Heart of the Dragon('s Eye)

The past two weeks have been a series of Gate trials from Haru Nox. Those that paid attention at the Crownless Cup know him as Haru Himekawa now, though the details of this revelation fade in time like the ruins he is working on. The important parts are the present and the future. Gate travel cannot remain sole domain of himself. Innovation has a period of trial and exploration but it must be exposed larger when it benefits the larger community. He has discussed fees and taxes with Gilgamesh. He has discussed methods for Olympus to profit off of this, but most importantly he has made it clear that the path to this was paved by LOONS. He may have opened the door, but Schneider's Scripture work, Uta's Song work, and countless other steps got it here. Although he could lord over this, he is not operating like SEA is with the Tower. Promethians give fire to the world.

For a change of pace, Haru spares everyone a long winded explaination of why ths is important. He sends out communications to those that are willing to assist him today in finding and destroying the Dungeon Heart of Dragon's Eye. It is not a formal dungeon, one may argue, but one filled with Monster Nests. Then again, what else is a dungeon but a concentration of monster nests? The lead came from working on the Chaos Gate. The energy that flows to it has a vein sapping it, tapping into it. It leads to a park in the city. This is where the chapter comes to a close.

The park itself is surrounded with stone walls that have been overgrown with ivy. Metal gates at the front have lone rusted over and become doormats welcoming the group. A path heads towards a central fountain that no longer holds water. It is a dry bed with spots where metallic coins once etched their wishes into the minerals. Surrounding the epicenter are sections that make it feel like a park: swing sets, trees, sandy boxed off areas, walk paths, and open areas where games could have been played. Of these only the grass and trees have survived the ruination, slowly reclaiming the artifacts of relaxation not born of nature.

"The best way to describe this process," Haru says as he slowly walks inward, "is a tube or pipe that is blocked. When I push energy through this channel, it is going to shoot out the other side. I do not expect whatever it is to be friendly towards us."

Goldenblade missed Haru's name change, and his victory in the tournament completely, despite being an announcer and celebrity host for the first few fights. Project work has been consuming her, and is still consuming her, but she's found a moment, and this is important also. She looks around and sees what is here. She's not sensitive to magical anything, nor is she particularly skilled at reading the room, or judging people. But she can guess. "So this is a clogged toilet and you're Mister Plumber?" she asks Haru. "Well. I suppose I'll be the plunger and push all the turds out the other end. Tell us what we need to do?"

"Wouldn't be the first experiment to go down the drains." Kauchemar just keeps the plumping puns going. "Until we find the thing clogging the works and roto-rout it out." She gives her staff a tap against the ground to bounce it briefly, then grab and rest against her shoulder. "You're the one that knows where this pipe dream is suppose to go, Haru, lead the way."

Gwen knew there was more to do with Dragon's Eyes. She also knew having a city like this under the control of the Alliance would be a very imporant thing. She had done what she could to assist haru, making sure meals and other thing would get to him by her or by others. When the call came for this she waw there with bells on.

She was looking around for a moment nocing just how much the place had been clenaed out. It wasn't fon but the end was in sight to her.

"Kinda creepy to see something like this but it feels more alien to me with every passing day."

In the back of her mind she wondered. Could she even function on Earth anymore? She did not know and hoped to never find out.

"So if it's Turtles I will be lauching so hard."

She pulls a which looks like a certain famous plumbers cap save it's purple and has a G on it, for a moment. How long has she had that? Did she just menu craft it up? Who knows. She puts it away as it clashes with her armor.

"Well then shall we get to it?"

    Merek had come to assist, though he might've almost been a little late to the party. He does adjust the material of his attire, beltcape swaying while he takes his time to look towards the party, nodding a bit. His spiky ponytail is pulled back along his features. "Well, I'll aid with whatever way I can," he says, as he draws a dark blade which looks custom made. He nods a bit to Gwen, Kauchemar, Haru, and Goldenblade, "It's good to see you all."

Haru looks to Goldenblade and although the plumbing reference may seem crude, he confirms it, "That is accurate. One big dungeon turd that is stuck and needs to flushed." He pushes up his monocle to maintain a degree of seriousness about it. He gives Kau a singular fingergun to echo that the sentiment is all washed up. Down the drains.

"If it is turtles it'll be a turtle hybrid. Like a turtle fox or a turtle ant," Haru says. He pauses. "I do not think 'ninja' counts as a racial attribute." His fingergun to Kau turns ito a thumbs up for Merek.

Time to get to work. Haru starts looking at the ground like an old man with a metal detector at the beach. There is something in the ground and he means to find the right spot. "Found it," he says as he plants a foot onto one of the stones in the park path. It has a crack. Bad luck. "Hold on, this will get bumpy." Engaging too-much-magic protocols. Lots of flashing lights? Check. Wind whipping around super hero fashion? Check. Magical Girl Transformation Sequence? Denied.

