Yankee

Introduction | Local Fish Arrival

Welcome, welcome! Don't be shy about being a beginner, just jump in and have fun!

Expedition to Isekai

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At dawn Masato stirred from sleep. It was the second day. His body felt stiff and his stomach felt empty. He had slept sitting up, legs and knees drawn to his chest with his arms folded on top and head pillowed in them. Like the two nights before he hadn't expected to fall asleep, too used to his insomnia keeping him up. His new power was draining something from him and forcing his body to rest if it couldn't eat. Last night he had actually wanted to sleep, at least.

After things had calmed down last night he'd taken stock of the camp. Maeda had carted Todokawa away at some point, but they were both still around. Two had left and hadn't come back yet. It was likely that they'd lose one more, permanently.

Kogen's parting words had haunted him in sleep. He'd gone to bed feeling helpless, angry, and miserable while replaying the events over in his head. Reading the book over and over again. He couldn't stop those types of thoughts this time, was too tired to push them out of his head. Upon waking the intense feelings of the night before had dulled, but they were still present. And there was a new feeling too, like he'd woken up before something had happened. An apprehensive feeling. Without fully unfolding himself Masato rubbed his eyes on his forearms to clear some of the drowsiness away. He let out a heavy sigh. His head hurt.

It didn't take him very long to get up and start the day. A mental checklist began to form. One, check with the night watch. Since they hadn't been violently woken up in the middle of the night he assumed there wasn't an attack, but he wanted to make sure they hadn't seen anything - like a stalking monster scoping them out from the forest or something.

Two, get breakfast started. Or make sure someone was getting it started, or else risk botching it. Three, check on Endo.

He knew what he would find before he made it to the hut the other boy had been housed in. There was a heavy atmosphere around the area. His ears picked up the sound of digging, the nostalgic kind like children looking for worms. It could only have been for a grave. Masato slowly processed the information. A burial, not cremation? No, no, it made sense... if they cremated Endo, what would they even keep his ashes in? A bento? Or else dump the ashes into a hole just like that?

Masato took a detour, finding Stewart a little ways from camp. Without a shovel or spade he was forced to use his hands. He was silent as he worked. Masato thought about helping him, but he didn't. He didn't know Endo well, and he suspected that Stewart didn't want company, especially from anyone besides a close friend. He could offer his condolences though.

But he didn't.

He left the boy to finish digging. Burying a body... it seemed like the right thing to do, but it could be dangerous. An animal could smell the corpse and dig it up if the grave was too shallow. A monster could. But it seemed like Stewart had gone pretty deep already, since the hole was already deeper than the basketball player was tall.

Masato had to get his shit together, step up and make sure things got done right, which meant being the asshole again - but for now Stewart was spared from any rude reminders. If he treated this... predicament like it was school, like he really was still their student council president, then it might be easier to compartmentalize.

Considering Endo just a corpse or body was easier until Masato saw him. Endo had been in some kind of coma before, but they could tell that he was alive. Now, though he looked just the same as last night, there was something vital missing from him. Masato had left Stewart to finish digging and poked his head into the shelter. He stared at the boy's face and was quiet for a few moments out of respect, and because he was trying to pull his thoughts into place.

"If we're not interrupted, we'll have a service," he said. Interrupted by weather, by monsters, by infighting... he didn't know what might happen, but hopefully nothing did. He gave Hoshino and Ohta a sympathetic look. Tried to, at least. He wasn't sure if he succeeded. Then he gave them some space.

Three-B, see if Takehara will help with that. His next stop was to find the girl and rouse her. As he moved, he filled out more of his mental checklist.

Four, hunting. He had been against it. But losing Kanamori... losing Kogen... the class now found itself lacking in both defensive and offensive power. Killing or driving out everything around his area sounded like a good idea now, to make it as safe as possible. Masato would be out hunting today no matter what. He wanted to be useful in a more concrete way, but even if he'd wanted to stay at camp that wasn't really an option. Their awakened numbers had dwindled, Stewart and Hoshino were drained from working all night, Todokawa was... like that. So it was left to either Inaba or himself, or both of them.

