Climb: The Floor 11 Boss

The Gate.

The Gate Beyond is dark. A massive cube that leads to the tower above. Someone already made a prediction about this battle. About this place. About cries of pain - spoken on the Chimlinks. There is a wariness amongst the warriors here today. But they have a good sized raid party at the ready to go inside. Many of the Aces are present.

So, they enter. Into the dark beyond the gates, and into...

A cacophany. Birds chirping all around them. The chamber is a massive cage of some sorts, as they step out onto what looks like a massive branch. There's various colorful jungle birds flying everywhere, and there's forking branches everywhere. It's almost like a maze of branches!

The leaves are absolutely enormous. And there's big beads of water. It's almost as if the team had shrunken down to the size of small mice compared to the branches they bridge as they pass into the Boss Arena.

---

When suddenly, a massive gust of wind! People are made to brace, as a large bird suddenly flies by, before landing upon the bridge. Its spiked feathers and the lightning jumping between each of its feathers suggesting its elemental nature...

As it hippity-hops along the branch and starts pecking down at the massive branch, trying to literally eat them. Turning its head, tilting it, looking with one eye, then quickly pecking, turning its head the other way, hippity-hop, another peck!

Throughout the many days in which Scale Emblem has worked their way through the Tower, Kita has been amongst many of those key battles. The Black Mage may not be considered one of the strongest, and her anxiety has always caused her to linger near the back of the collected group of warriors, but time and again she keeps coming back to help search for that way out of this game and back to the real world.

The problem with being a mage, however, is that Kita has never been the best on raw defensive abilities. So, when the enormous bird comes down, the movement causes her to lose her balance, nearly tripping just as the bird comes down to peck at her. A slash of red cuts across the back of her dress and into her flesh, leaving the Imp to cry out in pain and nearly lose her footing.

All too quickly, she's forced to react, meaning trying to make sure the bird regrets the attack. She turns, extending one hand and sending spears of dark energy towards the creature's face, trying to make sure it doesn't get in a second shot at her as she retreats away from easy range of the beak. "Right, don't get to close to the pointy bits." Kita mutters, still wincing as she moves to join some of the others, her expression intense as she pushes her glasses up on her nose and opens her spellbook, preparing for what might come next.

Finally, the 11th floor boss. This fight has been a very long time coming. It's been... several months since the Scale conquered the 10th floor, and their progress up the tower has been much delayed by the fact that there's an existential crisis boiling over in Yamato. But with a recent oracular revelation, it has become the Alliance's decision to press forward with the floor push. After all, the worst thing that could happen is that the wave falls on somewhere that /isn't/ the city they're aiming at.

Floor bosses have always been kind of weird. But the one that they find here is... particularly strange. The sensation of being a prey animal to a bunch of winged beasts is not a very pleasant one. Some part of the doctor's mind bids him to scurry and run for cover, but he is not a goddamn rabbit. He is here to do a thing, not to hide in a hole.

A bird flaps down and pecks at him-- and the rest of the party. The doctor grunts and conjures a wall of ice to absorb the attack, but it only serves to deflect the peck and does nothing to protect him from the bird's electrical aura. It gives him the opportunity to follow up, however, by...

...Chucking a giant cylinder of rock at the bird's head.

Rock > Bird, everyone knows that!

"This place is for the birds."

Vertina isn't exactly the most astute in observations so you get the obvious one. Followed by her pausing to examine one of the large leaves, and nimbly cup her hand downward to grab one of the beads of water and pick it up. She briefly succeeds in holding the delicate drop, if only for a few moments before it starts to dripple apart through her fingers. Still need a lot of training, but at least she managed to not immeadiately burst it's bubbly surface!

Farther ponderance on her current training is interrupted by the beating of wings and gusting of winds. Instinctively the martial artist flexes her legs to brace herself, holding one arm up to keep debris from getting blown in her face. So she can see the huge avian coming down to perch upon the equally huge branch. "That is one motherfracking big bird." Then the beak thrusts down, but her legs were already tenses so releasing her braced stance easily kicks away from the sharp facial protrustion before it can puncture her like a seed.

At the same time as she lands Vertina pulls out one of her alchemy flasks, gives it a good shake to trigger the combustable contents, and heaves the flask at the bird's face as it's pulling away from pecking at the group. "If you're hungry, have a taste of this!"

Yeowang has, perhaps unexpectedly, joined the party for assaulting this floor boss. She is kitted out in what has become her typical adventuring gear, a dark coat and pants, with a hood on the coat that can be pulled up when stealth is required, or worn down, as it is now, to demonstrate that she is crownless. Her long blonde hair is worn in a large, tight bun, held in place by several pins and clips as she takes in the scene and looks on warily at the scene we face.

