Monster Nest: Karluin

Months have passed since Scale Emblem defeated the great Goblin Swarm amidst the streets of Karluin, even against the efforts of a few rogue elements from New World Alliance. Since then, they've defeated the remainders of an ancient fallen civilization. Decimated Elemental Machines. Annihilated Goblins. Trashed enemy camps and slayed the remainders, making their way slowly towards the top of Karluin's Castle, awaiting their arrival.

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The massive doors of the Castle Halls burst open, and the team travels forward. Arrows cutting across the main hall as the team works their way forward. "Thirty-six." A voice calls out amidst the front lines as Goblin battlelines are annihilated on the way to the massive stairs leading upwards.

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The sound of gears moving echoes through empty castle halls. Down below, ancient bones stir beneath the city. Fighting has broken out all over the city. Flaming orbs descend in the streets. Goblin ambushes trigger to the easter quadrant, while a group of armored paladins rush the western corner and call out a warchant, drawing larger Goblin Champions towards them.

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Running up the circling stairs, the team proceed onwards. A few Goblins fire crossbows down the raidteam's way, only to be shattered by the shields at the forefront. Fireballs and lightning bursts collapse upon the Goblin forces atop the stairs as the team proceeds onwards. Stone bursts fire across the corner, shattering lives; "Fifty-seven."

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There's a loud cry of victory to the northern parts of Karluin, as a Scale Emblem group manages to defeat another Goblin Warrior, only for a massive rock to come rolling off from the nearby tall roofs, causing the group's formation to collapse, and a goblin war-band to get the upper hand!

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The raid group reaches the top of the stairs, and bursts through the next door. Arriving to a red carpet. The large tower laid out like a massive bedroom. But it's filled with filth. Items that are low on integrity, goblins that are half sick. And at the center of it all, a massive fat Goblin that is grabbing a smaller one by the head, and stuffing it into its maw. Biting down on it and devouring it as its light shimmers away - but the light flowing into its filthy maw, seeming to take the 'essence' that is left on one's defeat. While biting down, it eats its own fingers... only for the red light to shimmer to life, and the fingers to return.

Right next to the massive fat and non-armored goblin, stands his opposite. Armored in ramshackle armor and hides, wielding an absolutely /massive/ club of sorts made up of various weapons taped and roped together. Pieces of metal burnt and melted together, making into what looks like a sickening lacerating object of death. Behind them, a red gem glows. For a moment, it shimmers, only to suddenly 'spew forth' light, creating a Goblin Champion right before the team.

There are bone piles strewn around, creating effegies to The Beast. The skeletons laid out like a canine rearing up. There's something eerie about it. Black teeth hanging off of them that seem to cast a dark aura over the entire place.

The Goblin King motions its fatty fingers forward and shouts at the Goblin, which rushes forward, only to be caught as the Goblin Slayer steps forward, lowering a spear right in the way of its approach, and accurately targetting its neck. The thin weapon sinking deep into its throat and halting its advance. A red eerie glow burning at the edge of the Lander's helmet.

"Fifty-eight." Every Goblin is the same.

There are times when Kita is all too thankful for the presence of the Goblin Slayer. It means that they have a far easier way through the various areas around Karluin, as he is the most capable bringer of Goblin genocide. The black mage, having recently returned from cheering on her girlfriend during the tournament, was quickly recruited on this last push to clear the Tower city, but she has learned to be wary around goblins.

Coming across the boss room, Kita stays towards the back of the raid group. While she may have some quite formidable shield magics, they weren't the same as someone who has been trained to tank damage. In fact, Kita may very well be one of the 'squishier' combatants here.

Her hand hovers over her spellbook, drawing dark energy from her fingertips and drawing out arcane runes in the air. When they finish, the magic seems to almost go up in flames, forming into a ball of dark energy at her fingertips. The magical energy is tossed towards the fat King Goblin, expanding as it gets closer, creating a powerful debuff and potentially allowing an opening for her comrades to do additional damage.

Allynna blinks as she smirks. "Oh yeah... fun time!" She says as she makes her shield split in two. "Two bosses, I got the queen!" She says as her shields start to rev up as she dashes at the queen Her left shield raises as she smacks the queen and slides around her, her right shield up as she attempts to point the queen away from the rest of the raid. "Look at me... I'm the queen now!" She taunts.

    Amalthea has long, by now, learned not to bother trying to keep count with the Goblin Slayer, when it comes to the wholesale slaughter of the green tide, from her position at the fore of the raid vanguard in the front lines of the offensive. Wherever one gobline goes down another two or even three rse to take its place. But the old raid tank doesn't let that slow her down. To her credit, she keeps up well enough with the slayer. Her kill count doesn't quite reach his heights, but that's not what she's here for.
    She's not here to DPS.
    Arrows spang off her shield and armor as she cycles her taunt rotations to pull goblins and their hate onto her while letting other members of the raid really lay into the green bastards.
    Finally they reach the goblin king's chamber... And the Slayer handily deals with the new champion summoned forth.
    Unsurprising.
    But with the Champion slain, the old Paladin trudges towards the goblin King himself, and starts spamming every taunt she has to get his attention, bashing her sword to her shield with a resounding clatter.
    "Alright, alright. Come on now, look at me over here. Aren't I delicious looking? That's right, pay attention to me." She declares before a wave of force roils from her shield, slamming outwards at the king to open her initial assault and pave the way for others to come in swinging.

Running, running, RUNNING! Just running a pain train through every Goblin obstacle that gets in their way as the raid team makes their way through the castle and up the spiraling stairs. They've taken a long time to work this far, but once Scale Emblem is moving, little is going to slow them down!

But Vertina was more than fine with this approach. She's taking the forward momentum in leaps and bounds. On the way up the stairs she even takes to wuxai wall-running to make room for others on the steps, while flicking flaming kunai at various goblins in her view.

Then they barge into what is probably the throne room. Vertina doesn't wait to look around as she briefly lands in a three-point crouch, or pay much attention to Goblin Slayer doing what he does best. Her eyes lock directly on the hulking King giving orders.

Then there's a crack of thunder and the Salamander Shaolin is such a blurr it's like she's immeadiately gone one moment, and hurtling a flying drop kick at the speed of lightning the Goblin King!

"We're here to kick that fat ass off the throne!" Literally in her case.

    Setsuna had been waiting for this day. To often the damn goblin king had shown up and then ran away. Today was the day the king could no longer run. Throughout the raid today his pets with him were the Cerbus , Demon and the skeleton knight Skull. As he chooses his target he shouts, "Blind him Demon before he can find a place to run to." The Cerberus trio barks bed re unleashing a way of darkness upon the king to blind him.

