Duty Session 497: Reclaim the Peko Fort

     With a war going on, people who were mostly unused to the combat side of Elder Tale Online were... well, in a relatively high amount of danger. So some of the more seasoned adventurers were requested to take out one of their less combat-acclimated adventurers to go and show her how combat works and assist her in completing a dungeon that is known to be (relatively) easy and low-risk.
     Among the people who volunteered for this, was Pela Clarpuff, who is generally willing to help out when requests were put out. In spite of the fact that /she's/ in relative danger when going into combat situations, herself, that wasn't too particularly concerning in this case. After all, this was just some simple training/grinding for Shiroibara Natsume, who Pela has in tow. And has basically fed and gone over basic combat tactics with on the entire travel to the fort. "...Shiroibara-san. ...We are near the fort. We will wait here for the others to arrive." She murmurs quietly, putting down a small campfire and lighting it to let the smoke trail up into the sky, and allow for other party members to see the smoke.

    Natsume just gives a quiet sigh, normally she'd be sending people out to do this kind of thing for her but with things as they are, she would feel guilty sending adventurers out on gathering quests or to seek random items she could use for her alchemy. No, such dire circumstances as these required a more direct approach. So taking the advice she recieved, she had requested volunteers for training on how to go out and do things herself - and that's how we got to the predicament that she found herself in now. Staring at the fort in the distance with her body language very clearly screaming 'I'm not ready.', due to her ears drooping even more than their usual lop, and the ammount of bottles she has clutched to her chest like she's going to start flinging them at the first thing that moves.

"Ri...Right... We'll wait for the others! That sounds like a good plan, yes..." A soft plip comes as she switches from one foot to another, then slowly exhales and seems to relax ever so slightly as it's been confirmed they won't be marching onwards. At least not just yet, anyway. Instead, the young woman glances around, then makes her way over to the nearest stone large enough to take a seat on, then does so before she starts checking her bottles and potions for what is likely the third time now.

Combat? Danger? Breakfast and Second Breakfast for Soujiro Seta. The man, the mystery, the unfortunately late to the scene due to unforseen consequences involving a Cluck Cluck and a Duck. It might explain why there is a Cluck Cluck on the samurai's head when he shows up. The samurai has great balance and grace to keep that birb up there and isn't about to call fowl on the situation. "Hey there," he offers a friendly wave, cluckhat aside, to Pela and Natsume. The young human has that sort of 'warm eyes, kind smile' vibe to him. "Not too late to the run, I hope," he says, grabbing a neat spot on the ground to sit down seiza style that accents his Edo period outfit choice. "I am Soujiro Seta, but my friends just call me Souji." As his family name is actually Seta and the copyright infringements to Kenshin are pending.

Yeowang was with Pela and Shirobara Natsume more or less from the start, having set out with them from whatever NWA refuge they'd been staying at. "How should we address you?" she'll have asked Natsume, as we walked to the start-off point. She doesn't mind taking new guildies through some of the older content, though she considers this kind of medium old. "It's much less dangerous than it used to be," she says to Pela, and explains to Natsume, "Since they settled the main part of the undead army down with that ritual. But they couldn't get /everything/ obviously, so when we find these places, it's best to exterminate them before they can cause too much complication." She eyes the nervous rabbit skepticly, and says, "You don't need to be nervous, this is pretty safe. You'll lose a few hit points here and there, but don't panic. This is practically a milk run by now." On the other hand, Yeowang delivering milk is hard to envision. She almost certainly has people for that.

She nods as Soujiro Seta shows up, introducing herself simply as 'Yeowang', and looking around thoughtfully. She carries no weapon and wears no armor, but there's am impression that this does not denote lack of preparation for fighting.

