Climb: The Floor 6 Boss

The party coming up into the maze is notably smaller this time than usual, though the Scale Emblem hasn't been having any trouble on this level when it comes to the monsters. Orcs are not particularly well trained in tactics, and don't seem as 'nasty' as Goblins, though there's definitely more of them.

But more importantly, for some reason, it seems like the amount of Orcs has recently dimishined significantly. This leaves the team to continue the search through the teleporter maze for the 'Minotaur' of this maze.

However, on that topic, the heads of the Scale Emblem Alliance - thanks to Setsuna's work - have passed on information: The Minotaur is reportedly just an Illusion being cast by another entity. Some kind of 'floating cube'.

Wisteria is reportedly coming into the battlefield with some kind of device to help in that regards. But the device is on a cart and is lagging behind. And the scouts have already spotted the enemy and are requested a first strike so it can't disappear through any of the teleporter pads!

----

The team comes upon the massive Minotaur. It's about the size of a two story house. Bearing a massive axe that it drags along the ground. The team is able to use a set of teleporter pads to flank the enemy to get the first strike, it'd seem, thanks to the amazing mapping job the Scale Emblem Alliance has done. But who knows how long their surprise attack may last.

    Merek agreed to assist because he wanted to make sure everyone was safe. All the same, he takes a moment to begin drawing his sword, while he nods a little bit to the party, and begins taking the stance. The man then lifts up a hand while he swings two ice discs along to the minotaur when the battle begins with the enemy.

    The necromancer stands in waiting with the crew in the rear of the minotaur. At first sight of thing, Setsuna couldn't help but let out a low whistle , " I really hope we are right about that thing being a big phony." Taking a deep breath he looks back at the group he is with and confirms the plan, " So all we need to do is to spread out and keep this thing busy and when that artifact gets here it should disappear and then the real fight will begin so hold your big spells." He waits for some form of confirmation before he steps out of cover and fires off a pot shot of dark energy towards the creature. " Hey you big ugly minotaur I call bullcrap on your existence!"

    Amalthea is here. Where else would she be but at the forefront of a raid these days? It's almost like her natural element now, as the old Odysseia Knight makes ehr way through the maze with the group.
    Then there's the minotaur.
    "Odysseia Knights, ready yourselves." She says over her shoulder as she draws the blade.
    "Everyone else ready up, too." Stated as she motions at the minotaur.
    "Thanks to Setsuna we know this big boy is an illusion. So let's take the bait and save our big guns until the real boss makes an appearance." Said as she makes a rush for the 'boss' and starts spamming her taunts, blade dancing in her hands.

Schneider has moved up with the group to attack this boss, or fake boss, and has been told that we're here to pin him down rather than to fight, but Schneider's really only got one mode. KILL IT WITH FIRE. He's in good company, in this Alliance, but he's got his ow twist on it. "Tai-to-ro! Blow this enemy away!" he intones. "ANTHEM!" Not that anyone today remembers Anthem. For his part, he's never heard them, either, but he's as faithful to the source material as he can be. What Anthem does, of course, is a lance of raw fire aimed at the target, center body mass, which he hopes will hurt it regardless of whether it's illusion or what.

    Xander has been helping the scouting party out most of the days and helping make sure people got back alright. When it came time though, he was there.

After all, if he had to walk around with scouting parties, cut down goblins to keep people safe coming to and fro, like hell he would not be here to see some fruit of his labor actually pay off!

Not only that, but there was some people here he needed to be sure would be alright-- besides, tank has to tank!

    So, when it was attack time, Xander does what Xander needs to do, which is leap out and hadouken (in essence) a stream of fire at the Minotaur!

In general, Kita had spent precious little time in the maze on the sixth floor of the tower. A day or two, helping the teams doing exploration, in order to help copy maps and offer some long ranged spell support, but she hadn't spent as long up here as many others. The black mage seems to have a slightly more nervous look to her, going into this fight, perhaps because of the fact that she isn't alone for once.

Standing beside a taller, red-scaled Salmander, Kita lightly chews on her lower lip, right over a scar that happens to be there. "Try to stay safe for me. I know you're a tank, but..." There is worry in her voice at that as she speaks to Jurou.

With the minotaur spotted, Kita remains further towards the back of the group, utilizing her ranged abilities. Flattening her hand to her spellbook, she pulls up a ball of dark energy which radiates around her hand. "Got to trust what the others have up their sleeves." She mutters, and then tosses the arcane shot towards the minotaur.

Mazes. To Lin they're annoying. More fun for the designer than the participant, they're a problem with an obvious but tedious answer. It's more fun to watch someone solve a maze than do it yourself. Understandably, he's not enthused about floor six of Aincrad. He makes sure to join a group heading towards the boss, eager to see what's in store but in no way willing to navigate the maze any more than he has to.

A two story tall monster is thrilling no matter what it is, and despite trying to stick to formation he has to pause for a moment and appreciate the sheet scale of the beast. Then it's off to action. He raises a small book and begins to chant, firing off a bolt of lightning towards the creature.

Prophylaxis is here! He is... Uh. Actually kind of concerned about how this whole thing seems to be unfolding. What kind of weird cube is responsible for spontaneously generating a minotaur in the middle of a maze? Where might it be hiding? What else might it send after them...?

"You all go ahead," he instructs to the others rushing forth to get the jump on the minotaur. "I'm going to hang back, just in case the thing... You know."

He makes a wiggly motion with his hands. Somehow it seems to suggest 'a bunch of adventurers being ambushed by an army of angry illusory cow-men.'

"Just... in case."

It's a good thing someone else figured out the path to take. Because Vertina HATES mazes. Especially teleporter ones. On more than one occasion the scouts had to keep her from just trying to smash her way through walls instead of finding a way through.

So here we are now. She practically leaps out of the teleporter, spoiling for a fight even moreso than usual after the frustration this floor has already caused. Even if this is a trick. "Best way to deal with a trap is to spring it yourself!" Amalthea says to go, and she goes. By slamming a fist into the ground, which send a tremor through it until under the Minotaur, then bursting up in a cluster of sharp rocks.

    Yuuki wanders through the maze along side the rest of the party, not paying much attention to how to get through it. She's more likely to forget than remember. At least with just one trip. So she's more focused on polishing her blade up with the weapon oil she got on her birthday. If there's ever a time to have your weapon looking its greatest, it's during a Floor Boss fight!

    When they do eventually make it through the maze to catch sight of the great Minotaur, Yuuki whistles at the sight, "He's a big one!" It's unfortunately that apparently it's just a fake. Yuuki doesn't really understand why. But still, fighting it should still be fun, right?

    To that end, as people begin to charge in to engage the Minotaur, Yuuki charges in too! Light on her feet, she makes a quick bee-line towards the large monster's legs. Which a quick jump she leaps forward past one of them, her blade flashing out in a quick blurry movement to cut into the monster.

    Yuuki lands after her leap once more, another quick hoping and twist turning her around to face it before she skids backwards to a stop, blade raised in preparation of a counterattack. A grin on her face.

    "Aww dammit, I just realized." Mizuki speaks as one of the ambush teams is getting ready on the other side of a teleporter. "A teleporter maze, in a tower? We needed to bring a rat's tail so we can get our class change!" This probably gets some groans, sighs, and maybe even laughs as she grins, tail flicking.

    When she sees the minotaur, she stares for a split second, eyes wide. She was expecting a big cow-man-monster, sure, but why is it another mecha-size boss??

    Well, not like she's not faced giant monsters before! She darts in to try and slash at its legs with her daggers before leaping back! "At this rate, how big is the 100th floor boss gonna be?! Macross-sized?!"

Old Myths come to mind the way the Minotaur came to be, she was on guard though having shown up for one of these raids for the first time in a while. She seemed ready for a fight and the good news is they found the boss, the bad news is he's bigger than her house.

"That's one big boy and I'm not talking hamburger."

She notes as she makes ready she'll be one of the first to charge the monster. She calls back to Mizuki "Then we better get the info high Mizuki!"

Well Gwen's throwing references about it seems as she launches into a pretty heavy first strike.

"GALE OF SWORDS!"

The Wind Elemental sword strikes come fast as she attempts to get some good early hits on the boss.

Attacking from the side is great for Syx. It means he can get in close to the boss and really go to town on him.

Is it wrong to assign a gender to an NPC like this minotaur boss? Probably not a good idea to think about it too much. So instead he'll go ahead and get to work on punching the minotaur. It's huge, so suplexing it like he had planned is going to be more difficult than he had anticipated. So instead he focuses on laying into one of the minotaur's legs, aiming several punches and well aimed kicks towards what should be the Achilles tendon for the creature.

