1422/Tokyo Dungeon

Tokyo Dungeon
Date of Scene:	26 January 2015
Location:	Earth-490 <49>
Synopsis:	A mall in Tokyo turns into a demon-filled dungeon, which then gets cleared. Dungeon boss whereabouts: Unknown.
Cast of Characters:	Kotone Yamakawa, 342, 571, Ayako Hasekawa, 617, 650, 665, Starbound Flotilla

---

Eiko (650) has posed:
    Early 21st century Japan. It's a bustling time, right around evening rush hour, with really nothing especially odd to see. Eiko is standing there on the street, attracting passers-by thanks to the sword she's carrying, though they again go on about their way after staring for a bit. It is pretty damn crowded, though the people all have places to be and aren't going to do more than jostle tourists, no matter how foreign they look.

    She seems to be standing in front of... a mall? And fidgeting. She's fidgeting a LOT. There doesn't seem to be anything weird about the mall. People are walking around or going in. It takes some more careful observation to note that very few people are coming out, and it takes some very refined or fairly specific senses to notice the dimensional anomaly superimposed over the entire building.

    "Come on, come on, come on..."

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    A black muscle car carrying two occupants will be tearing ass through the highway towards the scene. The vehicle only parks upon finding a massive gridlock ahead of it near the mall, with its occupants climbing out. Alexis Maaka flashes ID tags to avoid the cops flipping their shit about some six foot cyborg and her sidekick pulling out subguns and approachin the mall itself.

    Maaka tosses Kotone a second MP5 along the way just as she spots a girl with a katana, guessing she's the one who made the call earlier. "Hey, sorry for the wait. Fuckin' rush hour, y'know?" The redhead has a ballistic vest on, and a pistol is holstered on her right thigh for backup along with a hilt-looking device and some 'nades. Simple stuff, really.

Nozomi Houken (342) has posed:
    "Were you aware that your mall is in the midst of a dimensional anomaly?"

    The deep and slightly sarcastic voice of a robot tiger issues from the crowd as it ambles through it, no doubt receiving a wide berth from passersby. TIGER's ability to part a crowd is nigh-on universal purely for his oddity and vaguely dangerous appearance. The girl sitting astride him, however, is anything but. She looks a tad nervous, especially in the crowd of Tokyo, so a chance for them to stop and talk to the anxious-looking girl carrying a sword is a chance she is willing to take.

    "If I had to guess, I would conjecture that you are the only local presence capable of dealing with such things," Taiga offers. "I am the Technology-Integrated Gensou Engine Rampart. This is my user, Nozomi Houken." Nozomi bows her head faintly.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako walks quickly with the crowds in Eiko's direction. She's actually pretty careful not to push or jostle anyone, but still be swift enough to make her way through the crowd quickly. It doesn't hurt that she fits in pretty well with the normal people and is cute, making her seem like a young girl in a hurry.

    After a moment she makes her way to Eiko and stands next to her. "Hello Eiko! So. Where's the fire?" Ayako's head inclines to the side gently as she smiles softly.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    The STARBOUND FLOTILLA arrives. For a world that has little interaction with the multiverse, they're... Sssssslightly conspicuous. A fishman, a monkey-man, a robot-girl, and a bird-woman are all walking down the street. They also have a human in their group, but that's less remarkable. LUCKILY, they look exactly like rubber-headed aliens as depicted in television sci-fi, even down to their gimmick outfits.

    They appear to have teleported somewhere nearby and walked here. Moonfin is the one who moves forward, giving an extremely approving look to the katana sheathed at Eiko's side. "Greetings, I am Moonfin of the Starbound Flotilla, and we have come to assist."

    The robot behind him beeps several times, then says in a feminine monotone, "Agitated. Distortion anomaly detected in the vicinity." A pause. "Urgent. Is that the cause?"

    All six of the group seem ready to start, and will follow directions into the structure as soon as given them.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa does resto work and so she does love going for rides in thisw old mucle car of Alexis the thing is lovely as far as she's concerned as she catches the MP5 and nods to Alexis and sighs.

"Rush Hour no matter the world can be murder. Good to be here though."

Kotone is geared for trouble form the looks of her and she is indeed armed right now.

"This is quite the mess."

Still Kotone is fairly chipper having time to chill out on Rory's ship for a day or so seems to have done her some good really.

"Anything else we need to know about this Distortion?"

She also looks over to see the Foltilla's personel arriving.

Chloe von Einzbern (617) has posed:
One moment Chloe von Einzbern was not there.

In the span on a breath, without so much as transition in any way shape or form, she is.

Simply appearing as if from thin air, hands folded behind her head as she shifts her weight to lazily rest on one foot. Right by Nozomi, as a matter of fact. "Yeahhhh there's something up with that mall, alright."

Nozomi Houken (342) has posed:
    The moment Chloe appears, Nozomi lets out a startled little yelp and jumps about a foot to the side.

Artyom W. Valodjn (665) has posed:
    There are foreigners in Japan, and then there are FOREIGNERS in Japan. While not standing out nearly as much as the Floatilla crue, the fact remains that being eight-foot-nothing in the middle of a Japanese city makes you stand out a little. Doubly so when it looks like you're carrying a surfboard on your back. Artyom grunts curiously as he casts his eyes upward at the vast, gleaming towers. A train passes nearby, its wheels roaring along the tracks. This place, Artyom muses, reminds him vaguely of Ramuha- or of Titan at its most crowded.

He's apparently stopped somewhere for what appears to be a stick of dango. It's half-eaten, and, judging by the way he's munching at it, will soon be /fully/ eaten!

    But he's not here to sightsee. Not necessarily. Artyom arrives in front of the mall, his brow scrunching at its front doors. "Hmm, this is the place," he asks, swallowing a bite of his snack, "Is it?" His eyes glance over at the others, idly taking them in, before pausing at Eiko. "Sorry if I was late. I got--" there's a pause, the camera flickers briefly at his nearly-gone stick o' food, "--A bit distracted."

Eiko (650) has posed:
    Of note, Earth-490 is only very, VERY dimly aware of the multiverse at all. At least, all the crowds are. Therefore, they assume to the most probable with every strange thing they see. To whit, basically everyone that shows up is assumed to be a cosplayer. Except TIGER, which must be here for a robotics trade show. No one is sure what show that is, but obviously there is one. The police are unamused by Maaka's parking job, but flashing a badge will get them off her case for probably long enough to get out of there.

    Eiko looks up as people arrive. TIGER has her double-take, because that is very close to being a giant robot. Just needs to be a little bigger. She recovers quickly, though, as she is also feeling pretty rushed about getting through this.

    "Actually, no! There are probably others. But they're not showing up right now, which is probably bad! There should be dudes already here and they aren't and that is both vaguely worrying and a HUGE OPPORTUNITY." She seems almost unnaturally energetic. Someone probably had their coffee fix just now. "Also, YES, there are things I gotta explain."

    Anyone with especially good stealth/observation abilities may have noticed that, in fact, some pretty damn stealthy but /mostly/ mundane observers have been keeping an eye on... every single off-worlder that has shown up, with the possible exception of Kuro. Eiko does not show any awareness of this.

    Eiko gestures up behind her. "This is what happens when some big-wig from the Other Side makes an invasion. Takes over some place and starts doing some kinda cosmic replacement gig. /Long/ story short, we use this gimmick I've got," she holds up what looks like an ordinary Shinto-style amulet, "and we go in, and we end up in a dungeon full of nasty horned horrors and crap. We punch 'em in the face, jack their stuff, and break the dungeon's core, and it goes back to the Other Side, and we get back our piece of /this/ world. We don't do that, and... bad stuff happens." She shrugs. "Usually they're a LOT smaller than this."

    While she talks, there is still a big crowd around. Some people are taking pictures, of all involved. Some weirdo with a backpack is trying to get his hands on the robot tiger while muttering at high speed about servo-mechanisms. Some pair of girls are trying to get the eight-foot Galiandan to take a picture with them. A large subset of the crowd are trying to figure out what movie Flotilla crew are shooting.

Nozomi Houken (342) has posed:
    "I am government-owned military hardware," Taiga says, turning to look straight at the guy in the backpack. "Please do not touch me." That seems to be all he has to say to the weirdo, although Nozomi is now edging even closer to him than before. "A-ah, so, we... we just have to go in and fight the monsters, right?" That's good. That's very good. Fighting monsters is why Taiga exists, after all. "If I may, permit me to take the lead," the robotiger offers, yellow eyes gleaming. "I am equipped with an advanced magical sensor suite designed around detecting and combatting supernatural threats of many kinds. If there are any nasty surprises in wait, I am well-tuned to spot them."

    And so declaring, he pads forward with a clunkitaclunk, moving near the fore of the group and simply waiting for Eiko to open the way. Nozomi, meanwhile, sort of nervously eyes the rest of the group, as if trying to figure out who is the least-threatening person to stay next to.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Alexis gives a bit of an amused snicker at Nozomi's reaction, before seriousing up again. She nods to the Starbound crew before flagging them over to join up. Her golden eyes look up at the deminsional wedgie before them in the mall, and she listens pretty close to what Eiko says. "So we get to raid tombs and kill horrors. Sounds good to me." She says with a grim smile flicking the safety off her submachine gun.

    She glances back at the crowd of gawkers before flashing some sort of device, if it works on this early 21rst century crap their phones and cameras will momentarily be unworkable for the time being. "No pictures." she calls out in Japanese, clear enough for the crowd to get the message.

    Something may imply Maaka isn't a fan of paparazzi.

Chloe von Einzbern (617) has posed:
    Chloe is a completely ordinary girl from Germany with really dark skin and a bad habit of just appearing. Really, there's nothing of note about her worth watching. Seriously, don't mind the dusky skinned child. She's even in a Japanese schoolgirl uniform. Though she does slide golden eyes to Nozomi when the other girl near leaps out of her skin. "What? I told you I was coming."

She smirks. It's a cattish grin as she rests her hands on her hips.

But she tilts her head at Eiko and her explanation. "Oh huh. So it's like a bounded field. Well going in and pummeling stuff sounds easy enough. Might as well, I've been bored out of my skull lately."

Eiko (650) has posed:
    However people want to handle the attention, Eiko just doesn't seem to care in the slightest. Even for the attention she's getting. She just keeps on talking.

    "So this gimmick here is gonna, basically, establish personal reality inside that place for us, using the bearer as a base. Another long story short, trying to use it on everyone here at the same time is going to knock me the /hell/ out. I'm probably going to need to be carried in there, because this is more people than I expected to show. Not complaining! Just save me a good share of the loot. And remember there's a non-zero chance you'll be stuck in the void between worlds forever if you drop me."

    Finger-guns at Kuro. "Right! That's a good term. Bounded field."

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako blinks her eyes slowly. "Hmm... That's quite a way to stage an invasion. And... if this one's big, someone on the other side must be feeling a bit ambitious." Her amber gaze looks upwards. "Either that or they really really really wanted a shopping mall."

    Oh. Someone's trying to take a picture! Ayako poses cutely and winks!

