Wave of Calamity: 3 and 4

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The clock has ticked down.                |/         \|                
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The Hourglass's sand has reached the      | \       / |                
bottom.                                   |  \     /  |                
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The Purple-and-Blue clouds continue to    |    ) (    |                
swirl overhead.                           |   / ' \   |                
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The scope has shrunken to lure            | /.:::::.\ |                
Adventurers and Hunters towards the       |/.:::::::.\|                
dangerous eye of the storm.               |\:::::::::/|                
                                          | '--___--' |                
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The alien red 'light' that hangs beneath the clouds continues to bear its foreboding air. The clouds have shrunk down towards a region to the south-west of Fort Ouph - quite a ways north of Shibuya. There's various Pooka and Sylph Landers in attendance, bearing various kinds of armors.

They've been laying magical traps through the region, meant to activate only around Monsters. Though they've warned people to be careful about using Summons - as they sometimes trigger such traps. The nervousness is worse than usual. Not only does the Eastal Free League not bear as big or skilled an army as the Holy Empire Westelande and the Ninetails Dominion - there's one added fact that has come down the grapevine.

The concern that the Scale Emblem Alliance, at this very moment, is working on the Floor 4 Boss - right as the sands hit zero. And there's this heavy... thrum in the earth beneath them. Like a small earthquake. Something has happened... though they do not yet know what.

In front of them, the dense forest makes it hard to tell what might have happened yet. Which is only making the situation worse. Friends of the Scale Emblem Alliance haven't heard anything from them. Which is to be expected; during battle, communication outside of local parties are closed off after all.

    It's like a winter storm that builds up before it strikes the city. Merek watches on while he adjusts the gloves of his attire, wearing the beltcape at the waist along with the belt. There's a shift of his leather armor while he takes a moment to check on Shadow Eclipse, though he doesn't want to draw it, he might need to. He had assisted in offering potions to everyone that was to be with the group he was with.
    There's a shift of stance when he feels that little earthquake, "Alright, be prepared you all." The man sweeps along into battle formation position, "We have no choice but to let the Landers assist, let's try to work to avoiding casualties."

     Pela has set up at her little village, a place off the beaten path, but still in the path fo the wave. While there isn't much in the way of a standing army, she's done her best with what time she had to train up militia in the smaller towns and villages around the area. Probably not the most major of impacts, but hopefully it will increase the survival rate of any landers that weren't able, or were unwilling to evacuate out of pride or fear their livelihoods would be destroyed.

     A thrum in the ground is concerning, especially for the maid explorer. This area doesn't normally have this much seizmic activity. "Keep an eye out for underground enemies! Don't trust the land beneath you to be safe, always be ready to move!" Pela shouts towards the volunteer militia from the village.

Over the past couple of weeks, Mikage had traveled from Breg Epona, to Dun Loreiag, an then to the lands of Eastal. All in the hopes of trying to discover more about the strange happenings around the world. She had arrived near Shibuya days ago, aiding the members of the New World Alliance, gathering supplies, laying traps, and helping to prepare the Landers.

It's time to see of the preparations that so many in the Alliance have been doing, have paid off. Rama stands at her side, his fur puffed up with clear agitation. She is normally quiet, but her eyes look towards Merek, her expression saying more than words. Mikage expects there will be casualties, among the Landers if not among their Adventurer guardians.

"Keep an eye out for outside interference." She warns, just as she had during the sandworm attack. If Glass had been there the last two times, it's entirely possible she will show her face here, again. As the time ticks closer to the start of battle, Miki draws her sword, sending a bit of magic into the blade, lighting the cracks along it. "Ready, Rama?" She asks, taking slow, deep breaths.

Shiruba has been a busy wolf. As the zero hour had ticked closer and the loom darkness started to shift down to a point they could better gauge where it would 'hit', she had taken out a scouting party to assist in the preperations. While the local forces had been laying traps, the scouts had chased off some of the local monster mobs, in an effort to keep outside interruption to a minimum. The forests were dense here, they'd need all their focus on what was about to happen.

Now as the time creeped closer the group had returned to what was shaping up more and more to be the inpact sight. One of the Eastal members was quick to pass along warnings about the traps and using Summons, before scurrying back to work. It was almost ni...

Okay girl, just breath. You can do this. You've always been a strategic fighter. You just need to worr*mental scribbling*consider more than yourself now. Take comfort in that, that you are not alone out here.

Exhale. Shiruba opened her eyes, though still grimacing. Gestured to the other scouts that had been with her. "Spread out. Let the other arriving teams know about the traps and being careful around them. We don't need any friendly fire mishapes." Then pulled out her bow. "Be ready to move as soon as we have eyes on the opponent. We give them as little chance to get into gear as we ca--" Cue the rumbling in the ground, and she has to pause a moment stabilize herself. "--We can. The hell was that? The last thing we need is a natural disaster at the same time!"

She is trying so hard to keep calm and organized, but the frazzle in her flicking tail is a clear giveaway of the greater unease being dealt with within.

Frazzled? Worried? Panic? Poor thing. Shiruba would feel a rather firm, reassuring hand on a shoulder shortly after giving out some orders. "Easy." The were fang had been around the Silver Sword mod enough BEFORE the promotion that she could recognize a little mental fortification could do some good. Also hey, Arashi is here. Bonus. She wasn't entirely sure she was going to make it at one point.

    The dire-horse's eyes slowly turn upward, down at the rumble, and back up again. "This is going to be a long night, but we'll get through it. Don't let the pressure get to you too much, no matter how much it's building."

    Another floor boss down, another wave coming on its heels. Another interesting fight for the speed demon Imp that is Yuuki. Yuuki had heard that the Scalies were already working on the next floor boss to.

    Bold.

    Yuuki likes it.

    It'll also be interesting to see how that'll effect the current wave. If it even does. Yuuki figures since there's typically a sandy countdown between boss going down and wave appearing, they'll probably just see the next wave in a bit.

    The energetic imp is currently lying on her back in the grass. She rests her head on her hands, her legs propped up with one swinging as she stares up at the strange light show in the sky. She's as calm as as she watches, remarking to no one in particular, "It's kind of pretty. In a foreboding way."

    And then there's a rumble in the ground, Yuuki blinking in surprise. She's not sure where it's coming from, but she can feel the vibrations through her body, "Woah. That feels weird!"

    Miyako had been exploring the area around Shibuya, looking for any interesting dungeons or the like to explore. When she got word of the imminence of the Wave, however, she dropped everything to head back and join the defenders. She's spent the past few hours with some of the junior Lander soldiers, singing and playing her music and trying to help keep morale up.

        ./~ Hearth and Fire be ours tonight, and all the dark outside
        Fair the wind, and kind on you, wherever you may bide
        And I'll be the sun upon your head, the wind about your face
        The light upon the path you tread, and upon your wand'rings, peace.

    The music comes to an abrupt stop when the ground shakes, and she jumps to her feet. "Alright, boys and girls, looks like time is running short, get to your posts and stand ready. And remember, we're with you!"

    She stows her guitar and withdraws her naginata before finding a good vantage point to watch for the enemy.

    While he is distracted, Giganpor is there. The giant red-headed Were Fang is easily recognizable among the New World, and some from the Apocalypse might recognize him as a beacon to get to the square. It's his first time making it to a Wave. He's always been across the world when one has happened. While he had to leave his newest acquired mount back at the base camp, under someone's care out there, he's getting his feet back under himself.

    But another thing that is noted is that he's one of the few that has the respect of some of the New World Alliance. Clad in his armor, he doesn't waste time in staying as a human form. Not for this. A summoning circle follows him as a bird-like light elemental flies around him. The shift to the much more impressive Tusked Snow Lion Were Fang is obvious to all. Not to mention the bright golden glow of his cloak. That the Scale Emblem Alliance is hurrying things along just means they need to hurry to him.

    Raising his voice, Giganpor calls out, "Adventurers! Landers! Hear us!"

    He hops up on a handy fallen tree trunk, making sure that everyone can see him. Everyone. "My name is Giganpor of the Grandeur Guild. I don't know all of you here, but today we face an invasion. One that has come twice before and is caused by a bunch of fools that do not realize the danger to this world. Landers and Adventurers alike are in danger from these threats. While the Scale Emblem seeks to escape this world, we are the ones that seek to protect it. That seek to help those in danger from the monsters unleashed there." He motions towards the eye of the storm.

    "Whatever comes out of that storm, all that we can ask of you is to face it with the courage that brought you here now. That brought you to ally with your fellow people no matter what you are, I am proud to stand beside you this day. I am proud to see you as brothers and sisters in arms against the threat to this world."

    Giganpor raises his large axe into the air before pointing to towards the eye of the storm, "Today we show these invaders why we they should not set foot in this world! Give them the hell that they deserve and make them wish to never come back! Onward!" Giganpor turns to hop off the tree and head straight for the eye of the storm, his summon disappearing due to the warning of the traps as he holds his axe and shield in hand.

Seliana stands near other members of the Plant Hwyaden guild, her stark white hair is tied back in a long flowing ponytail and she wears a bright red frilly dress that does not look particularly suited for combat. She looks out over the landscape with a frown that has become very familiar to those who know her. During the other calamities heroes from another world had invaded, and now she is here to investigate further.

As she stands still looking out with dull red eyes she folds her arms and tilts her head slightly as she scan back and forth. After a pause she straightens and her ashen red eyes drain of all color until her irises are a pure white. She then slowly turns as she looks out over the area, doing a full 360 turn until she is again facing forward and the dull red slowly seeps back into her eyes.

Looking over at her other guild members she comments in a quiet monotone voice. "I'm certain Glass is not here. I sense nothing of her, at least nothing yet." She then seems to look forward although she keeps close to her guildmates as they act.

The purple clouds were a foretelling. Something was about to happen, another Wave of Calamity.

And with her experiences, Proteus ponders the next step. Dealing with the monster horde is going to be important, but there is a cause behind it, something even more potentially deadly than the monsters themselves.

Proteus is walking through the forest, a small device in her hand that emits a sweeping beam of light periodically as she sways between the trees. Her hood is pulled down, her cloak tight around her as she seeks out her quarry...

And then the ground rumbles. Proteus looks down at the earth and frowns. She kneels, pressing a hand to the earth. "Could it be from below again?" She asks no one in particular. "Seliana, do you see anything?" She asks her companion. "Which are you looking for?"

Seliana responds negatively. "It might not be Glass this time. She wasn't alone." Proteus frowns. "There are others." She casts her gaze over towards the bellowing speech of Giganpor, arching an eyebrow. "They will need their bravery today. As far as I can tell, the Scale Alliance might be making things considerably more difficult on everyone. Again." She sighs. "Do you know where the Heroes are in this area?" She asks Seliana. "Even if we don't know where they're coming from, we know what their goal is. All we have to do is intercept."

Kaydon has been off to one side of the fight, getting in some last minute practice swings with his masterwork blade. He's been training almost non-stop with it since he finished the build, although he has actually taken the time to eat and drink this time, so it's not as bad as it was last time.

He's no leader, not like Shiruba and Giganpor. He can't inspire the landers or other adventurers with his words. Hell, he's not even sure he can encourage himself.

He finally sheathes the blade and takes a moment or two to look around. Not nearly enough people from the other two alliances. Of course not, they don't care what happens to these Landers. 'They're not real' he heard someone say not too long back. Probably someone who hasn't even bothered to talk to a Lander. Each of them has lived their own full, rich life, even if it's just data on a server somewhere. As long as they're stuck here, this is as real as anything else. It's why he's stopped tackling the tower after realizing the floor clearing was spawning these dark waves.

