Darkness Roiling In

Eastal is a common site for things of dark and sinister nature. But when something is described using context like 'dripping fangs', 'melted flesh' and 'oh my god so creepy' (Patron's words not mine) it still stands out.

"And that is why I have invited you all along today," Kauchemar remarks as she uses her staff to push a larger branch out of the way. "To locate this supposedly horrible thing and find out what it really is." She pauses to step under the branchs and find the path into the forest. "Supposedly it's been lurking around since the last Shadow Festival but no one has been able to pin it down to... dispose of it."

The forest is dark and spooky. Maybe even moreso than usual, as the shadows cast seem to shift of their own accord, as if trying to stalk after those passing through. It's probably just an optical trick.

Maybe.

Yeowang is here because disposing of bad things is a good cause, and hunting down monsters is, technically, exactly in her skillset. She's not as adept as other hunters, Erufu comes to mind, but she had never meant to be, and rather than embracing her hunter skillset, she's treated it as a side-job. So, despite not having a grasp on the skillset, she is here to help. Now finding the monster may be a problem, but dealing with it, when found, that's another ball of wax entirely. She has a very un-hunter-like inclination for close quarters combat and a punch like hammer blows. So here she is, in the forest, looking around, and having to remember how her outdoors skills work because she prefers to sleep indoors. So not with the program. "I'll help as much as I can," she tells Kauchemar.

"Dispose of it?", Uta asks, following along, her own staff emitting a faint glow as she follows in Kauchemar's steps. It's always good for someone to be the first to move larger branches out of the way, but having a second staff wielder behind helps with holding said branches in place for longer. Relay branch holding.

She casts a glance over her shoulder at some shadow that must have shifted between the foliage. Was that a low growl? The murmur of water? If so, why was water murmuring -so low-?

"I thought we were going to cure the monster. You know, practice monster veterinarian medicine." She begins counting on her fingers, "Dripping fangs? Monster Dentistry. Melted Flesh? Monster Dermatology. And perhaps we could have worked some therapy in, to make it less creepy..."

Syx just wants to fight stuff. And Kauchemar was giving him a chance to do just that. They just had to find the damn thing first. Still, he's there for that part.

"Y'all know I'm no good at puzzles so I hope that I'll be able to at least punch some walls down or something." He offers to Kauchemar as he takes a moment or two to stretch and warm up before they really get started

Kauchemar was working on something and needed at tracker. So just as Yeowang is thinking about her? The elf makes herself known with a big old grin and a wave. She's not making much noise though, she looks around and humms.

"So what's the full nature of the creature we're tracking?" She does seem to be in business mode at the moment as she looks over the others who have come to help the nightmare bard. Yeowang, she'll be of great help when they corner it as would Syx.

"This is a nice change for an adventure, I have been busy with Orcbalg's own hunts as of late."

    Asuna is here because... wait, when did she show up?

    "Sorry, running late. Drop off took longer than expected. You'd think in a fantasy world paperwork wouldn't be so tedious."

    That she all but crashed into the scene riding her dire red panda, Tomoe, is a bit odd. Sure, dungeon run cosplay and hasty battle tactics are a thing for her, but normally she's a little less off-balance.

    A distracted look is on her face. "Ah, sorry. Chim.." Hastily she replies, "Yes. Oh.. yes, that should be good. Yes, she likes that. Okay. Thank you!"

    Back to the moment. "Fangs, ugly, hit it until it dies. Anything else?" Pause. "Oh, hey Uta! Long time no see."

"Uta, lets... just keep those options open until we know what we're really dealing with." By this point one just gets use to the Spriggan not always being entirely on the same track. It should be okay. They've got two hunters and people generally good at beating things up. Shouldn't be any problems.

The party doesn't have to progress far before they come across their first incident. If there is one other thing that is fairly common in Eastal, it's Goblins. Though this one isn't going to be much of a threat.

See, it's already dead. It's nothing but a pile of bones, still bearing some armor, and weapons dropped on the ground. A nearby tree appears to be snapped apart, but that's only going to be interesting to certain skills.