Inaba's facsimile would come in handy for it. It seemed to be useful for a lot of things. Masato lifted his hand, looked at his palm. Yesterday he hadn't been able to manifest Hoshino's threads. He doubted he'd be able to magically slice through things like Inaba either. He could still use his bare hands though. Channel some destructive force through them and whatever he managed to find in the woods.

The last items on his agenda were could wait for a while.

Five, find out what Hoshino knows. Last night the pink haired boy had made a surprising statement - and he had connected with Masato. In exchange for the information Hoshino had shared with him, what of Masato's had been shared with Hoshino? And when had he begun to call Hoshino by his first name? Masato didn't want to be suspicious of his fellow student councilman, but after seeing a fraction of Hoshino's past, it was possible that the threads had made Masato think better of his classmate, or consider him closer, whether intentionally or not.

Six, deal with Oros. Masato would have to connect with Maeda and find out what he'd learned. Because right now, Masato had no idea what to do about Todokawa. Based on what the blonde said, he'd make his decision.

For now though, he was still on item three. Takehara, then service, then hunting.

What Are You Listening To?

World of Light

Word Count: 1452 (+3 exp)
Level: 5 - Total EXP: 169/50
Location: Dystopiascape - Midgar, Suoh -> Visit to Split Mountain

Pit did his best to put the daycare out of his mind. Honestly, it was easier than expected to do so - when the four allies exited the elevator and saw Arahabaki for the first time, it flushed many stray thoughts from the angel's brain.

He had clearly underestimated what Midgar considered a giant computer. "Giant" didn't even begin to describe it... it was gigantic, colossal, ginormous! Definitely the largest computer in the universe. It was so big they were standing inside of it, or at least that was what it seemed like to Pit.

To Luka too, as the psychic voiced his thoughts. So it wasn't just Pit, they definitely were inside a ginormous computer! He looked down at himself, wondering if the elevator ride was actually some kind of secret shrinking machine.

"This is probably the only computer that actually does have little people in it. No wait, they'd be normal sized people here. Normally they run on electricity!" he told Midna. The same was true of this massive machine as well; the static hum and heat of it working said as much. He turned to Sakura, responding seriously, "definitely 64! Look at it! Maybe even more!"

Once the portal was set up, they all found themselves back at the base Goldlewis had procured for them. They were the first ones back as it turned out. After escaping the area around Vandelay that morning, the others they'd split up from probably checked into something else around the city, given there were problems and factions abound.

While they started to settle in, Luka made plain his gratefulness to the Seekers. As far as the angel was concerned though, Luka was already an official part of the team. Sakura let him know it. "Heheh... make yourself at home!" he added.

The Twilight Princess stepped out then to check on her other portals, and when she returned it was with the news that there was no news. And she seemed a little upset about it.

"I'm sure they're okay," Pit told her. "If they all stuck together, then they have two healers." He knew Blazermate was had been with the Seekers for pretty much all of their campaign, so she must be reliable. And though the other one was a much more recent addition, Halo (Should I go back to calling her... uh, was it Sandal...phon?) had already proven herself.

Anyway, he, Midna, Luka, and Sakura had time to kill while they waited for the others to return. Though turning in early after all the stress of the day sounded great, Pit probably wouldn't be able to get to sleep until at least hearing back from the others. So in the mean time he found a free spot and did some preening, combing his fingers through his feathers to clean and straighten them out. His wings were his lifeline in more ways than one, and this was a good way to assess the damage they'd taken too. Even small wounds felt way more painful on his wings than any other part of his body, so it was hard to tell how injured they were without actually looking. Thankfully, Roxas' earlier healing spell had pretty much taken care of him.

He glanced up when Midna suggested leaving the city. Right, they could just use her portals and go right in and out of Midgar, not just inside of it! Man, how handy!

"Oooh, I'll go!" he chirped, hopping up out of his seat.

