Duty Session 55: Gnoll it All

    The woods at night are no place for the unwary. The lower level adventurers have all cleared out thanks to another squad of gnolls taking up residence in the forest, evidenced by the shrill and ominous howl that rises into the night.
    Amalthea is here; the old Paladin stands staring off into the trees, shield slung on her arm as she drums her fingers on the hilt of her sword. She's not going in there alone, oh no, that would be a fools errand and suicide. That's why she waits as the moon rises, for anyone else willing to come along and cull gnolls once again to make the region safe for the lowbies.

    Of course there is at least one who cares about the lower levels and generally making the region safer for all around. Giganpor shows up, nearing the time as the moon rises. The large, red-headed were fang is armed with a long sword today. He's not going raging into a bunch of Gnolls. Nope. They're almost always a bit larger than him mostly!

    That means that he's there setup for assisting others. He gives a nod towards Amalthea as he gets there, frowning as he looks around, then over at her, "So the gnolls apparently respawned like Spinner's End? This kinda... doesn't bode well for the region if any of us move on. Too many and we have chaos here."

Kauchemar was working hard at getting herself up to speed in activities so she could properly support the rest of her new guild. Despite an awkward misstep (literally) this morning had been a success so after a short rest (she preferred not being active midday much anyways) here she was. Night was much more her time, and it shows as she strides up already in her full Were Fang form. She nodded to Amalthea, then squinted lavander eyes at the depths of the forest. "Mmm." The gnolls' thriving acitivity made things difficult for the low level and inexperienced players, and that's enough of a reason for her to get involved. For the time being.

    Gnolls, yes please. The albino werefang dressed as an onna-bugeisha, her long ears flopped back but not tied ina topknot.. that would seriously hinder her ability to hear. Wisteria is all about keepign things safe but more than that she's always on the look out for anything that might give an advantage to the tower climb and who knows what gnolls might drop as loot.

     Nighttime is the domain of monsters. It's true pretty much constantly - when night falls, the things that go 'bump' come forth, seeking their prey. This world is no different. It may be gnolls instead of muggers, it may be literal monsters instead of figurative ones, but that rule still holds true.

     So that's why you bring somebody like Shin Heno.

     Theoretically.

     The man (probably mid-twenties at the oldest) shows up with a flowing white scarf around his neck and a big smile. There's a stone belt buckle on the front of his pants, which he fiddles with now and then as he walks in under the light. He's tall, and thin, and his scarf catches the moonlight and flows like moonbeams caught in tapestry.

     "Alright then," He offers, cracking his knuckles and stretching, "Well, then, we take care of 'em!"

     "Oh, I guess I should introduce myself." His grin widens. "I'm Shin Heno. And I'm..."

     "A Hero of Justice."

    Gnolls. The memory of almost dying to one, and then facing them again only to be humiliatingly forced to retreat by Haggar, gives them an unpleasant association in Mizuki's mind. But hey, does a gamer give up just because they had trouble with a level twice? No, you keep trying again and again! That is the lesson young Sam learned when he picked up his first NES controller so many years ago, and he hasn't forgotten.

    It seems the nightly gnolls that Mizuki warned Alne about are becoming a problem, inhibiting travel which, apparently, everyone keeps wanting to do at night. Amalthea wants to do something about it, and her fellow Odysseia Knight answers. Besides, after coming all this way it's not that much further to go to Carmina Gadelica and finally, /finally/ get a hot bath like she hasn't had since before the Apocalypse. So that's something to look forward to!

    Mizuki's still in her piratey armor set with a black, plumed hat and a blue cloak; she just hasn't found anything better yet. "I think it happens every night. Or randomly some nights, at least." She responds to Giganpor. "By day, at least, they're confined to the forests, which are pretty far from town. The Landers don't travel this area at night, only us."

    As introductions start... she's met everyone here but Kauchemar, so she turns to the Nightmare were fang and tips her hat. "Mizuki, ninja. I still need a catchy title for introductions, I guess... Maybe sooner or later I'll do something cool and can be known for that?"

    She turns to Amalthea, scratching her chin. "I've fought the gnolls twice. Do you want intel or do you prefer to remain un-spoiled?"

     "Is this intel like the Armor Rat?" Shin offers cheerfully in Mizuki's direction. Is that a little bit of a barb in that cheerful tone?

    Mizuki sighs. "Possibly. But I was right about some things, wasn't I? I haven't heard much from other players about this one."

     "I think," Shin says, patting Mizuki on the shoulder, "It's probably best if we don't assume anything going forward. It might just mess things up, right? I mean, I'm just a newbie, but I feel like you're guessing based on this being a game, and it very well might not be a game at all."

Some people love to get in a good fight. Miyako isn't one of those. She's there anyway, though, because ... well, because it sounded interesting, really. And because she hates to let things go by without at least having an idea of what's going on. So here she is, joining the gnoll-hunting party, her usual guitar set aside in favor of a naginata adorned with feathers strung about the base of the blade.

If nothing else, the dark doesn't bother her so much, at least. "The thing is," she comments as she draws closer, overhearing the conversation, "If it is or it isn't... it _started_ as one, or was _inspired_ by one, depending on which perspective you prefer. So, yeah, don't assume, but it's a better starting point than 'wander around aimlessly hoping to run into something'."

