Powder Miner

Navin hissed as the claw raked across his body — and then with his attention thoroughly on the skeletal dragon, his honed reflexes kicked in and he ducked the gigantic tail that was whipped his way... though he winced when he glanced to see that Mitsurugi was somewhat less lucky. ”Miss Saigai, I—“ His words and train of thought were derailed and vanished entirely, however, as the gaudy supervillainesque foe behind the dragon promptly underwent a massive transformation into a gigantic eldritch monster with shouts of increasingly distorted rage. Navin’s voice dropped into a sighing tone. ”It always is something like this, isn’t it?” This was, after all, far from the first massive transformation like this he’d ever seen. Still, the draconic skeleton that he was facing presented an immediate threat, and it did appear that he was the most effective one to face it, and so face it he would... though he would have to deal with the fact that he could feel the ache in his veins that was his power being sorely overstretched. To let it fully recover, he would have to simply work with his movement with the blast, and to that end he was going to use his Detonating Throw... albeit, uh, not much of a throw, since it was gigantic. Instead he was just going to try to stress a limb and give it difficulty pulling off what it had just done again, grabbing onto the still-flailing limb and throwing himself forward with an explosion. Navin uses Detonating Throw on the Dracolich (on the claws if we’re meant to attack specific spots), dealing 1d6+STR (10)+SYN (11) damage and giving it a turn of cooldown on its last-used move! 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 (1 remaining turn), Piercing Strike (0 remaining turns), Detonating Throw (1 remaining turn)

”Wh-wh-wh-what the fuck? Is this a thing now? Jesus Christ, where did this come from?” Isobel’s immediate reaction to Gilgamesh suddenly transforming into some woman and then to a gigantic horrific dragon creature was of course stunned incredulity; being from the Exodus, Isobel had of course seen some weird shit, but this unambiguously took the cake. She wasn’t floored or anything, at least not literally, but the transformation was worth more than a double-take, to say the least. What was also worth a look, of course, was the fact that more than one of her teammates were pretty beaten up, Jade and Liliya... and since the former was being looked after by Lexiel, Isobel figured Liliya would need her aid sooner. ”Liliya, eat this!” she called, and then hefted another one of her healing flowers the Ukrainian’s way. ”Doesn’t that figure. The moment after I get my uplink calculation...” LOTUS, in contrast to Isobel, sounded more annoyed than anything else. While this development did of course likely indicate some incoming danger, his ultimate objective remained the same, and would simply need a different path to be completed. Adjustment to bizarre tactical situations was a raison d’être of his, after all. It was, however, still a frustration to have misstepped. At the moment, the small AI estimated that, given the... more or less precarious situation of two of the fighters here, it would be good to work to shore up their forces for the incoming clash — something he saw Soryn doing. ”Jade, please prune the remaining flying foe for me, so we aren’t leaving it alone to attack despite its state. Soryn, for what I suspect you’re about to do, based on enemy movements I recommend moving this way...” Isobel uses Healing Poppy on Liliya, for 3d4+INT damage’s worth of healing! LOTUS uses Pathing Advice on Soryn, locking his initiative directly behind Isobel and LOTUS’ for this turn and the next. Isobel has a 15% dodge chance.

At this point, Perlita was so confused it practically hurt. The battle had been of course chaotic and frantic enough, with things exploding violently (even if the things exploding violently were their enemies, thanks to her friend and allies), and Caster reclining on his throne impassively, but then everything went absolutely upside down. The enemies that Gabriel and that mech had just dealt with reformed, grotesquely pulling themselves into new and freakier beings, some burnt, some large. Meanwhile, something else popped into existence, some sort of blue barbed metal thing with slime pouring out of it, forming a puddle -- but Perlita didn't even have the luxury of focusing her attention on these developments, because there was more. A portal opened right on the opposite sides of her -- revealing people Perlita largely didn't recognize sitting at a table playing poker, and now addressing them? Perlita began to open her mouth to voice her confusion, at which point the battlefield around her began to shake. A darkened and unnatural version of the arrogant asshole man's voice, the shaking was in the air, his voice, what the hell was wrong with his voice? Oh, he was transforming into a woman and then into gigantic dragon monstrosity, towering far above them with a gigantic maw and thick scales and huge horns. That was the sum of the situation: enemies revived, a new one brought forth, a portal full of strange people, and a horrific transformation into a gigantic dragon beast. Perlita... wasn't taking it very well, as she began to shout not even in English anymore, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes: "¿Qué? ¿Que verga? ¿Por qué está pasando esto? ¿Por qué está ocurriendo? ¿Qué?" Confused and terrified as she was, though, Perlita couldn't let herself stop acting, lest they get into more trouble. They seemed to be doing pretty well as far as her healing was concerned, a quick and distressed sweep of her eyes across the party revealed, so instead with a shout Perlita actually went on the offensive, slinging another one of her light spells at one of the revived and very much burnt creatures. Her spell had nearly taken its target out earlier, and if it landed right again... that was one less thing in the overwhelming and terrifying mass of foes and phenomena that was this battle. Perlita uses Hama on one of the BBQed Lahmus, 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.

