Phantom Colosseum Clearing 2: The Colosseum

     After the raid on the city, it's been ... relatively peaceful. Guard duty has mostly been covered by Sir Vey and Sir Prize, rotating with a few of the other more senior adventurers to keep an eye out for and take out any wandering mobs that come too close to the temporary home base while they restock and repair any damaged equipment, and await reinforcements for the proper assault into the real colosseum. As the colosseum is known to be a massive monster nest with higher-level enemies, the initial force was more of a scout and security force to secure the town for the future assault, after all.
     The situation with the heavy fog and ghost ship just happened to be another thing that happened, but luckily was able to be solved without a large amount of issue for the assault force. Gathered around a large bonfire is Fukasa Yuri along with other senior adventurers. A large group of fishermen, hunters, and cooks had gathered up a massive amount of fish to cook over the fire so they can eat while talking tactics. It was a rather large meeting at that, sharing tactics, things to worry about, and information about the Colosseum itself to prepare for the raid. Everything from attack patterns of the common enemies in the dungeon, to even tactics that have proven to be effective against the bosses from runs of the dungeon.
     Just as importantly, rumors of rare monsters and things that more reputable forces have claimed to see, such as secret rooms or hidden exits were also shared. The overall plan, due to the sheer size of the Colosseum, is to break into three different branches. Group A, consisting of the lower level and adventurers less skilled at swimming will take the upper levels of the colosseum, clearing the dry areas and keeping groups B and C from being attacked from behind. Group B is entirely built up of undine who can thoroughly explore and clear the underwater areas to seek out any hidden bosses, loot, or traps that may be hidden that could cause trouble on the way back from defeating the dungeon core. And group C, the largest group, consists of the main assault raid group, with several earth and water-specialist mages brought along to ensure safe passage through a certain area of the dungeon that is otherwise difficult to pass. Group C is to push through to the main underwater colosseum area, while enchanters from specialist group D begin work on getting the waterbreathing enchantments back up and running to ensure that the combatants from Group C aren't entirely reliant on waterbreathing potions which have time limits, just in case of a long, drawn-out battle with whatever boss guards the dungeon heart.

     A mostly well-documented and thoroughly explored dungeon, the dungeon itself should hopefully not be the dangerous part. That's going to be the mostly-unknown boss of the Dungeon Heart. The best they have is rumors of an extremely powerful Sahuagin King that parties have occasionally seen at the end of the dungeon.
     "Hopefully we'll be able to encounter the Champion, because it seems to not necessarily be an actually aggressive monster, something akin to those elemental beasts from the events, I think it may be less of a monster and more of a natural force. Maybe some sort of cursed lander or something as well." Yuri finishes at the end of the briefing. "Last, there have been some rumors of a Sahuagin King. Because the levels of the monsters in this dungeon are overall fairly high level, I expect everyone to bring their A-game. Sahuagin tend to use tridents, water elements, but have also been seen to use air elemental attacks as well, so buffs to prepare against piercing attacks, water attacks, and air or lightning attacks will be necessary during the fight to ensure that we don't have any trips to the church occur."
     "I don't want to see any of you falling during your fights. Do not take unnecessary risks. Do not enter any area you think might not be something you can handle. And most of all, try not to bring the colosseum down on the heads of the rest of us. A large area of it is in disrepair, so try not to use any large, unnecessarily explosive attacks that could compromise this massive, multi-level structure that we're going to be raiding."
     Fukasa Yuri stands, arms crossed as she finishes off the briefing. She isn't really the best raid leader, but she's the one everyone was stuck with. And she /thinks/ she's a great raid leader, and that's all that matters. To her, at least.

Yeowang has arrived at the briefing, on time and ready to go. If the briefing is not proper, she can't tell, she's all new to this. She's used to this sort of coaching and advice pre-fight, though more along the lines of techniques and tactics, but situational awareness is critical in things of this scale, and it seems like a proper enough brief.

"Acknowledged," she replies. "We are group C, then?" she checks. Well, she knows she's not Undine, and she's pretty sure she no longer counts as a lowbie. "I don't know my way through very well," she admits. "Most of the times I've been through, I've been more focused on finding air as the currents swept me along. But if you can guide us, that's ideal. I suppose we should have developed SCUBA gear at some point, but it's too late to do so now." She considers, asks, "Is there any last minute tactical advice?"

Swift as a ninja and agile as an acrobat, here comes the Spriggan known as Kotono. She makes her way into area with her usual agile movements before arriving at the spot where everyone else is gathered. Upon her arrival, Kotono listens intently to what's being said and nodding affirmatively. Once Fukasa Yuri finishes her speech, Kotono speaks up finally.

"Understood," She says. "We have to be extra careful because this place could easily collapse if we're not careful. I'll be sure to use extra caution here. And I'm definitely not going to take any unnecessary risks here either." She looks at her blades. "I may be an assassin, but even I have standards."

