Powder Miner

The burn on his back stinging, Navin watched as the wizard proceeded to continue to be aggressive, shouting something about dark machinations, as Navin muttered a "Dēvā śappata..." Navin began running at the wizard, bearing down upon him as the wizard already had begun to cast another spell. The forward movement of the wizard's rod was interrupted suddenly, as Navin set his hands low, reached the wizard, and promptly sent them shooting forwards, palms outstretched wide, as small, directional explosions left the back of each of his palms in what Navin called his Rocket Shove. The wizard would find himself propelled into the air a couple of feet as he was pushed upwards too quickly to process, almost comically moved a couple of feet into the air, and then dropped onto the ground on his back. Navin crouched down, preparing to attempt to pin the wizard's wrists down, but he spoke as he did. "Come on, if you do not stop escalating this I do not think I can fully stop it! Do you think that this is working out for you? I have been actively trying not to hurt you, but I cannot promise the same of the others!"

Navin had sort of been aimlessly wandering the castle -- with the momentousness of the previous battle, and with the goddess' earlier failure to actually soothe his issues with the bloodiness of the battles, he found it hard to settle down without simply curling up into some corner somewhere, and he felt that if he kept doing that it'd be a failure on his part, at some point. The thing was, it... wasn't like he really had anything else of worth to contribute, then and there. The fighting was over, and Navin was only good for fighting -- had only been good for fighting since the invasion of Earth. And since he was no longer on that horrible battleground and was instead back in the castle (it seemed almost like it had been forever), there wasn't exactly going to be any fighting for him to deal with. ...or, so he'd thought, anyway. His wandering took him to the ballroom area of the castle, and from there he heard the sounds of energy attacks (a wide category, in superhero parlance) being thrown around, and of impacts -- and he promptly watched as some sort of strange, childlike, wizard man gathered magic and then flung a ball of fire at the other occupants of the room. "Wh--" Navin cut himself off, as a pair of loud POPs sounded out as small explosions blossomed from Navin's hands, lengthening his stride as both feet were in the air for portions of time. Moving this way through a combination of running and blast propulsion, straining his joints and stumbling with the strides he couldn't quite keep up with, Navin managed to get himself into the middle of room in time to intercept the fireball far short of its target, the spell instead exploding across his back. Some of the fire splashed across the white armor plates attached to his equally white jumpsuit, and the suit itself was also fireproof thanks to the need for it with the nature of his powers, but the intense blast of heat was completely unimpeded, and Navin let out an "Rggghhhh!" at the pain of it, breathing heavily, before turning around in the direction of the wizard. The wounded superhero slowly raised his hands, palm out, in a supplicating gesture, and spoke, an undercurrent of pain in his voice. "Hold on, hold on, there is no need for violence... stop casting spells... what is going on here?"

Isobel, already near Silef, caught on to what the Asterlux lord was saying very quickly, and even to the difference in her tone of voice, putting a hand to her chin for a few moments as she decided whether she could actually speak up and respond to Silef. Eventually, though, she lowered her hand, nodded to herself, and began to speak to Silef. "Apologies if I'm wrong, but is it that you would want to join our group and help us fight? If that's the case, I don't think that anyone would mind. I think that you'd be really helpful, actually! Or if it's just that you want to go somewhere, well, that's a bit more complicated. We don't really have any way of choosing where we go. But, uh, if it's a fight for a good cause that you're looking for, that's what we do." LOTUS spoke up from Isobel's belt, his tone less soft and sympathetic than hers -- more a blunt and warning tone. "There is one thing that I am going to make clear, though: if you do join us, there is not going to be room for an aristocratic attitude to it. There isn't any title or station or rule by lineage that actually applies to a group like ours; we all come from different places, with wildly differing authority structures and wildly different values in regards to it. There isn't any room for a formal structure of leadership among our group, and if you want to join you will not be able to maintain or seize a place of leadership in it, and you will not be above everyone else. Would you be willing to accept this?"

