Do Not Eye A Bat

Rain. It falls like saltless tears from the sky. A pity. A mercy on sinners. But what washes away sin from a sinner? On the merciless? Is it rain? No. There is no rain here in this wasteland of sand. Just the dry winds. Merciless dry winds fitting of our sins.

Feeling Noir yet?

For the past month there has been extra Emo coming from Haru and Uta. Clothes are darker. Personalities are deeper. Poetry is being read aloud. They have been spending most their month living in a Chuuni Paradise. Gwen's shop was overloaded with requests for The Darkness(tm) and Kau's musical taste became more popular by spades.

What does this have to do with a Bat? Everything. The fitting end to a batty month is with literal bats. Belatedly the bat basis of betterment of the barkane barts comes from a rumor and a story. It is the story from Tan'ya Showkunin, Uta's mentor, that speaks of a large bat that is drenched in Dark magic. It resides around a desert ruin in the Holy Empire and found at night. This is a case of naturally occuring Dark magic. It is the kind that requires finger snaps and Tsundere N-N-Not interested but Yes, interested apathy-excitement. It requires heroes.

It got you all.

Various people were informed that Haru and Uta found such a majestic creature during their explorations of the desert. The sun set just an hour ago as the warmth of the sands sets for the chill of the desert night. It is the twilight of hot and cold, wherein Fire and Water contest with Air and Earth in a calming balance in time based brevity.

The approach to the destination has grand wonder to it as the ruins are beneath ground level. Sand level, if you will, and the party begins to approach two high walls of ice. No. Glass. The structure holds as thick walls against the sand and provides a pathway down against sandstone rock. Down. Down to a structure, cathedral like in nature and preserved for years save the top third that is above the sand level. A large, gashing hole is left up there large enough for a creature to enter and leave at will. The party is not going through the broken roof. They are going through the front door.

The first steps into the dusky building shows naught but old copper decorations on the wall and faded carpets on the ground. The fabric has become brittle with time and snaps like twigs when stepped upon. Nothing can be /seen/ down here at first. It can be heard, however, from the dark corners where light does not shine. The fluttering of wings. The screeching of nails against old stone. The burdening sense of dread that looms in the air and onto the very spirit of those here. And yet there is something else here beneath the fabric of the unknown. Power. As if an energy drink's worth of raw force was seeking out the elements and nourishing them. Or seducing them unto the chaos wherein their form must one day return to.

Haru is wearing darker garb. Full emo Artificer today. Some of the Noir exposition earlier? He was reciting bits of it in his head. Its painfully obvious how he looks more aloof than usual. A cat who is over it, all of it. Zero clucks to give. "Step 1: Find a bat," he recites as if the whole this is just /so trite/, "Step 2: Wait for Bat to be holier and more powerful than tho like everything in Elder Tales," ok, and a bit jaded, "Step 3: Beat Bat," and arrogant, "Step 4: Forget any of this happened and go back to whatever self-spun story we drown ourselves in." A finger spins in a circle around him, "Go team." Half-hearted cheer.

Uta has been taking this whole goth phase thing seriously.

A few days ago, our Spriggan reached out to Kita and asked her how to goth. One thing led to another -- mainly Kita coming up with a makeup style, designing an outfit, and passing the notes for the latter to Gwen. Give it a few days, and today Uta is a living embodiement of the sketches Kita so masterfully jotted down on that fateful day: the black hair, eyeliner that makes her look unsettling, but in a good way; black dress, tight fitting in the bodice, and looser in the legs and train. Fishnets. fingerless gloves.

But we all know Uta. When she sets her mind to something, she is -serious- about it. And so, she committed deep to this whole goth aesthetic thing. She did her homework. She put all effort into the task. She has mastered the detached disinterest of someone who cannot see but the Darkness and everything else is meaningless. Haru's "Go team" doesn't even get an appreciable response from her: all that people can pick up is a melancholic cock of her head, and silent, uncaring compliance. And as a result of this, if the attitude along with the previous getup was not enough to make people suspect that Uta went full chuuni, there's an original addition to the initial plan: the -anime eyepatch-. You know, the medical one. Square. With strings. Applied with impeccable technique, as it is to be expected from our musical kung-fu nurse.

And this isn't even her ultimate form.

Carbon doesn't really change outfits, the black clad black cat already has the whole 'emo look' thing down pat. He's hardly what one would consider 'edgy' despite his look and gimmick, however.

At the moment he is wrapping a cord around the end of one of his arrows, looking like he's trying to nail down that technique that Shiruba is teaching him. Wrapping isn't quite going right, however. He mutters and puts the arrow away, "So while I am sure the removal of this creature will have more benefits than that, our primary focus should probably still be on trying to mitigate any mechanics that we can. Is there anything specific you can tell us about the fight itself?"

First shadow swarms and now darkness bats. One almost has to wonder where the people helping Adventurers learn about these things, and how without getting wiped off the landscape themselves.