Haru has experienced similar briefings to raids. As a Commander he is expected to know the basics even if his division isn't Combat. The Artificer was around prior to the briefing to go over the current intel. Numbers and strengths of the mobs. Confirming if the strength brought to bear contents to this. Evacuation and exit strategies. Convegence points. It all adds up. It is a lot better than 32.33 repeating, at least.

"If it comes down to it," Haru says as he cracks his neck to one side, "I have Earth focused Wave Artes that can form a structural brace. Have to consider what the enemy might do if desperate, including the place down on our heads." A hand rubs the back of his neck as the whole side crack was more about a kink that needs working out than to accent a point. Travel doesnt always give the best sleeping conditions. "C or D here, depending on if our support group gets pressured or not. Drowning is not advised." And Haru is a high level Enchanter. "It will be fine. We have the right forces and the right skills in them. So long as no one panics, everyone sticks together, and we press the advantage we will be able to walk away with limited trips to the Church." He can't say 'no' trips. Misfortune cares little for planning.

    Stepping out of Kotono's shadow, Miyako flashes the crowd a grin. "It's true, she does. I've had to carefully teach her some of them, but she does have standards." She slides an arm around the other Spriggan, still grinning, and pulls her close. "I've made sure she knows not to drown."

Miho is here this time to help clear this place out and she's a decent off tank when it's needed too. She's clad once more in her battle gear and has a Nagitnat out at the moment rather than a bow or Katana. She seemed calm enough as she was with group C.

"Well this should be fun right? We shoul keep how unstable and as for tatical? Don't die I guess is the best I can think of."

She waves her tail at Haru for a moment.

"I like that way of thinking. Though I want to avoid anyone having a death run."

     "Hopefully, swimming through the currents will be less of an issue, as we plan to make use of water and earth mages to patch those holes temporarily as we go through to allow us to move without as much issue. I can guide you, and I've got a couple of other undines I've picked out from among the olympus adventurers to help guide anyone who can't swim as well in case of the worst case scenerio where we're having to actually fight against the currents in that area." Is Yuri's response. "Tactical advice is... honestly, it's a lot of the same as the city, but higher level. Pace yourself, don't run ahead, and just trust your skills to carry you through this, to be honest. The colosseum dungeon has been around and cleared for months, just have to clear it one more time with a bonus boss, and we've got way more people than we usually do when clearing this thing, so as long as the dungeon core boss isn't anything ridiculous, this shouldn't be that hard, especially since the buildup of Sahuagin from the abandoned nature of this island has been cut down significantly by all of the runs of the colosseum."
     To Kotono, Yuri responds, "I'll be honest? I'm not sure I'm not just being overly cautious about this. This colosseum is in pretty heavy disrepair so I'd rather assume that it could fall on us at any time though. It's better to be safe than buried under a few hundred tonnes of rock and sand which we then have to dig up and try to figure out how to repair later if we make it collapse." Kotono's confirmation that she's going to use extra caution gets an approving nod from Yuri. "Good. Hopefully this means you'll survive this. Ideally we don't want anyone going to the church on this, but as this is a raid boss, it might be inevitable since we don't know much about it. Hopefully we're already prepared enough since we know the general tactics and skills of the Sahuagin as a whole, but who knows what special abilities it might have -- or if it's even a Sahuagin at the very end, the rumors of a Sahuagin King might be just people who got their asses kicked by the Sahuagin Lord that we tend to stop on since the way forward isn't obvious after that and people's air bars tend to run off by the end of that long, exhausting fight. We have a good store of water breathing potions for this though, so hopefully those of you who have to breathe air don't run out of their air bar."
     "I want you in C, Haru. We'll need the good support, the other enchanters in class D will hopefully get those up and running at least on a basic level, and that's just a contingency plan in case our air potions run out before we defeat the boss, so it's not down to just Undines on the adventurer side at the end."
     Miyako confirming Kotono knows not to drown is /also/ a thing that gets an approving nod from Yuri. Not drowning is a good thing, especially when you've got a mistress of drowning on your side. She tends to do that a lot, even just accidentally.
     Finally, to Miho, Yuri gives a soft laugh. "Yeah, that's the spirit. Don't die, try to have fun, and don't kill us all by destroying a priceless ruin of the past." A soft smirk from the Undine as she grabs her trident, resting it on her shoulder as she turns towards the rest of the adventurers. "Group A! Get in there and start clearing those upper levels, Group B, assist them. Groups C will be bringing up the rear to keep our mage's MP up for making stable paths for us and to protect group D while we start our raid deep into the Colosseum."

