Duty Session 459: The Phantom Colosseum

    Wake is positively energetic. She's waiting for her team to gather up, shifting lightly from toe to toe. It's not quite fidgeting, but it's as close as she ever gets to it.

    "This time we get it. The drop is here and everything is going to be perfect!" She says perfect with such strong emphasis that the boat captain looks at her nervously. Sure, she has a great reputation, but nobles are generally more than a bit touchy in the best of times. This one seems extremely focused and if she's disappointed he wants to be nowhere near her.

Kauchemar stands next to wake, leaning on her staff. "It's going to work sooner or later," she murmurs with a nod. Can't deny the lady has the determination to get the thing she wants.

Haru is doing one of his 'we are going on an adventure' warm ups along the beach. That is to say there is a 4 meter tall rock golem with drills for arms whrring out battle music (Eye of the Tiger) while he jogs along the sand trying to catch a two tailed black cat. Clearly the eye of the tiger is Eve in this situation. "Going to go back to the arena. Going to beat up a bunch of fishes," the Artificer adds in, words to a completely different song about peaches. He is in a different kind of high spirits today. Weird spirits.

    "We've gathered the dream team!" Fukaziroh notes, grinning as she looks around at those present. The combination may not be utterly perfect, they may not be the most capable people Fuka knows, but they're all wonderful people who have the skillz. Even the newest member, one Fuka doesn't know all that well, seems useful and fun besides. And isn't that what really counts? "You can count on me! You can count on US!" Fuka promises. "And we're totally not going to drown this time either!"

Lunaris arrives with all the energy of a cat that has hit their hyper bouncy moments, darting around the area and trying her very best to spot the Colosseum off in the distance before remembering that the team she's been assigned to may actually be somewhere around here. And given how few people there were, she really should have noticed beforehand. So she soon zips over to the gathering crowd and gives a little incline-maybe-bow, "Hello! Think I'm mean't to be helping out! We'll totally do it!" Boundless enthusiasm. Truly. Her eyes light up even more when she spots Fuka and Haru, offering them both an extra cheery wave. Then, "No drowning! It's bad for you!"

"Lady bombast! Lady bombast!", Uta calls out to Baroness Wake as she rushes forth, staff slung across her back against her flattened wings, carrying a baisin full of water. "I had the -best- idea ever!"

In her haste to reach her destination, she doesn't even notice the rest of the party.

Once she's close enough, she places the baisin on the ground, and after inhaling deeply, she begins, "Let's assume that this is a scale modle of Lake Eas! Now, all we have to do is find a sufficiently large-"

There are ripples on the water in the baisin. A slime, whose regular size is still large enough to fill most of the tiny vessel, breaks the surface and emerges. Jaws theme optional.



Beady eyes blink. Smile.

Uta, who had just inhaled, looks down, swats at the air in the direction of the blobular creature, and whispers, "Shush you, you're ruining the surprise!"

    The Baroness is fired-up. The Right Clothes today are positively on-point for adventure. She's decked-out in a form-fitting black bodysuit made of some kind of shiny material. Over this she wears a duster made of the newest of Gwen's works: denim. A pair of knee high, black boots complete the outfit. She doesn't have sun glasses, but she really should get some.

    She manages to pull off a perfect curtsey in this outfit, her duster cast back rather like a cape. "I am Baroness Wake," she says, though at this point does she really need to introduce herself?

    "Today we are going into the colosseum once more in search of the witherless rose! And today, we are going to triump and return with it! Your help means a great deal to me personally, as this is not a quest for power, but for love and appreciation."

    Uta's breathless introduction breaks up the seriousness, but it also leaves Wake smiling. "Hello Uta, my dear. So.. you want to make the Lake Eas Monster, then?" Why is it ideas this crazy sound so appealing?

    "In any case.. yes, this is the time, I just know it." She also knew the last time was it. "And.. well, I suppose we should get started and talk on the way!"

    In short order, the adventure begins in earnest. With a trusty, but young, adventurer piloting the vessel, things go smoothly. There's a nice breeze, a pleasant pitch to the sea without serious waves, and beautiful music!

    Music?! It's sirens! Which isn't a big deal for most of the party, but the pilot seems rather drawn to the sound and throws the wheel into motion, steering the ship right towards the sandbar on which the sirens wait!

Ears raise, and then Kauchemar lets out a soft sigh of exasperation as she picks up the auditory hazard approaching. "Really, they never seem to learn..." Sure enough, it's the Sirens come to try and lead them astray. "Well, I guess it's time to try to rest of this baby out," she muses as she stands, taking Grindcore in both hands and holding it as one would a mic stand, the skulled top near her mouth. And unleashes her own musical whail. Which is amplied by the staff's enchantments. Not only does it drown out the Sirens' singing, but several of the vocalists stop their seductive singing as they instead streak and cover their ears, then dive back under the water to escape the Nightmare Bard dropping some major bass on them.

