Powder Miner

Lizaveta pushed her mask upwards just a bit, enough to expose her mouth, so she could put the back of her hand to it, and breathe. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. The lull brought on by the retreat of the forces nearest to her was a good thing, because it was... probably what was needed for her to even start to feel anywhere close to herself right now. Because, at least in the context of the battle, she did have to, to be able to ask: "Where... where do we go from here?"

Lizaveta looked over the whole situation with an expression... very literally unreadable, as her mask was a full-face one, its bright red and blank (but for the goggled space for her glasses) hiding the most immediate visual elements of her thoughts. But her body language tensed and untensed as she surveyed the throne room. Well then... if Arthur had his way, they were going to flat-out, actually kill a king this time, weren't they? That was sort of the objective all along, wasn't it? Especially with a vicious old bastard like Ruslan. She was quite fine with that, even if it was still basically to be the glorified bodyguards for another queen (even if Stella was, Lizaveta had to admit, alright). And... well, perhaps it would come in on a tidal wave of blood again, huh? That was alright. It was bad- good- fine- it was- "G-grrgkk." Lizaveta made a choking noise and got to work. Lizaveta to S22, Wind Thief B.

Lizaveta will take the B support with Shin. (I figure she probably about had that one after a previous conversation a while ago, honestly.) I can't take the Godiva support in great conscience, though, Lizaveta doesn't really know her.

Combat is a dangerous thing, and one thing they drilled into you in the Domains of Cooperation is that there were many, many situations where you'd pay for being out of formation. Ebon'd left that place, but the truth rang here - it didn't work out well to be separated from one's squad when one was a squishy shaman within swooping distance of an armored mercenary on a bigass crow who was so terrifying that he could consistently make you forget to fight back. Ebon Knight attacks Black Ant Dark Initiate B! It was something that the dark-magic-using ant survived, at least for the moment, but it was something that she sure as shit didn't enjoy, as she was stabbed so hard she was lifted briefly off the ground. She responded to this with an "EYAH!" and then, with the tense silence that had kept most of the squad quiet broken, at least for her, with a "WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE, WHAT IS THIS EVEN, WHY ARE BIRDS?" Meanwhile, Mercy Harefoot left a piece of his own little personal mission of... well... mercy, before he went down to heal his ally's wounds. Mercy Harefoot heals Pinecone! The bleeding ant grabbed the little package as it came to her on the ground, squinting at it tiredly, before unwrapping it, slowly, distrustingly. Eventually, experimentally, she applied some of it. "...don't get it, really. What's the point? Everyone else's fucked anyway. I'm basically fucked. Nowhere left to go, nothing left to do. If I was happy with all this getalong bullshit I wouldn't be here." After a long moment, though, she let out a soft, almost defeated sigh. She apportioned herself roughly half of the contents of the little package, before lobbing the other half in the direction of the surviving sniper with a pained grunt - it had been a hard throw, and it hurt, but... she didn't really want to die. And although she didn't know the sniper that well, given that their little group had been so insular... well, probably he didn't either. The other remaining mage soon found himself under fire too, as Lotus brought her longbow up and arrows out. While one might expect that a studious mage type would, normally, find a massive hurtling bird more terrifying than a diminutive archer, this mage evidently did not feel this way. "Aw shit oh man aw shit, archerrrrr! I can't compete with that, I was supposed to get to stay on the back lines, why did I even stick around-" Lotus attacks Black Ant Fire Initiate B! ...and, well, that whining was very soon interrupted as the mage found himself with a brand new arrow sticking out of his body. But said whining was replaced with something worse, and maybe just a little bit familiar- "-AAAAAAAAAAAAA-" -before being shut down more harshly than its mirror counterpart likely ever would be. Probably. "Last time I'm ever gonna fucking tell you, you quit that snivelling, and you shut the fuck up. I don't understand how the hell you join a group dedicated to what we're dedicated to, make the same promises we made, and still completely bitch out any time you're in any danger. Least the rest of us have the decency to commit." This little rant was punctuated with an angry roar, as Soggyshanks came whirling around the crack in the sidewalk with hatchet in hand, keen to provide a little bit more of a permanent solution to the screamy mage than the maimed ant sergeant was yet likely to commit to. Soggyshanks attacks Black Ant Fire Initiate B! ...and although the plastic hatchet did fly expertly through the air and slam directly into the mage in question, sending him tumbling spinning to the ground and leaving him fully unconscious, it actually didn't seem to leave him fully permanently dealt with! Perhaps Soggy hadn't been feeling it, really - he was poisoned, Pinecone was right there to maybe steal his spotlight, but he wasn't quite angry enough to go over the edge, even if he was feeling paradoxically alive. Shame, probably. Black Ant Fire Initiate C is defeated! Map Notes Status EXP: 60/100