In seconds the four of them were whisked through the Twilight Realm and to the peak of Split Mountain. Naturally it was chillier up here than in the heart of a megalopolis, but even has Pit pulled his wings in as a makeshift cloak around himself he noted it was way less cold than he'd expected the top of a mountain to be.

Pit breathed in deep, enjoying the crisp air. He gazed at the "split" that gave the place its name, then he promptly ran to the edge of the platform they were standing on. He leaned over the edge, checking out everything he could see below. It was pretty cool to see the aftermath of the Seekers' adventures that he hadn't been around for. There was some a cloud of cold a ways down the cliffside that prevented him from seeing too far. One of the Aurumtails came over to sniff at him, and he rubbed its head as his gaze drifted upward. Pit's eyes followed the flying colossus that Midna assured them was friendly for a little bit before he looked over the horizon instead.

"Do you think we could see Alcamoth from here?" he said, squinting at the various settlements that were visible. One could see a lot from up here, and if he remembered the vague map they'd been making, their home base was right on the other side of the desert. Midgar, of course, could hardly be missed due to its sheer size and the alien clouds that hung over it. All things considered, it wasn't too far away on the continent either. Maybe Alcamoth wasn't as close as he'd thought, since he couldn't see it.

The impromptu mountain trip turned out to be pretty nice. Pit was glad they'd come. After some more flitting around the area, checking out the space the guardian had been held, where the bell had fallen, and the cute little animals, he took a seat next to the others. With the sky all around them, it was sort of an easy conversation topic. Pit disagreed with Sakura here; he'd seen Galeem's overwhelming power first hand, and if so many powerful people could fall to it so quickly he thought it was definitely possible for it to gather every universe. Travel between said universes was already possible, to some extent, and it was far from the first multi-universal terror. It was just the most dangerous one.

He stared up at the sky and its celestial bodies with everyone else. They didn't capture his attention as much as the clouds that still hung up there, carrying settlements large enough that they could just be seen from where the Seekers were. Looking at them made Pit's chest ache, not with homesickness but something similar to it.

"I wonder what's on those islands," he pondered aloud, keeping his voice down as Sakura dozed off. The islands in the sky could be the highest points in the entire World of Light, since they floated far above even Split Mountain. He'd love to visit them, especially because...

"That one kind of looks like Skyworld," he said, grinning and pointing out one of the marble cities in the sky to Midna and Luka like they were cloud watching. He'd seen his Skyworld from the outside so many times, at many different angles, whenever he was swept up to return or save it. This island looked so similar to it. Palutena's Temple had such a distinctive silhouette, what with its giant statue of the goddess with her wings fully unfurled and staff held high in the air, and the island even had that too.

Wait.

"...that is Skyworld!" he exclaimed, leaping to his feet and pointing it out again. He'd probably knocked Sakura out of her nap, but he couldn't feel bad about that just then. All of the day's fatigue seemed to disappear, and the angel's eyes were shiny and wide.

"Wow, I can't believe it! Its so close... kind of!" The boy's wings had spread open, twitching like he wanted to fly right up there at that very moment. He did, he really did, but that wasn't possible. Lady Palutena! Lady Palutena! he thought, trying to make his thoughts as loud as possible so the Goddess of Light might just pick them up from here. Unfortunately, as was usual by now, there was no answer.

No matter, he could just visit and find Palutena himself! Pit whirled around to face the small group of friends, but with Midgar still just visible in the background behind them he was hit with reality. Under the Extinction Belt were the rest of the Seekers he'd come with, still fighting. There were still innocent people suffering and in danger. There was still an ongoing crisis in that city, one he'd promised to help stop. Pit's smile faltered for a moment. When it came back it was larger and a bit forced.

"I have to go there," he said, and then, "once we're done in Midgar can you take me back here, Midna? I'll find a way up."

He didn't know how, but he would. His duties came first. If Palutena was up there, she wouldn't have it any other way.

So I just post here, and...

Welcome to the guild! Not to worry, all skill levels are accepted here. I hope you enjoy your stay!

