Palace Lands: Battle on the Big Bridge

The journey to the west continues, they've finally found themselves in a region that's safer to travel. Yellows and some occassional greens are showing, with very little in the ways of orange. Travel has gotten more relaxed, and the intense pressure of having to constantly avoid the incredibly dangerous red and oranges near their basecamp, mountains and ruins to the east has waned.

To the far west, they can see farms. The bridge they are approaching clearly has a road attached to it that, while not well maintained, suggests the presence of civilization. More importantly though, they can see some plumes of smoke, showing the presence of small villages ahead.

However, passage across the bridge - long, with plenty of broken stone, and the only safe passage over the jagged rock containing river rapids beneath it - is halted by the presence of an orange level monster. The first they've seen in hours upon hours of travel now.

It's a giant green... rooster, which breathes fire into the air and flaps its wings as it spots the Adventurers approaching. Parts of its wings look scaly, rather than feathered.

Fauxido

Followed by a large blade, easily twice the length of a regular man, suddenly floating up into the air from beneath the bridge, spinning around and taking up position.

Shining Sword of Legend?

It spins a few more times, flicking left and right.

It would appear that this bridge has attracted some unusual creatures they need to pass.

    Such walking. There has been a great deal of travel since Arashi arrived in this massive land, apparently with the group landing in the WORST POSSIBLE PLACE given the slow de-threatening of the enemies. To see Yellow and Green on enemies was refreshing. To see an orange now? Two? Bird and Sword? "Huh... welp. I guess we were about due for a fight."

As the monsters have slowly decreased in difficulty rating, Mikage has allowed Rama to wander further from the group. The cat seems to be taking advantage of it, diving into tall grasses and sniffing at everything in the surrounding area, acting as if this were a vacation.

That gets cut short, quite suddenly, as they set eyes upon the rooster which comes with enough fire to cook itself and the strange, unwielded sword. "Uh... Rama, come here." There isn't fear in her voice, but a wariness as she motions her companion to her side.

Curious, the lynx tilts his head.

"So... you're the resident lore expert." She glances at Cyrus. "Do you have an idea of what we're dealing with?" She asks, reaching back to unsling Dawnbreaker from her back. The weapon, which looks like a short polearm, extends into its bow form with a mechanical transformation sound.

"Okay Rama, it's up to you." She reaches down, tracing a hand along the lynx's back, giving some of her elemental affinities to the lynx, who charges forward towards the giant chicken. The cat is smart enough not to dive immediately into an attack, but it waits for a moment when the creature might lash out, either at him or at someone else, and then dives to bite at one leg with a frozen snarl.

    Rizadoman is tired, it feels like he has been doing way to much as of late , but is still pushing himself at the very least. He is happy to see signs of a village off in the distance, hopefully this one is not in ruins as well. Just have to cross this bridge when they come to it and...their are monsters on it. " Hmm it appears this land is attempting to feed us and equip us. We should be thankful for such blessings. I would like to request a drumstick when this is all over." With that he draaws forth from his belt a bone scimitar as he charges to meet the blade head on.

    Merek walks along and with the party until they come upon the bridge. When two enemies appear, he will take the time to look at both from the hood of his attire, then he sweeps a hand along and will bring a fireball to blast into the shining sword while he begins to shift the beltcape and will sweep into the fight.

    Yuuki walks along, hiding a yawn behind a hand. Since moving out of the more difficult parts of this land, the fights haven't quite been as exciting. Which has the Imp feeling a little bored.

    They do seem to be coming up on a village though. If it's a hostile village then that might spice things up a bit. If it's a friendly village, well that's okay too since it would be nice to take a break from all the walking.

    And then she spots it, an orange monster! This could be exciti-Oh, it's a rooster. Yuuki seems a little disappointed at the reveal, even if it's a clearly mutated rooster.

    BUT THEN! A FLOATING SWORD!

    Yuuki's eyes twinkle in excitement as she draws her own sword, "Hehehe. A sword monster huh? Now that's what I'm talking about! I wonder if it'll drop a sword as loot."

    The Imp doesn't wait to hear about what they're up against. She just rushes forward towards that monster sword, blade at the ready as she then lashes out with a blink-and-you'll-miss-it rapid strike towards the said floating weapon.

Joining along with the party is Cyrus, having been critical at being one of the healers on this expedition. Even running away from high level monsters contained an extremely high risk. Coming down the path and seeing what's on the bridge, Cyrus instinctively rubs the back of his head in confusion.

Being asked his opinion, he helpfully remarks;

"Some kind of... giant... chicken?" He remarks, taking note of the name. "A faux-kido. Guess a fake Enkidu? Does that mean there is a real one?" His attention drifting towards the sword. "Neat. That must be a Binder inhabiting that giant sword." Pause. "Who the heck would make a sword that big? Who's going to lift that? Maybe it used to belong to an Elemental Machine."

He leans down to Rama as the cat is about to depart, and touches it with a spell that increases its speed and damage. "Go!" Before rising back up and taking his time to get closer to the battle, taking out various flasks and potions. "Compared to what we've been having to deal with, this should be over soon." He expresses.

When Shiruba finally returned to the expedition from Yamato she had brought her Peko back with her. Partially to continue her training, and partially because it made the long distances they were traveling a bit easier. Not that she was riding the bird while other people were still hiking. But she was using him as a pack animal so they could carry more supplies, which helped make this journey farther inland possible. It was still a good deal of work, but once they were pass the coastal area of high level monsters Tradewind had settled down some.

At least until they got to the bridge, and something even more obnoxious than a troll obstructing their path. "... I suppose we were lucky to get this far without interruptions." She pats Tradewind's side. "You stay back here and guard the supplies, okay." The Peko kwaws in response. "Good bird."

With that settled Shiruba draws her bow and darts ahead to join the others in engaging the unwanted interruption to their expedition. Sees several people already moving in to engage. "Don't get trapped between the two of them! There's not much room to maneuver on that bridge." While doling out some tactical advice she draws a magic arrow from her quiver, takes aim at the chicken-lizard's head as she nocks it in her bow, and fires. The supposed headshot bursts into a bolt of blinding blackness intended to disorient the creature hopefully just long enough for the others to get into position.

