Scene #5521: Skandalia: Bird-Caging

Owner	Pose
Septette Arcubielle	Everyone who accepts the Skandalia job receives a package in the mail- or whatever passes for mail in their worlds- a day or two in advance. It contains a video (complete with a primitive player, in case they lack a compatible one) and a single piece of silvery, gossamer string. The video opens with a severe, stony-faced, black-haired woman in a blue-and-white dress staring into the camera with uncomfortable intensity, fidgeting with her light bamboo-plate armor. It doesn't look like she's used to having her picture taken, much less talking on film. "Hello? Hello. This is Ren of the- yes, yes, I'm sure, no, don't stop it. Why would anyone-" Her brow furrows as she glances at someone off-camera, followed by an indistinct and terribly soft voice muttering something back. The video skips ahead to Ren looking more composed, less confused. "Yes, hello. This is Ren, of the Radha. I'm here to provide some context and valuable information for the upcoming mission. Your target is the 'Meregho Saeno', a beast that has shrouded the seas around Skandalia in a perpetual storm since the twilight years of the Abyssal War nearly two centuries ago. Once the seas were well-charted, and Skandalia the home of a great lighthouse. Now..." She trails off, shaking her head. "Little is known about the beast's capabilities," Ren continues, "save that it is capable of flight and jealously defends its territory against vessels of any kind with lightning-strikes. Multiple attempts have been made to bring it down over the decades, but it is uncommonly willing to flee if injured, and could never be safely pursued to its nest. Until now." Ren reaches off-camera and holds up a prism-shaped device made of brass. "A few days ago, the weather patterns around Skandalia shifted, allowing the crew of a monster-hunting vessel to sight the island's shoreline from outside of the Meregho Saeno's range. One of them had the mad idea to launch a teleporter beacon at the island from a ballista- and we have confirmed that the beacon not only landed on the island, but has somehow remained intact and functional. The beast will not be so hasty to flee if its nest is being attacked. Cripple its wings to ensure it does not flee, then slay it." Finally, she holds up a string that's identical to those that came with the package. "At the designated time, pull both ends of the string you've been given. It has already been attuned to the relevant beacon. Timeliness is crucial, as is arriving in one cohesive group. Individual partners may forfeit their share of the salvage if the bird is defeated before they arrive." Ren's expression softens, inasmuch as a face as stony as hers can soften, and rests both of her hands on the pommel of the sword on her hip. "Best of luck, Elites. You are doing the city of Armoroad a great service." The video fades out, replaced by a timer that counts down to the designated time.
Septette Arcubielle	When it hits zero and the contacted Elites activate their Ariadne's Threads, they are whisked instantaneously to an unexpected location: the top of a huge, grey, smoothed-stone tower. The sky is dark and puffy with rich thunderclouds, and the air is filled with salt and the sound of crashing waves. The ground is smooth and featureless, but covered in places with huge branches and timbers, some as large as the trunks of trees. Sparkling gemstones and pieces of treasure are stuffed into every nook and cranny of the heap of driftwood. Nearby is a familiar object: the teleporter beacon, placed proudly atop a haphazard hoard of other gilded trinkets. They're in its nest. Of course they are. Birds love shiny things. There are a few moments to size up their surroundings. The hoard of treasure, while no doubt valuable, doesn't seem to contain anything immediately useful aside from the occasional corroded sword. The top of the tower constitutes a wall-less flat circular arena, with a mountain of branches providing cover and high ground near its center. Those brave enough to walk to the edge will find that the tower's walls drop straight down at least two hundred feet, to the rocky shoreline below. The fog limits visibility to perhaps a thousand feet- terrible for navigation, but not enough to impair most combat. A distant, direction-less shriek pierces the air. It's an uncanny keening howl with rumbling undertones. Their opponent has yet to show itself, but it can't be long...
Kutsuuko Shiratori	Pull on both ends of the thread? It sounded silly, but Kutsuuko managed to somehow not lose the thing for two days, and remembered to do just that. Absolutely not used to non-Warpgate teleportation, the trip is immediately disorienting, but at the same time, incredibly convenient, because she gets to show up with her God Arc already primed, ready, and juices up, and a metallic suitcase the size of a roll-off luggage bag with the Fenrir logo stamped on it in its traditional black and gold. "Hell, it landed right in the middle of its goddamn lair?" she immediately exclaims, looking at her surroundings. "I mean, that's very expedient, but we don't have any time to set up!" And no time to complain either. The God Eater finds the biggest timber she nearest the wall with the widest view, and braces her colossal weapon over the probably waterlogged and fragile wood, adjusting her bullet chip parameters with Hollywood hacker speed and cracking open the suitcase, laying it open on the ground so she can select a sextette of soda can-sized, metal-capped glass canisters. In the few minutes she has, she also retrieves a trio of flat, frisbee-like discs with heavy electronics at three points, and chucks them out into choice locations on the floor. Where they come to rest, they crackle to life with light and a dull hum, generating tiny spheres of energy just above them that are pretty obvious if one is really looking.
August Kohler	August kept the string by his side while waiting, putting a beeping reminder on his phone for when to activate it. When they arrive, his eyes are closed, not keeping them open during teleportation because that would probably be weird. The redhead's in a hoodie, a gun holstered at his side and a reflective bracelet at his wrist. August glances at the beacon, and then blinks at the mound of treasure for a bit, before turning to the others, carefully stepping past Kutsuuko's discs as he approaches the hoard. "I'll play bait." August proceeds to start climbing up the mound of treasure, picking up random things and either throwing them aside or pocketing them, making as much noise on the hoard as possible. He does give the group several seconds after he says that to position themselves, but he's pretty clearly intending to piss off the bird.
