Week 3 Mini-Event

[killerwaves]

MINI-EVENT

Congratulations, you've won the lottery this fine execution day!

Though, perhaps it really isn't an execution day, given the kittybots don't seem to be rousing people to go to the sandbar yet again -- but you're given no peace, because four of you will be beset by an absolutely infernal beeping noise. It would be familiar, if anyone but Zelkov and Haruka had heard it before, but no one has.

And now you're the proud successors of auditory cue hell: the insistent noise will lead you all the way to Kingfisher's Retreat, pointing you towards the waterfall side of the island. As you get closer to the crystal pool, you may start noticing disturbed sand and dirt, foliage... Almost like something large and not particularly delicate crashed its way through the growth and the footpaths, shoving everything out of its way...

Hmm. Surely there's nothing amiss here! But you may want to make sure you have your weapons on hand and your eyes and ears peeled.

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[chosenwang]

Leave you? Wouldn't dream of even entertaining the idea.

[ He doesn't need to be told what to do. He's going to use Winding Steps and run at the monster in a blur of color. He'll stop once he's in range to slash at the creature to get it's attention. ]

Keep your eyes on me! [ Whatever the heck he's even looking at ]

[killerwaves]

[Well, now that he's out in the light of day, Wang Lu will be able to see this terrible thing in all its glory -- it also has some of those strange dark globules, revealed to be a glistening purple, stuck on the sides of its head like a bizarre haircut.

And he'll also be able to see that Shuda's bombs did damage it, but the damage is infinitesimally small, some furrows along its torso... Actually, if he has the time to look closely enough, he'll see them healing in real time. So it's possible there was more damage. But also the healing is fast.

Wang Lu's own slash gains the creature's attention, but it doesn't bother to move away. Instead, it tanks the sword full on; the sword sinks into it....... but doesn't appear to do too much damage, definitely less than a cut like that should. In the meantime, the creature brings both its arms down -- aiming to grab the sword.

Luckily, this means that its focus is on the singular combatant rather than the waterfall cavern. Hope y'all managed to pop Temenos out of his shoe.]

[dupiety]

Many thanks, Shuda-aah!

[Having his stuck foot pulled on so tightly is a bit painful, to say the least. But with enough effort, there's a pop as his foot escapes the shoe completely. And the fun doesn't stop there! Just as quickly, the two of them are uprooted from the spot by Ibuki and go sailing out of the now-open cave.

To make their landing a little safer, he applies one of his defensive spells to the both of them.]

[dancing_flames]

[IT'S FINE, SHUDA'S USED TO BEING THE MEAT SHIELD what's it happening one more time--

He'll just sort of try to curl himself around Temenos to take most of the force of the impact when they land, since squishy healer and all that. Between the defensive spell and the water it's not nearly as bad as it could be, but it still jars his shoulder hard enough to send a sharp pain radiating down his arm despite the healing he'd received from the Green Race.]

Damn it--!

[divector]

[ Sorry Shudamenos! Time was of the essence!

And once they're out of immediate harm's way, Ibuki doesn't waste any time in trying to plan the rest of the group's getaway. While he can jump around, he's planning on floating himself out, using a nearby surface like a table or chair if available. Just because he can float himself doesn't mean he prefers to use up more energy than necessary. Something tells him he'll need to start watching his power usage soon.

But before that, he's more concerned about getting Wang Lu out. He has enough movement tricks up his sleeve, but that doesn't mean Wang Lu does, from what he knows. ]

Thanks, they're out! Need a flight as well?

[chosenwang]

[ Sorry Grape of Wrath, he isn't going to let you have his sword. He would never live it down later. He does back up away from the monster. ]

What kind of horror movie did you crawl out of? [ It's so weird looking.

And then there goes what looks like his wife in the arms of another sailing past. His focus is away for a moment before it's back on the creature. ]

Don't worry about me! Just go, I'll follow after!

[ He's going to try to leap back away further from the opening to keep it's attention on him and allow the others to escape. Charging up his sword again to send a medium strength energy at. ]

[killerwaves]

[The Nomu doesn't reply in so many words, but another weird squeal emerges from its jaws, which split in a ghastly grin. Who knows if it understood Wang Lu or just thought it was funny that its prey was talking to it. Whatever the case, since he's playing keep-away with the sword... it's going to move in closer to try and grab for Wang Lu himself.