World of Light

Cage Match

Location: Mercy Dreams Fifth Layer
Jesse’s @Zoey Boey | Ganondorf’s @Double | Primrose and Therion’s @Yankee
Word Count: 4032 (+5 Exp)

As he struggled to navigate his way back to rejoin the Koopa Troop, Ganondorf instead happened across another curiosity. It appeared to be a cage at first, but closer inspection revealed it to be an elevator lift - albeit a somewhat oppressive looking one. Ganondorf reached up and activated his link pearl, ”I think I found a way further down.” he announced to the other Seekers, ”Some kind of elevator lift, shaped like a cage. I’m going to check it out.”

With this he cautiously stepped into the cage-like lift. When he did, the cage locked itself shut and began to make a descent. In fact it descended past the fourth layer and all the way down to the bottom layer of the prison, something the Gerudo King wasn’t expecting. At the bottom, the cage unlocked and allowed Ganondorf to exit from it. Whatever this layer was, to Ganondorf it looked an awful lot like a sewer, except with the usual archways caged off and the areas beyond them appearing to serve as prison cells. The floor appeared to be covered with a sickening green liquid that could very well have been sewage or something even worse, if it didn’t hiss and sputter like boiling oil. The thin stone walkway resembled a dock or footbridge of sorts.

”Lovely…” Ganondorf mused to himself, suddenly regretting having come down here.

“And so we meet again.” Jesse said, floating from up above, having hopped over the railing and floated on down after leaving the goblins to their fate. Her plan seemed to be working so she didn’t wanna risk fucking it up by doing anything more.

Jesse stood on the middle walkway, getting a look at the place. Including the mysterious bodies hooked up in chains. “Ah. Corpses suspended mid-air. Nostalgic.” Jesse joked darkly.

“Well, if there’s anything in this place, at this point it’s gotta be down here.” She began to jog forward.

The speech and movement drew attention Jesse and Ganondorf's way, though thankfully not from the hulking jailers that lurked about on this level. The vague feeling of being watched lasted only a moment before two allies revealed themselves.

"That's what we were thinking too," Primrose said. She'd since recovered from her run in with an illuminator on the layer above, so while her clothes had some small tears in them and her countenance was more severe than usual, she seemed fine in general. The same could be said for Therion, though his cat ears were low on his head and his tail was partly curled around his leg, expressing his discomfort with the prison.

"We haven't had a chance to search this level yet, seems like we got here only a little before you two."

In truth though, there wasn’t much to search. On this whole layer there seemed to be nothing other than this solitary bridge, stretching from one end of the huge acid pool all the way to the other. At either end stood a heavy metal door, much larger than any seen in Mercy Dreams so far, and judging by the suitably huge locks they were by far the most secure as well. Four hallways branched off from the open area, two at each end to form the Ɪ shape found on all of the prison’s layers, but there was way to reach them. Then again, each archway also featured a hefty contraption of chains and winches, either for raising and lowering hanging prisoners to dunk them in a deadly acid bath, or for raising more stone bridges from beneath the bog’s surface.

This layout meant there was nowhere for the newcomers to hide from the two abhorrent jailers, and already the malformed behemoths were on their way. Each one seemed to be a hideous conglomerate of corpse flesh, outfitted with a gaping mouth, crudely wrapped in the dressings of a berserker, and bloated into a pustule-ridden mass on one side. In addition to the cages fused with their rancid meat, which rattled with every step, they held in their functional arms additional cages to wield as weapons. One simply carried a giant cage, while the other bore three smaller ones on chains for use as a triple flail. Approaching from the cells they guarded at either end of the bridge, they closed in on the newcomers in a pincer maneuver, the bridge shaking beneath every plodding footfall.

Judging that she had time enough for one dance before the monstrosities got within range, Primrose went right into a performance with the macabre hall as her stage. Her steps were quick and fierce, and ending with one hand lifted up into the air and the other splayed out in front of her, palm pointed to her companions. "The Lion Dance," she said, bestowing increased attack power upon the four of them.