There is hissing from the ground as vents erupt to spew forth mana geysers. The fountain begins to buckle as the ground itself shakes violently. This is what happens when you fight a Mist Drag--Wyvern. You get an angry Titanic earthquake. It cracks the central fountain and a beating ruby gem bursts forth. Organic? Mineral? Unknown. Menacing? Yes.

As if unable to defend itself in this form, the Heart latches onto things in the park with its ruby light. The faithful dog statue waiting at the entrance. A peaceful sheep that kids could ride near the see saw. The sign of what appears to be a pig at the food stand. These innocent images get ripped into existance with a new form. The bouncy sheep? Now one baaaahd boy in biped form and demonic horns. Bacon Shack? It knows what shakin', and its not its bacon as the whole shack come to life in a squeal. Faithful doggo? It slowly clunks over with four legs and opens its mouth. What comes out but instead of a bark is a gout of flame going right towards Gwen, Haru, and Merek.

The flames signal the start of the fight, with the Haam shack rolling like a Katamari over towards Gwen. The only one that is fighting remotely normally, ala two meaty fists, is the Baah sheep that shoulder charges right towards Goldenblade.

Goldenblade looks wildly confused as so many things go on at once. Is this how kids play games now? What happened to backgammon and shuffleboard? She's been stabbing things in the game for two and a half years, but it's been maybe a year since her last boss fight, and she's forgotten how hard they get as the ground starts shaking. But she's stood on a skyscraper in high winds before, this is not hard for her to keep her feet.

Blades come out, and both of them twirl in her hands like batons for a moment before locking in her grip, then she spins quickly, blades biting at each of the targets. While the one in her face manages to avoid the worst of the damage, it's hella tough, she draws blood, or at least does HP damage to the others, while avoiding the attacks aimed at her. The rotating attack looks, in a certain light, not unlike a ballerina twirling, until you realize that she's got swords in either hand and she's wearing chainmail. That's not usually a ballerina thing.

Thanks to her regular work with the rock moles Kauchemar has been honing a knack for when the earth is going to start rock'n'rolling without her musical accompaniment to move it. She deftly sidesteps one of the erupting geysers of arcane energy and braces her stance. "THIS is why they say not to step on cracks, dear Haru." Always the one with a bit of snark even if she isn't all emo like some of the other darkness specialists. "But you did pull it's heart strings apparently. Now it's time to make it a heart breake--"

She's just about to raise her staff to blast the revealed heart when a shift goes across the park. Her ears flick up. "Something wicked this way comes, something wicked that way went..." Sure enough, several of the old park fixtures erupt to animate approximation of life. And somehow Kauchemar managed to not be in the middle of where they're bringing down the pain. Foresight? Or sheer luck? Who knows.

But her escaping harm for now just means others are going to need some assist. Kauchemar summons her Binder Shield but rather than use it herself sends the spirited armament to cover Gwen in tanking the assaults.

Now, where was she... oh, right. But instead of blasting the revealed heart she turns to unleash an enervation bolt in the direction of Baah. Who unfortunately seems to have gained some ability from having been a bouncy ride and bounds out of the way. "I guess the demon infusion came from a Springheeled Jack," she murmurs to no one in particular.

    Merek takes his time to draw his weapon and point it forward as the creations come to life. When he does take the time to attack, he swings his fists around into a flurry of sweeps that come at the enemies, sheathing the blade a moment to do it. He then offers a few kicks at them while he makes room for others to take them on. So far, he seems to be doing alright.

Gwen says "No Ninjas would be a class."

She grins a bit shifting her heavy blade armor shoulder's paldrons a bit.

She will go to take point as she knows there's trouble, she knows it will be comming sooner or later. Well it does not take long before the ground starts shaking, Gwen is able to keep her footing and calls out a warning to the rest of the party.

She will spring into action the moment these strange monsters before them.

Gwen does her jobs she puts the other first she'll see an attack coming in on Haru, she'll move intercept but it leaves her open for this forces her to choose between two attacks she can intercept another with a fire wall. Kau's Blinder Wall is well timed protecting her as well.

"Thanks Kau! Haru are you all right?!"

She will turn her attention to Baah and chant.

"DIVINE WIND!"

A Flurry of wind based attacks are lunches at the monster with Gwen's full intend to cut it to bits as quickly as possible.