Ceridwen's expression warped angrily when she saw Argos downed, ganged up on by two of the enemy soldiers. "I won't allow you to do that to my comrades!" Ceridwen moves to O11 and goes for a stab on Soldier 1!

Yoko squinted past Deadlift at the pile of bodies up against the doors. Well that led to a fairly clear conclusion — the entire personnel quarters had been poisoned to death, and the people here had been trying to escape in their agonized final moments. Gruesome, Yoko mentally remarked... but without attaching too much gravity to it. Such things simply happened, gruesome death was a fact of life. Of course, the current problem was, as the stinging lighting up across her body reminded her, avoiding that gruesome death herself. Yoko wasn’t sure how to actually stop the gas, but perhaps the dead could give her a hint — after all, they’d have been crowding to where they’d think they could escape, yes? But she would also have to get to and from those. The “from” part she wasn’t sure about, but for the “to” part... Yoko’s eyes slid over to Deadlift, and her expression grew pensive. For a moment, she looked at him, then after backing away from the gas a bit she spoke, grinning: ”Hey Deadlift... what if you threw me at the doors?”

Yoko shook her hands a bit — while it wasn’t particularly a big problem, she had skinned her knuckles during the blows she had dealt to the floor tile jarring it loose enough to actually pull out. Having bloodied hands wasn’t actually something that bothered Yoko much (it was after all a sign of violence done satisfyingly hard), but it did of course hurt. ”Well, I suppose that is that for now. Do you desire to find somewhere where we can in fact just punch through the obstacles in our path, or would you prefer to stay around here and try something else? We could also try to find something to deal with the gas elsewhere, as well.”

”Hmmm, that’s a shame. I wonder if we could perhaps find a way around this, or if we’re going to instead simply have to explore somewhere else. In the meantime... well, let’s see if I can get you something to plug that hole with, hmmm?” Yoko then reared one fist back and sent it hurtling to the floor, not only punching with trained force but using one of her wild swings, a possibly supernatural amount of force imparted to her hand by her muscles. Her goal was simple: punch the floor so kami-damned hard that a piece would get hewn out of it. Yoko uses Hands of Stone, with a Bishamon’s Strength... on the fucking floor (if possible)! (mechanically in a battle this would be 2d6+2*STR, with a 20% chance to miss.)

Yoko frowned, and put a hand to her chin. Well, this was a much less exciting obstacle than those six-armed creatures, that was for certain. She’d much rather be murdering things than trying to figure out how to get past some poisonous gas. "No, I’m afraid not. I may be able to resist the poison itself, but the whole concept of poisonous air is one new to me. I may be able to resist the poison enough, if I can use my soul to shift its effects from my Earth to my connection to the Void, which I believe I may very well be able to, but I do not know how to get rid of it. This thing here says this gas is in ‘outdoor blocks A, B, C, D, and E’, which may well be all of it. Hmmmm... I wonder if perhaps you could use what you just did to store clean air for us, or to blow back the poison in the air."

Yoko raised her eyebrows at the display — she hadn’t expected Deadlift to fail at, well, lifting something, though perhaps it had simply been a matter of misapplying his strength in a way that only partially sundered the door. ”Ah, taking the violent solution this time, mmm? I am looking forward to seeing how this goes.”

Perhaps thankfully for the Invoker of Mayhem, a certain grey-and-green wyvern swooped across the stream to land near him (letting out a ”Grwr,” thanks to roaring sadly being a bad idea), his red-headed rider already beginning to thrust her lance out towards his opponent as she spoke. “”I shall support you, Argos!” And Ceridwen stabbed at the mage — a real stab, since she had in fact fought for real before, if only bandits. It was something of a distracted attempt, though. She couldn’t help it! The trees were very pretty. N13, take a stab at the Mage!

