Festival: Shoot Down the Sun

Coming out of Dol Dona, the Adventurers have managed to pick up some quests at the Hunters Guild in order to get used to the area. The typical gathering things for the Landers, and killing monsters in various areas are ever-present. Though it looks like the monster density is not as extreme close to the Root Cities as it is in Yamato; though their average difficulties are definitely higher, even for targets that are Green to the Inspect function.

One mission that recently posted up however, is rather unusual. The request of a lander to please aid him in destroying the 'Sun that rises to the West'. Now, while there are some unusual things in this world, such as the magnetic pole of this world pointing westwards from their typical locations, the sun still quite notable rises to the East.

This has drawn some of them to approach the gentleman living within a cottage in the eastern farmer lands. Approaching, they find a man named Hou Yi, greeting them and rising up, a large bow slung over his shoulder that is the size of the middle-aged gentleman himself.

Once there, this gentleman explains that he needs their aid in taking down the Sun to the West, pointing towards a hill just to the West, covered in rice fields. Just as he remarks on this, the Sun that is rising to the east begins to gleam against the many waters on the hill to the west, casting strange reflections across the area.

Yeowang has joined the strange quest just so she could hear about this strange sun rising in the west. So when it's pointed out, and turns to be a reflection or something, she sighs heavily. This is less fantastic than she expected. On the other hand, if it were simple, the fellow would have tried it, himself, so there must be /something/ more to it?

She asks him, "Have you been up to that area before? is there anything we should know?"

    Merek of course would take the job posting. He does like the astronomy of the world, and well it would be interesting to note what is meant by that posting. He walks along with the party and looks to the hill reflecting, "That's a hill, that's reflecting light," the man notes, then looks to the sun in the east.

The name 'Hou Yi' is something a little esoteric to most who hail from lands across the Strait of Japan. Prophylaxis, however, is a /gigantic/ nerd, and more importantly has played more video games than any one man ever aught to have played. And so, he does in fact know what a 'Hou Yi' is, especially one who is tasked to shoot down wayward suns.

"I hope you've brought sunglasses Lord Archer," the doctor says to the older gentleman. "It'd be a shame to try to shoot down a sun, only to go blind from the attempt."

But what form will it take? A true second sun? Perhaps a giant carrying a flaming orb? Perhaps even some manner of three-legged crow, shining like a star in the western sky?

Whatever the case, the doctor... also kind of wonders what this has to do with the festival. Or perhaps the Lord Archer has a wife who has simply yet to appear...?

    Yuuki has never destroyed a sun before. Sounds like fun!

    Unfortunately the imp is a little disappointed as they finally arrive at the quest giver, only to learn that the 'sun rising in the west' he speaks of is just a reflection.

    Yuuki staaaaaares at the reflecting waters and rubs her chin, "This... Could be more difficult than expected." Because destroying a sun ISN'T?

    Fukaziroh's usually up for any guild quests that involve groups, especially with people she knows and likes. She's a social gremlin. And when the quest is something truly silly-sounding like destroy the sun? Well, of course she's going to show up. If nothing else it'll make for fun conversation!

    "Mmm mmmm." she muses thoughtfully, and speaks in a disturbingly bad wise old-crone voice. "I see, I see. A false sun! I can see how it would distress you. But you have a mighty bow, I also see. What help do you need of us, good hunter?" she asks creakily, meanwhile glaring out of the corner of her eyes at anyone having the bad sense to act like their client is completely and thoroughly cracked in the head.

It was a bit of a reassuring thing, finding out that this strange new land had a familiar sight like a Hunters' Guild.

The quest they happen to be giving out, well, that title didn't read quite so standard. Was this figurative? Or somehow literal? Maybe both?

Well, there was only one way to find out!

And this Shiruba is here, bow already at the ready in her hands, because you never know how quickly this might turn into a fight or another chaotic event. As the sun rises, she squints a little. "Hmmm..." This was already weird in that it so far didn't seem too weird. "I hope this isn't like the Angry Sun in the desert stages of that one old video game..."

