Castle Eas: The Final Battle

Castle Eas. A gorgeous castle sitting atop a waterfall, in the middle of a relatively high-level area. It has been a hard fought battle to found anything in this region. And yet, for all the hardship, a proper road stretches from it to the nearest kingdom. What looks like proper /tunnels/ have been dug through stone in order to wind a beautiful path up to this region.

Right now, it's the dead of the night. And the team has started winding their path up through the secret entrance that had been found by a large number of the expedition members. As they move up, they might reminisce about the many assaults they'd committed on Castle Eas, clearing out various high level Orcs in sneaky strikes - clearing more and more of the Orc Shaman's troops.

To this day, the Orc Shaman has not found out where they have been coming from. And to that end, the team has managed to get into the highest level of the Castle without being detected so far. A strike force of just a few Adventurers. Yet powerful enough to challenge the Orc King, the Orc Shaman, one might even call it a Shaman King.

Entering the sizable throne chamber of Castle Eas, the team manage a peek through the doors. The Shaman appears to be in the middle of a ritual at the back of the chamber. Making various motions towards what appears to be some kind of large red gem that has been infused into the throne of the throne chamber.

Standing in a nice 'line' on either side of the ragged remains of what was once a carpet, stand various orcs in formation, wielding various weapons. A formiddable force.

And one the team will have to contend with alongside the Orc Shaman.

    Wake has done an excellent job thus far of maintaining her composure and not letting excitement get to her. Now that it comes to it, she senses the challenge before her. The challenge that she thought lay beyond the orcs in the tower. As the party makes its way quietly through the fortress to the tower, she calls a halt for a moment.

    The Baroness turns to regard those who are with her in this battle. Friends, comrades, so many who have helped her and whom she in turn has aided time and again.

    "I do not know what lies inside the tower, nor what shall come after." There's an electricity in her voice, her tone confident even in uncertainty. "What I can say is what started as a dream became a quest. Then it became a great work, to find, to clear, to earn the rights to possess Eas, this place where we now stand."

    She laughs gently then, and goes on in a louder tone. "And now it is more than that. Now it has become yet something more. A chance to forge bonds between us that have been strained by our situation. It is not the castle that is the greatest prize coming from this battle, nor whatever things we might find after these orcs are sent into oblivion. It is the way we feel when we are together. The trust we have of each other. Yet more, the faith that when we come together this world can never conquer us!"

    Wake gestures back towards the tower, "So we'll have these orcs out, and the castle will be restored. It will be a fortress against more than monsters, but a beacon of hope for all who wander this land, adventurer and people of the land alike."

    She draws out her blades and smiles grimly, "And now, my friends, before we can celebrate properly, let's hunt some orc."

    And with that, she turns away, racing into the tower and making her way upwards. She doesn't need the sounds of feet on the steps behind her to know she is not alone.

    Merek walks along to the top of the castle tower to meet the Shaman King, and nods a bit to the party. The man wears the dark light armor which he keeps with him, the greatsword in a hand while he begins to draw that forward. "You know," he offers quietly, "I don't like the Shaman, they like to use spells that take away protection from the game." He then shifts a stance, adjusting his bracelet and gauntlet which keeps the Enigma Piece on it.
    He doesn't plan to use it, though he will keep that with him, while he waits for Wake to give the order to charge and nods along at the speech. He then draws a sigil in front of him, while it begins to sequence, "Unlock Sequence: FIREBALL!" The fireball blasts along into the shaman while he's doing that ritual.

Often, Rylen is far too preoccupied to focus his attention in any one place. It is the bane of having person who is a former wanderer acting as representative for one of the major guilds in Yamato. As such, though he has contributed to attempts to clear Eas, he hasn't spent as much time here as some others might have. Still, when the call had come to try to deal with the problem once and for all, he had answered.

Still, the Pooka seems a little distracted, represented by the fact that he is quieter than normal, perhaps not quite expressing his usual easy-going persona. Yet, Wake's speech is enough to cause a bit of that spark to return in his gray eyes, nodding his respect for all that has been accomplished here.

Following the others into the tower, Rylen only pauses long enough to get an idea of what is going on around them. "I'll work on the minions. That kind of ritual magic is beyond my understanding." And he doesn't want to cause some enemy ritual to blow up in their faces, quite literally.

So, he turns towards the orcs and stomps once on the ground, causing a pillar to shoot up from underneath one of the guards standing at attention, neatly launching them skyward with a characteristically familiar canned scream sound.

Goldenblade did everything she could with that road short of building an Exxon station, and it's a good road. She marches with the others, her pack loaded with stones and iron scrap, weighing her down, but not enough to stop her. It's slowing her a bit, though, and she's sweating and breathing hard as she strides along with the others. It's her training regimen, and she won't give it up. She's been doing 100 pushups, 100 situps, 100 squats, and 10km every day. She's just started, so her hair hasn't fallen out yet.

That all said, she knows she's not on the A-Team in her current state, and will march in the middle as Wake leads us up and into the tower. She takes a deep breath as the Baroness speaks, and at the end, raises a cheer. "Bonzaiiiii!"

When they arrive at the throne room, she shouts again, and charges into the SHAMAN, unleashing a fiery assault, her swords blazing with fire.

What a horrible night for a curse. Or a lovely one. The gravity of the dangeous castle climb isn't getting Lin down. There's no need to dwell on the risks here - there's a climactic boss battle to look forward to. Knowing his role in the assault team, he hangs near the back, standing on tiptoes and craning his neck to try and hear Wake's inspiring speech. He's properly inspired. Spellbook in hand, words of power at the ready, he charges in with the team.

With the team getting the drop on the foes, he scans for the largest group of enemies. There's more than enough orcs for everyone here! This is a job for simple, uncomplicated, and absolutely excessive fire. The Pooka lobs a crackling ball of flame at a formation, grinning excitedly as it explodes brightly. "A good start!"

    Setsuna and the skeleton knight run up the steps inspired by the call to arms speech given by Wake. It was one of those speeches that truly made people forget all the political stuff and remind folks that they all have one common goal. To kill monstetrs. So as the monster handler run's in he sends his knight minion to go take on the orc minions and to prove which minion was a better minion. With the skeleton knight charging forward Setsuna begins to feed his magic through the knight and the knight unleashes a slash of dark energy at one of the minions with a monster roar to match.

Castle Eas means a lot of things to a lot of people.

Proteus stares at the castle on the waterfall in the moonlight, her expression inscrutable as she looks up from her position in the shadow. Just another cloaked bit of darkness amidst the rocks and valley as she ponders both the castle and the circumstances surrounding it.

A leather-covered hand creaks as it closes into a fist.

Some time later, the Imp Archaeologist moves along with the others. Her own attempts to deal with the problems of Eas were less than smooth, but they played their part nonetheless. And now they have done enough to begin pushing towards a final strike to liberate it from the Orc menace. "Monsters." She mutters. "I'm not going to lie, there are /some/ advantages to what happened. We might never have been able to clean this place out permanently otherwise." Proteus mentions to the others, clearly referring to the ability of Adventurers and others to actually reshape the local monster ecology with extensive application of murder.

But Proteus is here, supporting the Baroness both for the cause of the Baroness as well as the Imp's own. "We're here, Wake. It's time to put an end to them and a beginning to your dream. Let's get this done."

The assault begins. Proteus does not charge forward. Instead, she stands to the back and traces through the air, beginning to shape the form of the battle like one of her puzzles. ( ! 8 # "Knowledge is power."

The Omen Ability splays out, beginning to give Proteus knowledge of the enemy's upcoming movements. She shouts out directions, trying to help block off enemy potential actions and funnel things towards a superior position for the assault team.

It probably doesn't go so well. What? She's an archaeologist, not an astrologian.

    Mizuki hasn't been especially helpful with supporting Wake, aside from fighting monsters. Partly her focus is on the Scales, and partly it's that her skills as a Ninja Thief are more useful for sneaking and stealing than creating things. Still, it's looking like they'll be living in this world for years, so establishing another Point of Light in a world full of monsters seems a worthy short-term objective!

    Also: When you sleep instead of doing hard labor all day, it means when you're awake you're at your best! And so the ninja is here, in her midnight purple gi and flowing red scarf. "I'm going to assume allowing that ritual to complete would be bad." While the others charge in to fight, for once, she stays out of it for a bit, trying to stealthily sneak closer to the ritual, seeing if she can get into close enough range to appraise the gem or get a better look at the ritual... it just MIGHT be wise to have some idea of what they're interrupting, after all!