It's not like Kaydon hasn't walked a lot in his life. When he was in the military hikes used to be a standard part of training.

That doesn't mean it doesn't suck.

When the group approaches the bridge, they find themselves blocked by a chicken and a sword, "What the hell, couldn't find any trolls?" Kaydon draws his blade off his side, and takes a moment to pop his neck, as he drops into a combat stance. The chicken looks dangerous, but the sword is a sword. That's the obvious danger. So Kaydon rushes in towards the blade, aiming to clash it with his own blade. He's broken blades before, no reason to believe he won't be able to break this one.

    All along the way, Arashi had been scrawling on that map of hers, which has now become a whole lot of pages of maps. The bridge was hastily scrawled before these two showed up, so things get tucked away. Starshadow gets drawn, checked for glow, (nope), and then the warhorse simply moves ahead, covered by Shiruba and following in Kaydon's wake. "Maybe they thought trolls were too obvious!" is remarked to Kaydon before the stabbins begin. Chicken sounds good right about now.

    Fukaziroh has been less than enthused at the serious overlevelling of the enemies, but is content to zoom around with the others. She can support, and hopefully doesn't draw too much attention when she doesn't want to. Anyways death isn't something she fears all that much, so she is happy to help.

    "Huuuh. Are we gonna have a chicken shish kebab?" she snarks cheerfully. The enemies are orange. Tough, certainly, but not tough enough she has to be unduly terrified. Still, she's not about to charge in entirely blindly. Defense first, *then* battle. She breaks into a jingle some might recognize as coming from a KFC ad, then breaks out of it abruptly to cheer everyone on. "Don't let the skewer get you! Don't be chicken! FIGHT, knowing I'm here to cheer our VICTORY!"

Prophylaxis is still in the Palace Lands for some ungodly, unknowable reason. Thus far, it has been a secret even to Proteus and the Lizardman! Supposedly he has come all this way because he's looking for a book, but the doctor has been perhaps frustratingly opaque about what /specifically/ he's looking for.

Perhaps there is a deep, dark secret behind this elusive behavior. Perhaps the doctor, de-facto leader of the Scale Emblem Alliance is up to something nefarious with his search. Perhaps......

......He simply has no idea what it is he's looking for......?

No, nah, naw, utterly impossible. That'd be silly! Right? RIGHT!?

...

Prophylaxis is only mildly incredulous at the giant chicken and floating sword in the middle of the bridge. "I'm not sure exactly what I'm looking at, but that chicken seems positively prehistoric. Be careful, it might be one of those... You know. Vile, poultry-ish devils? Petrifying gaze and such? Hm. I don't know if I like the look of that sword, either. But..."

He sweeps his staff forth. Crumbling bricks of masonry suddenly launch from the bridge like a broadside of stone, each one aimed to smash directly into the swishing blade! "I do know one thing. Rock beats scissors! Ha-Hah!"

Yeowang peers forward at the targets on the bridge. A green rooster is strange, but the floating sword is more strange, she feels. She would like to get closer to inspect the blade, because it seems like maybe something that's not necessarily to fight, but she'll have to get closer to inspect, and she'll have to fight to get closer.

So, when everyone rushes in, she'll rush in also, and jump forward at the target, leaping and kicking, delivering a leadoff kick with all her bodyweight behind it, using the force of the impact to push her back away from it, to where she can take a solid look at what we're actually facing.

If this is a Journey to the West, who's the Monkey King? Hell, who's the priest?

Well, choices choices. Proteus isn't going to be so gauche as to compare this motley band to such a story. Besides, they have their own legends to form, and from the looks of it this is going to be as good a place as any. The Imp, of course, stares at the bridge and frowns. "This bridge has seen better days..." She mentions, and then her gaze flicks upwards to stare at the rooster and the strange blade that seems to be moving on its own. "... And those are very unusual enemies. Who would think of a giant green rooster and a sword that moves on its own? Here?"

There is a little sigh. "Well, they're in the way. We have places to be. I suppose this is yet another puzzle we're going to need to solve. Paradox. " With a flick of her hand, her Inventory produces the curious gem-inlaid brass cube. It spins in her hand as she announces. "Second Alignment." As she speaks, there are buttons and panels on the cube that press inward, the topaz-accented face gleaming as the box opens up, extending into a stout metallic pole with heavy weight on a chain. Latches clamp down, providing solidity as they lock into place while serrated insect-like flanges pop out of the weight. She spins the haft, the weapon whirling over her head as she darts through the chaos. As she does so, her hand gestures, flicking as she activates an Ability: > U

She sweeps the weapon to one side, the churning rapids below surging up and engulfing the weight, adding to the mass of the blow as Proteus sends it sweeping in towards the firebreathing lizard-rooster! "Back off." she says, simply.

Obviously Prophylaxis is the Priest. He /is/ a sage who normally lives in a very high place travelling to the west with a bunch of rowdy earthly types in search of a mysterious set of literature.

But that still leaves the question of who the Monkey King is. Hm...

Like Arashi, Jazz had had her nose buried in her hand crafted maps, fingers stained with charcoal as she made her drafts. She's a little late to the party as a result, catching up as the chicken and floating sword make their first appearances.

"Oi, what the hell is this?" she asks of the chicken and the sword. Since they're presumably not going to answer her, the undine reaches down into her coat after placing her latest sheet of parchment back in its case and in her bag, to produce a purple tipped feather duster of all things. With a slightly shaky hand, she points it at the chicken.

The fuzzy Lynx is the first to get into the battle arena, empowered by Mikage and her traveling partner, Cyrus; biding its time and waiting for the massive sword to try and cut downwards, jumping swiftly to the side, and then rushing to the Rooster, biting into its leg and starts to freeze it, slowing its movements. The rooster breathes fire into the air in anger, looking like some kind of spicy sauce advertisement, while moving its legs rapidly to try and break the ice, throwing Rama back!

Rizadoman catches the Lynx in his approach, setting it down before managing to bring out the bone scimitar and diving into battle. Plunging the blade into the scalie plumage of the Rooster! Fauxido lets out a sound, and gives Rizadoman a cocky look before kicking him away - the plumage area glowing red from where he stabbed into it! Merek has to jump to not be bowled over by the 'Lizardman' as he throws the Fireball, blasting into the sword mid-swipe, causing the fireball to split in twain, before detonating around it and slighly deforming the metal!

