Tower tossing (W/ Koetsu, Victoria)

C rank Free form:

B rank Topple the tower:

"You should have told her to shove off a cliff Luna. You had plans. You said it, didn't you?" Amelia aggressively as the two road into town in a horse driven buggy. Amelia was in the middle sitting back with her arms crossed, giving off a tense aura, while Luna was at the back, leaning close to the edge with her fingers dangling over the edge, enjoying the scenery as they approached the port town of Hargeon. Luna sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose for a moment. "Yes, I told her I had plans but they weren't concrete. After all you did tell me you might have to shove off yourself for one of your God kid's grandchildren's potential event, and that same morning you said it was 'looking likely' you wouldn't be able to go." Luna said as she was not understanding Amelia's position on being aggravated when she herself was preparing for a different possibility. "Shirain, I'm not even sure what you're pissy about, I'm the one that paid for it and I'm okay with this." Amelia growled under her electronic breath. "Family is one thing, but isn't this cause you're trying to get a little brown up here" She said tapping her nose, Luna rolled her eyes as she was resenting the implication.


"Alright, yes, I want to make a good impression on my fellow guild members." Luna admitted, as the purple eyes glared at her. "You're trying to get your sister Zina a job at the bar, where many of Sabertooth, most notably the woman who's most known for working there and the one that asked you to join this job work with?" She said with a bitter tone to Luna. "And at the prospect of getting close to her, you abandon a reservation that took over two weeks in advance for a shot at that? I wonder did she even need to try so hard?"

Luna cocked an eyebrow before she looked over at the gynoid resenting any implication that was being made. "What does that mean?" She asked in a slightly demanding tone only to be annoyed when Amelia scoffed in response. "Three drinks, a nibble on the ear and you'll cave over to any woman, two for any dragon or dragon slayer, men that are neither sometimes a little iffy. Luna's face started to turn red as anger was starting to build, words preparing to escape her lips but she instead took a moment to close her eyes and breathe. It took her a moment to calm down but instead of stooping to the lows her alleged partner was hitting, she knew it in her heart that it'd be better to take the high road.

"If you must know, I was at the Red Dragon Tavern, Miss Sheridan happened to say she was accompanying a newer recruit to Sabertooth on a job, and asked if I would want to tag along. I told you that you could still go to the spa, and take whoever you want, Zina wanted to go, but no, you decided to come on this job. I had one drink the entire night, and hell we barely even spoke, and that morning you said it looked like you had plans."

Luna sighed and leaned back, trying to relax a bit for the remainder of the journey. "Don't come at me with your entitled princess drama when this all started cause you told me things weren't permanent, after I made the reservation.

Amelia looked at her with a confused and frustrated stare. "I still think you weaseled your way onto this, rumors say she's a good healer, comparable to your level if not slightly under it depending on her ability to restore the recently deceased. Why would a rookie job need two healers that can revive armies in minutes?" Luna shrugged as she genuinely did not look into things on such a deep level. At this point she started to think the artificial woman was grasping at straws to put the blame on Luna. "Perhaps she wanted to get to know me? Expose the rookie to more members of Sabertooth? Not everyone sees a job as strategical warfare. Why are you making such a big deal out of a casual request under conditions that you could have easily avoided?"

Eventually the horse driven carriage stopped and the driver motioned for the two passengers to leave. Luna paid and thanked the driver for his time before the two walked through the port town, and as they entered they saw the target of the job, the mysterious tower. Walking through the town towards the port only made the tower seem gradually larger and more massive. Luna and Amelia paid close attention to the gossip spoken, and the odds didn't seem to be favorable for any mage. 


"Doesn't seem like the crowd thinks we can do this." Luna whispered as they walked towards the docks. Amelia smirked as she looked at the crowds on the dock, just staring at the tower. She saw some people exchanging money, and knew what it meant. "Gamblers huh, guess after so many parties that people have started to take bets on this." Her eyes scanned the crowd and she could see it was the port master's crew handling the gambling. Luna checked her iLac and the texts said that the mages from Sabertooth would meet where the tower's path intersected with the Hargeon dock. 

As they were walking down the path, they saw the aforementioned intersection, and were slightly shocked as they saw the damage to the harbor as the stone path had torn right through part of the docks, and into the land. The area surrounding the rock platform was taped and boarded off, with traffic redirected. The rock formation led directly to the mysterious tower that had claimed the lives of at least seven known parties, while two more are believed to have entered but no one had reported seeing them enter. The two ladies walked through the crowd surrounding the entrance, with Luna hopping over the fence first. Amelia stopped to find one of the port master's crew taking bets and handed him a roll of jewels. "Put the team of Sabertooth mages down for forty minutes." She whispered before joining Luna on the other side of the fenced off area.