She leans into the gusting wind caused by that huge bird, skipping clear as it starts to peck at the players. When it turns its head from one side to the other, to try and focus on her, she darts away, not farther away, but closer in, sidestepping each peck.

Closer in, of course, is where whe can deliver her attack, lightning-fast strikes that indicate that she is, at least, not out of her league here despite this being her first Tower showing. She wasn't nervous, of course, she had full faith in herself, but there is always a bit of tension when you are required to prove yourself, but have not yet had the chance to do so. But her fists strike heavy blows, and they do good damage, all things considered, and she smiles grimply as she settles in for a long fight, a knock-down, dfrag-out fight she means to stand on the winning side of.

    Yes the screams, the screams of pain and discomfort was going to come, Setsuna was sure of this but they weren't here yet. No instead it was just a casual moment of looking at the gate and stepping in and getting that feeling that he was on the short end of the stick in some sort of cosmic joke. The giant bird with lightning around it and the look of hunger in it's eye only adds to it, as it begins to descend with that ravenous razor sharp beak to pierce the innocent mouse sized Setsuna.

     "So just coming up with a plan here, anyone want to see if they could deal with it from the inside?" Setsuna shouts trying to ease any tension with humor as he dances away from the beak and flames appear in both hands. " Just saying someone could volunteer to try." Combining the magical fire from both hands into a single ball of fire he throws it at the eye of the bird trying to blind the thing.

As the group transitions into the boss room, Syx finds himself looking around at the display around him, "Oh wow, it's like Honey I Shrunk The Kids." Sys is letting himself get distracted, which Vertina will no doubtedly yell at him for later, as he suddenly finds himself looking right at the big lightning bird, "Oh shit it's like Honey I Shrunk The Kids!" The bird pecks right next to him, sending Syx flying and landing with a thud on the side of the bridge.

He kips up from his back, however, now annoyed that he let himself get distracted for a second. He plants his feet and then rushes forward, leaping through back towards the bird, striking several times with his Buster Gauntlets into the bird's sides, ducking around and landing several more rapid fire strikes, flames dancing around his fists as he lands strike after strike, before quickly bouncing away in order to give himself some room to dodge.

"Wouldn't it be just as hard to kill on the inside?" He asks in Setsuna's direction, "Like there's no reason to think it wouldn't be just has hard to punch out of it as into it!"

Soujiro Seta is in his red samurai armor for the event. His usual seafoam green Edo style kimono is replaced with practical wear meant to take punishment as a Heavy armor type. As heavy as a fast martial class can exchange for speed, at least. He hasn't had a lot to say on the way up. The first ten floors were something he climbed before the Apoc. The floor beyond would be a whole new experience. A thing to exceed expectations.

He did not expect a megabirb.

The blue haired young fighter rolls towards the beast, leaving a wake of fire along his path to raise the heat. Every motion serves more than one function. To evade damage. To deal chip damage in its wake. The roll ends with a fluid draw of one of his katanas, fanning the flames further at the beast as he takes up a frontal tanking position.

    It feels like so long since Mizuki's been involved in a tower boss fight. Like a lifetime ago... but she's an Odysseia Knight, damn it, and she's going to make sure she earns the position she has in that guild!

    Perhaps it says something about life inside Elder Tale Online that stepping into a box and ending up somewhere completely different barely phases her. Giant tree? Cool, but not hard to grasp.

    Until she sees the water. The cat-ninja double takes. That, somehow, makes her suddenly feel like rather than the tree is very big, she is very small.

    She immediately wonders if the water here is special or if all water behaves that way. She pulls a waterskin from her inventory and pours out some water to see how it behaves. She also pulls a stick from her inventory and pokes one of the giant water droplets to see how it interacts with the surface tension...

    ...Which means she's off her guard when suddenly she's blown tumbling along the surface of the branch and there is a GIANT BEAK PECKING AT HER and parts of her brain evolved long ago by her distant, distant ancestors, small things that went squeak in the night and scurried through the underbrush trying not to get eaten by dinosaurs, start trying to make her terrified and think only of running for safety. But there are no known hiding spaces so she's left to just feel seconds of pure panic before she remembers she's fighting a video game boss and to treat it as such, and starts dodging the pecks -- but the damage is done, a huge chunk of her health bar already gone.

    Starting to see the pattern of this initial attack, she backflips out of the way of a peck, landing in Sworde Arte stance and slashing her dagger forward to retaliate with a charge of earth magic! ...Rock beats lightning, right? That sounds right. Also, you can kill two birds with one stone, so rock beats bird too. The math is irrefutable!

The bird ca-caws beautifuly, sparks flying aroudn it, not moments before it begins to beat its wings, trying to avoid the first charges coming for it. It seems highly hostile to them. But Kita's Dark Energy are not halted by the flaps of wind, pierce into the feather-deck of its body! The black waves pierce its feathers, causing some of them to actually shatter, revealing more feathers beneath!

