1125/Rank C Dungeon Qualification Trial: Sky Ruins

Rank C Dungeon Qualification Trial: Sky Ruins
Date of Scene:	11 December 2014
Location:	Galianda
Synopsis:	All of Galianda is watching as the first Dungeon License Qualification Trial open to extraversals is held. Three teams compete in a devious and unusual dungeon in order to win the right to explore dangerous areas of Galianda.
Cast of Characters:	Deelel, 39, 513, Ayako Hasekawa, 623, 626, 627, 628, 633, 635, 642, 646, 647, 650, 652, 655

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Quentyn Westwind (635) has posed:
    Those on Quentyn's team have been asked to meet at an Aerie (that also serves as an airship dock) a short time before the actual trials start. Quentyn is there now, pacing a little apprehensively and fiddling with his glasses frequently.

Noiela (647) has posed:
"Westwind." From seemingly nowhere, Noiela is behind him and more than prepared for the scheduled exam on the surface; pockets bulging with potions and expression resolutely set to Stoic. Only the faint twitch at her temple suggests any stress. Otherwise, the hooded and concealed girl cannot be more composed. Even her faint note of wonder when turning to glance at the water spanning out before them fails to disarm her completely. "How striking."

Hooked to a sturdy belt is her notched, inexpensive bronze blade and yellowed book, tiny jagged symbol emblazoning its cover. This she grips proprietally whilst speaking, eager to discuss with the nervy mage about their group. Pivotally, the members.
"You said two others were joining us? I would request a quick introduction between all of us."

Hywnd Eblan (646) has posed:
Repeating the process, Hywnd steps out from behind Noiela (NINJUTSUUUU). She's clad in leather armor with her daisho set of blades prepared, as she speaks up. "Hywnd Eblan. Ninja. We're not going to fail.". And then she becomes quiet again, moving back behind Noiela (NEVER TO BE SEEN AGAIN).

Quentyn Westwind (635) has posed:
    Quentyn jumps. "Y-Yah. Um. They should be here any minute." Quentyn looks over others here, all waiting for the airship departure to the ruins, but his eyes don't seem to find whoever he's looking for. "One is Hywnd, a ninja, and the other is Audrey, a--"

    Quentyn jumps again, but gives the two a tentative grin. "Noiela, this is Hywnd. Hywnd, Noiela." A pause as he mentally finds his place again, and he passes (or at least offers) some potions and an ether to Hywnd. "Audrey will be our groups, um, main frontline strength. Hywnd is a hard hitter and she moves fast..." His eyes leave the group and turn to Noiela. "You'll be our ranged and um..." Quentyn looks to Hywnd, "She's basically a black mage, but she's good with tactics too. Um, please listen to her during battle? But I think, since we're not really, um, that new to this dungeon... well whoever feels most confident with the traps..."

    Quentyn's eyes go back to searching the crowd.

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
--- THE SKY RUINS ---
--- DANGER RANKING: C ---

The path to the Sky Ruins is long and fairly arduous, like it is with many Dungeons. One must travel to the Aeries of Bahamut via the Great Span, and from there, they board an airship to travel to the Sky Ruins which hang above even them, gleaming in the light of Phoenix as it soars past an unconscionable distance away.

For some, they are familiar how things work. The entrance to the Ruins is protected by a shimmering barrier. Those of Galianda know that these barriers are designed to respond to various forms of impetus and are commonly used to seal Danger Ranked areas. They repulse monsters. The area is wide and smooth, ivy hanging off of the stone walls as Phoenix shines down through a crystalline ceiling. The floor is transparent, giving a perfectly clear view of the roiling, eternal storm of Bahamut below.

The test proctors are an assembly of men and women in Alexander Academy uniforms. One of them, Proctor Folus, addresses those present. "Many of you are unfamiliar with the procedures present here. This process is typical for those who seek to plumb the depths of Galianda's dangers and bring the secrets of our world and beyond to light. The objective is simple: We have placed a Transport Crystal at a checkpoint within these ruins. Your team must reach it through any means you deem necessary. We will be observing your proceedings and grading you on team performance, speed, and safety. Should your marks pass the requisite amounts, you will be awared with a Class C License and given leave to pursue explorations in areas of those designation as you wish."

He pauses and turns away. "Be warned. This is a live exercise. The monsters and traps you encounter here are real and are representative of other areas that are given the same ranking. You will be in physical danger, though we have safety measures to retrieve you should one of you fall."

The Proctor turns and steps to the shimmering doorway. "Once you have registered and organized your Parties at the desk, please arrange yourselves. We will begin once everyone is organized."

The groups present have to fill out some forms and disclaimers and waivers. Extraversal people get to play the fun game of 'guess what your Job is kind of like'.

OOC RULES: Form up into groups of 4-5. Let me know who's in what group and give me a cool team name if you have one. Once the dungeon begins, I will COLOR CODE your entries. You do not have to pay attention to things not color coded for your group. In each room there will be an option to activate a device. The device will make the current room you are in easier or harder. There are 2 of them that will make things easier, and 2 that will make them harder. Each one you activate will ALSO affect the difficulty of other future rooms for 2 other teams, except for the last room will will affect the state of all final rooms. I will be juding your progress based on your team poses and your +adv and +flaws. GOOD LUCK.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako is standing here with the other ungrouped students. She's filling out the many, many forms that an extraversal person has to. Of course, filling out forms is something water spirit dressed as a witch with a waterdrop motif is actually pretty good at, so she's making good time with it. That is, until she gets to the part about filling out what her Job is. "Uhh... hmm..."

    Her floating broomstick quickly moves behind her and floats horizontally, parallel to the ground. Ayako takes a seat, side-saddle on it as she considers. "What... what -is- my Job, anyway?"

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     It's around this point that Kaiba is coming in. In a vehicle that is /incredibly/ out of place, and doesn't really resemble the airships in this area whatsoever. This vehicle may or may not piss off any Dragon who sees it, too, because, well. It's a jet shaped like a Blue-Eyes White Dragon. He flies in, and lands his ship.

     This really is unlikely to draw any attention at all. It's a perfectly normal thing to see.

     Still, though, he hops out of the Jet, and listens to the explaination. He is somewhat annoyed, though. He /knew/ this was some sort of dungeon crawling test. But honestly, he is the type who would prefer to do this solo. Oh well. Maybe he can end up as a leader of a team?

     If his method of arrival and reputation don't draw people to try and get on his team, he'll be vaguely annoyed.

     Also, of course, his Duel Disk is on his left arm.

Finna (513) has posed:
    "Aha! Finally found yoooooou!" Crows a voice from the skies. A red-tailed hawk swoops in and... "Helloooooooooooooo!"

    And perches right on Quentyn's shoulder, somehow managing to avoid poking him with her talons.

    The bird of prey is TALKING. "Room for another on this exercise? I'm itchig for a little action!" The bird helpfully extends a wing as if raising a hand!

    What.

Jinx (39) has posed:
    If there's someone who looks out of place here, it's Miss Jinx of Zaun. She's here with a slip of paper from Souji and a large crate of weapons and crammed into the bottom half of a Gunner's uniform. She's still got her belts on up top though, gotta keep it airy.

    She's also looking at the sheet, looking at all the people gathering, and frowning faintly. A slight hint of frustration on her face. "Dammit, Shouji this wasn't what I was expecting."

Dominic Masoch (655) has posed:
Dominic Masoch is hanging around. He already passed his qualification last year, but he did think it would be nice to come back and help the underclassmen with their tests. And by 'help', we pretty much mean 'give vaguely relevant riddles'.

He has an Ether in one hand (bright red) and with his other gloved hand, he seeks to bring a clasping hand down squarely on QUENTYN WESTWIND, who appears to be organizing a group. Holding his beverage, he smiles at Quenyyn.

"No sword is made from a single part. The pommel, the grip, the blade and the hilt all form a single sword."

Though shortly after this, he turns to watch the arrival of the jet, "What a strange airship."

Quentyn Westwind (635) has posed:
    "I-I-I u-um, think we're fu--" Wait a second. Bird. Sky dungeon. "Ummm..." Quentyn fiddles with his glasses, looking over at the bird trepidatiously, yet thoughtfully. "We could maybe squeeze in one more."

    He starts yet again when Dominic puts his hand on him, and just looks up blankly at the upperclassman. "Yah..." the white mage agrees.

Landon al Cid (642) has posed:
     This event is very, very popular amongst spectators and upperclassmen alike. Alexander Academy's qualification trials draw a lot of people, particularly during the off seasons for Dungeon Run.

     There's a murmur through the crowd as the white-haired Prince Landon al Cid of Ramuh arrives. But Landon isn't the reason for the murmur - no, Landon merely prefaces it.

     The reason for the murmur is the tall, broad, bearded man behind him - Rycharde al Cid, king of Ramuh, and Landon al Cid's father. He looks as regal and wise as Landon does youthful and exuberant; clad in his Judgemaster's shining silver armor, holding a heavy shield inscribed with symbols of Carbuncle, Rycharde al Cid makes quite a stir through the spectators.

     The Queen, Queen Marianna al Cid, is also with him; a beautiful raven-haired woman likely nearing her fourties or fifties, Marianna hangs on Rycharde's arm with a broad and knowng smile plastered upon her face. Landon waves at his father as he breaks from the group and heads down to the starting area.

     Rycharde, meanwhile, ascends to a Royal Skybox, surrounded by his bodyguards. A moment later, the King of Ramuh throws out his hand. His voice booms through the arena.

     "People of Galianda! People of the Extraverse! Pay heed! For those among you of our off-world guests, and for those among you who have not yet seen my face, I am Rycharde al Cid. I am the King of Ramuh."

     "And it is with great honor, with great pleasure, with great joy, that I greet each and every one of you on this, a historic day in our fair world's chronicle. Today, we mark the first day extraversal visitors become part of our world. Today, thanks to the efforts of countless individuals, we are a step closer to becoming one with the bold new world we have found ourselves part of."

     Rycharde strokes his chin thoughtfully, running his fingers through his bushy beard. "I am honored, greatly, to see each and every one of you take an active interest in our world and its rules and challenges. I look forward to seeing what you are capable of, as representatives of the extraverse upon Galianda!"

     Rycharde throws out his hand. "Good luck be with you all, and may all the gods of our world smile brightly down upon this day!"

Audrey Stormfist (652) has posed:
    It is not TOO LONG before Quentyn's fourth appears. Audrey appears fairly angry at the moment, though perhaps out of experience alone the White Mage could tell it is not directed at any of his team, or himself. Her KIRIN uniform, that fancy dark blue, silver and black overcoat, is pristine as ever, with the gunblade sheathed to her side.

    "Westwind. Eblan. And...?"

    Pale blue eyes turn to inspect Noiela, from head to toe.
    Nope, she doesn't know that one.
    Oh well, irrelevant. She's here to blow off steam and have fun. Yes, fun. Audrey enjoys fighting quite a lot, it is one of her hobbies where people can genuinely say they see her smile and act more... human, for a lack of better words.

Quentyn Westwind (635) has posed:
    "Oh cosmos even the nobility..." Quentyn curses under his breath. But he actually perks, some how happy to see Audrey. "Audrey," he even says, flashing he a quick smile. Gesturing to each person/avian, "Hywnd, Noiela, and Bird." Each person introduced also gets a quick grin. "Noiela's, um, more or less a black mage and has leadership experience, she'll handle our battle tactics."

Kamon Lionward (628) has posed:
What's that? Upperclassmen functioning as /cryptic helpers/? Perish the thought.

Kamon is here, wearing his favorite armored coat over parts of the school uniform. It's enough to signify that, yes, he's here with them, and yes, he's going to probably be one of the ones functioning in a quasi-administrative role. A notable addition to the coat is an emblem, wrought in something that's probably not gold but definitely painted to look it: a hexagon, elongated vertically, with sword and staff crossed over it. The Light Warriors, it seems, are in attendance.

"Make sure you form a group and pick out your leaders," Kamon calls. "Get a feel for who's with you and what they can do! Synergy is key!"

Kamon pauses when the speech happens. The King of Ramuh cuts an impressive figure, and has a commanding presence. No wonder people like him so much. He's a little surprised he's here... but then, the extraversals are here, too, so...

Dominic Masoch (655) has posed:
    Dominic smiles at Quentyn in a humorous way and then conspiratorially whispers, "You are aware you are saying that while standing next to the son of one of Ramuh's mayors?" He asks, even going so far as to give Quentyn a playful wink and another clap on the shoulder before his hand falls off to rest on the hilt of his sword.

Most of what Dominic does after that is simply watch both the King's speech and the arrival of Audrey. He looks to her, "KIRIN looks as professional as ever. How is Sir Murasame?" He asks her.

Jinx (39) has posed:
    Huff. FINE. Jinx resigns herself to the back of the dodgeball line, and as IMPORTANT LOOKING PEOPLE start talking she's already bending over and digging around in the BOX OF DELIGHTS that Souji has sent along with her. She comes out with... oh dear. A rather hefty looking Murasame-brand coilgun. Very boring and gun metal grey though.

    And as groups getting picked behind her, she peels out a pair of spraypaint cans from somewhere on her person, and starts arting up the coilgun in yellow and green.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    The Sky Ruins is a dungeon that Kyra is actually familiar with. Her official C-rank exam was not here but she did come to 'take' the dungeon with a group sometime after she had earned the rank. Did she have a map hidden on her mogPad? Maybe.

    But giving it away to the other contestants would be too easy. Oh no. They had to suffer. They had to struggle. They had to claw their way to C-rank just like she did!!

    Originally the plan was to come watch and serve as back up healing in case something went really wrong (such as Quentyn exploding into little white mage bits due to lack of Protecting The Healer). However, Kyra later learned a number of the others from the Light Warriors were coming here to help out the other students. It sounded like a great idea, even more fun than just watching. Thankfully, she had already geared herself up with a full regiment of potions and mixtures, though with a bias towards the more helpful liquids.

    Kyra watches the teams as they sign up, giving a pleasant wave and a thumbs up to Quentyn and the requisite 'why are you glaring at me' glare to Stormfist. In light of Soan's suggestion, she sizes up those here and considers who to assist. Her gaze strays first to the gathering group of what look like extraversals. Then her attention is grabbed by the dragon jet swooping in. "What the-whoaaah, there should be more airships that look like that."

    The King is also here which brings surprise to her more than anything else. Then again, in light of the extraversals taking the exam today, it was sort of a momentus occasion. She could understand the al Cids and their efforts to make the extraversals feel welcome in their world.

Finna (513) has posed:
    "Bird? BIRD?" The red-tailed hawk squawks indignantly, wings hunching up and bunching in a 'don't mess with me, punk!' kind of expression. And then...

    Then the bird starts getting heavier. But only briefly. Because its feathers melt and ripple, fusing into flesh and stylish leathers. Arms sprout from its side while the wings slide toward its back and as the avian grows... it slides down Quentn's back to land on newly-formed feet that replaced the talons.

    Yes, in just a few moments FINNA's right behind Quentyn... except she's retained the wings. The hawk wings are now person-sized and sprouting from her back.

    One of her hands is instantly on Quentyn's nearest shoulder and she leans in, wrapping one of the wings around him as if hugging in greeting! "At least ask me for a name first. It's Finna!"

    She does look away though, attention shifting to Old Man Cid's speech. "...Rules?" She mutters. Nobody said anything about rules. What rules?

Hywnd Eblan (646) has posed:
Hywnd listens to the King's speech...before completely disregarding him. She has no interest in the nobility except where it matters for business. Instead, she's reappearing from behind Noiela, speaking to Dominic. "This isn't Ramuh. Your status doesn't matter in Bahamut." It's cold and to the point, her eyes scanning over Dominic as he speaks.

"A hawk. Morpher? Could be useful. That's five, then. Plenty." Hywnd doesn't blink when Finna demorphs, because she's already assumed her as a Morpher! "Welcome aboard."

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     Soan Sagittarius would have loved to get another go at the prequalifiers again. Last time he went, he's pretty sure he made the trap-layer that took care of their section cry. He even managed to keep a few trinkets when they searched him for the remains of the mechanism. He wanted to do it again.

     However, this idea is far, far more interesting. They are the upperclassmen now. THEY get to do the cryptic hints. THEY get to point out some flaws in their plans. THEY get to be actually helpful! Just not /too/ helpful. They need to learn, after all.

     The young Thief is wearing a more formal version of his school uniform, all in dark green with black lining, wearing a very fancy velvet brown cloak. His cloak also possess the same emblem as Kamon's. Looks like they've found a good logo for the Light Warriors.

     Kaiba's ship does attract some attention from Soan, altought not in the way he imagine. A dragon-shaped ship... well, well, well. He supposes Extraversal has some other ideas about how they look like. More impressively, the /Royal Family/ decides to give a visit. This is a lot of pressure on the contestants! Not that half of them really... gets it, he supposes.

     "And there is no 'bad composition'." Soan chips in after Kamon, on his support spot. "Diversity is very well preffered! Many talents can have many unexpected uses!"

Noiela (647) has posed:
"I...see." Noiela probably does discern the rather clunky metaphor for what it is about; teamwork. Part of the whole. It even absorbs her long enough to take a talking bird in stride. Such winged beasts could prove invaluable.

Shortly after a brief, impassive lock between pale eyes and dark- a poetical way to describe the momentary mutual inspection between Audrey and the tactician, comes the ruler of Ramuh in all his opulence to drown out her thought in a fuzz of static. Obviously the nobility of this planet conspire to make the outlander tactics master anxious as humanly possible, his booming confidence chipping away at her own.

Outwardly, she shows few signs. Maybe a repressed groan slips out. At most.
"Thank you, Westwind...Master Westwind." Weakly, stepping back abruptly when Finna reforms into a human shaped person. "It seems we have our wildcard member....Miss Finna, pleasure to ah, meet you." A pause. "Again."

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako sighs softly... being stuck on one line on a form-on the last one that needs to be filled out no less! She lifts her clipboard up and holds it in her mouth as she grabs onto her broomstick and floats upwards a bit. Her amber gaze quickly picks out the healer-looking people and quietly notes what they wrote on their form as their Job. She wouldn't do this unless she really didn't know what to write!

    She takes the clipboard out of her mouth and then nods her head once. 'White Mage'. The broomstick floats back down and she non-challantly hops off of it as she walks to turn in her forms. The broom follows after her, sweeping the ground gently as it does so.

    Once that's done, she quickly turns to listen to the important-sounding person. And then claps her hands cheerfully after his speech. "Oohh... nice speech." She smiles cheerfully and then grabs her broomstick. "Okay... now... uhh... to find a group... Oh, but first..." Ayako reaches up into her hat and rummages around for a moment... and then takes out a sheet of paper and writes on it for a moment. She then sticks the paper in between the ribbon wrapped around the base of her witch hat and the witch hat itself. Written on it is 'Healer'. After all, it's pretty easy to mistake her for something else when she's dressed like a witch!

    And then walks her way towards the students that are sending awkward glances around. She knows that look! The look of someone that they haven't been invited to a group and are awkwardly hoping someone will!

Quentyn Westwind (635) has posed:
    Quentyn freezes. "Um... S-Sorry," he stammers to Dominic, flinching at the contact. He looks relieved when... nobleman? Nobleson? turns his attention elsewhere. One to be right back at square one when the bird turns into a bird-woman and gives him a wing hug.

    Quentyn, meanwhile, takes that long case off his back and assemblies his ridiculously large rifle. Which actually isn't too much work-- after the three main parts are slotted together it sort of goes the rest of the way on its own, in that way final fantasy weapons sometimes do. Then he slings the weapon more or less across his back.

    The weapon is large enough that it would be hard to hug Quentyn again while it's attached to the boy. And the sling looks like it has a reinforcing cable running through the nylon or whatever it is.

    "Ok, um, everyone. Together for buffs!" Well, they're all pretty together anyway. Hywnd, Noiela, Audrey, and Finna each get the highest tiers of Protect, Shell, and Stoneskin the little white mage can cast. He doesn't cast them on himself... perhaps because he already has? Lastly, to Finna, he points to the proctors, "Um, make sure you have your paperwork in."

    Pause. "Oh! Um... what should we call our team?"

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     As the people are grouping up, and no one is immediately coming to Kaiba's side, he just walks forward. He reaches into his holster, and shuffles his deck a bit, as he looks around. He notes, though: There are a /lot/ of offworlders present. He can tell fairly simply, by recognizing a few people, and by noting the differences in outfits between a few people. It generally is easy in general to notice offworlders anyways. They tend to stick out from the crowd. Just like him.