A voice from the crowd recognized the Nature Fairy being of Sabertooth and the crowd started to murmur as more times were being bid on. Luna listened in on some of the things being spoken in the background. "Sabertooth has gotten it's fangs in there?", "So far it's just a nobody and a blonde outsider showing up, I'd want to see who shows up first before I bet." "Well if their Goddess of Ishgar was here that would be interesting."

"So not only does the Magic Council get a problem resolved, but our presence also gets to fuel the pockets of one greedy port master who profits off this gambling ring that takes bets that if no one succeeds it guarantees that someone is dead. Nice." Amelia whispered. Luna shrugged as she was looking around, waiting for the other two members to arrive. "Well that doesn't really concern us, our focus right now is the job at hand."

WC 1216
TWC for C rank Free form: 1216/2,000

Today's adventure was a pretty big one, allegedy. Some mysterious tower filled with god only knows what, which he was invited to participate in for some ungodly reason. Koetsu was pretty sure this was outside of his weight class, but then again, he'd been reassured that the healers who were participating alongside him would keep him safe. There was a trip up to the tower by horse-drawn carriage, presumably to prevent anybody from trying to sabotage the participants, for a good and fair trial. His hearing picked up voices from quite a distance away thanks to his need to listen over noisy machinery in Muramasa's steel mill back in the day. Seemed there was gambling going on behind the scenes.

The odds didn't sound like they favored the challengers. Of course, as he got closer, he heard more and more people talking. He seemed to be shivering in fear, like a kid who was visiting the doctor's office for the first time. His face was pale as ever, and his face inadvertently appeared very uncomfortable.

This all was far from the truth, of his true feelings. Koetsu loved challenges, especially ones which would push his arts to their limits. In this tower, he was detecting a great test of skill. Anticipation filled his every nerve. He'd only spoken with one of his teammates before this point, Ms. Victoria, who had convinced him to come on this job with them. He figured he might have been running late, so he expected to see both of his teammates when he arrived.

With little ceremony, the carriage would stop, and it was time to get out. The pale swordsmith would stretch his limbs out and leave the safety of the wheeled cart, getting a good look at the Tower up close. "Daaaaaaang," he would project as he visored a hand over his eyes to try and see the top, "That's... Big." Its sheer scale reminded him of Muramasa's ironworks. He hadn't even paid attention to anything else as he seemed to be gravitating towards it.

Koetsu caught himself before he'd gotten too close, and returned to his surroundings. There were a lot of people nearby, to say the least, and it seemed bets were being placed. He took a moment to consider whether there should be legal rammifications, for gambling on peoples' lives in a public place, but all that felt like it was beside the point.

He turned his gaze to see a distinctly pink-haired maiden amidst the folks, clearly not one of the gamblers, at least at a glance. He called to mind the name he was given prior to accepting the job and figured he would try it out here. "Uhhh... Are you Luna?" he would ask alloud, pointing at the present lady to draw attention to himself. Provided he had the right lady, he would introduce himself, "I'm Koetsu, from Sabertooth. I was invited to join this run of the Tower, for some reason. I'll make sure to do my best, too, alright. Let's win this!"

Word Count: 507
TWC for Freeform: 1,723

Dressed in her white Steel Matron t-shirt with Azure Armor and khaki cargo shorts with white tennis shoes, Victoria arrived in Hargeon Town in style by riding in a wooden carriage that had been sent for her. She was here to help a couple of fellow Sabertooth members with a job, but it was no ordinary job like delivering the mail or beating up bandits. They were to traverse a mystery tower that suddenly popped up out of the ocean a short time ago.

Victoria had agreed to help out a new member of the guild named Koetsu because he was still new to the world of magic while she was an experienced mage with healing magic that could keep him on his feet. The tall brunette had also requested the aid of Luna Mira, a hard-working Sabertooth mage who was on the rise and had healing magic that could come in handy. While she had powerful healing magic Luna was no slouch when it came to combat, which was good because the layout of the tower was unknown and so were the threats that lay within the tower. While Victoria planned for the trio to stay together for the trip through the tower, she remembered an old adage her adopted father was fond of.

"No plan survives contact with the enemy."

There might be floors that collapsed because they were made to collapse or they were so old their structural integrity was compromised. There might be doors that suddenly slid shut and broke up the party. Or there might be other things that conspired to separate the Sabertooth trio so that the denizens of the tower could divide and conquer the intruders. The mages could plan ahead all they wanted and make contingency plans, but in the end they could not plan for every single thing that could go wrong in the course of a job.