Showing up to give her support and protection to Kita, now she's done a little training and won't be a hindrance, Jurou walks side by side with the imp-girl as they navigate the maze - careful not to get seperated. The salamander replies to Kita, "I'll be okay, you're the squishy one, and I'm your armour today." she gives a smile that exudes confidence, with only a hint of a crack in the mask.
As the action begins, Jurou moves from Kita's side, taking a defensive stance in front of the mage and the teleporter pads behind them, and raises her oversized sword and takes a lunge forward to heft it with a grunt in a wide arc at the beast's leg, trying to get it moving slower.

Merek's ice discs, razor sharp, cut along either side of the Minotaur's legs. There's a rip of red light that shows damage being done to the massive thing. Notably, not typical illusion behavior.

A dark blast of energy mixes with Flame as Setsuna and Schneider cast at the same time, blasts a hole of red light into the Minotaur with their magic, followed by a group of Odysseia Knights rushing in to stab into its ankles and toes! The thing stomps, a quake of earth slamming people back. Vertina's stone pulse of magic keeping that foot pinned for just a moment.

One of the steps gets caught by Xander hadouken-ing the bottom of that foot, forcing the Minotaur to stumble back! That sure felt real!? Did they get false information!?

An arcane shot sails over Xander's shoulder, intercepting the massive axe coming his way, as Kita puts her dark magic to use. Stopping the blade from reaching Xander. This is followed up by Lin's lightning magic, which forces the Minotaur back further!

Yuuki, jumping higher however, finds that her blade stabs into the flesh... but doesn't make that 'contact' she is used to. It feels like she just swiped at nothing for some reason, even as the red light of damage appears.

Mizuki, rushing in lower, gets the same experience all of the sudden. Their daggers seeming to pass through with a bit too much ease! Gwen's strikes however, seem to make contact even a bit higher up again. It feels almost like a puzzle, guessing where it feels like there is actual presence. Syx however, kicks for the tendon... and sails through. Coming out on the other side, slightly singed - causing Jurou to have to duck under Syx's moving body before she can get her blade in and swipe at its foot!

Right as the cart arrives, carrying what almost looks like some kind of... antenna with a box in its middle. It has radial light coming off of it that some people who've met Spatjahr may recognize as a similar aesthetic.

Wisteria seems to have to handle the device the entire time, punching in some kind of code...

Followed by the Minotaur's visage being overcome by a red sweeping laser, that seems to erase its form...

Revealing a massive floating... diamond? No, not a diamond. It looks like a D8. A beautiful mirrored body that seems to reflect people, the maze, as well as an eerie blue light off of it. It seems to be the former 'torso' of the minotaur. There's also multiple floating rubics-cube like devices floating along its body in its former humanoid configuration.

However, it seems to immediately understand its humanoid illusion has been found out, and the rubics-cube like forms suddenly warp, like someone trying to 'solve' them, before they click open after reaching a glowing '+' pattern, and a red laser fires out for the various Adventurers.

At the same time, the central massive reflecting D8, slowly floating and looming over people, starts to... scream? Scream is perhaps the best description of what it is doing, a rising yell that reaches higher and higher, as it collapses in on itself, forming strange geometric shapes across its body, shaking, creating a big red glow at its center...

Then suddenly fires the large beam out, swallowing up the wall it is aimed at, and risking some serious damage to anyone who did not move away from the sudden beam of ultra-heat!

You know, when they were informed that the boss' true form was some kind of floating cube-shaped object, Prophylaxis was not expecting... This. "That," Prophylaxis says as the D8 materializes, "Is literally just a tetrahedron. What the hell? Was this always here? This is completely out of theme for a fantasy setting--"

The thing /screams!/ Prophylaxis winces and ducks down. Raw pattern recognition has him conjure a series of stone walls between himself and the giant doom-diamond... Just in time. The D8's beam scythes through the area. Its mere passage cleaves through three of Prophylaxis' makeshift barriers, and melts the fourth and fifth halfway to slag before moving away. As the sound of boiling stone fades, Prophylaxis pokes his head out of the corner of his ruined cover and frowns severely.

"If that thing could have fired that beam at any time... Damn, it's a good thing we got that illusion-stripper." He places his palm against the last of the intact stone barricades. The thing seems to twist and distend, before finally a /giant stone pillar/ erupts out of the flat face and sails towards the D8, seeking to punch straight through one of its faces!

    A boss form change! So soon!?

    No wait, Yuuki remembers hearing about this. They were planning to use some sort of key item to trick the fake Minotaur into revealing its true form. Well then! Yuuki looks up at the floating cubes and the main diamond form. She narrows her eyes against that diamond. Of course she's going to go for it! Yuuki starts running. She's heading for one of those cubes. Wait, what? All will be revealed soon!

    But first, Yuuki has to deal with SUDDENLY LASERS! What is this, a sci-fi game? Yuuki jumps to the side mid-run, the laser just scorching by her, barely missing. She hits the ground in a roll, before coming up on her feet again and continuing forward. You're going to have to do better than that if you're going to hit the ever-elusive Zekken!

    Yuuki then leaps, landing upon one of the cubes. She then leaps again, aiming for another one higher up, until she leaps one final time straight towards the Dee Eight. As she soars towards it, her sword is engulfed in flames and Yuuki cries out as the swings it towards the Glowing Boss Weakspot!

    And there it is. The illusion is dispelled and the true boss is revealed. Revealed and shrieking. And... Charging an attack!
    "EVERYONE BRACE!" Amalthea calls out over her shoulder as she raises her shield.
    Bracing herself, the beam comes down... And she's in the way!
    When the blast finally dies down, Amalthea is still standing. Smoldering. Smoke rising in thin wisps off her shield and armor. But she soaked it. And now. Now it's time for payback.
    Unable to reach the boss from her position on the ground, the old Odysseia Knight takes a running start... And then leaps onto one of the cubes! Her boots slam down and as soon as they do, she takes another vaulting leap, jumping and running and launching herself from cube to cube to cube to get higher and higher... Until she can take a leap right for the boss.
    "Hhhhhyyyyyyaaaaaa!" She cries out, sword raised and gleaming as she bears down on it with all her weight and stabs down upon it.

When the actual 'source' behind the monstrous illusion is revealed, it only seems to leave Kita with a puzzled look on her face. Strange enemies that are made up of odd geometric shapes isn't uncommon for RPGs, but she doesn't have as much experience with these as others might.

"Those... look like those dice my dad uses when he's gaming with his friends." Apparently, her father is a nerd. That is when the lasers start shooting in her direction, and Kita is forced to throw up a defensive wall using her magical abilties. The lasers nick the edge of the shield, enough to send her skidding slightly back from the impact, but without any major damage.

"Alright, let's see if we can clear the targets a little." Kita begins to quickly draw more runes in the air, each one igniting with fire energy that glows around her briefly, before sending them out in an array of blasts, like a magic missile attack, aimed towards the strange cubes.

Schneider brings up a hand, chanting, "Zako Damero!" and a shield springs up, just barely enough to take the hits from the rays coming at him. He ducks anyhow, it's reflex, but the beams don't touch him, this time. But they flicker out just after the beams pass, they couldn't take any more. The return fire is staggering, and the initial attacks seem to be aimed at the ... not an angel. But of course he's familiar with 90's anime and ... that's not important.

In any event, he'll target the irrational cubes. That's the only rational choice, given the amount of force already being applied to the D8-looking tning. He's saving his big guns, or big spells anyway, he'll fire off a bolt of raw fire instead, shouting, "Zako Damero!" and flinging the fire into the cube. And again, and again. Not a heavy hitter, but a short cooldown - almost nothing. And it adds up. It's enough to whittle down the Cube's health bar, anyhow.

    Merek dodges along from that beam with that repelling shield taking a little bit of that beam, while he then will take a moment to position the frame and stance before he begins maneuvering in with his sword, although while he seems about to swing the weapon, he instead lifts up a hand to sling a firebolt into the cubes. "You know, I'm beginning to question whatever creator made all of the boss models."

In all the chaos it's tricky to keep complete track of what's happening. Sure, Lin knew what the plan was. The minotaur was an illusion and now they're fighting a selection of platonic solids. Also the solids shriek and now there's -- Lin spends just a moment too long making sense of the madness to notice the laser swinging in his direction. He raises his hands to cast a barrier spell, but doesn't complete it in time. A large chunk of his health bar disappears with a sizzle of red.

Lin stumbles and takes a few steps back, looking distressed. This is a setback. Only a setback. He raises his book and chants another spell from it, pointing with one hand and letting off a quick series of blasts at the octahedron.

Vertina stands up and thrusts her arms in the air when the beam from the device neutralizes the minotaur illusion. "Whoo! Go ... Science?! Is that science? Magic science? Whatever.... wait, is that a die?" She blinks again. "I know game programmers are usually big nerds but this is a little ove--" Then the revealed thing starts to scream and something akin to it, while rearranging it's smaller cubes.