Yuuki strikes the blade in the midst of it reeling back, only for there to be a sudden shock to her body as something halts the blade, and reverses the momentum! Suddenly blasting her toward the ground as her attack's momentum is inverted and causing her to rocket back painfully! What's more, her fingers are... tingling.

Cosmosphere At Risk it shows in her statusbar. And those who are trained in Law and have come to recognize the sensation, would realize that the Law of Alba is being broken in this place!

When she opens her eyes again, she sees that the Rooster has gripped the hilt of the blade, and has taken a dynamic battle pose! Its wings wide, one leg in front of the other! Staring at her with glowing fiery eyes!

There's a sudden 'zip' sound, as over Yuuki's head, an arrow blasts towards the rooster. It then neatly cuts it in twain using the blade, though the arrow that falls downwards still partially stabs into its body - as it can't move as fast as it'd like with the ice applied by Rama.

The Rooster bounds up, and comes down towards Kaydon as he moves in, slamming the enormous blades down onto the bridge. Kaydon barely deflects the blade to the side of himself, before cutting across the metal body of it - which then suddenly causes Kaydon to be pushed back towards the edge of the bridge over the river rapids! The same symbol showing for him; Cosmosphere At Risk.

Arashi just barely avoids getting tumbled over from the strange physical effect that pushes him away, jumping and running over the extended massive sword, swiping across the Rooster's cheek and cutting a nasty red scar across its eye and cheek, which continues to glow. The chicken flares its wings and pushes Arashi off of itself, before the blade comes back up in its beak.

The rooster goes through its legs a bit, and then jumps up. Flames wreathing around the blade, as it heats up and cuts through the massive flagstone that Prophylaxis smashes towards the chicken. It shatters into debris that sprays out across its body, but it keeps its forward momentum, jumping over Kaydon and Arashi and begins to rush Prophylaxis' position with the blade still in its beak!

Yeowang slows its approach however, jumping up and slamming her kick to the side of the blade, causing the tip to jam into the ground and the Rooster to go to the skies and its neck to snap awkwardly, only for the rooster to release the blade, and grab it with one of its claws as it flips through the air and turns it into a circle-motion across the vertical axis! Proteus' wash of water comes up, but it slices through it as the waters ripple across its body, turning its feathers red with damage-light!

The end of the blow comes, and a fierce 'moon' of flame and light spreads out from its body, searing a path outwards across the bridge, engulfing it in flame and the area in front of it in a massive splash, before Fauxido lands to the ground and takes up a defensive stance, one paw in the air holding the sword, sloooooowly turning, its head flicking from one side to the other. Its head tilting in that chicken way. Its fanning rear feathers flicking up, one paw to the ground...

"I ... have no idea what that is." Mikage is not well known for her knowledge of the world. Sure, the girl has seen and traveled a great deal of Yamato and now beyond, but the Lore still seems to escape her. It is likely a result of some aspects of her sheltered life showing through her character.

As the chicken begins to wield the sword, her expression grows that much more perplexed. Then, in a moment of realization, she calls Rama with a whistle. It gives the cat just enough time to return to her side and for her to raise her cloak only to be engulfed by the attack from the massive monster.

Her appearance flickers, but it is not enough to ward off the attack, leaving both she and Rama burnt around the edges. Wincing, she pulls herself back to her feet, clearly moving a bit slower from her injuries. "I'll try to lower some of the flames, but I'm not sure I can do much against that ... thing."

She extends her bow out, channeling magic through it, then loads up an arrow, firing it into the sky and using it to rain down shards of ice towards the Chicken. Unfortunately, most seem to melt before it even comes close to striking it, leaving the Were Fang giving a growl of frustration.

    Yuuki shivers a little at the sensation after her strike. It's an odd feeling. Certainly not how you're supposed to feel after hitting another sword. Yuuki would know!

    But the Imp doesn't let the disturbing sensation scare her away from the fight as she shakes it off and turns her focus back on the sword.

    Which is now being held by the rooster.

    Okay, that makes it a little more interesting.

    Yuuki is not in the know about all this Law and Cosmosphere stuff. She's just a simple fighter. She sees a monster, she attacks it! And thus Yuuki does just that as she charges the sword wielding rooster. It launches a wave of fire over the entire group. Yuuki attempts to jump away to clear it, though she gets caught on the edge. Almost made it! Her HP bar drops.

    But the Imp presses on! Closing the distance to the sword rooster. She continues to focus her attention on that sword, figuring if she can keep it occupied, the others will have a better chance of bringing the rooster's health down!

    As Yuuki reaches the sword wielding rooster, she unleashes a rapid series of strikes towards the sword directly, focusing on it instead of trying to get past its guard to hit the wielder directly.

    Merek looks to the strikes from the chicken wielding the sword, and he begins to glow red in places that the wave strikes along him. The man tries to regain the position which he needs to fight, then he nods a bit to the party, "If you need to escape the fight, do it." With that, he will throw a potion that will explode along into it as well.

    Fuka's song is interrupted by FIRE, and she shrieks in pain. Not that she's alone most likely, that was a ludicrously powerful attack. She quickly recovers though, snarling. "That chicken is SPICY!" she yells. "Well only one answer to that! FRIED CHICKEN!" she shouts, channeling her magic into a signature explosion. Well okay, more like a signature fireball. Close enough.

"Look at it move..." Cyrus can't help but look impressed as the Rooster spins and moves across the bridge in strange unison with the blade. Watching it move, spin, until that massive flaming half-moon shape comes from their combined strength. "OHSHIT!" The youth instinctively places down multiple layers of flaming shield ahead of himself, and kneels down to prepare for impact!

The grass around him is immediately set on fire as he is blasted back and slams into a nearby rock as the blow carries him back. He grunts, glad for pain-dampening, before he rises back up and stumbles forward. It seems that the rest of the party is not doing too good. As such, the youth quickly takes out multiple healing potions, he enchants them with his air magic and sends them flying out in a fan motion - blasting across the entire battlefield.

One after another, Jazuhanzu, Shiruba, Fukaziroh, Kaydon, Prophylaxis, Rizadoman, Yuuki, Proteus, Yeowang, Mikage, Erufu, Arashi, and Merek are hit by flasks of light that start to regenerate their health.