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As groups A and B start to filter into the large entrance to the Phantom Colosseum's upper levels, Yuri steps over to Group D, "If you guys can't get the air enchantment up and it puts you in excessive danger, don't push yourselves. We can always fix it afterwards, just do a patch job as best as you can." Says the non-enchanter who doesn't really understand how enchantments work. There is no just 'patch job' for such a thing.
     Without even waiting for their answer, Yuri turns to start making her way for the colosseum entrance, motioning for the others to fall in behind her, the sounds of combat audible in the distance as they push through. It's almost leisurely at the start, a chance for those more interested in such things to take in the appearance of the massive colosseum. Once upon a time, it had been a bustling hub for duels, fights against monsters for events, and other such things, and there were occasional remnants of the decorations that would draw in such things.
     A mix of roman architecture and island life is etched into every corner of the Colosseum, with an edge to it that truly gives it the name 'Phantom Colosseum', such as statues of deep sea monsters that might give people a spook if they're not expecting it when walking down the halls. Once-pristine halls fallen into disrepair, the floors slick and overgrown with algae and seaweed that has invaded the colosseum's floors as the party makes its way through it.
     And it's not long before Group C is starting to push forward into areas where the water is coming up to their ankles, knees, and soon swimming is required. "Alright everyone! Those of you that need to breathe air, it's time to take your waterbreathing potions, there's not many pockets of air from here on in, so keep an eye on your timers and refresh the potions as you need to, we don't want you using your MP on waterbreathing -spells- until absolutely necessary!" And shortly after, Fukasa Yuri disappears, diving under the water and swimming forward towards that first, major obstacle: That open area that the currents like to sweep whole parties away in. Motioning towards earth mages to come forward towards the end and form a line, casting their various spells to create a ramshackle wall to protect everyone from the current. Now everyone needs to just swim across quickly, before the earth is crumbled away by the forces of water.

Yeowang follows along with group C, then, nodding at the last-moment briefing items. She wades through the water easily enough, and is a good swimmer, for a human. She isn't carrying -much- gear, so swimming is easy enough. She will quaff the water-breathing potion when instructed, and dive below the surface. Her hair, it seems, has been tightly bound. Even so, some strands drift loose, but mostly it stays in place as she heads through the underwater path as quickly as she can. She at least doesn't dawdle as she makes her way.

After doing a few stretches, because it always pays to be warmed up for whatever you're doing, Kotono follows along until they reach the water, at which point she produces her water breathing potion. "Well, down the hatch," She comments as she gulps down the potion. Once she's sure the potion has taken effect, she dives into the water, glad she doesn't need to hold her breath. She swims along with decent skill, apparently pretty decent at the art of swimming. Of course, if they were going up high, she'd be navigating like it's nothing.

"I'll see myself into C group by the sea shore," Haru clicks out fluidly. "Lets see if debuffs can keep the need to use arena shattering skills to a minimum," says the guy who unleashed a beam of raw arcane energy during the last fight. Measured response. Measured.

The Artificer groups up and shows up as a high level Enchanter/Summoner on the party/raid bars. The HP bar isn't impressive but the mana bar is. Enchanter life! Haru gives Yuri the thumbs up on how enchantment works. Its close enough. The important message is 'pace yourself, dont take undue risks'. And away they go. He has been through the halls a number of times when clearing it in the past. It is too vast to say he has explored all of it, but he certainly has seen a lot of it. Once it is threat free he will see who wants to take point on the archeological aspects. Not him, alas, he finished up one ambition and is working on another. None of them will matter much if he drowns, so the human takes out an elaborate bottle with cyan liquid in it. It is thick and tastes like seaweed and fish scales were put in a blender. He then follows suit, giving the support teams their time (and mana) to carving a path forward. Can he swim? No. Can he summon a water dolphin that can swim for him? Also no. Will he solve this problem with magic somehow? Very likely. At least his armor is extremely light.

    Grimacing, Miyako downs her potion. She prefers her seafood fresh, thank you. Scallops wrapped in bacon and sauteed. Crab cakes. Shrimp coctail. "Focus, girl," she whispers to herself, taking a gulp of water to wash the taste from her mouth before diving in. Time to get a move on.

Miho listen to Fukasa's run down of thing as she's paying attention here. She nods once or twice at various points.

"We're on the ultimate adventiure and we're not stuck in a cubicle."

She will form up with Group C heading in. She keep alert as she downs her potion of water breathing it was time to get going in.

"All right lets go for a swim! Maybe I should have got a battle bikini for this..."

