sighed through teeth clenched with pain before glancing behind her across the bar to check on Emily. In doing so, however she spotted, in one of the small glass cupboards (read, mini fridges), a bottle that shimmered with power in her mindseye.
Restorative power.
With her shadow hand she reached across the bar and helped herself to the bottle while saying ”Not stealing if the barkeeps a creep” and then reading out loud that what she’d just retrieved was called ”Jim Roger Bread Soda”
With a sarcastic declaration of ”Well, that sounds lovely” she pulled up her helmet and got to drinking down the restorative meal in a bottle while the battle continued to rage behind her.
“Hey, whoa.” A familiar, tired voice reached Midna from beneath the bar, sounding mildly hurt. When she looked, she found the scruffy-haired, pink-wearing stranger from earlier, hunkered down almost out of sight. Unlike Emily, who only crouched down so she could see the action from her hidey-hole, he was sitting on the floor, carefully pouring a bright blue liquid into a cocktail shaker filled with ice. When she spotted him, he nodded his head over his shoulder, as if to say that she should focus on the task at hand.
Midna’s eyes widened, and then she gave a snort of a laugh at the true nature of his disappearing act that she just barely prevented from causing the bread drink coming out her nose. Still, despise this surprise reveal, she did indeed focus on the task at hand, downing the rest of her beverage, slamming the bottle down on the counter and correcting herself slightly to him being a ”sneak then” before turning back to see the state of the battle and get ready to get stuck back in, the bizarre beverage having miraculously washed away all her wounds.
By then, Nadia had rejoined the fray. Though the murderous aura given off by the memory zone meme once its shadows enshrouded the area made her hackles rise, the feral wasn’t about to sit back and do nothing–especially when it struck down the third person to attack it last time. She took off at a run, then boosted herself into the air with pressurized blood. With Charge she put her best foot forward in a lightning-fast divekick, then performed a high voltage Battery by flip-kicking back off the ground, detaching her head, and swinging it down in an energetic headbutt. Sparks flew as her noggin beaned Something Unto Death in the eye, but the next moment its pulse pushed her back, much to her chagrin. When she slid to a stop and popped her head back on, though, Nadia noticed a red peeper floating above her. “’Eye’ don’t like the looks of this…”
”Nor do I, but until we learn its true nature, we must continue to fight.” Edelgard simply replied, stepping forward to put herself at the forefront of the fight yet again, Aymr slashing out at the monster before her. As it retaliated with a Funeral kiss, Edelgard hefted her shield, the claw slamming into the steel barrier and letting off a terrible screech as its talons grated on the metal. Grunting at the impact, the Flame Emperor sighed. Even through her guard, that was quite a hit.
”Fire and Wind are apparently our best bets.” Falcon noted aloud in case any of the others hadn’t picked up on the boss’s elemental weaknesses. ”Good thing I’ve got plenty of the former to spare!”
Before he could act, however, the bounty hunter found himself paralyzed once more. Edelgard’s attack had earned her an eye sigil above her head just like Nadia’s, and a moment after it appeared, Something Unto Death faded away into the shadowy backdrop. Countless red eyes opened within the darkness before the meme itself descended from above the two women. Its feather-blade slid across their necks, cutting off Nadia’s scream with terrifying suddenness, and the next moment the monster was gone. When it reappeared, it was joined by two Sombrous Sepulchers containing the captive souls, and flanked by those eerie tombstones it now faced a team reduced by half.
”Not good!” Falcon finally said when the paralysis wore off. Now there were two team members trapped and in need of an assist. They couldn’t afford for the Captain to go ahead with his planned attack on Something Unto Death. So he turned and redirected his focus, sprinting toward the Sombrous Sepulchers. He recalled Nadia shouting something earlier about attacking the tombstones. So that’s what the bounty hunter would do. ”Not today!” Falcon cried as he began unleashing a barrage of punches and kicks against Edelgard’s tombstone. Even his usual showmanship was briefly set aside for the sake of rescuing a teammate. Sadly, the meme’s pulse shunted him backward all too soon, so the Sepulcher wasn’t down just yet. ”Midna, can you get the other one?””
”On it!” Midna called out as she slipped into the shadow of the bar, and then out of something Something Unto Death’s own inorder to cross the distance.
Once there, she declared ”Here, I’ve come up with something just for you!” before reaching her shadow hand back behind her, forming a sword grip, and then crescent moon blading the dead end express out of the twilight realm. The giant train-chainsaw mace wired and revved, bladed teeth spinning as it was slammed upwards.
Fighting gravity, it was something of a weakened strike, but the impact still unleashed a shockwave of wind that far outstripped what it should have created via momentum alone.
Minda: Skill: Wind Element Attunement (herself/Clone of Akira Howard/Ariel): Midna's strikes create wind based aftershocks in the same shape of her strikes that do 20% of the damage of the initial hit in an aoe that increases the stronger the hit is. These after shocks come in either a drill, blade, or expanding inverted cone depending if the strike was piercing, slashing, or blunt damage. Blunt hits also do significantly more knockback as a result of these secondary gusts.
On top of this, her minions gain access to wind attacks, allowing them to run in circles in order to build and then unleash tornados. The more (and bigger) the minions involved, the more violent and tumultuous the resulting vortex is. For context the beast legion has a 'beast tornado' skill that does that, and hyrule warriors Midna can also have her minions do a run around in a circle to build a tornado
The massive weapon and its vacuum effect scored both a meaty wallop on Something Unto Death and some damage against the Sepulchers on either side, lowering both to just two feathers. Before Midna could push forward with the massive weapon for another assault, however, a wave of raw force sent her skidding away. Whatever this power was, it seemed that nobody could linger in the memory zone meme’s vicinity for long.
As Midna attacked, her minions appeared to strike at the main body to try and keep it off guard. Her darknut and cybernetic wolf-cycle appeared briefly to deliver a colossal overhead sword strike and point blank maw cannon lighting blast respectively, before her wolfos and beast legion leapt onto the foe, leaping up to nipping at its heels (literally) to pile on the pleasure. Their wind-aspected punishment quickly added up, but just as quickly they were sent packing like their master, leaving Something Unto Death alone with its prizes once more.
At that point, though, the fight took an unexpected turn. Emily vaulted over the bar, her saber at the ready, and ran up to stand alongside Falcon and Midna. “I appreciate you wanting to keep me safe,” she declared, turning to face the specter with a soldier’s solemnity. “But I can fight, too. I won’t stand by and let anyone die on my account!” After donning a ferocious mask, she used her saber to draw her own blood and set it alight. “If it’s fire you need, it’s fire you’ll get!”
Before she could put it to use, however, the meme struck again. It launched another Sunken Rain that assailed the Seekers with dark spikes, which forced Emily to block, then lunged toward Falcon with Funeral Kiss. The bounty hunter had temporarily stop his attacks to put up his defenses, but when he did it manifested a reddish bubble around him that absorbed the attack, causing the bubble to shrink a bit as a result. But since it was charging at him, he was able to retaliate with a ”Ryuugeki Ken!” and hitting the Meme with a close range burst of flame before the pushback kicked in.
As the Meme rushed towards the captain, Midna and her pack rushed past it and towards the tombstones holding their other allies. The wolves naturally outpaced her, but the princess merely needed to yank on her astral chain once they got close inorder to catch up, pulling herself to the beast legion, and then spring boarding off of it with the power of flowmotion. With most of her blades scattered to the four corners of the room she instead bore her dragon claws, delivering a quartet of wind power backed swipes to Nadia’s tome. With talons piercing the surface and letting her cling to it for just a moment, she raised up her shadow hand and then sent it crashing down atop of it trying to ”Crack you like an egg!” Strangely, however, the whole assault only seemed to count for one feather, meaning one remained by the time Midna got repelled once again.
As she did this, the wolves of astral and twilight darted under Edelgard’s and, chasing each other’s tails, whipped up a tornado beneath it, buffeting and rocking it before they leapt into their creation and used it to launch themselves up to bite at the Sombrous Sepulcher. Their efforts shaved off only one of the tombstone’s feathers, however, so that Sepulcher remained standing, too.
Given the speed at which Midna, her summons, and the Captain operated, Emily was only able to make good on her proud declaration just then. She swung her saber, coated in her own blazing blood, in a wide arc to launch an ember that carved its own roundabout path. It looped through one tombstone, Something Unto Death, and then the other before firing off behind her. Though her Ember Reversal didn’t inflict much injury to her adversary, it still burned away the Sepulchers’ final feathers and left them unprotected. Having observed throughout the fight’s first phase, Emily made sure to communicate. “One more should do it!”
The memory zone meme would not let the totems go down without a fight, though. It wheeled around in the shadows, hurling down another dozen flechettes with Sunken Rain, then warped to the opposite side to nail the Seekers from behind with a second. Emily, who’d managed to dodge through the first deadly deluge, had charged forward to try and destroy the undefended totems, only to receive two lances, one into the meat of her calf and the other across the ribs. “Agh!” She stumbled, teeth gritted, and fell short of the prize. Meanwhile Falcon had fared slightly better. His closeness to the memory zone meme at the time kept him from dodging the first volley before taking a glancing blow from one of the lances, but he did manage to avoid the second volley since they came from a longer ways away after the meme had teleported.
Midna sent her wolfos home and hunkered down under her shadow hand to resist the first barrage, and sent her flygon forth to strike the totems while she kept track of the meme. In doing so she was well prepared to block the second barrage as well, and to mentally inform her minion of it as well, the shadow dragon barrel rolling in the air to avoid the spines.
Rather than get to one or the other, it landed between them and vibrated its wings in such way as to produce a horrendous bug buzz that pulsed out and struck both targets at once, while Midna focused on Emily, calling out in question ”are you alright?” while mentally charting an exit route for her. Seeing this, the Captain figured he was alright to refocus his efforts on targeting Something Unto Death.
“I’ll live!” the soldier growled, ripping off strips of cloth with which to staunch the bleeding. She was more concerned about Edelgard and Nadia, but as the flygon dealt both Sepulchers their final blow, the tombstones shattered and returned the fallen to the world of the living.
Nadia gasped as she sat bolt upright, her hair and tail fluffed up in terror. She found it difficult to tell exactly what happened, but it reminded her of suddenly waking from dreamless sleep. It was easy enough to tell what lay before her, though, and with the battle against the many-eyed specter still ongoing, the feral rose to her feet.
