Scene #5971: The Place With White Walls-3

Owner	Pose
Rurufon	In very tight quarters, without much warning, and against heavier opponents, the short-lived brawl in the cramped corridor and cluttered rows of stone coffins is something of a controlled disaster. The Emerald Nexus still has yet to offer truly formidable standard foes yet -the really strong monsters would have naturally trickled upward- but these ones are certainly many times more durable than their blue brethren, as well as many times stronger. Two of them can easily soak bullets, blades, and blunt blows from individual Elites long enough to power through them and swing back several heavy counter hits, and soon the white walls are slick with sprays of green blood, leaving squelching puddles the monstrosities lumber and hop through. In the middle of this battle, the bone-rattling roar sounds out once again, louder and closer than ever before, causing both monster blood and gross red fluid to splash and vibrate from the sheer force of the sound, and the shattered remains of thrown and blown up sarcophagi to jump and rattle across the floor like dice. Unlike previously though, these largest, grey-coloured creatures do not suffer a strange bout of paralysis. They barely seem to notice it at all. Hemlock's attempts at a mental assault have equally little effect, as if they're in some kind of deep trance or haze. It'd explain why they also seem utterly oblivious to pain and injury, making them dangerous to fight without necessarily being difficult to win against. Ultimately, they have to go down. They don't have nearly the prowess necessary to give this group trouble, especially with Arthur and Note blending and splattering them respectively, or with Nova smashing them with heavy and sharp-angled ambient terrain. The huge gates are still stubbornly stuck as ever, and there seems to be no way forward without doing something with the wealth of cryptic hints and items the group has picked up, until a deep, rumbling, snarled, and forcefully strained voice sounds from somewhere beyond, vibrating through the floor in bass, bestial tones, more than anything else. "YOU ARE STRONG, AND I HAVE HEARD YOU. IF YOU HEAR MY VOICE AS WELL, ENTER. I WILL MEASURE YOUR STRENGTH, AND YOUR VOICE." Just like that, the giant gates grind open, raising into the ceiling as if by magic. All that about 'hearing' again, even from what is probably the area boss. It's bizarre.
Nova Terra	Nova takes a moment to recover from the fight, reloading her rifle as she cautiously steps through the mess of downed giants and destroyed coffins. She casually brushes some bits of monster stew off her suit, mnaking a note to put it through a thorough decontamination once she gets back. Nova pauses and raises a hand to her ear as the voice booms through the crypt, likely louder now. Once it finally passes, Nova remarks to the others, "I'm not sure I like that it's inviting us in... On the other hand, it's refreshingly simpler than the previous run." With no where to go but forward, Nova grips her rifle and heads through the giant gates.
Lemeza Kosugi	"ENTER WE SHALL." Welp, the field Guardian has spoke. Best follow the instructions given. Lemeza calls out to the party's challenger, even as he picks himself up off the floor from getting body-checked against one of the walls. "YOU ARE NOT THE FIRST TO TEST MY STRENGTH. FAR STRONGER HAVE TESTED ME, AND NOT BEEN FOUND WANTING." The professor is clearly and obviously pushing himself to put on theatrics, but the way he confidently proceeds into the boss chamber suggests he might not be bluffing.
Hemlock	Hemlock can fight. And so, when his mind magic fails, he whistles to buff his endurance to superhuman levels so that he doesn't get entirely murdered, using his knife and aiming for vital organs. He manages to slay the creature coming at him, but ends up battered, bruised, and with something broken that he can't be sure what it is. Once the creatures go down, especially with the primary combatants focusing on them, Hemlock takes a moment to rest and clean off his blade. "Is anyone a medic? I need medical attention." Though, when everyone goes to move forward, Hemlock will take the rear as usual, making sure his blade is ready for combat. "We are likely to have a fight. I'll handle support." The bard prepares a song in his head, something he can use to buff whoever he chooses to back. He's considering probably Arthur, being their powerhouse.
Arthur Lowell	Arthur is scorched, bruised, and battered, but still going strong. He downs a couple really ancient fruit snacks to boost his HP back up, and seems to rev up from the wounded state, shaking the ash itself off. "Well I LIKE IT!" He says, grinning and taking an eager position, ready to stomp forward. "Homeboy's got some PIPES, you dudes better make him HEAR YOU." He heads for the gate, and calls back to it, "GEEEEEEEEEEEEET RRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEAAAAADYYYYYYYYY!!" With enough force that it even slightly exhausts him just to shout it. He swings the broom over one shoulder and strides in, eyes wide, eager, and prepared. "Alright homeboy, you want STONES, well I got some GODDAMN STONES for you, so let's see what you GOT!" He says, mentally psyching himself up for what's going to come up next. He sadly shakes his head at Hemlock. "NAH," He says, awkwardly. "Looks like we GROUPED OUT without a HEAL. SORRY, YO! We gotta RUSH THIS and keep on the GUARD."
Orchid	"Ooo, resonant," Orchid says, as she returns to the crypt, having fled the fight itself earlier. "I'm not very strong, but I do have a loud voice." She gathers in her spiders, and fiddles with something in one of her arms. "In fact, if it is volume you want..." She's got half an idea for how to use one of her tools in this test. She's also doing some mental math about the properties of the silk her spiders can spin.
