War of Dragons - Mac Anu I

What business does the de-facto leader of the Scale Emblem Alliance have in the Palace Lands, anyway? The question has been something of a lingering specter of unease hanging in the air around the Doctor of Tolbana as of late. It has swaddled him like a nebulous shroud of dubious intent, like a cloud of fog clinging stubbornly to the mountains.

...Like this cloud of fog, specifically.

What is he doing here? Why have so many followed him here? Well, he /did/ put up a general invitation offering healer-duties to whoever might wish to accompany him to a known high level area to do some monster-punching. Perhaps it's in the name of EXP grinding, or perhaps because he's after some new loot to add to the growing pile?

Maybe there's a hint in the identity of his stated targets. 'I'm going up there to hunt some monkeys,' he said. Those awful apes have been quite a nuisance to all those who have called Seeker's Landing a temporary home, stealing supplies and menacing scouting parties who travel too far off the beaten path. Exterminating a nest of them can only do the area good, right...?

    The necromancer had set foot in the palace lands, if only for last minute training before the tournament. Also it gives him 14 days on the boat to fill in the hunter's guild paper work for putting in a new request. Apparently it is simple enough if you are a common requester but if it's your first time well Setsuna is glad they don't know what DNA is. So here he was now and now the doctor has requested help going to kill monkeys , how could he refuse that. Gathering his bodyguard skeleton and his cerberus he is ready to go.

That question is exactly why some people have been keeping an eye on the Scale Emblem members that have eventually made way to the Palace Lands. What could possibly lie in the new land that could pull them away from their precious Tower and trying to find a way to beat that unbeatable boss? So of course when the head doctor himself puts out a party invitation it's going to attract some interest.

Spying? No, of course not. Spying would imply some decisive effort to not be seen or known about. This was observation and information gathering, as much interest in another newly discovered location in the land as anyone else. That it might give some insight to what the Scales are working towards is just a bonus.

That, and they're going to beat up monkeys. Monkeys are not high on the Nightmare's list of creatures she'd like to tolerate, so beating some apeshit apes is perfectly fine with her.

Yeowang has come out in the defense of Seeker's Landing, and arrives in her usual ready-for-a-fight equippage. Long hair gathered up into a loose bun, dark coat, boots, but no weapons. But those who know her knows that's not a limitation for her. She's also out to take her new fighting skills for a practical trial, of course.

"I am ready for this mission," she says as she arrives, looking over the area and considering.

    Merek walks along and with the party while he seems to think about the place, "Interesting," he nods a bit to everyone and will take the time to check on his equipment.

Spying is one thing, but to spy while travelling into the yawning maw of danger for the sake of tailing your stalking victim is a level of dedication that few spies could hope to match. But hey, monkeys are monkeys, and those always need to stop being monkeys for the good of all.

"We're here," the doctor says, lifting a hand to stop the party moments before anyone has a chance to trip over the toppled statuary in their path. It /was/ a dragon, and in many ways it still is, and clearly sculpted in the traditional style. As if responding to the sudden noise, the fog begins to part in churning, colorless clouds. Emerging from the mists is an ancient mountain pass, the kind that would be depicted in Chinese fine art from several centuries ago. The shadows cling to the rocky ridges like inkstains to canvas in the setting sun. There's a sheer cliff face to the left hand side, and to the right, an equally sheer drop into a fog-swallowed canyon.

Obviously, it would be best if they avoided a trip into the soup below.

...But they may not have a choice in the matter. A wet *plop* sounds as a piece of rotten fruit splatters to the ground at the doctor's feet. He curses and looks up, where a trio of monkeys jabber and cavort atop the cliff... next to a pile of gross, rotting garbage!! "Move, quick!" Prophylaxis orders, but dodging the fruit while making sure everyone keeps an eye on where their feet are falling on the narrow passage is probably easier said than done...!

Fruit splats on the ground at their feet. Kauchemar looks down at it, looks up at where it came from, and snorts. "Yeah. Not dealing with this." And then she's... gone.

A glimps here and there of a presence moving, like a shadowy form flitting at the edge of ones field of vision but impossible to focus on, and then the Nightmare Were Fang is visible at the opposite end of narrow pathway away from the citrus bombardment. It's not a true teleport, but the jungle and cliffs provide more than enough shadowy spots for her to transposition through to get from point a to point b while avoiding the notice of the stupid simians up at point c.

Already one good reminder of why she doesn't like monkeys.

    Setsuna looks at the nrrow path and his eyes glow. " I have to admit, I really like the UI enhancement with this spell. " From his view point the safe spots to step are bright blue while the dangerous spots are obviously red. So using his skeleton as a guide he shouts " Following the knight, step where he steps. " Once everyone is across he would bring up the rear just incase anyone had to be grabbed to avoid falling into the mess below

Yeowang blinks as the rotten fruit lands, and she frowns. It's gross, but surely nothing to panic about? It'd be yucky to be hit, but she's been through worse in this game. Unfortunately. But it /is/ gross, so she will sway and turn and step aside from any projectiles that seem to be coming too close to her, and when the path ahead is pointed out, she will hasten to make her way along.

She retains her heads-up alertness as she hustles along, ducking and dodging the thrown projectiles as she zips along the narrow way. It's a bit of going, but she reaches relative safety out of the throwing range of the monkeys and pauses to take stock of where we are now and to find out what our next move will be.

    Merek will weave along and try to avoid what's being thrown his way, while he follows along with Prophylaxis, "Alright, that's not the best way I could imagine that would be, you know."

Do not underestimate the power of spoiled fruit. Or rather, the kinds of pathogens that the monkeys might be stuffing into said spoiled fruit. Basically never trust monkeys about anything at all, if you can help it.

Fortunately, guided by their sure steps and with Setsuna's helpful knight marking the path with its passage, the party is able to proceed deeper into the mountain pass without being lost to the ravine below.

That's the good news.

The bad news is that said mountain pass is a veritable rat's nest of switchbacks and fog-swaddled passages that seem to loop back unto themselves with no rhyme or reason. In other words, it's a maze.

And they're lost in the middle of it all.

"So uh," Prophylaxis says to the group, "...Anyone halfway decent at navigation?"

    Merek will nod a little bit along to Prophylaxis, "I don't think I'm that really great at it, though I will try." Then he tries to use the magic he can to assist him, managing to only manage finding the path that doesn't really go anywhere.

"We are just going to be glad that was fruit and not OTHER things monkeys are famous for throwing around, and leave it at that." Even Kauchemar doesn't want to broach that subject farther.