Edelgard, similarly, forced herself up as she recovered from what was now her second ordeal trapped within the Sepulcher, and she was not pleased. Her face tightened in anger, and rather than Aymr, Absolution appeared in her hand.
Grazed by Sunken Rain but undeterred, Captain Falcon charged back into the fray. He sprinted into a leap that carried him toward Something Unto Death. ”Falcon Kick!” He shouted as his fiery boot made an impact against the meme. Naturally the pushback effect shunted the Captain back a few feet, but he’d anticipated this. ”Ryuugeki Sen!” He threw a series of 4 chi-empowered punches that hurled flaming disc projectiles at Something Unto Death as a follow up to the Falcon Kick opener.
Demonstrating a superhuman ability to push through the injury and pain, Emily rose to follow him into battle. Her bloodied sword burned bright as she lashed out with Crimson Moon, a sweeping crescent slash that kept Something Unto Death scorched. With each blow, more fiery cracks spread across its tenebrous frame, so it must be close to breaking.
Nadia lacked the elements necessary to bust the meme open, but she could still do her part. A crimson blast from her legs hurled her toward her target, and the feral dropped with all ten claws extended for a curtain shredder slash. “It’s curtains!” One on the ground, she stood on one leg, then began to rotate on that thigh scar. Using jets of blood from her arms she quickly picked up speed, spinning with her tail, upper body, and other leg extended like the rotors of a propeller. “Round and round we mow!” After only a second or two the monster’s aura began to push her away, but as she tumbled back Nadia executed one final spin to launch both arms at Something Unto Death like flying drills.
Midna didn’t exactly have the matching element to her allies fury stacks, but she had charged up plenty of wind power beating on the totems which she promptly put to good use: riding her beast legion into the frey and then leaping off of it to deliver a cyclone kick to the meme, creating a stunning shockwave of wind when her foot made impact with one of its many eyeballs.
A fireball crashed against the meme as Midna attacked it, followed shortly by a series of vicious attacks from Absalom’s axe, wielded by the Flame Emperor and literally blazing with her fury. ”ENOUGH! FALL, DEMON, BEFORE THE FLAMES OF AN EMPIRE!”
Solar Prominence - A toggleable Ability that adds 25% of Edelgard's attack damage as fire damage to each of her attacks, with a low (1/5) chance to cause the Burning condition as well, causing damage over time.
Her blazing might smashed through the last of the meme’s defense, its invisible shell bursting into fiery shards that went up in smoke as Something Unto Death dropped to the ground. Though Edelgard would still be repelled a short distance after her assault, that feeble attempt only served to delay the inevitable, since now everyone could see that their opponent was wide open. With the monster’s weakness broken, it was up to the Seekers to make sure that Something Unto Death stayed down for the count.
As any dedicated explorer of the Under -or indeed, the Kingdom of Hallownest- could attest, the subterranean realm generally became stranger and more exotic the deeper one went, but the Qliphoth seemed to be the opposite. The higher the Seekers climbed in their steady ascent toward the demon tree’s canopy, the denser this alien environment became. Up here the floodfestation zones were a terrible sight to behold, with entire sections of the trunk overgrown by rampant, hateful flesh, a cancer metastasized beyond any hope of removal. Yet the most powerful demons lurked up here as well, an elite cadre of inglorious devils risen from the seven hells to safeguard this stronghold on the World of Light’s surface, varied in power and form but united in common purpose. And as Grimm sliced his way out of a bloodstream to set foot in a broad cylindrical hollow lined with iridescent oil-black stone, it was one such horror that his scarlet eyes witnessed.
At first blush, it loosely resembled the spawn of some gargantuan bird, a gangly hatchling yet to grow feathers with a disproportionately large head. But its skin was yellowish brown, scaled, its head further distended as if by bloated tumors within. Inside its beak lay rows of rotten human teeth, and all over its body -but especially its wings- twitched what might have been bony fingers or arachnid legs. Yet as horrid as this was, that wasn’t all. Atop its back lay a handful of crystalline spires that ringed an arcane vortex like the contents of a swirling cauldron, and over the diabolical brew loomed a clustered trio of pale, feminine bodies, clothed only in pitch-black hair, with only one arm per torso and ritualistic marks on their faces. At the intrusion, the three heads turned, followed shortly by that of the nightmarish bird-thing. “Some manner of insect. Uninfected, too. I smell a strange, dark magic on you…”
”Well met. I am Grimm, master of the Troupe beckoned by the nightmare flame.” The newcomer bowed dramatically, a claw held over his heart and the other extended sideways. ”And I have come in search of kindling. A fine stage this is, your towering kingdom fallowed by worm and blight. Let us light it, a funeral pyre, ignited by the passionate heat of our dance.” He held out his hand, as if beckoning the creature to come and take it.
The demon spread her claws wide, leering at the dancers, detective, and nobody. “A dance, is it? Know then that you stand in the presence of Malphas, and the mightest sorceries of hell! I will squash you -all of you- like the bugs that you are!”
Wiping the bloody xylem from his body, Zenkichi slumped his shoulders a little when he realized they were in for another fight- because obviously they would be in for another fight, it’d be too easy otherwise. Ragnell appeared in his hand as he looked at his companions for this battle- Roxas, the bug guy from Meridi-At-Han whose name he didn’t remember or didn’t catch, and Primrose. Not a bad squad, all things considered, he thought. Instead of Preservation Protocol, though, this time he set up Restoration Protocol. The double-buffing was useful, but with Primrose here, he could buff and heal the whole squad at once, which might prove invaluable. ”Alright, giant chicken demon lady. That’s new.”
For Roxas, the only Seeker here he was particularly familiar with was Zenkichi. But that wasn’t going to stop him from helping them take down this demon lady person. ”Wish I could say it was new to me.” Roxas quipped in response to the Phantom Thief’s comment. Even before Galeem, Roxas had certainly seen and fought his share of bizarre enemies. Nevertheless, the Nobody brandished his Keyblades and got to work. The first thing he did was cast Tailwind on everyone present, including himself.
Then he used his StepSword to instantaneously move himself to a position to strike at one of the upper torsos from behind with the ignited energy blade and try to follow that with a quick series of Keyblade strikes.
It's like every horror in the area has come to take shelter in this tree, Primrose thought as she was freed from the vein only to find herself immediately staring yet down another monstrosity. Though for all she knew the Qliphoth had been like this the whole time. The dancer's eyes flickered over to the teammates she now found herself with, meeting each of their eyes (or in one's case, their mask) to signal that whatever they were in for, she was ready for it.
She did want to try out the mysterious reward she'd gotten after the last battle, but in the crucial opening moments of this one Primrose also chose to empower her allies. She'd seen a little of Grimm at work in Meridi-at-Han, had noticed the boy Roxas cast a spell or two, and knew that Zenkichi possessed some magic of his own... so she swiftly decided on her first performance, kicking things off with a dance most literal. The Peacock Strut, with motions as bold and confident as they were elegant, would increase the power of a Seeker's magical and elemental skills - but with just a few extra moments the effect spread to every one of them.
When the nobody had taken a second to cast, Malphas prepared herself as well. The uppermost torso jabbed two fingers forward and unleashed a wave of purple spikes toward her challengers. That naturally wouldn’t trouble Roxas, but the other two had waved their hands to conjure three murky orbs apiece, which hovered briefly in the air. After Roxas flashed with a flurry of blows, all six orbs launched his way as dark magic lances, and the bird itself stepped forward in order to whirl around. Luckily for Roxas he was quick enough on the draw - thanks to Tailwind - to generate a small platform of virtual cubes to plant his feet on in addition to a chest high wall in front of him he could crouch behind to try and avoid the lances - or at the very least slow them down or blunt them. Four crashed against the wall, but two shot down at a high enough angle to strike him.
Grimm took advantage of the distraction to use a little magic of his own. He flung wide his cape, releasing first the Grimmchild, then three firebats that hurtled through the air to blast the hatchling’s face. The next moment, though, he was forced to dodge the incoming spikes with a quick, low scuttle to the side. To his surprise the spikes curved to track him, fast enough to catch him with painful jabs from below, but it would take a lot more than that to put the Troupe Master down. He did not happen to see the uppermost torso as her extended fingers traced his path, but as Malphas turned her back he began to run forward.
With only her dagger as a means to deal physical damage, Primrose had to largely stick with her spells - though she'd known that going into the mission this morning, and as such was fine leaving her allies with the getting up close and personal. As the wave of spikes extended towards them Primrose leapt, floating up until they passed under her, and prepared to join in on the offensive. Though this demon claimed to be a powerful sorceress, she hoped it did not have some measure of magic resistance... She called upon her Moonlight Waltz to test it, even as she began to conjure Luna in her free hand. The swirl of darkness took shape to fall upon the demon's center mass, soon to be followed by silvery moonlight.
Summoning Ragnell, Zenkichi ran straight towards the multi-bodied demon, rolling to dodge the wave of spikes coming his way Much like they did with Grimm, the spikes curved to pierce his side, forcing a grunt of pain out of the Phantom Thief, who rolled his eyes. Of course they were seeking projectiles. Oh well, he'd have to either knock them out of the sky or block them next time. As soon as he got within range, he swung Ragnell a few times, launching blasts of explosive energy at Malphas.
Just as the demon delivered a monstrously powerful peck that shattered the ruby-red cubes and threw Roxas to the floor, its legs and back took a handful of empowered elements. The chick uttered a horrid squawk as it looked back, its eyeless face bulging, then lifted one leg. Two of Malphas’ torsos snapped their fingers, conjuring dark swirls by both Zenkichi and herself, and when the chick thrust its limb into one a taloned kick extended from the other to stamp down on the detective from above. Grimm dashed past him while this happened, but once the leg retracted all three of Malphas’ torsos worked together to manifest a huge portal directly above herself, into which the demon promptly disappeared.
After a second, more portals began to appear around the Seekers. In quick succession the bird’s leg or head burst through each one, each hard and fast strike delivered from an odd angle with only a moment’s notice. In the chaos, Grimm only narrowly avoided a full-force peck, sprayed by oily shards kicked up from the impact point, then committed to constant motion in order to stay ahead of the demon’s assault. A few seconds later, a large portal opened on the other side of the arena and Malphas drifted out sideways, quickly sliding to a stop.
