Duty Session 373: Karluin Reclamation - Town

    Wake has no interest in the tower. She hasn't been there more than a few times, and rarely has she stayed long. Still, though, she has a purpose and sometimes (frequently) one must do things they find distasteful to satisfy larger goals. That is why Wake is here, waiting for her fellow adventurers who are answering the call to deal with work in Karluin.

    While the main efforts are completed, it's clear that some of the infestation remains. But not for long. The Baroness is all business today, and she's dressed for it. The Right Clothes are inky black, like a shadow covering her from head to toe. Even her blades are disguised to give no hint of her presence. When she steps in and out of the shadows, it's as if she is vanishing utterly and then suddenly rematerializing.

    "It's time to begin," she announces calmly.

    Having heard the call to ADVENTURE, Fuka arrives on scene, only to STARE at Wake. "Wait, what are *you* doing here?" she asks, clearly confused. Seems she's under the impression Wake isn't actually an adventurer. Maybe she thinks the noblewoman is a Lander? Or maybe she thinks this kind of messy, violent activity is just beneath landed nobility? Who knows?

    Miyako is another one who cares little about the tower. She's been spending a lot of time with Kotono, lately, making up for time lost with the trips to the Palace Lands and all. She isn't entirely sure why she's in the tower at all, to be honest, except that she had a message saying that /someone/ needed her help with /something/ in Karluin Town. And so she arrives, and spots the Baroness, and wanders over to say hello -- and get dragged into whatever mischief is up.

The one interest Kauchemar has in the Tower is on an entirely different floor, so that's not relevant to tonight's adventure.

Tonight she's mainly here to be Wake's assistant/bodyguard. Partially because she's one that can keep up with her, both in quickness and in stealthiness should the need arise, stepping from the shadows just after the Baroness to stand next to her. "If there is one thing all the Alliances can agree on, it's that Goblins are an infection that needs to be cut from whatever they infest."

Schneider heard about another run into Karluin, and he'd like more XP, please. He has no compunction against the Tower, obviously, and has done this mission a few times. On the other hand, goblins always need incinerating, and incneration is his job. So, maybe he got added to the team because they wanted more FIREpower? He certainly meets that requirement. "Ready to go," he announces.

    Merek walks along with Wake, while he takes the time to lift up his weapon along with the shield, and will march forward with the group to take care of the goblins. There's not a lot that he offers to really say at the moment, more content to assist with the goblins at the moment.

    Wake smiles at Kauchemar, "I appreciate you coming. It's comforting to have someone near at hand who understands me. And isn't hell-bent on causing a major conflict." The Baroness turns her attention to the others, gliding into her curtsey with her usual, practiced ease. "It's a pleasure to be joined by all you, my friends. We have work to do, of course, and it likely will be unpleasant. I'm quite confident we can handle it, if we keep our heads about us."

    The first challenge comes swiftly enough. Simply taking the first few steps into the aesthetically-challenged town triggers an attack. The first arrows set to the air are horribly aimed, but the next benefit from actually being fired by creatures with their eyes open. Goblins..

    The charge of the wolf-riding goblins comes on suddenly, and while goblins are dubious at best, these look relatively dangerous and very much in need of crushing.

    Merek lifts up the shield with him while he takes the time to defend for the party, tanking. "Alright, I will try to draw a few of them my way!"

Schneider smiles as Wake greets everyone. He's not hell-bent on conflict, is he? He /is/ quick to throw up a magic shield as the ambush falls on us. The magic shield gives us a bit more time to react, and his fire attack is long-ranged and dead on target. He plinks the goblins despite the range with little incinerating blasts while the slings and arrows of outrageous goblins bounce harmlessly off his magic shield.

    "Goblins. Why did it have to be goblins!" Fukaziroh complains loudly. She sighs, and steps up. "The last time I did this I got a spear through my leg. This can't go that badly again right? I hate limping!" She presents a narrow profile, raising her axe high so that it and her armor protect as much of her body as possible from the missiles. Glancing wounds are okay, she can heal up after the battle. She just doesn't want to take heavy hits!

    This, of course, is the sort of thing the gods just love to see. By the end of her charge, Fuka's pincushioned. None of the arrows have done a whole lot of damage, but she's got them sticking out of joints in her vambraces and shoulders, and a few even sticking out of some of the meaty parts of her body. Fortunately none were shot with particularly great direct force, but Fuka's definitely had better days.