Months. /Months/ they've been pursuing this monster. Through the city streets, burning through shanty after shanty. Through his countless bodyguards and assassins and the ramshackle fortresses and bastions they manned. Through the keep itself, they fought and bled, across Dragon Bridge and into the labyrinth beneath it. They've chased him through the tunnels, through chamber after chamber of Karluin's great castle keep, every so often catching a glimpse before he disappears again, sacrificing a precious lieutenant to buy time to escape.

Or, 'precious,' perhaps. Goblins, as it turns out, are not to be underestimated-- at least, in terms of how replacable their numbers are.

"A monster nest," Prophylaxis hisses at the sight of it, that red gem utterly unmistakable. "Here, in the tower of all places...? Damn my complacency. This explains everything!" There is lightning in the tower too, today. The Doctor of Tolbana lifts his staff to an open window, electricity arcing down from the dome of the heavens to the gem at its tip. With a roar, he swings a lash of white-hot skyfire into the Goblin Queen-- trying, to varying degrees of success, to replace the disgust he feels at witnessing wanton cannibalism with the heat of battle. "Slayer!" The doctor shouts at the sound of that all too familiar voice. "We're glad to have you here today! I will cover you as best as I'm able!"

In other words, heals for /days/ for the Goblin Slayer. He is, after all, the greatest weapon ever leveled against goblinkind.

Schneider follows the group to its destination, a mid-rank support guy, lobbing fireballs as needed while the real tanks take the brunt of the hits. His job is to kill the goblins as fast as possible so the tanks take as few hits as possible, which reduces the drain on the healers.

Schneider has a big ol' sword on his hip, but it generally doesn't come out. His main weapon, those who've just seen him briefly might think his only weapon, is fire, though just saying that is doing a bit of understatement, because what he really brings, even to the smallest spells, is FIRE, fully elemental, unforgiving, furious, intense, and all-consuming. The trash mobs don't stand a chance.

The royal family, such as it is, is made of tougher stuff, so his fire magic doesn't one shot it, not by a long shot, but the fire he hurls is entirely effective at its task: making the enemy's HP bar shrink.

One there are goblins here, two Goblin Slayer was here, three whatever she thought of Scale? Those who lived in the tower did not deserve to suffer the hordes of Goblins here. So here she was as Goblin Slayer. She's right with her friend as he hits thirty-six.

"Twenty."

Notes the elf as she picks off more Goblins as they keep fighting she'll get more and more as they fight their way in deeper.

"Forty Two."

She keeps going soon they finally reach the top of the stairs and she now looks down what appears to be the Goblin King and Queen.

"Let's get it over with."

She notes as she notches four arrows and lets them all fly for the Queen before she breaks into a run, not wanting to stay still in a fight like this.

The kingdom of the goblins was about to fall...

"Orcbalg Let's end this nightmare."

    As a goblin fizzles out of existence in front of her, Yuuki hears one of the other front line chargers say, 'Fifty-eight.' Yuuki compares that against her own mental count and whistles, "He's pretty good." Yuuki ducks under another goblin's swing, before driving her blade into its gut and causing it too to vanish in a flash of particle effects. Although it's not said, those who know Yuuki probably know her well enough to realize she's likely thinking 'But not as good as me.' Whether it's true or not.

    Seeing her list of potential targets whittle down, Yuuki turns her attention towards the two major goblins living it up in the throne room. She taps her sword against her shoulder as she tries to decide which one to go after. They both look like equally valid targets to the imp. She then points her sword towards the first. Then the second. Then the first. Alternating again. You can almost see the rhyme playing out in her head, until finally she settles on one of them.

    Yuuki rushes forward towards the Goblin Queen. She quickly reaches it, before her sword flashes out in a quick blurry strike as she passes by it. Yuuki then spins around and skids to a halt after her attack, laughing and then calling out over the sounds of battle, "Hey, Prophy! This is great! I think I'm going to have to owe you some dinner for this one!"

    Merek walks along with the raid group, listening to all the chatter on the chimlink while he takes the time to spin around both of his twin blades. The man promised to assist Amalthea in cleaning up what all this became. He swings along and into goblins while they make their way along. He seems to be partnered with Allynna at the moment, assisting with DPS.

The massive burst of flames detonates against the Goblin King, embers blasting out from its position, and smoke enveloping it, only for its massive grubbing hand to push through the flames and reach out for the front lines as Amalthea taunts the massive creature. The Goblin Slayer suddenly moves to the front, slicing off the King's fingers to stop him from managing to catch anything.

At the edges of the Goblin King's maw, the smoke and remnants of Kita's flames begin to be pulled into its maw, sucking the remnants of her magic in. And Kita may notice that her Mana is going down a lot faster than usual! The Goblin Slayer moves to the side quickly, so that Amalthea's forceful blow can take place, bursting against the King's body and causing its fat body to ripple with waves as its arms are blow outwards, opening its posture!

That's where Vertina comes in, her feet both hitting straight into its gut. Her feet sinking into its massive fat. Thick oily substances smearing onto her feet as it reaches down to grab her after she sheers off a bit of its health off with her attack and takes hold of her arm and slams her to the ground, bouncing her body across the flat surface like a stone across water, before it takes a heavy step forward, causing the entire room's surface to tremble!

At the side of the front line of the King's battle, Allynna swings forward, splitting her shield in twain and activating the relic. Massive chainsaw blades coming to buzz from the sides as the Queen brings that massive club down upon Allynna's shields, forcing the Adventurer to her knees with the sheer MIGHT of that blow - and the result of the King's trembling step. Though Allynna's body may hold to the attack, she's momentarily forced to her knees by the Queen and the sharp 'club' she wields! The buzz-saw creating molten metal slag on either side of her.

At Allynna's side, Setsuna's cerberus moves forward, bursting forth a plume of darkness, using her shield to protect itself from the slag and crazy Goblin Clubber. The vile black substance getting into the Goblin King's eyes, causing it to grab at its eyes for a moment and... tear them out, only for new ones to regrow immediately so it can see again!

The Goblin Queen brings her club around, releasing Allynna from her defensive posture, and then brings it against the white lightning that seeks to burn her. The electricity coursing right through her club, surprising her and causing her to drop it. A massive crack forming in the floor as the heavy thing lands to the ground, and the creature is forced to stumble back for a moment. Schneider's blazing flames land against her body not a moment later, before she manages to grab hold of the club again while Prophylaxis is still channeling his lightning.

She lifts it into the air slowly, trembling as her muscles spasm... only for the channeling to finally halt as Prophylaxis' spell comes to an end, and the metalic club is /buzzing/ with lightning all across the club's many-weaponed body. Sparks flying and dancing between blades that partially stick out. Some of the lightning tears apart some of the arrows Erufu fires at the clubbing Goblin, but two of them find purchase against her neck, red glow bursting from those spots, but quickly closing up as the creature /tenses its muscles/ in her neck.