     Diving and crossing that protected area is probably the easiest time any party has gotten across it. Normally, with smaller parties, doing something like this doesn't work since generally there aren't enough mages to do something like this and have to conserve their RP, but when you have a full raid group, you can do nonsense like this to make a dungeon easier. 'Pace yourself, don't take undue risks' is really just the name of the game. They're trying to seige and take a base, after all. Which is why there was the need for several different layers to this, just in case of spawns higher up so that a party of exhausted adventurers doesn't just get merked on the way back to celebrate victory after the fact.
     Luckily, most of the party in general is lightly armored, or their armor is in the form of enchanted items, such as Yuri herself, who is effectively just wearing a swimsuit-dress-thing that flows in the water. Underwater, that feather-like hair looks even more like anemone as well, faintly glowing in the darkness of the deep water, acting almost as a beacon for the party to follow as she swims deeper...at least until they reach the area where the bioluminscent mushrooms light the underwater area. "Battle bikinis are great." Yuri comments absentmindedly towards Miho. "I imagine this mission sucks for you, being a salamander. I'm at home, you're basically in your opposite element. Like when I was training in the desert it was miserable." The undine comments, just to make conversation in the underwater trek.
     Until they break through into that familiar colosseum room where many people have fought through the waves of Sahuagin to win their tournament. This time, it's more of an even match as the front line charges in to begin fighting the Sahuagin, Yuri lifting her spear to summon several monster pufferfish and several undead sailors to assist the front line while hanging back. Saving her energy, it seems, watching the battle from above and only directly engaging in the fight when absolutely necessary to support areas where the group is starting to falter, or the Sahuagin are dealing too much damage, several other Undine following through with a similar tactic among Group C, acting as a mobile assault group to keep the fight going smoothly. "I know everyone's bored of this fight! Push through, eliminate them, draw out the miniboss, and then we can go for the proper boss!" Yuri calls out.

Yeowang has, indeed, arrived at the arena in possession of much more of her starting resources, health, mana, and everything else, than she had done in previous Colosseum runs. Those resources are not unduly expended on the sahaugin. They are, in the parlance she's learning very slowly, trash mobs. They are the warm up for the main event, and she treats it as such.

She expends no cooldowns and takes no particular risks, but there doesn't seem to be any great need, a punch or kick dispatching most of the mobs, and the ones thaty survive her first strike rarely survive her second. Soaked to the skin, the fight actually warms her up a bit, and she's fought in worse conditions before, in the game if not in RL. It's a slow, workmanlike pace she keeps, staying with the group so the tanks can tank and the healers can heal, and she can lay out the DPS like there's no tomorrow. Which there isn't for these mobs.

Miho grins "I got the figure for it but yeah but I can deal with it sides I enjoy the beach!" She dmit it but yeah the elemental bit is a major thing but she knew what she was getting into after all right?

"We need to clear this place out anyway right?"

She sighs and knows what to do as she'll move in keeping some level of caution in mind as she recies her weapon and moves in.

"Let's go I'll try to keep their attention!"

With that Miho becomes a bit of a blender...

Undersea battle? Times like this Kotono wishes she had a submarine, regardless of color.

For the time being, Kotono knows she has to conserve herself for the bigger battles ahead, so she strikes carefully as best as she can, using the water as best as she can to perform some acrobatic swimming maneuvers. It's a little difficult, but she manages to strike swiftly. "Bet they couldn't top that in synchronized swimming!"

    Miyako refrains from contributing Disney lyrics to the occasion. The Sahuagin aren't worth a song. Instead, she simply follows along behind Kotono, backing up her partner with her Druidic magic. Strands of seaweed twine around Sahuagin throats, sandy floors trip them up, and sudden water currents shove them right into the path of Kotono's knives. Only once, confronting a higher-level monster, does she bother to draw an actual weapon, decapitating it with a deceptively slow-seeming sweep of a fan.

Haru keeps amused underwater by summoning out his Wave Artes focus, the Ioun Stones, that float the same in water as they do in the air. He gets the golf ball sized objects to form a ring, which he grabs, and uses it like a water vehicle. "The beach side festivals and Peko races are not too far off," Haru observes, thinking back to the last one. Ah yes. Beach episode.

Daydream broken just in time to get to the main arena. It is such a different feel with a full raid going on, even if group C is the main force down here. The Enchanter settles in the back with the soft of comfort that would expect him to start drinking tea and talking about the summer home in the Bahamas. That would be because he has one of his elemental summons out, a small electrical fae-looking orb that goes around zapping for a fiesty fish fry. It is the sort of Crowd Control that doesnt dip deep into the mana reserves.

