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Krusty     It is another sunny day for the city of Akihabara, the main street busy as usual as people go about the business. Once more those who have agreed to take on the offered quest are met by Krusty at the warpgate, the Round Table Alliance representative donned in his usual heavy armour. And once again a short trip by horse-drawn cart is made out to the quest location. The path is different to the previous, quickly leading out of the forest surrounding Akihabara and into open plains. Near the road the occasional pack of docile animals can be seen grazing on grass. Futher out in the fields, packs of more aggressive animal-type monsters can be seen roaming, but they don't approach the road.

    Along the way, Krusty exposits on the quest details, "The village that has requested assistance is one that relies on a nearby lake for most of their fresh water. Unfortunately the water coming down from the lake has recently become tainted. So far there have only been a few cases of sickness, but more are likely to occur as time goes on." He adjusts his glasses a little as he finishes, a bit of a playful smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, "It will be necessary to identify the source of the taint and remove it." Those of a keen mind may surmise he's not revealing everything he knows, but his demeanor suggests it's nothing too serious.

    Soon enough the carriage stops. A village can be seen in the distance and from it a river snakes alongside the road until it pulls away and off into the fields, disappearing between some rocky outcroppings. The river water has an unnatural green tinge to it, no doubt the taint that has been reported. Krusty climbs out of the carriage, summoning his axe to him using his menu and then nodding to everyone, "We'll be heading into wild territory now. Be prepared." He then marches off, beginning to follow the river.

    Navigating through the rocks isn't too difficult and soon enough they open up to reveal a rather large lake. Surrounded on all sides by rock, it's rather tucked away and rather unlikely to be discovered by accident. A few trees dot what grass exists around the lake, but the water definitely makes up the majority of this place. And its colour is even more disturbing here than the river. Of course the cause is likely obvious. For at the center of the lake, a large battle is being waged between two forces.

    The first are what's classified as a demi-human race, one commonly found amongst fantasy settings like the one of Elder Tales. Their half humanoid, half snake bodies and their natural grace within water likely identify them as naga. These ones have makeshift armour over their torsos and wield spears and swords of numerous styles. They hold one side of the lake, where there are some rickety looking huts positioned within the shallows, numerous eggs within and around each. A rather large naga is positioned amongst the huts, most likely the leader if its more majestic apparel is any indication. As each naga falls in the battle, their bodies explode into bubbles of light. Shortly after, one of the eggs in their camp hatch and a fully grown naga uncurls from within. Already fully equipped, it quickly charges towards the front lines.

    The other force is also easily recognizeable, their feminine shaped bodies completely made of water and lacking in any clothes or equipment. With each wave of their vaguely shaped hands, bursts of water are unleashed against their enemies. Water elementals. They look to be defending the opposite side of the lake to that of the naga, where one of them is performing some kind of magic ritual. With each elemental that falls to a naga blade, another rises out of the water there, quickly gliding across the surface to return to the battle.

    Whatever is going on here, it is apparently the cause of the taint as the discoloured water is strongest at the dead center of the clash between the two sides.
Iria Another day in paradise, right? OK, maybe something like that.

Well, there is a quest to undertake, and seeing that she's got nothing to do really, Iria has no problem joining Krusty on this quest. She even dons her standard cape to give herself a little extra flair (OK, it's just her favorite garment to wear a lot of the time, but still!) Meaning that when she arrives at the warpgate, Krusty will see a teenaged brunette wearing a crimson cape over most of her body. A slight smirk is on her face as she introduces herself. "Don't know if we've met. I'm Hunter 9799-5 Iria."

Once everyone's arrived and they're riding on the carriage, Iria gets a good look at the area around everyone and takes it in carefully, knowing that anything can happen in the Multiverse and being ready for anything is the main rule of a good bounty hunter. She then turns to face Krusty once he begins explaining the details of the quest. Once he finishes speaking, Iria nods a little, scowling albeit. "So the water just becomes tainted all of a sudden? OK, something's definitely wrong!"

As they arrive by the village and Iria gets a look at the river, she scowls even more, gritting her teeth. "OK, that's really disgusting!" She comments as she gets out of the carriage and draws her katana, which appears with a chain-like blade at first but then solidifies into an actual blade. "Being prepared is the main rule of being a good bounty hunter!" Iria says without a change in her expression.

And indeed, navigating the rocks isn't too much, especially for Iria, who's got experience climbing a variety of sources. It's when they get close to the lake that Iria spots the source of trouble. "Those things... they're... they're called naga I believe?" She says, remembering her sources of monsters and their appearances. When the egg hatches, Iria's eyes widen. "They hatch into fully battle ready warriors? Damn it!"

As if that weren't bad enough, Iria then spots the water elementals and she grits her teeth. "Looks like they're not the only ones causing trouble. The question is, are they the ones causing the trouble or is it something else?"
Yuuki Konno     Arriving with the others, Yuuki disdains the horse-drawn cart and instead bounds along beside it. It might be tricky to outrun a horse, but not a burdened cart horse. She seems not at all bothered by the need to run, and even goes out of her way to wheel around and run off to peer in amazement at a flower or tree or animal she happens to spot along the way, only to come dashing back to the group. Riding, after all, means she can't do her own thing!

    Upon arrival at the lake, Yuuki continues her habit of rushing off. In this case she rushes off to stare at the water and the two armies. Naga and Elemental. She looks back at Krusty, troubled. "I'm not sure who's causing the mess." she says. "Who do we have to kill to get it to stop? The snakes? The water things? Everyone?" She shrugs. "Or do we even have to kill any of them?" she says, sounding mildly distressed. "I mean, this poison thing's been going on for a while right? How long have these forces been here?"
Azure Armature Azure Armature, who goes by the nom de guerre of 'Blue' had taken a few longer-term mercenary contracts here and there by various forces both far outside and close by her home locale, but long-term contracts tended to be long-term payoffs. There was always something to be said for the noble one-and-done, short term contract work that generally garunteed payouts for a given short-term imput of skill.

Krusty's mercenary contract was one of them, and Blue met the armored and glasses'ed knight with a nod and a businesslike affirmation with little small talk. Pleasantries were light anyway, what with the parameters clearly laid out.

The simple objective of 'secure the water source from taint' was one she could understand, though there was a pause once they broke into the rocky clearing.

She understood spirits and elementals well, these lesser beings of the processes of the world familiar, but the snakepeople were entirely new, these 'demi-human' monsters causing a distinct and worried mutterance from the poncho'ed operative. "Their breeding grounds seem to be the cause, and the battle is causing damage to the objective." She notes, splaying out fingers as hovering holo-controls appear before her right hand, turning them like she would a knob to select options on some hidden or internal display as she rotated the set of dials. "I believe fire will be effective."
Athela Valemore The quest specifications mentioned contaminated water and potential water hazards, so it was only natural for it to get passed along to someone specializing in aquatic issues. As a side benefit, being clad herself in midevial style armor and attirements made it easy for Athela to not stand out too much in the location. At least up until she started pulling out pokemon.

Which didn't take long, as she forwent carriage space for those needing the transport more, and simply road alongside on her Gogoat close enough to listen to the conversation within and over the radio. The ungulate made for an unusual mount, but the way she easily picked her way through the off-road path into the wilderness to reach the lake even after the carriage couldn't follow made it fairly clear why Athela prefered this companion over a horse.

Which all brings them to the side of the lake, and the scene unfolding upon it. Athela nudges her mount to a stop and swings a leg over to dismount, already forming a grimace on her features. Water elementals and.. snake-like creatures? Clearly fighting. "It would seem the water supply has been caught in the midsts of a territorial dispute." She turns towards Krusty. "Do either of these species normally populate around here?" That's the most acute way of asking 'Which one of these belong?'.
Goku     The Saiyan from earth hasn't had to wait long after his return to more common regions. He's signed up to a new Faction and already off on a job! "Maybe now Chichi won't get me to go work in the fields so much." Goku grumps, flying through the sky without issues. Zooming down through the air as he reaches the warp gate location, he lands with grace -- black hair springing about and orange go ruffling just a smidgen. "Hi everyone!" He greets in a friendly wave, beaming a toothy white smile. "I'm Goku. Let's go find out what's happening with this water, huh?" And just like that, he's on the carriage. A bit shaky at first, but settled soon enough.

    As Krusty explains the details, the Saiyan falls into a bit of concentration and thought. Black pupils glance to the others gathered as they share their thoughts, his head occasionally nodding. His lack of suggestions indicates that he has no real idea what could be causing it. At least, that is until he spots the battle happening at the water. After navigating and scouring the rocks to get to the lake, Goku winces heavily. "Ew, yuck! What are they?" Iria answers for him! "Naga, huh?" He scratches his head in some confusion, but locks the name to memory.

    "It sure looks like a fierce battle," He observes - clearly seeing the death and brutality on display.
Kirito Tainted warrior is no small matter. Hard enough to believe that a river's completely clean... even harder to think that anyone would TAINT IT. That's despicable, right?!