Brilliant practically (albeit not quite literally) danced up to Diligence and pulled out her staff as she got near the wounded red ant (the miniscule bug on her shoulder doing the same). "And don't you worry either, dear. I have all my wonderful assistants' backs!" Brilliant Deduction heals Faithful Diligence! Mercy Harefoot heals Sting! Meanwhile, Bend came up behind Soggy with a toooooot and then a gentle kind-of-push to the back. "Aaaalright, bud, go for it. Pretty sure you're up near the top of most terrifying bugs here to have charging at you, so let's have at it." Recruit Bend refreshes Soggyshanks! TURN 7 ~ ENEMY PHASE There was a sudden, rather ferocious grunt from the leader of the whole little ant operation, followed by a bellow at odds with the impassive but hardened words he'd had as he watched Gloom's squad be torn apart - but perhaps not too at odds with his ambush in the first place. "OKAY, NOW! NOW, NOW, NOW, GO, GO, GO! ENGAGE AS FAST AS POSSIBLE! The fuckers are WAY too spread out vertically too have a damned chance of hitting us all at once, so let's hit THEM instead as quick as we can!" Somewhat awkwardly, this... wasn't actually very quick. TURN 8 ~ PLAYER PHASE Poison: Map Notes Status EXP: 49/100

Lizaveta found that, in the end, she didn't actually have the energy to get involved in the christening and greeting of the new members of the group. Actually, she really found that... it was hard to do much of anything. Maybe it was the strain of all that had happened that day, the fighting, the worry, and of course the agonizing poison that had paralyzed her and wracked her with pain. ...maybe it was something more familiar weighing her down, creeping back in around the edges of her frayed psyche after all this time. It was probably the latter. She didn't really know what to do with that information. So she sort of ended up... sitting down and leaning against something, silently watching people come in, mill around, and talk. Shin looked disheveled - had something happened to him again? Lizaveta hoped not, but... well, he never was all that lucky, was he? There was something else that caught her eye, too - Baldur seeming to be the most exhausted besides her and Shin, and nearly falling right to the floor. It was a little bit ironic, actually, Baldur ending up in a grouping that otherwise consisted of her and Shin. She kept her gaze on Baldur, and spoke a little distantly. Quietly, but as Baldur wasn't actually that far from her, probably not inaudibly to him. "...a little funny." She didn't feel sadistic glee at his state, but she wasn't sure she really felt concern either. She wasn't quite sure what she felt... as usual, recently. Grim, maybe. Some sort of... mixture of... irony, and bitterness, and grimness, and... it was hard to pick apart. Everything was hard to pick apart, recently.

"Mmhmm, well, I am pretty useful~ But, to be fair, so are you! Honestly, you were a really lucky find." The relentless assault against archerkind continued as Soggy did one of the things that Soggy did best - keep charging headlong into combat scenarios like an adrenaline-fueled thrown brick. A little bit of poison certainly didn't stop him from rapidly circling behind the ant sniper's position and whirling an axe in his direction. Soggyshanks attacks Black Ant Sniper B! The hatchet Soggyshanks held whirled into the hapless sniper's side and bit deep - but it didn't quite bite deep enough to finish the job. After all, the archer was using the boulder he was hiding behind to make the strike a bit awkward, the archer had a bit of armor... and, when you got down to it, Soggyshanks was in his best when he stood out. With a very noisy and screamy bee directly behind him, perhaps it was hard to. (Or maybe it was just hard to focus, that was believable too.) Following Soggyshanks up was someone, on the other hand, who was not typically in the habit of focusing, albeit somebody who also did have a habit for standing out - just one that was maybe not quite intentional. She, for once, didn't barrel in at high speed - all she had to do was thrust forwards. Sting attacks Black Ant Sniper B! ...or, well, she had to thrust forward twice. With a ferocious, desperate burst of energy, the archer managed to jerk away by a micrometer, Sting's rapier grazing by his face and touching it without actually harming him. Unfortunately for him, though, Sting was also full of desperate energy herself, and her arm flashed back and forth in a lightning motion that soon left the ant done for. Black Ant Sniper B is dead! Map Notes Status EXP: 41/100

