You link everyone up and officially add Sekhmet to your party, explaining the plan in a blur as you, Ace, and the other two members of Dungeon Crawling and Chill made your way to the source of the billowing smoke, which Jules confirmed was "a little something I - well, Sekh - whipped up for just this kind of emergency." During all of this, Ace asks a lot of questions, which you and the other three members answer as best as you can.
Thanks to Sekhmet's sharp eyes and sharper ears, you have a picture of the enemy: one of those bigass Guardian Crabs roughly the size of a car, along with a handful of Urchin Crawlers and the floating slimes from earlier, the colorful and dangerous Man'o'War Jellies. The tank, the DPS, and the supports.
It turns out that Gryphon Kicking a giant enemy crab in it's weak point for massive damage
never gets old. And since you four are supposed to be a distraction, you have yourself a good whoop about it as the impact slides it into a boulder with a sickening crack, while you crouch into the blow and backflip in front of it, in perfect fighting stance.
Like the tater tot said: you may as well be 20 and an Olympic athlete. You sail through the air with effortless grace, and it feels
amazing.
Your dynamic entrance, tying up the enemy tank, is Ace's cue to come out swinging - bellowing a warcry from her gut as she rushes past the backline with a Zephyr's Grace, slicing into every last one of the Man'o'wars before they can react. Sputtering and leaking gas, they aren't
dead, but an opportunistic attacker's cherry tap could splatter them against the ground.
The Urchins turned - only to be immediately greeted with a glowing bright blue sphere of force to their center of mass each, the concussive impact and detonations of which shear off poisonous spines with a sound like tearing paper. Hikaru is a little out of position for this ambush - he needed to stand still for the incantation of what the OWTB's lawyers called Elfshot Barrage - but with Alesha right next to him and you close by as well, the danger is nothing like what he faced alone.
Unfortunately, this is when the urchins retaliate, firing razor-sharp poisonous spines through the air like a Trappist's marginal illustration of a hedgehog. Hikaru throws up his hands and a great pentagrammatic warding circle flares to life in the same blue-white as his Elfshot, absorbing two full volleys, with Alesha slamming her shield down in front of a third.
Leaving you trying to parry the shot fired at you with your claws, because you're honestly kind of a dumbass.
It almost works - those claws are mounted on gauntlets of steel on a stiff leather backing - but Deedee's insticts to parry with the whole arm when you haven't yet found decent full-length bracers betrays you and you hiss as several of the thorns pierce skin. It burns and your vision swims for a moment and you grit your teeth, blindly and poorly parrying a descending crab claw.
You blink and try to stand, and hear crackles of thunder followed by screams of pain and rage, before you feel someone grab you between the armpits and haul you to your feet.
You look up into a pair of slit eyes, and a muzzled, bronze-furred smirk.
"The Final Kick and the lolzerker zerkin' it is a hell of a distraction," Jules - Sekhmet - tells you. "On your feet, lemme help."
(All allies +1 Tension.)
"Nice to see you safe, Sekhmet," you say, as her face sways above yours. "Whoo, you're really furry right now?"
"As the legal counsel of Mr. B. Kettle, I'm authorized to respond with 'no u.'" They drew their short bow and notched an arrow in a motion they practiced though the haptics for years. "Let's make this happen."
The first shot was sloppy, but the floating bag of jelly wasn't in any position to dodge. Sekhmet's ear twitched, and she frowned, and the second shot bullseyed one over Ace's shoulder.
The third went wide, but honestly, it was a pretty bad day for Sekh and you were willing to cut her some slack and oh, you were leaning against her shoulder now, she was warm and it was nice and
"BE HEALED!"
"Wha -"
Alesha's heavy gauntleted hand slapping you on the back sent a surge of healing energy through you, knocked the wind out of you, and immediately sobered you up as the light of Aurora's sun burned away the poison.
You look up at her, sheepishly, to thank her - and she nodded, but she wasn't done.
"May those who harm those I swore in Aurora's name to protect wither at her gaze!" she incanted, sword held high. Light suffused the blade, shining down from the sun above, and it became too bright to behold.
Then, marching towards the Crab, she sent all of that light crashing down into it.
It didn't slice the thing in half, but only because it scuttled away, and that not fast enough; one massive claw tore away as the giant freaking laser bisected it.