Not while there are other things to deal with. Like maze paths and thick fog. "Navigation, no." Despite the thick mist the glow of her eyes is visible. "But I have other means." There is also glow from the flicker of supernatural flames around them that almost look like spectacle frames that ignite around her eyes, the visual sign she's delving into her divination abilities. "... It's been a long time since these paths have been used..." And then she's silent for several more minutes in what seem like an eternity while others try paths and fail.

Then she snaps up an arm with such abrupt vigor you can almost image the cracking sound of a whip accompanying it. "There is a flicker of former presenses in that direction!" Pause. "I can neither confirm or deny if it is more monkeys. I'm a muse, not a zoologist."

Yeowang is not so much good at navigation, but she can read the lay of the land, and she can follow obvious clues as to where to go. Or, obvious to her, at least. Her skill at finding these clues is briefly buffed, and she will make use of those skills to show a way forward. "Uh, this way guys," she says, pointing out the way she's found. "Guys?" But everyone's going someplace else, so she will scamper after them and point out the way she thinks they should go.

    Setsuna looks at the others as he hears the request for navigation, "Oh yeah I can navigate as long as my spell..." He trails off as his eyes stop glowing and well thats it. " Hmm I think my spell said it's that way before it raan out." After this it would be all down to coin flips and which ever way the stick fell, so really it will be all up to luck. " I would kill for a mini-map."

The funny thing about navigating by democracy is that it takes at least half the group to agree on the right way to go before anybody can make any progress. As it so happens, Yeowang and Kauchemar /are/ quite right, and so is Setsuna by some stretch of his lingering sight buffs. There is a way out of this mess, and it is definitely, absolutely /THAT/ way!!

...And once the party can decide which way that way is, without getting terribly confused, they finally find themselves at... A dead end!? Impossible! There must be some kind of secret door or something; perhaps those dragon statues are the key...?

But... it looks almost like... Almost like there's something /missing/ from them? Like they should have some sort of <<IMPORTANT PUZZLE PIECE>> that someone has stolen away! Prophylaxis' brow knits in deep thought, when suddenly... There is a sound.

It's a terrible, hooting laughter that emerges from the fog. Three monkeys cavort out of the mist, two of which are jeering and cheering, while the third is utterly unable to do so-- because its mouth is apparently being held together by a knitted weave of thin worms. The other two are similarly maimed; one has its ears pinned by insect jaws, while the other's eyelids are held together by tiny, ruby-red bug legs. It's kind of gross, honestly.

Also, each one seems to be carrying an important-looking crystal orb.

Unfortunately, they also immediately begin spamming potent elemental spells the moment anyone thinks to give chase. If you want those orbs, you'll have to beat the triad of monkeys at their own game...!

    Merek of course will lift up the potion which he keeps with him, exploding it into the elemental being while he takes the time to begin assisting the party.

    Setsuna has no issues with the monkeys, really its no problem , however the Cerberus has taken issue as he barks and howls and is not happy over all. Probably something about canines and monkeys never really getting along. So what does the Cerberus do, he looks at Setsuna with those big puppy eyes and the necromancer can't say no. " Oh fine, but just this once. Next time you have to do it yourself." With that he begins to help the cerberus launch a decent sized fireball at the fire flinging monkey.

Yeowang winces as the monkeys start hurling elements at us. That's the not-officially-magical part of the game that she considers entirely magical, and thus is entirely awful at it. She's not sure if it's her skill playing her wrong, or if it's that the game somehow realzes she doesn't trust it. But her character sheet tells her she's got the most affinity for air, so she will try to use that affinity to help with the strange monkeys.

And what happens is she gets a faceful of earth or water or fire or air, and it's hard to tell which is worse. Water's not awful, but it makes the earth stick and cling like mud. Which protects a bit from he fire, which makes it not as bad as it could have been. The air blows the muck off her face, though, leaving her vulnerable again, and it blows the little clods of earth and dollops of water into her eyes. Hopefully the rest of the party can catch these monkeys.

Kauchemar .. actually makes a somewhat disturbed expression at the monkeys. "Moons above, that's disturbing even to me, and I revel in the macabre." She gets the reference immeadiately, it's more the manner in which it was enacted that is nasty to her. Because bugs are nasty no matter what, and better used to gross out others than to care about yourself.

Elements, on the other hand, is something she can jive with. They want to fling repelling attacks, that's fine. Much like with the previous projectile monkeys Kauchemar just doesn't bother playing by their rules, instead conjuring a slosh of water beneath her hooves and using it to hydroplane past the magical spam, getting behind one monkey to snatch his pilfered prize, and waterskating back to the rest of the group. "o/~ And he's got big balls, and she's got big balls... But we've got the biggest balls of them all o/~"

Bolts and bottles of flame smash into the trio of elemental apes. One with an open mouth shrieks as its elemental magic is overpowered and turned back upon itself, before disintegrating into a puff of colorless fog. The one with its ears pinned seems to glare at the offense, before being summarily obliterated by a bolt of lightning, courtesy of the doctor himself. It, too, disperses into the haze. The third monkey, the one robbed of its apability to speak, stares in disbelief and turns to run... only to find that its precious orb has been pilfered by a water-striding nightmare! All it can do in the aftermath is to stamp its feet petulently at the party, but... Soon, it too returns to the fog.

They have three orbs, now. This is good, because it means they can once again proceed. The problem is...

There are /twelve/ dragon statues up against that wall, each coiled or posed in a different way, each one covered in complicated and half-worn-down script that might or might not give a hint as to what each one means. If the party wants to figure out which orb goes where... Well, that'll be a matter of reading and deciphering, and maybe just plain old dumb luck.

"God, remind me to think twice before accepting any weird favors next time," Prophylaxis sighs, knowing perfectly well he would have said yes even if he /did/ know what he was getting himself into.

    Merek begins to place orbs where they belong, with the skill of someone that knows the way that you can decipher the puzzles. Then he nods a little along to the party, "Well, you know what it's like. Always a challenge."

Kauchemar takes in all of this... and just hands her orb to Prophylaxis since he's de facto leader of this little venture since he put out the party request.

"Pff. Every Adventurer says that, knowing full well we'd do it anyways."

Yeowang cleans the dirt and filth from her face and looks on as the party tries to work out which bit goes where. "So, it wasn't enough to get the orbs, something must be done with it also?" she wonders. She will investigate the signs and symbols and try to work out where each orb ought to go. "I think..." she begins, but she isn't particularly assertive, and she doesn't force her ideas forward. It's not the corporate manager inside her, but her family had broken off that high-intensity training when her little brother was born. She can bring it up from time to time, but it's not her default mode, and she sighs as every other idea gets tried first.

