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Tomoe Well the 'Heroes' have been busy today, they have been hitting a 'dungeon' that belonged to the Dark Lady it was under assault, much to the confusion of Brick and the rest? One of the Orcs there had fled to sound the alarm, as per Tomoe's orders. After all reading a few rules on evil minion and overlord behaviour had given her a few ideas to deal with this mess. Which seemed to run on story narrative through a twisted lens. It did not take long for her to rally her generals along with her other allies and send them to the dungeon. It's a good thing too that they were quick to respond too.

As the party arrives they would find Brick tanking some dragon like boss monster along side Bolt the hulking Gnome Beast Master, The Priestess was here along with the two rogue twins as well, though there were two new souls with the party today a blue haired Undine of some sort clad in simplec clothing that was in no way flash unlike the rest. The only notable things about her clothes were that, her fists bandaged up and a head band with a shining gem set in the middle of it was on her head. There was also another wearing a bright white cloak with a face mask hiding their identity for the moment.

"Bolt hit them now before we get more adds!"

"On it Brick."

The Big Gnome orders his creature to attack the dragon while the Priestess is casting buff spells, the rogues are moving about making ready to strike the two new arrivals though? The one in white starts to chant something, clearly readying a spell on the target as golden runes dance about their body, the monk? She's launching herself right at the dragon to engage some kind of fist based sword art and catches the Dragon right in the snout.

The Dragon pauses stares hissing at the Monk and things seem to be wide open though as the party is gearing up to finish it. The old cave network the Dungeon was in would echo with the sounds of the fight as the forces of Darkness would arrive and they would be there perhaps just in time to do something for the Dragon in the spanning stone chamber, which is oddly well lit by brazers about the edges of the chamber.
Josuke Higashikata 'Gearing up to finish the dragon'. That's not a good thing, not at all. Actually, normally it probably would be, but this dragon belongs to Tomoe, and Josuke's supposed to be her 'Dark Priest'. So, well. Let's fix that. Literally, in Josuke's case.

Guess what the next line is?

"DORARARARARA!"

And it's not Josuke, but rather his Stand. The pink and blue Stand emits its ascending Cry as it aims a flurry of punches... at the dragon! But the Stand's fists are surrounding by a golden-orange aura -- a surefire sign that those punches aren't meant to damage. No, it's quite the opposite; those fists are set to heal and repair. Hopefully this will repair at least some of the dragon's HP.

And behind the Stand is Josuke, in his 'Dark Priest' getup, as hammy and 'Saturday morning cartoon villain' as it ever was. Assuming the NPCs can't see his Stand, Josuke pretends to be making some sort of arcane gestures at the dragon, likely disguising his 'punch-healing' as a typical healing spell.

Once the Stand has done what it can, he smirks in the heroes' direction. "Did you think the Dark Lady would not know about this intrusion?" he asks, in his best 'hammy evil' voice. Which is significantly better than it was last time. Seems someone's been practicing. "Did you think she would let it go unchallenged?!"
Yuuki Konno     Normally Yuuki would be pleased to join in on dragon-slaying, but now she's here to be EVIL! Well, theoretically. Dressed up in her form-concealing dark ninja garb, she wastes no time tearing into the would-be heroes.

    "DARK NINJA ATTACK!" she cries out. She's not really interested in stealth attacks of course. She wants them to know she's coming, and isn't particularly interested in killing them. Beating them, sure. She wants to drive the heroes off, because that seems to be the way the game's played. But that doesn't include taking advantage of surprise or even of cutting into a hero with the full force of her various weaponry.

    She drops out of the air, falling from seemingly out of nowhere to attack one of the rogue twins. Thanks to her premature called-attack however, it won't be a stealthy blow. The rogue has plenty of chances to dodge, block or whatever.
Staren     Staren has dressed up again -- His 'villain outfit' consists of a howie-style labcoat with huge black buttons, instead of his usual open one, and has his goggles pushed up onto his forehead. His hair is deliberately uncombed to be extra-wild. Over the coat he wears some kind of chest harness with magic or tech-y looking discs on it. His usual messenger bag hangs at his side. Completing the outfit are military black slacks and matching shiny black boots and long gloves.

