Climb: The Floor 2 Boss

The Second floor has been a miserable experience for many of those who actively climb the tower. Hours of going through a harsh artificially sunlit region. The horrible sand that has a habit of just making people slide all around when they go down the dunes they're not used to traversing. Luckily, those who have gotten some Pekos have gotten through the region. And some ingenius members of the Olympus Alliance managed to stick some Skis underneath some wagons to transport people through the sand regions.

Now, before them, stands the massive pillar in the sand - which appears to be made out of some kind of sandstone. It's decorated with notable white masks all around the base, with fangs on them, burried into the rock. Almost all of them bear some measure of cracking to them.

The massive arab-style gate at the front of the pillar is slowly being pushed open by two teams of the Scale Alliance, as the massive army prepares for combat. The numbers this time are far greater than the last time. After all, the first floor had been a scouting mission, and not having expected the doors to close behind them.

Soldiers step into the enormous palace-hall. Various pillars are strewn around the area, but none of them obstruct sight lines to the massive being on the throne in the distance. Bearing a scepter, an absolutely enormous minotaur-like form sits upon its throne, awaiting their entry.

    Giganpor had been quite busy with the crafting duties, but word had gone out of something strange being done to the Floor Bosses. No stranger to those things, the red-headed were fang had decided to put on some newly fashioned armor for himself, strap a hammer on, and his chitinous buckler.

    That had lead to his arrival after much trekking, asking for directions, and finally making his way to this craziness. His cloak hung from his back, with a second over it to protect from the desert sands as he eyed what was before them.

    Taking a sip of a water bottle, he sighs, "Obvious trap going across... maybe some side spawns?" He comments off hand to anyone that might be near. "I'm kinda leaning towards some sort of minotaur army."

    Merek takes time to put on his best equipment in leather, black with the beltcape about it to the hood which he wears. The man nods a bit along with the many people he is with, deciding to assist in the fight to protect folk. There's a shift while he draws a full longsword from the back to begin twirling about.

Goldenblade is here with the rest of the mixed group, tense because it's her first real mission against the game. She's done a couple small things outside, but this is her first go in the dungeon, and she doesn't want to look too stupid. Mostly, this means following along with the group somewhere in the middle of the pack, looking around warily, and trying to understand when people relay information. She was a bit nervous taking time off the side projects she's been helping with, but they were all very encouraging, telling her the experience would do her good. Just try not to get killed. So, here she is, trying not to get killed.

Under normal circumstances, Kita's attire would have made this trek across the desert more than a little uncomfortable. So, the black mage has traded out her usual dark dress for simple black trousers, a men's button-front shirt, in blue, and her usual arm-bands. The only thing that remains is the witch's hat, which serves to keep the hot sun off of her pale features.

She walks with a staff, if only to help with balance on the sands, the curved wood matching her general mage appearance. "Magic wielder." Kita comments, stepping up near Giganpor as he begins to try to analyze the situation, "Sounds like it will have adds that we need to burn from what I've heard reported." There were others who had more specific information, so she leaves that much to them.

Kita pushes her glasses up on her nose, swiping her fingers in the air to stow the staff and re-equip her spellbook.

    Wisteria checks her new enchanted sword. Patting it with her hand. "So for anyone who hasn't gotten the update." she says loudly "I spoke with King Gilgamesh." she says "This boss uses Advanced Magic, he's going to likely summon some kind of shield or secondary boss thing and if we don't take care of that fast enough... boom, everyone dies." she runs her fingers through her hair before shifting into her Caerbannog form. "So the biggest advice I have from him is to Beware the Purple Eyes." she says and flicks her long ears bouncing from foot to foot as she gets herself worked up for combat.

    Exploring the second floor of the tower sure has been... Well it's been something. Between acid spitting massive bugs and giant gnashing scarabs, between tinier scarabs getting under armor, the hot beating sun, and sand just plain getting everywhere, it's been a some kind of painful slog to say the very least.
    But Amalthea has bore it all with a quiet grace, not complaining once about the heat or the endless sea of dunes. The only time she actually complained was- when it was very valid-- the time an egg hatched in her hand as she was about to throw it away and those little blighter scarabs got everywhere.
    So finally finding the boss door and a big enough group to take it on, well. That was a godsend, knowing that soon she'd never have to look back on this miserable Tatooine-wannabe landscape ever again and can just move on.
    So the old Odysseia Knight pauses at the head of the group when the doors do open, revealing the minotaur-king upon his throne just... Waiting for them.
    "I don't like the smell of this." She mutters, fingers curling tighter around the hilt of her sword. "I don't like it one bit. It can't be as easy as one big slab of beef just waiting for us." She muttes, only to pause.
    Turning to look right at Wisteria, the old woman purses her lips into a thin line. "So. We've got to dance to the tune of mechanics. Sounds about right but god damn, a party wipe mechanic on top of it?"

"Right, so what we need to do is make sure to have a team DPS down the adds as soon as they spawn while the Main Tank holds the boss down. Who's going to off-tank? We're going to need healers on both--" Prophylaxis might have almost gotten himself eaten by a giant beetle monster recently, but that just gives him ample motivation to reap some well-earned and well-deserved revengeance upon the master of the second floor. He gives Amalthea a look and a shrug. "Adds and an enrage timer. Doesn't seem too unusual to me; we'll just have to DPS race the mechanic whenever it becomes relevant, right?"

Seems pretty standard to him, at least! Though he's sure this boss is going to be anything but.

    With the second boss area unveiled, he had already opted to Misa that he was more than happy to offer his services in regards to helping with the second boss fight, there was a part of him that was hoping to avoid a scenario where even one of their players ended up dying this time, but that would end up being the case only if they managed to keep their levels up. For now though, after hours of long traversal and taking a ride up along with the Olympus Alliance and SEA's resources, the Villain in Glasses had arrived.

    The Enchanter found himself more in the rearguard in comparison to those who had decided to open the gates, or started into the entrance. It only made sense, after all...He was still a squishy support class character. None the less, as everyone starts assembling and the appearence of the minotaur-like creature can be seen at the other end of the room upon his throne he can't help but start looking over his resources. "Everyone remember who's in your raid groups. Just cause it's a single boss this time don't get distracted. Be ready for any mobs to take into the fight the moment we get started." He knows he's not in charge this time around, and it may even make him seem like a bit of a snob to be throwing orders around like this, but he wanted to make sure there was no reason that anyone ended up wiping this time from the fight.

It's the second visit to this desert for the idol, and it's just unpleasant. She still has her paper fan with her, and using it to stay as cool as possible. She looks over to Wisteria "Then we'll depend on you, perhaps, because I got no magic weapon to use. Does normal magic work?" She has ninja magic, sorta. She hmms.


She then turns to Prophylaxis "I canhandle the adds then, if that's what is needed." She stands up, and pats her short swords behind it.

Next is Shiroe she addresses, hmming "I'm not sure I'm assigned to any group though... But I'll follow instructions as needed." She doesn't have any experience raiding, but she was there for a few of the bosses they met in quests, and on the first floor.

"If only Hamelin did things normally." She mumbles to herself, thinking back to the first floor.

A full set of heavy armour equipped Zorin pulls his battle scepter out of his inventory and unslings his kite shield from his back. It was hot, but that wouldn't stop Zorin from using his full kit. Looking around he nods in approval at the large Scale Emblem turnout. These were the individuals that had their priorities straight.

As the squads push on the giant doors they already can see into the palace hall, the boss sits upon the throne. At least one of them. Fortunately for them, SEA was a little more prepared this time around. Both Xander and Wisteria had gone out of their way to gather additional information. They were more prepared this time. As Wisteria provides an additional warning, Zorin nods in her direction in appreciation.

Unlike last time Zorin sticks closer to the support teams this time around. Without the confidence to fully capture the bosses attention he opts to play as a guard and support, acting as a shield for some of the more vulnerable SEA members.

Dareshetani is in the middle-back of the raid force, as ranged DPS. Back in the old world, there'd always been boss guides to study and specific strategies worked out for each phase - he'd never been part of one of those guilds that learned the fights in the first place. But here they are. And the cost of failure is much, much higher than a corpse run.

Granted, he knows he'll respawn. Probably respawn. Still, the idea of experiencing death is not something Dare is particularly keen on. He lets out a long, slow breath and focuses on keeping his nerves under control, shifting his weight from one foot to the other and rolling his neck and shoulders, trying to stay loose. His big round ears prick up at Shiroe's voice and he nods quietly to himself. He also hears his friend Pro talking about a DPS race, and that he definitely intends to help with. "Don't stand in the fire," he whispers to himself. "You'll be fine."

This time hopefully the fight will go a lot better. Nobody died last tight, but it was way too close for comfort for Kaydon. With an actual combat party assembled this time, so no matter what they come up against it should be easy enough to beat it. Without thinking about it much, he has joined his particlar group, introduced himself. Not that he hasn't started to get a bit of a reputation, especially after everything that went down on the first floor.

Ensuring his blade is all good to go, he takes his position, "Alright, lets do this thing."

    Mizuki has a proper desert outfit this time! It's not unlike a ninja outfit, but it's white and even looser and billowy, and includes a hood. She switches back as they prepare to enter the palace, though. "According to the intel Wis got... yes, that." She nods at Kita and Wisteria's words.

    Amalthea's words get a chuckle though. "Heh heh!" Slab of beef, minotaur. She gets it!

    And nods to Prophy as well. "Exactly. As glorious as fighting the boss is, I'm down for focusing the adds so we don't die. Although... we also should be ready to be flexible in case there are new developments since King Gilgamesh was here."