There's some cheering at Giganpor's speech - riling up some of the younger players. There's a loud cheer. All while Shiruba gets a messenger returning to him - whispering something into his ear.

There's a sudden sound. Almost like something just shattered nearby. The clouds remain in place, but the swirling of them suddenly gets... thicker. People keep staring at the ground per instruction, and they have good reason to, thanks to all the rumbling. But that red glow gets deeper, darker than it ever has been, followed by a sudden movement within the skies.

As the red light becomes a shadow for a moment. Darkening the place that the Adventurers are positioned as something begins to lower from the skies itself. A...

Ghost Ship.

Creaky, wooden, with ragged masts, the ship begins to descend. A sudden flock of Gargoyles flourish out from its position, and start coming down towards the Adventurers and Landers. The ship gets just low enough that the bottom of it grazes the various tree crowns.

While something looms at the front of the ship. Writhing, slowly breaking free from the bow of the ship. It looks like some kind of deformed fish, white, with massive teeth. With a red 'wreath' of glow about it, akin to an aura. On closer inspection, it looks like it is chained up.

The Gargoyles proceed to come down, bearing their sharp claws and vile wind magics - trying to grab people and lift them up into the air - only to drop them down in order to break their bodies. All while protecting themselves with wind barriers to ensure that those who get picked up can't easily harm them... until it is too late!

     Defense against possible ground threats she had been ready for, but... a flying ghost ship... that she was less prepared for. She had done SOME preparation for it by ensuring those with archery training were as well stocked as she could, but she rarely kept much money on her, so even that had been meager. Luckily she was just one of many people preparing for this.

     As the gargoyles come in with their wind barriers, Pela pulls out several small slips of paper, each one inscribed with the same elemental rune on it.

                 THUNDER

     It's impossible to deflect or stop all of them, but Pela does her best. She exhales and swipes her tanto through each of the slips of paper, the elemental text glowing and unleashing a series of lightning bolts down the lines of the gargoyles, both to attempt to disrupt their wind elemental shields, and knock them away from any of her militia that had been picked up!

     Meanwhile, from behind her, the militia takes advantage of the hopfully-created opening to unleash a hail of arrows towards the gargoyles in the wake of the lightning!

Where has Kotono been? In the background?

Well, here she is now... and while she may seem like a late arrival, she's definitely prepared for what's happening. Knives twirling, fighting stance ready, a stern look on her face. "You guys don't look friendly!" She says to the incoming invaders. "And if you're not friendly, neither am I!"

Unfortunately, the Gargoyle comes in faster than Kotono is expecting, and one of them catches her quickly. She goes down but rolls away into a kneeling position, before looking upwards. "You picked the wrong acrobat to pick on!" She yells as she attempts to take to the air and strike one of the Gargoyles with her blade.

    Giganpor, being so obvious, is probably a big target. Especially whenever he pauses to figure out what to do against well... a FLYING SHIP.

    Jumping isn't a good idea, and the magical traps pretty much cancel out any summons he can use. So he's stuck on foot. At least until a Gargoyle gets him and picks him up. Getting an idea, he brings his axe up with both hands and tries to cut into the gargoyle around the back.

    The Were Fang gives a snarl at it as he tries to climb around the Gargoyle and get his axe around it's neck to try to steer it at the ship. Like seriously, at the ship. Hopefully it'll keep him from falling, too!

    The fact that he got singled out probably is leading him to assume it's the whole golden glowing thing, one that's turned an angry red now as he struggles to turn his kidnapper into his ticket to try to get on the boat.

How do you fight a ship without another ship? Well, Kaydon supposes you just do the best you can.

He ignores the gargoyles, choosing to focus on the ship itself. He wonders if they're both supposed to be working together or if this is two separate challenges that have shown up at the same time. That rumble from earlier still isn't sitting well with him.

The were fang gnoll scrambles up one of the trees, and then leaps towards the ship. He was trying to stab into it with a pair of his combat knives and use them to scramble on board, but he misses, falling short. One knife manages to catch, and Kaydon uses that to at least grab a hold of the anchor chain. Maybe he can pull himself up with that, unless it smashes him into one of those trees that it's barely managing to clear.

The sight of the ghost ship causes Mikage to take a step backwards, muttering a curse. That is certainly not what she had been expecting. The fact that the enemy seems to be sending gargoyles after them has her chuckling low, under her breath. "Really..." She smirks.

As one of them comes close, trying to grab her, Miki quickly utilizes her own wind magic, a spiral of air sending her briefly skyward to avoid the grasping talons. "Not quite!" She calls out, landing on a tree branch nearby.

Crouching, Mikage pulls out what looks to be an actual, traditional bow. Normally, she summoned one with magic, but it looks as if she's starting to experiment with using a real one. She pulls an arrow out from a quiver on her back, one which seems to have a spool of rope attached to it.

The arrow fires, the rope spooling out behind it, possibly giving others a way up to attack it, if needed.

Shiruba leans closer to listen to the whispering under the din of cheering in response to Giganpor's speech. Then gives the messenger a confused look, as if not certain she heard that correctly.

And of course that is when the Event finally hits and the Boss arrives... from the storm above, as a Ghost Ship, which was entirely not what was being expected. It leaves little time to ponder over what she was told, when Gargoyles start swooping in to snatch people up. Be it the sudden appearance, or other diversions, she's not quick enough to dodge out of the way of the swooping fiends, and gets blasted aside by the winds whirling around them as the creatures five. Off to an oh so wonderful start.

She rolls roughly, and back onto her feet. Damn it, damn it, this is not what she was prepared for. All the same she pulls an arrow from her quiver, frost quickly collecting around it as she raises it and fires, in an hope that the extreme cold will do something to weaken it.

She hasn't had long enough to formulate a more concise strategy yet.

"The Heroes of our world?" She asks Proteus in a flat voice and then again turns to stare forward with her steady expression as he eyes again shift to white. She begins to look around, seemingly tracking empty air or staring directly at trees as she surveys scene. She begins to turn around as she continues to look when a gargoyle suddenly crashes through the canopy of trees and lashes out with clawed hands that dig deeply into Seliana's shoulder and arm.

As quickly as it came down it beats its wings and casts wind magic to propel itself upward. Breaking through the tree cover the gargoyle climbs high up into the sky as Seliana continues to look down at the area from her new, her long white hair streaming along behind her.

After a few more moments of rapid accent the gargoyle suddenly lets go and she begins to plummet back down towards to forest below. Stretching her arms outward she maneuvers in the air until she is facing the ground but her dress continues to catch air and causes to her spin out of control until she crashes down through branches that snag and tear, but slow her decent until she finally collides with the ground, her HP dropping notably.

    Yuuki turns her head, looking over in the direction of the main gathering of people. Even from her prone position, she can see Giganpor standing above the rest. She listens to his speech, finally chuckling once he was finished, "Wow. That was so cheesy. Surprised he managed to keep a straight face through it all." Not that was necessarily bad. Cheese can be good!

    Yuuki returns to staring into the sky. The clouds swirl, the light glows, growing more and more ominous. Yuuki blinks for a moment as she thinks she spots something...

    ... Yuuki's eyes go wide, her mouth hanging open as she watches that ship lower out of the clouds. Yuuki quickly sits up, "That... Is... AWESOME!"

    Yuuki rolls backwards, planting her hands against the ground and pushing herself up into a flip to land on her feet. She grins as she looks up at the Ghost Ship, "I am totally getting on that thing." But first, the obstacle in the form of those flying creatures that are rushing down towards the gathered army. Yuuki draws her sword.

    Yuuki starts running, leaving the clearing and heading for the trees that the ship is starting to cruise over. The gargoyles begin to swoop down on everyone, Yuuki included. She manages to weave her way through the creatures and is just about to leap towards one of those trees when one gargoyle gets a lucky hit in. Yuuki grunts as the winged creature slams into her, sending her to the ground with a grunt.

    Yuuki groans as she rises to her feet once more, rubbing her head as she looks up at the ship passing over head, "Damn... I'm going to miss it!"

    Yuuki runs again. She leaps, landing atop a tree branch. She then leaps against, raising her sword up over her head, causing it to glow with light. Yuuki just manages to clear the tree tops, reaching the bottom of the ships hull at which point she tries to stab her blade into it. Hopefully allowing her to cling to it.

    And shortly after Arashi gives her vote of confidence to Shiruba, the pwny is off like a shot. A flying GHOST SHIP has appeared in the sky, there's gargoyles, there's chaos, and she had to get moving to avoid getting hauled off into the air by the creatures. Falling from the sky is not in her itinerary today.

    There's clap of thunder as the were-fang surges up into the air, bounds off a tree, and then surges for the ship. "NOT. TODAY." Both blades are brought forth, stabbed in, and just -dragged- along the hull thanks to gravity, before Arashi's arc takes her toward another tree, hooves pressing against it as she gets ready for another pass..

Another Tower Boss down, another Wave. Seems like a bit of a death wish to take these things on and not let the Landers deal with it. But given most seem mildly competent at best, perhaps it's for the best they get some actual PC help.

That said, Haseo's not here to 'help'. He's for testing. He knows he can draw information from common monsters just fine with his scarf of his... But what exactly do you pull out of a Wave monster?

Previously squat down with a massive sword slung over his shoulders, a guildmate says something. Unfortunately for them, he's not paying attention, and he's instantly drawn away from wanting to converse as the earth starts shaking.

A massive, ghost-like ship and a swarm of gargoyles descend upon the raid group, and it's finally time for Haseo to get his answer.

Despite the massive sword they're wielding, Haseo effortlessly weaves through the dive bombing monsters, disappearing right when it looks like he's about to be hit a couple of times.

He closes in on the ship specifically, climibing up a tree to better reach the hull.

"Come on! SKEITH!"

As he calls out, he reaches up with his free arm to touch the boat, green holographic panels enveloping it as it takes the form of a large, clawed hand.

Green nails dig into the monster ship, gripping onto its data as Haseo desperately tries to pull SOMETHING out of it.

Chaos erupts with the arrival of the ship and the gargoyles. Proteus squints at the phenomenon. "Well, that's not the same at all... But why would the ground shake from this? Is it simply a herald, or something else?" Additionally, this makes the traps set by the Landers... less than useful. "It'll be up to us to deal with this." Proteus says to her allies. "Come on, everyone. Let's move."

And move Proteus does, but not how she might have intended. With a sudden wash of wind, Proteus finds herself scooped up by a Gargoyle and pulled high. "GAH! Let go!" She tries to twist out of the grip, but all that she gets is a brutal claw across her chest for her troubles. Moments before she is released to fall to her death, however, she quickly sketches in the air: + <

The classic. A surge of flame explodes in the air, both blasting down at the Gargoyle gripping at her but more importantly, providing a surge of impetus to launch her. With a spinning motion, she flips down, attempting to land atop the ship. The others can work to destroy the ship and the creature within. Proteus is seeking something in particular, and this seems to be the most likely option.

    Staring in fascination at the flying ship, Miyako barely seems to notice the gargoyles dropping from it until one starts closing in on the group of soldiers near her. "Oh that is so not on," she shouts, cataloguing in her head the number of historical inaccuracies in the ship's design. "Better not try to land that thing in water," she mutters, "Unless you're fond of - OH NO YOU DON'T!"