     Also it was pretty important to know how to defend oneself if your shop is attacked! As Pela had learned. Those droopy ears get a small smile from Pela, who produces... a small cookie. Just a simple sugar cookie. "...You will be fine. ...You will have several skilled adventurers alongside yourself, Shiroibara-san. We will not allow overmuch harm to come to you." Pela gives a simple nod. Not that having the instinct to fling bottles was a bad thing. Still, for now, they were just sitting nearby a fire. Much safer than inside of a fort.
     "...You are not late, no, Souji. ...It is nice to meet you. I am Pela Clarpuff." Pela dips into a polite curtsy, lifting the edges of her maid outfit as she dips slightly towards the samurai. She straightens back up with an ever so slight smile. "...It is always good to have more for a dungeon run, no matter how relatively easy it is said to be." Pela murmurs softly.
     Finally, to Yeowang, Pela gives a small nod. "...Yes. ...We will have to settle down the undead the rest of the way. ...I had been considering making siege weapons to assist in that, but discovered that it was more complicated than I liked." Yes. Pela was thinking of making a giant fire ray or something to shoot at the undead. No, it never got made. She made spell batteries instead. "Regardless, the scout should be here soon." Pela murmurs softly, as darkness falls over the area, a heavy mist covering the immediate area. Soon, a Peko Scout comes approaching them on their mount, the soft footfalls of a Peko ringing out audibly through the night as he approaches. "Oh damn am I glad to see you all! I thought I was going to get stood up and have to wait out here all night... alone." The scout looks around, obviously a little jumpy. "...Anyways! Normally we would handle this ourselves, but there is some weird summoning magic that is happening on the top of the tower that we? Well we need to ask you to handle. It's really simple." THe scout turns towards the fort, lifting his finger to point at it. A magical glow visible even from this distance at the top. "Just get to the fort, over the wall, across the courtyard, and you can get into t he tower. Stop them from doing the magic up there, and we will handle the rest." The scout nods. Yep. It's just /that/ wasy, right?
     "...Oh! And since I've met up with you guys, I'm not sticking around. Just let the hunter's guild know if you succeed." And then... well, the scout, after his brief briefing, darts off into the night.
     Pela gives a small thoughtful nod, looking at that fort. "...You heard him. ...Over the wall and across the courtyard it is. Under the cover of night, stealth should be relatively easy if we would like. Or we can go noisy. ...I do not mind either." Pela stands, making ready to head towards the fort.

Yeowang is dressed quite well, upon further inspection, a fashionably cut coat of good material and snug breeches, but what they mostly are is dark. Not black, but not far off, and when she pulls up a hood over her head, hiding the blonde hair and long ponytail, she kind of does become quite hard to see.

So, stage one is to make it to the fort's wall? She nods to Natsume and points out, "I'll be taking cover there, there, and there, that'll make me quite hard to spot from the wall," and then she sets out, and it turns out, she's quite hard to follow from here as well. Just a marginally deeper shadow in the night, and that's if you know she's there and about where to look.

"That does make this somewhat less anxiety inducing, yes... Thank you miss Yeowang. And please, call me Natsume." She replies in response to the question of how she should be refered too, then gives a soft smile. "I suppose i'm being overly worried about this, yes... There are plenty of capable adventurers coming, and worse to worse, I might be able to do some field medicine if someone does get hurt..." Natsume reaffirms - mostly for her own benefit as she exhales softly then puffs up her already puffy cheeks. "Right! My little sister would claim that she cannot fail due to the darkness inside of her, or some such, so I too must strive for excellence...! ....Or at the very least succeeding. So no more sitting around moping about what might happen."

    Natsume rises up from her seat and bows rather politely to the newly gathered adventurers, finally deciding to introduce herself properly. "Shiroibara Natsume, at your service. Alchemist by trade, and I one day hope to serve all of you with the highest quality potions and bottled instruments of destruction that one could ever hope to find on a store shelf." A small wink follows that proclaimation as she pauses, glancing to the scout as he arrives. Then nods before she exhales softly glancing across the field deciding to try making her way across as carefully as possible.

Soujiro Seta has met up with Yeowang once before and recalls the prowess. He nods once. Twice. The Shadowfist's tactical assessment is spot on. The Samurai turns to Natsume and offers a hand, "If things ever get too tough out there, it is my job as a front line tank to keep you safe. So lets have some fun out there, okay Natsume-chan?" Sparkle. Where do those sparkles come from?! He gives Pela a solid affirmative nod on not being too late. It doesn't even dislodge the Cluck Cluck with all this nodding. "Thats great to hear, Pela-chan," he says before the scout gets his attention.

"Over the wall and across the courtyard," the blue haired samurai repeats, taking a position in the front vanguard to head forward, ready to intercept any danger even though his weapons are still sheathed. "Stealth missions are always a fun challenge," he adds in, perhaps a bit too loud to be stealthy, and travels as light as the wind onward. Very light on his feet, this guy.

     Pela, meanwhile, is actually not focused on stealth at the moment in spite of everything. "...Right. ...That seems like a good path." Pela says softly, glancing towards Natsume occasionally! ...Which results in her accidentally stepping into the line of sight of one of the skeletons a couple of times, drawing their attention but managing to slip back out of the way of the worst of the incoming attention from monsters!
     "...It's fine... We'll be fine, Natsume. ...I am the ninja maid of the silver sword. ...I also do herbalism. ...And enchanting. ...And cooking. ...Really kind of a jill of all trades." She murmurs quietly, smiling towards Natsume at that proclamation. It seems that she's adjusting okay! For the most part! Good! ... We'll see how things continue!
     Souji gets a small nod from Pela as well, and soon they were at the walls with the party having slipped forward, moving light on their feet. Except, ironically, for the ninja. Somehow. She must just be off her game! "...Over the wall next, yes." Pela murmurs in agreement with Souji. "...Exploration is very fun. ...So we should take the time to explore the fort after we're done. ...See if we can find anything interesting." Not that they probably would be able to stick around long after.