While on the shores there is a casually cheery wave from Haru back to Lunaris as the whole 'party assemble!' activities occur. "Look if Sirens start singing at me, then /some/ Drowning may occur. For the advancement of Enchantment, Music, and dance moves. Whats a little oxygen amongst a good time?" It is important to know the expectations when going into a Duty with Haru. One can expect a good time, not a perfect time. Perhaps a dreamy time, thus he is on the dream team. This is all made moot by the scale model of Eas. "Whaaaaaaaaat," the Enchanter says as he jogs on over. Suddenly this is more interesting. "Uta, you've outdone yourself. A resort for Fuka? Its even to scale!"

Responses and retaliation to his antics aside, Haru is rather useful while on a nautical vessel. That is to say if you put a crafter on a boat and his field has nothing to do with sea vessels? You get someone who is along for the ride. He puts a foot up on a railing like he is a captain, "Yar. I see avast swaths of land grabbing bilge off the seaward deck, yar."

If the human /had/ cat ears, they would be quirking in Komi Cant Commuicate fashion as he hears something. "Wait." Haru looks to Fuka with the one good blue eye. The singing. The Sirens. "Oh yeah," and, in true to form for Haru, he begins dancing. Hands up in the air like he don't care. Wiggle to the left and wiggle to the right. Wave those hands and wave em all night. This time around he isn't dancing off the side of the boat though. He knows more than a couple songestress are on board and its time for the battle of the nautical bands. Unz unz unz.

"I wasn't going to saying a 'Lake Eas Monster', buuuuuuuut it's totally a Lake Eas Monster." She rubs her chin. "'Lake Eas Monster' is so intimidating though. We should find a better name. Eassie?" Chin rub. "Neassie? Hm. Messie? No, no, that one sounds too much like it's 'messy'."

Uta notices the rest of the party right at this moment, and bows to them. "Kauch! Haru! Fuka! Person I've never seen before! Hello!" She bows to Lunaris. "Uta Furore, Aerialist, Musical Kung-Fu Nurse, Friend of Gelatinous Creatures, member of the Loosely Organized Open Network of Students-" A pause. "We definitely need a better acronym for that one..."

Navigation. And then! The sirens! They sing! "Time to gather -more data-!", exclaims Uta, excited, who whips out a fountain pen, a notepad, and begins to scribble down musical notation (-again-, for those who saw her in this mission before), while attempting to harmonize and countersing to limit or divert the effect of the Sirens.

She perks up at Kauchemar. "Now, -THAT- is one good item! How does it work? What does it do? What's its name? Can it do tricks?", she asks, interrupting neither her frantic note-taking nor her singing.

Yes, she -sings- the questions as part of her harmonizations.

Lunaris darts almost instantly over to where Uta is, gawping at the slime emerging, and apparently taking precedence over the introduction offered until a good half way through as she and her pet fox gawp at the thing, offering it a little wave and giggling. Finally her eyes dart up and she gives Uta a wide grin, "Oh! I'm Luna, and this," she gestures to the adorable bundle of fluff by her feet, "Is Pecan! It's lovely to meet you!" Almost actively avoiding giving herself any long title in the meantime, "And your slime is adorable!"

Introductions done, it is to aboard the waves, watching as an adventurer clambers out to be with the sirens, and honestly seeming pretty affected herself before the music drowns it out, settling for trying to plink the things with spells to try and harry their songs and meeting rather mixed success. She couldn't exactly send Pecan out on the offensive. So instead she sways along to the cheery musical, letting that keep her safe.

    Fascinated by Uta's demonstration, Fuka shows a grin of warm and fuzzy fondness when the slime breaks the surface. THAT is her Uta. Well, not HER Uta, not exactly, but there's a reason the little sylph wanted to claim Uta as near-sister. "Lake Eas Blobster?" she suggests with a smile, a little too soft to be a smirk. "Also, I don't think we need a new acronym, that one's perfect for us!" she adds cheerfully.

    Fuka of course knows about the sirens in this area. With a baleful warning eye cast Haru's way, she prepares some countersong. Lacking her own Grindcore, she nonetheless has a certain talent for disharmony and disruptiveness, not to mention volume. She adds her own sort of style to Kauchemar's production, being quite competent backup (or possibly downlow) for the master mouthster.

    For her part, Wake is all about being practical. Practically ANNOYED. "These ship pilots are simply unacceptable." Her glare is subtle to those who don't know her. To those who do, it's as threateing as a scream of pure rage.

    The Baroness raises a hand, bent at the elbow. Her hand curls up to strike.

    "Fist bump!" she calls out merrily.