     He slots his deck into his Duel Disk, stands tall, and lifts his right hand into the air, pointing a finger to the sky. He's trying to get everyone's attention.

     "Listen up, losers. Those of you who want /any/ chance of getting through here successfully, come stick with me. If you stick with me, I'll be able to anhillate /any/ threat we could encounter in there."

     He eyes the off worlders specifically, trying to make it clear that he means them, specifically.

Eiko (650) has posed:
    KONO EIKO is here. She cuts a figure that is noteworthy only in how UTTERLY ORDINARY it would be on any Earth-like world, with jeans, a hoodie, baseball cap and backpack. She looks more like a lost uni freshman than anything else, made the worse by the obvious look of EXCITED ANTICIPATION in her eyes as she manages to gawk at everything without actually opening her mouth. She's also probably a few years older than a lot of the people here, and on the tall side, but that's not causing a huge difference.

    The only odd note here is that she's carrying a katana. It's sheathed. She did not, however, put either 'samurai' or 'ninja' on her sign-up sheet, instead cramming in the single-character kanji for 'hero' into whatever box was closest to the question. This might invalidate her paperwork, but her respect for the work of paper-pushing is somewhat low, so it would be an exaggeration to say that she really cares, at least at the moment

    She orients in on JINX because her outfit is the loudest and she must therefore be the most important. (Sorry, Kaiba.) "Yo." She raises a hand. "'Sup?" Her Japanese is so informal that only the translation effect (or being another native speaker) keeps it intelligible.

    And then Kaiba is calling her a loser. "Uh-huh, sure." Well, she didn't say no.

Dominic Masoch (655) has posed:
Dominic simply gives Hywnd an even smile when she says that, "You are right. It is not and my status matters little outside of Ramuh." He says pretty directly, "Here at the Academy, it is skill that truly matters." He actually does not disagree with the stealthy girl.

He DOES look to Quentyn when he apologizes, "You don't need to apologize. It merely amused me."

The Fencer looks to the group Quentyn has gathered and takes a moment, "I wish you all the best of luck at your testing. If you don't mind, I would like to follow along behind you and help where I am able." He rests his gloved hands into his pockets, scanning over the assembled group.

Jinx (39) has posed:
    "Fuck you!" Jinx is quite vocal on that one. "Who the shit do you think you are, some sort of Wood-League Super Operator No-Scope Armchair Summoner?" She isn't /not/ following though.
    Eiko gets a look though, and Jinx sets up a bit, hoisting up the suspenders holding her Gunner's pants up around her skinny hips. "...Samurai are okay. Come on."

Deelel has posed:
Seto would find that a strange woman falls in step with him and she's also weatring a strange cloak with no hood, it has lit edge and yet has no seams. It was made in one go somhow she's also carrying a staff which seems to have strange tips. She listens for a moment and she moves ahead for a moment an inteesting human she must admit. He reminds her of some system monitors she knows.

Noiela (647) has posed:
"Elwind." Noiela says decisively, closing her eyes when Quentyns magic washes over them, leaving a tingling sensation as it bonds with her own similar, yet subtly different to her own magical essence. "Because-Westwind, Hywnd all refer back to the element of air, plus Finna...Elwind is the uh, tier up from basic wind magic most mages utilise." Adding quickly, shoulders hunching into automatic defense. "Not to mention Miss Stormfist."

"But...the ultimate team name, I leave to our de facto leader." A cordial nod directed at the sword centric Dominic, reflecting his studious gaze back upon him with equally keen eye for detail. "We would fain object to any intercession, sire."

Quentyn Westwind (635) has posed:
    Quentyn hesitates, but nods tentatively to Dominic. And second nod is given to Noiela, he then runs over to both register the actual team name with the proctors and add Finna to the roster!

Audrey Stormfist (652) has posed:
    "Noiela, Bird. Got it," Audrey says, simply. She looks towards Dominic and answers him too: "Mister Murasame is fine right now. You look sharp yourself," she offers. She would not normally give free compliments, but Dominic's family is a technological force. And she loves technology.

    She turns to glare at Kyra, on cue for Kyra to give her the why are you glaring at me counterglare. All is well, timing works out perfectly.

    Audrey falls silent for the most part past this point. She adjusts the way her gloves are set, the collar of her overcoat, and just kind of waits. She is not going to assume leadership, because this is not her test to pass, and she's not going to carry these people into a free pass either. Let's see how they handle this.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako sighs softly as Kaiba calls her out, a way. "I suppose you're just going to blast your way through again?" She giggles softly, "Well... I guess I can't disagree with raw power." Her amber gaze moves off to the side as she reminisces to herself... and then nods her head once. "Oh fine. I'll go with you. Besides, someone needs to make sure you don't end up blasting yourself by accident with too much dragons."

    She reaches up and removes the piece of paper stuck in her witch hat and then hops back onto her broom. Ayako gets in range of her team members and then sweeps her hands outwards. "Water Bubble!" A clear bubble of water forms around herself, Kaiba, Jinx, Eiko and Deelel. But only for a moment before it vanishes. "All set!"

    Water Bubble is a near worthless barrier. While it uses hardly any magical energy and is very difficult to remove, it only slows incoming attacks a negligible amount. Nonetheless, it's the foundation for all of Ayako's other barriers!

Hywnd Eblan (646) has posed:
"Elwind. It works. Let's do it." Hywnd doesn't plan on carrying the others either, but she definitely does not plan to fail. She doesn't assume leadership either unless the others can't decide. "Bird. What are your abilities? Any special skills other than morphing?"

Eiko (650) has posed:
    "Naw, not a samurai, I'm a--woah, huh?" Eiko wasn't expecting someone to cast magic on her already. It doesn't seem to do anything, though, and Ayako *does* have a piece of paper saying "Healer" on it, so she shrugs and doesn't worry about it any more, in addition to not finishing that sentence.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako then waves cheerfully towards the group. "I'm Ayako Hasekawa, a water spirit. Please call me Ayako!" She bows politely to the group. "I'm afraid I can't do offensive magic, but... healing and barrier magic is what I can do very well. I'll be relying on everyone else for offense!"

Finna (513) has posed:
    "FINNA." The Steward corrects, her ears twitching. Fox ears, that is. Yes, though she has hawk wings... anyone who starts paying any attention won't have trouble seeing her ears or tail. Not in this group anyways. And the tail's wagging a mile a minute. Something's got her all charged up! "Illusions, speed, all kinds of animal shapes. Team Elwind... hmmm. I like it." Also, ugh, paperwork.

    If she has to go over and fill out stuff, she will. But chances are nobody's going to be able to understand what language she signs her name in...

    Finna does get a look at her team mates though, besides the man she dropped in to tease and prank, and shudders happily when the magic seeps into her skin. "Tingly... so I thought I'd drop in and see what this school of yours does. Definitely top score for interesting field trips!"

    Finna reaches behind her back as if grasping for something. And... pulls out a sword. no, she didn't have anywhere to hide the thing. She just pulled it out of nowhere, apparently... It's a short sword of fine make, a polished blade, and apparently light as a feather.

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     Kaiba is, more or less, ignoring all of the others who are insulting him. Because, well. They're following him anyways. And it's not like any of them are /worth/ his opinion. Still, though, just on the off chance they don't know who he is? He better introduce himself.

     "I'm Seto Kaiba, president of Kaiba Corp. Master gamer. I'll annhillate any threat in our path."

Eiko (650) has posed:
    "Oh, right. I'm Eiko. Good to meet you. I had another guy coming but he was like 'training will be meaningless if I assist you in any way, blah blah blah,' so he didn't." She taps her fingers against her sword's hilt as she says that, making a bad mimicry of some pompously official-sounding voice.

    "'Master gamer,' huh?" she adds, to Seto Kaiba of Kaiba Corp. "Guess we'll see how good you are."

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is looking to Ayako and the rest of her team and nods.

"Loaded up and ready to go."

She seems to be in a good mood as she keeps her staff handy as she's clearly ready to follow the leader today she's been curious about Kaiba and this is a way to learn first hand. He's quite direct though she does appicate that. She falls in after the water elemental.

Jinx (39) has posed:
    Jinx, meanwhile, pokes at her water bubble, and giggles madly as shit starts to come together. "I'm Jinx! Stands for Jinx! Drrrr."
    She holds up the now garishly decorated coilgun and smiles. "And I haven't named this thing yet. I'm sure I'll find a good one before we're through though!"

Landon al Cid (642) has posed:
     An idea gets bandied about on the Light Warriors' private radio. A smile quirks upwards on Landon's face as he glances from Kyra to Kamon to Soan to Dominic as they speak. It makes him happy, to be surrounded by good friends like this.

     Landon strides forward. The Prince holds up a Law Card as he moves to join his team. "I shall be providing you defense. You have nothing to fear."

     Participating in the first extraversal qualification run...! How exciting! Landon looks up at his father to see the big man's reaction; Rycharde's face is unmoved.

     Landon doesn't say anything. He simply turns around and bows to the other teams. "I should hope that I have ample opportunity to meet all of you at a later date. For now...good luck, eh?"

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
Team Elwind: Quentyn, Hwynd, Audrey, Noiela, Finna

Team Light Warriors: Kamon, Soan, Landon, Kyra, Domini<span class=" bold_fg_g bg_n ++

chg">Team Kaiba</span>: Seto Kaiba, Eiko, Jinx, Deelel, Ayako

The groups are assembled. The Proctor looks over the group and nods. "Looks like you are all ready. I will break the seal. Within you will find a variety of lifts. Take one of them to your destination. All have been verified to lead to the same checkpoint. Your goal will be to reach the end with as high of a score as possible. Your times begin when you take the lifts down."

He reaches over and applies a large, handheld seal-like object to the barrier. It flickers and vanishes. "Begin!"

The next room has four lifts within it. The fourth one is turned off, but the other three hum with power as you CHOOSE YOUR DESTINY.

Once the team gets on the lift, it descends, and there is a chime to note that TIME HAS BEGUN.

TEAM A: TEAM ELWIND

The room is wide and straightforward enough. Ivy curls down the walls and the floor, and the crystal floors are edged with the same ornate stone you have seen thus far. Behind you is a lift that will take you back up to the entrance way, which is nice in case you need to retreat. That will, of course, dock your scores...

However, the room is split in two by a large gap in the floor which blows air up through the room in turbulent patterns. The gap appears to be too large for humans to jump across, but there is a sphere on a pedestal next to the gap.

Across the gap, there is a large ramp that leads higher in the room. A door is inset into the wall there.

TEAM B: TEAM LIGHT WARRIORS

You leave the lift to be greeted by... water. In the sky. The entire room is up to the ankles in water, ivy and lily pads with exotic flowers floating across it. The pads appear to be thick and large enough to handle the weight of a person, unless you happen to be, I dunno, half made of metal. The floor below is clear, not impeding the chance to see the eternal storms of Bahamut below at all. Everything appears to be simple enough...

But in the center of the room, a pyramidal shape sits there hissing and humming with electrical power. Every so often, it discharges into the water, creating a nasty shock. On the opposite side of the pool, there is a door set into the wall above the water.

TEAM C: TEAM KAIBA

The room is warm. Floating cubes seem to emanate heat on small pylons throughout the room. As the lift descends it might explain why the place is full of giant lizards basking in the heat and light. Scales and molted skin litter the floor with bones, obscuring the crystal floor with detritus. As soon as they reach the floor, flicking eyes open, and lips bare large, carnivorous fangs as the beasts leap down and begin charging the group with a hiss!

L32 Basking Drizard x4

Noiela (647) has posed:
Noiela mentally prepares and goes over her internal list of possible synergising abilities and party inventory, tapping her index finger as she drifts into the realm of probability whilst keeping an ear out for further clues as to how the party dynamic might work. Disaster probably looms on the horizon; yet for the present the hooded, shorter than thou girl with the pinched expression errs towards optimism.

"Finna." Absentmindedly shoving back her bangs, the sight of a sword sliding full length from nowhere does give her room to pause again, jolted back into present time and space. "Quite a...feat. Even these pockets wouldn't be capable of containing a length of steel like yours."

Time and space are just terms.

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     Kaiba walks forward along towards the lift, leading the way. He /supposes/ he may as well stay inside the bubble. It, really, does not look like anthing useful, at all. It's a bubble. Just a bubble. But alas, you never know with the Multiverse. the bubble could be totally useful.

     Either way, though, it seems like he is going on the defensive for now. As they go down the lift, and he spots the monsters before them, he places some cards down. Pointlessly announcing as he does so.

     "I place one monster in the face down defense position... And, I set another card."

     Two cards appear in the air, both between Kaiba and the monsters. They're holograms of the cards, set facing towards the ground. Should the monsters come in to attack Kaiba, the monster card will be in the way... And then it'll be time for him to really get started on his strategy.

     He ignores what the rest of the team does. Maybe they'll take something out, but really who cares?

Dominic Masoch (655) has posed:
"Neat. I just wanted to see if I could. I will catch you all at the finish line." He says, smiling again, "Remember, you can all do this. You are the best of this Academy."

Audrey gets a nod, "Thank you on both counts," Before he's heading off to get on the lift with the rest of the Light Wariors.

As the lift reaches the bottom, Dominic looks around. It's been some time since he took the C Qualifications, and even then he did it with a group he barely knew. Now he's here with his new friends, so it's a pretty exciting experience for him.

He puts a hand on his sword and watches the design of the room, "Wonderful, wonderful." He says cheerily, rubbing gloved hands together.

Landon al Cid (642) has posed:
     Landon takes a moment to snap a picture with his mPhone of the beautiful surroundings. It's quite wonderfully done and quite beautiful. He hasn't been in a lot of dungeon runs before; he's generally very busy, after all, being the Prince of a continent-wide city-structure. Oh, he's done his qualifiers, but usually his team consists of himself and his bodyguard. This is the first time he's done it with a large group.

     As soon as Soan points out the problem, though, Landon immediately has a solution on hand. A Law Card appears, spinning in front of the Prince; it blazes to life with magic fire as he fills it with mana. A crystal barrier pops into being above the water, just enough to avoid displacing it, just low enough to be easy to get to.

     Landon smiles at Kyra. "Save your magic for later, Lady Hyral; I have no doubt we'll need it when we encounter our enemies."

Finna (513) has posed:
    "Oh... so this kind of obstacle course?" Tail still wagging and spirits soaring, Finna steps out of the lift at a leisurely pace with her arms spread to catch the wind. She's not chilled by it or bothered. The wind is her ally, even if it's a blizzard gale. The updrafts get her wingfeathers ruffling and she takes off with a leap, flap-flap-gliding over to the other side and touching down with a light thump.

    The pedeal of course, that's for the landbound people to futz with while she couts ahead for any extra surprises!

    "Say, what's the pedesal over there supposed to do? Also while we're at it! What's the team being scored on anyways? Speed? Cleverness? Power?"

    There anythig of interest on this second level that might help the others get across....?

Jinx (39) has posed:
    SHIT YEAH! Jungle creeps! What a great start, but who's the damg jungler? Where's my LEASH? JINX plants a foot, and flips the switches to properly fire up the coilgun, the business end heating enough to start boiling the newly painted surface clean again. An acrid burning smell as she settles in, and lines up her shots. "SOMEONE TANK THIS CRAP!"
    And then she discharges the coilgun, a massive kinetic bolt of force backed by bits of metal traveling at Very Fast Speeds. She rocks back on her heels, and... uh, she's turning a faint red in the cheeks. Oh my.

Audrey Stormfist (652) has posed:
    Audrey takes point as the team heads inside; it is not a matter of leading, just of being in the front if something attempts to eat the party. The sight of the crystal floor is impressive, but the obvious gap, sphere and door catch her attention.

    "Eblan, this seems up your alley."

    Checking for traps and jumping a gap, and all.

    "Perhaps we could simply Float across as well."
    That, that's Quentyn's alley.

    While the pedestal and sphere get checked, Audrey answers Finna: "Teams are graded on all of the above. You are graded on your ability to work as a team, your ability to complete the challenges in a timely manner with minimal effort, and on your individual contributions. Any one of those things can make or break you."

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako smiles brightly as she bows her head towards the people giving introductions. "Nice to meet you, Kaiba, Eiko, and Jinx." She floats on her broomstick, sticking close to Kaiba. And then the test begins! She follows closely behind the group as they enter their lift. As the lift goes down, she whimpers softly. "Uuu... stupid heat..." And Ayako starts feeling a notch sluggish. She stays behind Kaiba while looking at the contents of the room slowly.

Eiko (650) has posed:
    "Aw yeah, random encounters! Gold and exp ahoy!" Eiko does not mind being charged, brandishing her sword--still sheathed, in a two-handed grip. She's not exactly rushing forward, but she /is/ stepping into the Front Row to take an aggressive strike-and-block stance in favor of those of the group who might not be the up-close types. Given who she's with, that seems to be 'everyone else,' except maybe for Deelel. When one of those lizards gets in range, she--

    --bashes it with the sheathed sword sword, aiming a swipe that just might actually hit one of those things in the eye, but definitely isn't going to cut anything because her damned sword is STUCK IN ITS SHEATHE. Oh well. She did say she wasn't a samurai.

    One strike down, however it worked out, she's gonna dodge back and go for a second guy, just trying to get things' attention. She's got a gunner and a healer behind her, so seems as good a plan as any.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "Seto Kaiba! So THAT'S why that voice sounded familiar." Kyra exclaims as the master gamer declares his team name. Already she's recording his dramatics with the mogPad because she definitely wants to see the extraversal team in action. But then Soan proposes an idea. "...hmm." She lowers the mogPad and heads back, "Well Team Kaiba, I wish you luck! Don't get wrecked, alright?" She waggles her fingers as she slips her device back into her small backpack. As she walks to join Landon and the others, she grasps the zipper to her hoodie and pulls it down with a flourish.

    Beneath the hoodie are two full bandoliers loaded with vials and several belts with flasks lashed to them. Two different gun holsters, one under the left arm and one at the waist, are also present. Kyra draws the gun from the under-arm holster.

    With a grin, she follows after the other four boys into the first room their team is going to tackle. Which is filled with water. She immediately looks over at Soan and frowns. "...this had to be a coincidence, there's no way they knew we would go into the Sky Ruins today." she says, "I do have float just in-"

    Landon easily renders any need for floating obsolete with his law card (BANNED: WATER???). "You don't have to-" she's about to suggest the 'just Kyra' thing but stops knowing that this is a monitored test. She will have to endure. "-use a law card already but I've got no problems conserving MP. Soan, do your stuff."

Quentyn Westwind (635) has posed:
    Here we go. Quentyn waves forward anyone that lingers. When they get down the elevators, he cautiously observes the sphere while tugging his hoodie against the wind. Anything that might indicate a trap evident? If not, he'll approach and examine it more closely. If any of his team members move to approach it more cavalierly, the white mage will signal for them to slow down/be careful.

    "Um... it's a little bit of everything." Quentyn answers Finna. He pauses from his examinations. "By the way, could you, um, carry us over? Or are we too heavy?"

    Quentyn pauses and suddenly looks very embarrassed at Audrey. "U-Um... I um, don't know Float..." fiddle with glasses and avoid eye contact.

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
Soan Sagittarius suggest a last minute change. They enter the Qualifier, mostly because this is a new guy tht's done most of the lay outs. The last one have... had a nervous break down, coencidenaly when Soan did his qualifier with the rest of his friends. The water is a little annoying as they step into it, but fortunately Landon has an solution. Law Cards are very useful, indeed.

     At least, it's not an ocean or a lake. He can handle ankle-height water. It'll be fine.

With their feet fine thanks to Landon's card, this leaves Soan the obvious solution. "I've got this." He comments, grabbing out a pair of rubber gloves out of his packs, snapping them up. "Watch my back."

     Soan moves over the water, leaping on the lily-pads and the various plant life -- and checking where he put his feets on. This is far too quiet, /too simple/. He reaches the central object, starting his usual brand of magic of making trap maker cry by promptly working at disabling it.

     And salvage some interesting pieces. Just not all of it. He promised Landon he wouldn't pick the Dungeon clean.

Kamon Lionward (628) has posed:
Kamon goes and chooses his destiny, waving at the rest of the groups as they go off. "We'll be seeing you guys. Remember, trust each other to watch your backs and you'll do fine!"

And then, DESTINY.