The ant fire mage's loudly declared, hasty attempt to flee found itself almost certainly being too little, too late, as he was promptly run down by a very unhappy, very large bee holding a spear. "Hold on now, is there a need to be so relentless-" Pinecone wasn't really listening. He's already made his decisions, and the javelin clutched in his hand was stabbed towards the mage without hesitation. Pinecone attacks Black Ant Fire Initiate B! The poor ant didn't even stand a chance. Although he made a very spirited attempt at avoiding Pinecone's thrust, Stardust's presence behind Pinecone seemed to give the motivation needed for the bee to continue surging towards his target - and that extra momentum ensured the javelin impaled the ant mage with ease, stabbing well into him and leaving him quite deceased. Black Ant Fire Initiate B is dead! Diligence also ended up seeking a bit of revenge - albeit a bit more direct, against one of the snipers who had been sticking her with all of those arrows. She rushed in directly into close range with the archer she'd targeted for her wrath, taking advantage of the clumsiness of his longbow to keep any further arrows away from her frankly rather squishy body - and summoned up fire in her hand, and - Faithful Diligence attacks Black Ant Sniper B! -pretty much obliterated the unfortunate archer in the space of a couple of seconds, bringing him from totally unharmed to dead almost isntantly. There was very little that he could do about it; despite her bookish origins, Diligence was fast, and the two surges of magic she brought forth from her tablet splashed over the black ant one after the other, rather efficiently scorching the sniper. Black Ant Sniper C is dead! ...all of this relentless devastation meant that Sting's charge was brought up rather short, with no more enemies at that particular destination to even fight. Sting can choose a new move! Map Notes Status EXP: 34/100

"What do you mean where ar- oh- uh- there she goes." He watched the precipitous tumble of the mosquito girl and winced. "Yeahhhhh... been there. Mostly." Recruit Bend has refreshed Sting? It was questionable to what extent Sting essentially flinging herself entirely headlong into the officer of this little squad of ants actually counted as an attack, even with Sting's sword included in the mix of flailing limbs and antenna. But that was sure what she was doing, and it drew a frankly indignant squawk from Gloom as the mosquito barreled right into her. Sting attacks Adept Gloom! The "combat" that followed was a ridiculous, clumsy thing. Sting's sword entirely accidentally ripped across Gloom's abdomen, drawing a shriek, Gloom wildly flung motes of magic at Sting that ate deeply into her flesh and blinded her a little, and then Sting's careening body slammed her facefirst into Gloom. The end result was this: both bugs were wounded, Gloom was flat on the ground with her tablet several inches away and with Sting right on top of her, and a little carved stone ring had somehow ended up around one of Sting's antenna. Adept Gloom is defeated! Adept Gloom drops an Element Ring! "This is the dumbest thing that has ever happened." TURN 6 ~ ENEMY PHASE The bizarre but thorough defeat of Gloom brought a few different reactions from the various ants on the scene. The mage immediately turned and began hauling ass as fast as he could, abandoning his position the instant Gloom was down. "That is about as much of this as I am willing to stomach!" "Get back here, asshole!" "I know what I said earlier, but I am not going to stick around when you are down and my frontliner just bailed!" "Damn it!" The snipers, however... "Mmm... hey dude, I'm going to fight it out. You can do whatever you want I guess, but want to join me? For the boss." "... ... ...yeah." And they each took positions around a pebble, the chattier sniper standing behind the one now getting surrounded and the silent sniper standing just beside the further one. The chatty sniper raised his longbow, ultimately simply sighing and choosing to ignore his imminent doom on either side. "Well, Mr. southern ant guy, guess you're the only one who isn't going to immediately shoot me back." "Wow, I'm just honored." Black Ant Sniper B attacks Recruit Bend! The arrow slammed into Bend's chestplate with a solid thunk and managed to penetrate - and, to be fair, it was a solid hit, causing Bend to step back a bit and grit his teeth in pain. But it was nowhere near powerful enough, despite the power of the arrow, to bring him down. "Here's a tip: you're an asshole. That's the tip. Fuck you." The other sniper instead lined up at who probably constituted the obvious target, not really catching the significance of Pinecone's stance. But that significance was impressed on him when what should have been an arrow aimed right at Ebon's bird instead found itself an arrow aimed at a wall of bee and wood. Black Ant Sniper C attacks Ebon Knight! What Pinecone experienced was almost exactly what Bend did - the powerfully launched arrow slammed into one of his wooden shoulderplates and managed a penetration, which did hurt, but both Pinecone and his armor were made of tough enough stuff that Pinecone still wasn't likely going down any time soon. Meanwhile, across the next crack in the sidewalk... "Uh, Sergeant, sir, do we go help...? They're... really getting torn apart out there." "No way. What happens happens, here - we're not sacrificing our position to go stop something that's already happened. We make them come to us, do you understand?" TURN 7 ~ PLAYER PHASE Poison: Map Notes Status EXP: 24/100