    She looks back towards everyone. "Oh. People I haven't met... I'm Ayako Hasekawa, a water spirit! Please call me Ayako. If anyone needs healing, that's pretty much all I can do." Ayako giggles a bit nervously. "So pardon me if I leave the punching, jacking, and breaking to everyone else."

Artyom W. Valodjn (665) has posed:
    Artyom is about as stealthy as a polar bear in a coal mine. He notices absolutely nothing of the /strange watchers/ who may or may not be taking a peek at their little entourage. Idle concern plays across his face briefly as the crowd begins to gather, however- it's not like this is some kind of game! There's serious, dimensional business at foot here!

    But there is also always time to take a picture with giggling schoolgirls. There are a lot of those back in Alexander. It's only polite to pose in their photographs when requested. And so Artyom poses, a bit. He throws up a bit of a peace sign, there's a flash of camera-flash, and Artyom is all business again.

    "I see. So we are going to be... Walking into their private reality? Hm," Artyom murmurs, crossing his arms across his chest. "I suppose it's an effective tactic for an invader. Displace the natural environment with his own, establishing an advantage and seizing territory simultaneously," he rubs at his chin, and then begins undoing the fabric covering the massive /thing/ on his shoulders. "This could be problematic. I hope my magic will still be... effective within this bounded field."

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako blinks her eyes quickly when Eiko mentions that she's going to get knocked out using something on everyone. "U-umm... well. I'll carry you around if you get all drained, Eiko." She flings her mittens downwards and-poof! A cloud of mist obscures her for a moment and then Ayako is in her witch outfit. And holding her usual broomstick. She gestures to the broomstick. "I'll give you a ride by the brush."

    Oh boy, now Ayako's getting more pictures taken of her! "But... I'll leave the broom floating for later. Too many people with cameras out here." She giggles brightly.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Only George may have noticed the Flotilla's shadowers, and if he did, he isn't saying anything about it. The rest are busy with the crowd, giving a wide variety of strange answers to any questions that are sure to make for no conclusion whatsoever. "A high-stakes assault. Hmmm." Albert seems to not like this much. "We will do what we can and press our advantages ruthlessly."

    Pavo seems encouraged. "I was thinkin' this wasn't gonna be fun 'cause ye said it was about savin' people. I'll be on the loot duty!" She seems quite enthused! The crew heads over to Alexis -- a familiar secondary member of their group -- while Seft breaks off to go be nearby Nozomi.
    Meanwhile, George of all people wanders over to Artyom, and half-whispers, "Hey, big guy. You're one of those magic types? Didn't hear this from me. If you suddenly can't use it, go hassle Seft, my robot friend there. She can hook you up." And then he's back with the main group. The main group, of course, is ready and eager to get in there!

Artyom W. Valodjn (665) has posed:
    "I, ah, I understand," Artyom nods to George in reply. "I am more concerned with the... Geography of our possible destination. Hopefully it will be a non-issue, but I appreciate the assistance."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa Says "So this is an actual case of I reject your reality and replace it with my own?!"

Okay she was not expecting something like this as she looks over ot Alexis for a moment and make susre her gear is ready. In for a penny in for a pound it's time to get to work she's not going to try ot piss off the cops or nothing but she's got a job to do.

She does notice there's quite a few people aboard that she knows pretty well. She also starts at Arty for a moment holy hell he's huge.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    "I'm good to go, let's get rolling." Alexis says, noting the giant man for a second before she's kinda bunched up with most of the Starbound gang. "I guess we'll be on looting duty, then. I figure Ayako can handle carrying you, since you'll be outta the fight for most of this." She says, checking the sights on her SMG before she clenches her grip on the weapon tightly for a moment.

    She doesn't seem too worried, if anything this is the kinda shit she does regularly. No point in being nervous after all.

    Whenever the gang makes their way in, Alexis is right with them.

Eiko (650) has posed:
    "Okay, we good? We're good!" That was the last call for questions. Eiko's doing her thing. Talisman up, she steps forward, toward the mall's main entrance. "Everybody be /right behind me/ if you want in. I'll hold the door, but can't say for how long." She then, both literally and figuratively, holds the door.

    Inside, this is not a mall. It is not like a mall in any immediately obvious sense, though one might find similarities if they look for them. The floor looks like someone took a nice, tiled floor pattern, and then removed most of the tiles, leaving enough that you can just barely walk on what remains without touching what /would/ be bare floor--except there is no floor there at all, but what appears very much like a bottomless pit. The thin, flat-topped pillars that make up the walkable not-quite-a-surface just go down and down and down. You'll have to kind of hop a bit to get around, with human-sized legs.

    The overall structure of the place is a very wide, curving hall--more hall than hallway. It /could/ be about the size of the central thoroughfare of a mall, and it's multi-tiered, with balconies to either side that look like they might be easier to use for getting around than the not-a-floor. Bridges span between them, though there's no obvious way up unless you can fly or jump.

    Getting around clearly won't be a problem for the natives, because the figures that are stepping out from doors lining the balconies all have big, bat-like wings. They also have scales and really heavily-muscled frames, but this doesn't seem to bother their ability to hover. Their faces are more bull-like than draconic, and their bodies humanoid, with clawed hands and feet. Their feet are good enough for clutching to any protrusion in the architecture, while their hands are largely occupied with all manner of medieval weaponry. Swords, axes, maces, hammers--all big, bashy-slashy gear. No shields, and little to no armor.

    The hall naturally goes both to the right and to the left. There's no clear indicator of which is a better path.

    Eiko, inside, is standing precariously on a pair of pillars. Very precariously. She is also starting to wobble and fall. As warned, she's getting faint, and it's happening quickly enough that someone's going to have to grab her.

    The defenders aren't waiting for any decision-making to happen. They start leaping down and going for all involved immediately, either striking in leap attacks from above, or using their claws to hold onto the pillars while swinging their weapons, or just hovering in the air while striking. They come two and three at a time, but only because they're noticing the disturbance at different rates and don't seem to care to group up for a combined assault. There are plenty of them to go around.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako enters quickly into the 'mall' once Eiko opens the door. Best not to dawdle and drain Eiko too much!

    The moment she's inside, she holds her broom sideways and hops onto the handle. Of course, her broom levitates just fine. Ayako is sitting more towards the front of the broom, giving enough space to have Eiko sit behind her by the brush.

    And it appears it's a good thing she got on her broomstick right away! With a puff of mist the broom quickly propells itself over to Eiko as she begins to wobble. Ayako grabs her gently and settles Eiko in behind her on the floating broomstick. "Eep. That was quick."

    Ayako glances around and just now notices the layout of the hall. She was really focused on Eiko, after all. "A-ahh... well." She eyes the not-floor with a few tiles being supported by a few pillars... and is now glad she can fly. Not too glad, though. Her gaze looks upwards at the balconys. "I can't carry anyone else on my broom so... flying up and around isn't a good idea..." And then she winces when she notes the natives! "Yup! Really bad idea!" Ayako eeps when said natives suddenly start going after everyone! She turns her broom around and quickly moves back towards the group to hide behind them.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    The six Starbounders arrive. Eiko has someone else to go to grab them, so they leave her for now. All six flash a brilliant, deep blue for a moment, abruptly donning their armor from their Matter Manipulators. It's all very appropriate to the anachronistic nature of the place, with Moonfin in samurai armor, Biteblade in steel plating with bone ornaments, Pavo with a pirate-styled segmented-plate sort of thing, Albert wearing some kind of dystopian commando armor, George with a scavenged spacesuit altered into an armor suit, and Seft wearing full-on medieval soldier wear.

    Seft goes to take a defensive position at Nozomi, but seems much more concerned with talking to TIGER. "I will keep her defended. You may go as you like." From her Matter Manioulator, she draws a SHOCK BATTLEAXE, which crackles with electricity, and begins to swing it at anything that approaches, using the vicious, brutal battle-methods of medieval fighters. This is /perfectly/ suited for her.
    Pavo grins, and leaps into the air! Using her AVIAN AIR AGILITY, she begins attempting to leap between the attackers in mid-air, drawing an ELECTRIC CUTLASS and intending to swipe and stab with her one-handed sword in a swashbuckling, piratey way, laughing! And keeping an eye out for any loot at ALL. Anything the monsters drop, anything that might be precariously on thoise pillars...
    Biteblade draws their WATER BOW from their Matter Manipulator. Pulling it back, it'll condense any water vapor in the air -- hopefully none embarrassingly stolen from Ayako -- and fire it in a humming energy projectile that pierces tough hides and then releases a payload of mildly explosive scalding-hot water! They're going for ranged targets!
    Albert begins to call out TARGETS, FORMATIONS, and overall provide TACTICAL SUPPORT for his crew and the rest of the group, but for the most part simply equips his ROCKET LAUNCHER and attempts basic anti-air tactics. These two will form up on Ayako and ideally all three could be protected.
    Moonfin and George have both taken a place somewhere near Ayako. George has a STUN BATON that is used to brutally lethal effect, electrically stunning assailants and then tossing them into the abyss. Moonfin, on the other hand, dramatically draws a SHOCK KATANA when first approached, using it in a defensive posture to swipe away at the foes with practiced strokes. The pair seem to be quite ready to defend Eiko.

    Unfortunately, they are wearing JUST steel armor. If the foes here are more than cannon fodder, the Flotilla will find themselves swiftly bruised heavily by the assault. They intend to move FORWARD, and head to the RIGHT, splitting off from Ayako only at the last moment.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    There's no real time to try and get academic about this layout, and Maaka's nimble enough to not trip and fall over the pilllars as she takes a leap here and there, firing at the hostiles approaching before she glances behind her at the group.

    "Ayako, Kotone, with me!" Alexis says just as the fun begins. While she notes the approaching guards, she spots the balconies and thinks for a second. "I got an idea. Kotone, grab onto me and don't let go." She says, firing a burst towards the winged bull-monster things with her MP5 before slinging the SMG, producing a cable of some sort with a glowy hook.

    Tossing it at the balcony, her grappling-wire ought to make it easy for her to climb her way up to the balconies, and she strains a little as her arms and legs begin to carry her way up.

    Said balcony leads LEFT, which may be relevant later.

Nozomi Houken (342) has posed:
    TIGER looks briefly at Seft and then nods, before vaulting out ahead onto the tiles with an almost lazy agility. It's a hop and a hop, and he's headed to the right as well, although several times he stops long enough for his shoulder-mounted cannons to quickly swivel around and unleash bursts of rapid-fire yellow energy towards the foes above. Nozomi, in the meantime, is rather more cautious - and perhaps a bit wobbly. After a few hops across tiles, she is visibly nervous about proceeding further. She doesn't stop entirely, but she is slowing down a lot.

Artyom W. Valodjn (665) has posed:
Artyom makes his entrance quickly at Eiko's warning. They will have to move fast, though not /too/ fast. He's seen what happens when a team tries to rush a dungeon- even one of C-Class can become dangerous if it is taken lightly.

Unfortunately, this dungeon seems to be a bit higher than C-Class.