     Having gotten up to the side of the wall, there was the newest challenge! ...A wall! A really, really tall wall at that! Over two stories tall in fact. Luckily they were gathered in a blind spot where they could take their time climbing hopefully. And Pela takes a deep breath. "...Up we go." Pela leaps towards that tall wall, beginning to work on running up the wall in true ninja fashion, a bit of wind magic mixed with her physical prowess to assist Pela in her climb up the wall. "...See? Just like that. Let's go, everyone." Pela says. As if it was just that easy.

Yeowang doesn't really remember Soujiro that well, it might seem, but she doesn't really have an interest in prettyboys. But he seems capable enough. Pela almost gets caught, and she makes a move in that direction, but then she avoids the defenders and makes it to the base of the wall. Yeowang oozes out of the shadows there as well, and she looks upwards. Nine meters? She shrugs, looks for a handhold, and simply jumps up, gripping and pulling herself from handhold to handhold. "This really isn't too different from the rock walls in the gym," she observes as she pulls herself higher and higher, alert for the best handholds. The route she picks is based on her height and reach, so it won't be the same for everyone, but she does make it without too much trouble, peeking over the top of the wall, then slinking up there, but remaining in a crouch.

    Climbing a wall. This was already going to suck. Physical exertion was one of those things that wasn't in her strong suit, outside of maybe carrying a few boxes around... Then the fire of inspiration sparks behind her eyes and she fishes a tiny purple bottle from her pouch. "This looks like a job for science." Natsume affirms, before she uncorks the bottle. There's a breif moment that might cause concern from onlookers as a strange smoke escapes the bottle, before Natsume quickly upends the bottle and swallows it's contents causing her to glow softly for a brief moment as she turns and just simply starts to walk up the wall under her own power. She seems completely confident in this ability too, as noted by the fact that she doesn't even try to stay close to the wall, walking up it just as she would if she were walking on the ground. Which suddenly fails spectacularly as her feet lose the contact with the tower resulting in her starting to spin in place in mid air from the momentum while continuing to float upwards towards the top of the wall.

    At the top, the disoriented bun rather quickly makes a grab for the edge just as the potion wears off cuasing her to swing back down and splat against the edge of the wall with an uncomfortable groan, as well as a series of muffled swears as she hangs there for several seconds then starts to try and pull herself up slowly. x.x

Soujiro Seta is excited to explore the fort either way. "We might find a hidden passage," he notes. An adventurer at heart, that Souji. Its a good thing he is an Adventurer in title, too. His covert advance isnt sneaky so much as it is fast, able to dash between the agro radius and through line of sight breaks. Add 'gamer' to the list of things he is. After one wall there is... another wall. Its almost as if someone was like 'I heard you liked walls, so I put a wall after your wall'.

"That looks fun," Soujiro says as he watches the ninja cat do a wall run up it. On the top three things that Souji likes doing is seeing what these fantastical Adventurer bodies are capable of doing. With a leading run forward he, too, runs up the wall where Pela once did, arms out and kimono billowing like a windy day until he reaches the top with a hop up and graceful landing. "I could never do that at a gym," he says over to Yeowang, as in the Old World running up two stories is a bit outside of his abilities.

     "...No, not really that different. ...Just a bit more dangerous since there's skeletons at the top." Pela says with a soft giggle from the top of the wall, watching as Yeowang makes it up the wall, while staying crouched low and stealthily herself. When Yeowang gets towards the top of the wall, Pela offers a hand to help her up the last little bit.
     And then Natsume starts to walk up the tower with a special potion to allow climbing! Pela watches her carefully, and it seemed like it was going well for her! ...Until it wasn't. At which point Pela was reaching out once again, this time in a slightly more panicked manner, to grab onto Natsume's hand and pull her onto the tower, and then down into stealth where she'd hopefully be able to recover. "...You'll be fine. ...Just give it a moment." She says quietly, carefully patting the lop-eared rabbit's back. It seems when she's in 'help the newbies' mode, Pela is ever so slightly more personable than usual.
     Soujiro meanwhile... honestly almost seems to one-up Pela with his run up the wall. Not that he did it any more gracefully or anything, but the effect of the kimono and such was just /so damn pretty/. Pela couldn't help but admire the grace and the flowing movements. Oh no, is she going to join the Souji harem?! ... Not likely. She'd probably die of shyness if she was in a giant harem with other people.