No doubt, it was a rather bemusing experience for the black ant fire mage to have a terrified adolescent moth running at him and flinging magic while also crying and professing her desire not to be there. But, still, even a bemusing situation where you're getting a bolt of deadly magic thrown at you is a situation where you're getting a bolt of deadly magic at you, so preparing for combat it was. Secluded-from-Illumination attacks Black Ant Fire Initiate B! Thankfully for the ant, as it turns out, a terrified single-digit girl throwing a bolt is a girl who is not quite as precise in the way she throws that bolt, and the initiate was able to just duck behind that ever-useful pebble, peeking back up afterwards to see the hole it had eaten in the rock. Secluded wasn't quite lucky enough to dodge, but the bolt didn't do much but light her cloak on fire and give her some first-degree burns. Of course, being Secluded, it was unlikely she appreciated that. The other one of the trio of digitling girls in the party (and the other one to actually do much in the way of direct fighting) came up next, with a lot more enthusiasm than her counterpart, and the ever-quick knife-wielding ant found herself the target of another attack. "Well, hello, there, hon." A sardonic laugh. "You sure you're in the right place?" Sting attacks Black Ant Specialist A! The specialist didn't dodge this one, though. Sting's cranium didn't make direct contact, with the specialist instinctively backpedaling away, but the rapier stab that followed did very much, sticking the ant rather solidly - Sting was very much capable of making powerful strikes indeed, it seemed. For a moment it didn't seem like that was enough, but the ant stumbled backwards, and groaned, grabbing her abdomen. "Guess so, huh?" Then she fell. Black Ant Specialist A dies! The Fire Initiate that had managed to dodge Secluded-from-Illumination's attack (and was the indirect cause, now, of her loud panic) wasn't actually out of the more metaphorical fire yet. He had yet another assailant - this one was Pinecone, and now he had a rod of sharpened, curved wood hurtling his way as hard as Pinecone could throw it. "Oh, come on!" Pinecone attacks Black Ant Fire Initiate B! Luckily for the ant, when Pinecone had cocked his arm back for a javelin throw that would probably have been accurate, his attention had been stolen for a moment by the fact that Adept Gloom was staring exhausted, dark-circled DAGGERS at one of the bugs he was guarding (Ebon)! The delay was split-second, but long enough for the Fire Initiate to terrifiedly dive behind another side of the pebble, javelin slapping against the sidewalk after missing him by a hair. The literal return fire did hit, and burned some, but Pinecone was still up and presumably still resolute. Map Notes Status EXP: 10/100

"Good luck dealing with all of that, haha... really, I'm just happy that we were all able to help prevent the suffering that could have happened here. It's why we're going around like this in the first place, or at least it is for me. I wouldn't have required a reward, buuut... since we're getting one..." Perlita looked over the crystals for a moment. "Um... I hope nobody minds if I take one of these. This purple one is just kind of calling out to me... I think it might be similar to some of what I use in my magic." Hesitantly, Perlita grabbed the crystal, and started to look it over, silent for a long moment as she critically examined it, using an instinctive sense for magic that even a non-scanning like Perlita's could grant for a magical object like this. "...light and determination, huh? I guess it's not a surprise this called out to me, then, light's my element." She seemed to consider further, though. "Determination, though... I guess so. Maybe. It'd be nice if that applied to me. Uh, I guess I'll maybe try to experiment with this... I think I want to see if I can make a spell, considering that these seem to be almost just magic power in crystal form. I've never tried something like this, but, uh, hey, if I'm gonna be bouncing between a bunch of worlds I might as well try to get something out of 'em.." Perlita takes the Purple Sharicite!

