Duty Session 544: Isle of the Terraformers

The Island lies a good distance to the South of what many would consider the furthest reaches of mainland Yamato. Even the boat that left the Adventurers off here, refuses to come closer to shore, having anchored a distance out and provided longboats for landing. To say that the island is overgrown is an understatement. Plant life is in abundance here, growing into thick jungles of entwined leaves. Even the trunks of various trees have weaved together, creating massive natural structures that stretch high into the skyline. More unusual, though, is that there seems to be steam coming up from various points on the island in regular patterns. Upon investigating further, the group had stumbled upon what looked to be a domed entryway into some ancient ruin, now overgrown with foliage. Above, tucked against some rocks, a spout releases white steam into the air. Those with keen ears may pick up the strange clunk of moving machines in the distance, far below.

After a conversation on the SEA chims about the critters over on the Terraformer Isle, Souji's adventuring spirit has been sparked. He loves games, manga, athletics, and people. What better way to spend the day by battling through a ruin that /kinda/ feels like Elder Scrolls but isn't. Wait. No! Jumanji! "Check this out," the samurai says as he notices a steam vent that is hissing out in patterns. Get one sheet of cloth. Hold. Jump over the vent. Float down. "Like gliding!"

Goldenblade is always up for a mission, and she accepts this one as soon as it comes up. Joining Seta on the boat, she says, "Not quite as fast as ours, but serviceable." She means the steamboat, of course. As Seta discovers cloth-sheet gliding, she will smirk, and remind him, "Scale has hang gliders, Uta tells me. I'm surprised you haven't got one of those?" She smirks as she gets all her gear situated.

    Asuna got the invite from Souji, made sure Klein was going to come along, and showed up, ready for adventure. She also has a kind of thing going here.

    "Well, well, it's another Scale Samurai event, which means I have to dress the part. Gwen helped me out again. Well, honestly, Morri had the suggestion, and everything she gives me seems so popular, so who am I to judge? And no, I haven't even tried it on yet. That spoils the adventure, right?"

    She delivers that with only the slightest blush. There's a deep breath and she pulls up her inventory. She's faced all sorts of enemies, had horrible nightmares, all without hesitation. For the most part, she doesn't dwell on this too long. It's just another jump into the deep end!

    Inventory.... scroll... wear... select.

    And a moment later and she's in Red Sonja armor. But let's be honest, this is Morri work, so the word 'armor' is used pretty liberally. Gwen would be proud, though! The armor rating is just as high as Asuna's normal outfit.

    "Okay, so..."

    She doesn't look down. She doesn't have to. She can feel the air. A lot of air.

The conversation also sparked a certain fox woman's curiousity, and now she wants to see this island of supposed terraforming intrusions.

"Never a good sign if the Landers do not want to get close," she muses as they have to longboat onto shore themselves. "Or maybe a good sign, if expecting great challenges is what you do." Considering who's present, it is probably a combination of all of the above. She pauses to adjust her spectacles. "Interesting ecology, but we should best not dwaddle in one place."

Followed by a shrug to Goldenblad. "Hangliders are not the most portable, we would of needed to know ahead of time to bring any."

A journey into a jungle island is a tale straight out of stories from the early Age of Exploration, of travelers from civilization struggling through nature. What is not part of those ancient tales, however, is the steampunk technology clearly sticking out here and there. It's just proof that this game has a lot more going on than the typical high fantasy vibe it usually has.

Holding a hand over his eyes, Klein stares up at Soujiro as he raises up and glides back downwards, using nothing but a sheet of cloth. "Wonder if we can figure out how to do hot air balloons. Would be great for recon or maybe personal travel." Goldenblade does get a surprised stare from the Scale Samurai as that bit of information hits him. "Wait, we do?!...huh, makes sense, honestly."

Asuna's cosplaying trips into the dungeon are starting to become something she's known for lately, and Klein has no doubt that Asuna is going to have something new planned. He's certainly not disappointed as he spots her wearing classical barbarian armor, and he looks her up and down for a moment before giving her two thumbs up. "Now that's classic! Reminds me of old video game box art. 'Barbarian Babe in the Kingdom of the Steam Slugs'...wait, that sounded better in my head."