Note	Wham! Bam! Note spins around and kicks the warriors into walls and delivers precise blows with knife hands that send them crashing into the ceiling or bouncing off of brethren! When they strike she just swerves or parries, dancing back and forth with expert footwork, though a few swipes come perilously close to catching her! When it's all over though... Her eyes pop WIDE open at being suddenly addressed by the booming voice! "AH!" And she is standing straight as an arrow just like that, a shiver going up her spine. A little fear, but also... excitement. A thrill. A RUSH that few would feel at the prospect of a fight they might well lose... "You're on!" She answers the challenge, leaning forward onto her tiptoes... and then-- KRAK-WHOOOOOOSH! White Ki flares up around her, forming into a rocketing aura that sends her soaring through the opened gate-- but she pauses by Lemeza when he starts getting weird and dramatic. She blinks a few times. then remembers... "That's right.. you beat some kind of grand god, didn't you? After this, it's you and me! I wanna see that power!" The call for medical help does get her attention. She glances his way... "All I've got's a first aid kit."
Rurufon	Directly through the massive gates, the group emerges into a room that finally manages to be lit on its own to a degree. Torches burn in primitive sconces set into the ubiquitous white walls, providing tiny pools of illumination that aren't much, but enough to keep a consistent idea of the limits of the room and one's orientation and distance within it. It appears to be a wide, squared chamber, lightly scattered with large, heavy, chalkstone coffins , flanked by two sets of stairs that go nowhere but a rocky catwalk above the entire affair, and with a rise towards the opposite end, overall symmetrical and with all routes of movement eventually meeting each other, with both light and full cover. It might give off the impression of an FPS 'kill room', because it's certainly performed up to its namesake. There are the dead bodies of these freakish creatures all over, riddled with bullet holes and blade wounds, tangled with corpses both human, unfamiliar, and a number of insect creatures from the hive previously visited, most of which are either charred black or on fire. There is one last stone door at the far end, no doubt tightly sealed. The gate grinds shut much faster than it had opened behind them, slamming down with a resounding, gritty thud. The weird occurrence of a hall full of tranced warrior caste critters in tiny storage closets, most of them empty, might make sense now. After only a few pregnant seconds alone, a score of purple flames light up in the uncanny dark, and volleys of fireballs go flying the group's way, barraging them with concentrated fire.
Arthur Lowell	Arthur immediately dives into a series of rushing swipes and smashes against the fireballs, swirling his broom around to batter the fireballs, though it's terribly, terribly dense in the air with heat and flame. "YO, PIPES!" He calls out to Hemlock. "Hit me with that GOOD SHIT! I'll keep that HEAT off you!" He slams his broom into the ground and then wrenches it as if he were pulling a massive lever, and as he does, it's like he wrenches his own personal gravity. He immediately falls away from the floor, and slams heavily into the underside of the catwalk above, using it as a high ground. Then he brandishes the broom bristle-end first, breathes in heavily, and lets out a roaring battlecry. "LET'S BRIGHT THIS MOTHERFUCKER RIGHT UP! GET READY TO /SEE SOME SHIT/ YOU FUCKING LEECHES! YOU MOTHERFUCKERS WANNA MEET GOD? WELL YOU'RE 'BOUT TO /GO INTO THE LIIIIIIGHT/!" And he lets out a tremendous gush of pure celestial atomic fusion, gushing waves of fluid starstuff out of each bristle in a shotgun spray of bending, streaking streams of artillery-scale energy intent on blasting away huge swaths of the things before they get back into cover in some way that avoids his fresh position, and maintaining that position as well as he can to keep from suffering too much more of the barrage.
Nova Terra	Nova cautiously steps under the gates, glancing round at the thankfully better lit room. She doesn't take a second look at the numerous corpses scattered around it, stepping over one as she continues further inside. The sound of the gates quickly closing behind the group cause Nova to turn her head back to watch, their possible escape route cut off. Definitely concerning. The sudden rise of light is the first warning and soon there are flames flying through the air. Nova starts up fast, making a dash for one of the sets of stairs. She raises an arm to shield her face as she pushes forward, one of the fireballs finding its mark and blow up against the Ghost. Nova darts out of the smoke, her suit a little scorched but otherwise intact. She jumps, quickly clearing half the stairs before performing another quick jump to reach the rest of the way up onto the catwalk. Starting to run across the raised platform, Nova aims her Canister Rifle in the approximate direction of the source of those fireballs, beginning to fire controlled bursts into the darkness as she tries to pin down a specific target.
Orchid	Incoming fireballs, and Orchid was dealing with her arm too much to see it coming in time to dodge. She does have time to shout "Lemeza, far right corner!" The good news is that she has her shield generators, so while she stands and takes the hit, she is able to put something between her and the fireball that reduces the damage somewhat. Still, she is singed by the flames. Now, mostly being a support type, Orchid isn't going to respond to this attack with a direct attack, but an indirect one. In this case, that mostly means sending her spiders out again, while chatting to the others, a running commentary on where, precisely, the leech-mouth creatures are. If they get close enough, they may even try to bind the creatures in place. The reploid herself, starts moving in one direction, trying to avoid any other attacks that might be coming in.
Hemlock	As they move forward, Hemlock settles on buffing up Arthur, boosting him to general superhumanity, as well as an all-around combat boost. This is done with a melodic series of whistles to boost his magic, since Hemlock's not grabbing his instrument quite yet, focusing on the knife. As they head into the kill room and spot the bodies, though, Hemlock immediately ducks to see how fresh they look...and then realizes only a second later that it's an ambush, especially as the gate closes. Buffing himself to similar levels as he did Arthur, Hemlock immediately moves to slide towards a wall, narrowly avoiding a fireball which soars over his head and ignites his hat on fire. Grabbing his hat and putting it out, he uses Arthur's barrage as cover, and inches against the shadows, moving to try and let the others draw attention away from him. Avoiding the various fire blasts due to the assistance, Hemlock focuses on one of the sources, readies his knife, and using the shadows for an ambush... Moves to leap out and shank one, aiming for any vital spots he may have found during the last encounter. Hemlock's a precision striker instead of a power house, so he's moving to cripple it down with a fast blow.
