Invasion of the Bun-Buns

A few hours walk outside of Dun Loireag - there's a farm celebrating the Bun Bun festival. So many cute bun buns! Hopping about, being cute.

A few kids offering them sweet yams and maybe even a carrot! Maybe a few kids adopt a few bunnies!

They're such adorable little white cute things! And they have those cute little pink horns on them. Aren't they just the best? That farm however...

This is not that farm.

This is the farm that has created a posting on the Hunters Guild Board because the population of Bun Buns has surprisingly boomed in their area to dangerous levels. And while most of the Adventurers are /quite/ unaware of what it means for there to be a 'dangerous level of Bun Bun', those who have taken on this job no doubt are about to find out.

They're welcomed by an enormous cow Cait Sith, holding an enormous rake that is likely twice the size of most of those present. "I am going to need you folk to stay overnight, and make some preparations." He motions to a whole army of wood and other things he has in his barn. "Feel free to use what you find in the barn to prepare. The little things will likely come overnight. Me, my wife, and my children will be evacuating the area."

He nods to them, snorting out a heavy hot breath. "I am counting on you Adventurers. Just remember, don't let them group up in large numbers if you can help it."

There's a few lower level Adventurers amongst them at the moment. A young man by the name of Wakai Senshi is one of them, wearing his breastplate and holding a simple iron sword. "Let's do this. We can probably set up some torches around the perimeter to help us see during the night." He helpfully offer, while the farmer walks off in preparation.

Proteus isn't usually one to deal with random holiday quests, but... Dangerous levels of bun-bun? She needs to find out what's going on.

The Imp looks up at the huge Cow Sith, tilting her head as she blinks at the assertions. "Overnight? Preparations? So this is something that happens on a schedule?" She asks... And then shrugs. "Well, it doesn't matter, I guess. We'll do what we can to preserve your farm."

She doesn't waste too much time on niceties beyond that. There is a certain sense of dread in the air despite the festive time of year, in the Imp's opinion, and the hooded and cloaked Adventurer sweeps into the barn to see what they have to work with in terms of materials and equipment.

She gestures to the other man. "Light is a good thing to have. If we're dealing with this at night, fighting in the dark would put us at a large disadvantage."

o/~ Here comes Peter Cottontail, hopping down the bunny trail o/~

Or at least that's what Kauchemar would be singing, if she was over there at the other farm that was celebrating the cuteness of bun-buns for the kids.

But why would she, when she could be here to witness the dark secret these small balls of fuzz truely hold? The farmers are certainly scared enough, and that is enough to get the Were Fang Nightmare's attention.

"Mmm, yes, light is good. Shame for those of you that can't see in the night very well." Torches though? Pfff. How amateur.
She leans against a fence and makes a few arcane gestures to summon some will-o-wisps to float about and help provide illumination.

As a Beastmaster, Rylen is likely one of those who was first notified of a potential problem. Bun-Buns are not something that he keeps on the ranch, if only because of the problem with how quickly their population can spike and the danger that comes with too many in any one area. However, especially at this time of year, not too many people seem to take that into account.

"Understood." He inclines his head to the Cait Sith, then glances at the others. "We should see how much wood they have. It might be a good idea to try to funnel them through a longer path, that way they can't clump up as much." Yes, Rylen is suggesting that, if resources are available, they turn this into a tower defense game.

"Otherwise, we should at least try to protect areas they might be drawn to. Anywhere with other animals, or grain storage..." He suggests.

    Merek had come to assist, what better way to work up the Hunter's Guild ranks than to take on missions. Still, after the boss battle of the Third Floor, he seems a bit distant, potion belt about the waist while he wears a mage robe with cape for the weather of the night. It's open, which means that the piece is a lot more like he was wearing what looks to be dark attire with golden stitching and a specially crafted trousers with shirt.
    The man has the sword with him, placed upon the sheath which he wears about a shoulder along to the back. "Alright." The man drinks a potion which looks to be one labeled for defense protection.

They say looks aren't everything, and in the case of these Bun-Buns, it seems that this is a case of being cute but deadly. Something that you definitely don't want to get out of hand. Sometimes you have to learn to accept the fact that cute things can't live. It's strange but it's true.

"We have to stay overnight?" Kotono asks as she arrives. "All right, I suppose there's not a lot we can do." She takes out her daggers and begins to polish them. "I feel so strange killing cute creatures, but I suppose there's not a lot we can do." A pause as she realizes something else. "Then again, they're not real..."

Goldenblade is here to help. Beyond that, she's kinda not sure what else she should be doing. She'll bow to the cow, then consider how she might prepare. She looks around, at the other adveturers, and glances around the area. When we're told to prepare, she'll check out the barn in case there's anything useful there, then walk around the grounds to get the lay of the land, eyeballing the terrain, and working out angles and distances and things. For a mobile fighter like her, that's important.

If we're not letting the bunbuns group up in numbers, they need to be ready to cut off ay concentrations forming and to herd any masses that form, splitting them up if we can. It's kind of a big deal, tactically, and she thinks again that if there were some place that taught tactics, that'd be oarticularly useful.

    A quest from the Hunter's Guild! For a holiday event no less.

    Yuuki's so there!

    And so she is, the Gladiator Imp happily listening to the quest giver provide the details. She doesn't seem concerned about having to kill a bunch of cutesy bun-buns. And why should she? They're just a bunch of data on a server somewhere and there's always more where they came from!

    Once the Lander has finished describing the situation, Yuuki gives him a thumbs up, "Not to worry, Mister Farmer. We're not going to let those dangerous beasts ruin your farm. Food is important!"

    The Adventurers begin to go about preparing. Yuuki holds her chin thoughtfully as she thinks of what she can do to help. She then snaps her fingers, before happily announcing to the others, "I'm going to check out the surroundings to look for any bun-bun burrows. They might act as spawn points, so we should destroy them ahead of time!"

    Yuuki runs off, heading towards the wilds beyond the edge of the farm. She then starts searching along the perimeter with her Search skill, looking for burrows, dens, or really anything which might represent a spawn point they can deal with to reduce the bun numbers.

Miho has been concend abotu the various goings on as she ends up getting the posting from the hunter's guild. She would take note of the posting anf the farmer who welcomes them once they get there.

"Right, sounds like things could get a bit nuts. You keep your own safe, we'll deal with this."

She notes to the farmer, she will now check out the barn for any boxes, or other things she will work. She'll fall in to work with Rylen.

"So need a hand?"

    Miyako was just in the area farming some mats for the Shibuya project, and hadn't really intended to get in on any serious questing while she was in the area. She's not quite sure why she gave in to the request -- probably just impulse, really, being bored in between farming sessions. "Sure, sure, help cut down cute little bunnies," she mutters to herself. "Really, why did I think this would be such a good idea again?" She does, at least, wave cheerily to those she recognizes among the assembled adventurers, such as Goldenblade, Kotono, and Kauchemar.

    At least they're not *kittens*, she reminds herself. That might actually cause her some issues. Still, there's quite some time yet before dark. "Let's see if they've got any chicken-wire in the barn... set up a few traps and snares here and there. Ought to help cut down on the numbers."

This was an interesting quest. The kitsune Ronin has decided to check it out, and was surprised to find a number of still lower level adventurers, as well as those who had been tackling the tower, all in one location. Quite an eclectic combination.

The fact that the farmer and his family are actually fleeing gets a slight tilt of the kitsune's head, though the expressionless masked face remains expressionless. She does finally rise up from where she had been sitting cross legged once the preparations begin, and gets to work. She does what she can to bring the animals to safety, keep them out of harm's way in order to make sure they won't be hurt when the whole thing goes down.

SOME TIME LATER...

Proteus straightens up and smiles at the series of runes she has etched into the land around the farm. Each one subtly shimmers. "All right. People, stay away from these runes. They'll help break up any rushes of Bun-Buns that approach the farm." Each one is something of an repurposed instance of Stone Catapult. Normally intended to help launch oneself out of the way of harm, in this case it's intended to launch bunnies away from the farm.

