Obsidian: Clearing the Ruins

To the north-east of Fort Ouph, lies an ancient ruin. A Monster Nest, far larger than the ones that laid near Frontier Town. The Hunters Guild has requested a team to see to clearing it. But after hearing rumors of what happened at the last location, the five original party members have asked for help - despite the Goblin Slayer's insistance that it 'is no problem'. It seems he's got issues doing that whole 'working with a party' thing.

As the crew meets up, it's in the forest just outside of the ruins' clearing. A single entrance giving way into the location, with two Goblins standing guard at the entrance. The sun is high behind the eastern forest clearing, ensuring that the Goblins would have trouble seeing into the greenery. There's a bit of gleam still on the ground, betraying yesterday's rain.

The Goblin Slayer, kneeling on the edge of the forest region - behind a bush - motions his hand. "Archers will need to hit them. Try not to use any magic or break cover until those two Goblins are down." He declares, without explaining exactly /why/ that might be.

Priestess, on his left, nods her head and looks towards Erufu, Rizadoman, and Dowafu for a moment - then back to the rest of the team. Those who were here last time may notice that she still has the Porcelain tag at this point. Yet, for all of that, she's come along. "I will do my best to heal people as we storm the ruins." She explains.

Dowafu in the meantime bumps his fist to Erufu's shoulder. "You better not miss, Elf-lady." Everyone is keeping their voices hushed.

    Merek takes time to put the best dark attire on that he finds, while he begins to adjust the beltcape, then he nods a bit while he follows along. The man looks to the goblins while he nods to the party, then he takes a bow which he keeps with him, to point that to the creatures while he nocks an arrow.

    Goblins.

    On the bright side, they apparently have an expert goblin-slayer with them this time.

    On the not-so-bright side, the way the goblins double-ambushed adventurers last time was concerning, and possibly more concerning is that they have a way to make adventurers feel real pain. If you're killed while under the effects, do you real die?

    Still... everyone is skilled adventurers, right? They won't let that happen. And fear of weird situations will never find a way out of the game...

    So Mizuki's here. In her ninja outfit (it's not like metal armor stops you from being hit, anyway...)

    As the directive to take out the first goblins with ranged, non-magic attacks comes down, Mizuki looks around to see what archers they have. (As curious as a cat may be, while trying not to be spotted or heard by lookouts isn't the time to ask for explanation as long as they can reasonably comply...) She's good at throwing kunai, but not sure she's better than an archer. Better to let someone else do it.

    After a moment's thought, though, she draws kunai and readies to follow up in the case that the archer's attack misses or doesn't finish off the goblin lookouts...

     The muffler is actually a muffler! Shin Heno, Hero of Justice, has his scarf pulled tight around his mouth and nose, hiding his breathing. He's otherwise not all that stealthy. Still, every little bit helps.

     It also helps that he's not moving around. He's squatting, fingers against the ground, ready to push off and break into a run. This is one of the most 'tactical' things he's ever had to do in his life. He doesn't play video games, after all. Doesn't do any wargames. Doesn't really watch a lot of war movies.

     But he did do a *lot* of track.

    Rizadoman looks at the dwarf and raises a clawed finger to his mouth, " She needs to concentrate. If she misses it may alert them." His own voice hushed, talking over Erufu. He stays crouched near his compatriots for now as he watches and wait. His long tail flicking every so often out of anxiety and anticipation while watching and waiting.

Erufu had been one of the ones to locate Goblin Slayer and get him to agree to this job. It hadn't taken much once they informed him there was a goblin infestation here. So far he had proven he had the skills they were looking for. At the mention of no magic, she grins a bit.

"Right."

She's then would be starting to make ready for the shot. She would look back to Priestess for a moment nodding slightly to her then replies to Dwafu.

"Don't worry about this, I have this! I just hope you haven't had too much of the firewine yet today."

There's no real malice in it just two friends taking shots at each other from the sounds of it. She'll draw two arrows.

She lines up the shot firing the first one up into the air and then goes to line up the second shot to angle the first one. With the intent of throwing off the goblins, figuring out where it came from. However, a slight shift from the 'Dwarf' bumps her and her aim is just a little bit off.

After the strange events that happened during the last encounter with the 'Goblin Slayer', Mikage had taken almost considered not taking up the call to raid yet another monster nest. The lack of pain dampening that had inflicted most of the party left her with a lingering anxiety over what else might be in store for them. Each time they delved into some part of Eastal, as of late, it seemed to come with some new mystery and someone or something new breaking the rules of the game.

The Were Fang Ranger crouches near one of the trees, her hand resting on her animal companion, Rama, as she listens, since she is far enough away that her eyes are of little use in scouting. "It won't be as bad as last time, right?" She asks, leaning towards the lynx, who nudges her in the cheek.

As some amongst the group begin to prepare for a ranged assault, Mikage draws out her own bow. It is nothing particularly special, just a standard starting weapon, but she has some knowledge of how to use it. Shifting to a position where she can just get a view on the enemy, Miki raises her bow and draws back an arrow, taking time to carefully aim before loosing it skywards towards the guards.

Her team may be looking at Erufu, but Shiruba is here too. These Goblins were a big Eastal problem in general. Especially after what she heard reported about last time. Which made them a potential Shibuya problem. Which made them -her- problem as a Guild Leader.

While as an Explorer she was really -really- annoyed to see them infesting what could be very interesting and important ruins like this. That part was personal.

"Right, no magic," she mururs under her breath, understanding it might be a bit too flashy. Surprisingly she -can- do that, as she pulls a couple of the quality piercing arrows her smith friend makes for her, and notches one into her bow. She stays crouched on one knee as to not make herself a tall enough profile to be seen even as she raises her bow and fires. The second arrow is quickly also notched and fired, the first at his throat to keep him from screaming in alarm as the second is aimed for his chest.

She then glances aside to peer at the 'Dwarf'. And give Erufu a light comforting bump with her elbow. "Don't let em get to you."

    Miyako is here - mostly - as a favor for a friend, while she gets everything ready for her own expedition. Some things take time to get ready, and when she heard about the goblins, and the return of the mysterious Goblin Slayer Dude, she shrugged and said "What the heck, let's have a look-see", and went to check it out.

    Hopefully, a party like this will be able to handle the greenskins quickly so she can get back to her own project.

    And it's no fun sneaking up when you can announce yourself with a rousing bit of song. Fortunately she's not interested in getting the rest of the party into more trouble than they can handle, and fully understands the difference between 'overwhelming force' and 'ninja sneaky'. So she does /not/ announce her arrival with a quote from her somewhat limited library of Heavy Metal.

    "No magic, huh?" she mutters, quietly. "Well that rules out all of /my/ ranged options." She shrugs and steps back, quieting herself after a moment's humming of an odd little tune.

Goblins. Of course, it's more goblins.

Prophylaxis has a vested interest in making sure this particular brigade of goblins is wiped from the face of the world. Of course, he has a vested interest in many things so this isn't exactly saying all that much... But this one in particular is very important!

And so he is here, sneaking through the underbrush in the wake of a certain Goblin Slayer, skulking around like some kind of would-be-assassin and desperately trying hard not to throw out his back when he has to crouch between a ruined stele and a fallen tree.

"Try not to use any magic, he says," Prophylaxis murmurs as he quietly focuses on casting the most subtle form of magic he can. A simple buff, infusing himself with a simple enchantment... that massively boosts his own personal strength.

"Damnit," he hisses softly, "I'm a wizard, not an archer...!"

And then he picks up a rock and chucks it with preternatural speed right through the nearest goblin scout's skull.

Some ruins need clearing. Well, okay. Proteus is familiar with ruins in general. It's not like this isn't unusual for her. What's unusual is the initial group calling for backup. Adventurers usually have more pride than that. This means that something is Amiss.

The Amiss begins when she is told to refrain from using magic. Proteus's brow arches under her hood, and there is a scowl from the archaeologist. "Archery? But who even uses bows?" She sighs and turns to look over the other Adventurers, one after the other, then shrugs when she spots Erufu in fact using a bow. There's nothing unusual about Yet Another Group Of Wacky Adventurers, but there is a mutter about 'suboptimal' from the Imp before she turns, taking out a coin from her inventory and flicking it in the air. This time, there's none of that strange gesture language as the coin comes down and she suddenly moves, catching it and hurling it to one side, attempting to draw off enemy attention to somewhere else.

Mikage is not on her own this time. By her request, Cyrus has shown up. He can't easily help with the ranged attacks on the Goblins, but he's still here to help with some basical medical things. Potions - he's no doctor. He glances up as Mikage rises, noting her nocking her bow... and fires. "Nice." He whispers to her as she makes the shot.

He then runs both hands along Rama's back and then pats her flanks. "Don't worry. She's not alone." He tells Rama, before looking around to the others. This is a rather significant assault party for these ruins. He wonders just how big they are on the inside.

"You know, we're not very far from the 'rending' here." He mentions. "It's said that Eastal and Ezzo used to be one whole island, based on some of the old game lore."

"Don't worry, Miyako," Kotono says with a slight smirk. "Once we're done here, you can get back to whatever you were working on." She was very eager to get her friend on the up-and-up on this whole thing. Call her eager if you want, or just call her trying to have fun with friends in a unique way. That's just Kotono for you.

And surely the party can handle this whole thing quickly. Kotono is sure of it.

And stealth is no problem for Kotono, since she's light on her feet and knows how to sneak around without making any noise. That's the easy part. The harder part is the fact she doesn't exactly have any ranged skills either.

"Looks like we're both out of options for now. Hopefully a better opportunity will present itself," Kotono whispers to Miyako.

Dowafu quiets down, but the damage has already been done. Erufu misses her shot. It clatters against the wall, alerting one of the Goblins. It lets out a confused sound - only to suddenly get an arrow through the cheest, followed by one in the head as Mikage and Shiruba make their shots. "Sorry." The Dwarf apologizes to the elf, raising his hands quietly.

A few more arrows loose, right as the other goblin realizes what is going on and starts to turn. Merek gets one into the main body, followed by a stone suddenly blasting against the wall, ripping the goblin apart as Prophylaxis causes significant noise with that magically enhanced rock-throw. The end result appears to be that both Goblins explode into the typical wisps of light rising into the ether.

The Goblin Slayer raises his hand, telling the team to hold. He takes a while to listen, then slowly lowers it, glancing back at Prophylaxis for a moment. It's almost impossible to see the armored man's eyes, but there is a look there.

He then stands up and motions forward, telling the team to rush forward. "Secure the first hall. It'll contain a bell. Stop the Goblins from ringing it at any cost." He tells the team.

---

Making it across the field and to the sides of the slightly raised rocky ruins, the team manages to peek inside. Indeed, there's a few Goblins. Unfortunately, it seems the noise outside has at least made the Goblins within more alert. Making confused screetching noises and slowly stepping towards the entrance. From their position, they can overwhelm them, as long as they miss either of the target groups.

Coming forward, at the front lines, are two simple goblins with two larger Hobgoblins waddling behind them. But at the backlines, the team can see a series of Crossbow wielding Goblins who are peeking out from behind the front lines and are visciously on the watch for perpetrators - with one of them standing right next to the alarm bell.

As the assault team begins to move, the Goblin Slayer moves with the rest of the party - Priestess hugging her staff to herself as she jogs behind him, and Dowafu not far behind that. As the team gets to the front, the Goblin Slayer immediately slams his blade into one of the smaller Goblins, while Dowafu takes to his side and declares; "Stone Blast!" As he fires multiple rocks into the face of one of the front line Hobgoblins - wielding their swords.