"Looks like there was a fight or something here, and this chump lost." Kauchemar turns her attention farther into the forest. "Hmmm."

Pharmacy 8 - Examine the boney remains
Searching or Tracking 7 - Look for a path to follow
Light 7 - These woods are dark and grim, some light might help

Yeowang hrms to Erufu, and says, "Hunting goblins, then?" She nods to Syx. She's technically a tracker, but like him mainly here for the fighting. Uta gets a puzzled look, and says, "Psychotherapy does not work on monsters unless you are an Oracle, I imagine," she responds. "Or can Data Drain the corruption away. But there has been no sign of Merek for some time." Her voice is flat as it often is, it's quite hard to tell if it's concern or relief in her tone. Her expression changes to one of concern as Asuna rides in all things going everywhere. "Good afternoon," she says calmly, in a bid to settle things out. There's a time for the chaos of battle. It is not here.

As we come across the former goblin, she says, "Normally such monsters despawn. This one must have had something catastrophic happen, or it must have happened recently." In either case, Yeowang will begin seaching the ground for clues as to where whatever did this may have gone.

Erufu says "When is the man not? It has to be done or their numbers will grow beyond control." She looks to Kau for a moment then nods once before she gets to business of looking for a path. She does pauses for a moment as she does find signs of passage here. "I think I have something. Also Asuna the flash? Its an honor to meet one of the champions of man."

"Who is Orcbalg?", Uta asks Erufu with a frown of concentration. "I think I asked this once in the past, but I don't remember the answer."

Uta taps her lips and looks up and away at Syx's comments. "That's a good question, actually. Does Construction, i.e. fixing walls, count as Pet Rock Veterinarian Medicine?" She keeps walking, lost in thought, until she slams against a branch. "Ouch! Right, right, I'm paying attention!"

"Asuna, hello!" she beams at her friend. Sure, there was that serious thing she had filed away in her head to ask her later, but as our keen readers might or might not remember, it was promptly eaten by an imaginary slime, so...

"Yes, it's been quite some time. I've been doing things. But now I'm back questing!" That time at the Pelapuff Cafe doesn't really count, Asuna and Uta barely got to interact. But this, this is a quest!



"I don't know, Yeowang, maybe it's worth a shot?", Uta replies on the subject of psychotherapy. "If all fail, we can try concussive counseling. I have, after all, perfected my own flavor of the classic Monk technique 'Wisdom of the Forest'..."

She walks up to the bones, kneels down, pokes at them with her staff. She shimmers a potion or two into existence, all the while while humming, 'hmmm.' and 'interesting.'

She stands up, takes a moment or two assess the correct distance and angle, and- whack! She plants the staff right in the middle of them. She intones a hypnotic tune, and grasping at the item with both hands, as tendrils of light and magic dance on her staff, they coalesce on the gem, where shapes only she seems able to interpret swirl and dance.

When the musical medical analysis is complete, she turns towards the rest of the party, and serious, she declares, "They're bones."

She points down, "-Just- bones," and then squats. "There is not a speck of flesh or organ left to be found. The epitome of 'licked clean', as the idiom goes." She pokes at them with the tip of her staff. "Interestingly, they're kind of bleached, like the armor, but otherwise unharmed. Like the armor." At this point she is gesturing, as if delivering a lecture during a dissection in an anatomical theatre.

    Asuna is, for a moment, lost in thought. She murmurs, "Oh yeah, that's right." Sure, there's goblin bones, which honestly looks like obscure quest loot. Usually that kinda thing isn't left behind. Which makes her think aloud, "You know, isn't it weird that the only time we see anything inside a living thing is if it is a special drop? Like, do I even have a heart, or just a pulse?"

    As she's musing, she is working on her inventory. And like magic, she's in her outfit! It's Aerith today. How... oddly modest. And not a Curtana in sight to make the point that Gwen can make very pretty things that are not revealing. Not to mention she can wear what she wants and! ... she'll get to that another day.

    Erufu's politeness draws her attention. She can detect the lingo of a roleplayer. It's not her thing, admittedly, but it's only polite to try her best. Plus it helps that this is someone that is broadly known. She will glide off Tomoe for a moment and bow in turn.