Starbound Flotilla	The STARBOUND FLOTILLA are here, in their standard Durasteel equipment! Moonfin, the fishman, is in elaborate full-body durasteel armor that looks like a powered cross between a diving suit and a samurai's armor, glowing cyan at the faceplate. Biteblade, the humanoid plant, is in durasteel plating with elaborately carved wood and bone ornaments over glowing powered components that glow an intense green. Pavo the bird-girl wears a pirate-aesthetic set of mesoamerican-style armor, with yellow bands of energized fabric linking the pieces to her central piratey longcoat. Albert the monkey-man is wearing elaborate dystopian commando armor reconstructed with a 'rebel spy' aesthetic: A sleeker faceplate, a slimmer form, and a more chaotic design that integrates thin, resilient plates of durasteel, and lines of bright white. George (just plain human) wears a futuristic combat EVA hardsuit that glows a gentle red at the flat faceplate. Seft, the robotic Flotilla member, is wearing full-on medieval knight armor with a soft energized blue glow below the plates on her body, and especially around the eyes. Each has a heavy industrial-yellow two-pronged plasma-cutter-like tool strapped to their side, a Matter Manipulator. The Starbound Flotilla arrive with all the abject lack of ceremony one would expect, six teleportations performed in well-timed sequence bringing them into a formation set up just around the beacon. Their weapons, the classic mix of melee and projectile weapons, are already drawn and readied, but thankfully, there's nothing here that they desperately need to worry about fighting. "Loot! Already! Everyone else do whatever, this is the important bit!" "Contemptuous. Are you really so completely out of control?" "Is it really a problem of self-control if you're doing the stuff you REALLY want?" "George, that is /exactly/ the nature of problems of self-control." "Form up, ready. No joy. Starbound Five, draw attention. Starbound Four, saddle." "Yesss yesss yesss!! Floran gonna HUUUUUUNT!!" Mines, avoid those, got it. Kutsuuko's setup will be accepted and acknowledged for now, as Biteblade and Pavo leap and grapple and otherwise navigate up the mountain of branches, and then land deftly atop. Then, Biteblade puts her bow to one side, balls her claws up into fists, and lets out a guttural scream of her own. "RRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!! COME GET SSSTAB, PREY BIIIIIIIRD!!" She challenges, reclaiming and readying her bow to strike opening shots.
Kyoko Takada	Alpha-39 spends a long time looking suspiciously at the thread delivered to a surprisingly intact mailbox, in front of a crushed-flat house, as if trampled by a colossal herd. It helps that she's seen Septette use this kind of thread before, though some doubt remains. Whatever passes next, she arrives at nearly the designated time, opting for a few seconds early, masked and loaded for bear. There's a moment of disorientation, during which she drops behind the nearest cover, and then reorientation as her head swivels quickly in birdlike fashion, SMG following every other motion. She spots Kutsuuko, not recognizing her but finding the voice at least slightly familiar, and notes the setup points while stalking out of cover and memorizing the position of everything in this limited arena. The SMG is put away, and a sword drawn from A-39's back, the blade glowing and humming as she cuts her way into a pile of shinies with a sufficient vantage point. She's quick, precise enough not to just make the collection of logs collapse, and apparently thinks nothing of then stuffing herself into the hollow thus created until she's disappeared from view.
Kung Jin	It's a strange request, to be sure, but it isn't like Kung Jin's never had to deal with strange jobs before. He used to be a thief and a mercenary, before he joined the Special Forces, after all. Still, this isn't going to be like any normal mission. 'Kill the monster' isn't the strange part, it's the odd way they're getting there. The Special Forces aren't going to be able to find him immediately, not with the use of teleportation getting him there. But that doesn't mean he's totally without them. No, he has a Multiversal radio, and so does General Blade. He plans to radio his coordinates when he gets there, and hope there's a warpgate to get into the world the normal way. If not, well... there has to at least be a people-sized warpgate, right? When the countdown, well, counts down to zero, Jin pulls the string as he was instructed in the video. And as he reappears, he takes stock of his surroundings immediately. As soon as he notices where he is, his mouth twists in that sarcastic way of his. "...Saves us the trouble of hunting it down, at least," he replies. Though the screech of the bird draws his attention up. Quickly he sends that location signal to General Blade's radio. He briefly reports in, "General Blade? I'm at the location. Can't talk long; looks like we're getting dropped right into the thick of things, literally. I'll report in again once it's done." Conversation done he summons his weapon; the curved Dragon Staff appears in a puff of blue smoke. He then starts prioritizing finding cover. Being an archer he does need to facilitate the long-range game as well as he can, even if he can go melee. But it's always better to keep the enemy away. And yes, he's staying far away from Kutsuuko's flat disks on the ground. They probably explode, and Jin doesn't want to be exploded. He pulls an arrow from the quiver at his back and as the string on the curved weapon appears, nocks the arrow and waits. The arrowhead starts to glow a cool blue color as he waits in cover for the beast to appear.
Staren	Staren is all for helping Septette's world! A bit strange for it not to be Septette herself doing the asking, but hey, that just means the natives are starting to get used to the Multiverse, which is good! One moment, there's /not/ a 40-foot-tall combat robot on top of the tower -- the next, there is. "Wow. That is a /powerful/ teleportation effect!" Staren's voice comes over the speakers. Inside, he flicks some switches and buttons, accounting for changes from vacuum to breathable atmosphere (there's a whoosh around him as the cockpit pressurizes) and telling the navigation system to just treat this as a new area despite lack of movement, and finally retracts his visor, breathing in the fresh air that's been sucked into the cockpit. "Ahh. Alright, let's do this." A panel slides open on the right arm pack, revealing the three barrels of the gatling railgun. Staren makes note of the mines, adding indicators in his view to help avoid stepping on them. Finally, the mech draws its laser rifle. It might get unweildly once the beast is in close range, but maybe it can get a couple of good shots in before it closes. "I was kind of hoping Septette would be here to tell us more about this thing... be careful. If it has the power to generate a storm like this, watch out for /other/ supernatural abilities of like potency."
Septette Arcubielle	A plume of seawater erupts from the shore as something drags itself out of the ocean only moments after August's provocatively-noisy theft and Biteblade's taunting challenge, its silhouette blurred by the fog. It leaps thirty or forty feet into the air with a terrible cry before running up the side of the tower, flapping its wings and scrambling for purchase with its claws. One sopping wing flops over the lip of the tower's top, followed by a six-eyed avian head with a piece of seaweed still on its beak. Its mouth stays closed, but still manages to emit a terrible shrieking roar that's just shy of painful to hear. Weren't they told that this thing could fly? It must have seriously gone downhill. With an agonizingly effortful heave, the beast scrabbles up onto the arena, finally righting itself and declaring its presence properly with a preening roar as it spreads its wings wide. The party has the chance to get a good look at exactly what they're about to fight- and the chance to get in a few easy shots with ranged weaponry, too! Up close, the Meregho Saeno looks like some kind of monstrous combination of a bird and a fish, not in the graceful-blending sense, but in the sense that it looks like some patchwork fusion. Its feathers are huge and ostentatious red-and-yellow plumes that still drip with seawater, but they're marred by irregular patches of slimy slate-grey scales that spread across its body like mange. Its body has a bulbous yet streamlined shape like a sweet potato, with four flipper-like wings and two webbed feet. Strangest of all, it has a perfectly functional avian head with a sharp beak, yet there's an additional fanged and lipless maw on its chest- the source of the ear-piercing roars, it seems. As planned, August's thieving and Biteblade's defiant scream draw its ire immediately, six blue and red eyes sharpening to beady points as it stares down the pair of blatant intruders. Without warning, electricity arcs between its spread wings, intensifying in a fraction of a second to a blinding flash and a deafening noise like thunder! + -- THUNDERCLAP -- + TARGETS: ALL ELEMENT: VOLT DAMAGE: LOW EFFECTS: ACCURACY DOWN Even as the dazzling light clears, the beast sprints across the wet stone roof, scattering tree-trunks in the path of its charge. Just when it seems as though it's about to plow through the mountainous nest to get at the trespassing duo, it leaps into the air again, flailing its wings to gain just enough lift that it can swoop over the high ground and try to claw at them with its talons as it passes overhead! + -- PANIC CLAW -- + TARGETS: AUGUST + BITEBLADE ELEMENT: PHYSICAL DAMAGE: MEDIUM EFFECTS: KNOCKBACK With a clumsy stumble, the Meregho Saeno lands on the other side of its nest and skids to a halt, barely avoiding sliding off the ledge itself... and steps cleanly on one of Kutsuuko's mines with its broad, webbed foot in the process. Click.