It was a time to adventure again, they had at last found some locals and the town had been interesitng. Also unlike the locals in Yamato the food was not soggy soda crackers. So that was quite hte plus to the Elf. Her eats twitch as the man gives them a quest or at least offers one to them.

"Nothing worth doing is easy Yuuki."

She grins a bit at this. Merek was right they might need shades, this could be a problem.

    Rizadoman would never turn down a request from the hunter's guild. It had nothing to do with the rumor that Erufu liked to mention about him and the guild girl either, despite whatever one may think. On the other hand he couldn't just let it be known he missed out on an opportunity to help people through the hunger guild, what would the guild girl think of him then. As the request from the Old Man is heard Rizadoman repeast it as he heard it, " So our goal is to go find this fake sun and prove our fire is greater then it's fire. That seems simple enough."

It is easy to assume that all quests have to do with the festival. But there are plenty of missions going on at the Hunters Guild, this is clearly but one of them! As people speaks of the reflection, the man runs his hand along his hair. He's rather remarkably attractive looking for a human who lives in the Farm Lands like this. In fact, his clothing look like they belong to a nobleman's. Fine silken, whites and blues.

"I know that is a hill reflecting light." Hou Yi answers Merek with this unamused look. He then pulls an arrow from his quiver, and uses his substantial might to draw the bow's string. The wood can be heard trembling as he draws it back and takes aim. Followed by loosening the arrow - zipping it across enough distance that it's obvious this man is a skilled sharpshooter.

It slams into the waters on the hill, followed by a sudden burst of gold, as the 'sun' seems to lift into the air. A sphere of light traveling up and rising for a good bit, before it begins to approach the house. "Good luck." He remarks to them. "I require the item found at its center please. It should be a blue sphere. So I ask that you do not simply try to destroy it with an enormous magic attack."

Yeowang boggles as the man fires an arrow at the erstwhile reflection, and it does something a reflection shouldn't do. So, her guess that there was more to this is at least confirmed. With no guess what that 'more' might be. "Very well," she says, and will head for the hill and try to figure out what's going on.

    Merek looks to the sun while it approaches, "Ah, that's what you mean, thank you." The man nods to sunshooter, then he takes the time to look towards all of the little things, while he inpsects. "Alright, San Zu Wu, there are multiple. Not only one," he will note to the party, "Well, it looks like we need to try to manage them without getting the core. Green level."

    Fuka claps and laughs in pure unadulterated delight when the archer shoots the waters, revealing that the fake sun is indeed an actual thing. Grinning broadly she looks around, both to evaluate the terrain and dangers, and to see who in the group might find this whole turn of events distressing... as if all they had to do was humour some silly madman. Granted she thought something of the sort herself, but was polite enough to ask the man what he wanted, rather than assume the worst. Or rather was lucky enough to do so. This isn't quite a case of Fuka being wise.

    She considers, readying Chopstick. "So we're not supposed to destroy the core. Does that mean no attack spells? Or just be precise and don't use overwhelmingly destructive spells?"

'San Zu Wu' is it? The doctor arches a brow at the approaching mass of sunlight. "I see. So it's a matter of shaving off the outer layers to avoid harming the core. Alright, I think we can do that," Prophylaxis nods, "But given that they seemed to have no issue living in a lake, I'm not sure how effective simply dousing them with water would do. So instead..."

He gestures, summoning... a great big pillar of earth! Several, in fact, all of which are made of the distinctly loamy soil of fertile farmland. The pillars collapse atop the flaming orb, hoping to smother its blaze with a whole lot of dirt.

Erufu does not assume this is going to be a easy quest. It's best to never assume something is easy thats how a lot of rookie Hunters and Adventuers get offed after all. She thinks a bit more they uill have to figure out how to get through this. There has to be a tick to it but what? She'll also draw her bow and fire a shot at one of teh reflection just to see what happens.

    Rizadoman looks at the fake sun as it approaches and then more coming and he just tilts his head for a second before he says to the group, " I know I just talked about being the sun with fire, however it is floating over a large body of water." As if to emphasize his point he does the most natural thing he can think of. He creates a giant water spout from the lake to spray one of the suns. Logicly if you doused the sun the center should still be in one piece, right?