    Mizuki startles slightly at unexpected shoulderpat. "Well, I can still say what I /saw/. We don't have to assume it'll be the same."

"If you do see something familiar feel free to speak up," Kauchemar chimes in, "But he's right, it's best not to go in with preconcieved notions on what to expect."

     "By the way," Shin adds as he removes his hand from Mizuki, "Why were you crying while you were eating that rat?"

    "Looks like it." Amalthea replies to Giganpor without taking her eyes off the trees, tapping at the cross-guard of her sword in an absent and idle tick, as the others begin to arrive. Slowly the older woman turns to glance over her shoulder, one hand rubbing at her jaw thoughtfully. Some are new faces to her, others she's met before, but this group should do finely.
    A dip of her head gives a nod of greeting to Kauchemar and Wisteria, before crystal blue eyes focus on Shin, and the woman offers a warm smile.
    "A Hero of Justice, mm? Well I'll take all the help I can get."
    And there's Mizuki; and when the younger Odysseia Knight arrives and offers some insight into gnoll-based warfare, Amalthea nods again; still keeping one eye to the woods the whole time.
    "Please, I'd appreciate it." She says on the offer of the insight of previous gnoll-hunting runs. "If you spot anything familiar don't hesitate."
    A slow, steeling, breath and she draws her blade from the scabbard, the sound of steel quietly singing against the lip of the sheath rings gently into the night.
    "For those of you who don't know me, my name is Amelia. Feel free to call me that or Amalthea, I don't have a particular care which. Shall we?" She gives her own introduction as she heads into the woods...

    AMALTHEA HAS INVITED YOU TO JOIN HER PARTY. >Y/N?

    Deeper in, it looks like the gnolls have made a basic camp in the forest, but before anyone can approach, the phantasmal echo of snarls and barks can be heard; skeletal dogs approach. They float inches above the ground, their eyes little more than hollow sockets as they prowl, in search of anyone that might come too close to the camp.
    Lowering into a crouch, Amalthea starts trying to sneak by them- only to snap a twig.
    Cue a curse under her breath as she hopes the others fare better.

    Giganpor blinks, looking at Shin, and absently hitting 'Y' on the party invitation. "Huh. I didn't know you could actually make one. I went off the Sentai rather than the Riders, or did you go even further back? My grandparents only had the Heisei era for me to look at."

    Turning, and moving forward to sneak a little he frowns. "Skeleton dogs? Oh!" He seems to consider, then pulls some meat from his inventory. Pieces of jerky that probably don't taste good for the adventurers, but some light magic makes them very, very noticeable behind Giganpor's cloak before he chunks them out to the side away from where the others are, along with a rock to make more noise than a snapping twig and draw the creatures that way.

    He whispers as he starts to move past, "Pretty much all the normal senses, but they really like enchanted meat for some reason. Probably why they like eating Adventurers so much. At least that's what I remember on them."

    

    She glares at him. "Did you try eating it? It's /delicious/. It's the most delicious thing I've tasted since the apocalypse, but no one else I've talked to has been willing to eat raw meat drops."

    Her ears twitch. "Do you hear that? In the past it's been guard hyenas... sometimes you can distract them with food or just commanding them. But they sound... different this time."

    Then they come into sight of the beasts. She whispers, "Okay, that's new. And sheesh, do they look spooky at night." She sneaks around, but she'll dive in and try to backstab the skeletal monsters if they go after the others.

     Shin just sort of gives Giganpor a very forced smile and taps the stone belt buckle. It's the kind of smile somebody gives someone who asked a question that you don't *really* want to answer it. Odd, that he'd have such a reaction. "Is that right," is what he finally decides on.

     Ah, Skeletons. Shin has never, ever seen skeletons, much less skeleton ghost dogs floating over the ground. It's a whole new world, this! As he moves forward, he's tapping his weird stone belt buckle thoughtfully, like he's expecting it to do something. And, indeed, there's a little glint of red from the jewel, but nothing happens.

     Shin purses his lips. OK. That wasn't great. He really hadn't gotten the whole *magic casting* thing down yet.

    Wisteria makes the menu motion to tap Yes. "Knights gotta stick together." she offers which is silly given how independant and diseparate the Odyssian Knights actually are. She squeezes Mizuki "Hey Mizuki-chi glad you came." the bunbun girl seems pretty bright and chipper one might say bouncy.

    When the actual infiltration comes she sobers up and her zanshin comes to the fore. She moves with slow sliding steps. With a confident motion she draws darkness around her at the sight of skeleton dogs, and rather than a cloak of darkness a flare of green earth magic swells around her, but apparently enchanted meat is more exciting than botched power usesage as she doesn't have a horde of bonepups chewing on her.

Kauchemar gives a brief tip of her head as introductions go around. "Kauchemar Tenebrae, Muse and maestro of the midnight hours." And now, onward to adventure!

As the spectral canines emerge from the trees a wide grin parts the nightmare's lips. "Aaaw they're adorably horrific abominations~" It should really surprised no one that the dread horse has taken a fondess to such fiendish things.