     Exactly. This is just a swarm of angry sahuagin, they're not quite trash, but with a raid party, they were easily managed. After they're weakend by the Tanks hitting them and drawing aggro, the DPS are able to slip around and finish off any Sahuagin in groups pretty easily. Wave upon wave of Sahuagin fall before fist, sword, and spear. Cooldowns on regular mob groups weren't necessary, just a carefully managed fight where the support mages are constantly keeping an eye on everyone's health, mana, and everything. Calling out occasional repositioning orders, yelling for assistance from the mobile strike team as needed, and healing when health drops past a certain threshhold. Anyone who takes a lot of damage ends up possibly sweating a little as their health drops to half or less, only for a heal to hit almost the moment they hit that point.
     "Keep it up people!" Calls out Yuri. "At the end of this, I'm going to owe each and every one of you a favor! And any that owe me favors consider them even!" For some reason, this seems to make a few people fight harder. "Miho, don't push forward too far! Kotono, this area lets you walk on the ground if you need to, don't forget that!" The normally somewhat scary Undine doing her best to support and keep her people safe. "Yeowang, you're doing great! Keep it up!"
     Miyako's support assisting several of the DPS to fall on Sahuagin and deal heavy damage without any issue, something Yuri herself doesn't notice, but several of the DPS nearby her extend their thanks for her support. Joining in with Haru's elemental summon is that earth summon that Yuri summoned earlier, working as almost a one two combo with the electrical fae to finish off anything the electrical elemental doesn't immediately kill to allow it to push on to the next one. And soon, the vast majority of the force of the Sahuagin is defeated. And a loud banging is audible. Bang. Bang. Bang. BANG.

     Normally, this would be the arrival of the Champion... which in a way it was, but it was different from normal. The Sahuagin Lord is with the Champion, forcing it out with several zaps at the end of its trident, the Champion breaking out as the Sahuagin Lord leaps into the frey. "And our first prey arrives!" Yuri calls out, lifting her spear and spinning it in the air. "Monster Handlers, work with me!" Yuri calls, as creates a ring of energy which she launches towards the Champion, attempting to do her specialty: Handle Monster. "Focus attacks on the Sahuagin Lord for now, if we can get the Champion on our side, it will make this fight so much easier!"

Haru may look like he isn't pressing too hard, but he is keeping a cool approach to the angry merrs and by the end of the force he has plenty of his mana to spare. A quick mana potion tops him off as that bang-a-rang klaxons out. "Much more fun than bludgeoning something until the big bar becomes a small bar," the human says as he walks forward closer into the thick of combat. Hands stretch out as the four metallic orbs are summoned closer to his side. They circle in a slow orbit, starting to pulse out in a dull darklight. They begin to pulse in a particular sequence, closing the circuit and repeating as the unique arte is specifically designed for removing and reducing aggression in its targets. Make love, not war, Champion. Then make some more war, but for us.

When the boss monster comes out, Yeowang goes into serious DPS mode, leading off with a flying roundhouse kick that strikes with a jarring impact, pushing him back a step as the martial artist lands at his feet and continues in with the brutal combinations. She's absolutely brought her A-game, it seems, focusing intently on laying into the monster, sparing a modicum of attention for the counter-attacks, but it seems like the tanks are holding his aggro successfully, so she can concentrate on pouring in the damage by the bucketful. Measured in cans of whupass, she has delivered ... well, a thrashing, it seems, and with the other raid members, it's starting to become significant.

"Well, here comes the main attraction," Kotono says with a slight smile as she glides towards the monster. "The show is on!" She says gleefully as she swims towards the monster, attempting to do the aquatic equivalent of a fly-by attack...

Only to wind up doing nothing but thrashing around in the water pretty much. "THAT was not part of the routine!"

    Following behind Kotono with a merry little chuckle, Miyako engages the Sahuagin Lord with a grin, darkness coating her blades as she lashes out. With Kotono having Problems, the smaller Spriggan engages, doing her best to keep the monster off of her friend. "Come on now!" she calls out, "Come and play! Dance with me!"

Miho is pressing on cuttin ghotugh the fodder as they move to get deeper into this cleaning operation. She l;augh for a moment as the monster handler are trying to capture the monster. So as people work on the champion? She'll dive right for the Sahuagin lord.

"You have a datewith a sushi bar!"

She cries otu aiming to drive her spear deep into the monster and pull away. With a terrying amount of power too. No one her size on earth should be this strong...

     The energy ring from Yuri's attempt to take control of the Champion, combined with the Ioun stones being put into use causes a flash of light briefly, as the Champion's name and health bar turn to an ally health bar, an NPC health bar rather than a monster health bar. It wouldn't last, but they now had another ally, and a relatively powerful one as well in the form of a giant humanoid cephalapod, which had a bit of a beef against the Sahuagin to begin with. As the rest of the trash is dispatched, and combat begins against the Sahuagin Lord, the Champion moves with an almost horrifying speed not seen before towards the Sahuagin Lord, wrapping and entrapping it as the party begins to attack.
     Which makes it /exceptionally/ easy for Yeowang to leap in and roundhouse-kick the giant muscle-bound Sahuagin Lord which was now in a vulnerable state. And those follow-up combo attacks just continue to damage the monster. "Haha, the main attraction? No, these are just the snack before our true meal!" Yuri responds to Kotono, her grin spreading wider. Oh, the Champion was a wonderful ally to have, even if only temporarily. She'd have to figure out a way to get it more permanently later. Somehow. That would be a rather lovely summon for sure. "Don't thrash or flail, just stay calm, turn, kick hard to restabilize yourself, and get back into it! And remember, this area lets you walk as normal if you want to! "
     Darkness-coated blades cut into the Sahuagin Lord as it's weakened, and the Champion releases it and starts to swim back towards where it came from, back into the barred cave it normally comes out of. Leaving the Sahuagin Lord open to be stabbed through suddenly by Miho, and as the Sahuagin Lord gasps and grasps for the spear, soon, much like the rest of the raid, he is downed quickly. Somewhere in the stands, there was slow, soft clapping. That slowly gets louder, as a shadowy figure starts to step forward. There were no roses thrown this time. The clapping was slow, and starting to get almost intimidating in nature. Was that laughter coming from whatever was clapping?