    Dex had not been present for the main exploration of the floor prior, nor been witness to any of the goings-on. However, there was no way he intended to miss the boss fight. After all, he needed to know what sort of effect the death of a boss in Aincrad would have on the world, if any. It wouldn't do to simply remain on the sidelines, letting others handle the main work as he squandered his time merely exploring the nooks and the crannies. No, if he wanted to be known around here, this sort of thing was the exact sort of activity he'd have to appear in. Who would dare take him seriously otherwise?

    And so, dressed in a suit of leather armor perhaps tastelessly died a deep wine red, bow slung over his shoulder and sword on his belt, Dex traverses the desert area to join the force preparing to do battle with the floor boss. He grins as he arrives, but doesn't announce his presence. Instead, he merely takes a few moments to check over his gear, ensuring he had on his 'Sunday Best' as it were, and to make sure he was ready to do his duty.

    All the while wondering just what clearing this floor, and the tower in its completion, might do to his newfound Paradiso.

    Misa looks up as the large doors open. Here they are again, another boss. And likely another with changes that they're not familiar with. At least this time they are more prepared, with proper raid parties ready and equipped for fighting the boss.

    Speaking of, "Tanks up front. DPS behind. Keep an eye out for those adds. Support, prepare buffs and crowd control. Keep those adds from out flanking us."

    Misa walks forward in her position towards the center of the formation. A flick of her scythe snaps the blade into place, the weapon gleaming in anticipation of the coming fight. The large Adventurer formation begins to move into the large room, heading straight for the boss on its throne at the other end.

As the 'army' steps into the chambers, they make it about halfway through - that nervousness never quite lifting - before the doors begin to close behind the. The loud creaking of those gates shutting down. A few stragglers let out a startled sound, some of them separating and rushing out in fear. But the main body of the team is inside.

The Taurus' eyes light up when that final 'ka-CLUNK' of the doors shutting sounds out, and pressing down on the scepter for a moment, before he rises. One can hear the sound of his bones crackling, and see the rather notable signs of his muscles sliding over them as he rises up. The absolutely enormous entity having trouble with its own size, until it is finally standing upon the raised throne area, and begins to step down.

It raises his sceptor into the air, and a purple light begins to form. The pillars in the chamber suddenly begin to move. A sudden shot of sand, as the floor lowers just a little, and sand rises up just about a centimeter, where it comes to rest, giving the entire region a desert look. The pillar then suddenly begin to crack. Those very same masks they'd seen outside...

Crashing out of the pillars, as what appear to be some kind of muscled figures step out. Bulging muscles as the step forward, and take a moment to /pose/. With the pillars having been all around the chambers, there's quite a few of them. And they're in all directions around the various Adventurers.

It is to the Adventurers, the first move. But it is certain that a dangerous battle is to come.

    'Tanks to the front.'
    No sooner than Misa gives the order, Amalthea keeps to the fore of the group without question, but as the group moves her footfalls slow to a cautious pace, raising her shield as the minotaur raises his scepter.
    And then, from the pillars, come new foes, striking up a pose in unison almost like a squad of heavily muscled dancers.
    "We have our adds, folks." The old Odysseia Knight mutters.
    "Alright, I'll hold the big guy's attention, keep the smaller big guys off me and hopefully I won't tank the floor." She mutters as she advances towards ASTERIUS and his throne, sword at the ready, flashing out brightly as she opens in a series of flourishing swipes, spamming her taunts right from the get go.

    Merek nods a bit when he sees the Pillar Men come to life, then he takes a moment to lift up his weapon. "Alright, I will take the Pillar Men, we can't afford to be overwhelmed, we need to find an opening," he states. Then he begins to maneuver into range of one of them, spinning around with a shift while he takes to the air, swinging into one of the Pillar Men with his sword blade.

    Remembering something, Giganpor opens his inventory briefly and pulls out his chosen weapon. A large, cross-piece missing sword that's almost as tall as him as he holds it one handed.

    Stepping up as he fastens his shield, Giganpor eyes the pillar men as they come out. "Lots of adds. Go figure." The sword is spun easily in one hand before he does the unthinkable. "I'm going to tank what I can. Someone get the boss."

    The sword is brought up before he steps forward and stabs the blade into the ground. Fortunately it's a sturdy blade as he calls up, "Might of the earth, rise from slumber! Come forth, Granit! TREMBLE STEP!"

    Out of a green summoning circle comes an ape-like earth elemental that leaps up and slams it's hands into the ground. A literal wave of earth goes towards the nearest PILLAR MEN with abandon to both get their attention and break their footing.

    Misa finds herself looking up once more. Not at the boss room doors this time, but at the boss itself. It's a biggun! And it's not alone. Misa looks to either side of them as the pillars are cracked, powerful looking mobs bursting out of them. As was predicted, thanks to earlier information gathering, there are additional adds to take care of.

    Misa raises her scythe as she calls out, "Main tanks, aggro the boss! Off-tanks, handle the adds. DPS, focus on taking those adds down."

    The initial orders given, Misa whips her scythe up over her head, spinning it around as it glows with light. She then slashes it down in a direction of one of the PILLAR MEN, causing the light to jump off the blade and sending it streaking to slice into the mob some distance away.

Kaydon has no intention of dying to a boss only on level two. They managed to get past level one, and now this fight is going to present something totally new. He expects that, like floor one, there will be changes to this fight from what it was before the Apocalypse.

But for now, he focuses at the PILLAR MEN, bringing his two handed sword to bear, as he moves to strike one with the blade in a massive upward slash, trying to take it down in a single strike, if he can manage to pull it off.

They were in the thick of it now. The Pillar Men were coming out and surrounding the force. The Taurus King starts to charge up his attack. Zorin yells out to those troops around him, "You heard the Major, Off-Tanks move out to form a perimeter around the others. Hold those Pillar Men back!"

Following the command Zorin settles himself just in front of the SEA DPS teams, shield at the ready. Without pause he starts to utter a chant to the Burning One under his breath, the ruby on his battle scepter starting to pull in a red light, until it completes and he outstretches the scepter at the nearest of the PILLAR MEN and a blast of fire streaks out towards it. Not letting up he repeats the process as many times as he can before the Pillar Men close into melee range.

Reika blinks as she hears the rumbling of the approaching 'army'. She frowns "Well, no time like the present to get things going. I'm going to take care of the Pillar Men as well." She takes her swords out, and rushes toward one of the targets.

Once she gets in range, she unleashes rapid strikes, with lightning following each of them, hitting the targets as if it was an after image of her swords. Taking them down fast and hard is what she aims for, so they can focus on the bigger threat as soon as possible.

A rush of anxiety seems to settle in Kita's stomach as the doors close. The last time, she had multiple tanks she could depend on, allowing her to stay at the rear of the fighting, but that isn't the case with this boss. Taking a deep breath, she lets it out slowly, shaking her hands to try and get rid of the pre-battle jitters. She whispers something into her chimlink then flips a few pages in her spellbook.

Eventually, her fingers still, the Imp beginning to trace out runes onto the air in front of her. The runes form into an arcane circle, glowing faintly with purple flames. "Burn the adds, she says. Let's do this."

The circle forms into a ball of dark energy, which Kita all but grabs into her hand. The blue-haired mage takes a half step forward, sweeping her arm back and then extending it forward, aiming a blast of dark energy towards the nearest of the PILLAR MEN.

Dare jumps a little bit at the sound of the heavy doors clanging shut behind them. In it for the long haul now! He grips his bow tightly as the boss rises and goes through his opening animations, holding fire until his group leader indicates it's time to engage.

Adds erupt from the very environment around them, and as AoE attacks blast out in all directions to take them out, the hyena hunter forces his eyes front and nocks his first arrow. Trusting the Adventurers around him to do their parts to keep the adds under control, for now he focuses his aim on ASTERIUS and starts firing a steady stream of simple volley shots at the boss. No fancy special attacks yet - he wants to give the tanks ample time to draw aggro first.

Prophylaxis isn't sure what he had expected the adds for a minotaur-themed bossfight to be, but 'an ambulatory gun show' certainly wasn't at the top of the list. "Well, that's a few more adds than I thought there'd be. Might make off-tanking a little harder than I anticipated, but..."

It seems as though the others have it handled. An overabundance of muscle crashes against an army of steel (and other sundry protective materials).

Somebody could draw a manga about this...!

"You're not going anywhere either," the Magus says to the moo-cow. "I had heard that the Minotaur was imprisoned within a marble labyrinth. Let's see how well that works out here...!"

Prophylaxis slams the butt of his staff into the stone floor. The world rumbles briefly before a plethora of jagged pillars erupt out of the floor around Asterius, seeking to pin the creature's limbs and allow the rest of the party free reign to fill his body with their pointy killing tools.

    With the encounter beginning, Dex calmly steps out from behind bodies in front of him, identifying his tanks and making sure to keep himself covered behind them as he slings his bow off his shoulders with a practiced ease. He hears orders going out, but he knows that not everyone can focus on one or the other in terms of targets. And so, until he feels pressed to do otherwise, he draws sight on the boss, ASTERIUS, and readies his bow.

    His fingers draw on the string, still marveling at the natural sensation of it even after all this time, and readies an arrow. He makes sure his aim is aligned properly, and he's aiming over the tanks, before smirking and loosing a shot. However, before that arrow seems to have even LEFT the string, he's already nocking another, sending it on a trajectory similar yet slightly different to its brethren. He rolls back after firing, trying to gauge the situation and how the fight will begin to shake out. How did the adds affect the fight itself?

    And would targetting the boss draw their aggro to him? It was a risk some of them were going to have to take regardless.