    Setsuna is at a loss, and in this situation back in the day it would be a lot of trial and error and then giving up and looking up the guide. Instead here he is, having to figure out on the spot , not a yeehaw search bar in sight. He even considers trying to summon the spirits of darkness to try and help him but that just sounds stupid so what does he do. Not much really he kinda is just standing there staring at one of the pedestals.

Well, you know how it is for the first time a group goes into one of these dungeons. There's inevitably going to be a lot of trial and error involved, and trial and error is what the party has to do, because Prophylaxis sure as heck can't read ancient chinese hieroglyphs! And, as it turns out, neither can anybody else in the party. But that just means that they spend a whole lot of time shifting orbs from one dragon to the next in sequence, until finally, FINALLY they just happen to brute force the right combination.

When they do, the three orbs begin to glow... and part of the cliff face seems to just fade away, as if it were perhaps some kind of force wall that had been glamoured to seem like perfectly ordinary stone.

"...Looks like this is our way in," the doctor says, though he obviously doesn't need to. There's a set of stairs in the dark, slick with moisture and leading deep, deep, deep into the mountain. It winds through a natural cavern, and occasionally requires the party to duck beneath a fallen stalagmite or squeeze between a narrow passage, but soon enough, it opens up...

To someplace... beautiful. It's a temple of natural stone and the fountainhead of what must be a dozen different springs, each producing water that tumbles down towards a nearby waterfall. There, up ahead, is what seems to be a jade altar... And it's absolutely filthy. This /whole place/ looks like someone's been holding a non-stop frat party and stinks of rotting fruit and a whole ton of that stuff Kauchemar was dreading being pelted with earlier. But that altar still seems to shine dimly under all the filth. Prophylaxis' eyes light up when he sees it, and the doctor begins to move towards it as if called--

When suddenly, his path is cut off. Three orbs of mist alight in front of him and condense into three familiar monkeys. The trio from before screech angrily at the party before dissolving again into mist... and fusing together.

What emerges from their combined fog is a veritable behemoth of simian might. Covered in stark, white fur, wielding what looks like it might have once been an entire tree, the Great Monkey Sage roars defiantly and swings its enormous staff like a club. Prophylaxis is sent hurling back not by the force of the blow, but by a wave of dark magic that its attack emits...!

"We need to get to that altar," Prophylaxis grunts, pushing himself upright. "Otherwise this whole journey will be for naught. But to do that..."

They'll need to kill its 'protector.' Or would that be 'defiler?'

    Merek lifts up a hand while he takes the time to bring about a divine shield upon the party to protect them while they fight.

    Setsuna stares at the great monkey sage and again Cerberus is barking like someone had food and wasn't sharing. " Fine fine , just stop barking before you break someone elses concentration. " Setsuna and the Cerberus begin to work together to launch a ball of black fire but the magic doesn't quite make it. Instead it seems the Cerberus has ran out of mana. " See I told you, this is why you can't just indulge in launchiing fireballs everywhere. Except in Robert's bedroom. You can absolutely always fireball Robert's bedroom." Setsuna is prepping for round two to launch his own spells but he has a feeling it won't be needed.

"That is one big monkey." Very astute Kauchemar, very astute.

Almost immeadiately the giant simian starts having a tantrum and throwing around dark magics while flailing with it's big stick... So once again the Nightmare just opts to not be there. She is really putting that effort into being sneaky, even if this is just more using magic and her monster abilities to do so. But even as she's fliting around the big ape out of view, her voice can still be heard in a haunting echoing tone.

"o/~ Run, run... but we won't run away.
So bear your arms and call me the enemy.
Dangers in shadows, striking precisely
Chances of surrender -- UNLIKELY! o/~"

The last lyric is emitted with extra emphasis as Kauchemar steps back into view from behind dumb ape... and chomps down on his arm with a ferocious bite. With strong jaws added by those viper-like fangs she has.

Yeowang is not sure exactly what's going on with all the monkeyshines, monkey sages and fusing together and whatnot. But when it becomes clear that this is a fight, /that/ she knows how to handle. She takes a breath to center herself and dashes forward, jumping, spinning, and delivering a flying roundhouse kick that would do Chuck Norris proud.

It SLAMS the monkey hard and takes a huge chunk of HP just at the start, while she lands nimbly in a ready stance, and proceeds to deliver a savage beatdown that would do for lessons in Tae Kwon Do, Kung Fu, and half a dozen other styles that she mixes freely as she kicks the snot out of the ape. It hardly has a chance to defend itself or counterattack, as savage a beating as she delivers, and with the party's assistance, it's over quickly.

While Prophylaxis reels from the lingering after-effects of the terrible ape's awful magic, the rest of the party goes to work. Divine energy covers the group in a layer of protective magic as Kauchemar belts out an appropriately haunting battle music track. The sage shrieks a shrill cry as it goes to swing its club at her, only to find the nightmare biting down hard on its other arm, holding it immobile while Yeowang darts in. With a kick that leaves no shadow, Yeowang /smashes/ its head so hard that its muscular neck *snaps* in ways that can't be healthy, before following up with a powerful combination of blows that leave the creature reeling. When the creature seems to be on its last legs, she delivers the final blow and sends the ape teetering over like an oak being felled. It collapses against the altar, head lolled uselessly to one side on a broken spine. It seems like any one of them can finish it off now, but then...

Then it... coughs, hacks, vomits a bloody stream of fluids. The creature's body jerks and convulses, before what seems to be an enormous centipede bursts from its mouth. A tangle of the insects swarm out over its arm and fuse to its staff as the thing now called a Centimonkey Sage ambles to its feet, unholy energy boiling from every gash and tear in its form. It hurls itself forth, rampaging like an unstoppable wrecking machine of a monster, striking with raw physical force and profane power both.

"Hold it down!" Prophylaxis shouts to Setsuna, "Ugh. What the heck kind of mess did we get ourselves into-- hold it down and burn it to the ground! This thing is too gross to live!"

    Merek looks to the thing, and will try to use flame on it. It doesn't look like it's all that successful, although he keeps on trying that!

The white ape is nearly dead... and then it's not dead, bleeding centipedes to merge with itself and move again. "Now that is just SICK and WRONG!" And when the creature of nightmares is calling something wrong, you know lines have been crossed.

"Oh fuck no, I ain't getting near this horror show." The bard backs off, instead summoning her ghostly sword and shield and sending them into the fray. It might not be the most effective means but the spirits are too happy to slice up and squash anything to care.

    Setsuna just watches as the bugs take over the body of the sage. It is rather disturbing to watch and he turns away to see his skeleton. Oh yes his skeleton came with him, why didn't he make use of him sooner. However this inspires Setsuna as he begins to dump the majority of his magic into a single spell. From all around pieces of bone rise from the ground and latch on to the centiape. Locking it's movements and making ti dance to Setsuna's tune instead of it's own. " Anytime guys."