Also sky-water. Kamon halts, not stepping off the lift until the bridge appears. He nods, stepping on it testingly. "Thanks. Sorry about this," he says, a touch apologetically. Kamon swings his sword off his shoulder and affixes the scabbard to his belt, walking forward and watching their sides for trouble. If he didn't know better, he'd expect flying fish.

"Can we do something about the electrical thing? Soan, anything around?" Kamon's the muscle; Soan's the trap-guy. Defer to him.

Hywnd Eblan (646) has posed:
Hywnd eyes the sphere. "Possibly a way to get us across, or a trap. Anyone want to touch it? I can check the other side of the gap...but would rather wait to see what the sphere is." She moves closer to it, hovering a hand over the sphere, but not touching it quite yet. She looks at the others and waits for them to make a choice. Also, Quentyn, you're USELESS.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel takes stoick of the room and notices the heat the first thing. She thingks for a moment and she pauses as she looks about she has to wondera bout what's in here oh dear that's not a dragon but it's the same basic idea big honking lizard. Unlike Niv or his daughter? Well these are not that these are not that at all.

"I'm not a tank I'm afraid."

She whips off her cloak which vanishes in glowing wireframs, she the banishes the staff to her hip and it shrinks.

a moment she pulls a disc off her back it's edge humms to life and she throws it with a lot of force at one of the lizards.

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
TEAM A: TEAM ELWIND

Audrey and Hwynd and Quentyn check out the sphere. It looks like it resembles modern magitechnology in that there is an effect embedded within that will activate with a minor investment of magic. But what it does seems to be unknown. Finna flies across simply enough! If only everyone could do that, you know? There doesn't appear to be much on hand to help the others cross, however, unless they want to get inventive with ferrying or perhaps even more inventive with the ivy growing on the walls. The ramp on the other side appears safe: No obvious traps or mechanisms are present, just a decorative way to get up to the doorway.

TEAM B: TEAM LIGHT WARRIORS

Landon provides a bridge over troubled water. The water continues to be shocked and crackle in regular pulses though, and there is still the matter of crossing... Kyra seems to chill out on the bridge, while Soan moves forward and begins fiddling with the pyramid. He quickly disables it. As the pyramid is manipulated, it seems to power down, the energy dying within. There is a low -CHUNK- noise as blocks rumble and shift, and the water begins draining out of the room as well into holes that have opened in the wall. All that you have to do now is just open the door, really. However...

The rest of the maze rumbles ominously.

TEAM C: TEAM KAIBA

Kaiba sets up his combination, and two of the Drizards immediately charge him, preparing to attack his Life Points directly! However, he has a card in the face down defensive position, so he has something to stop them... Or perhaps they might TRIGGER HIS TRAP CARD. Either way, the imposition of the defense keeps him safe for the moment, but how effective it will be remains to be seen based on what those cards are!

Jinx unleashes a shot from what is SUPPOSED to be a vehicular-mounted railgun into the local wildlife. The shot blasts the Drizard, dealing severe damage to it as it is hurled backwards before it ricochets off of the walls wildly. Seems like whatever these walls are made of, it's nigh-impenetrable. Ayako gets Slowed by environmental effects. Those cubes sure are hot. Eiko takes up the vaunted TANK position as she strikes out at one of them with her sheathed blade. The impact is good, but the claws slam heavily into the blocking blade, the beast attempting to clamp down on her. Her dodge gets her out of harm's way, but what then? Deelel's Disc comes flying past, Eiko's tanking giving her the opening she needs to score a hit on one of the wounded ones, hitting with a flash. The Drizard falls over, dead. Three remain.

Finna (513) has posed:
    "Hoist a person?! ... That's EXHAUSTING. They couldn't've expected someone with wings to be at this, did they? ... I'm sure the pdedstal's got something..." She glides back down with a hop and a flap, and hhits ground with another clop-noise before rising. She circles the pedestal warily... then pokes the sphere gently with the pommel of her sword. Apparently she's not afraid of grabbing the blade with her bare hands!

    CAN she feel any magic though? Her senses aren't too good at this...

Jinx (39) has posed:
    Oh... oh my. JINX is VERY EXCITEDLY yanking the reload lever on the charging coilgun, and grins at the rest of her party. At least the room was sturdy, wasn't it? That's always nice! Well, not that she wouldn't have minded being rough with the course, but...
    But now she's got friendly monsters and a SAMURAI WARRIOR in front of her, and that's all she needs.
    Pretty blue braids kick up as she charges forward, the bulk of the coilgun coming with her as she sets up next to Eika, and purrs. "~hold still~"
    Though she might be saying that to the lizard as she kicks the trigger again.

Hywnd Eblan (646) has posed:
Hywnd moves back towards the lift...before turning around, facing the gap. Dashing forward, she makes a kind of amazing SHOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE leap across the gap, landing on her feet. This Ninja is cheating, obviously. And then she takes a throwing star out of her belt, tossing it down the gap to see if it makes a sound, before going up the ramp to investigate the door. "Let's see here..."

Kamon Lionward (628) has posed:
The rumbling and the room draining actually kind of surprises Kamon. He expected more effort than that. He crosses the bridge, peering at the pyramid, and then looks around the room. "Huh. That was..." He wonders where the water got off to. Why did the whole place shake? Should he query the other teams?

...nah. They've got it.

"Hey, Soan. Take a quick sweep of the room, make sure we aren't about to walk into a redundant trap." Soan thinks it was too easy. He wants to head through the door and out, but another few seconds for Soan to check the now-waterless room might be worthwhile.

Audrey Stormfist (652) has posed:
    "Well, there are two possibilities. Either the orb is trapped intentionally, given its location at the entrance, or it contains a flying spell," Audrey surmises, before she examines the room. "Ivy, we could just climb across. I have rope, if Bird wants to secure it on the other side. Westwind, you could activate the orb. Or I can punch us a bridge across. If the other side is devoid of traps then we are wasting time."

    These are your options.
    Audrey seems to be getting impatient already.

Noiela (647) has posed:
Noiela tugs at her hood to shield her against the most turbulent wind currents as they exit the elevator and face the first trial. Already, Finna has herself covered; hearing the flutter of wings brings a faint smile to her face. Maybe it will be salvagable. Her uplifted spirits cannot be dampened by the hesitant admission by Quentyn; not that her healers possessed such useful magic. What you never had, you cannot mourn.

Allowing Audrey to answer the question the student she is far more qualified to give, the tactician cautiously edges towards the gap, raising her usual murmur to a shout to beat the lively breeze afoot.

After a serious eyeballing, Noiela orders everyone to stand back. Placing a gloved hand tentatively on the sphere, she quells a momentary stab of irritation at Finna poking the device. Magitechnology...it uses magic as fuel, channeling it into a set pattern. She knows it like the back of her hand, because it often is her hand imbuing the selfsame object to procure a magical effect. Just, one is an updated version from leather and carefully treated ink.
A faint ember of light collects in her palm, drawn from her inner reserves of magic that she immediately directs onto the the smooth surface.

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     Seto Kaiba just smirks, as two of them move in for him. Well, the card on the battlefield flips into face up defense mode. Revealed is the Maiden with Eyes of Blue, an incredibly beautiful silver haired woman. It takes the brunt of the attack. And, while the Maiden looks like it has /some/ pain, due to this being a real attack and not a part of a card game? The attack does a /lot/ less than it should, specifically because of its effect. Which allows her to negate attacks when she is attacked, once per 'turn'.

     And, suddenly, she is surrounded with a glowing white aura. Kaiba smiles. "And now that the attack from that monster is negated... COME OUT! MY BLUE EYES!"

     Yes, as per the Maiden's ability, a Blue-Eyes White Dragon appears.

     Of course, the second monster basically shreds through the Maiden, and she vanishes. Yeaah, she can only stop one attack a turn.

     Still, though, it's now Kaiba's turn. And he draws a card. From his hand, he immediately places another card, in the face up attack position. The Lord of Dragons, a man who is dressed in what appears to be dragonbone. He doesn't attack, though. He's mostly support for the Blue Eyes.

     "And... now... My Blue-Eyes! ATTACK!"

     The Blue-Eyes White Dragon launches a breath attack of white plasma and lightning straight at the Basilisk.


t Kaiba just smiles a bit.

     "Just stay behind my Blue-Eyes and keep launching your attacks. It'll tank for us."

     He still has the one face down trap card as well, but he isn't activating it. Yet.

Dominic Masoch (655) has posed:
Dominic carefully walks across the barrier that Landon made, keeping an easy pace as he looks around. When the group is crossing and all regrouping, he looks over to Kamon.

The Fighter sending out Soan to scour the room causes Dominic to think, "It is possible that deactivating the trap was the activation for the obstacles within the next room. Or that the room may not let us out until we reactivate that which we disabled."

Noiela (647) has posed:
"Mm, if this fails." Is Noielas distracted response to Stormfist and her solution to punch all the puzzles.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako groans softly. Stupid hot cubes... being closer to them isn't helping at all. "Nngh... this heat... I don't suppose anyone can do anything about it?" She sighs softly and slumps down on her broomstick.

Landon al Cid (642) has posed:
     The Prince just stands around, waiting. eavy armor isn't terribly effective at moving around, and he doesn't want to dislodge himself or waste any more magic particles. Burning through MP rapidly is a bad idea, and Landon isn't exactly a caster.

     "Better safe than sorry," he agrees.

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     Soan was not quite surprised that it was easy to disable. This IS the first room, like Kyra said. However, Soan Sagittarius didn't get as far as he has a Thief by not being subject to a healthy dose of paranoia. Mercifully, the water drains away soon enough, the young man landing back on the stone floor, transparent as it may be.

     "Yeah." He says, already on it as Kamon thinks that there is something fishy going on, giving the look a good, eagle-eyed sweep, squinting at crevices or anything unusual. That rumble was suspicious. Maybe it's a cooperative dungeon, where their run affect other's? Maybe Dominic's right, too. Hrm.

     Whatever the case, Soan cases the room in his disturbingly fast way, as well as the door itself.

Quentyn Westwind (635) has posed:
    Quentyn looks at the sphere as though he's contemplating activating it, but mostly he just stands there pretty uselessly. And then Noiela removes the question by activating the sphere. Well. Here goes. But he nods once, anxiously, to Audrey at the ideas. "Um. If this doesn't..." His eyes glance back to the sphere, "Um, try the bridge first I think, and rope after that... I have a little rope too just in case." Hopefully they don't lose it cause falling would kind of suck.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Kyra would continue onward but she knows better than to get ahead of the rest of the party. She especially knows better than to go ahead of the thief. She stays put, comfortable on Landon's law bridge, peering down into the now-drained space to see if any objects were left behind.

    "Hey Soan, don't forget to check the doorway for traps. And pits."

Eiko (650) has posed:
    Woah! Yeah, getting bit by these things would be bad. Good thing Eiko has all that ranged fire behind her. Without some covering fire she'd have to reveal her total lack of not-dying-to-lizard-bite powers. She's not even wearing any armor. What kind of tank is she?

    The overly enthusiastic kind, obviously, but with an actual (hologram of) a dragon on the field, she's going to give a low whistle of appreciation instead of getting in the way. Besides, she wants to see Jinx is up to. And what was that, Ayako?

    She glances back. She sees the water spirit in obvious distress. She reaches out her hand, bits of black smoke suddenly appearing and circling her limb as she stretches out toward the group healer, across the distance, makes as if to GRAB at her, and--

    --she pulls the OVERHEATED effect off of her teammate, applying it to herself. Immediately, she's sweating up a storm.

    "Ugh, gross."

    This won't actually keep Ayako cool for more than a minute or so.

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
TEAM A: TEAM ELWIND

Hwynd looks down into the gap. The gap is not hard to gauge: It's a wide, gaping hole that has nothing between it and the roiling clouds of Bahamut. If the fall doesn't kill you, the Dragons probably will. There's probably some form of safety measure present to keep that from happening, however, and that is borne out when she throws the shuriken: It bounces off of a glimmering field some distance down. It will undoubtedly trigger some kind of penalty should someone actually land on it though.

Finna can easily determine that there's magic in the sphere. It's just waiting to be triggered. However, it looks like poking isn't enough to set it off. Noiela, however, gives the sphere what it wants. As the sphere is touched, it hums and grows warm. Clear crystal blocks rise up from the gap, shimmering into existence. They are solid despite floating, able to support people as they jump across in whatever manner they see fit.

The rest of the maze rumbles ominously.

Noiela (647) has posed:
Noiela removes her fingertips, pulse for a split second beating in tune with the humming energies she imparts and can sense before they rise the sudden, stomach lurching swoop as the shimmering crystal rises up to lock securely into place. Wasting no further time, she crosses over the bridge whilst a part of her mind detachedly considers the view groundwards and the maze itself. At a rapid pace, since she is probably the least equipped among them to deal with plummeting down into the floors below. "I wonder...if there is not an element of competition to this maze. We might impede any other teams...it cannot be helped."

Quentyn Westwind (635) has posed:
    Quentyn waits to see what happens and... bridge? Quentyn grins and gives Noiela a thumbs up. He walks confidently to the bridge... less confidently puts a foot on it. But when he finds it solid and Noiela makes her way across, the white mage, clutching his garments against the wind, quickly makes his own way over.

    And then there's the ramp door. Quentyn doesn't take point for this either... a safe distance back, but in range in case sudden healing spells are needed. "Um... anyone that can check the door for traps? Or um, willing to brave it?"

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
TEAM B: TEAM LIGHT WARRIORS

Everything looks pretty safe, now. The room is out of water, and the lily pads might look a little dry now, but Soan's Thief Senses tingle when the other room activates the sphere, possibly bearing out Soan and Dominic's theory. The door is unlocked and untrapped. There isn't anything in the way of loot unless you want to keep a lily pad. But then, this is a licensing run, they're not going to give out loot most likely until the run is over.

TEAM C: TEAM KAIBA

Jinx sets up her gun, and the nearby Drizard is not enthusiastic about the situation. It's about to bite her when things go crazy and Kaiba activates his TRAP CARD. Figuratively, this time, at least. The Blue-Eyes White Dragon shows up and unleashes holy hell amongst the monsters, as the plasma-lightning breath smashes into the group and cascades along the walls dramatically. With Eiko tanking as well (and helping Ayako out with the heated cube problem), Jinx is able to unleash her true powers, which are more real and true: MORE GUN. The Sky Render goes off again, and in the ensuing conflagaration the remaining three Drizards are taken out.

It's still hot, but at least the way forward is unimpeded now.

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
TEAM A: TEAM ELWIND

The door is an ornate and inscribed work of stone, similar to the walls of the ruin. There is an obvious handle upon it and a locking mechanism shaped roughly like a dragon's head. One must put their hand into it to open the door. It doesn't LOOK like it'll bite.

Hywnd Eblan (646) has posed:
"Stormfist. Open the door. I'd rather not get my hand bit off." Hywnd smiles lightly, as she steps down the ramp, to wait for Audrey to possibly open it.

Kamon Lionward (628) has posed:
When Soan gives them the all-clear, Kamon is quick to move forward. He takes up position at the door, reaching out to open it up first and be the first one through. He's the Fighter, after all. Besides, maybe he doesn't want to let the Prince be the first one into danger. "Alright, let's go!"

Deelel has posed:
Team Kaiba seem to be doing all right they have only three left to deal wiuth and the basic is feeling pretty confident about it but she needs to keep moving as Kaiba unloads his massive dragons into the mix she keepos moving used to be on the move. She back flips. She keeps notes of where EIko is and isn't trying to think about things, she has nothing that can help Ayako at this point save to burn the Drizards down. She makes use of her disc again following up the heaiver guns and she keeps going as she wonders how much longer the water elemental can take it.

Audrey Stormfist (652) has posed:
    "That is too straightforward. We've probably made the rest of the rooms more difficult for ourselves," Audrey complains, before she nonetheless gets on with it and makes a few hops across, to land at the base of the ramp and ascend to the door. She will resume standing in front of the party unless their Ninja insists the door isn't safe to open, not that she won't take a quick look herself. But Hywnd is probably slightly more suited to finding traps!

    Which she does.

    Audrey frowns and steps forward.

    "You are lucky that I am a Monk, and that we have a White Mage." It's true, Monks have some pretty nice tricks to regenerate quickly. And Quentyn's reliable! Unless he also forgot to learn Cure.

    A side-glare is given to him.

    And then Audrey sticks her hand in the mechanism. It would be hard to tell at a glance but she's pushing magic through her hand to harden it, on top of the armor provided by her gloves.

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     Soan does give the all-clear, but he still looks... worriedish. He's experienced enough that guts feeling are usually something to be followed in his line of work. "Yeah, we're fine. Just keep a look out, I'm getting the impression our actions affects others -- and theirs to us." He comments, falling into formation. The tanks first! He'll take the rear guard, as he's meatier than Dominic and Kyra. Somehow.

Landon al Cid (642) has posed:
     Landon falls into step alongside Kamon, ahead of the rest of the Light Warriors. The Princes dismisses the bridge with a wave of his hand. Another Law Card appears in front of him, spinning gently as he walks. His Judge Blade springs to life in his hand.

     "Do you think so?"

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako looks towards Eiko with appreciation and smiles at her. She quickly forms two balls of water and flings them at the hot cubes in hope of cooling the room down at least to tolerable levels.

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     Seto Kaiba continues, stopping right in front of the door. At a guess, though, there are probably more monsters in the room. So he's just going to activate a trap card. Hey, any monsters in the room are obviously 'face down', in card game turns. He can't see what they are, afterall!

     "I activate Acid Trap Hole."

     A gigantic pit of holographic acid appears in the room in front of them, trying to catch at least one monster in it, hopefully.

     After /that/ Kaiba will open the door.

Noiela (647) has posed:
A door appears. From Noiela's viewpoint, trampling up the ramp to view it in full. Cursory inspection begins, the tactician scouring every last inch for possible clues as to its origin, dark stare falling upon the lock that challenges people to open it. Echoing Hywnds suggestions with a faint flick of the wrist to accompany it, her line is a tad more diplomatic. "Miss Stormfist, your gloves would offer the most protection- yet, the symbol itself might be important."

Still, she does not argue when Audrey jams her fist into the metallic maw of the beast. Sturdiest member of the team and all.

Eiko (650) has posed:
    Oh no, the drizards are taken out! For some reason or another Eiko is upset over this. The feeling is mixed with the elation of victory, but she can't really enjoy that much while repeatedly wiping her sweat off on her jeans. She's also not really up for the idea of using her magic to take care of that, since the effect would basically be random. Gonna just have to grin and bear it.

    She's also gonna poke the heating-cube with the end of her sword(-sheathe) just to see if anything happens. If nothing DOES happen she will then proceed to the door.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Kyra will pass on taking a lilypad, than you. Slightly saddened by the lack of anything else interesting in the water, she takes after the other guys, casually slotting a potion into the needlegun she carries as she walks. "So maybe it's a giant puzzle of a dungeon we're all simultaneously solving now. That would be /so awesome/."

Dominic Masoch (655) has posed:
"That would make these quite interesting, would it not?"

Dominic follows with the group, behind Kamon but slightly to the side of Landon as he looks down at the Light Warriors badge he was given earlier. He tilts his head a bit before placing it in a pocket, "It adds an almost competitive element to this if someone were to abuse it. Or a cooperative element across all teams, perhaps? It may be they mean for all teams to coordinate, not just the teams we have formed into."

Jinx (39) has posed:
    JINX woot woots at LIZARD DEATH and kicks the recharger for the coilgun once more, letting the device rest on the ground for a bit. There's a whining noise though. It's not charging without her holding on to it. "Awwwwww. Well, this thing's getting REALLY HEAVY so I guess it's time for a switcherroo!" She bends over, shaking the sweat out of her trousers by shaking out her feet, and fiddles with the top of the gun. She's planted a gem-cog-ish looking widget on top, which matches up with the heavy bangle on her arm. A moment to shake her hand, and the Sky Render vanishes in a cloud of hextech, replaced easily wiiiiiith...
    POW POW! the /light/ minigun revs for a moment or two, before Jinx looks up, sweating, panting and happy.
    "...who am I shooting next~? <3"

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     Also, Kaiba plays another monster card. Guard of the Storm Dragon. A knight with a lance appears, and then he promptly leaps onto the back of the Blue Eyes, acting like an 'equip' card.

     It basically just gives the Blue-Eyes piercing damage, but still, the more buffs the better.