The entrance into this mysterious, ancient ruin seems to be blocked by a strange, stone door. There is metal inlaid into portions of it, giving the impression of some feat of mechanical engineering that must have come from some earlier age. Vines cling around the edge of the entrance, but the fact that this has not been overgrown suggests someone, or something, has been making its way through from time to time. To one side of the entrance, there is a series of carvings in some ancient Gnomish tongue, the sort of thing that few of the modern age would understand. Then again, the wise may pick out a word or two of instruction. Otherwise, the door seems to be a massive, circular slab with gold lines that weave over the surface. At various points, there are indents where it looks as if objects should be inserted, but there are none obvious to be found. Lines extend out from these holes in the door, giving obvious signs that some sort of power source is required in order to open it. Even if the right 'keys' can't be found, perhaps something equivalent can be enchanted to imbue enough energy to open the way forward.

Scale Samurai! Souji, Klein, and Asuna are going to need to work on the team pose. Power Rangers, but suitable enough to be on an album cover of the Elder Tales OST. "I saw a hot air baloon once," Soujiro tells Klein, "so someone figured it out." That person? Not Souji. Look at that face. That smile. He has never had to /think/ in his life.

Which leads to the 'adventure before the adventure' which is finding the adventure in the start of the adventure so that adventure can adventure. Doors, amirite? Soujiro spends some time looking at the Gnomish for a while before realizing an important fact: He doesnt know Gnomish. He dun Gno, so that skillcheck is a mish.

Goldenblade takes part in our little pre-adventure. "What's even the point of hiding the mission entrance?" she demands. "It's like they don't want people to do the mission." Or, y'know, keeping out intruders. Goldenblade still hasn't worked out the metagame stuff yet.

    So a little known fact about Asuna is that she has no skill for searching, enchanting, and reading fancy old writing. However, the Flash has been to a lot of dungeons. Sometimes she even was appropriately covered.

    "Well, I've seen something like this before. If I remember right, the enchanted did something like... this."

    She pulls out a simple lockpick and starts to channel magic into it. Air artes, it seems. When it's good and ready, she settles it in place.

    "Voila! Now.. just need some help getting the rest of it done."

    She gives Klein a cheeky grin, turning back to something he said earlier.

    "So you... like this one? Is this your favorite so far?"

    You know, it's just professional curiosity. Nothing more!

Daiyu immeadiately takes note of the carvings. "Hmm" It helps that they're carved into the wall, because she can activate the Relic that is her spectacles to help her translate the Gnomish. "The keys are not the kind as a mechanical lock. They provide a source of energy to opening the mechanism." She turns around, to see Asuna already working on that sort of technique. "Yes, like that. The energy is more important than the source." They might be able to, eventually, brute force the door open with a bit of arcane trickery instead of searching for all the actual 'keys'.

It's good to know that someone already figured out hot air balloons! Though, discovering that fact after who knows how long proves that there's a lot of discoveries he needs to catch up on. "The furthest I would have gotten is keeping on weights for sudden acension. I'm a samurai, not a pilot!"

Klein stares at the doorway for what be several minutes, trying to determine what was expected to open the way forward. That laungange on the doorway might as been be Elvish for all the good that gives him...which actually gives him an idea. "...Mellon." A few tense moments past without any change, and the redhead just shrugs his shoulders and looks towards the others. "Sorry. The Mines of Moria, this is not."

Klein looks towards Asuna for a moment, a growing grin on his face. "Honestly? Yeah, I have to say so! I think this better suits you than the famous Tomb Raider, and that's saying something." Hey, she wanted his honest opinion!

While there is still the hiss and clank of activity within the ruins, there are also many signs that this place has been long abandoned. Spider webs cling to the walls and dust is thick on most surfaces. The entire facility looks as if it is some sort of combination of stone and metalwork, with ornate pillars that have worn from age and stone slabs with strange wire-like filigree within them. As the party moves further into the ruins, there is a strange skittering of metal on stone that first alerts them that they are not alone in this place. In the distance, a single red light blinks. It is soon followed by others as the skittering grows louder. Out of the shadows, a number of mechanical spiders make their way forward, moving with erratic, jittery motions. They are flagged as monsters by the system. The red glowing sections seem to act as their eyes. As guardians to the ruins, they have obviously identified the Adventurers as trespassers. The mechanical spiders leap at the unwary, shoot sticky filament at others, and scratch at them with sharp, metal legs.

