Duty Session 456: Zombie Jamboree

Since the start of the War of the Dragons, less people seemed to focus on the existing problems throughout Yamato. That doesn't mean those problems go away, however. Within Ninetails, undead still plague much of the area, even with the intelligent monsters sealed behind a barrier and no longer able to move their armies against the Landers and Adventurers.

The Hunters Guild still required brave souls to delve into the expanses of the dominion in order to help clear monsters out of villages that had been destroyed or overrun. Having already been in the area, exploring a strange location nearby with Cyrus, this seemed like an apt quest for Mikage to pick up to occupy her time.

The Ranger and her lynx animal companion linger at a distance, watching from the outskirts of the city and appraising the monsters within as she keeps an eye on the party, making sure the others are all gathered before they move out.

"This place looks pretty rough, but I'm mostly seeing low level mobs on the outskirts. So I don't think we'll have too much trouble getting inside."

    Some people do tend to neglect the foundational sorts of exercises like keeping down monster populations, yes. Fuka however isn't one to skip the metaphorical leg day. She views guild quests as training, and engages in them regularly so she can indulge herself in other things without the slightest hint of shame or guilt.

    Besides, these sorts of things are fun, often lucrative, and it's a good chance to meet other people! The diminutive Sylph looks down upon the city and sagenods, pretending she's anywhere near as good at scouting as Mikage. "Yes indeed. I'm not too worried about those guys. Gals. Nonbinary zombie pals. Whatever they are! Also hm... I know you like fighting from a distance. I guess I can do the same too, or I can always rush in. Guess we'll see how it goes, whether I'm *fire* support or a distraction!" she grins.

Even this early on it's somewhat obvious that Lunaris isn't really used to team work, and had an odd newness to her despite how long it had been since the apocalypse. Still she had managed to arrive on time at least to the little overlook to examine the monsters that swarmed around the area, even if her inbuilt bounciness seemed like she was only a hair's breadth away from zooming off somewhere.. And her fox companion wasn't really any better.

"It doesn't look too bad! Though I'm better at hanging back here I think," that's likely the first and last time she'll ever say that, indeed there is a faint look of disgust on her face as she looks over at the monsters, "I'll support you from behind! Pretty good at that. Probably!" Then firing a grin off to her companions she adds, "Oh! And this is my first quest. I'll try not to let you down."

"Let's try heading in through that side of town. It looks like there's an old cemetery that way, and it should be a bit less guarded." Mikage suggests, giving a nod to both Fukaziroh and Lunaris. Her lip quirks as she pats a sword at her side, "I can fight up close if I have to, but this weapon is just a little bit under leveled, so we'll see. I can usually fight up close with my bow if I have to." A bow that doesn't seem to be on her at first glance.

Rama, the lynx, ends up taking a position near Lunaris, almost acting as a guard for the lower leveled adventurer. "Rama will try to keep them off you if they get too close." She offers, trying to be reassuring as they head towards the village.

The cemetery, itself, looks Japanese, with family grave markers rather than burial plots. Throughout the quiet space, a few slow, shambling zombies are making their way along the rows. They will either have to fight, or sneak past some of them to get closer to the town.

    "Oh sure!" Fukaziroh chirps agreeably. "You can fight in close as well as at range, I just mean if it lets you dish out more damage I'll happily rush in to keep 'em busy so you can boink away!" she explains. "Of course that'd mean splitting the party and I hear you never want to do that, especially since parties are more fun when there's more people together right?"

    She nods to Luna. "Well, first timer, you be sure to boink the enemy a lot and I'll keep you safe!" Fuka says boldly, readying her axe. "I'm going to go be a distraction! You two have fun and try not to let them eat me because if I go zombie I'll be back here for BRAINS!"

Lunaris eyes Fukaziroh for a moment with a questioning gaze, as if trying to gauge her height for a moment before breaking into a grin and dipping her head at both and then Rama, her temporarily assigned protector. "We don't have to spread out that far! I fight at ranged anyway but you can just call back, you know?" She asks with a happy sway of her tail, and motioning forwards her fox Pecan suddenly stops being distractable and dashes to her side, "Ready for this Pecan? Going to need you!" The fox was more a ball of fuzz than anything remotely threatening, but that seemed to be their duo.