Finna (513) has posed:
    "Competition, huh?" If anyone's looking too spooked to go hopping on weird ghost-platforms, Finna will start dragging them along! (Looking at you, Quentyn!) She goes hopping and skipping up after him though, due to not having to do so! "Magic devices, huh... didn't expect that. So that's why you wanted me to heck... I'm not a sorceress, you know!" Although she twirls some fingers about, and THOSE FINGERS SUDDENLY BURN WITH SILVERY-WHITISH-BLUE flame. Just for an instant. She does have magic, at least!

    "Don't worry too much. It probably won't get TOO hard. We've got quite a team here!"

    ANd she hasn't gotten serious either.

    But she has her eyes on the door. And the 'dragon mouth' handle. Time to see what happens!

Quentyn Westwind (635) has posed:
    Hmm yes let's stick someone's hand into the dragon-mouth-receptical thing-- Yeah, no. Oh, wait, we're actually doing that? Quentyn looks skeptical... and then Quentyn withers under Audrey's glare, but even so, aether's already gathering around him... precasting a curative spell? Or, not! Just after Audrey engages the mechanism, another Stoneskin takes effect-- just in case something should punch through the first shield. Or does nothing, if the mechanism ends up being safe.

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
TEAM A: TEAM ELWIND

The dragon door does not attempt to eat Audrey's hand.

The second room is, as expected, high up, but expands for some distance. Again, wind blows upwards powerfully through the area, creating turbulence, but the carved blocks appear to be creating a bridge from one side to the other. It doesn't seem like there are any parricular issues, except that one can quickly notice small nests laid out in the crevices of the stones on the side of the room. Another of the sphere pedestals appears to be inset about halfway across the bridge on a small platform on the right. However, there is a hissing noise and a scream as winged creatues emerge from the stone cracks in a swarm, tiny beasts gathering up to prepare to strike at those present! (-) As if to make matters worse, as the group enters there is a low rumble from elsewhere, and the blocks begin shifting, moving in predictable patterns to each side, turning a simple crossing into a challenging platforming exercise.

L32 Screeching Swarmbird x6

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
TEAM B: TEAM LIGHT WARRIORS

The next room facing the Light Warriors shows them where the water went. The room is full of a complicated series of water-traps and gears, providing for an unusual vertical movement experience as the machines feed from a pool in the bottom of the room (which is where the water went), /upwards/ through a complex mechanism. The obvious way forward seems to be to enter a tube of rising water and attempt to hold one's breath to navigate through a series of rotating gears. Within the water about halfway up the gearworks is a pedestal jutting out of the wall with another strange pyramid upon it.

(-) But then things get more complicated as the maze rumbles, the water churns, a mass of long, sinulous shapes rushing through the water full of teeth and hunger. Well, that's going to make things difficult. L34 Flying Eel x6

TEAM C: TEAM KAIBA

The heating-cube doesn't seem to do anything when it's just poked, Ayako feels better though, AND THAT'S WHAT MATTERS. The Acid Trap Hole doesn't do more than begin dissolving a downed monster, adding insult to injury for the moment. Kaiba continues filling up his field with holograms, but there isn't anything left to kill for the moment, which probably makes Jinx also unhappy.

Eiko heads up and opens the door, revealing the next room. They stand at the top of a platform, a ladder heading downwards. Interesting. The walls seem to gleam with a mirror shine, which becomes relevant as there is a chiming noise, and a crystal sweeps through the area, emitting a bright beam that bounces up through the mirrored shaft. There is another cube on a pedestal about halfway down the shaft, humming with power. It looks like it's probably not too big of a deal... (-)Until the maze shakes. The pattern changes, becoming more active. To add to it, the ceiling begins moving, threatening to crush the group if they don't move fast!

Quentyn Westwind (635) has posed:
    Quentyn quickly scans the room... and slides a magazine into his rifle after his rifle slides into his hands, but instead of aiming at them, he tries to cast Repose on the furthest of the birds. Then he crouches. "Call it, Noiela!"

Jinx (39) has posed:
    NO MORE TARGETS! NOT EVEN A TOWER! LAME!

    But JINX hardly has time to bitch as the group shuffles into the next room. A TRAP! A DEADLY TRAP! Jinx lets out a delicate little noi- hahahah you actually believed that for a moment. She screams happily. MIRRORS. A deep pits! And a ladder! "FUCK LADDERS!" She fishes around in her pants, pulls out a nadful of grenades 'for light'. Those get hucked down the shaft, before Jinx slings PowPow across her back and starts chasing pel mel down the platforms and ladders. "RACE YOU NERDS TO THE BOTTOM!"

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako whews with relief... and then looks much more comfortable. "Healing Water!" She flings a ball of red healing water at Eiko to help restore her stamina and cool her off at the same time. She floats on her broomstick, following after the group into the next room.

    Ayako's amber gaze quickly take in the room's contents, seeming to like the mirrory walls. And then the chime noise resounds. "A-ahh?" She inclines her head to the side gently. And then the ceiling begins moving down! She claps her hands together quickly. "Oh oh oh. It's one of these!" Her amber eyes practically light up and she quickly flies on her broomstick down the shaft, keeping her eyes peeled for anything out of the ordina-Oh! A cube! It's glowing too!

    She floats over closely to the cube, halting her hasty decent to examine it carefully.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel catches her disc on the rebound and now she looks to Jinx and then to Ayako for a moment she pauses for a moment smirking anf says

Shes' going to make fot the ladder and she looks to Ayakao and Eiko as she's making her way down. She's clearly not bothered at all by the tempature it's odd, and away she goes down but it seems they have some things left to handle as she goes down after the others.

Landon al Cid (642) has posed:
     The water traps and gears are something Landon can't deal with, but the L34 Flying Eels are part of his specialty. Once Kyra's dropped her Protect, and everything hasn't completely exploded, Landon raises the Judge Blade in front of him.

     He releases the sword. It hovers in the air, a massive hunk of...nothingness, of crystallized Law, just dangling there without Landon's hands to guide it. He flicks his eyes at one of the fish.

     The Judge Blade stabs forward, cleaving through water like the water isn't even there, slasing straight for it. This might also give Kamon and Soan an easy avenue to strike the other fish! Landon's creative like that - particularly when he braces back the water with a pair of Law Cards!

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "I know, right?" Kyra excitedly responds to Dominic. "Well we don't know how the other teams are doing so we can't really be sure if we're hurting them or hindering them." As they stroll into the room, Kyra takes a moment to study the puzzle. She thoughtfully follows the tubes and looks from Soan, to Kamon, to Landon, to Dominic. "Soan can't swim." she points out, "So if we need to get someone in there to activate the trigger, it will have to be someone else. Soan will have to guide whoever through disabling the mechanism...hopefully it's similar to the last room. I think-" she looks to Dominic before her thoughts are suddenly interrupted by the rumble and the sudden addition of eels.

    Kyra's quick to act, flicking out her left hand as crystaline green sparkles suddenly flicker around each of the other four guys in turn, solidifying into shining green light for a second before fading into an extremely transparent state that clings to each of them.

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     With the ceiling coming down, Kaiba has two things he can try to do. First, of course, he draws his card, as required. But then, with the trap, plays a card.

     "HEAVY STORM!"

     A gigantic storm forms. The effect of this spell card, usually, is to rid the feild of traps and spells. And so, tornado force winds blow at /every/ trap, trying to stop them, destroy them, or do whatever they can to prevent the traps, and any ambient spells around, from working.

     This might be a bit annoying to magic users too, cause again, it targets spell effects as well.

     Still, though, he /tries/ to lead the way, sliding down the ladder. He's got no time to climb it, instead he's just holding onto one of the sides of the ladder and sliding. If he gets going too fast, he'll use his feet to catch on the ladder a bit to slow him down.

     And as he slides down, his Monsters follow. Duel Monsters just kind of float anyways. Still, though, spotting the cube, he takes his general approach.

     "BLUE EYES! DESTROY THE CUBE!"

     And the Blue-Eyes unleashes his attack.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako eeps and looks up when she hears 'BLUE EYES! DESTROY THE CUBE!'. Yikes, Kaiba, no care for friendly fire, huh? She quickly flies away from the cube to avoid getting caught in the bluish-white energy blast!

Dominic Masoch (655) has posed:
<Light Warriors> Soan Sagittarius says, "We're gonna have to get wet!"

Dominic is a man of noble birth, and while he may dislike most aspects of that, he holds chivalry paramount. And that's why this particular phrase from Soan causes him to have a non-standard reaction.

He unclips his belt, takes off his jacket, and then puts on his sword belt again. This is so he can promptly take off his jacket it and place it onto Kyra, just in case she gets splashed. It's likely WAY too big for her. It's also fully understandable that she may not understand why he did this as he leaves her to engage the water monsters.

Placing one hand atop his head to hold his beret in place, Dominic would then jump straight away into the water with the full intent being to follow Kyra's plan and swim his way up towards that pedestal with the pyramid on it. Hopefully, Soan can talk him through deactivating it when he gets there.

Audrey Stormfist (652) has posed:
    Hoorah, safe door handle!
    And monsters, finally. Ja<span class=" bold_fg_r bg_n ++ kpot.

    chr">Audrey</span> reaches into her coat. She produces a long pole, obviously a martial artist's staff, not a mage's. It is ornate but otherwise mundane, probably capable of extending slightly at a glance.

    "I'll slow them down, they'll be easier to hit."

    "Wermut!"

    The Heritor hops onto the blocks-- she predicts their patterns and finds her way to the center of the bird cluster, jumping up to reach them, the pole providing extra range once airborne. It shimmers a bright white, and then she spins, to hit as many of the birds as possible. The attack inflicts PHYSICAL DAMAGE and SLOW (if it works). It also probably makes Audrey the target the birds will want to pick on.

Finna (513) has posed:
    "W-woooo-waoooh! They were NOT kidding!" SO MANY BIRDS. TOO MANY BIRDS. Finna grins a bit sheepishly. Time to get a little serious, maybe? Yup. She puts her sword away. Back to... wherever she pulled it out to begin with.

    And she reaches out with an arm just as some birds are coming in. The arm ripples and wavers... and then...

    All flesh and clothing for that one arm just splits open as if it was never properly joined together to begin with. There's a schlurping noise best not described further and then the air's filled with a hideous, bone-tingling chorus of reptilian hisses!

    Finna's arm has split open like dozens of ribbons in the wind... and become writhing snake-heads. At the very last moment. One of the Screeching Birds is in for a nasty surprise that's for sure.

    The heads all move independently to constrict the bird, twisting it and biting it all while making the most awful noises and dripping venom onto the platforms that makes it sizzle...

    Well it's not really sizzling. But thanks to a little illusions, it's way nastier-looking and more intimidating than it really would be.

    Finna's not interested in killing all the birds. Just scaring them shitless so they leave the group alone!

Eiko (650) has posed:
    When Eiko gets out of that place, you'd think she'd be able to stop sweating! YOU THINK WRONG. Thanks to her magic, the OVERHEATING curse will continue affecting her 'till she figures out something to do with it. Despite the extreme danger they're in, she takes a moment to get some damned gloves out of her backpack. They've got a good gripping surface, so her sweat won't force her to take 'the fast way down.' This means she is definitely not gonna win that race. Ayako's spell sure helps, though it's still going to be temporary relief because she's not actually /hurt/. At least she feels a bit more energized, now--as if anyone would need more energy with Jinx on the team.

    And then Kaiba comes in and just goes Mass Dispel on everything, but with hurricane winds. It's not a particularly strong curse and she isn't actively /trying/ to keep it, so away goes her heat problem. She keeps the gloves on, though.

    "Whoop!" And then she's sliding down the ladder, too, feet just touching one side of it to give a little friction, fingers lightly brushing against each rung on the way down. If it's a problem that could be solved by doing well in P.E., she's got at least that much covered.

Hywnd Eblan (646) has posed:
"Fry them...got it." Hywnd runs forward...before vanishing. She's gone. Or, actually, not, she's just moving INCREDIBLY FAST. Running on air, she draws her blades rapidly, before casting Raiton, causing arcing lightning to swarm her. As she strikes, the lightning bounces off, chaining from bird to bird, as she swings her blades rapidly, attempting to avoid Audrey with her hits. And then, Flash Step ends...Hywnd reappearing on the other side of the gap, blades resheathed, and lightning gone. "By the way, Quentyn, you need to learn Float."

Kamon Lionward (628) has posed:
"Hopefully they're doing okay," Kamon remarks, right as something in another room is probably totally annihilated by /dragons/.

There are Flying Eels, there's complicated water traps, and there are gears and basically everything is terrible when you're full of iron. Kamon suppresses a sigh. "Alright, let's..." Well, they /kind/ of have a plan. Kamon shoots Dominic a glance, looking between him and Kyra while Dom hands off his coat. Right; nobleman. Totally just a courtesy thing.

Right.

"They're going to go for you on the way up," Kamon calls as Dominic goes for the water. "Here!" He steps up, finding Landon's opening --

         FLAIR > HOARFROST BLADE

-- and then his katana is suddenly in his hands, swept forward in a swift cut that leaves an icy blue trail. It cuts twice, once for the water directly underneath where Dom is going, and once at one of the eels. A sheet of ice forms in the water, a platform to keep Dom stable while it carries him upward (footwork is important to fighting, after all, and there's no guarantee he's in the clear!). The second cut, though threatens to chill the eel to the... whatever eels have. Do they have bones? "/HOH/!"

Noiela (647) has posed:
Noiela wiggles her fingers jerkily in direction of the shrieking mass, voice hoarse from shouting into the radio one of her many pockets holds relatively safe. A dark misama rolls over the foe, its tendrils reaching out to grasp and enfold the frazzled bird in its vapourous form that oozes in greedy succession as the other party members thawk, fry and crush them beneath heavy firepower. Rope knotted securely round her waist, she leaves with a rasped "Keep an eye on it for me." before it comes time to play leaping acrobat.

Although nowhere near Hywnds level of agility, the tacticians own surge of adrenaline feeds into muscles long left unused; leaping and sprinting forward like her feet have acquired spring coils as she ventures first one, then another platform, agonizing twitch at her temple from sheer concentration.

She has to make it.
Watch the pattern line up-leap. No different from tactical warfare.

Rubbing sweaty palms together, she takes a step back, then hurtles forward. Ready to jump.

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
TEAM C: TEAM KAIBA

Ayako has an advantage of being able to fly on a broomstick. She flies down and begins fiddling with the cube, carefully working to avoid the light beam shear. She can tell that is gonna sting if it hits. The cube, like other triggers, is a strange geometrical object that has glowing lines running through it, made of the same kind of stone as the rest of the dungeon. It looks like it just needs a small investment of magic to trigger, but what will happen when it does?

Kaiba decides to answer that question for them as he breaks out the good stuff. The HEavy Storm manifests within the room, the descending ceiling grinding and slowing to a halt. He gets the sense it won't last forever, but it seems like he's bought them a good amount of time. Similarly, the storm interrupts the light beam, causing it to short out in various places and making it easier to descend upon the ladder without getting fried.

And then he sends the Blue-Eyes after the cube. So, are holograms magic?

When you're using children's card games based on egyptian summoning rituals and then applied through advanced holographics, close enough. The cube hums,,, (-) And there is an ominous hum from the bottom of the ladder. Powerful blasts of light begin roaring up the ladder in a hail, turning the shaft that they have to descend into an even deadlier experience.

Ayako might want to channel the power of Graze and get Danmaku with it.

Eiko doesn't even have the benfit of that as she appears to be unable to fly. Time to get ladder dancing!

The rest of the Ruins rumble ominously.

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
Soan lets out a briefly annoyed sigh. It's not too difficult, but more water is somewhat more annoying. Long tubes of water adorn the room, forming a maze that is rather annoying to get into. /Filled with water and angry eels/.

     "Yeah. I hope they'll do fine. Nah, I'm convinced that they will come out ahead of this." Soan replies, eyeing the water and taking a step back from Kamon doing his thing. This sort of technique is amazing to watch, and honestly. He's thanksfull. He don't answer Kyra's comment on him not being able to swim. It's enough of an embarassment for him that he don't need to repeat it a second time.

     He don't bother to remove any clothing, drawing out Blacksteel as he leaps on the platform along with Dominic, ready to stab an eel -- and getting up to the mechanism to give it a good wack at disarming.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako looks in the direction of the cube as it gets blasted... and notes the ominous hum from the bottom of the ladder. She calls out so that everyone else in the group can hear, "Uh oh. I think we just changed the difficulty up a notch!"

    She moves her legs up and over the broomstick so that she's riding her broomstick the traditional witch style rather than the usual sidesaddle method. "But... this does look like fun!" Ayako grins playfully and then gets to work at dodging the curtain of lasers as she continues to descend! She's played danmaku games before and... it seems she's fine at dodging-and grazing when she has no other choice.

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
TEAM B: TEAM LIGHT WARRIORS

The Light Warriors might have earned their C License already, but that doesn't mean they get Easy Street. Whoever designed this course must have it out for half the team since they DON'T LIKE WATER.

But as any Dungeoneering Teacher will tell you, there's ALWAYS A WATER TEMPLE.

ALWAYS.

Landon starts decomplicating things by attacking from a distance. The blade shears into one of the Eels, damaging it heavily. Surely this won't be a problem, right?

Nope. The Eel launches itself out of the water column, sending itself flying back at Landon in response! It's wounded, but not out! Kyra gives them a Protect spell, which becomes apparent in a hexagonal field as the eel its it just before it hits Landon, giving him just enough time to do something about it! Dominic is going to need it as well as he begins swimming up the watery column, working his way into the complicated gears. They move regularly, exposing holes that can be swam through if one is quick about it. The problem is that there's a bunch of eels trying to eat him at the same time. This complicates things. Kamon helps uncomplicate them some more as well, as he both creates an ice platform to help push Dominic forward with the current, as well as freeze the eels and do some Ice-elemental damage to them! Sadly, they're not weak to Ice, but it does help Kamon get attention and do his job of tanking for the team as they begin leaping out of the water at him! Just... slowly. Because Slow.

Soan follows Dominic up, managing to Do Water long enough to get up with him and work together on it, stabbing an eel on the way. They look at the pyramid, and it looks much like the last one, another magitech trigger of some kind. Soan has a Bad Feeling about this one, though. But he needs to pick fast. He's losing air, after all, and the eels are hungry...

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     And suddenly lasers everywhere.

     This really pisses Kaiba off. He has to act fast. And it's hard to draw. So he stops his fast movement down, just briefly, to draw a card. His deck /does/ have cards to help him in here. And while he doesn't believe in that 'heart of the cards' bullcrap that Yugi spouted on about, he does know that his deck can anhillate anything, and solve any problem.

     He looks at the card he draws. It's hard to focus with all the lasers.

     He smiles.

     He places it face down, and then, almost immediately, as the lasers are kind of in constant attack mode /anyways/...

     "MIRROR FORCE!"

     This card creates a barrier, mostly around Kaiba and his monsters. It reflects the attacks back, trying to negate the lasers.

     He continues to slide down.

     Of course the Mirror Force doesn't necessarily help his allies either.

     Not that he cares about that.

Eiko (650) has posed:
    "Aw, shit!" Eiko is... "High score!" ...strangely happy at this turn of events, especially considering she has absolutely no relevant equipment or powers for dealing with it. She's got a bit of superhuman physical ability, but only to the point where you might call her 'mildly augmented.' She does have some relevant skills, in fact, but--

    Kaiba pulls through for her instead. No, he's not actually trying to help her. But she came down the ladder after him, and the lasers are coming from /below/, so he might as well be tanking the whole trap for her. Down she goes!

Jinx (39) has posed:
    FUCK LASERS.
    JINX is dodging as best as she can on the way down, hopping... sort of awkwardly from shaft to shaft. Nothing is exploding though. There's no one to shoot. There's little going on other than dodging for her life and that's just not... just not all that Exciting.
    The Gun Bunny's red eyes aren't even glowing anymore as she gets perilously close to getting zorched multiple times.

Landon al Cid (642) has posed:
     There is an eel flying towards Landon. It is rapid and dangerous, and without Kyra's PROTECT WALL up in front of him, he'd probably be taking a lot of damage. As it stands, Law Cards draw a lot of Landon's attention, and he can't dematerialize and rematerialize the Judge Blade fast enough to stop a rocket-powered fish. For the second time today, Landon is forced to block on attack with his bare hands (or, rather, with his metal-plated, gauntlet-covered hands).

     The fish gets a good hit on him. Landon does not swear - he doesn't even break his smile - but the fact that it got him in the same place as Kimiko did earlier hurts. A lot. Even with the Cure he did on himself earlier, it's painful. Wounds tend to last!