    "It's a pleasure to meet you, as well! The skills of the elven ranger are renowned among those of us who wander in the lonely wild lands."

    She's a ronin. She definitely did her time doing the whole Samurai wandering hero bit. Even if that's a bit hard to reconcile with a woman in a cute pink dress. Still, the rapier is there, even if it is not the weapon she was known for. It appears to be a relatively unimpressive weapon at her hip right now. Considering how much she was known to love her former rapier, this is, well, curious to those who pay attention to it.

Well this kinda sucks, at laest Syx thinks so. It's too dark. Things are harder to hit in the dark. But Syx has a plan, and it's a damn good one in his mind. Syx climbs up a tree, scaling it with a little effort, "Lemme know if this helps!" He calls out to the rest of the group, before rubbing his hands together a few times, and then holding them apart.

Twin balls of flame appear in his hands, and he claps them together, the two fireballs merging into one big one, which explodes outwards with the light of a miniature sun. Should help brighten things up for the others.

"Or when it's left as a Plot Hook," Kauchemar observes. Snorts softly. "Trust me, being able to communicate with monsters and actually try to change what behavoirs make a monster a monster are two different things. Oracle helps, yes, but it only goes so far." Even as a Monster Handler one can only go so far. Just ask her how long it took to stop her Rock Moles from eating everything they found...

Uta analyzes the goblin remains for some eerie findings. "Some creatures do prefer to not eat the bones.. but the manner they're left in, and the armor, is odd."

The tree looks like it was snapped apart, and similar scrapes and scruffs can be found going deeper into the forest, occasionally finding another broken tree or upturned ground. The extra illumination helps to find the markings to follow... and sends something shuffling away in the shadows. Probably just the normal Eastal fauna that dislike the light in general.

Eventually the path is followed into a larger clearing, though still dark as the branches of the canopy have grown together overhead. But at the far end of the area is a horrid thing to see. It's large and insectoid, but also somewhat flat and elongated. It's six sharp hooked legs could easily made the scratch and scrapes they'd been following. Something drips from the fanged edges of it's mandibles... but maybe more intimidating is the much larger pair of pinchers protuding from the butt end of the thing when it raises it up to snap irritably at the intrusion.

Inspect shows it as a rarer monster called the Netherwig. A giant, Darkness attuned earwig-like bug monsters.

There's also the broken trees and rocks around it. It may of intended to use them to make a nest, but now it starts grabbing them with it's big pinchers and hurtling them at the incoming heroes!

Evasion 8 - Dodge the incoming projectiles
Shield 8 - Or someone can block them
Physical 10 - Someone might want to be fancy and catch a thing to throw back at the monster

    Well, duty calls quick today! "I call tank!"

    Which makes for a surreal experience, admittedly. Asuna is known for speed, finesse, and wearing skimpy clothing to please her fan base. Who are all either nerdy guys or girls who never seemed to get past that hero worship thing after middle school.

    She's up on Tomoe and spurred into the front so fast that she does earn her name. Plus in a forest, Tomoe is completely in her element. The ground? That's hardly needed! This is exactly what the mount was meant for!

    This all means you have Asuna blocking attacks that she has no right blocking from crazy angles. At times, fully inverted. And all the while, she closes the distance on the enemy.

    "Uta, unless you have some industrial-grade fly paper, I don't think we're taming this one!"

Syx's light helps guide the group further along, until they stumble across the nest building massive bugs, "Hell yeah, now we're talking!" Syx is extremally excited to finally see a monster he hasn't had a chance to fight yet.

When it starts hucking rocks at them, his dodge training from months past comes into play, as he shifts his weight to one side and the rock barely misses him, "Not bad. My turn." He plants his left foot, and waits, watching for the next rock to come in.

As the rock sails towards him, Syx rotates around to deliver a spinning roundhouse to the rock, putting his new technique to full use as his foot impacts the rock, shattering it and turning it into a shotgun blast of sharp rocks flying right back at the bugs.