Kauchemar makes a mental note of the existance of such creatures for later pursual, but for right now the safety of the party comes first. Her already luminess eyes glow more briefly, and she leans towards the stalking skeletal dog. "No," she states firmly, but with enough presence to open her mouth wide enough to bare the jagged teeth and needle-like viper fangs that have no right being in an equine's mouth. The summoner showing dominance to the monster, and making it pause in it's tracks.

Then deciding the meat tossed by the lion-man is a much better option that messing with that freak horse and follows the others towards the tasty meal.

    The bluenette spriggan seems to glide easily through the forest, as if she wasn't putting any weight at all on the ground beneath her booted feet. "A Hero of Justice, hm? Well, an Emiya-kun would be useful, but I suppose we'll have to do with what we've got."

    She shrugs, taps the 'accept party invite' button, and walks on, pausing to glance over at Mizuki. "Ninja? Or pirate? Or maybe both? We could use both." She grins... then pauses as she sees the pack of skeledogs. Welp. Here we go.

    She lifts one hand, the one not holding her weapon, and draws a quick series of runes in the air. The characters glow briefly before fading, and a shadow seems to wash over her briefly before it too fades away. Spell in place, she walks on, silently padding an inch above the detritus of the forest floor. She pauses every few steps, checking to see if anyone has gotten into a fight with the creatures.

    Thankfully, Amalthea's blunder doesn't cost the group the element of surprise. Giganpor thinking quickly and pitching enchanted jerky distracts the phantasmal hounds- leaving them open for Mizuki to start getting backstabs in, causing bones to break and rattle softly as they clatter to the ground. Esconced in magical shadow, Miyako has no trouble getting by either.
    Kauchemar gets a funny look from the old Paladin, though; when she goes right up and asserts her dominance over a skeletal hound, making everyone else's life easier in getting by...
    To a place that looks like death itself.
    The grass has been turned a dark shade of dead brown, the trees here are withered and sickly, and it looks as though some form of dark magic was used to clear the region.
    And in the middle of it all is a gnoll with a spellbook, gibbering to himself with excitement. Excitement because he flips to a page and starts launching dark spheres at the group as soon as they clear the trees.
    Amalthea immediately returns to her place at the front of the group, shield raised as she attempts to stick to her role of tank and hold its attention so others can move in and handle the problem.

    Wisteria sees the mage, and what is a shadow for but for mage killing? She starts chanting and drawing runes in the air, and it fizzles, then she starts again, and it fizzles, and again... by the time she manages to get the shielding spell in place everyone else has already dealt with the Gnoll mage and his dark fires.

    Mizuki answers Miyako with "It's just an armor set, I haven't got glamours yet."

    After dispatching the skeletons, she continues her answer to Shin Heno: "...How can I not be self conscious about it? Now I'm the weird girl who eats raw meat."

    When they come in sight of the gnoll mage, Mizuki volunteers info: "He can't take his own medicine, magic works great!" She nimbly dodges the balls of dark magic while spitting bolts of fire back at the gnoll! Literally spitting. That's a thing!

     Well, Shin didn't give too good a showing this time. At 'Emiya-Kun', he just sort of raises an eyebrow. "Sorry, wh-"

     Anything he was about to ask is completely disrupted by the dark and withered grass. The trees are broken and dead, purged of leaf and filled with rot, grubs gnawing on the edge of the bark. And purged is indeed the correct phrase. In the middle is the gnoll caster, laughing wildly, delighted by his dark spheres, his dark power. He is an Evil Thing revelling in the act of Evil itself.

     Shin grins. "Well that took a lot less time than the last two."

     He steps forward into the 'light.' The Gnoll can see him. The Gnoll's dark blasts only narrowly miss him as Shin takes a stance, his legs slightly spread, both hands in front of him. His left arm goes across his chest in a fist. His right arm goes up to seven-o'-clock.

     "Transform."

     His right hand snaps across the stone belt as his left hand goes up past his face.

                        0 01 0
                      1 /----\ 0
                     0 /      \ 0
   ARMOR BEETLE    ====|  /\  |====  CODE: ALGOL
DEFENSE OF DESTINY ====|  \/  |====    COMPILE
                     0 \      / 1
                      1 \----/ 1
                        0 10 0

     Thorns explode outwards. The dark balls are swallowed up by the vines wrapped around Shin, knocked aside, knocked away. There's a loud noise - some kind of musical jingle, and someone saying something in the distance.

     The thorns clear.

     What stands there is no longer Shin Heno.

     Where there was a dorky-looking, mid-twenties man with a white scarf now stands a hero. Red eyes blaze to life under a yellow-mandible crest. A red scarf flows around its neck as it walks forward, batting aside the dark blasts like a juggernaut. Beetle-mandible blades tip its legs and its arms like cutters.

     "Masked Ranger, Algol."

     "The Demon Star is calling you back to Hell."

     The thing breaks into a run, crashing into the Gnoll at top speed, its fists smashing into the creature's face. A knee comes up into its jaw. A roundhouse kick to knock it back into the party's range. And then...

     A hand goes to the belt. Click, click. It starts to glow an ominous green.

     "CODE: Thorn Breaker!"

     The Armor Beetle goes running forward. It takes a flying leap. Its foot sweeps out for a kick.