    Miyako walks along with the rest, offering Merek a nod of acknowledgement. "You do that," she says. "Goblins annoy me." She sighs and shakes her head as she moves off to the other side, a few scribbled runes conjuring a shield of air before her - which seems to be off-target, or just not large enough, as arrows slide past it to pepper her with small wounds. "See what I mean?" she snaps, yanking an arrow out of her armor and throwing it aside.

"Oh look, they're bringing the first act right to us. Pff." Kauchemar eyes the inbound wolfriders suicidally charging the garrison, and snorts. "Bah, we don't have time to deal with this, more important foes await us!" So what does she do? She summons her Nightmare Steed, jumping on the demonic equine's back as he emerges from the shadows behind her, and just rides him straight into the oncoming charge.

Why take the time to dodge individual attacks when she can just steamroll past the lot of them? The goblin riders haphazardly steer out of the much larger Monster's way.

    Wake has performed more effectively. Fortunately, the attempt at evasion only led to minor damage and nothing worse occured. That is, after all, what hiding in the shadows is for. It gives one time to recover from failure. And perhaps have said failure go unnoticed.

    The party is fortunate that many of them were successful. The attacks of the enemy are critically impaired by highly effective shielding provided by Merek and Schneider. The somewhat less successful actions of some of the party are fortunately concealed from the garrison at large by Kauchemar's very showy Nightmare charge. A nightmare on a nightmare? It works.

    While the adventures slay and slowdown the enemy, the garrison comes to life and in moments the remnants of the goblin charge are smouldering bursts of pixels.

    With this challenge overcome, the party continues onward, only sightly-the-worse for wear. It isn't long before they reach the even less attractive part of the town and meet, well.. it's hard to explain.

    If you've ever seen a child turn their parents' kitchen into a costume shop for wannabe knights, this will be familiar. Only in this case, it's less pots and pans and more random chunks of metal strapped, tied, and stuck on goblin appendages, faces, etc. It would be hilarious, if they weren't armed to the teeth and focused on killing people.

    On second thought, it's still pretty hilarious, and Baroness Wake cannot help but laugh at the enemy. "I.. am not certain what to say about this."

Schneider's shield manages to shield enough of the party from enough of the arrows that the surviving goblins decide they've had enough. But Schneider hasn't had enough, and Fire is one of the very long ranged attacks. So he can reach out and incinerate someone. When they are reduced to pixels, he will continue on.

In just a few minutes, though, the junior goblin chamber of commerce hsa arrived in their stolen armor. Well, luckily Schneider knows a trick for that. In the same way you boil crabs inside the shell, armored goblins cook nicely over an open flame. And of course Schneider is all about open flames.

Kauchemar reins her steed to a halt as they clear the first charge and find the second wave of scrap-metal clad goblins coming in as well. "Oh, how cute, they're trying to cosplay as heroes." The Nightmare turns his head to glare at her with one blood red eye. Kauchemar quickly shakes her head. "No, you don't have to -eat- one this time, but do help slow them down, hmm?" A snort emits from the demonic equine as he turns his gaze back ahead, narrowing his eyes. And opening his mouth. Wide. Wider than should be possible. It bares sharp teeth... but that's not the threat.

The threat is the dark magical streams that spew from it's open maw like a spider's webbing, snaring a few of the armored goblins and rendering them immobile by causing their pieces of knicknack armor to stick and clump together.

    At this point Fuka's truly pissed at goblins, in some distress at her wounds - most of which have healed by this point thanks to a few quick spells - and mostly pissed off at being used as a target.

    The sylph looks at the oncoming armored figure, and she sighs. "That is NOT a golem." she complains. "Look, you can't just.... oh armor has to be worn right or... OH FORGET IT!" she hefts her axe and charges, using her knowledge of heavy armor to show these goblins the hard way that there's more to armor than just strapping heavy plates in place. She easily enough turns aside their thrusts and swings, relying on her own armor mostly to deflect blows off-true, so she can square up and bring her great axe to bear effectively. "GET WRECKED, GOBLINS!" she roars. "You face a MIGHTY BATTLE FAIRY!"

    Merek will walk along swinging the fire magic into the goblins. Really, he only has like one mode when it comes to dealing with goblins.

Distracted. Frustrated. Mildly annoyed. That's Miyako today. "Gents," she declaims, "This is not /goblin/ armor, this is /orky/ armor! Get it straight! It's not even painted red! For Gygax's sake! What do you think this is, the two-dollar cosplay contest?" She starts scrawling runes as she rants, conjuring a ball of shadows that she tosses into their midst.