Followed by rocks being thrown at its head. It closes its eyes and /pecks/ at the rock. Its head jolting from rock to rock like some kind of martial artist, shattering them as the debris cuts across its face!

"CHIRP!" It loudly demands. Only to be rewarded with a flask in its face. The contents of it sparking flame, and burning it near its beak, discoloring it and causing a red glow! Small feathers sparking and shattering in white light! Feathers as ablative armor? It seems like they each have their own HP bar?

Yeowang gets in there, punching at the feathers at first. Only to be blown back and be forced to deal with its claws. However, Yeowang gets out of the way in time and delivers another series of punches to its talons! Passing right over Yeowang, and then arcing, comes Setsuna's flames. They are having more trouble with the intense Wing Winds, but blast into its beak area, where it eats the flames...

Then belches, before smoke comes from its little nose-holes. It is already looking worse for wear! It begins to list down, allowing Syx to slam his fists right into its beak, causing the bird to go down to the ground!

Those who are INSPECTing the bird, notice that there's a lot of overlapping HP bars, making it harder to do accurate targetswapping.

It continues to lay on the ground for a bit, twitching. The rest of the raid party throwing attacks at it...

Before its electrical field suddenly increases, and it lets out a metalic screetch! Its wings spread wide once more, and as its screetch gets louder, it almost feels like the jungle around them gets so much louder. It gets almost unbearable in the same way as someone neurodivergent being forced to hang out at a loud party with too many people. But worse.

And as the screetch gets louder, its body's feathers start to gleam metalic. As a message suddenly plays out in front of people:

<< WARNING: COSMOSPHERE EXPOSED >>
<< WARNING: PAIN LIMIT DEACTIVATED >>

As the screetch gets louder and louder. The winds getting rougher, through which they can start to hear the chiming of hollow bones and teeth that are hanging off of some branches! Effigies swinging!

Before the bird brings its wings down, and there's a sudden RAIN of lightning that comes down upon them. Spark after spark rushing for them, crashing down upon their positions.

At the same time, birds seem to wake from all around them, and waves upon waves of colorful robotic birds rush their positions, pecking and clawing at them!

    "This doesn't seem to bad, this thing is going to go down real quick at this rate. Maybe my vision was ..." Setsuna was saying before all hell started to happen. The boss was apparently not a cute and fluffy lightning bird, the bird was instead now being corrupted by the presence of the beast. With the corrupted nightmare lightning bird comes the storm, the stomr of lightning. Setsuna missteps and gets knocked back by a bolt of lightning. Setsuna ends up laying there twitching for a moment shaking as he feels the electricity going his body. Standing up slowly, it is cleared he was electricified, his hair is sticking straight up and he is sticking his tongue out, "Haven't had that much a jolt since i had to fix the wiring in my kids room."

     Setsuna's body is shaking as he pulls his hands up and does his best to gather himself but shakey hands doesn't make aiming easy. In fact despite the shadows of magic swarming on him his vision is a little blurry and then he hears the chim chatter, "Doc can you quarantine them?" He responds before he charges in and lashes out with dark magic trying to claw away at the leader of the bird pack, perhaps if the boss drops the rest go away too.

There are moments when Kita might really believe that some of her comrades have lost a bit of sanity during their time trapped in Elder Tale. She is just moving her hand over her spell book when the screetch sound hits her ears, sounding far too loud for any sort of comfort.

The message that appears in the aftermatoh has her eyes widening, though. "Oh god no. Not again." This isn't Kita's first experience with creatures that could bypass the pain limiters of Elder Tale. So, when the birds begin to attack, Kita is quick to throw up a defensive shield around herself, the dark shadows repelling birds around her.

A swirling circle of runic energy forms around her feet, spinning clockwise as Kita moves her hands to cast. The spell creates a buffing effect that is visible to those in the party, increasing her attack power.

Then, just as her shield spell runs out, Kita begins to cast a series of magic-missile type arcane attacks, each one boosted by the increase in magical energy, trying to continue pushing DPS on the boss while others focus on the mechanics.

So every feather is... Oh! It's like how she made a technique layering dirt and rock against her body to limit damage by breaking away, absorbing the force it requires to crack it off. This giant robotic bird's feathers seem to function in a similar manner. So they're going to have to really rip through this things layers of HP. Fine then. We can do tha--

Vertina pauses as the bones chime in the trees, looking up as the sound of a storm building cracks over heard. "Unless you have a strong shield I suggest NOT standing still!" She takes her own advice, leaping into action with a gout of flames bursting from her hands and feet behind her. The fire is like a booster, launching her quickly, and making it easier to zig zag between the lightning strikes. With how fast she's moving and the chaos of the storm it's easy to loose track of her.... Right up to the point she zips right under the bird and uses the momentum to launch into a rising uppercut at it's center of mass, switching from the erratic motions to a direct and brutal assault with little issue.