Though fully planning to run support against the zombies, Therion appreciated the buff nonetheless. He stuffed his hands under his poncho, and when he withdrew them one held magic-based crystal darts between his fingers while the other held regular throwing knives. He glanced between both jailers on either side of the narrow floor. It was exactly an advantageous battleground for them.

”The keepers of this section, I presume.” mused the Gerudo King, showing no fear nor any signs of intimidation in the face of these hulking abominations. Instead he stretched forth a hand and calmly summoned his Phantom self to serve as backup. Similar to Jesse, Phantom Ganon could float freely around the corridor and thus would not obstruct the path for Ganondorf nor any of the other Seekers present, ”Let’s give these… things an acid bath of their own.” he calmly said, now snapping his fingers in order to summon one of his Strikers - Blast Hornet. Just like Phantom Ganon, the Reploid could fly and thus stay clear of the walkway.

Phantom Ganon went to work, using his trident to hurl crackling orbs of dark energy at the jailer carrying the single large cage. Simultaneously, Blast Hornet used his Search Attack and locked onto the other jailer with a brief holographic crosshair before unleashing a trio of bee drones that would zone in on the target. Only then did the Gerudo King finally draw his twin greatswords. But he held off before attacking, deciding to wait and see which of his two summons were struggling the most to inform his decision on which jailer to attack.

Jesse settled her shoes on the stones below, eyeing the two jailors. While she could always get away, not everyone was so lucky. “If you wanna get over it for free,” Jesse said, summoning forth Uncle Sven to throw down an Elastic Ooze a short distance behind her. “Use the ooze and you can jump real high.” She explained to the Octopath Travelers.

"I'll take you up on that," Therion said. He didn't do so immediately, waiting for a better opening to make sure he could clear the jump. That meant the jailer nearest to the ooze, the one wielding a single huge cage like a bludgeon, had to get a little closer. It was lurching itself forward at a brisk pace for its body size, so it wouldn’t be much longer now.

Then Jesse began blasting, staying where she was with Primrose and Therion for now. At first she struck its head, but the creature didn’t seem to react at all, the psychic bullets thunking into it like clay. Compressing her lips, and not unfamiliar with such enemies, she aimed for the glowing pustules that might be a little more receptive to damage. “Come on, you big ugly bastard. Pop for me.” Jesse taunted, advancing towards the triple caged Jailor.

The travelers joined in on the offensive. For Primrose's part she had a few ways of getting behind the monsters, but she followed the FBC director's lead; literally accompanying her as she made to meet the jailer part way down the single stone path. Primrose conjured Black Fire Orbs and flung them where they exploded against the abomination's bulky frame, adding magical pressure to go with Jesse and Blast Hornet's attacks.

At the same time, Therion was pinpointing the boils on the other jailer while the phantom Ganon blasted it with dark magic. It was apparent that the jailer’s skin was difficult to damage, but by comparison the pustules were more delicate. One had already popped under the phantom’s dark orbs, oozing some disgusting liquid. When the second was burst open by Therion’s thrown daggers, the zombie flinched for a moment. Then, it charged the rest of the distance.

A lull in the phantom's barrage saw Therion take the chance to jump, springing off of the ooze and over the thing just before it hefted its cage up to retaliate. With one hand it tried and failed to catch the thief springing in its direction. With the other, it brought its weapon to bear. The monster let out a garbled roar, swinging its massive cage in the flying horseman’s direction. Its attack speed was faster than its movement; a collision with the spectral clone of the king of evil imminent.

The collision was a hard hit, but mainly resulted in the rider abandoning the horse to float around on his own. Then the Phantom got off two more shots with its dark orbs before his time ran out and he vanished from the battlefield. Not that Therion needed to worry about being alone, as now the genuine article had made his choice on who to focus on and had chosen to aid the Orsterran. And Ganondorf was keen to take advantage of any opportunity he spotted. He did so by bringing both his greatswords down onto the arms of the jailer whilst it was swinging its cage at the phantom. Under normal circumstances this would have resulted in outright dismemberment. That didn’t seem to be the case this time, perhaps because this thing was made to be tougher than a normal opponent.