Haru is being dry and melodramatic. Uta is at least holding up the appearance part. "Wow, you two are really getting into these emo thing." And then there's Kauchemar, standing where no one had stood a moment ago but you were all too casual and looked away, who naturally rocks both the shades of Darkness and glamrock fab at the same time. "Focus on the enemy, but don't disregard what else is going on. Adds have a nasty habit of doing something unexpected if you don't keep them from syncing with the main threat." Idly she folds her arms, staff resting in the crook of one elbow.

Some people question Gwen's love of this old cheese cake armor oif her's then again it's in a desert and it's far betrter suited to the enviorment so she would say the towering woman would be near Uta and she's grinningat at her for a moment. She looks over to Carbon, Kau and Wokong before she looks at Haru for a moment. The 6 4 woman juist stares at Haru for a moment.

"Haru are you okay?"

It had been days at this point since Wukong had made it out of the Palace Lands and into Yamato, ostensibly finding a new home among Plant Hwyaden. But it had felt like a lifetime. Detached from nearly everyone he'd known and in a new land, the Were Fang was trying to climb away from the holes of self reflection that he would sometimes dig when left to his own devices these days.

And then he'd found call looking for more for a Boss fight. Not just any Boss fight, but an actual 'Bat'-tle. Away he went - for glory, adventure, and mental health while trapped in a video game!

Wukong has been fairly upbeat when around others, with an easy, broad smile splayed across the monkey-like features and a simple, cherry-red staff settled across his shoulders with arms hung over it as he treads along with the others (who even happened to include some other guildmates!) toward their destination. At least there was no shortage of company to go with no shortage of ..sand on their trip. Because what goes best with batty broodiness? Monkeying around! (okay, not really, but at least he's not being entirely bananas)

..No one ever advertised him as good company.

The initial outline of a 'plan' from Haru draws a blink and a tilt of a curious head from Wukong, then attention drifting along toward the other impromptu party members. At least not everyone was going gigagoth - he might have wondered if he had actually escaped in the right direction or not. "Until we figure out if it's the bat we need or the one we deserve, do we play it on the defensive and nail down its patterns?" Wukong wonders, settling into a crouch for the impromptu 'tactical' discussion. "I'll try to round up adds and look for any trigger mechanics, if that helps," he offers to Kauchemar's assessment. It was always nice to try to work together with others, especially when you were new to the crew, right?

"Its a bat," Haru says as he brushes some of his stray silver-white hair away from his one GOOD blue eye, "you shoot it til it dies." The hair falls back onto his face again for full emo effect. At least the purple monocle is in clear view, assuming there is EVEN AN EYE back there. Seriously. No one has seen Haru without the monocle with two exceptions. There could be anything behind there. A head looks over towards Carbon to provide slightly more information even though it is /such a chore/ to do so, "The Nightwing bat, as inspected by Uta and myself prior, is a Boss level creature capable of strong debuffing effects and high attunement to Dark. No one knows its fight mechanics other than the gleeful 'Tee hee, find out for yourself'," he says as he forces a smile with both fingers creasing his mouth upwards, "level of help. As delightful as a trip to the cathedral would have been engaging it with just the two of us, we wouldn't have been able to garner any later phase mechanics. The best strategy is to keep it confined," a hand motions to the building, "here as a full on aerial battle would leave us at a disadvantage." He brushes his hands off as if to say 'Tactical Analysis Complete'.

To Kau he clenches a fist dramatically, "The depths of my soul are Dark and endless, like an abyss forged in a black hole from another dimension." Yup. The fist shaking continues on to Gwen and he tells her, "No, I think years of being the son of a sociopathic mass murderer have finally got to me and I have embraced my nature as the Prince of Darkness." He extends his arms outwards, "Come unto me, Bat, and serve your new Master. Haru Nox. Breaker of Crowns. Second of his Name. Father of Floofens." Haru does not have the Capture Monster skill. Even if he did, its a boss. Eve, his dark sprite summon in the form of a two-tailed black cat, puts a paw over her face to hide from the cringe.

They answer in kind with a song. A song of their people. The kind of song that sounds like people yelling at you through shrill flutes and pipe organs at the same time. Two pale white eyes appear from the darkness like tarnished pearls predatorially looking at the party. Then a series of smaller dots around it. It is not alone. The largest of the creatures descends from the ceiling with a wingspan so great it looks draconic in nature. A buffet of wind crashes down upon the party, landing on Kau, Wukong, and Haru the hardest. Like little dive bombers, four Dire Bats swoop down during the disarming opener, meeting Gwen, Uta, Wukong, and Carbon with fang and claw. Combat has begun. Dark Combat. In the darkness.

Carbon gives a good long listen to the details that Haru knows about the fight, nodding along and taking mental notes. As soon as the Nightwing makes its appearance, however, Carbon is quick to move into a better position. Positioning will be key for a fight like this after all.

Indeed right off the bat the dire bats attack. Carbon fires a quick shot with his bow, nothing super well aimed, but it manages to wing one of the larger dire bats as it swoops towards him.