    Well, as usual, Kirito has calmly accepted this quest and set about investigating it with his typical calm focus. The Black Swordsman has no trouble following the river and the hints of discolored water flowing downstream...

    But as the area opens up, he ducks behind the nearest tree or boulder to hide from the monsters and take a moment to examine the unfolding events.

    "... A branching quest? Are we supposed to pick one side or the other to support?" He, of course, recognizes the Nagas. Sword Art Online did not have such enemies, favoring instead anthropomorphic lizard warriors... and just generic jelly-slimes that definitely did NOT look like Women, but he recognizes the classical fantasy monsters instantly.

    The only trouble is he doesn't know what lore significance they have in THESE parts.

    "Y-yo, Krusty. You know anything about the local Undine or Naga races? Why they might be fighting and how they regard humans? ... Or are they just dumb monsters?"
Gawain Well, this is difficult. Two races fighting each other over a water-source that the locals need...Gawain leaps from the cart and through the rocks, in his armor as his sword is at hilt to his side. There's a clear solution to the problem, and Gawain is willing to try and solve his way - the way he always tries to handle things first.

The sun knight slides down the rocks, heading up to the lake. Once he's close enough, he shouts out, his voice knightly and noble, a cheerful smile on his face. "Undine, Naga, please stop fighting for just one moment! We would like to talk to you about this lake." He's not even ready for combat just yet - he's an excellent tank, if people want to use him as a decoy. "Your fighting is corrupting the water source, which is bad for everyone, not just you! May we ask that you move your battle elsewhere, or otherwise try to negotiate peace? I'm sure we can come to terms!"

Gawain hears that they're not that intelligent. It doesn't really matter. He has to try, doesn't he?
Candle Some people get involved by signing up for the quest, listening to the briefing, and carrying on. Other people were already a part of it all, and didn't need filling in because it was their problem to begin with. Then there's Candle. Candle has no idea where he is or what's going on and he certainly has no idea that there's an ongoing quest. He might have drawn attention, only the outlandish nature of his equipment and his overall appearance simply lends to him the presence of any other adventuring lunatic, and the fact that he roams with a bizarrely varied bunch of moderately armed individuals suggests that he's /probably/ the leader of the adventuring party.

This is technically true, but he's not from here at all.

Candle and his entourage are milling about along the river as The Party comes along it. Some of his people are poring over a map as he leans against a great blade that seems to be made out of the jawbone of a monstrous animal. Just as his people are figuring out that they are in fact Totally And Comprehensively lost, their leader perks up and pays attention to the party passing by.

More specifically he catches sight of Krusty and his huge axe and decides wherever that guy is going is way more interesting than wherever he is, and takes off after the group while his followers squawk an impotent protest and go scrabbling after him at a run.

He navigates well enough, right up to the site of the battle.

In reaction to all of the wondering about who's at fault and who isn't, Candle squints down the way towards the opposing sides.

Then, with an undue degree of confidence Candle declares, "The ones that aren't made of water are WHALE FUCKERS. Get rid of those bastards and everything will be fine!"

His emphasis on 'whale fuckers' is seethingly spiteful, as if the concept was personally offensive to him beyond what should be expected of the gross implications.
Kyoko Takada     Kyoko Takada is in Akihabara, just looking around and being an oddity of a tourist, herself, when the people gather up to go on "a quest." This is what she wanted to get in on, though not so much for the "fighting monsters" part of it, that she assumes will be involved, as general informational purposes. This place is interesting to her senses, the most important of them magical in nature. She puts out a general request for protection on the way over, to join in as a "noncombatant" and "observer," and is pleased to find some familiar faces among those attending. The Flotilla have helped out a few times in her memory, even quite recently... though there is the matter of George being a wanted man, back home. Anyway, this should be as reasonably close to safe as any combat situation is like to get, for her.
    To note, importantly, she only introduces herself as "Hibiki," and is obviously dressed as a denizen of a modern Tokyo.
    She sits in a carriage on the ride over, gets out at the point Krusty instructs, and makes her way with ordinary efforts through the rocks, keeping toward the center-back of the group as best she can. She keeps her magic running along the way, just her usual, what's become standard operating procedure: an effective sonar ping that scans the area around her to a moderate distance and low detail, reading the radar-like information back into a holo-display that's publicly visible in front of her, floating along relative to her body as she walks.
Tomoe So another day, another job, another chance to get the heck away from the Dark Lady, quest line, so that would be very good for her. She thinks about what could be cause of it.. It was unlikely to be corpses. After all the monsters here didn't leave much more than the ones back in her world, when they died. So that was out of the question for the moment. She thought on this as they make for the village. She listens for a moment nodding.

"Right, get ready for all the trash mobs and if we're unlucky another boss."

She notes as she'll get out her armored boots touch the ground the locals?

That's not quite what she was expecting but she rolls with it quickly enough and there seems to be a full on fight going on, and she's got a good idea the fight has a hand in what's going on here. This was going to get messy she thought as she made a moment. She looks to Gawain for a moment and nods.

"I'm with you there if we can talk..."

Then come Candle, whelp the talking may have just gone out of the window here, then again maybe not? Either way for once she's not charing in as she moves to confir with Gawain and Kirito.
Hector Joining in on today's quest is... Some old guy with a shiny spear! He looks like he's in his forties, he lazes about in the cart on the way over and hangs out in it for a while after it stops, and it takes him more time just to start following the group to the river.

     "Are any of them leaking? All that blood can't be good for the water, I bet." He strokes his goatee lightly while watching the monsters going at it, just raising an eyebrow slightly as Candle issues his declaration.

     "Whale...? Hm. Makes sense." He shrugs lightly, then starts sauntering right towards the clashing forces with his spear rested against his shoulder. He looks like he's just going for a leisurely walk at the pace he's going, barely even concerned about the whole... FIGHTING THING going on in front of (and soon to be around) him.
Starbound Flotilla     This time, the one who responds to the round table mission is not a rambunctious plant, but rather something a little easier to deal with. Moonfin, the fishman, is in elaborate full-body durasteel armor that looks like a powered cross between a diving suit and a samurai's armor, glowing cyan at the faceplate. Of course, he was social and polite in that way that is just a little bit too arrogant, and a little bit too prone to disregarding the complexities of the problem. "How loathsome. Sins against the ecosystem are of the highest order, as they are the ones most prone to causing potential damage to a wide and deeply fragile system. For the sake of nature, I must assist."

    Of course, Hibiki, who has supported Flotilla efforts many times, has had no problem in acquiring their protection. Aside from Moonfin himself, another member of the Flotilla is here! Seft, the robotic Flotilla member, is wearing full-on medieval knight armor with a soft energized blue glow below the plates on her body, and especially around the eyes. She's sticking with Kyoko Takada, but won't be participating directly in the battle itself.

    Of course, Moonfin recognizes a few of the other people who have come to assist in this matter. Iria, he knows fondly from her help in the IFO issue, and makes sure to give her a respectful bow of greeting. When he comes up on the site of the battle itself, he immediately takes stressed posture, and assumes a mood of tension. "An invasive species." He says, as if he already has identified every aspect of this situation. "I had expected a challenge such as this, based on the reports from that weed. To restore stability, such an invasive species must be purged." He says, seeming to answer Yuuki's and Tomoe's question. Azure Armature, he's only rarely had the chance moment of exposure to, but it's enough to draw his attention. "Perhaps, but note its presence in the shallows; perhaps it is best to seek a purging method more elementally suited?"

    "I already know which path I shall take, though." He says, in that way that is just too damn confident for the current situation. Gawain gets seemingly disregarded, as if Moonfin has just plain ditched his approach being possible from the start! he leaps high up into the air, and halfway through one of his flips, he activates something at his ankles, which shines with a brilliant light as he activates some kind of water-walking module that keeps him on the surface; he intends to rush out to the center of the battle, hoping that the videogame logic won't draw aggro on him until he takes a hostile action, and see what's right at the center where the taint is being released. Is it a Naga magic weapon, perhaps? He'll dive if he needs to, but he surprisingly doesn't have all that much swimming ability, simply a great deal of water survival ability.

    He's already got his katana active at his side, though, and he's well willing to take some heavy swings directly at any of the nagas particularly. In fact, that's his plan, if he can't find anything particularly notable right where the taint is being generated. He'll just start trying to turn the tide, so to speak!
Silica     Silica's here! She's mostly keeping to herself, ear cocked to listen to the plan, while she tends to her pets. Pina, Nana, Hibiki and a new one, a hawkbat resting on her left shoulder. She's passing out little nibble treats to them, her tail curled around her waist as she keeps pace with the group.
Krusty     The first one to get any reaction out of the two groups of monsters is Gawain. His shouting causes a few of the monsters from both sides to turn and look at him for a moment. He's successfully drawn their attention! ... And then they just go back to fighting, apparently uninterested in his words. Or simply perhaps not understanding them.

    Hectors calm walk towards the clashing forces goes unstopped, though unless he's got some way of walking on water like someone else here, soon he's going to be swimming.