Therion made a three point landing behind the jailer, assuming it would keep its attention on the phantom and the majority of enemies in front of it. Staring at its back he was surprised to see that the glowing growths were only on its chest. Its musculature was tightly woven, and there were no obvious weak points to speak of on this side... but he was already back here, so Therion summoned a spark of magic to his own hand. He cast Wildfire, setting the flame to engulf the monstrous jailer.

Rather than ravage the zombie’s flesh, the blaze was more like a hot, irritating tickle. With both of its mitts on the cage this time the jailer twisted its body as much as it was able, winding up for a swing. When it released the strength of its arms and the weight of the cage carried the bludgeon forward in a wide, 360 degree spin that threatened everything ahead and behind it.

Ganondorf had only moments to react, bringing up both his blades in a shielding motion to try and absorb the blow he was too big to dodge on his own. Thanks to that and his enormous strength from the Triforce, Ganondorf kept himself from taking major damage. He was, however, pushed back a few paces by the sheer force of the swing. Nothing he couldn’t make up for.

If that cage had been a solid object without gaps to let the air through, the pressure alone might be able to knock lighter people off of the walkway and into the acid. Therion could feel that as he hurried to get out of the way. The maneuver caught him off guard, slowing his reaction time just enough that the metal clipped him when he jumped backwards out of range. Even that glancing blow nearly took his arm off and toppled the thief into the bubbling liquid. Therion nursed the limb as the jailer completed his arc and came to a stop with his back to the Orsterran once more. Not as safe back here as I thought.

The corpse golem stood in front of the Gerudo king, taking only a few precious seconds after recovering from its own spin to lift the cage up over its head and slam it down toward Ganondorf, one bright yellow pus-filled protrusion still pulsing on its shoulder.

Once again Ganondorf had to think fast. He quickly thrust his blades forward while the cage was lifted over the monster’s head, sinking them into its torso. Again, under normal circumstances, a hit like this would have been devastating. But not so for this abominable jailer. The cage came crashing down, but rather than collide into the Gerudo King’s head, it was stopped. Ganondorf had released his grip on his weapons, leaving them impaled into the jailer so he could use his now-freed hands to catch the cage and stop its swing with his own monstrous strength.

And then Ganondorf tried to use his strength to rip the cage from the jailer’s grip to disarm it of its weapon, ”Ha ha ha!” laughed the King of Evil, ”Let’s just see how strong you actually are!”

He found the jailer's strength on par with him. The thing grunted, first trying to pull the cage out of Ganondorf's grasp and then pressing it instead with the intent to crush the king. During the struggle while neither of them ceded ground, Therion got back into action. He scaled the back of the massive jailer, wincing at the squelch under his feet as he perched on its shoulder. From there, he got a good glimpse at the state of battle - and the remaining presumed weak spot that he immediately went for.

The jailer wasn't pleased. Keeping a firm hold on its weapon it thrashed its upper body, forcing Therion to hold and jostling Ganondorf in their tug of war. Then it roared, and from its very body smaller, human sized zombies began to emerge. Some wielded weapons and armor, and all of them were angry, shrieking, and eager to rip into the Seekers. A couple climbed to reach the thief while the others exploded out from the jailer towards the enemy holding their host down.

Ganondorf had no choice. He released his grip on the cage and lunged back a couple of paces in the face of the zombies now suddenly assailing him. Thankfully they weren’t much to write home about, and the Gerudo King could use his superior size and strength to punch and kick them aside, incidentally knocking them into the acid in the process.

When he had a moment, Ganondorf went ahead and summoned five Moblin archers who appeared on the stone walkway behind him. Two of them leveled their bows and shot fire arrows at the zombies going after Therion in order to lend him a hand - managing to bullseye one of them resulting in them falling from the jailer’s body in a flaming heap. Ganondorf then lunged forward while powering up a Warlock Punch. The jailer seemed to notice this and swung his cage to meet with the Gerudo King’s fist.