    With the distance closed, Asuna is trying to draw direct attacks. Her's is the form of tanking that makes people incredibly nervous. It's not easy to watch!

    She picked it up by watching a few so-called 'blur tanks' several months ago. So now, when she tanks, she's always close. With bigger enemies, generally so close she could easily touch them at all times. This is no different.

    But it begs the question. Why so close? Question begged, answer follows. She delivers blindingly fast repostes whenever the foe attacks. Its every offensive motion leaves an opening somwhere to exploit, and generally speaking, the Flash turns the enemy's power against it.

Yeowang says to Uta, "Orcbolg is who humans call Goblin Slayer." The RP thing confuses her because if she wanted to be something other than what she is, she would change herself to be that thing. Her imagination doesn't go so far as to the idea that you might want to be an alf. Uta's plan draws a puzzled look, and she says, "I'm not sure hitting it with a stick is going to accomplish much by itself?" The mystical analysis is over her head. Asuna's change draws a puzzled look because she doesn't get the cosplay, but she shrugs it off along with the counter-RP. Syx's light is helpful, at least, for following tracks.

She nods to Kauchemar about the plot hook bones, and says, "Yes, exactly." And then we have tracked the monster, and Uta seems to have declided that talking is best done with fists and feet, and she will not argue. Leaping into the air and doing a twist as she comes around, she smashes her boot into the monster hard enough to take a big chunk of HP. She recoils from the impact and lands on her feet, looking up warily.

Erufu grins at Asuna. What has made this pooka act like this who knows but she and her party has never been known to break character they also work with several Hunters who are landers as well. Whatever is going on in her head as she looks over what they are hunnting she calls out a warning as the bug monster and she's already dodging about at very high speed. She'll land on a tree beanch perch and fire off a shot from her bow before she's moving again..." Yes she's given the Slayer a name and it works honestly. He doesn't seem to mind it either...

While Uta is famous for many things, when asked about them most people would probably not list "Paying Attention" as the first item in their short list. And yet, this time, she asks, "Oh, hey, new jacket? You didn't have it last time I saw you, like..." Frown. "...two minutes ago?"

"The Red Light that shows up when we are wounded block access to internal organs," Uta mumbles. "I was performing musical medical research on the larynx and its vibrations, but the Red Light always gets in the way. Even if one tries to sen Sprite down there," Uta mumbles. And then goes somber, "To be fair, I have heard of cases where the Red Light got disabled, and... well, you know, it's when there are... uh... 'special world effects' that disable pain dampening. I don't know how to better describe that. From what I seem to gather from second-hand accounts, never having experienced such circumstances myself, deep tissue -can- be exposed. That would hint at us actually having organs and-"

Silence. Her brain finally catches up to the 'fly paper' comment. "Oh, ok," she concedes, a bit disappointed.

If this was a cinematic production, this would be where black strips would narrow down from the top and bottom of the screen, at an angle, to leave only a close-up of Uta's eyes visible. A high-pitched note would play to indicate tension.

A rock approaches the viewer! And Uta darts off.

She zigzags between flung rocks and chunks of wood, expertly zipping out of the way until she lands on a rock. In flight. And uses that as a springboard to emit a loud YAAAAAAAAH, and launch into a repeated spin-kick of incoming objects back at the Netherwig.

Rocks and Trees start flying through the air. It looks like one is going to slam into the Nightmare Were Fang, only to smash against her Binder Shield appearing in front of her. From behind it's protection Kauchemar is able to aim with her staff and send a bolt of darkness at the Netherwig. Which doesn't do much. It's confirming her suspicion that the thing is likely resistant to Dark Magic, and she can adjust her tactics as appropriate. Seeing as Asuna is stepping up into the Tank role, she can focus on her usual disruption and chaos.

Some of the terrestrial projectiles are sent flying back at the Netherwig, especially the shotgunned stone that perferates bits of its carapice. Someone rolled a critical on that move. Others use their defensive moves to get into position and counter-attack, driving the monsterous insect back.

