Bibilan Dungeon

     Somehow, up until now, the various explorers hadn't noticed the entrance to the dungeon close to the beach to the south of Alne. Either that or maybe it had been disregarded as a cursed location, perhaps. Or recent events caused the previously-hidden entrance to become open? For whatever reason, a relatively recent discovery by Fukasa Yuri is ... a dungeon entrance! That looks like a giant stone skull covered in moss.

     Outside of the dungeon entrance is said undine as she waits for her party to appear to join her for the dungeon crawl. Other than the less-than-enthusing entrance, the Dungeon doesn't seem to give off too much of a forboding sense, almost like it's a dungeon with a reasonably well balanced difficulty curve to allow you to grind there for a fairly long time before you had to leave it for another dungeon if you really wanted to level up in a single place.

    Merek had taken the time to put on his dark attire with the waistbelt that keeps his potions upon it. Then he takes the time to adjust his scarf while he places Shadow Eclipse along the back scabbard which he wears, a special wrap for it. The man has thick stubble, while he keeps a piece of nice paper rolled up into what would look like a cigarette in his mouth. Clearly, there's nothing in it of note, it seems to be only for style.
    There's a look to the party while they all arrive, "Do we know anything about the dungeon and all of that?" he asks generally.

    Baroness Wake finds the invitation to a dungeon to be simply irresistable. She's had her share of conflicts since coming coming out of retirement, but this sounds different. Gaining some more experience (and hopefully new friends!) is a nice bonus.
    "Hello" she calls out warmly. "I'm not too late, am I?" She slips into her usual, graceful curtsey and rises smoothly. For the dungeon adventure, it seems The Right Clothes are soft leather trousers and a comfortable, long-sleeve top, both dark in color. All the better to lurk in shadows.

Goldenblade, for her own part, has been advised that solo dungeoning is not a thing, and since she's still in learning mode, she doesn't go often to strange places by herself. Not even scouting. But with a decent-sized party, she has little fear, and will meet at the pre-arranged location, arriving outside the dungeon entrance and offering a nod to Fukasa, Merek, and Baroness Wake. "Hey there!"

She smiles warmly and asks, "Is this the dungeon place we're exploring? I don't think I've been to this one before." She looks over the surroundings, checking for clues and any sort of indicator of what we might find. Bear or wolf scats, maybe, or else gnawed bones might be a hint, but those are things you check for in real life. Here, she has no idea what to look for. But she still looks. It's a thing."

This wouldn't be the first time that Mikage has joined a party exploring some previously undiscovered dungeon. In fact, it seems to go along with her goals for the game experience, in general. Seeing and experiencing new things always seems to drive her.

So, the pale Were Fang approaches, her companion lynx at her side. "If no one else has explored this before, I'm curious as to what we might find inside." She explains, offering the others a shy sort of smile and an incline of her head as she takes her place among them. One hand scratches at Rama's head, the lynx's nose already twitching, likely picking up unfamiliar scents.

The goings on in and around the Town of Alne are of particular interest to the Scale Emblem Alliance. Not only is their headquarters located in the town itself, the Tower's proximity to Alne means that any developments in the region need to be observed to intercept any potential threat to the Climb.

That's the Official (tm) reason that Prophylaxis, Doctor of Tolbana, is here today.

The other reason is...

"You think we're going to get some sweet rare drops from beating this thing first?" Prophylaxis asks, giddily wringing the shaft of his wizard staff. "New dungeon~ new dungeon~ Ahahahahaha~"

He might be just a little bit excited.

This could pose a problem, given his proclivity for pyromancy.

"I know she looks calm, but I'm pretty sure she is about to climb the walls with excitement. It isn't often we manage to find a cave at our level that we haven't explored yet." Cyrus chimes in as he steps up alongside Mikage, rubbing his right hand through the messy hair he's got, before glancing aside to her with a smile and playfully elbows her shoulder.

The Snow Leopard based Cait Sith takes a moment to look around, recognizing some folk, before his gaze falls on Fukasa Yuri herself. "So, you are the one who found this place hmm? Well done..." His head tilts up.

"That giant skull is not at all foreboding."

"It's probably just called Castle Greyskull or something," Prophylaxis heaves a mild shrug. "I mean, ominous gateways are just par for the course aren't they?"

    It's been what, four or five months since Sam's life became a videogame? It's amazing what becomes 'normal' after even such a short time. Of course, it helps that there are perks -- being an adventurer is pretty great all-around, and this world was designed to be fun for adventurers. Or is that just what he tells himself to cope with being trapped in here? Or is it part of justifying thinking of the outside world less and less?

    Maybe that's an insidious part of the plan of whoever trapped them here. They'll get used to it over time.

    Anyway, it having been four or five months, much of which Sam's spent wandering parts of the central island, the western desert, the Ninetails Dominion, and the first couple floors of the Tower, after that initial rush to reach Ezzo and beat the first floor, is why he's so surprised to learn that there's a new dungeon on the island's coast. It's not like it's hidden from sight in a forest grove you have to approach from just the right angle to notice, or invisible until someone completes a puzzle-- actually maybe that's it, maybe someone did a puzzle somewhere and this revealed it. Sam -- or rather, Mizuki, has stood in the occasional significant-looking circle and had nothing happen, after all. Maybe those were puzzles after all with distant effects?

    Such are the thoughts running through Mizuki's head as she stares at the entrance. Thoughts AFTER she said aloud, "Seriously? A giant SKULL? How did we MISS this?!"

    But hey, there are familiar faces to greet! Mizuki nods to Goldenblade, "Hey old mmmmmma'am, how've you been?" And there's Mikage and her lynx. "Long time no see, I hope you've been doing well." And there's Prophy. "I hope so! Hell, you never know, maybe this weird hidden dungeon will be where some developer finally messed up and left a glitch we can exploit. How goes the bun-bun husbandry? ...Bun-buns-bandry?"

Proteus doesn't put a whole lot of stock into curses. They're triggered effects. Once you know the trigger, you can simply avoid them like any other trap. It's all about knowledge.

And knowledge, as Proteus is fond to point out, is power.

The Seeker arrives at the designated location, sweeping in under her cloak and hood as she looks over the entrance. "... That shouldn't be there." She says simply, her purple eyes narrowing under the shade of the hood. Of course, a lot of the Usual Suspects are present, and Proteus nods to each in turn. "Baroness. Merek. Cyrus. Mikage. Goldenblade. Shady Doc." She does her best to not twitch at the dancing Prophylaxis is doing at this point.

She approaches the entrance, kneeling next to the mossy skull and rubbing a finger over the moss, testing something. "Mmm. This place looks familiar. Not quite the same. Reminds me of The Undersea Tunnel in the offline version. It shouldn't be here on the mainland though..." She glances at the others.

"I remember grinding in her in the offline version. Most of the enemies in here were weak to air, was really nice for low-level mages since Air has some useful utility besides." She turns to look over to Mizuki. "As for as how we missed it..." She gestures. "The Black Wave changed a lot. Even some of the old low level dungeons are profoundly different. The question you might ask is why a dungeon that resembles one from the offline version is here. Was it intended to be added later? Or was it always there somehow, and just revealed?"

She rubs her chin. "But will it really be the same, here... I wonder." Her tail lashes back and forth, catlike, before she glances back and gestures. "Come on, everyone. Stick together."