    Wisteria sees that people are taking care of the adds, she fears that the king is going to summon a sheild of some kind. She starts off with a flat out shuffle run towards the throne. She grips her katana and slashes out at the last second with a blade wrapped in earthen energies fit to slice through stone aiming for the Taruian king's scepter arm, disarm him and maybe he'll be reduced in what wavearts he can use is her first thought.

Goldenblade was luckily in the middle of the pack when the doors started to close, so she's inside safely. Well, for a given value of safely. Because statues coming to life is not something she, as a bricklayer, has dealt with before. Both blades slide from their scabbards as she looks around, waiting for someone to direct traffic. But that seems not to be happening, or she's missed a memo, so she belatedly wades into the fray.

It looks like a lot of those early off the mark are going for the adds, so she will advance on Asterius, but recalls some other advice she's received about letting the tank pick up aggro before attacking. It wasn't phrased exactly like that, she would probably not have understood it if it had been, but she waits until it's facing Amalthea and then slides in behind it and begins laying fierce blows on its hamstrings. Or ... does this have hamstrings? Well, probably not, but she lays on as hard and fast as she can in an attempt to injure it.

    Mizuki looks around warily as they enter. When is the trap going to spring?

    The doors start closing. There it is. And there's the purple... no, that's not eyes. But it seems this boss is indeed a wizard of some sort.

    What she's not expecting is, uh... muscular statue-men bursting out of the pillars. Well... a monster's a monster! She takes off after Reika, opening her mouth to spit forth two sweeping lines of fire magic and then dancing in and out, striking the pillar man with her daggers and then trying to back away and circle around it so it can't focus on her and Reika at the same time...

Gwen had been held a bit in reserve as the fight now it's time to move she sees Amalthea move to take Taurus King that leaves the Pillar Men. The Sylph breaks into a run for the Pillar men as she chants a spell. She's moving fast keeping her shield ready as she moves in. Once she gets close enough she'll let the spell loose. She'll attempt to cause a chain of Earth Pillars to form up to about the feet of the Pillar Men. She pops off several taunts as well as she calls out.

"You want this?! Come get it!"

Amalthea leads a series of troops to the front, serving as a vanguard unit against the massive scepter wielding Taurus, which seems to dwarf them with its size. The swipes soon come, swinging for its legs, carving those tell-tale damaging red streaks across its flesh. Dareshetani and Dex remain at a distance, firing an arrow into either side of Asterius' shoulders right as it is about to swing its massive sceptor down to 'knock' Amelthea to the side - halting its movement momentarily.

Prophylaxis makes use of its halted state to try and imprison it with those massive slabs of stone, rising up from the sands. Wisteria then joins in on the battle with another squad of soldiers (...)

Giganpor's elemental slams its hands to the ground, and the fierce shaking reaches a trio of pillarmen, who manage to remain standing - even as the sand crackles across their body, leaving streaks of damage on each and every one of them, and dropping their HP to the red. It seems they are not easily toppled. Or perhaps they're simple immune to things that might halt their current attempt at posing and showing off their muscles. Merek joins in after the initial strike, bringing his blade down, and cutting down one of the Pillar Men - causing it to shatter into pieces of light as all other monsters do.

Misa works on the flanks, where a few more of the Pillar Men are posing. Her fierce scythe's energy carving out towards them, ripping one of them in twain, and harming a second one. Kaydon swiftly following up with a strike of his own - slicing through one. In the midst of their poses, it looks like the team is having far too easy a time of them. But there's so many of these adds! A wash of fire rushes over Kaydon's shoulder, impacting a nearby Pillar Man that was starting to loom while taking off his mask. Reika then rushes into a new pack, cutting a multitude of them and lowering their HP into the red. She'd be surrounded, were it not for Kita following up with her rune-traced dark energy ball, which sails through their formation and slices down the last remaining bits of their HP. Mizuki rushes around Reika as another one rises from a pillar, protecting her from harm - and Gwen further serving as the off-tank for these dangerously muscled men.

(...) Just as Wisteria is about to make her slice for its arm, suddenly there's a Pillar Man right in her face - arms crossed over his chest. She manages to cut him down, but her strike fails to reach the massive Minotaur. It seems there is her answer. The boss's shield. Goldenblade manages to get around it, thanks to Prophylaxis' rocks hiding her from sight, and cuts at its hamstrings, causing its speed to be lowered below the Binding treshold of Prophylaxis'.

This is when all the animations for the posing seem to end for most of the Pillar Men. They all bow, taking off their masks, showing themselves to be fairly humanoid looking, but with sharp teeth. And the moment they do, their speed suddenly increase. Instead of being stuck in what /appeared/ to be animations, lodged to the ground, the earth suddenly seems to rush them towards the front lines. Like the fins on sharks, they sail along the thin cover of sand, arms out like crosses on their approach, before they all jump into the air and then come down, trying to hand-chop, head-butt, or even latch to the various people protected in the midst of the Adventurer protective circles - and moving past the tanks! It looks almost like they are completely ignoring the threat generated by the tanks!

"Hooooooraaaaaaa!" "Attaaaaaaaaaa!" The various inhuman calls that come from these Pillar Men are horrifying, if not a bit humorous for those Adventurers who are very much understanding the cameo that the (developers?) have thrown their way.

The Taurus on the other hand, raises its massive legs up, having trouble breaking through the stone prison Prophylaxis attempted to place him in and swings his massive scepter around, the tip suddenly glowing red, before a fierce /flame/ just spews from it like a flamethrower, attempting to cast all across those who get too close - even burning some of the Pillar Men who were too close; while a few others who are still wearing masks keep moving to his position to protect him from the Adventurers' onslaught.

    Down comes that scepter and Amalthea raises her shield to meet it. The resounding clash of scepter on shield rings through the chamber like a gong as the old knight is knocked back by the impact, boots tracing deep furrows into the sandy floor. She can feel her arm go numb even with pain dulled, but her armor and shield soaked enough of the impact that her HP doesn't suffer for it as she closes the short distance that the minotraur king earned with his attack.
    "That's right big guy. Keep looking at me. I'm the one you want to wail on." She says through gritted teeth as she raises her blade and brings it down on ASTERIUS' leg as hard as she can in a fierce swipe.

    Giganpor, unfortunately, ends up getting knocked back by a headbutt of all things. Landing on his back side with an angry red blotch of damage that begins to fade, he rolls to get to his feet before facing the one that had headbutted him. Granit, meanwhile, gives a roar before coming at the same pillar men that headbutted it's summoner from behind.

    Deciding to keep that one busy, and any others, Giganpor winds up as his blade shines before he brings it down at the PILLAR MAN with a vengeance. The earth elemental meanwhile, hops back into a summoning circle as it gets out of the way.

    Giganpor isn't looking too happy about suffering injury so very soon, and is seriously looking to give some pay back in this instance as he swings mightily with the overgrown slab of steel that he calls a sword.

    The gout of flame from the Taurus' scepter sends Dex into a slight panic, and the swarming of the Pillar men on the group seems to only add to that. He springs quickly to one side as he draws his hand into his quiver, gripping a slender, needle-like arrow from it and pulling it out as he rolls off to the side, feeling the warmth of the flames above him as he dives under them. He recovers himself into a kneeling position, bow in an attack position and eyes narrowing a bit as he nocks the thin arrow onto the string. He takes a deep breath, assured of his current safety by the fact he isn't charred to a crisp currently, and makes sure to line up his shot to the best of his ability.

    There's a resonant twang as he lets the arrow fly, a thin red streak of light marking its flight path. His aim is clear to those who can follow it: ASTERIUS' chest.

    More accurately, as Dex hopes to be with this shot, the boss' heart.

    Merek sweeps away from the Pillar Men, then one of them manages to strike that man while he begins to roll onto the floor of the dungeon along the sand. He stands up with a little shift of the hip, then he sheathes the sword, while he draws up what looks to be a bow, taking a moment to nock an arrow, before letting loose right into Asterius.

Reika gives a nod to Mizuki and Kita backing her up, which thins out the crowd considerably, even if more of them come out to join the fray. "We can do this, keep at it!" She eeps though as they stampede through them, but she manages to slide out of way using a sheen of water, one of her ninja techniques. She hmphs "Well it wouldn't be fun if it was easy now, would it?"

Sheathing her swords in a swift, elegant movement (and a nice 'sheen' sound to go with it), she brings her hands together for the next attack, charging up a large ball of darkness. Throwing her arms outward, she makes the ball explode into a large sphere around her, encompassing, blasting away the closest Pillar Man, and blinding the rest, hopefully slowing their counter attack some more.

The moment that her spell impacts, Kita shifts to the defensive, knowing that as a DPS, she is likely to draw aggro in her direction. Aggro in the form of some very ugly looking Pillar Men. "Ugh." Then, attacks start to come their way, easily bypassing the tanks. One seems to speed in her direction, but she closes her book with a snap, then sweeps her arms toward the ground, a puff of air magic launching her upwards just in time to avoid the blow.

Small Imp wings flutter as she lands in a crouch. Her book drops open again, fingers finding a page with a red bookmark. This time, rather than tracing runes in the air, she instead starts to draw them out on the ground beneath her, moving her fingertips through the sand.

The arcane circle appears on the ground this time, glowing faintly red before it flares with magical energy, a small fire-lizard type creature appearing, shaking off sparks of magical energy. The creature rears up onto its hind legs, then starts spitting small blobs of fire towards the PILLAR MEN, making a distinct 'pitewie' sound as it does.

As Zorin eyes as the Pillar Men take off their masks and suddenly charge forward, "Hold them back! Put everything into it!" And he mutters another chant to the Burning One, this time his shield glows with a golden light and extends outwards creating a giant image of a golden shield of light just in front of his own.

