Duty Session 610: Clearing Dragon's Eye

    Asuna has yet to leave the area. She's still here. She's a bit drowsy, having just woken from her nap thanks to the sounds of others moving around. Whatever time of day it is, she's ready to go.

    "So time for clear through number seven for me, but number eight overall."

    She's not rude enough to run ahead yet, but she's obviously ready to spring into the cave as always.

Uta shows up, clutching her white wooden staff in the shape of a serpent whose top coils around a red gem in the shape of an anatomically correct heart. "Uhm, er... I can't remember. Have we already done this quest?", she wonders aloud, tapping her chin. She waves one hand around, vaguely, "So... remind me again. Which one is this one again? The rats?"

    Lauren voted to stay with Asuna, much like Goldenblade had, because... she's an artificer out in the wild. This is no place for small imp enchantresses.

    "I've taken to calling this Dragon Baggin'," she says aloud, to no one in particular, eyes on the prize.

    Naniko is just there, trying to be more social and active. It's hardly social, but doing these quests with other people IS more active...

Soujiro Seta responds to the call to adventure. After clearing the last nest he is up for more. "What kind of creatures do you think we will see today, Asuna? Kangeroo-Rats? Gorilla-turtles?" He is being serious. "Snake Fish?" Eels.

    The bioluminescence would be comforting were it not for the fact that its source is slimy mushrooms. As it is, the group travels on until they encounter...
    "I /hate/ centicobras," Lauren moans.

"These are strange rats," Uta mumbles, while blasting Centicobras with airballs. They're like fireballs. Made of air.

    "No rats, Uta. Honestly if there were, they'd probably be like, butterfly rats or snake rats."

    Asuna turns a grin to Soujiro, "Probably all of those. Hm. I like the idea of gorilla turtles, though. That sounds like a fun enemy!"

    She follows through the cave with almost bored ease. Centicobra attacks? Please. She has been here a lot, so only something really embarrassing could stop her now.

    This time, Naniko just avoids the centicobras. She plays a game of 'the floor is lava' with them, just bouncing from rock to rock to avoid aggro.

Soujiro Seta sees them cobras. No. They are centipede. Centicobras! "These things. I like how swooshy the attacks they are are," Soujiro says as he tanks a group of them. "Like fighting a group of living whips." He grabs one and throws it into another one. "Teenage Mutant Gorilla Turtles?" King Kong in a Half-Shell, Turtle Power.

    As if centicobras weren't enough, our heroes end up cut off at the pass by Kraithornets!

"Rat-gulls," Uta remarks to Asuna. "Half rats, half seagulls. Fully opportunistic. They'd be absolute turncoats if they had coats. Tiny, adorable coats." She squints around. "Don't give Gwen ideas."

"I've seen turtle-doves. Like, half turtle, half dove. Self-homing pigeons, I suppose?", she wonders aloud, tapping her chin.

"Hey Souji! Long time no see! How's the Training?", she greets the Samurai. And then, to Lauren. "Oh, oh, a new face. Allow me to introduce myself:" she bows, "Uta Furore. Musical Kung-Fu Nurse. Founder and chairspriggan for life of the Royal Society for the Appreciation and Study of Gelatinous Creatures, At your service."

Straightening up again, she notices the Undine. "Oh, hey, Naniko. Long time no see. Have you been hanging out with Souji?"

Soujiro Seta switches from evasion tank to deflection tank mode with the flying beasts. There is plenty of rubble to use, picking up rebar from the 'city' ruins and using it to bat down the snake-hornet things while disarming the stingers. "Uta!" he sparkles with much sparkling. "Training is going great! Look at all these -things- to train with. Twice the amount of monsters in one setting. Will they sting? Will they bite?" Pure joy.

    Naniko doesn't hold anything back when dealing with the hornets, this time. Rather than bubbling one, she makes a globule of water in her hand and throws it at one of them. It spreads over it making a sheen that's about an inch thick. Finding the thing's modified book lungs, it 'drains' into the creature's abdomen breathing holes. Oh, to drown while completely dry. She repeats this for several of them, practicing her water without even looking worried about the monsters surrounding the group. She's danced this dance before.

"Souji!", Uta replies, while grabbing monsters left and right by the flailing appendages and tossing them like a salad. "I hope they don't. Or if they do, they do so to someone else."

    After the centicobras comes the kraithornets!

    "Hahah, yes, definitely teenage mutant gorilla turtles," agrees Asuna. She barely even has to look to slam a buckler in one of the hornets' faces. When she makes strong contact she actually looks confused. "Huh. Usually I get poisoned here. I suppose they are sick of me by now."

    Or maybe that impromptu murder festival she had after her last run paid off in TRAINING VALUE!

    "I wonder what boss we'll get this time. Maybe it'll be a new one. But more likely, it'll be that hydra again. I don't like that hydra much!"

    "Uta, are there like, half-slimes in this new world here? That might be useful. I could use a bear that I can slide under a door. For lock picking." Don't ask.

Lauren is there, mystic energy coalescing into a shield, which she rams with success against anything that would divebomb and /dare/ touch the imp's perfect hair. "Go Naniko!" She cries out.
    "Go Asuna! It's your birthday! Murder some hornets 'cause it's your birthday!" She sing-yells, ploughing her own way through crushed hornets.

"You are training poison resistance, smart," Soujiro says to Asuna, making sure that a snake bites him and poisons him. Yet his natural regen ticks past the damage over time. Crazy! "It is not too bad, Uta. Together they do some decent poison damage, but this is a /great/ place to train your poison resistance." Always look on the training side of things.