Lemeza Kosugi	"Whoa! Talk later, Note! Fight now!" Lemeza barely has time to react to the oncoming fireballs that welcome the party as they enter, sidestepping to dodge the one coming for him. Although it's not so much 'dodge' as 'get hit less directly by', as a good part of the fireball scrapes by him, searing his frontside as he grimaces and pushes past the pain to draw his revolver and fire in the direction the fireballs came from. With Orchid calling out locations, Lemeza knows just where to put these shots: far right corner, exactly where Orchid said. He angles the shots to get some ricochet action going, though, just for that extra bit of area coverage to try to find the enemy's precise location.
Note	BOOOM! Down goes the gate. An the moment it does... Note realizes just how dangerous this situation got. "Ah wait wait--" Nope, no waiting! Here comes the PURPLE FIREBALLS! The girl shrilly shrieks, putting her arms up and raising her power defensively, at the last moment steadying her mind to start scoping out the sources of those shots. The blasts engulf the Saiyan-blooded girl... but she disperses them with a fierce kiai! A shockwave-gale bounds outwards as her aura loudly KRAKA-THOOMS into its golden state, her hair matching the color and spikifying instantly. With empowered emerald eyes she takes careful aim at the darkness where the flames came from and thrusts her hands forward! "Show yourself if you're so mighty!" Fires a STORM of arcing blue blasts from her palms that arc out to pepper the area systematically. She hopes she'll hit SOMETHING and find out where the danger's coming from! Is there anything in here she can Sense..?
Rurufon	Just as the battle starts, one of those stomach punching sonic shockwaves of a bellowing roar rips through the room, from just on the other side of the gate beyond. It doesn't appear to be signaling a start however, but only incidental, as the fire flies before the earth shaking din, and it doesn't cease for the doped up creatures to stop and cower like the more lucid ones have before. Arthur's massive star beam spray rips into the enemy battle line at once. It has to be blind fired due to the supernatural darkness, but it obliterates one of the hulking 'greys' on the spot, throwing two more aside like dolls and bowling a fourth over covered in burns. In the confusion, Orchid's spiders are free to scuttle underfoot without notice, pointing out the targets as they home in on them by their purple flames as beacons. With that data, Nova's running canister fire blows hands, legs, and eye stalks off here and there, despite the difficult shooting. Where they turn to guard against her, Lemeza's bullets spark off the thankfully condusive walls and slam into their backs, splattering more discoloured blood across the scorched white floor. They begin covering themselves with their thick and powerful arms to absorb the ki blast barrage from Note, but Hemlock's stealth attack plunges deep into the back of an additional grey, where its eye hump meets its spine, and sends it down in a gurgling pool. Rather than stay pinned down under fire however, the creatures begin a counter charge. One turns as Hemlock takes down the creature next to it and swings out with its huge, clawed hand to send him flying away. A large group fan out and begin returning fire on Nova, bombarding the bridge with fireballs on both sides. More bullrush across the chamber and charge right into Lemeza and note, aiming to batter and scorch them underfist, and a great concentration converge on Arthur, hurling fire as they rush in like loping, savage gorillas. The fire that finds Orchid is almost incidental, but no less explosive.
Arthur Lowell	The advantage of standing on the bottom of something instead of the top is that you can take those who advance on you on your own terms. Arthur chooses to do so by not attacking those who might advance upon him over the top of the catwalk, or those who might gather beneath him below it; instead, he plants his hands "down" on the "ground" of the underside of the catwalk, covers himself in as much of a gravitational barrier as he can, and begins a slow, building shout. "Haaaaaaaaaaaaa..." Things begin to rumble. Barrages of fire blast over him, leaking through the shield and licking at his flesh, but he refuses to have his focus even remotely broken. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh...!" He continues, beginning to flash a concerning black and white series of colors. He disperses a layer of barrier to focus on using Hemlock's boost to grant himself a greater degree of defensive strength, but it doesn't ease the pain. He uses that spare Aspect energy to build up even more for this attack, and continues to let the violent leechmen close in, be it from below or from above. "AaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH...!!" He stares "up" from his kneeling position straight down to the ground, clenches both hands as if he were wrenching something out of the catwalk underside, and does a lifting motion with his broom that looks like he's dislodging something stuck in the earth. That's when the built-up gravity magic comes "loose"; Arthur's plan comes to fruition, and he suddenly applies an absolutely massive amount of gravity to the rocky "catwalk". If he can't see them, even with his starlight, well, the only way to reliably hit them with a huge amount of power is to gather them in one place, and then smash them that way. The plan is to use the absolutely insane amounts of gravity to wrench the entire section of rocky catwalk down from whatever's holding it up, collapsing it under the feet of any of these leechmen who assaulted from above, and dropping it brutally on top of any of them that assaulted from below, bringing a huge blast of pain onto a dense cluster of foes, all for the low price of first degree burns and intense pain.
Lemeza Kosugi	Now that he has more time to react, and knows where the Bad Guys are coming from (courtesy of the various light shows around him), Lemeza can take more appropriate action in dealing with them. He swiftly holsters his revolver and draws whip and shield, primed and ready. The first leechmook comes at him, and has the dubious honor of getting shield-bashed aside without doing anything to Lemeza. The second has a bit more success, landing a glancing blow into his chest, but Lemeza's rolling with the punches well enough to come down on both mooks with several punishing cracks of his whip! That is, if he can land them.
