Climb: The Floor 5 Boss

The massive snow covered towers and buildings of Karluin are almost like a maze, as the Scale Emblem assembled raiding squad begins to move into the city proper, past the broken walls that give access to this region. The place is absolutely infested with Goblins - which are generally so starving for food that they will attack any Goblin that looks weak, and devour them.

Moving into the city, people slowly get filtered the information, while being moved into squads under various leaders. It seems the Boss of this region escaped the standard Boss Room. Though notably, the boss of this region was meant to be a golem, and now a massive Goblin is wearing its armor! What's more, it's been hard trying to ambush it because of the Goblin infestation. Most attempts have been met with constand Goblin harassment...

But the team has a new weapon. One of the Team Leaders is in fact not an Adventurer at all, but a Lander. And people have been designated to protect this Silver Hunter at all costs.

"This is what happens when a city thinks they can ignore the Goblins." He can be heard at the front, which is perhaps the first thing this man has said. Clad in his gray armor, the Goblin Slayer is pacing forward through the snow covered streets of Karluin. "They devour anything and everything alive, until nothing is left."

At the edges of the raid party, there's already shots from arrows and the occassional fireball, clearing off Goblin stragglers that get too close.

Three figures suddenly break from the buildings at the front, looking a bit worse for wear. Erufu, Goldenblade, and Kazuma - the latter of which is covered in what looks like some kind of dreck for some reason - step forward to report; The Goblin Leader has been spotted in a plaza just a little further in.

Steering the Raid in the right direction, the group finally comes upon the 'Goblin Camp', if one can call it that.

There's no tents or anything, but there's larger gatherings of Goblins, Hobgoblins, Goblin Shamans, and then, at the center of it all, the Champion Goblin Lord, which towers over all the others - easy two floors tall. It sniffs at the air, grunting, then turns towards the oncoming raid, letting out a bellowing growl!

The goblins in the Plaza scramble to get weapons, and a few Hobgoblins are slow on the approach. But the Raid is already having to deal with the increased Goblin activity on their flanks. From above, there's various Goblins firing down from towers. The enormous keep fortress town of Karluin, which no doubt must have been thought impossible to assail in the past, has now turned into a Goblin Nest, and they're using the various nooks and crannies everywhere, including the broken ruined walls, to rush the team. Some coming up from sewer holes into the middle of the raid group!

"Strike down the Champion, and the rest of the Goblins will lose their organization." The Goblin Slayer announces to his party, as he grabs a sling and begins to spin it, slinging a stone straight for the Champion's head, causing the creature to step back momentarily.

    Tracking and Sneaking. Two of the Skills that Kazuma has picked up, well-suited to dungeon-crawling. However, they also come in handy in an urban environment too -- as long as there's enough cover to make use of the shadows. He was working with a couple of other Adventurers to get intel on the boss, and they've succesfully made it back, but with the kind of mess that goblins leave behind, it hasn't exactly been clean work getting close enough to examine the boss-gobbo himself.

    Further, it seems the goblins are attacking, so the first thing he does after giving his report is to slide away from a hail of arrows upon a sheet of water and come to a stop in front of the larger group, then turn to one of his companions and say, "Oi, Aqua. Use your magic to clean my clothes. This isn't the way for the party leader to look on a boss quest." He holds his arms out to the sides expectantly. :I

    "Hurry it up, so I can go fight."

Att Syne is not with Scale Emblem. Plant Hwyaden's Olympus affiliation is no secret, and their reasons for ignoring the Tower in favor of expanding their influence on the world they've found themselves trapped in seem rational enough. Still, sometimes you just have to see something for yourself...

"Flame Shield!"

A circular barrier of whirling fire appears in mid-air. Att wields a wizard's staff in his left hand, parrying and blocking with the implement, while his right is occupied by a long straight-bladed sword instead. He moves at the front of groups, the Spriggan Mastermind a dark-clad shape intercepting combatants and holding them for the others.

In other words, he's a tank. A mage tank. Kind of unorthodox, but he's making it work.

"Man, I forgot how intense some of these raids could be," Att calls over the din of battle, sounding pretty clearly delighted. Goblins engage from all sides, replaced as quickly as they get cut down. Sewer covers burst, and they come up near Att's cluster of combatants from the guild. "Watch the flanks! Pull them to me and I'll draw them off! Moving east!" He points his sword, making minute motions with hand, wrist and foot --

His charge is more like a fifteen-meter lunge. He propels himself over into the midst of the emerging sewer-goblins with a fiery wave, whirling staff and sword in deadly arcs. It's attention-grabbing, if nothing else.

It seems like forever since the last time they've tried to tackle a floor boss. At least this time, they won't need to deal with stacking Waves of Calamity... Provided, of course, that something terrible doesn't happen and also that the actual leadership of Scale Emblem decides to hold off on immediately rushing down the sixth floor.

Prophylaxis is here, regardless of whatever else might happen, to see for himself that the leader of these goblins is put firmly into the dustbin of history where he belongs. Though...

Looking at him now, Fuschus is... a little bigger than he expected. "Can we still call it a goblin when it's two storys tall...?" Prophylaxis mutters as the towering creature comes into view. But clearly, the Slayer still considers it a goblin-- so if it's a gob enough for him, it's a gob enough for Prophylaxis.

You don't question it when someone's Favored Enemy bonus applies. That way just lies sadness and bad tabletop arguments.

For the time being at least, the colossal goblin is not the most pressing danger. A horde of much smaller but no less dangerous (in their aggregate) goblins is swarming them from all sides, flinging projectiles and lunging with jagged implements and blunt force weapons alike to defend their stolen home.

"Slayer," Prophylaxis asides as he begins weaving a spell. "When this is over, there's another piece of business I'd like to bring up with you. But first..."

A barrage of arrows rains down. Prophylaxis makes a small hop and then surges forward astride a wave of surging water. When he leaps free from the maneuver, his staff is already whirling as it strikes the earth. A swarm of writhing vines capped with snake-like heads erupts from between the ruined flagstones, surging forward to slither in-between the plates of Fuscus' armor to deliver venomous bites to the goblin overlord beneath.

Was it that long ago she would be around the table with coworkers and who became friends with a roll of the dice? Those were almost adolescent dreams but those are dreams no longer.

Erufu thought about her past life. Which was becoming less and less important to her honestly. She was Erufu now and it was unlikely she'd ever see Earth again. That was fine with her she had a life she was happy with so far, though today would be far more worrisome.

There were Goblins infesting this floor and someone may have helped them? What kind of lunatic would do something like that? She didn't know but suspect what would happen if they ever caught them.

That wasn't important now she had been one of the three scouts along with Goldenblade and Kazuma. They had been sent to find the floor boss. She was leery of helping Scale take down a boss, yet this floor had to be cleared of goblins. There were landers living on some of the floors below after all.

So they'd found the boss in a massive plaza surrounded by building on all sides. There were a few good sniper perches but who knows how many more goblins were lurking. With that, she would return to report with the others. She was a bit worse for wear but everyone had made it back. She finishes giving the report and looks over to Goblin Slayers.

"Reality hates a vacuum you deal with the big longers and the little ones you ignored will fill the void. It's a rather stark lesson I have to admit."

She'll look to the rest of the raid.

"I did find a few perches we could use as firing points but given the nature of the boss I'm not sure how long it would be a viable tactic for us."

With that she'll look once more to Goblin Slayer before she gets ready to head out.

"Rizadoman we're going to need all the support you can give us, my friend."

Later as the engagement starts things are already getting crazy, goblins are swarming. Erufu is drawing arrows and firing but her main focus is on the Champion. Goblin Slayer is right that thing needs to /die/ and die very fast.

She gets her shots off raining down arrows but she falls prey to a goblin bowman who catches her with an arrow thank the gods it's not got the poison from the cave on it.

It has been a long time since Kita has gone anywhere further up the tower than Tolbana. The fact that she has been struggling with certain combat-related anxiety meant that she had been avoiding big battles like this, in general. Yet, someone had obviously convinced her to join this particular raiding party.

Of course, she's still trying to keep near the protection of the tanks and other more capable fighters, her positioning showing that she isn't the most combat focused of Adventurers. It is positioning that allows her to weave a protective spell as soon as the real combat seems to start. A sort of shimmering wall of arcane magic that repells some of the arrows and attacks from the nearby goblin mooks.

"This was a bad idea. How did I let them convince me to do this." There is just a hint more panic in Kita's voice than would normally be there, her chest heaving slightly as her eyes seem to look around, threats in all directions.

With the Goblin Slayer telling them that the best thing to do is focus the boss, she tries to do just that, opening her spellbook and flipping through the pages until she finds one of the simplier spells. Yet, her hands seem to tremble when she starts to cast it, flubbing some of the runes as she marks them in the air.

What emerges is a small puff of darkness, which looks more annoyed than anything else. "That's not right." She scowls, then moves a hand to dismiss the little summon. That wouldn't even hurt a grunty. "What did I mess up?" She murmurs, fingers trailing down the page as she tries to figure out what she missed.

    Amalthea is here.
    The old Paladin is flanking the Goblin Slayer, lips pursed into a thin line. Finally, after all the business with the undead, they're pushing up the tower again.
    This will most likely lead to a Wave.
    It's a thought that doesn't sit well with the old Odysseia Knight, but it's high time it's done.
    There's no surprise in the old Paladin's eyes when the sheer amount of goblins rush for their weapons. It's the Goblin Lord that makes her eyes widen.
    "That's a big boy..." Murmured as she draws her blade, shield held up to stave off goblin arrows as she starts activating her taunts, sword flashing as she goes for the Goblin Lord.

Just because she hasn't been in the tower for a while doesn't mean BlackRose is out of practice with handling things there. Quite the opposite actually.

The white-haired swordswoman has been doing her best to keep active and knowing how to keep herself ready for whatever challenges may come her way. And it's a good thing too, because there are plenty of Goblins that are in the way, and they're not going to go down without a fight. But that doesn't mean BlackRose is going to be dissuaded either.

There's a determined look on her face as she sizes up the situation with her large sword at the ready. "I haven't been here in a while, I admit, but that's not going to stop me from stopping all of you!" She narrows her eyes a little. "We will do what we have to and we will keep climbing this tower!" She then points her sword at the group of goblins and says, "Stay out of my way!"

She then drives this point forward by going after the nearest goblin with her sword, deciding the boss will have to wait.

Goldenblade breaks from cover, running back to friendly lines at a dead sprint. The time for hiding has passed, but the fight has not quite yet begun. She's down more than a few HP as she rejoins the formation, panting to catch her breath. As the fight begins in earnest, it takes her a moment to compose herself, the overrunning goblins stealing more of her HP away before she can fight them off. Normally two swords means twice the damage, but you've got to survive to lay it out, and also, those swords are all the defense you get, as well.

After taking a moment to stabilize her defense and pry the attacking goblins loose, she skips by them, sliding in behind the big goblin BOSS, following Goblin Slayer's call to take out the champion first. But at the moment, it's all she can do to keep from getting mobbed and slaughtered, fending off the waves and trying very hard not to die, with mixed success.

    The blue-haired priestess with the waterdroplet-looking hair is busy blocking her own arrow attacks, hands raised in front of her as a bubble of water takes the blow for her just in time! She then glances towards Kazuma as he stops in front of her. "Eeeeh? I don't know about that. I think being covered in oil and waste suits you perfectly." she says with one hand to her mouth as she chuckles under her breath. "Fufufufu~!" Then Aqua focuses on the enemy, using the remnants of her shield to spray water in the faces of the incoming goblins. "Create Water!"