    And with that shout, she hurls herself at one of the gargoyles just as it's about to yank up one of the soldiers in her group. Either her leap or her swing is mistimed, though, as it yanks her up by the ankle and into the air. She keeps swinging at the thing, her naginata leaving a series of crimson-glowing pixellated slashes in its body, until it drops her and she falls away from it.

    Her wings flick behind her, trying to slow her fall, as she watches the gargoyle fall near her. Seeing it land heavily, she adjusts her course to send herself right at it, her blade sinking into it with all the force of her fall. As the monster disappears into a shower of pixels, the spriggan and her weapon fall away without its support, and she stumbles as she lands heavily on the ground below.

    Merek looks to that ship when it comes along the horizon, and glances along to the side with a nod. "Alright, I'm asking for your assistance," he then looks to Shadow Eclipse while he focuses upon the blade, beginning to try and meet its darkness with his own, and shield himself with the light within. Then he watches while the people begin to sweep into both the gargoyles as well as the ship.
    The man lifts up a full shield of magic which begins to draw the assailing army away while he swivels along upon the hip, "Will one of you counter the wind!? We can't afford to lose defensive advantage!" The man draws the weapon forward while he takes off into the air to swing his weapon downward. "Dark Fire!" The flames ascend from the weapon into an arc along the ship, even while all the others begin to assail it, and it is data drained. He does take a look to Haseo, though he seems to focus upon the sheer force of will he's managing in it. The mana bar of his begins to shimmer away while the flame becomes a focus of fury from the man.

The wave would come, she knew that now with the third boss down, but she wasn't aware the scale was pushing more. She'd had to pause on her work project this left her unhappy. She could not get it out of her head and now she was delayed. Things are coming for them there are attacks of all sored and Miho's using here Katana to deflect the vast majority of them as she charges in. While some go for the ship she's going for the ads she lets out a cry as she does so leaping into the air and going like tiny little blender.

"I HAD ENOUGH OF THIS YOU INTERRUPTED MY MASTERWORK! YOU ARE GOING TO PAY IN SPADES!"

At the rate things are going she'll be breathing fire before it's all over.

There are squawks of confusion and concern amidst the Landers as the Ghost Ship arrives like that. The Gargoyles seem to focus on the Pooka - seemingly realizing that there is no point to picking up Sylph and dropping them, due to their (albeit limited) feather fall capabilities!

Luckily, Pela is around to give some assistance. A fierce lightning clap coming down to ripple across their shields, slowing their assault, and even eradicating a few of them straight from the skies! It's... almost a bit too easy. There's a large sum of them, but it's not an army. Kotono manages to cut the head off of one of the Gargoyles just as it's about to stab Pela in the back - having come up from behind her through some trees!

Giganpor manages to shred one of their shields - thanks to Pela's magical help - and begins to ride one of the Gargoyles up to the ship, before it moves and ends up decapitated, causing Giganpor to land down towards the deck of the ship! Kaydon stabs into the anchor moments later, and begins to work his way up, pulling up along, and jumping right besides Giganpor moments later.

Mikage fires on the ship, getting an arrow with a spool of rope attached and lodged into it. Kaydon, given the chance, ties the rope off on a metalic 'anchor point', solidifying the knot for people to climb up! Miyako manages to use the rope to climb slightly up it, jumping across to cut the Gargoyle that just lifted one of the soldiers and ripping it down.

The Landers, a bit trained, fire arrows and spells - cutting down more of the Gargoyles. Proteus gets lifted up, her flames hitting a few of them, before she's dropped towards the rope fired by Mikage earlier. Managing to grab it, she breaks her fall, and gets onto the ship - with Miho supporting her 'retreat' to the ship with sudden cuts of her Katana closer to the ground.

Those on the ship however, are welcomed by the shatter of a creature on the ship. A skeletonal Captain shattering apart as his head is cleaved off with a sickening ease by a scythe. Before them stands a tall and buff looking redhead, alongside a beautiful woman with blue hair - whose tips appear to go from that blue to an orange shade. [ https://imgur.com/a/2k71hhY ]

"Heya Kiddo... didn't think I'd see you again so soon." The buff youth remarks, smirking at Proteus with this warm look on his face. Those who quickly inspect the twosome would notice two names: L'Arc Sickle, and Therese Alexanderite. Both of them with the I, Castle, and Wing icons. Both of them marked as 'Red' difficulty. And to make things worse, it seems L'Arc has gained an HP bar since the last time Proteus saw him.

Right before the ship shakes for a moment, as it is subsumed in a strange light. Haseo's Data Drain expanding, as he attempts to steal the vessel's data... there's a moment where the ship suddenly creaks, and lowers down to the ground... and then straight out falls to the ground, threatening to crush those below it, as it loses the ability to stay afloat! Making the transition to its deck a lot easier...

But also weakening the chains that was holding the strange creature at the front.

"I hope you don't mind, but we brought something more your speed." L'Arc remarks, motioning his hand as the 'flaming' and monsterously jawed fish rises up to the air... and suddenly breathes a beam of undead fire towards those still on the ground and in the trees. It does not light the trees on fire...

Instead, it seems to directly sap the life out of them!

<< SOUL EATER >>

The landers are fighting for their homes, and doing a fairly good job of dealing with the adds, Miho also knows every last one of them. Is risking actual death to do this. So she does not hold back on her assault son the monsters. As Proteus and Mikage also engage. She does what she can to help, and she's quick to do some jumping stunts to get on the ship and will end up landing on the deck. She'll look at the man the woman. She inspects them and her eyes narrow a bit, her tail trashes a bit. She owes Haseo for whatever he just did to make the ship go down.

"Our speed? One you are here to slaughter these people who have so far as I know? Have done you /no/ wrong, you also interrupted me on a masterwork of smithing."

Miho then stares the two down and the soul eater while a threat? These two have earned her ire.

"You know there's something I learned when dealing with others like myself."

Miho will blitz in heading right for the woman intending to try and cut her down where she stands.

"Take out the backline first."

    Giganpor, after landing on the deck in a crouch, stands up slowly. Doing a quick inspect on the two, the Lion's about to ask a question it seems. "Who are--" Then comes the undead fire beam.

    Bringing up his buckler, a bright blue glow lashes out as his entire body, armor, and all seems to freeze over. The icy exterior protects him from the beam as he shields himself with the deceptively small buckler. The final blast is swatted away before he brings his axe up. "Okay... bad guys. Got it."

    Bringing himself up, the Lion Were Fang gives a roar before he charges at L'Arc. His shield glows as his steps suddenly become a lot louder than they should be, and focused towards the two. The charging Dreadnought is definitely seeking their attention and hopefully getting it with the way he's making their footing be one major problem.

    Yuuki dangles from the side of flying Ghost Ship, her sword embedded in wooden hull.

    Could be worse.

    Yuuki blinks as a light surrounds the ship... And with the sudden sound of creaking, the ship begins to lower down towards the trees.

    "Oh crap!"

    Yuuki pulls herself up by her blade, planting her feet against the side of the hull. Just as the rushing tree tops are about to reach her, she yanks her blade free and then starts running. Up the side of the ship. Yuuki wallruns her way up, just managing to clear the deck railing as the ship crashes down into the ground.

    Yuuki herself crashes down to the deck, with yet another groan. Though that was more for the impact, rather than any serious damage taken. The Gladiator Imp picks herself back off, brushing herself off before noticing some of the others already here. Yuuki smiles, "Oh hey guys, fancy seeing you here."

    Turning towards the two they're facing off against, Yuuki notices the icons on the new arrivals. She recalls hearing about that Glass lady. Yuuki suspects these guys are the same. Which is only confirmed as they outright announce their evil monster. Yuuki watches as the monstrous fish rises, beginning to rain down sickly fire.

    Yuuki whistles in appreciation, "That's impressive... Looks like fun." But she turns her head back to L'Arc, raising her sword towards him, "But I think I'd enjoy fighting you guys more." She grins, "You up for it?"

    Whether they are or not, Yuuki suddenly rushes across the deck towards him, blade swinging.

    Merek draws onto the ship with a swivel of his beltcape when he finishes with the Dark Fire. The man looks to L'arc and to Therese, while he seems to think about it a moment. The man swivels around to get by Yuuki, and tries to meet weapons with one of them, "We're not here to kill them!" He then tries to meet their gaze, "What do you all want, why do you keep on appearing at the Waves! We are NOT the ones bringing them, we're trying to keep them from appearing! EXPLAIN!" he then exclaims.
    The Shadow Eclipse begins to shimmer with dark magic while the man sweeps along into L'arc and Therese, "We will fight you if we must. Either you talk, and explain. Or you are as much a danger to this world as the Waves!"

She missed with her blades, but that doesn't mean that Kotono's letting her guard down at all. The Gargoyles got her once, so when another attack comes at her, Kotono's curled up into a little ball and is rolling away. When she gets to her feet she sees that there's more trouble. A duo of double trouble and... a Soul Eater?

"Two for the price of one! I like it!" Kotono says as she attempts to rush by the duo and attempt a running slash as she goes by.

What you can't see CAN in fact hurt you!

It's not enough. Normally Proteus would have used Aero for this but, well, one thing led to another and, well...

Either way, Proteus falls, cruel gravity beginning to assert itself upon her body as she flails. "Not like this...!" She yells... And her hand catches onto one of the ropes, pure luck saving her from splattering on the ground thanks to Mikage. "Gggh!" She hisses, looking back for a moment before scrabbling upwards...

And is rewarded with exactly what she expected and feared. The skeletal captain shatters, and Proteus stands there on the deck, facing not one of the mysterious invaders, but two. Her purple eyes widen under her hood, a grimace of fear rippling through her as she is taken aback... but she stops herself, forcing herself to stand firm against the threat of two overleveled opponents. "L'Arc Sickle." She doesn't need to Inspect this time. She remembers him. Her eyes flick towards Therese. "Hello there. I don't believe we've met. My name is Proteus."

She looks back to L'Arc. "You took something from me when you killed me. Give it back." She says simply to the man. Her hands clench, and unclench. "You will give it back, and leave. This invasion is futile and foolish. All you are going to do is cause the very invasion your Church is afraid of. You do understand that your beloved Prophecy doesn't fit at all, right... Unless the roles are reversed."

It isn't long before that ship comes crashing to earth, causing the tree Mikage is perched in to rumble beneath her feet. She grabs onto the branch, making sure to steady herself. At the very least, the rope at least offered some sort of benefit beforehand.

Being on the ground, however, brings that monster that is chained to the front of the boat into closer range with her and the others. When the soul-shattering beam streaks across the landscape, Miki drops so that her hands are the only thing still clinging to the branch above her. The attack skims just above her knuckles.

When she pulls herself up, it takes a moment to realize that the tree is starting to die around her. Her blue eyes widen slightly as she is forced to leap from the tree, landing in a crouch and roll, just before the branch gives way beneath her.

Many of the others seem engaged with the strange people who accompanied the wave, but Mikage chooses to focus on the boat and the accompanying beast. "If we don't stop that thing, it might suck the life out of this entire forest." Touching her hand to the ground, the earth begins to shudder beneath the boat, the trembling and fissures in the earth trying to shake the boards loose.

As she climbs to her feet Seliana's eyes being to glow a bright Red which then shifts as other colors infuse them. Purple. Black. Green. Blue. Yellow. A whole spectrum of colors beings to swirl in a chaotic storm within her eyes. Her face begins to show expression as he eyes widen fractional and her slight frown contorting into an open scowl. He small figure then lifts to hover an inch above the ground as a nimbus of multicolored lights surround her.