One of the Pillar Men slams shoulder first into the golden barrier, and Zorin slides back a foot, but the barrier holds. Another also crashes into the golden shield with a flurry of punches, driving Zorin down to one knee. He couldn't continue like this, he needed to strike back.

Starting another chant Zorin watches in horror as his barrier starts to flicker and then dies. Quickly climbing back to his feet his scepter bursts into a brilliant flame and he swings it towards the quickly approaching PILLAR MEN as they rush his position, letting out a wave of flame in the wake of his swing that rushes out to meet them.

Goldenblade remains clear of the huge monster's counterattacks, nimbly ducking under the jet of flame with an agile dodge before leaping back to her feet. "Gah, where did that come from?!" she wonders as she recovers her footing. This whole walking without a cane has been fatastic, but this is past what she could do when she was twenty. But this isn't really the time to be thinking, is it? The boss's defense is a bit tougher, it seems.

She ducks in, then, and thrusts her blades upwards and into ASTERIUS as he recovers from his own fire attack, hoping to catch him mid follow-through with as deep a thrust as she can manage, putting her back into it, trying to drive both blades deep into the monster.

Dare hums an invocation under his breath and a flickering shroud of dark magical energy surrounds him to ward off the flames while he keeps up his barrage of arrows on the boss. He rolls to avoid an incoming add, narrowly avoiding its fierce downward blow - but this puts him right in the path of one of the tendrils of the massive AoE attack from the boss itself. He lets out a startled yelp of pain as the flames seem to completely bypass his energy coat and the smell of burnt fur fills his nostrils.

"Dammit Dare you had one job," he grunts to himself. Don't stand in the fire. And he dodged right into it. Ugh, he sucks. He watches his HP bar sink, then start climbing again as the regeneration spells from the backline healers kick in. He needs a second to regain his bearings though. Taking aim at the adds nearest his group, he nocks two arrows at once and invokes "Twin Darkness!" as he sends a split shot into the fray, coils of dark magical energy streaking behind the projectiles to drive back the PILLAR MEN.

    Wisteria nods her head with the Pillar Man going down under her cut intended for the King. "Well... if you can't get past the opponents guard, go around their guard." she says snapping her katana into its sheath with a practiced circular motion, that drops the spine on her wrist then feeds the blade into the scabard she's holding. The click of the blade snapping home rings loudly.

    The bunbun woman jumps backwards, a stone pillar errupting under her feet to launch her into a backflip away from a swipe of the scepter. When she lands she starts drawing runes in the air chanting. When the spell clicks into place she calls out "Thorn bind hostage!" sending the snaking vines towards the Taurian in hopes of adding to other peoples damage.

    The Pillar men aren't TOO easy to fell, but they're still pretty easy! That's encouraging...

    But there are just so MANY of them. Waves are felled by the raid group's DPS working together, but there always seem to be waves more! When they start SANDSURFING, Mizuki latches onto the idea of escaping the same way, dropping into horse stance and jabbing an arm up to direct the earth... however, it seems flinging herself through the air wasn't enough, as a Pillar Man suddenly speeds up and HEADBUTTS her in midair. It's a good thing pain is dulled, but she's still so shocked and disoriented she doesn't stick the landing as she's flung clear across the boss room and slams into a wall and then the floor.

    "Oww..." She rises to her feet, glad that this game has not only dulled pain but also treats her body as one object with an HP bar rather than making her deal with the pain of bruised flesh and broken bones as she tries to stand.

    Man, that would have KILLED me in real life...

    The battle is still going. She singles out one of the PILLAR MEN and opens her mouth, a ball of orange energy gathering in her maw and then sweeping a line of orange energy across the target's feet, burning a line of fire on contact once, twice before expending the attack's energy!

    Then she runs for Kaydon, trying to get close enough that the tank can protect her from reprisal!

    So far, so good. The tanks seem to be handling the boss alright, while the adds are being whittled down. Although now that they've drawn aggro, the attacks are starting to come their way.

    A Pillar Man lands specifically in front of Misa, trying to smash its head into her. But she doesn't just sit idly by to let it do so. It wants to headbutt something, so Misa gives it something to headbutt. She spins her scythe around, interposing the shaft between the Pillar Man's head and herself. Instead of a soft, squish Adventurer's body, the Pillar Man headbutts cold, hard metal.

    Misa then uses the shaft of her scythe to push the PILLAR MAN away before spinning the curved blade around to slash through it.

    Backing up a bit to gain some breathing room, Misa glances around to take stock of their situation before calling out, "Keep it up, everyone. We're making progress."

Has Prophylaxis read said manga? Yes, of course he has. He was a child of the 80s. How could he not have obsessively read Battle Tendency when it was in syndication? The Pillar Men remove their masks, and Doctor Prophylaxis stares in utter disbelief.

Because... That's them.

That's just, they're just the Pillar Men.

Does this mean that they really are in some kind of programmed world? Does this discount the possibility that they've been sent to another universe by some mishap of electronics, possibly involving a truck miraculously careening off a highway and directly into a server room?

No.

It just means that Araki may in fact be some kind of Isekai Protagonist (and vampire) himself...!

"They're fast," Prophylaxis murmurs at the sudden acceleration of the musclemen (and muscleladies). "We're going to need to do something about that. And thus...!"

"Earth Mother, extend thine slender fingers and return these wayward children to your loving embrace--!" Prophylaxis gestures with his staff at the whole /lot/ of the Pillar Men in a single sweeping arc. "EARTH PILLAR! Return to your murals, you bloodsucking ancients!"

On his command, columns of stone shoot out of the ground around each of the Pillar Men, arresting their momentum for just long enough... For /another/ column to shoot up from underneath them to imprison them all in stone...!

For a few critical moments, at least.

Kaydon slashes his target, the fire blast barely misses him and hits the one that was sneaking up on him. But there's so many adds, he's having trouble keeping track of them. And it shows when he gets clobbered in the back, thrown to the ground by one of the Pillar Men and sent sprawling.

He rolls once he hits the ground, and comes up to a knee, throwing a pair of knives at the PILLAR MAN that had just struck him, "Go down and stay down!" The were fang yells at his target, throwing another knife after he rises to his feet for good measure.

The first wave of attacks from the bosses are bad, real bad even with her abilities the Pillar Men get past her defences and it's bad she's ripped up pretty badly and then she takes notices. Why is Goldenblade here?! She's still a newbie in training? Oh dear god, she's at a raid boss. There is a small split second of panic for Gwen but she has to focus on bringing down the bosses. She keeps it up close with the Pillar Men hacking slashing then they bring in a very serious heavy strike in and down on them hope to do a good deal of damage.

"Golden keep behind me and attack when you find an opening and if you get too low RETREAT?! Got it?!"

Amalthea continues to remain at the vanguard, taking that massive scepter with all of her might - and retaliates with that fierce swipe after avoiding any severe damage from the fierce jet of fire that coarses over her head. What joins soon after - in flying over her head - is the needle-fine arrow fired by Dex, slamming into the thing's chest and getting stuck there for a while, leaking away some of its health. Joining that arrow is one of Merek's arrows, right next to it. Goldenblade joins in on attacking it from the back - really putting her back into it - it's a good thing she doesn't /throw her back/ in this world.

The massive Taurus attempts to retaliate, bringing its sceptor to the side, only for Wisteria's Thorn Bind Hostage to trap its arm to a nearby pillar - which slowly begins to splinter and tear apart, with debris coming down!

Giganpor is not having a good time, along with some of his team mates. The sudden jumping-ant like behavior of the Pillar Men has caught everyone off-guard. He attempts to retaliate with his blade, only to miss. It's about to dig its hand deep into Giganpor's chest, when a sudden enormous blast just /eradicates/ its existance. A fierce bowling blackness that ripples outwards and clears the area around Reika - easily annihilating some of the most dangerous Pillar Men in the midst of their formation, and leaving others at red HP at the edge of her sphere.

Kita's little red summon starts making use of these low HP bars, and blasts them with each of those little blobs of fire. Each one that touches them leaving a red mark right at their chests, before causing them to erupt into flame. Zorin participates in making this a proper disco-inferno of flames, lighting another series of Pillar Men alight. Mizuki joins in with what almost looks like laser-breath, eradicating another series of them in a fine line weaving itself between their own numbers. One of the Pillarmen is about to get to Kita with a spectecularly tall jump, only for Dareshetani to cut it right out of the air with their strike! Misa managing to make use of their effort to slams another one to the ground. The Pillar Men numbers obviously dwindling before her eyes.

Prophylaxis arrests the movement of a series of these Pillar Men, entombing some of them anew. Certainly, lacking the masks to stick back on them to make the whole showing complete, but it certainly is leaving a /lasting/ impression on them, as the entombed enemies are petrified. Kaydon has to step in in the midst of this spell however, as one of them moves at Pro's flank and he can't turn in time, carving them down before it can get to the Doctor. Something Gwen joins up on very soon, protecting the flanks closer to the center.

The Pillar Men numbers appear to have dwindled, but it doesn't look like their tactics are changing. Rather than the single skirmishes however, now that they are in the midst of the reforming lines of the Adventurers, they are swarming up into groups of three and starting to perform combination attacks. Typical patterns of kicking in someone's face in order to stun them, followed by a bodyslam by the second, and a third using their hand to try and chop off an Adventurer's arm or other bodypart in order to force a temporary <DISARMED> status seems to be their favored tactic!

The Taurus on the other hand, manages to jump back even with the hamstringing the Adventurers have managed to do, and lands on top of its throne - crushing it and sending debris down. It then begins to chant. Pointing its staff forward, and a disc of swirling red and purple appears. Stars flickering around it. More and more of the masked Pillar Men forming up to properly serve as its defenses!