    Speaking of, it is Moonfin who really ups the ante as oddly enough he reaches the centre of the battle without either side even paying him much heed. Judging by the way the battle rages around him, apparently he could stand there upon the water's surface for hours and not even get a scratch. But that immediately changes when he finds nothing of note at his destination and instead strikes out at the closest naga. The resulting effect is immediately noticeable to everyone.

    The battle seems to shift, with many of the naga that had been charging the front line instead turning, now beginning to head towards the gathered group of party members. From a distancce, spears begin to fly at everyone, arcing through the air and raining down on them. The naga that manage to close to within melee distance start to swing and stab with their swords and spears. There's many of them, more than enough to result in each party member fighting entire groups of multiple enemies at once. An overwhelming prospect, even for Multiverse elites!

    But the sudden attack by the naga force isn't the only effect. The undine's formation also changes, beginning to move towards the group of heroes. However, it becomes obvious upon reaching them that the undine aren't intending to attack, instead they begin to intercept some of the attacking naga, drawing their attention and assisting the party in the attack.

    The battle has been joined.

    Krusty parries a naga blade with his axe, quickly countering swith a swipe of the large two-handed weapon. The naga is cut in half, suddenly exploding into bubbles of light. Krusty quickly brings his weapon up to block another strike, shouting out to everyone as he does so, "The Queen! We need to reach her and destroy her to end this!"
Gawain The benefit of the sunny day is that Gawain's inhumanly durable right now. And as such, when the Naga begin swarming the party after his diplomacy fails (which leads him to a small but brief frown), Gawain is charging in there, tanking blows for the others. Spear throws, sword and spear stabs, the Knight of the Sun is taking it as his armor dents and he's cut into, seemingly still able to stand. He shouts out again, attempting to focus them on him so the others can do what they need to.

"Please! Stand down, you don't need to fight. Fighting will only lead to bad things, like destruction. If you do not comply, I will be forced to draw my blade. You have five seconds to signal such!" They still probably can't understand them...but regardless, they might be focusing on him, and Gawain can withstand a bit of punishment before he needs to actively fight back. If his unwillingness to draw a blade doesn't do something, nothing can.
Iria "Fine language YOU'RE using," Iria says to Candle with a sneer, before looking to Gawain. "And do you really believe talking to them will help our cause? They don't look like the type of creatures that want to be the first at the bargaining table to discuss land shares!" She scowls deeply, then looks to Tomoe. "Et tu, Tomoe?" She shakes her head, not even bothering to try to stop Hector, as she already feels like too many people here are losing their mind with this matter.

That belief turns to reality when the nagas suddenly attack, and Iria suddenly finds herself being rained upon by spears while other nagas are intent on striking directly with their swords and spears. "I TOLD you that this was a mistake! Now we're in over our heads!" Unfortunately, Iria doesn't have her firearms ready, instead just her katana which she holds with both hands firmly. "Guess it's time for a little swordplay!"

Iria approaches the nearest sword wielding naga, attempting to demonstrate some sword techniques of her own in an attempt to take care of it. "Good thing I ain't afraid of snakes!" Iria mutters.
Yuuki Konno     Yuuki's not amoral. Far from it in fact, but this is a Quest. It's an Adventure, and these are Monsters. You don't run around moralizing about slaying monsters, not if you're a Murderhobo. Er, an Adventurer that is. She can be convinced otherwise easily enough, especially when someone makes a reasonable argument and it doesn't get in the way of solving the Quest... but things sure are easier when she has a straightforward goal and some monsters to kill!

    "Well I guess that decides it?" Yuuki says, grinning cheerfully. Adventuring is fun, and she has no qualms about a good fight. She draws her blade and rushes headlong into the fight, using her speed to cut a wide swath through dozens of enemy forms.

    As usual, Yuuki doesn't bother actually trying to kill her foes. Not that she holds back on delivering killing blows if the opportunity arises, but she doesn't bother stopping to finish anything off. She simply strikes, usually three or so slashes in the space of a step or two, moving on to engage the next opponent as she continues her route. She relies on speed, trying to be away from any single foe before it realizes she's there and has a chance to attack her. It's not always possible of course, but in a lot of cases those creatures who turn to deal with her will find themselves necessarily turning away from other enemies. Yuuki's seemingly reckless charge headlong into the enemy midst is, in fact, an aggressive team-minded sprint. She lets others get the actual kills, or clean up the foes as the case may be. Her goal is simply to wreak havok among the enemy battle lines.
Kyoko Takada     Kyoko's gotten the impression that Seft's a less hotheaded member of the Flotilla than average, which suits her fine as a guard buddy. Still, more help is better, and she has a strong compulsion against trusting any single point of support to keep her upright. Some of the people here seem dangerously reckless, though Gawain... is at least being reckless in a way that's only likely to get /him/ in trouble, and he can probably take it. "Not a bad idea, really. Let's see how they react." Of course, they're not going to step up and negotiate, but any kind of reaction will tell her something. It could even be something useful.
    "Oh," turning to see him, then ignoring him until Moonfin shows up, who also gets ignored. Right up until Moonfin attacks one, at which point the people /on shore/ get targeted. "Interesting."
    Meanwhile, protection. Kyoko addresses Silica directly, as another backline supporter. "Oh, Silica, hello! I could use some cover, if you don't mind. I'm leaving the fighting to everyone else." That claim may not be strictly true, but she has continued, today, her trend of being totally unarmed, and not in the way Goku is usually technically unarmed. His body may count as a weapon, but hers certainly does not. Literally getting behind someone and taking cover is pretty much a necessity, especially with spears flying.
    That's not to say that she isn't taking this chance to be an active, rather than passive, observer. Passive scans can only reveal so much, while the dangers of active scanning are mostly mitigated by having other, tougher people between her and the targets. She's pretty interested in the matter of the water's "tainting." Unfortunately, the battle shifting as it has also requires her to shift priorities. "Geez, alright. There'll be more chances, I hope. Let's see..."
    More loudly, "Speaking of... who's planning on making a run for the boss? Anyone? No?" She sighs, but Moonfin responds soon enough for her to get to work. Her magic directs outward, mapping the immediate battlefield, showing blips for each of the combatants, focusing on the hostile naga. Lines appear on the projection showing movement, the data funneling back through her connection to her logic engines at home and spitting back out data, trying to crack their algorithms in real-time and give approximate course plots with moderate input from how friendly positions interact with enemy ones. Once the model is coming together, she selects Moonfin's blip on the projection, and possible courses start appearing based on all the prior data to get him over to the boss's location with as little interference as possible. The results are fed over to Moonfin's pickups, updating a few times a second as the battle changes.
    It's all just information and guesswork, but she's pretty good at this.
Athela Valemore So much for negotiating. But it was worth a try, wasn't it?

But at the same time, the results aren't really a surprise, and by the time the Naga are shifting to attack Athela is already ready to move. "Stay here," she commands her previos mount before running towards the lake herself. As she nears the edge she quickly taps one of the aquamarine colored gems on her belt and in a surge of mystic energy releases her Samurott into the water. Immeadiately the large armored sealion-like creature charges towards the Nagas on the water with his head lowered to ram into them with the ramming prow of a horn attatched to his helmet.

But rather than take to his backside Athela just runs right out onto the water herself, dashing gracefully across the surface thanks to her blessing of water walking. She moves just behind her pokemon, so she can intercept Naga that manage to leap out of the beast's charging path and cut them down with her own sword. "Thy fouling of these waters ends nigh, creatures!"

Left where she is, Gogoat just chomps up some grass and chews on it, because that's what goats do. For now she seems to not be needed.
Goku     "Uh oh..." Goku grimaces when Moonfin strikes a naga and the battle changes. Not having any weapons or anything on him of course, the Saiyan relies on his prowess in martial arts to avoid the spears that thrust towards him. Dodging out of the way he ducks and strafes, occasionally blocking a strike with an energy fuelled hand. "Sheesh!" He cries out, sending a clenched first forward directly into one of the naga creatures. As he ducks under another blow, he lets loose a few light blue energy blasts to hurt his foes at range. Certainly nothing to kill, but hopefully enough to disable.
    As a spear thrust from the side catches his shoulder -- ripping the orange gi and causing some blood to ooze from the resulting wound, he yelps in some surprise. "Wow! You guys are absolutely warriors. No doubt about it. Heh." It seems, for the moment at least, he is engaged by just defending himself.
Candle There is a jolt of motion from Candle's entourage. They shift around him and meet the oncoming Naga with a ferocious shout. The clanging of weapons ring around him as blades of flame and water burst into existence around their hands. Blood spurts from great gashes as the outer ring take wounds and fall back to the center, to be replaced by the next ring of combatants who press back into the Naga with -- largely -- flaming blades and spears. But they're not trying to attack, they're just entering a holding pattern and not folding.

Candle laughs uproariously as a thrown knife whistles through the ranks and carves a chunk out of his cheek. A momentary flash of blood flecks the ground, but the wound ceases to bleed -- though it does not close -- almost at once. He doesn't reach for the colossal weapon at his back, instead conjuring a blade of ghostly flame to hand.

