Duty Session 578: Obligatory Rat Maze

    June June's it up, she's in the mood for adventure so she tears a notice off the board and starts inviting the first adventurers she sees to a party. "Lets go fight rats!" she announces, the small middle aged woman in what looks like Red Sonja cosplay, adjusts her chainmail bikini and punches her fists together.

Soujiro Seta is always hyped for some combat. But you add MORE hype and a Red Sonja cosplay? Soujiro slams his hand into his fist too as the samurai says, "Rat training!" One is never too high level to enjoy slaying ten rats. They may be the secret to the mysterious opening thread required to tier up his samurai talents.

Nyanta,who had been standing nearby looking at the same job board gives a smile to June, complete with a fang glint. "Rat hunting, nya? You are speaking to my soul, good lady, nya." Upon hearing Soujiro's voice, the Dandy Cat seems to visibly brighten, "Ah! Souji! I didn't see you come in, nya! It would be a wonderful day that I purrtake in the opportunity to train with Souji AND hunt rats: with a charming lass, no less, nya." Nyanta gives June a wink. "There would be nyathing that I would rather do, nya."

    June leads the way, the small woman nodding her head "Well I'm June, member of the Sleeping Knights, and as such I'm a master raider." she says "Also I am the Sage of Scripture." she says with a chuckle. Then she obviously shifts languages speaking in Queyna (even if the translation conintues to work just fine). "Junie don't get too full , most people don't even know the difference between the Sleeping Knights before and after the Black Wave." she says and punches her own temple a few times. "Well let's go take care of rats." she says with a growl in Japanese.

Soujiro Seta offers a smile to Nyanta that is sparkly enough to account for a wave and the sort of blessing that the gods themselves would deliver to a any wayward soul. The sparkles keep with as the samurai looks over towards June, "A master raider? Thats great. I'm looking forward to seeing your skills in action." Says Souji. Member of the DTP and pre-apoc raiding greatness. Slayer of Tower Bosses. Of Yeenagi. Of the great serpent Mune. Consumer of cakes! And humble enough to be introduced as, "I'm Soujiro Seta, but call me Souji." Then onward, "Rats! Time to go for the high score." Most rat deaths per dungeon run.

Nyanta bows politely before following June's lead, "I am Nyanta, a myamber of the Silver Swords. Souji and I are friends from a long time back, nya. I must apologize on my ignyarence on the impurrtance in the title of Sage of Scriptures, nya. I hope you can furrgive me, and purrchance educate me when you have the time, nya. Purrhaps after we handle the rats, nya?"

Neither Souji nor Nyanta seem too gungho about announcing their DTP connection: it seems these classy gents are rather humble considering their past.

    June heads into the basement indicated on her quest, then towards the back and through the large crack in the wall. "Alright let's crush the rats, see them driven before us, and bask in the weeping of their lamentation." she shifts, the small woman coated in overlaping iron scales, large iron horns sprouting from her forehead and her mouth lenthening into a snout. The now literal cowgirl reaches into her cape and pulls out an ofuda, a spell slip like those used by Shinto... or ninja in anime.

    The path leads down a spiral staircase, a glow of light magic shining along her horns. The room is full of spikes, and the crunsh of bones under hoof as she moves forward looking for where there may be a path forward to the root of the rats, the rat root, the rout to the root of the rat republic.

Dem bones dem bones gunna crunch around o/` The samurai starting looking through dem bones for clues as to what could have caused such a thing. Detective Soujiro is on the case. He picks up one of those bones and looks at it. What if bones were nothing more than a collection of threads? Like this part that is splintering off right here. He peels off the bone splinter. Then another. Starts weaving them together. After a while he forgets that he is looking for the source of the rat situation and is into this whole 'Threads are everywhere' line of thought.

Nyanta begins to smell at the air, his mouth opening ever so slightly so as to allow for more air to cycle through his sent glands. His ears twitch, picking up subtle noises off in the distance. A cheshire grin appears on the face of the Coolest Cat in ETO, "Purrhaps there is an entrance hidden over this way, nya."

Nyanta gestures as he explains, "Cats know where to find rats, nya. It is their purrpose in society, nya."