Orchid	More fire attacks? Well, Orchid can probably tank a few more hits, if need be; she's attracting more attention than she likes, but it's probably more important that she keep her eyes on the whole battlefield, and not just her little patch of it. Another shot impacts her shield, but... "I think I see it!" she shouts, making a jump for a wall, jumping off again, air-dashing up to latch one hand onto the railing for that rocky catwalk near the ceiling. And from here... she can attack the ceiling itself? She applies her sonic screwdriver to a specific section, that just happens to be above a bunch of leech-men. Well, however it works, she won't have time to revel in it, as the catwalk itself comes under attack, pulled off by Arthur's gravity control, sending her flying halfway across the room. Hopefully she'll make a good landing. But if her trick worked, she'll drop a lot of rock on their foes.
Nova Terra	A pack of those monsters splitting up and beginning to fire at her registers on Nova's visor. She continues running along the catwalk, her mind racing as she plans out her approach. Even with fireballs exploding around her, flames licking at her suit, Nova maintains her professional attitude. Hopefully her allies will do the same. Although all the shouting she's hearing is giving her doubts. Nova spins her head from left to right as she runs, eyeing the now highlighted monsters barraging her from both sides. They've split up somewhat... Smart as it makes it harder for her to acquire multiple targets with her rifle. But they're still in two groups! Nova shifts her large weapon into one hand as she reaches for one of the containers on her suit. But her eyes go a little wide as ahead of her, she sees the catwalk begin to break apart and lurch downwards as Arthur sends it crashing down towards some of their enemies, "Shit!" At that moment one of the fireballs finds its mark, another explosion of light engulfing Nova. The Ghost comes skidding out of the flames off the edge of the ruined catwalk, more of the artificial muscle fibre making up its surface burned away. But in her hand are two grenades. As she falls she releases her grip on them, sending them floating off into the air. She then sends them flying with her telekinesis, one towards each group of monsters assaulting her. Nova hits the room floor again in a roll, before coming up on one knee. To Arthur she shouts, "Watch it!"
Note	More fireballs flying everywhere! Note diverts her barrage as soon as she realizes it's not accomplishing very much... instead using the blasts to try and explode the fireballs out of the air! This... doesn't really work the way she intended either. Only a few explosions disperse the blasts, and plenty of purple flames scorch her arms and legs as she curls up defensively to endure it! When she emerges from it, her clothes are smoldering in places and her skin's charred. She's showing a little worry now. That REALLY HURT. And there's nowhere to RUN if this goes badly. That has her starting to breathe a little harder! But for now, she keeps her head. The rage of battle fuels her determination to win. "Huuuuuuuuaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh....!!" For a few critical seconds she just stands there, clenching her teeth and clenching hands into tight fists... and her aura blazes into overdrive, raw energy flaring about wildly! And then... WHOOOOSH. She's gone, becoming a living blur that seems to be -everywhere- down that tunnel, shifting from target to target too quickly for eyes to track that well. A half-dozen afterimages of her are visible at any one time as she tries to kick and hurl enemies into each other to crack those shells!
Hemlock	As the creature goes down, Hemlock immediately draws up his knife into a defensive position. This little effort is what saves him from getting entirely mulched by the claw strike, even if he's knocked back into the wall, and the endurance boost stops him from breaking all his bones in the process. As he hits the wall, he stays there for several moments, all clawed up and bleeding, before rolling up to his feet and moving to make a running leap at the creature and try and hit it in that same accurate location, finagling the knife around for an accurate strike. He whistles while he does so, topping off his boost, so that his strength and reaction speed are at their highest. There's no screams or calls from Hemlock. He's a silent killer who may not be the greatest with a knife, but he knows how to fight when his life is on the line.
Rurufon	Arthur's plan is a resound(gly deafening) success. The catwalk doesn't seem to possess the same faintly luminous qualities of the walls, being basically just 'really hard rock', and when the loping, savage, grey leech things swarm around him, it fractures spectacularly into ten massive and incredibly heavy pieces that crush several more of them flat, reducing them to mere puddles. The few survivors have most of their fire deflected by the flying rubble, and only a couple can still shoot at him. Lemeza meets solid success in fending them off himself. They don't seem to have the firepower necessary to really get through his shield, and their soft bodies handle the whip lashes oddly poorly, splitting their flesh open when the supersonic tip strikes and spilling copious quantities of blood. After felling two like that, they begin to surround him, peppering him with fire at the front while another leaps on him from behind for a flying smash. Grenades explode deep in the masses of monsters packed together to flay their targets in frenzied melee, sending body parts flying this way and that. Hemlock gets the drop again sheerly out of total chaos rather than stealth, and paralyzes another one for good with his knife plunged into odd, spongy muscle up to the hilt. Another comes up behind him to capitalize, only to have to leap out of the way of a rock falling from the ceiling, crushing its foot and tearing it loose. Swinging in blind fury, it turns and slashes with its claws right as Note zips past, intercepting her through dumb luck as much as savagery. The dwindling monsters, now halved in number, begin to circle together and form up, launching intense barrages of dark purple flame back at the grenadier, bard, and Saiyan. They don't seem to even know where Orchid is, and so the one fireball that blows up near her is mostly a shrapnel danger They're feeling the danger of being finished off.
Orchid	For some reason, Orchid makes a good accidental projectile. So while she skates through one of the fireballs, slightly singed, she doesn't have much time to do more than position herself for the best possible landing... and it looks like she's going to be landing directly on one of the mooks. Projecting her shield before her, she closes her eyes and braces for the impact.