    He is once again piloting his walker golem -- A bipedal construct made of wood painted to look like metal. Where one might expect an upper torso and head, however, has been replaced with something like the inside of a car -- places for a few people to sit, and a control panel in front of the driver -- the shape of this 'cockpit' exposes the upper bodies of the occupants, in this case Staren, who we'll get to in a moment. Two arms hang down from the 'body', one of which is holding an assault rifle. All in all it's maybe 9½ feet tall, 11 if you count the exposed part of its occupant.

    As before, accompanying Staren are three large figures, ten or eleven feet tall, appearing to be bulky, humanoid clockwork robots -- golems of wood or stone, painted to look bronze and with gears and bits stuck on for looks. They're armed this time -- two with kanobos, and the third has a pair of katars sized for its body and slightly more detailed armor to make it look 'elite'. Finally, rounding out the group is a clockwork knight that looks more like a scaled-up (but not quite to human size) toy or doll, riding one of Staren's pony statues.

    It's the last that charges ahead, interposing itself between the heroes and the dragon and levelling that lance in a challenge. Staren and the other constructs are coming up fast, though!
Xiaomu All of a sudden, the Undine monk gets cold feet.

Literally.

Mostly because the ground where she landed, after punching the dragon in its muzzle, is suddenly covered in ice - and if she doesn't bolt from the spot fast enough, that ice is going to 'grow' into a nice big chunk with the monk's leg, or more, stuck inside it. If the monk DOES get clear, the result is still a rather pretty but very large 'flower'-shaped ice crystal - just one that doesn't have anybody inside it.

"Ladies. Gentlemen. Noobs," a female voice remarks in a casual drawl as its owner strolls out of the shadows behind the braziers. "Did you really think you'd make it this far and *not* see more of what the Dark Lady has to offer?" The figure unslings her staff from her shoulders - a Buddhist monk's staff, with a few rings hanging from its head so that they'll jingle against each other when moved (sometimes if not always) - and the rings do indeed set to jingling as the black-robed and -hooded wielder goes through a quick series of moves, spinning and twirling her staff, then snapping it to a halt under her right arm with the head pointing right at the Undine monk.

"This is normally where I'd offer a choice of 'the easy way or the hard way,' but since we're under orders *not* to make it easy on you ..." Her grin is visible under the shadows cast by her hood. Visible - and potentially kind of scary, despite the staff-wielder's less than imposing stature.

"... for the ass-kicking you are about to receive," she intones, "may your gods make you truly thankful!"
Kirito At about this time, a black figure swoops 'round a dungeon corner at high speed. Kirito's not the stealthiest, and is relying on the stink his allies have made so far to mask his approach.

    He rushes the 'Heroes' from behind towards the dragon's chambers. As much as he realizes it would be smart though, he just doesn't have it in him to attack them from behind. Instead, Kirito swerves sideways and starts RUNNING ACROSS THE WALL AND UP TOWARDS THE CEILING, putting on a sudden burst of speed. His Spriggan wings come out for three seconds and give it their all for a brief burst of midair acceleration - the only thrust he's going to get from them for the next thirty minutes, given how that skill works and he swings about towards the front of the Hero party.

    Then his right hand reaches up, grasps Elucidator... and draws the blade in the middle of a fancy backflip. It shimmers purple, crackles with lightning... and as he hits the ground he PLUNGES the blade into the dungeon floor a good foot or so. Torrents of electricity arc the short distance from him to the Hero front lines, blasting at everyone!

    With a quiet little grunt the Spriggan Swordsman, wearing his ominous Dark General attire, draws the blade back up and twirls it expertly a few times with some flourish!

    "Not bad. I might have to get serious." He adds, injecting as much fake arrogance as he can into his tone.
Nagato     "Well, I did accept the quest." the catgirl chuckles, looking at her changed outfit. Skull pauldrons, red steel armor, spiked kneepads and gauntlets... Tana chuckles at this, "I guess it's time to be the bad girl for once." With Josuke healing the dragon, Tana pulls out her two handed axe, a grin under the skull-shaped helm. "Guess it's show time, right?" saying nothing else, she starts running across the walls towards where the party is being started without her.

    With everything going on, Tana notices at least one person not under assail, time to fix that. She leaps off the wall, axe in a ready overhead chopping position, springing towards the Gnome, assuming it's the tank of the group. "Violent Spike!" comes her little shout, trying to bury the heavy axe head right into the Gnome! "Under orders from the Dark Lady, I'm going to give you no quarter!" Her eyes peer from the skull helm as she presses more into her attack!
Touta Konoe Touta Konoe had talked to Tomoe on a few occassions here and there over the comms, and he learned a decent amount about her, and her world. It made sense that at some point that she would be willing to invite him to check it out.