Zenkichi was caught off guard by the kick from above, which knocked him to the ground, groaning. Once he picked himself up, he saw the many portals appearing around them, and resorted to the ancient art of rolling around like a madman, leaping and diving away from talons and beaks as they launched out of the portal. Even with his desperate dodging, he was clipped by more than one hit, though the glancing blows were far from lethal.
Primrose continued to keep her distance and cast her own magic - though unfortunately she'd learned that staying out of melee range would not protect her from that deformed chick's melee attacks. The portal barrage had taken her completely off guard, and the first strike from the thing's beak she'd suffered had been a rough one. She abandoned her offensive to devote herself to evasion as the attack continued, patching herself up by placing the flame of Warmth at her bleeding side. After several close calls the portals closed, and Primrose summoned her Makami in retaliation.
"Tarunda!" she ordered, and the willowy wolf flew towards Malphas to deliver its debuff to the demon's strength.
After those lances caught him, Roxas wasn’t able to react in time to avoid getting thrown down to the floor by the initial peck attack. But he recovered quick enough and was back on his feet, only to find that Malphas was no longer nearby. She’d used some kind of portal to move to the other side of the arena. ”You’re not getting away from us!” Roxas shouted, already locking onto the demon lady before he, too, vanished.
He reappeared once again directly above Malphas’ flank where he struck with the energy blade of his StepSword. But rather than continue attacking, he conjured up a fresh formation of virtual cubes that he pushed himself off of in order to launch himself down to the ground, hoping that his blocks would help protect him from the trajectory of any more dark lances. And as soon as his feet were back on the ground? He summoned Kayano - who used her mysterious powers to instantly pull the Nobody’s allies to his location while simultaneously pushing him backward toward theirs. Plus they all got a nice attack boost as a bonus. All Roxas had to do after that was use his StepSword again and he was immediately back into the thick of the fray.
In reply Malphas cast with all three hands to unleash a huge cone of purple spikes, into which the nobody’s allies were dragged. Grimm, at least, managed to react in time and launch himself skyward with a scything uppercut. Though it allowed him to evade the spikes it fell well short of Malphas herself, until he teleported while in the air, which released a rain of four large fireballs. Their descent preceded his reappearance on the demon’s other side, opposite Roxas. He joined in the assault with two floating claw swipes, followed by a brisk divekick.
At the same time Primrose prepared her latest spell. It was a potent one with a longer casting time, but when the crystals shot forward again Primrose trusted her Baldur Shell to protect her. The purple spikes crashed against the shell, and though it shattered it had succeeded in preventing the spikes from reaching her. The three masses of shadows she'd conjured shot forward then, her Dirge of Dusk twisting through the air towards the demon's trio of humanoid bodies.
Going from dodging like a madman to being pulled into a wall of spikes was not Zenkichi's idea of a great time, though in this case he managed to pull up Ragnell in time to block, or more accurately, deflect a couple of spikes out of his way as he narrowly avoided the rest. ”There's just no end to this, huh?!” he complained, launching a few blasts of light with Ragnell before calling for Valjean. ”Fine, then. Valjean, Triple Down!” In his experience, birdlike things didn't fare too well when presented with gun damage, and the healing burst that flowed out from him thanks to Preservation Protocol was a nice addition, as well.
Roxas was not happy seeing what he had accidentally dragged his fellow Seekers into, to say the least. He thought he was giving them an edge by giving them a means to press their attacks while simultaneously being buffed, but instead it looked more like he’d just thrown them against a wall. After his initial reappearance in the aftermath of his StepSword attack, Roxas generated a collection of scattered virtual cubes that he could launch himself between with flow motion. That kept the Keybearer himself out of the barrage of spikes on the ground. But it also put him in a position to be right in Malphas’ line of sight. For now all he could do was keep zipping between cubes and try to get in fly-by slashes. Maybe if he could harass Malphas enough it might create a window for some of the others to capitalize on with their attack boost from Kayano.
While Roxas and Grimm’s empowered attacks helped soften Malphas up, and Primrose’s tenebrous magic dealt respectable damage, it was the amped-up Triple Down that tipped the scales. When the magic bullets hit the head bird itself, rather than the demon torsos, the malformed hatchling shrieked and slumped to the ground with a massive slam. It could only write feebly as it lay there in a heap, despite Malphas’ best efforts to coax her lesser half into action. “Up, up!” she seethed. Knowing that she was a sitting duck right now better than anyone, she began to cast more orbs in a desperate attempt to keep the Seekers at bay.
With this chance presented to them, Primrose moved swiftly to make the most of it. She danced around the magic orbs flung their way, moving up slightly if only to make sure her aim would be true.
"Lights out!" she said, conjuring a large inky black lance. It hovered in the air for a moment before stabbing through the air at a harsh downward angle to skewer Malpha's triplet body. In addition to the strike itself and the waves of damaging darkness that would waft out from its impact point, it would make her allies more likely to land a critical hit.
Seeing the opportunity, Roxas wasn’t about to let it go to waste. He pushed himself from a virtual cube and launched himself down toward the toppled Malphas and stabbed both Keyblades into her with all the explosive momentum he’d built up from his previous uses of Flow Motion. Then he followed that up with a Cross Slash that then led into a flurry of rapid Keyblade strikes. And since his feet were touching the ground, Roxas decided to generate a bunch of virtual blocks right on top of the demon for good measure, since they would deal constant touch damage to anyone other than himself that touched them.
Perhaps still sore from those spikes earlier, Grimm decided to lend a hand by repaying the favor. He plunged the tips of his cape into the ground, and after a second or so, they shot up from the ground beneath Malphas to pierce her hideous lower half from beneath. His Grimmchild joined in with a little scarlet spitfire as well.
Zenkichi also rushed in, barely taking time to dodge the magic attack Malphas had launched, powering through to take advantage of her vulnerability. When he reached her body, he lifted Ragnell into the air, fire accumulating around the blade. As the flames reached their peak, he thrust the blade into the ground, a series of fiery explosions emanating out from where the holy sword hit the floor.
This time, luck was on the Seekers’ side. The Eruption from Ragnell inflicted a critical hit, explosively launching the entire demon off the ground. She smashed through the blocks left by Roxas to add insult to injury, then arced through the air in a majestic backflip before the demonic hatchling slammed back down. Grimm could hardly avert his eyes from the spectacle, convinced that no living thing could survive a spectacle like that, but to the Troupe Master’s surprise Malphas somehow galvanized the bird into action. It staggered to its feet in a berserk rage, the swellings on its head pulsating abominably, and filled the hollow with a brain-rattling shriek. To Grimm, it looked like the parasitical demoness had just lost control.
Primrose got the same impression. She breathed in deeply, slowly backing away from the demon toward a stretch of flat, solid ground from which to resume her casting. If the lower half was crazed, the battle would become all the more chaotic. Either way, they were in for it now.
Zenkichi jumped back from the screaming monster, pulling Ragnell up into a more guarded stance as his ears rang.
Roxas tightened his grip on his Keyblades. He knew an incoming phase two when he saw it. And this? This was definitely just the beginning.
Edelgard von Hresvelg & Roland Word count: 2,282 words (+3)
”Would that be a stroke of fortune, or merely our demise? I mean no offense to your skill, but I doubt the two of us alone would be sufficient to take on a Guardian, if the threat they pose has not been overstated by the others. Edelgard replied casually to Roland, trying to size up the utterly massive zombie before them. Given that they could only see the upper third or so of it, their enemy's scale was unprecedented for her. Even Absalom was not this large.
”Probably not with these abnormalities, no.” Roland said, giving his own banter, still, it didn’t help you in a fight to lose your nerve upon seeing an enemy like this. Granted, this thing was HUGE, usually things in the City didn’t get this bad or big.. Usually. ”But we should probably be careful with this thing, let's just hope his size makes him slow.”
”Indeed. Edelgard hefted her shield and began approaching, as Killabilly began launching zombies their way. ”Great. He means to slow us with mere fodder. Let us dispatch these distractions and make haste.” Edelgard sighed, stepping forward to crush a zombie beneath her axe as the arena slowly filled with easily-slain zombies.
Roland meanwhile really didn’t have much time to deal with these small things and let this giant charge up some kind of super attack or something and pulled out Gold Rush, equipping the EGO of a giant spiked golden gauntlet. This turned Roland into a caped warrior king while turning the whole area into an opulent throne room of golden pillars. Portals appeared in front and behind every zombie as well as Killabilly and Roland reared back and punched forward, zooming through each portal as if it was a straight line and smacking every zombie that couldn’t defend itself with his mighty gauntlet the size of his torso and gaining strength for every successful zombie hit. This ended with a punch on Killabilly who just took the punch in the stomach and didn’t seem all that phased, Roland clashing but failing and getting knocked away from a retaliatory hit from the big guy.
Edelgard gaped at Roland's attack, but quickly shook off her shock and ran forward towards Killabilly, who was quick to react to his successful defense against the Fixer. He laughed and swiped his hand at the pair, a trio of cadillacs appearing from nowhere and launching forward, threatening to bowl them over and crush them with sheer momentum.
Edelgard planted her feet in defiance, hefting her shield and roaring angrily. She pivoted stance slightly as the cadillac struck, and the bone-tingling shriek of metal on metal sounded out as the projectile vehicle deflected off of her shield, though not without having pushed her back a solid five feet. Bones aching and breath heavy, Edelgard cast a Heal spell to revitalize herself before advancing once more.
”Phew, thanks!” Roland said. Having done a large amount of damage to Roland’s current fighting partner, a mark that looked like a serpentine eye appeared over Killabilly making him the “villain”. All attacks from this point forward would be doing a bit of extra damage to him and healing whoever was lowest a bit upon successful landing of the attack. And with how big he is and how he was throwing CARS now, that would probably be necessary.
Speaking of attacks, Roland went in for a few more, using his giant two handed sword to cut a car in half before successfully striking Hillabilly with it. Although his followups of single swordplay didn’t play out as well as his sword was blocked or deflected and the exchange would end up with Roland riding on top of a car towards Edelgard, shooting a farewell shotgun blast before hopping off and doing a tumble to the ground.
Getting up from the ground, Roland decided to use a few ranged attacks to see what Edelgard could do. He did have something in his back pocket, but he doubted it’d finish this thing in one go.