Yoko barely even blinked as Deadlift went to shatter the glass -- much as Deadlift likely did, Yoko felt that all of these warnings of danger (both auditory and visual -- the red lights and loud sirens were unfamiliar and rather unpleasant but did convey a general sense of panic pretty well) simply presented a sign that this place would be worthwhile to delve. "Aha, not even hesitating, are we? Well, you really are a man after my own heart in that respect. Let's go! I want to see what's in here, and then I would very much like to kill it."

Yoko let out an audible “hmmm”, her hand on her chin as she considered her destination. ”Hmmm... well, I would have gone with you, Yvette, considering that you’ve mentioned the possibility of that mark causing trouble, but that’s quite the count of you going to this assembly place, now. I believe that I shall head out to the personnel quarters since it seems that no one else has any intention of going there, which simply means more challenge for me. Deadlift, would you like to come with me? Everywhere else would put you in a group of three at the minimum, and I do enjoy your company, being that we do have our similarities. It would be nice to have no objections to tearing our way through there as well, especially if there are more of those creatures in there.” Yoko heads to the personnel quarters.

"AND NOW!" Satomi roared once the ogres walked within range of the walls -- because as the ogre on her side of the southern wall got into range to strike the wall in melee, it also got into range for things on the wall to strike it in melee. And along with her roar came a furious blur of motion from her hands, as she operated each and every step of the complicated duds and real levers that made up the axe trebuchet, the genius engineer's memory firing on all cylinders before she yanked a final level furiously... causing the device to fire, just as she slammed onto the side of it and, as mechanisms engaged, it pushed to the side, hopefully swinging the axe at a diagonal angle directly into the ogre. This was an idea she'd had just now -- it would have a far higher likelihood to lop something off or destroy an organ in the torso or something this way than plainly vertical. Satomi fires the Axe Trebuchet at Siege Ogre 1 in the Southwest! 52+Int (12) damage, ignoring RES, with a 33% chance to deal a x3 damage crit and deal an additional effect! After the first time Satomi gets hit, thanks to the Slaughtaur Shield, she will take 50% damage from then until her next action or turn end!

Yoko let out a disappointed little tsk’ing sound at the way the whole event went. ”I would have rather preferred that it came out here instead of tried to drag you in, Yvette. We would have shredded it, and it would have been fantastic. I’m still raring to go, you know, I can never get enough. Hmmm... I think the fact that Evelyn here had to step in for you is proof that physical prowess of your own could do you well, yes? I will repeat my offer to teach you Kaze-do sometime, if you are willing. The possibility does exist though that you will simply have to achieve physical fitness first — agility and endurance are both needed for basic Kaze-do... and the way I practice it, strength is quite useful as well. I don’t know Kobo Ichi Kai very well and it would not likely suit you anyway unless you were very willing to bulk up, and Aikido is not my preference at all, but I suppose it could work too...” Yoko blinked as during her musings on martial arts the creature was thwarted, and then as she blinked to see a red eye having appeared on the demon summoner’s arm. “Oh, what’s this, now?”

Oh, uh, Yoko does in fact head over to the teleporter room. Yoko walked into the room where it seemed that everyone was gathering, and her expression became confused but intrigued once she saw what was going on. ”Hmm, what’s going on over here? What are these strange little creatures — are we going to fight them?”

Yoko looked at Chelchis again, after flashing a smile at Deadlift. "I will admit that it does sound like there are similarities, at least from what you have told me. But Deadlift has the right of it -- power is only useful in my eyes in how it allows me to commit more violence. Superiority over others is not particularly what I seek, nor to escape the bounds of reality... I simply intend to reach the fullest extent of instinct and awareness as to what lies within it, through casting off the restraints and obligations and the holding back that keeps humankind in the dark, keeps them sacrificing themselves for masters that don't care about them but for their ability to sacrifice them and use them, wasting their potential. Nonetheless, I do not really care about what kinds of logic and empires exist on your world, and perhaps you do not care that I do not care. In that case, perhaps we are irreconcilable, and I invite you to attempt to kill me once more when you believe you have the capacity to do so. But for now... perhaps we ought to move on, hmm? There is more of this place to deal with."

Yoko got another one of those bloodthirsty grins she’d been constantly flashing. ”I welcome your attempts to kill me — and whoever else tries. I don’t have the slightest idea what Sword Logic you’re talking about, but the more people try to kill me, the more I kill them in return. It’s combat like we had which furthers my pursuit of enlightenment, after all, from which I learn, so truly this is even ideal! Let all who desire attempt to take my life with violence... they’ll find I am no easy target, bahaha. And I will advance.”