Kung Jin	That was exactly what Kung Jin had been waiting for, too. For the monster to show itself. The Dragon Staff, with its blue-glowing arrow, is raised up. Though Jin winces at the roar. Yeah, that didn't feel good at all. But he keeps his position, re-aims his bow, and fires. And then... BANG! "Augh!" Jin raises his hands in front of his face, dropping back to his cover to avoid any retaliatory strikes from the bird while he's not able to see.
Kutsuuko Shiratori	"What the /hell/?" That's Kutsuuko's immediate reaction to seeing the creature, both mentally and audibly. She's seen more than her fair share of strange and grotesque monsters before (more than most people ever will), but the one in front of her today looks almost a bad acid trip, or one of those fake critters people used to sew together out of various animal body parts and sell as curiosities back in the age of sail. It makes zero sense. Is this somehow natural, or some kind of alien, or a mutant experiment? She can't help but wonder what the backstory is here. Apparently, the thing starts off with a naturally generated flashbang, instantly blasting the entire tower nest with light and noise that may actually be lethal up close. Coincidentally, one of Kutsuuko's most heavily reinforced Oracle Cell augmentations is one that deals with these kinds of stunning, disabling, crippling, and general sensory and mobility impairing stimuli. She'd seen too many people killed when reeling from explosions or pain. Her weirdly red eyes contract their pupils very abruptly, and then she just stares directly into the thunderclap, sights the smouldering muzzle of her assault cannon, and pulls the neural trigger. Scarlet Symphony roars like a minigun, spinning its barrel much like one too, and immediately dumping hundreds of rounds straight into the bird's giant torso and wingspan while it's spread. The colourless energy bullets aren't any more dangerous than strong rifle rounds --pretty much a peashooter by God Eater standards-- but they each siphon away a small amount of energy on impact, probably mana in this case, before bursting. With the kind of volume Kutsuuko is applying, a concentrated stream of fire can rapidly wither away the strength of even powerful Aragami for a time. Her absolute first order of business is draining the target's resources and softening it up.
August Kohler	As soon as the bird drops down, August pulls up the bracelet to his eyes. "Persona." In a spark of blue energy, the Tin Soldier appears, and begins raining bullets from its gunleg on the Meregho Saeno, trying to continue its role as bait. The thunderclap happens at the sametime, August covering his ears as the Tin Soldier's spray starts going sort of wild. As the Panic Claw starts coming, though, August is prepared...and dives onto the ground, ducking underneath it. The Tin Soldier isn't as lucky, which really defeats the whole point of it. The talon gashes into its chest, knocking it down the mound as August clutches his chest in pain, the Tin Soldier, narrowly grabbing a sword wedged into the gold and using it to prevent itself from falling further. It pulls itself back up the mound, turns towards the Meregho, and starts kicking its non-gunleg into the treasure, the gun leg being brought back up to start spraying in the Meregho's direction again and continue the baiting.
Staren	Staren's expecting it to come from the sky. Once his machine's sensors triangulate the sound, he calls out, "Below us???" in surprise. The sensors also mute the roar when it climbs onto the tower, but he can probably still /feel/ the vibrations through the cockpit. He snaps off a three-pulse burst of the giant laser gun, concentrating enormous amounts of energy on a single point, and then stows it in his right shoulder pack (which normally contains the sniper rifle or extra vehicle-scale missiles. Seems he didn't bring that today.) Oh shit thunderclap! But it's over in less time than it would take the sensors to adjust to it. As it starts moving he tries to get in some followup shots with the railgun, but between its erratic movement and making sure not to hit anyone else, he might need a bit longer to get a feel for how it moves in order to target more accurately.
Kyoko Takada	Alpha-39 is hidden away. This does not entirely protect her from assault. Between her hiding point and her mask, the flash is caught and corrected against, only causing an involuntary cycle through sensor modes, but the tech doesn't cover her ears, and there's nothing to muffle the disorienting noise. She shakes her head, shifting under cramped quarters, and then returning her eye to her rifle's scope, adjusting aim. What she sees isn't exactly as expected, nor is it coming from just the direction expected. It takes her a few moments to shift around, and it'll take longer than that for her hearing to return. Considering her profession, it's a small wonder she's not deaf in the first place. It's all to her good to let others fire the first, and help mask the roar of her AMR going off, sighted for where the bony part of the upper wings should be. Unusually, for her, she doesn't abandon her nest and take new cover afterward. There's little to gain, and plenty of distractions among the group. Instead, her speed all goes to ramming back another cartridge and firing again, emptying her magazine in what will be short order without interference.
