Duty Session 482: Spooky Scary Skeletons

So there was an event she didn't get to deal with last year? Why a massive load of costume orders. This year with the war not so much other than her making light armour. She also needed a break from her current training as well. She might find materials here which could be of much use to this desert. She did see the undead and other strange things given the job from the guild was good? It was fairly easy to find it and Gwen would look into the distance.

"Well ya'll ready? This looks like it is the place. It's time to start clearing things out."

Between Gwen and Mizuki, Jazz has been dragged into this thing. She's mostly too terrified of Gwen to tell her no. She might try to make her wear something again -- or worse -- introduce her to her mom.

Thus, the Sea-Witch is present, glancing towards Mizuki once. She wasn't hard to find, after all, being Mizuki. She tucks her hands in her coats poacket.

"Ready," she intones casally.

Syx has shown up, taking the time to crack his knuckles and shake himself out, "This one's just a straight up fight, right?" He says, as he gets ready to go. Seems all he's bringing with him is himself. But that's par for the course for him these days.

    Mizuki is a bit more... morose than she's previously been during the holiday. The encounter with the Ash Wight was not pleasant, but clearing the haunted house restored her spirits somewhat.

    Certainly, she at least shows up in costume, and human form for once: Her hair is brushed for once and dyed purple, with bangs in front, held somewhat in place by a red alice band with a star decoration on one side; The costume itself consists of a red sleeveless tunic with chinese-style fastenings offset to one side down the front, with a white sash around her waist and over a white blouse with short but poofy-shouldered sleeves and darker red shorts almost like bike shorts. Red fingerless gloves and boots matching the tunic, and a necklace with big purple beads matching her hair, complete the outfit.

    Her left arm rests in a sling that's presumably not part of the costume.

    Mizuki keeps looking between the horizon, and down at herself, seemingly surprised and frustrated at something; she keeps pinching at the upper part of her tunic to adjust it.

    It may have to do with the heat and her spending almost all of her time in furry were fang form, and suddenly having to deal with sweat. When her gaze meets Jazz's or Gwen's eyes she awkwardly looks away. When her gaze meets Syx's eyes--

    The same face she looked up into after nearly falling to her doom during the balloon test and being caught in his arms, which further reminds her of falling and having to be saved similarly AGAIN recently

    --she *blushes* and looks away.

    Oh thank goodness conversation. "I did it before, but I don't remember exactly... I used a lot of fire, and I think music at one point? Wait, was dodging their attacks sort of a rhythm game? That sounds right, I think that was a thing."

Gwen nods to Syx "Aye it should be."

She also looks to Jaz grinning at her. Gwen bouces in place a bit as she bobs her head at Mizuki and off this party goes. So there's a problem here aside from teh heat. Gwen's glad for her armour though. The old Heavy Blade set lets her actually vent heat a lot better than her full plate does.

Up ahead are undead a whole bunch of undead very strange ones. Clealry ghouls that at Jerky form the looks of it. There's a whole lot of them it would be best to try and sneak by them or otherwise deal with them in some way that avoids direct combat.

    Mizuki does think of something else to ask Gwen, "Who are you supposed to be, anyway? I'm sorry but I don't recognize the costume..." She may be an arm down, but she's still a ninja, and a feline were fang at that. She transforms and pads across the dunes, careful not to alert the undead, using a bit of earth magic to make her steps more sure on the loose sand.

The fact that Mizuki is in human form has Jazz doubletake, really, but soon she's focused on avoiding the net of the skeletons, trying to bnlast the occasional one with a spray of pressurized water artes. You know, the kind of thing she does. And apparently, quite proficiently today, too, as she's able to avoid even taking a single point of damage the whole time. She had to double check to make sure Mizuki is who she thought she was, in fact, given how long it's been since she saw her as Not A Tiger. Just to make sure.

Syx is not really the best when it comes to stealth, so he figures he'll just dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge his way through the undead. Except one time he ducks when he should have dipped and gives away his position and has to fight his way out. It's not pretty.

Gwen says "Oh not normal costume this is na set of armor from Fragment I used to use! Found a dungeon that dropped gear from SAO and Fragment!" She seemed pretty chipper about that. Gwen has thing go batly but the good news it with the effors of the rest they get past the undead without getting into a fight though it's a very near thing due to Gwen's mishap which happens to cover for Syx's own issues. Gwen notes to Mizuki. "You look good."

Gwen then stares there are skeletons machine in time almost to music? She can tell that much then they start to throw bones at the party much to the same beat. The bad news is Gwen isn't so hot with Song...

When the bones start flying, Syx holds back for a few moments, dodging them as he listens to the sounds that's being made, "Hey wait a minute." He knows he's heard this before. Which means he knows how to get through it. But he's going to need a partner.

Syx rushes forward, grabbing one of Mizuki's wrists and pulling her out into the path of the bones. It looks crazy at first, until at seemingly the last moment Syx dips Mizuki and the bone passes right past them, "This is gonna sound weird but trust me. Follow my lead."

It seems Syx has figured out the pattern to get through the bone storm. The problem is that it requires dancing and he needs somebody who'd be able to follow the beats and know the moves at least decently enough to get through it. He has a feeling Mizuki will be that person.