     Luckily for the party (mostly Natsume), getting back down off of the wall is much easier than getting up it was, and all they have to do is a quick hop down and a careful crouch... and Pela frowns softly. A mine field? Unfortunately, Pela was not necessarily great at picking out traps, but it was pretty obvious that there /were/ traps. "...Be careful crossing. ...I am going to have to forgo stealth ...Do not follow immediately behind me." And then?

     Pela crouches down, her body stretched out in such a way that nearly brings her in contact with the ground, murmuring a few quick little buffs under her breath, subtle glows engulfing her body as the sword artes are activated, until finally she incants, "Sonic Acceleration." And there she is. Darting through the minefield! ... ... ... Unfortunately, while Pela makes it. Sonic acceleration is not faster than explosions, and Pela takes several indirects on her way across the courtyard, having to stop at the other side and flop down, carefully tending to her wounds with a soft little hiss of pain. ...On the upside, that route might actually be safer now! Maybe.

Yeowang hrms to Soujiroabout the wall-climbing. "Did your gym in the real world not have a rock-wall for climbing?" she asks. "The pegboard for climbing is good for upper body strength, too, but it builds slightly different muscles." She'll take Pela's handup over the edge and she looks down at the ground below. When Pela goes, she winces, and will put a great deal more thought into her route.

Using her keen skills as a hunter, she will ... get down to avoid being seen, but then winces as she trips a trap. Hemorhaging hit points, she grunts and sprints flat out, she can take it, the pain here is damped so much that she can completely ignore it. No one used to MMA in RL can take the dampened pain seriously anyhow, so she just busters through, soaking up the HP damage on her unfortunately small HP bar, arriving at the end of the gauntlet looking worse for wear. "That could have gone better," she says, but seems in no mood to pause.

    Once atop the tower, quickly begins to catch her breath as she crawls over to look down at the next trek ahead and pales slightly when she sees the mines ahead from above... Then glancing to Pela, a look of concern follows when she says not to follow. "W..Wait why do you want to rush-" And then Pela is gone, sprinting ahead through the minefield with a rather spectacular display of explosions that Natsume puffs up slightly angrily at. That's something stupid she should do, not Pela the experienced adventurer. Still... It makes her journey esay enough, as she climbs down the stairs and just simply... follows behind in the wake of disaster that Pela left behind her.

    Of course, for Pela's sake, once she gets to the other side, the Bun quietly kneels down and helps her begin tending to those wounds with a few salves she came prepared with, all the while giving her a stern and silent angry look until she finally can't hold it in any more. "You should be more careful, you know...! That was reckless and foolish and... Really really brave. Thank you for tripping as many mines as possible to make it easier for me to get across, Pela..."

    Of course, even as she says this, she's looking around to check and make sure that no one else has any difficulty crossing, before she stands up and moves over to Yeowang to assess her for any serious wounds she got in her crossing. "If you like, I can try to treat some of those wounds before we move forward. You might not feel it as much but I'd still rather not risk serious injury."

Soujiro Seta is sure to look over as Pela helps Natsume up. It warms him heart, "Friendship sure is great," he says, because he is a big sap like that and says embarassing things to people. Of course there is that smile on his face and... hyup... down he does down the wall. He pulls a hand back and Samus' down one side until its clear to hop off without falling damage. A clean little slide right into the courtyard of traps. "Sounds like a plan, Pela-chan," he says as he has zero problem not being in front. As a vanguard he often puts himself in front, but that tactic doesnt work in all situations. Like bullet hell trap situations. He watches as Pela takes the first stab, "It had a rock wall and it was a lot of fun, but I couldn't run 'up' a two story rock wall. I tried." His head shakes. Young, real life Soujiro trying to run up a wall. He considers, "If there is a corner you can get a little further up though." A finger snap that lines up with an explosion from Pela in the distance, "We should go rock climbing some time, Yeowang! It'd be great training." Another explosion in the background.

"Looks like you cleared a bunch of them, thanks Pela-chan!" he says over to the advance catsault.

The Samurai advances like he is a graceful buck bounding through a forest of fire and shrapnel. The scene only lacks an instrumental accompaniment with string instruments as he leaves a wave of fire and carnage behind him. At the other side he gives a final bound at the end. "Good job, Natsume-chan! Team work," he says with a blazing fist. Literally. Its still on fire from the advance.