"I don't see any green on their daggers." The Priestess alerts the party as she fumbles and fails to manage one of her light spells.

    They're down. Mizuki looks at Prophy. "He said not to use /any/ magic." Then to the Slayer. "Why, though?" Since knowing what magic-detection measures goblins have might be useful in the future.

    Next objective: Bell. Got it.

    The easiest way to stop it from being rung is to make it impossible to ring, right?

    Instead of focusing on the goblins, Mizuki calls up some ice magic and tries to just freeze the bell in a solid block of ice! That should stop it from ringing for awhile, right?

    Mizuki is feeling /very/ pleased with herself for thinking of this solution, and there's absolutely no way it could be a bad idea, right?

It's a good thing there are several other people with ranged skills as Shiruba, Mikage. She's already drawing another arrow making ready to fire it. Should the rest of the party's volley fail.

"I wouldn't know about the last time. We should have enough people to deal with this. I'd not worry too much about it. Don't worry Shiruba!"

She just stares at Proteus for a long moment at this, her ears twitch a bit and she's just at a loss for words with what to say to the other woman.

"Then something sundered them apart."

She also appreciates Rizardoman's actions. The 'Elf' seems to forgive the Dwarf for now.

"Rizadoman?! I'll go for the backline."

She did have that arrow already drawn. Thus she'll take aim for goblins in the backline and she'll start letting the arrows fly in rapid succession aiming to take down as many goblins as she's able to in this opening volley they. She wants to thin them out as quickly as possible.

    Merek pulls up the hood of his dark attire, while he nods a bit to Goblin Slayer along with the party. The man puts the bow into inventory, while he draws the Shadow Eclipse. "Erufu, cover me while I sweep the front lines," the man notes to the woman. There's a shift while he begins to follow along with the party, and begins lifting his blade forward.
    With a little bit of shifting the hip, he sweeps the weapon into the creatures, dark mist follows with that weapon while it seems to begin taking in light.

After the arrow flies, Mikage allows her bow to tip forward, held lightly to her wrist by a strap. She gives a quiet look to Cyrus, inclining her head towards him. Normally, she'd be more talkative, but after the last battle with the goblins, the Were Fang girl seems a bit shaken. In fact, that's likely why she had asked the at to come with, especially as he had some healing capabilities.

Then... to her surprise, there is a loud crash. She winces, knowing that it had probably eliminated the element of surprise. "Looks like the fight is on." She pushes herself to her feet, taking a step forward. A brief wave of relief washes over her when the Priestess declares that there isn't any sign of the green poison on their weapons.

"I'm going to stick to the ranged fighting for now, just incase." She confirms, stepping forward enough to get a good view on the goblins that are revealing themselves, then reaches back for another arrow. This one, she runs her hand along, putting into it some measure of her own elemental affinity for ice before aiming it and firing the arrow towards the back line, with the hope that it will help freeze a few of them in place.

"It was a self-buff, not some kind of fireball. Give me a break," Prophylaxis says with some mild consternation. "I'd assumed we were just trying to avoid causing too much noise, not that they had outright magic detection set up." But it's not important, in the end. They manage to make it through and only mildly distress the goblins within the great hall.

But there sure are a lot of them, aren't there...? Prophylaxis' lips draw into a fine, thoughtful line. He begins to cast a spell-- but Mizuki beats him to the goal. Which is fine! It's fine. He can transition. The front line...

Is made up by some /very/ tough-looking individuals. The building heat-haze transitions into a swirling grey-violet fog as the Magus getstures toward the massive goblinoids... And bids a flurry of binding thorns to spring from the ruined masonry and restrain their arms and legs! "Hit them while I've got them stuck-in! They'll be wide open if you hurry!"

    Miyako smiles lightly. "Looks like folks have it under control," she whispers to Kotono. She gets up to move with the rest as they close in on the entrance hall, humming a little buff-tune under her breath.

    She claps Kotono on the shoulder before summoning her naginata, and as the group closes in on the goblins, she scribbles out a hasty series of runes to enhance the blade with her familiar shadow-magic. "Front or back?" she asks her fellow Spriggan casually, then - once she has an answer - swings her blade to hurl a sphere of blackness forward, letting it explode into shadowy nothingness amongst the monsters.

     Hey, there we go.

     The missed shot is a blessing for Shin. He's not the wait-around type, not anymore. He used to be. He used to be able to stare at the same thing for hours, to really knuckle-down and get to work with tons and tons of patience. But those days are long gone. What's left is a man eager to get down to business.

     And he does.

     He goes running forward. The stone belt buckle appears in his right hand. He snaps it around his waist. The belt grows. His hands go up in a quick motion.

"                                 Transform                                  "

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

    Streaks of bloody starlight trail behind him as he runs. There's no music this time, but it's flashy anyway, flashy enough to draw attention - in a big, surprising way.

     The light dies.

     The black-chitin beetle-man goes plowing straight through the Goblins as Mizuki's spell goes out. He skids to a halt in the middle of them, bug-eyes glowing as red as the jewel on his belt. His free hand snaps down to flick something on the side of the belt up - then down.

                           EXECUTION: LIGHTSPEED!                          

     The belt turns cyan. A phantasmal image appears around his legs.

     It clicks on.

     It's a Flash Grasshopper. Well, sort of. It's been summoned, but it's been summoned in the weirdest way possible. He's wearing the thing like boots - green boots with bug-eyes around the toes, wings around the shin, and big old jumpy legs protruding from the top of the belt.

     As Mizuki's spell goes off, so does Shin.

     The legs hit the ground.

     'Algol' disappears.

     He reappears behind the Goblin at the bell. The foot swings up. The jumpy-legs snap outward with all the force that just propelled 'Algol' straight forward.

     He's aiming to kick that thing *straight* into the sky.

    The Lizardman winces as his friend misses the shot and cast a glance to Dowafu as if to say I told you so. Others strike true however and Rizadoman comments, " It's ok, it all worked out." Looking at Goblin Slayer as he dictates the plan he looks at the charging Goblins in the front line as he puts his hands together, "O Sickle wings of velociraptor! Rip and Tear, Fly and Hunt" From his hand a scimitar shaped bone sword appears and he rushes in to meet the goblins.
     Upon reaching his target he slashes forward at one of the smaller goblins , twisting his risk and slashing back the way he came trying to catch the little one off guard. All the time though he is trying to keep the hobgoblin in his sights so that he can move if needed.

Shiruba gets up and sprints as the group is motioned to move on, though she's keeping pace to stay behind the more physical members. She may be a scout type ranger but she can do that perfectly fine from farther back in the line up. Which is a good thing, because there is a -lot- of goblins lurking about. And they have crossbows. What? No fair!... not that she really cares, she LIKES using a bow, but that means harder attacks on her teammates trying to get through the frontline. We can't have that.

'At any cost' means no more restraining magic as far as she's concerned, so Shiruba draws an obsidian tipped arrow, and draws it in her bow. The arrowhead starts to shimmer like a shadow in a jar as she aims it over the heads of the meleers to get a bead on those backline archer gobbies, and fires. The arrow arcs high over the fight and thunks into the ground at the feet of a pair of goblin crossbowers.

But it's not a miss. It's exactly where Shiruba was aiming it like a proper strategist.

The obsidian head shatters, releasing a swell of blinding darkness doming around the goblins that stings the eyes and disrupts their vision so they'll have a harder time aiming at the front-line attackers.

Kotono doesn't say much, just keeps quiet and watches for the most part. When the others move, she moves as well, looking like a ninja trying to keep a low profile all the same. When Miyako draws her naginata, Kotono summons her knives as well.

"Let's go for the front! More fun that way!" She says with a smile, before moving in to attack. "I love a good challenge! Eeyah!"

"I'll stick with you in the backlines." Cyrus answers Mikage as he runs with her to the entrance of the location with the others. He's letting them take to the front, so that he doesn't have to worry about anything but those crossbow bolts coming their way. Once ready, he steps in right along with Mikage - holding a single potion bottle. "I invented a few trick. Watch this." He tells Mikage.

He flicks the slim potion with its butt towards the rear line and declares; "Bolt Potion!" Right before it seems to 'zip' off, accelerated by a flick of his magic, sending it out like an arrow to his opponent. It manages to adjust its direction slightly with a few more applications of magic, before it crashes in the midst of the rear line. "Electrical Fuzz." He then whispers, as the bright light aims to blind the back line goblins.

Proteus looks back at Erufu, staring back at the elf cosplayer in the edgy way only someone who insists on wearing Mysteriously Ominous hooded cloaks can. Silence passes between them, Proteus waiting to see if she's going to actually follow that look up with something. Nothing comes. The Imp turns away at that point and moves on. Cyrus' comment gets a glance from Proteus, but she says nothing at the moment. It's clearly relevant lore, but she has nothing to add to the observations at this time.

The scouts are taken down, and Proteus nods at the general comptence shown here. "Looks like we broke down their lookouts." She observes as the Goblin Slayer gives instructions. "Stop them from ringing the bell..." Proteus nods, and smiles toothily as she quickly dashes across the field into the ruins proper. The hooded Imp peeks into the hall, and she grimaces at those arrayed. "... Goblins..." She mutters. "Why do they always have to be such a problem? I wonder if these are related to the others..." It's not THAT far away, after all...

Proteus then pauses, thinking for a moment. "Wait, when did they..." The Imp frowns, considering the ramifications of the Goblin infestations when that screeching brings her to the current issue. "Damn, they spotted us. Move!" She says. Her hand rises towards the giant bell, but Mizuki has that on lock. "Good work!" She calls over to the fellow Adventurer before the cloaked Imp dives into the battle. Observing the line of heavy archers, Proteus just shakes her head. "What good is a bow... If you cannot see?" She asks, raising a hand. A window flicks open, and the Archaeologist inputs a line of gesture symbols: ^ - O

A moment later, an Electrical Fuzz flashes into existence, the bright, buzzing flare promptly flashing on the side Cyrus doesn't take, providing for a rather unfortunate impediment to the back line.

Mizuki's frosty attack manages to thread the needle between multiple Goblins and Hobgoblins, before taking effect right on point with the bell. The frost quickly taking over, forming a protective shield around the bell for a moment. The goblin next to it makes a confused sound and quickly takes out a dagger, starting to chip at it... only for 'Algol' to sail through the air and slam it up into the air, halting its attempts to do anything!

"Some of the Goblins can sense magic being used. We're lucky there wasn't one in the alarm room." The Goblin Slayer explains to Prophylaxis. "But they still heard the noise." He doesn't enjoy taking chances like that when he doesn't have to.

Merek rushes the front line, right as Prophylaxis' Thorn Bind Hostage triggers on one of the hobgoblins. Merek's blade comes sailing down, and the bright light of Prophylaxis' spell activating means certain doom for the Hobgoblin! It lets out a confused scream, unable to even lift its blade in time before it's eliminated.

Miyako and Kotono rush the other side of the frontlines, joining Dowafu and Goblin Slayer's assault on the other Hobgoblin. Miyako's dark blade ripping across its arm, cutting it off, before Kotono's daggers finish it off with a few well aimed stabs to the head. Rizadoman slashes low across the last remaining front line Goblin, clearing the way for the rest to make their shots!