Yeowang agrees the thing is too gross to live, but ... but ... she has a thing about bugs. She's been okay with everything else in this strange virtual world, but bugs, she cannot abide. She's been in a similar situation not -that- long ago, she now considers, and so rather than jumping reflexively into Proph's arms, she just cringes in place until the fight is well underway.

She will force herself to go forward, but it's with entirely uncharacteristic reticence that she puts one boot forward and tries to squish the writhing mass one at a time. This does not appreciably aid the party. They will have to sue her.

Unfortunately, the monster is just *WAY* too gross to be anything even close to approachable. Look at it! It drips bug even as Setsuna's magic holds it in place! It's just /awful!/ With Yeowang and Kauchemar paralyzed by the sight of the thing, and Merek hurling fireballs that only singe a handful of insects at a time, it's up to the doctor.

The doctor... who is the de-facto leader of renowned pyromaniacs, the Scale Emblem Alliance.

Wordlessly, and with face set in grim determination, Doctor Prophylaxis strides forth and sweeps his hand in a grand gesture. Abruptly his /entire body/ catches flame as he charges boldly toward the grotesquerie. He draws his arm back, and plunges it into its gut...!

"Heat..." he declares, "END!"

There's an earth-shattering kaboom. The monster tumbles back, flame spreading wildly across its body. Finally, it dissolves into so much ash and rapidly skittering centipedes. The ape is slain, but...

This place is STILL A MESS.

"Hrmph," Prophylaxis turns to the rest of the party. "Well, come on. Let's clean this place up a bit. There's /no/ way leaving all this here is good for the camp's water supply."

...And it's no place to leave an offering. While the others are busy, the doctor produces what looks to be the most amazing opal anyone here has likely ever beheld... and places it atop the jade altar.

A moment later, several orbs of pure, crystallized divine energy materialize on the altar as well. It looks like the party is free to take these as payment for their assistance in cleansing the shrine...!

"I'm a bard, not a janitor," Kauchemar retorts as her Binder weapons return. "But it would be a poor state to leave a divine location in, I suppose." At least, with everything dead, it's easier to set on fire and dispose of the remains. "Let's collect the shiny new bables and get out of here."

Yeowang is absolutely not a janitor, her issues with bugs aside, but she will, with some effort, attempt to conjure a bit of water to wash away the worst of the yuck. It is entirely halfhearted and not particularly sincere, but the bugs were particularlt traumatizing. And also reminded her of why she joined this unfortunate game and who she hasn't been able to find.

    Setsuna follows Kauchemar's example as he to begins to cleanse the room with fire. " I mean if you wanted to have us do something like this , we probably could have just launched fireballs at the building to begin with. " Eventually outside of some ash and scorch marks there is nothing to dirty lying around. So Setsuna retrieves one of the orbs and gathers his monster pals. " Time to go back to camp. "

The ships of the Fourland Dukedom shift, adjusting their approach. There's just two of them, due to the risk of drawing the ire of the Leviathans, but they're fairly sizable battleships. The current Team is upon the one being led by the leader of the Sumaragis.

Most importantly however, is that both ships are being drawn by /sizable/ looking sharks - Megaladons.

Standing upon the bow, as they approach the first of the Palace Land blockades, stands Sumeragi Youta! His katana burried within the wood of the bow, his overcoat rapidly waving in the winds. The bold leader of the Sumaragi Dukedom lets out a yowl of delight at being upon the ocean.

"Let's fuckin' drop these shitheads dead!"

Hardly the kind of call to arms one would expect from the leader of one of the Dukedom's primary Dukedoms. Yet, he is joined by the navy officers behind him with a loud and resounding; "Yeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, let's drop these shitheads!"

Ahead of them, in the midst of the sun, lie a foursome of 'parked' ships which each have their mage emplacements aimed at them. Lightning and large balls of earth and flame already come their way, seeking to halt their approach. But the Fourland navy stops for none!

Keeping speed are the Undine waterforces jumping up and down at the surface, bringing up rapid screens of protective magic to halt any of the attacks from coming in!

The ships rapidly approach, splitting up right between the four ships - creating a twin division. Until the Megaladons crash through the midst and force the Fourland ships right between each two of the. Massive anchors are immediately being launched, as Humans use Earth Magics to create vines to connect the various ships. There are no planks, so people will have to Jump or Rapel!

The Palace Land troops immediately come at them with their Shield Bearers at the forefront, and their mages at the back, flinging spell after spell upon their position!

Since the reclaimation of Shibuya, Rylen had felt the shift within Yamato. After completing his training, he had bid farewell to Ninetails and joined the forces gathering near Eas in order to take back Mac Anu. The Beastmaster may seem a bit out of place on a boat, but he seems comfortable enough, clinging to some of the rigging and whistling to a raven which flies overhead, getting a view of their surroundings before the real fighting begins.

As the ships come together, he slides down, avoiding a couple of attack spells on the way and lands heavily, joining with the mages who are utilizing their earth magics to bring the ships together.

However, he isn't just doing that. No... as the enemy forces start to try to cross between ships, he shifts hands and feet, miming out attack motions which are followed by vines which lash up, knocking some of the fighters off into the waters below with something akin to the 'Wilhelm scream'.

The Beastmaster gives a cry of challenge, raising his arm and whooping enthusiastically. "Enjoy your swim!"

Kaydon has worked with Youta before, and as such isn't un-used to his particular brand of language. He is, at heart, a sailor after all. And Kaydon is a Marine, so ship boarding is one of the things he is actually trained to do.

Unfortunately as the attacks start raining in, Kaydon throws himself in front of one of the other sailors abord the ship in order to take the hit from one of those wave artes, the fire scorching his fur and leaving him a bit worse for wear. But never the less, he's going to go into battle calling out a warcry. He grabs a rope and leaps from the ship, swinging across towards the line of warriors, crashing into the group with all the force he can muster like a were fang cannonball.

Schneider has joined the Naval assault in this phase of the fight against the Palace Landers. He's not a melee guy, he's mainly ranged DPS, or so he considers himself, so hanging in the back of the crowd is fine. Let the big, hairy macho dudes whack it out with swords, he's the suave hero with magic. Well, they have magic, too, of course, it's not like it's a limited resource, and when he sees spells incoming, he activates his Armor of Fire, a coat of flames that consume the attacks aimed at him, leaving him standing there looking defiant.

Well, he can certainly return fire, and he does so, chanting, "From the Silver Mountain to the Gates of Babylon! Feel Rainbow's Mystic Arrow!" He draws back a bow made of magic and fires an arrow made of fire, and fires shot after shot into the massed enemy forces trying to board our ships. His flaming arrows strike each target, burning away HP, and the Exploder Wizard the gives a shout, "The battle is joined! Die, scum!"