After the assault the Netherwig screeches, grabbing a large boulder with it's tail pinchers. But rather than lift it up, uses it as an anchor to raise up the front portion of it's body, open it's mandibles wide, and expunge a gush of sickly black and green ichor that it sweeps across what has become the Boss Fight arena. Where it splatters on the environment grass wilts brown, though the ground itself appears uneffected. Like it only afflicts soft tissues. It would seem the 'melted flesh' was quite literal, as that was how it cleaned the flesh off it's prey to eat. Though against Adventurers it just caused a nasty DoT. Still unpleasant.

Shield 9: Remember the goblin's armor was uneffected...
Water 9: Dilute the Digestive Acid
Earth 10: If rock is uneffected that may be used against it.

    "AoE! Shields up!"

    Asuna wastes no time doing her best to tank as much of that as she can. It's not just a block, it's a flying block she throws at the enemy. Sure, she's taking the whole 'close the distance' thing a bit too far for comfort, but if you wanted a relaxing battle you should really have taken-up chess!

    Unfortunately for Asuna, the rapier she is using now lacks the power she's used to in her weapon. In short, backup rapier was backup for a reason. In this case, the blow just doesn't have the punch to cause harm.

As the monster spits yuck at us, Yeowang assumes a state of preternatural awareness. It's as much philosophy as martial arts. But what it allows her to do is to sense where and when each bit of the spittle will go through each bit of space. It is, objectively, a considerable calculation, but with her deadly calm demeanor, she simply wades through the motions, her arms flowing left and right as yuck passes through where they had been a moment ago, and then her whole body twists away, but it looks like yoga, like she saw it coming a mile away and just casually leaned aside, but it all happens in the flash of a moment and she stands there unharmed as the ground behind her is etched and nasty.

Now that it's spent its energy, she can wade in and engage it in melee, her kicks like a jackhammer as she smashes in blow after blow relentlessly, doing DPS as fast and hard as she can. She is, after all, a DPS build. She should have been more balanced, but didn't understand the game when chargenning.

Arms spread, staff held tightly, Uta spins in place, vocalizing a melody which pumps her mana into shimmering a sort of blobular magical barrier all around her-

-wait a minute-

-that is no barrier. That is a large slime! With Uta safely enclosed in a bubble inside, making the slime into a sort of 'protective dome', which materializes just in time to, with a rather confused expression, take in the splotches of acid flung by the Netherwig.

After the moment of initial confusion, the large gelatinous monster returns to smile. It seemed to have enjoyed the meal. Yum.

And so, directed by the muffled melody of its handler coming from within, and the movements of her staff, it wobbles towards the giant insectoid.

Chaaaaaaaaaaarge!

Syx moves quick after his shotgun of rocks strikes the beast, and he dodges past some of that sticky goo. He sees the rock that the beast is using as an anchor point, and he's headed for that directly. He leaps up and over as the creature attacks with that AoE, landing near the rock he was aiming for.

"I think I'll be taking that!" He focuses an Earth arte into his feet and then grabs the rock with his hands, using his strength and the earth magics to wrench the stone out of the ground, trying to pull it away from the Netherwig and then haul the rock right back into it as a blunt weapon.

Things are getting more and more nuts with this hunt but it's best to not sit still. If one notices Elf seems to need to stop before she shoots, but otherwise she's moving constnatly. AS the acis comes she has an idea she quickly pulls a potion from her belt and shatters it causing a burst o water which will dilute the acid about her making a safe spot for her to open fire with another volley of arrows.

"o/~ Can you that sound? The ice is coming down. Pounding on the ground. o/~" Then as she sweeps her staff down Kauchemar drops her voice to an ominous whisper. "Avalanche Crescendo" Frozen rocks drop from the sky with the spell, some pelting the Neterwig while others just slam into the ground to break up the spray of vicious fluids and create some safer spots for others to stand in. Asuna is doing the Tank Life fine, but her secondary weapon is letting her down a bit on the offensive. It is what it is sometimes. Syx nakes up for it by taking cover behind the monster, and using it's own anchor point against it. Others make use of water, watery movements and other fluids to diminish the effectiveness of the caustic spray.