"Whale fuckers, whale fornicators, whale breeders. People what lie with animal gods, woman. Quit your whining, words only have the weight that you give them." Candle snaps back at Iria, an ember of flame dancing in his eyes. "Ahh, but I'm not going to play fair. Not with whalekin. COME ON BOYS!"

Candle and his entourage dissolve momentarily into a cloud of ember-filled smoke that relocates itself among the ranks of the Elementals / Undines. They are borne aloft above the water, or perhaps merely stand upon it. Raising his blade of flame above his head, Candle calls, "ANY OF YOU WHO STAND AGAINST THE WHALEKIN, HERE'S MY GIFT TO YOU! Cut 'em down and cut 'em to bits! Burn them and choke the air from their lungs!"

There is a palpable surge of power that ripples outwards from Candle. The ELEMENTALS and ANYBODY ELSE fighting to KILL THE NAGA can feel that they have been offered power -- TEMPORARY power -- in measure with what Candle has been exhibiting so far.
Hector Hector squints slightly as he takes stock of the surrounding area more closely, noticing that there's... Quite a couple of kids here, it seems! Sure, they've all got fancy weapons or creatures with them, and they're all Elites here, but something about that still doesn't sit right with him. He can't afford to check on them just yet, however, as the Naga turn their attention towards the group as a whole.

     "... Well, you tried." He calls out to Gawain with something vaguely resembling a reassuring(?) half-shrug, then grips his spear with both hands while glancing towards Iria. "It's fine as long as it all works out in the end. We wipe them out, and then..."

     He glances over at Candle, then shrugs again without finishing that thought. As a trio of spears come flying towards him, he flicks his spear up to deflect two of them before knocking the third away with a mechanical arm. Said spear is then aimed at an unlucky naga group as Hector dashes forward to stab at one, then swings it (with or without the naga still attached) at the rest of the group surrounding him. His moves aren't quite as flashy, but they're certainly efficient, especially with that boost of power!
Silica     Right, this is a PuG, they always run in without a plan. Silica sighs, clicking her tongue and directing her pets to take up a defensive posture as she backs up towards Kyoko and Seft. Hands lift and she begins to speak words of power. "Oss Sér Ulma Eimi Lind Og Sveró!" an interlocking dome of blue hexagonal panels appear around everyone considered to be 'in the party', providing them with a minor buffer against damage. "This should help against the physical attacks, just be careful, it doesn't cover elemental or magic damage!" she calls to the others.
Kirito Days like this remind Kirito of some of why he appreciates still hunting and grinding solo. Such chaos. The Black Swordsman's quite gobsmacked by all of it, from Candle's sudden obscene declaration to the general ramshackleness of this entire operation. It leaves him with a sinking feeling in his stomach.

    All his Death Game instincts are screaming that running in like this is STUPID, and someone's probably GONNA DIE.

    Because that has DEFINITELY happened to him before.

    WIth a sharp intake of breath, the Spriggan reaches up with both hands to clasp his blades... and draws both. In the same motion though.... "HRUUUUUOOOOOOOUUUUUUGHHHHHH!!!"

    In the same motion, he manifests both translucent wings and ROCKETS over the river quick enough to kick up a spray in the faces of the onrushing Nagas. A few spears pierce his limbs in this undertaking, drawing more hisses - these ones PAINFUL - but even as he bleeds crimson pixels from the wounds Kirito doesn't slow down.

    He slams straight into the Naga lines with his blades aglow, and engages in a furious onslaught of hyper-powered strikes delivered with expert skill. Celestial light flares every which way from his blades as he carves into the front lines using some of his Area of Effect techniques!
Starbound Flotilla     "Second Sea Hylotl Style: Eternal Erosion." Moonfin says dramatically as the first wave of spears streak towards him and the first wave of blades fall on him in melee range. He takes a powerful, defensive counter-focused stance, and charges forward into the fray! Spears crash into him, blunted by the impact against armor into jarring, powerfully bruising impacts that thankfully don't impale. Blades that fall on him in melee range are halted, parried, or blocked, draining his endurance, pulling and straining his muscles, and filling his arms with the fatiguing injuries of shield shock.

    He keeps charging. Some buffs are coming around! What does happen when you stack superhuman /armor/ with superhuman /magic/? Candle finds out in the form of Moonfin's momentary fatigue leaving him all in a sudden rush! He skids back from the impact of one of the blows from the naga forces, then with an abrupt rush, of light, seems to gather around him in an abrupt rush! His armor's Erchius systems conduct the empowering magic just fine, leaving him awash in shockwaves of watery light, and the fishman's defensive counter-posture suddenly turns into a brilliant, shining array of stylish high-tech energy-conducting counter-strikes meant to impale and dismember anything that strikes against him! Kyoko Takada's own information boost gives him a ruthlessly dangerous power, as flickering holography over his face and hands shows the signs of AR interfaces conducting her own buff, and he somehow moves precisely for the weakest points in the oncoming formation, trying to pierce them directly and aggressively. Silica's rush of all-party protection boosts his armor, empowering its shield system, so that the next spears that crash against his body are blunted even more, some even shattering on the stylish hexagonal panels that surround him!

    "Come, savages of scale! Come, legless fiends! I shall strike down all who threaten the balance of nature! My blade is one of artisty, precision, /perfection/, but it is not one of mercy! Does your queen dare to strike me with the same courage she had to strike nature herself?!" He calls out over-confidently as he tries to cut a path straight along Kyoko's chosen path!

    Meanwhile, Seft will attempt to provide a shield to hide behind from falling spears, as well as actual physical cover for Hibiki in the form of quick-deployed cement cover for her ally! She won't be participating in this battle much, herself, electing to just not take many actions that a hypothetical GM in this situation would ever have to pay attention to, and is basically just a free buffer healthbar for Kyoko Takada.
Tomoe Tomoe does not even give Iria an reply, thjings have gone south, then she moves to rub it in. She will move in after Kirito as he runs in, that just leave her not in a good head spaxe. She's worrid something is going to happen. It's going to get someone killed and she moves tio charge in after Kirito and do what she can to support him. Still the fact someone from her own guild questioned her not wanting to charge in and kill everything like a muder hobo troubles her.

She's charing on in as Kirito just unlaods while she starts to drop the AOE taunts to hopefully pull them off him so he can do his thing she'll also start spamming out the endurance buffs to her allies as she closes in on the Nagas.

"This day is just ... Kirito why are you charing in like this damn it your going to get someone killed!"
Krusty     It seems that the party is starting to split. Those that are capable of doing so have moved onto (or above) the water, beginning to help the main force of undine strike back. Their efforts are noticeably effective as the front line begins to move, pushing the naga back. Meanwhile those left on the shore are having much the same effect, especially with their undine allies joining the frey. The tide has been turned.

    The naga are fairly decent warriors, blocking attacks where possible with their weapons. They are also quite agile, quickly weaving their way through that which they cannot block. Of course, individually they are only a minor match for the party members. Those that are struck down vanish into bubbles of light. Others who are wounded but not finished off will only pause for a few moments, before pressing their attacks once again. They fight with near mindless regard for their own safety. Gawain's words fall on deaf ears.

    Unfortunately, despite the large amount of numbers that the supremely powerful group of elites are dealing with, more and more keep coming. As seen before, the source is obvious. The naga camp with its apparently unlimited supply of eggs, hatching more and more naga as each one falls. The flow of reinforcements is not instant, as evidence by the fact that the lines are being pushed back. But naga still continue to come forth, immediately charging into battle...

    ... It must be a sad existence. To be born, to charge, to die.

    Kyoko's efforts are effective at pinning down the location of the queen within the naga camp. Those like Moonfin and Goku who plan to assault said leader now have a precise location. If they make a push for it, they should be able to reach her at the camp. The queen is at least twice the size of the warrior naga that are attacking, her armour a lot more detailed. She wields a spear in each hand as she oversees the battle from afar.

    The undine fighting alongside the party are losing less and less of their numbers, particularly as Candle's power washes over them and boosts them beyond their normal strength. Many of the undine single out party members to fight along side, gracefully assisting with holding off the numbers of naga. Some protect, creating walls of water near Gawain and Tomoe to reduce the number of attacks directed at them. Others strike, like those spiralling around Yuuki and Kirito, firing off blasts of water to help finish off those left behind.

    Krusty himself mainly holds his ground amongst those on the shore, assisting them with the fight. As Candle's power reaches him, his axe suddenly lights up, flames dancing along the edge. He swings at a naga, its flesh sizzling as it cuts through. As the monster vanishes, Krusty takes a moment to assess the situation. Pushing his glasses up his nose he says, "Those who can make the push on the queen, do so. The rest of us need to continue thinning the numbers so that the queen cannot summon support."
Gawain The Naga have made their decision. Gawain's hand moves for his blade after five seconds have passed, and then suddenly, he's sweeping forward. "Forgive me, but you've made your choice!" Excalibur Galatine moves to gracefully cut through the naga, while Gawain quickly shifts from that to defensive blocks and parries with superhuman reflex, moving to slash through as many as possible. Before he was simply resisting them, but now he's going full-in on offensive. "Anyone who needs defensive, get behind me! I'll cover you!"