    Wisteria is done crafting her new armor and shows up wearing it. A full suit of Onabugashi armor, made from the spoils of war.. or dungeon raids. It has a dark aspect, with the helmet fashioned slightly oddly... with an eyemask like an oni rather than a traditional manpo... the reason for this becomes obvious when she is in were form, the smiling razor fangs of the caerbannog have a horror of their own that doesn't need a demon's grin to intimidate.

    As the arrows come flying in she stomps a foot, the earth shoving up and sending her soaring into the air, as she chants, and moves her hands to draw runes. "Spore Explosion!" she cries as she sends the writhing ball of Earth magic towards the mass of Goblins. The magic exploding into a choking cloud of poison spores.

    Rizardoman looks at Goblin Slayer and nods his heads, " With the big one gone , the others will fall apart. Understood." He looks at the giant goblin and contemplates the best option when Erufu asks for he grins revealing his lizard man fangs, " And let you have all the fun?" Reaching into a pocket on his belt he produces what appears to be a fang that he grasps in his hand channeling his magic into it.
     "O Horns and claws of our father, Iguanodon, thy four limbs become two legs to walk upon the earth!" Two dragon tooth warriors rise up , skeletons of lizard men holding bone shaped scimitars as they run towards Fuscus the two warriors attempting to strike at where the acheilia's tendon would be on the back of the goblin's foot.

The fighter known as Syx is here, he's not really ever actually done one of these floor clearings before, but this one it seems to be right up his alley. Lots of targets, and boy are there ever.

The fight begins in earnest, and he is not fast enough to get out of the way of the veritable tidal wave of goblins that descend upon the group. He gets hit several times by many of the smaller attackers, but is already starting to fight back. He's not content to die just because of a bunch of adds!

And so Syx begins to go to work, swinging wildly with massive haymakers, backed by his unrivaled strength. It's like trying to fight the ocean, but he's never been the type to back down from a challenge, no matter how overwhelming or impossible it might seem!

    Merek looks to be about to assist with the boss, especially being that it looks like there are goblins. To assist with the people, he nods while he brings up the shield along to protect, while he begins to shoot a firebolt along into the boss goblin as well.

That did not take long for them to get attention. Vertina reacts quickly, whipping up a small duststorm around herself to deflect several of the shots coming her way. That is a -lot- of goblins. The boss should be the main concern, but they can't just let this horde of lesser goblinoids go unchallenged, either. Oof, it's a bit of a tough call. "Okay, you guys get the boss, we'll get you some breathing space." The Salamander slams a foot into the ground, bracing herself against the horde rushing. Her entire form shimmers a bit as she draws from the earth itself to bolster herself. "HIYAH!" then leaps into the fray, swinging punchs and kicks at as many goblins as possible to keep them away from the people dealing with the Big Ugly Boss.

    Megumin just barely manages to escape the swiping claws and blades of the slavering, goat-eyed goblins! "Waaaaaah!" she screams as she runs for her life, pausing only when she has reached the relative safety of 'behind the meat shields', where she, with great disdain lifts a magic wand of Fire Dart and releases its fiery powers upon her pursuers. She feels like weeping for having to lower herself to such trivial combustion spells instead of the one and only magic for her. At least she's using a proxy, not that that is especially comforting.

    Oh, if Yunyun could see her now!

Proteus also has little to do with Scale Emblem at the best of times. Compared to the intensity that the Imp pokes into everything /else/ it might seem odd that she has more or less ignored the giant plot button that is the Tower. However, there's business to be dealt with.

The Archeologist Imp pokes at the stones, examining the masonry for a few idle moments as they wait for the scouts to return. "The Goblins are certainly a threat, but I wonder if there was ever anything here to devour..." Proteus hums to herself as she begins peeking around, her natural curiosity beginning to make her look into places that aren't on the path of the raiding party.

She is promptly assaulted by goblins. "Ugh. Just stop this." She mutters, her hand dashing out a flick of motion input into a small window that opens beside her: V N .

A moment later, the attack vector is blocked off with blocks that shift from walls and floor to create new walls... And Proteus leaps upwards, going high as she begins working her way towards an overwatch position on the plaza. "Well this is a giant mess. Let's begin unravelling this puzzle of blood and fury." Her hands begin weaving, entering another input into the window. ^ X O

The air around Proteus shimmers into a seething blast as she flicks her hands out, sharp winds lashing out over and over at the Goblins around them, trying to cleave down the massive horde to more managable sizes.

    Cat ninja, reporting for duty! It seems like it's been so long since the last floor boss fight. The one where she died. Despite knowing that it just lead to respawning on a timer, it's still a vaguely creepy thought, although not nearly so much as if she arose from the dead unexpectedly after believing she was dying for real.

    Anyway, she's here now. And with the snowy environment, she's again glad to be covered in fur.

    Soon they come to the ruins. Mizuki is put on edge once they reach them -- her previous visit to the floor didn't risk going any further after seeing the scale of goblin resistance. But today, they have a secret weapon: The Lander known to most only as Goblin Slayer. But just how much can one man turn the tide of battle, even a high-level plot NPC?

TAs goblins start to appear, she limits herself to throwing the occasional kunai. Gotta conserve that MP! But then all hell breaks loose, a squad of goblins popping out of a neaby sewer to stab her by surprise! It probably doesn't last long, surrounded by adventurers, but the damage is done. There goes a chunk of her HP bar already...

    In the distance, she sees Att spearing his way through some goblins. She wonders what his build is, they may have discussed it before over e-mail but who knows what he selected after the apocalypse? It is probably refreshingly optimized. She'd love to watch and analyze, but there's a boss to fight, and the Slayer is calling for them to focus fire on the boss. Sounds reasonable enough! She speeds her way to the front lines and leaps out past them, using goblins as stepping stones to approach the boss. One sees what she's doing and readies its bow -- she throws a kunai deep into its shoulder and leaps off it towards the boss. By now she knows how you deal with giants: You climb them and attack the face and head!

    And so she leaps onto Fuscus's back, daggers and claws finding places to dig in and damage as she climbs, her long red scarf swaying back and forth as she climbs. It would probably look SO COOL if someone was recording it for nero.

    But no one is, so she will have to settle for feeling cool. And using the boss as a shield against any goblins in front of it!

    The thrill of battle! The sound of carnage! The people depending upon a champion to defend them! The terrible, terrible things that might befall her if said champion is unable to fulfill her role! She catches the blow of a goblin blade upon her own sword, and then the lady knight retaliates with a big, slow, overhead slash of her own, accompanied by a fierce yell!

    Amazingly, she actually slices the goblin! Not the one she meant to hit, but a goblin at least! Darkness is a bit embarrassed about missing her intended target, but thrilled about hitting a different one! She straightens up, holds out her sword, and yells out, "Come forth, foul hordes! You must face I, Darkness, and unleash all your evil upon me before you will get anywhere near my comrades!"

    The fact some of her comrades have already gotten injured seems to have escaped her notice.

A flaming wave of magic cascades amidst the team as Att Syne rushes forward. A wave that would make a Salamander jealous blasts outwards from the impact, while his blade rips apart one of the goblin heads on approach. The gout itself flares up and eradicates a series of goblins before they even can point their daggers at his team, getting some of their attention.

BlackRose moves up with him, slicing at a few Goblins. Some of the ones she was targetting get eaten by the mage-tank's flame, forcing her to switch targetting. It's not optimal DPS, but she's sure carving up Goblins, and serving as a flank for Att Syne.

Aqua soon adds water to the mix near Att Syne, some of the flames causing a steam explosion as her Create Water appears in various areas. Some of the splashes literally bubbling around Goblin heads, slowly choking them to death! Or rather, drowning them to death.

The ones can still breathe are bombarded by Wisteria's Spore Explosion. Luckily, in this kind of Raid Team, people who are in the raid are protected against such things. She'll have to avoid targetting near Goblin Slayer, as he doesn't appear to be able to join a Party like that. Or at least, he's not ventured to do so. Either way, the outcome is writhing goblins, slowly dying of poison. Trying to get their stabs in where possible, bumrushing for her position! Syx however jumps in, slamming his fist so hard into one of the Goblin heads that it explodes all over him, before he moves on to the next, keeping Wisteria's position strong and protected from the flanks and behind!

Megumin, though minus explosion, seems to be just fine keeping up her destructive power. The firedarts rapidly sail through the air and detonate Goblins the moment they come out. She's remarkably competent! Compared to some of the rest of her party. On an ordinary day.

Proteus finds a new elevation, about to wield her magics against the Goblins below, but she's forced to redirect it as a Goblin further above tries to jump to her position with a dagger, trying to shiv her face apart. She destroys it, but the Goblins below are given just a moment too long of reprieve.

Below her, Darkness mows towards some Goblins. Her excitement is hard to ignore. The Goblins certainly are taunted onto her position, rushing her. But thanks to her heavy defenses, she is giving the others an easier time killing them off while she's trying... so very hard.

The Goblin Slayer doesn't answer as Prophylaxis mentions another business transaction. He's already slicing off Goblin Heads. If it wasn't for his gruff voice, one might imagine he's somehow happy slaying these things. But that professional air never makes room for something as awful as 'joy' in the taking of life. It's a duty. A duty he must follow. He must Slay Goblins. Dowafu moves amidst the dance of people, serving as one of the supporters for the battle for now. "You better hurry up lass!" He calls out to the Elf Archer. "At this rate, I will take down more Goblins than you! Haahaha!" He swallows some of his firewater, and then breathes it out, as literal fire, melting Goblin faces.

Thick vines rush up around Fuscus, trying to get under that armor. But that strange golem armor refuses to let vines get beneath. They are forced above by a magical shield or some sorts - though Prophylaxis may notice that this momentarily causes the armor to also 'squeeze' around the Goblin, slowing its movements. The venomous bites apply that dangerous DoT however. And it's not long after, as the creature tries to rip away the vines, that the Elf Archer ensures that it won't get its way! A fierce arrow stabs right into one of its hands, halting its movement as it instead tries to find one of the massive blades on the ground.

When Kita's spell fizzles, Dowafu bumps up against her for a moment, blasting away a Goblin. "Don't let it bother you missy. Magic's not just learning, it's gotta come from the heart!" His heart is just made out dwarven resiliance and booze.

Amalthea moves foward, her blade finding the shin of the Goblin Lord not moments later, causing it to falter in its movements. Goldenblade joins her, but as she tries to stab it, the foot happens to come up too fast. However, this ensures that she can spot a Goblin rushing Amalthea's back, and carves it down intstead, protecting her!

Rizadoman's summons rush for the foot as it comes back down, climbing it and stabbing their blades into it. Slowly leeching away more of its healthy amounts of healthbar! One that decreases further as Merek's Fireball slams into its face, causing it to let out a pained sound, before it /grabs a Hob Goblin/, and throws it right for Kita - only for Vertina to suddenly jump up and drop kick the Hobgoblin so hard, it explodes in mid-air!

Mizuki manages to get on the the Champion Lord Goblin's back, climbing with her daggers, stabbing into its hide and getting towards its back, right before the armor suddenly shifts and... a large 'wiper' comes down to slam her off of its body! But not before she manages to do some damage.