"Enkidu is a creature from our world. The partner of a Hero named Gilgamesh." Cyrus explains. "As for Binders, they're basically ghosts that possess objects and move them around. Think of it as a haunting."

    Rizadoman scales shift as the fire ravages the bridge and , its to hot. The pure heat melts through his scales and still cooks and burns his skin. It is a great shame that he has brought his ancestors. With the call for people to consider retreat, Rizadoman shakes his head and stands up. "No need to retreat today, if we start to run we will always be running." WIth a deep breath he actually seems to suck in some of the surrounding fire on the bridge and then returns the burning flames back at the sword, as a large ball of fire.

Seems the warhorse has evaded a sort of significant debuff while landing a good hit on the Big Chicken. Huzzah! Sadly, Arashi is -not- able to avoid the massive AOE of fire that comes for her a moment later. That puts her on her backside, wincing. Which leads to her follow up attack, a brutal set of swings, going wide of her target. "ngh.. damn that hurt.." time to put a little distance between herself and Chicken Sanders..

Being the backline DPS that she is Shiruba has a fine view of a terrifying sight as the giant rooster grabs the sword to use as a weapon. "Oh, that's not good." Quickly she starts drawing elemental energy to herself, causing strong winds to whip and whirl around the Cait Sith.

That do pretty much squat when nearly the entire area is bathed in spicy flames. Whatever is fueling that fire is stronger than cyclonic winds can blow out, and Shiruba lets out a brief yowl as despite the defensive effort she's still burned.

The yowl turns into a snarl as she drops the failing air barrier, instead pulling the remaining elemental energy into Thundersnow Howl. Pauses to take note of something. ".. Huh, they're still showing as two seperately targetable entities." Not sure if that's good or bad. Either way, Cyrus is thankfully dropping more explainations along with his healing, so she doesn't have to break concentration from the fight. She takes aim at Chicken Boo once more as she draws her bow, and winds can be heard whistling once more as the projectile takes form within the magic weapon. "Time to blow out this hothead!"

She releases, firing a shot of concentrated air pressure equivilent in force to the powerful winds of a storm screaming for Fauxido!

Yeowang bounces back from the chicken and the blade, with no telling which came first. It's not that important, she guesses, though she's not sure about attacking the sword if it puts the cosmo.. what? She doesn't understand the meta stuff at all; she barely understands the game, itself. Most of the time. So, she looks to the others, and at how they react, before she decides what to do. She asks those nearby, "What does Cosmosphere at Risk mean?"

But she can't let up on the attack, or doesn't want to, but the advice she gets on the raid channel says this is more severe than she understands, so she will back off toward Prophylaxis, since he seems to understand what's going on. "So, what do I do about this?" she asks him, in a hurry to get back to supporting the fight.

Kaydon gets a strange message after his attack, and winds up with his back against the edge of the bridge. He wiggles his arms a little bit, keeping himself from falling over the edge, if only just, as he drops back down onto his feet and lets out a brief breath of relief.

Not content to let a warning that he's violating the game's mechanics stop him, he goes after the chicken this time, launching himself at it with his sword arte that allows him to create a whirlwind strike as he approaches his target, trying to blow the chicken off the bridge.

Flame washes across the battlefield, a cataclysmic baptism of fire. Prophylaxis would feel a pang of envy, if certain communications across the raid channel had not caused his blood to freeze in his veins. "Cosmosphere... No, why here?" This isn't even a bugged monster, is it? Why is it able to injure the mind so... casually? Prophylaxis grits his teeth as the flame washes over him. Somewhere nearby, a perfect duplicate of the good doctor shatters into so many shards of light. With a grunt, he presses forward, racing to those closest to the front line-- to those most in danger.

Yeowang is first. "Don't die," he says, simply, and clutches tight to the fighter's shoulder. A powerful regenerative spell activates, closing her wounds rapidly over time, even as Cyrus' potions scatter throughout the battlefield. "A Cosmosphere Risk is one thing, but to be grievously injured while it's at risk is another thing."

The same buff will soon spread to the others. The doctor, it seems, is hoping to nip this threat in the bud as best as he can.

Proteus was prepared for a retaliation. She was not prepared for /that/. The massive flare of light begins washing towards them, coruscating, consuming, annihilating. It's a wonder the bridge itself is surviving... But it's probably doing so by virtue of being an Immortal Object or something. The World does not really go in for casual terrain deformation.

But the fire is everywhere. There's nowhere to go. There's nothing she can do in order to escape the wash. Already, her skin is heating at the incoming wave. She watches others get blasted by the heat, sizzling burns and HP bars dropping quickly at the critical strike. "Gggh." She hisses... "Focus!" She admonishes herself, her eyes narrowing below the hood. Time slows as her senses reach out, searching for an option as her hand gestures... + ^ S *

BGM: https://youtu.be/h-mUGj41hWA
NOMA - Brain Power

A tiny displacement of the pattern. A clash of thermal waves, creating an eddy, and... "THERE!" The air splits with a KRAK-THOOM as she vanishes from her position. She doesn't go back. She doesn't go to the side, or even up.

She goes /through/. A moment later, the blast washes outwards, and Proteus manifests in the split second after the force pushes outwards, having timed her movement frame-perfect for the precise time where that spot wouldn't incinerate her... And then she vanishes again an instant before the vaccuum is filled with fire and death, putting her on the opposite side of the battle... And she falls to one knee for several second, gasping as she works to recover her resources. "Gggh. I hate that Ability. Way too much draw... But so very useful." She glances upwards, and staggers back to her feet, spinning her transforming flail to one side as she looks over her enemies. She could just leave now. She's behind them. But she can't abandon the rest. She won't abandon them. Her hand is already sketching another pattern. V S M

Proteus charges forward, rushing towards the blade as she hears more about Cosmospheres being put at risk. The blade. Something about the blade. Binders. Spirits that inhabit objects. Pieces begin to fall into place. "Could it be... Gggh!" She spins the flail, sweeping it towards the blade, but that's a feint for the massive pillar that shoots from the river, trying to blindside the weapon. "I'm missing something..."