Nova Terra	Nova jumps up to her feet again. She's lost the high-ground and the resulting +1 to accuracy that comes from that. The monsters are falling in number but they've still yet to actually find their final target. And that's annoying Nova to no end. How are they supposed to kill it if it's too cowardly to come out from hiding!? More flames are unleashed by the monsters, some of them heading in Nova's direction. She dives away, rolling across the ground until coming to a rest on her stomach. It's risky to stop moving, but they need to deal with those remaining as quickly as they can, which calls for greater risks! Flames wash over Nova's position, the Ghost's suit keeping them from inflicting too much damage as she lies on her stomach, large Canister Rifle stretched out on the ground in front of her. After they pass, Nova looks down the electronic scope. Calming her breathing she centers the crosshairs on the head of one of the monsters... And softly pulls the trigger. BANG! The large bullet rushes from the barrel of the rifle, spinning through the air towards its target. And then after that, the target behind it... And the one behind that too as Nova leverages her skill as a marksman and ability to alter her bullet's trajectory to take out multiple targets with one shot!
Lemeza Kosugi	"Aw shit." Lemeza's brief victory is punctuated by about one metric boatload of leechmen ready to roast and tenderize him. Thinking quickly, he shield-barges through the foes in front, fireballs clipping the outer edges of his shield and singing his cargo vest, and spins around to throw out a few whip slashes of his own. First, the parrying: his whip meets with leechfists, knocking a few blows away, but a strike or two does bust through his flurry. The glancing blows don't distract him from his follow-up, though! Now on the other side of the encroaching horde, he's got a clear shot at the backs of the firespammers. He takes a brief lull in the onslaught to catch his breath, before hacking away like some medieval dispenser of punishment to a criminal.
Arthur Lowell	Arthur lands solidly among an array of fresh cover, able to duck and weave among it. Gasping and panting, his aspect bar is clearly flagging badly, and the new option to duck and weave a little more among the shots blasted his way is a good one, because he's not having a good time. "YEAH! YEAH! COME ON! COME BRING ME SOME! GET YOUR GOD SOME REAL PROOF!" He shouts, swerving around, zigging and zagging to blast shots back with his rifle. The heat from shots bleeds through his defensive posture when he blocks them, unable to evade, but for the most part, he slips through this one with minimal damage. He's dug deep as he can safely go for this, and he digs a little deeper still, but these are the potatoes of the meal, and he's still got to dig into the meat. He keeps a low, defensive stance, firing back, probably in a situation where it would make more sense to rest with lower damage output, but still forcing himself to blast and blast away, leaning hard on Hemlock's boosts to keep himself afloat when it comes to his quite-visible Aspect meter as it now flickers around 20% of its proper length.
Hemlock	This is way too bloody but it's working. Hemlock nearly gets hit and is about to turn and probably get slashed up when dumb luck saves him. This allows him to pull his knife out, but the monsters are circling together and firing a barrage, and part of it's focused at him. The blasts rip into his side, tearing holes in his jacket and setting it on fire along with burning and bruising Hemlock himself, who with ragged breathes pulls it off and throws it to the side. He's gonna need a new one, he realizes. Focusing on the big barrage, Hemlock takes a deep breath... ...and lets out a sharp whistle, painful to hear. A massive sonic blast whips forward, moving to rip into the creatures and batter them and possibly even tear through them if they're weak enough. He whistles again to do another to follow it up, but he's exhausted enough and doesn't have enough magic to just spam them...so he has to hope they'll work.
Note	An honest to goodness strategy is one thing, but Note ends up blindsided by a fighter who didn't even intend to be in her way! The youth takes a punishing blow to her side and slams hard into the floor, bouncing and skidding back only to shiver and strain against the growing pain and exhaustion. The Super state is taking a lot out of her! With a yelp though she flips to the side and springs up to her feet by slapping her tail against the ground and lands again in a combat stance, breathing deeply... and sharply. "How are they hitting so hard...? I don't sense that much from them...!" With a grunt, she steels her resolve... and leaps forward, aiming to drive a fist into her assailant and enter a blitz combo! If she can send them flying with a few backhand strikes and punches, she'll ZIP into the air behind them and drop a two-fisted SLAM to send them groundwards!
Rurufon	The rapidly declining number of monsters can't handle things as the Elites ramp up. Having fewer and fewer bodies to overwhelm each fighter, they quickly begin to get blindsided and picked off one after the other. Several in a row are splattered by a single shot from Nova when they rush to menace Arthur, and one is caught completely defenseless when Orchid crashes into it. There aren't enough to hold a line against Lemeza, and soon he is flaying an entire crowd from the rear, which are then blasted down from the front by Arthur. The stragglers are ripped to pieces by Hemlock's sonic attack, and then the very last 'grey', angry and hiss-gurgle-snarling from its injuries, only puts up a brief fight against Note before it is completely pulverized. A long silence descends on the room, leaving just the ragged panting of out of breath fighters, the crackling of residual flame, and the echoes of footsteps and spent brass tinkling along the rough hewn floor. They have a good minute or so to themselves, before the booming, bestial voice opens the final door with "YOUR VOICE IS LOUD AND STRONG." The final room is much smaller, and barely excavated, packed with thick, natural columns of stone and sturdy, blunt stalagmites. There are no signs of 'civilization' here, and the unnatural dark seems to melt away for the most part, leaving the walls looking bleached rather than moonlit. The creature that awaits them however, isn't some kind of king leech man, but what seems to be a completely different being altogether. A beast the size of a bull elephant lifts itself from the floor, sifting white dust from a 'mane' that encompasses the upper two thirds of its body, shrouding it in a blood red ball of fibre that looks more like creeping lichen and rust than hair. It is quadrupedal beneath, with powerful, canine legs, yet broad, flat, scowling, ape-like face with massive sabre teeth and small, empty eyes that make it seem almost more like an oni mask. A number of those hefty white crystals that had been found before have been littered around it, forming a loose ring that is brushed aside as it gets to its feet. Despite its self-evident size and power however, it seems stiff and unsteady on its claws, subtly limping, as if in a great deal of excruciating pain. That doesn't stop it from making the first move the second the last door slams shut. With a snarling roar, it leaps high, high up into the air, twisting over in a partial barrel roll, and then slams down into the center of the group, creating an explosion of earth that seems to erupt from under their feet, throwing out a powerful, traveling shockwave that rips up the floor and casts white shrapnel alongside the blast wave.