Then suddenly, there is that slice. A white flash of Yuuki's cutting blade tearing at its waist. A spray of red light coming from it, causing it to stumble down onto one leg for a moment. A pause... before the other hand of the Goblin Queen suddenly reaches and manages to get to Yuuki's head, lifting her up by her skull with /far/ more celerity than the Goblin Queen had shown so far, and then shot-puts Yuuki straight towards Allynna's spinning buzz-saw shields!

The Goblin King then suddenly rushes forward, its both chubby hands reaching out, grabbing at the front liners. Reaching for anyone it can get his hands on, trying to grab around their bodies so he can lift it and try to BITE through their arms or legs, whatever the nearest Limb is that it can get a hold off. All while the Queen slams her Club down to the ground, sending violent bursts of lightning forward, tearing through the lines and creating such crackling energy with her attack that the lightning begins to form lightning-vortexes between the ground and ceiling itself! Further cracks forming in the ground, showing slowly moving gears beneath some of the opening tears in the tower's ground!

    Merek sweeps along with the party while he takes the time to swing into the Queen, and lifts up a hand to blast flame into the creature. It doesn't look like it will work as well that he wanted it to, all the same the man will swing along and work assisting Ally.

    Setsuna whistles and calls Demon back as the king begins to get a little touchy feely and the cerberus dashes around and under hands back to it's owners at lightning speed as Setsuna sticks his tongue out at the king. " You have to try harder oh large one." Now then with his three headed pal summoned back Setsuna takes a ranged approached as he gathers up the dark energy around him into a spear and launches it at the King. " Rip that out and eat it you damn dirty goblin. "

Allynna raises her shield to easily swipe the attack to the side. "No no nonono!" She says before sending her right hand up into the air. "PILLAR OF LIGHT!" She says as she cats, but the spell doesnt have the oomph she was looking for. "Damnit... okay ally.. keep your shield up.. we can try again..." She says as she still tries to keep the cow goblin queen's attention.

    Amalthea succeeds in opening the king up to attack.
    This is good.
    Amalthea is summarily grabbed.
    This is bad.
    Wriggling desperately to free herself of the fat goblin's grasp, the old tank kicks and flails, going so far as to madly snort and headbutt where she can, but it is to no avail as the king brings her in close to that she can smell his fetid breath.
    Then comes the pain. Even dulled to 20% of what it could be it's stunning as teeth bite down into her sword arm and rip it out at the shoulder. For a moment her eyes glaze with pain before she's dropped, landing in a stumble on her feet. ... Before she finds her sword again on the ground.
    Stomping the blade the sword flips up into the air...
    And she catches it in her teeth.
    And while she holds her sword in her teeth it begins to glow, a holy white light suffuses the blade as she jerks her head to hack and slash at the king.

It is more than a little unsettling when Kita's mana begins to drain faster than she might expect, causing her earlier Nightmare Sphere spell not even last the usual duration. The Imp's tail whips behind her, showing that sign of irritation as she looks around.

This, just in time to see the King start to grab for people and treat himself to an Adventurer buffet. Her expression pales visibly as she backs up one step, then nearly freezes in place like a deer in the headlights. Then, seeming to return to herself, Kita darts backwards, a blast of air magic pushing her out of the way, just barely avoiding being turned into a snack.

Deciding that it is better to worry about the Queen and her club, instead, she starts to cast another spell from her spellbook, but the trembling in her anxious hands causes her to miss one of the rune symbols. The ball of darkness and air energy forms, but as she sends it out towards the enemy, the spell seems to falter and crack midway there.

Her mana pool seems to be struggling, even this early in the fight, which is not normal. "Damnit, I need a mana potion, now!" She calls out to one of the back line alchemists, hoping she'll get one in time to join more properly in the next round of attacks.

Vertina tries to leap back from the King Goblin's sudden lunge, the somersault roll leaving a streak of flames in her wake... Which the King just wades right through, being as tough as expected and faster than expected to just not give a shit about the fire. One of his swipes manages to snatch the Salamander up before she can move again, hoisting her into the air. After that kick, he'd probably go for a leg.... Which Vertina is having nothing of. Not after what's happened to her legs in the past. It might be in a fit of traumatic memory that she kicks, squirms, and manages to wiggles herself into position to pull and arm free and shove that out first. She catchs the top of the Goblin King's mouth, holding on just long enough for him to chomp down on the arm, leaving nothing but pixels and red streaks on a stump at the shoulder in his wake. Vertina to her credit, manages to clench her teeth and not freak out. Or show fear. Just a lot of hotheaded anger.

"GET YOUR STINKING HANDS OFF ME YOU DAMN DIRTY GOBLIN!" she bellows instead. At the same time it's clear that losing an arm is only a minor inconvenience, as one of her feet ignite in flames as she thrusts it at the Goblin King's face with all her righteous fury channeled into it. "RAGNAROK'S WRATH!"

Then once she's back on the ground she quickly backs up a few steps, and gets back into her stance. She's finishing out this fight, arm or no arm.

Schneider is dressed quite flamboyantly, as he always is, but some may notice that the hat he wears is the slightly silly peko-hat he wore for the races. It turns out, it provides an incredible burst of initiative that lets him deflect the energy of the attack and remain, well, as safe as anyone fighting the goblin king and queen could be, which is Not Very. But it saves him from a big loss of HP, which is the important thing.

He hurls another low level spell at the queen, shouting, "Tai-to-ro! Blow this enemy away! Anthem!" and launching a blister of raw, elemental, bitterly intense fire at her, carving off another block of HP, which pleases Schneider. He's keeping his big boom in reserve for now, but those who know him know there's bigger booms in reserve, in case things get rough.

There's something to be said for the ability of monsters to just... pull /surprises/ out of their metaphorical, and occasionally literal, backsides. In this case, it's a matter of what the Goblin Queen /does/ to Prophylaxis' hurled bolt of lightning that has the doctor gaping in surprise. "What the hell, when did they learn to do that!?"

There's little time to wax philosophical, or even to consider the situation. The goblin queen swings and unleashes a wave of electrical chaos, arcing bolts of lightning crash against the stone and arc between members of the raid. Prophylaxis sets his jaw and slams his staff into the earth. Walls of glacial ice materialize all around him, condensing as if from the bloody fog of battle. Electricity sizzles uselessly against the frozen barricade, moments before Prophylaxis bids his barriers to shatter into a wave of killing cold...!

But it does not reach the Queen, the blockade momentarily causing him to misjudge her distance from his position. In the corner of his eye, he sees Amalthea lose an arm to the Goblin King's jagged maw, and the doctor whispers a curse under his breath. These monsters have glutted themselves on the endless bodies of their brethren, and it certainly shows. But...

They must be dealt with. They need to be slain /now/ before they can grow any more powerful...!

    Yuuki is suddenly grabbed!

    The surprised imp cries out in, unsurprisingly, surprise as she is lifted into the air. She flails for several moments trying to shake herself free. Then she resorts to trying to stab the Queen in the hand. But it's not enough!