The feline were fang rolls over to the side, the bat missing him by mere millimeters as Carbon comes up into a combat position, firing off another arrow as soon as he's got the bow drawn, before moving again. Have to stay moving to keep them from getting to him.

Gwen did not expect someone from the Palace Lands to make the joke that came out of Wukong's mouth. She is amused and also approves of the new alliance member.

"So your my off tank then?"

Gwen is grinning. "Hopefully I'll get to see some of your monkey magic?"

Gwen sings, there's a lot of life and joy to it but the towering lady is off key sadly. Someone should kidnap her someday to teach her how to properly sing. Still, she seems to look at Haru for a moment.

"Boy am I going to have to get Morri to help me end this phase?"

She is serious about that but then there are the bats and she's stuck dealing with bats...One of the bats she got a bad feeling about it's name from looking at. So she makes up her mind that add in the wake of Wukong's well-placed fireball? She'll descend upon Decay with a series of enchanted air-based elemental sword strikes.

"The fight. The struggle," a melancholic Uta recites cryptically at Carbon's question and Wukong's commentary, her voice soft, barely above a whisper. "'Tis but an illusion. In the end, it is always Death that triumphs." After this addition to Haru's explanation (during which she moved her hair from in front of her eyepatched eye just at the same time Haru did with his bemonocled one), she turns to Gwen, which, with the same expression and voice, she gets, "Nobody is okay. Life is pain. We all struggle with suffering."

The Spriggan's equanimity is pierced by the ensuing Choir of Darkness: her features shift by an imperceptible amount, and one can almost see her pointy ears perking up a bit. She cocks her head again, as if for listening, and then begins to countervocalize the harmony.

People were right: going goth and listening to emo music -does- pay off when training in the Dark element!

But then there is a downwind, and a flurry of teeth and claws.

"I am not -that- kind of goth, you know," she poker-face-deadpan-snarks at the bat, her only uncovered eye only half-visible below her level eyelid. "I fancy not the vampire aesthetic, and wish not to be turned. And most certainly not by -you-."

But alas, the creature is too powerful, and all the martial arts prowess of our Spriggan does not suffice to save her from a bad scrape, in the form of four glowing red sashes across her face, and two pulsating red dots of light on her neck.

"...Now I am mad," she says, without sounding mad at all. Swipe. Scan menu. Shimmer her staff into existence, a wooden white masterpiece sculpted in the form of a coiling snake, which holds a red crystal in the shape of an anatomically correct heart at the top.

Without a word, she darts, leaps in the air, and slashes at the Beat Echobat, in a sort of triple samurai movie run-leap-stop-see-who-goes-down-first scene. Which works particularly well in the Dark ambience of the cave.

So, it turned out bats made a lot of racket. Some part of Wukong still understood deep down that this was a video game and real world logic need not apply (he was effectively trapped in a body that looked suspiciously like the Monkey King even if he was the Primate Pauper at best), but couldn't the bats have kept their chittering echolocation crap out of the auditory range and saved a headache?

No, no they could not.

Wukong was too busy trying to shake his head out of the mechanic to get in tune with the counterharmony, but at least his lack of recent practice didn't make him a complete and utter dead weight when the team was 'bat'tered in the opening salvo, falling into an evasive backflip that gains further distance by pushing off of his staff. When the battle draws too close to the rest of the party and dodging would lead to teammates having to deal with flappywings and hissyfaces, the simian Were Fang raises his weapon to catch the oncoming bat's charge in a braced stance.

With the enemy reeee'ing in his face, he can't help but mutter to himself as the add names come into perspective "Rockman name vibes? Checks out.." But with a bit of relocation, he found a clear enough angle to try rounding the adds up with an area of effect, and a moment later is using a horrible joke of an attack callout of "Guess we should have a blast, man!" before inhaling a deep breath and then spewing out a stream of fire from his mouth. It at least singes some damage even if it's not a strong enough opening to really dent the swarm, a fleeting flare of night that's devoured by the hungry, all-consuming darkness that is coming for the souls and emotions of them all if they can't win. Or something appropriately emotional..

He at least has enough of a break after the attack to flick a thumb up in Gwen's direction, slipping back into a crouch with his staff at his side. "I'll off-tank until I'm the floor-tank!" Which.. on second thought probably wasn't what a party wanted to hear. Or what they needed to hear, for that matter.

They found the bat. With a bat choir, apparently. "I thought we were dealing with flying rats, not woofers and tweeters." But Kauchemar is quick to respond with doing what she does best when it comes to these kind of mechanics. She grasps her Grindcore Staff in both hands, holding it so the skull atop is near her mouth the same as a microphone would be.... though megaphone might be more accurate in the way the skull opens its jaw and when she sings into it the amplifing effect of the staff's abilities alters the pitch and frequency to help partially counteract the bats' performance.