Hemlock	Hemlock is bruised and battered and low on magical energy to spare, but he can keep going forward into the next room, especially after the voice shouts out. "Now, then..." Reaching into his bag, he grabs the strange token he got from the dying monster, the fragile one, and readies to bring it in with him. And then, they see the horrific foe that they're going to be up against. With another series of melodic whistles, Hemlock boosts everyone's endurance so that they can take whatever it's going to throw at them. He notices it's injured, but can't tell where. The side? Either way, he has an idea...and it's going to have to wait briefly, as the shockwave slams out. Hemlock is thrown backwards, barely keeping the effigy from breaking in his hands by shielding it, as shrapnel tears through him and draws crimson blood, further battering him. He thinks this figure will do something. He needs to know what and when. So, forcing himself up from the ground and looking at the creature, Hemlock shouts out. He needs to know. "What does this token do if I crush it?!" With a sharp whistle, there's a mental compulsion to backup the call. Answer The Question Truthfully, it tells the beast. Perhaps unlike the others, the creature can be affected by mind tricks. Hemlock's not going to move to fight the thing yet, though, because he's injured and it could just bat him aside to his death.
Lemeza Kosugi	Sheesh. As if mulching the mooks wasn't enough, the crew actually has to fight the endboss. Lemeza's short of breath and scraped decently badly, but he's still got enough left in the tank to press on. During the brief lull between EXP farm and Boss Fight, his thoughts wander off to what that saiyan Note's been doing, and how she's been reacting to actual combat. Lemeza's assessment? Not good. After a bit of huffing and puffing, he calls out to the Saiyan. "Hey... Note, you sure you're a fighter? Ya seem a bit nervous in here." Once the final arena opens up, he's got a very brief window to scout the environment for useful features before the Elephant-Lion leaps up and crashes into the party! He's able to shift himself to the outer edges of the attack, and put his shield between him and the shockwave, which knocks him back quite a distance. Hmm. What to do... dodging endlessly is an exercise in futility, as he's at a significant disadvantage in a war of attrition, so he instead makes for the nearest column and starts clawing his way upward. The plan is to get up above the beast for the high ground, and fire a couple shots into its back.
Orchid	Well, they don't go INSTANTLY from one room to the next. Orchid makes sure they spend at least a little time bandaging wounds, throwing a Sub-Tank to Arthur, and making sure she's as ready as she can be. This also involves preparing more spiders for combat. So once they DO get into the next room and the fight starts, at the creature jumping up, Orchid starts her jump as it starts down, aiming to leap over the shockwave like a good platformer character. "Really? Again? Well, I guess you don't have a choice in this," Orchid comments, speaking to the king beast.
Note	After slamming her opponent around the room like a living pinball until it finally gives in... Note smoothly descends to the ground. A second after her soft landing... all the golden super glow fades and her transformation's broken. She staggers forward a few steps, a mixture of windedness... and nerves. She's never had to fight whiloe TRAPPED in such a strange place before. It's a bit rattling. Onwards they all go... and she regards the final beast with a mixture of wariness and pity. She reaches a hand out as if to comfort or call for it-- And INSTANTLY regrets this. Sensing the hostility she summons up the stamina to transform yet again, but the force of the blow sends her sailing right off her feet and spinning through the air. Grunting, the girl exerts her power and MID-AIR BREAKES.. "Nnhhuuh...." THIS creature is much, much more dangerous than it looks, she realizes, immediately tensing. "Alright, I was GOING to be nice! But... not anymore! Try my New Turtle School techniques, monster! Kaaaaa...." Both hands reach out in front of her as she deepens her stance, putting her palms outwards and wrists opposing each other, fingers curled. She draws these hands back to her side... and energy pumps from her palms, coaelscing into a roiling blue-white sphere of heat and light. "Meeee.... Haaaaaa..... Meeeee..... Haaaaaa!!" With a final thrust of both palms forward, she unleashes the focused power as a pulsing and blindingly bright columnal wave of blue-white force that vaporizes the ground as it travels!
Arthur Lowell	Arthur slumps onto his broom for a time, just panting and recovering that Aspect bar. A couple bandages from Orchid allows her to see Arthur's Health Vial bar actually slip upwards as each bandage goes on. The sub-tank goes into his hand and then just sort of... vanishes? It flickers, drifting up into the air and making soft bleepy noises, before disappearing entirely and refilling his aspect! Arthur's fresh burst of Endurance from Hemlock seems to lock-in on the gel that encases his Health Vial, providing it a sort of visual armor. That seems to solve his woes for now, somehow. He calls back to the voice, and strides in. "I WOULDN'T INSULT YOU WITH ANYTHING LEEEEESS!" He keeps the broom in a defensive posture now, not the casual over-the-shoulder slinging he had it in before. That means he's ready when it comes time to defend against the sudden assault from the strange, massive creature. Sadly, it doesn't mean that defense works. Having the ground below him smashed with such shockwaves knocks him off his feet, which he only keeps from causing damage by turning his gravity off mid-air. Then comes the shrapnel, which embeds itself in his side as he tries to swipe most of it away. But after that first wave, he lands on one of those pillars, already barraging the thing with blasts, sort of following Lemeza's plan early. Is this what was making the noise? Or was that something bigger? Regardless, Arthur screams valorously at it, to show off that voice of his. "YEAH! Here's some REAL POWER! That's what I'm wanting to FEEL! Not more of this PUSSY KEEP-AWAY DARKNESS FIRE BULLSHIT! HIT ME with that RAW fucking STRENGTH, homie! I wanna feel that WEIGHT, that FORCE!" His rifle is firing like a machine-gun, trying to batter the thing with a barrage of bolts!