    Eiko isn't the only one feeling a bit disoriented. Artyom takes a couple steps into the bizarrely twisted space-- and then pitches forward. He plunges a leg ahead of himself, catching his balance in a wide, awkward stride. His eyes swim in his skull as the world suddenly seems to go more than a little topsy turvy. One hand reaches out for a nearby wall, only for its touch to draw a low, uncomfortable note out of the Titan's throat. "As... I figured," he grunts, slowly steadying himself. Wrinkles knit across his brow as he focuses his senses, drawing them inward- away from... Whatever it is that he's feeling, "This place is... disquieting."

    He shakes his head as if he were trying to drive the cobwebs from his brain. Wingbeats shake the air- there isn't much time for him to dawdle. Artyom rolls his shoulder foward, reaching over his head to tear what appears to be an enormous stone henge from its sheath. Cloth, already partially undone, unfolds and falls across the checkerboard floor in a tattered, uneven sheet. His gaze flashes towards Eiko as she stumbles, before he turns his full attention on the more immediate threats.

Enemy type... Gargoyles?

Is that what these are?

    Artyom swings his great, stone blade in a wide arc, doing his damnest to keep the beasts away as they make their advance. But it quickly becomes obvious that defense alone isn't going to cut it here. A low growl surges in his throat, as, tentatively, he reaches down into the bizarre, alien landscape, searching for something, anything he can use.

    Even if he finds it, the strain across his face makes it obvious that he's not going to be able to draw upon much any time soon. Instead, his voice gives way to a deep, angry yell as his defensive swings shift in pace. His blade flares, producing a dull roar as he cleavies a mighty, horizontal slice through the air. Vortices of residual magic peel away from his enchanted strike as he forcibly pours part of his own mana pool into the blade.

For now, unacclimatized to this bizarre world, he's running on his personal reserves.

Hopefully, that won't be the case for much longer.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone cradles the mp5 s she moves to hed in she looks over to Alexis for a moment and Arty damn that man is huge, she can't get over it she seems confident enough as everyone heds in but she intends to keep with Alexis ws they enter the strange place. She looks about what this place has beome and lets out a low whstile as she sees the locals she's already making ready to bring up her weapon. She moves and is about to open fire when Alexis tells her to hang on, she moves to wrap her arms about Aleix with no intent to /let/ go.

Chloe von Einzbern (617) has posed:
Into the mall!

The mall is not a mall. There are no shoes here.

The lack of trendy clothes is annoying, but it's not like Chloe didn't know what she was walking into, when Eiko Holds The Door, with Capital Letters. Still, the completely ordinary seeming girl strolls on through with a simple and easy "Thanks." Someone else can grab Eiko, because Chlow is tiny and not suited to carrying people, so she lets someone else deal with that, because there are other issues at hand.

Like the beasts that come-a-leaping.

A snap of fingers and Chloe's schoolgirl uniform is gone. Replaced instantaneously with a red cloak and segmented pieces of black armor. "Haaaaah... Well I guess it's time for that workout I've been wanting." But she needs a suitable weapon.

She finds it. She finds it in the hands of Artyom.

Lips tug into that catty little grin as the small girl whispers two words, resonant and thundering with power despite the soft tone of her voi<span class=" bold_fg_r bg_n ++ e.

"chr">Trace On.</span>"

It takes a mere handful of seconds, a large wire-frame of red light forms in her hands. And it rapidly fills in, a massive form seemingly made from... Stone, rather than steel.

And taking a two-handed grasp on it, she HEFTS the thing, ignoring constraints such as her small size and swipes it in a viciously wide arc on approaching guardians. There is no yell from her, however as she mimics the exact same strike wielded mere seconds before by the sword's TRUE owner.

Eiko (650) has posed:
    Pavo's vantage point will let her see into the small rooms from which the winged defenders emerged. It looks like there might be loot in there! In fact, it's pretty out in the open, with stacked crates and small pouches, and the rooms seem to contain little else; not even proper furniture. The crates, should she investigate, will prove to be empty. The pouches will jingle a bit. There are a LOT of rooms, but equally many enemies. The enemies themselves have a tendency to drop straight into the abyss when struck down.

    And they are struck down, one after another, but not without difficulty. They look tough and they are tough, taking a good few hits from even powered weaponry before going down. Strike well and you can stagger one for a finisher, but strike poorly and they'll just carry through with haymaker-style blows, and brawn and no finesse. They could be dodged, but the footing is seriously killer, here, for those who can't fly, nor reach the balconies. They've got a lot of reach, too, even without the 'flying' thing, and aim to use it. Ranged weapons are safer, but still need enough punch to bring them down in short order. A rocket launcher definitely has that, as well does TIGER's arsenal.

    Maaka makes it up onto one of the balconies, but that puts even more of the enemies in her way--a pack that haven't yet leaped down. Clubs and axes aim for crushing blows on her positions, if a fair bit telegraphed.

    Artyom's sword has plenty enough force to, if not cut apart one of these monsters, cut into and knock one to the side, if hit. For all their size they do have some agility, however, and when the first one goes screaming into the abyss the rest take note. They can't really be said to be using teamwork, but they at least learn based on what's in front of them, and each success makes the next a little warier. On the other hand, this gives him more breathing room while he gets his bearings. On the yet other hand, there are still more enemies arriving, if slowly enough. As Chloe tries the same tactic, she's going to meet with much the same result--if somewhat improved, should the two manage to position to cover each other.

    Progress is definitely possible, though it's going to be a running battle, at least if people take Eiko's earlier advice about time limits to heart. There's no obvious evidence as to why they should hurry, though--assuming there actually is an end to the enemies. That isn't /entirely/ certain.

    Once people get far enough down either the right or left paths, they'll find large openings in the inner side of the hall's curve, leading to rooms beyond. These are, of course, 'defended,' in the sense that more monsters from further up the hall, in each direction, have made it this far. And that's just going to get worse as time passes.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Alexis is about to yelp in surprise as she tries not to get hit by the bad guys along the way up, but she definitely will need cover the finish it off. LUCKY FOR HER and Kotone as well, there are hooks that when interlocked will allow Kotone to comfortably hang onto Alexis's back while she shoots and the bigger cyborg climbs. Alex's strength is more than enough to carry the both of them up, even as Kotone spits lead upwards into more of the bull-demon things.

    Her muscles are actually kinda getting a workout out of this, and Alexis pauses only to toss a frag grenade up to the balcony before she finally hops on when the demons are stunned, drawing her sidearm and firing away at them when she's on solid footing after mantling over the rails.

    Retrieving her wire, she unhooks Kotone and lets her catch her footing while they both make their way through the path, Maaka taking the brunt of the enemy force in order to spare Kotone a grisly death in close quarters combat.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako floats closely behind Alexis Maaka, letting her and Kotone handle the bull-demon mosnters their own way. Why yes, she is going left with them. Once in a while, she checks on Eiko to make sure she really is okay. After all, she is out like a light. Ayako did make sure to sit her very securely on her broomstick, so she's in no danger of falling off.

    Arrgh. Here come more bull-demons! Ayako carefully watches the bull-demons and notes their weapons. She thrusts her palms forward in Alexis' direction. At least she Water Bubbled these two and herself beforehand since she's met them before! "Sea's Depth Barrier!" And a bubble of water forms around Alexis, just so happening to shield Kotone at the same time as well.

    Sea's Depth Barrier is of thick water that is made to slow down any attacks that enter it and give more weight to attacks that go out from it!

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa has made use of the vest's addons which Alexis has shown her eailer ot secure herself to Alexis on so she has an easier time of staying attyached and taking shots as the actual combat cybor is leaping about. Alexis barks a warning and she aims up opening fire on the defender as they leap about she's going to have to rely on Alexis to not get hit as she's along gor the ride. She will have to reload at some point but she's being careful with her ammuntion use from the looks of it.

"...I owe you one Ayako!"

She calls out as she fires off another burst!

Eiko (650) has posed:
    With their focused assault, the LEFT team is making progress. The monsters already telegraph their attacks a bit, and with Ayako's barrier, someone as agile as Maaka is should have an easy time dodging around them, and even putting the hurt back on them. They're still going to need to be careful, but it seems grenades do stun them, and well-aimed bursts of gunfire can bring each down.

    Once they reach that doorway inward, they /could/ just ignore it and keep going up the hall--though by this point it's swarming even more thickly with enemies, and a few that were missed earlier are coming up behind them. If they do decide to take it, it'll just be a quick hop over a railing, a run down narrowing, featureless corridor, and then hoping the large door at the end can be opened. It has handles, so probably yes.

    Eiko, for her part, is barely conscious, and mumbling.

Artyom W. Valodjn (665) has posed:
    Credit where it's due: While these things might seem like mindless beasts, their response makes them seem anything but. Artyom's blade cuts deep into one of the creatures, fracturing its hide and sending it bouncing into one of the many holes in the world- but he's not so lucky a second time. The Rock cuts through empty space, nearly-visible waves of displaced air rippling away in the weapon's wake. He manages to clip a second creature, but it escapes a direct hit. Worse, a half-dozen filter in to replace the one that fell, turning a dangerous situation into an increasingly impossible one.

And then, a flash of RED ignites in the corner of his peripheral vision.

    Artyom glances aside, and sees... Something that makes him double take, honestly. He's /sure/ that his weapon is in /his/ hands, not clutched in the dainty palms of a girl half his size. As if to verify that this strange dimension isn't totally messing with his head, Artyom lunges forward and swings his weapon into another approaching monster. The expected happens. His blade is still very much real.

Then... that one is a copy?

    "Did... you copy my sword?" Artyom asks, looking more than a little bit puzzled. He makes an uncomfortable sound in his throat as the team begins to split. Even though this sort of thing was planned, there's a loud voice at the back of his head screeching NOT TO SPLIT THE PARTY, you MORON.

Artyom ignores it, because this is not a Galiandan dungeon, and maybe the rules are different here.

    Instead, he turns towards the right-hand corridor, electing to stand way at the front of the party-train for the sake of expediency and not being crushed inside a collapsing demiplane. Also because he's eight feet of wall and meat. He calls out to the copycat who done copied his sword. "Stay close! Alternate strikes with mine and maximize field coverage," Artyom instructs, dungeon-crawling experience demanding that he prove Two-Handed Fighters can tank, too. "Let's form a wall for the gunners!"

He does exactly that, swinging his weapon in defensive arcs at anything that might try to get past. It's the tank's job to make sure the rest of the party doesn't pull hate, after all!

His head feels... Better, now. Soon, he'll be able to press the attack in earnest.

Chloe von Einzbern (617) has posed:
Undoubtedly in the hands of anyone other than Artyom himself, or members of his family line, The Rock would be about as useful as a huge hunk of stone. Too heavy to lift, as good as a blunt tool, assumimg they even have the strength to heft it. And yet Chloe, bearing THE FAKE ROCK in hand puts it to just as effective use as itis true owner, the tiny girl not even displaying so much as a bead of sweat on her forehead from the great stone slab's immense weight.

In truth, she's using the memories of the blade. Wielding the knowledge of the sword, passed down from member to member of the Vladojn line. It's almost like she's wielded the thing for her whole life as a result.