     "...It could have gone better, yes. ...Though it could have gone much, much worse too! ...We didn't get blown up to pieces like the undead were." Pela says with a simple nod towards Yeowang. Yep. That's the upside! Pela gives a soft exhale, before chewing on a few pieces of itadori to dull whatever pain she felt through the pain dampening system. It's fine. It was just a bunch of explosions. "...So!" She looks towards Natsume.
     "...I had no other real good option, to be honest. I am not skilled at picking out traps, so it was better to dart through and minimize damage than to walk slowly and trigger traps by stepping on one directly. ...Basically, uhm." Pause. The thanking to her gets a soft chuckle from Pela. "...Yes, uhm. You're welcome. ...That... uh... that's a good excuse, but it isn't the real reason why it went that poorly. ...I stepped a little too directly on one of the mines and it killed my momentum." Normally, she'd be able to move quick enough to evade the damage! Yep. As her wounds are tended to, Pela does hold still though, just enough for a patch job so that they can move forward safely.
     Friendship sure is great! ... Ah yes. Friendship. With the person she had just met earlier today! Yep! ...Honestly she wasn't disliking the idea, though. And then Soujiro also commends her for blowing up mines! Hau. She actually turns a little red in a mix of embarassment and maybe a little frustration at her failure to dodge the mines being brought up again, hiding her face. A failure of a ninja! Huff! She takes a deep breath and then stands up again, shaking her head. Okay. Okay. Back to her usual calm self!
     And... faced with a door! Doors are something she can handle better than explosives, at least. "...Hmmm..." Pela taps her lip, beginning to look over teh door. "...We can try to pick the locks, or just... take it apart if you're good with construction... and..." Pause. And then suddenly there were archers raining down arrows on them, having noticed the explosions. "...Ac k let's just get through quickly!" Pela quickly inserts a pair of thieves tools into the doorway to start unlocking it, while trying her best to shield herself from the worst of the onslaught behind, well. Someone else. Yep. She is definitely a brave cat. Unfortunately, arrows make it VERY hard to focus, and she's not really getting anywhere with the door.

Yeowang nods to Soujiro about rock climbing. "That sounds like good training," she agrees, panting from the exertion of the 100-yards-getting-blown-up. That's a strenuous event. She eyes Natsume as she approaches her, and looks around, judging the situation. "Just one quick heal, then," she says softly. "We do not have time to spend recovering between efforts." She will sit still for a single healing spell to bump up her HP a bit, then takes off for the base of the tower when the enemy attacks.

She races to the door, takes a quick glance of appraisal at it, takes a breath, and punches it very hard in what she hopes is a very important spot. Important for the opening, anyhow. One gets the impression that she doesn't knock at a lot of doors more than once. This one, she's going to knock several times at, and her HP bar is dropping as the arrows come in. "One of you clever people, this is your time to shine," she mutters urgently.

Soujiro Seta makes it all worse because he is saying all these things with such sincerity! "Take all the time you need on the door," the samurai says as he draws out one of his katana's in time to cut an incoming arrow in half. "I'll keep the arrows off you while you work." Brave words, Souji. He takes a step further out to intercept the incoming arrows. CLANG! SNAP! TING! The sound of a tank at work deflecting ranged attacks. Not all of them get deflected by his two katanas. A fair amount are stagged so close he wouldn't be able to deflect both of them. He is, however, a healthy tank and has plenty of health to spare.

    A soft nod is given by Natsume in response to Yeowang.. She doesn't deal with healing magic, but the bottle of potion she carries is just as good! Or at least that's her opinion, as she begins pouring the liquid over any of the worst burns as Yeowang holds still as she agreed. Of course this doesn't take long given the nature of the application so that leaves them plenty of time to get to work on the door which ... seems to be giving the group some trouble.

    Natsume frowns as everyone seems to be having a rough time with the doorway.. then clears her throat. "Step back please... It'll take a bit of time but this should help weaken the doorway." She replies before she pulls out a red bottle and uncorks it - this time the smoke is much more ominous and resembling a chemical reaction as it starts to become more thick with each passing second. Since Soujiro has taken to deflecting the arrows, the bottle is chucked at the doorway where it shatters and spreads fire over the doorway and begins to burn through the wood to weaken it for the others to knock down.. It'll still take a hefty effort but at least it won't take the rest of the night to do so. Of course after she does this she ducks back behind Soujiro to hide from the arrows behing shot down at them from the skeletons.