Shiruba stares as the man draws back his bow, maveling as he does with raw might what she uses a combination of strength and magic to accomplish.

But the archer's instincts remain true and her attention snaps to watch as the arrow is fired, knocking the 'sun' into the air. An ear flicks back as the man explains he wants the 'core' of this strange object. Okay that sounds pretty typical for Hunters' Guild festival duties -- collect the rare item from the rare spawn for someone. "The more things change the more they stay the same..." she snickers a bit.

Shiruba pulls an arrow from her quiver, nocks it in Thundersnow Howl and raises the weapon as she draws back on the line and aims. The tip of the arrow starts to hiss and crack with an arcane darkness, which swells out around the projectile when she fires it into the distance at the so-called sun. Makes sense to her, fight a body of light with the power of darkness, even if it isn't one of her strongest categories of magic.

"Find the core and extract it, or use milder spells." The man answers Fukaziroh upon her question, as the giant 'sun' begins to roam forward. Heat beating off of it, the land beneath it searing a bit. Light bursting from its position in red flames and golden light. It truly looks like a sun is moving towards them at this distance. The first thing to interrupt this formation is a massive earthen pillar that bursts up out of the ground and tears away a small sum of its body. Ripping it apart - light flitting away, only for the formation seeming to seal itself back up!

Rizadoman's water then splashes down upon the position, hissing and bursting. It has a kinetic effect of warping the ball for a bit, but it seems like water is not that effective! Shiruba's attack however, does have an effect. Her arrow sails through, tearing a hole through the ball, and seems to tear something 'out' of it, and onto the ground. There's a cawing hissing sound, before the spark of flame dies upon the ground behind the 'sun'.

As it gets closer however, the formation grows, and the 'sun' thins out, as it begins to mold and move, tendrils of flames reaching out, grabbing for the Adventurers as the massive mass begins to try and absorb them! From this close, they can tell that this is a giant mass of monsters! As Merek pointed out, called San Zu Wu. Their golden-like bodies radiating intense heat, as they interlock with one-another and seem to move as one! Almost like the Bun Buns during the Bun Bun season.

    Propping her axe handle onto the ground like the monstrous thing is a caster's staff, Fuka raises her free hand and chants suitably mystic syllables. A small rush of energy floods out, doing effectively nothing to the monsters. It could theoretically blind them for a moment if they have eyes, but that's not what she's aiming for. The energy bounces, and Fuka can analyze the energies as they return.

    "They're monsters, I think." she says in a half-daze. "Birds? Crows? With... three legs? Don't use fire or water artes if you have other options." she suggests.

    Merek looks to the sun while it begins to form and become a mass that tries to take the party with the tendrils. The man seems to think about it for a moment, then he will lift up a hand while he draws that along his strap that's along the shoulder and to the hip while it keeps his alchemical gear. The man then will take a wrist and place a hand about it, while he points a hand to that sun, "MEREK_TEIWAZ_BANDIT_KING!"

    Rizadoman looks at the birds att the ever growing sun as his water does little good, " Hmm avoid using water, it seems it is to hot to have much effect. Air could do well if you could make a vaccuum. " Ah yes the powr of science, no way magical beasts would be immune to that. Knowing his own majority of spells and techniques at the moment Rizadoman instead decides to be the shield for the group. As his scales harden and he moves in to do his best to be the dragon scaled shield of the party.

Yeowang listens to the man telling us to find and extract the core. "How?" she wonders. Maybe that's what we're here to figure out? If not, some of the trigger happy murder hobos she's with will work it out, since they seem to be already shooting. She's not clear what they're shooting at. So she will watch and see if some method of getting an item found at the center presents itself, since that was our original objective.

    Yuuki is less disappointed now as it turns out that not only is there an actual second sun for them to destroy, but it's actually a giant collection of monsters! The monster slaying imp's eyes brighten in anticipation.