Hey! This was the place that Honami was mentioning. With the spiders and the click and the clacking. "I heard about these," Soujiro says as he draws out Kogarasumaru, a white katana, in time to deflect the aggressive minions' attacks. "Moria," he says as he holds a spider at bay. Another tries to stab his feet as he step-step-steps out of the way like he is dancing. What chip damage he does take is absorbed by his saintly regeneration. "With the Balrog? Man, that would be a /fun/ fight. You. Shall. Not. Pass." He lets the eager little spider know. But. But it wants to pass. So, Im a Mechanical Spider, so what?

    Asuna nods to Klein. That bit of knowledge is filed away. She'll have to let Gwen and Morri know that this one was a hit! She finally looks down at herself.

    "Oh. Yes. I... see."

    Blush.

    Thankfully, she has nothing further to say. There are spiders here! Yes. Must fight! Or, in this case, must reprogram.

    Asuna darts around a few of the spiders, using a variety of little tricks of the trade to switch some of the little guardians to protect her rather than attack.

    "There we go! Now be good little spiders and defend your momma!"

They get inside, only to be beset upon by augmented spider-like entities. "It did not take them long to realize someone has transgressed." However rather than draw a weapon Daiyu puts her hands together and murmurs under her breath as her tails fan out in a X behind her. The tip of each glows briefly and then releases an orb of brilliant arcane light directed at the optical apparatus of the spiders to overload their sensative sensory devices. Creatures than hunt in the shadows tend to be sensative to such visual overstimulization.

Goldenblade fights off spiders, but it's not her hack and slash skills being tested. She's fierce enough with that. Being mechanical, they don't take regular damage, but it seems like they can be picked off by quite a precise hit. You'd have to be a hunter to hit with that level of precision. Or lucky. "Better to be lucky than good," Goldenblade repeats that old mantra.

She looks over at Asuna's current outfit and says, "You're lucky it's summertime, or you'd freeze in that." Goldenblade wears the same mail coat year round, and it's starting to take a bit of patina from her repeated use of fire. Soujiro gets a blank look, she's no Tolkien otaku to get all those references. "Anyhow, this place might be abandoned for years, but the machines got left on..."

    Goldenblade brings up a very good point. Asuna looks thoughtful. With some thinking, it occurs to her what winter will bring.

    "Considering the progression, if I'm not careful by winter I'll end up cosplaying in a hat and a few spare threads. As fun as it is letting others pick things for me, I may have to take the bull by the horns."

    She looks over to Souji, then, and laughs. She has to point out.

    "You strike me more like the Aragorn type than Gandalf. You would have taken down the balrog without breaking a sweat, anyway."

Klein's normal steel katana is drawn out silently as the mechanical spiders click and clank over to them. He was shocked when he was younger that making noise like that when drawn meant the blades were in bad shape. How could movies lie to young him?! But Klein is mentally getting off track here. This place is absolutely starting to give him some flashbacks to an older game, though.

Mechinized spiders seems almost perfect for a steampunk ruin like this, and should be easy fodder to mow through. Slashing downwards, Klein is shocked to see his spider actually parry the blade with a metal leg. There's more to these guys than what meets the eyes. What follows is a metal dance of metal against metal, leg against blade. Neither the samurai or the spider can seem to find a way to strike one another, and it's up to one of the others to strike the spider down while Klein keeps it distracted. "Huh. Now I want to see if I can tame one of these guys later."

"A balrog fight would be amazing, but that also killed Gandalf if the movie holds up. Aragorn was always my favorite of the Fellowship, skilled with the blade yet also his head." Klein easily keeps up with Soujiro and Asuna on the nerd talk. "Maybe we might have to do the counting game Legolas and Gimli did one of these days."