     Okay. Okay. Arrows are pelting them, but the others are mostly letting her take her time and focus on the door. After the use of Natsume's potion to weaken and partially melt the door, Pela takes a deep breath, continuing to slowly, carefully make her way through unlocking the door. She closes her eyes as she focuses, listening to the clicks, feeling the changes from her movements, and... eventually there's a ~click~ and the door opens, though not before the party has generally taken a fairly nasty beating from all of the arrows raining down on them. Pela quickly slips through the doorway, reaching to grab whoever's closest to her to drag them with her.
     "Let's go the door's open hurry before we get pelted to death." She says quickly, giving a thankful look towards Soujiro as he'd managed to protect her from the worst of the damage. Always show appreciation to your tanks! "...I think we're almost done... just have to... keep climbing and get to the top, stop the ritual." Once again, though, she takes the time to quickly tend to her wounds, most notably removing a couple of arrows still stuck in her body. Tch. Okay! Phew.
     Up at the top of the stairs, there was... a group of vampire cultists that were working on the ritual. One of the vampires begins to speak. "You are too late, adventurers! It has already begun! Now we need the--" Pela doesn't even wait for the cultist to finish talking before she darts forward into the group of cultists, drawing her twin wakizashi to flash through the group of vampires with several flashes of lightning, weapons dropping from the hands of the cultists. Sure, they still had teeth and claw to fight with, but their weapons were, effectively sealed. "Sealing Strike." Pela says, after the fact. "...That's not how it's supposed to go!" THe cultist responds. "YOu'll be the blood sacrifices! You're supposed to let me finish!"

     After the 'lead' cultist finishes talking, the rest approach the party to attack them, though with claw and fang instead of with sword or bow.

Yeowang is grateful for the HP Natsume's potion gives her, which the barrage of arrows seems intent on taking back away once again. But ebentually they get through, and bar the door behind them as best they can. Magic's useful for some things, she admits. She's not opposed to magic, she just doesn't understand it or know how to use it very well. On the other hand, fighting is something she's been learning for the last fifteen years of her life, and she's quite good at that.

Climbing to the top, it's cultists trying to summon Something Bad (TM) and now we have to stop it. Yeowang wades in to the fray comfidenly, punching, kicking, whirling and slamming the cultists, fists smashing hard into their bodies. Unlike in the MMA fights she's done, her fists here do real HP damage, and when she'd have beaten the stuffing out of a target, instead of just falling down and whimpering, they burst into pixels and despawn. This works for her, and she'll help them along to the Great Bit Bucket in the sky, where all the pixels go when they're not needed. What it -looks like- is a rather one-sided and savage beatdown.

"Sixty five, Sixty Six," Soujiro seems to be counting the arrow deflections. He steps back "Sixty Eight." One more. Sixty Nine. Then he is behind the other door. Several little red damage lines begin to fade on his person. "Sounds like a plan," he nods to Pela with the climb and cultists left, sheathing his katanas and picking the arrows out of him like they were large splinters.

"Never tell a lady what to do, filthy cretins," Soujiro says in a more 'grim' sound to his voice. He will not abide such statements to Pela! One of the vampire hisses as the Samurai's gallant tone, extending hands out at him when a blurr of white light comes out in a iai slash from his blades. Hands: Removed. The vampire screams. "You will not lay a single finger on them," the man says with narrowed eyes as he dashes into the vampire cultists with the sort of light-blazing ferocity normally reserved for a different franchise involving Jedi.

    Natsume can't help but stare in a bit of awe at the sudden skill that Pela unleashes.. A well timed one at that, given the cultist's reaction. Maybe there was something to be said about learning some skills outside of throwing bottles and brewing potions... Even if the tactics she had been using were working so well thus far. Maybe not quite in the style Pela was using, but something with a bit more dramatic flair maybe... Either way, now wasn't the time to focus on that, as the cultist starts raving about blood sacrifices. A thought that actually ruffles Natsume a bit, not because she was scared mind you but because this vampire was threatening her new friends. So when the other vampires rush to attack, Natsume flings bottles into the group that shatter on impact and scatter as many of the oncoming vampires with a strong scented liquid that Natsume had been carrying. "No blood sacrifices today! But I do come equipped with blended garlic for enahncing various potions with just a hint of flavor - also good for vampire repelent, i'm told!"