    June looks where Nyanta is pointed, lowers her head and charges foreward. Head lowered she smashes through the wall that Nyanta indicates, the wall crumbling before the unstoppable force that is June at full charge. The stones bouncing off her armored shoulders. In Qunya she barks out "That's it Junie, bull your way through." she laughs, the way she obviously talks to herself might cause some concern for people following her, but then again people who know the Sleeping Knights might just know that they're not always the most stable of people while being highly effective.

    Once the door exposed by the smashed wall is opened she heads down into the darkness her horns glowing still. "Swim time." she says and drops into the river below with a massive *SPLASH* that sends water spouting up into the stairs

Soujiro Seta ends up with a fun bone-splinter dart by the end of his adventure in the bone zone. He knows at least one of his fanclub that is into this sort of thing and pockets it to deliver to her later. "This is like those water parks where you slide down really fast," he says as he looks over towards the open trap door. "Fun!" is the last thing he says before there is a hop and splash on down. The rapid waters are faster than the water park variety. Also? Rock formations. Is Souji considering any of this? No. He sees it as one of those mini games where you have to steer around obsticles Battletoad style. Wooohooo~

Nyanta nods with a chuckle, saying, "Ladies first, and then beauty before age, I suppose, nya," before he deftly drops down the trap door feet first. He penetrates the water vertically, his arms tight against his body in order to breech the water with as little splash as possible before quickly coming back to the surface. Oddly enough, this cat does NOT seem adverse to water; he seems to be taking to water like the fish he ever so enjoys to eat.

As the water begins to take him down at rapid speed, he evades the rapids, which cause not a small amount of white water, with some effort.

At the end of the ride, when they come to the water slide, Nyanta controls his movements in such a way that he is able to perform an impressive flip at the end, sticking the landing.

    June uses her own Shadowfist skills to pingpong from rock to rock, just glancing from one to the next until the river lets out into a pool and she climbs out on the bank. "Woo... that was a fun one." she says with a laugh as she shakes water from her iron scales. "Onward we go." she says as she walks into the maze of rat warren tunnels. "Well lets see if we can find the ones that make these." she says putting her hand over the big ass scratches in the walls. "Those will be the ones that are fun to fight."

Now is the time. Combat time. Look at all these rats. That is high score material right there. Souji considers this as he puts his hand on his katana. Then there is this little rat that comes up to him. Big rat eyes like moons. You wouldn't kill such a cute little critter, would you? In another life it could be a master chef. Souji looks to Nyanta. If Nyanta can cook, maybe this rat can too. Souji shakes a fist. Don't worry, little guy, you are safe with me. Now that he /says/ any of this but it reads off of his body language like a neon sign. He extends a hand down for his newly acquired rat friend.

1x Rat Friend Acquired.

It does settle atop of Souji's head. Sparkles.

Nyanta is a cat on the prowl, padding forward without a sound. He is no stranger to moving quietly, whether trying to evade a particularly dangerous group of monsters, or sneaking up on prey to deliver a fatal blow. He notes the stratch marks as a sign of something formitable to come... And yet, given that Soujiro is by his side, part of him seems to look forward to the challenge. With even one of his allies from DTP, Nyanta feels they are capable of overcoming any difficulty. Of course, he says none of this out loud. He's being stealthy.

    June tries to sneak along... but then her horns are currently alight and that really doesn't lend itself to blending into the shadows. However thanks to Nyanta and one as yet unnamed rat companion who makes Souji look even MORE like a Disney Princess?. The path they point out leads not to a giant rat as June was hoping, instead they step out into a place fulled with what looks like an angry mob.

    Do you hear the rodents sing? Singing the song of angry rats? It is the music of the rodents who will not be trapped again! Little flags, and little weapons, you can almost hear the angry French squeaks as they charge.

NOW the combat picks up. Soujiro checks with his little rat friend to make sure that this particular set of rats are of the 'not good' variety. The samurai is exceptionally clear on those he considers an enemy and those he considers a friend. Love and Ruthlessness are given in equal measures depending on where that lands. The piercing yell causes him to lose his newly acquired Rat Friend.