"--Oh shit." Vertina realizes, just a little too late, at what it's doing. She turns and leaps to the side, managing to avoid being dead center of the beam... But she still gets zorched badly as the laser screams through space, multiple red injuring flashes across her back as she faceplants into the deck with as much grace as a rock. She groans as she plants her hands on the ground and pushes herself up onto her feet, and turns her head a bit to look at the back of her jacket, and a hole burned partway through it in addition to the injury. "Hey Gwen, I hope you can patch this up!" Then the Salamander turns back to the fight with a snarl. "Okay, you want to play the shooting game... Fine!"

She scrapes a foot across the ground, kicking up dirt and embers alike. Which she hooks with her foot and flicks into the air, bumping it back and forth between her feet a few times as it builds up. It starts to look more and more like an actual ball, with chunks of rock forming what would be the pattern on a soccer ball with flickers of heat between them. "Those things kinda look like a goal anyways..."

Vertina gives the smoldering stone ball one last juggle into the air, and then pivots on her planted foot to swing up her leg and around in a wide arm aimed to catch the ball with one of her powerful kicks.

"METEOR STRIKER!"

The ball is kicked with such force that it hurtles through the air at tremendous speed and ignites, fire trailing from and around it to live up to it's name as it screams towards the puzzle cubes!

    Setsuna blinks at the new form, " I really expected it to be more of a giant slime cube or something. Not that. " Perhaps he was spending to much time with Uta, either way the ear-splitting scream snaps him out of his thought process as he pulls an aura of darkness around him as if it was a blanket to muffle the scream. It was a good thing too, because he was ready to avoid the energy beam as well , leaping safely out of the way. With the laser avoided Setsuna crouches placing his hand on the grounds. "Fangs of the earth, bear down on the enemy!" As the earth magic is cast, sharp rocks seem to launch all around Setsuna to strike the diamond wanna-be.

"Huhhh" Jurou says to herself as the minotaur becomes something completely different, and they start to rearrange themselves rapidly. She senses this is probably about to be an attack and she readies her stance to move or parry as needed, her feet grating on the stone floor as she digs in.
Suddenly, a laser is whipping up the floor towards her and the group, and she starts moving to the side, but whips her head around to check on the group of mages behind, checking to see if she needs to help any of the stragglers. Not that she could outrun the laser. "Damn", she mutters as the laser swoops by, leaving a thin trench of molten rock in its wake where she had been standing a moment earlier.
Jurou takes a few steps further back from melee range, and closer to the mages, holding her buckler shield up towards the nearest of the floating cubes - they seemed to be part of how the creature sent out the laser. She concentrates on the shield, and it glows red for a moment, before a blast of flame leaps out at the cube. "See how you like it!"

The thing scans the boss, what the heck? She wonders what Wisteria did. She'll have to ask later, for now, she looks at a D8.

"A eight-sided dice? Really? Well, that's new."

Gwen would move to keep in the thing's face, then something strange happens. The D8 starts to scream very loudly and something is happening she's just quick enough to get up something to keep herself safe.

"DIVINE SHIELD!"

A glowing gold barrier forms bout Tomoe which saves her from the blast. She can still feel the heat as the beam parts about her shield when it fades the shield drops and Gwen.

"You ever think this is an actual world that the game was just an echo of Doc? Either way, we got to make sure this thing doesn't roll over us."

Prophylaxis's comments have her wondering about this thing, she also catches Vertina's question.

"There's little I can't fix but if it's ash...."

With that she's launching herself right at the D8 in a burst of speed and wind magic as she strikes.

    Mizuki frowns slightly as she fails to 'touch' the illusion. Did that even do damage...? Although, even if she felt physical contact, would that really mean anything? The NerveGear has full access to her brain, after all... And then the illusion is washed away and she sees she mentioned the wrong mecha series a second ago. Also, Prophy misspeaks so she blurts out a correction reflexively, "Octohedron!"

    She waves her knife at it. "I'm not going to need a progressive knife to deal with you!"

    And then it screams. And deforms as if rotating through some higher dimension. The people who made this game have seen anime too, and... honestly that concerns her. With everything she's seen in this game, if the creators are TRYING to evoke the horror of an angel... what's this going to do?? As the cubes fire lasers, she dives for cover behind a corner of the maze, which is the only way to save herself from the main GIANT LASER. She can feel the heat coming off it, and vaguely recalls Shinji, or was it Rei, nearly boiling from that attack... (it's been awhile since she saw the show.)

    Hopefully she won't feel a direct hit herself.

    But then... the shock of it, seeing something reminding her of her old, mortal life, begins to wear off. She's an adventurer now! A nigh-immortal superhuman! "I don't need a mech to fight you... and I don't need Tokyo's power grid when I have... my MANA BAR!"

    She takes a deep breath, then leans around the corner, opening her mouth as motes of fire-orange energy into it, forming a little glowing sphere inside her jaw before a pencil-lead-thin beam of intense energy fires out at the giant diamond!

    Xander watches as an Arcane shot goes over his shoulder. He grins a little, as he keeps on the move. That is when he spots Wisteria bring up the contraption that does give away the /real/ enemy.

Which when it is shown causes the Salamander to raise a brow, "What the..." There was little time to understand just what they were looking at. Instead he has to raise his shield and feels the beam slam into it.

    His boots slide back, as the metal heats up from the laser. His teeth grit and then he shoves the shield to the side just as the laser ends, "You want to play with heat you overgrown rubix cube! Lets play with heat!"

He then causes his sword to light up with red runes. The blade ignites into fire, before he swings it not once, but twice, and then a third time. Sending a wave of bolting flames across the battlefield toward their enemy.

It's not like Syx really pays much attention when it comes to these kinds of things. He just brute forces his way through most things. That's why his headlong charge not being met with physical contact with the minotaur catches him off guard.

"What the fuck is that?" He asks, really to nobody in particular, "Did any of you guys know about this? How the fuck were we supposed to prep for.." He doesn't get to finish his question as he gets blasted and thrown through the air.

The stupid floating thing is probably too high for him to kick it, so he opts instead to jump up and drop kick one of the adds that has shown up, figuring if he crushes the cube it should at least help keep the rest of the group that can hit the big one safe from being attacked from behind.

The giant flat-sided stone pillars collide into the Dee Eight as the thing finishes firing, quickly turning into that flawless shape again. And the moment they impact, it finds a 'shield' that seems to shatter the stone pillars themselves, right before the Dee Eight gets slammed into a wall!

Using that moment of it being halted, Amalthea and Yuuki both start step-stooling the lower positioned Irrational Cubes. Each step bringing the pair closes to the cube, until they both make for a fierce leap. Blades at the reach, coming down and... slamming into that shield. They hang in the air, feeling the pressure of the shield. It's not like a wall. It's like something was softening their blow! Flaring white light pulsing away from their position in a hex pattern... the Dee Eight clearly laboring under the pressure.

Before being pushed off. Two of the Irrational cubes turning and spinning, quickly re-solving into a different pattern. A 'T' pattern this time, after which they turn and rush in, trying to 'squeeze' the two warriors between eachother!

Only for a flurry of red bolts of flame launch at various angles in on one of them, slamming it out of the way and halting the patterned attack! The other is blasted away by Schneider, supporting Kita's attacks from a distance! Merek then sends a searing attack down, intercepting the two cubes once again and bringing them closer to the ground!

Lin's blasts are keeping the Dee Eight burried against the wall, stopping it from immediately retaliating itself, while the others continue their damaging assault; Setsuna's earthy assault wearing down at its shield that is so annoyingly making it hard to get a feel for the damage they are doing.

Vertina's Meteor Striker SLAMS into one of the puzzle cubes, right in the middle of it trying to reconfigure as Merek's strike is still bringing it down, coring it right down the center and causing it to detonate into light, before her flaming rock hits the back wall and detonates.

Jurou's flaming shield strike begins to burn away at the other one which Schneider and Kita had kept from retaliating on Amalthea and Yuuki. But there's more of them. And most of them start starting to reconfigure towards the 'T' mode; looking to literally pancake people between two of the large cubes!

Gwen manages to close the distance as the Dee Eight finally dislodges, coming down closer to the ground. Wind and power bring her forwards against its shield, right as two of those Cubes intercept her. She manages to strike into the body of one of the cubes, but Xander quickly has to take up his role as tank as he swings his blade and has to use both sweeps to push the cube away from Gwen! Syx intercepts a second with a fierce kick, crushing it downwards towards the ground.

Mizuki's thin 'laser' then slams against the Dee Eight's shield, causing it to tremble and quake. That telltale 'Sheeeeeee' sound of hitting the shield causing it to pulse with that same white hex symbol.

The Cubes continue to rush around the battlefield, trying to knock people over, or literally trying to crush them between themselves. The battlefield is quickly getting quite chaotic! But even in that chaos, they would not be able to ignore that same 'screaming' charge once again! The Dee Eight reconfiguraring itself, and for a moment, shows an inner 'chamber' of sorts. To those watching... it looks almost like a robotic skeleton hanging from wires within that chamber. Its eyes lighting up for a moment... its mouth open - seemingly the source of the scream.