Seliana screams.

An echoing high-pitched wail and with it her sandy white skin darkens quickly to deep grey, horns emerge from her temples growing and curving backwards above her hair as they pierce through her veil. Her teeth shift into grey sharp shark-like barbs. Her delicate hands distorting into long stony claws and large batlike grey wings open up behind her and stretch out to either side.

As her feet once again touch down, coruscating thaumaturgical arcs of energy pulse between the motes of light as they start swirling around the small gargoylic girl.

With a flap of her large grey wings and a burst of air magic Seliana launches herself skyward in the direction of the fallen ship. A beam of undead fire is then unleashed withering the forest where she was moments ago.

As she approaches the downed ship she sees a man with a Scythe facing off against Proteus. With a snarl she swings both of her hands in wide sweeps, arcs of multicolored energy following the path of her hands through the air, until she claps in front of herself and blast of polychromatic lightning shoots towards L'Arc.

     Several weird things occur. The first being Haseo's Data Drain, which a part of Pela knows is WRONG. She doesn't like it at all. Especially not the strange effect it seems to have on the ship. And the gargoyles... seem to be going down too easily? She doesn't like this situation. Not at all.

     Especially not when the chains break on the giant beast, and it unleashes a ray of SOUL-DEVOURING DEATH that eradicates her beloved wildlife that she had spent literal weeks wandering around and exploring in her early activity among the other players. And more importantly? It sweeps towards that village. And her lander militia. "GET OUT OF THE WAY!" The smol cat yells towards her militia, and she rapidly activates a defensive ability -- energy coat -- to slough off the effects while she moves, the edges of her form seeming to distort as she dashes towards one of the younger members of her militia to get them out of the way of the beam!

     As the dust settles, and the attack ends, and Pela sees the devestation. Dead trees. Dead wildlife. A flash to a wasteland crosses the back of her mind and... the cat... seems to freak out. A refined maid gives way to primal fury as Pela is dashing... towards... that giant... creature, one of her eyes beginning to give off blue-black fire as she activates her Arcane Eye to see what passes for the giant monster's heart... and then...

     Pela all but disappears as she accelerates with a series of flash-steps, and then... any seeming weak point she can access is stabbed at in rapid succession with brutal force.

                HEARTSEEKER.

    The treek creaaaaaks, Arashi is about to rebound for the boat... when it goes CRASHING down into the ground because, well, actually, Arashi has -no idea- why it crashed into the ground. "... What... just happened?" Bleh. She was about to do something REALLY COOL. Did someone else do The Thing instead? Lame.

    Even with these two new faces appearing, Arashi has it out for this boat and wants to see it annihilated. SO. The momentum from the rebounding tree sends the were-fang shooting down toward it like a meteor, with both their swords swinging for the fences. The swinging swords deflect the incoming assault before she lays absolute waste to anything that moves. That's also the boat. ... Boats are bad. Screw this boat. Yeah. Got'em.

"Who the hell are you two supposed to be?"

Kaydon brings his blade in front of himself, keeping it between himself and the two weirdos with multiple icons. He has no idea who these two are. Because he's been busy, and hasn't really been paying much attention to what's been going on, but they seem to know a few others around him.

It doesn't matter who they are in the long run, because he's still going to attack these two, since they're obviously hostile. He plants his back foot and rushes at the big guy, trying to strike at him with the Damascus blade.

The light weight of the blade is still throwing him off, though, as his swing goes wide and he slams past him and rams into the captain's quarters of the ship, disappearing into the other room via the new hole in the wall.

As soon as she's fired her shot Shiruba is sprinting back into the allied defense lines, being the ranged focused combatant she is, and getting out of the path of the decending -- then dropping -- ghost ship.

With a few seconds to spare she can at least start to formulate a plan. Others are making their way onto the ship. "Form lines back up. Suppressing fire, give cover to the people boarding the ship --look out!" More on reflex than anything she conjures one of her few defensive spells, a swirling spheroid of water and frost washing around her. It turns out the attack wasn't literally fire, but using the counter element seems to work all the same as part of the attack plows into it and streams around the curved liquid surface to spare her farther harm. For the moment at least.

"Let's see if we can't keep you grounded.. beached.. whatever applies for a ghost ship!" Shiruba draws an arrow with a chipped stone head, takes aim a bit low actually, and fires. It looks like it's going to be a miss.

Unless you're one of the people that have seen her use this trick before.

The arrow hits the ground near the base of the ship, but the ground immeadiately trembles and cracks apart as multiple pillars of stone erupt from it. They actually come up at jagged angles, in hopes of spearing the hull of the ghost ship, the monsterous thing on it's hull, and keeping it from getting back into the air and a better position again!

    Picking herself up from the fall and wincing as she puts pressure on one leg, Miyako watches with a satisfied smirk as the ship crashes into the ground. "Ha! Told you!" She turns her head to the Landers she was with. "Archers ready!" she calls, turning back and adjusting her grip on her own weapon. The monster that erupts from the wreck has her full attention as she leads the group closer.

    "FIRE!" she yells, and a wave of arrows pin-pricks the fish-monster as she runs towards it. "KEEP SHOOTING IT!" she adds as she leaps into the air, a flick of her wings gaining her a second of airtime as she starts to twirl her naginata around her head, letting it bite into the monster's side like a buzzsaw as she sinks back towards the ground.

    "No!"

    "Monsters!"

    "ALLOWED!"

A vision. Go figures. Haseo falls out of the tree as he finishes pulling out the ship's data, landing on his backside as he grips his head in pain.

Luckily for them, they get up and recover, disappearing in a brief flash to avoid narrowly being toasted as they jump and climb into the massive ship. This also has the added benefit of him not being underneath the GHOST SHIP as it crashes, so over all, it's a win/win.

Once aboard the ship, it doesn't take long for them to find Proteus, and more importantly, L'Arc and his gang. It also doesn't take long for Haseo to start connecting dots with the knowledge he just gained.

"You guys did this? Didn't you? The hell is your problem!?"

It's not actually a question he wants an answer to, because Haseo's already throwing himself at the group. He's discarded the massive sword he was carrying earlier for a rather mundane looking scythe, the blade steeped with darkness as he viciously swipes at the group twice.

"TWIN DARKNESS!"

"Look Missy... you are making this super awkward." L'Arc remarks as Miho begins to just talk at him. "Nothing against you people. But we just can't risk what you will do to our world if you invade. We've got to do what we need to do, okay?" He answers her. "I can understand if you'll hate me and my people for that, and nothing is stopping you from going back to your Blacksmithing work. We'll be gone when the Wave Ends, alright?" He explains to her.

Theresa remains a bit on the stoic, albeit quiet side - remaining slightly behind him. That's until Miho suddenly rushes for her. The young woman looks like a weak mage, but the moment Miho comes forward she brings up a crystal - causing it to float in front of her. "FLAME WALL!" The thing immediately turns red, and a flaming wall obscures Miho's sight. She comes through on the other side, but the girl has already moved. "SHOWERING THUNDER!" Only to suddenly be struck by lightning.

"You are mistaken if you think I am some weak damsel you can just take out." She complains to Miho, even if her voice is on the light side. She then turns and calls out again; "FLAME WALL!" Putting it right in the way between Giganpor and L'Arc. A Scythe swings, and Giganpor's blade is caught right between the scythe's blade and its pole, before it comes down, and carves into Giganpor's shoulder - drawing that nasty red line!

Yuuki joins in, and L'Arc calls out; "Oh! Careful there!" Smiling at Yuuki as she catches a nick on his armor, right before his pole deflects her blade, and he kicks right for her belly - and tries to send her flying towards the captain's quarters and crush the wood!

"Well, yeah, of course you are not the ones bringing this wave! We brought this wave... kind of." L'Arc then answers Merek, as he gets a nick in along L'Arc's arm right before the man brings his Scythe down and threatens to cut off Merek's hand right there with that high powered blade of his! "Look, either we kill your Heroes, and this world dies. Or you kill us, and our world dies. It's that simple boyo." L'Arc explains to Merek with such a warm and sunny expression to him. "Hate the cards that were dealt to us all you want. But I'm still going to fight for my world! And I really can't take any risks on the matter."

As Proteus introduces herself, she gets a bow from Theresa; "Theresa Alexanderite, Hero of Gems." She explains. As she holds up a hand, and from where there was once one, splits into five gems which spin in the air and arc around her.

L'Arc raises his brow as Proteus claims he took something from her. "Sorry kiddo. I can't give you back that Life. It's gone for good. Better keep the other ones safe." He explains to her. "And yes - I am aware that you think the Church is wrong. But honestly, whether it's self-fulfilling or not. I really can't risk taking that chance. The Church has never led us wrong before. And our entire world is at stake. Not to mention - you invaded our World already. I believe that proves more than enough, Hero."

Kotono fires on some of the Gargoyles, cutting down the last remnants, while the Soul Eater continues to breathe its dangerous flames on those below! She manages to get on the ship and rushes the duo, only to suddenly be forced to abort as...

"BALL OF FLAME!"

An enormous detonation blasts in her way, easily twice the size of a typical Fireball spell! It erupts on the deck of the ship. Splintering planks everywhere! Catching Proteus in the same blast and forcing her back. Only for Seliana's lightning to catch L'Arc and Theresa in the back - sending them flying down into the hole that was just made - causing that battle to shield to the hold of the vessel!

"Sorry kiddo, it's not personal." Haseo hears, just as he comes down into the hold and slashes towards L'Arc. "Oh! You are are Scythe Hero too?" The two Scythes meet, slicing into one-another and hooking, right before L'Arc swings about and sends Haseo tumbling to the back of the hold amongst his friends - slamming into Kaydon and halting his attack entirely. Haseo can tell that his strike managed to get a bit of HP down on L'Arc, but it was not a full connection. It's almost like L'Arc has eyes in the back of his head. He's having too easy a time spotting peoples' attacks and countering them!

Where things are shaking quite severely, planks jumping loose, and pieces of rock blasting into the air as Mikage causing the ground to fissure and the Ghost Ship itself to get structurally rather weak! Some of the blasts hitting the Soul Eater itself, as it rushes towards the pale Adventurer...

Pela gets in front of her and the Militia near Mikage, protecting her with her Energy Coat and halting the second burst of that devouring dark energy! A few arrows fire overhead, right before Pela stabs into the Soul Eater with her HEARTSEEKER skill - ripping a piece of its HP out...

Right before it quickly begins to climb back up!

Shiruba joins Mikage in assaulting the vessel - with some of the stone pillars that rise slamming through the hold and creating an easy 'entrance' for the Hold Team and those outside to move about, while some of the stones lay into the Soul Eater. It looks like the Ghost Ship itself is not the main target here - but rather the Soul Eater itself.

Arashi is met with this realization as the Soul Eater moves right in the way of its attack while its fin-like claws reach forward, slicing into Arashi in the midst of her attack - even as she cuts into its health! Miyako slices in from above just as it is about to try and bite and devour Arashi, stabbing into the side of its ugly head and slamming it to the ground, before the wake of its flaming aura bursts out and sends Miyako flying.