     With each step, the form almost seemed to get larger. And larger. Until with a leap, into the middle of the adventureres was a gigantic, absolutely ripped Sahuagin monster with a crown perched atop its head, clawed fingers reaching for the nearest adventurer to grab for it, and casually use it to throw into the crowd of adventureres as a weapon.


= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Ingoria, The Vicious = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
HP: [100% / 100%]

Miho is a tank of sot and whern the attack come, the tiny terror will bring up a Protect art causing a goldemn barrier to appear infront of her. The barrier withstands the attack it's unable to breahc it for now which has her leap into the air with her spear much like a Dragon intening to come down on the thing's head.

"BONZAI!"

Haru points two fingers at the downed Lord. "Hear that? Not even the main attraction. You are the California Roll to our main course and I am all out of soy sauce and wasabi." Haru says with as 'badass' as anyone in a monocle has ever sounded. Then there is the clapping. "The battle was too easy," clap clap, "effortless display of our strength," clap clap, "ah hell, there is a bigger boss isnt there?" Then the laughter comes in. "Yup," is the last thing that Haru says before the boss follows sound PvP logic: Is it wearing cloth armor? Great. Kill it. Yoink. Haru is grabbed by Sir Clappington (Inspects as Ingoria) like he was fresh breadstick at Olive Garden. "Boundaries," squints the Wave Artes user with his singular blue eye before he is thrown in rage, also like a breadstick at Olive Garden.

Haru flails in midflight. "Ruddeeee," he entones. It makes for a good slow motion scene, noodly arms flailing. He passes by his Air Sprite, a little ball of electricity the size of a softball. Electricity tethers to Haru's form, leaving a strand between until 'zip!' they change places in a flash. It means the sprite is still traveling backwards, but as harmlessly as a ball of yarn.

Haru clears his throat, unsummoning his sprite before she gets hurt. He straightens the cuffs on his travel cloak. Stands up straight, almost like he is a lawyer, offended. "Objection!" he points out as a raging firebird is summoned in a burst of searing heat right in front of where Sir Clappington is standing.

It seems Kotono's having a bit of difficulty, but she manages to regain her stance and get back into the fight. She focuses herself and remembers that she's underwater so gravity works differently. Once she gets a handle on that, she returns to focusing on the battle.

"Even the best of the best make mistakes," Kotono says as she opts this time to drop down, strike, and then swim upwards again. "Ninjas have got it made!"

Yeowang looks up as the foe is replaced by ... our actual raid target, it seems, huge and ripped, with a crown, which is never good, not since the Palace Landers, though this one might just mark his exalted position. As a punching bag today, sadly for him. Yeowang steps aside from his initial attacks with contemptuous ease, leaning away from his attack and letting it pass beside her with no effect.

As Haru is grabbed, she will do a very quick analysis of the situation. Not everyone remembers that the Shadowfist class gets the hunter's target analysis capability, but Yeowang takes advantage of it when she needs to, finding the precise spot to strike for maximum effect. Slamming that point with hard kicks and brutal strikes, she lays into it with full force, and she has done nothing but train that full force since she's been in this game.

    Is is a truth known to anyone who has fought in the depths that the sea swiftly grows dark as one descends. And it is in that darkness, the shadow of the Ocean itself, that the Sahuagin live. And it is in that darkness that they die.

    Unfortunately for the Sahuagin King, shadows and darkness are a Spriggan's home as well. Into this darkness, this shadow, the very ocean itself, Miyako steps and vanishes, unseen until she steps out directly behind the foe to slash down with her blades at the hulking monster's spine. "Fall," she whispers to him, soft and sweet. "Fall and die."

     Bonzai! There was a spear-laden lady leaping towards the Sahuagin King, spear stabbing into him, cutting deep, and Ingoria looks at the wound, casually reaches to grab the spear, and pulls it out. The red pixels beginning to disappear almost as fast as they were inflicted as the wounds begin to close. That laughter continues as the damage is, seemingly, ineffective, and the boss simply regenerates the attack. That is, until, of course...