Starbound Flotilla	Biteblade screams right back as the creature roars, and rushes forward, intent on leaping straight into combat as Pavo opens up with a barrage of shots from a pair of flintlocks, and the group below begun unloading with a mix of heavy infantry weapons -- George's shotgun and Seft's heavy laser -- and anti-vehicle fire from Albert's rocket launcher. Sadly, all of this ranged assault finds itself a little bit thrown off, as the group is subjected to a wide-area electrical attack. Electricity from the sheer stunning impact of the debuff crackles along their armor, overloading dexterity enhancers and damaging movement coordinators just enough that they'll have to spend some time recalibrating them to get them right. Biteblade deals with the brunt of it, though, suffering a heavier wound on the en-passant strike. She's knocked clean off the mountain! "Music! We're buzzed! Break twelve, guns!" "It got Biteblade! Catch 'er!" "Panicked. I have her! Moonfin, George, go!" "Aaaaugh! Floran gonna /kill/ big dumb bird!" "We're goin'." "Such a warped creature... Nature's wisdom in this land is truly incomprehensible." Seft dives to catch a lightly wounded, cursing Biteblade, while Moonfin and George pair up and step in. Moonfin draws a heavy, burning katana, while George pulls out a pair of what look like grenades. The two rush around the creature's left and right sides, pincering it. Moonfin drags his katana along the ground to kick up a huge, damaging environmental fire hazard, consistent enough to damage the larger creature but with enough gaps that their allies can slip through, while George's pair of devices leave a trail of chemicals that react in his wake, producing searing pools of acidic hazard. If it's not flying much, or has to jump, maybe they can close it in and force it into inopportune movements! Pavo leaps and glides, expecting the creature to turn towards August's bait. She intends to punish it from above with a heavy cutlass slice. Moonfin goes for a heavy uppercut-like rising slash across the chest, meant to expose more of its body to Kutsuuko's draining fire. Albert grapples up and onto Staren's mecha, joining his railgun shots with heavy RPG fire by riding at the better vantage point of his shoulder. George leaps straight at one of the wings, and tries to grapple onto its thick plumage with a pair of electrified stun-gloves, causing painful damage over time while he tries to yank the thing to give it more exposure to Apricot's incoming fire. Seft pulls Biteblade somewhere over near Kung Jin, hoping for cover from him soon, while she administers a quick bit of medical aid.
Septette Arcubielle	Staren's three-shot burst burns into one of the beast's wings, setting the proximal joint alight and searing flesh and feathers alike until the limb hangs uselessly from its torso. Despite the very obvious physical damage, it seems too angry to visibly react to the pain- but at least it can be hurt by such weapons! A39's rifle fire clips the upper wing on the other side, punching through the bone with a noisy crunch and nearly severing it all the way through- it definitely won't be flying away now. Its injuries drool some kind of thin blue-green blood that boils on contact with the wood and stones; probably best not to touch that stuff! Kutsuuko's absurdly rapid-fire bullets don't penetrate nearly as deeply, and seem to bounce off of the scaly portions of its hide with little effect- but they do perforate its feathered areas quite nicely, drawing a light trickle of blood in dozens of places. The binding bullets don't deal much physical damage to a creature that large and angry, but their true value is a little subtler: the beast opens its beak and gathers coruscating sparks of electricity for a sweeping attack, but its elemental power is visibly attenuated! + -- HEARTSTOPPE... ... And then, comically, the attack fizzles altogether as it finally seems to notice the ninja's small blue arrow embedded in its chest. The stacking, similar debuffs from Kutsuuko and Jin have drained its MP bar altogether! It shrieks in frustration, but it's prevented from regaining its momentum by the Flotilla setting on it in melee! The Meregho Saeno flails its remaining two wings in a kind of disorganized frustration as it tries to fling the Flotilla Captains off of itself, inadvertently making itself harder to hit with ranged weapons as a side-effect! But with half of its limbs crippled, it can't seem to get much of a purchase, much less when it's knocked off-balance by Albert's rocket detonating on its side and scorching the grey scales black. + -- PANIC WING -- + TARGETS: GEORGE + PAVO + MOONFIN ELEMENT: PHYSICAL DAMAGE: LOW EFFECTS: BOSS EVASION UP The Tin Soldier's gunfire rakes its face, putting out two of the beast's eyes. Its remaining four lock onto him, flashing red with insensate rage, and it tries to run August down even with the Flotilla slowing its movements. In its haste, however, the dumb beast makes a fatal mistake: it steps off of the landmine, finally triggering the mine's effects. In seconds, the monster's entire body locks up as it falls forward into the Flotilla's pools of acid acid and fire attacks. It's PARALYZED, unable to take further actions, and its evasion drops sharply! Now's a great time to unload with heavy-hitting weapons!
Kung Jin	Thankfully Jin's mostly just stunned from the light; he was far enough away to avoid serious damage from the loud thunderclap. Hopefully Seft has an anti-Blind status treatment or item. Eye Drops? Something of the sort. However, once he can see again, either naturally or from Seft's assistance, he nods in her direction. "Thanks," is offered honestly. And sure enough, he goes for the cover. Another arrow is nocked. But as the creature falls over, Jin sees an option to do something that he wouldn't normally do with something this big unless he had no choice. Melee. He closes with a short dash, being careful to avoid mines, acid, fire, and any other floor-based hazard. Once he's close enough, he unloads on the creature with a series of horizontal strikes, angled at the creature's head (particularly the eyes). Will that work as cover?
Staren	Others wonder what is /wrong/ with nature on this world. Given what Staren knows about about the place, it never even occured to him it might be natural. He just assumed it was some ancient bioweapon. "I don't think it's natural." Staren comments to Moonfin. The creature rages. They fight. He hopes the Captains are okay, it looked like that earlier attack messed with their armor. And then the creature gets paralyzed. He sees a rare chance! The forty-foot war robot runs up and tries to GRAB the thirty-foot turkey-fish by the base of its wings, and squeezes tight. Not only to try and do some crush damage, (honestly, the physical force is negligable compared to what his actual weapons can bring to bear), but to try and hold it in place tightly /longer/ so the others can continue to have an easy target!
Kyoko Takada	The last round fires, the magazine ejects, and a new one slams home, Alpha-39's motions as practiced as any combat-built robot. (She's not a robot, though. Please do not confuse.) Changing battlefield conditions cause her priorities to rapidly shift, as she fails to get a solid lock on any appropriate target during the panicked motions, then finds the perfect opporunity as the trap is triggered, evasion ceasing. How long that'll last, she doesn't know, so she bets on "not long enough" and takes the most immediately valuable, quickest action she can, with her limited knowledge of this chimaera's anatomy. Six eyes, and five rounds. Even a perfect score isn't enough, and she's not so optimistic as to assume the brain is right behind them, but it's still a good deal to bet against. Her hearing's even starting to come back, little good that it'll do her here. The roar of her anti-material rifle, braced and now properly ranged on the position of the Meregho's head, continues to drown out everything in bursts. Only two shots actually get off before Kung Jin is there. Limited communication has such drawbacks, and the increased risk of fratricide drowns out the benefits. Rather than switch targets in the midst of doubtlessly growing chaos, she hauls herself out of her hiding spot, the sniper's nest having served its purpose, and slings her rifle. She runs, straight forward for a good three seconds, before veering off to the side and weaving around cover to get some approximation of behind the Meregho for when it gets back up.
August Kohler	As the Meregho Saeno powers up an electrical attack, August is ducking again, but it turns out to be unnecessary. The Tin Soldier's gunfire blinds it, and as it comes at him, August has his Persona move to tank the strike. But, again, unnecessary - the landmine stuns it, and the Tin Soldier takes advantage of this. Its gun rises up towards it, before spraying out a massive plume of fire, moving to immolate the birdfish. Staren has maybe a few moments of warning for the fire before it might reach up to him. "Fire's going. Rip it apart!"