The Warning Message in front of Soujiro is noted. He doesn't have the sort of battlefield awareness that Shiroe has, but he does have a fighter's spirit. The youth has always loved the fighting in Elder Tales. Like it is straight out of some manga. When the stakes rise, does a hero flee? No. He doesn't even register it beyond factoring in the risks have been higher. It does not cause him to tense up. If anything he is grinning just a bit more than before.

Using a technique he has learned from Vertina, Soujiro appears to be struck by the lightning, only to have it hit an afterimage. His body is a blur of last-minute step movements that look like graceful parries or perfect dodge moves from games. All while he is closing the gap to get in melee range of the bird, slashing out with left-right-left katana strikes of the smaller birbs. Seeing Vertina's Arte winding up, he starts his own in unison, jumping up high above her and airdashing a quick descent to bear down with both blades as she rises on the uppercut.

That terrible, awful screech. It'd be bad even /without/ the enhanced senses of a Cait Sith body. Prophylaxis doubles back in pain, clutching at the base of his floppy ears. He winces out a glance through a squinted, pained eye and sees that now familiar warning message. Cosmosphere Exposure. And beyond the branches...

Equally familiar effigies of bone and tooth.

"The Beast... /Here?/" How is it that something which is supposedly sealed within Ezzo is able to extend so much influence? All the way to the tower, in fact? This is the second one. Is it just... reaching through the minds of monsters? If the White Spider is right, then it's... something along those lines, but...

"Destroying them will suffice," Prophylaxis answers Setsuna. "Someone, destroy those totems! Letting them swing free will only make this hurt worse!" Speaking of making things hurt worse. The screech fades, and lightning pours down from on high. Prophylaxis grunts, erecting a barrier that not only absorbs the bolts, but also causes the metallic birds swooping in from above to crush themselves against it, the force of their dive rebounding on their small, fragile bodies. He follows up by directing a series of winding vines to ensnare the corrupted bird-boss, inhibiting its movements while simultaneously amping up the damage inflicted by any incoming attacks...!

    Scoring a hit on the bird restores some confidence!

    ...But COSMOSPHERE EXPOSED restores some terror. She'll never forget HAVING HER THROAT RIPPED OUT that first time. Perhaps, though, adrenaline gives just the extra push needed for her to desperately defend herself. She casts Condensation Shield and, between frantically leaping around and using the large shield of mist-limned magic, she manages to turn aside beak and talon, though a few close calls get some bits of fur.

    Someone has already melted away the thunder-robot(?!)-bird's feathers around its head. The time to strike is now. Mizuki leaps towards it, crouching on her disc in Sword Arte position as it tumbles, light glinting off the mist and obscuring her position before she leaps out of it, blades stabbing repeatedly at that metal skin. "EDGE OF SHADOW, you stupid bird! WE'RE NOT FOOD!"

Yeowang has no idea what a cosmosphere is, or what exactly is exposed. She checks her clothes, nothing has fallen off, so she's not exposing anything in that regard. As the screeching gets louder and the lighting falls, she takes a calm breath and focuses for a moment. With preternatural awareness, she steps between the lightning strokes and the smaller birds almost like she's had advance warning. In writing. A week ago, and with time to plan her strategy.

Listening to the raid chim, muttering a brief conversation, she peers into the distance, then nods. She draws a bow from her inventory. Keen eyes will note than this is the starter bow that a Shadowfist starts with, and might guess that with a class called Shadowfist, she's not an archery specialist. But she knows a bit, and one of the bits she knows is how to magically target arrows. She doesn't know /how/ she knows how to do it, but the arrow is imbued with arcane power and does not miss when she draws the bowstring to her cheek, sights down the shaft, lets out her breath and holds it, then releases the bowstring in a state of intense calm.

The arrow flies laser straight and does not miss. It may be because magic, or it may be the tiny amount of kyudo study she's done. It's probably the magic. In any event, her arrow has struck true, another vindication of her choice to attend this mission.

"That's probably bad." Syx mutters to himself, as he sees the warning message. He moves into a better position to strike after his blow knocked the bird for a loop, but it seemed like it's not really the best spot, as he gets blasted by lightning that charges through him, only to soon get swarmed by the birds. He swats down several of them as quick as he can, but needs something with more impact.

He grabs the biggest of the birds that's swarming him, wrapping his arms around its talons, before starting to spin around in a circle, using the bird as a buldgeon as he swings around and around, before letting it go, flinging it towards the big boss bird with all the force he can muster.