Not even the fanciful magic that Kauchemar taught her is enough to save her from the flame that washes out. Jazz tried, sure, but her reactions were just a little too slow, a bit unfocused as she was especially. Her eyes got all huge and wide as she observed the fire coming towards her, sure, and she turns, throwing her harms up defensively as she darts away. Badly singed, the ends of her long hair smoldering as she stops moving, she turns to face the chicken and with a shaky finger draws a circle in the air that slowly fills with water until it becomes a spinning blade of it. She points that finger at the chicken and the disc goes hurtling at it, even if her aim is a little off and it's able to avoid it entirely.

"Ah, balls," she utters.

Hail of ice splashes down towards the chicken, while its now flaming sword exudes a powerful fiery aura. The ice melts near it, but bigger chunks of Mikage's attack still pass through. More importantly, they simmer and shrink the heat of its power, allowing others to get into range more easily.

As Yuuki gets closer, aiming at the blade, the rooster begins to move its clawed leg! Each blow she strikes towards the blade, she feels this strange pushback. Each strike, she feels her arm being pushed back with equal force... no. The Rooster and its sword push her back, but then there's that _extra_ force that seems to cause her own blow to be thrown back at her.

Each time she does, she sees the symbol that indicates her Cosmosphere being at risk reset its cooldown! And each strike, she feels like her body... no... her heart is getting heavier. It's that same kind of creeping feeling as when she first learned of her real world's situation. Each blow, each strike, that depressing feeling gets heavier! More real.

Still, she's keeping the rooster and that blade at bay for a moment! Enough so that Merek's potion gets through its guard, detonating against its scaly feathers and blasts it to the side, causing it to hop on that one leg - followed by Fukaziroh's Fireball, which detonates with enough force to push Yuuki and others back for a moment. The shockwave rippling outwards from its position. It's forced to move the blade into its beak instead, and steady its stance!

The creature then begins to spin its blade on its beak. Turning its head around rapidly, releasing, turning it back, then grabbing the blade hilt once more, causing the MASSIVE sword to helicopter and blast apart Rizadoman's fiery breath as it heats the blade!

Arashi uses that moment to try and retreat, getting a few mean hits in on its scalie featherdeck, slamming into its side, before getting past the massive sword whirlwind!

Blast after blast of Air then burns against its defensive move. Shot after shot coming from Shiruba's bow, until finally, she catches the whirling blade right at he correct moment, and it goes flying behind the Rooster, stabbing into the ground and causing the rooster to fall back; But not before Shiruba's air-fueled arrows stab through its defenses a few times - before Fauxido lands on the hilt of the blade with both clawed feet!

Yeowang, retreating for the moment, will notice that there is a cooldown on the effect on her. And after a moment of resting, the debuff seems to just... disappear. Some kind of unknown timer. She feels a strange sensation in her chest, as if something just closed up.

Kaydon moves past Yeowang during her momentary retreat, right as Fauxido stares over him. And the moment he jumps to strike, the rooster jumps - with its claws still on that hilt. It brings the blade around in a horizontal slash, but Kaydon jumps over the initial blow and slams the chicken right in the head, causing it to fall to the ground, roll a few times, before it halts itself with the blade in its beak finally, and glares at the group.

With Cyrus and Prophylaxis healing the party, the constant output of the flames on the bridge is being kept at bay, allowing them to fight freely and without having to consider the risks of the battlefield itself. But the Rooster and that Blade remain at large. What's worse, it looks like Fauxido just entered its enrage timer. The creature lets out a loud screetching sound, flames bursting into the air like a firestorm!

The creature begins its forward momentum, but Proteus intercepts its movement. Her flail linking into the sword for a moment. And the moment she does, her body is thrown back as by some invisible force! A symbol suddenly appearing on her HUD; Cosmosphere At Risk. Before she's flung away with a flick of the blade and the feathers all begin to glow... the glow slipping towards the massive blade itself...

As the Rooster moves one claw to the hilt in the beak, and slowly begins to move it from the side. The blade doesn't so much split in two, as it seems to slowly duplicate amidst the process. Except, the Duplicate is a sword of pure flame! It screetches throughout the entire process, until it finally 'rips' the duplicate from the original blade, and a wave of force bursts out from its position...

As it rises on top of the flaming blade into the air, using it as some kind of pole, and stares down upon the Adventurers with a wrathful look! Amidst the shockwave, Jazuhanzu's oceanic attack is blasted apart, magic seeming to shatter around it for a moment from the force, before the Rooster makes a sweeping motion with its head, swiping the physical blade to anything near itself, before pogo-ing forward using the flaming sword into the air, spreading its wings, moving the blades into both of its clawed feet, and then comes down, starting to stab towards the ground. Crushing strike after strike, it goes after people. Moving towards the backlines, leaning along the side of the physical blade like a dancer and carving the flaming blade at anyone near itself, before using the momentum of the swing to jump elsewhere across the battlefield and crash the length of the blade flat towards the ground, trying to crush Prophylaxis and Yeowang in one slash, before spinning the flaming blade around to cast forth another rippling ring of flames outwards from that position!

    Merek does manage to dodge the next sweep from the weapon and chicken, although when he will try to use the healing magic with that Relic, he can't manage to do a lot. All the same he begins to weave along, "We can't afford to risk your lives here, please flee if you need to!" The man takes a look along to the party and will begin to dance with the weapon to protect with the shield.

The talk about Cosmospheres largely goes over Mikage's head, likely because it is something she simply hasn't had much experience with. Once again, she looks to Cyrus as if expecting him to have an answer, "What's a Cosmosphere?" There is a nod towards the two healers, seeming appreciative for the fact that her health isn't dipping further, at least for now.

As the chicken starts to attack, jumping and striking from person to person, Mikage raises her bow, using it almost like a shield, but rather than catching the blow, she uses it to deflect it to the side, rolling herself with the motion and coming back up on her feet. Panting to catch her breath, she leans a little on Rama, the cat growling under his breath as his fur stands a bit on end.

"Better use some mana now, while I have the chance." She murmurs to herself, starting to charge elemental energies into the blue crystal set into her bow. Raising Dawnbreaker, Miki loads an arrow which starts to take on the appearance of a crackling bolt of electricity, surrounded by a storm of water. When it reaches the peek, she launches it towards the monster.