Perlita stood still, still largely in a state of shock, eyes darting around as she tried to process just what in the world had just happened, and as she tried to take in the raw scale and wonder of the destruction that had been wrought upon the area around them. Navin mostly just stood crouched with his hands on knees, breathing heavily -- no wonder, after he'd exerted the best of his strength and his powers to throw a colossal dragon skull hard enough into the rest of its skeleton to shatter both. Isobel found herself suddenly rather tongue-tied. After all, she was standing in the cataclysmic aftermath of a reality-warping battle of grand scale, and was now being approached by... nobility, royalty, one of the two. No amount of experience with strangeness was going to quite prepare her for that. "Buh-- umm-- uh--" LOTUS, by contrast to these three, didn't have any such problems. Sure, he had a developed emotional core, but speaking to people in positions was his power, and he was most certainly capable of staying cool enough to perform that role. "Even I find it a little difficult to actually summarize what went on here, but so far as I can tell the situation is thus: We battled Caster and were separated into several groups during the battle, fighting through a swarm of the twisted creatures we've seen the forces here previously employ -- and then reality began warping to an extreme degree, resulting in the warping of our enemies, both the creatures and Caster, who was replaced totally. I also saw one obstacle I'd previously worried about fly overhead as it joined the battle. Everything but what took the place of Caster appears to have been slain by us, and then whatever replaced appears to have fallen victim to its own reality warping and disappeared from existence. I'd keep an eye out for further appearances of this thing, but unless you do find one I suspect that our work here may finally be done."

Well, the dragon was quite literally coming apart now. This wasn't quite a surprise to Navin -- it was far from his first fight with teammates against a giant monster, after all, but it nonetheless came as a great relief when he'd earlier been reduced to quite literally slapping the dragon. Now... he watched as Miss Saigai neatly beheaded the dragon with a mighty swing, he watched as Halley took off a wing with a large one. Then Navin himself ran up to the dragon, leapt up, and dealt a precise blow to the dragon's sternum, one which shattered it and caused the entire beast's torso to start coming apart. The dragon was clearly returning to death... but Navin figured he ought to speed up the process, lest it get out a lucky strike. But how to do so... Navin's eyes glanced towards the dragon's head. With a roar of effort, Navin began to lift the massive skull of the dragon off of the ground... a roar of effort and the sound of a pair of loud pops, which matched the small explosions emanating from the back of the Flame of Maharashtra's hands, providing the force he needed to lift it. Then, with a louder shout, twin BOOMs rung out through the air, plumes of fire flaring out behind the superhero as his hands jetted forwards thanks to far larger explosions. The dragon's skull flew at the rest of its body, bone chips falling from the shattered back of its skull, and then it impacted, with an ungodly loud shattering sound as the skull slammed through the unstable ribcage, peppering the immediate area with small pieces of bone as the dragon was utterly destroyed by its own head, which disintegrated shortly after the impact, leaving naught left of the beast but far-scattered pieces of bone. "...ah... hah... perhaps that was showing off."

Yoko quirked an eyebrow at the sound of Deadlift screaming wildly. That was... unlike him, unless perhaps he was revealing more of his power level and growing his body, not that she could hear the sounds of bone cracking. Perhaps she just was too far, though, or too distracted by this damnable itching that was starting to pop up over her body. "Hnnngh. I wonder what it is that Deadlift is doing...? Perhaps we ought to go see if we can reunite with him on our way? Without doubling back, anyhow..." Yoko will move to find Deadlift if it's relatively close to the way forward; otherwise she just moves forward.

"Ma’a-- uh, Johanna! During my leap in that clash, I saw the village! There are escaped prisoners fighting with the villagers' forces there, and it looks mostly even but I think the villagers need some help! There's no forces between me and them, do I have permission to go reinforce them?"

Satomi attacks Siege Ogre 1 with the Axe Trebuchet, or if Kusuke in fact killed it, Siege Ogre 2! Active Passives: Destructive Inspiration (33% chance for a x3 crit and additional effect while using the AXE Trebuchet), Slaughtaur Shield (First time hit in a turn, take 50% reduced damage until end of turn or next action).