     Thorns trail in the wake of its leg. They smash into the gnoll, to bind it to the ground, to force it down for the rest of the party to finish.

     Algol rises, the scarf fluttering in the breeze. Bulbous red eyes tilt backwards to look at the party.

Kauchemar notices the odd look Amalthea is giving her, and just grins back in return. With a more normal grin, thankfully. "My secondary Class is Summoner," she explains to the elder knight as they move on. "It grants me a certain force of will to exhert over monsterous creatures."

The other thing she's familiar with is dark magic. Which in this case is even more of a reason to raise a brow at the demolished clearing around the book toting gnoll. "... Though even I was not aware gnolls could learn sorcery," she admits. Mizuki's little tidbit is just enough insight though.

When he hurtles the blob of dark magic at her she makes a few quick arcane gestures while humming. o/~ Hello Darkness my old friend o/~

And unleashes a much bigger wave of dark energy to counter-spell the dark ball, engulfing it and hammering the gnoll with the backlash of the spell being thrown back at him.

    Miyako ahhs softly, nodding to Mizuki, theh pauses as she catches sight of the gnoll at his magic practice. "well, well, well," she muses. "Talk about your amateur night antics."

    She chuckles lightly, almost amusedly, and reaches up to place her hand in the way of one of the shadowy spheres the gnoll is throwing about. She draws a single rune, that flows back over her hand as it fades... and she simply reaches out to pluck the sphere from the air. She holds it in her hand, examining it like it might be some sort of fruit she was about to eat. "Not totally flubbed," she judges it as others engage the caster.

    Then, apparently ignoring the battle, she lifts the sphere of darkness to her mouth and - apparently- takes a bite, chewing thoughtfully, hmming to herself as she considers the 'taste'.

    "Well," she decides finally. "Better than soggy crackers." And takes another 'bite'.

    Giganpor, seeing a gnoll mage of all things, hangs back near Amalthea. If she runs into trouble, he knows he's one of the few that can step up if it comes to tanking. Using Amalthea as cover for the moment to let her do the tanking, he keeps an eye on the others.

    Instead of going battle mode, he decides to add a little help to Shin.

    Drawing his sword, Giganpor brings his sword down to stab into the ground. Cracks form as they shoot along the ground from his position near Amalthea before they disappear just before reaching the Gnoll. Probably just in time for Shin's kick at it, too!

    And the result is one big explosion of light and dirt right after Algol rises.

    Giganpor whistles a bit. "Not bad. I'm definitely curious where you got the belt. Just found a fancy cloak here."

     Algol's voice even has the reverb.

     "It's something only a Hero of Justice can have."

     He straightens, his eyes still glowing that dim red in the dark night. The belt's still pulsing with the same bloody color. His black-armor beetle carapace catches the light, a glossy, red pallor against it.

     Apparently he's not much for straight answers, either.

    Grunting as she holds her shield aloft, making herself the most attractive target she can, Amalthea weathers dark magic; blast after blast, while others move into action.
    Mizuki leaps to the fore, spitting fire and flame, causing the book-wielding gnoll to yip in fear.
    Shin transforms. It's a sight that baffles the Gnoll, before he realizes that he has an armored HERO OF JUSICE charging right for him. There's a yelp as Masked Ranger Algol bodily slams into the caster-Gnoll and starts battering the everloving life out of it before thorns pin it into place.
    It makes things so much easier.
    Bound in place by thorns, there's no escape, Kauchemar's far larger blast of darkness, combined with the flaring eruption of light sent forth by Giganpor, there's little left of the mage-Gnoll except a few fading pixels by the time it's all over.
    Amalthea takes a breath. "Huh." Is her reply to Kauchemar's explanation, before it's Miyako's turn to get an odd look as she just... Consumes the darkness.
    There's little time to rest, though as the sound of something *stomping* through the forest can be heard. Dead trees creak and groan as a gigantic wolf-like beast pushes past them, snapping them like toothpicks amid the soft rattle of a chain.
    Because holding that beast by a chain is another Gnoll; dressed like a shaman, and with a snarl, he releases his hold on the rusted links and points a single finger at the group.
    "Ah hell." Amalthea mutters as it charges the party-- and shoves her shield in its mouth as it barrels down on everyone.
    The old Paladin snarls right back at the beast as she sets her footing, boots leaving furrowed tracks in the dead grass as she tries to hold it for everyone to beat on again.

     The wolf comes as a surprise.

     'Algol' throws out his hands to grab the wolf by the jaws. He holds it for all of a second - after all, his beetle form isn't actually that much more powerful than his normal form - before he's driven back, a trench in the earth beneath his feet. The Hero of Justice locks eyes with the wolf and roars a reverberating challenge. It's not a hot-blooded shout.

     His foot comes up to knee the wolf in the jaw, and that's when the wolf gets him.

     Smash.

     Algol goes spinning backwards along the ground. He bumps against one of the rotten trees. When he pulls himself to his feet, he's stumbling. He evidently wasn't hit hard enough to de-transform, but he was certainly hit a lot harder than he'd like. He's gonna need a second.