Kutsuuko Shiratori	Seeing the punishment the giant bird is soaking up is genuinely kind of impressive to Kutsuuko. Of course, she's used to giant monsters eating up all sorts of heinous firepower without flinching, but as far as the beast seems to her, all there is to it is feathers and scales, skin and blood; a far cry from the kinds of energy fields and heavy armour that normally justify durability like this. When it turns to fire back, the God Eater moves immediately, abandoning her firing position without a second thought. No matter how good the vantage point is, it's never worth getting hit dead on. She's actually bracing for impact, tensing to throw herself as far away from the blast as she can, when the giant monster's elemental power fizzles out. "Hah!" yells Kutsuuko, turning on her heel and lunging towards the downed beast instead when it steps on her mine. "Hell yes! Move fast guys, those things only have power for ten seconds against something that big!" On the move and breaking into a flat out sprint at superhuman speed, Kutsuuko twists the split on her cannon's grip, and with a sound like an exploding car engine mixed with an eerily organic, bestial growl, it bursts apart into a hail of heavy, mechanical 'petals' constituting its frame, connected together via a dense web of inky liquid, which instantly yanks them back together into a completely different configuration. The barrel collapses down, the grip extends into a hilt, and a car-length, man-width, and wrist-thick blade snaps out to the fore, halfway between a katana and a butcher's cleaver, and already glowing white-hot with such incredible heat that it leaves a faint plasma trail in its wake of air. With that giant-busting sword equipped, she moves at a cross path with Moonfin, tackling the giant bird-fish from the opposite side and leaping up and over its back with a powerful leap. In midair, a flash of fire erupts from the God Arc's folded gun barrel, Kutsuuko rolls her whole body forward, the both of them accelerate wildly, and the gigantic blade spins completely around her at an absurd velocity and essentially buzzsaws over the thing's back.
Starbound Flotilla	"WoooAAAAH SHIT, catchmecatchmecatch-- Oof!!" "George! Take care-- Hrk!" "It's gettin' a frenzy, mateys! Hhhhrrrk!" "Starbounds Six, Five, Four, hit! Close and retrieve!" "Urgent. Almost have Biteblade on her feet!" "Grab friendsss! Floran cover!" Seft mostly has stims, and stims power through just about most debuffs purely by virtue of the rush of energy. This is getting Biteblade on her feet though, and Jin a quick boost into action! Two and a half Starbounders go down, but one comes back up. George is slammed hard off the wing, bouncing off the ground with a sickening noise. Pavo's similar, suffering even more of a brutal impact from those flailing wings, though her impact against the ground may be lighter. Moonfin manages to get his katana between him and that heavy blow, knocking him back and seriously overloading several sections of his armor but still leaving him on his feet, though his katana is badly bent from the creature's damaging blood. He rushes to retrieve George right alongside Albert, who has dived in off Staren to snag Pavo. Both clear out quick towards the back rows as Biteblade rushes in. Diving straight through a gap in the fire hazard, she rolls like an acrobat, comes up with a pair of heavy power daggers, and then diving right towards the creature. "Ssstaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaab!!" She's screaming, sliding under it, around the mine, behind it to avoid August Kohler's blast of fire, then back around to punish any recoiling stumbling from Apricot's heavy eye-shots with a leaping strike to the back, doing her best to soften it up just in time to dive to one side and let Kutsuuko's honestly superior stabbing power tear into it.
Septette Arcubielle	Even during the paralysis trap's effect, the Meregho Saeno keeps feebly trying to push itself on its lower wings, fighting through the shuddering contortions of its body to force some coherent movement into its limbs. It's helpless to avoid A-39 shooting out two of its remaining eyes, or to stop Kung Jin from mangling what remains of its face beyond recognition: his staff cracks its skull with a satisfying crunch as it permanently blinds the beast, and her bullets penetrate disturbingly deep into the soft sockets, drawing a thick dark sludge that just might be liquefied brains. Unfortunately, having less brains doesn't seem to make it any less angry- so much for the tranquilizing effects of lobotomy. Biteblade digs deeply into its back, slicing through layers of scales and muscle until it hits the bones of the Saeno's ribcage. It howls in incomprehensible fury for a moment before Kutsuuko follows up, cutting the spine itself in half horizontally now that its vitals are laid bare. Being lit on fire by August has more of an effect than might be immediately obvious: its feathers are the key to its building up a local electrical charge, and he burns them away from its legs and lower body, severely lowering its elemental affinity in addition to applying a damage-over-time effect. The fire is markedly less effective on the portions of its body covered in those cold scales, but it's still slowly burning through skin and flesh all the same. Staren's grappling meets with zero resistance initially, and he's able to easily seize its wings while the beast is still under the trap's effects. But any hopes that the hold might be easy to maintain, or that they might have fully crippled the monster by breaking its spine, are quickly dashed. The instant that the paralysis effect expires, the Meregho Saeno lunges at his mech with its chest-jaws open impossibly wide, scraping the machine's metal hull with its long pointed teeth and smearing it with magically caustic blood. Without eyes, and almost deafened by the roar of battle, the only sense that the monster can rely on is touch. Dozens of horribly thin, pale limbs ending in toothy spikes, more like multi-jointed arms than tentacles, erupt from its mouth as it grapples with Staren. Though they initially focus on ripping at his mech's armor, they swiftly elongate to dozens of feet, thrashing blindly around the arena and trying to constrict or stab anyone they brush against. + -- HANDS OF THE DEEP -- + TARGETS: ALL ELEMENT: PHYSICAL DAMAGE: MEDIUM EFFECTS: GRAPPLE It uses a half-dozen of the articulated tendrils to rip its wings out of Staren's grasp, wrestling him with the spike-tipped mouth-limbs instead. Its remaining lower wings, though looking decidedly worse for wear, flap once and launch most of their remaining feathers into the air around the tower. They're scattered by the winds in patterns that almost seem intentional, until the pinions form a hollow sphere of feathers hanging in the air that neatly surrounds the arena. Electricity arcs ominously between them: as long as the effect is maintained, getting in or out will be tricky to say the least! + -- FARADAY PRISON -- + TARGETS: ENVIRONMENT ELEMENT: NONE DAMAGE: NONE EFFECTS: NO ESCAPE, BOSS ATTACK UP
Staren	Oh right. It has two mouths. And apparently tentacles. THIS WAS A HORRIBLE IDEA! Also, standing with severed spine is another point in favor of it being some kind of weapon. No wonder it's doing all this supernatural stuff -- it's not just a bioweapon, it's a bio-MAGICAL weapon! The mecha's front is now being assaulted by acidic blood and spiky... pedipalps? Tongues? Not good. This assault leaves a mark. The finish is destroyed immediately, but the combination of acid and tearing spikes is digging grooves into the armor. While it won't be breached so quickly, the armor is noticeably thinned in the affected area. Staren activates the plasma swords -- basically superheated plasma artificially confined into a rod shape, extending from next to the mecha's wrists -- and swings wildly at the... toothicles, whatever they are that are scraping and grabbing him... as he rallies. "Nnnrrgh! Get offa me!"