Above him, those who use inspect, they suddenly see a meter - typically spotted on enemies that are casting. At the center of the arena, a red dot appears, which slowly begins to grow. Except, the red dot isn't some kind of 'warning' indicator. It's a flaring reflection in the sand, as it turns to glass sand then ripples to show off that light of something forming above it. Enormous circles forming in the extremely tall 'throne room' that slowly widen up.


<< ADVANCED MAGIC: EXPLOSION >>
[-____________________________]

    Giganpor, seeing that the Pillar Men are trying something new, switches tactics as he brings up his buckler to block the kick of one and then another gets a physical slap of the blade aside. The last ends up with the buckler to the face literally as it tries to headbutt the Were Fang.

    "Right... I'm tired of you guys now." Then he brings his sword up and swings it around. A massive blue summoning circle appears before dropping over him. At the same time, Giganpor assumes his lion form as a serpent-like water elemental surges out of the summoning circle to surround his blade. Giving a growl, he calls out, "Depths of the ocean, freezing winds! Heed my call! Come forth, Rane! Bring the rain of ice on them!"

    The sword is swung again, a literal rain of ice shooting out at each of the Pillar Men nearby and then some as he tries to take them down quickly. Giganpor's cloak starts to shine a bright blue as he looks for his allies needing the most help. A beacon in the hostile desert as he tries to keep the adds from overwhelming the lines while he can.

    One minute Amalthea is wailing on Asterius, sword flashing as she continues to beat on the boss.
    "Gwen! Focus on your own problems, I'll keep an eye on your rookie!" She shouts over her shoulder.
    "Alright you heard, Gwen." She calls out to Goldenblade. "Get behind me when the going gets rough, if you need to run at any time no one will hold it against you." She says as she raises her blade.
    A pillar Man gets in on her from behind.
    Amalthea's sword comes down alright. Only it never raises again as her right arm comes off at the bicep, flopping to the floor lifelessly.
    Then the pain sets in. "G-guhhhh..."
    Even with pain dulled, the sensation of losing a limb is shocking and astounding as the old Odyssiea Knight is stunned for a beat.
    But she rallies.
    "He's CASTING." She calls out in warning as she stomps her sword.
    It flips up off the ground and into the air. But Amalthea does not drop her shield.
    She CATCHES HER SWORD IN HER TEETH.
    Eyes wide and wild, the old tank flails her head like a dog ripping into a stuffed animal, or a shark into its prey, sword flashing as she lashes out at the casting bull-king.
    "Oh no you don't..." She hisses through gritted teeth as she slashes wildly and throws in a few monstrous headbutts for good effort.

    Dex was lucky the first time, but as the Pillar Men sweep through the Adventurer crowd now, he is knocked back by one of them, sent sprawling across the floor in an untidy heap. In real life, he was certain his bow would have busted under the force of his rolling body, but in this world he merely grunts and pants in pain. He can feel that the attack packed quite a wallop, but he's able to push back to his feet, saved having to respawn for now at the very least. He growls lightly in frustration, but holds his tongue. He knows the surest way to get himself killed now is ask where the tanks were on that one. He was out of position and paid for it. He should just be glad to still be fighting.

    He draws his bow again, a blunted, heavy arrow nocked on the string as he pulls. He spies ASTERIUS sitting back in his throne, and smirks. Easy target. Though the spell circle has him a bit worried, he's been on point thus far. Why stop now? He roars as he looses another arrow, this one growing in size and seems to be intending to knock the boss off-kilter rather than pierce him this time. The flat head of the arrow slows it a bit, but the red energy that marks its trail seems to indicate it will likely still pack a...

    Punch.

    The Pillar Men change tactics. They must have triggered a phase change. Suddenly the adds are coming in in groups of three. That makes it harder to deal with them individually. Misa finds herself the target of one of those groups. Taking one, two, three blows. The last of which smashes into her right arm, causing her scythe to clatter to the ground as she backs away, arm temporarily disabled.

    Misa winces, as she moves her free to hand to hold her arm. And it's at that point that she notices the growing patch of glass in the center of the boss room. And the casting bar above the boss's head. She frowns. This must be the dangerous magic they heard about. They need to stop it before it can wipe them out...

    "DPS, switch focus to the boss! Support, CC the adds. Main and off tanks, continue engaging your targets." They need to bring that boss's HP down quickly.

    With Misa herself falling under Support, she follows her own orders. Readying her free hand, she rushes towards the nearest PILLAR MAN, chanting out a spell as she does so. Lightning begins to crackle across her fingers, just as she reaches the mob and whips her hand up to point at it. The charge is unleashed with a flash, Misa channeling the spell towards the buff monster.

As Zorin looks at the Advanced Magic indicator he grimaces. This was not going to be fun. Switching to a more offensive posture Zorin starts to run towards the front line, using his scepter like a mace to smash any of the slower Pillar Men as they form ranks in front of the King.

Then the Pillar Men charge forward in the space before the King. Zorin mutters a chant to the Burning One and his shield lights up in a magical flame which he smashes into a few of the PILLAR MEN. The magical flames quickly spreading and engulfing them in flames.

As he looks around the battlefield he makes not of a tri of Pillar Men closing on Merek, and with a quick sprint Zorin places himself in the way. Blows raining down on him and red damage indicators showing, but he retaliates with scepter and shield. Bashing in heads as quickly as he can, trying to hold the line.

The idol seems to get a good success blasting what's left of the pillar men, but even with their number dwindling they aren't stopping. The only HP that matters is the last one someone said, it's true of bosses even more, it only counts when it hits zero.

And the resulting counter attack takes her by surprise, blasting her and scorching her yukata badly. But she too isn't down to the last HP, game mechanics work different than reality after all, and despite the burns she's still functional... Thinking back to her death, this is still better.

"Alright then, enough playing, TWIN DARKNESS!" followed by several cuts, using the momentum from unsheathing her blades to add more weight into the attacks on the Pillar Men before they can make another of these hard hitting attacks.

Kaydon's defenses had faltered on too many occasions. The tanks were doing a decent enough job, but Kaydon couldn't keep this up. His HP bar was dropping too far, too fast. And he'd be totally useless if he let himself get downed.

They had established a back line, and he made his way to it, weaving and dodging his way through the Pillar Men in order to make it to the back. Not dying has to take priority right now, because he can't do much of anything if he spends the next twenty four hours in the dark.

Goldenblade blinks as Gwen calls out to her, as if she's not involved in this world te same as everyone else. Ironically, turning to face her disracts Goldenblade from the incoming attack, which she sees far too late. Even using one of her normally effective evasive techniques is not enough after the delayed reaction, and her HP bar starts sinking.

She's not out of the fight, though, she's determined and though a few allies have fallen back, it still seems winnable. "Let's see how he likes this," she says, and lays it out on the line, stepping out from behind Gwen and now Amalthea and thrusting hard into ASTERIUS with a brutal attack, driving her swords into the enemy boss and lifting with her knees, not with her back to ram the blades deep into the target. But it doesn't have guts, just pixels, right? No, can't think about that now...

The next instance happens very, very quickly. The Pillar men seem to group together, rushing towards Kita, the Imp unable to get up a shield in tome to stop them from smashing into her hard. The mage goes flying backwards, skidding into the sand. The impact is enough to jar Kita, causing her to have to take a couple of quick breaths as she pushes herself up.

The mage's hands are shaking, badly. Her eyes have gone wide, pupils completely dilated. Panic, absolute panic threatens to grip her. Kita's heart beats fast, sounding like drumbeats in her ears. She reaches up, fingers still shaking as she adjusts her glasses, and then reaches for her spellbook. "Be brave... " She whispers to herself, desperately trying to get that fear under control.

Getting shakily to her feet, Kita flattens her hand to the spell book, then turns to look at the boss. She makes a quick series of motions, the lines jagged as magical energy surges together, forming into a large ball of fire in front of her. She holds her spellbook towards it, using the arcane energy to launch the fireball towards ASTERIUS.

Dare sees the warning indicator this time, really. Even though it isn't really a warning indicator. This time, he thinks to use the natural enemy of Fire and belts out a line from the Beach Boys, "If everybody had an ocean, across the USA--"

A mini tsunami rises impossibly up from the heat-packed ground beneath him as he dashes aside, channelling Water magic and literally surfing on it to help thrust him forward and outside of the range of the rapidly-growing explosion circles on the ground. Still, the edge of one of the meteor shockwaves catches him and sends him tumbling further than intended through the air. He lands heavily on the side of his face nearer to the back lines where the healers and utility classes are largely positioned.

"Oof, I think I may be a little underleveled for this," he groans, pushing himself to his feet. Two boss attacks, two hits seems to indicate as much. He touches a finger to one of his ears and lets his group leader know he's falling back to buffing duty - something they discussed earlier in case something like this should happen. Stowing his bow and summoning his hand drum from his inventory, he listens for the ongoing percussion line from the assembled Bards, and joins in, adding his beat to the battle hymn to bolster and buff the raid as a whole!

    Playing around with her fire breath and finding out how to do that move was so cool. It's less damaging than it looks, but every time she does it Mizuki feels a little bit like a kaiju. LASER BREATH!

    The PILLAR MEN, however, are here to remind her that the kaiju LOSES. She sees them coming and does the hand seals for stoneskin, but it's not enough, as CRITICAL HITS occupy the tank she's hiding behind and shatter her stonekin, allowing the followup attacks to break her arm off. "AUGH!"

    She stares in shock at her truncated arm. She hasn't seen that status effect since before the apocalyspe, but it's not like it never happened before.