     It turns out ingoria's own attack was backfiring, as there were Objections to his treatment of the cloth-armor-wearing Haru! Objections that are, rather suddenly, very hot. The fire causing a sudden boiling and borderline-erasure of the water around Ingoria briefly, the places the fire strikes causing it to shrivel up partially, and that regeneration stops. Just in time to allow a followup attack from Kotono, the blade of the woman cutting deeply into the crispy king's form!

     Examined for his weak points, Yeowang's attacks strike at Ingoria as the water starts to crash back in, beginning to cover Ingoria once more and restoring the partially-shriveled boss back to a normal state once more, and that regeneration begins once again, the health ticking up rapidly, even as the bulk of the raid group begins to throw in their own attacks and strikes in the form of blades, arrows, and spells! The only thing seeming to be slowing his regeneration being occasional fire spells from the group. Yuri continues her observance from above, darting in to occasionally pull over-extended squishies further towards the back of the combat so they can recover their health and mana in a safer location.

     Meanwhile, her earth elemental unleashes a series of earthen stalag spikes towards Ingoria, stabbing into its flesh and helping to keep the pressure on! It seems more big fire spells, in spite of Yuri's instructions earlier, might be needed. Yuri's pride hasn't let her admit this fact yet, though. Water solves everything, after all.
     Also apparently shadows, as Miyako darts behind the Sahuagin King, dealing a sudden strike from behind and carving off a decent sliver of the boss's HP. Surprisingly, the damage to the boss is high for a fight of this type, possibly due to that high regeneration the boss has, and the combatants are seemingly able to ~just~ keep up with the regeneration as the combat goes on just by pure DPS.

Haru, Summoner, Enchanter, man with a monocle. He does the whole Solid Snake hand to the ear to chimlink the theories behind the regeneration on the boss. It did stop during the Fire attack. Fortunately for him he has his Fire summon out. Rachel is a big birb, dire Eagle sized, and made of pure fire. Every flap of those majestic wings adds a desert hotness behind it. The change in temperature and pressure in here likely gets stormy winds brewing unintentionally. The Wave Arte user begins to chant out his next Arte, "Ignis. Pluma. Ambiente. Ardeat. Nos."

The eyes on the Fire Sprite glows as it kaws out, the red-hot embers extending to the avian's wings. Flap. Flap flap flap. I counter thy clapping with flapping. No typos. Feathers launch out from the elemental summon on the last word of the chant. It fills the entire arena with hot downy pinions like so many lost cherry blossoms. Best yet, Haru grabs one of them from the sky in front of him, touching to a crafted feather accessory inside of his cloak as /his own health/ regenerates. Sir Clappington, your infringment on Sir Lord King Crabbington the XVIXth's land has been observed and you are now on Burn Notice.

Yeowang pauses in her attack as a brief discussion comes over the raid chim. She confirms the observation, and the order comes back to burn it with fire. She doesn't have /much/ fire, it's not a focus in her skillset or a thing she worries about. She does have a limited capabvility, though, and she fishes out a small device from her inventory. Small and mostly cylindrical, it mostly fits into her palm.

She's not used to using this as a primary weapon, it's mainly for use as a tool, and it doesn't even /have/ sights for aiming. It's normal requirement is to hit 'the sky', not a precision target. But in this case, the flaregun sparks and a puff of smokle follows the chuff of firing. She's a shadowfist, though, and though this isn't a ninja star, it -is- a ranged attack, and she has some facility in putting ordnance on target. In this case, there's a smack of impact as the flare strikes the target, and then a hiss as the flame ignites and burns with almost blinding intensity. Well, they called for fire, that's all she's got.

Kotono's getting the hang of attacking in the water, or so it seems. She does a few somersaults in the water as if attempting to show off, before going in for another attack.

Alas, this time she only grazes her target.

"I should be having better standards," Kotono mutters to herself.

Miho comes down like a highwind on the Sahugain and will fin hersel bing move about as it pulls the spea out she is able to break free and flip away comming in for a landing. She'd not have made that landing if not for her tail. Her liminal rings seem to be glowing as she looks at the monster reading another weapon art.

"BEAT CRACK!"

She lunges at the boss again in a series of brutal attack. How is so much fury packed into someone so short?

    Hearing the warning of Big Fireworks coming, Miyako positions herself to avoid them. Fire just is not her element. She remains one with the shadows, waiting for her opportunity, striking out whenever the chance appears before fading once more into the darkness.

    And appear it does. With a grin, she flicks her fans closed, compiling their razor-sharp tips into stabbing points, thrusting with both hands as she braces against the rocky floor of the collisseum. "Time to die," she advises the Sahuagin King as she takes advantage of the momentary lapse of its regenerative power to stab straight for the heart.