Ganondorf’s fist smashed through the front bars of the cage. But the hollow nature of the cage threw off what was left of the punch’s momentum and prevented the attack from breaking the back end bars. But this did give Ganondorf a way to gain a stronger hold on the cage than he had the first time around, and he went ahead and took advantage of that. Now he’d be able to keep the jailer from swinging it’s cage and in a way that would strengthen his footing against the creature’s strength.

At the same time Therion's efforts had bore fruit. With the Moblins keeping the new zombies off his back for the most part, he drove a dagger into the last pustule and felt it finally give. Immediately the jailer halted its retaliation against Ganondorf, dropping to its knees with a heavy thud like its energy had just given out. When it hit the ground, the smaller cage embedded into its chest popped open. Inside, another zombie, notably different from the others. The thief hadn't missed it during all this, but he assumed it was some unfortunate soul stuck to its captor's body. Now, he wasn't so sure. Maybe it was just the nature of the undead, but it didn’t look happy about being “freed.” It was grafted to the cage, sure, but it actually looked upset. That its defense had been breached?

Therion always relied on his hunches, and he did the same now. If he was wrong, then oh well, he wasn’t about to cry over hurting some random zombie. The stinging dagger sunk a lot more easily into this thing’s body. It flinched, and the massive jailer flinched too. They were connected in more ways than one!

"It's this thing!" the thief shouted, drawing Ganondorf's attention towards it.

Ganondorf didn’t need to be told twice. He released his hold on the cage he had broken and made a lunge for the zombie. The triforce glowed on the back of his right hand as the Gerudo King gripped the undead’s neck while his other hand gripped its side. He pulled with all his might, even propping his foot onto the body of the jailer in order to put as much oomph into it as he could. The more strength he channeled, the brighter the Triforce shone on his hand. When at last the zombie’s body tore from the flesh of the jailer, Ganondorf lifted it straight up by the throat, only to bring it right back down into an explosive Flame Choke that dunked the zombie directly into the acid below the bridge. After some violent thrashing about, the zombie finally succumbed to the acid bath and appeared to be dead at last.

The macabre amalgamation that it had been attached to sunk to the ground while its body disintegrated. Therion hopped off of it, landing next to Ganondorf where they watched the actual body sink under.

"Damn," was all Therion said, pleasantly surprised the king took care of that monster so sufficiently.

On the other side the three clubbed Jailor lunged forward, going to slam its makeshift flail on Primrose and Jesse as recompense. Since Primrose was at her side, Jesse assumed she had some spell in mind in case this happened. So Jesse took a hopping step to the left and Evaded out of the way in a blur, the clubs smashing into the stone where she just stood. Jesse Levitated behind the creature and landed back on the walkway.

Ahead of her, the jailer was pulling back its arm to prepare for another blow. Primrose had relied only on the protection of her Baldur Shell while casting the Black Fire Orb - and it held for the one attack before shattering. Primrose blinked in surprise, clearly underestimating either the strength of the giant's swing or the time it took for the shell to repair itself. She would take care not to put absolute faith in it going forward, and for now she finished her spell and hurled another condensed ball of dark flames. It burst against its body at the same time that she took hold of her polearm in both hands. Jesse’s more precise shooting weakened the boils on its body enough that the stray attacks from Primrose or Blast Hornet could rupture them, and now the dancer stabbed open the final pustule with her lance. The zombie roared as its knees began to buckle. Primrose drew her own arm back and stabbed again viciously, sending the jailer falling over backward.

The flail’s cages fell ahead of it, forcing Primrose to back off lest she be hit, while its body slammed into the walkway just in front of the red headed parautilitarian. The knotted corpse flesh reeked. On its front, a little cage’s door flew open, where inside was a much smaller, angry looking undead.

Jesse blinked down at the furious zombie as it tried to pull itself back into the cage. It was like tumorous little growth. “Um.” Jesse said, before shredding into the little zombie with her rapid fire Spin pistol. Despite its diminutive stature, it was made of the same tough stuff as the Jailer. Though because of its small size, the bullet hit a lot more of it, so it sprayed its rotten blood everywhere as it scrambled back inside the cage. As soon as it shut the door behind it the Jailer came back to ‘life’ and Jesse evaded backwards.