It's EASY for her to fall into line with Artyom, flashing that smarmy little grin as she heaves the stone sword in an alternating arc, letting the much larger youth lead in a dance of defending those behind them with immense swings to deny things from getting past the pair, serving the perfect role as Off-tank.

"Yep~." Comes her reply. Yes, she copied the blade.

And that grin says she is utterly and completely shameless about it.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Pavo is gonna dive into one of those rooms, bust just long enough to smash some empty crates -- "WHY ye have so many empty goddamn crates!?" -- and then jack some jingly bags, not even bothering to check the contents. Unfortunately, she'll be suffering some damage during that excursion. And she probably can't afford to split off from the main group! So she'll be returning, bruised and bloodied already.

    The main crew, reinforced shortly by Pavo, is moving on. At the very least, with their SHOCK weapons, they shouldn't have much trouble staggering and following up. MOONFIN, GEORGE, and PAVO are all immediately forming up alongside Artyom and probably Chloe too. The blunt baton stuns but doesn't finish off, while the katana is more solid for defense and the cutlass is better on the offensive. They work in tandem as best they can with Chloe and Artyom, trying to be a much faster offensive option to strike between heaving blows, intending to stagger and stun using their electrical weapons.

    BITEBLADE and ALBERT continue their fire, but the sword wall of five people is likely to keep most of the damage off of them, letting them fire their explosive arrows and rockets into large groups ahead, trying to coordinate their fire with TIGER. They, too, intend mostly to stun so that ARTYOM and CHLOE can finish them off. SEFT, of course, remains hard at work defending NOZOMI, and jumping in front of any attempts to hit her.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Alexis thankfully is shielded by the barrier AYako throws up, and she makes that known over the radio before going back to the fight, swapping her CZ for the MP5 again. Nine millimeter rounds are enough to down these beasts, surprisingly enough, and she makes her shots count as four or five shots per beast are used. When her magazine runs dry, she slings her SMG to grab out the hilt on her belt, and it produces a wire with electronic current running through it.

    The blade hardens into a length of nearly three feet, vibrating at a high enough intensity to melt through solid steel plate. The chukutou-esque vibroblade slashes at the demon-bulls, and Alexis's superior agility and comparable strength will make her on an even footing with these brutish foes.

    Her sword hums fiercely as blue streaks are left in its wake, burning through flesh and armor while parrying axes, swords, and whatever else is thrown at Maaka.

    While making her way to the fork in the road, she takes a moment to consider before heading right, this time. "Don't get left behind!" She says, taking off with blade in one hand, and pistol in the other.

Nozomi Houken (342) has posed:
    In quick, leaping vaults, Taiga crosses the pillars, maintaining constant suppressing fire at the enemies above as he goes; he has the leaping strength to actually reach the balconies up above, but he's staying where he can cover Nozomi further back in the group. And once they reach the open 'stores', he'll stop and lay down a more steady barrage to clear the path before making each hop.

    Nozomi, meanwhile, is at least moving a /little/ more quickly. At least, when she doesn't make the mistake of looking down again. Which she seems to do every now and then. She at least seems grateful for Seft's defense.

Eiko (650) has posed:
    These monsters are intelligent, just not particularly smart. It's a bit above animal-level, so probably more than a Galiandan is used to. So long as he keeps adjusting for how the enemy learns, Artyom's going to keep hitting them. And so long as he keeps moving to keep ahead of the others, he'll keep drawing enemy ire before they do. That is, of course, if Chloe doesn't get there first. Between the two of them, it gets even harder for the enemy to do anything about their tanking force, but they're sufficiently stubborn that they're going to keep trying--and going to keep getting cut apart and sent hurtling. Against swords that size, they've even lost their reach advantage.

    Some of the winged enemies, either because they were missed or because they were just that slow to join the party, are coming up on the RIGHT group from behind. That may make things a little more complicated for those playing defense, with the melee mostly up front and the ranged straggling behind. Albert nails the problem only a moment before it occurs.

    Nozomi's relative defenselessness is making her a target at the flanks. Fortunately, Seft is there, and it seems that /most/ of the attention is attracted by the overlapping swings of the forward group. These monsters really don't use squad tactics at all.

    One way or another, the RIGHT group is now approaching an inward hall, similar to the other side. It's on the ground floor, and clear of enemies--if they can reach it. The bull-demons just get thicker and thicker the further they go up the current hallway, though at least that makes them bigger targets for TIGER and Albert.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako blinks her eyes when she notes the blade the Alexis Maaka draws out. "Oohh..." The electricity is just the thing the Sea's Depth Barrier was made for! Alexis' shocking sword strikes would find themselves to be even stronger than usual!

    As for the fork in the road, Ayako makes sure to stay with Maaka! After all, she is making sure Eiko is safe. When she hears the mumbling, Ayako looks back at Eiko for a moment. She then gestures around herself and Eiko. "Swirlling Mist Barrier!"

    And the water vapor about Ayako and Eiko begins to swirl abruptly about the both of them. A barrier meant to be used with her broom, this one helps Ayako move swiftly, accurately, and happens to help deflect projectiles if any should be thrown their way.

    "Okay! Feel a little bit safer about having Eiko as a passenger now."

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    "Sssneaky prey, goesss behind Floran! Floran, gonna show what's on back! Sssurprise! It's SSSTABS!" Albert's forewarning means Biteblade has enough time to put away their bow and draw their pair of SHOCK DAGGERS. It's a very little-known fact, but Biteblade, despite their savagery, is actually the most dangerous combatant in the primary Flotilla group in a fair fight. With a savage cry, it tries to grab one of the bull-like creatures and -- woah, uh oh -- stab it repeatedly in the neck and head, before tearing and arm off and messily devouring it. If they CAN pull this off on any one of the flanking, flying foes, and if the flesh isn't, you know, stone or something, Biteblade will suddenly surge with superhuman power, emitting a low, intense hiss while they metabolize the flesh, and turning into a whirlwind of electric blades.

    Albert is the one directing most of the rest of the group. "The next area is in sight. Do not let them establish a choke point! THe priority is advancing, press forward. Target-dense area ahead, crash through while they're stunned! Pavo, take the air, I need the ground!" And Albert puts his rocket launcher away, into his Matter Manipulator, and instead draws a grenade launcher! He begins rapidly arcing explosive grenades into the thick hordes ahead, to stun and disperse and hopefully even paste some of them.

    Pavo has to get out of the Sword Wall for a while, taking to the air again! Her superior air agility lets her leap up and between flying foes to intercept and stab them, but she's left alone, and will likely suffer even more severe wounding for her trouble! Speaking of severe wounding, the Starbound Flotilla may be slightly under-tiered for this area. They're pulling through, mostly by virtue of their teamwork and their allies, but it's tough going! Seft is tanking for two and Pavo has gone off alone too much, so both of them are a bit more heavily wounded, but the whole group has dented armor and a strained, exhausted sort of appearance.

Eiko (650) has posed:
    Quick bursts will do, but only if the aim's good. Still, gunshots pack some punch, and slow the bull-demons down if nothing else. The sword works a bit better, slicing deeply through scaled bodies, magnified further by the water to stun what doesn't die. Working in tandem is enough to get the LEFT team in toward the door. It's clear as soon as they turn that way--or at least, now they only have enemies on one side. This will last until they get the door open.

    As it happens, the door opens easily. It will also close easily and, once closed, will be difficult to open again. It could be broken, but for now it might be more useful as a barrier for all the enemies behind them. In front of them, however...

    There's a lot of low furniture in this room. It's set up as a courtyard, though there's nothing past the glass ceiling above but an unsettling blackness, interspersed with... five-foot-wide, circular grills? More such grills are placed on the floor, beneath each on the ceiling, and surrounded by tables, chairs, benches, and low walls. Everything is sized on the small side, though still not small /enough/ for what's filling the room.

    There is a veritable crowd of screeching imps. They seem to be more concerned with brawling with each other at the moment the door is opened, but that changes quickly for those nearest the adventurers. The little, leather-skinned creatures jump and claw and make obnoxiously loud, wailing noises, some breaking the furniture in their excitement, as a dozen and more turn to leap for Maaka and Kotone. Ayako won't be spared, either, if they can get a line on her, and there are enough of them here that that is probably going to happen. On the other hand, their wings don't look all that good for actually flying.

    Some taller monsters are standing passively, scattered amidst the crowd. They're gray-skinned, roughly humanoid, but with elongated limbs. They don't immediately doing anything. The imps seem to ignore them.

Nozomi Houken (342) has posed:
    With Taiga's combination of mobility and firepower, he makes a surprisingly effective support unit; when it becomes clear that there is enough trouble in the back to put Nozomi in danger, he unloads one last barrage of fire to the front before turning and making a series of high, fast leaps - even the walls become just another platform to him for a split second, putting him in the back where his cannons can go about protecting Nozomi and clearing out those 'sneaking' up from behind.

    It's probably a good thing. Being in more immediate danger isn't doing much for Nozomi's coordination. After brief consideration of her issues, Taiga comes to a decision. "Nozomi, on my back. Seft, please provide cover for a moment longer." His plan is simple - get Nozomi on his back, and then quickly bring her to solid ground in the inward tunnels, where she'll be safer. He has plenty of weaponry to ensure a safe spot, after all.

Artyom W. Valodjn (665) has posed:
    What's better than one giant stone sword? Apparently, TWO giant stone swords. The air is filled with the wonderful din of the two blades cutting or smashing or otherwise knocking about the gargoyle-things. They may be intelligent, but all the intelligence in the world may not be of much help when the opponent is perpetually out of reach. They are many, however. One, two strikes manage to penetrate Artyom's sword-wall, but those who get too lose are driven back by his flotilla-allies. Each wound does ache, but he can grit his teeth and carry on.

The trouble is that they're not only coming from up ahead.

    The sound of battle reaches Artyom's ears- but not from the direction he'd prefer to hear. He frowns, even as Taiga's tremendous firepower hammers the hallway ahead of him. "We're counting on you, Floran," Artyom rumbles, smashing his greatsword into another creature, "Keep our flanks safe!"

    He seems... different from when they had first arrived. Each step is taken with greater confidence, his footing becoming firmer, his strikes steadier with each minute that passes. The vertigo is passing.

    Artyom takes in a breath. He can feel the alien power of this place coursing beneath his feet. It is paradoxically solid, yet ephemeral, real yet phantasmagorical. The conflicting nature of the pocket-world tore at him before, but now he has reached some sort of balance. Artyom slides his foot ahead- and then brings it down, hard. The floor trembles, arcs of golden energy seeming to 'leap' from the tiles below. His face contorts with strained concentration-- as the tiles ahead of and beneath the advancing creatures suddenly shift downward and away, buckling and contorting to send some of the creatures hurtling into the void. Or, at the very least, to cause them to reconsider their relentless attack.

It takes more energy than it should, but now he knows he can /move/ this place.