The Goblins continue coming. In fact, the momentum is starting to push in against the raid, pushing them towards the Plaza itself. Luckily, they manage to kill the first Health Bar on the massive Goblin Champion, which gets some cheers throughout the crowd. It is always a confidence booster when the boss loses a healthbar worth of health!

Fuscus however quickly tries to silence that joy by raising his hand.

"EXPLOOOSIOOOON.... BEEETAAA" He begins to chant, holding an orb above his hand. Charging it for next round, as multiple Goblin Shamans begin lending their magic to that charging spell.

At the same time, the goblin horde from all around is getting worse... for a moment... right before there's a sudden DETONATION, as one of the buildings suddenly begins to impact, and crush down on itself. The Goblin Slayer holding what looks like a Wire. "Hrrm... it's more effective than I thought." As he is staring at an enormous tower crushing in on itself, ripping Goblin Lives apart. It's absolutely overkill, and who knows what he put in place what appears to have been something /akin/ to magical explosives.

Dust and debris fills the entire battlefield, making it a bit harder to spot the other Goblins, but at least one of their flanks is safe thanks to the building literally crushing goblins with a controlled detonation downwards.

    In the chaos of a full tilt riotous battle, Amalthea just barely registers a threat coming in from behind on her. She doesn't have time to turn around. She doesn't have a chance to take her eyes off the boss.
    Mentally, she braces for the pain as best she can. Knowing that the goblins possibly have weapons that can bypass the normal pain threshold limiters, she can't say she's anywhere close to ready for... An attack that never comes.
    "Thanks." That's to Goldenblade for saving her ass, and the old Paladin redoubles her efforts.
    "He's casting!" She warns, calling out the obvious. "Someone start killing those shamans!" Bellowed as she leaps up...
    To latch herself onto Fuscus' leg.
    Amalthea has never played Shade of the Titan, nor Great Fire Lizard's Religious Treaty in her life... Until now, as she starts trying to scale the giant goblin and embed her sword somewhere higher and more vital than his shin.

    "I've watched Beta used before with magic, it's not something you want to deal with," Merek offers to the party, while he begins to maneuver along to the shaman, and swings up into the goblins. The man draws the greatsword which he wields, swinging that in an arc along the enemies. There's a look to Darkness, reminding himself that she was at the Ezzo Rescue.
    The man calls to Amalthea, "We can't afford to let them use a Beta spell!"

    Kazuma continues standing there with his arms out, expression just barely changing under Aqua's insults. |:I "If you have the time to run your mouth and use water on the enemy, you have the time to clean my clothes, useless goddess. Aren't you a maid? Do your job and--" Then a goblin comes at him from behind and he lets out a yell as he leaps away. Thankfully, Darkness cleaves the goblin. "Oh-hoooh! Nice work, Darkness! You're now officially more useful than that slovenly drunk over there!" he cheers for the tank, while jerking a thumb disgustedly at the priestess.

    Then he pulls out an arrow from the quiver on his back, and equips his bow, before taking aim on the boss, and releasing the shaft! Wait, no, it only looked like one arrow, but it's actually two!

    Kazuma cheers for himself this time as the projectiles find their marks, though has to backstep quickly away from more nasty goblin swords.

    But then he sees this Fuscus guy start preparing a spell with the aid of some nearby shamans. And... Say, isn't that the spell he remembers from...

    Oh crap. "AQUAAAAA!" Kazuma yells panickedly, "PROTECT ME WITH YOUR MAGIC!" he yells as he tears off running towards Aqua, then turning his head towards Darkness. "DO YOUR JOB, DARKNESS! KEEP THE ATTENTION OF THOSE GOBLINS!" Then, finally, he turns towards Megumin, looking deep into her eyes. Then... Looking as cool as he can, he raises a hand and gives her the thumbup.

    The signal has been given.

    To help keep goblins off of her, he also pulls out half the arrows in his quiver, aims upwards, and releases them into the sky!

As a hobgoblin gets chucked into her direction, Kita is quick to try to duck away from it, but not quite fast enough. As a stationary mage, she doesn't really have the natural agility of a fighter. Vertina ends up being the one who keeps it from impacting into her, and she gives the Salamander a quick nod, pushing her glasses up on her nose. "Thanks."

Then, her eyes widen at the charging spell. "Shit." She puts herself into as safe a position as possible, warding off attacks with a flaming shield of her own. "Maybe we can slow it down with some kind of water magic." It's a long shot, she knows that much, but she quickly flips to a page with blue arcane writing on it, flattening her hand to the paper.

Pulling magic from the book, her hand glows faintly blue as she begins to trace out the symbols into the air. She doesn't even seem to realize the Shaman are feeding the power to the boss in that moment. Though she's been in multiple boss fights, some mechanics are still a bit lost to her as someone who wasn't a heavy-duty MMO player prior to the Apocalypse.

As the magic forms in front of her, she expels it outwards, sending it towards the boss monster. As it flies, the orb of blue energy shatters into a series of sharp icy shards which seek to pierce into it, possibly trying to cool off some of that building fire energy.

Plant Hwyaden seems to prefer to use fire to solve its problems. It's kind of strange. You'd think a guild with a name like that would use water or something. Maybe the ugly duckling reference is a bit over some peoples' heads, though?

"HaaaAAAH!" The kiai is a bit dramatic rather than necessary. Att does it anyway, hacking a goblin in half in mid-air, leaving a burning wake. He intercepts the neck group by sweeping his staff horizontally and creating a short-lived fire wall between himself and them, conjuring barriers in place of using a real shield with the same efficiency as an actual shield-fighter would have.

"Great work!" Att shoots the familiar BlackRose a quick grin, then turns back to the ever-intensifying melee. Explosions from Aqua's, well, aquatic spells and Wisteria's poisonous payloads thin the ranks, and Att does his best operating as an anchor for the battle line on that side. He does it with natural finesse, shifting position very slightly to flex as goblin charges try to break in and get repelled.

The tremendous explosion from the collapsing building blows his half-cape back, sending it snapping in the sudden wind. He shields his eyes, briefly stunned by the effect, and then laughing like a maniac when he gets it together again. "That was awesome! Okay, we're not gonna be outdone by that guy!" He points towards the shaman cluster and the building EXPLOSION spell. "Push forward! Spearhead formation! Break the caster cluster and then withdraw, on me!"

Att starts forward. He gestures with his staff, a nimbus of black and violet rolling off his left arm. He sweeps it ahead of him, a, "Dark Wave," cast in his path to clear the way to the shamans by weakening the ones between the group and their little circle of spellslingers to the point that rolling over them becomes trivial for the heavily-armed Adventurers.

Momentarily, Att wonders if Mizuki and Proteus are doing okay in this dust cloud-filled mess. He doesn't have time to check his status window to find out.

Goldenblade follows Amalthea into the melee, chaotic though it is, and she can, at least, help keep the mobs off the tank. She's got her wits back, it seems, parrying the goblins' follow-on attacks with her two gold-tinted swords, steel-on-steel striking sparks. She holds her ground, looking left and right for the boss to present another opening.

She follows Amalthea's warning to look over at the goblin shamans, but she's over by Fuscus, and it'd be complicated to for her to change targets now. She thrusts with both blades, pinpoint-targeting her jabs to the goblin's leg, aiming to slide her blade between armor plates if she can, blades sinking in deep and bleeding the boss monster, though it's super tough. She does what she can.

BlackRose's first attack didn't quite go as planned, which leaves her a bit open for the taking. And now, the goblins are intent on showing BlackRose who's boss, but BlackRose has better ideas. Small but carrying a big blade, she uses her weapon to protect herself with ease. "You'll have to do better than that!" BlackRose yells. "I've barely even broken a sweat!" She hmmphs. "I was hoping for a better challenge."

A pause as she thinks about what she just said, especially considering the world she's in and that... oh, forget it.

"I may have missed that time, but I won't miss again!" BlackRose tries to go in from a flanking position this time as she attempts to strike with her blade at the goblins.

"Not this time!" Syx is faster to move, flames swirling around him as he plows through a pack of goblins, avoiding falling structures and strikes from his sides. Nope, he has every intention of tearing things up, when someone calls out the shaman that are helping to power up this attack. That could very well wipe the raid if nothing is done about it.

Not prepared to just let that thing wipe the raid, he turns mid-stride and rushes towards the closest shaman. He grabs one of the other goblins by the leg as he runs, dragging the smaller greenskin along with him as he rushes towards the shaman. He leaps up, flying through the air and probably quite visible to the other players below, as he hauls the screaming goblin behind him, "Hey!" He spins in midair and hurls the goblin down on top of the shaman with enough force to send up a mushroom cloud from the impact.

But he's not done yet, because gravity still works last he checked. So he falls down towards one of the other shaman, turning in midair and raising one of his elbows in order to drop the point of his elbow right on top of one of the casters, intent on crushing it into the ground with the force.

    It seems that the new armor Wisteria is sporting doesn't slow the murderbun at all. Upon seeing the start of a channeled spell, the enchanter bun knows what to do. Disrupt, distract, and lay on some cooldown debuffs. She digs one big paw against the ground and then she's moving. The Caerbannog were goes into one of her pinballing motions, diving from air rune to air rune and exploding off in seemingly random directions, even as dark magics crackle to life like black lightning around her sword.

    Hard to channel, if you can't think straight... the albino bun in her mottled grey armor targets the shaman pool. "Dark Wave!" her sword comming down in a slash that seems to throw a wave of the crackling black light at the casters.

Vertina is happily fighting off goblins, but when she sees buildings start to follow and a Bad News(tm) spell being charged, she takes a leap away, landing on one of the walls still partially standing and doing that crazy wuxai parkour stuff to run along the length a bit. She's using it to get over the goblins and get closer to the Big Boss charging up that spell, on the off chance it can be weakened or disrupted. When she's as close as she thinks she can get she kicks off the wall, launching herself towards Fucus, and somersaulting midair to bring one of her flaming dive kicks hurtling towards the big lug.

Erufu replies to Dowafu "Oh a contest is it but well my friend we'll see but I'm going to be the one to bag the big one!"

She's getting pretty cocky but as the attack, comes in she's far quicker this time as she will pull a dagger to parry several incoming attacks from other goblins as she keeps moving. The dagger goes away and a moment later she's got her bow ready again she's lept up to a ledge on a building. She lines up a shot on the goblin's leader and she'll make sure her aim is right. Then she lets the arrow fly at the raid boss.

"BURST SHOT!"

The shot is let fly and she'll be moving again before the big goblin makes the idea to smash her where she stands.

    Mizuki is dramatically Shadow-of-the-Collossus-ing her way up the giant armored goblin when WINDSHIELD WIPERS come for her! She leaps off, but that means she's back on the ground. "I'm not a bug! How dare you!"

    She looks at the goblin champion, opens her mouth, and breathes deep. Orange flecks of energy condense out of the air and are sucked in. Maybe she'll just blast it now...

    But then that spell gauge appears. She has a split second to decide... but while destroying Fuscus might break the goblins' morale, there's no way they can drop all those health bars before the spell goes off. If they want to beat Fuscus, someone has to target the adds.

    The flecks of energy abruptly move differently as one animation is canceled and replaced by another, a tiny ball of energy forming between Mizuki's jaws. And then, like the breath weapon of a tiny kaiju, a line of orange energy shoots out into the goblin lines, igniting where it hits! Mizuki sweeps the line it across one of the shamans, and then it stops for a split second, the ball of energy smaller now, before the rest of the energy shoots out in a second line which she sweeps across another shaman to make sure!