Haru's footing becomes unsteady with the quake and he pulls up stained glass platform beneath him. It floats. How do you beat Quake? Float. It does not afford the same evasive maneuverability when the gouts of flame come his way, but he trusts in Gwen to keep him from becoming an Artificer-kabob. "Doing just fine, Gwen. Thanks for the assist," grimmaces the silvery haired caster. Fire? This is how fire is really done. "Ignis. Pluma. Ambiente. Ardeat. Nos." the summoner draws out his firebird, emerging from one of the fissues in the ground. It flaps its wings sharply that sends a salvo of red hot feathers to the Haam House.

Goldenblades spinning attack draws first blood. The sharp damage lines chunking away a healthy amount of damage across the trio of enemies in a dance-like pattern. When one of these nightmare fueled Five Nights rejects show their flank to Merek, a fresh line gets crushed into.

Baah better start counting sheep. Gwen's divine wind puts the bipdeal sheep-monster on the defensive through the concussive force of the blows. It gets one solid attempt at footing before Kau's enervation bolt sends it back once again.

Haam House a Go Go gets sizzled by feathers from an angry birb that Haru summoned out. It does, in fact, smell more like bacon down here in Dragon's Eye now. The encounter may have been a surprise summon, but the party comes out of the first phase unscathed and positioned to grind these guardians down to dust.

There is the rhythmic thumping of the dungeon heart as a menacing red light flows out of it. It is almost tangible as a red mist-like substance that turns into crystaline fractals similar to when monsters are killed. They fade away as they pulse away from the unearthed heart. A self-same red color comes from the creatures summoned to defend it.

The Haam House writhes around like an electrified fish out of water. The sharp corners of the boxy building get dulled away to a smoother, circular boulder of a monster. Two red eyes appear on it as the orb starts to rotate Sonic the Hedgehog style. Its momentium is stopped by the Adventurers during the first burst of speed, deflecting it towards the Dungeon Heart with a crashing sound that sends it spinning off like a pinball in an arcade machine.

The three animated beasts turn their attention to the party's tanks. Is it because Kau and Gwen have made good emnity so far? Tank life is damage life, ask Darkness. The bouncy head of the sheep in a menacing biped body roars at the nightmare. Correction: It bleets in the tone of abyssal child. And like an angry child, it picks up a nearby see saw to smack Kau with baseball bat style.

Gwen isnt getting 'attacked' so much is in the direction of a pinball gone rogue as Haam-ball's chaos path puts Gwen right in the middle of it.

The ever faithful doggo continues it slow walk towards the dungeon heart. Its almost Tonberry in nature, trying to slowly get to the redlight destination to Doink damage. Or merge with it voltron style. Who knows? What the party does know is Muut breathes fire. The current cone of flames puts Haru, Gwen, and Kau in its fan of flames.

Goldenblade is caught off-balance by Haam's charge, and it's a good thing she's not on top of a skyscraper as she gets shoved aside hard, but luckily the others are able to restrain him as she recovers her footing. Without a direct attack to defend against, she will pull out the big guns, so to speak, flickering from view to strike the bad guys individually from their respective blind sides for big damage in a what seems like a series of stop-motion frames showing her in several places at once. She really /is/ fast. She's been given the task of DPS-ing, she's dang well going to DPS the hell out of these monsters, now lower on HP than they were. The faster they die, the happier she'll be.

It just means the Tanks are doing their job. The attempt by Shakin Bacon to run them down turns into a bad game of monster billards, but succeeds in keeping the group from trampled.

Baahd Boy throws a tantrum like an irrate child ripping up a ride and swinging it around. But Kauchemar switches it up on her defenses, dodging away from his swings while leaving a trail of fire in her steps. It's not quite the same as Goldenblade's fiery evasion moves, as there is a more distinct and precise rhythm to her movements as she literally dances around Baah's attempts to hit her rather than elusive speed, but it's in the same strain of evasive maneuvering.

Which also brings the Nightmare back closer to the others, reaching out her hand to press against the back of her Binder Shield, infusing it some more of her own mana to weather against the fire breath of the canine, it's front surface taking on a black obsidian gleam. She winches briefly at the strain, but shrugs it off.

Her other hand still grips her staff, which she shifts her stance to point towards Haam. "Don't think I forgot about you and your boaring attacks." She summons a surge of water and sends it splashing down upon the monster big monster pig. which is going to do its fair bit of damage.

But what's really going to get it done is the payload the summoning carries as dozens of tiny but very toxic jellyfish squirm between the planks and boards of what was the shack to dig their stingers into the monster's squishier bits beneath.

One could say, Kauchemar is metaphorically getting under Hamm's skin.

    Merek lifts up his weapon after a moment, the sword shining with the power of light magic, while he nods a bit to the party. "Alright, I'm going in to assist," he says, before he sweeps by the party and takes a position so that he can dance that blade along each and every one of the enemies that he can. He nods a bit to Kauchemar, along to Gwen, and anyone else that is about, Goldenblade, and Haru.