”Darkness-Touched? I assure you I am not corrupted by the Lying Darkness — that kind of corruption is a poisonous dependence on its own that I very much do not intend to fall to. But that all said... I believe that perhaps you have the order of events wrong — I won. The only reason that I was, in the end, knocked out and put in that danger was that evidently Hirata saw fit to hit me with your body... which was actually interesting, all in all. But I certainly hope your strength was not depleted! That fight was thoroughly worth my while, and I would welcome others just as I welcomed that one.”

Yoko had found that she’d struck out in the direction she’d chosen to explore — she didn’t find deadlift in that hallway, and she wasn’t overtly interested in toying with the strange objects scattered throughout this place, at least at the moment; who knew what she might end up encountering? Accordingly, she walked back into the room she’d just recently filtered out from, and with now several of its inhabitants having left the area, Yoko’s eyes alighted upon the four armed warrior that she had battled earlier — Yoko hadn’t stayed to listen to the creature, had she? Well, perhaps Yoko could see what it/she had to say. ”Hmmmm,” Yoko hmmed, the kind of “hmm” that insinuates vague and mysterious things without actually specifying anything at all.

"I suppose that whether or not that is really the case will be shown after time. The four-armed one-- Chelchis? She certainly surprised me, but then again that was with her own strength. We shall see how a genuine dependence on underlings fares for you in the end. For now though... I think I should like to find Deadlift." And she turned to walk through the hallways, more or less going at random through already-explored rooms until she either ran into an enemy or found Deadlift.

"Mm-hmm, I see. In that case I think it ought to be stated that if that place were in that much trouble, then we probably would not have been simply standing around in there, and there was more than a sufficient amount of force in there to take on anything that would have appeared. Heh, it probably would have been fun, too. But if every moment is spent refraining from violence in fear that further violence will ensue, well, that is a way to ensure that one gets no violence at all. ...and if you are dead weight in a fight, perhaps you ought to work on fixing that. By your own logic, you are in danger, so you should probably ensure your weakness doesn't result in your death."

Yoko flashes him the same mocking variant of her grin he’s seen before. ”And I’m disappointed you seem to be pathologically opposed to the whole idea of fighting, from what I’ve seen of you, but the horned shugenja didn’t exactly bring us together for the purpose of satisfying our preferences, did she? Nothing bad even came out of it, unless of course you’re soft enough to consider a little bleeding bad.”

Yoko grins at Vratislav with an expression of utter shamelessness, looking rather like the cat that caught the canary. ”I explained to her that depending upon underlings makes me weak, she called me a savage, I explained that savage is just a term the weak “civilized” people use, we continued discussing my philosophy and she found this very disagreeable. Specifically, she moved to attack me, so we had a fight. It was very intense, very close, very fun, and she very nearly had me but then I knocked her out. And then Hirata’s creature hit me with her. Good times, all in all.”

Ceridwen couldn't help but be somewhat distracted as she moved through the forest -- on foot by Ynddi's side, for the most part, seeing as they were trying to be stealthy, after all. This place was beautiful, even at night, the thick cover of trees all over the place and the soft sound of animals, of owls, crickets, spoke to this forest as a thick collection of life. Ceridwen had never really been to somewhere forested quite like this place before; sure the Mountains had some forests on certain mountains or in valleys, but this place was much more flat (which lowered visibility in an interesting way Ceridwen wasn't used to) and seemed to stretch on forever, trees and plants and animals and Ceridwen really found it all quite fascinating. Even if she was here to stop some escaped convicts, which she reminded herself she really had to think about rather than the natural beauty of her locale... especially since it looked a lot like they were where they needed to be now. Ceridwen put the shields onto her armor, (adjusting the ring Futch had given her under her armor so that it wouldn't get crushed against her) mounted Yn Ddiddorol, swooped forward, with a quick mutter to herself. "Alright..." Move to Q14! Also use the Element Ring.

Yoko woke surprisingly gently, making a little sound before she suddenly languidly rolled out of Jezzabella’s arms and onto the floor, landing feet first. She stretched (because of the wounds and then healing, seeing to what extent she was fine or not), and then grinned, despite the drying blood in the corner of her mouth and on some of her teeth. ”Well~ That was certainly a lot of fun. Far more intense than I had expected, to be sure, but that was half of the fun of it, too~ Now, I wonder what’s gone on without me.” She looked around the room and her eyes settled on Chelchis — her grin widened again. ”I~ win.~ Still, I must give it to you, you were far stronger than I had expected — it was no easy fight.” She didn’t seem to be thinking of hostilities, at least not too seriously.