    "I think the skull is promising. Honestly! If it were a statue of a smiling clown here I would be terrified," says Baroness Wake. She direct her attention to Merek, "What do you make of this place?" Sensing the group is largely gathered, now, she directs her next to the others, "Sorry, I don't think I've met everyone here before. I'm Baroness Wake. It's a pleasure to share this little adventure with all of you!"
    She waits expectantly. Introductions are always fun. Well, fun to her, anyway. And then Proteus references the offline game and something being where it shouldn't be. The rest of the world is forgotten, "Where, roughly speaking, was this before?" she asks of Proteus. In the space of her question, she's moved to stand right near Proteus, peering into the dungeon. "I'm not sure I explored this one back then.. but it's been years."

    Mizuki's ears splay when she hears Proteus. But, she raises some interesting points. "Ohhhh, now that you mention it it DOES look like the entrance to the tunnel, huh. Ehh, just because the entrance looks the same doesn't mean anything else about the dungeon is, though. They might've just reused the entrance assets. We can't assume anything."

    She turns to Baroness Wake. "I'm Mizuki of the Odysseia Knights, pleased to meet you!" She smiles and extends a hand to shake to the baroness.

     Merek approaches, which gets a bit of a nod of Fukasa's head towards him and she even gives a polite no-nonsense smile. "Once everyone has arrived I'll go into dungeon details, of course. I've done some basic scouting, and it seems to be pretty similar to a dungeon that was in the old game before though, so it should hopefully not be too bad." Is the response to Merek from Fukasa. "Well, okay, if we go to the lower levels we'll be outmatched very quickly but I doubt that we're high enough level for it to really let us."

     "Ah, hello, Baroness! No, you are not too late. We're still gathering the party." Fuka says with a small smile, dipping into an air-curtsy of her own towards the noblewoman. To Goldenblade, there is a fairly simple response, "Yes, this is the place! I think it was locked off or hidden before until the adventurers were high enough level to enter it, to be honest. I swear I've walked past this area hundreds of times and never noticed it before."

     At this point, rather than explaining further, she does wait for everyone else to join. She bows her head politely towards Mikage, "It should hopefully have what I'm looking for, at least..." Is the response from Fuka.

     A grin towards Prophylaxis' energy. "Yep! I think it's brand new, Prophylaxis."

    "I did find it while looking for caves that had the appropriate monsters for the weapon I'm looking for." Fukasa responds to Cyrus. "It kind of blends in so I feel like it's somewhat of a stroke of luck that I found it, plus... the other mentioned theories."

     "...I know, right?" Fuka says with a soft chuckle towards Mizuki. "You'd think we'd have found it earlier even with it being off-limits or whatever..." And then, well. Proteus goes through the effort of explaining the dungeon for her! Which is good because Fuka actually didn't play Elder Tale Offline so she didn't know that. "...Oh hey that's more information than I had, actually. I'm hoping to find one of those 'merman' mobs down there, supposedly they drop a trident."

     Regardless, it seems... as if Proteus is happy to lead the party down into the dungeon, which Fukasa is more than happy to let them do. "Alright, let's follow the one who's experienced this dungeon before."

Goldenblade chuckles to Mizuki, replies, "Oh, I've been keeping busy. Projects here and there, the occasional dungeon. I like to keep busy." This is an understatement, of course. GB is not one for lazing around, and often finds little things to do to keep busy. Just sitting around drives her nuts. She offers a nod in reply to Proteus, taking in the others that have recently arrived, and to Baroness Wake, she says, "If it were a smiling clown," she says of the skull at the entrance, "I would order a Big Mac, fries, and a large cola." She is entirely at home with how you treat clowns.

Goldenblade ahhhs as Yuri explains that the place was just recently discovered, and she follows along in, looking around warily, holding one sword aloft over her head. Flames lick up and down the length like a torch might, though it's not normal fire.

Mikage gives a glance over towards Cyrus, and then lightly elbows him for his response. She smirks then, which is a likely sign that the cat is right about his companion. "Long time." Agreeing with Mizuki, the Ranger chuckles to herself, rubbing at the back of her neck, "We've been dealing with some of the world events. It's been keeping us busy traveling everywhere."

With introductions being asked for, Mikage adds, "Mikage Yurei of the Silver Swords. Though mostly me and the cat here..." She motions at Cyrus. "Just wander around and act as scouts. Sticking our noses into places it liely doesn't belong."

Her eyes flick to Proteus, taking in the intel that is offered, then nods. "I have some storm magic, so hopefully it'll get put to good use." So, she falls into step with the others, likely taking a place closer to the front lines out of habit.

    Merek seems to be humming a little bit to himself while he nods to Fukasa, then follows along with the party, "Merek," the man introduces, which he could actually add a lot to that, although people that know, would know. He does seem to content in shifting a look to people, "Alright."

"Proteus." Cyrus answers the lady mage back, tapping his cane to the bottom of his hat - not even tipping it. Just a tap. He then shifts himself about a bit as Mikage gives him a friendly elbow back and flashes her a grin - his various potions attached to his clothing clinking amongst eachother.

"Cyrus - just your average Alchemist. I specialize in keeping this one alive by healing, while she does the same by winning the DPS checks." He then looks back to the others. "I've got a few air based moves, but not too many. I specialize in fire, which I imagine is not going to fare me too well if you guys are right about what's down there."

That said, he begins to move along and follow down into the dungeon.

"Spooky Imp," Prophylaxis inclines his head in good-natured greetings at the smallish Proteus. You cannot stop the Adventure(!!), Proteus. None can suppress the rush of adrenaline that flows through any hardcore gamer's veins when they get a whiff of that distinctive New Dungeon Smell*. "I see you're doing well. That said, maybe the Black Wave had more effect on the world than simply distorting Ezzo? It could very well be that this and other similar dungeons will soon be washing ashore as well."

"The Bun-Buns are Bun-Bunning," he says, as if 'Bun-Bunning' were a word (and perhaps, given their proclivity for procreation, it is!?), but he shrugs. "I've decided it's against my best interest to keep a ranch of them near town, however. It turns out that they get very, very violent in large numbers, and it doesn't take very long for *that* to happen once they get going."

Speaking of getting going! They should get going!

"Incidentally Mizuki," he says, following along in Proteus' wake. "How have you been feeling since the incident with the doomhorse?"

(*It smells like DEATH and DANGER and many, many regrets)

The dungeon isn't going to explore itself. Also, the fact that it's /there/ is enough for Proteus. It's a mystery of the world and one that should be plumbed. "A statue of a smiling fool? No, Amadan Mionghaire isn't anywhere near here, or wasn't last I checked." She smirks to the Baroness. "Maybe we'll have to look into it later, but right now that would be a bad plan. It's not a low level place and we have more pressing matters to deal with, don't we?" The Imp tilts her head for a moment at the question, however. "It was off on a skull-shaped island that had much the same motif." Proteus replies to the Baroness. "If I know about where I am... About that direction?" She points off the beach into the ocean. "And you're right, Mizuki. We can't assume. But we can move with some expectation. Why would it look like the place and then be completely different? Stick together, the local monsters like to swarm if I remember correctly. Be prepared for alterations, but perhaps things will remain analogous."

Fukasa gets another glance from Proteus. "Oh? You're looking for a specific weapon? Care to explain? I find my curiosity piqued." She gestures along. "Come, let us have a grand adventure together, shall we?" Fukasa then says exactly what she's looking for. "Oh! A trident from a merman? Hmm! Interesting. I suppose that stands to reason! It would suit you well. Let's go shake down the merfolk, shall we?"

Proteus simply smirks at Cyrus introducing himself as an 'average Alchemist'. "So humble." She simply quips, before she leads the way, delving forward with a hand raised with a sparking fuzz of light to help provide sight as they descend. "Watch your flanks, you don't want to be swarmed under by the anemone."