    And that's when she knocks the pilot to the ground with a sudden jab. She then takes the helm. Did I mention The Right Clothes gave her a pirate hat to go with the rest? Of course it did.

    "Hang on, everyone!" Wake's no sailor, but you turn the wheel and the ship turns. It's not rocket science, right? The ship does miss running aground on the sandbar, thankfully.

    Wake is no expert pilot, however, and the ship, though it does reach its destination, doesn't arrive quite where it should. The subdued pilot says nothing about this. Which means he has learned wisdom.

    The party does some searching here and finds a strange man in dreadlocks speaking nonsense.

    "Parsneau.. parsnallop... parsley.. parley! I.. know the way ye be goin', mates. But the rum's gone. Navigation tool." He smiles, showing a set of teeth that have never known a dentist, but seem quite familiar with a goldsmith or two.

"It's called the Grindcore Staff," Kauchemar replies, leaning a little to keep her footing but otherwise unphased by the jerky movements of Wake taking command of the helm to get the boat to shore. "It's made to syncronize my music and dark illusionary magic." Then steps off the docked boat like it was nothing. "And use them to control the elements. Of course..."

Kauchemar reachs out towards the exile, hooking the horns of the punk metal skull in what remains of his tunic to tug him back in their direction. "Entirely still usable as a weapon." As she holds him just far enough off the ground he can't scurry off when he realizes he's not getting his rum so easily. "Anyone want to play wack the pinata?" She's specifically looking at Fukaziroh.

    Fuka enthusiastically claps as the Lady Bombast fist bumps the enchanted captain, while continuing to countersong the sirens. Haru might be wise to regard how Fuka approves of physical responses to such things! Not that she'd ever ... fist bump him. Nooo, not at all. She'd never get physical with him! Well, not like that at least. Besides, she uses weapons not fists. She lets others assault people using just their body; Fuka's REFINED about that sort of thing!

    Still, the group sails on past the sirens, even if they end up getting a little lost along the way. It's okay, they can keep on going just fine right? The beach is nice, and something she might revisit when they're done the attempted run. For now though, they seem to have an alcohol-deprived ex-pirate to deal with.

    Unfortunately, Fuka lacks booze. Fortunately she isn't bad at negotiating. Or 'negotiating'. She looks around, considers. "Nice place you got here." she comments, with regards to the little shack. Then she shuffles over to a chair and stomps one of its legs with her steel-clad boots, causing it to SNAP alarmingly. "It'd be a shame if something were to happen to it!"

    She grins at Kauchemar, and that grin is NOT a very pleasant one. "It's a good thing we're in such a hurry to get in through to the colloseum! Why, if we had to hang around looking for a secret entrance, there's no telling HOW MUCH damage we might cause in our search!"

The Artificer gets the silliness out of his system with limited response. There is a lot going on and too much to respond to everything that is. So long as they have a good time and make their way through without anyone checking in with a Church! That kind of danger comes in later on. "Better," the man with the monocle says to himself with pride. He disengages with the stride of pirate adventure in his step and hops off the boat with a dull thud into the sand. It dawns on him. He realizes that they docked on the wrong side. "Ahhh," the human emotes as he does a meme worthy check to the left and check to the right with his arms out. "We are on the alternative side," the Enchanter informs, as a man who has been here several times remembers the two ways in. "So that means that we need to talk to that guy again." Funny. There is no 'guy' around besides Haru. There are doors. There are doors in the sand like a descent into Hades.

And thusly the party continues on as thusly as it can thus until they are in front of Captain Mac Jericho here. "Isn't Parley a kind of herb?" Haru asks the quirky pirate as a quirky Enchanter himself. The two are sharing a brainwave, as frightening as that is, on the word associations. "Wait, no Barely. Or Parsley." The man's tactics is neither the route of charm or intimidate. It is the route of 'confuse'. Which is not horribly effective when the two boneheads are sharing a confusing brain length. The two could start into a Whos On First routeen effortlessly if they are not careful. He shakes his head, "I can see diplomacy has failed us." He has only sympathy for the man, patting the poor fellow on the shoulder before walking away. Should have chose peace, welcome to violence! Ladies, have at!

"Pleased to make your acquaintance, Luna! And Pecan!" She bows to the Adventurer and the fox in turn. "Thank you! Your fox is adorable too! Now, and her me out, if I could get a fur sample of Pecan and prime a slime with it, do you know what we would get?"

"Blobster. I like that," she comments to Fuka. She jots down notes with her pen.

When they reach Dreadlock Man, Uta... trips. Just trips. And stubmles, slamming against the man's beach table and breaking it in two, tumbling further, ruining a chair, and rolling and flailing around like a tornado of accidental destruction.