     A whirl of blades and fists, that's what Yeowang and Pela are as they tear through the cultists, breaking them into pixels and slicing into them as they attempt in vain to sacrifice the adventurers. A rather one-sided and savage beatdown was honestly what this really seemed to be at this point, especially once Soujiro joins in and begins to slice a swathe through the vampire cultist forces, and it wasn't long before they were disarmed and dis-lived. And when Shiroibara opens fire with her potion bottles, the cultists are dealt with swiftly, exploding into red pixels... but...
     "...Something is wrong. ...The pixels are not dissipating." Pela says with a small frown, as the pixels start to drip down to the summoning circle, coalescing over the lines and activating the magic of the summoning circle, and... as that magic activates, one could... *smell* the creature being summoned before it even appeared. And when it did, it was a greenish brown gelatinous cube, a monster that one more smelled than truly witnessed, as the noxious fumes fill the air and the cube starts to slide towards the party, attempting to simply engulf them.
     "...I'll take care of the fumes, focus on destroying the creature." Pela says, slipping a pair of crystal rods out of the base of her wakizashi, and replacing them promptly with a new pair, which slot in neatly into those holes that had been opened. A burst of mana, and a small whirlwind was surrounding the gelatinous cube, drawing the noxious fumes in and up, directing them out the windows of the tower.

Soujiro Seta sees that debuff pop up rather early from the smell. His katanas run against each other in a cross, changing from the bright white glow to a bluish glow to them. Sword Saint is using saintly sword techniques. "Got it," he tells Pela, body already taking action to non-verbally confirm what he confirms verbally. The katanas slash at the air in front of him, going from the ground to the ceiling and sending over waves of water in the boss slime's direction. On the downward swing the waves crash angrily like a beaten shoreline. It repeats again and again, but Soujiro is more a Sword Artes user, not Wave Artes, so there are patches where he alternates in his melee fighting while recovering his mana. In these times he draws hate in a tank stance to keep pressure off while trusting the party to burn it doooowwwnnnn.

    Natsume frowns slightly at the smell starting to permeate the air around her when that slime starts to form, and even more so once Soujiro rushes ahead to grab the creature's attention which buys her time to conduct a brief alchemical analsys in her mind. Several brief thoughts are given to what reagents she might extract from this slime before she frowns and shakes her head. "No, no... You just simply won't do. Using you to craft reagents would leave any potion with a lingering foulness that would be difficult to overcome, no matter how potent the outcome might be... SImply dreadful." The bun muses to herself seemingly lost in her own thought while staring at the creature. A few more moments of thought just to make sure, then a special white bottle is produced that Natsume flings forward into the undead slime that disolves inside of it producing a sudden burst of light from within it as the chemicals begin to produce a holy chemical explosion within the creature.

Yeowang looks around worriedly as Pela points out about the enemies not despawning normally, and when it becomes clear that the sacrificers have become the sacrificed, it's a bit too late. "Definitely wrong," she agrees with Pela. Though what to do about it isn't quite so clear. So, she does a bit of strategizing, running as quickly as she can through the characteristics of the enemy and her own capabilities before deciding on a strategy.

A swirl of air surrounds her fists like boxing gloves, and she'll wade in with them, punching the HP out of the undead slime while avoiding the contact damage that might otherwise result. The air is foul, but Pela keeps it pretty clear as Soujiro keeps the monster's attention, allowing her free rein to pound the thing quite hard. She's using it like some sort of horrible heavy bag, and it looks like this is not her first time with that, either.

     Waves crash into and along the form of the monstrosity, eating away at its form and dealing damage bit by bit as Soujiro does the most important thing a tank can: Keep aggro so that the others can focus on the fight! As Soujiro tanks, Pela opts to just let them do it, the winds keeping those fumes away from the party and not distracting the monster from the tank.
     "...It might be a good poison base, though." Pela comments towards Natsume in regards to the gelatinous cube being a potion base. Still, when that white bottle is produced and tossed towards the undead slime... it explodes into a burst of light that chunks down a large portion of the slime's health bar, weakening it and making way for Yeowang.
     To pound the gelatinous cube until it's nothing more than chunks of foul-smelling gelatin, breaking into slimy, gross pieces that shortly afterwards break into red pixels of monstrous defeat, the beast getting smaller and smaller as it takes its pounding. Until finally... the beast is destroyed, and all that is left behind is a few corrupted bones that had been captured within the cube's body.

     In the wake of their victory, a fresh wind blows through the tower damaged in the fight, and the party's gaze is drawn away from the fort, and out into the countryside around them. Pela looks out over that view, looking over the lands in silent contemplation, little more than nature's beauty visible, with the exception of a few stray undead which the Peko Knights were swooping in to finish off as the party rested from their ordeal. "...This." Peal murmurs softly. "...This is why I played Elder Tale Online. ...Adventures that ended in moments like this. Learning something new. Seeing something beautiful." Pela says softly, her tone mostly introspective.