Kauchemar has been supporting Wake since the start of her efforts in reclaimation, of course the Nightmare Bard is accompanying her now as they make their way onto the grounds for what should hopefully be the final push. Of course, they're expecting considerable opposition, and that's exactly what they find in the numerous orcs lined up and armed to the ugly stained teeth. But seeing as they have a few moments of open advantage... the nightmare grins a wicked little grin.

Being one to never turn down an oppritunity to make a show she strides into the chamber like they already own the place. She puts a hoof to the ground and stops, mist seeming to already sheen around her as she gives her mane a hairflip and thrusts one hand into the air to capitalize on the oppritunity.

"o/~ With moons above, dark waters rise... You cannot slow the changing tides o/~"
Aetheral water swirls up into a spiral around her, coiling about to gather near her upstretched palm.
"o/~ From depths below that never yields... o/~" The water surges upward over her, the sound of churning waters audible as it manifests into another equine aspect briefly.
"o/~ A watery grave -- Drowning Fields! o/~"

Kauchemar lowers her arm and thrusts it out, and the watery kelpie aspect arcs over her, roiling over into a surging wave as it crashes down towards the Orcestra lines and catch as many orcs as it can up in the twisting, drowning current caused in the water's wake.

Prophylaxis has a good deal of history with several members of the Olympus Alliance. It's that same deep, apocryphal bond that has brought him back into Wake's orbit and seen him set fire to several dozen orcs in part of her crusade to liberate Castle Eas. It has also led him to drag several other members of the Scale Emblem Alliance along for the final raid on that very same castle.

It seems like it's been ages since their first probes were rebuffed by a storm conjured by the local orcish shaman. Now, with his forces diminished and a path laid out, the Shamorc King has been unable to detect their latest approach... Which is just about the best possible outcome. Sieging Eas from the outside just seems like a recipe for absolute disaster.

Instead, they are free to get the drop on the shaman. Prophylaxis takes immediate advantage, conjuring a series of poisonous vines to stealthily snake across the corners of the throne room, only to strike the moment the rest of the party charges in. But...

He also has his eyes on... Something else.

"Hm," he murmurs, thinking aloud. "That gem... It looks /remarkably/ similar to something I've seen before. That may be a monster nest, Wake. A crystal that allows other monsters to teleport in from... Somewhere? What that orc is doing looks suspiciously like he might be trying to summon something."

    Yuuki is definitely excited. It shows as she spends much of the hike up to the castle, through the secret entrance, through the once-guarded portculus (which has now hopefully respawned since the last time she was there) and into the castle proper, running around full of energy and chatting with people excitedly.


    And now that they're here, ready to take the castle on behalf of Wake and by extension, the Sleeping Knights, it's taking all of Yuuki's will power to not just rush in. Instead staying behind to listen to Wake. Only once Wake has finished does Yuuki draw her sword and shout, "We'll teach those orcs that they should have picked somewhere else to set up! Right before we kill them!"

    The charge begins! Yuuki of course goes along, occasionally running across walls and such to keep ahead. She's not going to be left behind!

    As they enter the throneroom, Yuuki naturally zeroes in on the big boss. It's where the most fun and glory is! She charges the Shaman from behind, sweeping her sword out to the side. It bursts into flames. Yuuki then leaps into the air with a cry towards the Shaman's back to drive the blade point into him. Yuuki then plants her feet against the boss, pulling the blade out once more and leaping backwards, unleashing a quick horizontal parting strike as she does so.

    Yuuki flips through the air before landing on her feet once more, preparing for the boss's counterstrike!

Well, there had been more effort to push back and rake the castle. It was not just the team Gwen had taken through that did this. Nay, it was quite a few people whose action has lead them all to this point.

Still, a lot of progress had been made. It looked like it was time for the final push against it was time to deal with the shaman orc. There was something about Orc Shaman Gwen didn't like, which likely had something to do with a game she played before Pluto's kiss. That would have to be it she mused. Either way, the battle was on already and Gwen would be pushing right for the Orc Shaman to get right in his face she'll pick up speed.

"SONIC LUNGE!"

She'll end up just about flying at the Orc leader before launching into a brutal series of elemental sword strikes!

    Prophylaxis' comment is very concerning to Wake. "We'll need to bring him down fast, then!" Which is exactly what everyone seems to be doing. There's not a ton of room to rumble with the Shaman at the moment, and Wake spends the opening of the fight beating the ever-loving hell out of some of the mook orcs. The specifics are unpleasant. In this fight, Wake's not focused on flare or style. She's converting orcs to pixels as fast as she can, and if there is a beauty or grace to it, it is in the simplicity.

    "Keep up the communications, everyone! If you are hurt don't be a wallflower!" She punctuates her sentence by slipping behind an orc and twisting its neck to an angle that no loving god intended.

Another presence had been missing from the battlefield for a while now. Biding her time from the shadows... most of the time, she often was serving burgers at the guild house after all. Don't judge her.

She had been mostly invisible for a while, but when a mobilization started to storm the castle, she followed.

As the attack starts, several spells and flashy attacks are sent out. And then out of the shadows, a series of swipes from some dual swords, slicing up like blades of winds, hitting the Shaman from several directions, with only a shadowy figure briefly appearing at the origin of each.

And when the assault ends, the idol ninja is a few steps back from the target, in a crouching position as she rises with her short swords in each hands "Need a hand, everyone?" She smiles and winks to those nearby, putting on some star power.

FIREBALL

That is the word that starts the battle. The flaming orb rushes through the halls as the gates open, and the fireball slams against the Orc Shaman and violently erupts. Flame bursts up and stone gets charred, right until there is a single motion of the beast's hand, and the entire blast is eradicated with that motion of its hand. Shimmering behind it, are three beings. A blue dragon of sorts, moving its coils around the shamans and letting our a roar loud enough to blast away the debris left behind from the fireball - crackling with energy. A flaming small phoenix that eats some of the remaining flames. And a blue turtle which steps out from the ground, with some kind of strange 'pipe' on its back.

In a deep and growling voice, the Orc Shaman slowly speaks; "You fools. You come only to your doom. Approach me then." Before spreading out his hands. The three nearest and biggest orcs slowly grab their weapons as the three glowing creatures approach them. The turtle, the phoenix, and the dragon, each 'jumping' into one of the Orcs each - the Turtle into a white Bearded old looking Orc, the Phoenix into a thinner female orc with Scars all across her body, and the Dragon into a Starved looking Orc.

While the orcs are being given their power, Rylen runs in, hitting the nearest orc up so high, it slams its head into the ceiling and kind of gets stuck there - moving its hands against the ceiling while wiggling its legs, trying to get out!

The moment Goldenblade charges through, managing to get past the Orcs in their surprise, he's caught halfway through by the bearded old Orc who suddenly stands in her way! Her sword is caught right into its hide as the Orc grabs her by the shoulders, heaving her over its shoulder, and throwing her back as its body begins to glow. The Turtle's power growing within it, making that white air grow, and forming what looks like a 'cannon' on its back.

Lin sends a ball of flame into the midst of the front line Orcs, blazing through two of them, right before his attack is suddenly caught at the tip of a flaming snake-looking whip that the Scarred Orc whips forward. The flames being sucked in faster and faster into the whip itself!

Setsuna's strike cuts at another set of Orcs, slicing them down, right before the last planned strike is caught suddenly by an electrified sword. The sparks flying from the strike - disrupting the black magic.

All of this, the sudden eruption of power within the chamber, is enough to disrupt Proteus' attempts at divination. And she might spot the rotten-toothed grin from the Orc Shaman across the halls, staring at her, holding one hand out. A flash of white magic sparking. Some kind of... Counter Spell?

Mizuki charges in, but she is suddenly intercepted by the Scarred orc. Not by her stepping in the way, but by the flames that had been stolen from Lin's ball of flame suddenly being blasted her way, disrupting her approach and forcing her into evasive maneuvers!

Kauchemar's water-balls grab a series of Orcs, surging around them and crushing a few of them, while starting to crown others, even as the winds in the hall begin to pick up. Baroness managing to get through the water barrier on one and snapping its head so fast, the rush of light coming from its fallen body almost seems accelerated.

At the throne, the snakes try to approach, only for the shaman to slam its hand to the ground, and earth spikes rupture up. A few snakes get through, biting the Shaman, finally getting through the defenses. But the damage is minimal so far! Yuuki comes down for her strike, but her horizontal strikes are... parried!?