Gwen has a job to do and it's to tank like no one ever has before she's got a lot of enemie to deal with but the good news is she's got a very good off tank working with her. She keeps up a pretty good rhythm herself even as she intercepts an attack for Haru and one form one of the other bosses but this time there's no getting away from it as she does take a fairly nasty hit. Still it doesn't hurt much after all her sense of pain while it exists? It's far less than it what would have been on earth. Barring a few incidents she's started to forget what full on pain was like.

There is a boss left to deal with and she'll lunge again at Baah trigging even more wind based sword arts on it.

"Beep beep you ain't no sheep!"

Haru slowly turns his head to Muut. "You want fire?" A finger runs along his monocle as it lights up. Semicircular white lines begin rotating as they analyze the armored doggo. There is a weakness alright. Engulf it on all sides and make it explode like a pressure cooker. "Have the genuine article," as he sends his phoenix to land in front of Muut. Wings wrap around, engulfing the monster as the temp raises to smelting levels.

The three creatures are all left in tatters. What remains is strewn across the park like so much metallic and mineral confetti from where the heart constructed them in defense. The red nemesis pulses now, waiting to be smashed. No more defenses are left.

The Dungeon Heart pulses become more frequent. The radius of the red light, further. They begin to not disappear and instead drift towards Baah, Haam, and Muut with a sharp draconic roar. Claws on glass. The dungeon heart is aware that things are not going its way. It is about survival now. A final ditch effort to remove the threat.

The scattered remains of the three creatures begin to glow red. Smaller parts of it pop like popcorn, sending shrapnel the size of a paperclip out. Then the larger parts of the beasts start to heat up. Part of Muut's ear. Baah's horn. The billboard from Muut's meat shack. The entire park has just become one big minefield that is set to explode.

And then they do, rapidly testing the ability evade constant self-destruction detonations.

Goldenblade looks worried as things start to pop, and she dodges clear, left, right, then a sort of jinky stutter-step that defies the eye to believe it's just speed as she clears the somewhat overlapping blast radii with one last headlong tumble. When she gets to her feet, she takes in the scene, looking accusingly at Haru. "So, what exactly was all this, then? This is what I'm complaining about with magic. Statues don't just come alive normally." She'd shake her cane, but she has none.

The bodies are glowing!... wait, shouldn't they just be depixelating? That's not a good sign then. Literally in the case of the billboard.

"Guys, as much as I pride my utilitanking ability, I don't think we can chug our way through what's about to come!" No time to use her powers of premonition to see if it really is or not, just time to run. Run with everything you've got. Nothing fancy, nothing flambouyant, and that's how you know it's a Serious Problem when Kauchemar forgots all pretenses of showmanship to just flat out run for the edge of the park!

Gwen is many things, accurate, strong, enduring, fast in a straight line. Agile? Not so much and this is where thinghs start to get insane. The bosses all go downe xploding into shards it should be over right? It really should be over? It's not over there's still the core and now something going on they have not all exploded into light.

"Oh ... hell BOMBS!"

Gwen is going to attempt to evade the first portion she's clear of the second, she's saved by Haru's quick actions but the third sends her flying. The good news it's right at the dungeon hear and Gwen will have her blade out a she's launched though the heart by the every explosion trying to protect it...

The Artificer is quick on his feet as the detonations happen all around him. He isn't the Yamato champion for nothing. Waypoints are made with his ioun stones that blink-step him forward to their direction, leaving only an after image. It is a lot like roll dodging for all those invincibility frames. Again and again. With enough to send one over to Gwen in a key moment to zap her out of the way of a large chunk of debris.

The biggest debris? Gwen debris. Gwenbris. The tank shell artillery fire through the Dungeon Heart shatters is, leaving a different set of fireworks in the park that announces their victory over these mysterious dungeon managing entities. It is not certain why and how they function, but it is certain that Dragon's Eye will be plagued by their influence no longer.

Haru dusts himself off. He cleans his monocle, "Mundane security systems function just like magical ones. Fast Response Teams. Turrets. Attack Dogs." He motions a hand. The hand is motions to what is left of Muut. Too soon. "Either way, we found it and we were able to take care of it without needing reinforcements. I call that a win. Good job." Of course, Gwen looks the most shredded, "Doing alright over there, Gwen?"

    Merek watches as the people do their best to defend from the detonation, and he does as well. He manages to keep away from a few of the blasts, but he then is knocked back by them. Though, he manages to keep relatively safe.

Gwen has gone through the dungeon heart, she's come out the other side and has kept going. Given her super human durableiy she should be okay but she's kinda planted herself partially in the ground. Her legs flail and she makes muffled sounds, she's okay but is going to need a hand there, also some heals...