    Unfortunately for her, the armor seems to protect the goblins from most of the blast. "More where that came from, boyz!"

    Wake isn't a fire mage, but she really wants to reduce that makeshift armor to slag. She does startle the goblins, but achieves little else. Ah well, at least she didn't get shot this time!

    Her companions are faring far better than she is. Kauchemar's nightmare unleashes an attack out of nightmares. The left flank of the goblin formation is useless. One of them tries to step forward but falls over and takes three others with it, all of them toppling like dominoes.

    Fuka's distaste serves as some of the most remarkable armor smithing ever done. Few would think an axe so effective. Since half the armor pieces are smashed away in the process, the goblins are caught scrambling to replace their armor while also trying to attack. With this, the right flank trembles, starts to give way, and is then lit on fire by Merek.

    The center, which only knows how to be the center when there is a left and right flank, is caught rather lost in the midst of this chaos. When Miyako's attacks fail to break their trusty armor, they immediately gain confidence. The middle goblin orders suddenly, "Form left and right flank! Bow back!"

    The other goblins, hearing this, stop and consider. What does it mean to bow back, anyway? Of course even goblins can figure out left and right. With roughly a 50 percent success rate. This is why, when Schneider's fire hits the center, the goblins are all facing each other and their armor is completely turned away from the attack. Pixels erupt everywhere.

    "And.. on to the next," Wake says casually.

    After some additional strolling down the rather ugly ruins, the team encounters a construction crew hard at work. Or, rather, a deconstruction crew. It is swiftly conveyed that they'd love help getting the building torn down and that some of their team has managed to get stuck in the rubble on the other side. The work is just never done, is it?

    

    Merek will look to all that rubble, while he takes the time to place a few potions next to the place. Then he will take time to light each, while it explodes along, which will assist with freeing the people.

    Demolitions are Fuka's specialty! Safe and controlled demolitions... not so much. Fortunately, her class abilities give her a natural advantage with earth mana! Unfortunately she's been on a bit of a kick to prove herself physically. Fortunately she has a weak spot for suffering people, and foregoes her inclination to manual labour (in this case) to help them out by a relatively subtle use of power. Subtle, in this case, meaning she doesn't simply blow up the rock, instead using shaping magic to move stone and support the collapse to help clear a path through the rubble.

Schneider is quite happy to help out the others out here, and while his command of earth magic is almost nil, he /can/ summon elementals of all sorts. The earth elementals are not large, but it seems they /are/ large enough to help with the situation. Which is good, because Schneider just kind of watches with a puzzled expression. "I swear guys are /still/ getting stuck behind stuff and sidetracked."

Kauchemar hops off the Nightmare's back and dismisses him, he won't do her much good as they get indoors in the more crowded part of town. Though it looks like they have a cave-in to deal with first. "Well, this just goes to show why the place is going to need construction work I guess." Other people are handling breaking through the collapse, so she just focuses on trying to help move the resulting rubble.

    Miyako shrugs and begins pitching in, applying what little Earth magic she knows to the task of lightening the load. It's still heavy going. "It happens," she mutters as she hears Schneider complain. "Sometimes somebody's life sucks and all you can do is what you can."

    "Gotta say, the nightmare riding a nightmare had a pretty cool aesthetic," Wake says. She tries her best to contribute to clearing the rubble away, but either she's simply not giving her best or she's just not got it today. In fact, one might wonder if a Baroness really has the time to keep her adventurer skills up to snuff. Considering the results thus far.. it doesn't seem to be working.

    There is one skill Wake does seem to have. She has a knack for getting herself surrounded by more competent people. It's not going to get appreciated as much as what Fukaziroh does in opening that path way, but it has certainly proved helpful in its own way.

    The addition of explosives, interestingly enough, is actually not nearly as terrifying as one might expect. Being an expert alchemist, Merek is able to widen the gap and smooth the entry.

    Wake, who is basically just surveying the situation at this point, jumps a bit as one of the elementals moves past her, their touch not so much moving rubble as reshaping it. It's simple, effective, and ensures that the team is able to move on.

    While Kauchemar, Wake, and Miyako didn't exactly contribute this time, they do get to move on. The adventurers who managed to get split up and stuck here have no right to judge, and they aren't likely to bring this up, either.

    No sooner does the rubble clear than all heck breaks loose. One of the lost workers stumbles into the party's midst, pointing back and choking on the dust. Other than a need for urgency, little is conveyed. It's enough, though, as another horde of goblins can be seen attacking an adventurer. He is weakened, but behind him is a healer who is partially pinned under a rock which could use some physical pushing to move. And of course there are goblins very much in need to killing.