Suddenly, before her, that Starved looking Orc. A single blade blocking both of her strikes as it jumps into the air towards her, rising up at the air and pushing her back towards the ceiling, before it uses some kind of air technique to push off in mid-air and places both of its hands on its blade, trying to solidify its strike as it aims to pierce at her!

Gwen, down below, manages to get through! Her blade reaches the Orc Shaman. Striking across its flesh and harming it, right before it suddenly slams one /fist/ onto her blade, pushing it down, while it slams its other hand up at her head, catching her right on the jaw, launching her up just slightly, before it spin-kicks her back into the hall and sends her skidding to the ground.

Reika is just about to reach the shaman, when the massive Bearded Orc finally gets back and gets in the way. With its fist, it blocks the blade. She carves into his arm, only for the large Bearded orc to push her back with a roar, before he kneels down and puts his claws to the ground...

And the cannon in its back suddenly fires. A shock of energy blasting through the region, misting around him, while shattering the waterborn bubbles with the sonic blast of the attack itself - exploding the doors behind the team.

The flame using Scarred Orc then suddenly steps forward, and brings up her flaming whip, while begins to breathe fire towards the ceiling - splashing out like an umbrella and falling towards the Adventurers all over the place!

While the Regular orcs are certainly more easily taken down... this Trio of enhanced Orcs... is far harder to deal with.

    A jet of redirected flame goes right through Mizuki...'s afterimage! She's a ninja, after all. "It looks like it's some kind of summoning ritual!" she shouts, and continues moving closer to the circle, waiting until it looks like the other orcs are distracted to start 'waterbending', calling up water out of the floor to try and trap the shaman...

Goldenblade charges in, swords blazing, and she's thrown back just as quickly, weighted backpack and all, hurling her back like a rag doll, and she lands heavily on her side, tumbling several feet before rolling to a stop, shy a large chunk of HP. She drags herself back to her feet, bruised and battered, and takes a long breath before charging back in again for more of the same. "That could have gone better," she says dryly. "But I've had worse."

She seems to have spent her fire, or else is holding it in reserve, she slashes and cuts with a loud cry, like a kyah, rushing back into the fray to land heavy blows with both swords as fast and hard as she can. We may have missed the window to stop it from summoning allies, but the faster we can put them down, the less time they have to hurt us.

"Yeah yeah. You can always depend on a boss monster to tell us how we're going to die." Rylen quips. It seems that the thrill of battle is enough to draw out that relaxed attitude of his again. It looks better on him than the more serious expression that had been there before. "You just keep on monologing if you want. More time for us to deal with your friends."

The Beastmaster is relatively quick on his feet, meaning that he manages to avoid most of the attacks that come lumbering his way, even the hail of fire that comes down from above. A few embers land on his jacket, which he quickly pats out. "That's not very nice. Then again, better Gwen is here to exhibit her rage at damaged fashion on the monsters rather than on me."

He isn't completely distracted by his own clever commentary, and starts to make motions with his hands, pulling up vines from the ground beneath the throne room. The thorny appendages reach out and latch around Orcish legs, trying to slow them down or trip them up in the process.

    "Ya, we're not having any of that magic," Merek then tells the orc shaman, while he begins to charge into the whole of the fight, taking a moment to lift up his sword while he swings along and summons a flame that shifts upon the weapon. The greatsword will begin swinging into the creature while he fights the monster. The man seems to be trying to keep them from using that magic while the party keeps on the orc.

Reika doesn't get to land her attacks on her target, but she still did some damage to something at least. That bearded Orc makes her frown "Well, protecting your leader is commendable, but how long will you hold on." She raises her hand up, her open hand charging up with a ball of crackling energy.

"SHOCK!"

In a fluid motion, she slams the ball in the ground, making it explode into a dome of lightning bolts, shooting at the orcs around her, but leaving her untouched. Magic works to the caster's advantage after all!

She strategically flips backward, out of range of the retaliation strikes sent her way. Sting like a bee, float like a butterfly.

    Setsuna stops mid combat and just stares at the shaman and his summoning actions. He does not stare in shock or in displeasure, no if anything it is in interest. If one looks closely there may even be a little drool as he watches the shaman summon the beasts and uses them to empower the others. Then a moment later he is smacked by a whip of flames as he goes sliding back across the floor. Standing up Setsuna rubs his jaw, that now has a burn mark across it. " That hurt." With his focus given back to him he calls back his knight to make sure there is no collateral damage before he places his hand on the ground and sends a pillar toward the flame whipe orcstress, with his knight standing on top ready to smash the orcstress in the face.

It's a devestating first strike, but it's no more than the beginning of a great and glorious battle. There's blasts and fire raining all over the place, creating plumes of steam where it falls upon the waters left in the wake of Kauchemar's elemental summon. But the equine Were Fang is already on the move, using the same watery aftermath to practically skate across the chamber while evading the various attacks with the grace one would expect of dancing through a battlefield.

"o/~ Warriors answer the Baroness' call, and when we rise," Kauchemar leaps off her evasive water-skating, congealing a pair of spheres of black magic and hurtling them into the ranks to disrupt the orcs from getting re-orcestrated, "DARKNESS FALLS!"

The orc shaman conjures a sluicing tide of stone spikes from the floor of the throne room. Prophylaxis quirks his brow at the sight. "Hey now," he complains, whining only just a /little/ bit. "That's /my/ trick...!"

But he never trademarked it, and now he's a victim of copyright pirorcy......!

Also a victim of tremendous shockwaves of elemental force bombarding him from two directions at once. Evading the turtle's cataclysmic cannonfire is one thing, but to simultaneously dodge out of the way of a rain of fire is a little more difficult. The magus grunts as he's blasted back across the throne room floor, only to turn his eyes up and glare at the assembled trio and their leader...

Trio... One is missing, isn't it?

"The ritual," Prophylaxis muses as he pushes himself back upright, steadying his stance with his staff. Tellurian energy ripples down the storm-soaked wood and into the stone below. The ground rumbles, churns, and suddenly lances upward in a massive torrent of spikes, all aimed to tear the shaman to shreds--

Or at least to distract him.

"One is missing. If he summons the fourth beast, we'll be in even /deeper/ shit, unless he's hiding that one within him already...! Keep up the pressure, don't allow this ritual to come to its conclusion!"

The fight is on! Lin is firing on all cylinders. Fiery embers whip him in a cyclone as he chants the words of another fireball. It draws a lazy arc through the air before landing with a bright flash and concussive boom. The Pooka looks self-satisfied, even smug, but that confidence is given a good rattle by the orcs firing back. He can't help but flinch when the doors behind him explode. A counterattack already? More adds? Lin dashes for cover, doing his absolute best not to be the first in the back line to get picked off.

"I'm afraid we're are the doom that has come for you!"

Witty one liners from Gwen, she should stick to food and fashion honestly. However the battleis raging on and the add cerainly are quite impressive too. These are no weak meat to be sure. Gwen is caught by the Orc casting FIST and she his the gorund pretty hard after, she's quick to get back on her feet. She knows if she stay down that's a good way to die, she doesn't get back up. She's not in a good spot to attack him in melee so she starts to chant.

"The the power of the wind and storm cut down my foes, ZAP!"

    Seeing the ante get raised most seriously, Wake diverts her next attack. She can't waste a moment when the Shaman looks so desperately in need of punching. Wake doesn't so much charge as flickers into one shadow, and out another. She lands lightly and leaps towards the shaman, striking first with her right fist, then swiftly with each knee before she jumps back again.

    The Baroness' glare locks on the enemy and she hisses, "When we're done, the only ritual you'll be part of is when we cast lots for your gear."

The damn Orc shaman! Proteus glaes back at the smug look he gets from seeing her attempt to read the room. She always did have problems with that in more than one way. The appearance of Three of the Four Holy Beasts are a problem, and Proteus, being as up on her mythology as the Shady Doctor of Tolbana, comes to the same conclusion. "Stupid ritual. But I will give you credit, you have almost all your pieces in place. We're going to need to move fast to keep up."

While the others set to work solving the problem directly, Proteus tumbles and rolls through the blazing strikes and attacks washing out through the room, having given up on attempts to shape the battle from the back and indulging her more... meddlesome behaviors instead. As she barely keeps from getting blasted, she sweeps in and begins examining the gem and ritual area in more detail, using precious time to try to discern the nature of things as she flicks a hand: ( * #

An Arcane Eye pops into existence, sweeping through the area to try to help feed her information in time. "What is the solution..." She mutters, looking to and fro as she works to try to get ahead of the enemy, running her fingers over the gem and ritual area.