That said, there is a limited amount of space around the waterfall cavern where the water is shallow and you can reach the bottom. It drops down pretty precipitously once you get to the pool proper. There is a bit of a path at the edges, though, which is likely what they used to get in here in the first place.

So there they are, dancing in this itty-bitty space, surrounded by half-broken bits of crystal and the others rolling around like bowling balls. Go faito win, Bowler Ibuki.]

[dupiety]

[Temenos coughs as he and Shuda hit the pool. Thanks to Shuda, he's pretty much unscathed, but...]

I'll heal you, Shuda. Here--

[He helps Shuda up and is about to cast a healing spell, but he catches the creature reaching for Wang Lu out of the corner of his eye. Sorry Shuda, he needs to pivot for a moment--]

Wang Lu!

[As quickly as he can, he raises his staff to send another ray of light down on the Nomu's arm.]

We need to get the upper hand or it's just going to keep healing off what we throw at it...!

[dancing_flames]

It's an old injury-- don't worry about me!

[He's grateful for the assistance getting back on his feet, though. And as he does so, he spots all of those broken bits of crystal lying around... they may not be a sword, but they'll do in a pinch. Lunging for one, he grabs it with his metal hand-- this way, even if it shatters, it won't hurt his hand.]

We need to focus our energy on taking this thing down first.

[Now that he can actually see its eyes, he's going to try to target them with some small explosions. If nothing else, hopefully it will temporarily impair the creature's vision enough to let him or Wang Lu in for a few strikes.]

1/2

[divector]

How cool!

[ Now that the shock of the grapes of wrath has passed, Ibuki grins and— ]

2/2

[divector]

But don't get too ahead of yourself?

[ —shifts to Moravia with a shower of sparkles. After another moment of thought, she decided that the extra energy expenditure was worth lessening the chances of touching any stray goop. Executing Plan Self-yeet (with a lighter form)! Unlike Plan Shudamenotoss, she has much better control over the trajectory and landing. Moravia weaves between obstacles before letting herself touch down on a shallow part of the water. ]

I see what you mean. Let's get them here so we can all have a heart-to-heart.

[ And by heart-to-heart, she means kicking their new buddy in the nuts guts. ]

[chosenwang]

Are you enjoying that I'm talking to you or are you perhaps mocking me? [ He'll raise his left hand to block that grab. Go ahead and try to grab his arm as a tweat.

He hears his name, and takes it as a cue to power up his sword again. He's going to send a much stronger energy wave at the arm of the creature while Temenos and Shuda work to strike it as well with their own abilities.

What a shame he missed the magical girl transformation. ]

[killerwaves]

[The Nomu snarls as its aim is thrown off by Temenos' strike -- as before, the hit doesn't actually affect it that much, but it does throw off its aim and divert its focus... right over to the two who just emerged from the waterfall. That is, however, when Shuda's attack strikes once again: the Shudamenos combo really is taking this Nomu for a ride. With Wang Lu's energy sword added to it, the creature does get staggered just a bit... sliding down a little on the shallow incline, debris falling into the deeper water. But it stops itself in time.

There's an angry squeal as it then does its best to dodge the bombs, which doesn't take out an eye but at least gouges its face and neck to some extent. More importantly, it does give them a little time to regroup from their scattered formation, and it allows Ibuki-now-Moravia free rein. The Nomu swipes at its own face to get out of all the smoke and stinging; even so, they can already see the hits healing.

It's probably a good idea to keep stringing combos and think of an all-out attack of some kind, or they could be here all day.]

[dupiety]

[Phew, okay, they bought themselves some time to regroup. Temenos calls everyone over.]

We cannot allow this thing to roam free, so we best take it down now.

With regeneration this powerful, we ought to concentrate our strongest attacks in a central location- ideally the head.

[dancing_flames]

Looks like a pretty good spot to aim to me. Assuming that really is its brain that's exposed, hitting it there might affect its ability to fight more than damaging it somewhere else.

If I can get up there, I can stab it directly, but that will mean trying to keep it in one place long enough for that to happen.

[divector]

Hmm, I want to save that boulder for now, so I'm going to play catch with them. Good luck!

[ With a wave, she jumps over closer to their rather ugly friend. ]

I hope you passed your hand-eye coordination exam.