She digs the butt of her staff and her hooves into the ground, as a layer of ice and frost crackles around her to help buffer against the winds that start to whail upon the party. Then sets her eyes on one of the little batty fiend directly. She doesn't stop singing, just shifts her technique to focus on a specific target. And lets loose with one of her patented Death Metal Screams! The sonic attack is infused with Dark Magic, so you can actually see the assault on the Decay Bat because it looks like dark purple and black 'soundwave' rings rippling through the air.

Haru is embracing this whole darkness thing. He will not yield! He should, but he does not. Instead he stands firm, TERRA FIRM, as stoneskin encases his body against the air assault. The wind kicks up, chipping away his ablative armor and piercing past it right into his squishy health pool. This whole 'deafening song' this causes him to unz unz unz to find the tempo. He does not. It takes some adjustment from actual Songstresses like Uta and Kau to help provide a bass beat to the melody. As the last part of his earthen armor blasts away, he grabs a chunk of the rock. Strong Artifice magic is channeled through it, honing it to a near invisible needle of glass. Sharp enough to cut his hands in a red light in the process. Because being edgy requires edgy things. He grips it like a ceremonial pact with his newfound dagger. "That hertz. This will Hertz more," and he throws it at the Hertz Echobat because even Emo Haru loves puns. Howling Commander reporting in AROOOOO~ It is almost impossible to see Haru's attack given the speed, size, and transparency. It can be heard, though, a wolfish howl that echos in the cathedral. It is a sign. To pump. Up. The Music! Also a sign that the Hertz bat is going to die as the bat suffers a horrible bleed DoT that is made worth with CHONK after CHONK of arrow fire that slams it against one of the structure's pillars and nails it there.

Music? Yes, music. Enter Kau. Kau's fanclub is just batty about her songs. They love them to DEATH. Literally in the sense of the Decay Echobat, that looks most in touch with Deathmetal vibes there. One can almost see the bat headbanging along to its doom. No, that is NOT what it looks like when it is flying. Its dancing. Was dancing. It just needs a dance partner. Someone like Gwen that offers enchanted air strikes to take the lead. Righhht to the coffin.

What is a good stage show without some pyrotechnics? Not one I want to go to. Wukong's monkconic breath fills the room up with blazing heat that persists. It has the nice side effect of lighting every wall mounted torch in the chamber to give it a real cathedral of combat look. Many of the bat buddies to Nightwing get scorched in the process, but Sir Beat Bat takes the brunt of it at the center of the stream. Plenty of damage burned away for Uta to do her jumping Braver Bash through the flames and give Sir Bat the Beat Down it needed. It is like snubbing out a cigarette. Second strike. Third. Bat is beaten to a pulp. Don't smoke, folks, its bad for your health. Ask that bat.

There is a near maternal screech at the bats falling down. Burned. Shot. Beaten. Slashed. The milky white eyes of Nightwing turn an infernal red color as the heat drains from the room. Moments ago Wukong's fire had added heat to the desert ruin. Now it is chilly with all the torches snuffed out in kind. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the burned and beated Beat Bat bursts into flames and flaps back up to life, infused with Fire. A keen adventurer would pick up that one of the armor buffs on Nightwing shaved away during the revival ability, but now the party has to deal with a motley party of bats and less Firepower to use on them. Nightwing seems more pissed than before, staying up high and giving a buffet of wind that is infused with fire, the flames ripping like ribbons across the battlefield. They harken as signal flares for the revived Firebat to dance along and rip into Haru with intense fire breath immediately above him. The Bass Bat seems almost frail in comparison to the two superpowers, but he still does his own thing. Being all chill and murderous over to the Nightmare like 'Hey, mind if we grab a bite?' starting with her neck.

Carbon likes to work in the shadows. It's where he's at his best. So the darkness of this fight suits him just fine. He blends in with the shadows, all but vanishing from view, as he stalks around the outside edge of the battlefield, picking his shots.

It seems that his stealth pays off, as none of the bats seem to be focusing on him, allowing him to keep his attention on picking the right shots. He takes aim at the Fire Bat. If it's absorbing elemental attacks, he'll have to use a good old fashioned arrow, or in this case, one that shatters apart as it nears the bat and hits it with a shotgun blast of metal.

Well, the additions hadn't become multiplications, so that was good. But the arrival of a new bat that was apparently fireproof had Wukong glancing around from side to side with the slightly guilty sort of concerned expression that was often relegated to campy comedies or the ancient art of memery. Whoops. "Oh.. that one's fire immune.. Go figure." he poses to no one, no one at all, doing his best to try forgetting the blaze of glory he was spewing out a few moments ago. Unfortunately on that front, his best wasn't good enough.

While some of the flock was getting thinned (was that what groups of bats were really called? No, it was a cauldron - hopefully the emos didn't know), the callout over Raid comms from Carbon gets a nod and a returned confirmation from Wukong, and after helping soak one of the boss's larger splashing strikes, the off-(floor)tank dashes away to give a *bonk* on the Fire Bat after distracting it with a battle cry of his own - sure, it wasn't actual music, but sometimes joyful noise was roars to which one would fell their enemies and see them driven back into the depths of the shadows. He was totally helping out of the goodness of his heart, not trying to quickly and surreptitiously clean up the mess he inadvertently made.