    With the courage only someone who knows there will be NO LASTING ILL EFFECTS if they hit 0HP can have, she laughs. "AHAHAHAHA! Don't you know, I'm a CAT! FIVE OF MY SIX ENDS ARE POINTY! I STILL HAVE FOUR LEFT! Ahaha... HA!" Horse stance, jab, EARTH PILLAR sends her flying through the air again, this time at the Minotaur's face! Which she stabs at and tears at wildly with dagger, tooth, and claw! "CONCENTRATION CHECK, BITCH!"

    Merek looks up to the magic circles amidst all of them, explosion preparing to strike upon the field. With a shift he begins to alight a divine shield, although the material begins to break upon that. Then he notices the Pillar Men coming which Zorin comes around to save him from. He makes a light noise, then looks to his friend, "Appreciate it, you be safe!" Then he sweeps up next to him and begins to lift up a hand while a firebolt expands, shooting from between two of the monsters right into Asterius.

    Wisteria is standing holding her spell, ripe target for 'disarming' by a Pillar man. Then the whole pillar she's bound Asterius to gives way and she's growling, her lips pulled back in her 'competition' smile, the one given through her mask to opponent kendoka. Only now that half snarl half smile is filled with ragged razors of multi row sharklike teeth.(And Adventurers wonder why humans might be afraid of WereFangs.) It seems that Wisteria's zanshin is serving her well, as she spots an incoming Pillar Man, and with a flex of muscle and magic she's gone. The crack of sound as she suddenly accelerates. Her steps taking her from air rune to air rune, and directly into the path of another Pillar Man that slams her to the ground like she's a volleyball and it needed this one spike for a victory point.

    The WereFang girl pulls herself out of the pit she just burrowed into the sand with her body. Her snarl wider as her whole back is a splash of red light for a time. "Ooh yes? That's how we'll play?" she snaps out, a ferocity that is almost certainly Caerbannog rather than nice teen. "Then lets play it that way." her fingers flick out drawing runes in the air before she lifts a foot. "TREMBLE." she stomps sending waves of sand away from her as she lifts her foot again and stomps "STEP!" the localized earthquake downing the surrounding Pillar Men to be swarmed by her squad of DPS fighters.

Things are getting bad here, very bad as the assault comes on from the Pillar Men? Gwen knows what she's got to do, there are so many of them. She'll channel a tanking ability, green energy starts to shirl about her like some sort of powerful wind.

"ANCHOR HOWL!"

This lets her protect some of her companions near her and helps protect herself as well she will as the attack wave keeps coming? She will focus upon the Pillar Men and chants another spell. She chants.

"The hearts of men are black with corruption and must needs to be cleansed!"

The holy spell goes off and attempts to keep in the thick of things as the battle rages on. She will indeed trust in Amalthea to keep Goldenscale safe.

As it turns out, the pillar men punch exactly as hard as the ones from that totally fictional property that may or may not have been written by an extradimensional vampire. "Nnngh--" Prophylaxis grits his teeth and winces as the three-part combo hammers into him. It's only by the swift application of an ENERGY COAT that he avoids getting his arm severed at the shoulder... And then only barely. With a defiant roar, he sweeps his staff outward and sends a shockwave of energy rippling outward into the dogpile of muscle madness. "Damnit, that hurt. Should have expected them to hit like trucks...!"

There's more to worry about than the phantom blood gushing from his nearly-severed arm. The crimson mark glinting atop the sands and the enormous tower of cocentric, hellfire-red rings is a portent of doom that anyone with half a brain would recognize as an incoming wipe-mechanic. With his still-intact limb, Prophylaxis quaffs a quartet of multicolored potions and winces as his arm fuses itself back to his body... And his mana bar surges with might. "The problem with magic like that is that it takes a while to cast. Thus...!"

"O' source of all power," Prophylaxis incants, motes of orange light swirling around his palm like the swirling arms of a spiral galaxy. "Light which burns beyond crimson... Let thy power gather in my hand...!" He roars the final words, the haze of embers suddenly fusing into a miniature star, and hurls his spell forth...!

                                "FIRE BALL!"                                

Even as Asterius' castbar fills, it suddenly has to endure yet another colossal surge of flame erupting right next to its face! Surely if this thing HAS concentration to break... This much damage will be enough, won't it!?

The one-armed Amalthea isn't one to halt battling, just because the of the loss of a measly arm! And in this world without dentists, it seems like her teeth are faring just fine holding that blade! With the blade at hand, she attempts to reach the Taurus, only to find out that dealing with the Masked Pillar Men is a lot harder now - defending the casting Taurus. She headbutts one, cracking their mask, before slicing their head clean off their neck! Dex's bow sails through the air, catching the Taurus right in the eye, but it doesn't stop casting at all!

Goldenblade moves past the 'newbiesitter' and assists, but finds the same problem that Amalthea found. Especially this low to the ground, it's too easy for the Masked Pillar Men to halt her blows from getting to the Taurus. They're doing damage, but it's just being constantly hit by this 'beefcake' shield! Suddenly, the impact of two enormous fireballs - sent by the trio of Merek, Prophylaxis and Kita - burn some of them away however in a massive wave of annihilating fire, creating a gap that Goldenblade can temporary make use of, cutting into its body and once again leaving one of those searing red streaks, before she's forced back.

Mizuki jumps over the mass of Pillarmen, rushing from the backlines to the front with the bravery of a proper Odysseia Knight, and is about to lay her carving claws into its face when suddenly, two musclebound torsos are in their way. The masks staring her down fiercely... right before she carves them both apart, before landing right behind the disarmed Amalthea.

Giganpor's rain if ice, cast from his very blade, sends shards into two of the triple-man teams, ripping their health down, and destroying some of them in the midst of their combo. But things are starting to look pretty bad. The Ads are continueing to be dangerous, even in their lowering numbers. Misa brings her scythe down, assisting on the matter of eradicating the enemy, the charge literally detonating one of the Pillar-men in the midst of attacking one of the healers assisting her. Various members of her team begin moving at her command immediately. DPS moving to aid Amalthea and co on tearing down the Masked Pillar Men, while support begin to CC down the Pillar Men.

Zorin gets in the way of the team trying to tear down Merek, and protects their HP by taking that damage to himself, 'bashing heads' in order to retaliate moments later and counter the offending mobs - soon assisted by Reika, as the three of them end up quite near to one-another - and ensuring that Kaydon and Dareshetani can safely retreat by stemming the tides.

Wisteria, after being spiked into the ground like this was Smash Ultimate - and Link's stupid Spike Hitbox has still not been nerfed - retaliates against a large squad of the pillarmen. Her foot stomps down, and the entire ground quakes and splits. Sand bursting in every direction, before sending shards of stone up that eradicate her enemies. Some of them try to attack Wisteria. But Gwen's Anchor Howl had not yet run out, and the woman manages to rush after them with extreme speeds offered to her by this technique, ripping them apart!

With their numbers this low, all of the Pillar Men suddenly begin to move up on the Taurus. On their rejoining, they almost seem to swarm people like this wave of locusts. Many of them trying to BITE the various adventurers, in order to infect them temporarily with a CURSE status that makes it impossible for them to be healed or given a barrier - threatening their HP bars even further for when that Explosion comes down. Others try to grab onto Adventurers' legs or arms, to hold them in place. To stop them from reaching the Taurus...

As its eye glows a deep devilish Purple.

The massive glassed circle behind them expanding. Large parts of the arena becomg impassible. The Taurus raisings it scepter! THE CAST ALMOST COMPLETE....

<< ADVANCED MAGIC: EXPLOSION >>
[---------------------------__]

Just because he had to fall back to a supporting role doesn't mean Dare is out of this fight. This is the exact reason he took Bard as his secondary class, so he'd have more utility than just being an arrow dispenser. He does some quick chimlink coordination with a couple of the other classic rock nerd bards in the raid utility channel and they gather together, Dare with his drum, the others with lute and theorbo, and start up a new tune harmonizing together, building swifty to a frenzied beat as their voices summon up an AoE movement/attack speed buff via the whirling spirits of Air and... Mercury?

"Tonight, I'm gonna have my self a real good time
I feel alive and the world I'll turn it inside out, yeah
And floating around in ecstasy
So don't stop me now don't stop me
'Cause I'm having a good time, having a good time--"

"I'm a shooting star leaping through the sky
Like a tiger defying the laws of gravity
I'm a racing car, passing by like Lady Godiva!
I'm gonna go, go, go, there's no stopping me!"

Having managed to safely retreat to the back line, Kaydon none the less is doing what he can in order to direct others, pointing and shouting. He's no Shiroe, but he's doing what he can in order to direct the healers, and the folks handling buffing. It's a lot harder than he expected it would be.

Gives him newfound respect for what Shiroe is always able to pull off, and more so to make it look easy.

    It feels like they've been trying to bring down the boss's HP for a long time, yet in reality it's probably only been a few minutes. Watching that casting bar rising doesn't help either. Nor does the fact that it's getting close to finish. Misa frowns some more.

    "All forces, focus on the boss! We can't let it get off that attack!"

    Misa rushes forward, starting to close towards the boss. She feels her arm getting its feeling back as the debuff wears off, reaching down to pick up her scythe as she runs past it.

    The Pillar Men start to actively try to keep the raid party away, resorting to biting and grabbing. But Misa is able to deftly maneuver her way through theiar attack, until she's finally close enough to ASTERIUS to strike.

    Misa leaps into the air, raising her scythe over her head as it starts to glow with light. She then brings it down towards the minotaur's chest, the blow creating a small blast on impact.

    Giganpor, seeing the incoming Pillar Men, brings up his shield again.