Cyrus' potion impacts in the midst of the backline goblins, followed by Proteus' casting, creating a large encompassing area attack that is ensuring the goblins are squinting and confused - having a hard time tracking their opponents as they come in through the front. A few bolts fly, but nothing manages to find purchase. The first bolt that does find purchase, is Erufu's - her arrow ripping right through the Goblin's head - which had been launched up by Shin Heno. It detonates in the air.

Mikage's arrow hits the backline, creating a frost-patch that roots the other goblins to the ground, and begins to wane their health down rapidly. Shiruba makes use of this moment of being stuck on the ground, as the dark orb expands and literally seems to swallow up two goblins in one go.

"Two." Goblin Slayer announces, as the last of the backline goblins, frozen and confused, is stabbed through. You'd expect someone to say 'good job', but he simply keeps moving at this point. Though, for a moment, as Proteus moves forward - he might spot something. Way back when, U.L.P. had released a goblin into the wild into Eastal. And this one bears a very significant mark on his forehead... that is the exact same. Right before it disappears due to being slain.

---

The team comes upon a split in the road as they enter a hallway. "Dowafu." The Goblin Slayer declares. The Gnome is already touching the ground, looking at the stone. "Based on the architecture here, I believe the main host of goblins would be going right?" He then looks at the 'Elf Archer'. "What do you think?" After getting confirmation from her, the team begins to move further down, until they arrive at what looks like an enormous arena area underground.

There's multiple pillars and raised areas, from which they can all peek out. There's an enormous group of goblins down below, making plenty of noise. The kind of numbers that truly did call for a team of this size at minimum. Goblin Slayer raises his hand and looks around for a moment. "There's stairs on the other side of the turn. We should split up here. Melee goes down the stairs. Ranged remains up here. But wait until my signal." He then motions to Dowafu.

---

A few minutes pass as everyone positions themselves. Ranged at the top, Melee down below. As suddenly, the Gnome begins to sing at the top, and sprays his fire wine into the air, which begins to fall down towards the goblins below. Slowly starting to cause some of the goblins to fall asleep. But it's an enormous area, and his spell can't reach all of it.

But most certainly, his chanting was the signal!

As the battle starts, the Goblin Slayer comes down the stairs, while Priestess casts a shimmering defensive shield near the upper parts of the arena-looking region - halting some of the arrows from reaching her allies. "Three. Four." Goblin Slayer continues what appears to be his personal count, as he stabs his blade into a nearby Goblin, and immediately uses a cloth to clean it, as he uses his shield to slam into the face of another.

     The goblin is torn to shreds. 'Algol' straightens as the party clears the remainder. He falls into step, silent and imposing, the tall, black-armored bug-man with ominous eyes in the dark. He doesn't say much - 'Algol' never seems to say much besides his catchphrase. The belt does most of the talking for him.

     As they reach the split in the hallway, 'Algol' takes a position above the stairs. He crouches.

     The signal goes out.

     The Flash Grasshopper legs kick down. 'Algol' goes shooting upwards. There's cracks in the ground where he launched.

     He comes crashing down into the middle of the goblins with a mighty impact, outright smashing one of them under his feet. The goblins surge forward to grab at him. Each time they get close, the Flash Grasshopper legs spring him backwards, or sideways, or forward, or up. He's damn near untouchable - what little damage he's taking is purely scratches of red light. Ones and twos, not tens and twenties.

     'Algol' snaps the belt's wings shut. The Flash Grasshopper disappears. No need for speed and single-target right now. They need firepower.

     His hands snap across the belt. The jewel turns white.

                               CODE: SHINING!                              

     White light runs up along his torso. It highlights the muscles under the chitin. It highlights the chitin itself. It runs along his arms.

     His fist swings backwards. A goblin comes running up to him. It sees its chance. A cleaver comes down-

     Impact.

     LIGHT.

     The goblin is utterly extinguished. A pillar of light just *pours* out of 'Algol's punch, carving directly into the mass of incoming enemies. It'll be a breather for the other meleers - even if it doesn't do much damage, it'll probably split the goblins up, like a great fist through their ranks.

As her arrow flies, Mikage looks over with curiousity towards Cyrus, brows raised. "Oh?" It's a momentary distraction from the fighting at hand. Enough that she follows the arc of the potion that he throws all the way toward the rear line. Seeing that flash of light as it impacts, she asks, "You were able to bottle that?" She follows with a sing-song whistle of appreciation.

With the group moving forward, Mikage follows, with Rama just at her heels. The cat doesn't seem to be all that interested in rushing ahead into melee range, and seems to be sticking to her side, making sure to keep an eye out for any goblins that might come out of the woodworks.

And that is exactly what seems to happen. One jumps out of the shadows, only to be pounced upon and turned into a chew toy by the lynx, meaning that Mikage doesn't have to expend as much energy in combat, and instead gives the cat a few words of praise before continuing down into the strange arena.

"Going to save some arrows for later, just incase we need them." She explains, sliding the bow into a strap that holds it along her back. "Time for some magic." She weaves her hands together, forming crackles of ice between her fingertips. Then, she slashes her fingers forward through the air, making two rows of ice blades that linger for a moment before being launched down towards the enemies below.

    Merek lifts up the hand of his which is free, then he draws a shield upon the front. With that, he begins shifting his weapon while he places a hand along the blade, beginning to draw a flame to it. [Firebrand]. With that Arte placed upon the weapon, he begins swinging that into the goblins, "If you're wounded, please share that with the healers!" The man sweeps along with that blade.

Shiruba nods to the expert on the slaying of goblins. She has no problem with staying on the high ground and taking advantage of their ranged attacks. It's similar to what she would of suggested as well. Tail twitchs a bit as she crouches down to wait, ears perked at attention atop her head.

She's as at home in old ruins as she is the wilderness, and that situational awareness of her surroundings pays off when some of the crossbow goblins not being bedazzled by the sleep spells fire bolts up at the ledge. With her crouched position all it takes is a push of her legs to roll sideways along the upper level to avoid any of the projectiles.

With practiced swiftness she draws an arrow from her quiver (this is one of the reasons she uses a hip version rather than on her back, easier to reach during evasive techniques) mid-roll, so by the time she comes back up on one knee she's already pulling it back on her bow. "Nice of them to group together for us," she quips aside to Erufu as she aims at one of the clusters of crossbowers and opens fire.

A few embers swirl and crackle around the arrow as it hurtles through the air, runes for Fireball briefly flickering along the shaft.

As that is exactly what it does, exploding like a fiery bomb admist one of the crossbow lineups.

    Rizadon splits with the group heading down stairs, arguing to himself that it makes sense to split up the healers in this situation. The goblin slayer already had the priestest. As they engage downstairs he catches a goblin off guard by swiping the blade away with his own blade and then stabbing into the goblin with his claws. Hearing Merek call out about sharing status about wounds, " I can heal you if needed so yes please make it known if you need it. "

"I see, I apologize, then," Prophylaxis answers, inclining his head ruefully. "I'll keep that in mind for the future. Goblins capable of detecting magic, who would have thought...?"

Clearly, he needs to spend more time out in the field, slaying goblins as certain Landers do. The Doctor of Tolbana is much more of a... generalist??

Which is to say, he is the kind of person who will sling spells at everything and anything because he is, after all, some manner of wizard.

The first wave is slain, but there are many more to come. Many, many more. "You weren't kidding about this being a nest. How long have they been down here...?" Long enough to multiply to such massive numbers, although Prophylaxis cannot say for certain what the reproductive cycle of a goblin might be like. Maybe they lay litters, or something? Do they hatch from eggs?

On second thought, maybe he should not think about this, and worry more about the arrows being sent hurtling through the air. Prophylaxis grimaces and sweeps his hand across his chest in a protective gesture. A barrier of gloaming energies rises to absorb the brunt of the barrage, before falling away to uselessness. "Right," he nods, glancing over as a fine mist settles over the goblins below. If that's a sleep spell, it doesn't seem to be quite able to do the job. Thus...

"Let me give you a hand," Prophylaxis taps his staff against the stone. Yet more vines lash out at the goblins that the Dwarf's spell didn't quite reach... But these strike like snakes, driving deep with venom-coated brambles that paralyze and poison all at once...!

    See, they learned something! Some goblins can sense magic.

    Hopefully the risk of using magic to silence the bell proves worth it.

    When they see the chamber full of wow that's a lot of goblins, it kind of seems like yes. Worth it. This number of enemies looks more like a DOOM slaughtermap than an MMO dungeon... (Would that make it a Heretic slaughtermap?) sadly, none of them have a BFG ready.

    The party repositions, and Mizuki goes with the melee team.

    Stealth kind of falls apart when Dowafu's... spell? song? activates and the goblins that aren't put to sleep are put on the alert. Mizuki tries to catch one off-guard but still has to dodge its attempt to stab her, ducking in close to it and stabbing back with her own daggers, then lifting her feet to rake and kick off it, leaping away just as a crossbow bolt flies past where she just was!

    "Front again, Ko-chan?" Miyako asks as the party approaches the stairs. "We ought to be able to clear these out in quick-march." She readies her naginata at the top of the stairs, grinning a maniacal grin at the greenskins waiting below.

    She's on her way down the stairs to make her assault when an arrow catches her in the knee!

    Tumbling down the stairs with several painful crunches, Miyako spits out a curse, barely keeping hold of her naginata.

    Fortunately, there is a goblin waiting to break her fall. It even manages to keep her from losing hold of her naginata - although, admittedly, by catching its blade between his ribs. How courteous of him! And people say goblins are all barbarian savages....

"I tend to be better at the smaller magics than the big ones." Cyrus explains to Mikage. "So I figured I'd focus my skills on that." He remarks as he moves along with her, smirking at her. "And don't think I didn't spot those shots you made just earlier. Looks like the new bow is working out for you. We really need to get you one that deserves to be held by you though." He remarks and quiets as they join in near the arena.

Lying in wait, he nods to Mikage as she mentions saving some arrows. He throws her a few potions in case she wants to attach any to her arrows, and then looks over the edge himself. Arrows already come flying up, as the battle begins. And he's quick to turn and grab a foursome of small flasks into each hand. Each glowing with a brilliant white that keeps rippling from one spot in the glass to the next...

As he throws all eight of them out in a fan-pattern along the mid-lines of the Goblins, impacting on them right as they are about to fire another volley, and aiming to have their muscles convulse and seize up as the Shock spells release from the bottles and ripple across their small ugly green bodies.

Kotono's fast but only so skilled. She nods to Miyako, then takes an arrow to the thigh, causing her to let out a curse as she staggers back in pain. Briefly she covers her mouth at her choice of language before looking to Miyako again. "Full-on attack, right!"

Looking towards those greenskins with a scowl, Kotono literally flashes her blades towards them as she attacks. "I'll teach you to shoot a girl like that!"

Erufu was not expecting what Shin could do, and it's amazing, it's so amazing she almost falls out of character for a second as there's a look of childlike wonder on her face at seeing what is pretty clearly a Kamen Rider. Well between him and Mizuki the bell should not be an issue now as she's notching more arrows. She calls out to the Lizardman

"Keep them off us and we'll keep picking them off!"

She gets a goblin in a combo with Shin, which is quite epic. She has no time to think on it. As the party is on the move now, She looks to Dowafu for a moment.

"Humm? From the looks of the wear, I'd say you are right."