    There is a saying that it is better to be fashionably late than never at all. Baroness Wake is a good friend to Katherine Tanzer or at least the imp sees her as one.

While their paths have not crossed much as of recent times, she knows how much the castle means to her. She knows what needs to be done in order to defeat the orcs so that Wake's own dreams can become a reality.

The exotic imp moves quickly on the steed she has constructed, with her staff in one hand, the hooded cloak flowing behind her in the breeze.

    When she does arrive, combat is already taking place. The Magus of the Outcasts leaps off her construct which falls apart behind her as she extends out her hand. Those lavender glowing eyes flicker like flames behind the hood she wears, as it slowly reveals her face and horns alike.

Her clawed finger tips etch the air with dark energy as they swirl like wisps around her finger tips, and then with a throw of her hand, just before she lands on her hooved feet, she sends out a dark energy blast toward the enemy!

    Yuuki finds her mid-air strike parried! She airborne Imp stares with determination at the suddenly possed Starved Orc. Said orc pulls off a double jump to come right towards Yuuki, sword prepared to stab right through her! Yuuki twists her body to try and avoid the blow, bringing her own sword around to clash against the orc's.

    There's a splash of sparks as the two weapons meet.

    And Yuuki winces as she's only able to push the Starved Orc's weapon far enough to make it a glancing blow, a section of her HP bar dropping from it. She has to admit, this one's good! Must be a sub-boss.

    Yuuki uses her pressure against the other orc's blade, pushing back against it to launch herself away. She lands against one of the throne room's pillars, crouching against it for just a moment before pushing off it back towards the mid-air orc. As she crosses the distance to it, Yuuki's sword begins to glow. And with a battle cry she swings it at the Starved Orc for a single, strong hit that creates a shockwave of air on impact.

Mizuki's water rushes for the Shaman, which moves amidst its Ritual Circle, and seems to 'catch' the bended water. Straining, trying to control it with some difficulty, before sending it right back at her with enough force to put a small hole in the wall next to her! The shockwave that lashes back threatening to do awful things to her footing even if she did get away!

Goldenblade however manages to get through thanks to Mizuki. The blade crashes against a sudden pale shield of magic summoned by the Shaman as it reaches out. The shield cracking, some of the slice getting through just as the shaman lays its hand on Goldenblade with an orb of wind at its palm - and sends Goldenblade straight down the hall towards where Mizuki is, using her as a projectile!

Rylen's vines come out through the ground and from the sides of the castle through the many windows. Some being burnt away by the Scarred one's summoned flame whip, while others manage to grab onto her legs, creeping up and halting her movement for a moment! This allows Merek to get past her and the Turtle, swinging his flaming blade towards it. The flames bite into the Shamans right before a sudden 'orb' like shield pulses out from it and pushes Merek back a few feet! Moments later, a pillar of earth erupts, slamming against the rooted whip wielding Orc, sending her into the air!

Reika eradicates a few of the regular orcs with her blow, right before her shock lands on that same shield the Shaman had just erected! Some of the lightning getting through its shield, weakening its health, until some of them start being sucked away into the sword of the sword wielding Starving looking orc who has arrived to try and stop her cast, slicing his blade towards her head and then pushing off of the ground immediately to reposition, jumping to the Scarred Orc and grabbing her by the hand while she's still in the air, and throwing her back into the fray!

Just barely landing behind the surge of stone spikes that rush towards the Shaman, who puts their hand on the ground and sends spikes back towards Prophylaxis! Fierce blades of earth slam into eachother, like blades meeting. Gwen strikes in that moment, elecric power blasting up the ground and electrifying the Shaman, halting its assault - allowing for a spike to manage to get through on the Shaman's side and piercing into its stomach, causing it to roar and stumble back. Baroness gets in during its stumble, slamming against its stomach, then kneeing it up at its head, causing its body to almost double back as it continues to stumble... as it grabs at her leg and lifts her up, spinning around once, twice, thrice, and then throwing her to the turtle - who attempts to slam his fist into her face and push her to the ground.

The Scarred one with the flaming whip lands close to Lin, her eyes spotting them creeping away - and lashes her whip towards him while absorbing some of its flames - with others hitting the turtle empowered one behind her! The whip almost seems alive, seeking out Lin and trying to bit and grab around her neck, before a second lash tries to send Lin into the crows with a long throw!

The Bearded Orc continues to take steps forward towards the team, but it seems his cannon needs time to recharge, so he's going in with fisticuffs, an the same goes for the flame whip at the moment. However, there's a sudden pulse of force that comes from the Shaman!

"MUHAHAHAHA! You are too late!" As the ritual circle beneath it suddenly ripples to life, and the ground begins to quake!

"FROM THE PALACE LANDS, COME TO ME!" The Orc Shaman demands, as a massive tiger's body made of yellow light ripples to life behind him, before jumping into the Shaman - forming a set of gauntlets on its arms! Right as Katherine Tanzer's dark blast comes towards him, and he slams his fist forward! A sudden massive shockwave following through, rippling in multiple sonic booms that seem intent of pushing Katherine off of her steed.

At the same time, the Starved Orc comes down towards Yuuki, bringing his sword down and slamming it into Yuuki's blade. Hers digs against its shoulder while it glares at her. More of the lightning in the room streaming towards him, thanks to Gwen's earlier use of that spell, before the lightning blasts out and pushes Yuuki down to the ground!

The Starved Orc comes down light a lightningcrack right after her, blade down, intent on piercing right through her heart. The moment it hits the ground, dragons of lightning roaring through the ground in sweeping and arcing motions, rushing out to everyone and seeking to bite into their health!

    Merek looks like he is about to use his magic when he notices that the orc shaman will be bringing his own, only for him to take a strike from the enemies while he tries to bring about the magic. The field appears right along the party and takes up the whole room, only for it to dissipate when he's taken to the floor midcast. The man tries to stand up while he watches the party.

Reika uses lightning versus lightning! As the ground crackles with electrical energies, she rides it until she's out of the attack's range. As soon as she's out of it though, her foot catches on to a rock, that she uses to spring herself back at the Shaman with her swords folded along her side.

Throwing herself like a bullet, her arms unfold at the last moment, crackling with dark energies, both slashing in a cross pattern as she speeds past the Orc, or whichever of his followers is shielding it at the moment, she doesn't discriminate. If they are baring fangs at her, they are getting cut down.

    The shockwave slams into Katherine, causing her slam hard into the ground, with a roll. Her construct steed breaking apart with her loss of focus, as her staff also slides out from her hands.

The imp winces a little from the pain, "Crude beast." She says toward the Shaman, "You should learn how to treat a lady!" She then picks up her staff once more, as she steadies herself on her hooves. "For I am Lady Magus Katherine Tanzer and you will be slain this day!"

With a wave of her hand and mumbling of words, the air starts to chill around her, as her fingers continue to curl and move. Then with a snap of her fingers. The arcane energy swirls directly for the orc, sending down an icy rain of sleet in attempt to freeze him where he stands.

As the ground trembles beneath his feet, Rylen is left taking a step back, raising his eyebrows. "Well, that's an interesting looking spell." It certainly offers him some ideas. As a Beastmaster, the idea of channeling the energy of a monster or animal is an appealing upgrade path to his own combat!

Even as the monster ends up giving him ideas, he rolls out of the way of the shockwave, hiding behind a bit of fallen stone to avoid most of the damage. "The area of effect damage is certainly more than a bit flashy, though." He tries to laugh, but it comes out as a chuff more than anything else.

Still keeping himself somewhat out of harm's way, he touches the ground, utilizing one of the cracks his previous spell had left in the foor. From it, a strange looking woman with icy pale skin climbs up. Wearing samurai armor, the ghoulish creature twitches in an unnatural way, then draws her sword. "See if you can thin them out a little bit." He asks, giving the undead creature a nod.

The samurai moves forward then, barely acknowledging Rylen as she launches forward, sending a series of slashes at the closest of the orcs.

    She JUST SAW the orcs do that with fire. "Why didn't I see that coming?!" Mizuki grouses in frustration, but she whips up a shield of air, using it to deflect the water and, if necessary, catch Goldenblade. "Ugh, if only I had lasers he couldn't catch... maybe..." Mizuki plants her feet firmly on the ground, squatting in a low stance, shouts "Incoming buff!" then reaches out with her hands as if grabbing at the earth before standing up tall and bringing her hands together and upward, as stone rises up from the ground around herself and anyone else nearby enough, forming itself into plates of armor that not only protect from weapon strikes but are heavy as stone except to the wearer! That should give the orcs some trouble trying to lift anyone with magic... she hopes!