    Yuuki goes flying through the air, "Waaaaaaaah!" She hits Allynna's shield, bounces off it and higher into the air, before crashing down on the ground.

    Yuuki groans quietly, before starting to pick herself up. Only for lightning to course over the battlefield. And through her.

    Yuuki drops to the ground again, this time smoking just a little bit. Her HP bar has taken quite a dip from those two attacks. But she picks herself up again, brushing herself off as red still shines from where she impacted the shield and ground and was electrified, "Okay. That was a teeeeeeeeny bit annoying."

    As Yuuki looks up towards the Queen, there's a fire in her eyes as she calls out, "You're going to pay for that!" The speed imp rushes forward, weaving her way through her fellow Adventurers and their attacks, until she's close enough to unleash a series of rapid strikes. Her dark blade plunging multiple times into the thicc Goblin Queen.

Erufu arrows find their mark on the Queen, she got a good hit but it's not enough to put her down. She'd not expect that to be honest but still, it was nice to get a good hit. She doesn't have much more time to think about what's going as the Queens Club is coming down and hard it can't be dodge the elf can't block it. She's thusly knocked off her feet and skids along the ground. She doesn't have to be told twice it might be better to switch off to the King. Which is just what she does speeding away.

She head in on the King lining up a single shot this time but a much more powerful one aiming for his center of mass.

"I don't know Pro! We'll have to worry about it later!"

Could it be Giga's work? No, she doesn't think so with these two. The new tank also seems to be living up to things and her chainsaw blade shield is pretty cool.

A burst of flame comes from Merek, after which he swings at the Queen. But the lightning that bursts down in front of him tears apart the magical conjuration. His blade hits, but it slams against the now-electrified club, causing the shock to burst back against him. Through the lightning that bursts from their meeting, Setuna's focus is brought on the King as it indeed misses him, but starts to /DEVOUR/ his allies while gleefully gazing at him. It hasn't spoken, so it is doubtful it understood what Setsuna said. But there is this sense of terrifying /DREAD/ that begins to eminate through the room.

This pulse of darkness... this sense of terrifying endless dread as that black 'aura' in the room spreads further, and the symbol suddenly alerts all of them in the room on their HUDs; WARNING: Cosmosphere Exposed. Followed by that very dread they felt at the edge of their minds starting to terrify. Fingers starting to tremble. Legs starting to have trouble moving. Forced effect on them through some kind of spell!?

The Goblins' eyes suddenly seeming to glow red. Shadows elongating around them. Allynna's pillar of light bursts into the air, trying to shine a light, but the shadows only grow longer. The burst of light definitely tearing into the Queen's health, but their healthbars seem to shudder a bit.

Only for light to shine once more, gleaming through the air, as Amalthea refuses to by taken by the Terror that is seeking to grip them. Her lit up blade tearing through the belly of the Goblin King, searing a red crease across its body! Kita's darkness spell doesn't seem to affect this sense of 'darkness' around them. It seems to come from a more psychological source as it bursts apart against the Queen, causing it to stagger for a moment. Even with her failing one of her runes, the spell still takes partial effect!

Amidst it all, they can see and feel that this sense of dread is 'originating' from the Queen, while something feels like it is 'seeping away' around the Goblin King. Its glistening teeth grinning at them. Only for that grin to be interrupted as Vertina's leg connects against its ugly grimace. The searing power of flame detonating across its mug, searing off part of its face and causing the King to literally bounce against the ground with its massive frame, rolling, before it begins to slowly hoist itself up once more, only to suddenly be blasted into!

The Queen, launched by Schneider's attack, is sent flying into the King. Its arms wide and expression confused as the club wielder bounces against it, barely caught. The King's legs trembling, stabbed by the Queen's club partially. It's healing still, and the Queen is doing better than the King at this point, but they've just dealt a heavy blow!

She's moved enough that Prophylaxis' icy shotgun attack fails to reach her, aside from some shards. Tearing into her skin, which then slowly begin to heal. The King clearly has far better regeneration than her, and it's having trouble keeping up! The queen stumbles forward, bringing down her club towards Yuuki, but Yuuki dives beneath the blow. The cutting blades barely tearing against her back, but the healers can keep up! Stabbing motions tear into the Queen's gut, causing red glow to begin to come out at a constant! Arrows then bolt right past the Queen's head and sink into the King's eyes, who roars and tries to tear them out.

Using this moment in time, the Goblin Slayer comes forward and joins Yuuki, climbing over her shoulders and bringing his blade into the Queen's shoulder, hanging on for dear life. But the Queen manages to grab him and throws him off of her, sending Goblin Slayer straight into the nearest wall with a sickening bone-breaking 'crack'!

The Queen then brings her club down, the lightning having worn off, and THROWS it through the room like a massive falling log trap that is speeding towards the back lines. At the same time, the King throws its hand forward, and a surge of green light seeks and rampages through the field. Trying to nab someone!

    Merek will notice that his cosmosphere seems to be exposed, while he takes the time to try to resist. It doesn't look like that's doing wonderful for him, then he takes the time to step forward. Mind drawn back to things that he wouldn't want to think about, he will lift up his gauntlet and points that towards the Goblin King with an open hand, taking the time to will it. 'MEREK_TEIWAZ_BANDIT_KING.' "ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!" There's a stream of green light while circles appear along his wrist to activate the power. Those that know what he's doing would see him trying to data drain the goblin king, though it looks like the goblin king is resisting that!

All too quickly, Kita is handed a potion from one of the back line healers, chugging the contents and eyeing her mana reserves with a dubious expression. That is, right before that bright red warning appears on her HUD. This isn't the first time she's seen that, and it. That, alone, would be cause for dread, without the effect that it seems to have on her psyche. The girl's natural anxieties in combat seem to ramp up, causing her limbs to start to tremble more visibly, eyes wide, a clear expression of panic building.

Somehow, perhaps only because she has been trapped here for a year and has some measure of learned bravery, Kita manages not to entirely flee the battlefield. Instead, she manages to protect herself with a swish of her hand and the quick summoning of a skeletal raptor that appears in front of her, taking the brunt of the damage coming her way. "Sorry, Spike." Apparently, the bone raptor has a name.

Then, she focuses on trying to actually form a more solid attack. Drawing her fingers again through the air, this time the spell actually activates properly, forming into a ball of purple flame in her hand. Extending her fingers out, she lobs the mass of dark flame in the direction of the queen, trying to wreathe her feet in magical energies.

It's hard to tell if the *CRACK* is her tail whipping to set her balance or the eruption of air seeking to fill the wake of where she had been standing, but in the end it's a moot point. Vertina is not standing still after what happened last time, and bursts into a blurring motion so intense that she is just not there anymore by the time that green beam crackles through. What the fuck is with these monster bosses having that power? Where are they getting it from?! Not that she's one to sit and thing about such things.