"We'll have your back! Or Pecan will! I don't really hit things," she replies with a giggle, motioning in the air as Pecan takes on a aura of blue mist, "It's all him! Just got to make sure I don't get.. Uh.. Overwhelmed. But thanks to Rama here.." And with that she dives on in.

Mikage moves to crouch behind one of the grave stones, intending to take the stealth option and avoid the zombies completely, but then... well, the others seem to get a bit more attention than they were bargaining for.

Though the shambling monsters are slow, they seem to cluster together, meaning that all three Adventurers need to expend far more energy than they might have otherwise to get past them. A bit of lost health and mana later, and the trio eventually leave the cemetary behind, though not without a few scratches to show for it.

As they head deeper into the village, they are first greeted with a sound in the distance. Getting closer, it becomes obvious that there are a group of armored undead trying to break into a nearby building. Rama yowls to get the attention of the others, the lynx looking upwards towards the flag dangling from an upstairs window.

"Looks like we might have some survivors inside. Let's see if we can take these ones out so they can evacuate." Mikage advises, reaching for her sword.

    Fuka's used to people giving her funny looks, partly because she often rambles and partly when they're assessing her height, which is to say looking down on her. Being slightly under 5 feet tall and waifish besides, she's used to it. And few things give her more wholesome joy than turning that assessment into respect by going full mighty battle fairy mode. This may be why she decides to rush in with her massive battleaxe at the ready.

    This may not be her best idea, truth to tell. She's surprisingly well armoured and tough, but more of a generalist than a dedicated tank. She's rather enthusiastic about it though, hollering and yelling in fierce fury more than pain as she gives and receives hits. Gives more than receives, to be sure, but the quest is still young. It's probably a bad idea to lose so much health to basically trash mobs, but at least Fuka's having fun!

    She gets a little more serious though, at mention of the survivors. As they move on, she nods to Miki. She presents her axe before her, but instead of brandishing it for battle she grounds the haft and holds it before her like a broad-headed staff. She begins a chant in runic tongue, tearing cobbles and chunks of earth from the ground to rise up around her, whirl, and fling themselves into the zombies. Bludgeoning damage, after all, is good against armour right? Besides, it feels right, smashing zombies away from the door. Stopping them from getting at survivors seems the right thing to do!

It wasn't so much a funny look as trying to place them, but it pretty much approximated to the same thing with all that Lunaris squints at the Sylph, really she wasn't too subtle, never had been bothered enough to hide immediate reactions, that was half of the reason that she was so excitable after all. But with that the fighting is soon underway, trying to carve a way through the hordes of monsters, and it really does start off well for Luna, a summoner by all respects in that her main fighting was done by a rather heavily enchanted Pecan tearing his way through swathes, sometimes aided by a quick spell to knock away zombies crowding them.

It goes all like this up until one of the undead manages to get up near Lunaris and groans in her ear, and she squeals, tumbling over in fright before her guardian manages to catch it, and scrambling away, totally shattering any and all attempt at stealth. A few rapid fire spells later and with much lower health and mana the area is just about clear enough to pass through.

"I-I hate z-zombies.." She complains, trembling just a little with ears lowered to her head, "W-why does there have to be something s-so gross...?" Though perks up quickly at the mention of survivors, suddenly prepared to help out, weaving barricades of earth to protect from further assault.

The undead, who must have at one point been guards, turn away from the building at the first sign of assault from elsewhere. Mikage tightens her grip on her sword, channeling a bit of magical energy from it as she charges forward and tries to hold the group. She isn't exactly statted as a tank, but it seems that the Were Fang is quite comfortable taking on this role from time to time, where needed.

Eventually, the damage is enough to eliminate the threat, and she calls up, "We've cleared a path, you need to get out of here." The sound of footsteps follows as a family of Landers comes out from the building, looking thin and frightened. "That way, avoid the cemetary. We'll circle back to meet up with you when we're done."