Gawain, specifically, is assisting in defending the Undine as he moves, trying to thin any numbers that come at them.
Silica     Silica stands against the incoming spears from the front line, even as it's pushed back. Some punch through the shield buff she gave the party, one lodging into her shoulder, eliciting a shriek of pain as it punches clean through, leaving a nasty looking red damage decal. The arm falls limp to the side, and Silica staggers as she fights against the urge to just keel over from the pain. Her remaining arm lifts, and she begins to chant again, unsteadily.

    "Su fylla heilagr austr brott svalar bani!" She falls to a knee after finishing, but looks a bit better as the healing water washed over her, fading the damage decal slightly, but she remains with only one arm. "Hibiki, Pina, Pin Missile!" The pair lift up, Hibiki coiling around Pina, as they both open their mouths. Pina's bubble breath lances out, and is then joined by a 'Wind Needle' from Hibiki, joining together into a barrage of disorienting, poisonous barbs that rain down into the Naga frontline. These barbs pass harmlessly through allied units, including the Undine.
Iria Iria wasn't expecting a response from Tomoe, as the brunette bounty hunter was being rather sarcastic at the time. Which is something that Iria tends to do quite a bit when she's angry or annoyed. Unfortunately, if you don't know Iria too well, you'll be surprised to learn that she gets angry rather easily which leads to sarcasm quite a bit.

But enough commentary about that...

Iria's holding her own quite well in the battle against the naga. "You may be superior in numbers," She comments with a grin. "But what I lack in numbers I make up for in skill!" She manages to down several more naga with her katana, and then the power from Candle approaches. She doesn't know what to make of it at first until her blade becomes illuminated with flame. The grin then increases.

"I'm really on fire now!" Iria says as she moves towards the nest of the nagas, fighting off those that get in her way in hopes of attempting to destroy their eggs and reduce their numbers. "You can't win against us!"
Candle "Hey! Hey, HEY!" Candle roars across the surface of the lake, at last hefting the colossal jawbone-blade from his back. He brandishes it dramatically, waving it about above his head. It is ludicrously oversized, dripping a silvery substance about him as if it were bleeding mercury.

Volleys of what he can only assume to be a combination of throwing javelins and arrows flicker in. Candle bats a few aside with the jawbone, as others find their mark amidst his armor and followers and sink in with heavy thunks that send him tumbling here and there through the air. With one eye closed, he surveys the distant shore.

"... The best thing about Candles," He rights himself with a jerk, and gives a great wavy motion of his blade, "is just how FAR their FLAMES CAN SPREAD!"

Every being who is currently wielding Candle's power in ANY WAY is suddenly the center of a terrific eruption of flames that fan out around them -- harmlessly for them and surrounding friendlies -- and so long as they CONTINUE using his power, become a persistent aura that vexes and scorches opponents near to them.

Since people are clustered heavily and the UNDINE are making use of Candle's abilities, this is a LOT OF FIRE.
Yuuki Konno     Yuuki is more or less safe within the mass of attacking nagas. Safe, of course, is a relative term. She's pressed hard on all sides thanks to having dived literally headfirst into the middle of a mob, but that's exactly where she wants to be!

    She's also not as badly hurt as she should be. Part of this is due to the screen of darkness surrounding her. Candle's buff finds a place with the whirling Imp, empowering her own Darkness magic so she's releasing blasts of smoke with every strike of her sword. Nothing that would really help her attack, but enough to keep her from being an easy target. Between the smoke and the press of bodies there's no real opportunity for nagas to throw things at her, and by the time she's close enough to poke a spear at, she's already parried the thrust, done her harm and started to move on. Red pixellated lines of damage cover her body, but they're shallow and dull. More scratches rather than anything that appears to be life-threatening.

    "Will do, boss!" Yuuki cries out happily, her voice coming from a mass of the shorebound nagas. That voice, her occasional head poking up as she leaps, and the blasts of smoke are the only clear signs of her while she's buried deep in the enemy forces.
Hector After slicing through another naga, Hector starts to take stock of the battlefield again. With Candle, Silica, and Iria focusing on improving everyone's ability to fight while Kyoko, Moonfin, Yuuki, and Goku seek the leader, that leaves the rest of the party to hold the mass of bodies at bay.

     Simple enough. "Undine! Fall back if you need a breather, and don't let them draw you into an ambush." He shouts to try and assist them in holding the line even as he advances steadily, cutting down and impaling naga left and right. "Back up the... Hmm. The bright one and the beast tamer while you're at it!"

     One lucky spearsnake manages to ram its weapon into Hector's side, but is quickly met with a full on punch to the face for its trouble. He winces slightly while putting a hand against the wound, but keeps on advancing undeterred. "How long are we going to be at this...?"
Starbound Flotilla     Moonfin tears his way through the formation, keeping his momentum through the army only because of the substantial power being fed into his armor! As his steady strides turn into a mad dash, he closes in on the target of the battle with increasing speed, until he closes in on line of sight with the double-size boss foe! He'll have to depend on the others to handle drawing the foes off of him as he breaks into a massive leap, and then blinks out of the air as his teleporter goes off!

    "Sixth Sea Hylotl Style: Tidal Crush!" He blinks back into existence above the massive foe and swings down with a heavy overhead strike, one that has so much power built up into the armor and the blade that it's likely to cut a trench through the ground several yards past the end of the katana itself, as well as utterly shatter the blade from the overload of melee power being fed into it, whether or not the blow lands. He draws a fresh katana from his Matter Manipulator and hopes that the heavy overhead strike will be something that he can follow up on, something that might have stunned their foe slightly, before attempting to lay into them with a series of leaping slashes to feel out the defensive properties of this massive creature! And, hopefully, to be a useful relay point for Goku. He mentioned needing an instant transmission person to transmit to, right? Does that... Does that work with teleporter beacons? Because now Moonfin is broadcasting his personal teleportation beacon stuff in Goku's direction, in vague hopes that fulfills the requirements, and can bring Goku in at a useful angle.
Azure Armature There is that moment when Moonfin strides up, a zen of chaos, that Azure Armature can appreciate, remembering the fishperson from before, in the world of the machines fighting each other (the only way she could really think about it). She stood, perched on the sidelines, like a spider settled upon a web, anticipatorially...

And then the fighting starts, but with it, the sounds from Candle, which totally take Armature by complete surprise. Whale... whale WHAT?

Azure stops by Candle, following him as her poncho's hem drags in the water. "Why does that matter. What... What are you even talking about? They seem to be some sort of reptile. Is this a local issue? Can you explain?"

Her tone is gravelly but slightly pleading, ignorant, confused. It doesn't stop her from entering into (flame-enhanced) combat with charging Naga, levelling fierce punches and kicks into them, losing some of her previous hesitance at the total '????' of Candle's chant about whale fornication.

It turns out, battle is its own needy mistress, drinking deeply from one's attentions.

Skirting to the rear of Candle's gumbie horde, she listens to the direction of the 'mission controller', nodding at the directive - thin and suppress. Raising up her right arm, the lights around her arm snapping into a matte cylinder with a barrel - not a hand - at the end, that charges with a bright red light. As Candle doubles down on the FIRE support, Azure Armature begins fire SUPPORT, lobbing magmatic spheres that airburst into sprays of sticky, oily napalm-like substances over the egg clutches. Even if the eggs are game constructs, or some excuse for a spawning zone, blasting them with field flame effects - boosted by Candle's burning buffs - could potentially defeat or weather their enemies as they clashed, pushing up allied forces towards wiping out the beastmen.
Goku     Goku continues his fight with the naga back on shore, and while he had intended on engaging the Queen, the initiative of the others combined with the numbers directly on him make it difficult! As a few more spears and weapons graze his skin, the black haired Saiyan flips and handsprings about to try and provide himself with some distance. Again and again the naga press, always on the offensive. Counter attacks are sent their way in the form of fists and feet, but there isn't time or room for him to get clear. "Tch," He grunts, feeling the sweat drip down his face. In the back of his mind he keeps a mental lock of where Moonfin is. Or rather, his energy signature.

    Then, a gap appears! Amid some heavy breathing, Goku uses the spare second he has to raise his index finger and middle fingers to his forehead. He then disappears, re-appearing directly by Moonfin's side. And then Queen of the Naga, of course. It happens so fast that there is barely a frame of time that passes as he makes the jump. "I'm here!" Goku cries to Moonfin, before launching into a wicked combination of punches and kicks at the Queen! "Oriyaaaa! Hya hya hya!"
Kirito Noise. Noise and screaming and clanging and howling and battlecries. The incident has devolved into purest chaos by Kirito's reckoning and his brow's furrowed tightly and deeply in agitation at this. Agitation and desperation. But he's going to cut through as fast as he can, as quickly as he can, and bring an END to this. BOth his swords ignite as the FLame Essence takes hold of Vox Unitas and Divination... and Kirito cracks a rare, wildly sadistic grin.