    "RrrrrraaaAAAGH!" Mizuki charges the shaman, blades of stone extending from her arms as she puts all of her ninja speed and magically-boosted weight behind a charging stab!

Hooves scruff on the floor as Kauchemar lands from her flamboyant maneuvers, causing her to shout "Sorry about that, I'm sure it'll buff out later!" in Wake's general direction. Then promptly turns her attention back to the matter at hand. She watches the lightning dragons snake around the room a bit. "Cute." She sweeps her arm out, and her Binder Shield appears in front of her. It ignites itself in ghostly flames and starts to spin, shooting the jets of fire out and around like a giant flaming pinwheel to scorchingly slap the electric serpentines away.

With the other hand she motions, and the sword pairing her shield leaps from her back to briefly hover at her hand, it's blade also turning a ghastly shade of colors. "But your shock is lacking the proper awe."

Kauchemar twirls aside to withdraw from the defensive stance, sweeping her arm and the Binder posessed sword following the arc of her movement as she does so. "Hope the Champ doesn't mind if I CUT in on this dance!" She comes around, and as her arm snaps forward the ghostly sword snaps horizontal and HURTLES towards the Starved Orc with it's toxified blade!

    Setsunaa got distracted again, this time with some weird distubance as the summon is performed, " Someone broke the ... " With a moment later before Setsuna can manage to raise a shield him and his knight is thrown aside by the crashing lightning. With a groan he stands up slowly eyeing his health for a moment and then the orcs. " The shaman is breaking the law! Where is a system protect when you need one." Looking over he notices his knight is on the ground smoking from the lightning, " Get up." With a wave of his hand he sends the knight towards the starving orc, the rusted of the blade of the knight doing it's best to find flesh to rend.

Goldenblade is picked up and hurled back toward Mizuki, but the weight of the rocks in her pack make her a difficult thing to hurl, and with the air of Mizuki's shield of air, she maintains her orientation as she's hurtled back, so that when her boots land back on the ground, a bit sooner than might be expected without the rocks, she is able to lean against the motion and skid to a stop.

She immediately charges back in, laying swordblows like hammers on the SHAMAN, pounding with all her might, punishing blows from her gold-tinted swords one after the other. She's not much of a swordswoman, finesse-wise, but she's got the tenacity of a bricklayer, and she brings those swords down in a torrent of strikes, none of them gentle.

The smug self-confidence of before has faded. Lin scrambles for safety. The back line is supposed to be safe! He's artillery, not some kind of whipping Pooka! He squares off with the Scarred one, spellbook raised in preparation to counter the first attack. Success! Predicting ahead of the blow, he deflects the fiery whip with a blast of air. Confidence rebuilds. The returning blow doesn't throw him, but it does catch him off guard. The caster once again narrowly deflects the whip, falling to one knee as it knocks him off balance. Electricity crawls across the Pooka's body, gathering as he concentrates on another spell. Raising a hand, he releases a thunderous electrical blast at the scarred orc. He looks about in distress, seeking the safety of the back line.

    Yuuki finds herself clashing against the Starved Orc once more, blade to blade. There's a grin on her face as she does so.

    Of course, as enthralled as she is she doesn't fail to notice the lightning crackling towards her opponent. At the same time, a soft aura of light forms starts to shine from Yuuki's body, while a dark wind swirls up around her blade and flows out to engulf her. Just as the lightning blasts forth from the Starved Orc, Yuuki's form blurs and suddenly she's gone!

    Using the two stacking speed buffs, Yuuki evades the lightning blast. The blurry form of the speedy imp bouncing from one throne room pillar to the next, like she's playing a game of pinball. Until she comes stops and comes back into focus just above the Starved Orc.

    With a smirk and a dramatic tone, Yuuki teases, "You missed." She then unleashes a double kick towards the orc's back to send him crashing down towards the ground just like he tried to do with her. While Yuuki herself uses the moment to rise towards the throne room ceiling.

And there's the fourth ball dropping. Prophylaxis hisses a string of colorful expletives as the White Tiger is brought into the world by the Shaman's will. But something he says brings his elaborate cursing to an abrupt end. 'Palace Lands.' "The Palace Lands... The Chinese Server!? The only thing here able to open that kind of connection is..."

The crystal.

...He could break it, but then, there's someone else here who's probably already about to do just that.

"Proteus! Do the thing!" He doesn't really /need/ to tell her, but Prophylaxis is sure going to do /his/ thing. So in the spirit of solidarity, he tells Proteus to do her thing anyway. Dragons of azure lightning crackle and flash across the throne room floor. Prophylaxis roars and raises his staff... And conjures a frankly unreasonably large sphere of flame. Fire broils and churns atop the Magus' staff, drinking in the writhing lightning. Seiryu, the Azure Dragon, is an incarnate entity of the element of Wood. Therefore, by summoning a fire spell, Prophylaxis knowlingly exploits the generative cycle of Wu Xing and drains the wood-essence into the burgeoning fireball...!

"Wood feeds Fire!" Prophylaxis roars, hurling the flame sphere toward the shaman embodying the white tiger.

...Or, in other words, toward the one mantling the spirit that represents the Wu Xing element of Metal, and as all proper eastern mages know... "FIRE MELTS METAL!"

Proteus' examination of the ritual materials bears fruit. But not soon enough! Valuable information is gathered by the Imp. "The Palace Lands..." Prophylaxis reminds her of what the significance of that. "The Orc is engaging in World Transfer!?" She gasps, her eyes widening.

      'Don't travel between worlds. It just makes the problem worse.'      

Her pointed teeth clench as the world rages around them, lightning and destruction rampaging around them. The sizzling blasts rake across the place, and Proteus flicks her hand. "Not so fast." V N .

A Rock Cradle slams up around her, taking the lightning impact and grounding the energy before exploding into dust, leaving her unharmed... But she shudders for a moment at the power of the strike. "You think you have enough? This is hardly over. You've acted outside the part you were meant to play, orc. Ambitious. But in the end... I've chosen the proper solution for this puzzle. Initiate the first alignment."

This would normally be when she would snap together a complicated puzzle in the middle of combat to form a cool sequence involving an energy projection array, but in this case she simply opens her Ability window and enters the gesture command. + ) |

A seething bow of energy erupts from her hand, and she leaps backwards, pointing the bow at the gem. "Open the gate of light... AND BANISH!" The Empyrial Arrow flies forward, blasting into the Dungeon Heart... And blasting it apart. She lands, dramatic smoke sizzling from her hands...

"You best hope that what you brought to the table is enough."

    Wake's attention drifts to the chimlink as she takes in the news from Proteus and Prophylaxis. Not so much that she isn't able to do her typical 'flicker out of existence' thing to avoid the enemy's attack. Fortunately, before she can be further drawn from the focus on battle, Proteus' arrow removes the point of contention.

    "I love it when you simplify things, Proteus!" Her concerns now made fewer in number, Wake is able to simply flow into the nearest shadow. She doesn't even fully emerge from it, though her fist does, as she backhands the orc as hard as she can before again changing position.

    She shouts out from a deeper shadow. "Buff out the scuffs? Perish the thought! They will remind me and any who rule here of what was done to reclaim this place." A moment later Wake adds, "We will of course have to wash thoroughly, though." She ducks away from one of the minor orcs. "Cause the smell of these creatures is their most epic attack."

The Orc Shaman has been making some serious plans she and Gwen is able to score a hit in which slows him down allowing another to score a hit on him. The Orc's companions are still quite a dangerous thing. She watches as he starts to call out something else and he's summons something to him power from elsewhere grants him even more power the Shaman's power has grown and Gwen will keep up the attack even as she gets some idea of what he might be doing. She ducks in channelling air magic into her blade striking with the force cutting wind adding to the force of the strikes.

"World transfer? Wait what?! That's the Chinese Server!"

Reika cracks forward like a flash, only to find her blades slamming into the Orc Shaman's gauntlets. The both weapons creak - and Reika will notice the Integrity of her weapons starting to diminish from the bladeclash! The shaman grinning at her - though his gauntlets are starting to crack as well - before he suddenly kicks her away with his foot, then stomps that same foot onto the ground, causing earth the slam up from the ground and try to serve as a wall to have thrown her through!

The sleet rain rushes towards the Shaman, but the Turtle rises, standing in its way and bringing its hands out, letting the icicles impact on its heavy hide! Some of the shards getting through however, peppering the Shaman! But not enough for it not to be able to defend itself from Mizuki's blades of stone that come his way. Punching from from the air! However, Mizuki's buff is already having its effect on her allies.