    "Why do the tower bosses have such an overpowered spell... wait, was the devil-in-glasses here too?!"

    "Ehhhhh? Since when am I a maid!?" Aqua demands, forgetting that she literally has 'Maid' as her sub-class. As more goblins try to attack her from the other side of her newly-erected water bubble, she flinches away, one eye closed so as not to have to look upon them. "Aaaah! Kazuma, hurry up and get rid of them, or I can't cast anything!"

    When she turns to look back at Kazuma, however, he is standing there, in the 'just fired my arrows' position, but all of his arrows surround him. On the ground. She stares. |:I

    Then she goes back to wailing as the goblins redouble their attack, until someone eliminates them for her. Possibly Darkness. Then, when she is sure that she personally is safe, she holds up her wand and raises her hands in the air, and calls out, "Witness the glory of the goddess Aqua! Behold the wonders that await you if you join the Axis cult!" Then, glowing with enormous mystical energy, she chants her spell... And...

    A bright glowing golden light shines down on the battlefield, healing all of the allied forces gathered over the next few moments!

    As the tower explodes Rizadoman glares over at the Goblin Slayer, " Next time some warning at the very least. That explosion is just as dangerous to us as to them!" He chastises the Goblin Slayer before using his sword to cut through some falling debris. His reptilian eyes track to the shamans helping to charge the attack, however it appears the others have t handled. This was fortunate for he didn't think the young priestess would be ready to use protect like she did before. As he looks at the boss he runs towards into the midst of the close range battle. He doesn't go straight for the boss though, his hand glows with magic, prepping the spell. . "Hands of time turn and age his steel. " Then he does something that might be called stupid, he leaps towards the boss's weapon attempting to touch it and curse it, hoping to rust away the weapon.

There's something to be said for superior firepower. But maybe what the Slayer does is a little too superior? That's an entire building that he just brought down! "When did you even have time to-- No, more importantly, how did you even make those explosives!?" This is very important information! Especially when being piled on by goblins from all sides and placed into increasingly dangerous situations.

Like the Goblin Lord beginning to cast a very familiar spell.

"Oh no," Prophylaxis whispers, squinting and covering his eyes to keep the soot and dust from outright blinding him. "That's... That's not good. Kill the shamans, I--"

Wait, the way that creature's armor responded to damage... It briefly immobilized it. Prophylaxis frowns, sweeping his staff in a wide arc and conjuring a halo of protective flame around him. A goblin who happened to be standing too close is immolated outright as Prophylaxis breaks into a run-- toward the goblin lord. His hand reaches out, wreathed in arcane energy, and comes within an inch of touching the armor, when...

WHAP!

A massive backhand to the face! The magus goes sprawling, rendered vulnerable and prone for a brief but critical juncture...!

Except he's still on fire. So he still has time to force himself upright and try to get some distance before getting stabbed in the kidneys.

    When she is called upon, Darkness breaks from her current opponents and moves to help her allies, putting herself between the blades, clubs, claws, and arrows of the monsters to prevent any of their hits from harming her friends! This is her job and the only motivation for her actions! Likewise, the crazily swinging sword attacks she unleashes blindly on her surroundings just happening to hit some goblins by pure chance, and also possibly coming way too close to Kazuma's head.

    "I will defend you! Feel free to unleash your power!" she calls out, her voice coming and going as she continues whirling chaotically around, becoming dizzy and so spinning away and towards her allies like a living, blonde-haired wood chipper.

Proteus has goblins coming out of the woodwork trying to shiv her for her tasty Imp Meat. However, Proteus has no intentions of giving it up. Not that goblins realize that they can't eat dead Adventurers. One jumps on her back and she twists, hurling the greenskin off of the building to let it splat into the melee where it belongs. "Stupid creatures." She mutters.

However, this becomes more complicated when she hears the callout. Her eyes widen under her hood as she stares at the rising cast bar. "Explosion... BETA?" She yells. "WE CAN'T EVEN USE ALPHA!" The indignance is /real/. "WHAT IS THIS CHEATING-" Another Goblin hurls itself at her while she's ranting, cutting it off as she reaches out, catching the thing in the face and /squeezing/ while the other hand cuts through the air: N + , #

"Unravelling of sapience, shattered thoughts to fragment and stick as a splinter in your mind... Begone!" The Goblin in her hand crackles with a sizzling pulse of dark lightning. The energy roils over it as she funnels the Ability directly into the monster... And simply hurls the overcharged thing into the middle of the Shaman group. It promptly explodes outwards on impact, a bomb of disruptive Dark energy that radiates outwards and drops heavy Stun effects on the enemy castbars.

    First she finds herself unable to use the one magic she has devoted her life to, and trapped in this world. Then she is forced to lower herself to using a magic wand instead of her own power, just to avoid soiling her skill sheet with inferior magics. And now, right before Megumin's eyes, she can see some >goblin< using the greatest magic ever, while she is stuck here waving a stick around!?

    Her head lowered, Megumin mutters. "This is unacceptable."

    Her Crimson Demons' Staff glows for a moment. Then Megumin raises her head enough for her gleaming red left eye to be visible beneath the brim of her oversized hat. To continue existing in a world where some >gollum-looking-half-pint< can use her spell, but she can't... "I refuse!" she calls out.

    She sees a notification from the system pop up in front of her. She swipes her hand across it, as though to dismiss it, then grips her hand brim and raises it as she stands at her full (very short) height, and announces, "I shalt not endure the likes of thee! Pollution of poison and corruption is unworthy of the great secrets of the universe! Only I, on Heaven, Earth, or Hell itself, doth possesseth the wisdom, powr, and right to call out its name!"

    Megumin begins to cast a spell of her own. A very big one by the looks of it. Magic is swirling around her, sparkles of light cascading upwards in a column of fantastical colors. A massive whirlpool of light and flame begins to form in the sky above.

    "For thou who standeth in my way, only oblivion awaits thee! Essence of destruction; Heart of cinders; reacheth down thine divine hand and snuff out all stars in the sky!"

    The magical spectacle appears to be building and building towards its climax as Megumin's chanting reaches a fever pitch. "By light and by darkness! By flame and by shadow! May the beginning and end intertwine and turn all creation to a conflagration!"

    Then she points her staff towards Fuscus, invoking the name of the greatest of all spells, and unleashing her wrath in the same moment. "EKSUPLOOOOOOOSHION!"

Proteus looks over as Megumin does Megumin things. "What are you doing, making me a liar like that?! And how did YOU do that?" She points. "Why am I suddenly the last to know everything? That's not how this is supposed to work!"

"Less complaining," Att calls, his face currently about three inches from a goblin's smelly maw, "more casting!!"

He kicks the creature in the chest. It gives him enough space to half-turn for just a second. "Just ask her later, Proteus, we don't have time for this right now!!"

And there Prophylaxis is, mere feet away from the giant goblin... As the sky begins to darken and a pillar of hellfire descends from the swirling clouds. The wrath of the gods of destruction themselves seems to descend to castigate the base earth, and for a terrible moment, he wonders if they were too late to stop the goblin from casting its spell.

But, nope, it was just some shortie.

"Ah," Prophylaxis says, as the EXPLOSION is cast, and he dissolves into speedlines amidst a white background.

(He'll be fine. Maybe.)

Fuscus continues its cast. A series of latches opening on his armor, flicking upwards! Some of the 'glimmer' of the Shaman magics reaches those latches, which then focus their mana into a beam which fires into the growing ball above his hand!

Amalthea tries to remain on Fuscus' leg, latching up and stabbing into him. Embedding it into his chin at the same time that the other Goblin Shamans not occupied with the spell start casting a healing spell at its leg, sealing the holes she is magic! She's clearly chopping into its health, but they are trying to make sure it doesn't fail its concentration check! Goldenblade is ensuring she doesn't get thrown off, protecting her further, and stabbing her own blade in against its legs. Attempts to get under the armor are not too succesful unfortunately, because the enchanted nature of it.

Kita's icy magic cascades against the orb of glowing magic, causing steaming detonations that make the magic eradic. The Goblin Champion growls something in goblin at her, trying to get her to stop that, and motions his hand, to try and send goblins after her! But Att Syne's charge sends a dark wave through the attacking party trying to disrupt her, allowing her and her allies time to cut down those approaching Goblins before they can stop the Scale Emblem's own casters.

Merek warns the team of the Beta level spell, as many of those here were not there for the Alpha level spell in the Boss Chambers on the Second Level tower boss battle. He gets a few nods from those participating, joining in as he swings that greatsword at one of the Shamans. A Hobgoblin tries to step into his way, but a set of tanks moving with him push it out of the way, allowing Merek the chance to get in there and hew his greatsword cleanly across its shoulders, chopping off that neck!

Behind him, the 'party leader' known as Kazuma gives the best directions he can think of, and proceeds to try and archery the heck out of the goblins approaching Megumin, but in his nervousness trying not to hit her, he manages to miss a few as they rush through their defenses! Some of the arrows rippling down around himself.

But BlackRose to the rescue once again, cutting down the Goblins as she steps to flank the scrawny mage, and rips her blade across Goblin after Goblin, making up for Kazuma's earlier error.

Up by the Shamans, Syx rampages through the Goblin lines. Slamming down a Goblin into a Goblin Caster, causing a detonation of light and flame in the same position, debris spreading everywhere - before slamming down on yet another and crushing it beneath his assault.

Another Dark Wave slams onto the Shamans, slowing their casting. The Beta level spell starts to break, shattering slowly. The Goblin Slayer uses his sling to once again fire a rock at the massive Goblin, breaking its concentration somewhat by hitting it right in the eye, causing it to roar out in pain! Vertina follows this up, having climbed one of the walls with her expert dexterity, to slam her foot into its other eye! It grabs at her foot and throws her down immediately!

But Erufu fires a shot, catching right into Vertina's clothed collar, and slows her descent by piercing her onto one of its knees - right before the rest of the Burst Shot blasts at its forehead!

Mizuki's searing laser-like spell carves a large swath across some of the approaching Goblins, catching one of the Shamans right in the face, popping its head open like a zip before the spell just keeps going, causing detonations in the background that eradicates an oncoming squad of Goblins!

The teams' health is starting to dimish quite quickly... when a sudden wave of healing rolls over. Those who are watching their party displays will notice that Aqua's healing spell is remarkably potent! Flooding the region and even halting some of the enemy Goblins from reaching them in parts of the combat theater!

Goblin Slayer stares back at Rizadoman. "It's all going according to plan." He simply answers the Lizardman. "I don't see the problem." While watching the Lizardman rip steel talons across some goblins, and then jumps at that massive blade... touching it, and sending a black ripple through it that curses it - forcing the massive Goblin to release it in a shock of pain!

To Prophylaxis, Goblin Slayer declares; "Some of the old Gnomes I used to talk to in the town would use these bottles of alchemical magic to create something they call 'Firebombs'." And feeling that enough of an explaination, he starts to walk to a second rope...

Only to be disrupted as a Hobgoblin gets in his way. And speaking of things getting in peoples' way. Prophylaxis gets a backhand, now that Fuscus can't hold its blade anymore for a moment, pushing him away from that armor! And possibly sending him into a building.