That view! Soujiro stands at the precipice of the vantage point, letting the breeze cause his kimono to waver like a flag of victory over the slime boss. "I could never get tired of it," Soujiro says as he looks over to Pela with a smile. Did he hear what she said so softly? No. He couldn't have. The young man just has a certain instinct to notice when the eyes wander to something beautiful and take in that sense of awe. It is another language. A talent for seeing people and appreciating them. Appreciating the world they are in. Its hard to believe that he is a member of SEA sometimes, let alone the Aincrad Liberation Front.

As the Wind Blows, the world itself seems to impart a blessing of healing to the Fort. A return of thanks by tending to the wounds suffered. "We would go to the edge of what was possible and see what is beyond the Horizon," the Samurai says proudly. He isn't wax nostalgic for the past when the present is so wonderful, adding in, "It gladdens me to see that people still get to see this world in such a good light. And its exciting to think of what new sights tomorrow will bring." With that he turns to the party, the true vista of the room.

"Poisons yes, but I have plenty of reagents for that at the moment, and many that don't smell like the recently deceased.. I already get enough complaints for my work and their various odors. I don't need to aggrivate the siutation by bringing in a worse one." She sighs. "Truly, I need to look into renting a place... Or maybe see about building one of my own, at some point..." She muses before she quietly shakes her head, turning to look out across the view that has inspired the others, going quiet for a few moments as she takes that sight in.

"....It is a lovely view, isn't it...? I would never have gotten to see things like this, had I not come here..." Was she refering to Elder Tale, or simply the fact that she normally didn't adventure on her own. Hard to say.

When the dust has settled, Yeowang looks over the keep, with the Peko Knights mopping up, and she nods to Pela. "This was a job well done," she agrees. To Natsume, she says, "As you can see, this is all reasonably straightforward." She's also at about 1/3 of her original HP, but she doesn't seem alarmed by this. "All-in-all, I suppose it's fairly typical of the types of missions we undertake."

As far as the view goes, she says, "I suppose it's all right. They've done what they can with the situation, but it's nothing like the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. /That/'s a breathtaking view, from the helipad."

     Of course, this peace would likely be short lived. The vampires would come back, they would attack again, they would attempt another ritual with their undead army. A constant battle back and forth. As was the nature with dungeons like this one. It had to reset, at least until the dungeon was fully cleared and emptied of everything it had to offer. "Yes. ...That is why I explored. With my friend before the apocalypse, and on my own after." Pela says quietly, taking a deep breath as she listens to Natsume talk quietly.

     The fresh air, the pleasant view, and friends, both new and older. She looks around the area afterwards, before focusing on Natsume, her smile widened. "...Yes. That is what the world has to offer if you go out and do quests. Unique sights, unique experiences..." She gives a small nod, stepping towards Natsume to ... well. Pat at her shoulder-ish. It's hard for the cat to pat anyone's head, being as short as she is.
     Yeowang gets a somewhat puzzled look. "You have been to Dubai? I have barely even seen pictures. ...That doesn't surprise me too much that people would be able to explore like that, though." She smiles thoughtfully. "The world before was wide and large. Though I honestly... feel like this one feels larger, though it might be because we... don't have planes or cars... just boats." She nods simply.

"It does seem rather simple, now that i've done one for myslef... THough I doubt I'll stop putting up requests for volunteers to accompany me, any time soon.." Natsume mumbles before she shakes her head softly, turning back to the group as Yeowang mentions having been to Dubai. "I imagine that was an amazing sight.. Maybe you'll get to see it again someday. Personally I could spend my entire life just exploring this place and be content..." Natsume admits before she goes into a silent thought for a moment, then quietly shakes her head. "At any rate... I just.. wanted to thank you all for coming out to babysit me during my first outting. If you want I have a few extra healing potions I can hand out that should help with your recovery." Of course, even as she says this, she's already digging the pouches out to pass them around to the group without waiting for a confirmation.

Yeowang nods to Pela, explaining, "My father's company does business in Dubai. I had to go there a couple years ago as part of a meeting with our Dubai affiliate." She nods, "This world is pretty tiny, yeah. The fact that you can't go faster than a peko can run does make it feel not as small as it is, I suppose. The world does seem stramgely condensed, like the tourist villages that try to condense the entirety of 1800's civilization into one tiny town."

She nods to Natsume about requests for volunteers, "You should never run duties alone. The risk is too great given that any bit of bad luck could be your doom. But players are almost always around to accompany you." She nods to Natsume about it being an amazing sight, explaining, "The perspective seems wrong when you're flying in by helicopter. It seems much closer, because of the size, than it really is. And you keep getting closer and closer and it grows and grows. When you finally land, and realize how high you are, it's breathtaking." She smiles at Natsume's thanks, and says, "I'm pleased I could come out and help you. Let me know any time you need help on a quest. They're quite good as training."