With Syx leading the way, Jazz wields together a mixture of mud and sand with her artes to try to protect herself from the bone storm. Her success is middling, and ultimately, she takes a bit more damage here than she'd like. Bleeding and bruised, she emerges with the others throug hit, dusting her hat off with a twee little grump.

"Erf, uff," she offers, "That was no fun."

>It's not a costume
    Mizuki just slumps and stares at Gwen. "You... love making clothing so much... But on the holiday devoted to cosplay, you don't take the opportunity..."

    She's really stunned. "I've... I've wished I could have done this more than half my life..." -_-; "Although, I guess people who aren't in my situation would have had the opportunity to cosplay as all their favorite characters outside, huh..."

>You look good
    Mizuki immediately stands up straight and beams with pride. "Thanks!" n_n

    As they approach the marching skeletons, Mizuki bobs her head in time to the beat. "Ah, yeah, I remember this now..." she tries to remember the steps as the skeletons approach...

    ...And then Syx grabs her good hand. "Huh?! What are you doing?!"

    A bone flies over her head as she's dipped. "Hey, we don't need to..." she starts to explain, but soon has to twist out of the way of the next thrown limb, and with Syx holding her hand it turns into a dance move. She transforms back to human so weird feet won't throw either of them off, and is too focused on dodging to complain or argue further.

    At some point she gets into the groove of things, dance-dodging (or dodge-dancing?) with nary a thought, leaving her attention to wander to Mr. tall, white-haired and semi-bare chested over here.

    This is... fun!

    But... there's something else too. Afterwards, she's left catching her breath from the dance, looking up at him, blushing, not sure what to say. Is she just psycheing herself out and mixing herself up? Is it just part of the joy of dancing? *What is it with the greyish-haired boys today?!* She likes *girls*, right? GIRLS. Even if none of them like HER that way.

    She's left lowering her gaze slightly and just sort of staring through his chest, lost in her thoughts.

Gwen will trust in her companions a Syx has an idea. So her she goes she will follow Syx lea using some earth magic here and there to help with supporting everyone else. With song and magic, the party can get through the whole affair.

"Oh I have Mizuki! I did a costume of Haru this year but it kind of got ruined in the Peko race..." She looks sheepish at this.

The party can defeat and or get past the bone tussle they had to deal with.

Its seemingly okay, then undead burst out of the ground and they are fast way too fat they seme intent to grab and bite whatever exposed flesh they can get their undead forms on. These mummies will dog pile Gwen uhoh this could be trouble.

As Mizuki comments on the holiday, Jazz (who didn't so much dance as bully her way through and suffered the consequences even as she followed), brushes herself off and replies, "... I'm going as a witch." Her tone is particularly dry here. "Or a maid. I can never be sure."

... and then the undead are bursting from the ground. She stops for a moment. Looks at them. It doesn't take too much to start a fire, does it? Not when they're all wrapped in highly flammable linen? Just a few sparks drawn from the ambient heat of the desert by her artes and FWOOSH, a pillar of flaming mummy.

"...you know, I don't really get a lot of use out of my fire magics -- mostly just steam -- but I'm occasionally glad I can spark things off." Blink. Stare.

As Mizuki comments on the holiday, Jazz (who didn't so much dance as bully her way through and suffered the consequences even as she followed), brushes herself off and replies, "... I'm going as a witch." Her tone is particularly dry here. "Or a maid. I can never be sure."

... and then the undead are bursting from the ground. She stops for a moment. Looks at them. It doesn't take too much to start a fire, does it? Not when they're all wrapped in highly flammable linen? Just a few sparks drawn from the ambient heat of the desert by her artes and FWOOSH, a pillar of flaming mummy.

"...you know, I don't really get a lot of use out of my fire magics -- mostly just steam -- but I'm occasionally glad I can spark things off." Blink. Stare.

    Haru? "...As in, the other player?" Mizuki replies, thinking that's a weird idea for a costume.

    Haru, bordered in bishie sparkles in the flashback, looking down at her with that self-assured but good-natured smile on his face and saying... something cool--she remembers the tone more than the words--with surprisingly strong noodle arms wrapped around her, keeping her from falling into the pit below, safe--

    MIZUKI SHAKES HER HEAD FRANTICALLY.

    WHY. Why would Gwen say she was dressing up as HARU for a costume, that doesn't make ANY sense, the world is CONSPIRING AGAINST HER at this point...

> ...going as a witch.
    Words bring Mizuki back to reality, and she looks over at Jazz. "Ooh, I've always thought witch outfits were really cool!" She blinks. "Shit, I can just get one and try it on now, huh...?"

    Before there's time for further realizations to overload the poor (not-currently-a) cat's brain, FREAKING MUMMIES ERUPT FROM THE GROUND! "Shit!" She takes a deep breath and tries to breath fire, but nothing happens! Why... oh, right.

    Mizuki transforms, and then torches the mummies around her with a proper plume of orange-hot flames from her mouth! "Rude, just jumping out of the sand at people!"

    She looks at the necklace on one burning mummy. "There's that symbol again... I feel like it means something important, but I can't remember what..."