Also yes, somehow she ends up with her head in a bucket and one of her feet stuck in a metallic flower pot.

Finally and pleasantly back on land after the encounter with the Sirens and runaway boat, Lunaris lets out a giddy sound of relief, darting around the little island having been couped up for too long. Too long being more than a minute. No. Less than a minute. She wasn't good at the whole thing. Her fox was apparently much of the same mindset, running around and yapping to the skies, after all he didn't really like wet fur. Which was probably a good thing for peoples noses.

Her eyes do turn to admire Kauchemar's staff, looking rather impressed by the thing and even more so by the explanation. To their new efforts she can't really provide a hand, she wasn't that type after all! The fact Pecan picked up on the negotiations and started growling at the man, appearing far faster than he could be and nipping at exposed heels was not -her- fault. Foxes. You just can't always control them. Very spirited beings after all. The only noticeable thing was a blue thread of magic glowing on Lunaris' fingertips. In the meantime she happily chats to Uta, letting off a soft giggle at the request and a slow nod, "Nice to meet you too! And as long as I can have one too! I have no idea, but it sounds adorable," her tail swaying happily at the thought.

    "Guide us or I'll treat you the way the Dukedom treats all the pirates flying the wrong flag. You do know that I'm Baroness Wake of Eas, yes?"

    Wake's expression is relaxed, but her eyes are focused on the pirate in front of her and if she's bluffing, there's not even a hint of it.

    While she is focused, that isn't to say she doesn't hear Uta doing her.. you know, it's unclear what that was meant to achieve. The ways of the Loremasters are mysterious, indeed.

    The mixture of threats and very real physical danger seem to be quite persuasive. The pirate quickly leads the way to the colosseum proper. While the group gets ready to make their descent, he lingers there, staring at Wake expectantly. "Rum?" is all he says. A narrowing of her eyes and an opening of her mouth-possibly to request Kauchemar and Fukaziroh use him for a bit of combat practice-sends him positively racing away.

"Always such a delightful visit with that chap," Kauchemar remarks as the exile hurries away, the sarcasm in her voice so thick even Uta would be hard pressed to miss it's sarcasm.... Though she's also on a slime bent so she probably would miss it anyways.

Turns her attention back to their passage inward, and the inevitable stairs down into the sunken flooded passages. "Welp, once more into the depths. Hopefully everyone can handle the PRESSURE of the situation and keep up on the CURRENT affairs. Time to sink or swim!" Terrible puns made, she dives in, having had more than enough practice at this hazard by this point. It's just a matter of holding her breath, and as we've seen already with her powerful voice, she has pretty powerful lungs to hold all that air while manipulating the currents around her.

The passage through the corridors doesn't come with quips and puns. Any second they are going to come across the infamous room. The room of legend. The room of drowning where the oxygen bar is more than just a cute decoration making you aware of the breathing mechanic. Fresh water is the first indicator. Haru immediately starts looking for the runes as his purple monocle lights up with lines of white carving into it like fine laser etchings. Semicircule circuits. "I'll work on the runes," he lets the large party know. He doesn't check if they heard him. It won't be long before the room is flooded and several of these things need to be adjusted before the currents become the real problem. His hand runs over the runic carvings and traces them backwards, drawing out the intensity as the water rushes. The rest he has to rely on the group to handle water and navigation as he concentrates on the dampening effect.

    "Oh hey I actually recognize this place from the last time I tried to go through here!" Fuka notes cheerfully. Well, sort of cheerfully. Okay, there's a definite note of anxiety in her voice considering she almost drowned last time and had to be rescued while on her last legs... or last breath. Since then however, she's prepared. She does her stretches and limbering exercises including jumping jacks and arm circles and toe touches. No telling what any of that is meant to do, but the little sylph practically vibrates as she dives into the water.

    This time, when the current surges, Fuka's prepared. She strikes out physically, swimming with all the might of a mighty battle fairy, choosing her destination instead of letting the current push her around. And, with the help of the others who use their magic and watery skills to likewise cut through the water and find their objective, it seems this time they might succeed! The secret, it seems, is to refuse to be pushed around!

"I suspect it might originate from the French 'parler'," Uta mumbles to Haru, lost in thought. "I should double-check, but my reference material is temporarily out of reach in a completely different world."

And then, the dreaded -currents-! "Water!", exclaims Uta. "Why does it -always- have to be water?!"

Uta swims like crazy, and her success in swimming upstream is particularly remarkable due to her wearing a bucket on her head and a pot around one foot.

Lunaris is rather glad to see the back of the exile after the group manages to 'persuade' him to guide them to the passage, truly hard won with a great deal of encouragement. Though the real challenge was now upon them, the terrifying prospect of actually having to swim, and not drown. The latter part being the most important, and Pecan was already starting to protest as soon as he sees the tunnel full of seawater. Truly a terrible fate indeed. She wasn't too worried about the whole breath bar herself, the kind that tries desperately to ignore any kind of GUI for 'immersion' which probably explains a good half of her close calls.