It then rushes forward, a few remnants of Gargoyles moving with it... but it doesn't go after the Adventurers. The Gargoyles move, clawing at the Adventurers - trying to strike them and hold them back. But the Soul Eater specifically goes for the Lander Militia forces! Sending a massive blast of blackness forth - while a red gem on its forehead begins to glow as a young archer at the edge of the Militia group ends up caught in the caustic dark beam. There's a fleck of light for a moment, as what looks like a white orb suddenly is 'sucked' into the Soul Eater's red gem!

All while, in the hold of the ship, L'Arc calls out; "Thunder Rain Flying Circle!"

Theresa responds immediately, spreading her hands. The five crystals starting to glow yellow... brightly yellow, right before a fierce strike of lightning CRASHES down from the skies onto L'Arc's scythe, right before the man swings it in a single wide arc. A single, devastating, annihilating strike as lightning RIPS through the hold. Vile tendrils of yellow light coarsing through the entire hold right before a slashing arc of yellow light cuts around, trying to catch those who'd been paralyzed by the shocking lightning... and cut their body in twain!

    "You know what, I've had enough of that arrogant..." Merek begins drawing away Shadow Eclipse, then he draws a sigil in the air while he begins to chant, Wave Arte beginning to form while he holds a hand to them, channeling the flame. "Nothing matters but my own cause, ATTITUDE! To protect the lives of the people here, and my fellow Adventurers, I must commit to combat. Proceed forward," with that the man swings along into the battle.
    There's a shift of the hip while he speaks, "Dark Firebolt!" The energies of the dark and flame begin to pattern in formation while they wave along into both of the combatants. The man seems to be becoming even more skilled in magic, and fighting. "Remember me, I am Merek."

When the Soul Eater separates itself from the ship, making itself the main target, Mikage shifts her focus. She doesn't rush in, keeping to ranged attacks as it gives a bit more flexibility. However, spotting the creature moving towards the militia, she tries to close the distance and help offer support.

Unfortunately, that's when one of the gargoyles swoops down behind her, digging claws into her back. Lines run down along her spine, glowing red as she turns, snarling at the creature in warning, her eyes briefly flashing with the threat of a shift.

She jumps up, shoving her legs at the Gargoyle and then using it to propell herself up into the nearby trees, grabbing onto a branch and then hauling herself up. "I'll see if I can slow that thing down." She calls out to the others.

Drawing her bow, Mikage quick-fires a series of arrows in a rough square around the creature, then motions her hands, using those points to condense water energy from the surrounding air. Ice crystals begin to creep up, trying to latch onto the strange creature, seeking to slow it's progress towards the Militia.

    Giganpor finds his HP going dangerously low as the lightning shocks him, and leaves him prey for L'Arc's slice. Even with his HP so low, Giganpor still stands again. The red line showing across his body.

    "Do what? Invade? What the hell are you talking about!?" The giant were-fang roars, then comes down with his axe at L'Arc himself. The weapon isn't even aimed with the pointed side as he tries to slam L'Arc away physically. Out of the hold itself preferably as the Were Fang gives a battle roar.

    "We're not Heroes! We're people who are trying to live our lives here! We have no means to invade and don't want to! If there's something going on making others invade your world, then tell us so we can stop it! Your world's invading ours because some stupid people are trying to escape this one by climbing a Tower!" The Were Fang yells at L'Arc and Therese. Giganpor isn't considered a tank for nothing, despite all that he's taken so far, and he's not even trying to kill L'Arc at the moment. Just bash him the hell around with that Big Freaking Axe that's wielding.

Using her evasion skills to the maximum, Kotono is safe for the time being. But it seems the duo is a bit too fast for her.

Nevertheless, Kotono loves a good challenge so when she's back in her stance, she looks at them and goes, "You haven't gotten me just yet!" She twirls her knives a little, causing one of them to glimmer as if taunting them. "But let me tell you, it's not over until it's over!"

This time, Kotono tries to run at the duo, but instead of running past, she attempts to spin around them with her blades outstretched, trying a new trick.

There's plenty of rock structures thanks to her and Mikage now and Shiruba makes a bee-line for them. She jumps away from a Gargoyle swooping at her, feet hitting a rock surface just long enough to kick off of it as the creature slams into it instead. It starts to crack and crumble, but it's long enough for Shiruba to leap to the next and then to another, putting her Wildress Parkour to exceptional use.

She's getting ready to strike back at the ones following her, until out of the corner of her eye she sees Soul Eater free off the ship and moving towards the Lander Militia, shooting/absorbing(?) some poor guy in the process before likely turning on the others. Oh no no no, not good at all. She growls, and even as she's sprinting up a stone slope raises her voice. "Don't fear the monster! Face it and rise up!"

A gargoyle lunges at her but Shiruba hops off the ledge and stomps on it's head, using it as a spring board to get out of the way.

She fires one of her heavier arrows towards Soul Eater admist her parkour dodges, but can't zero in on it accurately while dodging gargoyles at the same time!

     Alright, the damage is starting to climb up as she stabs rapidly at the beast's weak points! And... and... then... its HP starts to regen. Okay. That's rough. But managable. She has counters for that. That's how her preparation works. What she was less prepared for was... for the creature to NOT aim for adventurers as it goes to attack the landers instead! Instead Gargoyles coming after Pela herself.

     Pela shifts that arcane eye towards the gargoyles approaching her. Her eyes narrow with anger. "You are not worth my time." She snaps towards the gargoyle, actually using her mobility to KICK OFF OF IT and chase after the soul eater as it attacks those landers. She's not sure what she can do.

     But she's going to do something. She uses the momentum from jumping from the gargoyle to possibly even other gargoyles to get on TOP of the soul eater, running along the top of its back towards its head! Just before she reaches it. It attacks. And it... absorbs... a white sphere from it?! The name of the monster, the situation... the destruction of the forest. The monster specifically targetting landers that she went along to assist in training.

     Once Pela's at the top of the Soul Eater, she ... pauses. Taking a deep, ragged breath. Another one of those runed slips of paper being drawn, applied to her tanto.

                BLOOD

     Pela LEAPS down from the top of the creature's head right for that gemstone, both of her Tanto brought down as she falls to attempt to leave a long, bleeding gouge down the center of that red gemstone!

Miho finds people who heavier hitter than she piling on to the two Lander Adventurers are pretty well engage for the moment as much as she wants to deal with them? They seem handled for the moment.

"I'm no hero I'm just a blacksmith. We had no idea you existed, or your world existed."

The Flame wall does manage to slow her down.

"Oh it's the backline contains the casters who tend to be force multipliers."

She replies.

"I never asked to be brought to this world, I'm just trying to accept and move on with my life."

The small woman would see a Lander Archer standing his ground and dying to the soul eater in the process.

"They don't get back up like we do and they are still willing to stand for their homes."

However she'll switch to her bow draw an arrow and fire off a skill shot at the Soul Eater.

"BURST SHOT!"

That thing needs to be drawn off and maybe she can trick it into using that action on these two invaders.

"Scythe Hero? The hell kinda class is tha-"

Haseo doesn't get to finish his question as he's sent flying back. Sheesh, this guy is tough.

He doesn't get much to recover too as he just barely brings the haft of his weapon to help defend against the lightning attack. As much good as that does him, it still takes out a notable chunk of his HP as he's shocked down to his knees.

"Not that I care about the people on this ship but... How the hell did you get all this stuff? I refuse to believe a meat head like you could gather an army like this easily."

Pushing himself back up to his feet , Haseo disappears in a veil of black smoke, only to reappear behind L'Arc moments later with scythe raised.

"EDGE OF SHADOWS!"

It's just a single swipe across the Scythe's Hero back, but one quick slash becomes two, then three, and finally four.

    What... IS that thing? Seriously. What is going on with it? Its health bar? It's attacking while she's attacking!? Arashi is a bit caught off guard when it slices at her. Swords try to come up to block but the were fang gets tossed like a ragdoll as a result. Tumble tumble, stop. "Ow.."

    Thankfully that's the hardest hit she's taken all night! The were-fang rises, rolls her shoulders, and darts back in with a rising slash, complete with a spike from the ground rising along with it. "Tired of your bs!"

Crashing down into the hold of the ship as she lands on all fours, she narrows her swirling kaleidoscopic eyes as she peers around - the motes of light illuminate the area. She spots L'Arc just as the lightning crashes down into his scythe. With a hiss she prepares to lunge only to have an arc of light slash through her sending her flying back into the wall of the boat, a glowing red damage indicator left across her midsection.

Snarling at Proteus "Do you not think they are working with the Monstrousss Onesss?! Ssssee how they come? Sssee what they do?" as she again climbs to her feet, her grey wings giving a small flap to lift her more quickly.

She then swings her hand upward and the small orbs of light shoot downward into the ground and then a large spike of earth pierces up through the ship aiming at L'Arc once more. "If they are not working for the Monsterouss Onesss then they are but fools playing into their handsss."

    "So this is some real Realm versus Realm stuff, huh? Must admit, haven't done much of that myself. Kinda looking forward to seeing what invading your world might look like."

    Yuuki has her blade deflected, causing only a slight nick in L'Arc's defense. This looks like it throws Yuuki off balance, her sword arm knocked away as L'Arc attempts to capitalize on this and send a kick towards Yuuki's gut. But the agile Imp reacts quickly, leaping into the air just briefly and twisting her body around to cause the kick to just graze her side.

    Yuuki lands in a crouch, before rising again. She doesn't immediately return the attack though, letting the others get there shots off at L'Arc. It's only fair.

    As the battle rages on though, Yuuki listens. And she replies, "I don't blame you for fighting us. Sometimes it's the only way to get your point across. And of course, you've gotta defend your friends." Yuuki looks between L'Arc and Theresa, "I doubt the two of you are in this alone, after all."

    There's a giant explosion, the deck breaks apart and many of those on it fall into the hold of the ship. Yuuki is no exception, plummeting down towards the wooden floor of the hold amidst bits of debris. She lands in a crouch, before standing once more. Just in time to see their two opponents beginning to pull off a combo move.

    That lightning strikes L'Arc's scythe, Yuuki muttering, "Cool!" But then she's forced to leap away as his swing sends lightning dancing through the hold along with that follow up light. A few stray bolts of the former strike Yuuki, leaving behind small red marks. But she manages to avoid the main assault.

    Yuuki lands against the wall of the hold, before leaping off it towards L'Arc, sword held to her side, "So don't hold back! Show us what you've got." Yuuki swings as she reaches L'Arc, swiping at him with a passing blow. But as she lands against a piece of fallen debris, she quickly spins around and launches herself towards L'Arc again from a new direction, "Because we certainly will!" Another heavy swipe from her blade.

Still slashing at the soul-eater, Miyako tries to keep herself between it and the Lander archers who pelt it with arrows. Crimson pixellated slashes build up further and further, her smile widening as she watches its HP track dwindle. "You heard what I said!" she shouts.

    And then... The Whale Strikes Back. The blast of energy hurls her back, tumbling through the air, plowing into the ground behind the archers she'd been protecting.

    "That... HURT... you... mother..." she snarls out as she gets awkwardly to her feet, her figure riddled with little crimson wound marks. "Keep shooting, men!"

    Leaning heavily on her naginata, the butt of the shaft dug into the ground, she lifts her free hand to inscribe a series of runes in the air as she chants her spell. The clouds above her darken, taking on a silver tone, as ice crystals gather and grow. Finally: "ICE RAIN!" she shouts out, and the darts of ice rain down on the monster.