    Yuuki returns from her search along the farm's edge. She's rubbing the back of her neck, looking a little defeated as she says, "I couldn't find anything that might be a spawn point we could destroy..."

    She does perk up a bit though as she says, "But I did see some vegetables to the south-east that have already been nommed on. Maybe they'll be coming from that direction and we could focus our defenses." She points in the appropriate direction.

"Help is always appreciated, m'lady." Rylen replies, offering a boyish grin to Miho as he gets to gathering some of the wood from the supplies, piecing it together with nails. The Pooka is, by no means, a craftsman, but he's had some recent experience with construction and woodworking due to the efforts to build the peko ranch.

Chuckling to himself, "This is going to be an interesting night."

Passageways weave back and forth, creating a place where the Bun-Buns will be slowed down, hopefully allowing a better means of dealing with them.

Everyone else is setting their traps and such, Kauchemar just positions her floating balls of glowing flame around the area to help provide light for others. Then resumes leaning against the fence and retrieves her lute to make sure it's tuned properly. Muttering something akin to "I can't believe I have an actual reason to use this one" under her breath. Clearly she's planning something.

Rylen, Miyako, Miho and Proteus all set to creating a trap-rich environment in front of the farm, while Goldenblade and Yuuki do some significant amounts of scounting. Yuuki figures out the likely area of approach, because of the tell-tale-signs of veggies being eaten, while Goldenblade starts working with Wakai Senshi in order to get the tall grass in front of the Farms cut down significantly.

Kauchemar starts practicing with their spirits, creating zones of light over the region and preparing for the inevitably approach of the bun-buns.

Time starts passing, and while working, it certainly almost feels like time is passing far faster than they'd like it to. Creating a full 'obstacle course' for the bunnies to go through is not easy, having to create ditches and wooden areas where they can more safely stand on.

Eventually, things are ready, and darkness falls. The sun setting past the mountains to the west, creating beautiful plays of shadow across the region. There's this beautiful sundown for a while, with red disappating along the mountainside. And a few of the younger Adventurers actually pass around some Crescent Burgers for everyone who's worked so very very hard on this...

And then there it is.

The first bunny.

Just a single bunny, in the middle of the cut down grass hops forward, with its pearly white coat, jumping towards the person closest. A lonely single Bun Bun, having just jumped up along the edge of the water. Wiggling its little nose, twitching one of its ears, staring at the adventurers with its beady little eyes.

    Merek looks over to Tenko when he notices the woman, and waves a little bit, he'd given everyone a few potions for defense, while he makes a way to the bun bun, the single one, and looks to it, he will study it while he waits, reaching a hand to it, "Well, you're cute, are the others of you behind ya?" he asks.

Here it comes, the time is upon them, and... one bun-bun? That's all this was for? No, can't be. Something isn't right about this....

Her tail flicks a few times with subtle aggitation, but Kauchemar remains where she is leaning on the fence. No need for everyone to walk right up into the danger zone.

Once the initial preperations are made, Rylen makes sure he is safely on the farm side of the traps. If nothing else, his skill with animals or with earth magic could help if everything else fails. "It... might not be the best of ideas to try and make friendly with them." He warns, though it's likely too late for those who are lured by the adorable qualities of the bun-bun.

So, Rylen just crouches, balancing on his toes, waiting for the inevitable flood of furry death that is coming their way. "Let's hope this holds."

    Yuuki sits perched on the edge of one of the passages the others have created, legs swinging back and forth while she munches on a Crescent Burger. She's excitedly waiting the coming battle, imagining in her head a sea of white pouring out of the darkened wilds like some kind of flood.

    And then there it is. One bun. Not quite what Yuuki imagined. Though she expects more.

    Still, as a couple of others move closer to try and parlay with the bun, Yuuki calls out happily to everyone, "Our first catch of the day!"

    Mizuki has been napping in the rafters this time. As she hears the commotion though, she stalks around to see what's going on. Fudge, it's day already? So much for preparations...

    Then again, what could she have done to prepare anyway? Her class doesn't have much in the way of trap-craft skills. She's here to spit fireballs when too many bunbuns show up.

    But right now, there is one (1) bun. One single, solitary bunbun. Mizuki readies a kunai and effortlessly flips it around in her fingers. She takes aim...

    ...And she can't do it. She can't throw a knife at a cute bun-bun! Why did she come here?

Time sure passes fast here.

Before she knows it, they're already encountering their first bun. Just a single, lone bun. It looks innocent and cute enough as it is, but Kotono knows better than to approach it. Something about it just doesn't seem right. She doesn't want to attack it if it turns out that it's just an innocent bunny strayed from its pack/group/whatever. Instead, she plays it safe and keeps an eye on it while her hands are by her knives if need be.

Miho meanwhile is curious about the bunny it's just one it doesn't look too bad it looks cute she curious about it. Could it really be this bad? She will start to approach it carefully as she can. What could go wrong right? This is just animal wrangling righht? It's not like there's nothing nefarious going on here?

Goldenblade has taken the lay of the land, and one of the helpers has helped by trimming back the tall grass she found, that might conceal bunbuns. That'll give us a bit of advance warning. She'll stand around with a torch, keeping watch, as a single bunbun arrives at the edge of the water. "So cute," she remarks. "But they'll clean a farm out if thre's a lot of them." She palms a throwing knife, just in case, and continues to watch. No use having a cow about one bun.

The little black eyed little bunny wiggles its nose, looking between Merek and Miho as they approach. Merek reaching out his hand, it bounds a little hop or two forward, bringing it in range to just be petted. Lots of people saw these Bun Buns being pet back at the festival perhaps.

The shadow cast between Merek's hand and Kauchemar's fire spirits reach the Bun Bun... and then there's a sudden flash of red - as the bunny bounces off of Merek's arm.

Before Miho even realizes it, she's got a Status Effect on her, and her HP suddenly goes down by 20%.

<< Missing: Hand >>

The thing goes flying, the red light of damage shimmering along her wrist region, intermixed with the red of light flickering around 'blood' in the air, and the remains of her hand flop down onto the ground, right before it shatters into pearls of light. The bunny's coat a little redder now, as it chomps on a finger that'd come off in that flash of a moment... which too eventually shatters.

As Kauchemar's light spots more and more rabbits hopping up from the river area, onto the banks and start hopping rapidly for Miho and Merek, making excited rabbit sounds.

    One bun-bun arrives... or at least, one is all that's seen so far. Not much to do, yet, especially as others are already approaching it. So she waits, patiently, to see what her traps might yield. (At least, with sight of the beasts already appearing, it's time to retrieve her naginata from inventory.) "Here we go," she mutters to herself, peering out into the darkness...

Even if the group had been warned, it is hard not to fall for the adorable floppy ears and fluffy fur of the bun-buns. Still, Rylen winces when one of them moves to attack, expecting that Merek will take the brunt of the damage. It is some surprise that Miho ends up getting the worst of it. "Try not to let them get too close!" He warns, "Those teeth are sharp."

Rylen shifts into a combat stance, motioning his hands in the air as he seems to use the force of two punches to extend a set of roots up from the ground below. A couple of kicks follow, tugging tangled mass of roots across the path that the initial Bun-Bun had taken, hoping to use it as an obstacle to slow them down.

"Unless you're melee, get back behind the defenses!" Rylen calls out, "And if you are melee, I hope you're not too attached to your fingers."

Goldenblade acks as the bunbun attacks savagely, surprisingly. She might have been better prepared if she'd recalled that one movie, but that was more a thing her son knew. She only knows that there's a swarm of them now, approaching quickly, and she goes to meet it with blades drawn. She slashes one, then spins to stab another, slightly unbalanced blades whistling through the air. She whirls as she fights, but the momentum's more habit than need, the blades slicing through the bunbuns before they can dig their savage teeth into her vulnerable ankles.