Lizaveta turned her head to look at Shin. "You.... think so?" She let the back of her head rest against the floor, as words suddenly began to tumble out. Now that she'd begun to hint at the dark, pulsing, fiery knot of agony that she'd been keeping hidden for so long now, as it got worse and worse and uglier and uglier, Lizaveta found that she couldn't stop. "I think... I think I'm going insane. I think maybe I've already gone insane." "There's a part of me that is this- this swirling mass of hatred and bloodlust and a desire to see my enemies suffer and it is this little churning piece of my soul that has been growing and growing and growing- and I don't know if it's going to stop- and I don't know what I can do at this rate- I don't know what I will do. I don't want to be like this, nothing but rage and enmity, but I can't stop it, I can't even slow down, it's just there and becoming so much bigger, so much angrier. I can barely talk to people. I can barely even talk to people. My throat closes. I don't know how I'm saying this. But I can't just let go- I can't just let go- I need to do this. I need to do this. I NEED to do this. I need to hold on to the one thing I have left to live for, I can't let it go, I can't let it go, but I'm going crazy, but I can't let it go!"

Lizaveta made a bizarre noise when Shin gave her a pat on the head - something like an incredulous wheeze, but with an odd tension to it, underneath. So that was how it was at this point, huh...? "I... don't know that I think it's likely. They've been looking down for so long now... even when they look up in one way... I don't know." "I don't know." "Really, I think something is probably wrong with me."

Level 4! Ebon Knight (krim): 44, 34, --, 40, 56, 3, 74, 57 +HP, +STR, +SKL (barely), +DEF Faithful Diligence (ElfCollaborator) 11, --, 40, 94, 24, 77, 69, 15 +HP, +MAG, +LCK, +SPD Life-Recorder (Unlurking Sentinel): 76, 97, 46, 97, 42, 50, 30, 4 +MAG, +RES, +SPD Lotus (Raindrop Valkyrie): 1, 4, --, 7, 44, 15, 50, 66 +HP, +STR, +SKL, +DEF, +RES Mercy Harefoot (kj1225) 37, 34, 31, 55, 77, 72, 56, 14 +HP, +STR, +MAG, +SPD Pinecone (RedMageCole): 22, 10, --, 21, 98, 89, 65, 2 +HP, +STR, +SKL, +RES (barely), +SPD Secluded from Illumination (Trash): 65, --, 54, 51, 52, 85, 54, 2 +SPD, +MAG from preferred stats Soggyshanks (Yours Truly) 59, 43, --, 69, 52, 12, 47, 6 +HP, +STR, +DEF, +SPD Stardust (EXLink32): 20, --, 25, 38, 32, 24, 96, 50 +HP, +MAG, +SPD Sting (ctsun): 98, 62, --, 26, 12, 84, 78, 58 +SKL, +LCK Brilliant Deduction: 43, --, 40, 56, 84, 17, 66, 28 +HP, +MAG, +SPD Recruit Bend: 20, 96, 76, 90, 77, 97, 38 +HP, +SPD, +DEF from preferred stats

"AaaaaAAAAAA-" Nobody really tends to enjoy having an armored bug on a really big bird come hurtling at them as a wall of force, talons, and lance, and Adept Gloom was absolutely not an exception to that rule, flinching and shouting as Ebon Knight and his bird came slamming down into her. Of course, with Gloom being a relatively more talented and tough leadership figure, and barely wounded besides by the Chakram that had skimmed across her, the hit that ensued didn't kill her. But it had not been fun to experience, with Gloom doubling over for a moment with tears gathering in her eyes. "Owww. . ." Meanwhile, Ebon's partner in combat sent an arrow flying at the Fire Initiate, who as of yet had in fact not been attacked, hovering awkwardly around a pebble and trying to keep track of the whole combat. The mage didn't really stand a great chance of dodging the arrow, and the powerful projectile slammed nearly unimpeded into his shoulder, arcing cleanly over the pebble. The mage cried out, putting a hand to the wound, and then looked around indignantly. "Why in the world are Gloom, Swifts, and I the ones under attack right now? Where is Twitch? Did he- I think he ran off. This is ridiculous." (Black Ant Lance Recruit B is... defeated?) Map Notes Status EXP: 101/100 (LEVEL UP!)