    The Baroness smiles apologetically at Mizuki, "I'm Baroness Wake, of the Sleeping Knights. Sorry for that burst of excitement. I'm looking for something that isn't where it's supposed to be myself."
    Wake wonders if her name will be recognized. She isn't sure if most people remember her these days. She'd been out of sight for some time, after all. Truly, her thing was being out of sight, before the Apocalypes, too, and getting through dungeons by stealth and powerful sneak attacks. Doing the impossible was her favorite thing.
    Cyrus' introduction has her smiling. "Hopefully you can spare some of that healing if my rust starts showing. I promised my fiance I wouldn't die."

    "I was referring to the castle I've been seeking, of course," says Barones Wake to Proteus. "I was hoping that perhaps we might find some rhyme or reason to the way things shifted. But like as not that there is no one rule governing such things." She sighs softly, but smiles anyway. "It'll turn out alright, in any case. With the help of so many willing minds we'll find it, no matter the challenge."

Proteus' comment gets her a simple smile from the tall catte, while he uses one of the rings on his fingers to 'cut' a corp on his jacket and loosen one of his potions and throws it to Baroness Wake. "Catch." He calls to it. "Just keep that on you if you feel like you're concerned with your health. I'll keep an eye out on everyone's readings and do my best to help keep the party alive." He promises. "And that includes you. I don't want you to become a liar to your fiance."

     It's likely a good idea that Goldenblade has that sword provide light once they begin to move into the dungeon entrance, as there are no torches or other sources of light on the walls of the dungeon. While it has some ambient light just to make the game playable, that ambient light only seems to go out to about ten feet from each individual player for their vision. With the torch, however, it at least makes it so the party can see each other. Damp stone lines the entrance of the dungeon, but it doesn't last long until it starts to give way to what looks a lot like simply natural cave walls.

     For the most part, Fuka seems content to just let the various party members converse amongst themselves. Though she does have the presence of mind to introduce herself, "I am Fukasa Yuri of Crescent Moon." To Proteus she responds, "I haven't honestly found a good replacement for my favorite weapon from before the Black Wave hit and while I've somehow managed to keep it working up to now, it's... well. Somewhat... less than perfect." In that its damage and damage bonuses are level one, minimal, and actually possibly an active hindrance to her now that she's leveled up a bit. "...And frankly I don't like the aesthetic of the lander spears." She adds.

     As they move into the dungeon proper... the first thing they encounter is what appears to be some sort of ruins, some toppled pillars and remnants of what may have once been benches. And also... that this shouldn't be here, in Proteus' case. "...Hey, be careful of those darker areas, I think they're deep water." Fukasa comments. And then...

     For the GM's sanity, a pair of webbed hands suddenly reach out of the water from behind Fuka, grabbing her around the ankles, and ... dragging her into the depths. Leaving the party without the one who invited them. Whelp.

     Which direction would the party like to go?

     To the West there appears to be something of a cavern that could be explored. Straight ahead there appears to be a continued pathway to go North.

    Mizuki shakes her head to Wake, "Nothing to apologize for! Why shouldn't you be excited?"

    Dungeons may soon be washing ashore? "I hope that's not how it works. It'd be nice if we could enjoy the beach come summer." Mizuki opines.

    Her ears splay when Prophy brings up dying. "...It wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. I don't really feel any different..."

    "Ugh, swarming monsters. We've got plenty of AoEs ready though, right?"

    ...And then one of them gets pulled into the water. "Hey!" Mizuki runs to the edge of the water, then hesitates, then backs away. No one likes fighting under water. "...At least she's not taking damage according to the party HUD... but why would monsters just capture someone...?"

    Merek watches then when Fukasa is drawn into the water, while he watches. The man draws the demon blade, while he watches the party. "Right, looks like she is alright, we need to find her, anyone know which way we should look? I'm inclined to travel west," he notes, the man using the direction sense of 'what is my favorite direction'. Then he twirls the sword while he follows along with the party.

Goldenblade belatedly answers up as everyone is introducing themselves. "Goldenblade. I hit things. Til they stop fighting." That's as much as she means to say, of herself, and she will proceed along warily with the group, watching shadows and trying to keep track of everything. It doesn't work, but she tries. She's not particularly observant, but she's sufficiently quiet to make no noise as she walks deeper in with the others.

But when Yuri is grabbed and dragged underwater, she doesn't hesitate, she'll dive straight in after her, trying to follow as best she can. No swimming skill, but a bit of affinity for water is all that she can claim in her effort. Hopefully the things doesn't go too deep for her to follow.

Proteus hasn't introduced herself. She's met most of the people here, fought alongside them. But then, maybe she expects people to use Inspect. If they do, they might see the following:

                            Proteus - Wavebender                             - Archaeologist
                             < Plant Hwyaden >                              

"Yes, you are correct again. Seek and we shall find, Baroness. It's only a matter of time." She says as they proceed inward. "If there are rules to this phenomenon, we will find those as well. Or I will, anyway. I find such things fascinating."

The wet, natural envrionment closes around them, and once again Proteus is glad she is wearing the long boots as the water quickly begins to pool around the area. She grunts in commisseration to Fukasa. "I feel your pain. I lost all my gear as well, and now I'm struggling even to find anything I can directly use as a gear upgrade. But yes, it's important to keep to a preferred aesthetic."

As they reach the ruins, Proteus stops and holds up the non-fuzzing hand. "Those... shouldn't be there. It looks like this one is departing from the formula almost immediately. Be on your guard." Of course, a moment later, Fukasa gets ambushed. Proteus yells and hurls the flash of electric light at the disturbance, but it's too late. "Curses... Well, at least she's an Undine, she isn't going to drown down there. We'll just have to keep looking and catch up with her."

Mizuki asks an important question. "Why would she just be /captured/ instead of killed?" Proteus repeats. "There are things worse than death." She gestures. "I hope it's not why I think it is, but we'll find the evidence of that quickly enough." Merek recommends they head West, and Proteus nods. "Let's go." She says, threading her way through the less-wet areas in order to get into the larger cavern area.

Proteus hasn't introduced herself. She's met most of the people here, fought alongside them. But then, maybe she expects people to use Inspect. If they do, they might see the following:

                    Proteus - Wavebender - Archaeologist                    
                             < Plant Hwyaden >                              

"Yes, you are correct again. Seek and we shall find, Baroness. It's only a matter of time." She says as they proceed inward. "If there are rules to this phenomenon, we will find those as well. Or I will, anyway. I find such things fascinating."

The wet, natural envrionment closes around them, and once again Proteus is glad she is wearing the long boots as the water quickly begins to pool around the area. She grunts in commisseration to Fukasa. "I feel your pain. I lost all my gear as well, and now I'm struggling even to find anything I can directly use as a gear upgrade. But yes, it's important to keep to a preferred aesthetic."

As they reach the ruins, Proteus stops and holds up the non-fuzzing hand. "Those... shouldn't be there. It looks like this one is departing from the formula almost immediately. Be on your guard." Of course, a moment later, Fukasa gets ambushed. Proteus yells and hurls the flash of electric light at the disturbance, but it's too late. "Curses... Well, at least she's an Undine, she isn't going to drown down there. We'll just have to keep looking and catch up with her."

Mizuki asks an important question. "Why would she just be /captured/ instead of killed?" Proteus repeats. "There are things worse than death." She gestures. "I hope it's not why I think it is, but we'll find the evidence of that quickly enough." Merek recommends they head West, and Proteus nods. "Let's go." She says, threading her way through the less-wet areas in order to get into the larger cavern area.

"Shit." Cyrus curses as Fukasa is pulled away. Much like Mizuki, he is quick to pull up the party indicator. Indeed, they're not losing health. "They probably took her to a deeper portion of the dungeon. And who knows why - perhaps they figure that capturing an Adventurer is smarter than killing one and letting them come back? Assuming these are the rare breed of smart Monsters we've been seeing now and again lately." Cyrus points out.

