Duty Session 608: Clearing Dragon's Eye

The desert area to the east of the mountains surrounding Dragon's Eye is the meeting point for the mission. The objectives are to patrol the surrounding areas and clear it of monsters in an effort to expose and eventually destroy the dungeon heart. The area is known to be patrolled by a variety of monsters. At low tide, the party is finally able to proceed. Time of the essence.

Haru has been taking the Dragon's Eye clearing at a pace between his Chaos Gate research. It means a couple times every week he is putting out requests to have the nests cleared. "Five cleared," he says, looking over a note in a leather bound ledger. "The ecosystem above ground can only handle so many nests. I suspect that they will start becoming harder to find now." Which will be a good sign.

    "We'll crush them all," says Asuna.

    But she's a bit distracted right now, admittedly. She's on chim.

    "I am so happy Taka had fun today. Tell her mama is coming back soon. I've just about wrapped-up here. Hopefully I'll have something pretty to show her, but if it falls through, I have a backup plan. It's going to cost me a fair bit of gold, but I need some kind of souvenir here. For now, though.. time to do it once more! Hugs and kisses!"

    Asuna moves up to get ready. She figures this is going to be a speed run at this point. Haru has that look of someone who isn't about to waste time. That suits the Flash just fine.

Dosbox seems to be chiselling away at a lens with two of his gem hands as he approaches the party. He spots Asuna and freezes. Yes, it's best to tell her now, since it will be too late when she can't open the door to her home. "Oh! Asuna! Fancy meeting you here! Ah... Just letting you know, you may be receiving a few boxes of plushes. No big. Just a few. They're for Taco. I thought she might want them." Internally, Dossy begs, 'Don't ask how many are a few...'

It is true that Haru has the look of a man that waits for nothing. He has an objective and he sinks into it like a mad scientist. He has become increasingly dispondant lately. Possibly realizing how much 'time' is a factor here.

The party finds themselves in a cavern lined with geometric patterns on the walls and ceilings, all formed by several species of bioluminscent fungus. There is a slight musty smell all around them, and it is evident that this cave is commonly entirely under water, depending on the tide of the waters - meaning that they have limited time to stay here. The low tide washes allows slithering Centicobras (poisonous snakes with centipede legs) to congregate, gorging on trapped fish. These bar the way through the cavern. No matter what time of the day, there always seems to be few at the entrance waiting for the patrol party. The monsters bare their fangs and rush towards the Adventurers as the first in many battles to come.

Like some comic book villain making his way into the cave, Haru no longer gives these weird creatures the time of day. A hand motions without him breaking stride, sending up pistons of earth to skewer the centicobras up like he was Haru the Impaler. "Cobras first. Hornets second. Keep eyes upwards after we pass."

    "I wish I knew something about plants. I bet this fungi could be really useful. A whole new angle for natural lighting."

    Asuna pauses as she considers this. "You know, sometimes this world is really beautiful, isn't it?" A look at the hybrid monsters and Asuna has to amend, "And sometimes not so much."

    Still, it's evasion time. And while she's not absolute perfection at it, she gets through without a scratch. She pauses only to point out, "And this is the rock where Yuuki looked for hidden passages! With her face." Not the two have a bit of a rivalry or anything.

Dosbox frowns as both Haru and Asuna seem to be moving through this area of horrifying creatures as if it's old hat, "Ah... Yes, the world is really beautiful sometimes. Also, deadly most of the time."

He throws a couple of well-timed Earth Pillars in strategic locations, sending Cobra and Hornet alike soaring off in random directions.

"Whatever gets results," Haru tells Asuna in regards to Yuuki's headbutting tactics for hidden rooms. Its as close to 'Im not going to judge' as Haru gets right now.