And the adventuring party certainly isn't done by a long shot. They continue into the city, clearing a few lower level enemies along the way before stumbling on an absolutely grotesque creature. it looks as if it is parts made up of a number of ghoulish beings that have been stitched together at odd places.

It moves towards them in an eerie, uncomfortable way. "What the fuck is that thing?" The Ranger has a tendency to swear under stress. "Fuck it, whatever it is, it needs to die... again."

    Fukaziroh doesn't mind Luna squinting at her. She's used to it, and besides she likes attention enough to clown about when a situation is not entirely dire. She's also uncoincidentally rather bad at stealth. With the family rescued, the situation is much less dire, and so she's a bouncy bubbly sylph again, using a mix of ferocious melee and quick spellwork to help the group advance.

    The conjoined ghoul-thing, however, seems to call for a different solution. "Ew." she exclaims. "Okay zombies are fun and all. Yeah they're gross and decaying and stuff, but if I know two things about zombies it's that a really big axe is awesome for removing limbs and heads!" she claims. Which is only one thing but Fuka's in full-on ramble mode so her thought train is skipping a track or two. "This thing... uh... oh I know!" she pauses, dips into her inventory and pulls out a potion. "Kill it. WITH FIRE!" she yells, throwing the potion. Turns out someone figured out how to make the equivalent of alchemical molotov cocktails, and that someone taught Fuka. And now Fuka's teaching a stitched-together corpse the secret of Alchemist's Fire.

Focusing more this time on making sure none of the icky zombies get close to her, most of what Lunaris contributes to the lander defense is walls. Wall of dirt and stone that eventually collapse after enough of the zombies gather to batter at it, only to find a Pecan rather raring to leap out and strike from the dust and rubble. This time it's a much better attempt, able to pull herself back together, at least for helping defend others. As the rubble clears and combat slowly disperses, she yells over to Fukaziroh, "I think I was.. Told to meet you! So.. Lovely meeting you! I think that's what Haru said.." Her voice just audible over the dying massacre, though she doesn't really explain why, just flashes a small, relived grin at being zombie free.

That is until she spots the Ghoul and squeals, jumping back and flicking up her wrist in complete agreement with Mikage, "Pecan k-kill that thing! I-it's awful!" Trying her best to hide behind the were-fang as the fox leaps at the creature, trying to chew at it's arm with totally savage fangs. "W-why's it got to be gross zombies a-and thiiings!?"

It is a second time that Mikage tries to close the distance and keep the monster occupied, but unfortunately it doesn't go quite as well against something this large. One meaty limb flails out and slams her backwards, causing her to impact a nearby building. At once, Rama also cries out, the two sharing a health bar, both of which decline at the same time.

"Ooof. Ow." Pushing herself back up, Mikage lightly clutches her side, sheathing her sword. "Okay, these are way too high level for me to be using this weapon." It really needs to some work from a skilled smith, but that seems to be future-Mikgae's problem.

The group, however, manages to defeat the gruesome creature, though it does wiggle unsettlingly for a few moments before bursting into pixels of light. The rumble from the creature's destruction seems to be enough to rouse something else, though.

From above, a group of skeletal monkeys start to make their way down, throwing tiles from roofs and leaping at the Adventurers with claws and skeletal fangs. "You're new to Ninetails aren't you? Undead are... kind of a thing here." She says as she wards off one of the creatures, trying to knock it towards Rama's waiting jaws.

    Fuka grins at that, going a little sappy at mention of Haru. "H has absolutely terrible taste but he has a pretty good grasp on what I like." she mentions, pleased. This probably says more about Fuka than about Haru, admittedly, but that's what the little Sylph is going for. "And right now what I like is these obnoxious things being re-deadified!" she beams.

    Glancing at Mikage, Fuka frowns. The werefang is tough admittedly, probably tougher than Fuka herself, so she offers no complaint or doubt about their progress. It'll be fine, despite their rocky start to the village. Fuka's just now hitting her stride besides!