"Either way, this just turned into a rescue operation." The youth then flicks a potion to the ground that splashes a circle around the party, "WIND WALKER". A group buff to help expedite movement - simply helping people go faster.

"I've also got some water breathing potions on me if we end up having to go under water." Cyrus points out.

    That abrupt motion leads to a drawn weapon and then Wake vanishes into the shadows. It's her thing. But she can see no way to save Fukasa, nor reach the enemy. She ponders aloud, "It may be a dungeon event where we have to clear a bit farther along to get her back. Whatever it was that took her, I saw it's face before it faded from view, but there's little we can do now." She watches Goldenblade with concern, but there's even less she can do there. She sighs and says to Proteus, "This will be a challenging one, I fear."
    The Baroness slips once more into the shadows, and her voice has an eerie way of coming from no clear place, "West works for me. I'm going to keep an eye out as much as I can, and be ready to call attention to trouble as I see it. Mind your steps near the deeper parts."

"I know that feeling." Mikage replies to Fukasa, "I still need to talk to Miho about forging a new bow for me, whenever she's not... being weird." Being weird seems to be a state that crafters just seem to fall into these days.

However, the Ranger falls silent as they begin to delve deeper into the dungeon, her eyes searching the shadows for signs of danger. Of course, she is looking outward, not really at the area where the party is standing. Thus, it's just the sound of splashing water and Mizuki's motion to the edge that makes her realize something is up.

Crouching at the edge of the water, she just barely gets a glimpse of the creature, "Well, she was looking for mer-people, and it looks like she found them." Her eyes flick upwards, likely to where the health bars are on her HUD. It doesn't feel comfortable not to do something, but... fighting under water without proper preperations seems ill advised.

"Okay..." She agrees with Proteus, shifting back to her feet.

    "Merpeople, or water medusas, or... anemone-people?" Mizuki tries to put words to what she briefly saw. She's fine with heading whichever way the others want to go.

"At least the monsters still seem like the type that would be weak to Air magic," Prophylaxis says, his face rankling like he'd just taken a great big bite out of a lemon. Their guide has been... Foisted. Stolen away from them by a larcenous fishman! How terrible...!

But Proteus does have a point. She is, after all, some manner of fishperson in her own right. It'll be fine! It'll all be fine.

Or maybe it'll all be... fin...?

"I'll follow your lead. Though if this place is as riddled with fishmen as it seems, I wouldn't be surprised if we'd have to take a trip down one of these submerged passageways to make any progress. While I can't exactly set the water on fire, and lightning spells might presently do more harm than good..." Prophylaxis taps the butt of his staff against the stone. Its head sparks, crackles, then jolts as a nimbus of electric fuzz bursts to life around it, creating a makeshift torch. "This might help, for now. Keep your eyes open, one abduction is bad enough but two would just make us look sloppy."

His eyes drift toward Mizuki, then: "That's good. Please let me know in case you *do* start feeling anything unusual. That damn White Whale has me feeling uneasy."

Goldenblade rises back to the surface and climbs out of the water a minute later, panting breathlessly, water running off her, forming a puddle at her feet. "It was too fast for me, and too deep," she reports to the others with a sigh. "But she found her mermaid, I guess," she echoes. She looks to the others, "Er, what do we do now?" Because she missed the last minute's discussion.

     Unfortunately for Goldenblade, it isn't long before Fuka is too far underwater to be able to be caught, as it's hard to keep up with a fish in water.

     To the West it is! Almost immediately, they encounter... a group of small pink creatures that seem to be floating around mostly minding their own business. They have a relatively low level indicators, about a level above the general party members' levels. They don't appear to be aggressive mobs as they just seem to float about in the shallows, to the south in the cavern seems to go off into the depths, but from where the wall ends, it seems likely nothing is down there.

     Oh wait. There's one thing. A single anemone monster, on the edge of the slightly darker waters. It's labeled 'Hydra' and since there's only one of them, it's probably a random spawn! Which is unfortunate for Mizuki, as it attacks almost the instant that it comes into view, shoving its tentacles under the ground, only for them to stab back out towards Mizuki's feet!

    "It made me think of the whale from bubble bobble. Like, you're a little kid playing this game, right, and then you run out of time and suddenly the music changes and this invincible, vaguely whale-shaped THING just kills you. I think it was white, too. Or maybe blue? Anyway, I always thought that was kinda spook--" And then suddenly a tentacle is coming for her out of the ground! She starts to leap aside, but not quite fast enough! Apparently Merek is faster, though, taking the hit for her! It IS his job as a tank, but as the fight hadn't really started yet she also kind of feels like it's her fault. Screw this monster for making her feel that way!

    So, she draws her kunai in midair and then as she lands she ducks into a low spin, hurling one and then the other kunai at the hydra. "Take that!"

    Then she nods briefly to Merek. "Thanks."

    Merek would do whatever he needed for the party, which was at the moment to tank that, then he nods to Mizuki, "Welcome," he notes. There's a shift while he takes the strike, then he watches the HP Bar begin to shift, while he swings the Shadow Eclipse into the hydra. For a weapon which is being used for combat it seems to keep the same damage as some full Wave Arte.

"Bubble Bobble..." Proteus says quietly, rubbing her face... But she doesn't say anything positively or negatively to Mizuki about it. Instead she yells, "Look out!" As the Hydra attacks. Suddenly, battle is joined as Merek leaps into the way of the attack on Mizuki... And already, she is weaving her hands into a pattern: ^ ! O

Energy explodes around her hands, seething lightning as she slashes through the enemy position, driving one hand forward in a knife-hand strike, coming to a stop on the opposite side. The thing won't last long on its own. "Watch your backs, it might not be alone!"

    Wake doesn't speak at this point. It's not helpful in avoiding notice, after all. She isn't invisible, but she's able to use the area to evade the Hydra's attention. At least until she suddenly leaps into view, slamming her right hand into the hydra in a brutal stroke. She steps back swiftly and once again slips into cover, her every sense straining for sounds of danger.

Goldenblade will pile onto the monster with the others, both blades whirling as the HP bar shrinks. She's attacking from the back to stay away from its attack, contributing to the hydra's demise. She's trying to keep a weather eye out for sudden adds, but mainly she's concentrating on her attack sequence, bringing out all the damage bonuses when she trips each combo in turn.

As the others go straight into battle with the Hydra - Cyrus remains somewhat at a distance. Right now, this area seems low enough level that it's not enough of a concern for him. Instead, he seems to have taken out a little wooden figure of what looks like... a fish. Perhaps something from one of Mikage's attempts at creating something.

Using a small catalyst and a bit of magic, the Cait Sith finally gets a sudden 'glow' from the fish, and it begins to flop about in his hand.

He shows it to Mikage, and some of those who might not be jumping into battle. "Looks like she's one floor below us, and is going deeper." He then motions his hand over the menu. "And it looks like she's under the ENSNARE effect. So she will probably not be able to escape on her own for at least a little bit."

"Iiiii would not have made that comparison, myself? I mean, Bubble Bobble..." Prophylaxis' expression is... complicated? It's simultaneously baffled and nostalgic and amused all at once. "Gosh it's been a while since I-- oh that seems to be a thing."

The Hydra emerges, its many heads writhing like a nest of serpents. Prophylaxis clicks his teeth as the thing slams into Merek, "Careful. I don't want a repeat of the last time. Here...!"

The spell is woven. A dark shroud wraps around each of the creature's heads, blinding and stinging each one as the tenebrous veil tears at its eyes. "This should provide a bit of cover...!"