The hiss of steam is louder in this section of the ruins as the party makes their way further, in search of the elusive 'Terraformers'. It isn't long before they actually spot a trio of them, at the far end of a long hallway. They seem to be trying to take apart a piece of the ruin wall, green shoots growing up from where their machinations have taken hold. Spotting the Adventurers, the turn, fleeing further into the dungeon. However, as the group moves to follow, they are stopped by a wall of flame that emerges from beneath them. Someone must have activated a motion sensor or a pressure plate. Whatever the case, the fire remains, blocking their path. There is a tank that seems to be some sort of propellant that could be tampered with to turn it off, otherwise, there are the more direct routes of dealing with fire...

There it is! Or they are! Terraformers, more than meets the eye! Wall of flame? Pshaw. Soujiro is no stranger to danger. What is a little fire trap if not for the sake of a thrilling adventure. Run. Jump. Dodge. Parry a jet stream with his katanas. Slide. Wall run. Ceiling run. Run run. Annnnd stick the landing. His clothing is singed, fire being notorious for handling hordes and dodge heavy people. "Stay hydrated," he lets everyone know, taking off his top to pat down the fire. Shirtless Souji. Just add water. Which he does, right over his head. Water Sparkles. The shirtless samurai drinks from a gourd and shares. Its tea without the tea leaves: water.

"Aragorn is cool," Souji says to Asuna now that the two have about the same level of skin showing, "especially that scene with the ghost. Ghost battle." Soujiro: The secret Ghost Buster. Scale Samurai have good taste. "Oh we should do a Lord of the Rings event. I bet Gwen would love to set it up the outfits." Nothing bad will come of this.

Daiyu looks at the flames. Looks at the devices projecting them, and traces the apparatus back to one of the tanks providing the fuel to the projectors. "While I have no doubt in your tanking abilities, I can still reduce the amount of duress you must contend with." She takes one of her alchemical compositions and vaults up to where the tank is. Pries open a valve and drops the bomb into it. Whatever she used, it changes the contents of the tank into something less flamable, causing several of the flame spitters to sputter erratically, lowering their output. Then she jumps back down to rejoin the rest of the Party. "You're welcome."

    Asuna does things the old fashioned way. She sees Daiyu diminish the fire and pulls up the power of her shield abilities.

    "If you can't stand the heat... get out of my kitchen!"

    Or in this case, follow her through, because her shield powers keep the flames at bay. Of course it's still pretty hot in here, but that's part of the fun! What's a dungeon run without some perspiration? Speaking of which, she looks over to shirtless Souji and grins. She turns to Klein, mid-sentence.

    "I have to say I'd appreciate it if more dungeons had fire barriers like this."

Goldenblade smirks at Asuna's estimate of where her costume will be come wintertime. "That's what comes of letting others dress you," she says with a smirk. The LotR discussion goes way over her head, balrogs and counting games, and oh my. 'Stay hydrated' she understands, at least, and days in the hot sun as a bricklayer have prepared her for days in heavy mail and not in a mail bikini which does seem like it might be a lot cooler, come to think of it. Taking a pull at her own waterskin, she erks as she's singed, and it would have been a lot worse without the mail coat and under-bits that you wear under armor. She takes a few extra minutes to get staightened out. Others will have to deal with the fire.

Where Soujiro may be going for a purely acrobatic way to traverse the flame wall, Klein goes for a more straightforward method. Chanting softly under his breath as he nears the flames, the redhead grants himself the strongest defense buff he can grant himself. No matter how you cut it, this is gonna hurt his HP. Drawing his katana, he positions it directly over the flame jet, splitting the flames in one section and creating an opening for others to traverse. His job is certainly easier thanks to Daiyu's work! "Go ahead and hop through here, i'll be right behind once everyone is through!"

True to his word, Klein is the last to reach the other side, sweating heavily. Unequipping his own torso armor, he happily takes the gourd of water from his fellow samurai and pours it over his own head. It's no trip to the beach, but it feels much better after an intense fire shower. Winking at Asuna with a knowing grin on his lips, he just nods his head once before offering the gourd back. "I bet you would. I wouldn't say no either, but...not everyone can handle the heat."