     Landon uses his free hand to grab the eel. He shoves his bleeding hand forward, towards its mouth. The Judge Blade surges back into existence right inside the thing's jaws, forming literally on the spot in an explosive reminder of how dangerous Judges actually are.

     He's bleeding, but he can handle it. A little blood has never bothered him. You have to be tough to survive in the Ramuhan nobility. Besides, Noiela gave him a potion earlier! He'll just use that in a minute, and save Kyra some MP.

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
TEAM A: TEAM ELWIND

The farthest group of Swarmbirds gets efficiently CCed by Quentyn casting Repose on them. They glide to a handy platform and begin roosting, little sleep-bubbles appearing over their heads. Audrey, meanwhile, gives no damns about platforming and tanking at the same time as she charges into the midst of the swarms. They get everywhere. Individually they're a non-threat, but in groups this big they're feisty and painful, and could be heavily detrimental to crossing a moving bridge. She spins, though, smashing through a number of them and causing the groups to slow down, making them much easier to hit and contain. She does not, however, break CC because she's a /good/ tank. Finna goes after one of the swarms, however, and her SNAKE ARM TACTICS prove to be completely horrifying not just for the swarm but may also have instilled a primal fear upon the DM on some strange and meta level. One of the Swarms is Feared and begins retreating from the group. Hywnd similarly gives no craps about this situation, and engages in rampant air-juggling to stay afloat before she hits the ground with ninja zwee speed. Two of the swarms explodes in lightning, leaving only two active groups for them to deal with. Noiela locks down another swarm for termination in the meanwhile as she jumps. Things are looking good for the Tactician, since the remaining swarms are just attempting to rend and devour the flesh from Audrey.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Inwardly, Kyra fields a sigh of relief when she sees her spell went off successfully. There's little outward celebration of all of this for she is pretty concerned about keeping the others alive right now. She has a potion slotted and ready to fire, if need be.

    When Dominic plops her coat around her shoulders, Kyra seems confused at first, but then decides he probably took it off so it doesn't get caught on gears or eels while he's swimming with Soan. If there was another reason for this, she wasn't picking up on it at the moment. Yes, the coat is big for her. The ends of it touch the ground.

    Kyra herself does not join in the fighting-her primary weapon is a handgun. It is a personal policy that she only uses one gun at a time because she did not want to fire bullets into a person she meant to fire potions into. Her other hand plucks a potion off her belt. "Too bad I don't have elixirs of swimming today...I do have this though. Keep up that ice attack, Kamon!"

    At the next eel that even semi-nears, Kyra hurls the flask at it, the glass immediately breaking on contact and imparting a temporary ice elemental weakness onto whatever it hits.

Quentyn Westwind (635) has posed:
    Quentyn just stares at the snakes coming out of Finna. Blinkblinkblink. Never seen a morpher do *that* before. But his attention quickly returns to the battle. He looks a bit guilty when Hywnd mentions float.

    Thumbs up to Noiela. "Got it!" Sliding his rifle back again, Quentyn grabs the rope end Noiela leaves behind, curing it around his hand and arm and bracing his feet against whatever's handy. Despite his tiny size and that he's a mage, Quentyn's build is actually athletic-- thanks to Academy required physical training. Should she actually fall, he can *probably* hold it.

    Should the rope's length run out and Quentyn need to let go to let Noiela advance-- the boy will do exactly that.

    Quentyn's still watching for anyone that might get hurt, however. Aether gathers around him to the sparkles and sounds one would expect in a final fantasy, and with his free hand the white mage directs Regen on Audrey.

Deelel has posed:
Team Kaiba is certinly having a itme of it. Deelel on the other hand is moving down and ahving to pull some crazy air stunts at this point to avoid the lasers. As for Kaiba he seems to be doing. She moves from ladder she does not want to chance getting turned into a pile of cubes so sh seems be slihglty cautious well for one of her people. %
Deelel however has not forgot about her team as she keeps an eye on her teammates should they need help...

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     Tiny tubes of water is far less of a problem for Soan than wide, endless bits of sea or ocean. Claustrophobic pieces of water, at least, can uses the sides of the tunnels to at least propel himself around. He's grateful for Kamon's platform. He stabbed a eel, grabbing on the sides of the tubes to go faster. It's not swimming. It's just really slow climbing. He can handle climbing.

     It's when he reaches the magitech thing is that his senses flares at him. Pattern recognition as well as previous events comes to flash in his mind as he gives it a look. Last time, water filled away from a relatively harmless situation, making the next one worse. What would this room have been like if he didn't disabled it? This troubles him.

     He makes a decision. This is not a easy dungeon for rank C. He's glad for it. He expected easy street, he got to actually THINK! This is splendid!

     Soan makes a motion underwater to keep holding on, slicing away at another eel with the full thrust of Blacksteel, before grabbing on the sides of the tunnels with his Cat's Paws hidden beneath his gloves. With his other he grabs a rope, tie it around himself in a deft movement and handing one end at Dominic... before he climbs up rapidly with his climbing claws, to blurr through the rest of the maze.

Noiela (647) has posed:
Noiela skitters on the edge seconds after landing, the wholesale slaughter of avians inducing a wince. Also a rather effective method to spur her into activating the sphere with a cupped touch and transferral of her seemingly limitless etherial powers that will warm up the cold curve she cradles. Painstakingly, she sends the slightest wisp of power through her fingers out, webbing in veinlike arcs across before it takes hold.
Presumably

Elsewhere for Quentyns own peace of mind, the rope barely tightens under his survelliance. Though, it must be acknowledged there lies precious few coils left to yank on.

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
TEAM C: TEAM KAIBA

Jinx, meanwhile, flies past, probably yelling something vaguely anarchist as the shift switches from laser to danmaku. Through the smoke and the flame, Jinx notices that the grenades have done astonishingly little property damage. This place is mocking her or something! She falls through the danmaku, only sheer ridiculousness, grenade-jumping, and bloody-mindedness keeping her from getting vaporized in the sheet volume of firepower coming up the shaft. If she were the one shooting it, it would probably be something of majestic and wonderous virtue. As she reaches visual range on the bottom, however, she sees a crystal-studded, complicated pattern on the floor.There's a door inset into the wall in an alcove. The only real question remaining for Jinx is:

Can she out-gun gravity?

Meanwhile, Kaiba gets the Heart of the Cards. MIRROR FORCE engages, rebounding the danmaku and buying Kaiba some free time to move down the shaft!

The problem is it also means everyone below him (the rest of his team who isn't Eiko) have to deal with danmaku from /both/ sides, not just one for a little bit. It'll be better if he gets in front though. Ayako channels the Tau of the Danmaku, using her ability to actually fly to gain the mobility needed to not get blasted.

Dominic Masoch (655) has posed:
Right next to Soan, Dominic is floating in the water near the pedastal. His Rapier is drawn and he is focusing in on one of the eels nearby. He'll play cover for Soan while his new friend attempts to work with the pyramid. When he gets a motion to hold on, he nods. And then ties the rope around his waist when he gets a free moments.

Floating underwater, he takes a moment to put a deft thrust of the razor-sharp blade right into an eel's face, trying to kill it while Soan handles the maze with him covering his back.

Jinx (39) has posed:
    For all the things JINX can do...
    This might actually be one of them. Newton's First Law roughly states that if a crazy little girl flying down a shaft at a jillion miles per hour pulls out a rocket launcher and blows a massive explosive missle out of the end of her rocket with no way to brace against it, magically or otherwise she's going to-

    "KABOOOM! SUCK IT LASEErrraaahaahaaahhgghhh!!!"

    Go flying off into a corner, hopefully with a little less relative velocity. THWAP.

Audrey Stormfist (652) has posed:
    Audrey really enjoys having her flesh on her body. It's a joy of life, not being dead. There are too many birds to bat each of them away though-- and she needs to mind her landing, very soon. A few of the beasts manage to peck and shred. Audrey quits harassing them and heads straight down (through no fault of her own, one can blame GRAVITY for that), slamming down onto one of the moving blocks. The regen spell earns Quentyn a thumb up.

    Maybe he's not useless after all.
    Since the damage of the group is handling the leftover birds, Audrey turns her pole onto-- the puzzle? "Quit moving!" Damn blocks, not caring about people.

    As she gives the healing magic time to mend her injuries, the pole is twirled, and the same slowing effect she applied to the birds is being applied to the block puzzle instead, via whacking the blocks with the end of the staff.

    It's primitive, but it should help people across.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako whimpers when she suddenly looks back for a moment to see that Mirror Force is reflecting the lasers back in her direction. "Uuu... it's just getting harder, isn't it?" She leans in closer to her broomstick and very carefully weaves her way through the danmaku that's coming from above and below! Unfortunately, in having to dodge both, her progress in flying downwards is much slower than it was a moment ago. While she does continue downwards, she keeps an eye on everyone... just in case she might need to bring a barrier up to shield them from a laser that they can't dodge!

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     With the laser issue mostly resolved, if only for Kaiba and Eiko, Kaiba is free to keep going down at a faster speed, again. He notices the alcove, though, as he is working on catching up and findign the way out. Seeing it, he makes a leap to it. Using his Blue-Eyes as a spring board/ride to help him get over to it. And at this point he just has to wait for the rest of his team to stop dieing due to lasers. He /does/ draw a card, though. A useful monster, but... He considers his moves. He has a Blue-Eyes out, a monster as an equip card, and the Lord of Dragons. So technically two of his monster spaces are taken, and he still has three spots... Hrm. Yeah, this will work, he feels.

     He was hoping to test Monster Reborn on a monster in this dungeon, but alas, he'll test it on real monsters another day.

     Instead, he plays it to resummon the Maiden with Eyes of Blue.

     And tosses her whereever there are still lasers, so that she can be destroyed /again/ to bring another Blue-Eyes to the field.

     And after that he plays Vorse Raider, which is a simple axe weilding monster.

     It'll help for now, but later he's totally gonna sacrifice it to summon his third Blue-Eyes. If he can manage to draw the damn thing.

Kamon Lionward (628) has posed:
Well, that got their attention.

Kamon doesn't let up on the icy strikes. He uses his sword to strike and counter-strike, relying on Kyra's backup and Landon at his side to keep from getting overwhelmed. Rather than take a ton of hits, Kamon actually weaves around the darting, diving mouths, deflecting teeth off the metal shoulder-guards on his coat and striking out with the pommel of his sword when the eels get in too close. If they weren't slowed, he'd have a much harder time of it!

Kyra hurls a mixture, and Kamon goes at it. He yells again, the sword technique coating his blade in that icy sheen. He lashes out at the vulnerable eel, a momentary break in his defensive fighting to strike through it and turn it into an eel-shaped chunk of ice. Ice and eel-bits.

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
TEAM B: TEAM LIGHT WARRIORS

Landon engages the Eel in MORTAL COMBAT. While it damages him, Landon makes good on it and cuts the thing straight up in half with his manifesting Judge Blade. Kyra unleashes OFFENSIVE CHEMIST POWERS upon an Eel, giving it an ice weakness! It immediately freezes up in the chill water from the Hoarfrost Blade, and Kamon takes full advantage of that, relentlessly striking at any of the other eels that come down. The water rapidly becomes less eel-y.

Soan's Thief Senses tingle. He decides to not activate the device, and move on. Using a rope, he pushes himself forward to work his way up through the rest of the maze. Lucily for him, most of the eels are down near the bottom trying to eat Kamon. Dominic covers his back and handles the other half of the rope business.

The column is easy to ascend if you are patient and have the ability to swim around to small alcoves between each gear set to refill your breath. It just takes /time/. A lot of /time/. For people who are on a time trial run, the knowledge you're on a time limit can often cause them to make mistakes for the sake of expedience.

Hywnd Eblan (646) has posed:
Hywnd, from the other side of the pit, draws two kunai...and tosses them at the birds. She does this again, and again, throwing kunai after kunai at the swarm. She's very accurate, making sure not to hit Audrey, but she's not going to Flash Step over and over when she can just Throw things.

Landon al Cid (642) has posed:
     Landon takes a moment to drag out the potion Noiela gave him earlier. He quirks a smile and takes a draught; he's basically useless here. His heavy armor makes him as incapable of water-based activity as Kamon's heavy body. And sure, he could strip if off, but plate mail takes a long time to put on!

     "Dominic, Soan...I believe again this is your department. I can push aside some of the water, but that might actually make your job more difficult." Landon dismisses his barriers a moment later, letting water crash back together once everybody's clear.

     "I believe in you both."

Eiko (650) has posed:
    Eiko looks down, spots the alcove, and does a quick thinking-through of what'll happen when Kaiba and his super-cheaty-useful Mirror Force reaches the ground. Probably nothing good--how can you block lasers /while standing on them/? This means she'll need to make a leap at just the right moment--

    And of course, Kaiba leaps first, helped along by having a springboard in the form of his monsters. Wait, springboard?

    Eiko doesn't have a hell of a lot of tricks, but she's got that keen, gamer's eye for patterns, and it's about to save her skin. She's got options limited to a few different spots around the ladder, and anything she can jump to.

    Simple, really. Assuming that a solution to the problem even exists. But what kind of exam would have no solution? What kind of game wouldn't /let/ you win?

    She swings out, body going nearly horizontal, dodging one column of fire and readying for the other from below. She lets go, and goes sailing through the air for one beautiful moment--before kicking some kind of fantasy-game maiden in the head to get a little more airtime, just before its fiery death. Another tense moment is followed by her grabbing onto some floating guy's axe, swinging again, and then FINALLY planting her feet on a solid surface that isn't in the path of a death trap.

    "Woah, I forgot what /not being in freefall/ felt like."

Finna (513) has posed:
    Once the birds have learned their lesson, Finna allows her arm to return to normal. The snakes twist about one another, 'wrapping up' and becoming the arm and clothes again. Immediately the sizzling stops... was that really venom dripping, anyways? Illusions! You may never know.

    "And stay away!" Finna grins impishly at the spooked birds and scampers forwards, ending up near Quentyn with his rope as extra backup!

    "Whew! This IS an adventure. Need a hand with that?"

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
TEAM A: TEAM ELWIND

Back with Team Elwind, things get messy. Audrey takes some damage, but Quentyn subsidizes Audrey's tank with his own Regen spell, causing her wounds to begin rapidly healing. Audrey gets inventive, trying to slow down the blocks by hitting them with her powers.

It actually works. At least it makes it easier to get across. This helps Noiela as well, as she gets to the midway point and activates the sphere... (-)

Unfortunately, this sphere was not helpful. An entire line of blocks detatches from the wall at about head height and begins sweeping across the field, trying to knock off anyone who isn't paying enough attention to duck. At least Hywnd doesn't have to deal with this crap. She's just Throwing things. She puts damage downrange on the Swarms, dissipating a number of them with ninja power. There isn't much left at this point, just some tenacious, straggling remnants and now the blocks trying to kill them. You know. The usual.

And the rest of the ruin rumbles ominously.

Quentyn Westwind (635) has posed:
    If Audrey's injuries are bad enough that regen is taking its sweet time, Quentyn will throw on a Cure on top of it to speed things along. Finna gets a shake of his head (but he's not actually looking at her), "I got it." Of course, this could change quickly if Noiela gets knocks off. "But this place looks pretty neat if you're not too busy--" Oops. Too busy dodging bricks, for example.

    Quentyn's eyes track the bricks trying to knock people off... but being at the entrance and not actually on the moving platforms, he might be safe? He'll duck if he needs to, and if it's not out of range or he's not too busy trying to haul a fallen Noiela up, Quentyn casts Dispel on the sphere!

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
TEAM C: TEAM KAIBA

Can Jinx out-gun Gravity?

Yes. Yes she can. In a move that would probably make Tristana yell about trademark violations, Jinx sends herself crashing into the corner with the help of a rocket launcher. The good news is she's at the bottom, at least! Unortunately, it looks like this environmental hazard is as mockingly indestructable as the rest of the dungeon walls, and more bad news: She didn't probably didn't buy pots at base! Ayako sacrifices speed for the chance to intervene on someone else's behalf. She'll probably get the votes for teamwork post-game, but at least she's safe enough for the time being.

Seto summons up another beautiful blue-eyed maiden and lets it get blasted by lasers in order to force a second huge dragon to the field. The Proctors probably have no idea what to think about this. Eiko gets a chance to AIR COMBO off of it for some SWEET AIR to engage in ACROBATIC DIVES, however, using the terrain provided to get the maneuverability needed to hit the ground in an AWESOME LANDING. The Mirror Force looks like it's about to fade out though, so Kaiba better come up with an idea for the home stretch fast if he wants to keep his monsters from getting slaughtered en masse.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Beaming with excitement, Kyra pulls a second flask off of her belt. "Nice, Kamon, get ready to repeat that!" she calls out, sidestepping quite an awful bit so she can get a clear shot at one of the few left. It's fortunate that they're so occupied with trying to eat Kamon because that was an unpleasant little mob there. Kyra actually waits until at least two cluster together.

    This way, hopefully, she could hit more targets with her second flask of ICe Bane.

Kamon Lionward (628) has posed:
Kamon handles any eels that haven't yet come to get cut to pieces by the collected brains and blades of the Light Warriors. He doesn't think they missed any; the guys in the water have their side of things handled, and they on the ground are basically waiting until they figure out how to get to the door. Heavy armor and Odynari make water troublesome.

"Heal up and get ready to move," Kamon says. "Once they get to the top, Soan can drop a rope and we can climb up." Kamon looks between Kyra and Landon. "But worse comes to worst, we've got a Float handy, right?" He can handle a climb, up and around the water; he's not sure if Landon's good for it.

Noiela (647) has posed:
In a breath, Noiela has made life ten times harder for her team and herself, grabbing the back of her head to roll into a brace position fast as her protesting limbs will permit it. Lungs on fire, the tactician barely has time to rattle out a few words that might be picked up by the radio nestling painfully against her gut. Correction; jabbing like an object composed of steel, plastic and sharp edges can under such close quarters.

If rescued, spared a knockout by a block in her direction she would lie stunned a moment, taking several precious seconds to regain equilibrium then to rise shakily, disengage from Quentyn hastily or otherwise establish her independence.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako notes Kaiba's Mirror Force trap card about to fade out and carefully flies her way over to him. She thrusts her palms forwards, "Prismatic Mystic Ice Barrier!" And a round hemisphere of faceted ice forms in front of Kaiba and his monsters, facing the lasers, to allow him extra time to get where he needs to go!

    This particular barrier turns any single laser that hits it into many, many smaller lasers of colored light-all aimed to miss the person that the barrier protects! Only really helpful against laser and light weapons, though!

    And then Ayako resumes flying to make her way to the door in the alcove or help the next person in need!

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     Kaiba does, in fact, have a good idea of how to avoid more lasers.

     He pulls his next card, and plays it. Again, a Maiden with Eyes of Blue. And again, he is putting it right in the path of the lasers.

     While it gets disintigrated, he opens the door, walks through, and lets his monsters follow him.

     He'll leave the door open long enough for the others to get through, as well.

     Or at least until the lasers are approaching the door, at which point he'll close it to save his skin, and then let whoever is on the other side of the door open it up when they're ready.

     Also, as this Maiden gets destroyed by lasers, Kaiba's third Blue Eyes gets summoned. So he now has five monsters on the field. Kaiba is feeling /fairly/ confident of his strength and ability to just blast through the rest of the dungeon now.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is now caught in a hailstorm of fire coming her way thanks to Kaiba and she half way debates sowmhing but she thinks better of it she's fgorce to try and avoid falling and now that's where she's going to use her grav chute to give her something akin to control as she's dorpping down trying to avoid the hailstorm of fire.

She's just able to make the entire drop avoiding all the fire as she comes in for a landing she's suprisingly machine like in her landing but she does it . She's now moving to keep wioth the party and is going to be forced to try to use her disc to deflect things like she's TRON.

Eiko (650) has posed:
    Eiko does not have much in the way of support abilities. Ayako will have to cover that. And nothing is really giving her a hook for what magic she /does/ have, at least for helping anyone else. Damn! She'll just have to head through the door--though in fact, she's going to wait for everyone else to get to where she is. For once, she's not following straight after the duelist.

    "Hey, c'mon, let's go!"

Audrey Stormfist (652) has posed:
    Mage in the line of fire!

    Audrey stuffs the pole back into her coat, the weapon fitting seemlessly into one of her pockets. God bless those hammerspace inventories, where would they be without those. She moves quickly, backtracking to Noiela and hopping over the moving blocks. Her hand reaches for the gunblade sheathed to her side.