Calls and cries out pain begin to quickly well up all around them. Many of the Adventurers have not felt true 'pain' for almost two years now! Perhaps some, who dealt with a certain niche subset of Goblins, have felt it since. But this is by and large an event that disrupts and disturbs many of those here!

As Setsuna's body shakes and he manages a cast of magic, tearing dark magic towards the bird leader's body, ripping across its feathers and slowly exposing more of its body, the lightning and the other paradise birds keep coming! Magic missiles impact against its feathers, and between Kita and Setsuna, they are rapidly shredding the feather deck upon its chest.

The bird is forced to land, lowering itself and closing its wings to protect against the onslaught! But in closing its chest off, it lowered its defenses against topside assaults. And Vertina clobbers its head with a mighty uppercut, causing it to stumble back. Its claws digging into the branches! But Soujiro is combo-ing in with her, and comes from up high, bearing down and tears a massive red line down its body, forcing its wings open!

It tries to fly off, only for Prophylaxis' vines to reach out, grabbing it from the nature-based branch, and rooting it in place, causing it to fall onto its chest! This gives Mizuki the perfect opportunity to cut along its face, blazing dark magic straight through its head, /chopping off its beak/ and tearing off that piece of its arsenal. The black magic waving over its head, burning away at some of the eyelids, exposing the whirring gears behind them!

The lightning stops falling, but the Paradise Robots keep coming, scratching at people! This allows Yeowang to focus her attack. Aiming the laser-like arrow straight for one of the Effigies. Shattering it. And the moment she does...

<< WARNING: COSMOSPHERE PROTECTION RESUMED >>
<< WARNING: PAIN LIMIT DEACTIVATED >>

There's still other effigies that are causing the current issue. She can hear the cries of pain in the background. One person in the Raid gets their arm ripped off by some of the birds. Another is pinned to the ground and is having their belly pecked and devoured!

Syx grabs one of the birds nearest to them and throws them at the bird, causing it to /explode/ against the side of the fallen mechanical avian!

Though it manages to rise again, much of its feathers are gone now. Parts of its chest exposed. Mechanical gears whirr within its body as many of the small paradise birds flock its position and plant themselves over its body like further ablative armor. Clearly controlled by the big one as it stomps towards them, snapping a smaller branch off of the big one, and throws it with its claw into its beak, and begins to swing it at the Adventurers! Using it almost like a tool, a club, to try and slam them /OFF/ the branch!

The Pain Limit still deactivated, any kind of hit will no doubt severely hurt. As it stabs and slams at people with the splintered branch, ripping its feet out of Prophylaxis' vines, and then using its talons to try and grab people and throw them off the branch in an attempt to insta-gib them~!

There is a certain amount of fear that courses through Kita's body as the fight continues. The very real risk of pain is enough to bring back flashes of terrible events which still haunt her to this day. She rubs at one wrist, as if it were the memory of pain rather than any actual injury, and then shakes herself, trying to focus on the fight at hand.

And it is a good thing that she had done so, as it is that moment when the bird tries to slam them off the branch. The attacking buff she had been using previously changes directions, circling counter-clockwise and changing color subtlely into a purple defensive ability that seems to create a barrier against any attempts on unseating her from her position, and perhaps even against some negative effects of the totem.

"Alright, enough. Time for some fried chicken." Extending a hand outward, more spinning circles form around the Thunderbird, lingering there briefly before bursting upwards with blast after blast of dark magic which seem to follow the creature's movements, knocking away smaller creatures and trying to hit the limbs of the massive monster at the same time.

    Setsuna moves quickly and with intent as his body still is shaking from the lightning but he appears to at least be moving decent enough and when that bird tries to clear them from the branch Setsuna disappears into the shadows and would have stayed there if it didn't look like Syx needed some help. From out of Syx's own shadow Setsuna rises up using some of his body to shield from the splinters and shrapnel and bites into his lip just as he takes the hits. Biting his lip also hurts but not like the giant splinters he has wedged into his skin now. "You have no idea how much that hurt, go suplex the damn thing." Setsuna then coughs and tastes copper, thats probbaly ok for now.

     Taking some deep breathes as bloody pixels drip from his body and the pain is starting to make him feel a bit woozy. "You know, I always tested this thing with only a little system blood." A blood red magic circle appears under Setsuna as he begins to chant, "By contract blood has been given. In exchange I seek that bird's desctruction." Coughing again he collapses to one knee, but still conscious.

     The magic circle spins and shifts into a blood red tornado before from it appears a new monster, not one of Setsuna's usual skeletons, but this thing almost looks like a vampire given the wings and what not. With a grin it charges forward to attack the Bird head on while Setsuna does his best to not pass out from pain.