    Because any gamer has that thrill when they touch MORE POWER unexpectedly. That urge to GO FORTH AND USE IT.

    But he clamps down a moment later and focuses it. Unexpectedly, flames burst forth from him and engulf the surrounding Naga...

    So he does the best thing he can imagine, and takes low flight... then blitzes through the lines, wreathed in flames. A burning meteor, Kirito spirals down and SLAMS into the Queen's nesting grounds - trying to squash/break/fry as many eggs as possible with the results. Both blades are on fire and a bloodthirsty grin, eager for a good challenge, is forming on his face.

    "Not what I was expecting, but heck yeah. Bring it on, Naga Queen!" He twirls his blades briefly to show off and lunges forth, blades glowing crimson with a Fire-aspected Sword Skill underneath Candle's offered power. DOUBLE FLAME STRIKES!
Kyoko Takada     Things are going better. Only that first surprise attack, longer-range and quicker to aggro than she expected, pushes any real threat of danger Kyoko's way, and Silica's defensive shield blunts that impact to just a painful graze before Seft more neatly blocks off the problem from the 21st-cen office worker. It's still enough to get her hissing as she holds her wounded fingers, sensitive skin crying the usual alarm bells to someone without the adrenaline rush to deaden the pain, nor the calluses of the combat life. Candle's power doesn't reach her, being outside the specified targets. Her projections, at least, only flicker when objects pass through them.
    Those at the front, attracting attention as Gawain does, and those pushing the line forward give her the confidence to peek around and keep track of the battle visually now and then, but her magic can go through cement blocks just fine, and she relies more on that. Moonfin's not the only one who can receive her broadcast info, though it will take active notice from her to convert it to any nonstandard interface, if another wants it. "I'll keep up the navigation," she says, "speak up if you need a feed."
    Kyoko turns around to look at Silica as she cries out, but she has few ways to help, and only a vague understanding of what the beast tamer is doing. Lack of information makes her job much harder.
    Kyoko tightens up her focus, narrowing in on the fight between Moonfin, anyone who joins him quickly enough, and the naga leader. Her scanning doesn't work that well on analyzing biological material, but she's had enough practice for combat behavioral analysis to show some dividends. If it has the traits of reacting when a weak spot is struck, or guarding some part of itself, that'll show up quickly as it fights, and give her the data needed to beam over weakness-identification overlays to Moonfin's pickup. She has no idea what Goku is working with, but Kirito is more of a known quantity, and will have to actually resist her intrusive messages to not get the same information hacked into his visual interface as he attacks.
Tomoe Tomoe will take the support from the elemental it's quite welcome really so she can more focus on dealing with the Naga. The battle is going on and the Naga are better fighters than she might expect. She's now able to better focus on taking the mobs in smaller numbers. She is still trying to keep them on her or Gawain than on the party or anyone else. She can't help but thing even as the strange powers of Candle wash over her that it is a wretched life, to be born, to charge and fight until you are dead.

She could push for the queen but crowd control for everyone else. She'll keep with the attacks but here blade dawn breaker catches fire and she starts thrown waves of flames as she strikes. Even as she too keeps going and she'll follow Kirito now as he goes for the queen, they need someone to keep her focus right?

She'll take flight with her own wings leaving some fire in her wake.

"Gawain I trust the adds to you I'll help the others tank the Queen!"

With that she'll come down like a firery meteror beside Kirito aiming to tank the queen or deal with adds that might pile on during the fight.

"Right, let's get this over with."
Krusty     The battle is quickly turning in favour of the Party-Undine alliance. Both battlefronts, on water and on shore, quickly reach the naga camp. Moonfin's charge pushes him all the way to the Queen at the center, his massive attacking ripping up the ground and one of the huts behind its target. The Queen herself takes much of the attack, stumbling for a moment as she's thrown off balance. Moonfin was the first to reach the Queen, but not the last.

    Meanwhile, Iria has come upon a rather good idea as her push brings her within range of the naga eggs. They begin to shatter under her assault, more and more being destroyed as Azure joins in, her napalm-like blasts burning the eggs to ash. This begins to reduce the number of reinforcements, easing the assaults on those thinning out the naga numbers.

    Struck by poison barbs, a few of the naga turn their attention on the tamer of the group. Several spears are suddenly flying through the air towards Silica, but they don't reach their target as one of the undine suddenly places itself in their way. The spears strike the elemental, who appears to stumble under the assault. She manages a blast of water, which knocks the naga away for a moment. But unfortunately the damage is done as the undine vanishes into bubbles of light.

    The other undine are likewise willing to sacrifice. While not as mindlessly aggressive as their naga enemies, they nevertheless seem to be just as willing to give up their lives. Hector's words do not seem to reach them as they continue to press their attacks. Sacrificing themselves to help defend the party.

    Goku and Kirito's sudden arrival and assaults on the Queen trigger her to react. She unleashes an ear-piercing scream so powerful that it visibly ripples away from her. Even the most willful person would need to pause to endure such a vocal assault. But it was not just meant as an attack on those near her, but also a call. The naga force visibly reacts to scream and had they the numbers, would have responded with aid. But thanks to the like of Yuuki, Hector, Krusty, who continue to strike at the naga numbers, and those who are dealing with the eggs, no such help comes.

    Her call unanswered, the Queen follows up with strikes from her twin spears. She wields them effectively, lashing out at the attackers around her with expert skill and precision.
Krusty     The blasts of fire unleashed from each individual enhanced by Candle's power do them no harm. Unfortunately nature is not quite so lucky. The grassy shores begin to smolder as fire engulfs them, while bursts of steam begin to rise from the lake. Huts within the naga camp begin to burn as the flames engulf their very flammable materials.
Goku     Goku doesn't just pause. He reels! The screaming performed by the Naga Queen is enough to stop him dead in his tracks and fall to his knees -- hands lifted and clutching his ears to try and block the sound. As the call to her allies finally ends, the Saiyan is left gasping -- mind numb and temporarily scrambled from the sensory onslaught. Through his instincts and nothing more he manages to sort of duck and roll out of the way from the spear attacks, putting some distance between himself and her. Even with this move he is caught and gashed quite badly on his calf -- struck just before he escaped range. "Guh--!" He grunts, feeling the stinging pain.
    "I may not be able to scream as loudly as you," He mutters, slowly getting to his feet as his ears stop ringing. "...but I can do something else!" With his fingers sprayed in front of his eyes, he focusses for just a moment before hollering one of his favourite techniques: "Solar Flare!"
    Goku's entire body explodes violently with extremely bright light, washing over every individual in the immediate area. Anyone who doesn't close their eyes in time may just feel themselves temporarily blinded. Which, ideally, includes the Naga Queen in this case! But not his allies. >_>;
Gawain With the additions thinned, Gawain starts sprinting, moving to try and jump and clear his way as close to the naga camp as he can, before doing it again until he's there. He's hoping to land to in a striking position, blade slicing into the side of the queen, before rolling back into a defensive block. "Allow me to take the brunt of her blows! She refuses to stand down, so she sadly must be slain. Good luck!"
Hector For better or for worse, Hector isn't particularly worried about the Undine throwing themselves into the fightblender. He doesn't have much stake in their squabble with the naga compared to seeing the water purified, after all. Still, seeing them not really heed his warnings is mildly frustrating.

     Keyword being mildly, of course. With their numbers thinning out, the spear-wielder changes course, turning instead to join the assault on the Queen. Keeping his distance as the Queen screams, he brings down another naga before taking aim at the Queen with his palm.

     His palm? His palm. Heeding Goku's warning, he looks away as that light bursts out of his body, squinting for a moment despite not looking anywhere near the Saiyanbefore turning again. Should the Queen still be swinging her spears around, he waits until she finishes a swing before launching his arm outwards, aiming to grab onto one of those spears and give it a vicious yank to try and disarm the Queen!
Iria "These are definitely eggs I wouldn't want for breakfast!" Iria says with a look of disgust on her face. "Hell, I wouldn't even feed them to Fujikuro!" After taking out a good portion of the eggs, Iria turns her attention on the queen, and her eyes narrow. "So you're the one behind all of this! You've made a huge mistake causing all this trouble!" She points her katana at the queen. "You're gonna be joining your subordinates very shortly for what you've done!"

Unfortunately, Iria's talking causes her to ignore the spears coming at her and she is forced to leap backwards, but not quickly enough. One of the spears pierces her cape into her armor. The tip just barely reaches the flesh, but it's definitely sharp enough to cause Iria to cry out. "OWW!" She screams, reeling back and holding the spot where she got wounded. "Damn, I really let myself go there!"

Unfortunately, the naga queen will now learn the hard way that when Iria is hurt, she really gets mad. And when she gets mad at a target, that target's life expectancy drops quite a lot. But attacking will have to wait a little while as Iria raises her hands to shield herself from that Solar Flare, not wanting to risk getting blinded by Goku. It's not until she senses the coast is clear to unshade her eyes.