"That doesn't even make sense." Proteus points out. "You're just blindly taking their word for it despite the prophecy you were given being full of holes. Do you even know how many Heroes this world /has/? By your own definition, there's more /right here/ than in your entire world. Why do you insist on forcing us to do this?" Proteus hisses, her fists clenching. "No one gave one damn about your world until Glass started attacking us! And now you're insisting on this!"

Proteus is again taken aback at the assertion that she invaded them already. "Oh wait. I get it now." She looks down, bowing her head as her shoulders shake... And she laughs. Long and loud... Before her head tilts up and her eyes fixate on L'Arc. "You're a /moron/. All you have to do is take one look at me and you can easily see that I absolutely was not invading you. What would I even have been able to do? You killed me easily! Is that what you want? Do you really WANT us to invade? DO YOU REALLY WANT HUNDREDS OR THOUSANDS OF HEROES ATTACKING YOU, YOU BLITHERING IDIOT?"

Proteus scowls, then. "You took it, nonetheless. You didn't have to. You could have held your hand, but you didn't. I don't care about your world, but I am going to do what is necessary to end this... And as for you... I /am/ going to take my due. Nothing for nothing, Scythe Hero."

There is an explosion of flame between them, and she immediately leaps backwards, only to twist and leap forwards, eyes widening as her hands tremble. She hits the floor of the hold just as the words are called out. Proteus flicks her hand out: ) K

Moments before the lightning crashes through the area, a blazing barrier of rune-ringed light forms around her, diverting the crackling bolts. The scythe crashes into the shield... And it shatters, but not before Proteus is ducking forward towards L'Arc, her hands already moving. "It's not going to be quite as easy, L'Arc. This time, I have every reason to fight back." A foot slams into the base of the hold, kicking up a crate and sending it flying towards L'Arc. "They're working for their Church." Proteus says. "The question is, what's in it for their Church?" She replies to Seliana. "This is a giant mess." Even as the crate is dodged or shattered, Proteus spinkicks, flipping through the air to bring a blazing heel down upon L'Arc, charged with energy as her hands weave once more: ) - O

A moment later, there is a Holy blast of light energy that roars outwards in a shockwave. "I might not be as strong as you, but that won't last forever. I will know what I need to eventually. And knowledge is power."

Things are not going very well for Kaydon today. He's struck out twice now, and while he has managed to deflect the incoming blows and keep himself safe, all of his attacks have been ineffective.

He rushes at the strange attackers again, missing once more and throwing himself off of the boat.

Since he missed, he lands on the ground, and goes to try to strike at the giant monster that is harassing the Lander forces. He's going to have to get back onto the ship and attack the strange attackers again, but first they need to take this boss down.

Merek's bold of flame slams into the two Heroes - right as Theresa pulls up another spell; "HARDENED PROTECTION!" Protecting L'Arc's HP from taking a significant blow from that detonating attack. "Sure! Come at me boyo! I don't mind if you hate me." L'Arc answers like a bro and pushes off, rocketing forward and bringing that Scythe around, slamming the tip into Merek's stomach and sending him back.

"Merek... Merek... hmm, no, doesn't sound like. I'm going to stick with boyo. Suits you better~ OH!" Giganpor comes in, slamming the side of his blade into him and causing L'Arc to step back - red burning at his hip. "Nice hit..." He simply answers. "And I don't really care about the excuses. It's still your people - your World that endangers us. Even if it's not you, it's someone else from your world. Look - this isn't personal. But there is no way you can control everyone in your world and stop them from doing something. It's human nature! We're greedy good for nothings!" He glances around. "Or... whatever some of you are. I see you all act the same - I assume you're all basically the same, even if you look differently."

Kotono comes in with her blades, and cuts at Theresa's shoulder - who lets out a quick yelp of surprise, right before a burst of lightning follows Kotono's movement and ripples after her like a heat-seeking bolt of retaliation!

L'Arc then motions. "This army? Oh, you mean the Monsters? No, they're part of the Wave meant for you guys. We did you a favor and already killed the boss for you. We just brought the Soul Eater from our world! Turns out we can do that." L'Arc points out. Suddenly, Haseo appears behind L'Arc, cutting into its back. The defense buff luckily still on the Hero, stopping Haseo from putting a lot more damage out than he intended. After which L'Arc grins and looms over Haseo. "I like you Kiddo. You've got style." Right before his Scythe comes for Haseo's head!

Then comes Seliana's pillar, carving through the ship's hold and catching L'Arc in the back, throwing him forward as his buff finally runs out! Of course, Yuuki then makes the state of negotiations worse. "That's more like it! Now come at me!" L'Arc calls out, right as another fire wall blasts to life in front of him! But L'Arc jumps through the flames, the pole of his blade slamming aginst Yuki's blade, while she cuts across his arm, before his Scythe comes down towards her left arm!

"I'll figure out the riddle, don't you worry." L'Arc answers Proteus. "After all, as you keep saying - you're not the Hero, right? So clearly, we've been hunting the wrong people!" He smiles at her in a way that says that while she is insulting him as some kind of moron, he's anything but. There's something else brewing that she's not privvy of in that very moment. As she kicks the crate - it's cut through with ease, before she flaming kicks right into L'Arcs redhead face! It is thrown a bit to the side, while his gaze slips towards her...

And he grabs at her foot, even as the Holy spell comes out, and slams her towards the deck right before the shockwave of holy forces him off of her and sends him flying back towards Theresa - who catches him with her both hands. "HEALING PEARL." She then calls out, as L'Arc's HP begins to slowly rise back up.

Mikage's arrows stab deep into the body of the Soul Eater, one of them splashing into its right eye, causing a fountain of black and red goop to spray for a moment, before its eye begins to recover! It's definite that its HP is falling, but its regeneration is hard to keep up with. It's a good thing they are not alone!

However, right as its eye is about to fully heal again, it suddenly freezes over, as Mikage uses the arrows as a medium to creep into it and latch on, slowing it from getting to the Militia. Another arrow stabs into it, as Shiruba slams a thick arrow at the back of its tail, pinning it to the ground for a moment, before it manages to get its massive jaws around another Militia member and chomps them apart! There's a scream of panic - as they burst apart! No gravestone. No second chances.

Pela comes down in that moment, towards its Gemstone, and the monster suddenly looks up at her in the midst of her Tanto-using jump... and...

SNAP.

She suddenly feels her arms and legs being crushed inside of its maw. Its vile teeth biting into her body. The red damage lines digging in DEEP enough for her to feel that severe pain, even if it's dulled, course through her body! It's about to bite her to pieces with an opening of its maw, when... BURST SHOT!

The thing is slammed back, and she's pulled out of the jaws by one of the Militia members who's managed to jump up. A heavy looking Paladin, in fact. One of the Hunters Guild she might remember. Some kind of Heavy Warrior or Crusader... she can't quite remember their name. Arashi jumps in shortly after, slicing and spiking into the Soul Eater, causing it to momentarily 'bounce' upon the ground. Miyako's Ice Rain follows immediately after, further frosting the Soul Eater over! But it still manages to wriggle away amidst the assault, even as its HP continues to drop! Kaydon jumps in, trying to force it back, but even as Kaydon cuts into the Soul Eater, it pushes past them and rips into another Militia member, while arrows continue to rain down it - starting to make it look like a pincushion!

It then begins to suddenly swell up... growing larger for a moment as it rises up... before it suddenly begins to spew a black mist across the ground. It sinks down, drooling onto the grass and bushes below, spreading across the trees and towards the Adventurers, while the plumes of smoke rise in various locations, like small flickering explosions. Trying to rip their life away from them, and simultaneously making it far harder to approach it while it tries to cut the Adventurers off from the Militia and goes for the Landers of Eastal.

Within the ship, L'Arc swipes the back of his hand along his lips. "Is it time yet?" He asks Theresa. "Almost." She answers him, as she brings out a small mirror from within her clothing and checks it for a moment. "Just a few more seconds." Before looking back to the Adventurers and bringing her hands out again. "Fireworks?"

"Fireworks."

L'Arc suddenly begins to spin his Scythe, even letting it leap with the pole around his neck, as behind him, Theresa calls down lightning once more. "EXPLOSIVE THUNDER RAIN!" She calls out, as suddenly fierce lightning LANCES through the wood of the hold above, ripping down and trying to catch people unawares, while L'Arc rushes through the area, almost like he knows exactly where they will come down. Each time one of the Adventurers gets out of the way, he follows, letting the lightning catch his blade, and then throws it towards them! His HP is definitely looking worse, his first HP Bar is gone! And half of Theresa's is gone as well. But he comes at them as if he has nothing to lose! Each bolt of lightning followed by a swipe. A rippling shot of electrifying power thrown to paralyze his opponents while he tries to cut through! Literally.

"No!" Mikage is close enough to see Pela nearly get eaten by the Soul Eater. She darts forward, ready to jump into the fray to rescue her, but luckily one of the militia is there faster. There is a mix of panic and relief on the Were Fang's features.

Smoke and black mist rise up from where the creature still seems to be intent on targeting the Landers, causing Mikage to reach down and pull up a scarf, covering it over her nose. It likely can't block out everything, but it is something. She manages to avoid being dripped on, using a slash of her sword to pull earth up beneath her, giving a slightly higher vantage point to attack.

She draws her bow, channeling light magic into the wood, unfortunately, it can't quite contain it. The bow cracks and she's forced to discard it with a curse. Extending her arm, she instead, summons the familiar one out of magical energies, drawing back to focus energy into the tip of the arrow.

Light magic swirls around it as she lets it loose, a radius of force following with the blast as it slams in towards the Soul Eater.

    Merek looks over to Seliana even as the two come sweeping in with their abilities. The man swivels along the hip to stand in front of her, while he begins to lift up a shield, "Rock Cradle!" That shielding forms while it begins to shimmer along, and would knock back a bit of the assault when Seliana dodges the lightning but another blast was coming at the woman. Still, a little comes through, striking into him, a third of the HP Bar maneuvering along. There's a shift of stance while he notes the fight with the Soul Eater wasn't being won. "You take care."
    "I need to protect Landers as well as Adventurers," the man takes a running maneuver and backflips along into the creature, while both of his blades begin shimmering in flame while he draws them upon the length of their entire being.

     Her blades didn't even catch purchase. They didn't cut into that gemstone at all. Because ... there is suddenly a mouth around Pela. Biting down. Though her HP doesn't go down very much, she SCREAMS. It sounds like she's actually in agony, even as she quickly uses a burst of air and kicks, along with that BURST SHOT to help save her from being eaten and safely deliver her into the arms of that militia member.

     And then... the monster starts to puff up. Pela quickly shifts, using the remaining timer on that Air Step to shift things around to where she's pulling that crusader up into the air and out of harm's way. The trajectory was slightly wrong though. They were JUST BARELY out of that mist, and it was likely that, carrying the crusader, they wouldn't actually clear it with that jump. "...I'm sorry, Jusenshi." Pela whispers, before she quickly turns, kicking off of the Crusader to send them flying out of the way of the mist!

     She had no choice but to be flying back towards those jaws she was JUST pulled out of, this time her eyes narrowed in focus, her tongue sticking out the side of her mouth just a little as a slight bad habit. Likely giving her an awful taste of corrupted mist air. She hadn't planned out her attack yet when she jumped. Getting a DoT on that creature would be ideal, but getting close was also incredibly dangerous.

                 Being a solo player is danger.