    Though, the gamer is Yuuki also realises the objective of the quest isn't to kill the monsters, but get at the object inside. Killing them in the process is just the bonus. So after a quick bit of thinking, Yuuki comes upon a plan that only has a partial probability of killing her!

    Yuuki starts running. But not towards the giant ball of bright monsters. But to Prophylaxis. As she does so, a dark wind forms around her sword, rushing up her arm and across her whole body. She calls out to the good Doctor, "Hey, Prophy! Cannonball manoeuvrer!"

    Coming out of her analysis trance, Fuka tries to figure out what she needs to do. The man suggests milder spells. Rizadoman suggests air, which is of course her specialty. Okay then, air it is! "Rogah, D'man!" she salutes, then breaks out into a chant. Though it bears some similar words, the effect of the arte is markedly different. Her axe sucks in air, and she hefts it cheerfully. She can take a hit, but right now she's more interested in dishing out the pain. Let everyone deal with this how they may, and she can reevaluate her tactics as new information arises!

Shiruba watchs the results of her attack with interest. So it's a swarm of monsters, and she apparently knocked one of them loose from the swarm and into the ground. Her tail wags, both at the success and because facing a new and unusual foe like this starts to get the Hunter's blood really pumping.

The wolfgirl starts to stride forward. It's a methodical step, leaving little crackles of frost on the ground briefly in her wake, which the heat coming from their quarry quickly melts again. But she's ready, and the cautiousness pays off as she's able to quickly sidestep one of the flaming tendrils lashing towards her. Then again to avoid another.

Then she stops and nocks another arrow. This one has an arrowhead formed from obsidian crystal and brimming with a stronger concentration of dark energies that she takes aim with and fires.

"Oh, well," Prophylaxis groans as the ball of glowing sunlight begins to diffuse, revealing the shadowy shapes fluttering within. "There's the sun crows. That'd explain why arrows probably work best. Projectiles in general? Hm."

And he's a wizard. Of all the times to not actually pack anything that can be used as a conventional ranged weapon! But it's to be expected, honestly. Wizards have /magic/ to do that job for them, usually! But now... now it's a matter of precision, of perfect aim and peerless markmanship. The doctor steps pointedly behind the onslaught of monsters, just as Yuuki approaches... With a /plan./

"Oh? Oho...!" The doctor smiles, before dropping to one knee, his hand firm on the ground. The land answers, rumbling as it gathers together into a vaguely cauldron-shaped vessel, albeit one sealed by a mushroom-shaped cap. "Cannonball Maneuver it is!"

"Just, ah, watch your head," he says, as Yuuki hops aboard, "And please enjoy your flight."

He snaps his fingers.

There's a great big kaboom as the cannon-spell fires, but it launches not a glob of flame or a blast of shrapnel... It fires...

...One Yuuki-shaped missile.

There's no way this can go wrong!

    Yuuki reaches Prophylaxis just as his magic cannon has formed and is getting ready to fire.

    She proceeds to jump into the barrel, feet first.

    Prophylaxis's spell goes off, the magic cannon firing. Yuuki is propelled into the air at high speed, her buff leaving a trail of darkness behind her as she shoots towards the floating mass of monsters. Hopefully towards the center, if Prophylaxis's aim is good enough!

    The imp lets out a cry as she's shot through the air, "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

    Of course, to keep herself from just faceplanting against the mass of monsters, Yuuki brings her sword up in front of her, pointed forward. The dark blade turns completely black as a void begins to spread out from it, forming a larger blade of darkness so intense that light seems to be sucked up by it.

    The combination of dark buff and dark attack to carve a path should hopefully keep Yuuki from being too crispified by the brightly burning creatures as she tries to pierce through the 'sun' to grab the prize at the center.

    There's no way this can go wrong!

Erufu will find she has much the same response she pauses lookg tyo Shiruba and says "I don't think we should do that again..."

Humm so the thing can be effected like that? Sun Crow? A nuclear hell Raven? Not that she voices this after all as Nao would know that not the elf ranger.

She start thinkin she does not have any magic? So she start to look around trtying to see if she could spot anythying of note to help her allies have somewhere to target...