"My duress thanks you, Daiyu," Souji says, only kind of using the word correctly. Its not /wrong/ per say. Daiyu gets some water before Souji gets his armor back on. Burning conditions have been stamped out. "It makes for a hot dungeon run," he agrees with Asuna about the fire barriers. "Arrow traps are fun too," he adds innocently as a sword saint too pure for this world to make a penetration joke.

Following the retreating form of one of the 'Terraformers' the group finds themselves moving down a narrow stone stairway, broken in places and strewn with bits of rubble. At the bottom, the passage opens into an absolutely massive room that seems to have been entirely overrun, not only by plants, but by the 'Terraformers' themselves. The room is so massive that they cannot truly grasp the size, the walls hidden by foliage. Above, there is some sort of observation structure, but it is out of their reach. The hunched, black creatures move in and out of the forest, as if this place were some sort of obsession. The jungle seems to have no creatures living in it, only a startling variety of unusual plants that the 'Terraformers' seem to be caring for. Many of these do not look native to Yamato, or perhaps to any part of the natural world that they are aware of. There are many of the creatures here, a perfect time to strike from the many hiding places and thin out their numbers. It's even possible that a skilled herbalist might be able to turn their own plants against the creatures, trapping them here so they cannot escape and bring havoc to the outside world.

What does Souji /want/ to do? He wants to fight whatever is lurking in the shadows. What lurks in the hearts of men? Shadow knows. Shadow is also a ninja/assassin from Final Fantasy 6 who must have gotten that joke for decades now. Souji is not ninja nor assassin. So he Jon Snows the situation by knowing nothing and easing into his supernatural level combat intuition when surprise attacks happen.

Daiyu accepts the water, drinking it to cool off after that last challenge. She got pretty warm even with the flames diminished, considering she's entirely fuzzy probably not a surprise. "Appreciated. Shall we move on?"

Onward to a very interesting place. But before Daiyu's curiousity can distract her too much she notices the creatures lurking about the chamber. A soft hmm follows, and then she seems to fade into the shadows. Becoming like darkness herself thanks to the aura that envelopes her.

One of the creatures abruptly falls over as it's legs are cut out from underneath it.
Another tumbles from it's perch with an enchanted card imbedded in it's forehead like a throwing knife.
A third, no one knows precisely what happened, because it just disappears into darkness grabbed by something that was vagely tail-like, and never seen again.

Daiyu is seen again however, rejoining the group once they're passed, looking like nothing happened. "I guess those growths confirm the terraforming aspect, it appeared to be some manner of greenhouse. Or nursery."

Goldenblade, having gotten her mail coat straightened out and a healthy gulp of water to stay hydrated, now finds it's a bit bulky for what she wants to do, which is sneak by unobtrusively. But there's really too many of these Terraformers to just leave them, so she'll strike from stealth, a ninja-attack to take them down one by one, then fading back into the woodwork. Or the plantwork, anyhow. "We ought to bring some of these back as samples to Yamato," she suggests, of the plants. The Terraformers, not so much.

Chasing after the last known whereabouts of one of the Terraformers, Klein has to stop him self from whistling as he takes in the full view of the Garden Atrium, as he wants to call it. The place was just as packed as the surface up above with plant life, which also makes it ideal for hiding in the undergrowth.

This, however, is something Klein is abysmal at doing, nearly as bad as his legendary (lack of) cooking skills. So it should come to no surprise when his attempt of being sneaky causes an extra dry twig to snap under his boot, causing nearly every single pair of hostile eyes to focus entirely on him. His only response? A loud, heavy sigh of regret before Klein starts running for his life, a train of mobs biting and clawing at his heels. "WHHHHY MEEEEE?!"

    Asuna is just delivering her smart ass remark when Klein doffs his armor and pours water on himself. She turns away a moment later, cheeks quite crimson.

    "So... arrow traps. Yeah, not enough of that kind of thing!"