She notes as she kneels down to look at the floor for a moment. With that, they keep moving and soon they find quite the part of the ruins, here.

She knows what to do she'll end up heading up top and wait to start sniping goblings down bellow once going for the goblins out of range of her friend's spell.

Proteus hustles forward as the Goblin Slayer carves death through the enemy. Proteus doesn't really expect the quiet and deadly warrior to do much other than count up at this point, so she moves on... Though, she narrows her eyes as she notes an unusual mark on the nearby Goblin's forehead. "Hey, this is..." She frowns, but then it disappears. "... This actually came from...?"

Yes, she's going to keep doing that. Get used to it. She has no time to poke at anything at the moment. Instead, she hustles on with the others, because unfortunately... Where there's one goblin group, there's more. And more. And more. "Where are all these Goblins even /coming/ from?" Proteus hisses and tries to peek down at the massive group of Goblins.

But there's the plan, and Proteus is fine with sticking to plans. She waits on high for the signal... And then another window pops up. ) - O

Another bloom of light blasts outwards in the midst of the enemy group, targeted to wash out and vaporize some of them with holy force. She has no intentions to jump down in the middle of that fracas. She has a bad habit of catching swords in her chest when Merek isn't busy catching them for her.

Maybe she'll start hiring adventurers to be /her/ escorts...

IMPACT! The cleaver rips apart one of the goblins, as Shin Heno makes his presence known, only to dance to the next position! Merek joins him not moments later, using his blade to shield him from an arrow coming for Algol's head and brandishing his flame and gutting another goblin - only to take an arrow to the shoulder, intercepting it from impacting on Algol's chittin. A violent fireball explodes not moments later right near the two of them, causing enough of a shockwave to send a few goblins falling their way.

With fine cleaving motions, these goblins are dispatched. Aimed in that direction, Cyrus' shock bottles land close enough by that no retaliation can severely harm the two of them. Mikage's ice blades quickly puncture some of the ones being paralyzed, while Prophylaxis works up his own brand of magic.

"Goblin Slayer said that they have been gathering here for the past few weeks. Something powerful must have drawn them here." Priestess offers Prophylaxis as she blocks another attack with her deflecting shield - ensuring none of the goblins are lucky enough to get any headshots - and he can stop focusing on his own protective magic.

Vines lash out, grabbing Goblins left and right, holding them in place, giving Rizadoman the chance to get in closer and rip the heads off of the goblins. Kotono joins the Were Fang not seconds later, ripping into a goblin that gets too close to his back. But going in so quickly has its downsides, leaving Miyako exposed for a moment, which results in an arrow indeed embedding into their knee. And by the time she might notice, she's stabbed into the arm by one of them - only to have them be ripped apart by one of Erufu's keenly placed arrows.

Erufu and Mizuki work together to pick off goblins ready to fire at the back line. It's a type of healing, the kind where you subtract 'future damage' by outputting enough DPS. The mission is going /surprisingly/ well so far. Especially with the initial group of goblins put to sleep by Dowafu's earlier trick.

Goblin Slayer is soon seen directing people to help him kill the sleeping Goblins. Taking care of them one by one by means of a careful and patient Coup de grâce. Those near him can hear him count under his helmet. "Twenty... twenty one." As the team works together to eliminate the last of the threat. Yet, something doesn't feel right in the air. When everyone has joined downstairs...

There's a sudden loud bang. A large gated opening on the bottom side of the arena suddenly is blasted open! The enormous stone door is send through the air like some ragdoll, risking hitting everyone close enough to its path. It crunches into a pillar and detonates in debris. Stepping through the enormous archway, steps a being almost as tall as half of the room - easily two stories of house high.

"I thought I was hearing noise. These damned goblins don't even make good foot soldiers." The heavy bass tones of the muscled and /ripped/ Ogre eminate through the chambers. It is no doubt strange for many of those hear to hear a monster, let alone an enormous brute, talk with such fluency in the typical language spoken. He glances down at those gathered here.

"So you are the ones that that glasses wearing bastard warned me off." He pauses, his gaze settling on the Goblin Slayer, before scoffing at him. "You people dare set foot in our fortress?" He demands to know.

To which the Goblin Slayer has but one answer.

"Oh, So you're not a goblin?"

As someone no doubt will note to him that this is an Ogre, he's quick to declare; "Haven't heard of them."

"You! Are you mocking me, the one granted this army by the Demon in Glasses?"

"I've heard there were more powerful creatures than Goblins, but I've never heard of this Demon in Glasses or you." The Goblin Slayer answers as he gets into a stance.

"Then I'll just show you my power first hand!" The Ogre declares, lifting his hand up into the air, as he begins to summon a Fireball so large, that it would make Prophylaxis blush. It slowly grows in his hand. The radiance of it begins to cast shadows across everyone's forms! Growing further and further, as no doubt people start to retaliate.

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"Get behind me!" The Priestess calls out, "PROTECTION!"

As an enormous pale screen appears right before them. The Fireball comes down, slamming into the translucent screen itself! Ripping against it, the fireball refusing to budge agianst it! The Priestess shouts out in anguish as she keeps on the strange spell. As people can see it starts to crack... even in the midst of the red lettering at the center of it all...

<< IMMORTAL OBJECT >>

Before finally, the Fireball detonates with enough power it could have been a party wipe in one go, only remnants of its power coming through as the Priestess is thrown back!

The enormous detonation doesn't just blow back Priestess. Dowafu and Goblin Slayer, who'd been at the front of the blast, and thrown away as well. The man in iron is thrown to the ground, coughing and grunting, and notices Shin Heno - who'd caught the Priestess near him. He motions for Shin Heno to approach him, whispering something to him, while grabbing something from his satchel - and plants what looks to be a parchment of paper right into his hand, while grabbing his other hand as firmly as he can.

Finally getting up, he and Dowafu rush back forward. With the Dwarf throwing his hands up, creating enormous 'earth pillar steps' for the Goblin Slayer and allies to use to reach closer to the Ogre's face. With Goblin Slayer reaching to grab a club and slamming it into the thing's face!

     As 'Algol' rises, the insectoid head turns slightly to look at Erufu. There's no words from the black-clad Armor Beetleman; he just looks at her.

     Finally, he nods.

     The light under his chitin disperses as his belt turns back to red. His head tilts towards the door just as the enormous creature steps inside.

     The ogre is huge. Massive. Absolutely massive. A full house high and built like a tank. 'Algol' listens as it talks. His fingers flex. A mastermind behind it, who can control goblins. Interesting. Probably the sort of thing a Hero of Justice should look into, right? And-

     - FIREBALL.

     The Priestess reacts like lightning. The screen erupts in front of them. The Priestess is thrown back.

     The fireball continues to burn through the immortal object. 'Algol' does not hesitate.

     One hand whirls out some kind of card - it has odd characters written on it - and slams it into the side of the belt. The other hand goes around the Priestess's waist.

     The belt's gem turns black.

                             EXECUTION: GLOOM!                              

     His free hand swings around his neck. The lines of a Gloomantis grow into being. The slashing arms click around his neck. The wings spread outwards like a cloak. A shadow ripples around them both, and they vanish as the fire washes over them.

     The cloak comes off when the fire dies. 'Algol' sets the Priestess down. His head tilts over to look at her. His voice has an odd timbre to it when he speaks.

     "Are you alright?"

     He doesn't wait long for an answer. He turns to look over his shoulder at Goblin Slayer, the Gloomantis cloak flowing around him where his scarf ought to be. A moment later, he nods and takes the paper from Goblin Slayer.

     And then he's off.

     Another scripture card snaps out of his inventory. This one goes in the other side of his belt; half the gem turns cyan.

                           EXECUTION: LIGHTSPEED!                          

     The lines of the Flash Hopper grow around his legs again. No hesitation, no pause. 'Algol' goes diving directly between the Ogre's legs as the Flash Hopper sends him flying forward, the Gloomantis leaving a trail of shadow behind him to make sure he doesn't just get smashed into the ground.

     He darts abruptly to the left as he clears under the Ogre, springing off its leg and heading to the back of the room.

     One fist smashes into the wall.

     He pulls out a red crystal.

    Merek looks to the ogre which begins coming to them, then he watches while that fireball which would wipe the whole of the party begins to come at them. There's a shift of the stance while he nods, then watches while an immortal object shield protects all of them. "... Interesting," the man notes while he shifts a divine shield in front of him.
    When the fireball begins to shimmer a little away, he then draws forward with his weapon, and swings with the fist along right into that ogre, "Ragnarok's Wisdom!" Then he begins to try and take off onto the top of the ogre.

As the last of the goblins are struck down and there's no targets left Shiruba hops up from her spot and makes her way down to the lower floor where everyone else is gathering. She wants to just check out the ruins for herself, but Archeologist pursuits are going to have to wait a bit.

Because something feels off. Despite all the Goblins they've dispatched something doesn't feel right. Doesn't feel like -win- yet.

Sure enough a huge fireball spell like she's never seen before is slung at the party as a whole! Priestess steps in with some epic magic of her own to keep it from wiping out the party! But it's clearly straining her, and when bits of fire start to push their way through Shiruba gets on the move. Several sparks crackle across the floor and wall behind her, then one flaming shard of the spell hits her in the side despite the swiftfooted movement and sends her briefly rolling. She lets out a hiss, briefly rubbing her side with the flickering damage marks before pushing back onto her feet. "Super fire spells? Fine, play with fire." Shiruba pulls one of the special arrows from her quiver and nocks it in her bow, taking aim at the most swol Ogre she's ever seen. "Because you know what happens to flames in a hurricane?"

She fires, the hiss of rising winds rumbling through the chamber from the tumultuous streams of air swirling around the arrow as it screams through the air towards the Ogre will all the pressurized force of a raging stormfront thundering down upon him.

"They get blown out!"

"It hasn't broken yet, is what you mean." Mikage replies to Cyrus. His commentary seems to be keeping her mood light, despite the fact that they are delving into a goblin nest. "I also wouldn't call that attack back there one of my more powerful ones." The Ranger hasn't had good luck with weapons. This is just one among countless bows. "Need to talk to Miho..." The New World Alliance Smith is in high demand these days.

Any of her more light-hearted banter falls silent as they join the others, only to hear that heavy bass voice and see the arrival of the ogre. Her eyes widen ever so slightly, hand going to her sword. She hesitates, seeming as if about to jump into battle, when the Priestess calls out for them to get behind her.

"Shit!" She follows that with a string of other curses before managing to skid in under the protection of the spell. A protection that seems as if it isn't going to hold... There it is. Cracks in something that should be an Immortal Object. Every time. Every time she goes on one of these missions, something new seems to break. Holding her sword defensively with one hand, she instinctively grabs on to part of Cyrus's jacket.

In the end, as the shield cracks, Miki does happen to just be quick enough to get out of the radius of the remaining blast, though it throws her briefly to the ground, tumbling along side the Cait Sith. Afterwards, she pushes herself to her feet, grabbing for her sword where it had clattered to the ground nearby. "Looks like it's time to get up close and personal."

Mikage reaches for one of the potions Cyrus had given her, pouring it over her blade, which causes it to take on a sickly green sheen along the edge. Then, offering the empty out to him, she rushes at the ogre, looking for any opening where she can slash with her sword, giving the poison a way in to his system.