Good.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    "-SHIT!" Alexis meets the crowd of imps head-on, her blade slashing into the melee as her augmented strikes deliver a nasty shocking after-effect on the little bastards. She hacks and dodges, raising up a fist to reveal something tucked in her sleeve-

    Or in her /arm/ no less. A blast of direct energy is unloaded point-blank into one of the imps, a scattershot blast of sonic power sent to blast through their ranks with devesating force. She shoots again and again until the four-shot mechanism clicks empty, and Alexis goes back to hacking away with her vibro-sword. Her pistol lets loose with accurately aimed shots, mostly blowing brains out all over the place, when slicing off heads and limbs isn't enough.

    The bigger guys are noticed, but Alexis is more concenred with the imps' assault.

Eiko (650) has posed:
    While tough, once you get past the scales the flesh of the bull-demons is entirely edible. To a given degree of edibility. Stabbing one repeatedly in the neck is enough to get one to stop moving long enough to pull an arm off, though that does require breaking that hard exterior all around the limb. Biteblade thus succeeds, after a short, somewhat vulnerable delay in which at least one other monster is swinging an oversized sword into his position. That one won't last long if the Floran isn't interrupted.

    Grenade bursts do work on that approaching mass--they're clustering together quite a bit ahead. TIGER's weaponry continues to be effective, and he should have no problem getting Nozomi to ground. Pavo, on the other hand--single enemies aren't a match for her so long as she keeps putting her agility to use, but it's going to get more difficult as this keeps going. For now, the flankers are being taken care of, and there doesn't seem to be a constant supply of those, or at least not much of one.

    Between air bursts and now ground-manipulation, the advancing force stumbles, with winged defenders finding their footing taken out from beneath them. Their instinct is to grab for support, but everything they can grab is falling. It will take precious moments for them to take to the air and resume.

    The hall to the door is clear of enemies, and the ground solid. The door has handles, and there appears to be nothing in the way of going through, once the party has gathered there.

Nozomi Houken (342) has posed:
    Nozomi looks a lot better off once they reach solid ground, although she slides off Taiga's back and immediately plops to the ground for a moment just to gather herself. During that time, the black mechatiger remains right by her side, keeping an eye on both the tunnel ahead and the jumping puzzle gauntlet behind. Only once others are there, and Nozomi climbs back to her feet, does the TIGER unit turn and move to the fore again, stopping right beside the door to the next area.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako eeps when there are just so many imps! She floats upwards to hopefully exclude some of the imps from reaching her. She would take a look around the room, but she's too busy dodging imps. At least her barrier helps with that! She weaves and waves and tries to stay by Alexis to give her the opportunity to use herself as a distraction to help take out the imps.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone is now no longer hanging on to Alexis s they made it up she's moving along side her and Ayako and trying to keep with the other two women. She does not wnat to get cut off not in a situation like this. She keeps shooting as she moves trying to cut down the imps as they get close, but she's forced to reload and contiune shooting causing a pause in her supresisng fire on the attackers.

That's when they are on her and she's noe stuck meleeing with the two that got through to her.

Chloe von Einzbern (617) has posed:
    "--Hold up. Gotta handle something" That's Chloe. Though she breaks off from the main tanking force, she takes The Fake Rock with her. Artyom is a big boy and can handle himself, and the others cna more than make up for her absence at the fore. Because when she breaks away and wheels around there's a sudden SLAM.

While Biteblade enjoys its snack of body parts, the huges copy stone sword is set down, flat in front of Cloe like a huge wall of a shield; with Chloe placing herself between Biteblade and another beast while the floran is delayed by voracious snacking.

Chloe leaps over the stone, two new swords in hand, one a silver-blue, mithril rapier; quite familiar to anyone who might know one Dominic Masoch. The other is an older blade, yet still summoned from seemingly nowhere, a terrible old rapier that drives the unworthy way, wild with fear at the sight of it, the mithril rapier and Tizona flash in her hands like quicksilver, fleeting and flickering glimpses of both as they dance like wild lightning together in a vicious flurry of murder and stabbing.

Eiko (650) has posed:
    Unlike the bull-demons, the imps are fast. They fall apart when struck, whether by sword or gun, but there is an enormous supply as more and more of the room takes notice. It looks like, pretty soon, the only thing stopping them from rushing as one is a need to avoid literally climbing over each other to get at Maaka and Kotone. Ayako's slowing barrier will help, but they're still coming fairly quickly and from almost any angle, clambering over the low walls and the furniture to leap high or low. Individually, their attacks are weak, but throwing their entire body at their foe maximizes the impact, and any that reach just keep clawing until they find something weakly armored to scratch into.

    Once Ayako is high enough, she's outside of range, as it seems the imps really can't fly. The most they can do is get a little air time when they jump, flapping their small wings frantically. Alas, this safety doesn't last, as some of the gray-skinned demons begin to ponderously move into action. With a feeling of lethargy, a few of them begin to pick up nearby imps in their hands, and then swing their long arms about to launch the tiny fiends in ballistic arcs, all trying to crash into the water spirit and, hopefully, claw up every part of her they can reach before falling again.

    That door at the far end of the room is still a long ways off.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    It's clear Alexis can't exactly hold out much longer, neither can Kotone. While Team CYBORGS (and water spirit) are mobbed, Alexis mutters something upon spotting flung imps flying towards Ayako. Her pistol reaches up, firing at each of the flying imps before she holsters her sidearm and sheathes her sword for a second, swapping to the MP5 once more as she fires at the giant guys.

    Her other hand throws down a flashbang to clear the route towards one of the lanky guys, and she fires at his knee to drop him while charging towards it, tackling the wounded leg.

Eiko (650) has posed:
    Thanks to that quick intervention, Biteblade DOESN'T get smacked across the room mid-meal. Instead, berserking Floran and dual-wielding Copy Swordsman slice through every one of the flanking bull-demons in range. There might be some more in the distance in that direction, but it's looking pretty clear for them to rejoin the main group at the inward hall.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Seft covers Nozomi and TIGER as best she can, interposing herself whenever she must between Nozomi and an attacker. She's looking a little dented, but in the way that leaves her still mostly functional and at full martial efficacy.

    Biteblade is going to need some cover! Otherwise one of those demons is gonna be able to dismember an entire arm off of them! Thankfully Chloe rushes in to help, preventing undue mutilation and permitting the Floran to help clear out the remainder of the flankers, beginning to stab with MUCH gusto! Their power is superhuman for several minutes, letting them wield vastly increased strength, speed, and even reflexes. "Floran THANKSSS!" The bloody-faced plantman says. "Little white-hair meatgirl is good hunter! Strong, teamwork!"

    Seft continues to try to cover Nozomi to the inward hall. She charges ahead of the sword wall somewhat, intending to cut up a landing space for each of Taiga's jumps! She's a clanky, clompy thing, but it shit be quick enough! Meanwhile, George and Moonfin are pressing further ahead. Moonfin especially so; the fishman seems to take a much more offensive posture. "Fourth Sea Hylotl Style: Dirge of the Icebreaker." His maneuvers swap from stunning swipes to swift jabs meant to part the sea of bodies between his hops, and while it's riskier for him, it's accelerating the charge. Pavo, for her part, is descending. She can take them one-on-one but she can't maintain this jumping for long, and wants to land in front of the door soon. She disengages swiftly from it, and tries to yank it open almost immediately after slamming harshly onto the ground.

Nozomi Houken (342) has posed:
    As mentioned on the radio, Taiga stops in his tracks not long after their arrival in the tunnel, as if hearing something... and then utters quiet frustration. It takes a second for Nozomi to even climb back onto the mechatiger, and the look on her face says it all - as frightened as she might be of the place, she doesn't like abandoning everyone at all. "I..." But that's all she can manage. Even the mechatiger somehow manages to look dissatisfied. But he has his orders, and without another word, he goes leaping back off into the tilepillars, making impressive haste towards the exit.

Eiko (650) has posed:
    TIGER is going to have a relatively easy time making it back to the entrance, though without his anti-magic weaponry, and without Eiko's talisman, he might have a hard time leaving. As is, it's just going to be a slight delay as he follows the general's orders.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako whews softly once she's out of reach of the imps... and then eeps when the gray-skinned demons begin to move. "Huh? What are theyy doi-eep!" And then she has to start dodging yet again! "We need some help here! We're being swamped!" At least the demons move slowly, giving Ayako a chance to react to the individual throws!

    When one of her dodges takes her close to Alexis Maaka, Ayako quickly cups her hands in front of her body. "Healing Water!" Her hands fill with water that possesses a pink tinge to it. And she quickly dumps the water onto Alexis. Pink healing water is made to restore power to machines! Although it isn't nearly as refined as the red or orange healing waters she has for organic beings. Pink and gray are still works in progress that are the result of her spending lots of time helping out in Union Medical.

Artyom W. Valodjn (665) has posed:
    The words in his radio inform Artyom that the situation has just gone from 'bad but tenable' to 'shit is hitting the fan at lightning speed.' As the Mechatiger does the bidding of its superiors, Artyom bites back the bile burning in the pit of his gut. On some level he... Understands. If the Zaibatsu called for him, he too would be compelled to act as it demanded, but even still, this situation is... Not ideal.

At this point, turning around to assist the other group would expose both teams to danger. Sending one member of their party away to lend aid would be asking for suicide.

The only thing he can do now is make a choice.

Artyom reaches for the handle of the door while the beasts are still scattered, grabs tight, and tugs it open.

Eiko (650) has posed:
    The SWORDS team's door is thrown open, and the next room is revealed. It is not the room with the imps. Instead, it is deathly quiet. Rather than randomly placed grates and tables, there are neatly places rows of ten-foot-high shelves, mostly containing crates. To Pavo's frustration, they will prove to be just as empty as those outside. The ceiling is barely another ten feet above, which makes flying possible but slightly tricky for anyone without good maneuverability.

    Once everyone is through and the door is closed again, it will be difficult to open for some time, making an effective barrier so long as they keep moving. This is also the point at which the room's other feature will reveal itself.

    In-between the rows of shelves are rows of statues. They bear a variety of influences, though all seem to draw from fantasy archetypes, with the noticeable exception of 'wizard.' There seems to be no pattern to the order in which they activate, as several of the statues begin to move. Wielding an axe and clad in demonic armor, all of uniform stone, the first statue is soon followed by a ranger, loading stone arrows and pulling a stone bow with remarkable ease. A rogue with twin daggers begins to move, and promptly disappears behind a corner. A black belt leaps over to land with stone-heavy steps but perfect balance on top of the shelving, before going for the party.

    If anyone gets up into the air, they should be able to see the door at the far end.

Eiko (650) has posed:
    The gray pitchers twitch when hit, but don't respond much otherwise. It takes quite a few hits to down one, or a good burst to the head, but they don't really move or resist, so it's fairly easy to do if one has time. They react only by continuing to attack, and attack only by hurling imps.

    If anything's going to go well, here, it's that there comes a lull in the attack once enough of the imps are downed--briefly, as more gather up, sizing up their opponents and readying themselves for another rush. It's just a few seconds opening to do something before the attacks resume. And what injuries the little creatures can inflict are light enough that Ayako's healing water will help a lot.