The 'zombie' that Rylen summons out of the ground suddenly finds herself face to face with the Scarred female Orc. The cuts ripping at her arm before she gets the whip up in time between both hands, blocking some of the strikes, before she tries to lash at the Zombie - and through its undead body to wrap her whip around Rylen's neck, and try to slam him to the ground while wreathing her whip in flames! At that moment, Lin strikes however, sending his electric attack right down upon its body, momentarily paralyzing the female Orc and causing her to fumble some of the strike on Rylen!

Right past the cheek of the Scarred one, cutting a small scar across its cheek, Kauchemar's blade makes it to the Starving one, cutting into its arm before it manages to turn and rip lightning through the blade, paralyzing the Binder within the blade! Setsuna joins that dance, the skeleton knight trying to lash at it, but this one gets blocked. A fierce blade clash following, but allowing Yuuki her next attack! Its blade rapidly is grabbed with both hands, coming upwards, but Yuuki is just a bit faster than its strike, ripping through its body and leaving a fierce red stripe across its body of damage! The Orc barely hanging on! But when she tries to kick it, it raises its arms and takes the blow with all of its power, staring up at her... and then suddenly rises up with her, using all the normal force pushing on its feet from the recoil!

Further away, Goldenblade continues to strike at the Shaman. Wail after wail pushing the Shaman back, unable to stop Proteus from breaking the Dungeon Heart. Each strike biting down on its gauntlets, causing the Shaman to be on the defensive. Followed by a sudden heated strike. A rediculously sized fireball detonating on its position! At the last moment, Prophylaxis would have seen something rise on its position. Now merely a silhouette, a shadow amidst the blaze of the fire...

Then suddenly, a single sharp stone blasts at high speed from amidst the sea of flame for Prophylaxis' heart. Like a bullet of stone, fired before the sound could even reach his ear. And then, the flames wash away, and a stone cradle falls from around the Shaman. Blackened patches on its body, but still very much alive. Glaring at him. The stone molten. The Bearded Orc that everyone has been ignoring standing at his side, looking far worse for wear. Clearly having used its body to block much of the lethal strike as it sinks back to its legs, and all that steam around him begins to flow into its maw!

With the Shaman touching it, sending a surge of magic into it as its cannon begins to glow! Its eyes glowering at Prophylaxis. Only to suddenly let out a surprised sound as the throne's Dungeon Heart is taken... and shattered by that bow's strike. It roars in anger at Proteus! It tries to approach in order to retaliate, releasing the turtle, but Baroness Wake intercepts, trying to backhand it. It needs both of its arms to hold the fierce blow coming its way, pushing it back from its position! Gwen tries to make use of its confusion, but it manages to get its act back together, and slams one of its gauntlets against her blade...

Only for the gauntlet to finally shatter! It must have rushed the ritual! Or perhaps, with the breaking of the crystal, the duration of the summon is faltering!

Where the shard once was, there's now black 'bubbles' that seem almost 2D in their appearance. Except, instead of fading upwards, they suddenly rush towards Proteus, encircling her at first, before flowing into her gloves! Sliding through the gloves themselves and into her! She feels no immediate effect...

Regardless of the case, the Bearded one has repositioned, and this time, has been empowered further by the Shaman! Its cannon suddenly points to the skies, extending... extending, EXTENDING like a pillar to the heavens... as it FIRES!

At first, there is nothing. But during that moment of nothing, the Scarred one sweeps her whip through the entire throneroom, creating a sea of fire against the ceiling. But rather than the fire falling...

Down come enormous eruptions as superheated water falls towards the adventurers like railgun shots. The bearded Orc's shots falling down to earth like shrapnel, superheated in the 'cloud' of fire at the ceiling, and dropping towards people. All while the lightning blade wielding Orc seems to turn to Lightning and in a single flash - rushes towards Yuuki and tries to push her into the sea of fire with it, and blast her with a shock of its fiercest lightning!

    Merek notices then that the superheated water begins to fire like a railgun upon people, taking a moment to consider. He nods, while he begins to sheath his sword while pulling all of his magic to him. The man keeps on walking, then he begins to run, then he's sprinting to Setsuna. "SETSUNA!" The man sees that HP Bar. It comes back to Xander. He didn't succeed in saving that man. You can't save everyone. The man's words can be heard in his mind.
    The man draws up the shield while the shots blast into him, the one meant for him blasting clean through him, from front to back there is a red glow while he watches. Then he stands up, walking his way to Setsuna, "NOT AGAIN! NOT EVER AGAIN!" The man finds a shoulder, taking it with a hand, while he draws the man to the floor. He then tries to stand in front of Setsuna while he holds up his arms. The next of the shots begin to pierce him from every angle, the man shimmering in red while he begins to fade away. He watches his own life force, then he takes a look to Setsuna, "Are you alright? You gotta keep on fighting. You gotta make sure everyone else is sa---" then it looks like he begins dissipating fully into ether, where he was, just the stone that marks that he was killed in the fight.

The whip wraps around Rylen's throat then, cutting off his air and causing him to make a very distinguished 'ergk' sound as his hand goes instinctually up to free himself. As Lin's attack barely saves him from getting smashed, the Beastmaster gives a nod in their direction, before scrambling to his feet in order to try to get some distance between himself and the female orc.

That doesn't help when the the super heated water starts to rain down on them. Despite the covering of his jacket, it only actually serves to hold the heat against his skin until he's forced to strip out of the jacket and discard it, red splotches of burns appearing on his skin.

Rylen isn't one to curse, but he makes a sound that is close to one as he has to shake off some of the pain that comes with taking that much damage. He looks around just in time to see Merek get gravestoned. There is a split second of hesitation, perhaps his mind going back to that moment with the white whale boss battle.

Then he is in motion again. His focus is on the orcish trio. They had already downed one member of the party and he isn't about to let that happen again. "You like fire... let me show you fire." He throws a hand upwards, pulling down rock which is propelled at high speeds towards the orcs, fast enough that they ignite into flaming meteors raining from the ceiling.

Reika's eyes widen when she sees her swords losing durability. Looks like it's going to be time for some shopping after that. But the battle isn't over yet. She can't get out of the fire attack this time, it's just too fast and too wide even with her ninja reflexes. It singes, but she's sitll alive. And with her swords in this state, she's going to keep her distances and unleash it from far instead. She is versatile and fluid in her attack styles at least.

She extends her arms on each side of her, shouting out her attack. "DARK BALL!", putting everything she has lef tinto this attack to down the Shaman before it takes out someone else. Probably the strongest dark explostion she's ever done in fact, it's focused in the Shaman and made to explode outward in a large sphere, so split the target apart from the inside.

Goldenblade's eyes widen as she sees what's coming at her, like it's in slow motion. There's nothing slow about her reaction, though, she ... vanishes. It's like she's not even there anymore. It's more than like that, she's moved so fast that she's halfway across the room and out of the target zone before the attacks hit. She's moved so fast in that eyeblink that her backpack full of rocks and metal scraps has torn under the strain, and gravel leaks from the tear about halfway up.

She gets a serious look on her face, and seeing so many party members's health bars sinking, she concentrates fiercely. Her blades light up on fire again, it seems she was keeping that last attack in reserve, and she dashes in, a straight charge, and will smash that SHAMAN with her burning blades, hammering with those firebrands, slashing away at its remaining health just as hard and fast as she can.

    The shrapnel rains down and Katherine can't cast her spell fast enough to shield herself. She cries out in pain as it tears into her body. Red glowing lines around her exposed skin and clothing.

The magus imp takes a moment as she leans on her staff to fully stand back up. "Is that...the best you have?" She asks the Shaman as her eyes glow. "Let me show you a trick of my trade, you barbaric creature!"

    She twirls the staff around her and then slams it in front of her. The runes light up along the ivory staff, as the copper coil glows as the energy heads for the crimson red orb that starts to glow brightly.

Using the dark energy she rises up the construct she came in on reforming it into a humanoid figure, as the spikes that were used by the Orc's early attack goes to attach itself to its fist. Then as her hands move away from her staff, it continue to 'hold' there, as it continues to draw from her arcane pool.

    Then the construct mimics her movements before she blasts her hands forward, the creation does the same as it sends out those spikes sailing by her toward the orc, as the light up with dark magic as the whiz by. All aiming to impale the Orc Shaman where the creature stands.

Only after the attack does Katherine reach for the staff and almost go down on her knee once more. Yet her eyes never leave her target, hoping that it does enough alonside her allies.