<I would have never guessed I would have been asked to do something like this though...>

It was one thing to ask to help someone save their world or complete a request, but to act as the bad guys? That was definitely something different for him, of course there was more to it than that but that was neither here nor there. Frankly speaking, Touta being a vampire should have already been pretty frightening to any adventurers. But when you're short, and child like in appearence it's very hard to portray yourself as blood-thirsty monster (even if you're not that blood-thirsty. It had taken some time to find a set of gear that seemed appropriate, while the armor of tanks would adjust to Touta's frame he was too short to not look silly even when he had a helmet on. He tried the ninja gear which he thought was cool, but he kept smiling so much that they said it made him look too goofy. So he ultimately took a Mage's robe and used the hood to cover his face. It probably seemed odd that he was wielding a black katana instead of a wand or staff of some sort but Touta wasn't going to sweat the details.

As he enters onto the scene amongst the heroes he whispers ever so slightly, "Okay. Just like we planned this."

Touta doesn't immediately attack the 'Heroes'. Instead he stands beside the dragon ready to intercept any who dare to come his way.

His face is still covered by the hood by a sharp smile accentuated by fangs is given to the adventurers before a deep, gutteral sounding voice comes from him.

"Foolish mortals, entering into Dark Lady's domain was your first mistake. Come! Should you dare raise your blades against us it will be your last!"

"Wait, that's not what we said we were going to do..." Touta whispers to his sword, Kurobo. Also known as the one who held had used his deep voice to act as the evil sounding villain for Touta. Touta's voice just couldn't really be seen as evil so he decided to let Kurobo who was actually made by an evil mage do it. He didn't expect for him to tell the 'Heroes' he wasn't going to attack until they hit him first though!!!

So it looks like Touta was now stuck waiting for someone to aggro him...
Tomoe It seems the fight was nearing it's end and the Dark Chavarley has arrived as Josuke enters with his stand already active, this will get the attention of the party of 'heroes'. 5R
"Adds?! BOLT OFF TANK THEM!"

Brick cries out but they may not be able to do that worse. He's punch healing the dragon and it's HP bar is going back up, not fully but it got a good quarter of it's bar back from that, and is now not in danger of dying from a single combined assault of the heroes.

IT turns it's head to Josuke and hisses.

"The Dark Lady has not forsaken me!"

The Twins are already reacting at the entry of the Dark Generals but it's too late as Yuuki uses her powers ambush them and she catches the male of the twins off his guard he takes n hit while his sister evades.

"Oh you again! I am going to hang you up by your pantaloons from the world tree you evil little wench!"

Calls out the male even as he launches off a sword which causes him to leap into the air flying right at Yuuki intending to try and strike her.

Bolt curses a bit at this and turns his beast around to assault and tries to intercept them.

"You bastards!"

Is all he's got to say, about the tactic of jumping them in the boss fight his beast charges towards Staren attempting to duck down and get him from below avoiding the seeming lance.

The Monk meanwhile is chilled out a bit? She's able to move quick enough to not get caught and she will get clear of the crystal.

"YOU! YOUR THE ONE I SAW THAT DAY! THE ONE WHO DESTROYED THE SCHOOL!"

The Monk looks furious at Xiaomu. She doesn't move yet, she's been lucky to not be frozen in place but it looks like there's a vendetta. 5R
"For Lady Titania! You will fall servant of Oberon! For everything you done!"

They throw themselves at Xiaomu trying to get her with a flurry of punches and kicks.

As the battle rages on two new champions of the darkness appear Tana makes her grand entrance and Brick doe stake notice the Salamander sees Gnome is about to be assaulted and he triggers some sort of intercept ability the problem is now he's the one hose going to be taking a beating for his trouble the guy's an jackass but he seems to do his job as The Violent Spike, hammers him it' pushes him back forcefully and the Dragon is forgotten about for the moment. Said Dragon is now trying to back off with the chance the Dark Generals have given it, he's done his part stalling and he will not get in the way while his HP bar is slowly healing.

"You little wench!"

Hisses Brick as he is just having his day get worse.