    And with a precise cut, she lands in front of the tactician, carving through the block that threatens her, unless it is unnaturally sturdy. She would then sheathe the blade, and with surprising strength, offer to just straight up lift Noiela off her feet.

    And carry her to the other side, or guide her if she does not want to be carried, utilizing the path of slowed down blocks while it's still there.

Dominic Masoch (655) has posed:
As Soan makes his way through the maze, Dominic begins to follow. The rope tying the two means that it's not impossible for Dominic to keep up with him, moving swiftly and stopping for points to breath where he can.

It's a fine enough system that lets him trail in Soan's path and get spots to breath where he can. He's trying his best to keep up and catch up, swiftly cutting through the water.

When the top of the column is reached, he takes a very deep breath and pants a bit, untying the rope from around his waist, "Well that was an exhilerating experiences, yes?" He smiles widely and starts to wring out his ponytail.

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
Soan Sagittarius do take his hurried time to go through the maze. He's being prudent, just not to the extent where he has to take every single little bit of air break that they come accross their path. Climbing is a little difficult, but it's clear Soan is focusing to keep himself together. Water is so unfamiliar to him as a thing to traverse into, but he is not a Dragoon(totally not a dragoon) for nothing. Bravery is to face your fears. He's facing it now.

     He wishes he didn't, thought.

     Soan hurriedly gets out of the top of the colum when they reach it, taking in a deep breath as he cough out some water, shaking his head. "Yeah." He agrees. "That was something alright. Thanks for the backup, Dominic. That was great."

     Like Kamon says, Soan grabs out another long rope, tying it to something solid and drops it down for the rest of the team. They better still use Float /anyway/, just in case. He'll give a door a look, as well.

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
TEAM B: TEAM LIGHT WARRIORS

Landon heals via potion. This is super legit, because bringing proper resource with you to a dungeon is /important/. The Proctors might notice a significant problem with the Light Warrior team comp in regards to heavy water dungeons, however. Kyra and Kamon continue their icy team up, and at this point the water is looking basically eel-free. Whatever cause those things to show up probably cost them even more time. Who knows, the other guys might even be done by now!

Soan gets to the top, having one end of the rope. Dominic is probably helped as well. The question is: What about the rest of the team?

Soan solves that by snaking the rope down the water column to the rest of the party to speed their climb.

Finna (513) has posed:
    "Oh what the--" Finna stares at the sweeping arrays of blocks. BUH?! When did this become living Tetris?

    "Thinking these people have WAY too much time to experiment with their traps!" She blurts in a semi-panic. of course this is not much of a threat to her incredible agility and acrobatics skills...

    She's still sticking near Quentyn and Noiela, and that means lots and lots of jumping around to dodge the spheres without really going anywhere. If one of them gets knocked off...

    "Maybe we should regroup! This is a bit chaotic here!"

Landon al Cid (642) has posed:
     The moment Soan has created a pathway with the rope, Landon has a means to follow. It's going to be exhausting and draining, but that's alright; they need to hurry. His Father is watching this. All of Ramuh is watching this. All of GALIANDA is watching this.

     That cold thought down the back of his neck is more than enough to spurr him forward. The Shivans are just looking for an excuse, after all; if the extraversal team is doing too much better than they are, if they're doing so very much better, it would give the Shivans all the excuse they need. Landon can't let that happen. He can't. He has a responsibility - a duty to live up to, a family legacy to keep up with. This is not acceptable.

     Landon's never tried this before. But there's a first time for everything.

     He banishes the Judge Blade. He'll need a lot of MP for this. It might leave him drained for the rest of the map. He'll have to deal with it.

     Six cards spin to life around him, whirling gently. The Law Cards spring to life as Landon runs his finger across each of them; a barrier forms underneath himself, Kyra, and Kamon. Then a second barrier forms above them. Two more form to the sides. Two more form in front and back, the rope - and the rope alone peeking through.

     Landon does not like this. This is a bad trick. It will burn a lot of MP and likely exhaust him.

     But the stakes are just too high.

     The barriers rise, like an elevator. Water leaks in through the cracks as Landon follows the rope upwards with all his might. He's focused so hard on those incandescent barriers of pure Law, he's sweating. It's drinking him dry just to go upwards.

     But it doesn't matter. He doesn't have a choice.

     Father is watching. The whole world is watching.

     Their team has to show that Galianda can compete.

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
TEAM C: TEAM KAIBA

Kaiba takes advantage of his secret power of sacrificing beautiful women for power in order to get his third Blue Eyes onto the field. The man's ability to turn environmental issues into power is basically absurd. Ayako's ice barrier renders the laser column functionally irrelevant for the distance they have left to travel, and the team moves on.

The door opens up into a long hallway studded with flame jets and ice spewers. On one side is a heated pool of lava and the other a spiked abyss of painful ice. Above them, the disctinctive appearances of Bombs can be seen waiting for them to proceed... (+) But a rumble from elsewhere in the dungeon causes blocks to move across the ceiling, blocking them off and turning a hectic assault amidst elemental pain and death into a simple platforming situation. Once more, halfway across the path there is a small area where one can see another of those geometric cube triggers. Feeling lucky?

Jinx (39) has posed:
    Lucky is JINX'S Fifth Middle Name. That's somewhere behind Marjorie and You Bitch.
    Unfortunately she's still mostly concussed fro mthe fall and seems to be staggering along at Eiko's side. "Bluh."

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako glances around at the new room. A hallway of fire and ice, huh... and her gaze moves upwards. Eep. Bombs! At least until the blocks move across the ceiling and block them off. She sighs softly in relief. The water spirit is here only to make sure no one gets really hurt, after all.

    She does note how Jinx is doing, though! Her hands cup in front of her body and purple water fills her hands. "Healing Water!" Ayako flings the water at Jinx to rapidly heal her wounds!

    As for the hallway... Ayako elects to stay on the side with the ice and the frost spewers. Even though she would actually like being by the frost spewers, she still makes sure not to get hit by them. That would be against the spirit of the dungeon, after all.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    With the water clear of monsters, Kyra might think her duties are over but they are clearly not. She turns from Kamon to find Landon healing by potion-one of HIS potions, and frowns. "Why didn't you say you needed healing?" she says, drawing close so she too is in the 'law card elevator' that starts to rise. Seeing what he's doing, Kyra acts fast.

    The potion vial currently slotted in the needlegun is swapped out for an ether. As Landon concentrates on keeping his barrier, Kyra slips up to him and carefully sticks him with the needlegun, injecting the ether directly into his blood stream.

    Why wait until after? Why let Landon get depleted at all? Kyra is /prepared/ so either possibility doesn't even need to happen!

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     Well, a jumping puzzle. Kaiba could just jump across, and struggle, and what not. But it'd be a bit of a pain. He /could/ get over there easily by jumping, but it wouldn't be stylish enough.

     He draws his next card.

     He plays it immediately. This is probably the most excited he has seemed all of the adventure.

     "Polymerization! COMBINE, MY BLUE-EYES! BLUE-EYES ULTIMATE DRAGON!"

     And, the Blue-Eyes get pulled in what appears to be a vortex. As they are pulled in, they merge together, becoming a new form. The Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, a three headed dragon made by combining the three strongest dragons in Duel Monsters.

     He hops onto the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon's back, and just has it /fly/ him across.

     Of course he does not even offer anyone else a ride.

Noiela (647) has posed:
Like a newborn foal, Noiela is wobbly and prone to collapsing so the arrival of the monk and her lifting the tactician up elicits no protest. Biddable, she allows Stormfist to haul her away over the last few blocky hurdles with a wheezed line of praise and implict confession. Not that she would ever outright admit to misjudging the prickly member of their team. One simply has to read between the lines.

"You're...quite the warrior and team member, Miss Stormfist. My apologies for pre-emptively setting off the trap."

Kamon Lionward (628) has posed:
Kamon does not, perhaps, have the same outlook on this as Landon. He wants to get through it safe and sound, not set a speed record. They've already proven they can handle these dungeons without a problem; otherwise, they wouldn't have the C-class qualification. Landon is taking it awfully seriously, though; does it have something to do with what he mentioned the other night...?

"Woah. That's a cool trick," Kamon says. He looks like he's about to ask Landon how he did it, but, well... Landon does not look like he's in a position to spare the concentration.

When they get to the top and Soan's cleared the door for them, he nods. "Next," he says. Kamon goes to move through, and...!

Jinx (39) has posed:
    JINX is just coming to enough to scream out "Eat all the dicks, nerd!" at Kiaba's back. Then she's smiling to Ayako as she grumps and starts delicately hopping across the lava blocks.

Eiko (650) has posed:
    Man, this easy room of not-having-any-bombs seems so BORING. Eiko isn't sure if she can take it. And Jinx isn't looking so good--until Ayako fixes that. Oh well, may as well continue WITHOUT having to deal with ice, lava, bombs, or a concussion, but just a bunch of platforms she can easily jump between.

    She spends the rest of the time quietly grousing.

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
TEAM B: TEAM LIGHT WARRIORS

Landon engages the LAWVATOR, blowing through a lot of his MP reserves to speed them up the path to get to the next room with Kyra and Kamon.

The next room opens up to reveal...

A rapids. The water being pumped up from below flowing down a staircase of carved blocks, the rock slippery when wet and spikes gleaming to both sides of the impromptu waterlogged staircase... (+) Until elsewhere, blocks rumble and block off the falls into the spike pits, making it simply an attempt to descend without being blasted down a long, long staircase by powerful rushing water. Halfway down, there's another one of those pedestals, with a triangle waiting for someone to use it. Or not.

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
TEAM A: TEAM ELWIND

Quentyn heals the tank like a proper White Mage. He's safe from his position though, only the people on the moving platforms are at risk of being knocked off into the yawning windy abyss below them. No pressure, right? Unfortunately, the sphere does not respond to Dispel. It looks like it's one of those things that once you turn it on, there's no turning it off. Dungeoooooooons!

Noiela, however, gets surprised by the moving blocks. Quentyn is in a good position to keep Noiela from falling off into the abyss though, thanks to the forethought of using that most powerful of adventurer tools, rope. Audrey intervenes herself, however, lunging into the blocks to try to cleave into them with the gunblade. The blade SHINGS when it hits the blocks, and rebounds, leaving no marks upon the unusual stone. However, Audrey does have the time to grab Noiela and carry her off as they whip past her head. Audrey and Noiela get to the other side, leaving only Finna and Quentyn to manage the trek... Hywnd is probably being ultra impatient right now.

Quentyn Westwind (635) has posed:
    When it looks like Noiela might get knocked off, Quentyn, inhales sharply and tightens his grip on the rope. And then Audrey comes to the rescue! Letting go of the rope... Quentyn needs to get across himself. He pulls a small polyhedron from one of his pouches-- a summon matrix-- and aether visibly gathers around him and channels into it.

    "Kweh!"

    Quentyn climbs up on the Chocobo construct, into a crouching position-- ready to jump from the Choco if it gets hit by one of the bricks. "Come if you want, or just fly across!" Finna could also hop on, but the flightless bird probably can't hold more than two people.

    And then Quentyn froggers across the slowed platforms on the bird, moving quickly towards the other side. Seems like he's had practice. If the bird gets hit, he'll jump and continue on foot. If Quentyn himself gets hit... well, hopefully there's something he can grab on to. And if he actually gets safely to the other side? Chocobo-> dismiss and time to pop an ether. Not the drink, just a brand so incredibly generic that it barely has 'ether' printed on the phial Quentyn drinks from.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is watching for a moment before she sees th way head she looks to Ayako and moves to Ayako's side to keep step with her and she does not seem to be taking it easy, Deelel's got her staff out now and the ends are powered. They humm faintly as she moves to keep watch for anything else with the remainder of the team, it seems Team Kaiba is still going. She's seeming to expect something else to happen.

Audrey Stormfist (652) has posed:
    Oh god that hurts. Ever hit something that CAN'T be broken with something else? The rebound in the arm is absolute murder. Audrey winces, as such, even if her arms are pretty strong. Unbreakable blocks, couldn't have been anything else. Horrible luck. At least the weapon didn't break. It gets sheathed, and then Noiela gets carried the hell across before anything else goes wrong.

    Clever use of that matrix, there.
    Not that she'll openly compliment Quentyn.

    "Let's get a move on, we're probably falling behind."

Hywnd Eblan (646) has posed:
Hywnd taps her foot, until the others get across. She then heads towards the door...and TRAP INSPECTS. She's been waiting a while, doomtrain christ.

Dominic Masoch (655) has posed:
Can he cut water? That's a very good question. Most of his moves are meant to be used on single targets and Dominic was never much of an adventurer, so he hadn't had a chance to try them on the Environment. But the others can, and they want him to try, so he's willing to attempt it.

Unrelated to the above, Dominic partially resembles a wet cat, with the vest and dress shirt clinging to him stuffily. He frowns a bit and takes a practiced stance, shutting his eyes and searching his lessons over the years at Alexander Academy.

~Dramatic Flashback~

The Teacher had been a fine Fencer known simply as Swift. He was famous for his ability to win against impossible odds. He had been on Chocobo to participate in a grand free-for-all, and he had fought all his opponents and, despite being pressed on all sides, had prevailed.

Dominic, in his early teens, squared off against this man along with three other Fencer-students. As all four advanced, the man swiftly seemed to strike all directions at once. he laughed at the four boys, "Haha. When you master a sword, you may strike in all directions at once. Like a bird, you flap your wings and press down around you."

~End Dramatic Flashback~

"Swallowtail."

Dominic raises his sword up again and opens his eyes. The yellow in his eyes glows as he channels his magical power and then he steps forward into the water and swipes his sword in a flurry of blows. The sword seems to press back forcefully in all directions around him, clearing several yards on all sides, trying to beat back the water persistently. He hopes to help clear enough space for his new friends to proceed.

It's a move meant to be used once, so keeping it going with subtle sword flicks does take a bit out of him, and he looks more tired for it as he moves.

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
TEAM A: TEAM ELWIND

Quentyn and Finna engage ChocoPower to get across the gap. The Summon Matrix is handy, and he uses it to good effect. While they cross, Hywnd checks the door. It's like the last one. There's no traps and it's unlocked, thank Bahamut.

After everyone is together, they enter the next room. The room is a hallway. The hallway has blocks that smash into each other, rhythmically attempting to crush anything caught between them... (+) Until several of them retract, creating large gaps between them that render a hellish crushfest into something that is much more managable.

Landon al Cid (642) has posed:
     The next room is simple enough. Landon is basically out of juice, though. The best he can manage is some Fire spells to help keep the stairs from being slippery and broken, as Kamon and Dominic cleave their way through literally tons of water. He's moving a bit more rapidly than he normally might.

     They literally don't have time to waste. They have to keep moving as fast as they can.

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
Soan Sagittarius has a brilliant plan. He shares it on the Light Warrior cooperation frequency, giving them a ragtag course of action. In most world, this would be completely worthless. Galianda is not one of theses world. It's actually pretty tame as far theses crazy adventurer plans are concerned. He didn't know if Dominic could cleave water. He know Kamon can. He know /he/ can't.

     Thus, after offering his idea and moving on with it, the thief roaches into his packs for something that would make things far more easier on any of them. It is some little pouches of sand that he throws up ahead on the ground after Landon and Kyra are going to go through them to dry them up. Now, this is not just /any/ kind of sand, even if sand would quite clearly help things be more firm to step on.

     No. This is Haste sand. Soan is doing his best to make sure that /everyone/ is able to dash through the water that is being so skillfully cleaved, and over the stairs that are not going to be wet thanks to Kyra and Landon.

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
TEAM C: TEAM KAIBA

With what they've already been through, there is literally nothing keeping the team from making their way forward through the hall. It's significantly easier than the previous challenges thanks to the whimsy of fate. Nobody triggers the cube. It sits there, untriggers, as they pass it by.

This means they pass through to the next room with no further issues other than some moderate platforming. Time-consuming but really, half the team is basically able to ignore it and the other half is more than capable of dealing with some timing and jumping and some minor ice patches.

They reach the final toom, a large, quarter-wedge pie shape. The opposite side of the room has a lift, but it is dormant.

The important thing is that there is a massive, ornate stone golem in the center of the room. One side is limned with ice, the other side fire, and the head has a gleaming crystal in the center.

It immediately attacks when it sees them, a large laser firing out. Ice spreads along the ground as fire sprays everywhere. Here it comes!

*Lv ?? Elemental Guardian x1

Finna (513) has posed:
    Finna can't resist a chance to tease Quentyn a bit more. She happily leaps aboard the Chocobo for the ride and WRAPS HER ARMS RIGHT AROUND THE MAGE a bit TOO enthusiastically. Sure the weapon makes it a bit uncomfortable, but flustering him a bit's higher on the priority list than worrying about details!

    When they eventually hop off she regards the strange obstacle course ahead of them with a deeply cheery grin. "Well, what've we got this time...? They like having all kinds of things flying around, don't they? What's the catch? This looks way too easy!" There's gotta be a catch, right?

    She sniffs the air, glances around... any nests? Any weird nooks or places MORE things might fly out...?

Quentyn Westwind (635) has posed:
    Weirdly, Quentyn doesn't respond to Finna's antics for the journey over. Maybe he's too busy trying not to get <span class=" bold_fg_r bg_n ++ lobbered?

    chr">Quentyn</span> sticks the empty phial in his bag. When they get to the next hallway, and it's actually easier... Quentyn lets out a sigh of relief and grins to the others. "This one should be pretty easy!" He gives them all a thumbs up. And Audrey, since she lost the shield taking the swarmbirds, gets another stony Stoneskin cast on her. There's some chatter on the radio, which Quentyn answers with a "Yah!" And in preparation for the crusher, *everyone* gets Haste.

    But... Quentyn doesn't rush in as quickly as his enthusiam might suggest. First he's going to watch and make sure the patterns are actually completely regular, and memorize those patterns. Then the white mage move forward with the rest of the group.

Jinx (39) has posed:
    Oh man. OH MAN. JINX fairly perks up as she comes into the room and immediately divs for cover from ICE BEAM LAZER.
    "HAH! HELLO IMMOBILE TARGET!" She looks entirely too upbeat for a concussed girl with way too much bloodlust. That said, she cheers and starts charging her way around the beams, and like any good carry, dances until someone who's able to tank the damage gets into range to... you know, tank the damage.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Kyra looks quite pleased with herself, even if the ether does not recover all that much MP. She gets to treat THE PRINCE. His father the King might even be watching it. At that realization, defiance begins to creep into her mind and the cognitive dissonance starts up again. No! Now was not the time!

    The next room gets a pause from Kyra, "It feels like the water is following us room to room." She remarks, pausing as the dungeon actually rearranges itself to their benefit. "...hmmm."

    They discuss their plans briefly and Kyra selects a few other mixtures off of her stores. As she passes to poor, soaked Dominic, she pauses to offer up the still-dry coat to him.

    Though soon Dominic might be slightly less damp. Kyra starts dropping mixtures to the ground after him which, when unleashed, release strong gusts of wind upon the ground that blow it dry of any remaining water and give them a clear way. Since it's not outright casting, she hardly even needs to pause and keeps up with the rest of the group.

Kamon Lionward (628) has posed:
The Light Warriors formulate another plan, courtesy of Soan. The falling blocks help a fair bit to prevent them from dying horribly in part of the trap. All they have to do is prevent themselves from falling down the stairs and breaking anything en route. Simple, right?

"Dominic, jump back when I provide a break! Everyone keep moving down while we switch off! Ready --" He prepares himself. In the process, Kamon gets to watch Dominic do his thing, a grin growing on his face. The guy's got some moves, he thinks. The Odynari takes a couple steps from the door, focusing his energy -- and then he /jumps/, leaping into the air in a deft imitation of a Dragoon, if a pale comparison to the real power they have. "Now! BREATH OF SYLPH!"

         FLAIR >

Kamon seems to hang in the air for a span of breaths, inverting at the apex of his leap. He looks down at the enormous flow of water, held back by the Fencer's rapid blows. He takes his katana in both hands, whirling it around his head. There's a haze of green and white. "WIND --" He brings the blade down, making a straight cut in the air beneath him. The green-white haze seems to solidify, an enormous blade of air slicing downward at the staircase. It intersects the flow of water, neatly cutting the rapids and causing a brief but intense gale to howl back towards the source. "-- /SLASH/!"

         FLAIR > WIND SLASH

His hang-time extends about a second longer than it should have. Kamon lands in a three-point crouch behind Dominic, quickly rising back to his feet. Now all they have to do is keep swapping positions until they hit the bottom!