The fight turning in part into a dance party just works in Kauchemar's favor. She is totally in tune with this beat, that the Bass Bat's bothersome bite doesn't nip a bit of equine flesh as she twists and sidesteps away. Another neck spared from nasty fangs. Which is good, she's got a bit more neck.

"Sorry little guy, but there is a bigger punch on this dance ticket." As things would be her dance-like moves are also the physical component of activating one of her learned summoning spells. A runic ring appears beneath Nightwing, rippling with misty hues. When Kauchemar flashily ends her dance routine and points her staff in it's direction, the summoning circle erupts upward in a great gyser of water to blast the monsters.

And leave dozens of small but very toxic jellyfish clinging to the creature to continue nicking down it's health with their venomous stings.

Uta narrows her eyes. Well, eye. Eyepatch, remember?

That unsettling contour of eyeliner gives her gaze something sinister given her current expression. A predator, an echo of what the Spriggans must have been in Times of Yore. The kind of people who struck fear in the heart of other races at the mere mention.

And then she darts. Tap, tap, tap, lunge forward, fling staff, hit the ground hands-first, compress. Elbows out, swing body forward, straighten elbows as you push up, and spin in the air. Grab the still flying staff as you zip past, and as the parabola of her trajectory descends, narrow your eyes - well, -eye-, again, observe how Kauchemar changed its trajectory...

...not yet... not yet... NOW!

Uta SLAMS the pointy end of her staff into Nightwing, which happens to fly by right at this moment. Poisonous jellyfish below, skewer on top. A sandwich of pain.

"Nothing like driving a wooden stake through a bat's heart," Uta deadpans, again.

Haru stands ready to get immolated. He doesn't expect anyone to come to his aid, but Gwen does. "Fine," he gruffs at the idea of needing help, "but we do it the right way." One of the accessories on Gwen's armor begins to spark, as does the Enchanter himself. Haru himself looks sparked before the flames start to hit him, getting briefly slammed with fire before Gwen replaces him with shield up. By the time Carbon and Wukong take the bat down, the shield is fully charged, unleashing a lightning bolt up at Nightwing and inflicting a dazing stun debuff onto the boss. It opens up ripe for a crashing assault from Kau and Uta both to start shaving off its way-too-healthy health bars.

Nightwing flaps there up in the high section of the cathedral-like building. Even the firebat they brought back has fallen. The eyes shift from a firey red to a light blue cyan in one eye and a deep royal blue in the other. The bat pinned to the wall becomes ethereal and slips off as a combination of dark wind. The bat of decay drips with a black ichor, flightless, and sludges forward in ground combat. Insulted by the Air Assault from Haru, the Air Echobat targets him in a vortex, aiming to snuff out the Caster from the inside out through suffocation. The Water Echobat is on the ground, splashing around like a kid that has heavy clothing on and just got out of the pool. It coats the arid ground with slick, tar-like water near the archer's feet that stick like glue as it tries to catch and drown him as well like the Air version. Only with actual water.

The Boss Bat itself is slightly dazed from the shocking debuff from the Enchanter. The wing buffets are uneven, but they still come down with errant blasts of wind adding with the ribbons of fire. Water, like acid, spraying like a scorpians claws.

Uta holds on for dear life. As Nightwing zooms around the giant Cathedral with a staff stuck into its back, the Spriggan clings to the top part, held horizontal by the monster's high speed.

Despite the potentially adrenalin-surging events she's undergoing, Uta's expression still claims "I feel nothing."

More attacks come Uta way, but her body twists and turn, adjusting to the perpetually shifting angle of her staff, swinging from her staff as if she was hanging from a horizontal flagpole, then spins around, leaps, lands on the wood as if it was a tightrope, ducks, jumps, grabs the staff, now above her for a tornado-like flurry of kicks, and finally, after some acrobatics from Nightwing, slides down it as if it was a fireman's pole.

At which point her fingers clutch the wood and push down, abruptly, to sink the wood further into the monster's guts.

After that exchange Kauchemar shifts her stance to stow her staff on her back. And holds out her other hand in another quick summoning art, this time creating a swirl of darkness and earthen energies to summon her Binder Shield in front of her, it's surface sheening like polished obsidian. You think hovering wouldn't be so effective against wind blasts, and maybe it's the disrupting in their pattern that helps, but also being summoned with the earthly attunement gives the Binder the resolution to stand tall and sturdy like a mountain against the assault.

At the same time at her hooves the ground briefly cracks and her Rock Mole pops up from below. "Ah, there you are Stripmine. Perfect timing." Kauchemar stoops down to grab the bulldog sized mole monster and lift him up. Reels back. "This technique requires both a strong arm and something small and tough with sharp claws, so you will do. I saw it in a comic book once...ALLY OOP!"