    Wisteria is tried of this. The bunbun girl snarls, her red eyes flashing. Really it's not the best plan for one to anger a caerbannog, her lips pull back exposing oh so very very many, razor sharp jagged sharklike, teeth in uneven stacked rows. "No more Miss Nice Bun." she draws her sword. "Anger of the Earth, rise up, hear my call... and cause my enemies to TREMBLE!" she roars out and then she's charging into battle her sword snapping out. Each shuffle step of her kendo charge causing the earth to quake like a giant stomping the ground. The rumbling earthquake of bunbun fury causing the enemies to stagger and stumble.

    Wisteria is tired of this. The bunbun girl snarls, her red eyes flashing. Really it's not the best plan for one to anger a caerbannog, her lips pull back exposing oh so very very many, razor sharp jagged sharklike, teeth in uneven stacked rows. "No more Miss Nice Bun." she draws her sword. "Anger of the Earth, rise up, hear my call... and cause my enemies to TREMBLE!" she roars out and then she's charging into battle her sword snapping out. Each shuffle step of her kendo charge causing the earth to quake like a giant stomping the ground. The rumbling earthquake of bunbun fury causing the enemies to stagger and stumble.

"Cool, there's still worgs in the world!" Kauchemar's moment of excitement is short-lived though as the beast is turned on them. Amalthea steps in to intercept it with her shield, proving that her age does not keep her from being a badass tank. It also gives the nightmare just long enough to figure out what to do.

"Someone get it's master!" she snaps, and then puts her focus on keeping the Worg at bay. "o/~ Bright bright rising higher, setting your world afire! p/~" With the musical chant she thrusts a hand into the air, and the gesture is mimiced by gouts of flame erupting from the ground. The wall of fire is positioned to keep the worg at a distance from the other adventurers, or suffer severe burning if it tries to go through.

    Miyako hmms to herself, plucking out another dark sphere to 'snack' upon as the others demolish the gnoll, nodding approvingly as she watches them in action. "Well done," she muses, and is about to turn to move on when the second gnoll comes up out of the shadows. Complete with pet.

    "Well," she says as she nimbly steps - barely - out of its way, its claws barely brushing by her leg. She gives her naginata a twist, the attached feathers flying, the blade flashing in the firelight as it flips around to slice at the creature's behind.

    Then she steps rather more quickly away, as the ground quakes and flames burst from the earth. "Nice, very nice," she muses. "Going to have to remember this one."

    "It /is/ really cool." Mizuki has to admit, about the belt. And the whole sentai /thing/ Shin has going on.

    She has to give Kauchemar a curious look though. "You can /eat/ magic? That's a neat trick..."

    The shaman and his warg arrive. "Hm. The other one has water mages can exploit, but this one was pretty straightforward last time..."

    Mizuki climbs up the trees to try and keep away from the warg, spitting fire and leaping at the shaman with daggers and hindclaws extended, hoping to burst him down!

    Giganpor calls to Kauchemar, "Keep it in place... I see a chain on it's neck."

    Giganpor moves around the flames and exploding earth. Then leaps up to grab the chain and vault on to the warg's back. A risky move indeed from the looks.

    Pulling on the chain, he tries to get on the warg's back and... break the chain. Literally. Then he dives off.

    Rolling to his feet, he turns to bring his sword up as he faces the warg, then gives a whistle at it as he tries to show it the chain is not on it before tossing it away. Towards the gnoll shaman at that.

    He still keeps his eyes on the warg, but well... some situations are a bit simpler. Time to see if that chain was an actual binding or something else.

    Amalthea and Algol hold the Warg at bay as best they can, but even with their strength combined, it's still pushing them back quite a ways, before the Hero of Justice is flung, leaving the old Paladin to hold the beast down for the others.
    The earth itself trembles as Wisteria charges the beast, making it stumble and wobble-- presenting an opening.
    "How is this cool?" Amalthea asides. "This is the exact opposite of cool!" The old woman shouts as fire erupts from the ground and gives the great beas less choices in where it can go, providing an opening for Miyako's naginata to hamstring the monster.
    Giganpor has apparently played Dragon's Dogma or Shadow of the Collossus in his day though; leaping to land on the beast's back where he can... Cut it free of the chain about it.
    Dark eyes stare down the group as the great beast snarls and snaps its jaws, the shaman drops under Mizuki's daggers and collapses dead. It turns to look at its former master, before it flees limping free into the night.
    "You alright there? You took a nasty hit." Amalthea asks gently of Algol before the group continues into the night. Gnoll faces can be seen in the darkness between the trees, retreating quickly, too cowed to face the adventurers head on... Before one limps out from the shadows.
    Everyone probably *smells* him before they see him; the sick smell of dying and rot hitting hard as the large, brutish, Gnoll shambles towards the group.
    "... I feel like I saw this movie back in 1978." Amalthea mutters as she flips the sword in her grasp, clutching it by the middle of the blade as she rushes the beast and starts to batter at it with the blunt end of the pommel and crossguard, sword coming to life with a bright glow as she smites and castigates the thing, taunting for its attention so that once again the others can move in.

"I have strange tastes~" Kauchemar freely admits to Amalthea. Anything that isn't a natural beast is a potential future minion, once she gets back up a few more levels, or finds a low enough threat to subdue.

She applauds as Wisteria assists in penning down the worg so Giganpor can yank free the chain and turn the creature back on it's former master. "There might be something to this 'teamwork' after all..." she muses.