The Netherwig is no pushover, but the pressure is being kept on the monster. Don't you hate when your food fights back? That's true for the Netherwig, as it is backed into a proverbial corner. Tough as it's carapice may be, it's not accustomed to such constant resistance and it is showing as it's health bar continues to drop. It backs away as much as it can, screeching and huddling into a protective position. Damn, it's one of those 'can't harm the Boss' mechanics you have to wait out.

Which gets a little harder to do when dark forms stretch from the forest around the group, the shadows cast by trees turning into reaching, snapping, replicas of the giant earwig. "Well Won did say there were shadows following you, but this isn't what I expected," Kauchemar admits. "Drive them back, I'll try and pry the Boss out of it's protected state!"

Meanwhile, there's the swarm of Shadow Earwigs to kick out of the fight before they overwhelm you.

Light 9: They're darkness I think this one is obvious
Fire 10: This is light with more burning
Physical 10: They're bugs. They can still be squashed if you're good enough.

Yeowang frowns as the monster becomes unhittable. That's frustrating when it doesn't seem like there's ... but there /are/ alternate targets, it seems, all the little buggers swarming, and she will deliver stunning, viscious kicks that send them flying back into the distance as they come close, keeping a circle around her clear as she kicks one, then another, and by the time the first ones make it back, another kick or two is enough to despawn them, and good riddance. She is a kicking machine, not holding back in laying out the damage.

Look there are buygs so many bugs, why are there so many bugs?! She will just pull her long knives and start squishing. She also puts her feet to use too these damn things need to go, before they can worry about the boss.

"If it's not goblins it's insects!!!"

It seems like Uta's gaming habits have gone back to a simpler time. A time where men were round, pizza-shaped yellow pucks that ate pills and escaped from ghosts, women were also round, pizza-shaped yellow pucks that ate pills and escaped from ghosts, but wore lipstick and a hair bow, and little fluffy creatures from alpha centauri were supposed to be blasted into oblivion on sight, as it was the fate of anything alien.

Simpler times.

And so, this massive slime goes around chasing and chomping on Dark Bugs, as if they were ghosts flashing blue and white, the Spriggan inside the bubble within going 'wheeeeeee!' with abandon.

    Tanking isn't about avoiding damage. It's about not dying first! Asuna tries to use fire to repel the shadowy manifestations of the insect, but is not quite as successful as he had hoped. The damage is mitigated, certainly, but the Flash is getting a bit of pain in the exchange.

    Fortunately for her, Tomoe is able to keep her in position in front of the boss. Nice and close. No backing off until the enemy's dead or health's buried in the red!

They are indeed still bugs. And Syx is going to do what he does best, as he turns around and faces off against a pair of those shadow creatures, "Well what're you waiting for!" He calls out to the creatures even if they can't understand him since they're just monsters.

He runs forward, flames circling around him as he grabs the first monster and hauls it up into the air onto his shoulders, taking a moment before he leaps up, engulfing them both with flames before he drives it down on top of its friend, slamming into them with enough force to kick up an explosion of flames and rocks.

It's becoming a bit more apparent how this Netherwig has been operating. It uses the swarm of shadow bugs to hunt down and corner prey before attack itself, crippling a victim with it's pinchers and then melting their flesh off with digestive juices, slurping up the slurry. Dripping fangs, melted flesh, shadows following you, it all checks out. Creepy and horrific, but effective.

Typically one would just use Light or Fire to drive the Shadow Earwigs back into hiding. But not these Adventurers. They're ready to turn this into a curbstop. Despite being composed of shadow the bugs give a satisfying *SPLAT* every time they're squashed, leaving inky black splotches across the ground. While Asuna (assisted by Tomoe) remains close to the Boss, ready to strike as Kauchemar is working her MIND GAMES.

The Netherwig may be physically safe in it's invulnerable phase, but that does nothing against the Powers that don't play by the normal rules. The Oracle pushes her way into the monster's mind, poking and prying at it. Monster bugs tend to not think in the same way as normal creatures, but Kauchemar is use to that with her working with other odd mentalities like Spirits. Mentally and repeatedly she jabs.