Sure, she doesn't have the experience of being here before like the rest of the group but at least she takes to it like a fish, using her magic to simply walk through the water like it wasn't entirely there, not even her hair getting wet. And to Pecan's relief, being her companion it applies to him too, earning a good few dancing frolics, and Lunaris gives a couple of amused giggles at the others having to swim, with buckets.

    "I really hope that this is the time," murmurs Wake. "The colosseum is simply not my cup of tea." The puns she is used to. And the near drowning below she's also become accustomed to. Fortunately she is far more successful than last time. Nobody has to save her! When they are finall out of that mess and on their way to the next mess, she explains to Lunaris, "This tunnel is taking us to.. oh yes, one of the fighting arenas. It's no trouble at all, though, barely an inconvenience!"

    And in short order, the group steps out into the open, to the.. is that cheering? It's hard to tell with Sahuagin. Translated, the cheer goes something like this: "Uhhgglllaglglgl mglglgl!!" Things can be lost in translation.

    Staring across the arena at the enemy, Wake deadpans, "Be a shame if something bad happens to my nice, new jacket!"

Haru notices that they are not out in the open water. Thus, they have succeeded in the hard part of this Adventure. Little victories! He gives a clenched fist 'booya' pump while dripping wet. While he /could/ menu dry off, that is not the New World way. The New World way needs to be more complicated and involves magic. Haru conjures up a circle of wind around him in one hand and summons a small bird of fire to heat it up until he is in no risk of catching a cold. Fuka is invited, a reminder of the last time they did this, if she wants a full body blowdry. A hand fixes his hair as the Enchanter moves on.

"And now for the thing we all signed up for when we hopped into a world of adventure and mayhem," Haru provides a narrative overture to the bloodthirsty sounds of combat that presents themselves. A hand motions out as he holds onto an orb in his hands. "This one requires pacing," he says as inky blackness fills the orb, "and we get the big finish at the end." No double meaning there. Not at all. He fires his load at the first thing that gets close as he paces back. Cloth wearing Wave Artes user sticks to the back of the formation. Another spell causes the ground to rumble, sweeping and tripping up the enemies. Most of Haru's attacks appear to be debuffs that mix in damage dealing finishing moves. With a party this large he focuses on the debuff while his orb gathers in more crackling energy from the surroundings for a larger summon later on.

Kauchemar strides out of the water passage with the same ease of someone stepping out of a swimming pool, pausing only to shake some of the water out of her glamrock mane. She already knows where this situation is going to go so no need to get worked up over the fact they've come out right into the middle of a fish fiend free for all. "Everything according to plan so far." She reclaims Grindcore from her back, the skull sockets lighting with an eerie otherworldly glow as she does so. "Deadly depths of dark despair, casting down my dire stare" Bolts of magical energy start to pew pew pew from the skull's eye sockets, creating a sort of minature laserlight show that sends Sahaugin scattering to avoid being blinded more than actually hit anyone. Theatrics still matter though!

Lunaris lets out a gasp as they exit into the arena, scanning around the place in surprise and giving a good nod to the Baroness, "With you lot I can bet on that! An actual arena.." Her words almost a happy sigh, not at all worried about the fight that is to come, no, it wasn't like she actively fought anything anyway. Her fighting style was unsurprising for a summoner, lavishing strength on another creature, though usually they weren't a knee height fox. But you couldn't have everything. Besides, as she weaved her hands in the air, Pecan's claws and teeth began to glow a deep purple, and off he dashed like a furry bolt of black and silver, smashing freely into each Sanghain in their path. It's not too affective past distracting the creatures and giving them another target to lob spears at, her lack of actually decent equipment becoming far too apparent in the fight while she stood back, shouting commands and dancing around any attack she could manage, otherwise hiding behind whoever happened to be her current shield from attacks. She may as well when they were so gladly providing. Like Haru. For his bad double meanings that earned a groan and glower from her.

    Flushed with success and exertion, Fuka slips out of the water and shakes herself off, the motion accompanied by the jingle and rattle of her armour. Ah yes, she wears plate-and-chain. Yes, she swam in it. Mighty battle fairy. The wet feeling won't persist, but she's not about to let it get her down even a little. "I was thinking of changing my hairstyle anyways!" she claims cheerfully, said hair now plastered against her scalp. Of course she also accepts Haru's invitation, snuggling in quite happily to soak up warms.