She's moving. Even as the dread sensations gnaw at the back of her mind. But it's not slowing her down. She's not letting it get to her, stop her from doing what she has to do. Giving into the dreadful feelings.

Courage isn't the absense of fear. It's the facing and overcoming of fear. Overcoming is what thrillseekers do. If anything that looming sensation of a bitter end is driving her -harder- rather than deter her any.

She is, however, keeping a bit of distance. Just so she can keep an eye on what's coming ahead. This stalls her about as much as the missing arm does ... which isn't much.

Not when she can form the spheroid of ki energy in her remaining hand. Then drop it to the ground.

And with a mighty sweep of her leg KICK it at the Goblin King, hurtling so fast it seems to stretch into a blinding streak as it surges through the air!

Allynna blinks as she feels fear creep along her back, and steps in "Flame wa..." She stops as fear strikes her.. her .. of all people.. what if they fail.. she can't fail...

The hit might have knocked whatever state she was in out.. as she stands up and looks PISSED. "You BITCH!"

"Quick to their ends, our candles burn until we're free, Like broken angels we are cast on heaven's gate: SANCTUARY!"

She says as she raises her hand to send her strongest light spell into the room, trying to get the potency while shaking off the last raveges of fear.

    Setsuna sees that dark aura leech about as both his monsters seem to back away to the edge of the room cowarding. The monster handler himself was steping back feeling that sense of doom and takes the increase in darkness to generate his own aura of darness. Using it to move as quickly as he can, almost like he is trying to evade the dread itself. Finally he sees an opening and sacrifices his aura to pull all that magical energy down into a ball of black flames and throws it at the King with all his might.

Schneider is not generally one to worry much about the details of the game. He plays, he lives, he dies, though that last only once, and through it all, fire. He's the immortal sorcerer, don'tcha know? So, when the goblin king and queen throw attacks, it's a basic magic shield to deflect them. He dashes it off with, well, normally it'd be contemptuous ease, but he's starting to panic, so it's a much more serious effort.

The increasing panic also works into his strategy, digging out the bigger boom. He chants, "Brain, Brain dead. Obey your blood oath, come forth from the land of Avalon. Fire of Gehenna, become a fiery blast and burn everything around us!"

Most of his Guildies know how this ends: "EXODUS!"

And then an intense conflagration that launches into the queen, eating HP bar like it was made of tissue. Not as /much/ as Schneider would like, but for what it does, it does it very well, the intense fires consuming, burning, devouring their target.

Well there's good news they are pushing the goblin's rulers back. She scores a hit in the King's eye. That should keep the monster busy for a bit but then there's something else going on. Some strange feeling of dread coming at them. No, not the king but wait it is the Queen. Something wrong is going on as the words WARNING: Cosmosphere Exposed.

No good can come of that but while this is a scary situation she has friends here the other Adventurers and the Goblin Slayer-himself.

While she stands with him? She'll fear no goblin.

"Whatever is going on it would do us well to end this quickly!"

She lets off another shot at the King, intending to take him down as quickly as possible.

Then the world goes slow motion on her as she looks to see Goblin Slayer get a hell of hit slam into a wall with a sicking bone-breaking 'Crack'.

"ORCBALG!"

She does not think twice she moves to protect the man she considers a close friend and one of the bravest souls in Yamato.

"GET AWAY FROM HIM YOU WITCH!"

She opens up on the Goblin Queen with a barrage of arrows as she does so!

There are few feelings as gut-wrenching as the dread that washes out from the Goblin Queen. Prophylaxis knows it well, by now. The sudden recognition of <mortality>. The Terror of Death descending upon the world, shattering one of the fundamental protections afforded to Adventurers. Suddenly, invulnerability is stripped away. Memories of helpless days return in a flood.

The shadows creep towards him as they do for all the others. Prophylaxis sucks in a sharp breath and... Sweeps it aside with a clawed hand that glows like the first break of dawn.

"Don't let them break your spirits," Prophylaxis orders, his staff scattering the scent of spring as it whirls. When he strikes it into the flagstones, brilliant green vines begin curling out from between the cracks and speeding toward Vertina and Amalthea both. They would find themselves... mending. Vines and cords of thick, wooden matter pour out from their severed limb-stumps, forming strong and solid prosthetics even as the tingle of regeneration tickles gently from within the temporary replacements. "We are together in this. They're two goblins who have abandoned all the craven advantages their race ruthlessly exploits! Keep your heads in the game, and we'll clear this like we've cleared damn near everything else!"

    Yuuki's pointed ears twitch as a familiar sensation of dread falls over her. The last time she felt this it was... Not Fun. And that's... Not cool! Yuuki's hand tightens its grip on her sword just a little bit as she struggles to fight off the familiar feelings.

    Yuuki oofs, shocked out of her dread-filled thoughts, as she's suddenly used by the guy who's probably bigger than her, and also wearing armour, as a stepping stone towards the Queen. But that's okay. It's not like she hasn't done that to other people before. Though she's usually lighter... And asks first. But that's okay! It's all in the name of beating the boss, right?

    Focus returning to her, for the moment anyway, Yuuki rolls away as the Queen's club goes swinging through the air. She deftly avoids the weapon, before coming back up on her feet and circling around the larger monster. Her finely tuned senses tell her that this feeling appears to be originating from the Queen. So it seems obvious that the best way to deal with it is to deal with her!

    As Yuuki circles around to the Goblin Queen's front again, she spins her blade in her hand, reversing her grip on it. She then leaps upwards into the air, arm reaching out to drag the blade along the Queen's gut as she tries to cut through it and leave behind a DOT.

    It is as the dark wave courses over the room that Amalthea falters briefly. Three words appear in the corner of her vision that sends a thrill of terror through the old tank's heart.

    WARNING: Cosmosphere Exposed.

    The last time she had seen those words... The last time she had heard them, she lost something very dear to her... To this day she still isn't quite sure what she had lost, she just knows it was precious and beloved.
    Briefly, ever so briefly, she's on the backpedal, one foot shuffling backwards. Before she makes a vow to herself.

    Not again...

    NOT AGAIN.

    Eyes wide and wild, she goes for the king with her blazing sword and as she cuts him... It is enough to put the steel back in her spine; even as her limbs quake, she is resolved to continue fighting. Even as her heart races, even as she can hear the blood pounding through her ears.
    The old tank holds her ground. And as she does...
    Prophylaxis pulls through with the crazy heals.
    "Haaaah..." She breathes as the severed, jagged, red-glowing stump of her arm begins to regrow, a construct of wood and vines forming replacements for muscle and bone, fingers clasp once before she pulls her sword from her teeth.
    "Th... Thank you, doctor." She mutters before returning her attention to the battle at hand.
    The stream of green light that lances from Merek pauses her though, and she gives it a WIDE berth on the sheer sight of it as she lunges for the king...
    
    We're in this together Prophylaxis says...
    "Aye... I will be the higher ground should you concede it. Let my body be your shield if you should need it!" She calls to her companions as she hacks into the king with a wild aplomb.