Where it impacts, it explodes into a burst of storm forces which smash into the monster, draining the beast's health in exchange for much of her mana reserves.

    After cracking wise and clowning about a few times now, Fukaziroh has actually changed somewhat. The serious discussion on the raid channel has caused her to sober and begin offering actual well-considered thoughtful advice. She's not just clowning about after all; she's actually decently useful and perhaps surprisingly analytical.

    Now however, it's time to put her money where her mouth is, almost literally. Gritting her teeth, she backs off slightly to follow up her words with action. "Thundaaaaaaa~ Fury!" she cries, taking a hand off her axe to point at the sword. It's metal, so the arc of lightning strikes *might* be actually somewhat more useful than other combat magics like fireball. Sure she could just go to town on the chicken, but at this point the real threat in the fight seems to be that sword! Time to make it bleed! Or whatever it is swords do when struck by magic.

Yeowang arches her brow as Prophylaxis does his thing. It feels like he's overreacting, her cosmosphere doesn't /hurt/ at all. But she's accustomed to listening to experts, so she'll wait until he's done. But then her debuff flickers out. So he must have done the right thing. She doesn't understand so much about this game.

She leaps forward into the fight, stepping around the attack that nails Proph and diving headlong into the fray. Sidestep left, sidestep right, evasive action and feinting until she judges her moment, then she strikes with pinpoint accuracy, using some sort of zen to intuit the best point to strike, her fists glowing with white light briefly.

    Rizadoman raises his arm as a barrier of light rises in front of him protecting him from the flames. Whipping his arm back , pushing aside any remaining flames he lets out a lizardman roar before he charges right at the bird jumps into the air and brings both his fist down as hard as he can directly at the feet of the fauxido. Then for a good measure to really make sure the bird is not able to be steady on his feet he spins around whipping out his tail to hit the birds feet.

Cyrus shrugs his shoulders. "I don't know. But it seems like Prophylaxis thinks it's our soul. So let's be on the safe side and follow the strategy." The youth is acting cool about it, but no doubt Mikage can spot the way his tail has POOFED out, and all those stray strands in his hair are standing on end. The youth is visibly freaked out at hearing something like that. He's not good with situations like this, but putting on a brave face.

It's Raid time after all. And Mikage is here. So he is going to stick to this, even if his first instinct is to flee. He bites his lip, some red glow coming from the edge of it, as he rodges out of the way of the jumping strike attack, moving almost in unison with Mikage, following her defensive lead. Knowing better than to try and physically block blows from the blade.

"Don't worry, I've got plenty of mana potions for the long run." Cyrus tells Mikage. "Just go all out! I'll support!" He declares, as he grabs for the inside of his jacket and pulls out what looks like a ripcord attached to multiple flasks. He circles, then flings what looks like a rope filled with magnetic potion-mines, and throws it to the physical sword as it gets nearby, which immediately activates and wreathes it; "DETONATING CHAINS!" He declares!

A highly mobile and aggressive target charging the party lines with jump plunging attacks? Shiruba has something to deal with that, pulling several crystal tipped arrows from her quiver and firing them. Into the ground rather than the monster.

Most people here should know this trick by now, as the arrows hit the ground they discharge their magic and cause great spires of stone and dirt to erupt from the spot. They rumble upward, forcing the enemy to either move away from them, or crash into them. Which is not crashing into her or others as Shiruba darts between the formations to stay away from that thing's melee range despite it's efforts to hack and slash through.

When the bombastic assault finally stops, that's when she steps out from behind one of her stone spires, an arrow already drawn in her bow and charged with wind magic. She takes aim, this time at the weird sword, and fires hopefully before the chicken can start swinging again.

A thunderous crash is heard as she fires and the magic makes the arrow fly with such tremendous speed that it's striking it's target even before the rumbling has stopped.

    That .. is a heckin sword being swung around in a heckin way by a giant heckin chicken. Best thing to do is employ the ancient art of rolling the hell out of the way, which Arashi does, in that precisely timed sort of way that evades all the damage that was coming her way. ... Should have done that last time. After the roll, however, the warhorse vanishes from sight, stepping into one shadow, only to appear -above- chicken dinner to plummet downward, sword first. "CHICKEN TONIGHT." Big stab.

    Yuuki's strikes against the strange sword are pushed back against her once more, forcing her to take a step back as she steadies herself against the unusual backblow. She's starting to breath heavily as the equally heavy feeling grips her more and more.

    She's obviously seeing the debuff on her, the timer, the way it resets every time her sword strikes the other. The feeling of it every time. The calls over the raid's chimlink to avoid engaging the mysterious sword in melee.

    But Yuuki can be stupidly stubborn sometimes. And just a little overconfident.

    The swording rooster comes crashing down towards her with that damned blade aimed for her. She brings her own up to meet it, managing to parry the weapon to the side to avoid her completely. Yet another impact clash of blades that causes Yuuki to stumble back a bit, a little unsteady on her feet. To counter, she sweeps her sword to the side, the weapon glowing with a sword arte.

    Yuuki lets out a battle cry as she lunges once more, swinging her weapon towards the rooster's weapon for a single heavy blow.

A blade of apocalyptic flame washes over the big bridge, but it seems that this time, it's the doctor who forgets to move out of the AoE template. Can you blame the guy for standing still to finish casting his healing spells? The party needs to stay upright if they're going to stand any chance of dealing with the situation! But then again, maybe it'd be best for the healer to... /not/ die?

"Ghh. For a monster whose name is so self-depricating, I suppose I shouldn't just write off its firepower..." His own health bar looks rather problematic at the moment, to be quite honest. If the situation were not as dire as it is, he would have made a getaway by now, but...

There is at least one person here who he just can't just leave to fight these monsters alone.

The doctor sweeps his staff wide as if beginning some manner of traditional dance. The air crackles and pops, freezing around him into a haze of diamond dust. His breath leaves his lips and frosts in an instant, moments before he strikes the stone with the end of his staff...

A ghostly figure seems to appear for just an instant in front of the giant green chicken--

And instantly freezes it solid.