    Alas, they still have much to do, and cuddling will have to end for now so that they may pursue a more immediate target. Snuggles may resume later, naturally. Progressing, she sees the wave of sahaugin incoming. "I think this calls for an AXEiom!" she shouts, brandishing her weapon. "To be, or not to be! Whether 'tis better to die screaming, or to run screaming like a little bi... fish!" she screeches, wading into battle and showing once again why one should fear the tiny physical specialist.

Violence! HP loss! Wounds!

This is an exciting time to be a Musical Kung-Fu Nurse. Surgical arms, now it is your time to shine!

"Sorry for keeping you waiting... coming through... medic...", Uta calls out, as she twirls, ducks, kicks and punches the Shaughins that stand in her way.

She slides between Kauchemar and a Shaugin; as she elbows the latter (who's behind her) in the face, she extracts a tongue depressor and points it at the Nightmare "Kauch, please open your mouth- wait, are you a gift?" Quick turn towards the Artificer, "Haru! No! Arms aren't supposed to bend that way! They aren't -actual- noodles! Stop- Fuka! Try not to lose any legs this time, I'm out of regrowth potion and you'd have to wait until I prepare some!" -- "Lady Bombast! Uh... good job. I'll visit you in a moment." "Lunaris!" Pause. "I haven't forgotten about those samples. We should definitely make that fox slime."

Of course, while performing her medical duties (and distributing healing potions -- by tossing them around while doing cartwheels and backflips in the air), Uta keeps punching and kicking every Shaughin wihch has the misfortune of finding itself in her way -- or within the reach of her limbs.

    Ah, the joy of the arena. Battle is something the Baroness rarely gets to partake in as of late. It's not her favorite thing in the world, but absence does make the heart grow fonder, as they say. And with some positively brutal elbow strikes, she is soon creating an absence of Sahuagin. She takes a few sidesteps, placing herself between Lunaris the bulk of the enemies.

    Wake suddenly declares, "Tae used to tell me that you can't simply punch your way out of everything. And she's so right! It's time for an homage to another friend of ours.."

    Wake turns and takes hold of a terrified Sahuagin that had thoughts of charging past. With her arms wrapped around its waist and in a remarkable burst of strength she lifts and throws it in a german suplex. The creature lands with a crunch that puts all chiropractic efforts to shame, and renders any correction for the victim useless as it bursts into pixels.

    "I learned that one from watching Syx! I can't wait to tell him about it!"

    It seems that the battle has drawn the attention-and ire-of the leader of the Sahuagin. According to inspect, his name is Warlord Garglr Gurgrglrglr. Or something like that.

    With a crackle of electricity, he leaps into the arena with a warcry! Or perhaps he's trying to say 'hold my beer' or 'there is a fish special on the menu'! Most likely the latter, considering what this group has done to enemies that have come into view thus far.

It is time. At the end of a wave of lesser enemies there can only be the big bad at the end. Haru remembers this from the last time and has been conserving his mana to bust out an appropriate Summon. He know sit is time when the roar of Sahulkin, Hulkiest of all Sahuagin, is heard vibrating throughout the arena. "Lets do this," he says as one hand comes to his ear. No headphones, but it doesn't stop him from bobbing his head to the beat. A tap of the foot that becomes a steady rumble on the ground. His orb is ponderously pulsing in colors earthen stone, cracked with the pulses of music as it becomes a heart that beats to the beat. He throws it out into the arena. "Terra. Vocare. Terebro. Numerus. Terebrare. Hostis."

The orb never hits the ground. The earth of the arena rises up to meet it as if drawn in by a gravitational well. The loud crunches of stone that assemble a torso, legs, arms all to the beat of the music. The metal sonic whrrs of what sounds like drills as a four meter tall stone golem roars back at Sahulkin when the two huge drillarms burst out of the rock-like arm sheaths. The Wave Arte orb sets firmly in Terra, the Earth Summon's, chest as it stomps forward to overhead drill down into the beast with enough pain that it causes Rapture and a bit of Bioshock to the creature's eletrical systems.

"Luna," the Artificer notes as he channels mana into his magical-item hybrid elemental summon, "meet Terra." Unz unz unz. "That guy over there is in for a Terra-ble time."

Musical Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIr4C5Ztlcg

It is serious time.

Uta utters a sentence that so many heroes have uttered before her, and so many will afterwards: "Time to mess with that fish's bloodstream."

A classic of fantasy literature, indeed.

Uta pulls her staff from behind her back, where it was slung, and clasping it between her hands, she slams its bottom extremity against the ground, gem pointed at her opponent.

She intones a rapidly shifting tune, sounding vaguely like a gurgling stream, which crescendoes into the roar of a mighty waterfall.

Tendrils of light and magic dance on the staff, focus on the gem, and project a beam towards the champion. Circles of magic surge, sweeping past the opponent, until a blast of transparent 'liquid looking magic', for lack of a better term, engulfs him. A status effect appears on the warrior: <<Doom>>.