     Pela moves in quickly, exhaling as she begins to maneuver herself with more of those Air Steps, burst of air sending her flying with intent to go UNDER the creature's mouth, for its neck. Moving in erratic motions to make it hard for her to catch, she would go under... and around, to attempt to get to the creature's neck. At the last second, she uses one of the skills of her main class to do a weapon swap, drawing out a much larger sword than her usual paired Tanto! Rusted, damaged, and mostly broken, it's a Black Wave weapon that she kept around for one reason or another. And it's going to get one last use as it's stabbed towards the creature's neck! Pela quickly begins to run up the Soul Eater's neck, attempting to rip and tear it with that ragged blade and leave a vicious, zig-zagging, destructively painful line along it.

    Giganpor frowns as he notices something. Then he jumps back from the lightning and takes the scythe on his shield, blocking the blade before L'Arc's away again. The electricity is absorbed seemingly by the shield as Giganpor steps back from the attack itself.

    Bringing his axe around to meet the blade on the shield, there's a brief glow as water appears. Then he charges after L'Arc, bringing the axe in an upward swipe meant to knock L'Arc himself through the ceiling of the hold as well as do some serious damage with the attack.

    Giganpor still looks angry, "No we can't! But that doesn't mean you can't find out who's doing it and let us know! If you want it to stop so badly, work with us! Figure out how to stop it all together! Then you can say you're a hero or whatever you want to call yourself!" He breathes heavily, health still down dangerously. And the Were Fang looks very, very annoyed. "To most of us, we came here from another world that this one is just a game! Literally just that! And here you are trying to destroy it because some idiots are causing this! But I think these people are real. Those people who aren't Adventurers are real. And I'm not going to stand here and let you, nor anyone else go after them because someone out there is causing you to. If you want to go after someone, find out who's responsible. Go after them."

    Alright Soul Eater. Enough playing around. Time to get serious. This thing's meter is really starting to get on Arashi's nerves. While she has a moment to gather herself she draws up some strength from the ground below. Next? Avoiding thing's nasty breath. Achieved by launching herself up! Back to the tree for a moment. Rebounding, again, the were-fang sets both hands to Zothin before trying to downstab, straight for its head.

Being agile and acrobatic has its benefits. Especially when you're properly focused against the situation at hand.

Evading danger is one thing, but being able to use your skills to take on the enemy is another thing in itself. Yet when you put the two together, they make a good combination. With feet like air and a body that is slender and lithe, Kotono is one girl who knows how to use her skills to her advantage. But it seems taking on the duo isn't working, so Kotono changes her focus.

Kotono uses her blades to attempt to strike the Soul Eater instead of going after the duo instead. "Gotta mix things up a bit!"

As soon as her feet hit solid ground once more Shiruba is sprinting like mad back towards the Militia lines, weaving through trees and the remains of rock spires as she needs. This night just kept spiraling farther and farther out of control, and her usually strategic thinking couldn't find a way to pull it back on course. The deal with the Hourglass was still nagging the back of her mind too. She had to get in there and do somethi--

Only for Soul Eater to turn and spew noxious black filth across the battlefield in an attempt to keep the Adventurers at bay. Shiruba whips a wind barrier around herself in an attempt to blow it clear, but the unholy grunge is just too much and overpowers her attempt at protection. The wolfgirl yowls as it burns into her body, causing that flashing red effect of being hit basically all over her body from how it was spread, as she stumbles away from the cloud and collapses on the ground.

So that was it. What was she doing? What was she doing wrong? This fight was going no where, because she had been too unwilling to let people interfer with the Tower Climb out of fear of too many other players coming to harm. Yet what was happening now, right here in front of her? This was failure. It stung worse than the Soul Eater's breath did. This was going to ruin and was it in part her fault for not being more ready. Maybe if she just lays here it'll be over soon...

One eye snaps back open. The hell was she thinking?! This was going badly, sure, but giving up? Since when was that her?! If she gave in and gave up, what does that say?

With a grunt she forces herself to roll over, on her knees and grabbing for her bow. By then one of the Silver Sword members had noticed she was down and running over. "Sir!.. Damn, you're hurt badly! You should withdraw."

"... No." Shiruba shook her head, trying to clear it, and grabbed for an arrow from her quiver. "If I turn and run with my tail between my legs just because things are hard, how can I expect any of you to fight on? That's no leader." She draws back the noched arrow in her bow. "This is our world at stake, Lander and Adventurer alike! And we will defend it!"

With a new round of courage bubbling up inside of her Shiruba turned, taking aim back towards the ship and one of the many holes smashed into it. She charges as much Wave Art in the arrow as she can, and fires towards the ship.
Through the hole.
And by sheer determination hits the arrow into the wood near the fight with the two otherworldly heroes!

That's exactly as close as she needed to be, as the magic discharged and multiple large gnarled vines erupt from the arrow's position, seeking out the two foes to grab in their thorny crushing binds! Hopefully they won't see it coming!

    Yuuki? Making the state of negotiations worse? Nonsense. Yuuki is a level headed, wise young woman who's full of tact and-pfffft, yeah, can't finish that.

    Yuuki finds her attack being blocked again. This doesn't upset her though, but rather excites her. Visibly so. She's grinning as she quickly spins, moving her arm mostly out of the path of the scythe and taking a small glowing red cut from it. She admits respectfully, "You're pretty good." Yuuki of course notices L'Arc's HP rising again thanks to Theresa. So Yuuki adds, "Great teamwork with your partner too."

    But then something L'Arc said registers in Yuuki's brain, "Wait! You managed to bring that monstrous fish here with you!?" Yuuki looks on in awe, before asking, "How'd you do that?" Pause, then she quickly adds, "Not that I plan to do something similar. Or anything. Just curious!"

    More lightning begins to rain down on those in the hold. Yuuki stays on the move, managing to stay just one step ahead of those coming down on her location. Though as L'Arc comes in towards her to try and throw that lightning into her, Yuuki drops to her knees, letting the ripple of lightning wash just over her. She can feel the edge of its power. Tingly.

    Yuuki plants her free hand against the floor of the hold, twisting and pushing herself to her feet again. She spins to a stop, before lowering her stance. L'Arc has proven to be adept at blocking her strikes. She needs to be faster!

    Yuuki dashes forwards, quickly closing the distance to L'Arc. Her sword arm lashes out in a blur, the strike light but quick, to try and get through L'Arc's defenses before he can react.

"You're not that bad yourself, but the same move twice doesn't work!"

Haseo just kind of powers through the Scythe Hero's attack by meeting it with his own full force, jumping back a bit when it's safe enough to disengage.

This guy knows a lot. More than they're probably willing to say, and more than they're able to squeeze through him in a fight. Luckily there's an answer for that.

"Come on! Skeith!" Between the sudden feeling of resonation in his scarf-wrapped arm and the desire to absolutely push Data Drain to his limits, Haseo decides to call upon his cursed power once more. Green panels cover his arm to recreate the same green claw as he dashes in to grab L'Arc by the head.

Unfortunately, just as he's about to pull something else, he's stopped, his power suddenly redirected towards himself. He's thankfully able to resist the feeling of having something pulled out of him, but it's enough to send him stumbling back in confusion.

"Sys-System Protection? What the hell is that?"

It's easy for anyone who knows him to see that Kaydon is starting to get frustrated with the lack of effect he's having on this boss. Every strike that fails to land puts more Landers in harm's way. The frustration finally getting the better of him, he puts away the more powerful of his weapons, and draws his trustworthy longsword.

He'd rather be up on the deck fighting those villains, instead of down here trying to take down the boss, but for now his job is to keep the Landers safe by putting himself in harm's way instead.

Leaping up from where he had been standing, after shoving one of the Landers out of the way of the blast from the Soul Eater, he intends to drive his sword directly into it's skull, and then try to force it down all the way to the ground with overwhelming strength.

"Mindlesss pawns. They seek destruction of worldsss. Could one ever negotiate with such foolsss?" Seliana snarls in response to Proteus as energy crackles around her. She then jumps and gives a flap of her large grey wings as a burst of wind launches her into the air where she then seems to hover a moment as her right hand held up while the energy around suddenly rushes towards her open palm where it gathers in a roiling mass.

And then Therese pulls out a mirror and her polychromatic eyes widen in surprise. It was another mirror, just like Proteus had mentioned. It was probably their escape! With a sudden change she dives downward toward the women, the chaotic energies still in her grasp.

Then lightning begins to rain down, and Seliana swerves to avoid the strikes as she closes in on Therese. She thrusts her hand forward and the miasmic energy that had gathered rushes forward enveloping Therese in thick sickly colored mass in an attempt to debilitate and hold the women.

And then L'Arc is moving, the lightning seeming to be absorbed by his scythe and he sends a slash directly at Seliana, there was no way she could avoid it and still target Terese. And just before the blast crashed into her Merek was there, intercepting the attack. It crashed through his defenses but he absorbed it allowing Seliana to safely crash into Therese and the thaumaturgic soup of energy. Slashing down as she impacts, she tries to grab the mirror with her long grey clawed hands.

    Miyako grits her teeth as she leans on her naginata, but just keeps on casting, even as she sees the front rank of archers devoured one by one. "Fall back!" she calls out to them, and only a swiftly-cast Flash-step draws her and a number of archers out of the path of the Soul Eater's mist.

    "Damn your eyes," she calls, wincing as the landing jars her injuries, letting out a little sound of pain. "Hold your fire a moment," she orders the remaining archers, as she scribbles her way through the next spell. "You'll know when to shoot." The moment she finishes the runes, a ball of shadows forms in her hand, and she tosses it into the air, where it splits into a dozen or more, scattering down towards the archers and lending a darkling gleam to their bows... which passes on to their arrows as they fire once more.

    "Eat that, fishy!" she crows as little explosions of darkness pockmark the thing's hide with each arrow impact.

    "Keep firing!"

They already killed the boss and brought a horror from their world? Gods that's some troubling stuff the talking keeps going. Miho's shot bails out Pela, that was some divine timing there as she'd notched the arrow before that happened there's not much more she can do for her now, however. She sees a Hunter has got her handled and damn that guy's pretty beefy too. She will trust Pela to the Hunter's care as she turns her attention back to the heroes from another world.

"Fireworks?!"

Miho get her blade up in rapid order ready for intercept and she's able to keep herself from getting cut to bits, she will then as she flips away. She's just barely got clear here and will take a deep breath, a very deep one then exhales a gout of fire at both of the heroes from another world trying to roast them.

"You claim someone here's causing this? Got any proof?"

On the vessel, Merek erects the Rock Cradle just in time to protect Seliana's life from being cut in twain, forcing L'Arc to grin at Merek for a moment as he pushes off of the stone and cuts right through him with his scythe. Luckily, Merek is of a sturdy class who can take a single fierce hit like that. But another one like that, and Merek is bound to be in trouble! No doubt the red alert of health is already going off for the field-changing Magic Knight.

Giganpor shouts at L'Arc, who gives him a warm smile in return for all of his effort at convincing him. "Look - I get it. You mean well. But it's not that simple. If you don't win, your world is destroyed. Who wouldn't fight to keep their world alive?" He asks him. "These Waves are only going to get worse - you do realize that, right?." He asks Giganpor. "It's not just about us." He answers as his weapon comes up - forced to grab both sides of his Scythe to block the downward axe, bringing L'Arc to his knee for but a moment, before he pushes back up and swipes at Giganpor.