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     Kaiba is, honestly, quite thankful that he is on the back of his dragon. While he is taking some physical damage to the fire and ice, and the intense temperature of the room, it'd be a lot worse if his Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon wasn't present. Still, though, he wants to wrap this up fast.

     And, as usual, he's basically trying to handle the whole thing himself and not caring what the others do. Just like a good leader should!

     He draws his card, and looks at it. Huh, Enemy Controller? Well, let's see. The enemy is an elemental, of fire and ice.

     ...Yeah, this is basically just too easy.

     He places Enemy Controller down, activating it. And he speaks, making the commands in order to use it.

     "I play Enemy Controller! I tribute my Rider of the Storm Wind, in order /take control of that monster/."

     The Enemy Controller is not flawless. The Elemental, very well, could fight against it. But still, Kaiba has a good idea with this.

     "Now! Attack your Ice half with your Fire half, and your Fire half with your Ice half!"

     Another smirk, "And, to finish... BLUE-EYES ULTIMATE DRAGON! ATTACK!"

     The massive white three headed dragon lets out a series of /massive/ blast attacks at the monster.

     Also, since the Blue-Eyes is still basically the only available tank, it's kind of moving front and center to tank for everyone else too. It seems Kaiba is considering his allies on a /minor/ level, after all.

Hywnd Eblan (646) has posed:
Hywnd is grateful for the Haste. She doesn't have to spam Flash Steps! She takes a moment to watch the Crusher's pattern...before dashing forward to the first blindspot. Once the Crusher opens up, she quickly moves to the next, her speed always having been her best asset. If the walls don't suddenly change patterns, she'll keep it up until she reaches the end.

Audrey Stormfist (652) has posed:
    Audrey spends the time waiting for that haste spell examining the patterns. She tries to map out an ideal route, and might even discuss it briefly with Quentyn, to make sure everyone is on the same page. Once that is done, she takes point, at least until Hywnd no doubt just speeds ahead, because Ninjas sure love going fast.

    Her going ahead means that if the blocks were to suddenly change heading or pattern she should be able to take a hit without getting knocked right out of the game. She's got pretty good reflexes too, but that's a given for a Monk.

    "Move quickly and only pause in safe gaps."

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako stares up at the Elemental Guardian and quickly falls back! It's not like she can attack! She watches the battle carefully. Even with a capable group, she makes sure not to take anything for granted. "Healing Water!" And Ayako flings purple healing water at Kaiba to heal what damage he has taken from his very direct trip through the fire and ice hallway.

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
TEAM B: TEAM LIGHT WARRIORS

The Light Warriors are faced with wet stairs and they unleash MAXIMUM TEAMWORK to make this not a problem. Dominic's Swallowtail cuts the water, creating a path around them that Landon rapid-dries using Fire, and Kyra follows up with Wind to help keep it that way. Kamon switches up with Dominic, allowing them both to spread out the effort. Soan spreads Haste Sand (a relative of Quicksand, perhaps?) over the stairs, giving everyone a further speed boost! This becomes an extremely effective combination and speeds them immediately down the stairs.

They reach the final room, another quarter-pie room. The walls are translucent crystal, so they can see Team Kaiba engaging in the other room, but they have bigger issues.

The water flows into a deep pool in the center, leaving about 10 feet around the edges dry. Blocks move regularly on the surface of the water in looping patterns, and on the opposite side there is a dormant lift. There is another pyramidal trigger present but also important happens to be the large crystalling water serpent that erupts from the watter, roaring in challenge! It attacks immediately, slamming a crystal tail down upon the group, trying to catch them before they can scatter out of blast formation!

*Lv ?? Water Guardian x1

Eiko (650) has posed:
    Eiko sure hopes the next room isn't so HOLY @#$% BOSS FIGHT. From her hours upon hours of sleepless nights spent with masochistic adventure-RPGs, Eiko knows that the first thing to do on entering a boss room is to ROLL TO THE SIDE, which she immediately does. She's pretty sure her roll has no i-frames, but it still serves to get her way out of the way, or at least enough that she is barely singed by all this elemental death-beam business getting thrown around.

    What to do, what to do--"HEY JINX."

    Black smoke coils up around her arm, though with all this massive magic-fest going on it's unlikely for many to notice it. She thrusts out her arm once more, and--"Yoink."

    She steals Jinx's concussion.

    OH WOW that may have been the dumbest thing for her to ever think of doing. What ever possessed her to /give herself a concussion/, on purpose?

    But now that she has it, she can run forward, despite the blinding pain--which, like the overheating thing earlier, is going to last without relief as long as her magic is effective, rather than however long it would take someone to normally recover--go into a sliding dive on the spreading ice, again thrust out her arm, this time pointing at the golem, and shout a heartfelt, if short, string of invectives as her magic activates yet again, transferring the Concussion effect from her head to that of the Elemental Guardian.

    With any luck, that'll screw up any resistance it has against Kaiba's mental control spell.

Noiela (647) has posed:
Noiela scans and files away the patterns in the folder marked 'temporary', feeling the pit in her stomach gnaw away at her guts. This world was overbrimming with magic and though she had gulped a few lungfuls to steady herself, it still felt disconcerting to feel the power of Quentyns tighten over her skin like a second skin. Being an informal leader meant letting the others form independent plans and enacting upon them; like she could stop Eblan and Stormfist charging on ahead in a haste enhanced blurr.

Wiping cold sweat from her brow, the girl races all out behind the rest save Quentyn, whom she lobs a smile, mouthing a few words of general encouragement before speeding ahead, coat sails flapping behind her.

Landon al Cid (642) has posed:
     This is what Landon is here for. As soon as the creature appears, Landon is on the ball - thanks to Kyra's ether from earlier. He'd been reserving his power for this moment.

     Landon is going to drain himself dry for this. Truly, literally dry. He will collapse, unconscious, once this is done.

     But he is the Prince. He needs to remind Galianda - it is his RESPONSIBILITy to remind Galianda, as a member of the al Cid family - what he can do. What Galiandans can do. That the extraverse may be big and new, but that Galianda can still hold its place. That war doesn't need to come.

     Law cards burst into orbit around him. The first is no more than a barrier, erected to absorb the first shot so his team can immediately counter-attack. The barrier shatters once its job is done; Landon can afford no distractions.

     "I am Landon al Cid, Prince of Ramuh, son of Rycharde al Cid and heir of our great nation! By the blood compact of our family, by the word of Carbuncle, by the dominion of Humekind over all the beasts of the world, I hereby pronounce you..."

     GUILTY!

     The word resonantes in the air like a crystal note as the law cards burn to life. One by one, they shine. Landon reaches up and touches each one. "The sentence..."

     PARALYZE
         SLOW
             BLIND
IMMOBILIZE
         STOP

     Each word rings out in the sky, more than just words, as the Law Cards explode into spinning, physical representations of the Law itself. The Prince pours all his MP into it, emptying himself completely of his power, to force even one status effect - even /one/ - onto the beast. Determination, willpower - these are what made his great-great-grandfather strong! What makes his FATHER strong! What makes him strong!

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
TEAM A: TEAM ELWIND

The Crushers have a simple pattern. You're pretty sure it was a lot crazier before the maze shifted again, but it looks like things are working in Team Elwind's favor for a change. The group Hastes their way down the hall, evading the crushing traps and reaching the door on the opposite end.

Once more, it opens into a large quarter-wedge shaped room. The group can see the other two teams fighting through the walls, putting time pressure on them like whoa.

Unfortunately, there's a problem! There is what appears to be a wyvern forged of crystal and stone sitting in the middle of the room, wrapped up in its wings. Upon seeing the party, it shrieks and leaps up into the air, creating powerful winds with its wings. This doesn't seem like a problem, but its tail strikes, hitting the floor...

And where the tail strikes, the blocks fall out of the floor, creating holes that it then tries to blow people into with its wings! Look out!

*Lv ?? Wind Guardian x1

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     It was a pretty crazy trip. It's hardly one of their craziest plan, but it it went off pretty darn well.

     Then, they encounter the boss. Soan scatters at the sound of incoming crystal tail, rolling off to the side just as Kamon ordered. The Thief draws his blade as he rolls back up to a knee, scowling a bit at the elemental. The crazy water stairs plan was his. Battle Plans are Kamon's. Them and Kyra did this enough to know what to do as a team... but Landon and Dominic are new. He hope they will adapt.

     Instead, Landon just blows it all out on all he have. Damnit! That's gonna be effective, but they'll lose him for the rest of the fight if they don't kill it! That merly mean that they are going to HAVE to destroy it, now.

     Soan don't reply to Kamon. That would break his usual battle formation, which is usually 'flanking the hell out of whatever they are attacking. Soan keeps tumbling to the side to get on the opposite end of whatever the rest of the Light Warriors are going to be against, then leaps deftly, silently at it's back, Blacksteel at the ready.

     MUG > BACK STAB POCKETER

     He stabs, slice as well as his hand gripping into cracks to... well, do whatever a Thief do to steal shit from a monster like that. it OUGHT to have something. He's hitting as hard as he can here. Sneak Attack always hurts.

     In Galianda, Elementals aren't immune to Sneak Attack.

Hywnd Eblan (646) has posed:
Looking up at the Wyvern, Hywnd grits her teeth. IT'S GAME TIME. And it's time to pull out all the stops. She dashes forward..and Jumps. A single leap is more of a bound, soaring high into the air above the Wyvern and towards it. Placing her blades in her inventory, she draws what looks to be a double pointed knife...until she pulls the tips apart, revealing it to be more of a spear. And then she splits into two, TWO SPEARS, dual wielded with the help of her Ninja class.

And then she aims to crash spears-first onto the Wyvern's back, but whether she hits the Wyvern or not, the crash is going to be pretty strong!

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Cheerfully, Kyra remarks about being able to see the other team through the walls. She wishes she could watch them but team Light Warriors had their own problem to deal with. It doesn't take a full blown medical expert like Kyra to determine that Landon has completely exhausted himself of MP. Though he tells them not to worry, she worries nonetheless. She makes a note to get another ether into him later because completing the rest of the dungeon with him unconscious is not going to be a great experience.

    For now, she deals with the more immediate threat. A water serpent. After Landon's deflected the first hit, Kyra backs up to the left as far as possible, hoping to outrange the creature or at least distance herself enough from the flurrious melee fighters that she wouldn't get caught up in an area attack. Judging by its size, she mentally estimates the spread of its breath weapon and repositions herself accordingly.

    While it usually followed the logic that water elemental-based creatures were weak to lightning (and indeed, Kyra was reaching for a mixture that would generate such energies when agitated by the breaking of the flask it was in), she nonetheless casts the basic white spell of Libra on the monster, just to be certain.

    So far, much to Kyra's delight, her magic seems to be working pretty well. She doesn't voice any concerns she might have over it doing otherwise.

Deelel has posed:
It's been something of an experiance foir Deelel wotking with everyone else and she eyes the cube but passes by she's long ago got an aversion to poking switch like objects she's not got any idea of what they do. It's like watching humans go after big red buttons that say do not push, has had an effect on her. AS they reach the next room she looks at the elemental guardian seem to mean business she's going to use Kaiba's actions as covers as she tries to get close, however the ice is making things hard for Deelel and she slips losing her blance, it's going to take the basic a moment to recover.

Dominic Masoch (655) has posed:
"YES!" Dominic's eyes LIGHT UP at the appearance of the Water Guardian. Up until now, he felt like he was taking support for his group, providing backup or covering people. But this is a big opponent. And he has a big hunger... for doing cool things.

He takes a deep breath, focusing into his sword skills. He steps in towards the Water Guardian, gripping his blade tightly. As Landon blasts out one of his glorious Judge abilities, something which Dominic will always marvel at, the Fencer steps in towards the beast.

~Dramatic Flashb-

No. There is no lesson to invoke here. No instructor Dominic learned this move from. No grand wisdom behind his next move.

Dominic flicks his sword to the side, channeling mana into it. There's a flourish of his arm and a flick of his wrist before he's charging right towards the beast, thrusting with the tip of his blade.

As the thin, mithril blade of the of the rapier slices through the air, it begins to glow a powerful red color. It trails a slightly negative energy and emanates a powerful force. With a single mighty thrust, Dominic attempts to pierce the outer shell of the monster.

For all the grace and speed he uses, the rapier is a thrusting weapon meant to pierce armor and damage internally. And this is what he seeks to use it for. As he connects with the beast, he smiles widely, "Checkmate." He says softly.

And then he twists the rapier and releases the held magic.

Inflict: Doom

Quentyn Westwind (635) has posed:
    Quentyn is in high spirits as they clear the hallway, but his spirits fall just a little when they get to the final room. Wind. Of course the boss would be an air creature. Just like everything else up to now. Quentyn's rifle is back in his hands and he flicks the safety off. He starts to raise his rifle and take aim with the ironsights, but then he gets blown around and can't get a shot off!

    The student adventurer does get dangerously close to one of the holes, but manages to just get around it and then he's on the other side (unless the beast does something unexpect)! Now the Wyvern is actually blowing Quentyn away from the holes... and if the gale lets up long enough, either on its own or thanks to his party's efforts, Quentyn will try to take aim again.

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
TEAM C: TEAM KAIBA

Jinx really, really wants a tank so she can siege the living crap out of the Elemental Guardian. Thankfully, she gets one, because Kaiba is loud and just tried to use a control status effect on a boss. The Enemy Controller crackles as it tries to force him to attack himself with his opposite, but it does nothing. Instead, it brings up its arms, guarding against the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon's attacks. Blast after blast hammers into the golem, tearing frozen and flaming chunks out of it as it weathers the blows. It brings its arms down, damaged but still functional as it lunges towards the Ultimate Dragon, slamming its huge fists towards the mighty dragon. But that's not what it needs to worry about. The head crystal flares white, and another powerful cutting beam fires, attempting to cleave the Dragon in twain.

At least it's been distracted, right?

Ayako, meanwhile heals. WATER SPIRIT IS CREDIT TO TEAM. Eiko, meanwhile, proves that they'd survive in Lordran because they know how to DOOOOOOOOOOOODGE. Unlike some Saiyans. Eiko then pulls some metaphysical ridiculousness to manipulate status effects onto the boss. While the Boss is immune to Control, it's not immune to being concussed! It wavers, the deathgrip on the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon slacking as it stumbles. This could be the big chance!

Audrey Stormfist (652) has posed:
    Boss, and it looks pretty nasty.
    Lightning crackles out of Audrey's gloves as she unsheathes the gunblade once more, reaching into her coat with her other hand to pull another, more mundane looking broadsword, with a lightning bolt pattern on it. The electricity spreads from her gloves to the swords, essentially coating them in arcs of electricity.

    "I'll distract it while you come up with a plan, yes," she says.

    She starts running towards the Wind Guardian; holes open up and the wind makes it difficult to go in a straight line, so she starts hopping and using cover, narrowly managing not to plunge down at least once.

    Fortunately she does not need melee range.
    Just 'approximately' melee range.

    "Nesiaam. Hilo."

    She's calm; each blade delivers its own attack, a non-elemental shockwave of white-ish light. Both carry some electricity to them due to the weapons and gloves, too. And as tends to be the pattern for Heritors, they have a chance to inflict status effects. In this case, ADDLE (decrease in magical accuracy and potency) and CONFUSION.

Noiela (647) has posed:
Cupping her tome in the palm of one hand, Noiela calls forth her power. It is not unlike turning a valve; soon the raw energy has pooled into a roaring, sparking orb that burns more fiercely than any she has amassed before. One buzzing explosive to raise, illuminated letters swirling wildly to lace round her wrists and shoulders. Burning themselves onto the retina in their harsh, white brillance.

A wind gathers, sending her hair streaming and coat fluttering in the restless emanation, then arm raised, the tactician swivels, using the momentum to send it far and lofty; may it smack dab into its exposed breast, assuming her comrades have distracted it enough to compel the guardian into fatally lowering its guard.

"Time to tip the sc...beast over!"

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako watches the battle carefully... and then brightens the moment that the Elemental Guardian stumbles. She thrusts her palms in the direction of the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon, noting the opportunity for a good, solid hit! "Mystical Ice Convex Barrier!" A smooth barrier of ice forms in front of said dragon!

    Mystical Ice Convex Barrier is a special barrier that amplifies magical and energy attacks that pass through it! It breaks after one use, and it's defensive power is nil. Still, if you need an amplifier, there's quite a powerful one now!

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     The Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon is attacked. Despite its strength, it is pushed back, and it is cut by the beam. Luckily, it is a strong enough monster to not just be slaughtered immediately. Still, it doesn't look as good as it once did.

     Kaiba shouts orders to the Lord of Dragons. It obeys, and moves forward, in front of the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon. Though it is a weaker card, well. It's a weaker card. He'd rather have it destroyed than the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon.

     He pulls a card. Useless, at the moment. It can be useful, but the fact he has his Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon out, and not their base form, limits its current use. But even the best decks end up with dead draws.

     Kaiba, at first, doesn't get what the barrier in front of him is. His first instinct is that Ayako is underestimating him, putting up a barrier to make him last longer as a distraction, while the others do the work.

     But, his Gaming Instinct takes over. when one plays Duel Monsters in his world, you don't have to explain all of the rules. You can place a monster, and not tell your opponent of its effects. So, one has to learn how to figure this out on his own. A convex smooth glass barrier. It could work as a focus. And Ayako /knows/ of his strength, and the strength of his dragon. So, after a brief second, he realizes that she is, in fact, helping him.

     Of course he would of attacked anyways, but this makes him more comfortable with doing so.

     "BLUE-EYES ULTIMATE DRAGON! SUPREME BURST BREATH!"

     And, each head /bursts/ with power. They shoot out their attack beam breaths, aiming to shoot it in its core as it stumbles from the concussion.

Jinx (39) has posed:
    THIS IS OUR CHANCE!

    Some people would tell you that JINX'S Ultimate is that bullshit rocket she just fired at the floor in the other room. They'd be wrong. Entirely wrong. Not even close.
    The time is right, the time is now, and the boss is distracted by dragons and bullshit magic and everything else.

    Jinx's eyes glow and shine and she plants both of her feet firmly on the Immortal Object floor. Pow Pow gets lifted up, and Jinx cackles. "I'LL GIVE YOU UNTIL THE COUNT OF-" And there goes Pow Pow, the mini gun firing. Faster and faster as the bullet hose out of the barrels, Jinx raking her fire across the Golem's surface, looking for a weak spot.

    "TOO LATE! AHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAAHHAHAHAAHAHAHAHHA!"

Eiko (650) has posed:
    Okay, so Kaiba's cards aren't strong enough to cheese a boss-level mob. At least the curse worked! Too bad that's all Eiko had to work with. This thing is all massive explosions and not enough debuffs. Also, it's alternately freezing and broiling. If she could work /that/ into something, she would, but she hasn't got the precision to curse just one half of a guy, and making it break out in a sweat doesn't have that boss fight-level punch. That golem probably can't even bleed.

    There's always hitting things with her sword, but--nope, she's gonna stand way off to the side for this one. Better get ready to roll again.

    Hey, let's see if that elevator activates the moment her team downs the golem.

Finna (513) has posed:
    Finna's not gonna have ANY of this mess. She crouches down low and jabs claws into the walkway that weren't there before when the Wyvern appears and tries blowing everyone away, all while aiming icy blue eyes up at it... yeah, she's impressed by the creature alright! the only question now is... how to bring it down?

    "Well then... I hope you can take as well as you give! if not better!"

    The wings strangely melt into her own flesh and vanish, and... she springs forward, to BOUNCE off the moving crushers like a human pinball. Her movements are a blur and as swift as a mountain goat up a slope. She reaches a fairly considerable altitude above the wyvern and...

    Spins about in the air. "HYAH!!!"

    As if flung by that spin, countless tiny glinting points of light fly from her tail down at the Wyvern's neck...

    What are they? Hairs from her tail. Tail fur that became piercing needles.

Kamon Lionward (628) has posed:
Kamon orders the scatter as soon as he spots the tail coming in. Landon, instead, soaks up the first blow on a Judge Card's barrier. Part of Kamon is a little irritated at the Prince making a counter call in the heat of battle; another, more rational part of him knows that if he knew he could do this, he'd've told him to instead. He'll deal with that later. They'll need to do some group exercises...

Guardian first. Practice later.