Darkness continues to semi-mow through some Goblins! She actually manages to nick a few of them, causing them to detonate into light in place. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

More explosions follow! The first in the form of a Corpse Explosion. The overcharged goblin sails out towards the midst of the enemy goblin Shamans... only to suddenly detonating. Dark lightning ripples out like a violent tree branching its roots, ripping through their hearts and skulls and detonating the Goblins in icky chunks, before they despawn!

Followed by a hellish light that suddenly descends from the skies, as Megumin's /EXPLOSION/, in all capital letters (and with Alpha attached to the end of it) comes down upon Fuscus' position! The light is utterly blinding, and the sudden shockwave that follows it is no less annihilating of sight. Debris and chunks of building and flagstone suddenly are sailing through the air as the violent explosion blinds her team and forces some of the teammates off of Fuscus - luckily not doing any friendly damage!

When the light fades, a massive crater underlies the massive Goblin, and another one of its healthbars is missing. But it is most certainly not dead. However, that ball of light he'd been holding in his hand is gone, and the armor looks charred and blackened... but it still holding.

He stares in shock at the middle of the party, spotting the now exhausted Megumin. The Goblin Shamans that had been at its side are eradicated...

Followed by the massive Fuscus to tap his chest, and roars something out in Goblin, causing the entire armor to suddenly go from a Breastplate level armor, to a FULLPLATE that covers his entire body. A massive hawk-like helmet sealing off his face, his eyes protected by glass-like windows. Its movements are slowly as it stomps forwards, grabbing his sword anew and letting the Gauntlets take the damage, and swings his blade up... and then down. A massive earthquake following this as stone splatters out in spires, following the Raidparty and even climbing up the buildings, branching out similarly to Proteus' earlier spell... only stone. It's like some kind of STONE DIVER!

The Goblins who were protected by buildings have climbed higher, trying to avoid the melee combattants, and have now proceeded to use their weapons to try and carve off pieces of broken stone, and are simultaneously throwing stone down towards the team below!

    "The one I saw was Alpha, although these Greek spells seem to do a lot," Merek notes, then when it looks like they will not be using the spell, he nods. The man sweeps the cape which he wears while he shifts the greatsword into position. The man then will charge the boss while he speaks, "Ragnarok's WISDOM!" The weapon along with punch swings with the goblin. The man does look to the spell of Explosion, nodding a little bit in approval. He then nods to Amalthea, "Be prepared, we don't know what they will use when they get to lower HP."

It seems as if they have reached that part of combat where the boss has gone into his rage mechanic, and Kita stares as he goes from armored, to tank-like with the full plate. "That is going to be a pain to get through." She murmurs, looking more than a little intimidated by the shift.

That is when the ground starts to tremble and stones begin to pelt down from above. "Damnit." It forces her to use one of her remaining powerful defensive abilities, meaning that from here on out, things may not be quite so easy for her to avoid taking damage. A shield of shimmering darkness lingers in the air, deflecting some of the stones away and shielding her from some of the impact of the shifting earth below.

"Right... let's see if we can't distract you a bit." She bites at her lower lip, then pulls out a relatively new ability to her, one that is forged out of a ball of dark energy which she begins to shape in front of her. The massive sphere of nightmareish energy is launched towards the boss monster, ready to entrap him and begin to do damage.

However, it seems to float just where the blade comes down, neatly slicing the orb of darkness in half and then causing it to evaporate into a puff of black smoke. Kita just stares. "Damnit, what a waste of mana. I'm starting to really hate goblins." She gives a very unlady-like gesture towards the boss monster, which will probably come back to bite her in the ass later.

    Climbing the goblin lord is... Not going very well. Between the goblin's armor and the shaman's healing it, the old Paladin snarls frustratedly as...
    As...
    "Oh."
    That's an ominous sounding spell.
    "Oh crap--!"
    Amalthea kicks off Fuscus' leg, launching herself as far away as she can from the downpour of sheer fire and concussive force that is an Explosion spell.
    When everything settles and the dust and debris fade, the old Odysseia Knight coughs and sputters, having just barely made it to minimum safe distance. Which is all well and good as Aqua's heal spell washes over her, she picks herself up.
    "We're already seeing signs of what'll happen with that armor, I think." She asides to Merek before banging her sword against her shield.
    "HEY, you big ugly bastard, look at ME." She declares, restarting her taunt rotations as she rushes the armored goblin lord, flipping her blade in her grasp and holding her sword by its pointy-cutty end.
    So she can beat the tar out of Fuscus with the blunt pommel and crossguard.

Fortunately, Prophylaxis was not punched into a building! Unfortunately, he WAS exploded into a building. It is really not a particularly pleasant sensation, being transformed into a human (or cait sith) projectile by any method. But...

Somehow, when he picks himself up out of the rubble, he's... Not dead? How is he not dead? Prophylaxis groans amidst a beam of gentle light that seems to pour down across his wounds like soothing water. For the moment, he wonders if that tingling sensation, that buzzing in his brain amidst the glorious, heavenly light--

Is this... the touch of the divine...?

No. It's probably just a concussion.

Prophylaxis groans, dragging himself out of the ruins of what might have once been some kind of-- main support pillar. The doctor's expression turns into something closely approximating ':I' as he notices the structure surrounding him begin to creak and groan, the whole thing toppling forward with him in the middle of it all. Between the explosion and the Prophylaxis-shaped cannonball, the building is clearly on its last legs. But...

In this... he sees opportunity.

"...I have no idea," he mutters, "If this is even going to work. But..." It's do or die! Or rather, cast or be crushed by collapsing building! Prophylaxis clenches his fists. He squares his stance, taking in a deep breath, filling his body and soul with the very might of the earth (and also CRIPPLING DESPERATION). And then he...

Punches it.

He punches the support beam. Like, square in the middle of the support beam.

The building groaaaans and pitches forward. It creaks and cracks and groans and-- falls.

It falls, like a great big hammer MADE OF BUILDING down on top of the Goblin Lord.

And there, standing next to what was once the PRIMARY SUPPORT BEAM... Is Prophylaxis.

A perfectly ordinary urban doctor.

A man... who just punched a building onto a goblin-golem.

'I knew it,' he thinks to himself, 'I knew that course in civil engineering was a worthwhile use of credit hours...!'

As soon as her flaming heel connects Vertina pushes off, but the massive goblin in his weird armor is somehow fast enough to grab her by the ankle before she can leap away, and fling her angerly down instead.

*thwink*

A timely arrow saves her from a violent reunion with the ground though, instead pinned by the back of her jacket to the behemoth's leg. She gives a quick thank-you thumbs up towards the Elf Archer, then wiggles a little to slip out of her jacket. She's wearing a tanktop underneath thankfully.

But she doesn't want to just jump to the ground either, because the boss is really shaking things up. So instead she aims herself to land on the back of one of the Hobgoblins. "Pardon me, coming through!" She leapfrogs over his head to land on the next Goblin... and from there just starts running across the top of the horde using Goblin heads like stepping stones. It's a tricky maneuver to balance, but with her legth strength that stomping stride might (hopefully) slam heads into shoulders hard enough it breaks a few necks in the process!

Goldenblade is fighting on, both covering Amalthea and trying to do some damage, herself. As the fight grows harder, more desperate, she concentrates, a frown on her face, and her gilt blades burst into flames. She hacks with superheated steel at the goblin's magic armor, trying to hurt it faster and faster, blows raining down like falling water, catching it in a flood of whupass, though this thing is so big and tough that the effect is small. She's attacking hard, but not neglecting her own defense, dodging and sliding aside, using her native agility to avoid attacks.

The goblin boss is remarkably resistant to damage, but she does her best, the explsions in the background urging her to fight harder, reminding her of the urgency of the situation.

    Rizadoman raises his weapon and clawed hand and cuts his way through the rolling spires, exactly how he needs to , to get through the earthquake. Running towards the Goblin boss he raises his clawed hand and boned scimitar, " O proud and strange brontosaurus grant me the strength of ten thousand!" He doesn't bother to leap up, instead he goes after the feet and legs again, trying to make the boss topple. He does however run into a problem when the tower begins to fall and has to do his best to strike quickly and get back out.

    Megumin collapses after standing in a rigid pose, staff outstretched, after shooting off her magical load, figuratively speaking. Then she drops forward, collapsing flat on her face. She is being pelted with stone fragments being thrown from the buildings above by the goblins. While she is a small target, she is also a highly visible one. "Ow. Kazuma. Ow. Kazuma can you please carry me--Ow--to safety? It hurts and I can't move right n--" More rocks fall on her, drumming against her hat and pushing it down further over her head to cover her mouth, so the rest of her words are muffled under both the hat and the ever increasing pile of rocks.

    Kazuma does, indeed, continue standing in place stoically, as his own arrows rain down around him. He just continues staring sternly towards the sky, hand back after having released all those arrows, his other gripping the bow that is no longer under tension. Hopefully nobody noticed that amidst the chaos wrought by Megumin's spell. Actually, maybe he can shift the blame onto her. Surely the shockwaves from the magic could be blamed, right?

    When Megumin falls, he knows he has to do something to keep the enemy from taking advantage of their glass cannon mage's condition. So as he makes his way towards Megumin, seeing her predicament, he raises one hand up towards the rock-throwers, palm open, and uses his other hand to brace his arm as he calls out dramatically, "Create Water!" Then he propels a jet of water as he tries to knock the goblins from their perches, or at least wash them up enough to stop their rock throwing.

This time, BlackRose is getting into the swing of things (excuse the pun!) with her sword, and she's getting the upper hand against the goblins. At the same time, she still manages to protect herself from incoming attack. There's no slowing her down, is there?

"Not giving up!" She says as she hefts her sword and goes after the group of goblins yet once again, since the boss still has plenty of challengers to deal with. "I love the challenge of a large group."

Att snaps Proteus out of her angry ranting and she straightens herself, dusting herself off and trying to regain some measure of her dignity. "Right. Right. Focus. Thanks, Att." She says, turning back to the problem at hand. Well, besides to Goblins. Rocks are hurled as her, and Proteus leaps off of the building... And while she arcs through the air, her hand sketches: ^ S O

A gust of wind suddenly interrupts her arc, launching her even higher in the air with the power of DOUBLE JUMP, sending her flipping neatly onto a clear spot as she turns to use the moment she has to look at the problem.

The problem that happens to be getting even larger, being Explosion Beta. "If that thing completes, we're all dead." There's no one here to provide a defensive barrier formed out of the world this time. Something has to be done to buy them time. Proteus isn't precisely known for her rampant DPS output, after all. She's specced elsewhere.

However, that doesn't mean she doesn't have something to contribute. "The solution for you is arriving." She says, her hand rising towards the Goblin Boss, her hands sketching through the air as she uses something... a little different.

                                   ( ! J                                    

The Ability activates, and the air around Fuscius turns dark, shadows wrapping around the beastly being and beginning to seal into rings of runic bands, a complex crypto-rune lock forming around him to try to cut off, if only for a bit, his ability to continue charging the spell. "STRIKE!" She calls to the others. "I'LL BUY YOU AS MUCH TIME AS POSSIBLE!"

    Wisteria pauses after her dark wave does it's work on the shaman crew. And then she's off again, the bosses armor just seems to be getting more and more powerful, and isn't enchanted armor just what she's been working on? She summons up dark magics, channeling them first into her sword and charging it's curse, and then she's sprinting through the goblin horde, a shimmering barrier keeping incidental strikes from leaving a mark on her. She ducks in low and rather than attacking the goblin in the armor she looks for the telltails of where the enchantments run through the armor. Aiming she drives her blade into just such a suspected spot and releases the channeled curse.