    Merek would step back even as the Bun Bun seems to come at him the moment he sees Miho's hand begin to fly. "Ah, well that's," then he's drawing the demon blade, which is what he calls it, Shadow Eclipse. He does not want to use it, for a moment he wonders what it will do, but he knows if he does nothing he will be eaten
    The man then nods, he has given people a few potions to keep them from getting hurt too much, he takes a moment to shift upon the hip, then resolves to swing his weapon, spinning into them twice with the sword aflame.

Things seem to be going smoothly when the first bun appears, however things soon get...Out of hand.

Tenko had been meditating, and when things pop off, she's up in a flash. She's rapidly moving towards the first squad of bun-buns. Just as quick as she moves, she pulls her katana from the scabbard at her hip, the samurai driving forward and slashing at the forefront of the attacking buns.

It's nothing special, as far as attacks go, except maybe for the speed behind the strike and the movements behind it. Trained, and directed. This is exactly what she practices for.

The preparations are compelete. Or as complete as they're going to get, as word spreads that the Bun-Buns are arriving. Proteus perches on top of one of the outbuildings to look over what's about to happen, and she observes... The single one approaching. "Hmm." Proteus frowns. Something isn't right about this. "I expected an entire horde, not a single one..."

A moment later, some VERY UNPLEASANT status effects are dealt out, and Proteus recoils at the sight. "All right, that's far more dangerous than it should be. Enough of that!" The sudden danger ratchets up as the additional Bun-Buns begin approaching, and she has no reason to believe they will be any less... vorpal. She slams her hands together, forming several shapes before her: ( U

And then she palm thrusts towards the Bun-Bun. "HAH!" She calls out, hurling an Arcane Bolt towards the ravenous horde.

"Well, I guess there's no turning back now," Kotono says as she goes for her knives. "Just gotta remember, they're only simulated... I guess?"

Getting into her fighting position, she studies the next squad of bun buns, knowing that they may be cute but they also are very dangerous too. And she doesn't want to lose her hand or worse.

"Sorry to do this!" Kotono yells as she attempts to dash by the squad while slashing with her knife, almost like that of a ninja attempting a sudden subtle strike.

    Yuuki's eyes go a little wide as she sees that severed hand flying through the air, then shattering as it lands upon the ground.

    Yuuki barks out a quick laugh, "Oh wow, that's one demonic bun!"

    Yuuki pushes herself off her perch, landing within the winding passage that they had created. She reaches for her sword, pulling the dark blade free of its sheathe as she takes several steps forward. She smiles at the sight of the demon bun and its friends coming up behind it, remarking out loud, "This may be more fun than I originally thought!"

    Yuuki stops as the buns are starting to get close, she sweeps her sword out to the side as she says, "C'mon, little guys." It's hard to see in the torch-lit dark of the night, but a black sheen enshrouds Yuuki's sword. Lowering her stance a little, Yuuki smirks as she finishes, "Let's see what you've got."

    Yuuki darts forward, rushing to meet the first wave of bun-buns. She begins to lash out with her black glowing sword, dancing from one bun to the next both to strike at them and try to evade their greater numbers.

Miho is lucky she was reaching out with her left hand and not her right as she looks at hte Bun bun. There is a moment of confusion there's a moment of pain and then she doesn't have a hand she screams and will call outy. "OH GODS! KILL THEM KILL THEM!" She may forever not trust any cute thing again after this. She has her Katana in hand and she's out for blood, she lets out a string of curses, english ones shockingly. Which would peel paint, if it could. She will then be lunging on the buns trying to hack and slash them like some kind of tiny little demon.

    Mizuki can't bring herself to throw a knife at a bunbun... and then it takes Miho's fucking hand off! Which, in this world, is an easily-fixable injury, but still! Mizuki's reticence is gone, but as she takes aim, she checks the inspect tool, wondering if perhaps this only LOOKS like a bunbun but is actually the monster Wisteria is made from. Nope, scans as a Beast. Huh.

    Welp, it's clearly more dangerous than it looks! Mizuki hurls the kunai at the tiny beast from a distance, hoping to put an end to it!

    "I am VERY attached to my fingers!" Miyako yells at Rylen as she steps back, preparing to cast instead of engage in melee. "Can't play guitar without them!" She stops at the barrier, spotting the crowd of critters approaching, and growls. "Right, right. Time to zorch some."

    A finger raised with her free hand, she starts inscribing runes in the air, quick and rough, gathering shadows into a bolt to loose into one of the approaching crowds of ... "Rodents. They're /rodents/. Remember that!"

Kauchemar grins somewhat morbidly as the lone bun snaps off poor Miho's hand faster than anyone can see. "Oooh, that one is bitey. Someone give the poor lizard girl a hand, she's going to need it now!"

Then her orbs of spirit flame flicker, pointing towards the swarms of more bun-buns approaching. "Aaah, that's more like it." She gets up from her spot at the fence, instrument settling in her grasp as fingers ripple across the strings once. "Let's get this show started!" She strums, starting to play what sounds like an upbeat, cheerful holiday song.

Until it gets to the actual lyrics.

" o/~ Faces filled with joy and cheer! What a magical time of year.
Howdy-Ho, it's Bun-Bun Stomping Daaa-aa-AA-aay!

Put your battle helmets on! Trap some carrots 'round the spawn!
Don't you know it's Bun-Bun Stomping Daaaay? (Bun-Bun Stomping Day) o/~ "

And stomping is exactly what she does as she plays. Each time her hooves hit the ground a swell of water sloshes forth, aimed to catch bun-buns and knock them back. Preferably back into the other traps to handily dispose of them.

" o/~ All the little girls and boys love that fluff-filled crunching noise.
You'll know what this day's about, when you stomp a bunny's insides out!
So come along and have a laugh; snap their fuzzy spines in half
Grab your boots and stomp your cares awaaaaaay
Hip-hip-hooray! It's Bun-Bun Stomping Daaaay! o/~ "

Rylen's roots rage upwards, halting a small horde of Bun Buns as they begin to rush towards the Adventurers, and sending them up in the skies! Right there, Goldenblade jumps, slashing one, then spinning through the air, cutting through their bunnies with sickening ease. The Bun Buns do not have much in the way of HP it seems. But there's just... so many of them. And they're so small, that they're hard to hit!

The moment Goldenblade lands, they are already at her feet, attempting to rip through her armor. Only for Merek to interfere, flaming weapon in hand, scaring them off momentarily with the burst of flame - before they get used to seeing this display of light and seeing that it harms them - and rush for him!

Tenko suddenly cuts through the area like a Thunder Clap followed by a Flash, ripping through a small crew of the Bun Buns closer to the opposite flank. One of them jumps up towards Tenko's neck - only for Proteus' blast to slam into it and shatter it into light. Kotono joins at Tenko's flank, slashing her knife and protecting her back!

Yuuki speeds past the two of them, carving a secondary path through the flank squad - ripping their little white bodies apart while they jump for her chest - creating a path of retreat for Miho, while the Blacksmith cuts at them and retreats.

The earth rumbles, slamming the bunnies back and continueing to send them flying alongside Rylen's roots. Miyako manages to make use of this momentum, casting shadowed bolts that rip them buns from the air as they get bounced up - while Mizuki joins in with more physical weaponry - cutting a few down with her Kunai!

But with their waves and numbers still swelling, people are being forced back towards their defensive installations! They start moving towards the defensive setup created by the 'tower defense' team, but before they reach, there's sudden detonations. Fierce blasts of Stone Catapults suddenly ripping up from the ground, sending enormous swaths of the bunnies up into the air, and giving some free pot-shots. Luring the bunnies down into the 'chasms' that had been dug and built up, creating an easier zone for the Adventurers to attack.

Within the light of Kauchemar's Fire Sprites, it's quite easy to see those small white bodies as they crowd up into which 'snake like' bunches that rush towards the Adventurers, trying to not just bite off their toes, but climb them. People failing to avoid their rapid movements likely to lose a Hand or a Foot, which might impede their Attack or Defensive abilities going forward in the battle - depending on what they sacrifice while others support them.

A true showman can recognize when someone else cearly has center stage. The Pooka performer just stares in Kauchemar's direction, a smile growing into a grin on his face as he bows to her abilities. One of these days, he needed to get that girl on a real stage.