Arm coming forward.

"Lösen: Enderpokryphen."

Followed by a suddenl yellow beam that sears through the area. It is far thinner than the last one. Impacting the ground right behind the back lines...

Before suddenly DETONATING in this massive dome of approaching heat, forming a mushroom cloud pattern. At the same time, the walls that were previously damaged... begin to repair. Red light rising from them and white walls reforming!

    Merek looks to the party, while he takes a moment to shift his weapon. The sword is placed into the ground, while he takes a moment to place two hands together, "Oh the Lost that you guide, namless that they might be, I ask that you bring about the power to aid us within the fight," the man looks to the skeleton, he seems to note something, then he shifts the stance forward, "Sacred Technique: Forge Of Flame!"
    Then it looks like a little field appears above the battlefield, beginning to lift up people's attack stat while they charge in, especially on the one known as the cubes. There's a warmth within and a renewed sense of power. It's definitely not a standard technique, though in a raid of the size of that one, it's only focused upon one benefit.

It's only a big chunk of your health bar. Why stop now? The raid party has the Dee Eight under control. Lin figures it's safe here on the back lines. Keep the range long and you'll be able to see one of those big sweeping lasers in time to dodge it. Book in one hand, a crackling ball of magical energy in the other, Lin has his focus tight on the d8. He unleashes sizzling bolts of lightning, each taking a chip away from the die's shield, pausing to stare when it opens up and he gets a glimpse of a skeleton. The laser interrupts his stare and he dashes for cover, looking back at the explosion like you never ever should. The scampering takes him directly in to the path of the rampaging cubes. "Oh no!" He shouts. "Someone pull!?" Lin twists, trying to dodge a cube and just barely making it - and in the immediate path of another.

    Yuuki's flaming sword presses against that defense shield as she tries to break through. But she fails! Yuuki is thrown back by the failed strike, flipping through the air a few times before landing on her feet in a crouch. She looks up at the Dee Eight, fire in her eyes as she is determined to breach it and get a hit in!

    Focused as she is, Yuuki doesn't notice one of the Cubes coming in to try and squish her! But it's thankfully blown away by a combined assault from Schneider and Kita. Yuuki gives the two a grin and a thumbs up, before returning her attention to the battle at hand.

    Yuuki stands once more, preparing to strike the Dee Eight once again. But more of those Cubes fly in to try and smash her. Noticing this time, Yuuki jumps away, "Woah!" She lands, then jumps again as another comes flying in from another direction, "Hey there!" Landing for a second time, Yuuki then quickly ducks as one goes flying right over her head, "Watch it!" Someone should do something about those adds!

    But not Yuuki. Nope. She's laser focused on the big bad! She sweeps her sword out to the side, a gust of wind forming up around the blade. But the wind turns black, quickly sweeping up and around Yuuki to engulf her. Leaning forward, Yuuki blasts forward with a gust of wind! She runs straight towards that wall that the Dee Eight had previously been lodged against. The one it's currently closest to.

    As she reaches it, Yuuki leaps towards it, then starts running up the wall! Up and up she goes, reaching the same height as the Dee Eight before she leaps off it. She's not heading straight for it, but rather to the side, past it. She lashes out with her blade in a single strike, trying to cleave through that field or whatever it was, to weaken it. Yuuki then begins to fall towards the floor again.

    "Thea!"

    Yuuki calls out to the Scale knight, hand stretched out. As the grasps of the two meet, Yuuki twists her body to pull Amalthea, giving her a boost and sending her flying towards the same spot that Yuuki had struck. To try and give her a way into it and that skeleton-like thing at the center!

    Xander goes to move in, using his shield to block some of the cubes from trying to crush him. That is until he spots one of the mages in the back-line having a /hell/ of a time trying to not get crushed and doesn't seem her HP is in great shape as it.

"Hold on!" He roars over toward Lin, as he slides under another set of cubes. His armor glows, as his shield gathers up light. He roars out a battlecry, that almost sounds draconic, before, slamming Lin out of the way just as the cubes slam down where Lin would have been.

The shield takes the brunt of it, but it starts to crack under the strain. The magical energy trying to push back. Xander goes down hard onto his knee. His teeth baring. "You... will not..." He attempts to swing his blade to break the cube away, but only gets slammed by another. His sword sliding along the ground as he just tries to focus using his shield with arcane energy to power it.

    Bit by bit, his health is being drained, before he at last breaks it. He reaches for his blade and swings at the cuhe to stay away, as he looks over to Lin, "You-- You okay?" Not seeming to care about his own HP and the fact his shield is near 0 conditioned from that exchange.

Though as the boss shifts, his fiery, gold draconic eyes look over to see the boss show itself. There is-- something about it. Something that causes Xander's eyes to just /stare/, as if a nightmare made into real form. A nightmare from his own head become reality.

    The cables, the skeleton...

He had a nightmare like this-- It is how he always saw them when he closed his eyes. How his mind continues to remind him of that pain, that suffering.

    By the time he tries to shake it off however, it was already to late, "SHIT!" He manages to bark out, as he tries to raise his shield, tries to raise a magical barrier against the massive firewall that is coming, but it was to late.

The mushroom surrounds him and when it clears he is nearly on the ground, using his sword as a means of leverage, but his shield is gone and red marks all over his form from the damage. He breaths in heavily and exhales slowly. While his mind says 'stand', he is having a hard time convincing himself to do so. Because all he can see, as he looks back toward the boss--

    Is red...
        Ringing in the ears...
            Drowned sounds around him...

"Alright, this thing is more than a little weird." Kita comments, both from the noises that it is making and the strange features of the boss monster. She's far more used to the gnolls, goblins, orcs and regular creatures that normally call Yamato home.

As the enemy goes into its next attack phase, she is far enough away that the lasers don't seem to be a problem, but the cubes are an entirely other problem for her. Two of them come dangerously close and she is forced to throw up a magical shield of flames, but it seems to do little good. They snap together, catching part of her leg with it.

The Imp crumples, gripping her leg and wincing. The damage shows in a glowing after-image around her foot. Rather than cry out, she just hisses between her teeth. She's still on the ground when the sight of the form within the monster shows itself. Enough so that she hesitates, staring at it. "You have to be kidding me..." A few pieces of the puzzle seem to fit together.

She makes a comment into her chimlink, then struggles to get to her feet, trying to keep some weight off of her bad ankle. "Okay. Still in one piece. Ankle might not be but..." She tries to hype herself up, then draws some more magical abilities summoning up a fireball between her hands, which she shoots towards the two cubes which had attacked her.

    It's getting hairy, fast. Amalthea grunts as she tries to break through that shield, but is only repulsed for her efforts against it launched backwards through the air in a series of uncontrolled flips, before she lands to a skidding halt on another cube-- with two coming to try and flatten her between them! --Only for that to be halted thanks to Schneider and Kita.
    "--Good work down there, thanks for the cover!" She shouts from on high.
    Once she has her footing she goes for it again- jumping to a higher cube. Agility isn't her strong suit. Her leaps and vaults look almost completely ungainly and inelegant in comparison to Yuuki's jumping skills. But no one dare say the old woman can't keep up, because she keeps up as the strange SHAPE thing shifts to reveal the horrifying sight of what's inside of it.
    She continues to vault towards the boss-- until Yuuki calls out to her.
    With a grunt she shifts her course, hurling herself towards the nimble Imp, arm outstretched.
    They meet. Amalthea's hand clasps to Yuuki's around the wrist. And she knows full well what to expect as Yuuki twists like that, the old knight finds herself launched for the boss, shifting her grip to hold both hands onto her sword.
    She's holding it by the blade, gripping the weapon like a baseball bat as she puts every ounce of that hurtling momentum into SLAMMING into that shield, to do her damnedest to break through and get at the horrifying skeletal thing with in as she slams every ounce of her strength into using the blunt end of her sword, smashing with the crossguard and pommel.

Fire is dangerous enough, but with the rocky core giving that projectile the additional mass it slams through a cube and into the opposite wall with much more force than a normal fireball would of. Vertina turns for a moment as it detonates and does does a brief celebratory fistpump. "That new technique worked beautifully!"

But the other cubes are scattering and swarming about the field to try and stir things up. One comes at her from each side... only for there to be a rumble not unlike thunder as the Salamander launchs herself up, and then land on the two cubes after they thump together. "Pardon me, coming through!" Vertina parkour jumps across a few of the cubes to avoid the energy beam sweeping across the field as well. The stepping stone maneuver is also getting her to a vantage point at which she leaps off the last one, right towards the 8-sided main boss. "I'm gonna scratch off your sides one by one if I have to! RAAAWR!" The Salamander thrusts forward, aiming to drive the penetrating claws of her battle gloves into one of the boss's various sides.