Fukaziroh's flashing magic actually does appear to have an effect, as the tendril movements slow a bit, and seem to get more unsure. Some of them reach out just fine, but other sections are flailing around instead for a bit! In the mean time, a green light suddenly bursts from Merek's gauntlet, after a series of 'rings' forming around the device.

The light bursts across the mass of creatures, and various tendrils suddenly drop as some of the creatures fall to the ground. Not dead, but unable to maintain flight! Instead, they angrily start hopping like a wave of light towards the group! Of course, now those around him are aware of this phrase - it needed not be spoken to use his ability. His awareness of the phrase was enough to use his power.

Various of the creatures burst up against Rizadoman's body, splashing apart against his scales. Burning some of his armor and one of them setting his head dress on fire! Another arrow shot suddenly fires, tearing apart a few of them, as Hou Yi seems to be assisting them. He's remarkably calm, and almost 'casually' avoids the strikes from the monsters.

Shiruba joins in the arrow shooting, while stepping forward. Tearing critter after critter from the sunny mass. Shattering the monsters into light. It's a slow process however! Another 'arrow' then bursts into the mass of the sun, but this one is made up of Yuuki. Her health quickly starting to fall as she is /bathed/ in extreme heat and fire magic, as she tears through the mass. She finds that her melee weapons are having some trouble reaching, but she is managing some slicing! The enemy numbers are quickly falling... but they are also starting to flap their wings /really/ fast, almost like insects, starting to 'buzz' against the area around them. The heat rapidly building, suggesting that something is coming!

    Merek looks to the creatures that go down to the ground beneath the data drain. That was enough for him to know it works, though he does seem to realize the innate power actually seems to come from him more than the words. A few of them do manage to come at him and he tries to keep them away while he begins to lift up a hand towards the creature and considering what was already effective, he will draw the bow with him, and begin firing two shots along into them. "Right, we probably work on the defensive."

    Watching Yuuki get shot out of a cannon makes Fukaziroh rather jealous, actually. Because that looks UTTERLY AWESOME! The little Sylph isn't sure which she'd rather do right now. Learn that awesome cannon move, or get shot from it. Tough call really. Like, really tough call. She's not sure if she's tough enough to be launched like that but ... it'd be so much fun finding out!

    She shakes her head though. Time for all that LATER! "Oooiii! Yuuu!" she shouts out. "Are you still alive in there?" It'd be terrible if, after that awesomeness, Yuuki were to be killed. So, her axe enchanted with gale of swords and raised for battle, Fukaziroh charges in. To the rescue perhaps, or to try to cut down the enemy faster than they can flap up the flames. Either way, there she goes.

Shiruba being cautious with her position pays off a second time as she's not too close to the swarm when they start beating their wings to kick up a heatwave. She holds her position, conjuring a spheroid of water around herself.... Though the exterior surface almost immeadiately starts to sizzle and steam, even the elemental magic starting to evaporate when exposed to such heat.

But the magic shield holds for long enough and allow Shiruba to consider her options. They still need to find the core within this thing and not destroy it.

So instead of drawing an arrow she draws back her bowstring seemingly empty. Until Thundersnow Howl responds with its magic, forming a projectile of pressurized air within her grasp. She shifts her stance as the Bubble fizzles away, aiming more to the side of the swarm so she doesn't accidentally hit the core they seek, and fires. This means her shot won't actually hit the swarm directly.

Nor should it need to, as the powerful wind magic in the shot creates a storm strength wind in its wake in hope of tearing more of the monsters' out of the swarm and away from the prize they cover.

Prophylaxis winces as he watches Yuuki's hp take a tumble. That'll be a problem if he doesn't patch things up quick-- but what will also be a problem is whatever the heck the leftover ravens are doing. He's seen videos of hives of bees killing an attacking wasp, and they do it in much the same way: gather up close and start pumping their wings so fast that it outright overheats the invader to death. In this case, these 'tiny suns' are doing much the same thing... But with far more devastating potential consequences.