Having been forced to leap to the side to avoid the second car, Edelgard stood up and shook her head before rushing forward again. This monster was a nuisance! The sheer weight behind the cars he was throwing could not simply be ignored, and if she tried to deflect them all like the first one, she'd wind up being ground down before too long. Even her prodigious durability couldn’t stand up to several thousand-pound vehicles being flung into her.
Reaching one of Killabilly’s hands laid upon the platform they were standing upon, Edelgard brought Aymr down on his finger, feeling and hearing the crack of bone as her ax shattered the joint it hit. Tearing free the blade, she swung again, this hit slicing clear through the flesh and severing the digit. In retaliation, Killabilly roared in pain, lifting his hand from the platform and slamming his incredibly long tongue down like a whip, attempting to slam into Edelgard and sending her to her knees. However Roland dashed up and clashed with the tongue using his daggers, able to parry it and cancel the attack out thanks to Intemperance making it so Roland couldn't’ fail the clash protecting his ally.
”So whats the plan?” Roland said to Edelgard, still figuring out what they could do and how they could work together to take this giant zombie down.
”I had been planning to carve his hands to pieces so we could render him unable to attack, but he appears to be regenerating his finger as we speak.” Edelgard reported and, true to her words, Killabilly’s finger was already regrowing. ”We will need to make an opportunity to deal damage so severe that it leaves him vulnerable until it is regenerated. Perhaps his head?”
”Alright, I’ll try to get an opening for you to do some serious damage. You’ll know the signal when you see it.” Roland said. Now, getting the attention of something wasn’t really something he did, but even Killabilly would see this. Starting first with a shot from his rifle to make sure Killlabilly was paying attention, Roland used his other EGO page, In the Name of Love and Hate, and adorned himself in a strange pink winged snake humanoid outfit, while behind him appeared a giant heart shaped portal and the arena temporarily changed to a cityscape with a bright purple fog rolling in. Although getting Killabilly’s attention like this lead to a situation Roland wasn’t expecting as Killabilly fired a laser from his mouth at Roland as Roland unleashed his EGO attack, which was also a massive laser from said heart portal causing both lasers to clash and struggle against each other keeping the attention of both participants for a short time.
Edelgard had to force herself not to think on just how strange this man and his powers were, instead attacking Killabilly’s arm with Flickering Flower to distract and stun him for a few moments. Her axe carved into his palm as the crest of Seiros flared, boosting the Ability’s power further. With a few seconds to act, she climbed onto the titanic zombie’s arm and pointed at his face, casting Fire to launch a ball of flames at his face.
Roland meanwhile didn’t have anything flashy left, at least not yet. Although once he hit the zombie with his hammer, he finally had something useful. Much like Edelgard, he went for the head, and after having used 9 different weapons from his attacks, he used Furioso. With Edelgard having his attention, Roland was able to strike the zombie with a long, flashy combo involving all 9 of his used weapons dealing a hefty chunk of damage and keeping the zombie stunned for a moment for Edelgard to followup with something that should hopefully help put this thing down.
Edelgard, unfortunately, did not have much left to fire off. Instead, she used the time he was stunned to further scale his body until she reached his shoulder, where she embedded Aymr into his collarbone, the sound of bone breaking filling the arena. She roared and hefted her axe again, this time slamming her shield into the wound left by her weapon, pushing against it like a prybar. Killabilly roared as he started to regain his senses, and brought his other arm up to grab Edelgard from his shoulder, squeezing onto her roughly. For now, her armor held, but it wouldn’t last forever.
Roland himself was mostly out of big tricks, so all he could do was build himself up again. A couple tricks he did have though were some of his new powers. First, pulling out the ink brush he got from absorbing one spirit, he threw a glob of ink at Edelgard which would soon explode in an eruption of ink tentacles to free her from Killabilly’s grip, then summoned another ink glob which turned into a vengeful spirit familiar to Roland which went after Killabilly’s throat and made him unable to use his laser. The other thing he had to help was an attempt to possibly cut off his arm with an enhanced massive two hander buffed by his other spirit right at the shoulder. Unlike Edelgard, Roland was much more agile and able to move around Killabilly, which was probably why he went after his companion. And with Killabilly having a bit of trouble dealing with Roland, he started to build up his Furioso again by using his lance, daggers, and sword on Killabilly’s head to rip his eyes out and make the fight much easier.
The exploding glob of ink managed to pry Killabilly’s hand open just enough for Edelgard to brace herself against his palm and lop off a pair of fingers, affording her escape. She climbed over his hand and back to his shoulder, slamming Aymr into the titanic zombie’s neck like a lumberjack to a tree. Roland’s attack to the wounded shoulder did not quite remove Killabilly’s arm, but it did deepen the wound even further, exposing part of the zombie’s undead chest cavity, revealing what looked like a hollow within. ”There! We may be able to strike more permanently from inside!” She called, dragging Aymr through and out Killabilly’s neck. ”While I have his attention, deal the mortal blow!”
”Eww, this sucks.” Roland said, not all that interested in getting inside this bloody thing but if that was the only way to kill it… Roland sighed, got his swords out, and went to town carving up the inside hollow of Killabilly. All while cursing at how disgusting it was. Usually he tried to stay out of the gullet of things, not go into one, but there was some weird glow in here, and a lot of flesh tentacle things. Nothing too big that Roland couldn’t cut through with his swords and various weapons, but it upped the gross factor by quite a lot. A gross factor that caused him to get hit a couple times by said tentacles as he was a bit more apprehensive about them than he should’ve been.
It took a bit, but eventually Roland found his way through the hollow flesh to some kind of corpse tied to a heart. Roland could only guess this was the weak point, and he was done with dealing with this whole thing, so he started carving and shooting up this accursed creature’s heart. In doing so, he gained Emotion level 5 at some point during his trek through the giant zombies innards and gained Acidic Sludge, granted its voice was only heard by Roland. This was probably a poor time to trigger such an effect, but maybe it was a blessing in disguise as the wave of highly corrosive acidic sludge drenched the core of Killabilly and made it much, much easier to hack away. It didn’t take long until Edelgard could see Killabilly starting to glow, and with a poof of page and a wisp of light, Roland was in mid air holding a book of Killabilly.
With a bit of a stumbling landing roll, Roland got back up on his feet and faced Edelgard. ”Funny thing, I got the feeling this isn’t the first time I’ve done something like this. But I can’t remember the first time… It makes me sick thinking about it though.” He said, not having come out of his little impromptu internal adventure unscathed, covered in weird fluids, a couple tentacle smacks visible, and overall just not in a good mood.
With the defeat of the boss of this area, an additional reward was offered to Roland. A series of 3 items appeared before him. Ares' Aid, Decaying Implosion, Lone Ranger.. Roland wasn’t sure what did what, nor was he really familiar with the name of the named item, so seeing as they were all the same to him, he grabbed Decaying Implosion. Upon doing so, he was blessed with a power, with the other 2 options disappearing. ”Huh, wonder what that is about.” Roland said, a bit confused. ”Also, where do we go now?”
Edelgard, having spent the time Roland was inside Killabilly fending off his feeble attempts at grabbing her again, also saw the three cards appear before her. Carefully considering her options, she chose the one that made her spells more versatile.
Bouncing Spells: - causes most spells to bounce twice on impact, allowing them to take effect repeatedly, but unpredictably
”Thank you for finishing that vile…thing…off. From here, I suppose we find another vein to traverse, and head deeper within.” With Killabilly gone, the pair could see a series of platforms behind and under where his torso had been, leading to a more fleshy section of the Qliphoth, this part less severely impacted by the Floodfestation. ”I believe that will be our means of egress.”
Lvl 14 Geralt (70/140) and Lvl 9 Goldlewis (69/90) Word Count: 4163 (+5)
To any ordinary man, the burly brute at the other end of the hall would have been a daunting opponent. The silently menacing, faceless Keeper made his size and strength plain to see with no need for words, offering no preamble for the showdown about to take place beyond an old-fashioned declaration of war, the din of metal mallet against uncrackable safe an ancient battle cry. In this man, however, Goldlewis saw a worthy opponent. He couldn’t say why a warrior neither demonic nor infested in origin might be here, or why the Qliphoth’s immense interior housed remnants of Redgraccoon City, but he knew there was no avoiding this fight. And thanks to the floodfested horde down below, the veteran was all warmed up.
Still, Goldlewis knew that pride comes before the fall. He suspected that fighting in cramped underground corridors would prove tricky, preventing him from fighting at his preferred range. If he couldn’t swing around his coffin or bust out his weapons, he’d just have to rely on the shotgauntlets from Jack-5. But with Geralt at his back, more powerful and more in control than in their last shared encounter, the Secretary of Absolute Defense felt rather confident. It was time to see what this masked maniac was made of.
As they drew closer in the hallway, both titans picked up speed until they were barreling toward one another like runaway freight trains. Goldlewis kept his eyes on the Keeper’s giant meat tenderizer, but at the last moment his opponent reached for his belt with his right hand and pulled out a large burlap sack, red with blood and bulbous with shapes that didn’t bear thinking about. As the killer whirled it like a flail, the basement’s sparse lighting glinted off hooks, spikes, and orbitoclasts protruding from the coarse fabric. Luckily, the chain on the veteran’s coffin afforded him a bit more range. Swinging vertically, Goldlewis unleashed a forward-down-back Behemoth Typhoon for speed and range. Coffin met sack with a hefty impact, as well as some sickening crunches from within the sack itself, but if the Behemoth Typhoon clipped the Keeper, he barely seemed to flinch. Instead he brandished his hammer for a follow-up but Goldlewis wasn’t done either. He used his Security Gauge to keep the pain train rolling, his coffin a meteor hammer as it pounded the Keeper’s guard with two more Behemoth Typhoons, the final revolution ending in an up-forward-down overhead. Yet somehow, despite all that punishment, the Keeper weathered it all. The moment after the assault ended, he struck back, lunging forward to knock Goldlewis sideways with a disorienting blow from the edge of his hammer, then wallop him against the wall with a mallet smash to the chest.
Geralt kept close to Goldlewis, giving the large man enough room to maneuver with his strange coffin-flail in the rather tight hallways they’d found themselves in. The Keeper looked to be little more than a deranged killer with neck muscles anybody would be jealous of, but Geralt knew better than to judge this book by its bloody cover. Keeping his twinblade at the ready, he cast the Sign of Quen to shield himself as the combatants met, Goldlewis outranging the Keeper but failing to prevent its own attacks once his were finished.