Vertina points as the smaller robot birds flock to the larger robot bird and perch on it to replace it's ablative plumage. "Oh now that's just cheating! Not what birds of a feather flock together means at all!" With a growl she starts to dash down the branch once more, only for the Thunderbird to rip a smaller branch loose and swing it across the limited terrain. Batter up! There's an audible *WACK* loud enough for even chim to partially pick up as Vertina is one of those unfortunate enough to get slammed by the bough. She tumbles backwards, and right over the edge of the main branch!

Fortunately she's able to spur her Direclaw Cestus into the back to keep herself from falling down below, and climb back onto the top. "That... hurt. Almost as bad as the accident did," she growls, the impact and being thrown about reminding her of how she got her legs crippled in the real world too much for comfort. "ALMOST" she emphasizes loudly, as much for herself, to keep herself spurred into action.

Again her eyes narrow at the little robo birds clinging to the large one for more armor. "My turn to blow you around!"

The Salamander martial artist makes several quick and fluid motions, drawing the air element from around them to her. Then starts throwing punches with it. She's too far away to actually physically punch the enemy, so instead is rapid-firing shockwaves of air to cross the distance instead!

Those small robot birds need to be light to be able to fly, right? She's hoping so, and that using that lightness against them will make it easier for her air streams to tear the little bastards right off the big bird they're protecting.

Soujiro Seta is in the thick of the bird melee. With the pain limiter off, even the add-mobs are a signficiant risk. His katana comes out to deflect a beak with white sparks, the follow through with his other blade coming down to behead the trash mob. Another parry as he intercepts a strike to a forward vanguard, but can do nothing for the raid member who lost an arm. The tempo increases as Soujiro makes good on the training, constantly pushing himself for situations just like this one. He leans in with his shoulder so that a birb chomps right on his sholder plate, taking the critter with him as his blades glow with a pure white light. Shrapnel is deflected like a bullet parry lessning the barrage but not enough to negate the full swarm going towards Syx and, thankfully, Setsuna.

The birb on his shoulder plate cracks it, making Souji acknowledge the critter with a backwards stab right into its robogut. Twist. Retract as it falls limp. The samurai shrugs the body off. Deep breath. Panic? No. Focus. Gather the energy. It builds. Flows to the blade. For everyone else, the blue haired samurai is glowing in white flames for a moment. The Sword Saint attacks the air in front of him in a smooth circle. Fast like a top as a healing wind blows like a salve on a wound across the raid. A Light imbued Zephyr. A West Wind.

Yeowang's startionary archery stance is, alas, not condusive to evading attacks, and she takes a few hits. At full strength because the pain limiter is off. But she's been doing martial arts in real life since age six, and though the tournaments use gloves, the kicks don't have gloves, and neither do the street fights she occasionally was caught up in, in her final year of high school. It's not pleasant, taking those hits, and she grimaces, but she's not as shocked or disconcerted as some are.

She rallies, then, and will step in despite the pain, and continue the fight. She steps up and finds her place, eyeing her target and choosing an exact placement. She pushes up under a feather, or maybe in a bare spot, her fist practicaklly adjacent to the target, but then she explodes, metaphorically, leaning into a fuirious strike that hits every bit as hard as a full-haul-off punch, but in exactly the place she means to hit.

System Protection is restored. At the very least, that means that the people getting kicked over and having their guts eaten out of their bellies are... /less/ likely to die right now. They're not bleeding anymore, at least. The fact that pain is still a factor is something of a problem, however.

The giant bird with the giant club is /also/ absolutely a problem.

"Were you always a machine like this, or is this another data bug...?" Prophylaxis thinks aloud, the air around him chilling, water vapor condensing to diamond dust. On those massive leaves, the water droplets freeze solid. With pain suppression off, the doctor can feel himself grow cold, but only for a moment before his nerves go numb. The branch slams into him... and he does not move. He has become as a glacier in and of himself.

The doctor extends a hand at the metallic bird, frost riming his fingertips. Ice on blue lips, Prophylaxis whispers a prayer in offering: His warmth, an ounce of his life, in exchange for freezing this monster solid in an instant.

From there, the others can have their way with it. If all goes well...

This... /should/ end it...!

    The beak is SLICED OFF after Mizuki's repeated attacks! (everyone else helped too.) And with the COSMOSPHERE RESTORED message, Mizuki is feeling in pretty high spirits! "YEAH! TAKE THAT!"

    But then she has to dodge for her life! Again and again, she narrowly dodges the branch, her feet sometimes brushing against the surface of the leaves. One time, a leaf knocks her off-balance in midair, but she lands on her hands, springs off and lands on the branch as it comes back the other way, and runs up it towards the bird-covered bird. "Tch, you think that's gonna protect you? I'm MIZUKI of the ODYSSEIA KNIGHTS, and if there's one thing I've learned from all of these fights... it's that giant monsters--"

    she leaps off the branch and off of a little bird coming in to attack her

    "--hate being--"

    the giant branch comes for her and she disappears into a cluster of leaves. It reaches the end of its swing, sweeps back, and she leaps right for the 'exposed' area of the bird's chest

    "filled with

                                  FIRE!!!!!!"                                  