    She does act cool about it a few moments later. By cool I mean to say not at all cool. She's horrible with stealth and her eyes do wander. But the Scale Samurai boys are both putting on a show. She cannot be held accountable for her reaction. She does mutter under her breath.

    "Friggin' screen shots disabled."

    But oh look. There are plants. Hostile plants. Not hostile for long, though.

    "So if I remember right, these little red plant types like.. spicy food."

    And Asuna always has spicy food. In moments, she has her own little platoon of angry plants doing her work for her.

    She's so satisfied that she turns a grin towards Klein and Soujiro. Who are still shirtless. She looks away quickly, blushing again.

"Holding solid agro there, Klein!" Soujiro cheers him on. Tank life!

Beyond the strange laboratory and testing facility, everything about the dungeon seems to change. The tunnel that leads onward is no longer finely cut from stone, inlaid with golden wiring. Instead, it seems to have been rough hewn out of stone, with rubble lining the side of the passageway. The passageway weaves in different directions and the floor beneath their feet is nowhere near flat. They must be beyond the scope of the original Gnomish facility now. A sound of crunching seems to greet them as they step out into a wide, natural cave. Inside, a giant automaton is currently moving huge chunks of earth with massive hands. Rocks are thrown to one side or the other as it seems to be trying to expand the facility, extending the reach of the 'Terraformers' into new places. If the chaos they have seen is any sign of what this could bring, it needs to be stopped here and now. The giant machine turns towards them, eyes glowing red as aggression engages. However, it seems to be giving off a lot of steam already. They had caught it mid-tunneling, so it's possible that while some attack, others might be able to overheat the monster's systems and destroy it from the inside out.

"The boss battles are the best," Soujiro says as he strides out onto the battle arena. The way he walks its clear that he lives for this the same way a professional athlete looks 'in his element' when walking out onto the pitch. There is excitement in the air that mingles with the acidic tang of mechanical electricity. The first attack is dodged the same way a Soulsborne player gets out of the way of those hefty telegraphs from bosses. Stomp! Stomp! Drill! Soujiro jumps up into the air, eyes onto his foe. Locked as time begins to slow during his ascent. There it is, the opening thread. Don't Blin--

Flash flash flash. In all of three frames of animation, Soujiro is on the other side of the boss, both katanas out in full strike. The damage chonks off of the boss, valve rupturing and hissing catastrophically.

    Asuna views the boss with excitement. She can't help it. Sure, she'll blush and stare at shirtless boys later, but for now, there's a higher calling. There's a boss. It's big, and she's going to have some fun with it.

    With an explosive burst of thunder and a flash of lightning, Asuna saves on animation in a fashion that isn't quite as cool as what Souji does, but has its own charm. She's there one moment, burying a lightning-infused boot into the machine the next. There are three clear strikes before she elegantly flips away, landing in a flashing three-point pose, crouching low, her rapier out and crackling with air artes.

"Agreed. Much like the days of fighting arena champions," Daiyu agrees with Soujiro. Then takes off with the speed and grace one would expect a vulpine to posess. But a direct attack is not entirely on her agenda. Her keen were fang senses noticed the steam venting, and tactical planning quickly followed.

She runs in, weaving to avoid the thing's stomping feet as it tries to fight, to get directly underneath it. Rather than her warfans, she draws the sword concealed within her parasol. One hand passes over the blade and it starts to glow a vibrant red-orange from the fire enchantment.

Which Daiyu twirls into a proper hold after, grips with both hands, and springs upward to shove the sword into the center of the machina's underside, channeling that fire deep into the construct to farther overheat it's already taxed internals.

Goldenblade is ready for the boss battle, but she's not as ready as she thinks, maybe. On the other hand, she's worked out one fairly unique skill, she and Akatsuki, back in the day, and she's done well by Assassinate, and again today, she plunges her blade into the back of the automoton, twisting it before yanking it back out. Sadly, mecha don't take wounds the same way living creatures do, and the bits of trivia she's heard about wound channels and how certain weapons leave more grevious wounds than might otherwise be expected don't even apply to this .... thing! But she fights hard, and fighting is her main thing, and that initial strike cost it a big pile of HP, if not as many as she'd have liked, and the furious follow-up melee is hard fought, but finally vistorious. She breathes out a sigh of exhaustion. "Oh man!"