For Touta has joined the party and is moving to let his own booming entry. The Priest does not seem happy and starts tossing out more buff spells.

"More? Where does she keep finding you?! Is this new land a breeding ground for evil?! There is more darkness to purge here than I could have dreamed of! We survived the last time, and will not stop till this land has been rid of you."

There are no bystanders today and the Priestess is thankful for that to be sure but she's now starting to cast a spell attempting to send a bolt of magic right at Touta. The mysterious white Figure is pulled off his own casting by the interception of everyone else and turns to face the new arrivals.

"More...of you wretched misbegotten kind?! Show me what passes for furry, minions of darkness!"
Josuke Higashikata Josuke he gives Tana a thumbsup as she enters the scene. It's shorthand for 'glad to have you here'. And it also spoils that 'evil' look a little. Though he quickly puts his evil face back on again, so hopefully the 'heroes' don't see it.

He's a little taken aback when the dragon actually SPEAKS. He didn't realize it was self-aware! Thankfully, he recovers easily, before too much time passes and he leaves himself open like a great big ninny. "No, my friend," he replies to the dragon. "The Dark Lady rewards loyalty in those who serve her! You have stood strong against these meddling invaders, and that is to be commended!" Yeah he might have just promised this guy a promotion without realizing it, but hey. It works.

Turning back to the heroes again, Josuke calls to the dragon, "Come, my friend! Let us defend our Lady together!" He actually has no idea what the dragon can do, to be truthful, which is why he doesn't try to command it to do a specific thing. Besides that, it might not listen to him since Josuke isn't the Dark Lady.

Which is just as well, he probably couldn't pull off that outfit.
Yuuki Konno     Yuuki spins, bringing her short sword around as she flips midair to clash blade versus blade against the rogue. "You're faster than you look considering your freakish height!" she claims, bounding away to taunt the hero. She could engage at close range, relying on her normal strengths, but where's the fun in that?! She's here to be EVIL, and that means gloating and monologing right?

    She can't deny she's little, and she's supposed to be evil. Hence the gloating and the crack against the Rogue's height. But she's not going to stand (or fly) here and be called a wench! "What kind of hero are you supposed to be anyways? You're not supposed to want anything whatsoever to do with my pantaloons!" she taunts. Not normally into such references, well, let's just say Yuuki knows certain adventurer and heroic tropes. And she's not completely unfamiliar with raunchy humor, given the presence of sexy Spriggan Nori in her guild. In fact much of Yuuki's 'evil' dialog can be summed up pretty quickly. 'What would Nori say?'

    "In fact," Yuuki challenges, "It's not going to be ME that gets their pantaloons beat here!" she says, sliding her blade home in the sheath behind her hip and bringing her gloved hands up, fingers spread as she settles into a midair fighter's stance. "Come get me big guy!"
Xiaomu "You'll have to be more specific," Xiaomu (yep, it's her with the staff under the black hooded robe) replies mildly. "I've destroyed a lot of schools in my time!"

She doesn't have time to taunt further than that, as the monk launches towards her. Rather than meeting fist-to-fist, though, the foxgirl parries punches and kicks with her staff for the most part, not always blocking straight but deflecting more often than not, trying to use the monk's aggression against her, drive her off-balance with the force of her own onslaught, and generally abuse the monk's aggression to gently pry her guard open further and further ...

Leading up to a swift, sure combo of punch, kick, punch again, and finally a *big* kick aimed to throw the monk back on her butt - followed by a thrust of her staff, trying to peg the monk RIGHT on the forehead.
Staren     Staren's lancer construct is made of wood, but its mount is metal -- tough and heavier than it looks. If the beast pulls the rider off, all it can do it try to whap it with its lance until it's left alone long enough to remount. If the beast instead goes for the mount -- well, then it has to deal with attacking metal. The pony statue attacks with its hooves, but it's more of a damage sponge than a serious attacker.

    Staren and his larger constructs take up positions next to the dragon. They rush any who try to attack it, and Staren fires bursts of bullets at heroes caught out of melee. He'll watch their HP bars carefully though, not wanting to KILL them.

    "AHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA! Protect the dragon, my minions!"