Rurufon	It's difficult to tell how this massive beast is wounded in any way. It's possible there's an injury somewhere underneath all that bizarre, mossy, spherical mane, but the way it moves speaks of something else than merely physical trauma. Despite smashing the arena to pieces as it pounces, its evident pain is more reminiscent of something chronic and internal, like the giant monster equivalent of suicide migraines. The arena at least isn't anything special. It's very underdeveloped, as if this thing had settled in the furthest, smallest, dimmest corner of this whole place and been basically built around, rather than containing some kind of godlike shrine or kingly throne, or even a proper boss stage. Lemeza scrabbles up the column instantly, firing gunshots into the thick mane and seeing red blot it like a sponge, before the monster slashes rocks from the floor and whirls to hurl them at him in the same motion. The machine gun blasts land all along its broad turned flank, sending it staggering sideways on almost arthritic joints, but then it manages to leap and backflip away anyways, slamming back down with oddly feline grace, and then lunging across the room in a single, powerful charge with a powerful wind barrier ahead of it, crashing into Arthur head on. Where it smashes into the wall behind him either way, the cave quakes, and then stalactites come falling from the dark roof, extremely conspicuously landing on and around Orchid and Note. It turns and roars at the latter, unleashing a sonic shockwave with the force of a truck crash, visible in the air. The kamehameha wave passes straight down the middle due to being made of energy, and blasts the giant monster into the side of the face, causing it to rear up on its hind legs, howling in agony. Then, when it does howl, the room plunges into blackness, complete and total. In fact, the lights aren't even remotely useful anymore; there is no pool of illumination at all, however limited. It takes a few seconds of the shaking of the beast charging around to realize that it isn't affected at all, before it ploughs through the column supporting Lemeza and bulldozes into Note. It's not dark, they just can't see. That has in fact been the case this entire time. Something has been screwing with their vision. Unfortunately, it seems like the massive, strangely wounded monster isn't even aware of the phenomenon. When Hemlock questions it, it snarls only in a way that translates as "I KNOW NOTHING, FOR THE VOICE OF GOD HAS LEFT US. OUR EARS NO LONGER HEAR."
Lemeza Kosugi	This is actually a bit sad to listen to. Although the maned beast before them had willingly challenged the group, Lemeza started to feel bad for it. The beast had started this fight visibly injured. It kept lamenting about not being able to hear the 'voice of God'. And its thrashings didn't really impress upon Lemeza as majestic at all. This one's going to be a mercy kill. A few stray rocks aren't enough to dislodge him from the pillar. Sure, he takes a couple scrapes and gets his face cut up, but compared to earlier the wounds are negligible. Lemeza hesitates, even as the room plunges into --no, the room's not dark. Or it is, and this beast can see perfectly without light. Or, that howl dicked over his eyes, which actually seems plausible. In any case, it takes the acoustics caused by the beast's charge to alert Lemeza that he was about to lose his pillar, and that he'd better leap off onto the beast and bound off if he wanted to minimize incoming damage.
Hemlock	It knows nothing. The voice of God has left them, and their ears no longer hear. Hemlock is actually...fuming. He doesn't blame the beast for being unable to answer, but he wants to know what the effigy does. He thought he'd have to crush it to defeat this thing, but he's not going to risk it, not before he can know the object's purpose. The fact that this thing isn't the god also makes him want to find out, and he's going to have to question Rurufon to see if she knows anything, even if she's unlikely to tell him. For now, Hemlock is putting the object away in his bag, taking cover as the entire place shatters and getting buffeted by the arena being smashed up, when their vision goes black. Hemlock maintains his cover, especially since he doesn't seem to be getting attacked, as he tries to figure out how to contribute to the fight. In the end, he decides to boost his allies. "Everyone, shout where you are!" If they do so, Hemlock whistles in response to each shout, boosting the combat power of his allies. Perhaps they can kill this thing with a strong enough blow...perhaps he can be the support they need to push forward and solve this.
Orchid	Rocks falling? Those Orchid can try and avoid. Mostly. She gets hit by one, her armor cracking across her skirt. Because this isn't THAT kind of Mush, it doesn't transform it into a miniskirt. But then the darkness falls... and, for someone who functions by being able to see more than others, the blindness has Orchid pretty badly shaken. She has a little ability to echolocate, and her spiders give her an idea of where the walls are... but she's afraid. Very afraid. She's heading for a corner, turning around, and presenting her shields to the world.
Nova Terra	Nova was thrown into the air by the initial shockwave attack, tumbling through the air and hitting the ground once more without the usual grace she's shown in the past. The reason can be clearly seen as she finally manages to stand again: There's a rather serious burn on one of her legs. Not enough to be life threatening, but it appears to be limiting her movement. Of course, movement becomes a moot point as the entire room is plunged into darkness. Though a quick test of raising her forearm and failing to see the glowy bits of her suit indicates that this may not in fact be darkness. Whatever the reason or cause, it doesn't matter. They can't see. Of course, not being able to see your opponent is common for those occasions where a Ghost has to fight another Ghost or like cloaked foe. Nova falls back on her training and reaches out with her mind... She can sense her allies in the room and that they too are blind. And the creature... The creature is still moving. Is it not affected? Nova reaches deeper into the mind of the charging creature, picking up on its awareness of its own position in the room, the relative position of Nova, her facing... Nova raises a hand, beginning to track the beasts movements even as an aura of psychic energy forms around her. Finally Nova unleashes a large blast of telekinetic force at the monster, attempting to launch and smash it hard into a wall.