More flame? Jazz isn't happy about this. But, you know, she *is* the sea witch. She's able to erect a bubble of water around herself that endures the worst of the flame, leaving her less singed considerably this time. Why didn't she do that last time? The world may never know, but Jazz certainly feels a bit sheepish over it. Still, bracing herself for the impact has left her pushed back a little and she went end over end at least once inside her bubble like a wee undine hamster ball.

Righting herself, it dissipates around her and she stands admist the scorched earth, still smouldering. She raises her hands up and a column of water erupts from b4eside the bridge to splash over the blade, laving it covered in tiny, wiggling and adorable anime jellyfish. Can you apply a poison debuff to a sword?

Jazz is trying to find out.

Okay they've got to avoid melee attacks on the sword. Kaydon can do that. He slides under the strike that comes for him, and pulls two knives off of his belt, taking careful aim before letting them both fly.

He's got to make sure there's enough distance between himself and the sword when the blades strike home in order to avoid triggering the debuff. He then gets back into a defensive stance in order to be ready for the next incoming attack

Proteus gets rebounded by the sword and is inflicted with the Cosmosphere At Risk debuff. Proteus can see it hanging there, ominously, and she grimaces as she is forced backwards... Only to get combination struck by the flaming blade-wielding bird. "ACK!" She yells, falling back as she is slashed and scorched, her HP bar dropping commensurately as she is driven back to a knee, her hands slapping at her robes and clothing to beat out the scorches across her body. But at this point, she needs to do something to counteract the enemy's powerful strikes. What if she...

Well, it would be a risk. But it's something she has to do in order to reduce the enemy threat level or they're going to get torn apart. "It might be at risk... But fine. Let me show you... everything." She grimaces, her weapon folding back into a box and vanishing into her Inventory. It's at this point that she peels leather gloves she wears off and reveals... hands.

But not like human hands, or even Imp hands. They look formed of granite or some other strange inorganic material, her hands jointed and cut through with circuit-board like silver lines. She charges forward, diving to one side and then the other as she leaps for the hilt of the blade, trying to get a solid grip on it and wrench it into her hands, holding it solidly. "You aren't the only one who can control objects!" She calls out, trying to reach into the object's nature and begin... changing it.

The Light of Healing begins to rise throughout the ranks, as Merek puts his Relic to use. The light focusing onto the crew at large, but the flames of battle are so severe, that even the sacred Light of Bith can't seem to keep up with what is happening! Still, every little helps, and those flames on the bridge are no longer a concern as pulse after pulse of light blows them out!

As Fauxido lands on one of its blades, another pulse blows through the area. Chains rattle around the blade it leans on, laid there by Cyrus, just moments before Mikage's tumultuous blast tears across its body, and /blows out/ its flaming blade, causing the Rooster to slam down towards the bridge, broken rock flying every which way. The thing twitches for a few moments, before it is rid of its momentary concussion effect and tries to rise!

The Rooster rises, and jumps onto one foot, grabbing the blade with its Beak and slashes it downwards, intercepting Shiruba's attack! The tip of her arrow tears and trembles against the downwards force of the blade! Shockwaves ripple outwards from their position, wind wicking all around it, until it finally blasts along the side of the blade and nails the beast in the chest, causing it to list backwards!

This is when Arashi comes down, slamming her weapon into its head and NAILS it to the bridge, the weapon remaining within its body and the sword clatters out of its beak and rises, spinning upwards in order to wobble about, before it rears up, and swipes along the side, coming straight down towards Yuuki's blade. The two clash, Yuuki's body being made to tremble as she gives in to her stubborn side. That cooldown keeps resetting as that heavy feeling in her heart settles tighter. Tighter... but she doesn't give in, and slashes a vile mark across the blade, tearing apart part of its metal body.

The fowl looks like it's just about to rise and wrest free from Arashi, its massive beak open, aimed at Yuuki, when Prophylaxis spell suddenly begins to superfreeze the fowl creature. Its body slowing down at first. Green turning to blue and white, as frost wraps around it... and then... halts. Right before Rizadoman comes beneath it, kicking apart its now frozen legs - which had begun to raise it - and the entire creature falls over, SHATTERING into ice and white light!

Water erupts from the waters around them, as Jazuhanzu brings forth her magics, splashing the blade with its corrosive waters. While she fails to poison it, the blade visibly begins to rust under the power of her magic and the saltwaters!

The blade quickly begins to move to intercept Proteus in the moment, as she reveals her strange arms. But in that moment, Cyrus arrives to the bridge and makes a yanking motion with his hands, as if he were holding onto something. And suddenly, the detonating chains across its body... detonate. Large black chains suddenly STABBING into the stone beneath it, latching it in place as it writhes and tries to get out of the way...

But not before Proteus can touch it. Its body suddenly beginning to glow with white light! There's a shaking and trembling, as a black /mass/ begins to rise from the top of the hilt. Screaming in anguish. A great many red eyes staring out from the black mass, glaring at Proteus and those around it. It soundlessly grimaces, before releasing the sword and flying up into the air.

It doesn't re-engage with people, instead, the black mass immediately flees into the skies!

Something seems ominous about that black mist with the crimson eyes. Its name; 'CRIMSON EYES'.

Shiruba keeps her bow drawn as the mass of darkness and eyes forms.... but then shadowy form takes off into the sky instead of trying to deal with them any farther. She sighs softly, lowering the weapon. "Does fighting off monsters guarding a bridge count as a toll? Because I sure as hell feel like I paid for it." That said, she wanders back to the end of the bridge to check on her Peko and the expedition supplies, thankfully she told him to stay back out of the fight. Otherwise a lot of their goods would of probably been burned in all those wide flaming arcs.

    Yuuki holds her blade at the ready, looking rather pained as the battle rages on, but unwilling to surrender to the feeling clutching at her. She's about to close in to engage that sword again, even after the defeat of the one holding it. But Proteus gets to it first.

    Yuuki watches as the the cloud of darkness rises up and into the sky, far from where Yuuki is able to reach it. It seems to be fleeing anyway.

    Yuuki collapses to one knee, planting her sword into the ground for stability as her other hand clutches at her chest. She catches her breath for several moments, before looking up and eyeing the remains of the sword that had just caused that pain.

    Yuuki rises, moving over towards the fallen weapon with a menacing look in her eyes. She raises her own blade as it begins to glow with light, though not in a way that looks like a sword arte. She then stabs it down towards the still sword.

