Duty Session 618: 47 Ronin

The 10th floor of Aincrad Tower is a massive raid instance: Thousand Snake Castle. Since the defeat of Kagachi, the Samurai Lord, these halls have become home to monsters seeking vengeance to their fallen Lord. Passengers heading to the 11th floor have fallen victim to this ire.

Upon hearing that more people are being abducted during their journey up the Tower, Soujiro acts first and thinks never. It is only through the miracle of his bonds with others do the chims go out that he would welcome others' help. By asking them. In 1-1 chims. For the entire trip. Run and talk, Chimtooth, not yet Blue.

Goldenblade is not one to turn away from people in danger, amd this area has been kind of rough lately, with reports of people turning up missing, so she has shown up, to see what may be seen. When she gets a chim from Soujiro, she will join his group, this is just what she was waiting for. "Let's see what's going on here," she agrees.

While the tower may not be one of Shiruba's primary concerns people needing help was definitely enough to get the wolfgirl to venture to the higher floors and assist. Especially when asked personally by the samurai himself rather than it being a general call to arms many forming parties utilize. That and on the side it was another oppritunity to hunt some monster she doesn't see normally. So she's here and her bow is at the ready. "Monsters just can't leave well enough alone it seems."

"Last time," Soujiro says, as there was a last time (tm) on Samurai Warriors: The New Generation EX Reloaded Chapter 1 Episode 3, "a monster self shaping under Lu Bu was holding Adventurers as bait for a bigger fish." Ah fishing, something both GB and Souji enjoy. "As many times as they organize, we will strike them down. There is no 'fun' in being captive." He must have always been the kid on team games that was focused on reviving and freeing people from 'prison' on capture and coop games.

It does not take long into following the trail of resistance making the halls to find large creatures in samurai armor on patrol. These monster ronin spill out in file as the adventurers approach. They form up a blockade as the faces of lions, snakes, and bears on the bipeds look intent on capturing more Adventurers for their lord. And then, in the back, a monster yells 'Everyone, attack!'

When a man in the back yells everyone attack, you know there is going to be a ballroom blitz. "If they cannot leave things alone, Shiruba," the samurai says as he draws out his two katanas, "then neither shall we!" Souji is genuine, but no wordsmith. He sets his heart ablaze and launches in with masterful strikes befit of a legendary swordsman that once climbed this tower as part of the tea party.

Shiruba makes a farther unhappy face at the mention of prisoners being bait. That's just more resolve to dig into dealing with the matter. "Hear, hear." There's no more time for conversation as the samurai clad monsters are barging onto the scene to impend their way. "The question now is, are we trapped in here with them, or are they trapped in here with -us-?", she remarks, even as she draws back on Thundersnow Howl and a wail not unlike it's name calls out as she fires a surge of powerful wind down the corridor. It might not do a lot of harm through the monster samurai armor but it'll hopefully at least make them move out of the way.

Goldenblade doesn't know much about following trails. But apparently Soujiro knows this place well, and we quickly find the source of trouble. Attacking monstrous people! Well, that's pretty much a straight-up fight, and Goldenblade's more than capable, using both blades to keep the enemy at bay, her defensive techniques thrwarting the attackers. She's no Soujiro Seta, but her guard is unbreakable.

Souji knows nothing except -training-. His brain is one big muscle, much to the concern of his mentor, Gil, who is trying to teach him how to use that head-muscle for divination better.

The passageways through the raid castle are long and windy. The design is not overly complicated to navigate, but it is hounded by literal hounds. Ethereal hounds. They bound through the icy walls as if they were made of air and snap aat the party. Keeping light on your feet and quick on retaliation will reduce the hounding from the dogs of war.

Let loose the hounds of war! Even if they are ghost hounds. Soujiro isn't about to ponder the deeper meaning of this. He uses his supernatural levels of intuition to determine when the ghosts are about to appear from the walls, sometimes going as far as starting an attack before they even appear. He then runs them down the corridors in a 'taunt and kite' fashion so that they are not doing hit and run tactics. Normally outrunning a doggo is bad idea. Souji is fast, faster than doggo. Why? /Training/. Plus running on walls is fun.

Goldenblade is quite skilled at the taunt and kite school of defense, and she's blazing fast, seemingly with eyes in the back of her head as ske skips and dances ahead of the attackers, stabbing each one in turn. Her attacks don't do huge damage like this, but it wears the enemy down.

The hallways aren't so much of a maze that she needs to use her skills to lead so Shiruba hangs back behind the other two. It suits her ranged focused combat style. It also gives her a chance to see when the ghost hounds are emerging from the walls ahead. Can you shoot ghosts with arrows?

Apparently she can, and she does. After all the dealings with the Undead Army back in the early days Shiruba has made sure to keep methods of dealing with supernatural foes on hand, in this case having a few arrows with heads of blessed silver, allowing them to hit ethereal targets.

The castle gives way to a large, open area that often denotes a boss fight. The room itself is empty when the party arrives with the exception of one sus treasure chest in the center. It screams 'trap' but it is the trigger for the door at the end to open up. At least you don't have to fight a boss. Correction. You /do/ have to fight a boss, a mid-boss, as a chaotic humanoid monster in a stylish leather outfit springs from an unexpected location to challenge the party to combat. Unexpected locations include, but are not limited to: The chest, dangling from the ceiling, behind a pillar while holding onto it like a man-spider, behind the party while cosplaying as a party member, or under a manhole cover that has no business being there. In this case? He appears behind a pillar, "The boss has arrived!"