Strange enough, though Geralt didn’t let that slow him down. Immediately after Goldlewis was battered to the side, he lunged forward with the Hydro weapon, applying the Wet status and dealing a similarly negligible amount of damage. He turned, bringing the dual-bladed weapon around for a slash to the body, as the Keeper completely ignored Geralt’s attack and slammed its bloody sack into Geralt’s chest. The Witcher grunted a little from the blow but was similarly unphased, and took a step back to utilize his weapon’s greater range, thrusting the twinblade like a spear and trying to keep its attention. “Takes hits like a proper Fiend.” Geralt sighed.
“Grrah!” Given a moment to recover from his brush with the Keeper’s massive meat tenderizer, Goldlewis took advantage of his foe’s focus on Geralt to charge in for a full-bodied tackle. His opponent might be big, but few men were bigger than Goldlewis Dickinson. With his head down and his arms locked around the maniac’s middle, the veteran pushed him from one side of the hall to the other, and when the Keeper’s back hit the wall the clang of his safe against the bricks left him dazed for just a split second. Goldlewis straightened up to go for his trademark throw, a triple headbutt straight to the safe’s metal door, but the steel didn’t yield and its wire-covered surface left Goldlewis both stunned and scratched in turn. The Keeper pushed him off, then swung his hammer with the railroad spike on the other end forward. With a grunt, Goldlewis managed to clamp his hand around the weapon and stop the spike an inch from his temple, then use his other hand to unleash a point-blank blast from his shotgauntlet. Once again the blow barely registered, but it annoyed the Keeper enough to give up on the hammer blow and just shove Goldlewis back the way he came. He stumbled a few heavy, headlong steps toward Geralt, unable to stop his momentum. The veteran would be hitting the ground in two seconds; the only question was whether or not he inadvertently took the Witcher with him.
Geralt jumped back as Goldlewis stumbled his way, the Keeper following close behind. He jumped over his fallen ally and swung at the monstrous purser, putting his momentum and strength into the blow. He could be moved, evidently, but it required physical manipulation. Geralt was many things, but a grappler was not one of them. True to the previous hits, the Keeper did not budge, retaliating with a swing of its mallet which forced Geralt to dodge sideways, pressing himself against the wall of the hallway. He quickly lifted his hand to draw the Sign of Igni, a blast of flames exploding out and hitting the Keeper, triggering a Vaporize reaction to further harm their seemingly-invincible foe.
Just after a loud noise announced the veteran’s inevitable rendezvous with the floor somewhere behind Geralt, the elemental fire and water applied to the Keeper mixed in an explosive burst of steam. By now all the punishment he’d taken surely had to be adding up, but even after all the hits he’d taken so far, the Keeper barely seemed scratched. His brawny frame pushed through the suspense-inducing steam cloud with a heavy shoulder barge, extinguishing the Witcher’s hope. The impact shunted Geralt back into the room he and Goldlewis started in, but his comrade had the good sense to get out of the way as he gained his feet, so that Geralt didn’t tumble over him. The two men shared a look as the Keeper hammered his safe once more, then spread out, glad to be out of the hallway’s cramped confines. “We’re missin’ somethin’,” Goldlewis grumbled. Since his coffin lay in the hallway, he wearily put up his dukes. He’d seen various techniques that could soak a hit or two, but being uninterruptible at all times was beyond the pale. “I’m mighty keen to find out what.”
Faced with two targets, the Keeper chose Geralt, but Goldlewis had something he wanted to try. As his enemy raised his bloody sack, the veteran stepped out into a crouching stance, then rose with a knee strike to the Keeper’s gut. Naturally the bruiser shrugged it off, but Goldlewis canceled his Machine Press into his new Gamma Howl technique, flexing in a hunched-forward stance. This time Goldlewis was the one to absorb a technique, plowing through the gruesome flail in a burst of energy–Particle Barrier. The Keeper didn’t flinch either, but the shockwave pushed him back, confused and primed for a follow-up from Geralt.
Geralt had taken the time, now that they were in a larger arena, to draw a more powerful weapon that required a little more room to work with: the Hateful Flesh. As Goldlewis knocked back the Keeper, throwing it off balance and off guard, Geralt leapt forward, crashing the Siderite blade into its body and sending the Keeper reeling. It fell to its knees, and the safe on its head opened, revealing bloody flesh and its disgusting, disfigured visage. “Huh.” The Witcher simply remarked, hefting the Hateful Flesh and crashing it into the Keeper’s face, sending a spray of thick blood flying. “Goldlewis, hit it! Now!” He called, taking a step back to shift Identities.
Identity: Molar Boatworks Fixer - Replaces all equipment with a skintight wetsuit, an armored chestplate, and a harpoon pile bunker capable of light slash or pierce attacks, and an immensely powerful explosive charged attack with extremely short range, which also lowers enemy defenses for about 10 seconds. On his back is a moderately heavy pneumatic tank required to utilize the pile bunker's charged attack.
Instead of the LCCB Assistant Manager form with its riot shield and pistol, however, Geralt transformed into something new. Rather than the heavy armor, he was now adorned with a tight black wetsuit, with a single chestplate to protect him. Attached to his arm was a strange device with a harpoon blade, and a heavy tank rested upon his back. “This is new…” He muttered. Goldlewis had grabbed the safe with his left hand and begun to pummel the meat with his right. He glanced back to see the Witcher’s new gear, especially the enormous pile bunker on his arm. That thing looked like it could pierce a cargo ship’s hull, so he figured it ought to ‘fix’ the Keeper just fine. Goldlewis pulled away to give Geralt the chance, his ears covered, and with a guttural cry the Witcher punched the harpoon in and let it rip.
WHAM!
In a burst of murky viscera the safe went flying, parted cleanly from its shoulders. It hurtled down the hall and hit the ground, clanging noisily as it rolled and bounced. The body of the Keeper quickly and unceremoniously faded out, and the battlefield became eerily silent.
Goldlewis let out a heavy sigh. So, their opponent didn’t take real damage until knocked down, but it was open season once they cracked that safe. He wanted to be happy that he and Geralt cracked the case, but the veteran had a sinking feeling. “Y’know, as rough as that was, I reckon it was still too easy.”
As if in reply, a static sound resounded through the hollow. For the second time, reality seemed to shift, overtaken by a sepia tone as movements began to blur and skip. Behind the two Seekers, next to the burst blood vessel they came from, the second safe began to rise. When Goldlewis looked back down the hallway, he saw the first safe doing the same. When the anomaly subsided, the men were faced by two Keepers, one in front and one behind.
Goldlewis shook his head in curt disappointment, then held out his hand. “UMA!” His coffin cracked open, and a long, slender, cosmic arm reached out. Once it grabbed him, it used him as leverage to slide the coffin over, then retreated inside as Goldlewis lifted it up. “Looks like we got ourselves another round, partner.”
The Keepers clanged their hammers against their safes and advanced on the Seekers with wet, plodding steps.
“Had to open your mouth.” Geralt joked, rolling his shoulders. “No point crowding each other out. Just call out if we need a hand, I suppose.” He advised, stepping forward to meet the Keeper that had just emerged. He had little to no experience with the kind of weapon he found himself with in this new Identity, but that explosive attack it had launched just moments ago was hard to pass up against an enemy like this. The only problem he'd have until it was downed was its pitiful range, but that could be worked around with other abilities he had.
True to form, he unleashed a quick Demon Fang, the energy racing along the ground and ineffectually crashing into the advancing Keeper. As it advanced, Geralt drew the Sign of Yrden in the air, creating its Area Trap to slow the Keeper if it trudged forward mindlessly.
It did, though the slowing effect was not quite as great as Geralt expected it to be, causing the Witcher to curse quietly and run in, stabbing the pile bunker at the Keeper with a weak attack before stepping back out of the way of a sluggish counter-attack. It had taken a few moments to prime before, and that whistling sound he remembered gave a vague idea that keeping it in that state for long would end poorly. The Keeper paused inside the slowing field, drawing a pair of discs as if from nowhere and throwing them onto the ground, almost in the center of the room. From their shape and the way they settled quite firmly on the ground, Geralt could tell they were not grenades, but what they were he wasn't quite sure. “Some kind of trap, watch your step.” he called out to Goldlewis.
At the same time, Goldlewis made the most of the greater distance between himself and the revived first Keeper. With his Security Level at max, he whipped out his Skyfish minigun to rattle off a barrage of fifty-one 7.62×51mm NATO rounds at a low angle. While their damage was negligible, the Keeper couldn’t armor through them at this range, so he assumed a guard posture to block the barrage. Goldlewis could practically see his foe’s RISC building up, ensuring that once he finally did break through the Keeper’s defense, the payoff would be sweet. Unfortunately he couldn’t rinse and repeat this little trick, since the UMA needed time to refill the gun’s ammo and any more salvos from Skyfish would be anemic until it did. As he relinquished the gun into the cryptid’s care, however, Goldlewis had an idea. Even if Geralt was focused on the other Keeper, the veteran wasn’t completely alone in this fight.
“Marduk!” he barked, which manifested an old soldier with long white hair and an even longer cannon. “Blow ‘em straight to hell!” His striker obeyed in silence, calling in a drone that zipped down the hall to conduct an area bombardment. The Keeper swatted at the drone as it buzzed overhead, only noticing the grenades bouncing around the tight space when they began to detonate. Then he vanished in an uproarious clusterbomb of pure physical force, compounded by the corridor’s confines. The destruction not only demolished the basement walls but took chunks out of the Qliphoth flesh beyond it. By the time the fireworks died down and the smoke started to clear, Goldlewis could see an open area almost as big as the room he and Geralt stood in–as well as the Keeper, still standing amidst all the rubble.
“Tsk.” Made aware of the other Keeper’s traps by Geralt despite his ringing ears, Goldlewis decided to leave the area and take the fight to his opponent before he could back into a concertina bomb. He shouldered his coffin and marched forward once more, but not before firing off Kamael’s Circle of Life to soften his Keeper up.
Geralt watched the traps that the Keeper had thrown down for another moment, before following Goldlewis's lead and putting some distance between himself and them. The Keeper wasn't bothered by that at all, still trudging on silently, so Geralt kept it between him and the traps, while making some room transform again.