The assigned patrol pattern has the party venture towards the western heart of Dragon's eye through the mountain barrier that seperates it from the rest of the land. So far the path is singular and uncomplicated. This simplicity proves to be its weakness as much as its strength as stepping outside serves to make the party a very clear target. A swarm of Kraithornets descend and attack. These unusual mixtures of snake and hornet are of the poisonous type. Generally they seek fish and other aquatic creatures that unwittingly exit the inland end of the cave instead of making their way back to the sea. Today the Kraithornets find no fish. Instead they find a new meal to dine on: all of you. The party will need to push past this choke point before they can hunt and clear the Dragon's Eye area within.

Here Haru stops. Flying creatures need anti air defenses and the Artificer is about to deliver. Each one of the four ioun stones settles to his side, creating an Anti Air pattern as he starts unleashing a volley of firebolts up at these beasts. "Kill it with Fire." Like every horror creature should. Where are the spiders?!

    With that challenge behind, Asuna gets to confront the flying snake monsters. She hates these things. You do not understand. This hate. So much of it.

    "Why are you going to send my daughter so many of those? She lives in a simple house, not a palace. Besides... plushes of what kind?"

    And again, those !^&!&* snake bee whatever the ^!!^& things get to her.

    "I'm.. not amused with these hornets, Haru. I hope that when Olympus finishes up here that they are burned slowly. I don't even want to try to cook them properly."

Dosbox responds to Haru's command, "Uh, right." He mutters quietly to himself, "By the blessing of Hephaestus..." His Tattoo erupts in flames, as does the rest of his body: he is now a fire elemental version of DosBox. "Uh... I... Should have thought this through first." He sends a few of his floating Gem Hands, now covered with fire, at the snake bugs, but the reduction of targets is less than he would have hoped. "Uh, just the ones from the tournament. They are all mostly complete sets." Mostly?

There is more mana spent on this than intended. Haru brings out his fire summon towards the end to help clean up whatever of the flyers are getting out of range. Let none escape. None. "They will be exterminated," he assures Asuna, "even if they live below. Many towns like Shibuya and Alne still have monsters beneath them. When we are done topside, we will carve out below as well."

After pushing through the breach there is a moment for the party to gather their bearings and pursue a more open pathing. The ruins that scatters across the area are wide. Paths stretch like old broken roads alongside even more broken ruins. Scouting out ahead would be the best option now to determine where the monster nests are in the area and how to start clearing them out without getting overwhelmed. Time for some advanced recon.

The man with the monocle has an Arte just for this. Those experiencing it for the first time may be awed like the first time seeing an eclipse. Darkness blankets a wide area inside, giving the group stealth while highlighting the enemies. Haru looks for a cluster of them that should denote a nest. "This way," he motions, pacing towards the nearest monster concentration.

    "Understood," replies Asuna. She's falling more and more into business mode. Enemies to kill, places to find. Hunting to do. She's either getting really good at hunting in this area or she's just lucking out because Haru's divination gets her close. Either way, she finds something.

    "You know, Dossy, she already has most of those... every match we went to, I bought both of the competitors for her. That already felt a bit like spoiling."

    What is she going to do with another 10+ cloth dolls? Asuna is sure Yui will come up with something!

Dosbox follows along, making note were necessary of any natural traps that might be along the way, such as sharp rocks, slidy pit falls, and other such hazards. "Well, now she has about 90 more, so she can make a little arena and fill the stands with them," Dosbox informs Asuna as he continues to do his best Human Torch impression.

The party finds a herd of Elkwolves walking through the overgrown 'streets' of Dragon's Eye. They may be the output of a nearby nest or simply a wandering feature of Dragon's Eye. Clearing these out and would go far in satisfying the requiresments of the job. These creatures are aggressive and blocking the way to stronger monsters in the area. Break time is over, time to get to work and clear out these monsters! With enough pressure the leader of this particular cell will need to show itself or face its domain being crippled through loss of monster-power.

Haru is focused on eliminating the monsters. He is a crafter, not a killer, though right now its hard to tell that is the case. This is made even worse when he brings out a mecha-summon in the form of a four meter tall earth elemental, Terra. Nothing quite like a magical mech walking through town shooting down the elfwolves.