1x Rat Friend Lost

Unacceptable. Soujiro places his hand on the holy katana, Kogarasumaru and draws it out as a soft, radiant light dusts the incoming ratlings. The first blow is enough to shatter a ratling into dust as the raid tank wade forward against the battalion. This one is for Ryan. Ryan the Rat.

Nyanta demonstrates a cheshire grin for the second time today as he looks to the rat people with a hungry glare, "So kind of them to purrvide lunch, nya." When the enemies move forward and begin their attack, the Gentleman Cat proves his swordskill by efficiently and deftly deflecting each attack with rapidly parrying blades, "Ahh! Dinner AND a show, nya. So hospitable, nya!" He chuckles. He is obviously having fun, but there is a primal look in his eyes, as if he were looking at a dancing sandwich.

    June lowers her head and slams forward, and it's like the rats have gone to Pamplona and then failed horribly at choosing which street to wander down. Iron hooves smash down, until her horns slam into wall. Then she turns and does the same thing. Over and over it's a rage filled bovine billiards show. When the battle ends, everyone should be quite happy that enemies pixelate into nothing rather than being a goey gorey mess after the fact.

    June finaly looks up, green fog snorting from her nostrels as she calms down, she stretches and rolls her neck, the sound of iron scales sliding across each other a scraping rather than cracking one might normally expect. "Well lets see, were we go from here." she offers before stomping along until the tunnels lead to a big round room with a bunch of personal items that have been stolen. A kobold mounted on a huge rat attacks. "Well this is more like it!" she laughs, a pair of cestus appearing on her hands, she smashes them together with a clang.

Squeak. We meet again. Long has been the says since you last tasted my blade. "You ready for this?" he asks his team. Wait. No. Ryan returns! This time with an eyepatch and the smallest of daggers in his mouth. He is ready to rumble and claim his throne as the Rat King. Rat King Ryan. And thus the pair are joined by the spiritual assistant of Kogarasumaru herself, a blade-armed maiden of the sword who assists as the three engage in the squeakist of combats. It is chaos. Pure chaos. Fun chaos!

The Kobold is the least of Nyanta's concerns. He's merely a lizard that has jumped on what is the cat equivalent of a giant, walking steak. Nyanta has to consciously calm himself down to hold his composure. "June, Souji... We have found the main course, nya." The rat seems to not being looked at like it's food, as it spends quite a bit of time dedicating its attacks on the Dandy Cat. Nyanta does take quite a bit of damage, but he gets his own licks in with his dual rapiers. "Nothing worth the struggle is easy, nya!"

    The battle is long, the battle is fierce, Ryan is a real distraction, and in the end Nyanta is disapointed because June catches the rat like she's bulldoging a steer, and blows green fog directly into its face. The creature slowly turns to stone before June headbutts it, smashing it into gravel. Which she scoops up a handfull of and crunches like hard candy. "Mmm, petrified monster." she says happily and stretches "Well that was a good fight." she says pulling out a mug... already full of beer, then she pulls out two more "Beer?" she asks and starts draining her first. The small cowgirl downing the beer and producing another to start drinking before either of the men have a chance to even answer if they'd like one.

"No thank you," Souji says with a smile on his face. He is more of a tea drinker. Nazuna however? She is the booze hound. It all works out as June is drinking his share anyway! "Time to get this little guy back home," he says to the newly acquired friend. Although there is no loot for him, Ryan is more than a treasure.

Nyanta sighs with relief, and perhaps, a bit of regret. No rat meat, unfortunately. "Alas, rat-on-a-stick is nyat to be on the menu tonight, nya. Purrhaps a beer could be a consolation purrize, nya?" He takes the mug and has a decent sip, leaving a foam mustache on his lips momentarily before he licks the foam away with his raspy cat tongue. Nyanta notes the small rat, and nods, "Congratulations on recruiting your nyew companion, Souji, nya. May he serve you well."

    June passes over Nyanta's beer as she then drinks Souji's. "Mmm well, you should head to the Isekai Ryokan... one of their signature dishes is the Tasty Rat Bento, you could stock up." she says to Nyanta.