    Merek will take the time to lift up the hand of his to draw about a magic shield which will protect people, walking about to keep with the party.

    Seeing all hell breaking loose, Fukaziroh charges ahead. "We got this, big guy!" she calls out to the tank, whirling her axe up and to the ready, slamming her vambrace against the haft in a rhythmic pounding beat to draw the attention of the goblin horde.

    She makes sure that attacking her is a fatal error, naturally. Setting herself only somewhat defensively, she retaliates with heavy-handed blows. "I'm going to have to AXE you little punks to leave! IN PIECES!" And then... well, she proceeds to make with the genocide.

Schneider is, by avocation, an exploder wizard. But in ETO Class terms, he's a swing shift player, able to hit, tank, or heal with roughly equal skill. He just prefers to hit. A lot. But this is a case where teamwork is needed, and in the name of teamwork, he will wade into the thick of things with his sword blazing, is magic cloak glowing as the scales on it glitter, bouncing blows that would normally pierce right through. It's an incredibly butch spell, but it does what it needs to do, he manages to soak up the attacks while the rest of the party takes care of things.

Kauchemar steps out of the way as the trapped workers stumble through... unfortunately they have another horde of Goblins chasing them down. "Moons above and waves below, there's a lot of these bastards still for their leadership being run through." Darkness shifts around the Were Fang as her eyes glow with ethereal radiance. Then waves her hand, and vague ghostly forms shift from the shadows surrounding her. The Spirit monsters, lacking physical presence in the world, instead bombard the goblin horde with hexes and curses, slowing some of them down but doing little to stop the overall rush of green warriors into their midst.

"Sorry," Kauchemar remarks from somewhere now behind the group. "That one is still a work in progress."

    Miyako dodges quickly out of the way of the collapsing rubble, giving the healer a quick shove back towards the rest of the party. "Oi! Smegheads!" she yells, trying to get their attention. "Pay attention to the cute girl with the magic stick!" She laughs as she scribes her runes, the characters floating up in the air as they change to crystal.

"Oh the goblins outside are frightful / But to kill them all's delightful / Let's make sure they've no lives but pain / Cast Ice Rain, Cast Ice Rain, Cast Ice Rain!" And with that, the crystals, multiplied by a thousand, rain down upon the goblins.

    We will not speak of Wake's efforts that round. It is better to be polite. She may simply have to decide the outside world is no place for a noble woman.

    The goblins, who were so very focused on their prey, are rudely awakened by the sudden rush of Fukaziroh. They find themselves dropping fast, but moving back simply isn't going to be an option, either.

    The goblins instead try to press their disadvantage! They focus fire on the pinned healer, but then find Schneider in their way. Well, since every adventurer looks alike to them, they'll tear him to bits. Or, in this case, uselessly swing away and watch their attacks strike with all the ferocity of a gentle spring rain.

    Speaking of weather, isn't it getting cold? The goblins seem to think so. Here and there, the would-be attackers suddenly stop moving, then collapse forward, shattering into pixels as they strike the ground. Sure, it's past Christmas, but watching goblins shatter under a coating of ice warms even the coldest of adventurer's hearts.

    There are a few goblins left. Though they are able to survive Kauchemar's hexes, they don't really achieve anything. Their attacks on the random tank the party is rescuing strike Merek's shield. Sure, the attacks are useless, but they just keep making them. Right up to the point where the adventurers on construction duty club them like baby seals.

    "Th-thanks for the help!" gasps out the trapped healer. "I don't suppose you could spare a few heals?"

    The group, though rescued, has a laundry list of effects on them. For this rescue to have any meaning, there's going to be a need to deal with those.

    Calling back over her shoulder, Fukaziroh smirks. "They ARE paying attention to the cute girl with the stick! CHOP stick that is!" she says, finishing off a hapless sucker before turning back to the others once again to assess the situation.

    Again, Fuka finishes her EPIC BATTOL and realizes there's need for magic once more. And once again, it's people in need that make her choose to use that magic. Mighty battle fairy she may be, but she became an enchanter for a reason too... and it's nice sometimes to be able to use that sort of ability to help others.

    Fortunately her blood lust is sated for now, and it's easy to drop into caster mode. "Don't worry, sister." she says to the healer, starting into a gentle sing-song chant that brings healing light to her fingertips. She can't do much against the poisons, but she can hopefully stablilize the healer enough for other assistance to have some more time to produce longer-term results. Oh, and she can also assist the tank, but she figures first priority is the group's healer so she can cast as well.