Kung Jin	Kung Jin leaped back initially after a few moments of that wailing on the thing's skull. Overkill was his usual m.o., but this is something massive that could seriously hurt him at any moment. It's better to get distance, because he's not sure how long that thing is going to stay down. As it turns out, not long. But even this isn't the real issue. The real issue? The stabby, grabby, pointy things that are erupting from the ground all arround them. Stabby, grabby, pointy things that Jin doesn't see at first. Jin steps precisely in the wrong spot, and one of those tendrils grabs his leg. "What the--?!" He hits the tendril with his staff, dislodging it, only for a second tendril to grab his other leg. And this time, when he tries to swat at it, a third attacks the arm he's holding the weapon with. By stabbing him through the bicep. "Agh!" Even before he's done with the cry of pain, Jin is already transferring the weapon to his other hand. Since swatting the things didn't work, Jin tries another tactic. Aiming the open, roaring dragon head at the visible base of the tendrils, he begins firing... well, fire out of hte roaring dragon head on the end of that staff.
Kutsuuko Shiratori	Kutsuuko hits the ground at the end of her arc across the Saeno's back, bounces heavily once on the shock absorbers in her boot heels, and turns with the hopping motion to face the monster again. The heat generated by the Fervore configuration's blade is so immense that she doesn't stop to flick it clean of blood. The clear evidence of having severed the creature's spine, smoking gouge and all, tells her that the hard work is done. It's not exactly a 'core' in this case, but Kutsuuko has to guess that a spine is a good a place as any to instantly end a threat. Which is why it's all the more fucked up and weird when it stands up anyways. The God Eater is so fixated in morbidly fascinated shock that she almost doesn't respond in time to the sudden eruption of grotesque, flailing white sub-limbs. She raises Scarlet Symphony to deploy the shield, but has to settle for batting away the tendril-things with the flat of her sword as they crash down near her, until one the freakishly over-jointed things folds around catches her straight in the side. Kutsuuko heaves as the wind is briefly driven out of her, launched back mostly by her own reflex rather than just the force, but her flesh is, unexpectedly, extremely hard, or rather, it's sort of like layer of hardened metal or glass are interfering. Quickly squeezing the tear in her jacket, she finds that the unexpected stab is thankfully shallow, which means her bleeding will stop completely in a few seconds. She'd already juiced up with painkillers and stims before pulling the teleportation thread, and she is thankful that she did. The God Eater looks on at the giant bird wrestling with the giant mech, already calculating an attack path through the hazards around it, when the feathers release. Having seen this kind of thing from Aragami before in setting up for their nastier attacks, the significance is not lost on Kutsuuko. Her sword explodes into tendrils of ink and metallic petals again, and snaps back together as a gun. She toggles quickly through the ammo selector, and begins running towards an edge of the feather sphere ASAP. Firing the tremendous weapon while moving, barely slowed by the recoil, she ignites and fires what appears to be some kind of beam of hyper-focused flame at the crackling screen, taking a tip from the Tin Soldier's effectiveness in choosing her elemental ammo. She sweeps it back and forth to try and carve out a window in the electric net, widening it as she gets closer, in order to create what she hopes to be a blind spot; at worst she can avoid a super attack, at best, there might be room for other people, who she will call over.
Starbound Flotilla	George and Pavo are in the backline -- hopefully with enough cover to evade that awful grappling -- and too wounded at the moment to draw more attention, leaving them pretty effectively cut off from the fight, but the pair do quickly link up with each other, staggering and clearly wounded, and respond to A39's request as quickly as they can. "Over here, shortstuff! Up!" "Ahoy, lass, take flight!" They've linked hands together to ready up for an armor-supercharged massive leap for the small child soldier, and together they can muster enough force to launch her up to at least the height of the electrical dome.
Kyoko Takada	While riskier, it's obvious that Alpha-39 was going for a melee strike from a blind-spot to anyone actually watching her. Things change quickly enough again, as first Staren grapples the thing, and then it proves to have a significant grappling ability of its own, of a variety not guessed by its outer body's construction. But then, tentacles always seem to strike from nowhere when they're unexpected. The bad news is that A-39 is far too close to avoid this. The better news is that her rifle's put away, and her sword redrawn. She doesn't have the kind of instantaneous speed to avoid everything when this close, but her weaponry's been effective so far, and the first hand-of-the-deep to find her by chance does only a bearable amount of damage through her impact vest before she's stabbing her blade into it, twisting and cutting in a two-handed grip as much power tool as weapon. There are no real blind spots on a creature that's already blind, and her own ability to take damage and keep going without demerit is severely limited compared to something like a God Eater, but the range of the attack is enough to make nowhere around safe. And then there's the issue of the Saeno seemingly not caring not matter how many bones are broken. How the hell is its nervous system set up? There's a melee in front of it with caustic blood, plasma swords, the thickest concentration of grasping arms, and parts of it may still be on fire. It's probably the worst place to be. It's where A-39 goes. Additional attacks don't quite grab her, instead slamming into her blade, the impact carrying through to the extent of pushing her around, but not to knocking her off her feet. "Need to leap over it. Could use a target or a boost." Her hearing's more or less back, so she's pretty sure that's what she said, and pretty sure that George and Pavo answered. She sprints their way, sword still warding her side. She leaps for the Flotilla members, trusting enough in the heat of the moment that they'll get her high enough, and sheathing her sword in the process. She then takes flight, so to speak. Up and over the massive monster, as requested, and pulling items from her pouches in mid-air, pulling smaller items out of those items, and dropping a double handful of primed incendiary explosives into the fish-mouth.