For now, though, there were Bun-buns to deal with. When one gets a bit too close, he's quick to lash out with a kick, sending it sailing back into a nearby pile. "I'm fond of my toes, thank you." He does a quick look around the area, focusing on the largest masses of the little furry creatures.

Spotting a group of them clumped together, he shifts into a solid horse stance, then stomps with one foot, starting low and reaching skyward with a thrust punch upward. The ground rumbles beneath his feet and then a huge pillar of stone shoots up beneath one of the clusters of buns, trying to launch them along with it.

Goldenblade acks as the buns savage her ankles, gnawing at her boots before Merek scatters them. She's paying more attention now to her immediate surroundings, dealing slower, heavier blows to the tiny, cute monsters bent on devouring everything. Not a good way to go, and she's doing all she can do prevent it. Her blades slam down one after another, each one an executioner's blade, though there's so many bunbuns it's hard to say if she's doing much good. Her mighty blows make the bunbuns into so much hassenpfeffer, apart from the baking, but they're still coming.

    Merek would not Goldenblade when he takes one down, then they begin to rush him, the man swiveling upon the foot to lift a divine shield which manages to keep a lot of them away. "I'm re-thinking keeping these things as a pet, even though I have one already," he notes, while he watches the hands and feet flying around. It's something about it all that brings back to mind memories, then his gaze begins to narrow, while he inhales, then begins panting. There's a look to those rabbits, the bun buns.
    The man seems to not be able to control himself, there's something that wants to protect him, the need to keep this from happening, to him or anyone else, he can't take the sight. He growls while he begins to lift up his Shadow Eclipse and swings the blade along into a squad of the creatures. Still, it's nothing like he was at the boss fight, he has somewhat better control on his emotions, enough to know what he's doing, but all he knows is killing these things.

The horde arrives and it's even worse than Proteus expected. The fact that any stray rabbit-like creature could shear limbs off is something of a horrifying affair. Despite their best efforts, the bunnies are charging past the front line, forcing Proteus to leap off of the building and intercept. This might not have been the best plan on her part, however, as one of the bunnies swiftly shreds a large chunk of her HP bar off and takes her foot with it. With a scream of pain, Proteus leaps backwards, hopping on one foot and balancing on it. "You think you're going to get away with that...?" Proteus hisses. Not that it matters, they're bunnies. It does, however, make her feel better and helps her focus away from the pain and more on exterminating the horde.

Again, she dives forward, not able to hold in the back line anymore now that things have gotten chaotic. Her hands weave again, forming more shapes. ) - O

And suddenly she flips in the air, yelling as she drives a fist down amidst a pile of Buns as the Holy attack blasts outwards.

    So far it's not proving too difficult for Yuuki to carve her way through the swarming bun-buns. Though it seems she made the right choice to not understimate them and let them get too close to her, as she notices more of the others starting to lose some limbs. These buns certainly are ferrocious!

    Seeing the numbers quickly swelling, Yuuki decides that now is a good time to fall back. She finishes cutting through a bun, before turning and starting to run back towards the channeling fortifications they've set up. She's trying to kite the bun-buns following her into those narrow paths to give others the opportunity to engage multiple quickly.

    But Yuuki doesn't slack off on her own offense. As she runs she reaches behind her back, pulling a small vial filled with a sickly green liquid out of her inventory. She throws the vial towards the group of buns following behind her. It shatters, the contents splashing out to hopefully catch and sicken a bunch of the murderous buns.

Kauchemar raises a brow as groups of the buns start gathering together in chains that start moving like one elongated creature. "... Oh, that's why they said not to let too many of them get together." When one of the bun-chains lunges towards her Kauchemar hip hops back a few steps of the bun-bun's crashing down to avoid getting crushed!

But the one on the end (the head?) managed to chomp down with disportionately cute little jaws. A horrific *THWANG* disrupts the song as strings literally snap and the neck of the lute falls to the ground. Along with the hand that had been playing it.

Either they didn't like the choice in music, or it's some sort of karma for the Nightmare making light of the same thing happening to Miho. Take your fit.

"Damn, everyone's a critic!" Kauchemar eyes the for-now handless stump, and then shrugs and cackles. "Na-hahaha!" The rest of the lute is tossed aside. "Okay, fine, I can't play anymore. You really think that will stop me? To that I say... NEEIIIGH!" Nothing is stopping the puns, apparently! That one is painful!
Literally, as the braying retort escalates in volume and distorts, becoming a demonic cry more akin to a screaming banshee than any sort of sound a equine is suppose to make! Enough to literally shake little fluffy buns to their bones with the sound.

    And on comes the swarm. Miyako was /expecting/ a swarm. She didn't stop to think what that really /meant/. Even as her shadow-bolts and all the other attacks whittled down their numbers, there were still more of them oncoming. "Right, you little rodents," she snaps out as she starts inscribing runes for another attack. "Time to fry."

    And then some are just /too/ close, and she whips down her naginata to stab at them. She catches one... and then another leaps up the haft towards her. She jerks back from it, but too late - the weapon, and her hand, fall away in a scattering of crimson pixellation. Her next words are loud, shocked, and most definitely not safe for young children's ears.

    "Alright, no more Miss Nice Bard," she adds as she finally finishes her spell. "Let's see how you like this!" And shards of ice rain down from the sky to slam into the crowd of critters.

    Suddenly there's a horde of buns! But more importantly, someone is WRONG ON THE INTERNET. "They're not rodents!" Mizuki shouts. "They're lagomorphs! Rabbits, hares, and pikas have TWO pairs of incisors, unlike OH GOD GET AWAY!" Mizuki tries to activate stoneskin as the rabbits swarm towards her, but they're too fast and interrupt the skill activation animation, one gnawing her hand off as she hops away. "Who the fuck came up with these monsters?! Get away from me!" With her remaining hand she activates a water ninpo, a barrier of spinning water forming around her to sweep up bunnies and stop them from getting through -- and maybe do physical damage and drown them if they're in it long enough. "I'm drowning bunnies so I don't get eaten alive! Why is this game like this?!"

Bunnies are fast, but Kotono's faster!

Well, almost...

Just managing to avoid an attack by the skin of her teeth, Kotono spins around until she finds that she's save, but the mobs are still coming so there's no time for rest.

"Gotta keep going," Kotono comments, giving a slight glance to her old friend Miyako who is also here, even though there's no time for socializing. Instead of trying the ninja style maneuvers, she tries slashing with her blades directly instead for a change.

Miho should be beleediung out, hell she should be dead, if this was earth she would be. She's not here it's painful it's leaving her angry, angry as hell. Thankfully Yuuki helps bail her out being surrounded. She will slice she will dice she will cut them down, without mercy or hestation. "Die foul things die!"

Oh she's mad she's hissing and spitting and may very well be ready to breath fire soon.

The kitsune continues to strike at buns, though as one nearly manages to get to her, and then gets blasted, she offers a quick nod of thanks to Proteus after getting saved.

She turns around and blocks another attack from one of the buns, "These are far more aggressive than I anticipated!" She comments to nobody in particular as she strikes back out at the wave of buns.

She pulls her wakizashi into her other hand, slashing with both blades at the group of buns. This is rapidly getting more and more out of hand. How many of them are there, and can the group continue to fend them off before they get overwhelmed?!

Amidst the detonations of Proteus' traps, and Rylen's use of Earth Pillar, it is quite the display to see the constant shockwaves of these /blanket/-like patterns of Bun Buns being shot up into the air. Only for Kauchemar to blast them off and rip their little bodies apart from the inside. They seem to shake and squeek for a bit, before they detonate from the sonic power of that hit resonating with their little bodies, exploding into tiny little red clouds of glow.

Mizuki then flushes the area right between the Proteus and Rylen pillars of earth, creating pools of water that rapidly drown the little Bun Buns. She has to keep the spell up a bit longer than she might be comfortable with - as they squeek and make little rabbit noises, before the light fades from their eyes.