And Alesha was cutting off it's escape - or it's advance on you - shield first.
"I forgot she had that at first fucking level," you say, whistling. "I swear with God as my witness -"
"- which one?" Sekh asked, slipping behind you, drawing thier daggers.
You crouch and cup your hands together, gathering energy and scanning for more Urchins. "Why not all fourteen? - I thought the holy laser beam was a Tension Break."
Hikaru shrugged, adjusting the angle of his warding circle, levelling his staff. "It's a single target attack, so she could dump most of her points into Power, and it's meant to be a giant sign saying 'I'm a threat, attack me!'"
"Tank gonna tank, in other words," Sekhmet said.
"It works. WIND CUTTER!" you incant, slashing at the air in front of you.
Empowered by your
pneuma, the wake of your claws going through the air turns into a shockwave - and you grimace in satisfaction as it slices cleanly through one of the urchins. Three left -
You hear a bellowing battlecry from your left and try to ignore it as Hikaru takes a deep breath, chants two words, and his hands glow gold. You see the flash and hear the thunder at the same time; a pillar of golden power describes a circuit between Hikaru's staff and the three remaining urchins, each of which pop in an explosion of needles you're glad you're nowhere near.
Sekhmet flickers, and then is somehow behind the crab and driving a dagger between it's armored plates and into it's brain.
The crab shudders, and ineffectually swipes at Ace and Alesha both.
Alesha raises her shield.
Alesha lowers her shield, hard.
The battle is over.
----
Healing potions taste bitter, grassy, and honeyed. Rather than huge flasks, they're in tiny vials, each with a shot or maybe a jigger. Small enough to gulp in the space of a second, as a Support Action.
You put the empty vial back on your belt, behind your sash. You are very tired, and still a little hurt, but it's worth it as you all walk and talk back to a suitable campground.
Sekhmet had been hiding out as soon as she realized what was happening. (They. You kick yourself. As soon as they, Jules, knew what was happening.) They slipped between mobs they couldn't pick off one by one with backstabs, gathering anything she could remember as being valuable crafting ingredients or vendor trash along Peppercorn Lane in the hub city, Viacruz.
Hikaru nods at the tale, at one point reaching up to his face to run a finger along his upper lip - and then he swears.
"What's up?" Sekh asked, ears perking.
"My mustache," he says, frowning. "It's gone. I paid ten real world dollars for it. Well, 60, for a 5000 Diamond pack, but -"
He blinks, stops, and roots through his pack. Alesha, who's ahead of you, stops and turns her head at the delay.
"...not
all of my cosmetics are gone, but most of them are," he says. "Damn it, that's the stuff that makes me look like an
adult. I knew my
gear was gone, but I didn't expect my glams to go with them, especially since Ace's armor isn't standard."
"Her Cosmic Battle Bikini?" you say, jerking a thumb at her.
Ace looks at you, one eyebrow raised. Hikaru also turns to look up at you, hand over his mouth, chin resting on his thumb, stroking his missing mustache.
"What?" you say.
"...that's from the last game the Bureau released," Hikaru says, hefting his pack back up and onto his shoulders. "It's a skin for Ruby in
Orbital Knights. Ace's is the Valkyrie set."
"Man, how do you remember that?
I can't remember that," Ace said.
"Admin for the fan wiki," Hikaru reminded her. "It's... significant, but I can't remember why."
"Hey, you're the one who can wiki-walk without an internet connection, look it up," Ace replied, rolling her eyes. "Are we there yet?"
"Sure are," Sekhmet says, grinning fangs as they gesture ahead.
On a bright white beach of sparkling sand, abutted by steeper rocks and green, you spy a little lagoon - protected from the elements by the shade of coconut and palm. Hikaru licks his finger and holds it to the air as you march closer, then he nods.
"This should be a safe zone," he says, nodding. "Good eye. We'll set up camp here."
Sekhmet stretches. "And then we can take off these stupid packs and catch up. Like,
really catch up. We need to figure out what's the hell is going on."
----
Catching Up - Pick any two.
[] - Spar with Alesha.
[] - Help Hikaru set the campfire.
[] - Figure out the provisions situation with Sekhmet.
[] - Cook with Ace.
I apologize for the lateness of this update. Voting at midnight, pacific, running till Saturday at 6.