The group moves on, the gnolls keeping their distance in the treelines now. But it may not be the adventure party they're keeping their distance from, as the rotten hulk of an undead gnoll shambles towards them.

Kauchemar lets out a soft sigh, that actually sounds like a low wickering of sorts, and flicks her tail in annoyance. "Of course, a zombie shows up after I expended a large portion of Fire magic... Let's see what I've got left in the tank." She snaps her fingers to open a menu briefly, selects one of the few options not on a cooldown and mutters under her breath. A summoning circle briefly swirls at her hooves, then disappears in a poof of red smoke. In it's wake it leaves...

A slime. A red one, that's innards look like they're constantly bubbling and boiling from the fire aspect in it, but it's small and meager in levels.

"I was hoping for a lava bubble or such... Well, better than nothing," she laments, and uses a hoof to kick the fire-aspect slime at the zombie gnoll. It might not be literally on fire but it's hopefully hot enough to weaken the horrific creature.

    Wisteria grins, showing all those pointy teeth when the warg runs off and the gnoll is dealt with. Her long ears twitching and turning, that lumbering sound, then her nose twitches, that putrid stench... yup. "ZOMBIE GNOLL!" she announces, her sword flashing out in a classic iaijutsu strike, but she's far to far away. The tip of her katana glows orange red and sends an arc of fire forward. However as much of her magic has been tonight, it seems to be on the fritz. Rather than toasting or slicing the beast it just blackens some skin and curls some hair.

     'Algol' shakes his head. "I'm fine." The voice is surprisingly confident to go with that reverb. It's like he's a completely different person now that he's transformed. It's hard to say if that's some effect of his weird belt, some kind of super too-into-it roleplaying, or some sort of shyness thing where he feels better in the mask.

     The Gnoll horror comes shambling in. It's sick. It's dead. It's rotten. Every step it takes shakes the earth around it, leaving maggots in its wake. The beast lumbers towards the party, and 'Algol' moves forward to meet it, red eyes glowing brilliantly in the dark. He intends to make up for what just happened with the wolf.

     The Gnoll moves. It is intercepted by 'Algol'. His fists hammer against the thing over and over, rapid-fire punching just to slow it down. He ducks under swings of its nasty claws. He jumps over a sweep of a rotten trunk. The Masked Ranger darts backwards when the thing's fist comes smashing down; chunks of earth and rotten flesh fly past him as he lands.

     'Algol's hand goes to the belt. He starts clicking it rapidly, as if it's going to do something.

     It does. The numbers along the belt start to light up. They glow as if powered by some strange scripture, some strange magic. The red jewel burns to life as the white scriptures run down 'Algol's legs, up his arms, under his eyes. They form lines of code-and-rune that burn in the night like a paladin's aura, like a holy man's light.

     'Algol' leans back. The light across his carapace pulses once.

     Twice.

     Three times.

     "CODE: Smite!"

     It's a flying leap into the air and an axe kick down onto the thing's head. The holy scripture trails in the wake of the foot, hanging in mid-air in the same way the thorns did before it collides with the thing's head. His other foot comes down as 'Algol' leverages himself off the horror's brain, flipping over its shoulder.

     In mid-air, he spins, a final kick to the back of the head, before he lands with one hand down, one leg spread, and the scripture light dying around him.

    Mizuki winces as she sees Shin having to get back up from that. That's how she felt after the Dire Rat... "You okay, man?"

    As they move on and she smells... that, though, she finally looks really concerned. "This is when it starts getting hard. The rotwalker is tough and has faster reactions than you'd expect from a zombie."

    She keeps spitting fire, but suddenly runs out of MP. "Shit." She hesitates to get close to it, not bringing her DPS to the fight as quickly as she should.

    Miyako allows herself to share another smile as she sees the warg run off... then her nose twitches. "..." she says, coherently, as she sidesteps quickly away. "Please tell me this is not the Bog of Eternal Stench," she calls to the party as she starts to prepare a spell, finger drawing runes in the air.

    And then -something- goes wrong with the spell, the runes fizzling and fading out from the air she drew them on, drawing a pithy Russian-sounding curse from her lips. She steps back again and brings her blade up into a guard position. Just in case.

    Giganpor steps up as the zombie gnoll comes forward. "Zombie gnoll, huh?" He swings his sword overhead, a halo of light forming a mystic circle before it drops to the ground around him. A summoning circle, yes, but it's doing what it's supposed to do.

    Look cool as Giganpor goes from human form to his lion form, growing a few inches before he calls out, "Light of the heavens, bring peace to the land! Come forth, Auris!"

    A flying bird-like light elemental flies around Giganpor as he steps forward to swing his sword up to a guard position.

    "Auris, PROTECT!" The light bird gives a sharp trill before flying forward and creating a shield completely of light. Large, flaring around the entire party as the flying bird moves around.

    Giganpor meanwhile stays still to tank the attacks with his own summon, using his blade to channel the same light type shield as he sets himself to be the current tank for the party. The lion-like man's cloak erupts into a shining golden light as he continues forward towards the zombie gnoll, pushing it back with each parry and block as he does.