Navin shook his hand a little, after ripping one of the dragon's limbs free from its body -- his hand had gone numb through the rapid and powerful surging back and forth of circulation energy he'd put it through, but he was getting the feeling back in his fingers again. ...which was just as well, because being able to hit the dragon with his piercing strike once more would probably prove to be profoundly useful. With another shout (and a more silent sentiment of thankfulness for actually being able to use one of his more destructive moves now, instead of that slap), Nader leapt up at the head of the dragon, following up Mitsurugi's slice at its neck with a precise explosion aimed directly at its skull, hoping to shatter the thing. Navin uses Piercing Strike on the Dracolich, aimed at the head, dealing 4d6+STR (10)+SYN (11) damage and bypassing any damage resistance! His dodge chance is 18%, but only against melee attacks. 20% resistance to slashing and piercing damage, 15% ailment resist chance.  Active Cooldowns: One-Two Punch (0 remaining turns), Piercing Strike (2 remaining turns), Detonating Throw (0 remaining turns)

”Ah, g-good! Guess that Media did it for now... Crawford!” Perlita casts Hama on the Emitter, dealing SYN (12) damage, with a 30% chance to deal 2*SYN (24) damage instead! Perlita has a 20% damage resistance to darkness attacks, and a 40% chance to resist sleep ailments.

Yoko peered at the mask for a moment. "Ordinarily I'm not sure I would want to take this, but... in the circumstances, yes, I should probably use this device." Yoko pulled the mask over her face. Then, when Lakia either put her mask on, or made it clear she wasn't going to, Yoko began to move through the door. "I suppose we're likely to run into Deadlift again in here. I wonder if there's going to be anything else to fight, hmm..."

Ceridwen found herself surrounded by the enemy, hemmed in by the three swordsmen and the enemy archer, even if they had largely begun to engage with everyone else. One of the swordsmen lunged towards her with his blade -- but a precise and practiced circling motion saw first Yn Ddiddorol's tail deflect the blade, sword scraping alongside the appendage unable to find purchase but hard enough to draw sparks. Then Ynddi finished his circling motion, a "Grrroowrrrr!" matching it... but he had ended his motion a few feet farther from the swordsman, right near the back of the unfortunate archer, putting Ceridwen in ideal lance range, which she took advantage of to stab the offending soldier. Surrounded and having been drawn into combat, Ceridwen finally smiled -- she felt like she was actually doing her job now rather than just standing by and watching the others get wounded and brought down. "You'll find me a bit harder to ignore now!" And with that, and a second bellowing "RrrrOOoOOARRR!", Yn Ddiddorol and Ceridwen once more took advantage of the space that had been provided by the dragon, Yn Ddiddorol performing a leap that brought the tip of Ceridwen's lance hurtling downward towards the prisoner Ceridwen was fighting. Stab Mercenary 3! (Also Canto to F12 but I'm going to actually roleplay that after the attack is calculated)

Perlita found herself sputtering and taken aback once more as yet more mutation, yet more strangeness happened, one of the monsters they were fighting literally eating another, but really at this point there was only so far aback she could be taken, and she ended up just getting back into action. "P-Persona!" she shouted with a wave of her hand over most of the party, and instead of a wave of light magic attacking one of the twisted things or an intense wave of healing magic washing over one person, three less vivid little circling waves of pink healing energy surrounded Gabriel, the girl in the mech, the highly suspicious necromancer woman, and the girl who looked like a battered nun. This helped Perlita as well, as the feedback from her own healing magic helped undo the mild spatial warping and mental damage that earlier events in the fight had hit her with. Perlita uses Media on Gabriel, Hiroki, and Kino, and Magna, healing them each for SYN (12) damage and thanks to her Better to Give than to Get perk, she also gains SYN (12) HP herself! Perlita has a 20% damage resistance to darkness attacks, and a 40% chance to resist sleep ailments.