    Rizadoman tries to help the priestest but as he casts his own shield to try to layer with hers he fails to be in time and her protection shatters. His own shield manages to protect him from the remnants before he looks at the priestest ready to rush over to her before seeing Shin Heno watching out from her instead. Turning back to the Ogre he states, " I will provide a distraction, take advantage of it. " He fishes into a pocket and then begins to chant, "O Horns and claws of our father, Iguanodon, thy four limbs become two legs to walk upon the earth."
     A skeleton of a lizardman rises up with its own bone shaped scimitar running into the battle to try and slash at the ogre and draw it's ire so the summoners comrades can be successful.

This time, Kotono manages to use her evasion skills to her advantage. She skids to a stop on her feet, smiling a little. "You didn't get me that time!" But her smile fades as she sees there's something else coming.

"An ogre!" Kotono grits her teeth nervously before shaking her head. "No matter, I'll help stop it!" The girl rolls on the ground towards the giant before leaping upwards with her dagger extended. "Eeyah!"

    Somehow, Miyako managed to get through that fight with the goblins at the bottom of the stairs. Wounded, she leans against her naginata's shaft, setting it in the ground as she looks out into the great room beyond.

    Wonderful. More goblins.

    And... an ogre. Ulp. This is going to get messy.

    "Remind me," she asks Kotono, "Invest in better armor when we get back to town."

    She pauses as the ogre speaks, mouthing the words it speaks in disbelief. 'Demon in glasses'? ... ... ...

    Nah. Can't be.

    It's really too bad she's so focused on that, because otherwise she might have dodged fast enough to get out of the fireball. What she shouts is not fit for children's ears, most definitely not.

        "Daughter of the raven-giant
        Wife of the sea
        She who sets the serpent guard
        Shadow of Winter's chill
        Strike down this foe, by Skadi's spear

        ICE RAIN!"

Something powerful had been drawing them here? Proteus glances over at the Priestess. "Hmm." She emits. "I wonder if it's anything like the Mirror..." That becomes something of an issue.

What's even more of an issue is when the Ogre arrives. And they talk. Proteus scowls at the Ogre. But then there's the matter of the mention of a Demon in Glasses. "You know..." Proteus asides. "This is why I was told not to start wearing glasses." She gestures. "This would have been /really/ awkward."

She turns back to the Ogre, just in time to see the Ability cut-in. "WHAT?" Proteus gapes. "FIREBALL /BETA/?" She yells. "THAT'S BULL-" Then she shuts up, gaping as she sees that the Priestess seems to have just /created an Immortal Object/ as a shield. She renews her objection. "THAT'S BULL-"

And then the Fireball Beta detonates. With her surprise, she can't even activate the Ability in time and ends up caught in a frametrap on her attempt to do so, the Imp being blasted backwards in a gout of intense flame. It's not enough to kill Proteus, but wew look at that HP bar drop.

She gets back to her feet, smouldering, her eyes squinting. "I swear to the Goddesses, Kyo, if you're behind this..." She mutters, and stomps forward. "HEY YOU!" She yells down at the Ogre. "The Demon in Glasses... Was it a lazy, skeevy mage-type with thick glasses?" She asks the Ogre. "Answer fast!" A window appears: ^ X O

Her hands are surrounded in seething emerald wind, and she flicks her hands out, hurling blade after blade of sickle-wind at the Ogre, shredding at its defenses.

    This /is/ going really well! Clearly it's because they're all working so well together and have a goblin expert with them!

    Then they have to kill the sleeping goblins. It feels a /little/ bad, but it has to be done. It helps that nothing leaves corpses, at least...

    And then the dungeon boss makes its entrance, and it TALKS... more than pretty much any other boss has. Demon in glasses? Mizuki thinks back. The mysterious woman someone saw at the first wave had glasses, didn't she? And again in the desert. And one of the people in the vision, who stole a WMD from the Curator, also had glasses... Could there be a connection?

    Mizuki can't help smirking a little as the Goblin Slayer disses the ogre as weaker than a goblin. It feels a bit more like pre-written dialogue than something someone would improvise on the fly, but it fits.

    And then he starts CHARGIN HIS FIREBALL. Mizuki throws ice, fire, and kunai at him but it seems he's either invincible or has super armor! She gets behind the priestess--

    "...Your spell is an Immortal Object? How--" as the Immortal Object shows signs of taking DAMAGE, she barely has time to ninpo up an elemental shield to block the bit of fire that gets through.

    That spell broke an Immortal Object? That's two impossibilities in one instant...

    They should proooobably kill him before he casts it again. Also, the tokusatsu guy has multiple armor modes now? What does THAT mean? (It means he's even cooler, obviously)

    Something about this situation has put her in mind to try... unusual solutions. There was freezing the bell, earlier, the unconventional way they knocked out and killed so many goblins, and now the ogre and priestess calling the game conventions even more into question... can she really count on Just Damage to do the job?

    Conversely, should she just assume this guy is immune to status effects because he looks like a boss?

    Let's find out.

    Mizuki's shield disperses and she runs around the room, circling much like she would for a conventional attack, trying to get behind the ogre, and then up close, just out of his reach. She takes a one-legged stance and starts forming hand seals, as a globe of water rises out of the ground and flings itself at the ogre's head!

    But instead of turning to ice, or smacking into him and splashing away, it stays... as long as she can maintain the spell.

    Can you drown an ogre? Let's find out!

"What, like some kind of Goblin King?" Prophylaxis grimaces, thinking to the hulking brute of a goblin waiting for them all on the Fifth Floor. He shakes his head-- maybe it's even worse than that thing? It's not like the Fifth Floor Goblins have had very much cause to mobilize, but these-- these are here to kill and rampage. "Whatever it is, I'd rather it die before we do--"

                             FIREBALL -- BETA!?                            

"A demon in glasses!?" Prophylaxis shouts as a wave of cataclysmic flame lances straight through the Priestess' invincible shield in just the right spot to stream directly into his personal space. A hasty shield spell-- is not enough to protect him. The magus screams as he hits the floor, set alight in an ironic twist of fate by a more powerful version of one of his favorite spells.

A demon in glasses... Could it be the one in the New World Alliance...?

Prophylaxis, as he rolls to extinguish the flames, thinks briefly to Shiroe's nerdy face passed out on the floor of a tavern with a piece of ultra-awful cheese waving under his nose.

.../That/ demon in glasses?

No. It has to be the other one. He growls, forcing himself upright. The ogre is... Massive. Far more individually dangerous than a simple goblin. They need to be decisive here, but...

If it uses fire, it is likely resistant. But hell, why not? Why /not/ feed that damn ogre its own medicine? Prophylaxis points his staff at the enormous creature, whose incredible bulk simply means that there is more meat to ignite, and whispers a word: "Fire--"

SOMEONE FREEZES IT.

"B...all..." The spell fizzles and fades, canceled at the VERY LAST MOMENT. Instead Prophylaxis just frowns and hurls an electrical fuzz directly at the creature's eyeballs.

Gosh and darn.

What could be gathering the Goblins the elf wonders, she'll find out soon enough as the party engages the Goblins. They clean up the majority of them and she does make sure several meet their ends here and now. Soon she'll get an answer however as a hulking Orge shows up she jaw drops a bit at this.

"An ogre! That's no goblin Orcbalg!"

She calls out then she hears the spell she tries to get to cover but isn't in time she's caught in the blast even if it's on the edge of it and is hurt she does scramble behind the barrier to keep from getting worse.

Wait immortal object? She will have to ask her about that later. 5R
for now the Pooka will pop out from cover with an arrow notched line up a shot for the Orge and let it fly.

"BURST SHOT!"

"Give it time." Cyrus quips with Mikage as he touches against her back as they get up and head downstairs to aid with the Goblin Slaughter... only for the Ogre to suddenly crash the party. The youth is lucky enough that his catlike reflexes are on point, dodging the massive stone door that comes flying their way, before the Ogre begins to call forth the enormous fireball.

"Are you kidding me!? This Ogre is clearly out of this zone's level limits!" Cyrus complains, only to see the Fireball meet an Immortal Object?! What does that even mean? And why is it cracking! It's clearly not Immortal enough!

He gets into the roll with Mikage, tugging her along with him and together they get behind a series of broken rocks for safety. "Okay, you get up close. I'll support from behind!" Cyrus calls out, grabbing a larger bottle, and throwing a flask of Frost Shock straight for the Ogre's chest, after enhancing his throw with a quick muscle building spell.

Shin Heno shows off his significant ability to be quick on his feet, and think that fast as well! Before the team knows what is going on, he's caught Onna Shinkan and carefully set her down to the ground. "T... thank you." She answers the masked man with a blush across her expression, hugging her staff to herself as he steps away.

Not moments later, Shin Heno is on his way again - this time avoiding any attempts to attack the Ogre, and instead rushes for the red crystal at the back of the ruins. A crystal that some of those present would know as the 'Dungeon Heart' to this Monster Lair. Managing to extracate it in one piece!

In the meantime, back at the front lines of the battle, Merek manages to get propelled by one of the stone pillars coming from the ground, helping him rocket forward! Flame coalesces in his fist as light blares out from that single position of flaming power. As he throws his fist forward, the stone pillar itself shatters behind him as fast as the Ogre's ribs do in front of him, the flames scorching and stopping the regenerative abilities of the being!

However, the hammer strike wound that had been left by the Goblin Slayer is already healing. Shiruba manages to send a fierce gust around the creature, searing at its skin, causing constant small cuts that keep getting healed back up - only for some of the healing to slow as Cyrus' Frost Shock makes impact upon its chest! Mikage manges to slide through the Ogre's legs, slashing at its tendons with her poisonous biting blade! The enormous giant goes down to one knee, as the poison bubbles at the surface and refuses to let the tendon rebuild fast enough!

Mikage is quickly picked up from the midst of her roll by two skeleton Lizards, who come to stand with her at the behest of Rizadoman, which then quickly try to climb its back - since it's partially lowered now - and begin stabbing into its back! One of them holding out a hand so Kotono can make her jump more easily onto its back, before all three of them come carving down along its back - sending out a gush of glowing red damage-area blood.

Miyako retreats amidst the use of her Ice Rain, sending carving hail down on its body, riddling one of its arms with holes as the Ogre slams his hand to the ground. Green and red intermitent light begins to coil and ripple along the ground. "Damn Demon in Glasses, this better work!" As he begins to lift his hand... slowly revealing an ENORMOUS club being /made out of the ground itself/. All the way until he's holding an enormous club easily his height in size, made out of what looks like the ground's panels intermixed with hardened stone made into some kind of steel-like substance. The ground itself showing a large 'dimple' where he'd withdrawn all that surface from.

The creature then slams the club into the ground, and the ground underneath people begins to shimmer and shake. People who are trained in LAW will feel their senses go off tremendously!

The Ogre doesn't see fit to answer Proteus demand for the time being, what with clearly being on opposite sides of this conflict. Instead, Proteus has to dodge a club coming down for her in the same moment that she sends those shredding and hurling blades, ripping into its arms and causing severe damage along his muscles. Enough that the club momentarily gets loose and breaks one of the upper balconies, before the Ogre manages to grab it with its other hand!

The club comes down near another group of the team before the Ogre grabs for his face, as Mizuki starts trying to drown it. It's clearly working, as the enormous monster stomps about, using a fire spell to try and heat away the bubble that is choking him out. But until then, Erufu is managing to make it a pin-cushion. Creating a ladder of arrows along its chest!