    He comments to the others, "I should have brought my hammer! Would have been more fun to smash this thing with!"

    Strange tastes she says. Well, Amalthea isn't going to question it while she wails on an undead gnoll, ducking as Kauchemar kicks the red slime at it, splattering the beast and causing it to burst on fire.
    Zombies are normally a problem. Zombies on fire are a problem that is on fire.
    But it is no problem for Algol as he batters the rotting thing, ending his fussilade flurry of punches in a kick that would make other masked heroes proud.
    But the damned thing isn't dead yet. Not dead for real anyway as it picks itself up and flails, only to reel back under the light of Auris, long enough for Giganpor to strike the final blow that fells the undead abomination.
    So that should be it, right?
    Wrong. So very very wrong as the biggest Gnoll yet emerges from the darkness, bloody axe held in hand, it snarls, showing off hideously yellowed teeth as he trudges towards the group, axe flailing.
    Yet again, Amalthea lunges forward with a speed that no one her age should move with, the resounding impact of that axe slamming into her shield sounding off into the night as she fends off a monstrous blow, gritting her teeth as she activates every taunt and shield skill she has.
    "I won't give him an inch, now get him!"

    The rotwalker goes down. "Wow." Mizuki looks at Shin with honest amazement. "What's 'Code Starlight'?"

    But soon enough, Haggar shows up. "This one's the boss. He's as nasty as he looks." Mizuki spins her daggers and drops into a fighting stance. "Not this time!" She takes a second to focus, making a ninja hand seal and opening a magical third eye. Now she can see it... for a moment, she can see where he's going to swing. She leaps straight up, lands on that massive axe, and runs up his arm, shouting a battle cry and charging her knife with dark energy and STABBING at his eye to inflict blindness! "TAKE THAT!"

Wisteria doesn't rush in, she doesn't even draw her katana. Those who've battled bosses with her before might recall as agressive as she is, she's a shadow, a support and stealth class. Her tanto comes out and she starts to trace putrid green/black runes into the air. "Coruption of the Earth, hear my call, bind and castigate my foe. THORN BIND HOSTAGE!" she snaps the tanto back into its sheath, with the sharp snick of wood against wood thick thorn laden vines shoot from the ground. The tip of each thorn dripping a sick black corruption before the vines whip and twine around the great gnoll holding and weakening the boss for the others to take advantage of.

Would you look at that, despite being a fairly weak summon the fire slime proved to be useful.. with a little bit of a hazard to her party. Oops. Well, that's what happens when you work with a mischevious nightmare. The point is that the rotten thing is defeated and they move on.

The best way to deal with such a physical brute is to go for a weaker point. Kauchemar will exploit that to her full potential, starting to weave a spell into shape as soon as she lays eyes on Haggar's monsterous form. With her combination of classes the chanting to activate and charge her more powerful techniques takes the form of actually singing to go with the graceful gestures that are almost like dancing in their own right. But timing is the main reason she needs good, reliable Tanks to keep her target at bay long enough to do so.

"o/~ Black... is... everything... Got the answers right in front of me; it's every-thing I see. o/~"
She uses her movements to twist out of the way of Haggar's hefty swing without disrupting her enchantment, giving Thea room to get in there with her shield and keep Haggar down.

"o/~ Time outside.. moves on... The world I know is crumbling down, clinging to a lost sensation... o/~"

That's when she releases the spell, forgoing the physical conflicts and through the combination of magic and music lives up to her Nightmare motiff by taking the assault directly to Haggar's mind and senses, blasting him mentally to keep him from getting his shit together while other's beat him up.

"o/~ Erase this space, Erase this memory -- Missing Time! What I don't know will never hurt me -- Missing Time!
Cannot forget, Cannot remember -- Missing Time! Disinformation is forever -- MISSING TIIIME! o/~"

     "A finisher," 'Algol' says in the breath between him rising and the monster barreling in.

     His hand clicks against the belt several more times. The jewel turns black. The glowing runes turn black. The black starts to creep up along his arm-

     -and is interrupted by Haggar's axe. The axe hits him square in the chest. It sends him flying backwards, a huge red gash along his armored form, rolling until he stops against a rotten tree. There's a groan and a click, and the Armor Beetle form just sort of flakes away, disintegrating into nothing. What remains is a thoroughly beat-up Shin.

     They are, after all, low-level.

     He's still alive, obviously, but that definitely wasn't a fun hit to take. It probably knocked his concentration out, or knocked him into some reflex where he transformed back into his normal self in the process.

    Still on the high from felling a gnoll zombie pretty well, Giganpor was about to try to tank again, but Amalthea beats him to it. Switching gears as Auris flies around before disappearing into another mystic circle at no orders, the Lion Dreadnought looks up at the boss gnoll.

    Studying it, he finally moves forward after it swings as he goes around the axe swing, still glowing gold before he brings his sword up to stab at the ribs of the boss gnoll.

    Sadly, his sword doesn't penetrate, but it might give an opening for someone else as the boss gnoll literally backhands him away.

    Giganpor rolls twice before stopping himself and shaking his head, "Mean back hand on this one!" He comments to the others, but is obviously going to take a moment to recover from that one.