Merek brings forth his burst of Data Drain, the green lines trying to connect. But due to the effects in the air, Merek seems to squint at the wrong time. Something falters, or the Goblin King is otherwise resistant enough that Merek's focus isn't quite there. In fact, Merek immediately feels this tension headache come on the moment he fails! At the same time, suspiciously, some of the teeth nearby break, hanging off of those ominous effigies to The Hound, The Beast, the God of the Monsters.

To his side however, there is a sudden enormous eruption. Purple flame BURSTING apart like a detonation that shakes the foundations of the castle. Kita winning over her anxiety for enough time to tear through the haze of dread and erupting her spell around the Queen's body. The burst flaying at the Goblin's skin, causing her body to cook and black mist to eminate from her getting torn apart by the dark-flame magics! The Queen lists for a moment, having to catch itself from falling over. Debris and black mist spreads out from her, only for it to be pierced by the piercing Light of Vertina's shot.

The striker slams the orb with all of her might, shooting through the air and /piercing/ through the King's chest. The creature grasps at its chest, a spray of red glow bursting from its maw for a moment, before it begins to slowly heal that massive hole in its chest! Then, the rest of the black mist left in the wake of Kita's attack suddenly is torn away, as a half-room-wide spell comes to life. Starting as a single mote of light, it quickly turns into a glowing dome that pulls away all remnants of blinding darkness and begins to heal the team and buff them on a battle-wide scale, though not reaching as far as the Queen and King themselves.

Setsuna launches an attack through the eradicating light, undeterred by the Sanctuary's light, letting the ball pull right up after Vertina's shot, where it detonates amidst the hole she just made, creating an engulfing tear of blackness amidst its chest, pulling apart more of its body's structure!

To its side, the Queen rushes towards the thrown Club, grabbing it and skidding to a halt, turning, trying to swing the bat through Schneider's magical attack. Only for it to detonate around her strike and bursting across her body, flaying her body with further flame, causing some of her body parts to be torn off entirely by the flames themselves! She tries to turn to attack the downed Goblin Slayer, only for Erufu to fire her arrows with fine precision, hitting the Queen's knuckles and forcing her to drop the Club she'd intended to bring up.

This gives Onna Shinkan, amidst the raid, to heal Goblin Slayer and get him up and going again. Showing him the most determined face she can manage!

The Queen, having dropped the Club, begins to move its head down, only too late to see Yuuki come up across her chest. The backhanded blade tearing up across her body, it slices up all the way across her face, her lip, tearing off her nose. The creature roars in pain, stomping back, the floor suddenly trembling as her club pierces through the floor and halts one of the gears...

Which then suddenly begins to LOWER the floor down from the tower towards the main floor, as the mechanism seems to invert and fire the Club back towards the Queen. Or rather, not so much 'back towards' as it sends the club tearing through her arm and she happens to catch it with her other arm with a roar of anger! Unable to move to protect the King as Amalthea begins to hew into the creature. Tear after tear sinking through its belly. Glowing red flushing out, followed soon enough by white light lifting into the air!

The group is now on an elevator descending, and worst of all, while the effegies travel with them, the red gem remains planted high above them in the wall! Red light shines above them, as multiple goblins come falling out. Weaponless, they fall upon them like a plague, biting and trying to tear at them with angry voices while the Queen and King try to gather their resolve. The Queen finally stomping the club to the ground and starts to summon a dark magic around the thing. At the same time, the King raises his hand to the air...

"CARBUNCULUS, CRESCUNT..." It begins to summon, as a red glow begins to burn above its hand, and the chamber begins to illuminate with a terrible power! That of an Explosion Spell.

    Setsuna is ran over and swarmed by the goblins being spawned but truthfully Setsuna was never there to begin with. He is standing back in the corner drawing some serious level of magic circle in the ground before taking a deep breath. " Ashes of the fallen, your oath of loyalty is no longer enforced. I now bind you to a new oath. Rise up and fight for your new ruler and kill the king. Long live your new king!" With his speech given he presses his palm to the magic crcle and a mass wave of magic flows over the battlefield as Setsuna rises up as many dead goblins as he can to fight and sends them after their former king.

    Merek lifts up that hand to keep on willing the power while he takes the time to lift up magic to shield him and another with Protect, then he takes the time to try to keep the stream going. The green light will shimmer along the hand of his, even if they are going to kill it, that sense of what it's doing to the party. The emotions, remembering the way he failed his fiance, the way that he keeps on failing. The man seems to have a light sheen of sweat upon his features.
    Then he's trying to use the goblins to walk atop a moment, putting all of the power that he can into it. It's real pain, it seems to be wrapping him even while he tries his best. The man begins to shake a little bit, the stream trying to match the goblin king until the moment that it gets killed. Only, for him people will notice his eyes begin to lid even while he begins to step backward. With that, the green light looks like it begins to shimmer away, falling down along the midst of the goblins the man looks up, "ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!" Then, he is upon the ground, his body not really moving a lot.

The feeling of the floor beginning to move starts to unsettle Kita, causing her already trembling legs to feel all that much more unsteady. Enough so that she nearly topples forward. She manages to catch herself, just barely, her small wings flapping as if they might help offset the shift in balance.

The cast bar on the King is enough to raise a number of alarm bells, so Kita seems to hold back, waiting to see if the others can handle the situation. When it seems like they have it in hand, she focuses, instead, on trying to buff up some of those that remain, trying to distract the Queen.

She has no instrument in her hand, but somehow the weaving of dark magic seems to almost give the impression of it. There is a steady, driving rhythm that seems as if it were beating along with the hearts of each of the fighters. Lending her power to their attacks and hoping, for now, that that might be enough.

"Divine Shield!" Allynna shouts as she blocks the next attack and smiles, taking note of a health bar. "Hey, queen ugly.. watch this." She says as she extends her left hand, the green particles of earth magic comming from it.

"Twist and Sprout, as every rose has it's thorn!" She chants as thorns shoot up at the King, locking him in place and causing a damage over time, enough to put him out if the rest of the DPS keep hammering him.

Noticing Merek on the ground she growls. "I told him to NOT do that.." She says as she now has both shields poised at the queen.

Vertina winces a moment at the odd sensation, then looks down to see the artificial arm growing off the stump courtesy of the Good Doctor's regenerating magic. She flexes the viney fingers a few times, and then gives him a thumbs up in return.

Then shifts to brace herself as the room starts to shake, move, and descend. Looks up to see the cascade of goblins tumbling down upon them. Oh, fine then. Goblins, goblins, more goblins.... More targets. The first to try and fall on her gets intercepted the newly grown fist smashing his face in. A roundhouse kick catchs another, slamming it into the far wall. More punches and kicks with pinpoint aim follow to deflect goblins left and right. While most of the group focuses on the King first and foremost. But they can't let the Queen just go unaccousted either, she's got more HP left.