Before the massive Ogre lets out a loud cry of anger, and raises his hand in the air, and slams onto the ground again. This time, massive pillars once again rise up from the ground. And as people slam their weapons and spells into them, they'll find that these 'plates' rising from the ground are /surprisingly/ hard to get through. They seem to come up within the 'sight' of the Ogre. Almost like a labyrinth is rising and lowering from the ground constantly, allowing him to help defend himself, while he swings the club where he just spotted people and tries to literally crush people to death!

    Merek looks to the creature when he begins to summon what looks to be a club. The man nods a bit, "I don't know, there are a lot of people with glasses friend, why don't you share with us which," he notes. The man lifts up Shadow Eclipse, "Alright, he seems to be healing, Shadow Eclipse. Let's see if we can slow that a little, work with me."
    The man then begins to swing about after he's assisted with bringing the HP down along with that regeneration. There's a shift of the hip while he draws an ice that begins to shimmer electric along his weapon, then he swings up into that ogre, then he begins to use a little bit of the magic to try and freeze the weapon also. The blade lifted up, he then begins to take off and would try to swing into the ogre and weapon, dark mist following the weapon while he begins to assault the club. Looks like he will be trying to break it with his own weapon.

    Rizadoman sees the pillars sweeping towards him and he tries to meet it head on. However as he holds his weapon against it , the pillar throws him back and he hits with a hard thud. Standing up , he helps those around him that need it back to their feet. "Erufu! Are you still breathing ?!" He shouts to his friend wherever she has ended up before he begins to cast a spell on himself, " O proud and strange brontosaurus grant me the strength of ten thousand!" The buff cast he charges forward using his enhanced strength to plow through whatever he needs to get to his target and slash deep with his scimitar to cut into the ogre's legs.

That's a BIG club. Then the entire ruins start to shake and quake as stone walls constantly rise and fall from the vibrating ground. "This ogre is as powerful as he is ugly!", she quips, trying to insert a bit of dry humor into the otherwise increasingly dire situation.

A little less dire as Shin succeeds at his task, but there's still a dangerous boss throwing a titan level tantrum.

The wolfgirl makes a few quick arcane gestures, then squats to slam a hand into the ground. "Terra's mountains protect me -- ROCK CRADLE!" Her own rock formations rise up around her and fuse together to form a minature peak of sorts. Her attempt is to take control of the ground around her to stop to shaking and rumbling, shifting stone walls grinding against her own formation and keeping them from slamming together to form entire barriers.

With the Raid Boss raging it's hard to tell if he realizes what she is doing or just striking at random, but either way the massive club slams into the formation and that is more than enough force to demolish it into rubble!

Rock splinters and dust shower in the opposite direction, Shiruba somewhere amongst the spray of debris as the sheer force of the blow crushing the rock was enough to fling her off her feet. Until she slams into one of the other shifting walls with an audible *CRUNK* before slumping down. Oooow. That's a big chunk of her HP gone.

A hand hits the rumbling ground to catch herself from falling flat on her face.. and then curl into a clenched fist as Shiruba snarls in a much more wolf-like manner than usual. Tail lashes as she pushes herself back onto her feet despite the wounds, shakes some dirt debris off her bow, and loads it with another arrow. Eyes narrow and brow furrows in a combination of concentration and pained grimace, a foot shifting back a little farther than usual to brace herself against the still rumbling environment.

"No rage of heaven or earth shall stop the Howling Storm!" The arrow is pulled back to the full tension her bow is capable of. "SONIC BLOW!"

A thunderous *THWOOM* rings through the ruins as the arrow is fired into nearly supersonic speeds to get between the shifting stone walls faster than they can close, and straight towards the Ogre!

As she slides past the Ogre, Mikage rises to see the two skeletal lizards on both sides and definitely has to give them a double take. It's likely because she's had to fight undead recently, so it takes her a split second to make sure they are actually on the 'good guys' side.

When the strange pillars come up in defense of the Ogre, she can almost sense them, giving her some ability to get around them and to avoid being thrown into the air. However, after dodging a series of them, it briefly leaves her exposed, right where the enemy is swinging that club.

The Were Fang girl gets slammed into hard, the force knocking her backwards so that she hits against one of the pillars and then slides down, the impact causing her eyes to briefly flicker white with the threat of a transformation.

Her feet catch herself when she hits the ground, barely tipping forward onto her knees as she coughs, the impact having dropped quite a bit off of her health and knocked some of the air out of her lungs. After a couple of quick breaths, she holds her sword horizontally, breathing a bit of wind and water energy into it, the two crackling together. The sword is lashed through the air and from each slice, a blade that seems to be made of condensed storm energy flashes forward, creating a series of projectiles aimed at the Ogre.

Kotono messes up once again, and unfortunately, she's badly hurt. She'd stick around to continue the fight, but she doesn't want to take any risks. When the time is right, she calls out, "I'm sorry, but I need to leave. Be careful please!"

    Miyako is waiting halfway up the stairs, having fallen back to tend to her own wounds. She waits there for Kotono, leaning on her naginata, offering the girl a hand up.

    It's... working? Mizuki felt she had to try it, but didn't really expect it to work! Yet the ogre is clearly reacting like a person who actually has their head stuck in a magic globe of water, rather than a monster that just took water-elemental damage. And it's boiling it away with fire, hmm...

    It seems they've triggered the next phase of the boss fight! A maze -- and the ogre's club, one of the devs clearly remembers the first chapter of Fullmetal Alchemist -- are sweeping around the room! Mizuki has to do some crazy improvized parkour on obstacles that appear and disappear to BARELY avoid the club. And it feels FREAKING AWESOME. In any other game you'd only see something like that in a cutscene and go 'man, I wish I'd gotten to play that'!

    The fight's not over yet, though. One of the archers kindly provided an arrow-ladder up the ogre's chest, and Mizuki can't let that go to waste, can she? It isn't ACTUALLY flashing in a golden context-aura but it may as well be.

    After the club passes, she leaps towards the ogre and starts an incant: "Let fly your chilly sharp blades! Frost Bolt!"

    A cloud of frost appears over her head and starts spitting magic icicles at the ogre, near-point-blank. Frost Bolt is just one of the basic ice attack spells, but before, it had a peculiarity: The animation plays over a few seconds as icicles are flung at the target one after the other (more based on your Water skill), and you'd think it's a multi-hit spell, but no, the entire thing counted as one hit that's taken at the end.

    Of course, all bets about mechanics are off, ... but while that long animation plays, Mizuki is leaping for the arrow-ladder, climbing up... and then opening her mouth to breathe a plume of intense flame right at its face, just as the last icicles are hitting.

    It's a one-cat combo attack! Fire + Ice worked in Chrono Trigger, but does replicating Antipode yourself work here?

"Mikage!" She can hear Cyrus' voice as she is slammed away by the Club. The youth had just taken the full brunt of debris slamming into his body, carving his health down. She's too far out of range for Cyrus to heal her without moving over. So she can see him coming her way... only for one of the labyrinthian walls to suddenly rise and halt his progression.

"Shit!" The youth declares. "This is just like fucking floor ten! Fuck these cheat monsters!" The frustrated Cait Sith shouts out. At this this one is taking damage!

Looking the Ogre's way, he spots the pattern, waiting for it to look the other way while using a potion to help heal himself a bit, and keeps moving in the general direction of Mikage. And when it looks away, he finally reaches her and throws a potion at her, to help her stay in the fight, before stepping onto a spot where the wall is coming up. Taking the damage as it slams into him, rising up, and using his higher vantage point and his 'rocket potions' to try and heal people from where he is standing, and buffing them as needed. But with the walls constantly moving, many of them are not making their mark!

The Ogre doesn't answer Proteus. Well, it doesn't really have to, but one supposes Ogres aren't really into monologuing about their secret plans. "Since when did Ogres get to cast spells, anyway?" She grouses. "Everything about this is wrong. Something is wrong." But what?

The movements of the floor answers that, and this seems to incense Proteus to an exceptional amount for some unspoken reason. "Why can YOU..." She grimaces, staring daggers at the horrible beast as he closes and attempts to crush Proteus... But this time... ^ - S

The club smashes the ground... And the voice comes from above. "Where are you aiming? I'm UP HERE!" Proteus asks. As the Ogre inevitably looks up, he'll see the clicking puzzle locking into configuration. "You've run out of time. Initiate the first alignment..." As her fingers flick, the puzzle flaring gold in a glamourous display as the overly complicated entry process for this Ability completes.

                                   + ) |                                    

The puzzle splays open, a flower of light with a burning core. "Now cast open the gate of light! BANISH!" A moment later, the deadly beam of the Empyrial Arrow lances out, shattering into dozens of beams to shower the Ogre in wide-ranging murderblast of vaporizing light.

You know what squishy wizards were never meant to deal with? Getting hit by a damn super club! That's what! Prophylaxis swears like a damn sailor, but not a single one of his curses make his desperate defense any more effective. He attempts a trick similar to the Ogre's own, drawing up a series of protective stone walls all around him, but...

Well. Ogres! They can... kind of smash right through that kind of thing. Prophylaxis doesn't make a sound as he's clubbed straight through his own stone wall and into another behind that one. He slides to the floor, coughing up a thick ooze of congealed spittle and flickering red pixelation. At least, he thinks to himself through the haze of pain, these goblins didn't use that damn poison. But...

This ogre-- even if that beautiful bastard in the kungfu bugman mask managed to steal the Dungeon's Heart-- this ogre needs to die. If they leave it here, it's only a matter of time before the thing makes an even greater nuisance of itself. He forces himself to stand, struggling through shaky legs and trembling, blurred vision. Flame gathers around the head of his staff, swirling together in swaddling ribbons of heat and light as his lips whisper a spell that his half-collapsed lungs couldn't hope to give voice to.

The orange-yellow orb that streaks towards the ogre is enough to spell out exactly what manner of spell he was weaving... And even if it wasn't, the massive, 30 foot radius burst of flame that washes out from the point of impact is ample proof enough that Prophylaxis still had enough mana to hurl one last fireball...!

Erufu aim is on point as she let out a volley of shots, which not only turn the Ogre's chest into a pin-cushion it would make a ladder for anyone trying to climb on the massive monster. She will get on the move again as she notices the Orge isn't quite done yet and she's going to swing his club. She's not fast enough this time as she's clipped by falling debris and sent sprawling. Erufu is more than a bit of a mess, she's lost hold of her bow at this point, she does not make a scramble to recover it. She'll draw her knives and try to charge the ogre.

What else could she do the huge thing is a monster, she'll dart in trying to find something vital she can drive her daggers into before she fades the heck away from the hulking monster.

     'Algol' dives back under the Ogre's legs. There's a right way to do this. A correct way. A proper way.

     'Algol' has to bound onto one of the moving platforms, the rising and falling walls. It lowers. He stops. He stands as it rises, drawing himself up to his full height.

     It's a pretty good height.

     His free hand opens the belt. The Gloomantis cloak and the Flash Hopper boots disintegrate. The scripture cards pop out and disappear into his inventory. His scarf flowing around him in the wind from the attacks racing by. Erufu's and Shiruba's arrows streak past him. Prophylaxis's lightning crackles by his head. Mizuki's water orb shoots over him. 'Algol' turns around as the ice rain starts falling on the ogre, as the skeleton lizard goes running past him. Kotono and Mikage go rolling past. The fiery impact of Ragnarok's Wisdom erupts around him. Proteus's wind blades goes cutting past him. 'Algol's scarf flutters in front of him as they pass. He walks straight towards the ogre.