And they explode into light.

Kotono is luckily serving as a fantastic guard for Mizuki, cutting at their little bodies as they get closer - while the team leads them towards the traps. Tenko jumping in at the right moment as a series of bunnies jump for Mizuki and Kotono's backs - ripping them apart with her strikes.

Yuuki speeds through, avoiding the rabbits, but so do they - her. The potion is splashed their way, and the rabbits show that while they may have scary close formations, they can split up suddenly - like soap being poured into oil-covered water. Proteus luckily makes use of them splitting up like that all of the sudden with a split holy attack that sears their bodies into light right before Yuuki. She can no doubt feel the burning holy heat coming off of those spells - it's that close.

Another squad is about to rush for Proteus, jumping up from the little wooden 'gorge' beneath when a violent buckshot of icicles rip through the area, raining down through Miyako's spell into their little bodies, ripping them apart and making their numbers a lot smaller in that particular pocket of Bun Bun. With Miho coming back in towards the 'safety' of the tower defense lines and cutting the remainder down.

But the Buns keep running. Various small traps catching Bun Buns by the foot. They can hear the occassional 'SHINK-CHUCK!' as a remodeled bear trap rips a small crew of bunnies to shreds. Small traps in the ground cause series of them to fall down into a spiked pit! Their defenses are holding up... but can they?

Luckily, it seems like the Buns are unable to gather in the dense packs that they did moments ago. Their numbers appear to be thinning a bit. They continue to swarm the team. Some of them getting into such tight packs that it looks like the ground itself is /writhing/, rather than being actual bunnies. It's as if the land itself is coming for them. Threatening to grab them... pull them to the ground, and devour them if they fall for too long.

There is something horrifying about the sheer number of Bun-buns coming towards them. The fact that it looks almost as if the ground were a living thing, breathing and undulating. However, Rylen is quick to back himself up, making sure to maintain what distance he can from the furry menace as it continues to press forward. He is forced to shift into a diving roll to escape one launching itself right at him, the creature landing and puffing up in anger.

"Chew on someone your own size." He quips back, then grabs onto one of the support beams from the farmhouse's back porch, parkouring himself up onto the edge of a nearby overhang. Lithe on his feet, Rylen crouches there, looking over the battlefield of fluffy horror.

"Let's see if we can bundle make it a little harder on our furry friends." Though he doesn't have the direct connection to the earth from his higher vantage point, Rylen still can feel it within every fiber of himself. He extends one hand, fingers outwards, then sharply lifts his hand upward. This time, it isn't roots, but thick, thorny vines which shoot up from the ground.

The vines have a thread-like consistency, with sharp thorns that spear at the Bun-Buns as they dart across them. The vines move, almost as of of their own accord, but those watching closely would see that they follow the motions of Rylen's hands. They seem to wrap around a group of the Bun-Buns, giving them a death from a thousand small cuts.

    Merek looks between the party while he tries to see if people need defending. When it looks like people can fight it, he nods, then he shifts around to sheath his sword, while he takes a moment to lift up both hands, chanting while he infuses them with the power of the fire. "Alright, enough is enough. I call upon the ancient power of the Burning One, the goddess of the flame, she who will guide us forward. Ignis el vak ruk en!"
    The words combine while he begins to step forward, blue and black flame upon his fists. There's a shift while he begins to swing, punching the bun buns with his fists as each one of them would begin shimmering with the flames that sweep along the field.

    They bit her hand off! L E T  T H E M   D R O W N . This time, Mizuki's faster as the horde comes for her, using wind-boosted speed to keep ahead of the pack! Do bunnies have packs?

    Parts of the ground appear to be moving, where the buns are so closely clustered together. Mizuki mentally smiles at the sight, because it means they're in FIREBALL FORMATION. Speeding past, she spits a little ball of fire that explodes on impact, hopefully blasting the critters in all directions before they shatter into polygons!

Goldenblade continues her agile evasion, sliding aside from the heaviest mass of the bunbuns, slashing down at the tiny predators with savage thrusts, impaling them one at a time before flicking the bodies from the blade. Not that she needs to, they die in glowy red light, but she hasn't entirely got the hang of the computer game part of this. "Is there no end to these pests?" she wonders aloud, and then she wonders, "And how did the farmer survive these?"

Goldenblade's swords, which aren't, in fact, golden, would be turning quite red if the bunbuns didn't simply glow and fade. She continues to fight on, a bit tired now, but hanging tough. This isn't the body that laid bricks all day, but that's the indefatiguable spirit. Two swords don't weight her arms down nearly as much as the next pair of bricks would, though her actions are as final for the buns as smashing them with bricks would be.

Things go badly for Miho even with armoured scaled feet? Well, the buns go chomp even as she's fighting them. She's very angry now, and she feels something welsl up within her. She breaths deeply as she can with the pain and then lets it all out. A gout of fire erupts from her mouth. Miho pans her head, trying to fry as many of the bun buns as she can with this. If she could shout right now, by fire be purged is what the very angry and maimed Salamander would be saying. It's also a damn good thing the Farmer and his family got out of here.

This isn't really working, the buns are starting to wither and lose their numbers, but it's still an overwhelming number of buns. She decides she needs to take out a big group of them at once, so she quickly jumps backwards, wrapping flames around herself as she does so, sheathing both of her blades before bringing her hands in front of herself.

All three of her tails fan out, as she builds a ball of flame between both of her hands, growing it in size until it's big enough to launch into one of the group of bun-buns and hopefully obliterate them with one big blast.

Those bun-buns got plowed into the sound... But there's plenty more to take up their place. Not as many as before, but they're moving in rolling clusters of fluff and bitey little buck teeth.

"Time to fade to black." Kauchemar grabs an end of her cloak with her remaining hand and pulls it around her in a wrapping defensive motion. Which also swirls up several dark shadows to engulf the Nightmare. Bun-Buns swarm over biting and kicking in the most adorable fashion, but are ineffective at getting past the barrier of dark magic. Within the darkness Kauchemar takes a moment to compose herself.. and then her eyes flare open, the ghostly spectacles of flame crackling to life around their unnatural glow. A moment later her voice rises from the receding shadows, this time more appropriately hauntingly sullen and ominous.

" o/~ Com'n somebody, why don't you run? Ol' Red's itchin' to have a li'l fun.
Get my lantern, get my gun... o/~ "

Dark magic manifesting from the words, the other Adventurers might briefly see the flicker of a dog-like form from the shadows around the Nightmare Bard.

" o/~ But Red will have you treed 'fore the morning come! o/~ "

But the real force of the spell is being used to project the image of the ultimate hunting dog, something any Bun-Bun should be properly afraid of, directly into the cute widdle heads.

The Holy explosions takes some of the heat off Yuuki, but who's going to take the heat off her? Proteus continues to limp along, quickly hopping around on one foot to keep off of the injured limb. "You okay, Yuuki!?" Proteus calls. Not that she really needs it, likely. After all, she is the Absolute Blade.

In the mean time, however, several more Buns strike at Proteus. With a yell, she swings her hands through the air, catching bunny after bunny and hurling the balls of fluff back into each other to interrupt the attack swarm. But it's not enough... As another half dozen leap in, Proteus braces...

And the wash of icicles raking in cause her to look to one side, seeing Miyako striking. "Thanks!" She calls to Mikako, giving her a thumbsup before she uses the moment of space to leap backwards. "That's about enough of that..." She says, glaring at the next swarm. Hands slam together, weaving and forming patterns in the air. Symbols of meaning and power. V S M

Her hands flare amber, and with a grunt she hammers them into the ground once more... But this time there is a rumbling wave of tremors that rip across the ground before a large shaft of rock slams out of the earth like a spire, tipped with a giant fist. "GIVE UP ALREADY!" She yells in irritation.

Sometimes, it doesn't always pay to be light on your feet.

Despite her best efforts, Kotono gets caught by the bunnies... OK, the mass of monster bunnies...

And what's this? She's lost a hand?!