When a dungeon has optional monsters, Mikage generally leaves them be, unless there is some kind of item drop that she is hunting for. Thus, she just walks around the non-agressive mobs, preferring not to draw their attention.

"Where there's one, there might be more..." She murmurs. Then, the Were Fang pulls out an arrow... an actual physical arrow. She's taken to carrying those, these days. She draws it back, sending it towards the tentacled monster that is closest to Mizuki.

With Merek playing the hero, Miki gives a glance at his health. She isn't a healer, despite having some talent with light magic. Cyrus, then, snatches her attention, "Guess we keep going, then. We're not exactly going to leave her behind."

     It's probably for the best that the Hydra is a mindless creature, because the retaliation for its attack is almost instant and overwhelming for the poor thing. As it readies for another rapid-fire attack towards Mizuki, a kunai comes flying straight for its fleshy form, sinking into it handily!

     And then a Cursed Blade, which cleaves straight through it, leaving a red gash along its form. It doesn't even have time to start its death animation as more attacks begin to flood in. A lightning strike from Proteus! A brutal open-palmed strike from Baroness Wake! Whirling blades from Golden Blade is the final strike before the death animation finishes! And the Hydra kind of makes this little 'humph' noise as it falls over, and then explodes into pixels. In its place are a few of its tentacles and a small pile of green goop literally named 'Sticky Mucus'. ...They both seem like very little beyond sell fodder on examination.

     Having explored the side cavern, the only remaining pathway forward is NORTH. Of course, the party could always choose to RETREAT but that seems unnecessary at this point.

    Merek looks to the hydra when it is slain, the red shimmering away making the man look forward along the dungeon. "Alright," he twirls the sword while he sheaths that along the back, then he places both hands together, "I call upon the energy from the goddesses," the man states, then he begins to heal himself with the light magic. The HP Bar looks to be back to full, "Alright, we should be mindful while we find Fukasa, be fast, also try to be safe."

    After they dump a completely overkill amount of hurt into the lone hydra, Mizuki has a chance to actually look around the room.

    ...It's empty. "Really? A dead end and they couldn't even bother to put a treasure chest here?" At least they know which way to go now.

    Wake can't help but reflect that it was pretty gratuitous to strike the Hydra. But it was satisfying, as well. It brings back memories. Is a dungeon where one should be feeling nostalgia?
    "I'm going to scout north," she declares to the group in a whisper that barely carries. She can move quickly, even when she's hugging every shadow, and her motions are nearly silent. She doesn't want any more surprise attacks. Not on /her/ watch. She has a reputation to uphold.

"I'll come along - I think we all are." Cyrus offers to Baroness Wake as he nods his head to the side and carries on, holding that wooden fish in his hand outwards and letting it glow and flop about in his hand to guide them.

Goldenblade will follow the party as they proceed, using one sword as a torch still as we move along north. She watches carefully for signs of monsters, eyes scanning the distance. With Wake slipping off ahead, she will follow. "Don't go off alone," she recommends. "It could be bad."

With the only nearby threat neutralized, Mikage shifts her bow back down to her side for the time being. There is one more glance around the chamber before she falls into step behind Cyrus, acting as guard for the feline seems to come almost instinctually from their travels.

"Goldenblade is right. Let's stay close so no one else gets nabbed. Things are usually easier in the first floors of a dungeon, but they're bound to get worse." She has no doubt of that.

    The Baroness smiles and explains, "I am... honestly flattered by your concern." There's a sense of her intending to say something entirely different at first, but she holds it in. It feels.. nice not having to be alone. Her entire former identity was about sneaking into the very deepest parts of high level dungeons entirely on her own. There's still an excitement at the thought. But how can she be what she means to be if she doesn't let others share the load?
    She doesn't rush ahead. At least not more than a few steps. She is still likely the quietest and most sneaky in the group, after all. If she wasn't napping maybe that whole Hydra attack could have been prevented.

The Hydra is dispatched quickly enough. As to be expected for a minor enemy. "Well, it looks like we're ready to go. Yes, let's all stick together now." Proteus tilts her head towards the shadows. "Except for those with special skills, perhaps." The area is a dead end, lacking even in loot, but she shrugs and moves on, heading back towards the north. As they move, the Archaeologst closes her hand slightly, muting the light somewhat to reduce the light present... But hopefully enough to still see by.

     Scouting to the north is! ... Fairly straightforward, in fact there's very few branching paths that aren't just side-sections of the same cavern that is right ahead. There's a few monsters floating around, all of them labeled as non-hostile. Several large cockaroach-like bugs that are named 'Kukre', as well as some rather pretty jellyfish-like creatures called 'Marina'. There are aggro lines that show that it will aggro with the other monsters in the area if any of them are attacked. But unless the party decides to attack them, they can easily just walk past them without any issue. In fact, continuing forward it seems this first floor is... basically a straight line. For the most part, the party seems to avoid any other major random spawns of Hydras even, able to just walk past.

     The monsters all seem to be more or less the same, until they get close to the end of the floor, where they approach what looks like a set of stairs that go down. Water seems to flow down from the top floor down into the lower floor, though at a glance it doesn't seem as if there is too much water to continue on-foot. What /might/ be problematic is the sound coming UP those stairs. A constant 'pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop'. Until finally... a rather LARGE crab, about the size of a large dog comes into view, and begins to scuttle immediately towards the party, aggroed to the magic casters who have active spells up, it seems!

    "Crab incoming!" hisses Wake. She steps swiftly to the side, readying herself to strike once the enemy draws within range. Hopefully she's managed to keep anyone from being surprised this time.

Hydra is slain, loot is acquired, everyone is pleased with this outcome.

...Except that they're still missing a party member, which is undeniably something to be concerned about. Why *would* they capture an adventurer? And an Undine at that. Untoward happenings are possibly afoot-- or maybe it's just a way for the developers to encourage players to travel deeper into the dungeon...?

"You know," Prophylaxis muses, "If I were a dev, I would have hidden something in that room. Or maybe, like, tied the Hydra's defeat to soomething else in the dungeon. Maybe some kind of chest down the road, or maybe even an unlock for another boss down the road or... Something like that?"

Or maybe it's just some kind of Giant Enemy Crab. Prophylaxis takes one look at it scuttling his way aaaaaand sidesteps behind the nearest tank, because squishies do not belong on the front lines, they belong in a position where they can hurl fireballs at things and not have to worry about dropping any DPS.

    Merek looks along the path when the whole of the party would begin coming upon the crab which walks up from the water. He nods a bit while he draws his Shadow Eclipse, then he begins to advance forward while he uses a few knight maneuvers to swing into the enemy twice. The man is like a machine when it comes to combat.

    Mizuki nods when Goldenblade points out that this is a bad place to split up. "There's a time for scouting, but... here, we should probably keep together."

    "Should we exterminate the monsters so we don't have to deal with them if we end up being chased out of here, or should we sneak past?" Mizuki asks as they see the jellyfish and cockroach-things.

    After they reach the stairs, though, her ears perk at that strange popping noise. It sounds familiar, but just what is it?

    They find out soon enough! It's a giant crab, going straight for the casters!

    Well, ninjas can cast too! "Swirlingboltsgatherandstrikewithpower! Lightning Bolt!" Mizuki holds out a hand and speaks the incant as fast as she can, causing bolts of lightning to strike down from the sky... well, from the ceiling. VIDEO GAMES.

"I've seen a couple of dungeons where the design doesn't exactly make sense." Mikage adds, giving a nod towards Prophylaxis. "Hard to tell if the locations aren't well designed, or if there's some random generation there that isn't quite firing on all cylinders."