"You look more like a Mid Boss," Soujiro says, as the Inspect of Majima changes forever to 'Midboss' much to the Adonis' dismay. It is enough to send the gaming pillar of 'shaking things up in the middle' into a fighting frenzy. Souji's non-Koga katana blazes with fire as he uses the heat of flame to extend out his strikes wider ot the wiley willain.

Goldenblade is wildly confised by what's going on, but fire seems to be the operative solution, and fire is a thing she can do. So much fire. Fire here. Fire there. Possibly more fire than this strange monster miniboss is OK with. That's fine, his concerns are not GB's problem. Just more fire.

Oh joy, a midboss that is not nearly as clever as he thinks he is. He's trying to play a lethal game of hide and seek, with one of the best hunters and trackers in the party. Not that Shiruba would ever claim such about herself because she's too modest, but it's entirely true.

When the midboss tries to hide from all the fire by climbing up behind one of the pillars to get to the ceiling? Shiruba fires one of her crystalline arrowhead shots with such precision that it ricochets off a different pillar, then off the back wall into an upward angle to hit the man and knock him down again.

Behind the large door is where the captured are kept. Many of these are Adventurers that would have preferred death and respawn, but instead kept alive here. Some are Landers with an adventuring spirit or were being escorted by the Adventurers. They are all traumatized by the experience (did you see Majima?) and need some calming down before they feel comfortable moving on. All of them insist that this nightmare wont end until you fell the boss that organized this effort. The one that is just in yonder room.

"You are safe now, because -we- are here," Soujiro says in a way that is not going to get him completely sued by All Might, as that show hasn't started airing yet. Paradox! It works, though. Maybe its all those samurai sparkles or Charisma 20 that has no business on a Fighter. The group itself will not be able to rest easy knowing their captor is still out there. If all that was required was a rescue, they have it. Soujiro is not satisfied by that as there is one extra mile to run to rescue their hearts as well as their bodies.

Unless you want to count howling like a wolf Shiruba can't sing. But she can be light on her feet and knows a few dance steps thanks to a certain noodle armed artificer. It's still not the most graceful display but it gives the prisoners something more cheerful to focus on while the others convince them they're going to be safe.

Goldenblade has, it seems the one thing Soujiro is still working on. She's done enough quests that Landers actually recognize and are glad for her presence. "Have no fear," she tells them. "We will get you out of here. And we will take down that foe," she promises them.

Can you smell what the Ghost is cooking? The room beyond is mess of kitchen supplies, spices, and warmth. This sounds wonderful if not for the ghost of a sushi chef chopping up ingrediants for an army that needs full bellies. The problem is that it thinks you, and probably those adventurers you freed, are ingrediants. Time to show this ghost who the true iron chef is.

Not Soujiro. He didn't pick up cooking. "Nyanta would have loved this fight. A kind old ghost lady and cooking? Purrfect combination," he attempts his best Nyanta on that last one. "Wait! Was this nice lady going to -cook- the captives?!" Unforgivable! And instead of thinking he launches himself into combat to protect the snacks of others. Instead of being a snack. That you nibble on. For food.

Goldenblade has all sorts of fire, but she has zero cooking skill, and it seems like that's what's really needed here. She can fight ghosts, but she can't do much that affects ghost cooks. Apparently there's a recipe, but she doesn't know it. But finally, brute force serves where there's no skill, and the task is done. No thanks to her, sadly, but she'll take the win.

"I don't think Nyanta would of agreed with what her intended ingredients would of been." Shiruba agrees with a shudder at the thought. Too bad she already used her anti-ghost arrows on the hounds. She has to resort to one of her fall backs, which is using her fire arrows. Which arguably is going to do more damage to the kitchen than the ghost she can't quite seem to hit, but making enemy assets unusuable counts too, right?

Get that ghost out of the kitchen, because she is fired! The final blow to the ghost sends it into an unearthly scream as if she served an imperfect dish and must now explode in shame. The crystals that normally burst from a boss come in various food form like shrimps and cupcakes and little kitchen knives.

There is a warm smile as he radiates -train your positivity- with Souji Sparkles, "Think more positive, Shiruba! Like how Nyanta-san would have convinced this fine chef to use better sources and then the problem would be solved -and- we have a fine fight for the past crimes." Neat and with a bow. "Asuna too. If the ghost ever returns, we will have to get her to do a cook off. Hot pot!" Potluck! Food! And that he runs off, "Better make sure our new friends have food for the trip back!" Doordash. Samurai Dash?

Shiruba can't help but laugh at the positive attitude. "You're probably right. And in the end what matters is that those people can go back home safely. Once we get them out of the castle." Grabbing a few edibles is actually a good idea, those ex-prisoners probably need something to help regain their energy.

Goldenblade admits, "We may not have been the ideal team, but a win is a win, yes?" She chuckles at Seta and looks around at this place. Well, the kitchen was her wife's domain for 50 years, she never did more than graze on leftovers. Now it seems that cooking knowledge is important. What an odd video game. "Yes, that's the important bit."