    "Speaking of re-deadifying..." Fuka observes as she's pelted with something rotten. "MONKEYS! The only thing worse than undead is undead MONKEYS!" she screeches. Seriously, they're the worst! Fuka whirls her axe, attempting to call the winds to mess with monkey poop-flinging aim and push them back from their assault, but there's only so much she can do while being relentlessly pelted by relentless little horrors! Fortunately whirling the axe around has its own sort of magic to it and she can contribute to taking care of the monsters but this isn't exactly ideal for the little sylph's well-being, or her mental health for that matter!

Lunaris keeps her eyes mostly closed until the horrific ghoul crumbles into pixels at the combined efforts of the group. One advantage of the party system? She didn't need to see to realise that buffs had expired on her companion, and just hoped that Mikage would manage to keep her safe and away from the creature. Something that she has to crack an eye open to at the cry, flinching and backing away with a noise of displeasure, instead finding furniture to hide behind as she flicks another enchantment towards the fox. Distance fighting. Perfect.

As the quietness prevails she giggles awkwardly and nods over to Mikage, "N-no.. Always avoided anything but the forests.. Never really been here until I picked up the quest. It's all gross and scary! W-why would a-anyone choose to be a necromancer!?" With that she snickers, finally relaxing and peering over to Fuka with a nod, "Yeah! I think we were talking about crafting stuff or something?" Her head tilts to the side, apparently having forgotten entirely why she was told to find Fuka. Not that she has much more time to think as she spots the horrible, awful monkeys and lets out an ear-piercing squeak, her fingers rapidly tracing a sigil in the air, which alights with a deep purple.. And then going awry explodes in a flash of bright white light as she scrambles to get more than three meters away from the things!

Seeing the chaotic battle against the monkeys, Mikage raises a hand, "Get behind me, I'll take care of them." She starts to channel elemental energy around herself. It crackles like a storm that is barely contained as she draws a strangely mechanical rod from a holster on her back. A crystal at the heart of it glows, and only once everyone is in a safe place, does she let it blast outward, sending the monkeys scattering at the cost of quite a lot of mana.

The group finally reaches the far end of town, having left a number of re-deaded undead in their path. Things seem a bit more quiet now, suggesting that they have certainly made some kind of impact, even if some of it is collateral damage to buildings from fights that got a bit out of hand.

As they approach what looks to have once been a noble's house, it becomes obvious that one of the sources of this undead meanace is a powerful, armored ghoul that looks as if he had once been some important member of a town millitia.

The guard captain draws a sword, moving with smoother motions than the other zombie brethren they had encountered. A red glow forms from within hollow eyesockets.

    There could be any number of reasons Haru would recommend someone meet Fuka. Her general enthusiasm, her work in enchantment, her love of sweet things, or just knowledge that Fuka enjoys seeing people who enjoy their obsessions. Probably not much opportunity for the latter ones here given that everything is rather unpleasant, but you'd never know that based on the bubbly cheer that keeps rising to Fuka's surface despite all the nastiness.

    "Nice work!" Fuka cheers as Mikage blasts the monkeys, then proceeds to scrape gibbits and other less savoury things off her. "I am so having a bath when we get to civilization." she says, blathering on. "That's how you know it's civilization. Baths. Specifically HOT baths. And soap!"

    As they proceed, Fuka peers at the noble's house. "It's totally going to be a vampire. It's ALWAYS a vampire. I'm totally ready to ruin a vampire!" she claims, almost chanting the line. Only, this time, it's actually not a vampire! Awww.

    Still, Fuka had a subtle spell readied and it seems a shame to waste the preparation. Loud vocalizations totally aren't necessary, but drama is fun! Her normal casting tongue being runewords, calling out the name of the attack isn't something she typically does but for particularly flashy results she prefers doing so once finished the actual chant. "FLAAAAAYAAAAAH!" she cries, thrusting out one hand and sending out a flare. Which might well be what she called out. Then again, the way the globe of flaming light clings and burns, she may well have been calling out flayer. Or both. Both is good.