Planks? Where we're going we don't need no stinking planks!

No, seriously, when the watercraft started closing in on their targets the first think Kauchemar did was jump ship. Literally.

But it's not a bail out. It's so she can use the water-striding effect of her Tidal Gallop technique to approach the Palace Land ships much the same manner as the Undines are, living up to it's name by galloping across the surface. Essentially going right under the responding attacks. Until she gets close to the target, and a surge of water erupts beneath her hooves to launch the Were Fang upwards. Kauchemar clears the railing with ease, landing on the deck with a clatter.

And sends the gush of water arcing over her head and down onto the shieldbearers. A gush of water filled with tiny but extremely toxic jellyfish, that can squirm under their armor to get at their tender flesh without having to get through those obnoxious shields.

Haru has been in less than a chatty mood during the boat trip over. The past few days have been long with the necessity to push the initiative being part of it. Resting has been the priority as being tired only invites ill advised mistakes. He will need to be at full force at Mac Anu. That is all for the future, the clatter of war is upon us. He steps out as the sea wind whips his silver hair about his face. It makes his navy blue jacket billow. The hood is drawn up as he summons out four floating stones around him. Small, like that of golf balls, glinting like quicksilver and glowing until they form red embers. "Ignis. Pluma. Ambiente. Ardeat. Nos."

The Ioun stones rise up, leaving red streaks as they move to outline the figure of a flame sprite in dire birb form. With the last word the lines erupt into fire and hot wind is added to the chill mist of the sea. Haru points out at the caster as it dive bombs. What would make sense is to protect against fire, but that would be the Enchanter's trickery. Drowning. The air is drawn out around the casters to hamper their lungs, their chant-boxes for Wave Artes, as the summon engages in combat.

    Merek takes his time to walk to the side of the boat while he lifts up a hand, sending a firebolt into the caster line, making the preperations for them to dismount from the boat. It looks like he will be supporting that. He wears a hood which covers his features at the moment with that beltcape about the waist and shifting in the wind.

And so it begins. The naval battle for the reclamation of Mac Anu has entered its first stage. Of course, the necessity of all of this is... questionable; After all, there are certain plans in motion. But then again, securing control over the waters surrounding Mac Anu is potentially critical for the success of that /other/ operation.

So it goes.

Spells and missiles crash against the battlefleet. One ship in particular sails with particularly piratical livery. The Scale Emblem's main flagship rides into battle alongside the Dukedom's navy, piled high as expected with Undines and smattering variety of the other races. Among them is Prophylaxis himself, the doctor of Tolbana. As the Palace Land's attack pours in, he lifts his staff, conjuring a dome-shaped wall of frost over the top deck. "Keep pace with the Dukedom's fleet," he instructs his captain. "If the opportunity arises, capture as many as you can. Otherwise, don't worry about mercy."

The enemy gunners and spellcasters begin to bring out their heavy weapons. As a skilled caster in his own right, Prophylaxis knows just how important being able to aim is to using those attacks properly... And so he casts a simple enchantment on the enemy magi. Several that were in the midst of conjuring powerful spells suddenly find their vision obscured by flashing, flickering, painfully bright electrical lights.

And should their spells misfire as a result... Well, that would be quite nice.

Rylen sends one of the heavy geared Human Warriors overboard, straight into the drink. Multiple Undine rapidly jump into the water from the Palace Lands side, greeted by the combined Lander and Adventurer forces of the Yamato region. There's light soon welling up from within the waters as a battle springs up within the waters. Some of them try to get people who are thrown overboard back up with castings of Water Geysers and the like!

"Cut the chains!" Sumeragi demands, followed by the loud rattling of massive chains being released from both ships. The enormous Megalodon monsters break loose, and turn to enter the mix. And just as Rylen's warrior is about to hit the water, he gets snagged by the enormous jaws of the Megalodon, taking a bite out of warcrime!

Kaydon leads, swinging to the other ship amidst an explosion of flames. Singed, but coming out on the other side. Joined by two large Cait Sith monkey types of their side, standing in opposition to three chunky looking Humans wielding Cutlasses - coming right at him!

Swords lock! As a blaze incinerates another series of warriors right behind them. The arrow of fire washing over two unfortunate Undine that were just coming up onto the deck in order to deal with the boarders!

Kauchemar comes up, helped by some of the Yamato Undine forces as well, catapulting her up with a Geyser of water to save her on some mana. Water spills over and rushes to the opposite side, waterboarding some of the warriors and casters, revealing Jellyfish that are still stuck to them. The warriors try to pull them off, while the Casters have a bit more luck with electric magic shields that paralyze the critters - but not before taking some nasty damage!

One of the casters is about to turn upon Kauchemar and engage her, believing their fire-enchantments to be up to snuff, when suddenly Haru's hidden cast stops them cold. That is, in cold sea water, grabbing hold of them and slowly drowning them! Multiple Undines nearby try to cast a Waterbreathing spell upon the caster, but it'll take time for them to recover - only for Merek's Fireball to drop right into their midst. None of them manage to put up any kind of shielding in time, thanks to Prophylaxis' interference; blinding them. As a result of the fireballs' detonation, multiple of them end up spilling outwards - some of them falling to their doom over the side of the ship.

The captain, a massive Walrus Shark Werefang, steps onto the deck amongst the Warriors, towering over many of them, and pulls a massive anchor onto his shoulder.

"What's this then, eh? Filthy Adventurer scum on my deck!?" He demands to know, as he begins to spin the massive anchor. Large waterspouts starting to rise around the ship as the Walrus Shark conjures up his magic - creating enormous 'dragons' of water, before he points his Anchor forward, and the enormous dragons of water come cascading down on the Adventurers and Landers of the Yamato Region -- risking swallowing them and slamming them into the unforgiving depths of the ocean!

Rylen looks over the edge just in time to see one of the Palace Landers be turned into a snack. He winces, before calling out, "Just bite harder, my friend! There is squishy filling on the inside!" He's clearly cheering on the Megalodon.

Racing across the pathways between the ships, he ends up scuffling with a few others, keeping him from getting into close range with the captain. It's likely for that reason that he isn't able to avoid the magical attack that slams him overboard and down into the water below.

He bubbles briefly under the sea water, the salt stinging his eyes, and then he finds himself brought back up out of the water by the Megalodon he had been cheering on just a moment before. Coughing once, he pats the creature on the side. "Thanks for the ride. I'll try to see if I can snag you another snack."