     In one hand, he's holding a scroll.

     The ogre's hammer comes swinging around. 'Algol' draws another card and flicks it sideways.

     His Scripture Cards are punchcards.

     Doesn't that just figure.

     The card slams into the belt. The belt turns white.

                            EXECUTION: CRUSADE!                            

     There's a blast of light.

     The hammer comes down.

     'Algol' disappears in the impact, in a shower of red sparks and red light. Far across the battlefield there's an 'Algol'-shaped hole in the stonework.

     Silence but for the ringing of Merek's blade against the Ogre's club, but for the sound of the supersonic Sonic Blow.

     From the other side of the room, music starts to play.

                              GO GO THE LIGHT!                              
                            LIGHT UP THE NIGHT!                            
                      THE PATH AHEAD IS FULL OF TEARS!                      

     The rocks start to crumble as Mikage's stormblades crash and clash with the Ogre's mighty form. Footfalls and flash-strikes shake the battlefield. Mizuki's icicles tear through the air leaving trails of frost matched by her plumes of flame.

                               CLOSING DARK!                                
                               FADING SHADOW!                              
                             THERE'S NO ESCAPE!                            

     Miyako and Kotono go falling back. The rubble shifts again.

               NIGHTMARE CLASPED AGAINST THE SHAKING BREAST!                
                       BROKEN BY THE BRIGHT HORIZON!                        

     The rocks erupt in light.

                            THE WARRIOR OF LOVE                            
                                HAS ARRIVED!                                

     'Algol' rises. The shimmering blue-and-white wings of a Crusade Butterfly spread from around him, revealing the scratches and sparks across his black-armored body. He wobbles only once, then pops open the side of the belt. The Scripture Card - and the wings of the Crusade Butterfly - disappears into his inventory.

                              FOLLOW THE STAR                              

     'Algol' starts walking forward, through the storm of Cyrus's potions. Empyrial Arrows fire down from Proteus above, shattering and sweeping around the Masked Ranger's footfalls. Prophylaxis's explosive fireball sends his scarf fluttering as Erufu dives past to slash and slice.

     In 'Algol's right hand is clutched tight a scroll.

                            FOLLOW THE RED STAR                            

     'Algol' raises the scroll and points it firmly at the Ogre.

     "Masked Ranger, Algol."

                     THE BLOODY GUIDE KNOWS WHERE TO GO                    

     "The Demon Star will light your way back to hell."

                                 RED SHIFT!                                
                                 SHIFT UP!                                  
                     BREAK THE CODE AND FOLLOW THROUGH!                    

                     THE DEMON STAR KNOWS WHERE TO GO!                      

     Crack.

     'Algol's fist shatters the gem.

     The roar that consumes the room is deafening, overwhelming. Sound becomes a physical force no less potent than fire and lightning. It is ground zero of the release of enormous pressure - ground zero of a bomb, ground zero of a volcanic eruption. It is deafening. It quakes to the soul. It shudders the bones and the flesh. It is an impossible noise that should not exist in the world, accompanying an impossible blue light that consumes everything in the room. The Ogre is hit not with force but with something that surpasses force, an event that was never meant to occur in the real world or the false one, an abuse of magic and physics that passes through the video game and straight into the realms of absurdity.

     It is a bomb of water pressure so potent that, when the light has died and the overwhelming roar of sound no longer echoes in the ears, it's cleaved straight through other side of the room, and flooded the entire arena. Brick crumbles to splash in the new-made pool. Water drips from the massive hole, plink-plink, plink-plink, a steady, even drip, like the beating of a heart.

     In the middle of it all is the black-chitin form of Masked Ranger Algol, a scroll burning blue in one hand. Red dust crumbles to the water as his crimson scarf flutters in the aftermath.

                              GO GO THE LIGHT!                              

As the Ogre seems to Up the Ante, so does the rest of the team. Goblin Slayer and Dowafu both however get clubbed out of the way after each getting a fierce hit in on the enormous thing's knees. "GOBLIN SLAYER!" The Priestess calls out, rushing to him as the man hits the ground pretty hard, spitting out blood. "He's a lander! He will die if he is killed!" Which is the strangest sentence that only makes sense because it comes out of the mouth of an Adventurer.

An almost entombing wave of stone comes her way, and she quickly slams her staff to the ground. "PROTECTION!" She declares over an area of the ground, which suddenly seems to stop 'responding' to the Ogre's obviously powerful labyrinthian ability.

But after that, she's spending her time healing, worried about the Lander's untimely end, as well as her Dwarf friend, who gets given a potion.

Shiruba will quickly find that her attempts at controlling the ground are not going well. While it's not looking her way, it seems she can manipulate the earth - sending her spiralling to the air with her spire. But the moment its gaze falls on her, the stone magic beneath her suddenly clumbles as the floor stops yielding to her magic so easily, and stone walls slam upwards. But not before she gets her attack off! The arrow slamming right into its right eye! The beast howls and grabs for his eye, swinging his club about in a wide arc in angle - threatening to slam into her body.

Cyrus manages to send a few heals left and right. But with how split the group is because of these randomly appearing walls, it's not enough to make a proper difference on their healing. The line of sight keeps getting blocked before they can arrive. Rizadoman barely manages to crash through one of the thinner labyrinth walls and reaches the Ogre again, stabbing into its big toe and causing it to hop and roar in pain. Merek climbing Rizadoman's shoulder and jumping up to its ankle, ripping the Shadow Eclipse wreathed in ice darkness through into the club - though it's resisting a significant amount of the damage. Far more than a club constructed of those materials should!

Kotono and Miyako manage to make it upstairs, out of harm's way, while Mizuki covers their retreat! A Frost Bolt slams into its eyes and stops it from seeing their retreating forms - following this up into a blast of flame at its head as she manages to climb the arrow ladder, and finally descend down to the ground once more! Just in time to avoid the enormous wide blasts of Proteus' banishing spell of light, ripping a good chunk out of the Ogre's body. It's a race against the clock. And with the healing of the party constantly being shut out, it's very likely they'll survive this, kill the ogre... but have some casualties.

Prophylaxis manages to rise up through the ache of being hit by the giant club and going through a few walls, to throw a well timed Fireball right into its face. The yellow orb makes contact, seems to wait for a aesthetically pleasing amount of time, before it detonates right over its head - searing out that already damaged eye and making it pop like a disgusting pimple! The creature cries out in pain, grabbing for its head, while Erufu drives arrows into its fet as she spots Shin Heno approaching wielding something odd - trying to keep the Ogre rooted in place. With its eye closed, the Labyrinth halts just long enough... to give Shin Heno a clear shot.

As the creature turns, one eye slowly opening... as light encompasses all. Light amidst blue. An erasing presence that is so loud and bright in presence that time seems to fade for a moment. And indeed, when all time returns, the Ogre lies on the ground. Broken. Groaning. Its body all but on the last dot of its health. Unable to move. Its arms and legs carved apart. Chunks of its entire body missing. Its regeneration unable to activate anymore. As it lays there, amidst the waters. Confused, staring up at the people in the arena.

"What... how is this possible. That Demon in Glasses promised... nobody would be able to beat this power!" It complains, as the team approaches in order to Coup de grâce the ogre. "W... wait! Don't kill me! I-I'll be good! You'll never see me again! Just let me go!" The Monster begins to beg for his life, as the Goblin Slayer climbs onto his chest.

"Wait, I-I'll answer your questions. Y-you wanted to know if the Demon in Glasses was a mage. H-he was a demon in red clothes, with a scorpions tail! Don't kill me!"

    Merek looks to the ogre when he has fallen, amidst all of the assaulting from Shin Heno, then he nods a bit while he takes a moment to point the weapon along toward him. The Shadow Eclipse shifts that dark mist while it maneuvers, then he speaks, "We know him. In fact, I have seen him, the one that I saw with the power of Oracle. A name, if you please."
    The man seems to think about it, then he takes a look to everyone, "Will the Orcbolg be okay? Please, let us get answers, this could be important, that man took the Mirror." He waits to see if anyone else would ask questions, though he's protecting the ogre from people that might want to kill him while they look for answers.

... What The Hell just happened?! ...

Fortunately this time the big What the Hell is on their side as the Algol disrupts the fight with something spectacular that gives the party that extra bit of leverage against such a formidable boss. It just can't be described any more beautifully overwhelming than it already was.

A few moments later and the Ogre is upon his back, and Goblin Slayer climbing on top of him ready to finish the job even if this isn't specifically a Goblin.

Then more strange things happen as the Monster begs for mercy. Since when do they do that?

The wolfgirl tilts her head at his paniced rambling. "Why does that description sound familiar?", she muses. Only for Merek to fill in the gap. "Oh, that's why! That's... oh... oh damn..." she utters as a few pieces start clicking together in her mind quickly.

"They gave meta power to Monsters to keep us occupied from investigating their theft I bet!"

    As soon as the Ogre is confirmed down Rizadmon turns towards Goblin Slayer and upon seeing him down runs toward him as well. " Don't fret priestest , we can heal him. I'm sure of it. " He does his best to give a warm bedside manner as he begins to help in the healing of the slayer. "Lander, or adventurer, we are all compatriots today and so I will pray to the naga ancestors that no one becomes loss." He adds in case any needed justification on why to try to heal a lander.

Perhaps the one thing that Mikage hadn't been expecting ws to see an Ogre begging for their life. She stumbles from amongst the rocks, holding her side with one hand and lightly wiping the remains of one of Cyrus' healing potions off of her forehead with the other. She has a dazed expression, perhaps not quite grasping exactly what just happened.

"Rama?" She calls quietly, and sure enough, a somewhat wet lynx limps his way over to join her, allowing her a moment of relief. One that doesn't seem to last long as she scowls in the direction of the Ogre. "I thought all of this was too much to be coincidence." She shakes her head, "Seems like this guy has goodie bag of game breaking tricks."

Her expression, though, suggests that she doesn't look all that fond of the idea of being merciful to the monster. For now, though, she doesn't speak up, simply listening, blue eyes flicking between faces, trying to put all the pieces together in her own mind.

Cyrus manages to reach Mikage, offering her another healing potion to drink down - instead of it getting thrown at her head - and chugs one himself. He then puts a hand to her arm, trying to keep her a bit further away from the Ogre. "Don't get too close." He whispers to her.

"Just kill it. It's a Monster. For all we know, it's just waiting to attack us again while we wait!" Cyrus offers the others. Before, at a lower tone, he nods to Mikage. "Yeah, it looks that way." While looking like a wet cat. His hair drooping down. He'd been in some of the spray of that enormous blast of highly pressurized ocean water that'd come from that scroll and Dungeon Heart combination.

    And the tokusatsu guy has a /rockin' theme song/ to make the fight feel even MORE awesome.

    God, it's like living an anime in real life. THIS IS SO COOL.

    Although, the part where the ogre's eye POPS is kind of concerning. That... damage doesn't normally do things like that...

    Wait, HOW much health does it have left?

    Just as she begins to realize that there might be a problem, Shin (or, rather, whoever made that scroll) pulls a trick straight out of Saga of Soul and blasts the demon with water physics. Although without explanation, Mizuki doesn't understand what happened beyond that an item was used. "Was that scroll another Enigma Piece...?"

    And it's STILL ALIVE. Barely. And it confirms that the 'demon in glasses' is the creature from Merek's vision. "The power to break Immortal Objects... is THAT what they stole from the curator?"