Healing is one thing, but will they survive such a catastrophic kaboom...?

Prophylaxis squares himself. An incantation on his lips, he lifts his hand to the sky. Shadows slither like inkstains across the earth, up his body, into his outstretched palm. It fuses into a single bead of jet black darkness that writhes and pulses as it drinks in the overwhelming light.

Then, he flings the thing at the swarm of crows. The bead wavers in the blazing brilliance, before surging into a globe of all-consuming black. The doctor's eyes narrow, his focus intensifying as he pours his mana pool into keeping the black sphere intact for as long as possible. In the worst case, he might force open its top, to direct the (hopefully brief) blaze harmlessly into the sky, but...

Hopefully it doesn't come to that.

    "OW! OW! OW! HOT! HOT! HOT!" This is the response that Fukaziroh gets from within the monster sun.

    Yuuki is definitely feeling the heat as she is now within that mass of flying, burning, monsters. But she's too stubborn to give up on the idea!

    Yuuki's Dark Tempest speed buff ends, the dark wind aura fading away and the imp herself slowing down a little. Thankfully though, she's had the skill for quite some time now and has been able to improve its cooldown! Soon enough, she activates it once more, the dark wind forming around her and speeding up her movements again.

    Leveraging the speed provided by the buff, along with yet another of her personal movement skills, Yuuki starts jumping from one flying monster to the next. Trying to bounce her way further into the mass to find the object at the center, all the while keeping an eye on her ever dropping HP bar. If she can't get there soon, she's going to wind up a fried snack for some mob!

Yeowang seems to have seen a thing she thinks is significant, and so uses some of her seldom-used skills. The magic in this game confuses her a great deal, and she mostly ignores it, but she's got the power and the skills, so she puts them to some sort of inexpert use. Vines creep along the ground, lifting up and crawling toward the center of the mass of things in fits and starts. She's got no clue what they are, beyond 'monsters', which is why everyone's attacking them, but they're not the point of why we're here.

We're here to get the item at the center of all that, and she sends the vine toward the middle of it all. The thing about vines creeping along the ground is, they're fairly subtle when an attack is going on, and so she can creep it quite close before it rears up and snatches the thing, pulling back as quickly as she can manage. There was a thing holding on to it, that's getting pulled along, too, unless it squirms free.

    Rizadoman roars with annoyance as his head dress burns away, do you know how many feathers he had to pluck from his Peko to make that. He would rather fight nude then lose his head dress. As if his roar summoned tthe earth itself a large pillar rises out of the ground and instead of simply punching the birds with it , he presses a pin into his neck as his muscles swell and for a brief moment someone may wonder if Rizadoman had been working out before he pulls the pillar out of the ground and swings it like a giant club of rock before it breaks and falls in to pieces. Shortly aftetr Rizadoman would return to normal muscle size.

Erufu catches sight of something with her elf eyes. It's a very interesting thing she spots. "Hey, do you see that there's a gem in with the monster ball. One of them is holding it!"

She'll make note of this pointing it out to anyone she can and she'll try to take a shot at the monster rather than the crystal.

She raises her bow, focuses in and then will let an arrow fly.

The pulse of darkness that erupts from that single bead of arcane energy tears outwards, seeming to grab the area around it, and then pulls the creatures in around it. Squishing the sun-like tendrilled shape, tearing a hole into it, and eradicating a good chunk of them. The rest of the golden 'crows' quickly gather up into that hole, and the mass shifts and shrinks as a result of Prophylaxis' larger attack!

A blast of wind then pushes in the sphere of building heat and fire, giving more of them insight into parts of the inner workings of the orb. More of those crows, interlinking and flapping their wings, trying to form up around Yuuki to eradicate her through heat! Bursts of wind combine, as but Shiruba and Fukaziroh work together on this matter! Each of them creating a constant array of portholes.

What follows a moment later, is an accidental - but effective - combination attack. With sight being made easier, Yeowang works on bringing plants up from amidst the mass. Some of them burst into flame, but others creep through the many airpockets being formed within thanks to the various air based attacks.