    Setsuna really gets to arrogant way to easy, it is how he ended up sporting his new leg look but really it appears he hasn't fully learned his lesson. There is even that damn cocky grin on his face as he dances around the cubes and continues to focus on the boss monster. The words though, that slows him down for a moment, as he speaks out on the raid line , distracting himself long enough to not pay attention to what is happening with that yellow laser beam. It is only because it missed that it gave Setsuna the precious seconds needed to raise a shield of air as he goes rolling along the ground.
     Standing to his feet he looks around trying to gather what everyone is doing, the battleground was absolutely falling into a level of disarray but still, no one had turned into a gravestone yet. Taking the air magic that was his shield he forms it back up launching it into the air before the nature of the magic takes hold and begins to rain lightning down on the D8

Schneider at first simply ducks the beam that seems to hit behind him, but forms a shield in the nick of time. The explosion still sends him tumbling to the ground, but that allows most of the force to go over his head as his shield is melted away. But he rises, unscathed, to take stock of the situation, and as soon as he can he resumes his attack on the cubes. They're clearly something supporting the D8, and since that's bad, he'll try to stop it. The cubes' defenses aren't sufficiently butch to warrant a heavier attack, his very basic attack is so fast that the damage adds up quickly to what another attack might to much more slowly. He hurls raw fire at it again and again, the light attacks slowly but steadily wearing it down.

Gwen is going to owe Syx and Xander thank you later, as she's saved from getting mauled. It might have been bad even for one as durable as Gwen is. She will make a three-point landing in the aftermath and be back on her feet right after that. She'll now staring down the Cubes and the boss for a moment and looks at screaming. She notices the thing reconfigure and she stares at what's inside it.

"Wait is it like .. her?!"

Gwen doesn't get to say more as she's forced to drop a Repelling shield to defend herself. A Glow forms over her shield as she manages to keep herself safe for the moment.

"XANDER PULL BACK!"

She will look to Amalthea for a moment. She lunges at the thing she will try to get to the core to put down whatever that thing is but she has some idea on what it could be and if it is? Well, she may have to talk to Jaz later. For now, though she's trying much like her Paladin Siser or is it more like Adoptive Grandmother Amalthea trying to breakthrough.

    "It's got an AT field too?! Come on!" Mizuki exclaims. And then she has to dodge, weave, and ninja jump around the cubes flying across the battlefield trying to smash her. "Hey! Make up your mind, are you an angel or the yellow devil?!" When she gets a clear moment, she takes a deep breath again, and this time spits a tiny speck of firey energy into the midst of some clustered cubes, where it then explodes in a massive fireball, hopefully catching more than one of them at once!

    "Ha! Doesn't work so well when you're not invulnerable while moving around, does it!"

    But then not-Ramiel briefly opens, revealing not the expected red, spherical core but... A robot? It's the right shape and size to be another Spatjahr... well, in pieces and minus the skin. Before she can think about the implications, she sees it raise that arm and her eyes go wide. "GET AWAY FROM THE BLAST!" She shouts, running... towards the monster? But to one side, trying to get out of the line of fire.

    Of course, it's not a helpful warning to anyone who hasn't seen this attack before, but what could she do in the second before it fires?!

    "What does it mean... why is one of those here in the tower?! Are there MORE here?? Is it being controlled?!"

    She turns to look back at the destruction... and sees the party HP bars turning red in her HUD. She holds her paws to her mouth in horror, screaming: "PROPHY! XANDER!" With how high Spatjahr conned, that attack is surely a one-hit kill... or is it??

There... There's something inside the cube. There's /a skeleton/ inside the cube. Prophylaxis' jaw hangs open for just a moment too long. The thing screams again, and a pinpoint beam of scorching, white-hot energy scythes across the battlefield. Reflex saves him again, a wave of cool water carrying him rapidly away from the firing arc... Before the good doctor is abruptly knocked onto his ass by a cube crashing directly into him. "Ghhhh--"

"What the fuck," he asks. "What the /fuck!?/" He asks, again!!

"Why is there a SKELETON IN THE CUBE!?" Prophylaxis demands, his staff flailing frantically. Has he lost it? Has his cool been completely obliterated by the terror of seeing a SPOOKY SCARY SKELLINGTON!?

No.

He was just lining up a shot.

A globe of flame leaps from the tip of his staff and goes sailing forth like a rocket. It crashes into the side of the tetrahedron... And /explodes/ violently, again seeking to blast its shielding apart to expose... Whatever it is that might be at its heart.

As a pair of cubes come for her, Jurou puts her back into a shield bash, smashing one of them aside and bouncing off the floor while the other bumps into her back but doesn't do much more than move her to the side as it collides with her armour. The girl holds up her arm and calls out "Ola Repth!" and a wave of magical energy blossoms out in rings to cover a large area and many participants.
A warm wave of healing energy pours out of Jurou, as she attempts to help those who were damaging the boss, letting them focus on the attack. Her attention is drawn to Kita's yelp of pain, and her spell falters after only a little healing is sent out as she's not used to the distractions. "Kita?!" she calls out, and rushes over to the group of mages to more actively offer defense, and make sure her Imp doesn't get hurt further. She makes eye contact with Kita, a silent question of 'You okay?' shared in the glance, though Jurou quickly turns back to face the boss and interpose her shield between those flying cubes and her allies.

Merek's surging buff reaches over the full battlefield, touching and giving a promising status to a lot of the combattants! People feeling a surge of power overcoming them that normally would be decidicated to small party techniques.

Lin's lightning zaps one of the cubes, jumping to another one, causing them to suddenly freeze in place as he temporarily paralyzes them! Just in time to stop those two from making use of Kita's stumble after getting her legs snagged - to do even worse.

The arcane mage manages to use this chance to not just target the two that had attacked her, but the two frozen in place by Lin. Getting out of the way, and letting a cascading fireball detonate between all four of them in that way where you 'just manage to catch everything at the edge of your well planned AoE'. It just feels good, as the flames swallow up the cubes and drain more of their HP! Mizuki then sends their own fireball into the midst, properly resonating with Kita's magic, and causing their combined flames, and Lin's earlier electric shocks, to eradicate those four cubes!

Behind her, Amalthea and Yuuki are making a play for the skeleton hidden within the chamber within the massive eight sided die shaped enemy. Yuuki avoids multiple cubes as she finally gets behind the crystal, cleaving into the field, causing it to crack for a moment! She then throws Amalthea up! Straight towards that chamber!

This close by, Amalthea spots as multiple wires suddenly send electrical current into that mechanical skeleton body, causing it to shake, its arm transforming back from its cannon mode into a proper hand, as it demands; "Einweg!" Causing Amalthea to SLAM against a second shield that seems to refuse to give. But she can see the strain behind it. The damage even this much is doing to the unit inside! It doesn't even look at Amalthea. Its eyes are downcast, almost like it can't see.

Amalthea, just as she is about to get launched back, it grabbed by Vertina by the scruff, getting her away from one of the cubes, right before Vertina uses that same cube to launch herself off, and Amalthea safely towards the ground, and punches against that same shield. Sparks continue to fly! Some of them coming from Setsuna's lightning abilities, constantly raining down on the top of the Dee Eight.

The mechanical 'doll' within the crystaline figure raises her weapon arm again, and it shifts into that same form it used earlier. But this time, it seems to start spitting rapid red bolts, as if it were firing some kind of magical laser machine gun thing. Each mark blasting with enough firepower to make Megumin take notes.

Schneider tries to halt some of the strikes, using their own rapid strikes to intercept some of the blasts. And Gwen soon jumps in, shield raised, halting some of those strikes and rams against the protective shield. It begins to give... until finally, the shield protecting the Dee Eight shatters!

"Einweg!" Is heard again, as Prophylaxis' blast aims for the mechanica 'puppet' hanging from those wires within the Dee Eight, as it begins to warp again! Shifting from its current shape... into something more ostentatious.

The hanging figure comes to the forefront, while massive rings form a backbone. Wings upon wings form, as the crystaline entity seems to give birth to wires and tubes that connect to the back of the figure. A red glowing orb above her head shining, seeming to pulse each time this figure is 'forced' to perform a task.

There's constantly sparks flying from this entity, most of the 'wings' on its body are damaged beyond recognition, even as it tries to form. Piece that do try to reform, just spark and detonate, falling off.

The various cubes rush towards it, expanding, reconfiguring into an undercarriage as it seems to form into something utterly... rediculous: https://imgur.com/a/I4mOzAi

This gives the team some time to heal, but what would follow would no doubt make healing severely more difficult. Multiple generators on its sides starting to pulse with blue light. Energy rapidly building up. The left side suddenly detonates, breaking off and falling to the ground, turning into white shattered light.

Right before those blue lights erupt into homing lasers that blast the area as if it were being shelled by artillery! The machine puppet remaining hanging there, eyes downcast, with a dead stare at the ones below her. Multiple arcane shields forming around its body, taking in some of the blasts being cast at it, before turning and firing them back upon its opponents!