And that is when Kauchemar HEAVES the Rock Mole and his earth rending claws right at the Nightwing's face!

Well, the winged dumpster fire was temporarily disposed of.

The call from another one of his new guildmates spurs Wukong back into action, attention redirected onto the big bat boy now that the majority of the extra units had been wiped out of the arena. Trying to stay nearby the remaining one just in case, the group manages to avoid heavy damage and with a free moment, Wukong spins his staff and slams it into the ground, roots tearing through the floor to shoot up and to - at least momentarily - bind the boss's wings and give someone else a chance of a clean shot. It may not last for long, or help much, but at least this was the Lightbringer trying to provide something more tangible than swinging around to only hit air or blow hot air. He would be doing that more than enough already. "Good luck everyone, you've got this!"

Wait. Was that a mole toss?

Gwen is not about to let Haru die here, she knows everytime someone dies part of them is lost. She doesn't want Haru to suffer that at the strange spark from her accessory Haru made for her? She has some idea of what's about to happen. She's now in Haru's place shield up but it's not enough she does not mind she's able to take the hit for Haru.

"Don't worry Haru! I got you!"

She also seems done with the boss at this point as she's forced to cover herself in ice to take the next hit comming at her.

"It's time to end this."

GWen charges in at the boss bat and will drive her sword into the ground, a glowing bright white cross appears under her and the boss.

"GRANNNNNNNNNNNNNDDDDDDDDDDD CROSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!"

This isn't going as well as Carbon would like, the archer clearly not enjoying the fact that it seems like his shots aren't hitting properly. He switches off the adds and back to the main boss bat, as he takes careful aim. His shot sails off into the darkness as he is forced to evade attacks from the big boss and one of the remaining elemental bats, "Damnit, I need that weak point opened up!" He calls out, hoping one of the others can expose the boss so he can hit it.

The shocking debuff makes the attacks a lot easier to avoid and natural prowess wins through the other bats. For Haru's Air bat he begins to gasp for air. Suffocating. Unable to breathe. He looks to Uta for a moment as his vision begins to fade. There is yet something that transcends the darkness. Hope. A multi-elemental halo appears over Haru's head, the self-same Arte that is used to break Crowns from the Palace Lands. A symbol. An icon. It deflects the Air bat that recoils as if subjected to a holy symbol. When Haru hits the ground next to Gwen he does so with a crash that pulls the Water bat's water upwards and freezes it in a flash, creating a shield of ice strong around him to kneel behind. Going with a third element, Earth, the Artificer points out from the earthen pillar and crashes it into the back of Nightwing's head to contribute to the final assault.

Uta's assault knocks the wind out of the bat with a nail to the cut. It lurches forward, just in time to get an outstreched rock mole right in its face and claws, tears at it. Menacing, yet adorable. Magical roots wrap around from Wukong, keeping any attempt at removing the mole at bay and steadying the target for Carbon to rip into. A holy cross that blazes from the floor upwards to give the boss no quarter in a hope to end this before it gets worse.

It gets worse. Nightwing screeches loudly. Enough! The vines are broken. The mole falls. The reason that this bat is so known is for its DARK magic, not elemental magic. The blue eyes snuff out. Not snuff. Black night. The light from behind the party where they entered begins to fade away like a doorway back to salvation that gets further and further away. It is just them and the darkness now. The two white eyes of chill Bass bat gives a 'squeak' as the eyes disappear. Gnashing. Gnawing. Feeding. The health bar of the boss replenishes. Slowly the whirling air of the Air Echobat begins to stop howling. Just a breeze now. Then, still. There is thrashing from the Waterbat like it is being drown forcibly. A fish on land. Magicarping bravely. Thrash thrash. Thrash. Thra... nothing.

There is nothing in this endless expanse. Yet when the voices of the other elements are quieted there is a wisdom in the Dark. Raw, arcane energy. It seeks to feed on the Adventurers next and return them back to the stardust they once were long, long ago.

Unless they fight back.

The Darkness outside, the Darkness inside. Uta looks at Haru as he looks at her... and the Spriggan's countenance shifts. Something boils inside of her. Her jaw tightens, her eyes narrow, and she is about to lose her grip, when-

Nevermind, Haru got this.

There is excitement at the ensuing battle, those rock moles are a nice touch, as are the magical roots. And Carbon, some skilled work there.

But then, darkness falls. Eyes disappear. Gloom abounds.

"This is what I have trained for-", Uta states, and as she, with a magical chant, attunes into the Dark element itself, extending metaphysical sensing tendrils of the element all around her, visible in a sort of swirling, branching dark fog, sensing presences within it-

-it's too late. Those bats have far more experience and natural disposition for it than Uta, and the Spriggan's attempts at avoiding their assault and counterattacking result in her being reduced to a punching bag and her being reduced to a punching bag, respectively.