One more goblin is batted aside, and then with a surge of speed Vertina bolts across the now smaller battle zone, zigzagging around a few more falling gobs. "Hey, Queenie!" she shouts as she charges. "There's something on your face..."

Then leaps in the air, clenching her normal fist to deploy the werebeast claws bouned on the back of the battle glove, and deliver that in a flying haymaker into the ugly monarch's ugly mug. "MY FIST!"

Schneider throws up a shield of flames to defend himself, blinking as the floor sinks under him. He avoids the worst of it, because it's hard to kill a wizard, and he hurls intense fire back at the queen, the dread and the dropping inducing a fight or flight response, except that when you do that to an expooder wizard, it gets to be very fiery.

    It's raining goblins! Wow, who would have thought that the crazy guy living behind the inn and often found speaking to rocks would have been right about that!?

    The goblins fall down on the Adventurer raid as they are sent downwards by the elevator. A soft aura of light forms around Yuuki and she's suddenly moving faster than normal. She zips her way in and around the goblins as they try to chomp and claw at her. Soon enough she leaps up onto one and is starting to run across them, planting her feet on their heads, as their numbers increase.

    Yuuki sets her sights on the Goblin Queen, whipping her blade out to the side even as the goblins try to grab at her as she passes over them. Her already dark blade turns completely black, darkness beginning to seep out of it and wrap around it, causing it to grow in size. Just as she closes in on the Queen, she lets out a war cry, swinging her larger blade up and over her head.

    Her headband just barely perceptibly shimmers.

    The next goblin that Yuuki steps on during her path towards the Goblin Queen apparently skipped out on leg day. Because its legs give way under her weight. The imp's warcry transitions into a yelp as she suddenly looses her footing mid=swing. In her surprise, she loses her grip on her sword. It goes spinning through the air towards the Queen-

    -And misses! Oh no! It was all for-

    The spinning blade of darkness strikes the Goblin King. With a critical hit to boot!

    Recovering from her misstep, Yuuki quickly stands up and stares at the resulting damage her flying blade did. She nods her head sagely, totally having done that intentionally.

    Though Amalthea lays into the king as best she can, on her own her damage output is not enough to fell the beast on her own. For that she relies on her companions as she continues to taunt and rile up the green bastard in hopes of keeping his focus, hate, and aggro all on her while she guts into him.
    It's when the floor begins to lower that she pauses only briefly.
    "... We're on an elevator." She calls out the obvious while batting away summoned goblins as they start to swarm her, pulling her away from the king! This is bad. This is very bad as she raises her shield. For every blow that weathers against her shield she skids backwards, gritting her teeth against the pain and the fear as she fends off the swarm of biting goblins as best she can.
    This is when something catches her gaze from the corner of her eye. Something valuable. Something special. Something she drops her sword to reach for amid elbowing a small goblin hard enough to cave its skull in.
    It is as the Goblin King starts to chant his spell that Amalthea picks up a goodly sized chunk of broken stone masonry from the ground...

    >Skills:
        Anchor Howl
        Hit with sword
        >Throw Rock

    With the speed of a fastball she pitches the rock as hard as she can, aiming right for the Goblin King's throat to try and crush his layrinx with the sheer force of impact.

The elevator descends into the depths of Karluin. Only a handful of people, many of whom are in the Scale Emblem and are thus present and accounted for, know that the city is sitting on top of an enormous labyrinth full of Elemental Machines. Prophylaxis wonders whether this was intentional, if the Goblin King had planned an ambush at the very end of this road.

Goblins rain from above, interrupting his brief bout of existential dread. Grimacing, the doctor conjures a barrier of roiling flame around himself, flash-frying any goblin that happens to get too close. Fortunately, the others seem to be piling on the hurt, when...

Merek does a Merek thing. Prophylaxis' lips set into a tight grimace as he turns and races for the fallen New Worlder. Whispering a few silent words under his breath, he reaches out with a hand aglow with soft light... Only to stare dumbly at what his diagnostic reading spits out at him.

"Well," he huffs, "At least he didn't get himself killed this time..."

Erufu sees out of the corner of her eye Merek doing something funky, just what in the name of the gods was he doing? There was no time to worry about that at this point. She had another thing to worry about such as the goblin royals. She gets the Queen off the slayer long enough for Onna Shinkan to heal Orcbalg.

"Hands off him!"

She'll start moving as further attacks come the King seems to be chanting something, bloody heck there's no time she'll have to trust in her allies to keep him suppressed.

For she's got a personal beef with the Queen now as she starts to lay more arrows into the massive goblin female.

As the goblins fall, the Goblin Slayer moves. His blade held to the sky, he catches the first, throwing it off of his blade with a heavy swing, and then passes the swing through in a half-moon shape, tearing the head off of a second. Counting with each cut, he leaves Setsuna the corpses he needs to send against the King. Skeletons and Zombies being born from the white light that lifts up before it can disappear. The Skeleton and Zombie Goblins rushing the King's position, climbing his body, biting and tearing into him while the creature roars in anger!

Over in the corner, Merek falls before his Data Drain manages to properly take shape. The green light reaching out towards the king, only to suddenly shatter. Some might see Merek's mouth gasping out as if screaming something, but no sound seems to come out from what they can tell. Even if something did, it'd be impossible to hear over the cacophany of Vertina's fist erupting upon the Queen's body, blasting across her cheek as she tries to summon the dark magic into her club. The energies of Vertina's strike draining into the club, but it's too much for the Queen to just absorb! Much of it ripping into her body and tearing at her only remaining arm! Some of Kita's dark magics seeping through Vertina's attack - but much of it serves to interrupt the move!

Before the Queen can grab at Vertina to retaliate however, Schneider's blazing burst of flames erupts across her face, melting off her ear and lacerates her arm with black spiral markings. Erufu's arrows assaulting her constantly, erupting and empowered by Schneider's flames as they tear into her body, her chest, burning her all across her body.

Similar spirals move across the King's body, clawing and latching around him. Grabbing tight around his arms, his legs. Not triggering until proper DPS starts committing to the attack. The King unable to heal against 'future damage', as that is not how regeneration works! It reaches its hand up further, the enormous orb of destructive damage starting to pulse, about to activate! When a rock suddenly SLAMS into its head and visibly /caves it in/. Its eyes look weird for a moment, and its jaw is shattered and thrown off of its body. It stumbles, but somehow... holds the spell...

Right before there is a sound of something tearing. It's that satisfying sound of a set of scissors perfectly cutting through wrapping paper without hanging to make the snipping motion. Just that perfect knife-fine cut across its body that tears, followed by the eruption of Allynna's thorns detonating in that path as the blade makes its way to its neck and finally TEARS it off, causing the King to suddenly erupt in a burst of light, and the Detonation spell to be eradicated right along with it!