This time, he chose the Ardor Blossom Identity. While the extra size wasn't necessarily ideal in these cramped quarters, he needed a big hit to put this thing in a more vulnerable state. Other than the Molar Boatworks Fixer Identity he'd just unlocked, he was somewhat lacking in that front compared to the others. His Strikers were also more on the side of harassment or dealing many lighter hits, with the exception of the Judicator, itself more of a supporting summon than a damage-dealer.
Geralt didn't have much difficulty running circles around the Keeper, flinging fireballs every second or so to keep it burning and slowly charging his larger attack. After a few cycles of dodging around mallet and bludgeon swipes, the Keeper seemed to grow agitated, and it turned its gaze on Goldlewis, much to the Witcher's consternation.
“Oh no you don't.” He growled as the undaunted butcher turned its back on him, charging into it and slashing its back with his claws, only to receive a backhanded swing of the bloody sack to the arm as the Keeper continued forward.
Another fireball proved the final blow necessary to charge Ground Shaker, and Geralt stomped the floor to unleash the barrage of dark energy explosions. The hallway had already been blown open by Goldlewis's Striker, but the Keeper had no room to escape, the explosions softening it up further. Returning to his original state, Geralt tore free the Hateful Flesh again and charged, slamming it into his Keeper and finally getting its attention again.
In the meantime, Goldlewis had been fighting with uncharacteristic patience, finally lending a little credence to his title ‘Secretary of Absolute Defense's. The extra footwork he'd picked up from his Jack-8 fusion helped him play the distance game with the pirate Keeper, peppering him with weaker body shots to keep his RISC topped up until a bigger blow from his coffin could crank it higher. This was a battle of attrition, and busting through the Keeper’s guard without succumbing to his wounds was the veteran’s win condition. His foe fought with ruthless aggression, pausing only to throw down concertina bombs and restrict the field of play.
So focused was Goldlewis that he did not notice the second keeper poised to sucker punch him until Geralt’s Ground Shaker rocked the hollow. It not only forced the second Keeper’s hand, but also demolished much of what remained of the swallowed building. Rubble and ruin rained down around Seekers and Keepers alike. Forcing Goldlewis to take cover beneath his Wall of Light. It took a few moments for the collapse to stop and the dust to begin to clear, revealing a cavernous Qliphoth hollow piled high with debris. With no protection against the limestone downpour, the Keepers had been pounded. They clambered from the wreckage dazedly, dogged to the last.
Goldlewis glanced at Geralt to make sure the Witcher was okay. “Still kickin’ there, hoss? Good!” He allowed himself a smirk as he lifted his coffin. “Let's kick some ass.”
Geralt nodded, brushing off some dust and debris. He'd sheltered beneath a Quen bubble shield, safe from the worst of the collapse. The Keepers had to be on the verge of falling, so Geralt kept up the offensive, hurling the blade forward to slash at the Keeper he'd been fighting. It took the blow head-on without so much as a grunt, and Geralt retracted the weapon to parry a hammer blow as it reached him and attacked. He couldn't stop the follow-up swing from the bloodied sack flail that crashed into his torso, but Geralt got his own hit in with a heavy slash to the Keeper's arm before he stepped back to make some room.
The Keeper abandoned the slow, menacing pace it had maintained for much of the fight, lowering its shoulder and rushing in for a tackle. Not held back by heavy riot gear or a pneumatic tank, though, Geralt was quick to dodge the charge and capitalized on the opening, slamming the Hateful Flesh onto its back with a hearty overhead swing, finally downing this Keeper again. He used the time to transform back into the Molar Boatworks Identity, and circled around to the Keeper's front, priming the pile bunker. Staring down into the open safe, Geralt sighed. Just another monster. He thrust the weapon forward into the vulnerable flesh, and with a rush of air as the mechanism activated, the harpoon crashed into the Keeper's vulnerable flesh, piercing it and dealing massive damage. To seal the deal, Geralt cast Igni and focused the flames into a concentrated jet of fire, scorching the safe and the flesh inside until it melted and bubbled. As the flames abated, the Keeper slumped to the floor, dissolving into ash. Geralt scooped the remaining Spirit up and turned to watch Goldlewis defeating his own foe.
After one final staredown with the dial on his own Keeper’s safe, Goldlewis broke out into a run. He thundered forward a half-dozen steps, and his opponent responded in kind, his bloodlust undiminished. With the demolition of the consumed cellar, though, Goldlewis could do something new: take to the air. He used a fallen slab as a springboard to leap a solid six feet into the air, then airdashed off an orange glyph of magic. Having never fought an aerial opponent before, the Keeper stopped short to steel himself, but he could never have anticipated what happened next. The veteran’s momentum carried him forward with a Behemoth Typhoon that clanged loudly off the Keeper’s safe, but his coffin didn’t stop there; it whirled around and slammed down again, and again. In a ridiculous display of power, Goldlewis used his fully-stocked Security Levels to launch three Behemoth Typhoons back to back, each impact bouncing him back up off his target. Blocking made no difference, and after the third crushing blow the Keeper dropped to his knees. His safe burst open in a spray of gunk, and the next second Goldlewis touched back down.
He cracked his neck to one side, then the other. Then he seized his coffin, muscles and neck-veins bulging. “DOWN THEEEEEEEEE!” With plenty of time to spare, he put everything he had into his mighty coffin uppercut “SYSTEEEEEEEEEEEEEM!” The immense impact launched the Keeper up into the air, and from inside the coffin three Thunderbird drones whirred forth to chase down and blow up on the butcher mid-air. The ensuing explosion lit up the hollow, and only soot rained down with the spirit.
“...Huuuuuh!” As his coffin fell Goldlewis doubled over, breathing heavily. “Gah-lee. Mighta gone overboard there. That sumbitch was sure askin’ for it, though. Tougher’n a two-dollar steak.” He shook his head, then straightened up and smoothed back his pompadour. “Those headbutts still got me woozy. Not my brightest idea…guess that ain’t what they mean when they say ‘use your head’.”
“Perhaps not.” The Witcher agreed, shaking his head. “Must’ve taken it by surprise, at least. Still, that’s dealt with now. Let’s find a way out of here.”
Before the two could move on, though, Geralt’s vision darkened as the world around him seemed to slow to a crawl. Before him appeared a trio of ethereal cards, each with an image and words upon them. Geralt found that he couldn’t quite pull his attention from them, and read the descriptions of each, eventually reaching towards the one with a broken shield on it. With his proclivity for using Quen, it’d be a major upgrade to his capabilities in combat.
At the same time, Goldlewis received a choice as well. Though initially alarmed by the change in his surroundings and the bizarre manifestation before him, he managed to keep his cool. Once convinced he wasn’t under attack, he read over the cards before him. Volcanic Flourish…Battle Nature…Hypereutectoid??? If these blessings were meant to be taken, he supposed that he’d have to choose. As tempting as the more selfish options were, the last one reminded him that he hadn’t been taking advantage of the shielding capabilities he received from Hank. If doing so would strengthen himself and his allies as well, he’d be incentivized to start.
Thunder Screen- when your shield, stance, or armor breaks, all enemies within 12m are blasted with lightning
Interstellar Construct: Hypereutectoid - when providing shields to an ally, increase their DMG and yours by by 20%, stacking up to 5 times, lasting for 10 seconds
Once the Seekers chose, everything returned to normal–or as normal as things could be within the Qliphoth, anyway. With the inexplicable rewards over with, it was definitely time to move on. Returning to his natural form, Geralt made his way down the hallway they’d destroyed, searching for another vein through which to escape. With the walls of the hollow now exposed they quickly found a suitable and accessible bloodstream. After another moment to compose themselves, the two forced their way in and were borne upward through the Qliphoth once more.
The Qliphoth Lvl 14 Geralt (63/140) -> Lvl 14 (66/140) (+2 pending) Lvl 8 Zenkichi (37/80) -> (40/80) Lvl 3 Edelgard (24/30) -> (27/30) Word count: 1,388 words
Geralt, winged in his Ardor Blossom identity, hurled a group of charged-up fireballs into the Floodfested swarm. Maggots and infection forms burst in the flames, while larger enemies caught fire, giving Geralt plenty of opportunity to spread the damage around to the weaker enemies and deal some semi-passive hits to the more powerful ones. A charger came running for him, sensing his vulnerability in the unarmored Identity, only to crash head-first into Edelgard’s shield.
”Back, beast!” She shouted, pushing the Infested away with her towering shield for Geralt to retaliate with a few fireballs. A beam from Ragnell destroyed a walker that was approaching, as Zenkichi leapt into the melee to clear out a group of the low-level swarm. Edelgard slammed Aymr into the burning charger, stepping back to allow Geralt to follow-up.
The transformed Witcher felt the power of Barbatos ready to be activated, and stomped the floor with the destructive intent of the Dark Dragon. Explosions of dark energy burst forward from his position, destroying walkers, infection forms, and some weaker combat forms with ease, and staggering the larger Flood and Infested that it struck. “Let’s wipe them up!” He called, and Zenkichi nodded as Valjean appeared behind him.
”Megido!” He cried to his Inner Self, as Valjean unleashed the explosive balls of Almighty energy into the swarm, finishing off anything that had been hit by Geralt’s Ground Shaker and survived. Edelgard let out a heavy breath before the empty space in the swarm was filled once more by Flood and Infested, this time led by a Tank form Flood. ”Oh man, there’s just no end to these guys!” Zenkichi groaned as he swung Ragnell, a beam of energy launching out to obliterate a combat form that had started to charge ahead.
“Don’t expect things to go easy. Cover me, five seconds!” Geralt shouted, stepping back and transforming into his normal Identity. He drew his flame katana and began focusing a Holy Lance, while Edelgard and Zenkichi stepped in front to provide cover. A ranged form started to fire on them, but Zenkichi dismissed his holy blade to draw his revolvers, firing back at the Flood form. He was trying to conserve his energy, given that this was only the start of what they’d have to deal with.
Edelgard, for her part, was providing a wall against the charging chaff, though once the Tank form reached their line, her attention immediately turned to it. The hulking abomination slammed its trunk-like arm into Edelgard’s shield, the sheer force of the blow sending her staggering. ”What power!” She cried in alarm, as Zenkichi’s revolvers clicked dry. He turned on a dime, dismissing his revolver and summoning the massive Greatsword that Sandalphon had purchased for him. He hefted the blade to shield himself and Geralt from the range form’s attacks, stepping back to better cover the Witcher.