    She spews a great gout of flame from her mouth, hoping that by nature the magically potent fire will flow around the bird-armor and melt those delicate gears and mechanical bits inside!

Syx is not in a good way, he's been dealing with the extra pain from each blow that he takes, the healing magic from others managing to keep him from going down. The protection from Setsuna, and healing from Soujiro, it allows Syx to get back up onto his feet. Even after the cosmosphere is restored, the blows still hurt more than ever. But Syx has one good thing he retains from the real world, knowing how to work through the pain.

His training takes over again, as he runs forward, aiming for the biggest of the birds he can find, screaming out a warcry as flames engulf his form, as he hefts the avian onto his shoulders, launches upwards, and then brings it back to the ground with a full fledged explosion of flames outwards

Tasting copper, especially in this world for an Adventurer, is most assuredly 'not okay'. And the pain that follows as he tries to draw forth magic by infusing it with his own blood certainly is not helping!

But, he does it. The magic circle rises, and the blood red tornado reveals that strange vampire-like creature. Attaching itself to the bird, if fails to grasp for any blood. But it starts ripping off the 'ablative' paradise birds, shattering them one at a time!

Vertina similarly shows that pain will not hold her back! That her history empowers her. The martial artist countering the airforce behind the birds, slamming wind at its body. Slamming it back time after time again, making it impossible to fly away as the stream of windblows keeps coming! Kita takes up position right next to Vertina, following those wind-blows with dark magic. Arcane blasts tearing apart limbs, as wind moves away the paradise birds. Light shattering over and over!

Then, a wave of Light. Some of the screams, some of the pain softens. Giving power to those who were suffering but moments ago, as Soujiro Seta's hold of Light Magic allows them to bring forth that wind of healing. Aleviating pain just enough for some of the raid members to act and gets back up, cutting down their robotic foes!

This gives Yeowang the chance to get in there. With the feathers almost all gone, and Setsuna, Vertina, and Kita clearing them out, she can get in! Slamming her furious strike straight into some of the cogs, causing the bird to literally stall for a moment, in the midst of a screetch! Prophylaxis then reaches out. And ice begins to cover the rest of its cogs. If they'd all still been running, that would have been significantly harder. But with Yeowang having halted them, he manages to freeze them over, causing the gears to grind down entirely, and be frozen in place!

With that, the creature can no longer escape! Mizuki jumps! Reaching, leaping, coming straight towards the bird. And with its beak shattered, it cannot halt what comes next!

Flame SPEWS into it like molten rock. Rushing into it by gout after gout! Gears shatter and detonate immediately, as steam explosion after steam-explosion takes place. Ripping the Thunderbird apart from the inside! And when Syx jumps and sails through the air, sinking into the bird through the opening in its chest, the entire thing shatters in their wake, until the entire bird detonates into light...

And the Jungle room suddenly goes quiet. The plantlife almost seemingly coming to a dead stop. With a few more Effigies of bones and teeth hanging around the various smaller branches. Almost like The Beast were laughing at them.

As the spell ends, Kita raises a hand, shielding her eyes from the burst of light from the monster that is now little more than bits of light. Her glasses sit askew on her nose and she hsa to take a moment to fix them, her breaths still coming quicker than normal as the adrenaline of battle still races through her veins.

What is left seems no better. "I really do not like this place." She winces, taking a step forward, the pain in her back still shooting up her spine with every movement. "I can... probably try to shield this place from the effect going on, but... it would probably take longer than just blasting the hell out of those things. The sooner the better."

So, she proceeds to work on shooting at the effigies, even as her Mote of Darkness peeks from behind her, seemingly bobbing as if it were cheering her on, despite the grumpy eyebrows that the little living bit of darkness seems to have.

As Kita sets to destroying the remainder of the effigies, it takes some time. Finding /all/ of them is a pain in the rear. But eventually...

<< WARNING: COSMOSPHERE PROTECTION RESUMED >>
<< WARNING: PAIN LIMIT REACTIVATED >>

    As the pain limit returns and the healing light settles on Setsuna he breathes easier as he takes slow deep breaths trying to recover himself. Taking a moment to just sit there he dismisses his summons and looks around at the eerie silence. "I hate to point this out but, aren't we missing something? Where is the fanfare for beating the boss?" Looking around he is certainly confused as he looks about waiting for the popup and the stairs, even just loot for the boss fight. Maybe it will drop some aspirin, if nothing.

    The bird EXPLODES INTO LIGHT.