    It's when the invading force gets close to one of the grills in the floor that the next facet of the room reveals itself. Yellowish liquid, somewhat thicker than water, falls from the ceiling above. It hisses as it goes, falling into the lower grate. Its exact nature will be more apparent should anything touch it--it's scaldingly hot oil.

    As soon as this happens, it begins happening all over the room. On perhaps some complex schedule, oil either falls from the ceiling, or erupts from the floor grates, spreading slightly over the floor in the latter cases. The imps scramble out of the way, but they'd already been avoiding the grates, so this doesn't change their strategy much.

Chloe von Einzbern (617) has posed:
Thumbs up.

This is Chloe's response to Biteblade as Tizona shatters in her hand, mid stroke, the mithril rapier following suit and breaking next. She shows no sign of loss for such masterfully made blades. She merely sucks on her teeth when Taiga and Nozomi have to pull out, but there's no grudge as she leaves The Fake Rock where it is, a pair of white and black curved short swords appearing in her grasp by the time she returns to Artyom at the fore and the decision is made to press through the door.

Fine by Chloe really.

At least until statues begin to move.

Like boomerangs, she chucks Kanshou and bakuya, not even waiting for them to return as she summons another identical pair to her hands.

"Geeze. This has got to be the worst shopping trip ever."

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Noting how easy the big guys go down, Alexis seems to have little trouble dropping them as she fires away with her MP5. As she spies oil spilling into the grates. She swears, trying to avoid the oil as she pushes the imps towards the blazing traps in the meantime. Ayako's healing water does help to patch up the accumulated wounds she's sustained during this whole scuffle.

    Lashing out with a kick to an imp's chest, she reaches out with her fist to launch some sort of spike, the bottom of the large 'nail' beeping quickly before it explodes in the midst of the imp hordes, no doubt making quite a mess of gore and blood in the process.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako turns and notes Eiko groaning. Her hands cup together again and this time, green healing water pools inside her cupped hands. She applies this water directly to the top of Eiko's head. Green Healing Water is used to restore magical energy! It also happens to help with headaches too, so there is that.

    Hot oil?! Coming from the ceiling?! Ayako is not a fan of sustained heat and so quickly begins to make her way towards the door to the next room.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone is getting clared up fairly badly at this as she manage to finally get free of the imps that have her up close they done a bit of a number on her and she's opening fire, thankfully Ayako is healing and she will not question ot helping her /at/ all no she'd be foolish to but then comes the oil? WAit oh god it's comming all the grates she's trying to back pedal and avoid but she does attempt to kick one of the imps into one as she opens fire. On some others.

"This is not your world and you will not have it!"

Kotone yells as she keeps on shooting as she moves to keep with the rest of her team.

Artyom W. Valodjn (665) has posed:
    Ten-foot hallways, still better than Eight-Foot hallways. Also worse than big antechambers and towering cathedral-pulpits. Matters are made immediately worse when the once-stationary statues begin moving. Artyom recognizes the stereotypes associated with each creature- the Galiandan Job System has its perks. One of them is 'recognizing Fantasy Character Classes.'

That doesn't exactly help him fight them, though.

    An arrow sinks into Artyom's shoulder, illiciting a pained, uncomfortable growl. Artyom grunts, bringing the great stone bulwark that is his sword down between the Ranger's missiles and his relatively squishier flesh. "Tell me about it," he rumbles to Chloe, "Nothing worth even taking home yet." He feels another projectile collide with the flat of blade-- that's the sniper. The one in armor is the tank-- and there are two strikers. Besides the ranger, the most dangerous one at present is...

    Probably the monk. Biteblade can hold off the rogue for at least a while, presumably. His sword can act as a shield for the time being, and the knight is almost as hampered by the closed quarters as he is. The Black Belt is skilled, deft and adept at fighting in these tremendously closed quarters. Eliminating him quickly becomes Artyom's priority number one. But...

His mobility- his mobility is the trick.

But he is a statue made of stone. Maybe that, then?

    Artyom braces against his shield-blade. His brow furrows in concentration, senses focusing on the Black Belt's nimble footwork. If he can hold it in place, even for just a moment, then they can eliminate at least one threat. He extends his will into the floor of this place, feeling out for the monk's position-- his mind reels as he encounters it. A flash of pain blasts across the backs of his eyelids. There is something resisting him; there always is, with these things.

Artyom inhales, reaching deeper, visualizing the tiled floor itself squeezing around the monk's feet, joining stone to stone and fusing the construct to the ground.

If it works, then maybe this plan may just pull through.

Eiko (650) has posed:
    Against opponents like these, explosives help a lot, and Maaka is able to briefly clear a space into which she and Kotone may be able to run. If she can keep that, they'll make the door yet. Even now, they can see it--and also see the large lever set in the wall next to the door. That must serve for a handle, because the door itself doesn't have any obvious means of opening on its own.

    The gray pitchers start to go down and, fortunately, there aren't too many of them. They're scattered around the room, though, and it'll take some marksmanship to get all of them, as it's a big room. Either way, fewer of them in the picture means fewer vectors of attack, and clever use of the oil traps can further cut down on how many directions the small group needs to cover as they advance.

    Eiko is groaning and mumbling. She's conscious, but only barely, and definitely not feeling too good. She looks a little better after Ayako helps out with that green water.

    The noise and smoke gives a little breathing room as the imp assault pauses once more--but only barely. Give them a moment, and they'll be back to leaping and screeching.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Thankfully Alexis is fast, so is Kotone, and the former hauls ass through a hole in the mob as the explosives give them some breathing room as well as a way through to the way out of here. Ayako luckily can fly, and she has Eiko with her as well, which makes things slightly easier on the cyborg's mind as she weaves through the crowd.

    As she does make her exit towards the other end of the hall, she drops more flashbangs to cover her and the rest of the group's exit, running at a rapid pace.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako quickly trails after Alexis and Kotone. Her hands cup together once more and this time, gray healing water fills them. For a moment, she catches up with Kotone and then flings it at her to heal any of the wounds that those nasty imps might have inflicted on her.

    But after that, Ayako falls back and stays behind the two of them. She's no fighter after all. And Eiko still isn't feeling right yet!

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    The FLORAN moves to hunt the rogue. They are a HUNTER and ASSASSIN, after all, and so they should be able to track even stone rogues. Biteblade intends to hunt, then pounce upon and stab the rogue somewhere, and then engage in a knife fight! This time, they've gotten out their proper steel blades instead of the shock ones, because what good is electricity gonna do to a statue? Nothing.

    Albert is launching his own grenades off towards that ranger, more intending to stagger than to kill. With Artyom taking on the Black Belt, and Chloe's ranged sword-throwing abilities clearly making her more suited to taking on the ranger, the remainder -- the remainder of the Flotilla, less effective than Biteblade in single combat, gang up on the axe-wielding KNIGHT! That's Seft, George, and Moonfin all rushing in! Seft comes in for swipes with her standard steel axe, George swinging a large metal club formed out of some kind of Nuka Cola advertisement, and Moonfin rapidly dash-slicing between their attacks. They were in perfect tandem to try to make an unbreakable onslaught.

    Wait, where did Pavo go? Oh, obvious. She's looting more of those strange little sacks from the statues, likely shortly after pushing them over or otherwise making double-sure they don't suddenly get activated by the looting through blatantly destructive looting. She's also focusing on pushing forward, trying to get to that exit after catching a glimpse of it in a high jump.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone is going to haul ass as fast as she's able to as she does not want to stay here and get caught with the others she's making for the door with Alexis and opening fgire on the imps and any other horrors but she's keeping tabs on her ammo she won't be able to hold out forever she thinks as the battle rages and she presses foward and thankfully she's got some pretty darn impressive support from the water spirit which she's thankful for!

Eiko (650) has posed:
    The demons outside were fairly tough, but a big enough sword with a big enough swing could simply cut through them. The statues are rather hardier yet, reacting as one would normally expect stone to react to being struck. Fortunately, Kanshou and Bakuya are legendary weapons, even when created via projection magic. They have the conceptual force to do things no ordinary blade could. Unfortunately, the magic animating the statues offers a degree of resistance.

    The end result is that the RANGER is chipped in the midst of its second attack. It still looses its arrow, after a short delay, but damaging the stone-flesh seems to interfere with its ability to move. The next attack comes more slowly. The grenades are less effective here than in the last room, though the explosions do serve to foul its aim.

    That same magic doesn't like another mage trying to control it, and there's a hell of a lot of resistance to what Artyom's trying. But he's working in his specialty, and his actual aim here was fairly modest--he's not trying to reshape the core of the statue, but just to fuse its surface. It's even more difficult for how quickly the BLACK BELT is moving, but then--its feet stop. And they remain stopped. Success! This has confused whatever kind of intelligence the statue has, and in any case it's barely able to defend itself until it can get unstuck again. That might take it a bit.

    Biteblade will find that a stone ROGUE is not as good as a more organic rogue. Despite their dexterity, their feet are quite heavy, and their skill can't quite make up for it, at least against a dedicated hunter-killer. The stone does make it difficult to find vitals to stab, however. The ambush is successful, but then comes a wearing-down period as the two perform their blade dance. It's soon enough after the bull-demon-eating that Biteblade has a very obvious edge in speed and offense, but the statue can take a lot of hits, only slowing slightly when nicked hard enough to chip. Enough hits, though, will reduce its threat.

    
The KNIGHT is the hardest opponent yet, as even a combined effort in cracking its armor does nothing to slow it down, and it's armored all over its body(?). It's also the slowest of the lot, and that huge axe it wields will find a hard time downing anything so long as the trio keep covering each other.

    None of the other statues seem to have activated yet, letting Pavo loot as she pleases. All of the pouches have that jingling.

Eiko (650) has posed:
    The imps seem quite vulnerable to flashbangs as well, reeling back and giving ample time to make it across the remainder of the room. It's only once Maaka runs out tricks that they're really going to press Team CYBORGS again. They're reforming for an attack, now, but there's that opening--and there's the door! The door still has no clear means of opening, but it has that lever next to it, and that has to do /something/ important.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Alexis mutters something as she finds the door's got no easy way to open. She considers just trying to smash it open, before noticing the lever. Thinking for a moment, she rolls her eyes and just pulls the thing, trying to get out of the way with a leap away from the door immediately afterwards, lest there be some sort of booby trap-door or whatever.

Chloe von Einzbern (617) has posed:
There aren't even any fashionable clothes.

This is the worst mall trip.

Chloe can only snort in reply to Artyom at first. Good as she is with throwing Kanshou and Bakuya, she has another means of conveying ranged death. When that long ranged statue reveals itself, the dark-skinned girl smirks. And as Albert lays down the suppressive grenade fire, from seemingly nowhere, Chloe draws a massive, black, longbow.

But she does not draw an arrow.

The girl draws another SWORD.

Resplendant and golden, a gleaming sword, she knocks it into place- an act which causes the blade to slim, shifting and altering, with a broad piercing arrowhead, a clearly heroic blade turned into little more than ammunition as she pumps it full of mana and lines down her shot.