Until the Netherwig finally uncurls, shriek in absolute aggrivation from being unable to cloister itself away from the attackers. Down to the end of it's HP bar it goes into a frenzy, thrashing and snapping at everything in range with mandibles and butt pinchers alike! It's now or never!

Kauchemar holds steady, drawing some of the entropic energies to herself instead. Her prescence becomes one of fear and foreboding, eerie and unease.

Time to show this thing who the real scary monster is...

Evasion 9: Dodge the thrashing death throes and counter attack!
Shield 10: Stand your ground, and beat it down!
Physical 10: Skip defending, go straight for the beatdown

Dark 11: Be darker than the darkness...

    "Finally!"

    Asuna has been waiting for this. The big, last, terrifying burst. She's no legendary tank, but she's such an amazing pain in the ass in battle that it works as a taunt. Plus Tomoe is getting into the act, as well. It's raw blocking and tackling here, complete with the kind of impossible parries that are the staple of the genre.

    There is some damage taken, but using Soujiro's tactics works like a charm. Her body is shielded by the technique takes the hit rather than the ronin.

    "Stop trying to hit me and hit me!" she taunts calmly at the beast.

Yeowang is a brutal fighter, and she's complained that the pain-reduction gives her a false sense of how much health she has left. But she still has her native reflexes, and her evasive skills are on the mark, if only just barely. She adopts a balanced defensive stance, and small wonder that she's barely ahead of the frenzy of attacks. What that's done, though, it has left her in an excellent position to counter-attack, and as she's demonstrated, she is brutally effective in that role, deliverying punches and kicks with deadly accuracy and pinpoint precision into the monster's vulnerable parts.

Syx is going to unleash hell upon this thing now that it's back up and ready, "Ready to fight for real, huh?" He says to the monster, his attention fully on the big guy now, "Time to say goodbye!" Syx's gauntlets light up, as flames circle around his hands. He moves in to the creature, and starts delivering strikes. Rapid fire blows, each one accompanied by an explosion of fire.

After a sufficient number of hits have been landed, Syx goes for an opening, the flames encircling him as he grabs the creature, white hot gauntlted fingers digging into the carapace, as he hauls the beast through the air and slams it into the ground with the full force of his might.

The Nethewig ius being a real pain in the butt but it seems like they might almost have it. It's soon able to be harmed, which is when the elf opens up with a rain of arrows that just does not stop, she's intending to empty a whole quiver into this thing! "BE GONE!"

* Pop! *

The HP bar of the slime Uta was enclosed in reaches zero, and the summon shatters in a shower of polygons. Uta, being the Spriggan she is, immediately darts into the Darkness. She's gone, nowhere to be seen, until-

Lightning strikes, and the whistling, wailing, grating sound of a distorted electric guitar echoes through the area.

Heads, at this point, might turn, to see a dark Silhouette against the light background of the Green moon. Yellow eyes glimmer, and as she slams the air in front of herself, more lightning strikes around, and a discordant chord floods the area, quickly resolving into consonance as the Spriggan moves up her left arm, fingers crackling with Dark blue bolts held in such a way to mimc pressing on a guitar's keyboard.

Wham-bam-bam!

At each descending movement, lightnings strike the area, and the bolts crackling around her hand shimmer around a shape, a shape that is not really there, but looks a lot like what Adventurers would recognize as an electric guitar.

And then, a roaring inferno of Darkness, Lightning, and Hot Riffs is let loose on the area: a cloud of Sheer darkness explodes radially, lightning bolts circle and strike like markers on a wake, and with each hit, the crackling irregular tangle of ionized electric energy resolves from a jagged netting that crepitates around an invisible guitar into a single blast shot from the tip of the headstock.

And yes, OF COURSE Uta launches into a lot of headbanging, churning out chord progressions, and -awesome- posing like sliding on her knees and holding the guitar vertical while she shreds a wicked solo; and it is important to note that this is not illusion -- it's literally modulating lightning into sounding very much like a distorted electric guitar, the same principle of harmonic composition belying synthesizers.