    Staren now calls out to the heroes: "You're ones to talk, forcing yourself on a barmaid! We've barely done anything evil! Though I admit kidnapping her so you'll come talk to us was a bit drastic... but if you'd talk to us, instead of just shouting and fighting, we could clear all this up! We want to protect this land, not destroy it! And I don't mean that in a delusional 'Haha, after I kill or enslave everyone noone will hurt eachother again!' sense, I mean I actually want to help people. Give them things that make their lives better, like food, shelter, and medicine. Have my constructs perform dangerous physical labor so noone need risk hurting themselves mining or the like. Teach everyone to read!"

    "If you won't talk, I'll... wear you down with my army of minions until you're too tired to fight!"
Touta Konoe There's a certain irony that the priest would be the one to face off against the vampire. That aside Kurobo decides to keep talking, he's apparently having a lot more fun with this than Touta expected. He was technically an evil sword so to say it would make sense he would enjoy the part as such.

"Purge? One as weak as you dares claim to be capable of purging us...?"

There's no interruption in the priest's spell as it shoots at Touta. Now, there are a few things that Touta really wants to do in this situation like...Dodging, or anything that avoids him getting hit but he's already promised Tomoe he would stay in character.

Gritting his teeth for a moment as he raises one hand in front of himself to brace for the attack. The priest would see that the spell hit's its intended target and with it blowing off the black-hooded figure's other arm completely leaving a bloodied stump, or whatever the equivalent was in ALO.

There isn't a scream or any sign of pain that comes from him. It actually hurts like hell, but he's keeping a poker face to stay as menacing as possible. The priest probably thought that their attack had done significant damage when it had blasted his arm, though Touta would force a smile on his face towards the priest as they watch as his arm began to reform in a matter of seconds. Slowly flexing his fingers, Kurobo decided to continue to lay on the villain role thickly.

"Know your place at the edge of my blade, mortal."

<He's enjoying this way too much. Actually, now that I think about it isn't an enemy that can heal itself feel sort of cheap?> Touta can't help but think that to himself briefly. In fact, he kinda wonders what his health bar looks like if he's suppose to be immortal. Well, he'd have to worry about that later. Maybe fake being dead if worse came to worse. Now was the time for some payback! He gave the priest the first shot and now their were going to be consequences! Raising the black katana above his head intending to slash into the Priest without remorse!

Well...Maybe there's a bit of remorse. He knows that priests are suppose to be the squishy type so he's trying to hold back enough to where it isn't a crazy lethal blow. If anything he's hoping to get her to maybe just before yellow would start showing up on a health bar. That sounds reasonable as an evil grunt minion, right?
Nagato     "W...wench?!" Tana's ears perk up and the fur upon her tail fluffs up in anger. "HOw dare you call me a wench?!" she shouts at the Salamander who's taking the beating now, hopping back as she preps something in response. "Look, you came to the wrong cave, picked a fight with the wrong group and now, you're going to have to pay for everything with a red coronation." there's a small glow to her weapon and she smiles beneath that mask. "I'm sorry but I need to break through. YOu're in my way."

    Flipping the blade of the axe to the side, she dashes herself into the group, "WHIRLWIND!" spinning herself like a top with that axe, trying to capture both the Salamander and the Gnome in it. "You two face /me/, the best Cait Sith with an axe!" well, she doesn't have her shield and sword right now but hey, that axe is menacing enough! "This /wench/ will show you that you shouldn't mess with the Dark Lady and her Generals!"
Kirito Having finished his initial assault in hopes of driving back the Heroes, Kirito executes a stunning backflip that sends him sailing back... and once again, his gaze falls on Brick. But it soon shifts towards the Priestess. Take out the healer, screams his gaming instincts!

    Unfortunately, the healer is a girl, and his gut sinks at the idea of fighting her too seriously - NPC, or PC, or whatever, he really doesn't want to strike her with his blades...

    "So confident in calling yourselves heroes. I won't judge if you're here for the loot, but with attitudes like that, the only titles you guys deserve is raiders." He's scowling at them all the while, unsure who exactly to make a move on in all this chaos. Everyone seems taken!
Tomoe The Dragon is keeping back and it's not for fear of fighting out it's due to his size he would become a problem and there might even be friendly fire issues. He is a looming threat though should the Heroes keep moving. At least until Josuke calls him out to join how can he refuse the Priest of the Dark Lady The Dragon nods and will lumber out along side him.

"I will need a clear path to ... consume our enemies in flame."

A cast bar would appear and it's a fairly long one too.