Speaking of training, the thing Souji can't really train is innate. It his is instincts. He uses them to start walking towards where he 'feels' more enemies will be. Gamer sense? Battle sense? Souji sense? "I have a good feeling about this direction," he says as he checks it out.

    Time to look for things. Asuna is getting really good at this part. Which means really lucky. This time she's not, though. She'll just follow Soujiro cause if she doesn't she'll somehow find Curtana's feet again. And that might cause some kind of quantum disturbance that tears the very fabric of the space-time continuum.

    "It's a good thing you are here, Soujiro. After all these attacks on Dragon's Eye, the hornets are starting to thin out a bit. At this rate the place will soon be safe for Olympus to do their thing."

    Naniko knows to pay attention, this time. She's able to relay information on where to go and look...granted, she's done this before, so that helps.

"I have potions for that," Uta replise to Soujiro. "Altough a little Mithridatism never hurts. Well, ok, it hurts if done wrong."

"Only slimes based on the local hybrid animals," Uta replies to Asuna. "Otherwise, same as back home. There were definitely fewer slimes than in Yamato as soon as we unlocked the Palace Lands. I should see what the situation is like these days." A sheepish grin. "But, you know, war. Higher priority things to take care of."

"It's your birthday!?", Uta exclaims to Asuna. This calls for a celebration in the form of a non-copyright-infringing Birthday song!

"o/~ Hey hey hey, hey hey hey, your birthday is today o/~ You made it safe and sound to the planet turnin' round o/~ the massive nuclear furnace we're teetering towards o/~ this cake, this gifts and this tune her are what counts as rewards-"

She stumbles upon something and faceplants. "Did I trip on someone's feet- wait, no, I think this is relevant."

    Similarly, Lauren is right there with Naniko, searching-- and succesfully, the group navigates their way to the--
    "So help me sweet baby Jesus," Lauren mutters. "Elkwolves. Why? JUst... why?"

    Disappearing once again into the shadows like she did before, Naniko moves like someone who does speed runs of quests. With quick movements of long, narrow daggers striking from the darkness, Elkwolves go down.

    Asuna looks at Uta. "My birthday was a couple weeks ago, actually. You want to come over sometime and celebrate it?" She will help her friend get back up. "But anyway, we'll see. Maybe it's time that I go on that slime quest and find you more varieties of the cute little happy globs! If my Mist creature efforts have failed here, I'll have to get some practice in and work my way up I guess. If I can even find another one like it."

    Don't get her started. She really likes that boss. "I wish Yui could see it, anyway. But I've got my doubts about this jar capture technique for this beastie."

    As she speaks, she is really, really close to the wolves. Her rapier is practically singing through the air, it moves so fast. The elkwolves make a chorus of their own. A lot of yelping in pain and ignored growls!

"Reminds me of the legend of Rundolph-Moon-Moon, the derpiest wolf-reindeer with the reddest, shiniest nose," Uta remarks, and dries a nonexistent tear. "Such an inspiring story," she sniffs, rushing into battle, grabbing elkmeese by the horns and flinging them over her shoulders as if they were good luck charms in some sort of traditional ritual.

"I'd love to celebrate your birthday!", she exclaims to Asuna. "And we'll find something for Yui."

Woofs. And Hoofs. Hwoofs. Soujiro sees the elkwolves and starts looking at thier pack patterns. "I am glad that this place will be safe for Landers and Adventurers," the samurai says, "but I will miss the training, for sure. If there are nests below ground I would love to return and help there. The battles in Elder Tales are always new and exciting." He never tires of them. The proof is the same as how people skip stones. Instead of the skips he is doing iai strikes in lines to strike as many of the elk wolves as possible in a chain. By the end of it, it is raining monster shattered lootbits.

    And the final battle-- coiling, roiling curls of mist that beckon like sharp talons...

    Naniko sees a different creature, but the technique she uses is roughly the same. Water magic, moisture being pulled from the air as she causes the water inside the creature to shimmy and shake, disrupting its anatomy. It's all very straightforward...well, for Naniko.

Mist dragon! Its real! Soujiro is elated, "The Mist 'Dragon'." Wyvern. Dragons are not allowed on Dragons eye. Dragon adjacent and substitute dragons permitted under Dragon Alliance Laws of Alba Code 32.5 subsection a3. Souji draws out Kogarasumaru and the pair engage in combat with the misty summon. "I shall endure the assault as long as you need, Asuna-Rydia. Do your best to capture instead of harm this fair creature!" Its so pretty!

"Someone needs to invent silica gel," Uta remarks upon seeing the mist creature. She rushes in, spins in the air, and slashes down with her staff at the vaporous monster. "This is the weirdest rat I've ever seen!", she yells at the rest of the team.

Lauren laughs out loud at Uta's comment. "No, no," she calls out, slinging ice missiles as though lighting candles. "Superlube!"

    "Oh yeah! Here we go again!"

    Asuna loses track of everything but the fight. Sure, she may not get this thing properly captured, but she loves fighting it anyway. It's just.. beautiful. It's tendency to turn into mist is no longer seen as a problem. It's a chance to get closer to the creature. To understand it better.

    She's inspected it three times now, but never so closely as this.

    "You truly are a marvel, Misty," she says softly.

    Timing things properly, Asuna strikes hard with attacks of water and light, but she blunts her attack, reducing the damage as others pour on their own attacks.

    As last time, she waits patiently, for the very last moment. Before the creature dissipates she uses another jar to attempt her capture. This one is built differently, and she uses intensely cold air to try and push the mist creature into the container.