Pulling down one of the vines, Rylen starts to scale himself back upwards, even as he starts to pull algae covered stones up from the sea below. They hover above the enemy ship, circling ominously for a moment before the Beastmaster reclaims his footing, raising one hand and snapping his fingers with a performer's flare.

Despite being drenched, he still bears that smirk as the rocks burst into flames and begin to pummel down upon the enemy ships.

Schneider looks alarmed, first at a walrus-shark werefang, and then at that crazy attack. He tilts his anamolous-looking hat, the peko riding hat that was his prize from the first year of peko racing, and uses his racing insight to .... not respond quickly enough as a waterspout slams into him and dumps him into the water. So, for some fiery things, water is a problem. But Schneider and Sodium share one particular quality, they both burn underwater just fine. He doesn't know much about Class Delta fires, he only knows the A/B/C from fire extinguishers. No fire extobguisher works on class D fires, which burn underwater until whatever's burning is consumed.

Schneider is -not- consimed, but he -is- mad, and casts, his words bubbling from underwater, "Kaizard, aruzard, kisk! Hansay Glossik! Unleash total destruction! Sage of Hades use the seven keys to open the gates of Hell!" and then without a pause burbles up, "HALLOWEEN!"
From under the water, there's an eruption, and flames and hellfire surround the casters, searing them badly, burning the ship, setting rigging and sails on fire briefly as Schneider swims back to the surface belatedly to see that he didn't hit who he was aiming at, but at least he got some of the bad guys.

    Merek is struck by the wave that washes him away for a moment. He comes around and latches onto the boat to climb back up, while he grunts a little bit, then he takes a look as the Caster and Warrior line is taken on with success. He doesn't take the time to check his HP Bar, he keeps going up until he manages to take a new position, "Let's see you try that again, or anything." He then holds up a hand while he places a hand along his wrist, the strap which he wraps along his wrist glowing with a green light.
    He then shouts along into the skies, while he focuses upon the key word activation. MEREK_TEIWAZ_BANDIT_KING. From that hand of his a green circle of light begins to shimmer around it and his wrist before a green lance of light begins to aim for the Walrus Werefang. The circuit-like energy beaming into them if he can manage to make it target them. "DATA DRAIN!"

Kauchemar already has her staff out and ready.... not that it's necessary when Haru disrupts the mage that thought he'd have a chance of nuking her. She gives a brief nod to the enchanter in gratitude.

And then there's water dragons of water being slung across the ship. The Nightmare flickers with dark energies, managing to slip away from one, and then another... and then its the third coming between their paths than finally hits faster than she can Blink out of it's path, lobbing the Nightmare Were Fang off the ship and out to see and... wait, there's no thunderous splash. Where's the splash?

There is one, because as she's flung into the air Kauchemar flicks her fingers against the vial of darkness strapped to her belt, and a pair of large Spriggan-like wings of darkness sprout from her back. They glimmer like twilight as they decrease her downward momentum, allowing her to glide back down instead of plunging harshly into the cold depths.

"Nice trick, but not quite." Once she's back into position Kauchemar raises her staff over her head as waifs of darkness ripple from the death metal skull's eye sockets. "Now it's my turn!" She makes a dramatic gesture with the staff and then points it forward, it's jaw clinking open to unleash a burst of negative energy at the warriors! This caster has a lot of tricks to deal with heavy armored foes it seems.

"Well," Prophylaxis huffs grumpily, the sight of the water dragons erupting from the surf momentarily giving him pause. One of the animated serpents snakes towards him, chasing even as the Scale vessel turns hard to avoid the attack. Just as it's about to land, however, the doctor suddenly rushes forward, thrusting his arm /into/ the watersnake's gaping maw...!

...As what appears to be an umbrella extends from his mechanical gauntlet and unfolds into a canopy of strange, scaly slats. Water shatters into foam and fog as a network of green hexagons explode from the umbrella's tip, expanding into a protective dome that disperses the captain's attack entirely...!

"That was rude," Prophylaxis huffs, slamming his staff into the deck of his ship. Several barrels of dirt stored conspicuously nearby begin to tremble and shiver before erupting in geysers of dry soil. Each one gathers together and compresses into tight knots of superheated earth. With one more gesture, the doctor sends each clod of cracking, glowing mud at the Palace Landers like a veritable rolling cannon barrage...!

And just like cannonballs, these clumps of earth explode on impact, erupting into blasts of shrapnel and flame!!

Haru gives Kau the thumbs up for the support cast. Then he sees the tidal attack coming. Dragons of water like streams of force. Area of effect locations that make a thin window of timing between them if he doesn't want to be washed away. Being in cloth armor helps with his speed to get away from the first gush, but the followup of a watery tailwhip sends him over the edge of the Yamato ship he was on. The concentration breaks on his Fire Sprite as the bird is doused in the water dragon's assault as well.

The Artificer catches onto the edge of the ship, hanging there by the edge of a porthole. He struggles to get on through, notable to his low Physical stats, and double tmes it to get back topside of the Sea of Thie-- Landers. Once he gets topside, he is drenched, pulling his hood back and shaking the water out of his hair. Away from his purple monocle. The four stones around him begin to rotate slowly in a lengthy cast. They sing in a metalic hum, like medicine balls orbiting each other. A tune not of Haru's voice, "Rrha yant ga guaysu fowrlle yorr." The slow rotation stops, as if Haru's Arte did nothing. Except it begins snowing. Thick, downy snow. Did Haru summon a White Christmas spell? No, it is thick volcanic ash, whipping about and sticking to the enemy in a beautiful display of nature's wrath.

Now it seems that Kaydon has his sea legs, as the ship rocks back and forth, he maintains his footing. Storms be damned, he's going to accomplish his mission and clear this deck. He breaks out his gunblade once he is on the deck, and looks to his fellows that are helping him face off against the cutlass wielding humans, "Cute." He says, as he looks at one of their weapons.

As soon as one rushes, he swats it away with his gunblade, and then shoves past that guy to strike at the second sailor with his gunblade, aiming to try to get him to block it, so he can try to shatter the blade with the wave arte explosion from the Jaeger Gunblade. Maybe he'll even get lucky and it'll just kill his target outright, but as usual Kaydon is aiming to smash his way through his target with overwhelming strength.

"Lauch the Waterfowl!" Sumeragi Youta demands, right before the secondary ship launches... blue fuzzy critters!

Blue feathered Pekos take the waters, being ridden by humans, racing rapidly through the water and diving down into the waters, as they go chirp and cast Waterbreathing upon their riders!

One of them jumps onto the side of the ship, grabbing Rylen and Schneider by the arm as their making their way halfway up, helping that last few yards into the air before landing on the deck themselves and engaging with the warriors, cutting through with a lance.