Then, as they reach the stairs, that strange sound has her ears twitching ever so slightly. It's an unfamiliar sound to her, but when the creature appears, it at least looks somewhat normal. "I wonder if these drop meat." Is the first thought that comes to her head. Leave it to the hunter to think with her stomach.

Again, she reaches for an arrow rather than her sword, perhaps trying to focus on keeping enemies at range for the time being. However, this arrow has a particularly sharp looking arrowhead that looks as if it were made from some sort of obsidian. When she draws it back and fires, it flies remarkably straight, with enough force to hopefully crack some shell.

    Only in video games does smashing a crab with ones fist sound like the best possible approach. Baroness Wake rather enjoys the hands-on moves she can bring to bear. Plus she imagines if she can bring some crab meat home she'd get some seriously delicious food.
    In quick succession, she rains down a series of punches, each directing a considerable amount of force into the enemy. Once again, as soon as she's delivered the damage, she's dancing back under cover.

Goldenblade will fall back to the side of the cave as it comes up along the passageway, seeking something out that's not her. She will fall in behind it when it passes, and strike it from behind, laying in with fierce blows as the rest of the party engages it. She will grin ferally as the HP bar falls quickly with everyone scoring hits. "We're pretty effective," she observes.

She continues to pile on with both swords, raining fierce blows down on the monster's six, its rear. Though it's kind of hard to tell with a crab, she considers.

"I mean, if they're based off of actual caves and the like, it'd make sense that some of these dungeons are somewhat badly formed and hard to traverse." Cyrus pipes up as Mikage speaks on some of the dungeons they've crawled. "Like that one where all those Stalagmites were getting in the way of us going forward." He motions his hand as he talks about it, before halting.

With his gaze so fixed on the wooden fish, he's missed some of the monsters. But the crabs coming up with their telltale clippity-clacks are notable. "Lobstrocities? No... some kind of Crab?" The others already rush into battle before the crabs have a chance to act.

"I'll help." The youth grabs a potion real quick and throws it across - aiming to smash it on the ground near it and cause anemone-like vines to crawl up from the floor towards the grab and try to peace-bind its claws within those vines!

     Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! That crab just keeps on coming even as attacks come in, though it doesn't seem picky about staying completely focused on the mages, as it's targeted. The first person who attacks it, Baroness Wake finds that it's rather unpleasant to punch a hard-shelled crab, even though it does take damage from the hit! Chip damage. It seems it's a tank-type mob. Twin strikes cut along the Vadon's form from Merek's strikes!

     And a lightning bolt follows shortly afterwards! Which causes it to draw back, its eyes swirling into a surprised/stunned look for a half moment!

     Crack! The arrow from Mikage flies true and sinks into the crab! It's starting to look comically distressed at this point, but still seems to be on its dangerous approach! And... and then... its claws are bound. The incessant popping stops. And the Vadon does not seem pleased. And continues its attack towards the Baroness Wake, swinging its claw like a hammer!

    Merek steps forward while he then shifts the demon blade along to the side. "Wake!" he calls, then he takes a moment to focus all of his energy into the weapon. The dark metal begins glowing while he comes around to swing it into the crab, red glow shimmering away while he draws the crab alight. It's really quite elegant, the man is a master of the magic flame.

    Wake finds she simply wasn't able to slip back out of the crab's attack range in time. Worse yet, its swing is guided by a mix of skill and fate and actually strikes home, despite her attempts to roll out of its way. Even struck she makes almost no sound, the blow sending her sprawling. She doesn't stay down long, though, swiftly pushing herself back up and launching another attack, this time her blades coming up to shred at the enemy's flesh. It's nothing personal, but she /better/ have some crab to eat after this is done.

Goldenblade looks up with alarm as the crab monster changes targets. "Wake!" she shouts, "Look -" but it's too late for that. She lays into the crab critter just as fast as she can. The faster they put it down, the less harm it will be able to do. Flames lick along her blades, blazing brightly even as she buries the blades in the monster, savage blow after savage blow in an attempt to put the creature down. She's fast, and she's not seventy-five years old, the feeling of being young again fuelling her to do a bit more with her life then she did when she was twenty-five, herself. Of course they didn't have giant crab monsters back then, so it's probably no point in musing.

    Mizuki winces when the crab smashes the 'baroness' like that. "Why is it focusing her? Tanks, draw aggro!" For her part, the dire fire tigress leaps in close, daggers at the ready -- and then decides that maybe piercing and slashing aren't the best plan here, but what about cooking it in its own shell? Thus, she changes her plan at the last split-second, just breathing a plume of flame over the vadon, trying to engulf it! Well, okay, she can't actually COOK it, but hopefully the logic translates into doing useful damage!

With the others joining in the fight against the crab, Mikage holds off on firing into friendly combat. Oh, she would likely be able to avoid hitting anyone, but it's better safe than sorry and they seem to have things in hand.

Instead, just to be on the safe side, she channels a bit of air magic. Static flickers from her fingers and then seems to form around the feet of Baroness Wake. "This should help a little bit, for the next attack that comes her way." It seems to be a temporary enchantment, meant to raise the Adventurer's evasion.

Proteus moves along with the others towards the north, bypassing as many of the enemies as possible. The Imp Archaeologist seems to be comfortable with working on skirting enemy aggro radii, working her way forward deeper into the dungeon... At least until they reach the stairs down. At that point, the eruption of the enemy crab becomes an issue. "Well... That's a thing." She mutters... And then glances at Mizuki. "Final Fantasy Tactics, Bolt 2." She says to Mizuki, before she looks back towards the crab. It attacks, crashing through the group and attacking the Baroness. "Well, that's enough of that." Proteus states. Her hands are already in motion, tracing sigils in the air... V S M

Her hands flare amber, and with a moment's focus she hammers a fist into the ground... Only for the rumbling impact to roll below the crab and erupt upwards into a mighty pillar of Earth, a giant stone fist affixed to the end. "Let's see if flipping it over will help solve the problem."

"Flipping crabs seems a bit unfair, doesn't it?" Prophylaxis asks between casually lobbing fireballs at the distinctly water-aspected creature. Apparently Prophylaxis is of the opinion that either A) enough fire solves all problems or B) crabs are tasty when grilled in their own shells. Possibly both?

Probably both!

"I mean, they can't even properly right themselves if they're out of the water. Their bodies are just too awkward. for it! If give enough time, maybe they might have a chance, but... Ah well!" Prophylaxis! Hurls more fire!!

As Fire starts getting unleashed more and more upon the crab, Cyrus joins in. Throwing a very small flask prepared with a flaming substance, coming sailing over some of the melee fighters' heads before impacting cleanly upon the Vadon's body. He's getting really good at these throws. He may not be a challenge to Mikage's mastery over ranged attacks with her arrows, but he can throw a mean flask.

     A touch from Merek, and the Crab is cooking in its own shell! It starts to smell rather good! The cuts from Baroness Wake allow that smell to escape even further, juices seeming to be dripping to the floor. Is its shell beginning to open up a little?! Goldenblades wailing attacks continue that trend, followed by yet another fire attack! The damage is reduced on the fire attacks against the Vadon, but ultimately it's being chipped down rather rapidly!

     And then it's flipped onto its back, the cuts from the melee party members preparing it for its ultimate fate! After it lands, a flask of fiery potion breaks on the main body of the crab, causing it to break into red pixels. The shell, however, is left behind with a generous portion of meat visible inside of it! It's not been cooked by trained cooks, that's for sure. But it actually does smell pretty good!

     Too bad they don't really have time to enjoy the common-quality steamed crab. Better store it in the inventory fast! It doesn't have much durability.