"Hit hard, folks!", Uta yells. "It can't heal!"

Lunaris watches with absolute fascination as the Baroness manages to suplex the Sahuagin straight into the arena floor, even interrupting her own spell to cheer for a good moment, bouncing on the heels of her feet. Sure, they were all mid-fight, but you had to celebrate these things! And no one had actually told her there was a time and a place to do such things. Not like riding a bike. Besides, the Baroness was volunteering to be a human shield, and that truly did deserve such a reward at the very least, "Get them Baroness! Suplex the big ones!" Clearly, electricity was nothing to be afraid of.

That apparently helps the Cait Sithe get into the groove properly, for once focusing on something other than petting adorable animals and actually calling upon that magical power at her fingertips, a crackling of electricity running along her arms as she points towards the warlord, and with a gesture it arcs, crackling over towards them, trying to fight fire with fire. Getting caught up in the moment, she giggles before declaring in the creepiest (not very creepy really) voice she can manage, "Unlimited Powaaa..." Only for her to hear Haru call out to Luna, instantly distracted by totally her name and shouting out, "What you need? Who's Terra?" Before proceeding to get lamped hard by a Sahuagin that snuck up on her. Thankfully Pecan coming to the rescue.

    Fukaziroh cheers for the symphony of violence inflicted on the Sahaugin by everyone present. Beams of darkness, fury of battle pets, flurries of fists, kicks and suplexes, and of course her own axework. The group works like a well-oiled machine, decimating the gladiators. Suffering wounds of course, but none too severe, and they have a pocket healer besides!

    Before too long, the waves of gladiators cease, and the boss leaps out to challenge them. The arcing of lightning makes her want to go one on one against him, lightning for lightning. An epic challenge, considering how interested she is on going all-in on air magic. But she lacks her lightning sword at the moment. It's yet to be revealed, its mana capacitors currently being saturated in an elemental solution that should increase the amount of mana she can slam through the weapon. A shame... but that's not her only possible response here.

    Fuka nods towards Haru. "You're a terra indeed!" she says, saluting. "In that sense though, I've been learning and I think you ought to find the results less than boreing!" Fuka smirks, grounding her axe haft hard. Breaking into a sonorous chant she invokes fire and earth, arrows, range, force, destruction. Words in an alien tongue that burrow into the ground of the colloseum to bring forth a cylinder of earth, then pack it full of shards of stone and flaming torrents of energy.

    The mouth of Fuka's mighty cannon spitting tongues of flame, she levels it at the warlord. "Do you know what happens when you ground a lightning bolt? The same thing that happens when you ground a fishman!" she cries, and fires the cannon. An explosion sends out shards of stone, not only doing significant damage to one of the boss's health bars but actually shredding its armor as well.

It's a grudging fight, but fortunately they have a Pocket Healer Spriggan along to make things less of a slog on their health reasons. "Certain people present might claim as much!" she retorts to Uta with a cackle, and a wink in Wake's direction, before turning attention back to the fight at hand.

Especially when the biggest baddest fishman of them all leaps into the arena. The crackling from his electricified entrance making the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end, though it just gets a cackle of glee out of the Nightmare Bard. "Finally, the top dogfish himself has come out to play after all these tries." Her eyes are gleaming even as she grips her staff in performance position. "I hope you're ready to Rock, because I'm on a Roll now!" Followed by a soft 'ahem' as she composes herself, holding her staff at the ready, her act starting out with something a bit soft yet ominous, almost chanting.
"o/~ Seismologists all say tectonic plates are in-between; incroaching crust on mantle yeah so what's the heck that mean?! o/~"
And that's when she jams the butt end of the staff into the ground to shift where her projections are going to go. Followed by her going into actual singing, loud and boisterous.

" o/~ It means A Quake! A Quake! Oh really yeah a quake! You kinda got that feeling when the ground begins to shake! o/~"

And as she does so the vibrations from her voice, tuned with her Earth magic, rolls outward from her to do just that. The ground of the arena rumbles and cracks, upheaving beneath the Warlord to upset his footing. While the chunks and spires of stone that burst out of the seams attract the lightning from his attacks, drawing it away from the rest of the party and grounding it out.

    Seeing who the enemy is, Wake is sent to a whole new level of energy. It's as if /she/ were the one crackling with electricity. There's a kind of bounce in her step as she bobs in closer and closer to the heavily beset enemy.

    She slides away from one attack, hopping back as insane earth attacks leave the enemy in a horrible state (who brought the rock titan?!) Settling in patiently, Wake crouches down, like a coiled snake waiting.