Rylen's stones begin to pelt and catapult down upon the enemy ships, flaming bursts detonating upon impact. The ships are clearly made to withstand assaults of Fire, but the stones are doing severe damage, and crushing mage emplacements! With Schneider's flaming eruption adding onto the damage, weakening more and more of the anti-fire protections of the vessel!

Merek is punted back onto the ship with the help of one of the Undines in the water, before the Lander takes a stab by one of the Palace Land adventurers. Still, it gives Merek the chance to land on the deck and engage his Data Drain! The light grabs hold of the Walrus, whom is momentarily trapped by the light, before it releases and leaves the Walrus panting, trembling, and grimacing at Merek...

The deck continues to be a cascade of magics. As the Palace Land forces engage air based magic, trying to electrify the water on the ground and send a surge towards them, Kauchemar is already debuffing the warriors. Negative energy spills forth, rapidly sending the warriors to one knee as their strength is sapped!

Perfectly positioned for Prophylaxis to get a good aim on the Casters behind them! They clay detonations firing off, straight into the casters. Halting their attempts to electrify the deck and sending them slamming back into the wooden walls of the ship, and some of the masts!

Then... snow. The Walrus lifts a hand to take one of the first flakes into his hand, looking at it in confusion. But then it quickly begins to increase, 'snowing' in the warriors and casters in a thick pelting wave of ash that starts sapping their strength and ability to move!

The Walrus seems to start to get aggressively annoyed at this. And as Kaydon, right before his eyes, uses their Gunblade to /shatter/ through the life of one of his warriors, cutting him in half, he lets out an angry howl!

He then rushes the group itself, wielding his massive Anchor and tries to snag Rylen and Schneider by the neck as they get on the deck with it, and uses that same swing to try and launch them /with/ the anchor, at Kauchemar.

The anchor then boomerangs back to him as he jumps into the air, and descends down towards Haru and Merek and Prophylaxis. Notably, he's not using his magic all of the sudden. Trying to meteor-dive the trio instead.

At the back, some of the remaining casters and warriors rise, all taking out small 'rods', and throw them at the edges of the ship, right as a 'Lightning Net' grows, and threatens to capture some of those who get away from the initial Captain's assault!

Even drenched, Rylen is still remarkably agile. He weaves beneath the anchor as it swung towards his neck, rolling onto the floorboards of the ship and then propelling himself back up onto his feet with a dramatic backflip that looks as if it belonged more in oen of his circus performances than in a battle with deadly outcomes.

"Not fast enough, I'm afraid. You'll have to work on that." He addresses the captain, looking around at the others momentarily before he steps forward, stomping a foot down onto the floorboards of the ship. Nothing seems to happen at first.

That is, until Rylen clears his throat. "So, you're visitors to these lands of ours, and I thought it would be a shame not to offer you a gift of our hospitality." He points upwards. There is a whistling sound as a dark shadow spreads over one of the other enemy ships. This isn't the one they are fighting on, but one close by. A very, very large boulder starts falling towards it. A boulder that seems to have come from an area of land a bit further up along the shore which is now missing a chunk out of it.

"Welcome to Yamato. Now get the fuck out of our lands." Rylen grabs one of the vines and in true dramatic fashion, pirate swings upwards towards the Dukedom ships.

Schneider grunts as that walrus-captain charges, and he stands his ground, chanting darkly and summoning a shield of fire, which burns away merrily at a temperature of Far Too Hot, heating up the anchor chain very quickly as it absorbs the anchor's impact. He's not launched anywhere. He snarls defiance and casts again, the words familiar to his Alliance mates, it means this enemy is in for a hot time.

"Deep Doomsday. To the spirits of land and air, bound by the pact, fulfill your obligation now." Whoever the spirots of the land and air might be, when he shouts, "MEGADETH!" all hell breaks loose. A firestorm of intense heat and dark magic swirls, and enemy HP start running for cover, abandoning their owners. Schneider scowls, though, and attempts to look suave despite having been dumped in the water before. He /is/ drying out quickly, though. A side benefit of this much fire magic.

As the Anchor is flung in her direction Kauchemar decides to respond to the unstoppable force with a bit of immovable object. Well not quite, but she does summon her Binder Shield, which valiantly takes the position in front of her for the anchor to slam into, sending a ringing reverbration across the deck.

And in those few moments of disorientation from the hit ringing out, Kauchemar makes her move. Quick and nimble dexterity allows her to play her sort of tricks, seeming to disappear amongst the shadows. Only to re-emerge right behind one of the remaining casters, clenching a fist as she does that makes thorned vines curl across her knuckles. With the other hand, she taps the mage on the shoulder. "Hey, you have something in your teeth..."

And as he turns to look at her in confusion Kauchemar slams a thorn-laiden right hook into his face. "MY FIST!"

    Merek follows up with the data drain, lowering that hand of his while he points to the Walrus, "I would suggest you surrender. We have no desire to kill you. You have until we finish with your team." He follows up the Geocrush of Rylen's, magnitudes more glorious than his own, with a Ragnarok's Wisdom, sweeping his fists along into the warriors on the deck and sweeping with kicks along each of the party of warriors that protect the ship.
    His sweeping kick into the Walrus only serves to take more of that HP from him, and he doesn't follow it up further, he hopes somewhere in him that some of them that are Landers will surrender, even any Adventurers. It doesn't matter, he doesn't want to take people's lives or memories. "WE'RE TAKING THE CITY, AND WE ASK YOU ALL TO SURRENDER! OR BE DESTROYED!" He pulls back the hood of his, while he ties his hair back into a spiky ponytail.

That sure is a giant bellyflopping walrus.

Once again, Prophylaxis lifts a hand and conjures a barrier. This one, though, is a little different than the last two. Not merely protective, this one is constructed from a series of interconnected lattices of light. As soon as the captain smashes into the wall, it bends and flexes around him before recoiling, sending the Walrus back into the air...!

The others can take care of him from there. The doctor has other business.

"You know, weather at sea can be rather unpredictable," he preambles, wind howling all around him, whistling as it passes through the channels of his favorite staff. The clouds thicken and darken, the sky swallowed up entirely by a roiling stormfront. "You'd best keep your eyes on the sky. Or else...!"

The magus taps his staff against the deck. As if on command, a blinding column of electricity crashes down from on high, slamming directly into the remaining enemy mages. If it doesn't wipe them out completely, it might just set several of those ships on fire...!