It then grabs onto the blue gem, and pulls! It fails at first, only for Erufu's attack to pierce right through the golden 'crow' and shattering it, causing the mass to suddenly collapse, and the vine to pull the gem into the earth, and on its way back to Yeowang!

This causes the sun to 'burst' into a sea of angry 'crows', large pockets of which begin to shatter outwards. This gives Yuuki the moment she needs to rush and jump from critter to critter without having to deal with a whole wall of them, ripping them apart with her fine blade attacks! The suddenl stone pillar that comes down then SWATS a whole sum of them like flies! Without their linking technique, it seems they are far more vulnerable now!

And with the gem removed... it would not be long before the Adventurers would clear this challenge before them!

"Good job Yeowang! Get that clear." Shiruba is already prepping one of her spell fletcher arrows. "Everyone else, keep them from regrouping and take them out." She aims at one of the remaining cluster and fires! The arrow whizzes towards the sun crows, only to explode midair in a cloud of spore filled fumes. Hopefully enough to daze and confuse the fiesty little birdbrains before they can chain back together to cluster on Yeowang retrieving the core.

    Merek looks to the creatures when it looks like the gem was recovered. He will take the time to try to strike lightning into a few of each of them, then he's nodding along to the party. "Alright, I don't think that I want to blow them up. In case there's anything that we will find."

    While Fukaziroh gale-forces her way into the swarm of birds, she's still trying to work out a plan. It quickly becomes clear to her that she'll never get into the heart, certainly not before Yuuki considering the imp's speed and cannonball boost. It would be silly to try to reproduce that on her own, with nothing but Chopstick leading the way. She could stop here and fight using axe or magic, or she could help the group succeed.

    Put like that, it's no choice at all. "Yuuu, catch!" Fuka shouts out, trying to judge where the tiny swordswoman is as the cloud of monsters begins to disperse. She chants more syllables of air, with several different notes in it. Shield, rather than buff. Finishing the spell with a fierce cry of "AERO!!!", Fukaziroh launches a ball of air forward. If she's good, and more than a little lucky, the ball will find and engulf Yuuki in a protective bubble, allowing her to continue on forward with little fear for her own safety. And if not... well, hopefully they win anyways!

Yeowang grunts as her vines wrestle it free, she feels like she's hauling it in with a rope, but it's the vine creeping back doing the work, leaving a little hump in the ground as it reels back in until she's got the prize in hand. She's actually maybe a bit closer to the things than she'd like, so she will work quickly as she can to retrieve it. She will inspect visually, for the little that's worth, it as she moves to hand it back to the quest-giver.

Weak to darkness, it seems! Good, this is the upside to paying attention to the enemy's behavior! This is /also/ the result of gaming so much that you become capable of sightreading encounters, so... Maybe it's not so great? Yeah?

Whatever the case, Prophylaxis noticed the sphere being snatched out of the swarm of crows. That means they can start breaking out the big spells, right? RIGHT??

(No, Yuuki's still in there.)

Instead, Prophylaxis taps his staff against the earth, filling long-sleeping plant-life with the regenerative power of springtime. A rat's nest of vines erupts from the ground, reaching for each of those darting crows to seize around them, now that they no longer have the protection of their coordinated fiery aura. If they land, those same vines would turn to slam each of their captives into the ground until they /stop./

    Yuuki sees something shiney. It's a gem! That must be it! Now she just has to get there...

    The gem is snatched up by a vine.

    The 'sun' proceeds to fall apart.

    Yuuki finds her next intended hop suddenly falling out from under her as the mass formation of the mobs suddenly breaks. "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Yuuki falls!

    But the imp manages to grab hold of one of the 'crows' before she falls too far. The mob begins to flail and fly around erratically in order to shake her of. But Yuuki holds on tight with one arm! With the other, she's swinging and slashing towards any other crows she manages to get close to as her and her uncooperative ride slowly fall out of the sky.

    Finally Yuuki and the mob she had been holding onto hit the ground together, the unfortunate mob finding Yuuki's blade stabbing into its gut in the resulting impact, only to shatter into pixels of light.