Note	What incredible endurance! Note gazes onwards, amazed at just how much punishment this strange creature can take... and that it's still on a rampage! But then, everything goes completely wrong. She yelps the instant that roar goes out and her vision skews into darkness. Once again she shivers. This place. IS TOO STRANGE. Too wrong. Too weird. Maybe it's not worth it after all... But that thought is quenched as a fury rises. A fury to act now. Because while she can't see it... she can HEAR it. She can feel it. She knows where it is and what it's doing. And so the little warrior braces herself and gathers all of her strength. It's not the smartest thing to do, but she DIVES FORWARD as it's charging and tries to kick it square in... well, whatever it has approximating a face. She can't really see what she's kicking at though, so who knows where that foot will land? But it's two incredible superhuman forces colliding. This could get ugly!
Arthur Lowell	Arthur gets crashed into head on. Arthur responds to the issue by crashing back. As he sees the beast getting closer, he forces space to condense around himself and readies for the impact, grappling as the beast impacts him. "HRRRGH!" He grunts in pain as his Health Vial drops starkly, driving him back hard. "FUCK!" He tries to find somewhere to plant his feet on the ground and stabilize, maneuvering himself with personal gravity shifts to force himself into a standing orientation as the beast crashes with him spread out over the front of it. He tries to slow it and stop it, trying to hold it in place and halt the charge despite the bruises it's given him. "Ghhhhh... Come on..." He mutters softly. Things have suddenly gotten dark, which means he can't afford to let go; after all, if he does let go, this thing will ambush his allies. He doesn't have many ideas for how to deal with this, but now that there's darkness, well... He can try to come up with a clever solution instead of a stupid one. Now that he's hidden from the eyes that might judge him for being /nerdy/, he can seek something out to make things easier. Perfect vision. Leechmen. The bright stones are tributes to God. The circle of white crystals. The echoes they left behind -- perfect in their aural clarity. While he tries to keep those hands wrapped dangerously around saber teeth to force the beast to wrestle with him, he tries out... something odd. Something that's a bit of a shot in the dark -- even moreso right now, considering the circumstances. His inventory flicks open, and he sorts around it for something important. A pair of... sunglasses! These things have served him for more years than most people can live or conceive of. They're his Messenger Sunglasses. Quick, get them out, get them slightly resized through Space-Warping Powers, and then... onto the creature's face with a single precise motion. Arthur has absolutely no idea if this is could even remotely work. But hey! Either the beast will have a lot of darkness and messages popping up to obfuscate its vision, or... maybe... -- profoundBadness [PB] began pestering whitewallVoice [WV]-- PB: HOMIE PB: DUNNO YOUR DEAL PB: BUT PB: CHILL BRO!! PB: CHILL!!! PB: I've got SYMPATHY for the SHITTY GOD PROBLEM! PB: Can you READ US BETTER?!
Rurufon	Leaping onto the charging monster is about as easy and safe as the realistic outcome of jumping from a dead stop to land on the roof of a bullet train, i.e. pretty likely to snap Lemeza's ankles at the slightest deviation. He is significantly helped solely by Arthur, and then Note, ploughing into it from the front. Even the first isn't quite able to slow the beast significantly in its entirety, but when he slaps the pair of messenger sunglasses on the half of its face that hasn't been beam blasted, its charge stumbles where it seems to sort of forget what it's actually doing, wobbling on internally damaged knees with a growl that only translates as a perplexed "?". That's before the bard-buffed Saiyan and Ghost get their kicks in anyways, one literally. Note collides with the giant creature where it'd be difficult to possibly miss, off center, but hurling it back and out of Arthur's loosely-termed 'grasp' with significant stress to her ankles. Nova catches it partway back, and by reading its mind, gets a precision bead on it, and psychically smashes it through the next several columns, all impacting its ribs and flank, until it finally runs aground on one stalagmite too large and stout to really snap, and it finally collapses. Given they only have her to go off here, when the heavy, leaden silence follows the last utterance of "YOUR VOICE . . . IS STRONG ENOUGH . . . TO REACH GOD . . . PLEASE FIND US ONE . . ., for all anyone knows, it may be dead, or it may be simply stone cold unconscious. Either way, the odd blindness doesn't dispel, but merely retract slightly, letting people see at arm's reach around themselves, like something had been slightly washed out of their eyes. It unfortunately seems that a lot of the circle of stones had been simply crushed underfoot, but they can still locate the soft, chalk white glow of 4x PURITY STONES, as well as as a sharp, cage-like metallic shell similar to that on the Chasm Nexus key, but missing the gemstone it wraps around. It's covered in the beast's blood, and uncertain where it'd actually come from. The aftermath lacks the kind of ceremonious certainty of the Queen's defeat, in the same way it lacks last words quite as dramatic. No secret passage is revealed, or artifact of nebulous significance. They know what the Purity Stones are for, and how to get back out the way they came, and they'd clearly defeated the 'Lord' here, but it feels as if they'd arrived into a Realm severely out of order, as if they'd wandered in on the tail end of something having gone severely wrong; as if this were hastily thrown together into the schizophrenic, dysfunctional semblance of the 'dungeon' they were certainly right to be expecting, in order to prevent . . . something. Like it was crucially necessary for there to be this kind of structure, whether the inhabitants could handle it or not. Half a key. Not a third of a key as would be proper for three Realms to defeat before advancing, or a single key hidden at the very end. It's basically useless, like discarded scrap. A key that used to exist. The feeling one might get is that this place with white walls had once been somewhere higher in the tower, and 'fallen' somehow. Something to think about.