    The opening comes a moment after Uta shuts down the healing and Fukaziroh nearly blows a hole through the enemy. With the ground shaking and the enemy struggling just to keep to his feet (or are they called flippers?) she strikes out. It's a "blink and you'll miss it" moment. The Baroness of Eas, mistress of curtseys, best dressed and mannered at the ball, BITES the neck of the Sahuagin Warlord.

    As the burst of pixels swirls around her, the Baroness looks up at the crowd and sends them into a swirlig stampede as she speaks.

    "Now... who is for dessert?"

"Well." Kauchemar lets the vibrations die down once the Warlord is pixilating. "Looks like he couldn't scale to our assault, and now it's fin for him." It's okay Wake, your Court Bard has you covered for the punny Bond Lines. "He didn't trident hard enough. So Terra kicked his asphalt. He didn't get curbstomped, he got stomped by the curb." Please someone stop her before the party turns.

"Terrable puns," Haru says as he walks over to give his large Earth summon a pat on the leg. "A stones throw away from too much, so keep them rolling." One final pat and Terra goes back to the ground, the orb rolling down and back into Haru's hands.

"Nice technique, there, Fuka! What's that?", asks Uta in the middle of combat, sincerely amazed by Crucible Cannon

When the fight is over, Uta approaches Terra. "Good job there. You really know the drill," she comments to the Elemental. "I might need your assistance for some dental work." She turns to the rest of the party and hurries to add, "It's for monsters! Monsters at Setsuna's menagerie!"

"This one, Lunaris. This one is Terra," Uta gestures to the Elemental. "Big drill arms, sick beats, wuvs the wubs... can't miss it."

Uta squints sideways at Kauch. "And Wake did away with its head. It's been Gill-o-tined."

When Wake asks about who's for dessert, Uta raises her hand. No words necessary.

Erianna sits back up as she rubs her cheek that rapidly grows more red from the strike, grumbling something rather inaudible about paying attention. Though finally back up and looking around she darts to the elemental at Uta's gesturing, eyes shining lovingly, "That is gorgeous! Uh.. They are gorgeous! Nice to meet you!" Then as an aside to Haru she gives a small, playful, glower, "Introductions should have probably waited until after the battle though!"

Shifting away she zips over to the Baroness, offering a half-bow a little too energetically and making herself just a bit woozy, "Thank you for keeping the things away! And that suplex was really cool!" Pause. Then for a bit longer as her head tilts, "Why did you bite them though..? That can't have tasted nice." Before there is a chance to answer her attention zips back to Uta, adding, "Oh! I'll give you some fur when Pecan sheds again. Shouldn't be long."

"Why not?" Kauchemar adds in aside to Lunaris. "Sometimes life bites. Sometimes we bite back." And then smiles a slightly creepy smile, showing her narrow viper-like fangs.

    Overjoyed for success and for the accomplishment of Wake's goals (and for Fuka herself to be productively useful to dear friends of course), Fuka basks in triumph and glory and the cheerwarggls of the crowd. Well okay the crowd isn't really cheering since their champion was defeated, but you'd never know that by looking at the way Fuka's mugging and pumping her fist in victory.

    At least, that is, until Uta raises her hand. Fuka stops, stares, her mouth dropping open. "O-oh my~!" she abruptly cries out. She's not sure if she misunderstood or if Uta did. Or for that matter what Wake really meant. But it's time for Fuka to do her thing, taking the situation and making it worse! "Uta, how bold, volunteering to be dessert!" she exclaims, setting her own spin on things. "As sweet as you are though, I'd hate to see such a thing in our moment of triumph! You might want to save it for the after-victory celebration! These sorts of things need to be savoured at the appropriate time after all!"

    With the enemy in a desperate retreat, Wake lets out a sigh. Her attention diverts to Lunaris, "My apologies, dear. That was most unsightly. I was simply fighting tooth and nail for what my heart desires, and in the course of helping others with carpentry, I had misplaced my hammer." See, she couldn't use nails because she didn't have... explaining just ruins the joke, doesn't it?

    The levity is set aside, though, as Wake claims the Witherless Rose. It's twin is drawn from Wake's inventory. And so she stands there in the now-silent colosseum, holding both of them, lost in thoughts that she gives voice to.

    "The castle is ready. The roses are in my keeping."

    A deep breath and a whisper.

    "It's time. At last, the waiting is over."

"Thanks, Lunaris! We need to perform that Experiment!", Uta smiles at Lunaris.

On the notes of "As Time Goes By", Uta absent-mindedly sings, "You must remember this, a fish is just a fish...", until she realizes her misunderstanding. Blushing deep at Fuka, she flails her arms. "No! NO! I am in -favour- of dessert! I don't- AGH!"

Blushing ensues, of course. Luckily, the Baroness wraps the adventure for the group. A convenient distraction!