    Oh yeah, that is SATISFYING. Mizuki sheaths her daggers and poses with a hand on her hip, her scarf fluttering dramatically in the wind as she smirks triumphantly.

    ...

    ...

    ...?

    "...Hey, uh... isn't there supposed to be a 'CONGRATULATIONS' and a loot drop...?" She looks around. "That *was* the Floor 11 Boss, right...?"

Vertina lets out a sigh of relief as the thing explodes. "Take that, you tin plated turkey." Then shakes her head a little, the sting of pain she still feels just from how intense it was. Part of what kept her going was knowing how much worse it would feel to actually be struck down while that effect was making everything more real.

Then the remaining effigies are taken care of. Things reactivate. She's almost about to ask something else when Setsuna speaks up. "... I hate to say it, but he's got a point... Does that mean that thing -wasn't- the boss?"

Yeowang is breathing heavily as she catches her breath, looking around in the aftermath of the light explosion, but it seems like the fight is over. Or is it? Seeing Kita shooting at the remaining effigies, she will employ her bow to the same end, nailing a few of them until the protections are restored. "Well," she says, looking aroud, particularly at Proph, as he tends to have answers at times like these. "So, that was a floor boss? It was interesting. What happens now?" She doesn't know about the post-boss business.

"I absolutely do not like this," Prophylaxis concurs with a grimace. This is absolutely not right. Something is /absolutely/ not right. "...I mean. It's not the first time a boss has hidden itself behind something that looked like the actual boss, but in fact was not," the doctor mutters thoughtfully. "...Is there a way out? Has anyone tried shooting the tree?"

Soujiro Seta gives the burst of light the dead-eye stare that, truthfully isn't smart because that can blind you, but gives his opponent's death the full attention it deserves. The health bar on the samurai is looking quite healthy, even with the tank taunts, intercepts, and damage bursts. As might be expected from a member of the Tea Party. Who does actually serve tea. After all this everyone will end up getting a cup. He looks to Setsuna, who brings up a good point. Katanas go back in their sayas. His guard doesn't go down, otherwise. Focusing on his intuition and divination he feels for what is next. Something /is/ missing here.

There's some delay. It feels almost awkard. Ominous. But eventually, almost as if delayed by some unseen action...

<< CONGRATULATION >> followed by the sudden rush of items appearing in peoples' inventories.

    Mizuki looks at Prophylaxis. At the branch under their feet. And towards the trunk.

    "If the tree is the real boss... how the heck would we--"

                              << CONGRATULATION >>                              

    "Oh thank goodness." Mizuki relaxes, slumping her shoulders a bit. "...That *was* the real... victory thing, right? Then where's the stairs and monument?" She looks at the item. "...I *saw* that thing, it was made of gears, how does it 'taste great when fried'?"

Syx drops to his knees after he expends all his energy. If there's another hit coming, he'll just have to take it because he has nothing left to give.

Once the pain limiter comes back on, he feels well enough to rise to his feet, slowly but surely, "Hell, lets not do that again." Once the << CONGRATULATION >> pops up, he allows himself to relax just a little bit, "Yeah shouldn't we be getting the whole floor clear shebang?"

Ahead, one of the 'trunks' opens up, showing a gate deeper into the Tower, while another branch finally shows the victors of this Boss Room. Written in large text.

Oh, there it goes.

"...It's not impossible that the delay was due to someone else being present, in hiding, and then /leaving/," Prophylaxis mutters, slowly defrosting drip-by-drip. "We'll need to bring in Uta for a scan. I'm concerned that someone may have been watching, and more crucially, /why./ This is the first time we've seen a floor boss employ totems of the beast, but not the first time we've seen them in the tower. Something odd is going on here..."

    Setsuna tilts his head at the delay but it shows up. "Oh thats all and good then." With that Setsuna leans back and listens to the others before he hears what the doctor says, "Heheheh, the devil himself was here and aggroed us all. Until he got bored and left we couldn't win hmm?" Setsuna chuckles some more before he winces and says, "Ow shouldn't laugh." Closing his eyes he works on his breathing and then says, "Also we are the first people ever pass this floor. Maybe its just a little glitchy, you know the gears need new oil." Taking another moment he leans back and just lays on the ground.

Vertina turns to Prophylaxis. "You think someone purposely tried to make this harder?"

"Wait so you think someone's actively monitoring our boss fights now and tweaking it?" Syx asks, "Because that's pretty messed up."

"The fact that the beast totems were present means that /it/ is certainly interfering. Someone had to make them and string them up, and I don't think these birds have the manual dexterity to pull it off," Prophylaxis supposes with a shrug. "Moreover, we know that there is at least one person capable of moving in and out of these boss rooms with impunity. It may have been them, or it may have been somebody else. Either way, it's worth investigating."