Kotono cries out as she realizes her left hand is gone, as is her ability to use both of her blades. "This isn't... very nice!" She yells as she catches her breath, recovering from the shock of (virtually) losing a hand. Still, Kotono won't back down.

Kotono decides to try a unique approach. She tries to take to the air and then come down with her blade pointy side first!

Leaping back and away, Miyako has managed to avoid getting overrun by the rabbit-things again. Fortunately. She casts her eyes about, checking the numbers of the beasts, the status of her comrades. And a good half of them are wounded. And a LOT of critters are still oncoming.

    "All the world seems to sing on a spring evening when we're smashing the bunnies at the farm," she sings as she starts to inscribe more runes, starting her spell from well back. "When they swarm you'll see, the hunters and me, as we're smashing the bunnies on the farm."

    She grins as her runes glow and spread out across the field, over the ground. "When they see us coming, the bunnies don't try to hide, maybe they'll go for peanuts that're coated in cyanide..."

    Unfortunately there are no peanuts, and no cyanide, for her to offer. Instead, as her runes rise from the ground, they pull a jagged wall of stone with them, hopefully enough to slow the swarm from approaching the waiting hunters.

    "OH COME ON!"

    Yuuki pouts a little as the swarm of buns are able to avoid the poison she had tried to splash them. She's still running ahead of them, just keeping out of reach.

    Until a burst of searing light rushes past. Yuuki skids to a halt as she holds her ground between the blast. After it has passed, Yuuki looks at the smoking remains of the buns before they explode into light. She then hears Proteus call out. Yuuki just smiles and waves back to her, "All good! Nice work!" She flashes Proteus a thumbs up, before she starts running again.

    Yuuki rounds a corner of the fortifications they've set up, only to skid to a halt as she finds a puddle of buns. They're blocking her way forward. Yuuki cries out to the buns, "Hey, you're in my way!"

    The Imp runs for the buns, but then leaps to the side to land on the wall of the trench she's in. She then leaps into the air above the collection of buns, sword glowing with light. She raises the blade above her head and spins it around to point downwards as she falls from the sky. As she lands in the puddle of bun-buns, she strikes downwards to stab her blade into the group with a fierce blow that unleashes a shockwave around her.

    This was either a really good idea or a really bad idea.

Rylen's mastery of Earth shows itself in a many varied kinds of ways. The thorn wall raises around the hut, leaning over slightly, and making it significantly harder for the 'blanket' of Bun Bun to approach. Slamming into the wall, the thorns seem to almost 'detonate' the wake of the river of Bun - light rippling out along the bottom of the porch.

Merek joins in front of the porch. One might think the Thorns to be the most dangerous thing to the Bun Buns in that moment as they keep crashing against it, but Merek shows that assumption to be quiet incorrect with the first flaming punch - the sheer motion of which creates a detonating star-like pattern in the air before the flaring blow meets the ground, glassing it and sending a wave of Bun Buns up into the air and outwards - the many squeeks as they land to the ground and detonate forming a concerto.

Another detonation of flame soon follows, but this one is Mizuki's, blasting an enormous swath apart with their flaming ball of fire. With Goldenblade stepping in shortly after, amidst the charred ground, and cutting through the creatures that remained. Cutting swaths with rapid movements of her hands - while Merek supports her with flames so hot, they turn blue and make the entire air around him 'warp'.

With that much fire being used, it's a good thing none of them have failed badly enough with their skills to set parts of the farm on fire yet.

Tenko shows that she is no pushover when it comes to flame either. Creating a solid Fox Fire in the midst of her hands, which swirls and comes to life with fierce power, and is thrown forward, burning the buns without stopping close to the ground! They should be getting out of the way! But at the edge of her sight she might spot Kauchemar, whose spell isn't frightening them off - but rather making them /freeze in fear/. Making it so that Tenko has free reign for a bit.

Thorns cut across the landscape, Rylen's ability reaching a bit further, intermixing with Proteus' rock spire - which cuts from the ground and /rips/ through the bunnies - detonating some of them into red light simply on impact, while the edges of the stone cuts some of them apart.

Kotono comes in to keep Proteus protected - swooping in from above as two Bun Buns jump at her - spearing it and the one below it like a Bun Bun Shish-Kabob and then landing on the ground, protecting her flank.

A wall of earth suddenly forms, funneling another series of Buns forward along their defensive lines - halting them from jumping at Tenko and Kauchermar as they clearly had been attempting - splatting against the side of it on the initial jump - before of all the other bunnies pushing them foward as well. Yuuki makes use of this 'Kill Corridor' set up by Miyako - jumping up and splashing downwards, cracking the walls and detonating a few Bunnies with sheer Sword Arte, before jumping back and letting the walls cave in on them - damaged by the shockwave.

They bunnies are clearly starting to thin out properly. It's easier to see now - the river side is no longer as white. And some smaller squads of Bun Buns are simply leaving the area. But there is still this last remaining heavy wave of Bun Buns that just /splashes/ into the sides of their defenses, and start to eat through their wooden defenses! Their position is about to be overwhelmed.

To the point that the Bun Buns rear /up/ like this giant /wave/ of Bun Bun. Up into the air, smothering the light of Kauchemar's fire spirits. Their black eyes amidst the wave seem to glow red thanks to the flames set up and the constant bursts of fire being used in combat... as they are about to come tumbling down upon them all!

As the bun-buns begin to merge together into one giant swarm, Rylen curses under his breath. He stares upwards as a column of furry death comes his way, a few of them dropping towards him. He manages to smack a couple of them back with punches and kicks, but one of them latches on to his hand. It takes less than a second for his heatlh to drop and a numb feeling to pace where the limb used to be.

He stares where his fingers had been, then speaks in an undertone, "It's not permanent." As if he had to remind himself of that. Then, turning his attention on the rabbits. "You want to eat something, try eating this."

He hops down to the ground, letting his fingers touch the earth. A moment later, a bony, pale hand reaches up. Crawling with eerie speed out of the earth, an undead apparition appears, dressed in armor. The female warrior has her head tipped forward, long dark hair obscuring her face. When she moves, it is in uncanny twitches.

"Drive them back." He orders, and the ghostly warrior turns wading into the mass of bun-buns, sword slashing without heed or care. Afterall, you can't kill something already dead... right?

    Merek looks over to the party while he watches them, even as flames begin dancing along the field of the bun buns which were exploded. A shift of the hand he begins to lift up, before he swings over to Proteus, "We can win!" he calls, swiveling upon hip to stand in front of the woman, unable to take the strike. It comes for him and his foot along with a hand both look to be sent flying.
    Then he would look to Proteus, "Are you alright?" he asks, wincing a bit while the glow comes from the foot, shifting into the field, making him kneel. The hand means that his sword was dropped to the ground. A first time for it not to be in hand, still it keeps to his wielding status. All the same, it's a relief, then he looks up with the main hand, his left, glowing. Still he pulls both wrists together and speaks, "Firebolt!" The green flame begins to form in front of him with mystical dark powers, then it's shifted forward to be sent right into the bun buns before him and his charge at the moment.

Goldenblade acks at the wall of bunbuns that forms, and as the wave of bunbuns tumble down around her, it's all she can do to keep from being smothered completely, losing a foot in the process and relieved she hasn't lost more. "What in the world?" she gasps in disbelief, with an undertone of kids today, what will they think of next?

Well, she's got a couple more tricks up her sleeve, and she cuts loose with a concussive blow, like a shockwave from each sword as she uses them both to pound back at the falling bunbuns, beating back the wave with every ounce of energy she has, blades swinging, slashing as fast as she's ever swung them, over and over to fend off the deluge.

She's one-handed, but she's still swift on her feet. Kotono is still trying to fight off this mob, even with only one good hand. What about her other knife? She'll have to deal with that later.

"I hope I can find a good surgeon or healer," She says as she tries to fight off the mob.

    Miyako cheers to herself as the wall seems to work, at first, funneling the rabbits into a narrow channel to be more efficiently slaughtered. She's just reaching for her naginata, to retrieve the fallen weapon, when a mass of bunbuns leaps over the wall and a new swarm heads right. toward. her.