    Wake sees what is happening, catches Merek's motion and sees his intent. But she sees it too late. She races through the nearest shadows, but when she steps out, she is blinded by scalding steam. When it clears, she finds herself standing near Setsuna and staring down at a grave marker.

    Wake's emotions are gone from her face, her eyes hollow and attention utterly focused. She strides through the remaining orcs, striking the first she meets with enough power to shatter ribs and send it skyward. As it comes down, she spins into a roundhouse kick that should at the very least throw it out of her way, if not break it in two.

Lin's attention is focused on the scarred orc. He unleashes a flurry of lightning blasts, readying his wind shield to deflect another blow. But the blow never arrives. The flaming whip goes nowhere near him, and as he's wondering if that was a forced miss or bug, the sky begins to fall. He didn't expect superheated water. Why would you expect that? Blasting clouds and fire rain from above.

To Lin it's a disaster. The assault team started in complete control. They had a devastating opening - how did this go so wrong? Advanced tactics slip his mind. It's back to the old patterns. How big a spell can you cast? What monstrous energy can you unleash? It's go big or go home, and when you're isekai'd there's no going home. Lin ignores his rapidly depleting health bar and gets back on the offense. Lightning, blindingly blue and fading to purple afterimages, streaks from his extended fingertips.

The electrifying counterstrike sends the sword clattering to the ground as the Spirit animating it is overwhelmed by the otherworldly elemental power. But it's hardly noticed in the sheer chaos of the other massive attacks being unloaded on the Adventurers in the thick of the battle, even succeeding in taking out some of their opposition! Those brave sacrifices will not go unavenged though, hopefully. And Kauchemar... wait, where IS Kauchemar??

Somewhere in the calamity of ultimate attack techniques the Nightmare has slipped through the bombardment, doing her favored trick of shifting movement to the shadowy frindge of awareness. Is that shadow flickering behind the downpours her? Or the twitch of something at the edge of your vision, but nothing to see if you actually look?

When her voice comes forth it doesn't help to locate her any, as it echoes with an otherworldly reverbrance all around the Orc Shaman at the center of this chaotic conflict. "o/~ You can't escape this Nightmare... She'll twist your mind with musical flare..." Don't think you've escaped notice, as those dark eyes are upon you and your corrupt intentions. "It's time to get down, time to end this fight..."

And then Kauchemar is abruptly there to be seen again, right behind the Orc Shaman, with her mouth already open to its fully unhinged, voice amplifying width to blast him physically and mentally alike with the dark-enfused sonic whail.

" o/~ DEATH EMBRACE THE BASS THAT DROPS TONIIIIIIIIIGHT! o/~"

    Setsuna wasn't sure what had just happened, and it plays back in his mind slowly as he tries to work it out. There had been a sea of fire and then a blast of super heated water. Setsuna had fully been prepared to eat it as he couldn't even get his legs moving in time. This was going to be it. Then it's not.
     Merek is suddenly standing in front of him pulling a Piccolo, as the guy takes the full force of the attack. Setsuna can only stare as Merek passes the hero torch to Setsuna, leaving him to protect everyone. Unfortunately for Merek, Setsuna has never been much of the hero type, instead he was definately more of a revenge type,retrieving a spear shaped dagger from his back and finds the orc who had been the cause of Merek's death. With as much might as he can manage he throws the spear as hard as he can at the Orc with rage on his face. " I hope you freeze Orc, as I am going to then take time carving each of his last words on to you. " So much anger and rage on Setsuna's face, almost like the edgy adventurer had transferred his edginess to Setsuna.

    Oh boy, burning ceiling. Maybe she shouldn't get close to that after all.

    But maybe Yuuki doesn't have a choice! The very fast orc slamming into her like lightning and dragging her upwards as it tries to blast her! Yuuki only has moments to act before she's dragged into that cloud of fire while being shocked by lightning. But moments are all that Yuuki requires!

    As she dark blade clashes against the orc's lightning blade, Yuuki raises her knee to strike the orc in the chest. At the same time she guides his blade up and over her head with her own, several strands of her long purplish-black hair getting sliced off in the process. Ducking beneath the orc's arm now, Yuuki kicks of with her feet, planting them straight into the orc's gut to alter her course, sending her flying down towards the floor once more avoid getting cooked.

    And of course, sending the orc flying even higher towards the flames above.

Things are honestly getting worse for Gwen she's being pushed to the limit of what she can do things are going bad even as she closes in she's triggering Anchor Howl it's not enough even as the powerful tanking ability triggers, it's not enough. The Orch Shaman has triggered his ritual it's too fast or was it something else? She does not know she knows she's caught in the horribly. She's still got enough defences and endurance to survive it but Gwen's looking pretty bad, this is not a common thing with her. To see her this messed up.

"I'm not done yet......"

She will march thought he hell heading right for the Orchshaman people are going down she's angry at herself she's failed in her job as a tank.

"MEREK!"

She will then just go into a fury on the Shaman.

"The gods have judged the wicked wanting and now their wrath shall be upon thee like on to a storm! DIVINE WIND!"

She launches into the attack light and air element forming into magical surges as she attempts to smite the Shaman down. She does see the odd black bubbles but Proteus seems to have something that handled it. So she won't worry about it for now. There are orcs to deal with.

There is a notable thing that happens her accent shifts to a very thick Texan one as she shouts out all sorts of things at the Orc Shaman not of them safe to print for younger folk.

A shard of stone is launched for the Magus' heart. Under any other circumstance, it could have very well been a fatal blow. A deluge of boiling water, a sea of churning flame and a din of crackling lightning hurl the world into a storm of elemental chaos. Caught in the confluence of all that violence, he should have been done for.

...But when the onslaught fades... There is just a molten shell of solid stone, holding strong where the Magus had stood.

It falls away in fragments, chipping apart piece by piece before crumbling into so much shrapnel at his feet. Prophylaxis glares at the shaman from around his staff, its twin elemental fragments gleaming gold and green. "Fire creates Earth," he intones knowingly, as that fatal shard of stone the shaman hurled at his heart... falls away as well, caught by the earthen barrier not even an inch away from its target. His pulse hammers against the inside of his skull. He's only dimly aware of the sacrifice Merek just made, his attention so keenly focused on the orc shaman. "Do you remember? When we came here the first time, you summoned a storm to drive us away." There's... there's a scent on the air. A damp chill that foreshadows an incredible rainstorm. Prophylaxis raises his staff as the wind picks up, howling as it passes through the hollows and channels surrounding the rod. Electricity arcs from the floor under his feet, up to the golden gem at the staff's base, then races towards the emerald at its tip. Rain begins to fall. Outside, even above the din of battle, the rattling rill of pounding rain and distant thunder can be heard. "I feel it's about time for me to return the favor. This land does not belong to /your/ divine beasts, orc!" The chill that had suffused the air suddenly intesifies, sharpening into something that bites straight to the bone. Prophylaxis' breath briefly fogs in front of his face as his lips split into a vicious grin. "COME, STORM! COME, RAIN! From the churning heavens, I call you forth!"

He strikes the earth with the tip of his staff. There's a brief flash as a thin channel of electricity surges up from the shaman, through the open windows...

...And calls down a staggering deluge of white-hot energy. "LIGHTNING!"

The crystal shatters dramatically, breaking down the focus for the Orc Shaman to call upon additional forces or power. Proteus smiles as he looks out into the battlefield...

But what she isn't expecting is the black bubbles. "What? That's..." It's a phenomenon she's seen before. But instead of it dissipating, the blackness rushes to her hands, passing through the leather gloves to be absorbed. She looks down at her hands in the midst of the battle, staring at them and opening and closing her hands exprimentally. "Nothing seems different..." She murmurs to herself...

But as usual, her distraction costs her. Proteus is suddenly drenched by scalding water, caught between the superheated torrent and the earth and lightning strikes. The quad assault is too much for her to evade, even as she tries to reflex-activate her defenses, and she is sent crashing to the ground. "Gggh!" She hisses. "Looks like I'm being made to eat my words." She looks up as she scrambles back to her feet, just in time to see Merek shatter and vanish. "Gggh! Damn!" Her hands clench, but the righteous fury of the others quickly deal with the problem. That's one problem down.

Proteus instead stoops down over the gem shards, looking them over carefully. "What were you... really?" She mutters, turning her thoughts and attention away from the inevitable tombstone.

    Destruction rains from the heavens. Seriously! Water showing that at high enough speeds, ANYTHING can hit like a railgun, and water is famously incompressible... Mizuki tries to dodge but it's not enough, entry and exit wounds glowing red as half of her health bar turns red and starts fading away.