Despite how undeniably bizarre the situation was, Isobel couldn't help but feel like everything was starting to come together. Those fucked up poor things that were mobbing them were being picked off and it didn't seem like many of them would be left to deal with -- at this rate, they would be free to focus their efforts on that twisted dragon... woman... thing? Whatever, the point was that she was feeling optimistic, and there wasn't even anyone who particularly needed a poppy handed to them. Not that there wasn't anyone who needed her help. Isobel watched as Soryn extended some sort of strengthening effect to the group around her... but he also appeared to have been left reeling as well, and Isobel rushed to his side, placing her gloved hands on his shoulders and attempting to put him back into sorts. "Hey, hang in there, that was helpful but we aren't done quite yet!" LOTUS, meanwhile, had reached a similar conclusion -- that the condition of the fight was stable, albeit that he ought to not lower his metaphorical guard should the enemy formerly known as Caster try something bizarre. He didn't see anything especially useful for him to do, but he figured that it wouldn't hurt to potentially cause their primary enemy to receive more dire wounds -- it looked like she was steadily getting more and more wounded, and more and more afflicted by Dackly, but the more things that they could do to her the better. "If you're going for the dragon, it's my suggestion that you aim here..." Isobel and LOTUS delay their actions until after Soryn's. Isobel uses Help Intent on Soryn, removing his stun! LOTUS uses Weakness Pinpoint on Tiamat, granting a 10% chance to deal double damage on attacks made against her for a turn. Isobel has a 15% dodge chance.

"Well, apparently that fucking worked! Whatever the hell those howling things are, it sounds like there's a lot of them, so I'm going to help protect the reactor!" Nader began making a beeline back to the Avenger, as fast as he could in his armor... which wasn't necessarily very fast. The Rabid Tiger Armor, for all of its protective qualities, was a beastly piece of gear, weighing a solid 110 lbs (slash fifty kilograms, Nader reminded himself), and though he was moving it was a process that took some serious effort and was quite literally clunky. Still, as he made his way to the Avenger, he managed to find the focus to load and cock his underbarrel shotgun, preparing to blow away the first of these fucking things to attack him. Nader moves to D6 and prepares the Gut Punch, as his Akimbo passive triggers again! If Nader is attacked in melee, the “Gut Punch” will automatically fire and deal 5d6+Dex damage, which is applied before the opponent’s attack lands. Active Cooldowns: M3 Sorraia (0 turns) PAW (2 turns)

...also, canto to L12 like I was supposed to, if that’s okay.

Yoko, watching Deadlift not return and watching Lakia appear to have found a perfectly functional way out of the room, jogged along to follow her, only breaking into one or two agonizing coughing fits halfway through. "Oh... this poison would not appear to be a weak substance. -Cgh, cgh, hkcgh.- I bet the Tamori would have loved to experiment with this." She continued to jog to catch up with Lakia, and began to speak with her once she did. "A disguise is not going to help you very much. This entire place has been taken over by some strange machine, and everything within it has been twisted and destroyed. There are no longer normal servants of any kind within this facility, I believe, except for one or two crazed ones."

Things had most certainly not stopped being confusing and disorienting for Perlita, and the sudden flash of bizarre visions were a large part of that, hurting her head, giving her something of a portent of doom, and causing her to shut her eyes -- thankfully, she had once gain opened them by the time gravity shifted, and with a wheel of her arms she actually managed to stay upright... though from her facial expression, she was far from happy, a frown printed on her face, her eyes squinted. "Dios m... ah, to Hell with it." With everyone seemingly in pretty good condition and the tho-- the fairy tending to Gabriel, Perlita once again went on the attack, slinging another light attack at the same burned creature, light symbols appearing and then glowing brighter and brighter...! Perlita uses Hama on BBQed Lahmu A, dealing SYN (12) damage, with a 30% chance of dealing 2*SYN damage! Perlita has a 40% chance to resist sleep ailments. She also takes double damage from mental attacks.

"Kerr! HEY, don't you ignore me, I'm still an armored soldier on a dragon, damn you!" "GrrrrrrrRROURRRR!" Ynddi roared as if to punctuate Ceridwen's words, and the two of them lunged at the wounded soldier that Ceridwen had managed to miss the first time around. O12, attack Soldier 1!

”Ahahaha, ahahaha, ahaha, a-hxkghcgrgl. Nice. We really should get going though, hckgh, there’s no point to sticking around here, even with less gas. And I hate to admit it, but stayimg around here might in fact kill me. I’m not opposed to a little bit of mortal danger, but I would like at least for it to be in combat, not from standing around.”