“Get clear! Holy Lance!” Geralt shouted as the spell triggered, lances of holy energy slamming into the tank form and dealing significant amount of damage to it. When the Flood still stood after the final lance had dissipated, however, Geralt sighed as it turned its gaze upon him. “Fuck.” He uttered as it charged, forcing him to leap out of the way. Quen had lapsed, and Geralt had focused on using spells and offensive Signs for much of the battle, relying on Sandalphon’s healing and his armor for protection from harm. If that thing hit him, though, it might just break a bone and damn him. “Zenkichi, deal with this thing, I’ll handle the spine thrower!” He cried, earning a grunt from the detective.
”Fine, but you two keep those chumps off my back!” He replied, Geralt putting away his katana and drawing Odysseus’s bow. Edelgard rushed forward into the melee, Aymr carving through enemies one by one, while the Witcher started firing arrows at the ranged form, each fourth hit triggering a spreading chain of electricity.
Zenkichi, for his part, had swapped the Greatsword for Ragnell, and was slashing at the tank form. The lumbering hulk was slow but powerful, which gave Zenkichi plenty of time to dodge its hits, though their clash lasted longer than Zenkichi would have liked so far. As he came in again for an overhead, the tank roared and bounded forward, catching him off-guard and shoulder-checking the detective, sending him crashing to the ground as it trampled over him.
The detective groaned as he staggered to his feet, while Edelgard was being swarmed by walkers, combat forms, infection forms, and maggots. Sandalphon’s cleanses were keeping her from being infested, and each blow returned some of the damage she’d taken thanks to her Crests, but she was prime target for a larger, more dangerous enemy.
The appearance of the Flood Abomination heralded the beginning of the end for this battle, as the tank form broke off from fighting Zenkichi and instead charged Edelgard, overwhelmed as she was becoming. Ranged forms kept Geralt’s attention, more setting up to fire every time one fell, and Zenkichi had to fight to be heard over the battle. ”Edelgard, big guy heading your way!”
”I’m- ah! A bit occupied at the moment!” She complained, beating back Infested and Flood alike, as the tank grew closer and closer still. Zenkichi tried to regain its attention with blasts from Ragnell. The desperate move failed, and when it reached Edelgard, it slammed both of its massive arms on her, crushing her beneath its bulk and destroying the weaker Flood and Infested around her as well.
The Hateful Flesh, attached to Geralt, carved into the tank’s back, and it slapped its arm to knock him away. He landed on his feet, though he had to catch his balance, and sighing, he summoned the Judicator to provide healing. With its defenses, he shouldn’t be in too much trouble of bleedthrough damage, but he certainly felt the spikes from the ranged forms slowly chipping away at it, even as the abomination restored the vitality of him and his allies nearby.
When Sandalphon announced their getaway, Edelgard began to grow frustrated. How was she meant to escape this? The tank form grabbed her from her position on the ground, even as Geralt and Zenkichi attacked its rear. It was single-minded in its disdain for her, but eventually the men struck true. Edelgard fell to her feet as the final healing wave of the Judicator washed over her and the Striker dispelled. ”Thank you. We must leave at once!” True to her own words, Edelgard broke for the veins that Sandalphon had pointed out, bashing aside foes with her shield.
”Got you covered.” Zenkichi said simply, granting Edelgard a speed boost with Sukukaja, before he and Geralt likewise broke into runs, knocking aside and slaying anything that stood in their collective way to freedom. As maggots, infection forms, and other members of the floodfestation burst beneath their feet and fell to their blades, the group charged to the edge of the battle and carved their way into the vein-like structures before climbing in and being sent upwards.
When Edelgard emerged from the Qliphoth’s vein, it was into another infested room, though this one had a very large, and immediately apparent problem: A very large zombie with bizarre clothing and even more bizarre hair. ”Of course we’ve been saddled with such a disgusting enemy to fight. It is only fitting for such a place. She complained disdainfully, hefting Aymr and preparing for battle.
Zenkichi found himself in a battlefield, with demons, undead, and all sorts of the same kinds of Flood and Infested monsters that they’d already fought duking it out, but among all the things fighting, one stood out: a gelatinous monstrosity wandering the battlefield, absorbing demons and floodfested alike into its being. ”Okay, now that’s just disgusting.” He balked, summoning Ragnell. ”Guess we gotta fight our way out.
Geralt, meanwhile, found himself with Goldlewis in a cramped, maze-like section of the tree. “Ugh. Well, at least we’re out of that chaos.” He muttered, taking note of the strange safe on the ground. “Guess we ought to find a way further inside and reach the others.” As the pair turned their gazes onto the emerging Keeper, Geralt rolled his eyes and cast the Sign of Quen before summoning Tartaglia’s Hydro Twinblade and marching forward at Goldlewis’s back.
The Qliphoth Lvl 14 Geralt (61/140) -> Lvl 14 (63/140) (+2 pending) Lvl 8 Zenkichi (35/80) -> (37/80) Lvl 3 Edelgard (22/30) -> (24/30) Word count: 815 words
As the Seekers gathered in front of the Qliphoth and caught their breath, Geralt pulled out the Spirits of the Gargoyles he’d slain over the ravine and crushed them, not wanting to lose track of their spoils.
You have obtained:
Stone Blocks x64 A 'stack' of stone blocks. It weighs nothing in-hand, but if a placing motion is made with it, a 2-foot cube of solid stone will pop into existence at that spot, as long as there's space that doesn't overlap with any solid object. These blocks are a lot less durable than normal rock but they can only be broken in their entirety, and once placed they cannot be retrieved. However, they CAN be used in certain recipes.
Stoneskin Ring Adornment of the grotesque statues found in the labyrinth known as the godmaze. Wearing it provides a noticeable boost to Break Power, increasing the stagger/posture/poise/toughness damage dealt by the wearer to foes, bringing them to a broken state faster. If worn with the Stoneskin Bracer and Amulet, the Break Power is boosted by a further 5% each.
Voidborne Gemstone A crystal formed by accumulated minerals within the gut of a fell creature. Wearing it provides a noticeable boost to the damage inflicted by critical hits.
Ammo Pickup A universal ammo pickup that will change into multiple spare magazines for whatever weapon it's exposed to. Somehow
He put on the ring and stowed the other items away for later use. He could likely use them in that smelter if they didn’t prove to have any downsides like the Bleed amulet he was still wearing did.
Having not seen Sandalphon during his escape from the Catcher, Zenkichi was hit with a wave of relief when she reappeared in a beam of light. ”Welcome back.” It was a simple greeting, but it came with a warm smile and a genuine breath of the relief he felt.
He, Geralt or Edelgard, hadn’t quite expected her to spin up her gunstaff and open fire on the Qliphoth after a few moments of consideration, but her decisiveness had a point all its own. Geralt drew forth the hateful Flesh and began carving away at the flesh of the undead tree. Zenkichi summoned the Greatsword, relying on its massive size to carve out great furrows into the Qliphoth’s flesh. Edelgard pulled Aymr from its hammerspace and joined them, hacking and slashing at the demon tree.
With the effort of so many Seekers, the demon tree quickly gave way and opened a path for them to enter through, and they all hurried in to witness the horrific scene that lay within. Rooms, a veritable dungeon even, of twisted flesh. Worse than that, however, was the infection that was clearly starting to gain ground. The Qliphoth’s defenders were putting up an effort, but against the veritable flood that was the Flood, they stood little chance.
As everybody began to engage, Juri took a moment to mock Edelgard. The Flame Emperor simply regarded the thuggish woman with a flat, disdainful visage and retorted, ”I believe you will find there is little I am more suited for. as she made her way into battle. She was in her element here, a mighty glacier that fell upon lesser enemies as a harbinger of death. Each Flood infection form that charged her was crushed by either boot or Aymr, each combat form that crashed into her fell like wheat before a scythe. Edelgard was a force of nature as she knocked over one Flood with her shield while her axe tore another to pieces.
When needles began to crash into her form, she grunted from the impact of the ranged form’s spike against her armor, raising her shield to block the volley that followed. Geralt noticed her predicament as infection forms began to swarm in an attempt to overwhelm the armored threat, and leapt to her defense, Monsoon’s flaming katana burning through the infernal creatures with each swing. “Zenkichi! Need some range here!” he called out, pressing his back against the Flame Emperor’s. “Keep that thing from taking my head off, and I’ll keep the little ones off your back.” He added.
Zenkichi, meanwhile, was having the time of his life. Tearing his way through small fry like these was his bread and butter, and Ragnell was making it even easier with the defense buff it provided. If something tried to break and run, or regroup for a better vantage point, he could launch an explosive blast at it and take it out from a short distance away. When Geralt called for some range support though, he understood the assignment immediately. Cutting down an Infested that got a little too close for comfort, Zenkichi backed up and called for Valjean to provide some artillery support. ”One-Shot Kill!” He cried as a massive bullet blasted forth from his Persona, obliterating the Flood ranged form with a single hit and freeing Edelgard from its barrage. Geralt immediately broke off her back, unleashing a blast from Igni and igniting a few Infested that were coming his way.
Edelgard returned to her onslaught, throwing in a few fireballs for good measure. Feeling a well of power returning to her, she called upon a new old spell that admittedly was hardly her most-used.
Nosferatu (Flame Emperor)- Edelgard can now cast the more advanced spell Nosferatu. It is an offensive spell that deals weak holy damage, while healing the user for half the damage dealt to the enemy. Can be cast 12 times per combat.
A bright yellow sigil appeared in front of Edelgard, moments before an explosion of light appeared in the space of an Infested runner and destroyed it, returning half the damage dealt as healing. She hadn’t taken much damage from the assorted enemies, but they’d done bits of chip here and there.
Geralt, for his part, was cutting down enemies aplenty with Monsoon’s fire katana while trying to make heads or tails of this place. The Guardian would either be further up or deeper inside the Qliphoth, but good luck finding a remotely straightforward path in either direction. For now, he’d keep an eye out as he blasted infected with Aard, called down Eldritch Lightning to take out swarms, and swapped Identities to deal with various kinds of foes.
The Dead Zone Lvl 14 Geralt (58/140) -> Lvl 14 (61/140) (+2 pending) Lvl 8 Zenkichi (29/80) +3 Collab XP -> (35/80) Lvl 3 Edelgard (15/30) +4 Collab XP -> (22/30) (+1 pending) Word count: 1,545 words
It wasn’t long after passing the north edge of the ravine, once the combat had ended, that Zenkichi, Sandalphon, Primrose, and Therion emerged from it, a little rattled but otherwise fine. Geralt gave them an appraising nod, one which Zenkichi returned as their formation reassembled to its previous state. Unfortunately, their peace was so short-lived as to be a joke.