"Bye bye~."

A ~TWANG~ of release sounds off as the glowing sword-arrow is released, inleashed with the speed of a lightning bolt. But on impact...?

It will explode with the force of a missile.

Eiko (650) has posed:
    Maaka pulls the lever. It's difficult to move, but then starts sliding down with satisfying force, clicking loudly into place when it's all the way down.

    The door does not open.

    The imps rush in.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako whimpers softly when the lever doesn't appear to do anything. Her palms then thrust towards Kotone. "Bullet Maelstrom!" And then a watery whirl shields Kotone from her front! Since Kotone is minding her ammo, she might as well help make each bullet count! This barrier helps strengthen outgoing bullets and help shield Kotone from the front. She grips her broomstick and gets ready to dodge imps... again!

Artyom W. Valodjn (665) has posed:
    Magic must defeat magic, it seems. Artyom feels the will within the statue push again at his own weavings. The stone rejects his touch, it attempts to repel his will. It fails. The ground seizes the statue's feet, and Artyom sees it seize. Explosions and thrown swords and-- is Chloe turning a sword into an arrow?

Yes. Yes she is.

He'll have to ask her about that later, because that is a pretty neat trick.

    With the archer distracted by /whatever the heck that was/, Artyom is presented with an opportunity. The Black Belt is immobile. His will is keeping it in place- for now. He can't say for sure how long his magic will last in this place. But for now, he has an opening- and he seizes upon it.

    Low, dull noise builds from behind Artyom's greatblade. It soon becomes abundantly clear that the source is none other than Artyom himself. He lifts the sword from its anchor on the floor- and begins rushing forward, his sword held out in front of him like the prow of a snowplow. His advance brings him closer and closer to the statue, his will tightens its grip around the thing's ankles, holding it for just a moment longer--

    Finally, he closes the distance. Artyom turns The Rock from shield to sword and drives it between the monk's anchored legs. He, pivots, his weight pulling the weapon upward, angling the tip in the split second before impact to level with the Black Belt's midsection. It's as if he's wielding the weapon as a battering ram!

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    The Floran and the Golem do a knife dance for some time. It has to last at least a minute or so, meaning Biteblade's berserk boost is faltering. They won't have their edge for long! As Artyom provides an idea, the Floran attempts to push in hard -- tanking any violent response -- and pin the golem to the ground with a brutal, tribal wrestling technique. "Floran! Knowsss how to butcher meatman! Take partsss off! Normally, not do for thing alive, except the one time! Sssorry, sstone man!" Trying to pin one arm with their legs, and perhaps failing, they initiate their efforts to... Disarm their opponent. Using their fist and their blade, they try to roughly chisel the arm's connection off, bashing it into the stone roughly, and then use the last remainder of their intense strength to do a bone-breaking Floran wrestling attack that has been recast as a dismembering attack.

    And then, exchaustingly, do the same to the other arm. And each leg. If this WORKS, it'll leave the Floran vulnerable to several stabbings, but should disable the horrible rogue, even if it leaves Biteblade with a lot of horrible lacerations.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Albert has little in the way of dramatics to add to Chloe's attack. He can't match her sheer DPS at all, no way, not with this gear. The most he can do is level his grenade launcher again, and launch several grenades around the archer, intending to close it in and force it to take Chloe's attack head-on.

    Meanwhile, Pavo gets what she came for! Huzzah! She'll be scouting out the way ahead, seeing if there's anything left between them and the end of this chamber, quite eager to make sure they can manage to get through without incident, mostly because that means more loot for her. She continues statue-pushing and bag-grabbing, as well as occasional frustrated crate-smashing.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Elsewhere, Moonfin, George, and Seft are all having trouble. The sheer, overwhelming RESILIENCE of this thing is making it incredibly tough to deal with! The trio halts their attack, for just a moment, gasping and panting for breath, exhausted by the strain of fighting it directly, just outside its axe-range as the fight has a dramatic pause.

    Each of them looks to the other and nods, some unseen agreement made between them. They sheathe their weapons into their Matter Manipulators, and then pull them out, the two-pronged yellow industrial tools glowing a sudden blue. They point it right at the titanic knight-golem's feet. Hopefully, there's still an abyss under there, because they project an intense, powerful disintegrating and digging effect, trying to drop the knight into either a hole or an abyss.

Eiko (650) has posed:
    The RANGER, unable to see where to dodge to, explodes. There was a statue there, but now there is /most/ of a statue, missing all of the parts that would have made it a recognizably whole, human figure. What is left falls apart.

    The BLACK BELT does not fare much better. All of its skill and agility avails it nothing when it can't move its feet, and Artyom aims a strike strong enough to shatter stone--which it does. It proves a mortal blow, or at least one that renders the statue again to an inert pile of stone, mostly some distance from where it had been standing a moment ago.

    At the far end of the room, if anyone is looking, there is a door, and a lever. There is no obvious way to open the door, but this is fine, because the door is grinding slowly open all on its own. What could that lever be for, then?

    Whatever vulnerabilities is does have, wrestling doesn't seem to be one of them. And yet, Biteblade is partially successful, because chipping away at the joint causes the limb to slow, and then to stop moving entirely. Trying to break it off will take a great deal more strength with the berserk rage ebbing, and the ROGUE wastes no time in stabbing the Floran as many times as possible, largely in an effort to dislodge it. It clearly feels no pain at the process.

    Elsewhere in the room, more statues are waking. The holy armor of a PALADIN contrasts with that of the demonic KNIGHT, as the former wields shield and sword as it begins to stalk toward whichever invader is closest, to do glorious battle--or whatever it is animated statues think of while stomping toward people, and before hitting them with things. The unarmored, fur-clad BARBARIAN stomps rather more quickly from the opposite side of the room, wielding a pair of short axe and sword.

    The floor here proves to be very, very resistant to harvesting, but it's possible, with three of the Flotilla crew working together, to get a noticeable chunk out of at least the topmost layer--it gets harder underneath. Alas, there is no chasm, but this does serve to trip the KNIGHT up. It will take another moment before it can axe any of them.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Alexis has felt rage before. She felt rage when the company's betrayals against her were revealed, she felt rage when she faced utter destruction just for looking in the wrong place, she's felt rage when she's been stiffed on payments and dragged along on missions she barely knows what the hell the point of were.

    But this is nothing compared to the rage one feels when NOTHING works, and effort is wasted. That is the rage Alexis Maaka feels right now. Angrily kicking at the door, she screams in abject fury as she wheels about to take her anger out on the imps, spraying bullets towards the mob. She's definitely at a loss right now, and that's never a good thing.

    Little does she know that there is a method to this, and she's gonna look kinda stupid when this is over and the other side activates their own lever.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Pavo has reached the end of the hall. She's soon joined by Albert, who has disengaged and nearly had a horrible run-in with a paladin. Dodging around shelves, he's gonna be knocking them over in the path of that Barbarian, trying to obstruct him as much as he can, before meeting Pavo.

    Pavo, for her part, is mostly PULLING on that lever intensely, before heading through that door. While she's a greedy bitch, she's actually quite loyal! And so has pulled the lever as soon as she was told to. Mostly because you don't go around, pulling levers you don't know the purpose of.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Seft, Moonfin, and George all now set their Matter Manipulators OUT of harvest mode, and into projection mode. The stone is reassembled, hopefully inconveniently around the knight's legs. This was REALLY risky and won't work on anyone twice, and the knight probably strong enough to extricate himself, but the crew CANNOT kill that thing, so they're booking it.

    Only Moonfin seems concerned about this. "Is this dishonorable, if he's just made of stone? Maybe it's like when you do something dishonorable to a Floran. They're not really /people/, so it doesn't count?"
    George catches his breath long enough to say, "Fuck honor, that was like getting in a fistfight with a wall. Who gives a shit? We need to leave, or you need to get us some energy drinks next time you go shopping."

Artyom W. Valodjn (665) has posed:
    There's a satisfying, unmistakable *crunch* when the Black Belt is reduced to so much rubble. Artyom savors the sound- but he doesn't have long to celebrate it. Out of the corner of his eye, he can see the Paladin beginning to move. Elsewhere, something else comes alive- though he's not yet aware of its presence. "Damnation, for every one we defeat, another takes its place--"

    But, they have a way out. The stone door in the distance begins rolling upward. Artyom breathes a relieved sigh. He takes a step in that direction when something in his ear catches his attention.

Adventuring Rule Two: Never leave a party member behind.

    Artyom whispers an excasperated curse under his breath and away from the receiver of his communicator. He hefts his sword over his shoulder and breaks into a sprint. Artyom crosses one set of corridors, then another, then another-- until he finds the Floran and the Statue, locked in their terrible, deadly stabbrace.

There is no time for it to go on any longer.

"Move, pin his arm!" Artyom yells, clutching his greatsword's grip in two hands. He lifts the hilt over his head, his muscles screaming as he goes to drive its tip into the Rogue's chest, right where its limb meets its torso!

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa has joined Alexis as sh get to the door but she can't well get it open she sees that it's not working and she looks at the doro for hal a secon before she turns about to open fire on the imps she's running low on MP5 ammo ais going to be switching to her pistol at this rate, she has no idea babout the puzzel as she looks about ofr any clues that might hint to how she could open the door.

"Alexis cover me I'm going to see if there's an way to get this open!"

Eiko (650) has posed:
    There are an enormous number of corpses in the room in front of team CYBORGS. This is, perhaps, what is being noted by the ENORMOUS EYE that suddenly appears through the glass ceiling, looking from one to another, and occasionally blinking. It isn't doing anything else yet.

    The imps, as ever, are trying to claw and tear. They can be scared off for brief periods but not, it seems, forever. What's left of them are falling to multiplied gun attacks, but it's only having a wall at their back that's preventing them from being quickly overrun again.

    Something must have gone wrong with the drainage, because the SCALDING OIL is starting to overflow out of some of the grates and spill over the floor.

    Eiko is starting to become coherent--maybe? Ayako's healing is probably to thank for that. She's still just kind of hanging on and cursing everything. It's a miracle none of the imps have gotten to her yet--and what few of the gray pitchers remain are still throwing more. At least, until the spillover oil starts to get them.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    The Floran is well-trained in savage wrassling! Or, well, not trained, but they did DO a lot of wrestling before. And so, despite suffering a LOT of laceration wounds all up and down the side of their body, they're still more than capable enough of grabbing at the wrist of their foe to stop the stabs, and pinning their arm. If Artyom can sever the arm, the statue will be armless!

    And then it can get up, and leap off the rogue and towards the exit. It's completely out of berserkerk juice and needs to get out of here now! "Thanksss, tall meatman! Strong, good teamwork for you too!"

Chloe von Einzbern (617) has posed:
Statue down. Now just... All the others left. Nimble fingers suddenly spread, displaying a fan of blades identical to the first golden sword, but as more begin to stir, Chlow sucks on her teeth. "Tch."

"Hey so. I can't keep this up forever." She does point out to... Just about everyone.