"I'm okay..." Kita grits her teeth as she answers Jurou, her expression strained. They are in the middle of a fight that very well feels like life or death, and it's best not to act as too much of a distraction.

Of course, there is the faintest sound of surprise when the boss seems to start to change yet again. The Imp can't help but stare. "No no no. Jurou, look out!" She offers warning as she dives for cover, herself. Landing hard on the ground, throwing up another of her magical shields, the blast just barely misses her, leaving scorched earth where she had just been seconds before.

Without even trying to get to her feet, the black mage begins to draw out a circle of runic symbols on the floor, which ignites with dark fire. This same color seems to light in her own eyes as she draws it up, feeding a massive ball of whirling dark flames with her own energy.

Extending both palms forward, she shoves the massive fireball in the direction of the strange boss monster, hoping to at least do some damage.

    'Xander!'

Did someone yell his name?

    'Pull Back!'

    'Xander!'

    'Peterson! Its suicide! You can't--! Marcus!'

I-- have to do something. I could never just stand idly by. We are a team. Brothers in arms. A family...

Is this-- how I will die here too? To another machine?

--------------------

    Xander closes his eyes for a moment, "... They... are dead..." He slowly rises to his feet, as his eyes open and looks dead on at the boss. "... and you... are nothing but zeros and fucking ones."

"Not a creation of my mind... just a stupid boss," He readies his blade once more. "I have to kill... so we can succeed in our mission." He narrows his eyes. "... get f'n hold of yourself solider," He says now to himself. "... and do you god damn mission!"

    The Salamander's eyes has no light in them. There is smoke rolling out from his nostrils as he starts to walk as the thing begins to transform. Then jog...

Then goes into a full on run!

    He takes the sword he carries into both hands, moving between people's attacks and heading directly for the weaponry. He leaps up, moving to slam the sword directly into the guns. Only to see one of the weapons swivel around about then.

He can see the weapon getting ready to fire and for the slight moment, he closes his eyes unaware of what is about to happen next...

This time Schneider doesn't get his shield up in time to avoid the homing lasers and his health bar drops preceptitiously. It's possible he's boggling at the transforming enemy, he's a bit slow. But he's changing targets, and he's also winding up the big guns. Or, well, the bigger guns. He hasn't fired off Exodus yet, he's saving that for if things get bad. Things are looking like they're getting there, but they're not there yet. But he breaks out his sword, and shouts, "Serve me now!" To the sword. It roars with flame, and he dashes in, heedless of the damage, and begins slamming the blazing sword into the main part of the enemy ... whatever it is. As fast and hard as he can.

    Yuuki lands on the ground again after having thrown Amalthea. She skids backwards to a stop, before watching the skeleton figure within react to Amalthea's strike, "Another shield!? Come on!"

    But then the form of boss begins to change. An actual form change this time! Yuuki watches with interest as it forms into some kind of multi-winged angel robot thing. Seriously, someone was watching too much sci-fi when they were developing this boss. Still, it keeps things interesting!

    Even more so as a barrage of lasers start to pepper the party. Yuuki is, of course, off and running again. She zips, leaps, dives and slides her way around the lasers and their explosions, all the while closing on one of the lowest points of the floating angelbot.

    Once she's close, Yuuki leaps, grabbing hold of a lower wing. She then starts to climb up, grabbing hand holds where she can, leaping from one perch to the next, making her way up the large angel's wing. Right until she gets close to the point where it connects to the body. Yuuki then leaps up into the air, rising up over it with her sword raised. The dark blade begins to glow with light.

    With a cry, Yuuki plummets down towards the joint, swinging her blade with enough force to create a visible shockwave of air as it strikes, Yuuki trying to separate the wing from its body.

Vertina rebounds from her attack, skidding backwards on the ground. But this is not the time, or the boss, to be caught standing still. She grits her teeth and springs off her heels, at the same time enacting the rapid mantra of hand motions to focus her inner spirit. "Mirage Phase!" Just as the thing finishes forming and spreading it's wings she finishes, and as she darts in one direction multiple other Vertinas bolt in various others. While they're only reflected images, that they contain a bit of 'life' from the ki energy focusing the light to make them seems to be enough to mislead the homing lasers into vaporizing the mirages instead.

The technique works, giving Vertina a chance to maneuver herself back into position towards the newly formed monstrousity. She clenches her fists, flames igniting brightly around her. "Time to handle this bitch like a bad wound... and cauterize it!" The Salamander's strong legs launch her into action once more, a little burst of flame from her feet to help propel her. Flames consolidate around her fist, even as she's launched up she swings it a massive blazing uppercut aimed at smashing part of the wing formation back apart with all her fiery might. "RAGNAROK RISING!" Cute, she even gave the variation it's own name.

Lin stares uselessly at the cubes bearing down on him, far too off balance to get out of their path. "AAH!" He cries out, fully expecting to get hit. But someone did hear and someone did rescue. Lin is flung aside by a fierce shove, Xander taking his place with raised shield to heroically take the blow. Lin tries to pick himself up. "I'm okay! Thank you!" He glances at his health bar, then that of the salamander who saved him. Panic spreads across the pooka's face.

"You've got to get back, those things..." He starts saying to Xander, cutting off midsentence when the cubes fly away to rejoin the mothership. "No way." Lin catches his breath and raises his spellbook as the Salamander charges off towards the winged beast. There's no backing out now. They're too close to finishing the fight to give up. He lets off another rapid series of lightning bolts, throwing sizzling energy at the angel's main gun while trying to avoid the lasers.

    Merek of course would notice that Xander was about to be beamed right in the face, then he takes a moment to begin maneuvering that way. He keeps his weapon sheathed while he begins to dance along the field, when he comes upon the man. "XANDER!" The man sweeps along to try and bring the man with him into cover along the ground while he brings up the shield, only for it to be broken through by the beam, striking Merek multiple times when he steps up in front of the man.
    The man begins to glow into red shimmers while the beam spam strikes along him, noticing that the soldier was not about to strike it. He stands up when blasted back, then stands along in front of Xander, "Not losing anyone else. Not like that!" He then takes a potion at the belt, which he swings right into the main gun, into a blast of explosion. Although he seems to be shimmering in that little glow, he does place a hand to the man's shoulder next to him, "Xander!"

Gwen now gets a good look at what's in the crystal how it's talking and there's a dawning look of horror on her face. She takes a look at what the machine in the crystal is saying she looks at the design style. She's got an idea of what this is, she's seen a being like it before.

"IF IT FIRES IT WILL LIKELY WIPE US!"

Memories of the single-shot the purple-haired being had fired on the island are fresh in her mind. She'll trigger her most powerful ability to keep the boss on her.

"ANCHOR HOWL!"

Green wind bleeds off her body and helps keep the boss on her somewhat and keeps her allies well safer for the moment as she then will leap into the air and trigger another spell.

"If I can't fly, neither can you!"

Gwen calls out as she sets off a skill of her own creation.

"DIVINE WIND!"

Gwen lets a barrage of wind/light elemental sword strikes to carve up the wings before she'll fall back.

Syx honestly has no idea what's going on. He hears folks on the raid group talking about skeletons and it being weird that the boss is talking and none of that matters. He's trying to figure out the best way to deal with these adds.

He's not smart enough to figure out any advanced tactics or ways to get the skeleton out of there. He didn't even know there was a skeleton. That's not his problem. He has to attack another one of those cubes. Then suddenly for him those cubes are gone.

Because there's a giant mech monster there now, "Seriously. What the /fuck/." He somehow manages to keep himself safe by putting a wall of flames in front of himself, keeping himself alive for the moment.

But they have to bring this thing down, somehow. He can't exactly suplex something this size...But that's not going to stop him from trying.

He has to get up there though. How on earth do that...Though when he sees other folks climbing the boss, he figures what the hell. So he does the same, running as best he can along the body of the boss to try to get to one of the wings, jumping off and trying to grab it and pull it down to the ground. Maybe he can put enough strength behind it to flip the boss over and throw it to the ground.

As a hail of laser fire comes down on her and the mages beside her, Jurou raises her shield armour, and it bursts into glowing flames, then the fire spreads further, spiralling outwards into a wall of flames that deflect the incoming shots away from her and some of those nearby in the safety of her large flame shield. When the lasers subside, the Salamander girl brings her sword to bear again, slashing through her own fire and sending waves of it flying away into the mass of the boss, fast moving curved bolts of flame drawn with the edge of her blade.
"Don't stray too far, Kita-ai." Jurou calls out to her, moving to follow the mage while her shield wafts away into smoke.

You know what the best solution to everything around you being set on fire by infinite lasers is?

BEING ON FIRE PREEMPTIVELY.