Baby Mario, the BB that Edward was carrying, began to cry, then wail incessantly, as the baby it was. It struck Geralt as odd, fortuitous, and simultaneously baffling that these infants were apparently just that: infants. As everybody began breaking into a shouting contest, Geralt turned his direction outward, as splashes of tar began to burst up from black handprints. “They’re coming, we need to-”
He was cut off as Grimm broke and ran, a moment later a massive pit of tar opened beneath the collected Seekers. “Fuck, move!” He pivoted, his own stride barely hampered by the BTs, each forceful yank enough to dislodge the spectral attackers. Edelgard and Zenkichi were not quite so fortunate, the former becoming quickly bogged down and forcing the Witcher to turn back. “Hang on!” He called, running through the sludge to try and reach her before it was too late.
Edelgard was one of those who found herself pulled away by BTs. Geralt, despite his speed and strength, failed to reach her in time, and she found herself being dragged through the tar as if she were tied to a horse at full gallop. All in all, she hadn’t gone terribly far by the time she released, and around her the landscape began to shift as buildings long-destroyed reasserted their presence in this land, rising from the ground like weeds before entering a sort of semi-buoyant floating. ”How…odd.” Edelgard couldn’t help the thought that slipped out.
Zenkichi, meanwhile, was desperately trying to escape. In his panic, he tried to follow Sandalphon, but the Archangel was practical as ever, and was using her special abilities to escape. He opened his mouth to call for Valjean, but was rocked by the feeling of something grabbing him. Fighting back, Zenkichi trudged towards the edge of the tarpool, but it was no use. His old, cold, body was still recovering from the massive adrenaline dump he’d received earlier, and Zenkichi was dragged off.
Geralt had no such problem. His Guardian-infused body had been utterly untouched by the SFE, and though he attempted to help Edelgard at first, once she was taken, he broke and followed in Grimm’s footsteps. Each paltry attempt by the BTs to grab him was thwarted by a thunderous kick, which pushed off their semi-corporeal form. How exactly that worked he had no idea, but soon Geralt found himself at the edge of the initial tarpool, his personal shield flickering in the rain. He had barely taken a few steps when the pool expanded further, once more surrounding him, though this time nothing grabbed for him.
No, Geralt heard the Catcher before he saw it, and when he did, his eyes widened in fear. Were this a mere beast, he thought he could slay it. Fiends were massive, and he’d killed his fair share in his time. He’d slayed many beasts. No, his fear was not of that nature. He knew, instinctually, that this was the harbinger of the Seekers’ destruction. Zenkichi, though he was not near Geralt, felt a similar feeling of dread. He cast his gaze about the arena they’d found themselves in, before forcing himself to ascend onto one of the half-floating buildings and calling out.
”Primrose! Just like on the mountain!” He shouted at the Dancer, who was not too far, though hardly right on top of him. He jumped down, stumbling as he landed, and jogged her way before calling on Valjean. ”Sukukaja!” As Primrose activated Sealticge’s Seduction, Sukukaja spread to every Seeker, giving them a boost to their overall agility.
To Edelgard, this was a lifesaver, and the Emperor made no attempt to make a heroic stand. Sandalphon was clear: if anybody was caught by these things, it was the end for the Seekers, one and all. And she was not going to be the cause of that. So, keeping an eye out for the Catcher as she ran through and around the buildings that were protruding through the tar, Edelgard made her mad dash to the Qliphoth.
Zenkichi, for his own part, kept close to Primrose. He could keep their speed up with Sukukaja, though if the group wasn’t safe by the end of the spell’s minute-long duration, their personal shields would be down anyway, making their death just a matter of time. He shook off the thought as the Catcher charged around, hunting down Seekers and attacking them.
Midna’s daring distraction had given them all time to start moving, and Geralt, his speed boosted to comical levels by Sukukaja, ran straight into the action. When Midna called for somebody else to distract the Catcher, Geralt answered, Quen shimmering around him, but crashing into the monster head-on with the Hateful Flesh. “Get out of here, all of you!” He called, effortlessly dodging a claw swipe from the oversized monster. “I can keep it busy!” He noticed the lack of reaction to the Hateful Flesh, but tried again to attack, throwing a clump of explosive tissue at the creature, only for the Catcher to thoroughly ignore the explosion and pounce at Geralt, forcing him to throw himself out of the way. Tar and mud splashed up over him, and he forced himself to his feet before the BT could recover.
“Come on, beast! You and me!” He taunted, running at the Catcher before dancing aside as it charged straight on, its mask opened wide to try and catch him within. He dragged the hateful Flesh up and along its flank, again to no effect. “Fuck.” This thing wasn’t tough, it was invincible. Even to a weapon from a Guardian, that could hurt the Chimeras? Just what were these monsters?
That was irrelevant, loathe as Geralt was to admit. He found himself being flung through the air, crashing into a ruined building after being struck by a powerful blow from the Catcher’s tail swipe. Quen was gone, and his personal bubble shield had lost a good chunk of its power from the blow. It wouldn’t last much longer, and from that point it was up to his jacket to keep him safe from the timefall.
Pushing himself out of his miniature crater, Geralt cursed as the Catcher quickly filled his vision, having decided his stunned form was an easy meal. A fair decision, Geralt thought, though he imagined it was rather surprising when a single leap carried the Witcher a good twenty feet away, rolling to his feet and sprinting faster than any typical human could have even thought of moving. Still, with four legs and a significant size advantage, the Catcher BT made a damn fine effort in catching up, and Geralt had to jump onto a building to break line of sight for a moment. His shield was flickering, there was no more room for games. Hopefully he’d bought enough time for the others. If not…
Well, it wouldn’t be a problem for this him to deal with, sad as it was to admit. Hopefully, the next Geralt would find Ciri and Yen. That morbid thought on his mind, Geralt ran towards the Qliphoth, leaving the Catcher to hunt the others.
Edelgard found herself just barely crossing the edge of the tarpool as Sukukaja wore off, her personal shield having faded moments before. She pulled the hood of her jacket closed tight, hunching her shoulders and covering the burns in the coat to protect herself from the deadly rain, even as she ran as fast as her legs would carry her in the Qliphoth’s direction. She felt no remorse for abandoning the others to their fates, even as she heard Geralt’s calls for them to flee. She would have been no help to them. No, it was not remorse that Edelgard felt. It was frustration at her uselessness in this damnable place. Hopefully fighting the Guardian within the massive tree would assuage those worries.
Zenkichi’s own escape route had ended up keeping him somewhat near Primrose, though he also kept an eye out for Sandalphon as he made his egress. Seeing Geralt moving under the effects of Sukukaja was quite funny, given that the man already boasted inhuman speed. It was like watching Usain Bolt in fast forward, the way the Witcher flew across the landscape.
As the three closed in on the Seekers’ destination, each had lost the protection of their personal shield. The pieces of Edelgard’s armor that showed through the jacket had spots of rust, though the worst-case scenario had been avoided thanks to her protective posture. Zenkichi was in near-perfect condition, while Geralt’s face had splotches of discolored flesh, and the Witcher had a sour look on his face, a spot on his chin having hair that looked months old while the rest had a light covering of white beard.
“There is, in fact, such a thing as running too fast.” He simply grumbled to Zenkichi, earning a guffaw from the detective and a tittering laugh from Edelgard.
The Dead Zone Lvl 14 Geralt (57/140) -> Lvl 14 (58/140) (+2 pending) Word count: 569 words
With Edelgard out of harm’s way and no time to lose, the group continued to advance into the crater after the close call. As the group shifted around the ruins to avoid the large pits of quicksand, Geralt kept a careful eye out for anything around. He, of course, couldn’t detect the BTs, though, so he wound up having to focus instead on the BB carriers. Edward, Goldlewis, Primrose, and Roland. He knew Goldlewis the best, and Edward not at all, so his eyes tended to drift mostly towards the Former Secretary, though Roland on the same side caught his attention as well. As long as nothing corporeal intervened, Geralt would just need to keep quiet and he’d be fine.
As the group pivoted around the quicksand pits, Geralt gave Ace some room to move, which proved wise when he felt himself slowly sliding downwards, though he had little trouble extricating himself, owing to the Orphan’s monstrous strength. Grimm’s jaunt up into a set of ruins above was only barely noticed, short-lived as it was, and after not very long at all Geralt and the others found themselves above a ravine with a river of lava at the bottom. “Damn.” He sighed, pulling himself from the ravine’s edge as Sectonia summoned a platform for the group to use. He noticed Ace’s hesitance, but chalked it up to the rain, the effects of the SFE itself, the size of the group compared to the size of the platform, and the pressure that was on him. He had no idea about the monster hunter’s distaste for magic.
Of course, as the group began their crossing atop the magical platforms, Ace’s scoutflies became agitated and glowed red to warn them of danger just as demons began to appear. “Of course.” Geralt rolled his eyes as he cast Quen before drawing Odysseus’s Bow and nocking an arrow. Ace was quicker on the draw, however, Geralt’s Sign-casting giving the monster hunter the edge in draw speed necessary to defeat the lone demon easily.
That state of things didn’t last forever, though, as more demons began ascending, in multiple varieties, and Geralt hopped and dodged about, firing arrows at any he could see, softening up for allies or finishing them off. Though the platforms weren’t overly large, the group still had plenty of room to fight with.
When some Gargoyles came in close, Geralt summoned the Hydro Twinblade and became a flurry of attacks, moving between them in a flurry of blows that left them all wet, which he detonated with an Igni blast, Vaporizing the entire group and turning most of them to ash. He quickly finished off the remaining Gargoyle with his Twinblade, collecting the fallen Spirits of the demons to be crushed once they were free of the rain and battle.
Once the tide of demons finally stopped, Geralt joined the others in recuperating. It seemed that Edelgard took some nasty hits from the magic blows the demons were using, and once she and Edward had put some healing into her, he offered a First Aid of his own, though it seemed the slime from the Viral Rifle had taken care of what their suppressed magic had not. Once they had all come free of the ravine, Geralt returned to his orbit of Ace, though for the time being he watched their rear to make sure no more demons attacked from behind.
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