And of course, this not just about blasting elements for attack purposes, it'also (and primarily) about buffing the team, and laying a solid harmonic backdrop for the Lead Singer, likely Kauchemar in this context, to shine.

But most importantly: it's all about rockin' on! +_+

The Netherwig just had something else poking in it's mind, it's no wonder the thing is frantic as it's nearly dead. The roiling frenzing makes it hard to focus on anyone thing, but Asuna's tanking skills are on par as she and Tomoe keep it from thrashing the entire forest apart. Or the party apart. Even as Yeowang and Erufu lay into it with their specialties, and the splits forming in it's carapice are perfect to pin arrows through. Followed by Syx grabbing it, setting it on fire, and piledriving it back into the ground with cacophonic force.

The Netherwig manages to haul itself back up from the ground. Only for the world to go black for it. This perplexes the monster as this darkness it somehow cannot manipulate. It cannot see where that music is coming from, even as it freaks its senses out. Lightning strikes, flashes. And in one of those flashes another dark form can be seen. "Time to WRECK'N'ROLL!" As Kauchemar bashes her weapon into the Netherwig once, twice, and leaps into the air while spinning it overhead briefly for more momentum before bringing the skull adorning Grindcore Staff slamming into it's face. All in time with the epic riffing going on with the lightning blasts.

She doesn't even wait for the Netherwig to collapse, by the time it's on the ground derezzing Kauchemar has already turned to point at Uta. "You are so showing me how you did that."

A virtuoso maneuver of a whammy bar that's not really there concludes the performance in a dominant chord, and Uta gets up from the weird position she had just contorted herself in (is her back supposed to bend that way?!). In response to the Nightmare's... statement, more than request, she smirks: "How I did that? I'm just that -cool-."

While lightning writhes in the shape of an electric guitar held vertical at her side, she grabs for her invisible shades; the movement causes a second series of crackles to appear, this time in the shape of glasses, and as she flicks them down, she yells, "OW! OW! OW!", as both hands are slapped on her face and all lightning show fizzles into nonexistence. "I've electrocuted my left eye... OW!", she winces, in reaction to a single bolt gone awry. "Better stick to the guitar next time..."

    As soon as the 'in battle' status is removed from the system, Asuna has a chim in her ear. Like the chim is there before she even realizes the boss is dead. She has the usual distracted look on her face. Her expression changes from focused and working towards pleased to uncertain and then alarmed.

    "She is? Oh no!" A quick shift to the group around her. "I have to go. Sorry to tank and sprint!" Attention focuses back to the chim even as Tomoe reacts to a very sudden call to full speed. "Tell her Asa is coming right away!"

    The red panda has flair, even if it has no clue about why they are running. The creature bounds, climbs, and races on the straightest path as possible. Towards the nearest root city, by the look of it.

Yeowang blinks as Asuna gets a chim as soon as we're outr of combat. "Must have been urgent," she muses, and she will go over to Uta and see what sort of first aid she might be able to do. She knows more about sports medicine than magical healing, but magical healing -is- in her skillset. She may even know how to use it. She's much more of an administrator in the Red Chain. "Are you okay?" she asks Uta in the face of all evidence. Because you always ask first before treating, that's a rule from RL also.

"...I...think so," Uta tells Yeowang, attempting to blink with her still glowing red eye. "It'll probably sort itself out like any regular battle damage, and if not, I'm positive a little Eyeball Restoration Potion will do the trick." Ah, that's MMORPG medicine for you.

"See you later, Asuna," Uta waves to her Monster Handling friend, as she rides into the- well, 'sunset' is probably not accurate here. Darkness?

Kauchemar snorts softly. "Handle lightning enough times and you learn to not touch yourself immeadiately after," she teases. Then watches as Asuna makes a hasty dash off. "Wonder got into her. Oh well." She rests her staff against her shoulder. "We did what we came to do, and I saw a few interesting things to ... toy with. Inspiration in the oddest places... but right now I'm just inspired to go find some food, and make sure there's not any bug splat in my mane."