Gwen seems to find she can't do anything to hurt the boss, so it's time to do something many has forgotton she can likely do. What is that? Heal! She will break out shielding abilities the Stormwind shield is put to use followed by her casting a chain of healing spells Scanrury is cast causing a bight area to appear uinder her, Haru and Wukong healing all three. Then comes another assuak she's forced to defend herself and then comes another heal not as powerful but still healing none the less for Haru Carbon and uta.

"YOU ARE CLAIMING NO ONE THIS DAY BAT!"

Everyone piles on. But then Nightwing breaks free, amongst which sends the Rock Mole tumbling to the ground with a bump and roll but survivable in the end. If a little dazed.

Kauchemar is busy focusing on the boss however. Especially when he drops everything into darkness around them. A very, very familiar technique. Which means something quite simple to her, don't stop moving. Don't let the darkness, the entropy, get a hold of you. "I know some of you are going through an Emo Phase, but if you really want to master it, you need to subjecate the darkness, not the other way around!" All said while she is taking of swift, fluid-like movements to avoid being choked by the crushing despair and get into a proper position.

"You're just playing on my stage now, batty." As she slides by she holds Grindcore Staff into the air towards Nightwing. "NIGHTMARE RAVE!" Everything is already dark, so the eruption of arcane energies with the pulsating effect of a dance club light show thanks to illusion magic is only all the more vibrant against the backdrop, briefly engulfing the boss in a shroud of UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ and WUB WUB WUB.

Then, being one of darkness herself, Kauchemar disappears into the void surrounding them thanks to her own shadow step technique to avoid the retaliation. Move, move, keep the life flowing. Keep making steps, keep going forward.

Another bolt of dark magic erupts from somewhere amongst the void, but proves to be less effective that the sensory overload she previously assault Nightwing with.

As the initial assault rains down, Carbon starts to get a bit sloppy. It happens to everyone, as that boss' final health bar ticks away, you start pushing things that you wouldn't do in a normal situation in order to try to squeeze out that last little bit of damage. There's an old saying in MMOs: The only HP that matters is the last one.

Gwen seems to know that well enough as her protective efforts are not in vain, her tanking and healing allowing Carbon to get back up onto his feet and into a better position after trying to strike with a melee attack on the bat. He missed and paid for it, but this time around he's better prepared.

This time he uses the noise and distractions from the others to slip back into the shadows, evading the bat as he maneuvers around behind the creature. He has to wait for it to get low and attack, but when it does, he appears seemingly out of nowhere and drops down with both swords, the weapons coated in inky black sword arte dark energy as he plunges them down into the creature, riding along its back before he backflips off of it, disengaging from melee as he switches back to his bow to fire a few arrows as he sails away to a safer distance.

There was hope.

Then there was darkness. So, so much darkness.

Once the call went out that everything to get through required dark-aligned abilities, Wukong chipped in where he could, to no real avail but an earnest effort. It was a moderately stressful experience, with a potential phase timer on the line and what amounted to chipping skills being tossed out into the void to be consumed into nothingness. His worries of striking and finding nothing but air proved true, and perhaps it was just that realization that hampered his focus when he rolled into a debuffing followup.

Taking a battering didn't help the focus on morale, but the round wasn't over yet and there were better players than him in this game. Even if it did turn into a full wipe. A quick "Thanks" is offered as an aside in Gwen's direction after she heals one of the shadowy tides of damage, then louder "Keep pushing, everyone! We'll find a light on the other side of this yet!" Even if he wasn't contributing much right now by way of mechanics, he could still be a Team Cheerleader.

In this darkness the Adventurers cannot see each other. They can't even see themselves. If it was not for the HUD effects, they wouldn't even be aware that they were still alive. The health bars for everyone steadily drop as if the bat had jettisoned them into space and is letting the void do the work for them. It is neither hot nor cold here. Neutral. There is no sense of the magnetism or gravity of Earth. Floating, yet without the need to breathe. It swallows up Kau's words, perhaps one that knows the night better than anyone here. A state of dominance and submission in place without people in it to be dominated or submitting to. It takes Uta, a Spriggan of darkness itself, back home where the Darkness reigns. It threatens the beacon of light as Gwen shields her friends, her allies, against the weight of oblivion as they sink further and further into the deep empty night. Carbon and Wukong as the last to see.

So. This is a form of Darkness too. Not malice nor energy. Void itself. The final logout button. In a way, Haru is okay with this. The tension of living doesnt exist here. He doesn't have to worry about putting a mask on so people don't have to walk eggshells around him or judge him. He doesn't need to worry about the burden of lineage nor the cross to bear in redeeming sins he did not commit. He could just...

...stop.

"You are claiming no one this day..."

"...if you really want to master it, you need to subjugate the darkness..."

"This is what I have trained for!"

"We'll find a light on the other of this yet!"