”Hmmm, planning -cgh- something, are we? Just don’t take too long—“ It was only when Deadlift began to shift into position that Yoko realized just what was going on, and she broke into gleeful laughter even as she hacked and coughed. ”I SUPPOSE YOU AREN’T hcghahaHAAA!” And she began to move immediately; heavily wounded and wracked wirh pain as she was, Yoko wasn’t someone to ever slow down. The Dragon monk sprinted in the direction of the handholds Deadlift had made while climbing, aiming to leap up, grab onto them, and avoid the consequences of the entire floor probably being exploded.

Yoko made a facial expression that was half grimace and half grin, and it wasn’t difficult to see why. Yoko was incredibly banged up, a combination of poison and burn wounds lanced across her body making it very visibly clear that she had come out of that battle barely on her feet. But Yoko being Yoko, that was soemthing to be celebrated, not to be bemoaned, even as agony lingered in her body. She tried on her dead foe’s oxygen system, and took a deep breath... before grunting and breaking into coughs. ”Ahhhhh, I am really messed up... I won, though~” The grin slipped for a moment, though — the way she was having trouble breathing was a very, very bad sign. Her eyes were then drawn to a new arrival, who appeared to be physically and verbally sidling up to them. ”Yes, we sure did. And... -cgh- yes, we probably should move along, hmm, Deadlift? And you, purple-haired -cgh- woman... who would you be?”

”AH! Damn it all!” Truth be told, Yoko was far more irritated with the fact that she had missed than she actually was with getting shot. ”Looks like I overcommitted with that one. That’s a shame, it would have been great.” Yoko shrugged and then came at the Midget Scav again, swinging with less force... but still quite forcefully. Yoko uses Hands of Stone on the Midget Scav, 3d6+STR (6) damage!

”Bahhh, of course you took the big one for yourself,” Yoko commented, even as she felt the sting of the poison on her body, a burning sensation enveloping her. ”I suppose I’ll take the small one then. Let’s make this quick!” Yoko immediately rushed the bizarrely proportioned foe, drawing back her fist and thrusting it forward at the incomprehensibly-screeching humanoid in a jab to the stomach, a wild burst of strength that saw her musculature ripple. She didn’t intend to escalate, she simply intended to use her strongest blow first and hope it simply took her enemy down outright. If she was lucky, those bubbles would protect from the poison in the air. Yoko uses Hands of Stone with Bishamon’s Strength, dealing 3d6+STR (6)+STR (6)... unless she lands on the 20% chance to miss.

Satomi was feeling an emotion no Crab would view as unseemly, and which most samurai in Rokugan as a whole would likely find it difficult to condemn: the joy of battle. However, she was... perhaps getting carried away. She stood atop her wall (and she’d built it, it was hers, damn it, not that Azgrurk’s), and a grin stretched across her face as she yanked at levers and pulled at ropes, a blur of smooth and continuous motion as she guided the labor golems along in their loading process. She shouted off of the wall too, at foes who almost certainly could not hear her. ”THIS IS A WALL BUILT BY A SAMURAI OF THE CRAB!” With the flip of a switch, Satomi changed the axe-trebuchet from repositioning to firing, ”THIS IS THE RESULT OF THE KAIU FAMILY METHOD!” more levers were pulled, Satomi a flash of manic energy to put the leadup to the previous swing to shame, ”THE CRAB PREPARE! THE KAIU BUILD! AND WE PUT OUR LIVES UPON THE WALLS!” the process continued, rapidly reaching its end, ”AND WE DEFEND FROM EVIL! I WILL NEVER YIELD, AS MY DUTY I MUST WIN, SO GET AWAY FROM MY WALL!” And with the dinal pull the gigantic axe-blade began swinging at the ogre once again. Satomi fires the AXE Trebuchet once more at the SW siege ogre! Active Passives: Destructive Inspiration (33% chance for a x3 crit and additional effect while using the AXE Trebuchet), Slaughtaur Shield (First time hit in a turn, take 50% reduced damage until end of turn or next action).