    She approaches the ogre. "How do we know we can trust you? What were you even trying to accomplish, here?" She gestures at the nonexistant goblin corpses they massacred earlier.

Erufu notices Shin is going to do something and she'll backflip away not wanting to stay near whatever Shin has in mind. It may be very well explosive and she wants to see it. Yet being this close isn't a good idea for her health and her HP is already in the red from the beating she's taken so far. She doesn't want to take that chance

Soon it looks like things are over as the rest of the party just rips the Orge apart. Somehow its still alive when the dust settles. She'll clean off her knives before she sheathes them and looks at the monster for a moment. She'll let others tend to questioning the orge. She's going to go check up on Goblin Slayer, he was one of the bravest or most insane Lander's she'd ever seen, she wants to make sure he's all right.

So what she'd been looking into with her party was related to the Mirror? That was a pretty big thing they'd uncovered. She looks to the Lizardman and says

"Agreed let us make sure Orcbalg is all right."

    Merek keeps the weapon poised to the ogre while he watches. Seems that he is prepared to deliver a final full strike if he needs to, then he does offer an explanation, "I used an Enigma Piece, to learn that the man he speaks of, that demon, he took a Mirror meant to be used when the end of the world would arrive."

     As Goblin Slayer climbs onto the monster, as it begs for its life, 'Algol' just stands, his glowing eyes fixed on the creature. He doesn't blink. He has no eyelids to blink with. It's simply the terrifying bug-face staring at the Ogre as people debate mercy or execution. The mouth is hidden by the flowing red scarf. The mandible crest casts a long shadow across the creature's body in the remnants of the light.

     'Algol' rolls up the blue-blazing scroll, closing it in his fist. He discards the remains of the paper across the Ogre's body. They burn away into ash.

     'Algol's hands snap against the belt.

                                END OF LINE!                                

     The Armor Beetle form peels away in a bunch of little green particles.

     Shin puts his hands behind his head, puts his leg forward, and puts on his Dorky Anime Protagonist grin as his white scarf settles behind him. The belt has disappeared.

     "Ha, ha! Can't say I expected any of that! That was a heck of a bang, huh? Glad I had it pointed the right way!"

     He walks over to the Priestess and bends down to meet her eyes. He's very tall. "You okay?" He asks, "Wouldn't be much of a Hero of Justice if I didn't keep people safe, right?"

     "Oh, yeah. Shin Heno!" He holds out his hand. "Call me Shin. I'm a Hero of Justice!"

     He does one of those two-finger salute-and-winks as he straightens back up.

     "Everybody else alright?"

The cataclysmic intersection of strikes lays the creature low, and Proteus hits the ground, the puzzle folding back into its normal state and resetting to a randomized configuration. The Imp stares at it contemplatively for a moment before tucking it away, then strides forward, giving Shin a wave. "Good work, Shin! I knew you could handle that little problem." She grins, that shark-toothed smile turning from the Hero of Justice to the augmented Ogre.

"So, you mean a literal demon in glasses, then. It looks like your mistake was trusting in their words." She says, humming for a moment when the Ogre begins talking. After there are calls to kill it, Proteus tilts her head... And then blinks for a moment. "... Wait a moment. Since when did you know the common tongue?" She asks the monster. "And how did you gain the ability to alter the flooring? What were you before you accepted the deal from the demon?" Proteus just has... a lot of questions about this. While she asks her questions, a little window pops up next to one hand, her fingers subtly preparing to call up another Ability if needed.

"No, it was not an Enigma object. The scroll was one I had custom made to work with a heart. Together with the Dungeon Heart, it gained the power to connect to the depths of the ocean. It then teleported it through that scroll with high pressure at the target." Goblin Slayer explains, before turning his gaze to the Ogre. "I was hoping to get the Dungeon Heart here for this scroll, and use that on a Goblin Cave. But I guess this will have to do."

"You would use something like that, on mere Goblins!?" The Ogre demands to know.

"Compared to goblins, you were nothing." The Goblin Slayer answers as he gives a few moments for people to get some questions off, while Priestess and the Lizardman are using some healing spells on him. It helps with all that blood coming from him.

"Tttsk... you think my Fireball spell is so weak, that a barrier could stop it?" The Ogre demands to know, scoffing at the idea Mizuki suggested. "I was to gather forces here and prepare for an attack on Fort Ouph." Something that even this amount of Goblins would have been /far/ too ill prepared for. "Look, I'll just... go back to the mountains. I can already feel the power he gave me fading." He remarks, as he touches at his 'broken eye'. Behind which it looks like there's some kind of... slide-puzzle of light, constantly moving.

He glances down towards Proteus. "I am nothing but myself! I am my own greatness!" But clearly, he needed a leg up against the immortal Adventurers.

In the meantime, Priestess, on the ground, casting her last bit of mana away, looks up at Shin Heno and nods her head. "Thank you, mister hero." She answers him. "We're all alive thanks to you."

"Nothing about you was great. You swung a mace and threw a fireball. You didn't even have these Goblins build traps."

"You bastard how dare~" The Ogre demands as it writhes and the ground begins to shake beneath people. But between Proteus and Goblin Slayer - the interference is quick. His spell getting locked down first, before Goblin Slayer's blade finds the forehead of the Ogre and digs in DEEP...

Resulting in the creature detonating into bold light, and a shimmering item falling to the ground... and then falling into multiple pieces.

    Merek's sword begins to slide forward, while he takes all of the words spoken by both the Goblin Slayer along with the ogre to mind, while making space for the two, Proteus as well as the goblin slayer to finish it. It seems the man is using his weapon to swing into it, keeping it in place for the two, right to the hilt of the weapon.

Proteus was looking for answers. She isn't getting much. It's clear that the Ogre has nothing more than the augmentations of a mysterious demon with glasses to his name, as well as an ego to match. As the ground begins to shake, Proteus is already moving.

                                   ( ! J                                    

Shadowy locks appear around the Ogre, closing and interrupting his attempts to use his attack abilities. For how long... Who knows? The important part is it's long enough for the Slayer's blade to come down. "We have already found the solution for you." Proteus states as the Ogre takes lethal damage and perishes...

Only for an object to appear and shatter. Proteus reaches down and picks up one of the pieces. "Hello, what have we here?" She says, holding it up and looking it over. "Could this be.. A piece of Enigma?" She asks.

    Mizuki ohhhs at 'Orcbolg''s (apparently that's his name?) explanation. "Just like Soul!"

    She shakes her head at the ogre. "Not any barrier, but that one..." She glances at the priestess, then back to the ogre. "You didn't answer the question. Your plan. What was it? Come on, don't you want to monologue your evil plan at us?"

    No monologue is forthcoming, though, as Goblin Slayer and Proteus kill him... to pieces? "What the hell?" She tries to identify it...

    And reads the description. "'It is said' by who?! Nobody has ever seen one of these things before, have they?!" And then her eyes grow wide. Hacking? It can be used for Hacking?! "That... that doesn't make any sense... why would that be part of the game...?"

     Shin's dorky grin intensifies. There's a light blush and an Anime Protagonist Headscratch. "Nah, all I did was flip the switch. Your friend over there had that thing prepared. Not that I mind being praised by a cute girl, but I'd rather have earned it myself, you know?" He leans down and puts one hand in front of his face in that 'sorry' hand-gesture Japanese protagonists do a lot, that half-a-bow thing that seems ubiquitous to characters who smile a lot.

     The object shatters. Shin crouches down and picks up a piece. He stares at it for a minute, squints, shrugs, and banishes it to his inventory. His hands disappear into his pockets.

     "He was gonna attack Fort Ouph," Shin tells Mizuki, "He just said that."

"Well, thank you for flipping the switch." Priestess offers, before letting out a loud sigh. "I need to rest." She motions for Dowafu, who throws Goblin Slayer a small satchel. "Have yourself some firewine to make some of the pain go away." He offers him, before motioning. "I am getting out of here." He raises his legs. "I'm too short to stand in this puddle of water. The Monster Lair is emptied. Let's go." He demands - with Goblin Slayer and Priestess joining not long after.

Erufu pauses at Proteus words, that's troubling or is it just more proof this isn't a game and is an actual world when it comes down to it? Given her concerns for Goblin Slayer? That should be more than enough of an answer it also seems Goblin Slayer is doing all right and the trash talk too. Yes, he should be fine here and she thinks of the plan Goblin Slayer came up with? That's pretty creative of a tactic. She'll looks as she picks up what seems to be a drop, she stares at the text as she inspects it. She quitely pockets it into her inventory.

"I may very well be, Proteus..."

    Mizuki blinks at Shin. "He did?" She totally talked over him replying about the barrier. She looks back at the item in her hands. "...I think this did more than just give him power." She derezzes it and turns to the Priestess. "That barrier you made..." Then she sighs. "I guess you don't have to explain right now, but sometime... sure would be nice to know how you made an Immortal Object... Thanks for saving us, in any case."

    She turns to the Goblin Slayer. "Thanks to you too, Orcbolg." It seems she's assumed what Erufu calls him must be his actual name.

"Uggggh, did anyone get the number on that truck?" Prophylaxis groans as he stumbles up alongside the rest of the party, wobbling almost as if he was just subject to a colossal shockwavewave due to briefly being exposed to barometric pressures found only at the sea floor. Not that he was, though. Not /directly./ Just, as part of today's string of bad luck, he so happened to be in just the right spot to catch a huge wave of sea water from when Shin opened that gateway.

He slumps down onto a ruined stone pillar next to the disintegrating monster, then casts Shin a look... And shrugs. "Yeah, no objections here. He might have been able to talk, but just because someone can talk doesn't mean you don't blow their heads off when they rant about invading a damn city. Good job with that scroll."

"Also," he stage-whispers, side-glancing over at the Goblin Slayer, "Remind me to never get on that man's bad side."

(The truck's number, for reference's sake, was 153K41.)

    Rizadoman watches the others scurry about as the ogre spills there secrets, but none the less everyone was alive, even Goblin Slayer. Like others he makes his way over to the item on the ground and retrieves it but doesn't look for now, will investigate it at another time as one of his party members is complaining about getting out of here. Appoaching Erufu he looks at her and says, " I believe we should follow those three, or else Dowafu is going to drink all the wine and worse yet he may eat all the cheese. " He gestures towards the path the three took but would wait till Erufu moved to accompany her , as a gentle-lizardman should.

    Merek takes a moment to find what looks to be a bracelet with him, then he takes the Enigma Piece, placing that into a slot made for crystals upon it, the puzzle box icon neatly within. He then takes a moment to find anything that's still remaining of the dungeon, and places a souvenier which he finds along the chain which he is keeping upon the hilt of the weapon. "Enigma Piece possibly. If this changes the Monster's code... Well, it's worth looking into. I can take it to the Temple of Law, check it that way possibly." The man looks from the hood to everyone, then a nod to Erufu, then he waves to Shin and Proteus, "Amazing, nice working." The man then walks along.

    "He can have the wine, I don't want to get drunk..." Mizuki mutters. Then pauses. "...Did he seriously just name his character 'Dwarf'?"

    She looks at Rizadoman's inspect. Then Erufu's. "Ohhh. You guys had kind of a theme going on, huh?"

    She looks off in the direction of the exit and mutters to herself. "It is said... if people really do know about these things... we need to ask Akumeiji about them..."