Schneider's regenerative power is legendary, but he forgoes that. It only works on him, in his canon. Anyhow, there's more mission to go, and he doesn't want to burn through the last of his mana. What he -can- do is lay a few healing potions on these people. He, for some reason, kept a whole stash from the last time someone was passing out a bunch, and since he doesn't really need them for himself, barring another sort of emergency, he's willing to let a few go for those in need.

"Nice improv," is the remark towards Miyako. But Kauchemar is very much not a healer. So not much she can do there. She tries to retrieve some spare bandages, only to find them covered in ooze. "... Damn Tabby Slime has been chewing on things again." Instead she takes up her 'bodyguard' position covering Wake's back, just in case there's any more annoying ambushes from goblin zealots.

    Merek will take the time to assist people by making remedy for effects that are not normal and can't be healed all through with pharmacy, and nods a little along to the party while he takes the time to watch.

    Sticking her tongue out at Fuka's 'chop stick', Miyako turns back to watch the goblins dissolve into pixellation, grinning. "Ahhhh. A warm fire on a cold winter's night. Nothing like it."

    She offers a nod to the healer. "You guys help them out, I'll see what I can find in the rubble." The young Spriggan starts digging about, picking out bits of things that seem like they might be useful and tossing them to whoever is closest and has a hand free to catch them. Bits of cloth for bandages, a couple of minor healing potions, a single solitary antidote....

    When it comes to healing, Wake is remarkable. Remarkable mediocre, that is. However, it's a town, adventurers have been here, they tend to be sloppy and disorganized with their loot.. and sure enough, she finds antidote and a few healing potions that were discarded.

    It's not a hospital stash, but it's good enough to get rid of the debuff that was just about ready to kill the trapped healer. And while Wake is at it, she'll pull that rock off of the woman, too. She's not above hard labor.

    With everyone working together, the group is able to not only move on, but do so knowing that the Scale Emblem team they rescued isn't going to die today. Assuming they actually go back to the garrison like they said and don't drop more rubble on each other.

    And hey! Speaking of grave danger, a mess of iron and rock leaps out just as the team gets out of sight of the group they just rescued. It's big, it's mean, it's almost certainly made of 100 percent recycled materials, and while it looks to be about to break down any moment, it still has a shovel on one hand and is throwing rocks with the other!

Schneider is doing the swing player thing again, it seems. Rather than standing off and fighting with ranged attacks, he will get right in this machine's face and piss it right off. Fire and swordblows alternate, and his defense isn't that great, so he's taking an insane amount of damage. Luckily, his self-heal is also insane, and is actually keeping up, for the length of the fight at least, or ar least not losing significant ground. His health bar is yellow by the time it's over, nearly red, but hell, the amount of damage he /took/ is ... well, it was a lot. So, not a tank, but can replace one in a pinch, for briefly. This is the power of a swing-role Rune Knight.

    Merek will take the time to dance about the battlefield, while he takes the time to use wind magic to swing away all rocks while he will take the time to adjust to assist the party with the fight.

Kauchemar instinctively ducks when a rock is flung in her direction. "Oh, one of these is still roaming about? Damn goblins can't keep their mits off anything." Kauchemar doesn't resort to spellcasting this time, though. Instead she takes a step to the side of the attacks, disappearing into the shadows... And stepping back out of the magitek monstrousity's own shadow, right up next to it. She grins, balling up one of her hands into a fist, and with the monsterous strength that comes with being a Were Fang *SLAMS* her fist through it's armor. "I'M GONNA TEAR OUT YOUR CPU AND SHOW IT TO YOU STILL PROCESSING!" She grabs onto whatever component she can reach, and *RIIIIPS* it right out. It's probably not specifically a cpu but that was the easist way to reword the phrase relivantly.

    While Fuka's been looking to prove herself physically - and she CAN do so, certainly - this monstrosity is probably not the time to do so. Besides, she's been working on a few new tricks. A spell designed to negate armor is one such that she's collected. Useful for duelling, certainly, but it's also not bad against machines!

    Fuka breaks into a quick chant, calling out runewords of air and water, range and protection inverted. Using her axe as a staff to direct and focus her magic, she sends a bolt of power into the mechanical giant.