     Fukasa Yuri was not much of a mage. Even though her stats left her to be more of a mage than a caster, she preferred to rely on her summons or melee combat more than actual spells. Still, this situation meant that both of those were a bad idea for her to rely on. So she lifts her spear, taking a deep breath and beginning to utter an incantation under her breath while Haru's own incantation begins. "Storms of the Sky. This Lily of the seas calls you." Yuri incants, a magical circle appearing on the ceiling of the room, and under the feet of the boss.

     Simultaneously, Haru's fire launches a massive fire attack towards Ingoria, once more eliminating that water contact with the boss and stopping its regeneration while stormy clouds -- started by Haru and assisted by Yuri build at the ceiling of the room. Ingoria's flesh withers, its body shrinks slightly, and Yuri points her trident towards it. "Lord of Vermillion!" Magic activates, and that magical circle is suddenly replaced with a column of lightning that completely obscures the boss briefly, leaving the room smelling of ozone. In its wake, there's another blinding light, as Yeowang takes aim...

     And launches a signal flare straight at Ingoria, striking it straight in the beast's face and causing burns as the giant creature screeches in pain, scratching at its own face. The lingering fire of the flare keeping the monster blinded as Kotono moves in for an attack! The strike... may have only grazed the Sahuagin King, but every bit of damage counts, especially when trying to down a regenerating boss.
     Flip, land, escape, get back in. It's simple, easy movements. Or at least Miho makes it look that way, possibly thanks to her tail. She leaps back in afterwards with a series of brutal attacks, striking hard at the boss, a short, fury-packed Salamander just doing Salamander things! ...Surprisingly lacking in fire really. A grin, closed fans, and razor sharp tips created. Once Miyako is clear and safe to go in for her attack, there was a leap towards Ingoria, fans stabbing straight towards his heart! Bleeding, lingering damage striking fully into the chest of the Sahuagin King. The fight with the king itself maybe not being hard, but even as Ingoria's health begins to tick down lower... lower... and lower... it's exhausting. And as the water crashes in, that ticking... slows once more. Tick. Tick. Tick. Just beating the regeneration. Until that Champion comes darting out from behind Ingoria once more, tentacles all aimed towards the giant beast, unleashing several blasts of lightning towards the King... which does JUST enough damage.

     Tick. Tick... tick...

And the Sahuagin King falls. Shattering into a thousand pieces. The Champion, like many times before, escapes through the ceiling of the room, leaving the party free to move forward to the final step of claiming the dungeon: To seek the other heart. There was only one place it could be, there was only one path forward. Into that formerly-cased door the Champion itself had come from. Now it was just a matter of shattering the heart of the Colosseum, and, finally, it would be once more in the hands of its rightful owners.

Finally, the situation is taken care of!

Kotono cheers as best as she can, given that she's still underwater. After getting herself back together, she looks to Miyako and says, "We make a good team, don't we? Now let's go home and dry off!" She grins a little.

    Miyako watches the Dungeon Heart evaporate, smiles, and holds up a hand to fist-bump Kotono. "Yeah, we do make a good team," she agrees. "Dinner's on me tonight."

Yeowang will proceed forward, then, seeking the Dungeon Heart. The only place it could be is the only place they haven't been yet, so she moves forward through the door that the Champion had come from. This looks like a dungeon heart, and it's confirmed by Haru, when he draws an X on one point. She puts her fist against it, takes a breath, and punches through it, shattering it. The One-Inch Punch made famous by Bruce Lee develops power throughout the whole body and puts it out in a very tiny space, but the power in that space is intense.

The Artificer takes a moment to prep the heart for complete oblivion by activating his relic. The monocle lights up, showing the structural weakness for a free CRIT and lights up the area with a little illusion magic. Victory! Shatter! "That was a hot fight," Haru says, noting, "and the urge for a good bowl of miso and some sushi is at an all time high."

     A fist is pressed against a marked heart, a sudden strike shatters the dungeon heart! And... shatter! The dungeon's crystalline heart is destroyed, and in its place.... is a Dungeon Slab.

Miyako
Kotono
Miho
Yeowang
Haru
Fukasa Yuri
After that is a ton of other names and it honestly almost looks like the credits of a movie or something, since it was a rather large raid group. Meanwhile, Fukasa Yuri wanders over to pick up a certain crown, setting it on her head with a cheeky grin. "Finally got my colosseum."

Miho lowers her weapoin as trhe boss goes down and she looks to Fukasa with a grin.

"Very good maybe we can have the tournmne here at some point?" Who knows what they could find digging aorund here too as she leans back and lets out a laugh.

"I agree Haru that does sound good!"

     "Of course. What's the point of a colosseum if it's not used? I was thinking a relatively safe-ish place to train and help the less combat experienced adventurers learn to fight in a reasonably safe-ish environment by using summons for player vs summon training." Yuri responds to Miho.