    Black lightning crackling down the blade to encounter the enchantments running this behemoth. "If the runic pathway is here, and the enchanting medium should be under here... Blade Shock!" she cries out as she releases the curse.

    Seeing the predicament that Megumin is in, Darkness stops her ineffectual flailing and runs over, still dizzy, to protect the downed chuuni mage. She starts trying to block individual stones with her sword, precisely striking them out of the air as the deluge continues. Though, hopefully, not for long with Kazuma's application of the magic he got from Aqua against the goblins. "Wh-what dishonorable creatures! Attacking someone who has given her all and can no longer even lift a finger to defend herself...! Such brutes! Such barbarians! S-such..." She struggles to find more words but is getting red faced trying to talk and block rocks with a sword at the same time.

    If this doesn't let up soon, she might need to start just block the stones with her body!

Somehow Syx manages to not take any damage as he slams into the ground at full force of gravity. He lands, gets back up to his feet, and then takes a moment to right himself. He shakes his head, and then sees the massive group of goblins coming in. He dives for cover, flames engulfing his form as he does so, rolling across to safety. At least relative safety. There's still seemingly thousands of goblins around him.

He has to take out some goblins around him, there's no way he's going to get to the boss in order to deal damage to it, so his focus is close to him. His fists burst into flames, and he motions at a couple of the goblins to come at him. Before they can though, he rushes forward, and begins to slam his hands into them. He's a whirlwind of flames and fists, taking a couple of moments to grab and slam them into the ground. Any goblin that gets within range of him either catches a fist, or a foot, or gets slammed into the ground with enough force to destroy them with a chokeslam or suplex or any other move Syx manages to pull off.

Erufu to her dying day will say that she pulled off the saving of Vertina on purpose just as she planned. However, it seems things are not over yet as the Goblin Champion and it's minions keep fighting.

"This is what happens when a Goblin gets enough brains to organize the rest into being more than just raiding small towns!" They had numbers and were cunning this only proved that keeping them culled is as important as dealing with the larger monsters of the world."

She breaks into a run now keeping moving as she lines up another shot on the Champion and fires, several Goblins attempts to dogpile her and the Elf (Pooka) leaps into the air. She'll land on an old Auning and take her shot before she rebounds away once more.

The enormous explosions from the raid's side make Att feel more like he's under aerial bombardment than on a fantasy battlefield. He wonders if he'd find a bunch of dangerous obsessives using swords on a sci-fi shoot-'em-up, too. MMO players are weird.

"Any time," Att asides to Proteus. He sweeps his staff over, summoning up a hazy wall of apparently telekinetically-moved rubble (the SFX for this spell is really cool, Att thinks) to intercept another wave of rocks. The first one is more like a tropical storm hitting, breaking over his own barrier; the second and subsequent ones are a pitter patter by comparison, the numerous goblinoid attacks focusing down. His health bar is slowly wearing down, but the wide-area heals keep him from worrying about it, or even really feeling it.

"I," Att declares, "am *not* going all the way up there to get you." He points his staff, raising his sword alongside it into a ready position to parry. "Fortunately, you're already up there."

"GRAVE CALL!"

The higher ground splits. Att's spell calls skeletal goblins to claw their way up and get right up in the business of their former comrades. Apparently, the tank is also some kind of summoner.

    Aqua is more than happy to receive praise for her powerful healing and divine beauty, and waits expectantly for such, hands on her hips. As a result, she isn't looking when surviving goblins continue their attack, at least until rocks start falling around her. Then she opens her eyes, bends over to look at what's causing this racket, and then turns her attention on Kazuma. "Kazuma, Kazuma!" she calls out, waving a hand. "What's the deal with these rocks? Did you decide to start throwing stones after wasting all your arrows? What, what? Is that it?"

    Then a rock nearly misses her head, and she sees that Kazuma is shooting water, not rocks. Wailing, she raises her arms and forms a shield of holy light around herself, avoiding any harm to herself. Unfortunately, because she is only shielding herself, instead of using the spell that would have shielded the entire party, Megumin begins taking rocks to the head.

    Oh, the horror! If only the one who wasn't going to lose any intelligence from head trauma were enduring this savage attack instead!

    For revenge, she raises her staff, and it unfolds into something that looks almost like a giant bow made from a flower.

    Then she says, "How dare you assault a goddess's companions! Behold! God Arrow!" A giant arrow starts to form, as she exposits, "God Arrow is an arrow of divine light that embodies a Goddess's regret and fury! Be destroyed before my might!" Then she releases a spell that is definitely not God Arrow, but instead Empyrian Arrow, while yelling out, "God Arrrooooow!"

    Blowing up goblins is satisfying, but Mizuki can see in the chaos that others are still getting hurt... and that cast meter is still crawling along, until EXPLOSION (alpha) comes down! Wait, one of her fellow PLAYERS did that?! They can USE those spells?!

    The tide seems turned, but only for a moment. There are always more goblins, and it seems Fuscus has gotten serious -- no, changed boss phases -- and is now even more armored.

    She can't climb it. How can she get up there to attack it?

    No time to think, though -- the boss uses some sort of Earth-elemental version of Frost Diver which chases the raid party! She runs up walls, leaps from building to building, and turns perpendicularly, but it CHASES her in what would undoubtedly be a beautifully-animated sequence if this were some sort of anime, and eventually catches up with her -- the sequence would end with a SPLORCH sound effect and the screen going black, and then cut to Mizuki, suspended by a spike through her chest sticking out the side of a building.

    Her health bar is a sliver of flashing red. She looks at the distant, giant Fuscus wreaking havoc. The lizard part of her brain is telling her to run. She might die here.

    But she's died before and she's... fine. This is a game that they're trapped inside, and if they let fear of fake death rule them, they'll never escape. What Odysseia Knight, what Scale Emblem Alliance member, could turn and run from this? Besides, she has an idea about how to reach Fuscus's head...

    Mizuki pulls herself off the spike. There are sickening SOUNDS but no blood, just a patch of glowing red in the front and back of her chest. She falls to the ground on her hands and knees, then -- a goblin leaps out of the building she's next to and she swipes it aside with her claws, then finishes it off with a dagger. She stands and takes a deep breath. Rehearsing what she's about to do in her head. One wrong move and this will go horribly.

    She starts running towards Fuscus.

    As she gets close, she suddenly crouches, thrusts a palm up, and LEAPS as Stone Catapult grows a pillar under her, flinging her into the air. She follows it up with ninja hand signs as she sails upward, finishing the ninpo before hitting the top of her jump -- and then double, triple, quadruple-jumping above the boss, air magic and were fang strength propelling her upward.

    Spellcasting rings surround her during the fourth jump. She begins to fall. "Ice in my veins, coat my body in frost! Ozocubu's Armor!" A sheen of frost covers her body and starts to grow, but it distorts and sort of all washes towards her hands, forming massively oversized ice gauntlets, which she brings down on the boss's head!

         (That's right! Continuity is acknowledging the beach episode!)        

    But she's not done! She flips from her hands to her feet with feline agility and spins atop Fuscus's helmet, doing flowy-looking martial arts moves as her gauntlets melt and fall off her, the water growing as it seeps over the monster's helm. Then Mizuki clenches a pair of fists and pulls her arms close to herself, as the water starts trying to seep through the helmet's eyeslits and cling to eyes, nose, and mouth!

    Mizuki drops to all fours, claws extended, fur bushy, and eyes slitted as her next word comes out as a ROAR:

                                    "DROWN!"                                    

    It's not a spell incant. It's a demand!

As Kita curses beneath her breath at her hatred of Goblins, she gets a red gleaming-eyed look from the Goblin Slayer. He indeed appears to approve of such statements. "It is not a waste of mana if you eradicate them all. Then there will be no more Goblins." He proposes to her as he spell fizzles, and the black remaining drift of her nightmare sphere drools like a mist onto some of the goblins, biting into their bodies and devouring them instead!

Merek speeds past Kita suddenly, leaping across the sword and stepping along it, before punching his Ragnarok's Wisdom right into its chest! A dent forming under the heat into that enchanted armor, before he's thrown away by the massive Goblin slapping him away!

The sword then swings around coming down towards Amalthea, slamming down towards her sword and planting into the ground. It takes every bit of her strength to hold her blade in that stance, biting into her hand and draining some of her health, before the strike ends and she manages to get up just enough to SLAM that pommel down on its fingers, forcing it to release the now planted blade!

This leaves both of his hands free just in time, as a whole damned building starts dropping its way! The massive armored Goblin puts its hands up and catches the stone... which then breaks over his hands, because there is no way that the stone was meant to be moved at that angle! It breaks all over its body, cracking into its armor and creating massive dents...

Fuscus however remains standing when the massive building crushes the rest of the plaza - no doubt Prophylaxis will later realize just how much extra time this will cause his team when they try to reinforce and refurnish this city - its health looking considerably lower! And with the pressure having enabled Goldenblade to stab her burning blade through the back of the armor into its body. When she pulls it out, there's a spew of green blood that washes out from that position! The thing stumbles, reaching out, trying to grab a handful of Goblins to devour in order to heal itself - the helmet opening just long enough to get those goblins in!

Which gives Proteus enough time to use her Arcane Lock to stop the helmet from closing back up, creating a permanent weak point! This permits Mizuki a new route of attack. Or rather, an easier one. Hanging on for dear life on top of its head, and begins to force more and more water down into the hole created by Proteus - filling its mouth and nose up with water! Forcefeeding it more and more of the substance, as the Goblin thrashes around, trying to get more air. It slams against a nearby building, slamming its hand down towards Proteus' location, as if knowing this magic halting the helmet was coming from her.

The debris cloud clears, with Vertina still dashing from Goblin to Goblin, crushing their bodies with her very steps! She's joined by Rizadoman, who's been forced to flee by the falling building. There may not be any friendly fire on spells, no doubt by each individual spell's design, but buildings don't play by such rules! Luckily, the Lizardman managed to carve some chunks of the Boss' HP awake before he had to flee.

BlackRose however, comes the other way! She's joined by Goblin Slayer, both of them side by side stabbing their blades into Goblins that are running from all the flying debris and stone. The occassional movement of Goblin Slayer's shield to cover BlackRose, allowing her to cut her blade deep into one of the Hobgoblins that breaks rank to try and assault them, breaking its belly open!

Darkness and Kazuma move to protect Megumin's body as rocks continue tumbling on down, forced to slay Goblins in the midst of it all. Kazuma's water managing to devilishly 'bounce' some of the Goblins off near windows, causing them to go SPLAT to the ground! The ones that survive get slammed apart by Syx. The wrestling Enforcer making true to his name, locking and crushing his enemies!

The Elf Archer lands on an awning and proceeds to fire bolts of arrows at her opponents, ripping through their small bodies one by one. Eventually forced to also fire up, due to the rocks coming tumbling down! Luckily, she gets help from Att Syne, as Skeleton and Zombied Goblins rise up at the top of the floor, and begin to literally /chuck/ Goblins down over the building.

SPLAT.