Kyra and Soan get out of the path, removing them from harm's way while Landon prepares his pronouncement. Kamon instead rushes forward, getting right behind the barrier and clutching his sword tightly. As the blow connects with the shield, Kamon darts around it, getting practically underneath it. It's incredibly dangerous... but he sees the first opening, before the battle has even begun.

         REACTION > STRIKE BACK
         SUPPORT > DEATH STRIKE

Kamon jumps up, landing atop the crystal tail. He rushes down it's length, moving much faster than his heavy body would otherwise appear able to, a series of spinning slashes cutting into the crystal carapace all along his dash. The maneuver is incredibly flashy, drawing the eye to the gleaming steel storm that erupts on and around the monster. His blows are powerful and numerous, weaving between the physical manifestations of Law that fall like rain. In any other circumstance, he'd be too close for comfort to those powerful effects.

For Kamon, that's precisely as close as he wants to be.

Lightning falls, the alchemical mixture blasting at the monster. Kamon steps to the side, driving his sword downward and dashing past the impact point. Steel cuts across crystal, a hissing sound like glass being scored and cut by a fine point accompanying the rush. He ends up on one side and then goes to the other, instinctively juking to the right to avoid the Guardian's almost-certain retaliation in the face of Soan's sneak attack. He throws himself off of it, landing on one of the circling blocks.

Dominic does something very similar to a technique he knows. Kamon wonders if the Flair was based on a Fencer's move. He can practically /see/ the effect -- but it isn't quite fast enough to end this without Landon's opening being wasted. If he can expedite it...

Kamon Lionward (628) has posed:
@emit
"This is it!" Kamon spins his sword in his hand, facing down the serpent. He cuts an impressive figure out there. Crackling lightning wreathes his sword, running up and down the edge of the suddenly pitch-dark blade. Kamon focuses his MP sharply in a technique he does not practice often. "The final blow!!" He tenses, coiling like a spring, placing his off-hand on the hilt of his blade in a slow and deliberate motion.

         FLAIRS > LIFETHREAD BLADE
         > SKYFURY BLADE

Kamon erupts into motion. The circling block is thrown off-course slightly by the force of his dash. He crosses the pool like a cruise missile, seemingly slamming into the side of the crystalline monster with the force of a meteor strike. His entire body unleashes a FLASH of light, darkness and lightning standing out in stark contrast against one another. "/GENJI/!"

There's a noise, a cross between an enormous impact, a lightning strike and a sudden and violent detonation. Kamon slides along the monster's carapace, fading from sight as the display intensifies. The phenomenon contracts at the point he strikes, the two conflicting sources of light and un-light suddenly turning into a cascade of swirling color. It's beautiful, in it's own way.

Kamon appears on the far side of the monster, coming to a blurring halt on another platform. He finishes his shout. "/BLADE!/"

         INHERITANCE > GENJI BLADE

The display turns blindingly white for a brief, solitary moment. The technique pulls on power already let loose, on the already-present effects and pains inflicted by his allies, and it combines them into a stunningly lethal blow. It's the sum of the Light Warriors' onslaught, collected in a singularly masterful movement.

Kamon sheathes his sword as the light reaches its peak, and does not turn as it fades away. He stands straight, taking a slow, deep breath. One sword...

Was it a trick of the light, or did he have another weapon for a minute there?

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
TEAM A: TEAM ELWIND

Quentyn just has no luck, but at least he's not getting blown into holes. The Wyvern can't keep the up the gales forever, as it stops blowing to reposition itself and strike to open up another hole with the tail.

Don't get hit with the tail.

Audrey lunges in and engages tank position with her blades as she strikes. The shockwaves crash into the beast, causing it to be knocked off its game rapidly. It shrieks, trying to strike with the tail but it doesn't seem to be aiming at anyone in particular now, the Confusion keeping it from making optimal tactical decisions. Noiela, however, is a tactician. She finds and exploits openings. Her own assault slams into the wyvern from the side, causing it to lose height and fall towards the ground. Resistance or no, it is a powerful strike. All that it needs is someone to take advantage of it. Finna take advantage of it by firing a thousand tiny needle-hairs to piece into the beast! Alone they are harmless, but in such quantities the beast screeches in pain, getting pinned to the ground, vulnerable.

Hwynd likes her prey vulnerable. She Jumps, driving the dual spear down into the wyvern with a definitive strike, shattering into the beast. It shrieks once more before it shatters, falling apart and exploding in a bright flash. At the opposite side of the room, the lift activates.

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
TEAM B: TEAM LIGHT WARRIORS

The Water Guardian attempts to smash the team, the tail impacting the barrier. Its sunken pits that pass for eyes flare as it howls, inhaling for what is likely some kind of horrible breath attack, but...

It is too late. The Law has been passed, and it has been found Guilty. Law Cards ring the Guardian, attempting to bind it in a multitude of ways. While the Stop Card crackles and fades out, unable to find purchase, several of the others do not share the same fate. Black haze wraps around the beast's head, and it jerks, crackling paralysis setting into it and buying them several critical moments as spacetime slows around the creature. Kamon is already cleaving into it with a Reaction attack, shredding crystalling carapace-scales everywhere as he runs along the length of the creature. Soan takes advantage of the opening to leap in and stab his blade into the beast, Mugging it! Soan Sagittarius has gained 1x Crystalline Scale. It's a nice side benefit to stabbing the beast, perhaps. But that isn't enough. Kyra follows up by casting Libra! Her magical gaze looks into the boss' stats: WATER GUARDIAN - Lv. ?? - STR: 200 - MAG: 147 - DEF: 182 - RES: 160 - EVA: 30 - RESIST: STOP, WATER, ICE, CONTROL, INSTANT DEATH - WEAKNESS: LIGHTNING

Yep, weak to lightning. Kyra relays that posthaste for explotation as she chucks a lightning admixture at the creature.

Dominic follows up by stabbing into the beast, piercing into the crystalline flesh and releasing a powerful doom upon the creature. The magic spreads. Over time, it will probably perish... But do they have the time?

Kamon has been dealing with water /all day/ and doesn't have time for this crap. He capitalizes on the combinations of the other teammates, using his own powers to crash into the beast with Thunder and Darkness, blasting through it to hit on the other side. As Kamon stands, the massive serpent doesn't even have time to scream as the electrical power blasts out of it, the beast dissolving in an explosion.

Across the arena, the lift activates, allowing passage to the checkpoint that registers their time.

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
TEAM C: TEAM KAIBA

And the opening is grabbed. Ayako forms her mystical barrier, allowing her to augment the raw power Kaiba throws around. The Lord of Dragons moves to block for the Ultimate Dragon, but it rapidly becomes irrelevant. The head crystal glows, about to fire again - The bullets from Jinx rattle across the Elemental Guardian, increasing in power and speed as she focuses fire and looks for a good weak point.

That crystal looks like a good one. Jinx sweeps the firepower across the golem, and the crystal shatters, the golem reeling and dropping its defenses. This is precisely the moment Seto Kaiba throws his hand forward and channels his true superpower of Making Crap Up Because It Involves Dragons With Blue Eyes. Everythinhg goes white as his Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon fires through the augmentation shield and commences primary ignition. The Golem doesn't stand a chance against the combined firepower, and it blasts apart, light seepeing into cracks spreading through it before it shatters in a final detonation.

The lift does in fact activate as soon as the golem is downed. Is Eiko going to take the lift and leave the others behind? Y/N

Hywnd Eblan (646) has posed:
As soon as she lands, Hywnd jumps off from where she landed, putting her spears back together, and then into her inventory, redrawing her blades. "Let's go. Make haste!", she shouts, as she dashes for the elevator, dodging holes in the ground as she rushes for it. UNEXPECTEDLY, she does not take it without the others.

Jinx (39) has posed:
    NOPE. NO SHE IS NOT!
    THAT'S A TOWER DOWN! And with a massive sugar or blood lust or whatever it is that drives JINX'S twisted little brain, the Bluenette screams happily, not even waiting for the golem to finish falling apart before she's got her newly painted Sky Render back out, dragging the coilgun with her at an impossible speed for someone her size as she's charging for the elevator with Eiko.
    "...goooooogogogo Go Go Go GO GO GO GO /GO GO GO GO GO/!!!!!"

Quentyn Westwind (635) has posed:
    Quentyn's learned to not get too distracted by spell effects, yet... The offworld technique gets the white mage's attention for a moment anyway. He momentarily frees a hand from his rifle to reach into a pouch, grab one of the more potent ethers he has, and tosses to to Noiela with a "Heads up!"

    And... the fight's over just like that? That must be some crazy DPS. Quentyn gives a very very big grin to the party while slinging back his rifle (safety on again, not that it can fire without magic). "You're all incredible! Let's go get our loot and licenses." Quentyn gladly follows after Hywnd... at first just walking quickly but, since she seems to be in such a hurry, he runs over as well.

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     Even with the creature dead, the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon and the other Duel Monsters aren't recalled. Yet. You can never tell with these things, whether there might be more surprises.

     Still, though. Again, his gaming instincts activate. Kaiba hops off of his dragon, moving to where the creature was.

     He's basically just looking for loot at this point. You never know.

     If there is loot, he'll grab it. Otherwise, he'll proceed to the lift with assumedly everyone else. He's not gonna spend /long/ looking for loot anyways.

Landon al Cid (642) has posed:
     Dominic and Kamon save the day. Landon is glad. He's so tired. He's basically unconscious. He's pushing himself along with willpower and what little MP he has left. But...

     But their team showed their power. Everyone may have finished at the same time, but that's...incredibly important.

     "Let us make haste!" Landon shouts at his team, and starts hurrying forward as best he can.

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     Kamon unleashes built up frustration over an entire dungeon involving water upon the Water Guardian. That poor thing. It didn't know what the hell just it hit, didn't it?

     Soan don't waste much more time after that, dashing immediatedly with small bounds toward the elevator. Worse: he fires off a crossbow bolt at the wall behind it, held by a manifesting rope as it pulls him faster toward it.

     Why? Because screw you, he got a grappling hook, that's why.

Eiko (650) has posed:
    Eiko is already there and looking back from a safe distance when the boss kicks it. (That's still an assist, right?) She raises her sword and gives another wordless shout to the tune of F'YEAH.

    She is not leaving the team behind. Surviving member bonus totally trumps time bonus.

Kamon Lionward (628) has posed:
Kamon takes a long, slow breath as the thing evaporates behind him.

Then, he turns towards the lift and goes for it at a dead sprint. He is not certain he can keep it up for very long, but fortunately, getting onto it is the end of the line.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako whews softly as the golem gets shattered apart and detonates. She floats on her broomstick quickly over to the lift and hops off, grabbing her broomstick in the process. "Yay! Let's go!"

Audrey Stormfist (652) has posed:
    There are multiple moments where Audrey has to dodge either the crystal beast's mouth, or tail. Many other times she has to hold on especially tight, or let go, hit the ground, and avoid the pits, and the wind currents too. Fortunately she makes it out in one piece, if a bit exhausted, but nothing to write home about.

    She quickly regains both composure and straight face, as she sheathes the gunblade and stuffs the broadsword back into her coat. She dusts herself and heads to the lift, exactly as fast as is needed not to be the last on it.

    "Good work. Don't get comfortable though, because that was just C-rank." It gets tougher; much tougher. Fortunately, not tonight.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel now is kept from now moves in s things settle down this was an experiance unlike many others she lowers her weapon now and realizes she was rather ded wight but she still learned quite a bit and everyone made it through didn't she? She however is going to tty to catch up with Eikp and calls out.

"We shouldn't dally too long."

She doesn't seem to be one for loot.

Dominic Masoch (655) has posed:
Dominic takes a moment to step back and admire Kamon. Maybe, on some level, he hopes that staring in amazement might teach him just ONE of those awe-inspiring techniques. But he suspects not even a Sword Saint could learn those moves. And he certainly is not one of those.

So for now, Dominic follows his new friends at a sprint, "Today has bren simpky amazing!"

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    In retrospect, maybe casting Libra was a waste of time? Kyra could have probably shaved some seconds off their time if she had just gone for her mixture. But that'll be something to think about for another time. In the end, the amazing DPS and status support of her team basically crushed their Boss in a fantastic amount of time. It all went a lot smoother than Kyra's original C-rank test.

    Landon is moving despite the earlier MP exhaustion. He doesn't look like he'd be able to fight anymore, according to Kyra's expert medical opinion. She relays this to the group in case they run into any more surprises. But it seems like they don't? The checkpoint is ahead and Kyra runs alongside Landon, Dominic's coat still flapping along with her.

Finna (513) has posed:
    And down goes the Wyvern. Despite the insane drop, Finna seems unharmed when she lands on her feet with catlike grace and rises. Tail still wagging, and... she's dusting her hands off in a 'that's that!' gesture. "Hah... teamwork paid off there! Niiiiice moves!" Yeah. She's pretty upbeat right now for whatever reason. This has gotten the blood pumping!

Noiela (647) has posed:
Tilting her head back, the girl thrusts out a hand to snatch the ether and glugs it without reserve. A fizzy rush bubbles through her system, inspiring a reeling moment of lightheaded, wide eyed delirium. First grade.

"Sparkly...ngh, time to run." Ensuring everyone is securely in the lift before she hightails it, Noiela secrets the now empty vial for later persual. Perhaps, there is a mystery to be unravelled in the fundamental difference between their magical workings and her own world.
Scrunching her hands into fists, she pours every last ounce of energy to coax her aching muscles into one last heroic sprint. Almost carthatic, expending so much in the pursuit of monster hunting.
Unlike certain other monsters, these were simple creatures. Killable.

Hywnd Eblan (646) has posed:
As soon as everyone gets to the lift, Hywnd is activating it, before hurrying herself onto it. Once the others are on, she does what she needs to do to get it moving. She is not a patient person.

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     Kaiba doesn't quite get on the lift.

     Instead he gets on his Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, and starts riding /it/ up the shaft.

     The lift might catch up eventually, though, but still.

Eiko (650) has posed:
    Yeah, Eiko doesn't waste any time as Kaiba approaches on the dragon. UP THEY GO.

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
There is no loot dropped by the monster unless you happened to use some form of Steal or Mug command on it. This is why Soan has a shiny scale. Everyone rushes for the lifts, and they rise once activated whether people are on them or not. The lifts take everyone up into the final area (and Kaiba rides a dragon that actually slows him down a bit when it gets to the part where flying becomes impossible due ot the size), where a large Crystal floats there, glowing with magical power. When it is touched, there is a chime, and a loud fanfare goes off as the timer ends.

Times are displayed for all three teams on magitechnological monitors in the back of the room. They finished within seconds of each other, and all of them well within qualifying times. Various detailed information is also displayed on team performance. It's quite detailed.

A door to the side opens, revealing a rail-track cart that will take them back to the entrance. Once everyone is assembled, the Proctor nods to everyone present. "Thank you all for coming. It was quite a spectactular thing to see both talented people from within and without our world to take these tests. All of you have qualified for a Rank C Dungeon License, which have been prepared at the desks. Please pick up yours on the way out. To each team, we have also prepared a prize."

He gestires towards the chests which sit before each team. Within each is a bag of Gil for each person, as well as a variety of ETHERs, Potions, a few small crystal scales and stone chunks that look like they were scavenged from the area, and a single crimson feather, carefully contained in a glass container. The glass is warm. The Licenses themselves appear to be silver badges with complicated Galendian script on them. Magically sensitive people can detect that they have some form of magictechnological property to them, like some form of a magical RFID chip.

Everyone applauds the teams as they get their loot on.

Hywnd Eblan (646) has posed:
As she exits the lift, Hywnd eyes Team Elwind's performance charts. She remains quiet the rest of the way, collecting her loot and her new BACKUP LICENSE. Incase the other one explodes or something, who knows.

Quentyn Westwind (635) has posed:
    Quentyn is just smiles all the way. For a new team thrown together last minute, things went very very well. And he has his license. He will graduate to Behemoth class. Funnily enough, though, he's in no hurry to disassemble his rifle with Bird around. Not to mention, loot! Gil, potions and ether and other stuff he can probably sell for more gil!

    The rest of Team Elwind gets a "Thank you for coming, everyone," (still grinning) as sincere as Quentyn could possibly be.

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     Kaiba loks into the treasure chest. He takes his bag of gil. But, basically /everything/ in the chest looks irrelevant to him, and like things he doesn't actually need.

     As such he just tosses his bag of gil to Jinx.

     "Please just take this money and /shut up/ for a while."

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako walks out of the lift and touches the large floating crystal. She blinks her eyes quickly when the fanfare resounds and smiles sheepishly. She walks over to the times displayed on the monitors and the information as well. "Huh..." Ayako smiles happily at the team. "Eh heh... we did pretty well. Thank you, Kaiba, Eiko, Jinx, and Deleel."

    When the Proctor arrives she smiles softlyy and curtsies politely and elegantly towards him. Once he's finished talking, "Thank you very much for having us." And Ayako smiles brightly towards him. She walks her way over to the chests and takes a Gil bag and looks carefully through the chest.

Jinx (39) has posed:
    Jinx TAKES HER MONEY! YEAH! She also glares at Seto and stays quiet until he turns away.
    Then she gives him the DOUBLE DEUCE and flops onto something to pokee at her shiny new ID card.

Eiko (650) has posed:
    Eiko is pleased to get loot. Eiko is pleased not to get disqualified by Kaiba's insistence on going solo. Eiko is probably more visibly excited than anyone here who isn't also certifiably insane.

    Fuck yeah, loot and badges. She's going to have come by another time to actually make use of the latter bit. And maybe see if she can't mooch anything off the academy while she's at it.

    She waves off to each teammate in turn, making a rude gesture to Kaiba at some point and trying to get Jinx's email addy. Possibly Ayako's, too. Can always use a healer.

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     This is the second time that Soan is on this spot. Somehow, they made it through just as speedily as the younger grades has. By all accounts, they should've made it faster... but that's how it is with a Dungeon Run. It's impossible to fully predict!

     Soan gratefully accepts his money rewards, as well as the various little shiny baubles that's been delivered to them. The Thief gives a wide, happy grin at the crowd, if slightly embarassed at the gigantic crowd -- and the knowledge that this is being broadcasted world-wide. At least, this year, he didn't make the crew of the Dungeon Run look like clowns.

Jinx (39) has posed:
    Oh right, also Jinx's phone comes out for exhanging digits with Swordladies and Not-Nami.

Audrey Stormfist (652) has posed:
    Audrey will collect her prizes, and a copy of the results to peruse on her own, later. She's interested in her performance, and not much else; tear it apart and figure out what she could have done better. It's not that she enjoys teamwork, it's that she enjoys perfect grades, and those can come from teamwork.
    Anything to prove herself, really!

    "Try not to get yourself killed the first time you head down into the C sectors, Westwind. Bird, Noiela, Eblan. Good evening."

    And off she will be, without further delay.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel bows slightly and accepts her loot with thanks she's not sure what the Ether will do for her but she can find those who it cna help, you never know when it might come in handy after all. The Gil however can be put to use and she pauses taking a look at the money and eyeballing it's craftmansship with interest.

Landon al Cid (642) has posed:
     "You all did very well," Landon beams at the other teams. He's quite happy with the whole situation.

     Rycharde, from his place in the stands, stands. His voice booms over the field. "Congratulations to all of you! I, and all Galianda, look forward to seeing what else the worlds beyond have to offer!"

     Landon looks up at his father and smiles. Thank all the gods. This could've been a true disaster.

Noiela (647) has posed:
Noiela barely touches the items save her licence key, granting Audrey a formal 'evening' as she is forced to look away from the scores. Such an alien concept, yet it made sense to calculate in numbers. Not entirely flawless system, but such was marking.

King Rycharde saves the world more musings by his presence shredding her delicately balanced concentration to shreds. Like father, like son.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako finishes collecting her share of the loot and blushes lightly at the applause from the crowd as she collects her license. "I... eh heh... thank you..." When Eiko and Jinx approach her she smiles happily and cheerfully exchanges her contact information with them. "Ah. Of course! If you don't mind my help..."

Seto Kaiba (623) has posed:
     Also Kaiba isn't going for sweets with anyone.

     Insteads he's going to make a few passes around this place with his Blue-Eyes jet in order to cause a scene, and then he's going to fly home.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "Wooo!" Kyra will gladly give the rest of her team high fives. She'll also run over and give poor Quentyn a high five too but kind of exclude Hywnd and Stormfist. The former is because she doesn't know the ninja very well. The later is because of teenager pettiness.

    She collects the loot, most of which she's going to use and some form, and finally removes Dominic's coat, offering it back to him.