Starbound Flotilla	Moonfin moves to rejoin the fight, but he's soon intercepted by dangerously grappling hands, and yanked in towards the fight! His torso armor crunches under the assault, but with a dramatic sweep, he stylishly manages enough damage in the area around him to extricate himself. "This creature moves with neither foundation nor reason. Something is quite wrong...!" His eyes gleam with a distressed thought. Parasitism? Infection? Something worse...? "Third Sea Hylotl Style: Waves Break Upon Shores." He rushes in hard. Biteblade is the one who recognizes this threat a little more than her comrades. Something about it reminds her of the arena of her sparring match with Septette. "Everyone! Floran think, isss worsse than jussst Meregho Saeno! Sssomething, very wrong! Don't try to target anatomy, focusss on damage ssscale!" She calls out, and leaps into action. Alright, what has she learned from the weapon most suited to this sort of situation? First and foremost: Probably don't try to bite into it. Second and most relevantly: Purge biomass on as large a scale as possible. Sacrifice materials to do it if you have to. She dives in too. "Overload elemental erchiusss gear! Go go go!!" "I've little intention of taking orders from you." "Then take them from me. Seft, supply!" "Alert. Right! Biteblade, Moonfin, elemental gear is going out!" Biteblade slashes through the many arms that menace her, suffering the effects of their awful blood straight on, as well as several severe stabbings up and down her body; best not to continue this any longer than she has to. But she closes in and leaps at the creature, plunging her daggers down and hopefully into it... And then overloading them, evading as quickly as she can before they blow out and detonate in a blast of elemental power. Seft tosses her a fresh pair and she repeats, again and again. She's trying to use them like armor-piercing explosives and blast its innards into a slurry. Moonfin matches the tactic. His bent and battered sword nearly shatters when he has to block another heavy strike from a mouth-limb, and in fact fully fractures on a third. But it holds together enough for him to rush in, try to stab it upwards into the roof of the mouth on the creature's chest, and twist the handle such that it overloads, detonating inside! Albert leaps back up atop the mecha as it's grappled, and assaults with a tremendous melee strike from above, discarding his rocket launcher and coming down hard with a heavy power hammer! He's trying to help Staren extricate himself, but he's also going for weapons that are more likely to shock through the whole system at once! Biteblade's approach here is being adopted by the whole group. Sacrifice material, just like Septette did. Overpower with pure elemental force, just like Septette did. Tear through with structure-level damage, just like Septette did. They only have a sneaking suspicion of what this is, but if it's anything like they dread, they need to use as many lessons from her as they can. It won't last long though. Albert, in his closer-range support role, is going to get taken out by one of those horrid hands if he's not covered, brutally impaled by one of the heavy talons at the end of it, and knocked out of combat shortly after he does his own melee. If that happens, Starbound will be down to two and a half units at best.
August Kohler	The flames are working, burning away that electricity...but even when it should be dead, the creature keeps moving. August and the Tin Soldier take a single step back, but the limbs are launching out of its mouth, moving to grapple August and the Tin Soldier. The Tin Soldier ducks in front of August, moving to wrap them all around it so August can get back, while he considers, falling to his rear as he stares up at the monster. Electricity is still being formed. Everyone's being grabbed and stabbed by these things, as one of them rips into the Tin Soldier's torso, causing August to bite his tongue from the pain, the Tin Soldier thrashing around. He needs to distract the beast. There's one solid way of doing so, enough for it to let go of everyone else and let them counterattack... The Tin Soldier sets itself on fire, pointing its gun on itself. The flames are aimed to gather on the limbs, but the fire burns against the Tin Soldier, causing August to fall to his knees as he's trying to stand back up, screaming from the pain of the fire. The Tin Soldier's face is one of despair, the smell of burning metal, but if this all goes well...the tentacle attack will be dealt with, as the fire is continously poured onto them.
Septette Arcubielle	Fortunately, whatever else these tendrils might be, they're not very durable! Kung Jin's able to inflict significant damage on their 'root' inside the Meregho's maw with his staff's fire attacks, causing them to weaken and wither in time for Staren to prune them back efficiently with his plasma sabers. Their construction, as seen in gruesome cross-section, is bizarre: they're endoskeletal, with actual slender bones inside each tendril properly articulated with joints. Unfortunately, they're also highly vascular, and flood the ground with awful sizzling blood when severed en masse! Pavo, in particular, might be interested in saving what treasures she can from the ankle-deep tide of corrosive fluids. Nothing nearby looks too valuable, but you never know! Kohler's method- outright roasting the delicate white limbs with self-destructive fire- seems remarkably effective at averting spilling more of that awful blood, albeit at a painful cost to himself. The limbs greedily wrap around the Tin Soldier, almost mummifying it in a full-body grapple... before they're scorched to cinders by the unexpected maneuver. Though numerous, the slithering limbs are decidedly finite, and there aren't enough left for any cohesive attacks at this point! In fact, there won't be any left at all if Apricot has her say. The dumb beast actively latches onto the explosives that she drops into its maw, greedily helping her by choking them down- and then they detonate right next to the weakened root of the tendrils, and the monster staggers backwards as fire erupts from its mouth, looking and sounding like it's choking on its own blood. The strangest thing about its mounting injuries is how the monster's condition is rapidly, even exponentially deteriorating. It would probably be able to stand up to a lot more punishment if it weren't being actively corroded by its own blueish blood, forcing even small holes or gouges to widen over time rather than heal. At the very edges of its oldest injuries, grey scales are starting to creep in- even where there were previously feathers- but it's unable to outpace the sizzling deterioration at this point. Now that they've had time to dry off, the feathers are even more vulnerable to fire attacks: Kutsuuko's pre-emptive flamethrowering of the sphere isn't just effective, it's catching. The pinions are dense enough that the flame slowly spreads across nearly the entire sphere, turning crackling feathers to useless ash. Down two wings and all of its uncanny tendrils, the badly-maimed beast has little to defend itself with. In a desperate defense against the Flotilla's equally-desperate elemental attacks, it pulls all of the feathers from around the arena directly in front of itself, trying to spin them into a protective mesh of coruscating electricity and quills... and it largely fails, when it realizes that there aren't enough of them left after Kutsuuko's sabotage to constitute a proper shield! They scatter in the face of the Erchius-powered explosions, still posing a shrapnel-like hazard but unable to form a coherent defense. + -- SHOCK PINIONS -- + TARGETS: ALL ELEMENT: VOLT DAMAGE: VERY LOW EFFECTS: NONE
Septette Arcubielle	Somewhere in the Elites' relentless onslaught, there's a tipping point: not from some solitary vital organ finally being pierced, or even from the total exsanguination as the Meregho Saeno seems to lose all the blood it ever had, but from no longer being intact enough for coherent movement. The beast flails, still trying to inflict harm on opponents it can no longer see nor even feel. But its movements are no longer purposeful, no longer intentional, no longer connect intention to action to consequence. Even devoid of anything to hurt, anything it can grasp at and destroy, it still hates. It thrashes and writhes and shrieks senselessly, gurgling and choking, until the weight of the attacks thrown against it pushes it over the slick edge of the tower. Any thought that it might survive is dashed by the noise that follows: a gruesomely satisfying crunch, followed by emphatic silence. Anyone brave enough, or morbid enough, to look over the edge will see it impaled on several different jagged rocks, feebly twitching on dying spinal reflex like a crushed bug.