Let the bodies hit the floor. (Let the bodies hit the floor... Raaaaaaa)

Some of those bodies are eradicated as Aqua shows that the 'Goddess' the so called 'Axis Cult' isn't just a pretty face (don't let that get to her head). Her God Arrow - even though those in the know are very well aware of its true name - sparks for a moment before it flies! The eradicating arrow flying at an arc going upwards, blowing up Goblins it passes through on the way, before it detonates against the roof of one of the buildings and sends two large Hobgoblins who were about to drop two /enormous/ stones down... straight into the atmosphere with the sheer force behind the arrow's blow!

Where they detonate into chunks and light.

This leaves the now blinded and drowning massive Goblin to thrash and rampage through the crowd. Massive footsteps coming down, trembling the ground. Its armor suddenly activating defenses. Various ports opening all across the metalic armor. They look like... lenses.

CLACK-CLACK-CLACK-CLACK-CLACK! The hatches open one after the other, before the focusing lenses point towards the various players... and fire red lasers! The lasers jut up towarsd the air somewhat, before suddenly changing at a 90 degree angle, and coming down like artillery fire on them! Fierce blasts eradicating parts of the flooring of the place. Some of the blasts crashing through the road with such force that it reveals that underground regions, swarming with more monsters below! A death sentence if people were to fall below into those pits!

    And Amalthea meets that swung blade. Gritting her teeth as she can feel the edges of her sword digging into her fingers and palm through her gauntlet, the old Odysseia Knight grits her teeth.
    Eyes wide and wild, she holds against that blow with everything she has, putting her arms, her back, her whole being into staving off that sword before she can get her own blow in on it as she backs up to catch her breath and...
    Those are lasers.
    Those SURE ARE LASERS.
    Streaking upwards only to take a sudden down-turn, Amalthea raises her shield and braces for impact. Only to swing her shield outward at the very last second, heaving with a grunt against the force, just as one of the beams impacts it-- reflecting it back the way it came right back at the Goblin Lord.

    "Ya, that armor will be something that we need to look at," Merek offers, then when he begins lifting up his weapon, the goblin swings the man away and into the laser fire. He takes a few strikes while that HP bar begins shifting to lower. A little nod along to Amalthea, then he makes a motion with a hand, noting that he will flank to the party. He then begins to swing into the boss with his weapon aflame. "You all be prepared when this boss falls, the goblins are pretty tricky, there's no telling what they are planning."
    There's a look to the Goblin Slayer, "I've got this side! We should prepare to make sure none of the goblins try fleeing!" Without that sword, it's like the man is remade anew.

What the hell? Magic lasers?! Or are they laser lasers? It doesn't really matter which, because lasers are still most likely Light based. And that is something Vertina has actually put some study into recently. As she jumps off the last goblin she hits the ground and spins around, skidding to a stop. Immeadiately she assumes a defensive stance, digging her clawed toes into the pavement for extra anchorage, and after a few quick hand gestures to help her focus channels considerable energy into her aura. To the point it visibly flashes around her. Just as lasers are coming dropping down towards her... and she uses the channeled aura to bend the beam of light and redirect it away from herself!

It's not the light bending technique she's been working on developing, but what she learned with that is being put to use here.

In fact instead of just stopping it she tries to aim it right back at the Boss it came from!

The look cast in her direction by the Goblin Slayer has two effects on Kita. The first being that she freezes in place briefly, caught by that uncanny gaze of his. Then, she reaches up, pulling the brim of her hat down slightly in an almost shy sort of expression. "I'll see if I can do better, next time." Apparently, she doesn't want to disappoint the Lander NPC, how strange is that?

Luckily, her distraction doesn't last long, as the sound of those strange hatches opening on the goblin boss' armor have her going wide-eyed. "Oh not good. So, so not good." As the lasers begin to shoot down energy at them, she sweeps her arms, drawing in wind energy around herself like a shield.

In the end, she comes out a bit worse for wear, but not nearly as bad as if it had impacted fully. Breathing a bit heavily, she seems to press her lips into a hard line, flipping to the back of her spellbook. This is where certain, unique abilities she has created are hiding. It looks like an artist's scrawl with notes up and down the side of the page.

"Powers of darkness, burn away my enemies until nothing remains but ash." Her voice grows momentarily darker, whisps of purple-black smoke lingering on her fingers as she swipes two huge runes into the air, which then form together into a burst of strangely dark fire. With a sweep of her arm, she sends it flying towards one of those open panels, hoping to use it as a way of getting past the armor and perhaps to some weak point beyond.

When it impacts, the dark flames seem to spread out almost like alchemical fire, creating a lingering blast that envelops that part of the boss in purple flames.

    Rizadoman can't believe what he is seeing, he understands it but doesn't believe it. He attempts to raise a wall of protection as the frikkin' laser beams attack him, sadly his protect wasn't anything like the priestess and her immortal protect. Sadly the laser pierces his shield and his chest. He drops to one knee and begins to pray, " To the Nagas that have came before me. To the ancestral dragons, I pleed with the, grant me your blessing." His scimitar glows white as he leaps up and throws it right at the boss the magical energy hoping to pierce the armor itself.

Goldenblade fights on, dodging the lasers with a panicked "Ack!" as she hits the deck, letting the attacks pass over her head. She rolls quickly once they've stopped, avoiding falling maosnry, and springs to her feet in a remarkable (which is to say 'lucky') feat of agility.

The flaming swords continue to burn, though they're flickering a bit differently now. The flames seem more alive, and if not more intense, then more savage. She hacks with both blades, burning, stabbing, slicing the boss, taking his HP down ay way that she can while she avoids debris, goblins, and being eaten, lasered, and everything else. It's a rough time down here, though she's hanging tough for as much as she can, and she hasn't slowed too much yet.

    It's working? It's working! Mizuki's fur un-bristles somewhat and her pupils widen back to normal. She smiles... as she clings on for dear life while the giant goblin she's riding takes its rage out on Proteus! But she's not safe... suddenly, LASERS open up from all over the mech! As they sweep around she frantically casts Condensation Shield, the disc of ice instantly vaporizing as it tanks a laser hit for her! "It's a goddamned mecha now?!"

    But she knows how to deal with mecha!

    The fire tigress leans her head down over the helmet. "I don't NEED a targeting computer! Aimed shot for the head!" And then she just breathes a giant plume of flame right in its face!

    If its HP bar is empty afterward, albeit largely due to everyone else's attacks, she pumps two fists in the air and adds, "Cockpit hit! Your MechWarrior dies!"

She's on the move the Elf Archer is very quick she bounces off the building again and keeps going. She's moving sometimes jumping off Goblins as she goes, so far she's able to evade the counter-attacks. She also knows she's playing a very deadly game of tag here.

She's pretty sure she'll lose the kill count but she's going to have a hand in killing the biggest thing on the field. Well, that's her plan she keeps an eye out as Goblin Slayer and Blackrose are fighting she also will have to get Att Syne a drink later. For now, she's going o head right for the target.

"Lasers?!"

You can't dodge light only try to throw off the aim of the attacker and she will bounce behind cover. She takes note with the pits and she's going to get on to the run again.

Soon she's at the top of a building and will draw one of her long knives then leap for the boss to try and land on it and drive her weapon into something vital. She's also worried about Rizadoman too he's been getting hit pretty hard in this whole affair. He's still alive as expected of her friend but who knows how things can go.

"I KNOW THIS ONLY COUNTS AS ONE!"

before she'll leap away.

The lock keeps the boss' weak point open even after his wipe mechanic has been interrupted. This is good. What's bad is the massive hand slamming towards her. That thing looks like it can do Big Damage. Might even be a tankbuster.

And Proteus is absolutely not a tank. "No...!" V . S M

The roof collapses under the impact, Proteus vanishing in the dust and rock... But when it clears, there's no sign of Proteus. Or a tombstone. A tombstone would be /really inconvenient/ here.

"I've already found the solution for the likes of you." The voice comes from above, where a slab had turned and launched the Imp into the air, above the lasers and the pits. As she flies, her hands pull out a complex-looking dome filled with silvery triangles on thin, delicate-looking wire tracks. "Initiate the first alignment..."

Time almost seems to slow for her as her hands flick rapidly, the motions of the clicking puzzle shifting with ever-increasing speed as it changes shape in her hands, aggregating towards an assembled form while her hands also flick about, performing another input. + ) |

The puzzles clicks into place, a burning light shining from within as it begins to unfold like a metallic flower, revealing the seething energy within. She turns it towards that exposed point. "Now cast open the gate of light! BANISH!"

The Empyrial Arrow blasts outwards, a beam of energy spiking out with overwhelming force as it shatters into a dozen lines of seething force, smashing down upon the boss with a crushing blow.

The Imp lands then, the puzzle resetting and randomizing as it closes up, and she tucks it away as the overwrought and over-effected and theatrical take on the Ability ends.

    Kazuma attempts to leap into the air and use magic to run on the wind briefly to avoid incoming attacks as the boss starts stomping his way over, but gets zapped in the back by a Goblin Element Laser. He yells but then grits his teeth and rolls around on the ground to try to put out the small fire on his cape. His rolling brings him very close to Megumin, stopping just short of colliding with her. He stops, looks in the eye, and then tries to play off the awkward situation by saying, "Good morning."

    Explosions, flames, light, darkness, and everything inbetween is still going on though, so the next time something large and deadly lands near him, he hops up, packs Megumin onto his back, and starts carting her out of here. "Aqua! Darkness! Come on, let's go! After that boss is defeated, those goblins are going to go wild, and our secret weapon is even more useless than a certain useless former something-or-other!"

    He attempts to high-step his way towards the exit (wait, where's the exit? With all the collapsed buildings he's going to have to check the map to figure out where he even is), expecting his party members to come with, and not stressing overly if they don't.

It seems that BlackRose is getting a bit carried away here. After landing another successful hit, she lets it get to her head...

And leads to her getting hit. She stumbles back a little, wincing from the attack, but shakes her head after a moment. "Can't let myself get taken down," BlackRose comments as she adjusts her grip on her sword. "Gotta keep fighting." She spins around and around, trying to take down the goblins.

    With her sword still jammed into the enchantments of the armor, Wisteria in her new armor dodges left and right, letting stones ricochet off her new armor. Her free hand works through the runes of a wave art "Thorn Bind Hostage!"

    Thick vines coil up the Goblin's armor hunting for his exposed face with their thick venomous thorns.

The slamander striker is whooping goblin after goblin, but it doesn't ever seem to stem the tide. When the warnings come up about the incoming attack from the laser, he turns to face the boss. He has an idea. An awful, terrible idea. So of course he's going to try it without considering any other options.

He jumps up, and then vanishes into the air in a flash of lightning and a bang of thunder. He re-appears a moment later above the boss, the laser having sailed past him and struck the ground where he had been. Now of course gravity would have to take back over, but Syx manipulated his trajectory.

He sailed downwards towards the boss, turning over in midair and leveling both of his feet towards the big goblin, trying to slam his boots into the boss' chest with all the force that his enhanced strength and literal terminal velocity can provide. It should impart quite a lot of force into that singular point of impact.

Look. This plaza is already FUBAR. The Slayer brought down a building over on the other side of the thing, the munchkin dropped an EXPLOSION a on top of the Goblin Lord, and now...

Lasers.

There are lasers everywhere.

This was already going to be a year-long project or something equally stupid. What's one more building coming down? WHAT'S ONE MORE HOLE IN THE GROUND, LEADING TO AN ABYSS FULL OF MONSTERS!?

It can't make things any worse.

Ah, but there are lasers. Prophylaxis stares up at the jagged lines of light raining down from the sky. He breathes slowly out his nose and sags as if to accept his fate...