The blaze of artillery-beam-fire scours the land around him. Flame consumes all that surrounds the magus, turning it all into so much colorless ash. And when the blinding light fades, there's only...

...A single bonfire, smoldering there amidst the ash and the smoke.

...And then it fades away, and Prophylaxis emerges, looking altogether VERY glad that he had managed to get that shield up in time. "Okay," he wheezes, "Note to self: More defensive spells. That... Might have been /too/ close."

The thing... has transformed. The geodesic monster has given way to something that Prophylaxis can only describe as 'a mechanical fallen angel.' "What the hell are we even fighting? This has gone so far beyond just 'an illusory minotaur...!'"

But, is the thing hooked up to it-- the mechanical skeleton-- is it even alive? Is it... even a willing participant in all this?

Whatever it is, there's a barrier around it, and there is one spell in Prophylaxis' repertoire that he knows is just /perfect/ for dealing with shields.

"O' spirit of ice and snow," Prophylaxis murmurs, pointing the head of his staff at the mechanical puppet and the shield that protects it. "O' final stasis that awaits at the end of all things, render upon them the final truth! The instant of your death-- is no different from this singular moment! FROST SHOCK!"

It's not an 'offensive' spell, per se, but nevertheless, a wave of cold flows across the battlefield and seems to coalesce across that barrier. The spell, described as being able to tear through even the strongest shield, activates and targets the angel's final barrier...!

But will it be enough!?

    The thing transformed again and Setsuna was stunned. A part of him was terrified, he had seen enough mech animes to know that things new form was bad news. Another part of him was shouting in his head, whatever you do in this game we have to pilot something like that. It is these conflicting thoughts that makes him flail a bit when he fired upon, and lack of concentration on his shield causes it to shatter into bone shards. A good chunk of his hp disappears too. Standing up he eyes the wings and with his target in sight he casts, "Earth Pillar!" The pillar launches as if it was a javelin thrown into the wings trying to bring it down for good.

    They're low on health, but not dead. Right. Even if they were dead, they'd be back.

    ...Can they really count on that? Mizuki's hand goes to her neck, fingertips brushing where her flesh was torn open before. Who's to say ancient battle androids' weapons run on the same rules...?

    It's reconfiguring again. Destruction rains from the heavens, and it takes everything Mizuki has to dodge across the battlefield at high speed... until she's caught by an unexpected reflected attack, which knocks her on her ass, a huge chunk of her health bar red and fading. "It's an angel, a devil, a super battle android, and now an Orbital Frame too?! Come on...!"

    She kips up and looks up at the flying machine. It's on its last health bar, she can only hope that means no further transformations... "Alright..."

    Jumping on the giant monster has worked every time before, right?

    Also, if she's too close and at the wrong angle she can't be shot with that weapon.

    Mizuki squats and thrusts her palm up, then leaps as the Stone Catapult rises beneath her, flinging her towards the robot! She jumps three more times in the air. Spellcasting rings surround her during the fourth jump. "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 and head. She tries to grab onto those cables holding the robot to the wings, and bites down on one with her teeth! The ice expands around her hands and teeth with crushing force! She tries to shout something, but she can't talk around all the ice!

    Amalthea grunts; straining as another shield gets in her way, trying to batter through it.
    "... Look me in the eyes while I try to kill you." She whispers. "Look me in the eyes."
    But then she's scruffed-- brought back down groundwards with another grunt, only to look up...
    And watch wide-eyed as the cubes form into wings for the creature within the octahedron.
    "Ah..."
    And then come the lasers.
    "Behind me and Gwen, now!" She shouts to the group.

    "ANCHOR HOWL!"

    With her shield raised she tries her best to soak as may of those homing lasers as she can, spanging off her armor and the heavy plate she wields, gritting her teeth, skidding backwards as lasers impact her and cause her to drag two furrows in the ground with her boots.
    As she reels her arm back with her blade in hand...
    And HURLS it, launching the blade through the air, end over end, intending to throw it into the center of that skeletal figure's ribcage right through the sternum and where it's heart would be, if it even had a heart.

Kita's massive arcanely altered Fireball slowly sails forwards! Multiple blue lasers blasting into it as the small mage has to put her everything into keeping the focus up on her spell. To stop it from being disrupted by the onslaught. Symbols of runic flame and dark magic erupt across the fireball as if it were a sun as she pushes it forward, erupting as it touches one of the forward facing guns, eradicating it before one of the shields can try to distort her magic, detonating right in place, swallowing up more of its metal!

As it detonates, a blue laser carves through, only to be caught upon Xander's shield as he rushes in, protecting Kita while moving forward. A few soldiers nearby bend down and put their hands out, footstooling him and launching him into the air! His sword meets one of those massive weapon systems, slicing through the metal like butter. He can see the shred of Integrity on it being erased, right before another laser prepares to eradicate him in return...

Merek moves Xander out of the way, grabbing him by the back and pushing him out of the way, forcing Xander to latch onto one of the metalic rings of this metalic beast. The walls being broken all around it as its lasers continue to bear down, while he spots... the 'doll' raising her arm, whispering those same words he'd heard earlier. The one that had announced the death-plume like strike...

Off in a corner, Yuuki manages to grab onto one of the wings, seperating a section of wing. Ripping it off of the main body, causing it to plumet along with her down to the ground, softening her landing just before exploding into light.

A laser is about to come down upon her, when Schneider's blazing attack sears up, eradicating the cannon that just fired, causing the detonation to land behind her instead! Another detonation of flame occurs seconds later, as Vertina uppercuts through a section of wing, while its cannons are being paralyzed in rapid succession by Lin! Some of the electric currents rushing through its entire body, causing a few detonations further down the line! Fuel-lines bursting and exploding into flames.

As Vertina comes down, she manages to give Syx an alley-oop, sending him up where he needs to go! Grabbing one of the wings, and RIPPING it off of the severely weakened mechanical construct. Everywhere, he can spot rust. Damage. Metal fatigue that suggests constant wear for decades... if not longer. It's not enough force to topple the enemy however.

It is about to shield itself up again. Hexes starting to form around its body, as Prophylaxis' frost shock suddenly rips over its body. The various arcane shields seize up, unable to counter or reflect magic from his Alliance allies, or the raid for this matter. The shield it is trying to set up failing before it even forms.

Mizuki helps Jurou up, and together they land on its body for a moment. Jurou's massive flame strike carving in a wide arc across its body, catching various containers on fire which presumably contained ammo, as they detonate with hellish fury!

Mizuki's ice targets quite the opposite direction. Tearing through fuel and power lines with her frozen bite, ripping and tearing through its body. A powerful jerk is all it takes to remove one of the wires from the robot, but from that position, she can also see what Xander was seeing. That targetting motion towards Prophylaxis. Towards Kita. That perfectly aimed setup. Hearing it...

Amalthea's blade rushes straight up, stabbing through its ribcage! It lances right through, pinning its humanoid robotic torso against the backplate behind it, and tearing some of the tables. Its eyes flickering for a moment, looking around in confusion, before a powerful electric current runs through it again, and the red orb glow above it intensifies for a moment. Feeding it more power. Yet, Amalthea saw it, just for a moment. A thankful look.

The entire body is failing. The wings faltering. The main cannons detonating. A chain reaction follows through its body. But it is not in time to stop that yellow light. Not in time to stop Xander from doing what Xander would do.

As Xander grabs at Merek and Mizuki, no doubt close by enough, and throws them off while grabbing hold of that arm in an attempt to...

"Lösen: Enderpokryphen."

Amidst a cataclysmic detonation, Xander, as well as the boss, are eradicated as the chain reaction is swallowed up amidst what looks like a nuclear explosion in 'miniature'. As the shockwave blasts outwards and knocks people back. Ripping up stone, tearing it away and sending debris flying everywhere. As the walls burst around the massive machine...

And a message appears for people:

<< You have defeated the Sixth Floor Boss! >>

        Foaming
        Convulsions
        Red lights
        The code

    Merek shoves Xander out of the way. The two go down to the ground and the Salamander peers up at Merek, "You just watch your own god damn hide!" He barks back at Merek, as he rolls over to grab his sword.

Though lowering himself as the grenade goes off from Merek's own potion made grenade. When Merek yells his name again, he jumps over the protective barrier.

        You can't save everyone
        You have to live with the consequences
        That you are the sole survivor

    He moves once more back into the battlefield. He watches as the machines starts to fall apart. He sees the trajectory of the weapon, the glow. He looks over to Mizuki first.

Then he looks toward Merek who just saved his life.

        Your brothers are gone
        You are all that remains

    His eyes narrow sharply. "Not.. this... time..." His snarls to no one but himself, before he takes hold of both Mizuki and Merek. Then with a magical blast, using air magic to knock them back.

He shoves Merek and Mizuki away from the impact point, which he turns around just in time to grab that arm. His eyes locked onto the skeleton form; A near living example of his nightmare.

        You were to late
        To stop the code

    'Yoshi---'
    'I'm sorry.'