    "To quote Data... ohhhh shit." she mutters as they swarm over her, leaving crimson-glowing gouges on her skin. Then she stands, the swarm past her - for the moment.

    Only to stare in brief shock at her hands... or rather, the place where they were. Both arms end in crimson stumps, now. "Ya know, I don't ask for much in this world... but having my old level back would be /really/ effing nice right now." A swift kick propels the fallen pole-arm ahead of her with each step as she backs off from the battle, finding refuge behind a fence.

Merek's all-consuming flame erupts, annihilating a large number of Bun-Buns and lighting up the night for a short time. Proteus arches an eyebrow. "Someone's already managed to get to the point where they can use /that/ again!?" She looks over, staring at the conflagaration. "Well, looks like things might not be as bad as I expected." Of course, it's just then that a group of Bun-Buns come to attempt to devour her. Kotono gets them from one side, but then there's more. There's always more.

Just before they shred her, though, Merek intervenes, interposing himself and paying literally an arm and a leg to keep Proteus intact. The Imp Archaeologist stares for a moment at the magical knight, blinking at what he just did. "You... Yes, I'm fine. Why did you bother? I'm not... Tch!" She clenches her teeth. "I'll make it worth it." She says, and brings up her hands, attempting to form another set of gestures with her hands.

But halfway through the motions, another Bun-Bun leaps towards her, and she instinctively flinches back. "AAAAH!" She yells. "STAY AWAY!" She falls backwards, her attempt to use her Ability spoiled by the sudden bunny strike as she falls back on her rear ignominously. "Damn... Is this really all I'm good for?" She grimaces as she struggles back to her foot.

    AoE after AoE drops, and the melee fighters cleave through vast swaths of buns... and they just KEEP COMING.

    The Adventurers are managing to funnel the buns into one place, though, which means that concentrated AoEs should finish this...

    ...Until the buns rear up as one quivering mass. What the hell, seriously, what demented game designer made this event for a VRMMO?! Mizuki takes a deep breath... but one suicidal bun leaps right at her face just as she spits the fireball, taking one for the team to make Mizuki explode herself!

    Her HP bar is in the red. As an Odysseia Knight, Mizuki's quite willing to experience death in the line of duty clearing the tower... but being smashed by a boss in one giant hit is one thing, this??? Mizuki doesn't want to experience being eaten alive by a swarm of piranha-like bunbuns. That's the kind of shit that traumatizes you for the rest of your life even if you survive it!

    Mizuki rezzes a teleport crystal from her inventory and gives an apologetic look to the assembled adventurers as she activates it. "Sorry. RETURN!"

    And then she's gone.

The wave that crashes down upon the group is more than Tenko can deal with. She tries to form a wall of flame to protect herself, but while it scorches an umber of them, one gets through and chomps off her left hand. She lets out a yelp of pain, and then hauls back and punts it.

Not good enough as she tries to swing her blade again, but there's just too many of them. She's getting overwhelmed like the rest of the group, but she has no intention of backing down and failing this quest. Not while she still has some fight left in her.

Bun-buns are brought to a halt as their primal fears are manipulated, giving others a chance to tear through their numbers. Kauchemar licks her lips with her demonic tongue. "Terror so strong I can practically taste it~"

It's a massive blow to the numbers, but not enough to keep the remaining bunnies from rallying together for one last push, rising up like a tidal wave of fuzz. "Oh that's not good." She quickly conjures up a wall of flame... but due to the sheer swarm of Bun-Buns falling it's not enough, their overwhelming numbers smothering the focused fire and crashing down. The bard is tumbled around in the fenetic frenzy of fluff before finally toppling free. One ankle flickers red as she now lacks a hoof to go with the missing hand. "That stings like a bitch!... I no longer scorn those farmers for being afraid of this happening."

Despite the loss Kauchemar does manage to push herself up onto her remaining hoof and stand, if only due to the great balance she has a dancer. Her eyes are still glowing, adding an additional touch of malice when she scowls. "Time to pay for all this trouble caused." She holds up and out her remaining hand as she partially clenches it dramatically. "And you're FOOTing the bill!"

Instead of the sensible thing like fleeing she goes for karmatic revenge, summoning several skeleton hands from the ground to grab onto Bun-Buns, specifically their legs and feet, and rip them from the overall mass to YEET them away. "NOT SO LUCKY NOW ARE THEY?! NYEEEEIGHAHAHAHAHA!"

    Hooray, it was a good idea!

    Yuuki jumps away as bits of terrain crash down on the group of buns she had just assaulted. This gives her a moment to breathe a little easily.

    But in the moment, she starts to hear some chewing.

    Yuuki turns in the direction of their wooden fortifications, to see that mass of buns trying to bite their way through. Just as a large wave of the white creatures rises up. Yuuki's eyes go wide.

    She's not a magic user! She doesn't have powerful AOE spells to wipe out a whole fluffle of buns in one go! All she has is her sword. And her speed.

    They'll do!

    A soft aura of light covers Yuuki's body, while at the same time she whips her sword out to the side. A light gust of wind begins to visibly swirl around it, before it speeds up and turns dark, spreading up Yuuki's sword arm to cover her whole body.

    Fwoosh! Just as the wave of buns is about to hit her, Yuuki starts running. Fast enough to actually keep ahead of it. More than that, she's running along with the wave, staying just within reach. She lashes out with her blade, sinking it into the moving mass and pulls it along with her, cutting a line through the massive fluffle of buns.

Miho has set a lot of the little bastards on fire, but there's just too many of them coming she's getting torn up pretty badly here. She has to breathe still so the fire can't stop. The bun bun's keep on coming, eventually they will get past her blade and flames. There's just too many she's barely able to save herself, with some creative use of her tail's thagomizer and will drag herself out of the combat zone. There isn't really anything she can do now, after all.

Rylen's undead warrior is the first thing to break into the wave of Bun Buns. Cutting into them with its blade and slicing a secure region through them - right before the Bun Buns devour the Undead Warrior before the Summon can even peacefully go on its way! Following in the wake of its demise, is the hero's spell - FIREBOLT! Blasting a massive gap into the wave of Bun Buns as they teeter towards the Adventurers!

A rain of the Bun Buns are about to land on Merek and a few of those retreating, as Goldenblade comes in, throwing their fist harshly forward, creating a sonic boom strong enough that the air seems to shift peoples' clothes about just before the pinacle of the hit strikes the tip of the teetering Bun Bun wave and blasts them apart - causing a great many of them to go toppling back. Kotono cuts at the wave of Bun Buns closer to the ground, keeping the grounds safe for Rylen while he's still in the midst of his summoning-cast.

Proteus is having worse luck than some of her allies - along with Tenko. Luckily, with Merek protecting them with his flames! Still, while Proteus' skill seems to have faltered at first, there's this bead of light at the center of a mass of Bun Buns... flickering faster and faster, like fireworks trying to rocket into the air, right before it BURST into a light, creating a sphere of swallowing incandescence that protects Tenko just before a squad of Buns can overcome her! This gives Tenko just enough time to spot a series of Bun Buns coming in from the sides and slides past Merek as he fires another firebolt - ripping the Buns apart before they can deal that last critical blow to the Magic Knight.

Kauchemar and Yuuki join forces at the same time on the other side of Rylen and co - breaking the wave further with various enormous skeletal hands that come up from the ground - creating various footsteps for Yuuki to take in her own approach! Like a surfer using a wake - the light of Yuuki's incredible speed works up along the wave of Bun-Buns. She becomes a literal wave-breaker as her sword carves a red swatch amidst their numbers, as if she were literally cutting a wave in half, until finally she's left flying at the side of the wave...

As it collapses.

And the Bun Buns fall to the ground. Some of them still in pockets large enough that the Team has to deal with them. But the main swarm seems to be lowered in numbers enough that they rush back to the river and otherwise spread out in general.

And as they clean up... and the flames continue to burn... the wave of Bun Buns finally seems defeated. Or at least, scattered enough that they as past the critical number needed to create that ravenous flood...