Kirito's attacks has made quite the entrance, as he does rush the assailed party now it only ends up being even worse for them as his entrance has left hem reeling even more the lighting catches them off guard the electrical attacks have also gained, Kirito the attention of the female twin and she lunches for him now calling out.

"You little ... fink!"

She launches into some sort of Dagger Sword Skill as she attempts to take him down. Her brother meanwhile is engaged with Yuuki in a lighting game of rocket sword tag.

"My father warned me about getting involved with girls like you, if you got other ideas about what I said. Your sorely mistaken!"

Her stops trying to cast a spell rather than full on charge, Yuuki. She'll soon be assaulted by some kind of magic missile spell!

The monk is facing down Xiaomu now and at her words she just lets out a cry of anger even they mix it in. She'll end up trying to get closer but Xiaomu catches the monk in t he head band and sends h er staggering with a staff hit. The Priestess is pulls off from her spell attacks to try and start throwing out heals it's not looking good to them. With Staren's minions moving to protect the dragon this is going to buy it some more time as it's doing it's casting animation. The ranting just gets gets confused looks from a few of the 'heroes' just like what is this guy on?!

"Did she hire you from the discount evil caster guild?!"

Asks Bolt the Gnome seriously has some confusion of where Tomoe got this Staren guy. The Priestess did not expect to be able to harm minion of the Dark Lady so easily or so it seemed she pauses for a moment and looks to him.

"Surrender before you bleed out...."

That does not end up going well and then to her horror the arm grows /back/.

"What, what are you?!"

She calls out in fear as the Katana comes in she tries to cast a barrier it shatters. The strike is true, as it cuts into her though her cloth armour and she's now staggering back with a brutal red line and part of her gear explodes into shards of light.

"It's just a flesh wound damn it I need heals!"
Tomoe Brick calls out while Bolt's reaction to the Priestess is far different.

"Brick Slabmeat, you jackass another hit like that could kill her and you let her get targeted!"

Bolt will try to disengage to go after the Priestess and he pulls back his pet from fighting Staren whom has left him injured and confused. Tana gets a good hit in as he left his guard down he's moving to disengage even with his injuries for her but Brick he's full on in Tana's grill now and calls back to Bolt. "I expected her to be able to handle a minion of evil on her own maybe I have confidence in her!? Minion of Vac'coom I will end you here and now!"

Brick launches into a chain or skills which suspiciously mimic Tomoe's own favourites oddly she's going to have to act fast even if it's clear she's got a good couple of hits on him.

Then something happens there's a rumble and a dark energy flying about for a moment. Bolt looks around for a moment looks at the dragon looks at the healer.

"You are the ones who started this! Brick we are leaving now We can't fight like this we are not wiping here."

The Priestess looks at Kriito but say nothing she's is going for a teleport crystal and she shouts out the name of near by town.

"This is not over...we will stop you and ... I don't want personal gain I want to stop your master before any more places fall to her!"

With that the crystal triggers and the 'heroes' vanish one by one in pillars of light.

The Dragon wisely halts his cast bar and nods in thanks but as that happens a pillar of black energy appears as Tomoe in Dark Lady outfit appears.

"All of you I have need of you to return to the castle."

She looks to the dragon "Gather your remaining forces and supplies, return to the castle you have done well in diverting them as have you all."
Yuuki Konno     Fighting at lightning speed, Yuuki proves she doesn't really need blades to duel. That could well be because of the extended ninja claws she wears up her sleeves, turning her open palms into weapons in their own rights. Of course she has some pretty decent skills when it comes to barehand fighting, but it doesn't much matter. Most of her combat ability comes from sheer speed rather than skill or weapon prowess.

    "Well lucky for you there ARE no girls like me!" Yuuki retaliates at the rogue. No, she's not really sure what that means and doesn't care. She's just firing off the banter, and her skills with banter aren't nearly as developed as her skills at fighting!

    As the heroes begin to break and run, Yuuki pauses mid-flight, her wings vibrating as she hovers. "Run home to daddy!" she insists, then waves to the heroes before heading back to the others. "D'you think we're getting to them at all yet?" she asks cheerfully.
Xiaomu Rather than the borderline-vicious smile Xiaomu was wearing under her hood at the start, there's a smug little grin on the visible part of her face as she stays on top of the Undine monk, refusing to let the 'heroic' PC get her feet under her or recover any momentum. She's not taking her opponent lightly, mind you - just the opposite - but she *is* maintaining a merciless degree of pwn, all the more merciless in how narrow the margin seems like it might be.