Lunaris doesn't need to be told twice, scampering quickly behind Mikage as they start to channel their spell. Truly, it was not the cait sithe's finest hour, ears down by her skull as she clutches her hands close to her chest at the incoming skeleton onslaught, even if it did paint a somewhat adorable picture of her practically clinging to the other members of the adventuring party. Finally the monkeys are no more and she starts to try and peek around a little more bravely, "Th-ank you.. I'm glad I came with you both. You're really good at this!" To Fuka she shoots a timid smile, thankfully mostly clean since she was all but using a human shield, "A-a bath sounds lovely. Don't think.. I'm coming back here soon.. Hot bath!"

With that her head turns and she spots the shambling creature, this time thankfully steady enough not to shriek at the new thing approaching and instead putting on a rather brave smile, "N-not a vampire.. But fire seems to work so far. Nothing like.. Barbecue?" Trying to hit a joke as she weaves her hands into the air, movements pulsing with a foreign power, Pecan letting out what might amount to a growl, if he were anything other than a fox. More of a yip, as wisps of fire start to escape his muzzle before he dives at the creature, maw open.

"Definitely not a vampire." Mikage lifts a hand to her nose, pulling up a scarf to ward off the smell of death. She extends her hand, drawing the weapon she'd used earlier forward. It shifts mechanically into a bow, the parts glittering with elemental energy.

"Rama, watch over our new friend. Let's pull out some DPS." Because DPS is what she actually does best. Drawing out an arrow, she fires it towards the sky, creating a deluge of storm energy which crackles and flares before engulfing the enemy.

This is joined by Fukaziroh and Lunaris' flames, creating a complete cataclysm of elemental energy that surrounds the undead captain. It manages to get off a few shots a tthem, but it seems hard to move with so much damage being aimed at it.

Eventually, it gives one final roar before faltering and falling to the ground, still burning for a moment before scattering into pixels of light.

"That one was probably the source of all the trouble here." She murmurs, lowering her bow. "You both okay?"

    Fuka beams at Lunaris' praise and smile, not modest or restrained in the slightest. Not in this at least. The smile falters at the attempted joke however. "Ewwwww. Barbeque? I don't want to eat anything with THIS smell!" she complains. Then abruptly switches back into cheer mode. "Just kidding! Food is good, AFTER we get the stink out though!" she insists. Hot baths, here she comes.

    She looks down at the master of the town, being brutally smacked down by powerful magics before bursting into pretty pixels. "Yeah, I think we're done here. I'm fine! Nothing that a little soap and light mana won't fix up! I'm, ah, a little tapped out for light mana right now but we should be able to heal up before we get back to the nearest town. Uh... do either of you know where that is? I'm lost and a bit stinky right now, and I'd rather not be either for long!"

As the creature explodes in a shower of flame and storm, Lunaris finally gives out, collapsing back onto her butt with a sigh and the kind of shudder that runs through your entire body, causing her tail to puff up before landing down besides her. As Pecan returns she quickly looks him over for any cuts or bruises past the usual, then eyes his maw with a look of faltering disgust, "Sorry Pecan.. We'll get you a nice treat to wash that out. Hopefully the fire helped?" His answer, unsurprisingly, is a yip and cuddling in against her. To Fuka she just sticks her tongue out in reply, her cheer returning with the likely safety, "Wasn't meaning eating them! We've got much nicer stuff!"

After managing to collect herself just a bit a nod is given over to Mickage along with a soft giggle, "Yep! Bit bruised, heart going too fast, but I'll make it out! Thank you both though again.. I really wasn't.." Gesturing around to the general dead air of this place and shaking her head, "A.. Town and bath sounds wonderful! Though I've.. No idea where we are."

"I should be able to navigate us back to the closest town." Mikage replies, taking a moment to remove a piece of jewelry hanging from one ear. Rubbing her finger over a chip there, it glows faintly before creating a visualization of the entire town's mini map, complete with structures, monsters, and people.

"We should backtrack this way and pick up our survivors, then head east." Her finger follows along what looks to be a trade path heading off in that direction.

Then, looking at Lunaris, "Don't take things too hard, you did amazing if this was one of your first quests like this." She offers a gentle, shy sort of smile, "Any battle you can walk away from is a good one, these days."

Rama seems to join in the sentiment, siting next to Lunaris and giving a 'mrowl' of approval. "When you're both ready, we'll get going."