     Once the party gathers whatever they want of the crab, they're free to traverse down to the next floor of the dungeon! Which is... actually... much like the first floor, mostly full of those non-aggressive mobs. It seems like this dungeon was not put in to be a super hard dungeon from start to finish. At least not for the first couple of floors, which is likely why in Elder Tale Offline it was such a prime grinding place for classes that had the Air element available to them.

     They could pick and choose what they wanted to attack. Except for in a certain case. As the party continues forward, there is a distant sound of combat. And those paying attention to the health bars might notice something.

            Yuri's health is beginning to tick down.

     Rushing forward would be the ideal choice, but there's one problem in the way of this: There's a sound reminiscent of something that happened earlier. Hydras. Luckily this time they aren't attacking the party yet, but it's a stack of tightly gathered Hydras, all rapidly unleashing wave after wave of attack on a large, derpy-looking fish. Until it ... breaks apart into a strangely... undead-looking corpse?

     It looks like there's going to be two real options.

     Charge Through (DC 10 evasion) or Burn it Down (DC 10 Area Attacks)

    Merek looks to the crab meat while he takes a moment to examine it with an inspect, then he picks up his piece to place it into the inventory. "Finally, a good meal." He then twirls around in place to hold up two fingers like a Final Fantasy victory pose. Then he watches the party, "Alright, we need to find Fukasa," he notes, then he's adjusting the Shadow Eclipse along the shoulder while he walks along.
    Then it's to the hydra while he watches all of them, "You are all in my way, I find this an absolute WIN!" The man then begins charging while he sheaths the weapon, then he swings forward with a fist, "Ragnarok's Fury!" Then he's swinging along into the enemies to punch them with his bare hands, like a pro.

    "We need to hurry!" urges Wake. Yes, she has taken damage, and no she hasn't healed. But this isn't the time to be cautious. She races ahead, ducking on attack, then leaping over two others. It's a full sprint through, with far less attention to what lies ahead than Wake would normally be comfortable with. In her defense, though, it's hardly useful to know what lies ahead if you are too dead to tell anyone about it.

Goldenblade breathes easier as the crab is flipped over, and killed, though the crab meat does sound tasty. "Anyone want to trade?" she asks. "I've got some ... uh.... " she checks her inventory, "... tasty rat meat? It's tasty..." No takers on trading rat for crab? She should have guessed. She wouldn't. And clearly she hasn't verified the tastiness, herself.

They proceed down, and about the same time she takes in the strange scene before them, she also notices Yuri's health bar slowly falling.

Throwing caution to the wind, she rushes forward, moving so fast that fire is left in her wake. This isn't entirely unheard of, but it's pretty remarkable, and this doesn't seem like the correct context for the known uses. Never the less, her boots leave a flaming trail, not unlike certain Deloreans reaching 88 mph, as she darts through and past the obstacles neatly, leaving them recoilling from the flames.

The sight of the flash-cooked crab is enough to leave Mikage's stomach faintly rumbling, but there isn't time to worry about that. Her eyes check the party health bars, noting that Fukasa's is slowly decreasing. "Shit." She curses, "Time to go, everyone. Food later." It's hard to tell if she's saying that to the others, or to her own stomach.

Then, she starts to race through, trying to keep in close quarters with the others so that they don't get mobbed, pincered, or separated too badly in the flight. Wind races along with her feet, driving her forward, allowing her an easier time to slide under a few attacks and around a couple of mobs as she drives forward, all but ignoring the aggro following them.

Food later, rescuing absentee party members first. Good fortune smiles upon them, however. The obstacle in their way is one that Prophylaxis is uniquely capable of dealing with. He is, after all, a Magus-- and that over there is a knotted tangle of snake heads attached to a half-dozen hydra bodies all piled up onto itself in a thirty foot radius circle.

In other words...!

"Fireball," Prophylaxis declares with perhaps a little *too* much eagerness as he sends a red-orange sphere of explosive might downrange. "Fireball...!" He repeats, hurling another fireball. "Fireball!" And another fireball. "Yet! More! Fire! Balls!" Each syllable is punctuated not only by an exclamation point, but also by a fireball.

Just fireball.

Only. Fireball.

"Prophylaxis... I think you've got a problem." Cyrus remarks in the midst of attempting to dodge the many dangerous underground tendrils that keep trying to burrow their way through the ground and target him. He's working on healing people and can't particularly focus on throwing firebombs at these targets.

"Careful - you might turn into one of those Chuuni folk if you keep going like this." He teases the Good Doctor.

    Were fangs are probably the first to notice how good that crab is starting to smell. When they kill it and shell and meat are left behind, though, Mizuki kneels over it and sniffs close, then sticks her muzzle in there and sinks her teeth into it... only to then notice others reaching for the crab meat as well. Looking a little embarassed, she stands up with a chunk of meat between her teeth and puts it away in her inventory. She shakes her head at Goldenblade. "As tasty as it is, I haven't had crab or lobster in ages..."

    And then they move on... and Fukasa's in battle! Or... no, the battle is something else. Mizuki takes one look at the chaos and decides to just Ninja around it. As a were fang ninja she's perfectly equipped for maneuvers that would make real-world parkour experts and acrobats jealous, moving with ease over uneven terrain, running along cave walls in short bursts, balancing impossibly on stalagmites, clinging to salactites and leaping from one to the other... all with nigh-supernatural quiet.

    Not that anyone could hear her over the sound of Prophy's fireballs, anyway.

    ...Which is probably good considering at one point she misses a jump and falls to the cave floor, left with no choice but to get up and keep moving while looking like she meant to do that, in the manner of cats everywhere.

     Charge through it is! As they charge, the sound of combat grows louder and louder! A line of the Hydra are destroyed by the Ragnarok's Fury dashing through it, while a Fireball blasts a good portion of the others right as they're about to attack the slower members of the party! A few Glancing Blows strike the feet of Mizuki and Cyrus as they make their way through, but everyone gets through more or less intact without any major dent in their health bars!

     And they're able to descend down Yet Another Staircase. And find themselves... actually right by where the battle is going on. Several of those mermaids are surrounding Fukasa, barely held at bay by several undead sailors that's health bars are nearly depleted. Meanwhile Yuri herself can be seen fighting spear-to-spear with a giant... fish with arms and legs! It seems that Yuri found the merman that she was looking for! It's... honestly not exactly pretty. At all. In fact it's really ugly. But it /does/ seem to have a good spear at least.

     The timing of the party is perfect. As right as they get close enough to join in the battle, those Obeaune knock the summoned undead down to 0 hp, and they break into fragments of red pixels!

     "...Oh thank the goddess." Fuka says. "I thought I was heading back to the church when I couldn't escape that Obeaune!"

    Merek takes time to begin healing the woman, Wake, before he nods a bit, then would march along to the next fight. When coming upon it, he takes a moment to look around, before he finds a place to take range, then lifts up a hand, "Firebolt!" That swings along and would strike into the Merman while he fights.

"Got here as quickly as we could!" Mikage pants, trying to catch her breath. Seeing the battle that Fukasa has had to face, she can't help but marvel at the woman's skill.

The Ranger reaches back, grabbing another of the arrows, but as soon as she begins to channel energy into it, the bow string snaps. Part of it whips back and lashes at her cheek, causing her to give a low curse. In frustration, she tosses the bow to the side. "I /really/ need to get a proper bow." Apparently, a decent weapon can be quite hard to find, these days.

So, Mikage reaches for her sword, and decides to charge in, hoping she can at least draw some aggro...

    And there's Fukasa! Mizuki charges towards the battle, spitting a fireball into the ring of... anemone-people? trying to take some out or at least stun them so she can break through! "That's not happening!" she shouts to Fukasa, "But maybe we should get out of this circle!" She gestures back at the opening she just made.