Once Iria is certain the flare is done and the queen is (hopefully) blinded, the brunette bounty hunter gives a nod and a smile to Goku saying, "Thanks for that!" Before she rushes towards the queen with a scowl again. "And as for you, it's time to send you to meet your maker!" Iria yells, brandishing her katana.
Candle Bloodied and not yet prepared to make his next move, Candle shoulders his ridiculous jawbone sword and looks at Azure Armature. His expression is one of absolute bafflement. He explains, "They're animal-people. All animal people are children of the Great Whale, and they're all vicious bastards."

He gestures loosely with the jawbone, "These couldn't be more obviously whalefuckers if they tried. So if you kill them, it'll solve the problem."

With his IRREFUTABLE LOGIC established, Candle gazes 'cross the water towards the QUEEN and the fight surrounding her. He jerks a head in that direction, "We're going to have a go at that. Come if you like. Eh..."

He eyes his JAWBONE BLADE, and exchanges it for a massive TRIDENT, which he grasps one-handed. Nodding to himself, Candle gestures to his followers, "Fan out and converge! Come down from above, I'll take the center. Wounded stay at the back and finish off any stragglers."

Candle and his entourage fan out in a circle. They're nowhere near the SOLAR FLARE and its effective range until it's already over this, appearing wielding their weapons of flame and water over the top of the QUEEN NAGA.

Candle tsks-tsks before plunging down his gigantic trident. Simultaneous with his strike, his entourage crowds in from surrounding aerial angles to drive their weapons in alongside all the other attackers and hopefully overwhelm the NAGA QUEEN with their numbers.
Silica     Silica looks at the spears descending on her, hunkering down to hopefully reduce the damage... but then she hears the Undine taking the hit for her. She reaches out with her good hand, just as the Undine bursts into bubbles. "..."

    A memory passes through her mind, watching a similar sight play out in SAO, as she watched Pina die in front of her after taking a hit meant to end her own life.

    Silica's eyes narrow down, her jaw sets, and with a ulalaling battlecry, she SMACKS her shoulder to get it working again, willpower letting it move. She pushes back to her feet, and with a click of her tongue sets Pina and Hibiki to protect Kyoko. Nana and the new hawkbat follow their Tamer as she runs across the scorched shoreline. She's fast. REALLY fast, and as she approaches, she covers her eyes from Goku's Solar Flare. Mid flare, the light bodied Cait Sith leaps over the others, pouring light into her dagger as it flashes from its sheath. "HYAAAAAAAAH!"

    Silica's warcry makes Nana the ice boar charge in low, aiming to skewer the Queen's lower body with its ice tusks, while the hawkbat swoops in to rake it's talons across the Queen's head. Silica's dagger seeks one of the Queen's hands, looking to disarm her of one of those spears.
Athela Valemore     Spears thrust and blades strike, but they find minimal purchase against the strange metal that composes Samurott's knightly armor. The few that do manage to get between the plates still have thick hide and muscle to contend with, and risk getting mauled by the armored beast's metal claws and horned helmet in the procees. He rears up in the water like a living shield to take as many of the attacks as possible. There is more than just being a big wall of muscle and armor to this than it first appears though.

As the numbers are thinning and less reinforcements coming thanks to eggs being burned Athela turns her attention to the fight on the shore. Ugh, grass fires on the shore. That will need to be dealt with later. But for now it's just an obstacle to surmount.

With her ability to run on the water she winds back from the fight, only to turn and come charging up behind her pokemon as Samurott rises in the water. It puts him at a good angle for her to use the ridges and spines of his armor as footholds to run up his back, and as she steps onto his head Lancer thrusts it up to give her additional boost. Between the launch and the boost to her own ability from Candle's magical buffs instead of just a stunning leap Athela is sent catapulting into the air to cross the distance past the shore and the burning landscape with ease.

Divine light gleams off Resolute Blade as Athela hoists it over her head with both hands. "Thy terror ends now, snake witch!" The holy blade shines even brighter as she drops into the fight shortly after Goku's blinding diversion, swinging down with the weapon in a mightly cleaving blow with her defense penetrating technicque. "Justice strike ye down... SACRED SWORD!"
Yuuki Konno     When the Queen calls for aid, Yuuki takes advantage of her foes' distraction to strike home a few times. Just because she'd rather cut into her foes' strength doesn't mean she won't take advantage of a clear weakness after all! And her sword, slender as it is, still manages to do plenty of damage when she strikes vulnerable points... which she often manages just fine.

    With that bit of murder out of the way, and the general thinning of the crowd, Yuuki catches her first clean look at the battle around the Queen. "Boss monster!" she crows happily, abruptly ZOOMing into that battle at top speed. Which, of course, is pretty damn fast. She has just enough time to call out, "I'll help, Tomoe!" before she's there, ducking under one of the Queen's spears as she darts in at her friend's side to lance a strike at the naga queen before she vaults away, laughing gleefully, to lend her sword to Goku and Moonfin's efforts. Sure they're not quite the same level of friend as Tomoe is, but they're friends if even just for this pickup group!
Kirito Not just Goku! Kirito ALSO reels backwards, clapping sword-bearing hands over his ears... and diving to the side with a flare of wing action when the first spear thrusts come. He's RATTLED by the shriek, but quickly recovers.

    What follows is a barrage of clashes between spears and sword. He remains groundbound for the leverage, expertly catching one spear and another with his own dual weapons. The blades cross and twirl and expertly parry about in his hands, catching her full might through the Cross Block manuever and turning blows aside if just barely.

    But then... in comes Goku. A warrior he hasn't seen before, but whose use of Ki is PRETTY OBVIOUS.

    "... Alright, nice trick!" It sure helps to not be RIGHT IN FRONT of a Solar Flare, but figuring that the Naga Queen's going to be uproariously reeling from that, he dives in at the first sign of weakness, guided by Kyoko's pattern assistance...

    And lashes out with a precise onslaught of flaming slashes from both blades as he enters a 16-hit combo manuever of grandly flaring slashes. Starburst Stream's typical starlight and scattering of motes is now bolstered with a RUSH OF FLAMES.
Tomoe Tomoe has got into the thick of things against the Naga queen. the queen would be reacting the scream comes and she's forced to move but even then she has to tank though. She has no idea who Goko is but hey more help should be good, right? She will endure the screaming, but damn it's causing a good deal of pain which shows on Tomoe's face. Had she not been in avatar mode? She'd have broken ear drums in all likelihood. She gets the call has been made too and once she recovers she will launch herself at the Queen popping her taunt and using Candle's generous buff to just start setting her blade on fire.

With the warning form Goku and yuuki's arrival she has an idea, she will have time to do something that takes a bit more set up time to do.

She'll ready up a sword up and there's a bit of time for it to wind up she'll close her eyes as Goku does his thing, that's quite the move and she's thankful for the heads up he gave her. The wind up finishes and Tomoe launches herself at the Naga queen with mechanical precision. Even as her blade which is still burning strikes out as part of a combo of blade strikes and shield bashes.
Azure Armature There is a causality here (not a Casualty, those come soon), in Armature's eyes. Surely, the queen makes the eggs, but that's simple. To wipe out an area, you have to go beyond that. You have to Act, you have to stamp out every ounce of resistance and corruption. If there is a queen, there springs up a village, but into a village, a community remains. A colony.

The disease, to be purged.

As the eggs turn out to be attackable, Azure continues her firelobbing, helpfully at the back as her allies marched victoriously forward. She does, however, slowly turn the lobbed fire to the village proper, hosing down the area with burning pitch-goo, still enhanced by Candle's fire. It was not enough to knock down the leaders. You had to scourge out the rust, when cleaning your parts. Otherwise the whole system would break down.
Starbound Flotilla     "Ghhhh... That horrible discordant screech...!" Moonfin grunts in pain and recoils badly; Hylotl neurology is designed to prioritize sensory data, and so it's nearly impossible for him to resist the sudden stunning sonic assault, which breaks him out of his basic-attack combo and forces him to shut his eyes hard and hold his ears. "Disgusting creature...!"

    "Second Sea Hylotl Style: Unbreaking Tortoise!" A heavy, massive spear slams hard into Moonfin's fresh blade, jarring his arm badly and creating a wash of shining flame and steam as his drawing upon Candle's fiery energy surges to compensate for the damaging accumulation of shield shock in his shoulder. He resumes his proper combat stance... Though leaving his eyes closed for just a moment, having heard the warning over the radio. He shades his eyes with one arm, and then... "Fifth Sea Hylotl Style: Urchin's Vengeance!" He bounces up off the haft, kicking off the head of the spear, focusing directly on Kyoko's data to try to impale the damned Naga Queen on his katana with a sudden, abrupt turning yank on the impact meant to draw it to face Gawain more than any others, to pull the aggro onto him! One hopes that can give Hector a chance to yank the spear, as Moonfin himself leaps back off and sort of hooks the tether with the flat of his blade, trying to create a sudden, unexpected yank to the tension that should enhance Hector's disarm attempt!