Syx gives Mizuki a bit of a grin after the dance finishes, "I knew you'd be able to pull it off. Well done." He gives her a big thumbs up and then turns, heading on towards the next challenge. Mummies. Wait he remembers this now. Last time he was able to generate enough flames with his Buster Gauntlets to be able to take the mummies down, burning them unalive.

He starts swinging, but this time he misses a swing, and finds himself starting to be overwhelmed. Thankfully Gwen comes in with her Grand Cross, and it manages to save Syx, "Whew! Hell yeah, I owe you one for that, Gwen!"

Gwen nods to Mizuki "Yes I did Uta last year!" She grins at this. This is also Gwen we are talking about here, right? Then the gear shift as she leaps into the undead's rank driving her blade into the ground.

"GRAND CROSS!"

Holy energy burns up from the ground around her in the form of a cross even more so her very hp is fueling this attack. The results can't be aruged iwth as she turns many of the undea rapidluy into exploding pixile and when everything is said and done. Mizuki's fire and everyone else effors are able to bring this fight to an end.

A short while later theparty soon will find that past the Oasis there's nothing living here save for monster in all likehool and oh look it's the Grim Reaper and it's come to cut the group down....

Jazuhanzu stares at Mizuki for a long moment, blinking her deeply amber eyes once before she puts a hand over her face and turns her eyes back on the scything hooded reaper- wannabe.

When it advances on her, she draws her tiny little knife and waves it at menacingly. This doesn't accomplish much. Undine-tank? Seems so!

Still, she's able to avoid the worst of the harm even as her HPs are steadily being chipped away by the thing until someone else can distract it. "A LITTLE AGGRO HERE," squeaks Jazz.

>I did Uta last year!
    Mizuki tries to imagine Gwen dressed as Uta. Weird.

    They come to an oasis. It should be a chance to rest, but... Mizuki holds her hand to her chin. "Wait, I remember this... It's Death! It's coming!" She quickly hides in some plants, leaping out once the apparition comes close, "EDGE OF SHADOW! Take this, you--" She's wielding Ichiya's sword in her good hand again, but the scythe meets it, parrying every hit. "HOW IS IT SO FAST?!"

    She spends the fight being too harried to do much more than spit occasional gouts of fire -- melee just ends up being her desperately trying to parry that scythe and failing far too much of the time...

Thing go badly with Death, after all Death comes for everyone and so far no known soul has out run it for ever. Today though the party may be fast enough. The reape get som good hits on Gwen who will try to delay it to keep it away from the others but in the end all of them are able to escape. The queestion was the Reaper there to keep people out? Or something in? As the group is taking a moment to recover in the Oasis there's something coming fdrom the water. A green light washe over the are as things get back up as worse? There's a lich and i's brought back every single undead the party has taken down in getting here.

Gwen just starts slinging spells of all sorts trying to deal with theundea along with intercepting them.

Syx's attempt to punch his way out of this has not proven as effective as he would have liked. He doesn't seem to be using any of his big moves, because it seems like he remembers the finale of this from the year prior and is trying to hold off on burning any of his major moves until it's time to do so. Unfortunately, that hinders him in the fight against the Reaper as he's very clearly holding back and not hitting it the way he should be.

"..ah, well, that's not good," says Jazz as the Lich is revealed.

She takes a moment and then lowers herself to the ground on one knee, touching the earth.

"O, vast impentrable darkness of the seas, deepest of depths, blackest ocean. May the denizens of this deepest darkness grant us the strength I call upon!"

A black nimbus of roiling energy, not unlike an unsettled sea, flares into life around her and it spreads from there, touching each of the others. Upon their buff bars, they gain 'Empowered by the Abyss'. It's a buff, all right!

Jazz then runs towards the Lich and goes to kick it *straight* in the shin.

... it's the only part she can reach.

    Finally, they've defeated it. Mizuki quickly rezzes and drinks a health potion.

    Except... There's no time to rest. "Oh shit, I forgot this one was a multi-stage boss!" After that, she's tired, she's down an arm, and she's struggling... each mistake throwing her off her game, making her make more mistakes and take more hits, in a downward spiral...

    At least she drains her MP bar breathing fire at the skeletons and mummies, thinning the adds out slightly!

Syx's saving of his cooldowns for the final wave pays off, as he immediately launches into the returning waves of mummies, this time using more than enough fire as he unleashes his pattented Ragnarok Driver onto one of them, a huge explosion of flames shooting out from the area where he landed with one of the mummies, lighting up the others at the same time.

Once they're handled, he moves on to the next group, unleashing everything in his aresnal in order to devestate the second waves, before finally coming around to the boss himself, intent on taking down the lich. If he survives Jaz's kick.

The undead -are assailed by the party as Jaz kicks the Lich distracing it while Mizuki is finishing off many of the add ot keep them off. The add are in short order retuerned to the grave once more. The good news their drop tables trigger /again/. Gwen meanwhile is launchin into an attack she'll hit the Lich aiming to shatter it's staff with her sword while Syx finishes the lich off without a ounce of mercy. With that the undead learns life's a lich and then you die ... again.