    Even as a summoning circle appears behind him to let Rane the water elemental go back where it came from, another forms over it. "Light of the heavens, bring peace to the land! Come forth, Auris!" A light elemental flies out of the new circle, then quickly flares it's wings. "PROTECT!"

    The slam is enough that Giganpor has to concentrate holding it with the light elemental. Enough that he tries something fairly desperate to disrupt the boss. A literal barrage of coins is thrown out at the boss's face. Which probably does nothing but annoy it, but well... it's something!

They said that with enough evasion, you can even evade a meteor explosion in a game. That's pretty much what happens here for the ninja idol, using the underside of her waterslide, she manages to roll off the wave sof the giant explosion, and avoids any further damage to her attire (and body, yes). It's almost as if she surfed on the explosion in fact, quite elegant.

While airborne, she doesn't miss the chance to counter attack though, since the pillar men are gone, there's only one target left to take out. And while she descends on the amalgamation of Taurus and Pillar Men, she sends a flurry of strikes, from both hands, hitting from every direction, and leaving her landing half kneeled with her arms backward, like the finishing blow of some old ninja movie.

At least, that's how she sees it in her mind's eye. It might not be THAT cool looking from another angle.

    Merek would begin to wrap energy about him, while he would lift up a hand to begin taking all of the strikes upon him, managing well with the Pillar Men. With that, he then shifts to begin swinging the sword about at the Taurus Asterius, though only hitting the ones protecting him.

The grasping hands of the Pillarmen grasp at Kita's legs, sending her already panic-stricken brain into overdrive. There is a moment when she all but freezes in place, breathing shallow. Her mind, in that instant, is in another place and another time.

Then, it snaps back to reality. "No." She kicks at the grasping hands, raising her hands to bring up a shimmering coat of energy around herself as she evades the grasping hands, trying to find a place to stand that is out of range of the last remaining adds. "Stay away from the glass. Don't look at his eye!"

The book in her hand seems to spin pages almost on it's own, landing on a page with a dark symbol written on it. She looks down, nods once, and then draws six quick slashes in the air... drawing the kanji for death. The mark glows a dark purple, then vanishes. Up from the ground, undead forms with skeletal hands, flesh dried from the desert sanand wind, the limbs reach towards ASTERIUS. Unearthly moans of the dead follow as they seem to try and hold the boss in place, hands clawing with boney fingers.

    As the Pillar Men swarm across the battle field, Dex slings his bow back over his shoulder, drawing his blade in a flash to use one of the Pillar Men as leverage to avoid the rest of them, rolling out of the crossfire before he recovers into a standing position and breaks into a sprint. He is making his way away from the party now, trying to get a clear... well, it's not really a shot he's lining up. More like a throw.

    He fishes into his pockets, fishing out a golden coin that, at first glance, looks simple enough. However, as he flips it into the air, it takes on a reddish gleam, and Dex's eyes flash as he focuses.

    He forms a fist with one hand, using the other to line up his 'shot'...

    And PUNCHES the coin as it falls, sending it rocketing toward ASTERIUS in an attempt to stop whatever the hell that thing is casting. It's a bit of an odd move, but sometimes you need to have something unorthodox ready to roll.

    But would it work? It hasn't yet, unfortunately, no matter how many times he's tried.

    The Pillar Men are in the way...
    THE PILLAR MEN ARE IN THE WAY.
    Though Amalthea severs one from this mortal coil with a decapitating strike, she doesn't stop flailing her sword in her teeth, bashing as many of them as she can with her shield to keep the Pillar Men off of her... It doesn't amount to much when they swarm over their king. And... His eyes glow purple.
    Amalthea's eyes widen as she remembers Wisteria's words.
    'Beware the Purple Eyes'.
    Now... NOW Amalthea casts her shield aside with a clatter.
    "HE'S ALMOST DONE CASTING!" She calls out, spitting her sword into her left hand and raising it over her head. And her blade begins to glow with a golden light as the old knight chants her attack.

"How short sweet life, but do not mourn, from ash to ash and dust to dust... Life is short... BURY! ENLIGHTENED STRIKE!"

    And thus... The old Paladin brings her gleaming blade down as hard as she can.

    Wisteria has her little temper tantrum of seismic proportions and then zanshin returns. Purple, his eyes flashing purple. "BEWARE PURPLE EYES!" she bellows in the voice reserved for Kiai. Then she's running, and running isn't fast enough and so she snaps out a quick spell and takes to the air, springing from air rune to air rune in great bunny leaps. She draws her blade, the enchantment singing to life.

    Black light crawls along the blade in an unhealthy way that twists the eye. "Lets see if you can cast fully blind!" she cries out as she leaps from her final rune in a pose perfect tsuki, the point of her blade aimed at the ... throat of Asterius ... why would you aim for the throat to blind? The spells she's crammed into that blade are made to rend the mind with darkness even as the sword rends the flesh.

After there is a slight pause in the Pillar Men onslaught Zorin turns to nod in Merek's direction, "No worries. We're all on the same team here. We have to watch each other's backs." And he grins, "But lets keep up the pressure, we need to end this quick!"

Then a portion of the Pillar Men swarm up on the king, creating a shield of bodies, while others throw themselves to hold down the adventurers. Zorin smashes the head of one of the Pillar Men as he lunges his way. As Zorin inspects the spell indicator he calls out, "Everyone focus on Asterius! We need to end this now!" And he follows it up with another chant to the Burning One. Red lights seem to be drawn into the ruby on his scepter as a short charge occurs, and then flame darts erupt from the ruby aimed directly at ASTERIUS. The flaming projectiles leaving streaks through the air as they explode into the king.

Goldenblade advances out from behind the tanks again, able to parry the groping adds well enough, and with two blades, her parries are attacks as well, beating aside their defenses to lay in her own attacks. A famous man said the best defense is a good offense. Abe Vigoda, who played Mel, the cook on Alice. But that's not important right now.

Goldenblade was holding her strongest attack in refserve but this seems like the time to use it. If not now, she won't get the chance. So she spins a full 360 with both blades held close together and strikes ASTERIUS with both of them at once, amplifying the impact of her heavy blow, which slams home, sucking down the enemy's HP bar. Will it be enough? It's a race, but she used her absolutely hardest attack.

"Damnit, it's casting!?" Prophylaxis demands incredulously as the dread castbar continues to tick up to completion. "Of course, the enrage mechanic doesn't stop just because we do enough damage... We have to actually *kill* the thing!"

Not that it's going to be a simple task, considering... Everything. The crushing tide of Pillar Men flooding through the army of Adventurers is a nearly insurmountable obstacle. Claws and fangs rip and tear, as others yet form a barricade of meat around their master.

But...!

One Pillar Man grins a terrible, predatory smile as it leaps for the Good Doctor. Prophylaxis makes a noise of disapproval before tapping his staff against the earth, and conjuring yet another stone pillar... Under /himself!?/ He shoots upward, high out of reach of the near-perfect lifeforms. The one that had lept for him instead breaks its teeth against a hardened stone column. From his vantage point, he is safe... And able to see what must be done.

Again he begins the incantation. "Nidhoggr-poisoned root, o' fetid, hollowed world-tree, spread now your seeds...!" Eerie green and violet light begins to swirl around him, a miasma of poisonous colors that seep into the ground itself! "Rise and bind my foe, pollute flesh and spirit alike with the cruel venom of mortality! From the boughs of living wood, I give only death!"

                           "THORN BIND HOSTAGE!"                            

Vines erupt from the floor! They stab through the wall of Pillar Men, pulling and binding and penetrating. A thicket of the violet brambles lash beyond, snagging around the hidden minotaur magus. Where their thorns scrape and pierce, a terrible, crippling venom begins to spread...!

"Everyone! Now!" Prophylaxis yells from his perch, "Hit them with everything you've got!"

    CONCENTRATION CHECK, BITCH is countered by pillar men getting in her way, but Mizuki claws her way through. "He's still casting?! Bullshit!" She briefly transfers her dagger to her mouth while doing the hand signs for Aero left-handed, the shield of air nudging aside attacks JUST ENOUGH for her to slip by as she tries to dodge and weave through the horde of Pillar Men. As they reach for her she leaps onto their shoulders and heads and scampers forward that way!

    Endeavoring to reach the feet of the BEEF BOSS, she huffs and she puffs and she LEAPS into the air... and blows away most of her remaining MP in a gout of magical flame, again directed at the minotaur's face! (Flame to the face is becoming another go-to move for dealing with crazy boss monsters!)

Gwen thinks she's a pretty good tank and in the madness, it only now registers what Amalthea is doing. She's lost an arm and keep going saving into the enemy. The Pillarmen are numerous and the big boss is still casting a spell. One that she darn well knows could be the death of the entire raid. She's a tank she knows what she has to do she has to clear the road so her allies and friends can push through and put this horror down before it can do more.

"Amalthea!? I AM WITH YOU!"

She will shield smash her way through the Pillar Men heading right for the boss, all six-plus feet of her clad in full plate. That's a lot of mass moving at a full-on run. She'll leap for ASTERIUS with a wild look on her face.

"Honed is the blade that severs the villain's head. Endless is the path that leads him from hell. FIERCE SLASH!"

Also the song that has started up in the backline from Dareshetani, that bit of morale boosting maybe some of the edge they need to stop this boss.

Misa rises up into the air, aiming to carve at the Taurus' flesh! But the Masked Pillar Men get in her way. A large swath of them have her blade set into them. And like a zipper being ripped downwards, she carves a path for others to get some ranged attacks in on. A series of coins rush past her shoulders moments later, as Giganpor and Dex Alruin both assume a barrage on the various Pillar Men that have started gathering up, tearing down their numbers one target at a time. Merek joins in the melee range along with the Adventurers, carving aside more of the Pillar Men getting in the way.