    Then he slips back just enough to sort of provide a leaping boost to Silica! Clasping both hands as he discards his blade for just a moment, he tries to boost her leap straight into that palm she's after! Then, hopefully, while Tomoe keeps the Naga Queen busy, he can charge up a little. Blowing the last of Candle's buff, highly charging his own armor with his own reactor, and focusing on the heavy datastream that swirls around him in a fancy AR halo, he takes a few seconds... "Sixth Sea Hylotl Style: Burial at Sea!" He calls out, then blinks out of existence, popping into the space just above to perform a coordinated, calculated, perfectly timed melee slash from above, with his armor's microthrusters BLAZING with energy from the weakness-targeting sword-first drop. Fire, cyan energy, and shining holographic data swirl together into a tremendous impact!

    Whether or not it hits, the impact is the sort that would leave a small shocking blastwave of water and torn-up earth, alongside shattering the blade.
Krusty     Goku blinds everyone with his brilliance, the great flash of light causing the Naga Queen and those of her minions to recoil, unable to see. What follows is a rather chaotic and damaging assault on her grace.

    Even in her blind state the Queen is not idle. She lashes out blindly with her spears, many clashing against Gawain's defensive stance, protecting the others.

    In her blind assault, the Queen is unaware of Hector's approach and she suddenly finds herself lacking in one of her spears.

    Iria's katana cuts into the Queen's flesh, drawing blood as she tries to slither away from the assault.

    The Queen's movement places her in a good position for Candle and his associates to pile on her. His trident plunges into her body, along with the weapons of the others. Piled upon, the Queen flails madly to throw them off, her tail whipping around wildly.

    Then Silica comes in with her pets. The charging boar finds its mark, tusks piercing through into the Queen's body. The hawkbat talons rip across the Queen's head, a hand moving to blindly try and swat the creature. Distracted as she is doing so, her other hand is still, giving Silica the opening she needs to stab it. The Queen cries out in pain, dropping her spear.

    Athela's strike from above cuts through the Queen's body, leaving a large wound behind.

    Another is formed as Yuuki darts in, slicing through flesh with her sword before jumping away.

    Yet more wounds are added from the multiple strikes of Kirito's blades.

    Tomoe's blade finds its mark just like the others, cutting into its target before being followed up by a shield bash that causes the Queen to slither back from the blow.

    Finally, Moonfin materializes above the Queen, striking with the gathered power. The result blast knocks the Queen to the ground, also flattening several huts in the surrounding area.

    The tempo of the battle changes in an instant. In that it instantly stops. The sudden silence is somewhat jarring, with the only thing left to be heard is the roar of flames as the naga village burns, courtesy of Azure. Both naga and undine alike have paused in their fight as they turn their attention to the battle with the Queen. The Queen herself has managed to pick herself up from the onslaught, attempting to rise up tall once more. But she struggles, before finally failing and falling forward onto her hands.

    It's at this point that Krusty, now free of his fight with the naga, approaches the group and states matter-of-factly, "Her HP is practically gone. All that's left is to finish her."
Kyoko Takada     Things are finally reaching the climax, and Kyoko has given those at the front as good of an analysis as she can. That task is essentially complete, no significant defenses remaining. Kyoko's glad for that, since it lets her peek out and again to take stock of what else there is to attract some interest. Finally, she has a chance to refocus her attention onto something that isn't trying to kill people. Not immediately, at least.
    Looking out over the lake, the technomagic-worker starts in on getting some readings of this "tainted" water. It's not like the monsters leave corpses behind, so it's a bit of a puzzle, if only so much of one as all the creatures that hatch fully battle-ready the moment their siblings die.
Starbound Flotilla     Moonfin lands in a stylish, dramatic pose, shattered katana out to one side. He flicks it dramatically, ejecting a few remaining shards of the thing clinging to it, before he does a stylish sweeping motion to re-insert the broken hilt of it back into his matter manipulator as if it were a sort of sheath, drawing the half-blade along it before sliding it in. He even does a stylish sweeping gesture with one arm as the hilt clicks into place, with his back turned to the monster.

    Whoever's going to do that final blow, he's going to time the hilt-click perfectly with that, just to doube his style points and put him from a B rank to an S rank on this particular sequence. And then he's promptly gonna need to go get some medicine on that heavy bunch of bruises, and take some painkillers for his strained muscles.
Hector After snatching the spear away from the Queen, Hector is taking it easy! He plants the Queen's spear in the ground to use it as something to lean on, more than willing to stand by and watch the younger warriors finish off the Queen.

     "Don't take too long with that, alright? This water isn't getting any cleaner." He raises an eyebrow when Krusty mentions something about 'HP', but it doesn't seem to bother him too much. No, he'll just go with the flow and cross his arms to look all cool old-guy-like.

     ... It's cool, right? Right?
Yuuki Konno     Yuuki continues her spinning, weaving assault, bobbing about like she's drunk or on some sort of invisible amusement park ride. It's almost impossible to predict her, and actually rather hard to even follow without paying careful attention. She rears back, readying a final blow....

    Then Yuuki pauses. "Silica! SWITCH!" she cries out loudly, following the yell with a bellowing battlecry. An aggro skill in fact, though such things may not exactly work in Elder Tale quite the same way. Still it's attention-getting, even with no magical compulsion behind it!
Candle The majority of Candle's followers are buffeted by the storm of blows from the Naga Queen. They give ground, or get stabbed or cut, and those who are wounded cycle away. The man himself jerks his trident free of the Naga Queen's body and leaps back out of range of her counter-attack. He considers the situation as flames burn all around him. But as the nothing stretches on, the unnatural swell of flames that surrounds pretty much everyone begins to recede.

Slowly...

Subtly...

The fires die down to only the flames that were lit and spread into the surroundings.

Candle looks around. The fight's pretty much over.

He blinks, and replaces his Trident along his back. After staring a few moments...

Candle turns, and just sort of wanders off. His entourage scrambles after him.

His power recedes from all the others, leaving behind flames dancing across the shore of the lake.
Gawain Gawain doesn't move for the final blow. He's currently instead moving back as it's nearly slain, and is starting to prepare some herbs into tonics. Anyone who is injured can get healing if they're okay with drinking a slightly unappetizing healing poultice, as Gawain happily does.
Silica     Silica lands from her assault, rolling out to get clear. Then she hears that familiar sound. 'Switch'.

    She looks to Yuuki, her perception of time slowing down. She twirls her dagger, taking it reverse grip and moves... One foot, the next. Tongue click.

    Her blade lights up, trailing ice crystals as Nana hunkers down, then bellows out a squealing warcry, shooting ice out to lock the Queen down. The Hawkbat trills, covering Silica in a Strength Boost as she closes. "Time to end this, Undyne's Requiem!"

    She slashes across the Queen's midsection, flips the dagger then performs a rapid triple stab, then with a backflip slashes from midsection up through the torso and out one shoulder. When she lands, she bows her head, and when the monster breaks, clicks her dagger back into its sheath.
Tomoe Tomoe is joining in on the assualt on the queen her job is to tank, make sure no allies die. that's enough for her as she'll move to guard anyone froim further follwo up attacks as her allies move in for the kill. She does not charge in she's making sure there's no late adds that won't get intercepted by her should they jump everyone else. She doe snot want to see anyone get kiklled but she has to wonder, about this...
Athela Valemore Athela does not remain still after making her strike. She puts her mobility options to exceptional use, unleashing a burst of water with her hydromantic powers to launch herself out of the way of the Queen's retaliating spears as the naga thrashes about. This also gets her enough height to pass over teh shockwave that results from Moonfin's attack.

She skids a bit as her feet hit the ground, Resolute Blade held up and ready to rush in and strike again.... But it becomes unnecessary as Silica darts in with her pets' assists to finish the monster off handily.
Krusty     The battle continues as frozen, the naga, undine and the Queen all awaiting the next action of the temporary-Adventurers. That's when Silica proves the first to act.

    The Queen's lower body and hands are engulfed in ice, locking her in place. Though she shows no signs of struggle as she waits for the inevitable. The dagger slices into her, followed by quick stabs and a final slash. Her body glows with light, before bursting into those by now familiar bubbles.

    Their Queen defeated, all the remaining naga drop their weapons, beginning to quickly slither away from battlefield. They are in full retreat.

    As their enemy runs, the undine all give out joyful cries. Many of them glide over to the group of heroes, suddenly rushing up to hug them and give them kisses on the cheek. They appear to be a rather friendly monster type.

    From his position, Krusty glances over the party members, adjusting his glasses as her muses to himself, "Not that unexpected, I suppose." He then turns, looking out over at the lake.

    The discoloured water is already starting to clear, the strange effect that the battle had on the water source apparently gone. Judging by this, it's likely that things should return to normal for the nearby village.

    Krusty looks back at everyone, calling out amidst the undine celebrations, "Thank you, everyone, for assisting. The People of the Land need not worry now. Additionally, the destruction of the Naga Queen and thinning of her forces should make life around her a little safer. You rewards will of course await you when we return."

    Quest Complete!