[ Thanks for the free crystals and rocks, whoever broke it off earlier! She'll levitate a few simultaneously and send some flying towards the head of whatever fresh hell it is. Her plan is mostly just to keep its attention on her by harassing it with debris to keep it from moving away too much. She can keep them moving pretty quickly, so hopefully that's confusing enough for now. ]

[chosenwang]

[ Wao i'm the 69th comment. nice

Time to get closer to the others. ]

Feels a bit early for a finishing blow, but if that's what is needed here... [ He can skip to the climax. He's going to start charging up his sword while Ibuki- ]

Oh it's the other one now. [ More to himself. Anyways, he's going to focus on his sword and send all of his energy into it ] Ready when you are.

[killerwaves]

[Nice timing, Moravia! The Nomu is just about recovered from all the previous strikes, and has actually started lumber-galloping towards them like the worst football player in existence; it at least hones in on Moravia when she makes herself the target, and instantly becomes a baseball player, I guess.

By which I mean, things are about to get hairy.

Instead of trying to grab at the debris single-mindedly like it has been doing until now, the Nomu... plucks off some of the globules on its head and sends them flying at the debris she's leveraging at it. The grape-looking things are able to stick together and then stick to the debris, so while that makes the debris harder to move around, it's the other thing that may be a problem.

Namely, that one of the globules is flying at Moravia.]

[dupiety]

[This is so gross to watch, ew. But hey, maybe the debris-filled globs will come in handy later?

Anyway, he was planning to concentrate on its head, but it seems like there are multiple targets to worry about now. Time for some AOE.]

Oh no you don't!

[After chanting a prayer, what was once one concentrated ray of light becomes many smaller rays centered around the Nomu and the globs it's hurling. Hopefully that can make dodging a little easier for Moravia.]

[dancing_flames]

[Yeah, Shuda's with you on the "change of plans" part here, Temenos.

He may not be able to immobilize anything with his spheres here, but you know what he can do? Target some of them in between the glob and Moravia in the hopes that the backdraft from the explosions will slow it down at least a little bit and give her some more time to get out of its way.]

[divector]

[ Thanks for the assists! The larger debris still aren't a problem for her to keep moving—it's the globule that's an issue with her weakened powers. With the interference, she manages to dodge the bigger pieces of goop without dropping the debris she was levitating.

One ball, however, does clip her right elbow. Which is unfortunately enough to stick, but on the bright side, it wasn't her feet. Or bare skin. Because, seriously, ew. ]

—Not very fond of that move.

[ She's grossed out, but has enough presence of mind to start trying to add to her ball of debris, making sure to keep a few pieces out to throw at their eyes. While she can't move it as fast as she can before, it can't hurt to start building it up. ]

[chosenwang]

[ He can't really stop to shift gears, but he will pull out the two sets of kunai he has and hold them up. ]

Want another kind of projectile?

[ He'll plop them down just in case she does uses them.

Anyways, it's LEROY JENKINS TIME. Before it can start charging again and to kick off the final blow, he's going to use his super speed once again to run at the creature. Aiming for his head with all of his strength. ]

[killerwaves]

[Thanks to Temenos and Shuda's timely interference, only one or two of the globules make it through, to stick to the debris and Moravia respectively, but it's not too bad...? Hopefully. A couple of them drop wetly down into the shallows around them and fasten there impressively despite the water. Please watch your feet, once again.

As for the Nomu, it has stopped shaving itself, at the very least, but any debris hurled at it is either swept aside or crushed in its hands; unfortunately, when it comes to most things that aren't energy attacks or explosions, it's fast enough and strong enough to intercept.

That said, it's enough of a distraction for Wang Lu to get in close -- but the Nomu is still agile enough to brace itself and go back a step, because it's going to try once again to grab him before he can get to it.]

[dupiety]

[Temenos is quickly running out of skill points energy to keep up his light magic, but he's going to try to get in one last Holy Light at the Nomu's face to give Wang Lu an opening for his Super Special Awesome attack.]

Everyone, trap it and focus it down now!

[dancing_flames]

[Hey Maxeta, how do you like explosions centered right around your legs, because that's what you're getting right now

In the meantime, Shuda is also going to race in, hoping to just parkour right up the thing's body so that he can get better access to that (ew) brain.

WHY IS THIS HIS LIFE, HE HATES THIS]

We'll strike at the same time!