Zorin chants to the Burning One once more, unknowing whether or not his heart's desire is truly heeded by the estranged goddess(?), flame flashing across the battlefield and burning against the bodies of more Pillar Men protecting it!

Kita and Wisteria remind the teams of that purple eye, right as a 'shot' fires out of it. Enough people heed the multiple calls to be aware of its purple eye, and look away just in time. There are just a few adventurers who were not paying as much attention, that get turned into statues and get the PETRIFIED status!

<< ADVANCED MAGIC: EXPLOSION >>
[----------------------------_]

A series of undead then suddenly seem to crawl up from the cracks beneath the sand. Mummies, grabbing hold of Asterius and binding it to the ground, trying to climb up. With enough of the Pillar Men eliminated, it seems that with this assistance, the path is now absolutely free! Amalthea pushes through, and her enlightened strike comes down upon its leg, leaving not just a red streak, but causing it to seperate, its foot detonating while the undead climb higher. Almost like they would devour it as it is being on by the Adventurers.

Wisteria footstools one of the mummies that has climbed it, and brings her blade down along its throat, casting it to slow its casting time for but a moment, before it resumes again. Everyone is watching the health bar drop with bated breath, while that cast bar rises. Every interuption is precious! Goldenblade takes the chance left by this attack to slam her heaviest blow against its other leg, causing the Taurus to buckle and go down to its knees - while it keeps that rod raised in the air. Another pulse of that purple eye! But the people had been prepared! Thanks to Wisteria asking Gilgamesh's aid, they managed to avoid what could have been a devastatingly dangerous attack!

<< ADVANCED MAGIC: EXPLOSION >>
[-----------------------------]

Prophylaxis' Thorn Bind Hostage grapples at the thing's arms, lowering them further. Lowering its head down towards its chest's height, ready to be taken advantage of by the next person! Mizuki's flame burst towards its head quickly loosening some of the thorns, detonating around its neck as its face gets this constant red shine that almost seems to expose the shake of a rounded skull!

Gwen finally follows up, paired with Reika, just as the flames disappate, as their blades finally begins to shine as they rises, bringing it them to the thing's throat. Its defenses down, tied to the ground itself... as it breaks through!

Right as the lightshow behind them fades. With maybe a second or two to spare, if that casting bar was any tell. The monster detonating into shards of light. And the Pillar Men seem to detonate right along with the boss. The sand retreating...

<< CONGRATULATIONS >>

Everyone gets that screen above their heads. Followed by a little chime that indicates they just received a reward into their inventory.

The semi-impromptu Queen cover band on the back line finishes up their number with hollered "Wooo!"s and "GEE GEE!"s and high fives. Dare lets out a deep 'whew' of relief. That really came down to the wire there. Maybe it's just as well he had to fall back. Or at least that's what he'll tell himself when thinking back on this battle, that he helped provide the raid group with the edge they needed, via that haste buff, to finish it off in time!

    Dex watches, his final attack expended. He didn't have the time to load anything else up now, so whatever was going to happen... he was ready for. He braces, watching the scene unfold. Minions and the boss working to wipe the party, Adventurers lunging in with various hard hitting strikes to try and bring him down before it happens. He did what he could, but it was... a lacking contribution, he feels. Lacking indeed.

    Hopefully no one could see the parse numbers in here.

    And then... the battle is over. Just like that. He smiles as the confirmation comes across, and chuckles politely at the drop. Now that... that would be an interesting dinner for sure.

    Wistera lands after her leaping climb and strike. The explosion of lights and chimes of victory. She whips her sword to the side as if clearing it of blood that isn't there, then a twist sends the blade in a circle to rest against her wrist. A twist and a snick of her tsubo striking the scabard. "Thank you, King Gilgamesh... we owe you." She says quietly as she turns to look for the stairs and head up.

    Giganpor, meanwhile, huhs as he sees the others make it through. Looking around, he commands Auris, "Auris, Healing Light. Wide as you can."

    He moves around to let the summon do it's thing. He's not interested in climbing the tower, but now that he's seen a boss fight... probably avoid them. Maybe. Hard to say on that one. He does head upwards after the others, though.

As the timer for the big attack ticks closer, Kita curses under her breath, turns herself away from him, and braces herself with her arms. Then... the sound of a victory chime has her lifting her head, glancing skeptically upwards at the 'congratulations' notification.

Letting out a relieved breath, she just sort of flops to her knees in the sand, then starts to laugh. The sound still has a bit of an anxious edge to it. She takes a moment to touch a hand to her ear, likely letting a few people know that they survived. That the battle is over.

Then, she pushes herself shakily to her feet, dusting some of the sand off.

    That...
    That was close.
    That was closer than Amalthea would like to think about as the minotaur king and his Pillar Flunkies erupt into red pixels.
    With a heavy sigh, the old Odysseia Knight collapses to her knees and works on catching her breath, bracing her weight on her sword as she buries the tip in the ground.
    "Ah damn, that's not going to get any easier is it? So how many floors do we have left to go? 98 is it?"
    The sigh that the old woman heaves is just plain legendary.
    Then. She glances at her missing right arm.
    "... So this is just a status effect right? It'll just... 'go away' after a while? Right? Right?"
    She really doesn't want to learn how to tank with her face.

As the congratulation text appears above everyone Zorin lifts his scepter to the sky in a cheer. Their preparation and effort paid off. Looking around the battlefield he sees that many of the other adventurers are cheering, patting each other on the back, and a few look like they are preparing to press on to scout out the new floor.

Today was another victory. The Scale Emblem Alliance would continue to press upward. Zorin knew their momentum was only growing. Then to those adventurers still nearby he calls out "Well done everyone! Very well done!" And he grins broadly.

Goldenblade finds herself panting for breath after the boss finally stops and bursts into light, and she looks around. No one dead, it looks like, and the boss gone ... "We won, then?" she checks. Well, it's her first time, she wasn't sure what to expect. Looking over to Amalthea, she hurries over. She's been through worksite emergency first aid lectures enough, she's already pulling cloth from her back for a tourniquet, but ... "It's not actually bleeding, is it?" she asks, confused.

    It is tense as Mizuki sees the last slivers of that casting bar fill, only to be slowed as attack after attack hits. Mizuki makes her own contribution, but for a moment, as she falls down to the floor and lands, she's not sure if they've won.

                             << CONGRATULATIONS >>                              

    It seems they have!

                        Received: 1x Wagyu Quality Beef                        

    Mizuki activates the Appraise skill almost reflexively. The description is, honestly, pretty straightforward! There are no surprises here, it's S-class beef! Wait, Landers can taste food? Huh.

    The catgirl sheaths her dagger and runs up to Wis to give her a one-armed hug. "We did it!" Now hopefully someone here has a spell to replace her arm.

    Anyone? Beuller?

    Merek looks to the boss when it is defeated, taking a moment to look to the beef which he picks up amidst the pixels, his own shimmering about. "Well, this looks nice, think it will make a wonderful feast for victory," he mentions, nodding a bit to Zorin. He then offers a look to the whole party, while he lifts a hand up, then he takes a magic rod from the belt. "Ol Repth!" the man assisting in healing the people.

                           << CONGRATULATIONS >>                            

Good God, that was down to the wire. If they had been just a little bit slower, it would have gotten whatever the heck that attack was off, and then... That probably would have been it. But it didn't, and so they're all fine. Prophylaxis sighs and falls back onto his stone pillar as it slowly recedes into the ground. He can check his inventory for his loot later, but...

For now, there are healing potions that need to be passed around. One might just be able to reattach Mizuki's missing arm...!

    Amalthea looks at her arm. She looks at Goldenblade. Then back to her arm as she holds up the severed end.
    "I can't tell. It all looks like a bunch of red pixels, to me."
    She'll wait her turn for a healer to get to her, though, while just kind of flailing her stump around.

Once the battle is over, Kaydon checks his inventory. Well, that's a hell of a thing. Less practical use for him, since he can't cook, but he bets if he works with somebody to sell this, he could probably..

At the moment Kaydon is muttering to himself as he thinks about potential ideas for how to parley this into something for the project he's working on.

Then again, maybe he could get Gwen to just cook it up for him..

    Mizuki is handed a healing potion. She holds up the stump. "I guess this answers your surgery question, huh..." And then, overtaken by feline curiousity, she tries poking the light.

Goldenblade nods to Amalthea, that's what it looks like to her also. She's seen workplace accidents, they tend to be much more visceral. And spurty. She nods about waiting for the healers. "You probably need their help, I don't think a bandage or a tourbiquet is going to help much." She looks around, though, and says, "We seem to have won, though. That's good, right?"

Gwen is breathing pretty hard when it's all over she just about slumps the rush of adrenlin wearing off as the boss finally falls. She's looking at Amalthea and says "... that is kinda trippy and wait this ... item." Kaydon and anyone else near her can see her eyes lighting up at /this/.

"The things I could make with beef like this..."

    It takes the old Paladin a second longer to push up to her feet, using her sword to lean her weight on. Sheathing her blade, Amalthea picks up her shield from the ground.
    "A-yep. We won. That's good, yes. It's supposedly one more step closer to home." She murmurs before pausing.
    "You think this is trippy? I'm the one experiencing it!" She says and flails her stump at Gwen.

    "Huh. You'd really think this would hurt more, but no." Curiousity satisfied, Mizuki downs the potion and her arm regrows. "Back to five pointy ends out of six total."

    Merek nods a bit to folk, keeping with healing the people.