The Queen halts her charge in that moment, and suddenly chooses to swing the club straight for the wall with all of her might, causing it to shatter to pieces, right before she jumps up to the hole and steps into it with her one remaining arm. It stares back at the Adventurers and Lander with a glower. That sense of 'Dread' suddenly disappearing as the Queen gets out of range and the Elevator continues to descend! Attacks leverage towards her, but the Teeth on those effegies begin to shatter, as barrier after barrier is lifted, protecting the retreat of the Goblin. The cacophany of shattering teeth is a vile thing to listen to, almost like a song is being played. Then, the Undead goblins that Setsuna is still controlling begin to violently make out a sound. He still has control, but there's definitely something wrong as that feeling of darkness remains within the room;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGaM07Pc-nI

It's like the Goblins are being used like some kind of 'sound box' or 'speaker system'. Their animated corpses singing for as long as Setsuna keeps that spell alive. Then, as the last 'tooth' shatters, the song dies down abruptly, and the darkness that has been hounding them disappears. And immediately, their HUDs would indicate that their Cosmosphere is no longer Exposed. The negative icon disappearing.

Though the Dungeon Heart still remains at the top of the tower, waiting for someone to take care of. By now, the elevator low enough that the spawning Goblins just... splatter to death and shatter into light for a while, before the thing stops 'spawning' Goblins.

    Merek listens to the song. It's not all that pleasant, he does see the fight a little, he can't do a lot about it. "Proph," he offers a bit hoarsely, "Thank you." Well, someone will probably want to carry the man. "It all hurts." The man seems to be pretty hoarse and takes the time to place both hands to the floor while he waits.

Frowing at the song, Allynna walks over and picks up Merek in a Princess carry. "Come on, let's get you to a bed." She says, her shield slung over her shoulder as she carries her friend off. "Once we take care of the dungeon heart that is..."

At the very least, they seem to have been able to stop the casting of the spell that certainly could have meant doom for many of the raid party. That is enough to allow Kita a breath of relief. That feeling of dread seems to lift shortly there-after, which seems to settle some of the trembling in her extremities.

But... The Queen is still another problem. The Queen and the sound that follows, which causes Kita to cover her ears. It is like static that bores into her skull. Thankfully, it doesn't seem to last ending seemingly along with the strange icon on her HUD, allowing her to sink to her knees and let out a final sigh of relief.

She remains there for a moment, only getting back to her feet when it seems like she has gathered her wits again. "I'm starting to really hate Goblins." She raises a hand to her ear, speaking a few words into her chimlink, likely confirming to Jurou that the battle was over and she'd made it out okay.

From there... well, Kita would stick around to help deal with the heart itself, or at least offer back-up for those that do.

    There's something about beaning a goblin in the face with a rock that's just... Satisfying.
    Even moreso when the King's head caves in nicely from the impact, the brief rush of adrenaline and refreshing gratification of pelting the king that she realizes the sheer feeling of pure existential dread is leaving ... With the queen.
    "Wait-- crap." She spits as the queen goblin makes her escape.
    But for now that can be a problem for Future Scale Emblem Alliance as she stabs the point of her sword into the ground at her feet.
    "... Are we all alright?"

The goblins are being pushed back it looks like this will be the end. Merek isn't able to finish up what he was going to do. She knows he seems to be in pain but she's not sure what's happening with him and she can't do anything about it as the Queen and King are still fighting. She notices the queen is trying to eat something but is getting just way too much. Kita's also doing a good job with Vertina as well.

She looks to the queen again and will try to line up another shot but it's too late one the thing is running and two something is protecting it and then the 'song' starts.

Something is very much wrong though the back of the elf's clothing her tattoo can be seen it's magically visible though the clothing and its glowing a bright terrible red.

The Elf herself turns green and looks like she's going to start throwing up her last meal as she tries to steady herself.

"That song it's wrong, it's wrong...."

She then raps

"Get the heart...."

Vertina cringes a bit at the horrid sounds, but with the Queen making her escape she still raises a fist to shake after her. "YEAH TO BETTER RUN! BUT IT'LL ONLY DELAY THE INEVITABLE!"

But there's no time to climb up and chase after her, there's still the final bit of business to deal with.

She scraps her feet on the ground a few times, kicking up sparks of ember and dirt. Her gaze narrows, focusing on what needs to be done to shove that horrid music out of her mind for now. "Someone get Merek outta here. Otherwise, let's go deal with that Heart." She sprints, projecting some of her pyrokinesis through her feet like little jets of flame to launch herself in a powered jump. Then kicks off the wall to the other side, and back again, using the wall jumps to climb out of the elevator shaft. Then eventually get up to where the Heart is, presumably with others to take care of disposing of it.

    Oh no! A retreating boss! It's probably invincible at this point, so not much point in chasing after it.

    Beside, Yuuki has to go and retrieve her sword that she totally intentionally threw at the Goblin King. She picks up the weapon and pats it, "Good sword." She sheathes it, before looking up the elevator shaft towards the Dungeon Heart at the top.

    Yuuki groans, "They're going to make us walk all the way up again to reach it, huh? Can't just stick a button down here to send the elevator back up... Stupid devs." Yuuki sighs. Before walking over to Prophylaxis and reaches up to slap him on the back in congratulations, "Well! Looks like it's done. Good work!"

    Setsuna was rather smug watching zombie goblins devour the king, the type of smugness that would be nromally reserved for someone with a much stronger chin and who shops SMART, however Setsuna will have to do for the moment as he just says under his breath "Thats right, hail to the king." When the king is dead he plans to move the undead to the queen, who is apparently running away. "What is up for this monarchy! Why you runnin! COME BACK AND FIGHT!" Setsuna is not happy and is ready to start persuing when his zombies begin trying to sing and its horrible. He grabs his ears as he doubles over and it takes what many would say is to long to get rid of his undead minions. By the time he recovers the queen is gone. Eventually the necromancer would recover, " Damn it, I hate when they run."

A moment's distraction is all that's needed for the quarry to slip away. Though in the party's defense, the quest was to slay the Goblin King, and that was a complete success. Still, as the Queen retreats, Prophylaxis can't help but click his tongue in disappointment.

And then that... That /horrible/ noise begins screeching out from Setsuna's conjured undead. "Please shut those up," he says with a grimace, before turning toward the Dungeon Heart high above them. "...We're going to need to get back up there and remove the gem from its slot before we shatter it. Otherwise, well done, everyone."

...Even if there's bound to be Trouble with the Goblin Queen sometime in the near future--

Yuuki slaps him across the back! Prophylaxis goes 'augh' because he's a nerd with a wizard build and basically z e r o points in stamina. "Y-yuuki, careful! I'm sore too..."

Beat.

"Looks like it was pretty successful overall, though. What's say we celebrate with some food back in Tolbana?"

Erufu wants to get away from this place and the idea of food? Sounds good there could be booze there too. That make her a feel a bit better.