The lasers rain down... they explode the ground he's standing on... And soon, when the chaos passes, Prophylaxis...

Is still there. Standing in that exact same position. Unharmed?

...The image of Prophylaxis cracks. Spiderweb fractures spread across the simulacrum-- before the whole thing shatters like a pane of glass.

A deception. An illusion! The real Prophylaxis was speeding toward the Goblin Lord this whole time!! "O' melody of destruction, sing thine apocalyptic cry unto the heavens. Let thine voice resonate through thine hundred-fold avatars. O' satellite of ill-portuned fate, o' star of baleful destiny, I gather together your glimmering fragments..."

A sphere of flame ignites in his palm. A fireball. A simple, singular fireball, nothing at all in comparison to the incredible explosive might leveraged by the little Crimson Demon, let alone the mighty Goblin Lord. And yet...

Prophylaxis closes his hand into a fist around it.

His flesh burns. Pain surges through his arm. He lunges forward, leaping into the air, "...And let resound first note of the song which ends the world..."

                                 FIREBALL!                                  

And then he... reaches out to press his palm into Fuscus' abdomen with an open palm that glows with an awesome power.

Shaped charges are fascinating things. By directing the force of a blast, even a small explosive can punch a hole straight through reinforced concrete...!

And by sacrificing his arm, Prophylaxis goes to deliver a SHAPED FIREBALL straight through Fuscus' belly.

    Finally free of rocks, Megumin manages to gather enough strength to turn her head to the side, dumping some of them off of her hat. However, she is greeted with the sight of Kazuma inches away from her face. She stares into his eyes. Then he says, 'Good morning' to her as though they had just woken up together. Her expression of horror is unparalleled. But then her terror is dispelled as she realizes the worst has not come to pass, and that she is being gathered up and piggy-backed away from the battlefield.

    In this position, she is arranged perfectly to whisper into Kazuma's ear in a low, quiet voice. "If you ever scare me like that again... You are going to become my new Explosion practice target."

    The glaring red light from her left eye and the maniacal expression on her face should make it perfectly clear that she is very serious about this.

    Even though she is currently being carted off to safety.

Att pulls back from his exposed position, using the shield of undead to block off one approach and keep their flanks clear of toothy attackers. He ascends steps of toppled stonework as he goes, fighting his way backwards towards the rest of the group, hewing a path through the seemingly endless swarm with forced movement, medium-range point-blank area of effect attacks, and offensive magic that mostly belongs on dedicated DPS instead.

He ends up on a spar of stone jutting up from the ground nearby, pinned by rubble from either side. Att sights down his staff like it was a rifle or rocket launcher, squinting down the length of it. Reddish glyphs alight and align over his left shoulder. He traces his line of sight up a street between goblin advance and underneath the boss monster's position. He's rapidly running out of time to cast if he wants to actually have it go off, so he doesn't get it as far as he'd like to, but --

"Flame Wall!!"

A spark strikes the road in the twisting city streets. A black line gets left behind as it passes like the ashes of a fast-burning fuse. A second later, a roaring wave of fire erupts along the same line, a higher, hotter variant of the shields he's been putting up getting strewn out to intersect with the boss monster and keep away minion reinforcement while it's pinned underneath the onslaught of attacks.

    "R-retreat? Are you serious, Kazuma!? You would flee like a coward when there are still foes to face!?! What about our allies!? I'm sure I could still stand up to a few hundred! Go on, and I will guard the retreat of you and the others! Get those unable to move to safety, and I will endure!" She runs towards the goblin hordes, sword raised. "And if I am captured, do not risk yourself to rescue me! I could not forgive myself if my friends came to harm because of me!"

    She ignores any further calls to retreat, ponytail bouncing around behind her, as she charges into th fray, even though it's probably not even needed.

    Aqua looks up from the shield of light she was using to protect those around her at Kazuma's command. "What!? But we haven't even gathered the loot yet! How am I supposed to afford more bubbly if we don't get the quest reward!? If I'm not here when the boss falls, I won't get any credit! Kazuma! Where are you going with Megumin!? KAZUMAAAAAA!!!" she yells as she runs after him, crying and furious as everyone else unloads on the boss.

Amalthea and Vertina stand together, bracing for impact, redirecting one of the lasers back at its armor - focusing both of their powers to push back even just one of them, searing across the metal and one of the lenses, detonating it! A ripple of the laser washes over one of the building, sending debris falling down towards one of its arms, slamming into the metal and causing it to clench around its arm!

The Goblin cries out and fails to get away in time from Merek as his flaming blade slams into its foot, stabbing it into place momentarily.

The Goblin Slayer moves with Kita as she starts to flee! Stepping behind her to use her wind magic to protect himself, using his shield to protect her from flying debris coming at her from behind, and stabbing a blade into a Goblin that tries to approach her.

He doesn't say anything to her. Her just lets her do her thing as she brings up her arcane power, focusing her magics into that black flame, and sending it into one of the focusing lenses, causing the lens to detonate, and a splash of green goblin blood to come out from behind, as the detonation sends debris into the Goblin's body! The flame burning away at its flesh, burning through to the inside!

The Lizardman and Goldenblade are suddenly propelled the Earth Pillar from Dowafu, "Go! Lizard!" The Gnome calls out, pointing towards the enemy as Rizadoman and Goldenblade together pierce one of the lenses and manage to use it to hang, pushing it out with their swords from both sides, and then stab into the Goblin's flesh!

Mizuki spikes the plume of flame into its face, causing the massive bubble of water to explode into steam, scalding the entirety of its face and inner mouth, burning part of its face away under the helmet! It screams out in pain!

Suddenly, elf! Mizuki is joined on top of that head, while part of that helmet is blasted off of it, and the Elf manages to get down, stabbing those daggers into one of its still working eyes, sending goblin blood all over her.

Goblin Slayer would be proud.

Proteus shows that she won't be shown up by Aqua and her God Arrow, drawing her puzzle together and creates a temporary bow like structure - Finally aiming the laser-like power back at the Goblin as one of the lasers redirects towards her. Her arrow loosens, and it spreads the laser apart like an arrow through a tree trunk, stabbing into one of the lenses, and then coming out the other end!

Kazuma and his team try to start setting up the escape route. Killing a few straggler Goblins that start coming this way in order to find something to eat. But for the most part, Kazuma just bravely runs away, with Megumin in his arms! Aqua following after him, no doubt crying out his name for the next few miles. BlackRose joins them in their support however, slaying a Hobgoblin that comes out of a nearby building, trying to flank the raid! And Darkness will not be outdone on this matter, taking up the rear and assisting with Blackrose in cutting down further Goblins. Or at least, she tries.

Wisteria's spells are not forgotten. Her Thorn Bind Hostage managing to take hold this time, as it creeps into the holes made by her allies so far. Carving not just through those holes, but into the Goblins' body, where holes have already been made. The plant creeping up all the way through, until Erefu has to move aside as it comes out of his maw!

Syx then rings its bell by slamming their fist into the front of its armor. The shockwave of which seems to ring thorughout its entire broken armor, until its armor on its arms and legs shatters from the resulting resonance!

The Goblin falls to its knees, trying to catch itself by its hands. It's already lost, but it's still hanging on by a thread of HP!

Where once there was a crack in the armor, Syx falls away, giving room to Prophylaxis as he lays his own hand to its chest.

FIREBALL!

The crack ripples with red, cracking outwards. Shattering further across the cracks made by others, metal shattering across its path, until the Fireball finally goes off, detonating its belly apart and shattering the armor itself!

The Flamewall that follows burns at its hands, forcing it through its arms and to collapse down like a wreck. The flames then bursting outwards, enflaming the oncoming Goblins seeking sustenance! Its corpse slowly fading beneath the flames... until finally, it shatters apart!

Followed by a horde of Goblins approaching from all sides!

The group is forced to retreat, but thanks to some of their members, their retreat has already been secured, ensuring that they are not met with a parting shot!

Amidst their retreat, they are however rewarded with a sudden message...

    Mizuki gives Erufu a friendly nod as she alights on the boss's head as well. But then the goblin is being torn to pieces under her! Wis's thorns, Prophy's fireball, Att's firewall, and more, giving it the appearance that the goblin 'mecha' is exploding as the boss collapses to its knees and countless goblins are engulfed in the flames! "Oof, looks like an engine explosion! CT destroyed!" She leaps off the goblin's head, twirling acrobatically in the air and landing perfectly as only a ninja cat can...

    And then is surrounded by goblins. "Didn't Slayer say they'd flee or something without their leader?!" She runs after the rest of the group!

    Merek looks to the boss when it is defeated, nodding a bit. The man sheaths the weapon while he watches the party, "Alright, I need to be back on my way," he waves.

The message that pops up for everyone is a big: CONGRATULATIONS, followed by an item appearing in their inventory. A Focusing Lens.

Oh wow. That actually worked. "I always wanted to do that to some kind of boss!" Vertina cheers, even as she turns to give Amalthea a high five for tagteaming with her for the 'Projectile Pong' maneuver.

However there's not much time to reveal in victory, because Goblins are starting to swarm all around them now that no one is keeping them in some manner of organization. Vertina cups her hands to her mouth and shouts. "HEY! WE SHOULDN'T STICK AROUND FOR TOO LONG! THE TAVERN WILL BE OPEN FOR VICTORY CELEBRATIONS THOUGH!" SHe figures that will get a few peoples' attention at least.

Before turning and sprinting off to the exit herself, not wanting to get caught up in the mad goblin frenzy that's coming.

She'll worry about checking out the Loot once they're clear of trouble.

    Wisteria dodges away taking back her sword and moving into one of her classic pinball motions, bouncing from air rune to air rune. The now just an albino girl in shadowed armor's red eyes hunting the fleesing adventurers for Vertina and Mizuki. The tall girl grinning widely when she see's they're both okay, in the real world there might be injuries but here, alive is all it takes to be okay after a big battle. "Mizukichi! Vert! Dinner and a bath!?" she announces loudly as her steps keep her bouncing from ground to air to wall to ground again as she runs.

Erufu is able to escape with the rest of the party giving cover where she can, but the Pooka is very intent to get the heck out of here. She does not want to hang aroudn there's some celebrating to do, but there is the ever looming threat of the inbound wave...

"He said their organizational structure would fall apart," Prophylaxis says, his right arm a shambles of flickering red graphics and agony. But a victory is a victory. "Speaking of which..."

"Slayer," he calls, as a voice in his ear tells him that there's Trouble Afoot down below and his expression darkens. But the doctor continues delivering the message regardless. "There are goblins under Mac Anu. I found a map fragment that might point to their main den, but we'll need more to make any sense of it. I figured you should know-- there are a lot of the bastards down there. Way more than you'd expect from just a small nest."

Goldenblade is good with high-tailing it out of here. She eyes Proph, and nods about the goblin organization falling apart. Unfortunately, a zillion disorganized goblins are nearly as bad as a zillion organized ones. So, she organizes her feet, and they do the GTFO shuffle. Hopefully they'll break into smaller and more managable bands with the floor boss gone.

Goblin Slayer moves with Prophylaxis, glancing at his right arm being missing. "Adventurers are truly Gods amongst men." He mumbles at first. ""The Goblins under Mac Anu are already a quest I've accepted. You will see me there." Is his simple answer.

"I'm not a God," Prophylaxis says, shaking his head. "I'm just an ordinary city doctor."