Haru's slowly spinning stones around his body begin to lose their metallic luster amist the falling snow. The vibrant blue drains from his jacket and his denim jeans. Even his skin loses its complexion until it is a light shaded doll, a monochromatic form with only his purple monocle and blue eye showing any color left. His body fades into the snowstorm like natural camo, moving at an eerie and unnatural way as if the frame rate has been halved on his avatar. Or he is lagging. He evades the attack from the captain, seeming to slide in stillframes away. A deft sequence. Something it hurts the eyes to follow. Once it looks like he is open to get swatted, his figure just isnt there. The confusion is snapped in jump-scare like horror as an obsidian pillar fires off like a jagged trap. The series of earthen spells fire off alongside of Kau next, seeming to punish any caster who tries to evade the nightmare's knuckles in a series of traps. You can get punched in the face or stabbed in the back. Either way, its not a good time.

Kaydon's gunblade is a well tuned machine, put to perfect use by the gnoll were fang. He does his best to live up to the bit of a reputation he's made among the Palace Landers, and he wants to make sure they all remember him.

He uses the gunblade to block the anchor strike as it gets too close for comfort, and then tries to return strike with the gunblade, hoping to catch the big walrus shark with the tip of the blade as he sails past. Even that could be enough if he gets lucky!

The Walrus grunts in anger as Rylen and everyone else manages to slip through his massive fingers. Grimacing at the acrobatic youth with a fierce glare, trying to bring his weapon back around.

"Just stand still and I will get you... ouuuu... what the?" The Walrus turns his head up, adjusting his hat to look up at the shadow coming down. "Is that a Leviathan?"

There's other Palace Landers that approach, watching the enormous stone. The ship above which the shadow falls, is immediately being abandoned by Palace Landers and Yamato-ans alike! Forcing the battle into the water not moments before...

CRUUUUUUUUSH!

Wood debris /explodes/, detonating in all directions as a massive rock CRUSHES the ship, and literally SNAPS it in half. Enough that the ship ends up sinking in 'two halves' down into the seas below!

"YOU WILL PAY FOR THAT!" The Walrus declares, and tries to rush Rylen's position! But Rylen swings out of the ship. "GET BACK HERE!"

Only for his hat to get BLOWN OFF of his head, spontaneously combusting as behind him, Schneider has just eradicated most of his forces with the heavy wave of firepower that just eradicates them... and his hat. Also the back portions of his clothing just went up in flame.

Kauchemar then /decks/ one of the casters that was trying to rapid-cast a healing technique to save some of her allies and friends. Calling out names that sound distinctly Chinese right before the names sound distinctly like they are spoken with a /lisp/ accent instead, right before she goes down as Haru spears them with a pillar of stone from behind!

"We will never surrender your city! It is now part of the glorious Palace Lands!" The Walrus answers Merek. "And what, you think you get bonus points for 'not wanting to kill me', while you /murder/ my subordinates!?" The Walrus-Shark /scoffs/ at Merek's hypocracy - even as the flaming detonations eradicates some of his few remaining warriors!

Some of the mages, having gone overboard, are immediately bombarded with lightning. Even as they try to get away, the salt in the water ensures their doom! The lightningstrikes ZAPPING them and paralyzing them, stopping them from swimming or breathing, slowly sinking into the crushing depths of the ocean... and into the maw of the massive Megalodon that is feeding on Adventurers and Landers alike!

Kaydon then comes for the Walrus, and the massive creature swings his Anchor. The massive piece of metal SLAMS into Kaydon's blade, right as Kaydon engages the switch. And as he tries to sail past, he manages to cut through the Anchor, catching the Walrus with a heavy red streak along one arm.

The Lander grimaces at the young man, as another ship in the distance is crushed by massive tentacles that start to tear it down. Some kind of large... Kraken?

The fourth ship, still remaining, has been straight out captured by the Fourlands Dukedom.

"We will meet again!" The Walrus Shark captain demands, going by the name of Walpurgis, and jumps into the waters, swimming away at full speed as his magic returns to him, and he soon /jets off/ towards Mac Anu!

Followed by a loud cheering from on top the Sumeragi Clan ship, as victory is declared over the blockade!

    Merek will listen and watch as the Walrus moves away, he does consider the words which he says, although he watches as they retreat. "You know, his men would probably survive were they to surrender, as they would likely follow suit," he then sighs and pulls the hood back up, looking to the captured ship and nodding, "That is good. It'll be of service in the war." He goes back to the Adventurers, while he climbs away from the sinking ship.

"Ugh" Kauchemar grunts. "These Palace Land crossbreeds give Wuzzles a bad name." She'll be surprised if she's not the only one that gets that joke. She calls her shield back to her, and rests her staff against the deck. "That's right, you better swim. Get your anchors aweigh from here!"

Schneider glowers at the departing Captain, as if considering long range options. But he's fired his longest range magic, and so he will have to settle for a Megawatt glare that only metaphorically hurts people. It doesn't do anything about the remaining HP, but if looks could kill, the skipper would be nothing but a gravestone. "Well, they'll know we're coming, anyhow," he says. "Not that it'll help them..."

Rylen, in true performer fashion, blows the walrus captain a kiss as if he were bidding goodbye to a loyal fan, even as he swings himself up and over onto the Sumeragi ship. "I love a good show. I think I might have found a new member for my fan club." He grins, sliding down to land on his feet. The acrobat drains some water out of his hair then swings the white locks over his shoulder.

He seems to be relaxed, despite a few scratches from being thrown overboard. "I think our ocean friends deserve some rewards for their aid as well. Then again, they might be full from the Palace Lander buffet."

Haru stands on the deck of the ship. He doesn't have anything witty to say about the retreat. The idea of them holding on to Mac Anu is hubris. Plans are in motion already. "After Shibuya, it would be safe to assume they knew we were coming for Mac Anu next. They have nowhere else to go besides back home," the Artificer offers as the last of the snow falls and the color returns to his avatar. "Either way, good job. Looks like our losses were minimal this time," he says, taking a blue potion and a red potion from his inventory and kicking them back.

Prophylaxis watches as the walrus-man retreats. Walpurgis, that is. Wal(rus)purgis. Heheheheh.

Heh.

"Well, that's the first phase done," Prophylaxis says with a sigh. "Get the ship back to port," he orders, "We need to deliver that package and get back to the tower in time for the raid."

Victorious, the Scale Emblem once more sails off to accomplish their terrible and suspicious aims. Whatever it is they may be...!

As the walrus shark retreats, Kaydon hops up onto the side of the ship, grabbing the rigging with his left hand as he watches them retreat. He holds the pose there for a second (mostly because he's kinda always wanted to) and then he hops back down onto the deck, gunblade going back into the scabbard.

When the crew lets out a cheer, he joins in with them. But there's still plenty of work to be done. Then they can really push the Palace Lands back into the sea.

    Merek will take the time to check on everyone, and heal the people that need it, before he will take his time to get back to what he was doing.