She's going to need a serious recharge after this mess. She's not putting as much prana into these, simply changing them into arrows and launching them as cover fire in a quick machinegun volley to cover the flotilla crew in varying spots as best she can with a machinegun hail and a sniper's accuracy.

Eiko (650) has posed:
    The ROGUE is unable to dodge while wrestling Biteblade, and has already suffered a lot of damage. It's pierced by Artyom, and expires. Striking through the chest hard enough seems to work on this type of enemy.

    The BARBARIAN is fairly nimble, though not to the level of some of the other statues. Still, obstructing its path does slow it down some. It's now stepping on top of the fallen shelves, demolishing some in the process--this slows it down further, as they can't support its weight.

    The LEVER is pulled down, much like its sister. Elsewhere, the door by which team CYBORGS are desperately defending themselves grinds open. It's slow, but none of them are all that wide, so they can squeeze through in just a moment, if they don't want to wait for it to get all the way open.

    Like its armored fellow, the KNIGHT is effectively blocked off from making a quick pursuit. It'll be coming up behind them, but at a pace slow enough enough that the crew can easily make it to the door. Its fortunate that the quick-moving statues have all been destroyed by this point, and what's still following them is further slowed by Chloe's covering fire.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    FInally the door opens, and Alexis manages to slap in a fresh magazine just in time as she guides the group through the crack opened up slowly by the other lever being pulled. "About goddamn time, move your asses let's go!" She calls out to the rest of the group, opting to be the last to go through as she holds the line through automatic fire and fierce punches to the face.

    When she slips through, Alexis primes and tosses a frag grenade behind her through the opening as a last middle finger to the hordes, then begins to go through ammo stocks. Three SMG mags and two pistol magazines left, and one grenade left. Hoo boy.

Artyom W. Valodjn (665) has posed:
    Another wonderful crunch! The Rogue is no more. Artyom nods his head at the Floran as they make their escape. "Rule Three of dungeon crawling is 'cooperation," he answers, before glancing back at the fallen Rogue.

    Artyom dips for /just a moment/ to grab the Rogue's jangly bits. And then he immediately turns and takes off, because sticking around here to fight three burly fighter-types is like asking for an Ancients of Mount Arreat fight. That may be a thing SOMEDAY but Artyom is not quite ready to go fight the Lord of Destruction or to prove himself to his awesome barbarian ancestors.

Someday, though. Someday.

    He ignores the advance of the remaining statues as he rushes for the safety of whatever is behind that door up ahead. This battle has gone on long enough- expending any more energy here would be... Detrimental to their efforts at this dungeon's climax!

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    "Ah! The door is opening!" While she could easily go through the door when it's opened in the tiniest crack, it's not really an option at the moment. She does have a passenger that can't quite squeeze through like she can. Although Ayako does indeed move her ass as requested by Alexis! That is, the moment the door is open wide enough so that Eiko doesn't get stuck in it, Ayako floats on through.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is looking to see if the door is going to see if there's another way to open the door but soon that becomes no longer a propblem as the door opens she's going to just dart through the damn door before sometrhing else happens she doesn't need to be told twice as sh dives through, she's got one SMG mag lefgt but her pistol's still at full thankfully.

"Good on pistol ammo but the SMG's about spent."

She notes as she sees Ayako arrive through the crack.

Eiko (650) has posed:
    As before, moving to a new room effectively blocks off the old. Nothing moves through to follow. This is a separate area in some fundamental way, by this world's rules.

    Both doors empty into the same, large, circular room. The most obvious feature is the growth of blatantly magic crystals growing in patterns over the floor. They don't cover the entire space, but form into intricate lines and curves, coming together into the center and rising up off the floor and toward the ceiling in a massive, geometrically complex pattern. They bleed magic so heavily that you'd need a flat zero sensitivity not to notice, and that's just what's getting /released/. These things are some major energy source.

    There are what appear to be a pair of golems in the center of the room, one facing each door. Both are large, squat affairs, lacking necks and nearly lacking heads, but with enormous shoulders and arms that reach nearly to the floor. The one toward the SWORDS team is covered in jewelry of all kinds, but mostly necklaces loops everywhere they'll fit, all gleaming brightly with precious stones, just as the ore it's made from underneath is studded with raw gem deposits. The one facing team CYBORGS is more technological in appearance, with lots of hard steel surfaces, perhaps more robot than golem. Antennae extend a dozen points.

    Between the two is a man. He looks almost human, but not quite. His skin is a little too pale, and a little too violet. His skull slopes at not quite the right angle. His ears are clearly pointed. His hair is a stark white, and his eyes red. He's dressed in something that compromises traditional mage robes with the fashion of an emperor's court, and his posture and motion are precisely perfect. He looks from one side to the other and slowly raises his hands.

    He claps. "Good show. Really didn't think anyone would make it this far. Well. I think I'll just hand this one to you, if it's all the same. Not in the mood for further risks today. It's already been exciting enough." He lowers his hands, then makes a sharp gesture at the air. A large, glowing portal appears in front of him. Both golems turn slowly toward it.

    And then, if no one stops them, the man and the golems all leave together.

Eiko (650) has posed:
    Assuming no one /does/ stop the golems... the bejeweled one drops several very expensive looking necklaces on the ground as it gets out. One of them has diamonds.

    The crystals are still going to be there, either way, all thrumming with obvious magical energy. Though there is the vague sense that it's lessening, as if something were turning off.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    The Starbounders wander into the room. They look a bit intimidated at the sheer number of golems here! Oh man, that is a LOT. They have a sort of sheepish, frank ":I" look to them, even the Glitch that seems completely faceless.

    "Yeah, that sounds good to me."
    "Aye, good show. Ye can go if ye want."
    "I've no opposition to a gracious, stylish retreat."
    "Yes, a tactical retreat should be respected."
    "Floransss legsss, too ssstabbed to chasse."
    "Affirming. We have no objection."

    They let them leave. They wait about a second... And then Pavo says, "Okay, LOOT!" The entire Flotilla immediately goes to town, drawing their Matter Manipulators, putting them into Harvest mode, and going after those crystals with a chaotic abandon.

Artyom W. Valodjn (665) has posed:
Artyom peers up at the gigantic, shiny golem. Another tiny voice at the back of his head /squeals/ in girlish delight at such a magnificent construct. So many gems, so much precious metal. Artyom's eyes are agog as he stares greedily at the giant metal /thing./

But it's not the only thing in the room.

The man speaks- Artyom looks to the strange, purple-ish man as he... Surrenders? And then retreats? The Titan blinks once, twice, but he doesn't say anything.

Even if he REALLY wants to when that big shiny golem goes and vanishes into that portal. Later! He can claim it LATER. There are other things to claim NOW.

"Right," he rumbles, clearing himself of the gemstone-inspired reverie. "Alright everyone, go get some l--"

Golem dropped a gigantic diamond necklace.

Holy shit.

    Artyom is over there like, right the heck now. He sheathes his giant sword in its harness and snatches the jewelry off the floor. And like, all the other necklaces. And a few magical stones. Artyom is a big guy, he can carry a lot of things- even if it is really super awkward to carry all of these jangly things in two arms. He stuffs what he can into his belt and bandolier-pouches, though.

Chloe von Einzbern (617) has posed:
There's the door, then, and Chloe still has her bow in hand. Though no more swords. Though she shows no sign of fatigue, her prana levels are beginning to edge towards dangerous levels. The sight of the golems and the man gets a quirked eyebrow but if he's leaving and not bothering with the swag, she simple makes her bow vanish, stretching arms before...

A snap of her fingers summons another red gridline, which fills out to form...

A shopping cart.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako opens her mouth to say something when she sees the golems, the crystals, the magical energy, and the mage. But then she slowly closes it when the mage simply wishes to retreat. Well. It's not like she was looking for a fight-just looking to keep everyone healthy and alive. So of course she makes no move to attack-not like she could.

    Oh. Right! Looting! Well, why not? It's not like all of this is going to stay there once this place completely loses power! And so Ayako joins in as well!

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Suddenly the bad guy just kinda..leaves. Alexis is confused as all hell by this, and she tilts her head as the golems and their master leave. Shrugging, she can't really fault the Starbounders for their assessment, given the number and strength of the golems themselves. She's more or less low on mags anyways.

    "Fuck it. Take a hike, mate." She says, before then going over to loot the SHIT out of things, slinging her MP5 and nabbing a couple of necklaces and then raiding through the crystals before the Flotilla can nab everything shiny. "Mama needs a new set of jewelery..." she says, snagging what she can before Artyom can take /everything/ not already stolen by the Flotilla, mostly the diamond necklace after a bit of negotiation with Artyom.

    She only pauses to lean up on her tippy toes, motioning for the big guy to get in close.

    And then she pecks his cheek. "That's for being a good sport." She whispers, then slinks off with her acquisition of diamonds.

    Formal gatherings are gonna be that much classier soon.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is tired and low on ammo she knows this is a bad idea to press things harder she lower her weapon at this point knowinf the fight is a bad ide tro press on if the others don't she looks at what was dropped she stares at the loot for a moment and she's making a grab for it well to get some cut of the loot in here really.

"I don't think I'm going to press my luck."

Eiko (650) has posed:
    Getting back out seems like it's gonna be a pain, so as soon as everyone is done and Eiko is lucid enough to do it, she pulls out her talisman and snaps it between her fingers. There's a disturbing sense of dislocation as everyone gathered around falls out of one level of reality and into another, escaping the dungeon just like that. Nothing they've yet to loot goes with them, but everything they're carrying does.

    They are now in a crowd of people, in the middle of the mall, standing between a pair of kiosks selling jewelry and cell phones. Assuming anyone's hungry, there's a conveniently located food court nearby with all the unhealthy food they want, though that one woman really needs to get her kids under control. (It's embarrassing everyone around her.) Chloe might instead appreciate the large clothing outlet in just the other direction, with its rows of mannequins showing off the season's latest fashions.

    People don't seem to notice the sudden appearance as anything strange, imagining that everyone was already here. But they do start taking pictures again.

Artyom W. Valodjn (665) has posed:
    Artyom has a little bit of dwarf in him, apparently. But that doesn't mean the rest of him can't be negotiated with. Artyom gives up the awesome diamond necklace, but he gets something out of it! Oh yes. He gets much out of it.

    Like a kiss. He wasn't really expecting that. He briefly goes just a little bit red as Alexis saunters off. Like much this trip though, he doesn't have time to appreciate it! He needs to loot- and quickly! And so he does, looting and looting and looting right up until Eiko snaps her Talisman.

Space and time invert, depositing them in the middle of a... Pretty ordinary shopping mall. Artyom still totally has a stone arrow sticking out of his shoulder, so this is all just a little bit awkward. Also awkward: the sound his belly is making.

Hm.

Perhaps he can get some food before going to get his wounds treated.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
It s been a long fight but she's going to make a grab for some of the jewelery as well she intend to get what she can before someone else scoops it all up thankfully the giant posing as a man isn't taking everything yet so she's going to get a cut and is also scooping up a number of the plastic coins before she turns and follows Alexis out, it's been a long day and maybe it calls to party a little after a pay off like this? So Kotone is out at this point.