    Wiping her mouth on a handkerchief after vomiting from the smell of the undead gnoll, Miyako looks up just in time to see the great big one coming through and hear the words "It's the boss". Oh goody. Does this mean we're almost done with this?

    "Great," she mutters, and plants the butt of her naginata in the dirt as she stands her ground. Her free hand rises, and she starts drawing runes in the air again, several of them glowing with a deep violet sheen.

    "And nothing at all will be lost," she says quietly, "Not even tears in the rain. Time to die." A dozen arcs of violet light explode from the runes she's drawn, snaking their way past the other party members to slash out at the massive gnoll, some slicing at its flesh while others struggle to bind it in place to keep it from harming others. Not quickly enough to save all from harm, perhaps, but hopefully it will make it easier on the rest.

    Amalthea curses as that axe batters her shield and she spies Algol and Giganpor get battered away. She'll have to wait to check on them, though as Her HP is steadily dropping with every blow that wears down her defenses. But the group's DPS outpace's the boss' fast.
    Wisteria and Mizuki are the first to get in, the wily ninja running up the slow Gnoll barbarian's axe and arm to inflict blindness, earning a snarl of pain and rage, opening him up for those toxic thorns to bind and debuff. Kauchemar's spell is next to impact, her psychic assault frazzling the brutish beast hard and making him wobble all the while Miyako's cutting arcs of light tear into him.
    Collectively, it's more than enough damage to make the massive Gnoll topple, exploding into pixels and leaving behind a treasure chest in his wake.
    Wiping her brow reflexively, Amalthea heaves a weary sigh as she sheathes her blade and slings her shield on her back.
    "We all still alive?" The old Odyssiea Knight asks, making sure everyone is alright. Giganpor seems fine enough, so she crouches over Shin, holding out a hand to help the hot blooded youth up, if he'll take it.

    Mizuki keeps stabbing at Haggar's head and shoulders with her daggers and raking him with her hindclaws. When he finally goes down, she throws up her fists in triumph, "YEEEEEAH!"

    Then she stomps a foot on the ground where Haggar was, before putting away her daggers and walking over to Shin. She squats down and extends a hand to help him up. "That's what happened to me the first time, too." She says, sympathetically. "At least these days we know we can respawn."

    Wisteria pounces Mizuki and hugs her tight "Mizuki-chi! Hahah we did it." she says brightly, with the excitement one might expect from a highschool sports star after a winning match and after the judges are out of sight.

A few lingering whisps of dark magic trail from her movements as Kauchemar ends her performance -- and the assault it spawned -- as Haggar falls. "Still alive!"

After which she promptly sways a bit, staggering a little before steadying and recomposing herself. One hand goes to rub her forehead. "Ugh, forgot how draining that is at low levels..." Between all the fire and dark magic she's been flinging around it's going to be a while to recharge her mana.

But victory is worth it.

"Forgive me for not playing a celebration tune... I'm severely low on energy after all that."

     Shin stands up and wobbles. "We can respawn, huh."

     There's a brief look in his eye, a shadow over his face. But it's gone the second anyone looks back. He's got a dumb grin on his face. "It's fine, it's fine. It's light damage. I'll be ready to go before I get back to town."

    Standing back up as his transformation ends, the golden glow fading away into his cloak as it does. Giganpor's human form looks around, carefully just to make sure of no surprises before he approaches the others.

    "... maybe I should stick to my hammer. Or get a bigger sword." He shrugs, looking at the others. "Everyone come out okay?"

    Light dances over the Dreadnought's finger tips as he looks over everyone carefully.

    He comments to Shin, "Game mechanics. I can understand the whole Hero of Justice thing. Definitely looking forward to how far you'll go, Algol." Giganpor looks at Shin, smiling. "Nice to see another fan that's giving it a try in here, too."

    Then he eyes the chest before he looks to the others, "So... who wants the honors of seeing what we got?"

    Mizuki looks shocked at that. "You didn't know?!" She chuckles nervously. "You know, it's funny. Second time I faced this boss, we were risking this night journey because someone had just respawned and we wanted to get the news to Alne ASAP."

    Then she gets glomped, and hugs Wis back, smiling. "We sure did! Was that your first time fighting Haggar?"

    Miyako sighs softly and stretches out. Good. Fight's over.

    "Well, that was bracing," she says, casually. Not quite dismissive of the difficulty, but considering it... no longer important. "We all made it." She walks over and, watching the little celebration, claps Mizuki on the shoulder, then does the same for Wisteria. "Sounds to me like someone's glad they came."

    Wisteria nods her head her long ears flopping. "Yup, haven't managed to actually catch these night raids of gnolls. Seems I've just had bad luck with spawn times." she says with a sigh "Like the same problem I had trying to write a farming guide for the various spider dungeons or rats in the cellar quests."

    Looks like everyone's still in one piece.
    That's good. That's all fine and good.
    All that's left is to loot the chest. Amalthea can't help put smile slightly whilst the others celebrate and congratulate themselves. All's well that ends welll, or so they say.

    Mizuki simply nods to Miyako, and then looks up at the bunny's eyes, smiling. Then she looks towards Carmina Gadelica. "And now we can finally get a hot bath at the Town of Beginnings." She pumps a fist in the air. "Hot bath! Hot bath!" If noone chants along with her, she stops.