All she needs to do is slip up *once* and the tables might just possibly turn. So she focuses on not making that mistake, not presenting that opening, not allowing that moment to breathe and focus and recover.

And she keeps it up right up to the moment that the priestess initiates the party's teleport back to town - no, right up to the instant that the monk is whisked away by the crystal's magic. The last thing the monk would see is the butt of Xiaomu's staff accelerating towards the point between his eyes ...

And as if Xiaomu knew EXACTLY how the timing would work out, her staff comes to a halt two inches behind that point, maybe a quarter-second after that space stops being occupied by a player's avatar.

As she lowers her staff to hold it next to her in rest position, Xiaomu's smirk shows no sign at all of going *anywhere*.
Touta Konoe Touta's strike is a bit more brutal than he had expected. Whoops... Still it appears to be just enough garner attention from some of the other 'Heroes' to come to her aid. At least these guys were somewhat decent enough to help their priest out. Though with the dragon's addition to the general's forces retreat was the best decision for the 'Heroes' and the group just had to watch as the 'Heroes' disperse and flee from dragon's lair. Overall, this could definitely be considered a mission accomplished. That being said, "Oi, I think you over did it." Touta pulls off the hood as he stares down at the blade in his normal voice. It's the first time the young man spoke the entire time which was completely different from the menacing tone Kurobo had been using.

"I couldn't help it. It had been decades since I got to say something even remotely close to that. Besides, you were the one who suggested I do the talking, Touta Konoe."

Touta can't really argue that so he just sorta scratches his head as he turns to Yuuki.

"Well, I don't know about you but I'm pretty sure I freaked out that priest girl. Do you think maybe we went a bit overboard?"

It was at this point that Tomoe arrives to tell them to head towards the castle. He's talk to her plenty but seeing her in person has been something that has been building up for a while now and well... Turning towards Yuuki he can't help but ask, "Is that what she usually wears?"
Staren     Staren watches them go. No connection made! As Tomoe comes to get them he and his creations follow her, and at Yuuki's question he shakes his head. "I don't think they're listening at all." he sighs. "Maybe it's against their programming to even consider anything that contradicts their worldview: They're the heroes, we're the bad guys, any hints of anything else go in one ear and out the other."
Kirito "Tch--!!" Kirito's predictably now being assaulted by one of the girls! As it turns out, parrying a dagger with his one-handed sword proves to be somewhat difficult. He's driven back by her rapid slashes and thrusts, taking a series of close shaves and grazes to his arms, leaving long and painful-looking red glow decals. Kirito hisses with each graze... but there has to be some strategy to just evading and giving ground, right?

    Yup. He'll let the girl drive him back more and more - out of range of the Priestess' healing spells if she's unwise enough to press that hard!

    And it's at that point that he steps up the counterattack. The dagger's contested with his blade growing green and taking on the Wind attribute... and then flashing out in a rapid back-and-forth manuever at hyper speeds straight for the dagger's hilt at a very strange angle!

    Through the entire manuever Kirito shows intense focus, desperately hoping this gamble works!
Tomoe Tomoe catches what Touya says as they are heading out, she looks at him for a moment turning bright reed one can see the comical look of embrassment. "No I don't this isn't by choice!" She's bright red she shakes her head. "No when I was stuck with my quest my appear changes to this whenever I enter the region!"
Touta Konoe Listens to Tomoe as she justifies her current apparel. Watching as she turns bright red all he can do is smile and jokingly comment on the situation.

"No worries Tomoe, it suits you fine! I think it probably takes away from the whole fearsome thing that you were going for with the generals though, don't you think? Also what was the whole deal with those guys again? I don't think I heard the whole story on that."
Tomoe Tomoe is looking mortifed still. "It wasn't really me and we should go somewhere to get something to eat. It's a bit of a story Touta shall we and maybe ... go back to Haven our base of operations?" Which would get her out of the effect of this apperance too.
Touta Konoe Touta nods, mainly because he could go for some food but also he can see that Tomoe's face is going into darker shades of red.

"Sure! I could eat! I wanted to talk to you guys a bit more anyway. Lead the way."