As they finish cleaning, people may note that out of the hundreds if not thousands of Buns they annihilated, they manage to find some items. Enough that everyone just happens with one of them.

    Merek looks to the field while he would eventually pick up one of the clovers, his HP Bar still in that red with the glows showing, seeming to be exhausted from the fight. The system protection doesn't manage to keep him from placing a hand to his face, while he would try to keep a bit of composure. Eventually, he shifts up while he draws a hand to cast Ol Repth, then he would begin to assist in healing the party. "Are you all alright?" asked to all of them, especially those that were in the fight a bit close to him, Goldenblade, Tenko, Proteus. Then it's on to everyone.

In the aftermath of the chaos, Proteus just... stops as she sees the bunnies finally break and run. She flops onto her back, staring into the night sky. As she's asked if she's all right, Proteus waves to Merek. "Yeah. I'll be fine. Thanks to you." She chuckles lightly, shaking for a moment. "The status effect will clear eventually, don't worry too much about it."

There's a little grimace as she continues to stare into the twilight above. "It just reminds me of how far I still have to go. But I certainly don't want to do that again."

    Yuuki runs out of steam, as well as places to go, just as the wave collapses. She dives!

    Yuuki comes flying out from beneath the falling buns, hitting solid ground and rolling to a stop. She quickly sits up though, a little dirty but otherwise fine, "That... Was... AWESOME!"

    It looks like they've managed to thwart the main bun-bun assault, leaving only stragglers to clean up. Yuuki makes her way back towards the others, poking at any stray buns that get in her path during their retreat.

    One of them she pokes at drops a shiney looking item. Yuuki leans down to pick up the clover, "Oh, lucky!" She deposits it into her inventory before continuing on.

    With the cleanup proceeding smoothly, Yuuki reaches where people are grouping up, "Hey guys! Wasn't that great? Even if they were easy to kill, there was so many of them it was amazing! Right? Right!?"

    Yuuki looks around at them all, most of them rather beat up and missing a limb. Yuuki blinks, "What happened to you lot?"

Goldenblade makes a dismissive gesture to Merek, and claims, "I've had worse. Ever had a load of bricks fall over on you?" She chuckles. She'll maintain a sharp lookout for any bunbuns that didn't retreat when the wave broke, but it looks like she's worried over nothing in that regard. She manages to snag a rare drop, and a fair amount of rabbit meat as well. To Yuuki, she laughs and says, "We're not all as fast as you are."

Oh thank the Goddesses that worked. Kauchemar was starting to get limited on options since she can't play her instrument or maneuver very well at the moment.

There would be some twisted irony to her getting wiped by a horde of cuteness, but thankfully that embarassment doesn't come this time.

"And -that-," she points after the retreating scattering of Bun-Buns with her remaining hand, "is why I deal in summons of the supernatural and slimes and undead horrors. At least they don't hide their hideousness behind a layer of cute fluff!" Or maybe she's just being melodramatic.

She taps the red glimmering stump of her leg to the ground. "Well, at least I only lost a foot. It could of been hoof in mouth disease."

She's still making terrible puns, she'll be fine.

In the aftermath, Rylen lets out a sigh of relief. It never felt good watching his undead companion march off into danger, but she was very, very good at dealing with problems like these. "Let's hope this is just a once a year problem..."

He chuckles to himself, and then looks down at his missing hand. Though he knows it is only temporary, and that some healing will return full funtionality, there is a look that passes his features. What would it really be like if it were permanent.

"I'm going to do a quick scout of the farm, make sure they haven't gotten into anything where they can cause the farmer any trouble." He offers a salute to the others with his remaining hand, then starts to make his way around the farmhouse, looking for anywhere the little beasts could have found their way inside.

    "Much as we'd like to be," Miyako snarks at Goldenblade, much relieved that the tide of rabbitness is over. "Anybody got a healing potion handy? Mine are all in inventory." At least her hands will grow back fully. Or they should. They'd better.

"I hope we can do something about this!" Kotono says as she holsters the knife she's holding before picking up the other one and putting that in its other holster. "I can't go on with just one hand!"

Once things have finally settled down, Tenko re-sheathes her blade, carefully since she only has one of her hands, and looks to the rest of the group, "Everyone okay? Any casualties?" She didn't think anyone died but she wasn't 100% certain as the chaos of the battle had made it impossible to see if everyone was still standing.

Kauchemar uses her magic to kinetically grab her broken lute, and hold it over her head. "There's one casualty!"

Pause.

"Other than that, I think the most injured were wise enough to fall back. Unlike me, hah!"

    Merek would begin to offer healing magic, while he places a hand to Miyako. "Fairy Healing," he then would begin to offer that to each in turn, which would probably begin mending the hand and foot loss from people. Eventually, he would begin to look distant while he takes the weapon with him to place back onto his back. There's a nod along to Tenko, who he hadn't seen in a while, then to Proteus along with her words, "You're welcome." To Goldenblade, along to Rylen and even to Kotono. The only person that doesn't really get a lot of healing was Yuuki, who managed not to get a hit on her. "Well fought."

    Miyako holds her arm-stumps out for Merek with a tiny smile, which widens as she sees her hands reform. "Thanks a bundle, neighbor. So, will I be able to play the violin?"

Goldenblade will accept the healing, it's better than stumping around. "I was worried at the end," she admits. "I wasn't sure we'd be able to break that wave. Well, like they say, better to be lucky than good." She smirks at Miyako, nods agreement. "I know I would. I'm working on it, as much as I can."

"At least the farmer and his family are safe." Tenko says, as she takes a look around, "And damage to the farm was minimal. I'd imagine that is the best outcome we could have hoped for. I would like to know what drove the bun-buns to such madness, though.."

    Yuuki blinks at Goldenblade, then laughs and rubs the back of her head, "Oh. Right! Well. At least it looks like we all survived!"

    Yuuki grins at Merek and holds her fingers up in a V, replying, "You too!"

    Yuuki then nods in agreement with Tenko, "Things might have turned out bad if we failed this quest! And well, it's a seasonal event. They don't always necessarily make sense. I've seen some pretty weird ones in the past."

Kauchemar laughs in response. "You could say they were hopping mad!" Someone stop her, please.

Goldenblade chuckles at Kauchemar, hrms at Yuuki, then explains, "My senpai at work used to say that a lot, I picked up on it, I guess. I mean, I think we were pretty good also, but it's not really polite to toot your own horn like that, so you give the credit to luck, and no one's feelings get hurt. I, for one, will admit that luck helped me quite a lot here. Those rabbits were worrying."

    Merek looks like he's debating with himself, while he takes a moment to look to the entire field, "Well, I'm glad I learned Ragnarok's Wisdom," he notes, then thinks about it, "That keeps on coming in handy," he would admit. There's a look to Miyako, "You're welcome," then to Kauchemar, "I enjoyed all of the puns, please weaponize them." Yes, the man really likes the puns.
    To Tenko, "I'm glad you're okay," he then admits, before shifting the conversation, "Well. It's great practice for the next Wave."

    Miyako shrugs at the non-answer to her non-question, and settles herself on the grass, cross-legged. "Ahh, the Waves. The rotten, rotten waves." She shrugs and produces her guitar, settling it in her lap and starting to play, a slow, almost melancholy tune.

    Merek also adds to Miyako, "Were you able to play it before?" A grin.

    Miyako stops the guitar tune and grins at Merek. "Yes, but poorly, and I haven't gotten around to trying to get one made, here." She shrugs. "Guitar was always my best, really." She pauses for a moment, then starts on another song. This one slow and somewhat contemplative, but still more cheerful.

        I was born in the path of the winter wind, raised where the mountains grow old
        Their springtime waters came dancing down, and I remember the tales they told

        The whistling ways of my younger days too quickly have faded on by
        But all of their memories linger on, like the light in a fading sky

        River, take me along, in your sunshine, sing me a song
        Ever movin', so winding and free
        You rollin' old river, you changin' old river
        Let's you and me river flow down to the sea.