There is an amethyst light in the darkness shining like a distant lantern in a starless sky. He doesn't have anything cool to say. It was all a mask anyway. The whole Emo thing. The dispondance and the apathy. Reasons not to care when he does in his own weird way. It'll never be normal. The party hardly is normal. Yet they are not willing to die here because of some damn bat. Haru screams into the void and does the most Chuuni thing possible without -intending- to be Chuuni about it this time. Its a genuine scream and genuine raw, arcane terror as he claws his hands around his monocle and rips it off his face. The purple light turns red and a beam pours out where the relic once was, finding Nightwing in the impossible expanse and tearing through him as it saps away the mana from everyone fighting back at it. Constructing will into a combined force until the health bar for the boss is empty.

The night is turned off like someone turned off a switch. The ceiling to the cathedral has a new, wider hole in it. The bat cracks into seams of light and bursts like so much glass breaking above them, showering them in the dust of victory.

Haru has no mana left, having borrowed most of it from everyone else, and is left in a paralysis debuff. Monocle in hand. One blue eye fixed on it. One red eye fixed on it. Face half charred in soot around it.

Wukong has absolutely no idea what sort of party effect was going on, but he recognized an anime-empowered scream for power when he heard one, and once he saw his mana dipping down to fuel a party member's attack he joined in the fray the only way he knew how: he spread his feet, raised his arms, and shouted "Take my energy!"

He wasn't absolutely -certain- Haru was turning Super Saiyan while charging a Spirit Bomb, but he wasn't absolutely certain he wasn't either. And sure, there was a beam cannon that might have done a Kamehameha proud, but Haru's hair wasn't changing colors. Yet.

But as things start winding down in the aftermath of the hectic exchange, the monkey-man is still looking over with a critical squint like he's waiting for it. He does manage a soft "Wow," in the silence, and absently scratches the back of his head. There will probably be -much- more to say later.

There is an audible clink as the butt end of Grindcore Staff strikes the ground, as Kauchemar is using it to support herself as the Darkness receeds with Nightwind's death. She may of escaped physical harm this time, but being a prolific magic user means she is feeling the exhaustion from that drain on her mana more severely. The Binder Shield rests against her leg, until she recomposes herself enough to grab it by an edge, and reach over to put it upon her back. The spirit within likely felt the drain even worse than she did, being an entity almost entirely of magic and supernatural energy other than the metal that provides it a form to inhabit.

A few huffs to catch her breath, and then she stands upright. "And that," she remarks as she makes a show of brushing herself off, adjusting her cloak, and what not, "is why even those that embody Dark are careful not to go in too deep. Stare into the void for too long, and the void starts to stare back. Embrace it, but don't let it engulf you in return."

After a few steps she's at Wukong's side, giving him a pat on the shoulder. "You did good. Moral support can be important too." A wink. "I'm a bard, I know." Then she goes to retrieve her dazed rock mole and depart.

Well that was certainly a far harder fight than Carbon had set out for. Which meant it was exactly what he needed. After the shadows clear, after Haru's massive blast, Carbon rises back to a standing position, "Excellent work." He says, confident that's the end of the fight. There doesn't seem to be any surprise post-death mechanics like an exploding boss..

The only indication that Uta is still alive is Uta. As in, she is there: in this world, as soon as a creature dies, it shatters in a million colorful polygons.

Lying face-down in debris, her HP bar is a laughable speck, flashing an alarming sickly red.

One trembling arm dislodges particles, slaps the floor. A second one follows. With the most excruciating push-up, Uta's face is revealed again. That bandage now dangles from one ear, and what is below tells a whole story.

Beginnings of an eyeliner contour traced by a clumsy hand. A runaway streak. The overall bulging over the whole area indicative someone who's stabbed themselves in the eye with something stick-like. Traces of disinfectant.

Uta reaches up to her face, squints through her good eye at the newfound light (because she has no choice but 'bulbous mess' for her other one), feels around her face to make sure that nothing is missing, and-

"...oh no, the patch!", she exclaims in panic. She looks around, frantically, blushing, shrinking. "L-look, eyeliner is -hard- okay?", she says. "T-that could have happened to everyone! I- I- I totally did it myself and- and-" A sob. Two sobs. "No I didn't. I needed Fukaziroh to do it for me. I- I just can't do this goth thing. I'm a phony An impostor. A fraud," she says, not daring to make eye contact to fear the judgement of the rest of the party-

Until she does notice Haru. "...oh no. Oh no no no no no. Haru!", she exclaims, and darts to stand as much as someone whose HP bar is a miracle of miniaturization, and rushes as much as someone staggering to cling for her life can towards the Artificier. "What have you been doing? That looks... not good! Let me... let me diagnose that!"

Well, the diagnosis will have to wait until Uta manages to stand up again from her falling sideways.

Gwen is trapped in darkness there is more than a bit of panic inside Gwen which she's able to after some effort. The black armored clad woman finally see it's over the thing is dead and then she sees Uta looking so sad. "Hey... if you need some lessons... I'm sure we can find you help!" She seems concerned as she's not seen Uta this disheartened before.