It isn't often that Mikage drags Cyrus along to battles like this, perhaps because she has at least some idea about his experiences raiding prior to the Apocalypse. Yet, his encouragement to continue fighting is all the reassurance she needs not to worry about his capabilities.

What she isn't expecting, however, is what strange monstrosity appears with those ominous red eyes. She looks at Proteus, then at the place where the creature had gone, as if trying to make sense of things. "I'm... never going to get used to some of the weird stuff that happens here." It's probably for the best.

"I am... officially creeped out." Rama seems to agree with this, peeking out from behind her legs.

Victory! Fanfare! LOOT! Oh look, ITS CHICKEN TONIGHT. bahahahaha. Ahem. Anyway, it is clear the warhorse enjoyed keeping the giant rooster pinned while everyone finished it off. Teamwork! Once it is clear everything is done, especially once the swirly eye-mass flies off, Arashi takes a seat. heaving a sigh. "Eh. There's probably worse out there. somewhere."

    Rizadoman was not sure what he was seeing, he remembers taking the drumstick out as he had said he would but then Proteus was doing something andd after a moment the sword emitted a dark cloud with eyes. The eyes looked ominous for a moment before he stands up slowly. Looking at the crimson eyes he then looks over at Proteus, " What exactly is that... oh it's gone." Watching the cloud run away he gathers his well earned dinner and then looks in the direction they were traveling originally. " So do we go forward or back to a safe spot and make camp?"

"...the hell is that?" asks Jazz as the black mass has arrived. When inspection reveals its name to her, she just sort of begins to very casully back away with a sigh.

"Well, *that's* not good," she informs everyone in completely unnecessary fashion, staring as the black mass goes rocketing upwards. "Definitely not good," she repeats. "I'm beginning to have a very bad feeling about this place. Anyone else?" It's more rhetorical. SHe assumes other people are having bad feelings. She lets out a breath (it sounds adorable when someone with her voice actress does it) and then proceeds to rub her eyes with her hands. "Ow, ow, ow. Okay." She bends down to pick her hat up off the ground where she lost it when she tidal galloped away unsuccesfully. Somehow, it survived the fire none the worse for wear. She brushes it off and puts it back on her head.

The chicken is slain, but that doesn't mean the battle is over. Whatever is animating that sword is still present, still ready to finish the fight-- and Prophylaxis does not like the party's odds.

...And then Proteus...

Does... something.

Something that Prophylaxis seems to recognize almost instantly, his eyes widening in mild surprise. It succeeds, driving... /something/ out of the blade. That Binder spirit seemed even stronger than the blade it was animating. What was it doing here...?

Irrelevant. The doctor fixes Proteus with a look and cants his head to one side curiously, but he says nothing. Instead, he goes to Yuuki's side and watches as she finishes the inanimate sword off.

"Hey," he asks, "You okay?"

Yeowang breathes more easily as the fight concludes, a victory for us. And she will peer at the sword again, trying to learn whatever she can about it. Not that she can use it, she's not a weapon person, but she'd like to figure out what's going on. She looks around, but everyone seems OK, which is good. She will keep lookout, then, watching in the distance, so that as we conclude things here, nothing else sneaks up on us.

As the whole of the battle rages on, Kaydon does what he can to keep himself in the fight, though as everything spirals rapidly out of control when the...Honestly he has no idea what the hell that is...Is released, the battle dies down. He takes a bit of time to lean against the side of the bridge, and look into the distance as the evil cloud flies off, "Well that's no good. Whatever it is.." He's run into a few of those before but none were that big..

"Okay, I am officially on board with you being creeped out about this." Cyrus tells Mikage. "Can I get a promise we don't try to hunt down the giant blade mass with red eyes?" He asks of her. "Because... yikes." He puts his hands at his hips and sighs out loud, before grabbing a group of potions and starts chucking potions around on the people with the lowest HP.

    Merek looks to that weapon while it falls along into the ground, and will nod a little bit to the party while he sheaths the weapon which he wields, watching that thing that flies away into the sky.

    Yuuki's blade pierces through the chunk of metal that the dark cloud had formerly been inhabiting. The former sword doesn't seem to be able to take even that single attack, quickly shattering into pixels of light.

    Yuuki's Absolute Sword is proven superior once more!

    Somewhat happier as a result of her actions, Yuuki looks up at Prophylaxis and gives him a smile, if a little weak, "I'll be alright. That just proved a bit... Tougher, than usual."

    "Are you *sure* you wanna grab that...?" Fukaziroh asks dubiously. She can't exactly complain about the results though. Seems some red-eyes black cloud thing was inhabiting the sword and making their lives kind of miserable. Really she can't blame Yuuki either.

    Deciding not to complain, Fukaziroh flops backwards onto the dirt, sighing, heaving great obvious breaths of exertion and relief. "I'm just gonna lay here a while. If anything comes to kill me, just let it!" she insists.

"I probably shouldn't, but we don't have a choice." The Imp replies to Fukaziroh. Proteus puts it all on the line. Who knows what would happen if she slipped, or lost control. But the spirit was not expecting Proteus. Who could? No one really expects someone to just randomly step forward and convert your weapon's elemental alignment to something antithetical to you. Proteus stares, utterly focused on the weapon as the others force the Doom Chicken to heel. She doesn't utter a word, simply forcing herself to keep a firm grip on the thing. There's no telling what might happen...

And when the weapon erupts with darkness, Proteus nevertheless almost drops it, staring into those angry eyes as it streams away. "Crimson Eyes..." She mutters to herself. "That creature... Is very powerful." She observes as it vanishes. Still, the Not Very Legendary Sword is left in her hands, and after a moment of looking it over... she simply tosses it aside and lets it clatter to the ground. "If someone wants it, they can lug it around." She says, turning away and tugging her gloves back on, acting like nothing just happened. "Neither am I." She replies to Mikage. "But I don't really want to. The World is full of wonder."

No lesser sword can stand up to the Absolute Sword. Why would anyone call her absolute if it were any other way?

"Take it easy," the doctor says with a sigh, "You were hammering away at that thing like crazy. Considering what it did as a counter-effect... I can't imagine what that many stacks feels like. But hey."

He flashes her a thumbs-up, "You beat it in the end, right?"