Say what you will about Klein, the man is always good at holding aggro when he needs to. Despite not being a tanking class, there's been times he had to off-tank for parties before to make sure the actual tanks don't get overwhelmed. Something that Soujiro is clearly given credit to him now. Giving Soujiro a quick thumbs up as he runs on by, Asuna has his back...by turning some of the angry plants back on their fellow mobs? "I didn't know you were great at beast taming, Asuna! Must be the leather at work."

Seeing all the steam as he nears the automaton, Klein has to agree with Soujiro here. "They're always the best part about other games, getting to test all the skills you gained along the way." Oh no, this is getting out of hand. Now there are two of them!

Where Soujiro goes for a beautiful iaijutsu strike and Asuna follows up as the Flash with the burst of lightning, Klein goes for a more...hot method of attack. Engulfing his body in flames, Klein leaps upwards with magically augmented strength to the roof of the cavern before kicking off from the ceiling. Moving diagonally downwards, he keeps his katana sheathed as he descends from the heavens like a blazing comet. And just before the moment of impact-

SHiiing!

The shirtless samurai slides to a stop on the other side of the Mega-Mover, steam coming off his body once more as Ragnarok's Wisdom ends. There's no dramatic sheathing here, as a gaping cut through the automaton makes itself known, billowing flames burning outwards from the wound.

There is a trembling from the heart of the Mega-Mover, a large red crystal starting to blink as it is overloaded by heat and damage. The massive automaton starts to fall apart, dropping hands and feet, stumbling forward before legs and arms tumble off to the side. Then, all that remains is the chest of the monster, the red 'heart' blinking erratically before it explodes, filling the room with dust and debris. The Adventurers are able to protect themselves from the area-of-effect damage, but there isn't much left in the aftermath. Within the crushed pieces of metal and rock, there are a few bits of shattered crystal which seem to glow with a strange, inner fire. The 'Terraformers' have been stopped here, for now...

Only one thing left to do now. Victory dance. Elder Tales doesnt have BGM, but doing the fist pump lets that sweet, sweet fanfare music play on one's head. Souji is all about celebrating the wins and collecting the loot. Well, loot is optional, the real loot is the adventure! "That was fun and could go for more training on the island before the boat takes us back. I bet we could do glider racing around the vents outside."

Daiyu uses her sword to knock a few pieces of debris away. Then wipes it off as per tradition and resheaths it. "I do rather enjoy being able to do this again. With friends and allies, rather than life and death war." She stoops down, shifting a bit of rubble to find a bit of red glowing crystal. "Look around." She picks the fragment up and stands. "The elemental core of that thing crystalized and fragmented when it exploded." Whoo, loot!

Goldenblade checks her blades before sheathing them, which is not necessary, really. It just loses a few HP, which her normal maintenance will restore. Or whatever equivalent to HP that items have. She fails at gaming.

Grinning from the experience of taking yet another boss down to the dirt, Klein sheathes his katana as he goes to examine one of the crystal shards. Lifting it up and realizing that there was a bit of fire within the shard, he starts to hum a familiar song before pocketing it. "Agreed. I always been more a fan of adventuring for fun's sake." And the thought of riding around on gliders is a little worrisome at first, but eventually Klein just shrugs his shoulders. When will he get to do something like this again? "I think i'll take you up on that offer of 'training'."

    When the dust settles, Asuna rises from her 'looking cool' pose. Admittedly, she is rather proud of that look. She just won't admit it.

    "So, we mop up some trash back up top, then head back for some food and tea?"

    She's got the time. Honestly, they have lots of time! And fighting anything is fun with this group. Plus, so long as she doesn't start grilling in the onsen again, Goldenblade probably won't scold her, either! Maybe Goldenblade forgot all about that, though.

    "So Klein, uhhhh..."

    Yeah, he's still shirtless, isn't he? She totally lost the plot there for a moment. She's totally not staring. She's just looking hard while planning a detailed battle strategy for all those trash mobs they are going to fight.