    Then the explosion hits and all is dark...

    Did it... No... Not it couldn't have. But why?
    Why would it look thankful to DIE?
    Amalthea can only stare upwards in bafflement at the boss as it starts to go down and-
    "... Xander." She breathes out, eyes shooting wide open.
    "Xander what are you doi- XANDER GET OFF THERE NOW!"
    But it's too late. Amalthea is forced to raise her shield again to block the blinding flash of that monstrous explosion. But when it dies down, there's... There's no celebration from the old knight as she looks down on the spot where Xander's tombstone now rests. She takes to a knee in front of it.
    "Damn it."

    Merek is thrown back by Xander, even while he would listen to every word which is said to him. "Xander, Xander!" The man watches then while he and Mizuki are saved and the man is brought into that full explosion. After the boss will be finished, he takes a look up above the place, and back to everyone. He then checks the sword with him, while he pulls back the hood which he wears. The man looks to where Xander was. The man leans back while he thinks a little bit.

Seeing the shockwave coming, Jurou grabs Kita by the arm and hefts her to her feet, turning the more heavily armoured side of her body towards the blast and covering the mage with her body. Just before the blast wave hits, the Crusader begins to glow with a soft white light, and when the explosion catches them, it throws them both back with a slightly weakened force due to her shielding effect.
The two are thrown back and slide across the floor, together, Jurou taking the brunt of the impacts as they roll.

    Yuuki falls down with the wing she managed to separate, bouncing off it as they hit the ground. She lands on the ground once more, standing up to look up at the boss just as the rest of the party manage to bring its health down to zero. Yuuki starts cheering...

    ... But then goes a bit quiet as it looks like the boss is about to explode. Yuuki's eyes go wide, before diving down to the ground, covering her head with her arms.

    BOOOOM!

    The boss detonates. The shockwave hits, Yuuki crying out in surprise as she is lifted up into the air. She reaches out, digging her fingers into a crack in the ground and holding on for dear life as she flaps around in the shockwave. Before finally she goes flying away!

    Soon after, Yuuki groans, rubbing the back of her head where it had impacted the wall she was blasted into. Yuuki opens her eyes once more, to spot the message.

    This time, Yuuki cheers properly, "Woooo! We did it! Another one down! Not even one death too!" She grins, "Of course, that's to be expected with such excellent talent here." Pause. Yuuki looks around, wondering why everyone is looking upset.

"Oh this isn't good! Find cover!" Damn bosses trying to wipe the party one last time with an explosive death. Vertina improvises, grabbing one of the chunks of stone torn free by the shockwave and slamming its edge into the floor, reinforcing it with her geokinetic abilities to slapdash a blast shield. She grits her teeth as she has to brace it against explosive force and flying debris alike, knocking chunks off but better it than herself. Or others.

Aftr a moment she peaks out of what little is left of the stone slab (it's not much). "That thing looked like... I think we did it a favor putting it out of its misery... Amalthea?" She watchs the knight walk over to kneel at... "Oh."

Cue Yuuki cheering without paying attention. "Oh for the love of..."

Kita's breath hitches in her throat as she gets a deer in the headlights look. It's not hard to see the targeting of the strange machine aiming right in her direction. In that instance, she freezes, too caught in her own instinctual reaction to move.

It is by the grace of other Adventurers, those who would be called upon as friends and allies, that the monster is taken out in that instant, before the attack can go off in full. However, that doesn't stop the thing from going into some sort of shut-down explosion.

Jurou, at least, has the sense of mind to pull her down and offer herself as a shield. Kita grabs on for dear life, holding on until the two of them come to a stop.

Breathing hard, she looks up, quickly checking over the taller girl wrapped around her, "You're okay?" She asks, giving Jurou a once-over and lightly touching the side of her face.

That is when she hears the shouting of a familiar name. Pushing herself up on one arm, Kita looks around, muttering a curse, "Xander... you stupid brave idiot." She has to remind herself, in that instant, that such things aren't permanent.

So, she just looks to Jurou, "Thanks, love. I... kind of froze up back there." She admits, shaking her head. "Help me up?" She offers out a hand, looking, perhaps, a bit more vulnerable than normal.

After ripping the wing off and slamming that into the ground, Syx lands and rolls. He has to come to a stop after several rolls, and grunts a little bit, pushing himself back up to his feet, "Fuck. Time to bail!" And bail he does, as he runs to get himself clear from the explosion.

He jumps in the air just in time to make a very impressive 'diving away from the explosion in slow mo' moment, too bad he's not still streaming anymore otherwise this would look really cool.

And he definitely doesn't look at the explosion.

    Mizuki wasn't sure those wires were actually severable! But her hope and daring are rewarded and she smiles as the boss falls apart around her (mostly from her allies breaking pieces off of it.) And then Xander is there, shoving her off, and with a mouth full of ice she can only grunt, "?!" before she falls... And flash step is still on cooldown...

    Of course, she lands on her feet and takes reduced fall damage. She is a cat after all. But she's left to stare upwards as the boss, and Xander, explode... And then the shockwave sends her tumbling with debris.

    When she stands again she can see the tombstone. So he's respawning, at least... She hangs her head, then checks the party HUD. At least no one else died...

    Although someone's oblivious. She taps on Yuuki's shoulder and points at the tombstone wordlessly.

    She has an item. She appraises it, and raises her eyebrows at the rarity and traits... and then runs over to Wisteria to give a congratulatory hug! And no doubt get a nearly bone-crushing squeeze in return.

    Setsuna was on the ground and the shockwave of the mech exploding manages to knock him off his feet and sends him a few feet back. Hitting the ground with a thud he just lays there for a moment, " Is it dead this time?" He looks around and sees the debris. Then he hears the shouting and checks the party health frowning. His mana almost gone, his skeleton leg begins to act more as a prop then fully functional limping into the debris field. Eventually he would find Xander's tombstone marker, " Stupid idiot, had to go and get yourself killed! Just because angry Xander has to smash!" With his anger vented he kicks at the tombstone marker before he limps off. After everything he was at least going to see what the next floor look like. Then he was gonna take a nap.

    Yuuki is standing against and dusting herself off when she get shoulder taps, "Huh?" She looks in the direction Mizuki is pointing. She sees Xander's tombstone...

    Yuuki drops to her knees, quietly saying, "No..." She puts her head in her hands, "Our perfect run, ruined!"

Schneider breathes a sigh of relief when the boss explodes and dies, mostly because he's not -in- the explosion. Did everyone get clear? He looks around, looking for bodies, presumably, though they'd despawn, wouldn't they? He's not sure. He gets re-oriented, and looks at the loot he's received. That means they won. And the fact that he's here looking at it is good, too. He looks over the assembled players, smiles widely. Yes, it looks like we won. There's still more to do, though, back on the lower floor. But we'll clear it up.

Lin hasn't done a floor boss fight before. He's avoided most bosses as they're a bit risky. Maybe, just maybe, he was right. He watches explosions ripple across the angel in a chain reaction, wings falling and nearby adventurers scattering in the chaos. He closes his eyes for the final explosion, focusing on breathing and pulling himself back together. Finally he looks about again, staring at the victory text, then over to the party HUD. That was the one who saved him, wasn't it? Of course it was. It had to be. Everyone else is shouting his name and he never thought to read it. He winces and hangs back, quietly blaming himself. Even though it was victory.

Gwen can only watch in horror as Xander isn't getting clear and the boss doesn't seem long for this world.

"XANDER GET OUT OF THERE!"

IT's too late now though as Gwen will see the boss. She will turn and run there's nothing else she can do and she'll scrambla away aking a roll on the gorun to try an get some more dsitance from the boss as it goes down.

"Damn it..."

Gwen calls out to VErtina and frowns for a moment "We can get to fixing your gear once we get back to town." She notes for a momenbt but then looks very concern4ed Prophylaxis with a look a confused look on her face...

Vertina looks over to Proph. "Sometimes he's a bit of an asshole, he's pretty hard to forget!" Then back to Gwen "Well of course I didn't mean right now. But I rather like this jacket!"

"I have no idea who Xander is." Syx says in response to the question about people not remembering Xander.

There is a boom. A cataclysmic boom. Prophylaxis bathes in the afterglow of the explosion with a satisfied smile on his face-- but it fades quickly once he realizes... who is missing.

...And whose HP bar is depleted.

"...No," the doctor whispers. He thinks for a moment, then...

"...Is anyone having trouble remembering him? Anyone at all?"

    "Remembering who? ...Oh, Xander?" Mizuki looks from Prophy to the gravestone, then back. "No, why?" Then she tilts her head. "Although... would I know? Like, I remember talking to him a few times and fighting alongside him... but if I used to know him really well, and didn't now, how would I be able to tell?" She taps her chin. "We weren't best friends or something, were we...?" She tries to think back for suspicious holes in her memory.