He's about to swing his Scythe straight through Giganpor, before a sudden magic discharge breaks through the hull of the ship and rips into L'Arc's side and sends him flying to the wall, before Theresa can put up a shield with her crystals and stops Shiruba's vines from taking the rest of L'Arc's health with them, by /burning/ the plant spell. "FLAME WALL!"

"Ooph... seems they're getting the better of us Theresa." L'Arc remarks, grunting and getting back up as Yuuki rushes in. Her sudden burst of speed rushes forward faster than that lightning just moments ago, ending with her stabbing right into his chest. He grimaces for a moment, before a sudden detonation of lightning comes down on Yuuki's position, blasting her back - as Theresa pants and is pointing her crystal at that position. L'Arc and her working together as best as they can. But the Adventurers are getting used to L'Arc and Theresa's moves.

He looks to Miho for a moment and grimaces. "We have Faith in the Church." He answers her, straight and simple. The flame engulfing his position right as he spins his scythe, causing most of the flames to lick at the Ghost Ship instead.

But it stops him in place, preventing him from getting to Theresa as Seliana jumps in at top speed. Bursting through another Flame Wall that she puts up to protect herself, as her clawed hands wrap around Theresa's, grabbing at the mirror. But it doesn't look like Theresa is willing to give it up...

As she calls out, "LIGHTNING CLAP" and lightning blasts down on her own position, catching Seliana in the same moment and forcing Seliana's HP to drop to red right before the mirror shatters - pushing Seliana away...

Lifted by the earth itself, Mikage's magic protects her from the main brunt of the life-sucking black mists that roil beneath her feet now, slowing rising further and further. Explosions of blackness near her, trying to sap at her strength as she aims her bow. But it shatters. Forcing her to return to the basics of her previous techniques - drawing a bow of light and loosing it upon the Soul Eater - causing the biting beam of light to RIP into its body and slam it down to the ground, while its wreathe of flame tries to devour the many arrows stuck within its body.

Merek steps out through the fog, using some of the trees in order to get across to it, before bringing his blades down into it. It dips down into the fog, which licks at Merek's healthbar!

Jusenshi lets out a complaining tone as he's pulled out of the way of the thing. "I can handle this thing!" He demands of her. "My wife isn't going to let me hear the end of this. You Adventurers..." Only to suddenly get kicked out of the way, flying out of the way of the mist as it comes down - forcing the heavy warrior to retreat.

Pela dances through the air, each burst of air allowing her to leap a bit closer, until finally she makes it to the soul eater! That heavy blade swap rips into its neck, digging in and causing a constant red line to shine and flicker! Red beads of light fall down towards the ground, right before...

That black wave sword shatters in its blade, as the black fog corrodes it and ensures the last remnants of its Integrity that had teetered on since the Dark Wave finally drop to zero. Arashi comes down just in time before the red light fade, continueing the swiping attack started by Pela, carving further through its health! Kotono follows soon after, pulling Arashi out of the way of a sudden burst of black fog before cutting into the Soul Eater!

Kaydon pulls one of the Landers to safety, right before jumping down onto its head right along with Arashi. The two of them have a moment, having plunged in their blades exactly at the same time, causing the HP of the Soul Eater to suddenly plunge downwards - while more white flecks drift into its red crystal...

The team is forced back as another volley of arrows come, empowered by Miyako's dark energies - ripping into its skin and creating fish-hook like effects each time they splash into it...

As runes suddenly appear around it. Those present would no doubt recognize it as the Chaos Gate symbols, as it spins faster... and then suddenly teleports away the Soul Eater!

Within the boat, the very same thing happens. "Looks like that's time for me, Theresa and our buddy the Soul Eater! See you another time then, Kiddo." The redhead remarks at the Adventurers. "Next time, we'll find the proper Heroes!" He waves his hand in that friendly and upbeat way of his. And then they're gone. Theresa and him both.

And the Ghost Ship begins to slowly fade. The wood beginning to creak and shatter - while the Gargoyles start to flee outwards. And the clouds begin to disperse.

As Shiruba realizes the same thing the messenger suddenly calls out; "The timer just reached Zero! All the sand should be back in the Hourglass, ma'am."

The wave had been successfully repelled - partially because L'Arc and Theresa had killed the Boss right upon arriving to their world with their overpowered levels. But that doesn't stop the bitter taste of the knowledge that, while there had been no Adventurer casualties... the Landers had lost some of their people. And what's worse, the rather suspicious circumstances around /all/ of this.

    Merek looks to the entire place while the ship along with the Adventurers begins to fade away. There's a shift of his twin blades along with his Shadow Eclipse as well, then he nods to the people. There's a look to the Landers, then the man begins walking that way to assist in beginning healing people also.

    Giganpor gets ready to swing again, but misses completely. He does nearly shatter a hole through the ship with his axe. And gives a frustrated roar afterwards, one unintentionally using the Were Fang's roar ability that blasts into the air. Then he hops down as he looks around at the others. And growls.

    Finally, he starts to call out, "We need status reports now! Find out who died! Both Adventurers and Landers! If you have names, we'll honor them!" He looks around, then calls out, "Adventurers, if you're still good on health help the Landers."

    He moves over to sit down, breathing heavily, "I will be doing area healing. Bring the wounded to me. Come forth, Auris!" The bird-like Light elemental flies out of a summoning circle as it begins a wide range healing spell. It's slow, but Giganpor is definitely slightly watching his magic levels so he can keep the summon going. And looking very, very thoughtful, annoyed, and angry at the same time. It's not a good look on the tusked lion face. And it's enough that his cloak's giving off a rather grey color rather than any specific one.

For the first time, Mikage is left running towards an enemy only to see it teleport away. She skids to a stop, barely avoiding running into some of the sludge that was left behind by the Soul Eater. Looking around, she seems to realize that the others are gone, too.

Not a win. There is no feeling of victory, and looking around at the destruction, it certainly seems like the losses don't quite make up for what little progress they made. "Someone needs to check out what was done to the plant-life. At best, we need to make sure to contain it, but we may very well end up losing this whole section of forest."

It looks that way, but will the damage stop now that the Soul Eater is gone, or continue to spread? Not knowing the answer, she starts to do what Rangers do best... protecting nature. Using earth to contain the affected area.

Seliana skids backwards as she is pushed away from Therese as she claws at the ground to slow herself. As soon as she stops she lunges forward just as Therese vanishes and she flies through the air she occupied a moment before.

As she lands again she looks around, realizing that there is no longer a threat her eyes begin to dull and the colors fade until her eyes are a somber dull red. The orbs of light around her fade away and then she reverts back to her human form as her wings and horns recede.

Patting out her dress she inspects the area Therese vanished from and starts to collect the mirror fragments and put them into her inventory.

... A Chaos Gate. A Chaos Gate that can go between WORLDS apparently. Oh that is so not fair! .... But at least they're leaving, and they're taking their monsterous thing with them.

Shiruba... just closes her eyes and lets out a long exhale as she lowers her bow. "Thank the Goddesses." They won. Not without losses, but they won. Or at least stalemated to the point the otherworlders had to leave. She'll take it.

She opens her eyes to look up as the Messenger runs over to tell her the very thing she was going to ask once she had her wits together. "It... reset?" She peers up at the sky where the unholy storm and ghostly ship had emerged from. "Because of what happened... Because of..."

She growls a bit, still partially at herself, partially at what happened, and what was beyond their control. "I know we don't have the numbers or resources to outright oppose the other Alliances." Another short exhale as she recomposes herself. "... But we need to do whatever we can to ensure they don't double up like this again. Who knows how far reaching effects we don't even know of yet will be...."

Bittersweet. Yeah, that describes this. One of the scouts gives her arm a tug after Giganpor's announcement, but she shakes her head and sits down. "Go help the others that need it more. I.. need a few moments to think."

Not that she'll come up with any answers. But there's details she has to make sure she doesn't forget....

Proteus continues to scowl as L'Arc tells her that she isn't the Hero. "Maybe I'm not." Proteus replies. "But you know, being a hero depends on your point of view, doesn't it?" She gets hurled to the deck, and grunts as she rolls over, leaping back out of the blast of the fireworks and kicking up another crate to take the lightning paralysis. But that's not all and is hardly enough to stop L'Arc. "So much trouble about this..." She mutters, moments before her hands slam together, catching the scythe between her hands and stopping it for a moment... And then wrenching it to the side to make it pass. "This is all a distraction." Proteus states. "You already know what you're after here, don't you. Don't lie to me, Glass knew what she was after when she attacked too."

The mirror comes out, and Seliana goes after it. "NO!" She yells, throwing out a hand as she almost gets cleaved in half. "DAMN YOU!" Again, Merek intervenes, and Proteus has to stare for a moment considering that man. But there isn't that much time.

"Don't think you are going to just do this without concern." Her hands slam together, and she flips backwards, her hand reaching into her cloak...

And they begin to vanish. "YOU BASTARD!" Proteus yells at the retreating Hero. "HOW DARE YOU!" With a yell of anger, she turns and puts her fist right through the side of the dissolving Ghost Ship. "HOW DARE YOU HAVE THE LUXURY OF BEING ABLE TO LEAVE WITHOUT PAYING FOR WHAT YOU DID?"

Proteus eventually hits the ground, looking down at her hand covered in blood-red gleaming scrapes that fade away... And she frowns, turning away and stalking off into the woods.

     There is something to be said of the sensation of hitting something so 'hard' that the blade breaks in Pela's hands. Even if it was mostly that black mist that does it. And then... Chaos Gate runes appear? Pela's eyes widen a moment. She recognizes those runes. "GET AWAY FROM THE SOUL EATER!" Pela shouts, leaping backwards in such a way as she can try to get as good of a look at the runes as possible, activating her Arcane Eye to try to examine the active runes in that moment before it disappears!

     And then it's gone. And she's immediately turned and started to run, beginning to do a headcount of the militia that she had arrived with, starting with Jusenshi. The man who pulled her from the Soul Eater's mouth. And he? Actually gets a hug. And then... she stops. As her eyes scan the area. And... are... those tears in her eyes? "...This was such a beautiful area..."

     To Mikage, she gives a small nod. "I'll go around and check things out as best as I can. I'm... ... I love this land." Pela says quietly. "I've spent a lot of time here, even before Shibuya." And then she starts... to look for the dead. So that they can be gathered, and examined to check for status effects in the wake of this battle. It wouldn't do for them to come back as undead that endanger their families after fighting for their lands like this.

    Miyako watches as the spell-enhanced arrows slam into the monster... prepares to cast another spell... and then...

    "What the....?" she queries, as the thing just... fades away.

    "Alright, men," she calls to the archers. "Stand down, take a breather, let's get anyone who needs it to the medics. Anyone need help moving?" She waits a few moments, but it seems she herself is the only one, leaning heavily now with both hands on the naginata's haft. "Okay, I want two on watch while the rest ..." Even without orders, though, they're already gathering up the dead, preparing them to be carried back to the encampment. She just nods and lets them carry on.

    Once they're finished, she hobbles after them until she can find a comfrtable-ish place to sit down, near the other adventurers. "Hey, MiMi, Pela," she offers to the nearest. "Good to see you made it."

Miho has got some surprising replies from the mysterious heroes from another world. The fight is winding down she'll get off the ship before it goes she looks back and pauses before the pair chaos gate out.

"We need to find whatever is causing these waves on all our worlds and stop it at the source."

When they vanish she will fade back to go help with rescue and such. There may be landers who need help and she'll start questioning Hunters who are on-site about who she should talk to about business with supplying the guild.