    "How many?!"

    Asuna is not thrilled by /that/ information. Fortunately the elkwolves are here. They are fun to hit. Asuna charges them, Lambent Light drawn, and gets downright /stabby/. She doesn't hear the growling or the yelps. She's too busy working out her frustrations. As Yui is prone to pointing out: 'Mama is scary.'

    The poor elkwolves never stood a chance!

    "We will.. not be giving her that many toys! And you will always ask me before giving her something in the future!"

    When the last of the elkwoles shuffles off this mortal coil, Asuna lets out a sigh and softens her tone. She can't stay mad. "Please.. just ask next time. I know what we can do with all those extras. There are so many little ones at the Links that would love a new toy of their own."

Dosbox seems completely unaffected by Asuna's emotions. Maybe it's a side effect of being in an elemental form? He gives Asuna's blade a nice enhancement of explody Gems. Maybe that will help her frustration? "Giving them to Links is an excellent idea. I love the Legend of Zelda. I didn't know they HAD that kind of easter egg in ETO."

The monsters all appear to be protecting a snake that is much smaller than them. It is no larger than the size of a dog with white, feathery wings. That is until it flies up and unleashes a solid beam of ki energy into the party strong enough to cut into the ground. Cobra. Ki. Suddenly it makes sense. There is no time to be impressed by the flying death snake as it is swooping and laying down death beams onto the party. The party will have to wear this thing down for a while and get in a few precise strikes. It can't be all that strong, can it?

"This monster is not on my list," Haru says as he looks at the small creature before it starts going all Toothless on them. This is not how you tame your dragon. "No," he starts putting up a series of stained glass shields for the group, "it is. Its classified under 'annoying'." Nothing quite like fighting a flying, laser breathing monster while surrounded by magical cathedral glass.

    "Aww, but it's kinda cute, too!"

    Then the thing turns all hellfire on them with that ki weapon.

    "Welp. Nope. Sorry you little bastard, it's wardrobe design for you!" she calls up at the monster.

    If it thinks it is out of her range, it has another thing coming. She launches herself skyward with her sword art and Lambent Light finds its mark. The Flash lives up to her name, with four blurry-fast strikes of the creature in one jump.

    Landing safely behind curtains of glass, Asuna does the one thing she has to do. She makes an offensive face at the dragon...
        .. she spends a lot of time around little children.

The appearance of little snakey-kins would normally have DosBox overjoyed. He might even try to pet one. However, right now, he is content with just filling the poor creature with an UNCOMFORTABLE amount of lightning.

Snake? Snake!!! The ki wielding snake takes that final hit and collapses to the ground. It strikes it like glass and shatters into a hundred crystal shards. Dragon's Eye holds surprising monsters in it and you decide not to push your luck further after that one. The rest of the area will have to wait for another party.

Haru starts making notes in his ledger for the Hunters that will be making their way around here. A Ki Cobra. Also annoying. "I'll be near the Chaos Gate for the next twenty four hours. There are tests that need running before the remaining monsters regroup. I could take two days with how thin it is getting now." But he won't. There is no sense rushing that kind of risk.

    "I'll head back to the starting point," says Asuna. If this sounds like two coworkers discussing their workdays, well. It is?

    "If another group is forming up, I'll send a chim. I got at least two more pass throughs in me before that timer runs out. I'll be so happy to see Yui again. And tell her all about the place."

    Asuna is not Olympus, but many of her friends are. And she's lost her interest in tower clears, apparently. "See you all later!"

    She heads back towards the entry cave. Exactly as she said, she's going to meet the next group. She is a tour guide, after all! "Dossy, unless you are camping out in here, you might want to tag along. The tide's coming up soon."

Dosbox gives Haru a salute, "Roger Roger. I will be around too, until this place is cleared out. And then I will be near Rosenheim, poking at a telescope..." Asuna beckons him, just as his flame goes out. He blinks, and nervously rushes after her, "Ah, right! Coming!"