“It’s like a mecha!” Jesse shouted, though Primrose probably didn’t understand the reference. “The little guy is controlling it?” She clarified. As the Jailer began to get back to its feet, Jesse ripped one of the bodies from its hooks and Launched it, chains and all, into the Jailer to smack it off balance. The pustules had turned red. “It’s pissed!” Jesse Evaded backwards as it swung its maces multiple times towards her, swiping back and forth.

Her clarification helped. Understanding shone in Primrose’s dark eyes. "I see," she said, but he couldn’t make use of the knowledge just yet. The jailer raged, swinging its ridiculous flail around it with reckless abandon. The cages smashed against the walkway ahead and behind it, against their hanging counterparts, and into the acid itself sending up dangerous splashes of liquid, all to try and lash the intruders facing it.

After his second striker disappeared, the remaining three Moblins that Ganondorf summoned did an about-face and fired their volleys at the three-club Jailer in order to provide some extra cover fire for Jesse and Primrose while the jailer stood back up. Unfortunately any attempt to get a jumpstart on breaking its pustules again was thwarted by the skin around them turning an irate red as the flesh hardened up. Primrose was quick to abandon those Moblins, especially when the debris of the flail’s impacts started flying. Pelted by chunks of stone and flecks of stinging acid, she blocked what she could with her lance and stepped back while one sweep of the cages saw all three of them sent flying off the narrow stretch of ground. If she moved back anymore she risked stepping into the battle directly behind her, so now she had to move up.

The dancer blinked forward, her Ravaging Confession bringing her behind the corpse golem on the same side as Jesse. She slashed at it with her polearm, black and icy flames mixing together where the weapon struck, but as expected it didn’t have much effect. Jesse was right, the little one must be its true body.

The jailer whipped its flails around as it turned, the heavy metal cages threatening to crush their bones at best, and sweep them into flesh melting acid at worst.

This time Primrose took to the air herself; she jumped and let her scarf carry her higher over the attack. At this point the boils on the jailer’s body were still red, though discoloration was beginning - possibly fading back to yellow. It didn’t matter much to the dancer’s new strategy. Her Vengeful Spirit passed right through the cage bars protecting the smaller undead, the painful burn it inflicted making the little zombie rattle around. With plenty of mana left, there was more where that came from.

Jesse followed Primrose into the air as the attack swept beneath their feet. Switching to her Pierce function, while Primrose blasted fire Jesse lined up a shot on the cage and the creature within. With a kick of the gun she unleashed her high caliber round to join the Vengeful Spirit spell. The already weakened zombie controller was soon nothing but ash under the weight of the combined attack, and the rest of the jailer's hulking form soon followed.

“Woo! Big jumps.” Jesse exclaimed to her fellow high jumping ally as she floated back to the stone floor.

Primrose smiled at her, amused. "Mhm. Nice work."

Very nearby, the boys had already cleaned up. Without the undead jailers lumbering around, the main floor of the fifth level of the prison was clear.

POKeMON: A Mystery - Always Open

So we've got three coordinators, a steward, a fasion designer, and one actual trainer.

Hopefully there's not much combat lol.

@Lord Orgasmo

Don't forget the detective and cook. Hell hath no fury like a chef whose kitchen is being messed with...

POKeMON: A Mystery - Always Open

@Vertigo hahaha that would have been fun. Next time we'll coordinate something! As for pokemon, the sheet is in my post above!

POKeMON: A Mystery - Always Open

Man me and Vertigo really be on some kind of wavelength. I was thinking of doing a male steward too lol. And a red head at that! We even picked similar (and one of the same) pokemon.

But I rarely do coordinators so that's what I ended up going with. Still, kinda funny.

Unovan Star

Withdrawn, sorry!

A Pokemon mystery at sea

Sounds like a fun, interesting change from usual Pokemon RPs.