    As everyone knows, mechanical units are weak to lightning. But more than just the electrical jolt, this spell also leaves ice behind where it strikes, making the mechanical thing just that much more awkward and unable to dodge. Not that it was likely to be dodging much anyways, but it becomes somewhat harder nonetheless.

    As the sound of rumbling stones and creaking metal overtakes the scene, Miyako pauses in her search for medical supplies. "Oh come the frak -on-," she snaps, and hurriedly ducks a few steps back to get out of its path. "I. Have. Had. Enough. Of. You!" Another series of runes surrounds her as she spins about, scribbling rapidly, then they spiral into a tight coil around her hand to be thrown at the mech. "Freeze!"

    You know there's this common error in statistics called the gambler's fallacy. Past results not influencing the current roll of the dice. Well that's great but Wake somehow fails to hit a really big, slow moving thing. She's not ice cold, but she's close.

    "We shall not speak of this," she hisses to no one in particular. But oh yeah, this performance is going to get around.

    Again, there's that silver lining. If the enemy could be frustrated, it no doubt would be. Or perhaps it is, considering how wildly and stubbornly it swings at Schneider. For all its efforts, though, it simply can't exhaust the healing.

    It doesn't help that Merek's wind magic is so troublesome. It's hard enough to fight with a tank in its face, now its range attacks can't even hit properly.

    The monster finds itself lifting off the ground as Kauchemar's attack smashes through armor and into the various bits and bobs that make up its innards. It's not a CPU inside, but rather a trembling lump of metal that is torn out. It's hard to say how it works, exactly, but a fast guess would say it was made of several pipes welded to shattered helmets and an iron boot. Huh. The monster seems to miss it, though, since its shovel arm falls uselessly to its side.

    Fukaziroh's attack interrupts what was no doubt going to be a most inspired smashing of a nightmare with a raised rock. The lightning strikes the raised hand since it is, after all, the highest point, and the now-icy fingers fumble the boulder upwards. A moment later gravity is depositing that attack right on the boss monster's own head.

    With a most unpleasant crunch, the blow is struck. It is awkwardly-timed as Miyako's ice attack hits at that very moment, quite effectively securing the boulder to the creature's forehead. It's rather like the old 'licking the frozen flagpole' trick that felled many a child, but on a much larger scale. There's a moment that stretches out. The physics of the game crunches the numbers and then with a most satisfying sound of iron screaming against iron, the neck gives way to the weight and is torn from the torso, pulled down by the freeze-stuck boulder.

    The boss stands there, headless. Time ticks away. And then it bursts into pixels.

    "That's no way to get ahead in life," Wake comments glibly.

    Miyako pauses, turning to glance at Wake. "... I guess he was just stoned out of his head, hmm?"

    Fukaziroh sagenods. "Never carry a weapon bigger than your head." she agrees. Completely unselfconsciously.

"... I have no idea what this is. Oh well." Kauchemar throws the chunk of components and scrap armor over her shoulder. Dusts her hands off together. "One less rampaging Elemental Machine, at least. I think that's a good point to call it a day for this expedition." She chuckles a bit at Wake's remark. "This one just lost his mind."

Schneider gives a ragged cheer. He's never actually pushed his regeneration that hard before. Nice to see it could keep up. "Nicely done, everyone," he says sincerely. "You'd think this place would calm down with the goblin king gone, but the little pests still make trouble, and clearly there's still dark secrets still stashed away."

    Wake grins at the wave of puns that greet the victory. Her family gets her! Still, some matters need to be seen to.

    "We should go back and make sure that group from before did as they said. This works better if no noobs were hurt making this victory." She'd thought that noobs wouldn't exist anymore. I mean, at this point, everyone has been playing 24/7 for ages!

    "And.. I appreciate the guard duty, Kauchemar. I rather needed it this time around. I have lost a few steps, it seems. If you could.. fail to mention my performance to Tae, it would be appreciated." Wake doesn't enjoy saying that, but one should not deny the nose on their face.

Kauchemar gives Wake a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "You did fiiiine. Just a little out of practice on the field is all."

    Fukaziroh handwaves and 'psh'es a dismissal. "You did fine." she says to Wake. Then she pauses, considers. "Well, your timing wasn't ideal I guess." she notes. Nope, Fuka's not a suck-up. "But your thing's nobling, not fighting right? If you ever want a good training montage hit me up, I can think of a few drills I can hit you with!"

    Hopefully she doesn't mean that literally.

    Miyako nods. "Don't worry about it. We all have our off days. I had a couple of off hours there, myself." She shrugs. "Don't worry," she sings, "Be happy!"