    For once, Wake holds back. She's still got to deal with her solo instincts. While the tanks set up the battle, the Baroness swings her hands out in a circular gesture and then casts them both forward. Beams of silvery radiance shine from her finger tips and infuse Fukasa with the healing power of light.

Goldenblade leaps into the fray, taking the place of the fallen mobs and savagely slashing the MERMAN with both blades, whirling them both in her hands like batons as she rains down concussive blows on the MERMAN attacking Fukasa, not with the intent to aggro from her, but just to cut down it's health bar as fast as she can. Powerful blows like thunder land on it as she attacks wildly, blades spinning like a ... blender, a blender of doom.

     As Fukasa continues her fight to not get overwhelmed, she manages a quick THRUST at the merman! Meanwhile, Golden Blade leaps into the fray! Several concussive blows striking the side of its derpy face! A firebolt streaks in through the Obeaune, darting through the combat to splash over the creature's form! Oddly enough it doesn't seem to be /that/ resistant to fire, as its health goes down a reasonable amount from the attack!

     The MVP Merman Turns around and swipes its spear towards Fukasa's midsection, as a Cast Bar fills rapidly. 'SPIRAL PIERCING'. The merman stabs straight forward through the area, attempting to catch both Mizuki and Goldenblade in the attack!

     The Obeaune Group, meanwhile, is wrapped up in a sudden cast of Thorn Bind Hostage by Prophylaxis' quick assistance before their Mana runs try! One of the thorns on each of them pops as Mizuki's fireball hits!

     The Obeaune Group then meets them in battle, as Mikage charges in and they attempt to reach Merek! Their attack is a rather simple one though, they lean in, their hair all gathering together into a rather sharp point that they attempt to stab into the adventurers.

Up until recently, Mikage had largely been a melee fighter, but with her attempts to branch out and further practice her ranged abilities having very mixed results, it seems that a sword is the best option. Reaching for a vial, she plucks a cork out of it with fanged teeth, then pours it over the blade of her weapon as she weaves out of the way of the attacking Obeaune monsters.

"Let's see if you're weak to poison..." She growls faintly, gritting her teeth as she gives a shout of effort, slashing her blade towards them in a quick series of slashes with that tainted blade.

Goldenblade evades the MERMAN's counterattack with surprising ease, the sudden attack must have put it off balance. It's still reeling from the hits it'd taken when GB delivers more, her swords landing with the impact of hammers striking, one after the other, a rain of doom as she hammers from the left and right, alternating blows to keep it off balance. "Keep it up!" she shouts, "We're getting it done. He's going down!" Well, he's getting there, anyhow, but it's the sense of successs rather than the actual predictive accuracy she's going for.

    Merek would begin to walk forward while he draws his two twin blades, maneuvering to swing into the Merman with the flame upon the both of them. There's a look to the party while he nods a bit also. "I think we can manage!"

    Wake has been biding her time, letting the others use their formidible powers to bring the enemies HP down, down, down. She ducks once more out of sight and moves swiftly through the intervening space. Her blades swing out suddenly and before the Merman can move, find its flesh, scoring a bitter strike. She draws both the weapons out with a twisting motion.

    Fukasa keeps fighting the merman. "Fine, I'll buy you time then..." Mizuki mutters as she turns to face the somewhat-depleted Obeaune group. And she takes a page out of Prophy's book, spitting fireball after fireball, burning through her MP as she tries to thin out their numbers with repeated blasts of fire!

     It turns out that, yes, the Obeaune ARE weak to poison! As Mikage's blade sinks into them, its remaining HP drops off and it bursts into red pixels, leaving behind its.... heart???

     Meanwhile, the MVP Merman is accosted by Goldenblade, who literally hammers in the side of the merman's face, though that mostly is just represented with a large red area on it. Two flaming daggers get sliced into the MVP Merman's side, reducing its HP down lower... lower... lower... until finally Baroness' Wake's weapons stab into the Merman, dropping its HP down to 0!

     In that moment, Fukasa Yuri drops her trident, stepping forward to grab the Merman's spear and tear it out of its hands! She turns, and as she does, that spear seems to change form, the single-tipped fishing spear turning into a relatively simple trident as Fukasa LEAPS, stabbing the tip into the top of a nearby pool as if it were solid ground. Several bubbles of water lift them up into the air.

     And make them prime and easy targets for those incoming fireballs, sizzling heat causing the water bubbles to BOIL, the remainders of the obeaune group's bodies turning bright red, before they burst into those red pixels of defeat!

     The MVP Merman seems to take a few moments before it disappears though, kind of standing there, unmoving, eyes blank and white. Eventually, it turns and starts to attempt to walk off, only to collapse forward, bursting into red pixels two steps in.

                 MVP!

     A stylized banner appears over each party member's head, and there's several loot drops!

    With the boss down and weapon gained, there is something of importance left for the Baroness to try. "There are no slimes, but that floating creature on the first floor was cute. I really want to get one for Uta!" Her attempts, sadly, are totally unsuccessful. She does, however, hug one of the creatures in an attempt to corral it. She doesn't quite get the attraction of contact with monsters, but this isn't about /her/. "Could someone please help me?" she asks.

    Merek looks then to Wake and nods a bit, "I will do what I am able to," he notes. Then he would try to assist, only managing to actually draw a pillar of flamee into the water while he would try to assist.

     The Black Wave Weapon that Fuka had discarded breaks into a million red pixels, having served it's last few moments. And Fuka walks back with the party. And the Baroness and Merek seem to hold back. Fuka rests her trident over her shoulder as she watches the two attempt to capture the plankton. "....Y...you do know... that... like... these things are harmless and you can just, like..." Fukasa walks up and casually grabs the plankton by the top of its body, lifting it up casually as if it were nothing, one finger lifting to absently tease and tickle the little baseball-sized ball of slime and jelly.

    And then the tide of battle turns completely in the PCs' favor as obeaune and MVP are taken out in rapid succession. "Huh. So... we did it? We beat the dungeon? Or was that just a mid-boss?" Mizuki wonders.

    And then someone's trying to capture one of the harmless monsters. "For Uta? Sure, let's give it a shot." She'll do what she can to try and corral one of the things, perhaps trapping it with ice magic.

    Wake just watches Fukasa do that and says simply, "Well, I suppose we could have done it that way. If we knew what we were doing, it might even have worked." But she doubts it. The last time she was confident about a secondary skill caused her to nearly add a potent laxative to a stew during the bun-bun festival. Fortunately it was blown up by a fireball before being served.
    "I want to make sure Uta gets something from this place. I think she'll like it, even if it's not exactly a slime." Which to Baroness Wake is reason enough to try.

     "Oh no, that wasn't the dungeon, that was just the single merman spawn that was on floor 3. It goes deeper. But uh... the... next level uh... probably is... not... great for us." Fuka responds to Mizuki, shifting her gaze a bit awkwardly. Meanwhile, Mizuki also easily corrals and captures one of the little things too! It's... probably kind of gross to touch, as it is basically a ball of weird gooey slime not entirely unlike a less dangerous to touch jellyfish.

    Merek offers a light nod along to Wake, then places a gloved hand to her shoulder, "You did well, she will like that," he notes, then a look to Fukasa, "Glad you're alright. I need to kinda get back to planning war with the undead."

"In time, perhaps it'd be right to go in deeper," suggests Baroness Wake. She smiles at Merek, "Glad you were with us. As always! I'll definitely be seeing you around soon. I have some more work to do to help with that trade company of yours." She can't really go more than a few minutes without talking about work, can she?
    She smiles at Mizuki, "I get the feeling that everyone who meets Uta loves her. She's got that kind of aura about her."