Kyoko Takada	It isn't until Alpha-39's completed her flip and landed, taking the impact on all fours and rolling, that she realizes the damage done by the blood staying on her while she was slashing apart mouth-tendrils. Her left arm, fortunately, is armored. her right arm doesn't even have a complete glove on the hand, and the blood has sizzled through the sleeve of her shirt. She rips it away in a hurry, but it's too late to stop any of it from getting onto her skin, and she hisses in pain even while going through her items for something to swalllow that'll temporarily relieve the burning, and something else to spray that'll help neutralize the reaction. This will keep her busy for a little while, and too busy to go check that the beast is really dead, so long as someone is on that.
Kung Jin	And this is why Jin picked the 'blunt force and fire' route. Because he'd already seen what that thing's blood does to metal. He doesn't want to test his own flesh against it, since he knows his flesh is less durable than metal. Once he gets free of the tendrils, he heads to help Albert. He really looks like he needs it! Jin stands in front of Albert, trying to head off any more tendrils attacks with either smashing them with his staff or firing at them with the business end of the Dragon Staff. And then Jin winces as the electrified feathers slice at his skin as they fly through the air. Pulling his chakram, he tries to intercept as many of them in-flight as possible with the thrown weapon, but it's not easy. He can only throw that thing so fast, and it needs time to return to his hand. Finally the thing seems to have had enough, giving up the ghost, so to speak, and falling off the tower. Of course Jin is both brave AND morbid enough to look over the side. He wants to make absolutely sure the beast isn't just playing posson. So he looks for a good long while. Presuming it doesn't come back up? "Looks like a Fatality."
Septette Arcubielle	The sky is clearing. It feels almost like the entire world can breathe again as the clouds begin to part and dissipate, allowing sunlight through that pierces and evaporates the fog. An ordinary storm would take hours or days to dissipate, but it seems like the Meregho Saeno's will was really the only thing holding the weather patterns here together: visibility is already perceptibly improving. The nest contains prosaic treasures- if treasures can ever be called prosaic- ranging from ornate gold trinkets to simple bronze door-hinges. The teleporter beacon seems to be the only really remarkable thing there... except, perhaps, for a single gem, roughly the size of a softball. It's purple and opaque, shines with a peculiar luster, is remarkably heavy, and softly radiates dim magical energy despite lacking a clear way to harness or make constructive use of it. Off to the west, salvage ships are visible on the horizon, waiting for confirmation of the beast's demise and ready to take triumphant heroes home if they need to bum a ride- it should be safe to fly or teleport away now, but those who can't should only have to wait an hour or so to be picked up. Somewhere under the nest of branches is a surprisingly-usable staircase that will take one down through the tower's hollow interior to the shoreline. But to the east, in the small patch of ocean that the Meregho Saeno blocked access to, is something stranger. There's another island visible on the horizon- one that wouldn't have been on any of the maps taken of the region before the great beast took up roost in the stone tower. Those with the keen senses (or the magnification) to pick it out might notice old skeletonized shipwrecks on the island's shore... And smoke. Black smoke, rising in columns from somewhere near the shipwrecks. How long did they say it had been since anyone was last sunk here, anyway?
Kutsuuko Shiratori	Old monster hunting instinct and pattern recognition proves worthwhile. Kutsuuko pours on the gas when she sees the fire starting to spread amongst those no-doubt normally hyper lethal shock feathers, dumping the remainder of her ammo bar into incinerating the global attack sphere, until the dying gigabird's Last Word attack can no longer save it, and it finally goddamn /dies/. Kutsuuko can't help but look. After several seconds of staring, she posits an earlier theory. "You don't think it was some kind of parasite or something, do you? It looked . . . infected. Like one of those ant-killing mushrooms or something." When she finally looks away from the cliff edge and turns back to the nest in the clearing storm, the God Eater also goes for her binoculars to check out the wreck, chewing her lip thoughtfully at the sight. "I'm going to wait for the sailors. There's some intel I think I should ask for."
Kyoko Takada	Still hurting, Alpha-39 eventually gets the chance to start combing through for valuables. She needs to get paid, after all, or she'd have little reason to come when she could risk her life just fine back home. Something will have to replace all those lost consumables, too. Once done with that, she unslings and lifts up her rifle, using the scope to take a look at first the defeated boss mob, and then at the shipwrecks. "Maybe," she says to Kutsuuko. "What are they usually like?" It was "two hundred years" or something since the place was covered, wasn't it? Weird.
Kung Jin	Kutsuuko's suggestion gets a frown, and Kung Jin looks in her direction. "I was thinking that too. And then trying really hard to UN-think it," he replies. "There's tons of myths about creatures with second mouths on their bodies. But if it was infected, maybe that's what's making these things so damn violent. Not just that particular animal."
August Kohler	The bird finally goes down. August isn't able to help much else, because he's currently in a heap on his knees, the pain of the fire searing through him. He just sits there and watches the others, being fine with getting his payment last if it's through salvaging. Right now, he just wants the burning to stop.
Starbound Flotilla	PLEASE LOSE LESS BLOOD. At least, that's the only time Pavo has ever been thinking that really hard as she does her god damndest to just cram as much of whatever she can get straight into her matter manipulator. Gold!! A really rad as heck gem!! These are fine for sating Pavo's goldlust. This incredibly high-cost strategy was not something she liked doing, especially when it results in being knocked not just out of the fight but straight into dangerously damaged territory by further electrocution. Trying to get away from that acid was already bad enough, she'd suffered some major damage to her greaves! She's forced to retreat from her greed to keep her life, but not before it forces her into some critical states of damage, electrified and corroded badly. Albert, thank goodness, manages to escape without driving the Flotilla's sustained damage into deep red zones. Thank you, Jin!! Phew, that was a close shave. Biteblade manages to pull back to Moonfin and Seft, who manage to, between their shield and extra katanas, parry much of the incoming damage, blunting its impact. As the acid resolves itself away, and everything settles down, Biteblade lets out a triumphant scream from the peak, moving to the edge and shouting at the corpse of the monster. It's Moonfin who stops to contemplate this issue with Kutsuuko and Jin. "Etrian fauna are notorious for their hatred of all things that think and walk. But this seemed... More hateful. It seemed driven by motives purely destructive. And it seemed quite warped. Its blood was unsuited to its body. Its skin was host to strange growths, and lacked the plumage it seemed to instinctively believe it ought to have." He kneels at the edge and seems to ponder the lost foe. "Something may have changed in this ecosystem. It is a grim change."