    Yuuki groans a little after the crash landing, sitting up and rubbing her head, "Not quite the result I was expecting..." At least she still has a somewhat decent amount of her HP bar left? Though she's definitely looking a little scorched. And smoking just a tad.

    Rizadoman chooses to not run towards the murder of crows that still exist. Instead he went about the duty clean up a different way, working from the outside in. Moving in to physically slash each crow that got just a little tto far from the rest and then moving on to the next and the next. When he couldn't reach tthem he would move on to the next tactic he could think of.

The Elf seme please as the combined actions of the entire group solve it and she sees she nails the golden crow. She grins at this watching as the gem gets caught and pulled back o Yeowang. She'll give the other woman a thumb up. She shifts her hand after that to draw more arrows from her quiver. She will then start lining up shots firing at the leftovers, arrow after arrow is let fly as she tries to do her part to clean out the field of the remaining monsters.

"This is fun!"

Hou Yi accepts the Gem from Yeowang in the midst of firing upon the bugs as they scatter. His movements picking up speed, rapidly firing arrows. Notably, some of them glance across enemies, destroying them, only to bounce onto the next and the next! There's a certain level of skill to this archer that is beyond the norm.

"Thank you." The man remarks to Fukaziroh, as he pockets the gem. "I will give this to my wife when I see her. It will be a most wonderful gift." Before destroying another - guiding Merek's lightning with some of the attacks into his enemies.

The dusting of poison quickly grabs onto them, as Shiruba fires to the air. Spreading over a large area, it quickly begins to drop the health of the scattered creatures, destroying them. On their own, they are easy to annihilate. It's only while they were in that unusual formation that they were trouble!

Vines grab around, snatching anything that was trying to get away, tearing and crushing the three legged 'crows'! It would not be long before most of them are destroyed. And what remains is hardly dangerous to the local region anymore - with Rizadoman doing cleanup on the ground to eradicate the ones that Merek grounded earlier - and Erufu shooting down a few of them at long range.

Eventually, as things quiet down, Hou Yi bows his head to the team. "Thank you very much. My wife will appreciate this greatly. The Hunters Guild will of course re-imburse you for your aid, mighty Hunters."

    Merek looks to that archer and nods while he assists with finishing them off. "Alright, I'm glad we could assist you. I don't suppose you know the history of these things?" The man offers a hand along to that archer for him to take it for a handshake if he pleases. "I am sure the Hunter's Guild will pay us well, all the same it's nice to know they work in the Palace Lands." Meaning that any duties they take in this place would be nice for their hunter reward.

Yeowang bows to Hou Yi and looks to the others, shaking her head slowly. "Well, that was certainly interesting," she observes. "I hope your wife enjoys your gift, it is quite impressive." As the final cleaning up of monsters occurs she will step back. There are working adventurers, she would not want to be in the way. She bows in return to Hou Yi as he thanks us.

    Fukaziroh makes her way back to the others with a light heart. Sure she failed at her last attempt but so what? It turned out it wasn't needed anyways and the group was more than up to the task. She doesn't really feel the need to be perfect, and there was more than enough she could do well here that she needn't feel bad.

    "My regards to you and your wife. Thank you for showing us the nature of the sun in the west!" she eventually says to Hou Yi, entirely forgetting to use her creaky old voice of wisdom. She's in too good of a mood for a group effort well-executed to worry about things like acting wise. Or acting a wiseass, depending.

Shiruba watchs one of Hou Yi's shots bounce between several targets. "A chain shot! That's so cool...." She hasn't seen many Lander archers of such a caliber in action, so she's a little mystified by the display. She's only been able to get that kind of ricochet with her throwing glaive.

"Remnants of a far greater enemy, defeated many centuries ago." Hou Yi answers Merek's question with a bit of a vague statement. The archer takes Merek's hand and shakes it, only for Merek to suddenly have to deal with a sudden splitting headache.

The man tilts his head, showing momentary worry for Merek, before looking to the others. "Thank you all. Now, I must return to my home. Until next time." And with that, the man returns to his home.