    But on the party HUD she sees someone else's HP disappear completely! "Merek, no!" Glancing around, she can't see how he died, only a tombstone on the ground... damn it!

    As she gets to her feet, the remaining orcs are swamped by so many attack SFX she can barely see what's going on. At the rate those boss health bars are dropping though, it looks like the job is done.

    But maybe there's something else she can do...

    Presumably, the shaman's death will do something to the circle. With the orcs all dying to an indecipherable mess of skill VFX, though, she's free to just run right over to it and attempt to see if there's something her skills can discover while the circle's still up. "How were you able to contact another server...?"

Meteors suddenly shakes the throne chamber, as they come smashing down. The various Orcs trying to avoid the strikes. Some of the regular orcs that are still alive getting squashed before they even have a chance to move. The sizable Bearded Orc grabbing his hands into the air to catch one of the meteors, while the Scarred one cuts one or two out of the air. The more airborn lightning using one is not as lucky, one of the meteors slamming right into its body and slamming it back down to the ground!

Further at the back of the chamber, Goldenblade blasts off towards the Shaman at top speed, bringing their flaming blade down! The Shaman catches the blow with the remaining gauntlet, which it crashes into. There's a fierce blast from the sheer force. The ground beneath the shaman cracking! The gauntlet shattering! But before she can hammer the rest of its health away, a whip forms over her wrist and pulls her away - with the Scarred one trying to intercept more blows!

The fierce shotgun blast coming from Katherine's construct cut into its back however, causing it to fall to the ground. With more of the piercing shrapnel tearing into the Shaman's health even as it tries to raise a shield, stepping back towards the throne. Only to be forced to its knees as Kauchemar moves behind it, and lets out a banshee-like wail that ruptures its eardrums and causing glowing red to fall from its ears while it roars in pain!

The Scarred one on the ground, Baroness uses that opportunity to slam her fist into it. There's this satisfying 'crraaacccklllee-craaaack!' sound and feeling right underneath her fist as she pushes it up, its heavy body being forced from the ground, right before her foot comes down on its head and SLAMS it into the ground, cracking its skull onto the ground and causing it to detonate in a fierce blast of flames!

Lin's strikes blast into the Bearded one who is still trying to deal with one of Rylen's meteors. His arms trembling under the flaming earth force, and goes through a knee! Blast after lightningblast rips into its body, weakening and paralyzing it, causing his body to start cracking and bursting open in places as pockets of skin are cooked from within and without!

Then suddenly, a plunge. A *HURK* from the Bearded Orc, as he slowly looks down. His body trembling. Staring at the spear that has sailed straight through the side of its body, into its heart, and out through his shoulder after hitting a sturdy piece within it. It looks in confusion at the angered Setsuna... before that meteor finally crushes him and it shatters into an explosion of light and water!

The lightning using Orc is in the meantime kneed up through the flames, only for it to push back down like a meteor towards Yuuki, blade at the ready. Its body heated and steaming with the flame that'd touched it! Lightning crackling along its body! Only for Prophylaxis to summon his lightning through the outsides, through the windows. It coarses right through the Starving one, tearing through his body before it finally erupts straight towards the Shaman! At the same time, Gwen's twin-magic surging blow serves as a lightningrod, sucking the magic into her strike, and comes down onto the Shaman's shoulder, ERADICATING the whole right side of its body in a surge of boiling heat and lightning that crackles the air and shatters stone!

An eruption follows, and then finally, it is eradicated! Shattering into light - at the same time as the Starving one, who had all of Prophylaxis' lightning coarse through and be stolen from him, until he had no more protections left!

The castle now lies quiet. A broken Dungeon Heart. A broken enemy, dead. And a broken raid party.

    Setsuna was angry, and upset , and really just angry as he turns to the knight and then looks at Merek grave. He was breathing heavy as he stares at the tombstone for what felt like eternity to the necromancer. "Death is simply the beginning..." It was one of those classic Necromancer lines as he looks at the knight, the ring on his left hand glows with a dark energy before he looks at the skeleton knight. "Raise him." The knight steps forward with the dark energy surrounding him before the knight tries to obey. Touching the grave there is a sudden gust of wind and eerie silence for a moment before:

        <SYSTEM PROTECTION>

Everyone can see the bright red system protection that seems to stop the necromancer from following through.

    For a time, the silence is nearly suffocating. After the roar of battle, the crackling of lightning, and the pounding of rain, there is quiet in Eas. No more will orc voices be heard in these halls.

    "Tonight cost us something," Wake says suddenly. "What we have purchased together has great value. It falls to us to ensure that each of us reflects carefully on what we've seen. We must learn more about what this creature was able to do."

    Wake lifts the strange treasure from the boss and peers at it. "And perhaps learn to do some of these tricks ourselves. But for now, we will go down and celebrate our victory. For thought it was dear-bought, Merek's loss was a heroic one. I for one hope to still be raising toasts in his honor when he returns to us. Let's head back to the first gate!"

    Katherine has to take a moment to collect herself. She is aware of how low her mana is becoming and with that, dispels the construct allowing it to crumble back down into rubble.

She watches as Setsuna tries to raise Merek and fails by the simple fact of the law of the world not allowing it. Then she looks over to Wake as she speaks. The imp's tail twitches gently in thought, before she forces herself to stand in full.

With a move of her cape and then flick of her hood over her head, she then goes to make her way out. Not a word said, as she, as well examines the small dungeon heart piece, before pocketing it as she walks on.

It doesn't feel like the fight is over to Lin. Situational awareness in a raid is a function of experience. That's something he doesn't have, regardless of confidence or level. There's too much going on and he lashes out randomly. Bright blue electricity flashes across the throne room, striking uncaring stone and illuminating the clouds of steam and smoke. Eventually the mists part, and Lin can gather his senses. It's over? We won? Of course we did. Lin pants for breath, lowering his spellbook and looking at the rest of the assault team. That's when he notices one missing. Perhaps some gravity can get him down after all. Who was that? Did he even know Merek? The Pooka stays quiet. There's nothing he can add for the people this has meaning to.

Kauchemar gives her jaw a somewhat disturbing wiggle as she closes it back into proper alignment. "Well THAT was something else. Who would of expected a bunch of Orcs to try a World Transfer..." She pauses. Turns to look to Proteus. "Or even know that such a thing..." She stops again, and after a moment of thought frowns. "... Someone told them..."

She murmurs under her breath at that, then shrugs it off as she picks up a broken piece of the mcguffin. "Well! We won at least!"

Something jarred loose in all the chaotic elemental attacks drops to the ground behind her. She actually cringes slightly at that, and scoots a little farther to the side, just in case. "I hope you were planning for it to be a bit of a fixer upper yet, Wake..."

    "I am delighted the tower is still standing, Kauchemar, my dear. I will rebuild, with the help of my friends. In fact.." She looks to Goldenblade, "Perhaps before we return to the gate we can take a look at the village. It's going to be the first thing we need to rebuild. My home can wait. I mean to have a place for landers and adventurers to stay as soon as possible. It's time for that beautiful road to be enjoyed."

    Perhaps Wake's celebration will be somewhat delayed. But she will enjoy this sooner or later!

Goldenblade is yanked away from her attack, but the damage she's done is enough, it seems, along with the efforts of the others, to finally accomplish our purpose here. She looks up as Baroness Wake speaks, and only then realizes there are fewer players here than started, and one extra tombstone. She winces.

She looks around the grounds, then, and smirks. She nods at Kauchemar's comment about it being a fixer-upper. "I don't have a lot of spare resources just at the moment," she admits guiltily. "But you'll have what I can bring in, and when what I have comes free, you'll have that, too."

She nods to Wake about the village. They'd discussed that, at least in vague terms. "Yes, let us take a look. The orcs lived barely better than beasts, but I think we can at least have shelters. Though after some of the fires in the village, there might not be a lot left. Might be for the best, a clean ground to build on? But we'll see what we see."

Gwen has struck down the Orc Shaman with everyone else. She's a mess though her HP's in the red, she's not looking happy as she just moves to sit down cross-legged on the ground before laying down on her back for the moment. Wings sprawled out as she does so. She'll end up taking a moment to cover before she gets back up part of her is happy it's over.

"Damn it I screwed up."

She's still going off in a full Texan drawl at the moment she hasn't even noticed she's pretty upset about what happened to Merek. She looks at Baroness Wake.

"You have a point, and I think I can cook us all up to something."