The wheeled carriage rattled to a stop and a voice sounded.

"We made it, Miss Sheridan." The driver said to her. Victoria hopped out of the carriage and tipped the driver. The driver nodded in appreciation and went off to get another fare, leaving the brunette facing a large throng of people standing around the pier and gawking at the tower that loomed on the horizon as if daring people to venture inside of it. A cursory glance at the crowd showed that some people were taking bets on whether the Sabertooth mages would survive the exploration of the tower. Victoria was not shocked by that in the slightest, not after living on the streets of Capital Crocus and seeing the worst of human nature on display.

In fact the brunette was grimly amused by the betting. Apparently the spectators thought so little of Sabertooth that they were willing to wager on the odds of the mages dying. She wondered if the crowd even knew the names of the mages who were about to run the gauntlet, but that would not change things too much. That knowledge would just inspire some enterprising gambler to create a "dead pool" for even more betting action on which Sabertooth mage would die first. Oh well... Victoria would make it a point to get through this alive just to spite the spectators who bet against her.

The tall brunette picked out a pink-haired young woman with a strong magical signature and a dark-haired young man with a fairly weak magic signature and began to make her way through the crowd to join them. They had to be Luna and Koetsu. After a bit of maneuvering through the masses Victoria finally linked up with her guildmates and spoke to them.

"Hey Luna, hey Koetsu. That's a tall tower, huh?" Victoria casually asked the pair. She then glanced at the tower looming in the distance and wondered what kinds of things were waiting inside of it. She heard the *clink* of Jewels exchanging hands behind her and wondered if there was a chest of gold at the top waiting for the mages. That would be pretty cool.

[Post Word Count: 678]
[Total Word Count: 2,401/2,000] This marks the end of the C-Rank Freeform job.

B rank starts here.


Coming from the crowd, was a rather tall dark haired man joining the two ladies out on the stone path leading towards the tower. Amelia felt a chill down her spine as she turned to face him. "Should've known he'd be an eager green. Hopefully he doesn't crack." Amelia said aloud, clearly ignoring the man's presence as she elbow jabbed Luna in the side. The pink haired woman scowled towards the gynoid as she saw Amelia was clearly baiting the man before he even had enough time to make an impression on Luna. Luna sighed as she was almost done with her so called partner's attitude today. "Don't mind her, she's just having a bad day by her own choosing. I am Luna, yes. It is nice to meet you." Luna said with a soft smile, at the very least trying to uphold a decent aura and demeanor. 

However before Luna could figure out where to direct the dialogue, she sensed the life force of a familiar individual, that of the last Sabertooth mage to arrive. "She's here." She said as her gaze was directed at a particular part of the crowd surrounding the mages. Seven seconds passed before the other woman from Sabertooth managed to squeeze through the crowd onto the rock pathway before casually addressing Luna and Koetsu. "Oh sure, I'm not here, bad enough the tomboy didn't show without notice, she had to bring in her sister as a ringer instead?"

Luna stared at Amelia confused for a moment, before looking back at Victoria, double checking her senses that this was in fact the same appearance, life force, magical energy, and even the same mannerisms as the woman that introduced herself as Victoria Sheridan at the bar, and every one of her senses and memory told her this was the same woman. "Amelia, what are you talking about? This is Victoria." Amelia looked at Luna with a confused glare. "No, I seen Victoria Sheridan before, it was about twenty three months ago back when Thunder Arrows was passing through Ace of Spades. A short, short haired, boyish looking girl." Luna sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Magical alteration didn't occur to you? I have it on good authority this woman is who she says she is, no reason to doubt that. Hands down anything else, none of our business, got it?"  Luna said as she was starting to get annoyed with Amelia at this point. Amelia was aboout to say something. "None of our business. Amelia, you know I have the skills to handle Mai, Neptuna, even  Shirain forbid a hurricane meltdown of a dragon hatchling. You know better then to talk back to me when my foot is down." Luna said as she asserted herself. Amelia sighed, waving off Luna before putting distance between her and the Nature fairy before looking at Victoria. "Sorry miss 'Victoria'." She said still skeptical of the woman's identity even with Luna vouching.

Luna turned to Victoria extremely embarrassed by the recent display. "I am so sorry for her behavior. She's just, I don't know what's gotten into her system lately. This is Amelia Thorn, she and I are, well, work partners but on thin ice." She whispered to the taller woman. "She's angry that I accidentally put her in a bad situation by choice after she put me in a similar situation but when the situation she caused went away and mine was left despite her being the person that put me in a bad situation to begin with she's playing total drama queen victim. At the moment lashing out any any chance she gets, don't take it personally. Once we get in there you'll hardly notice her attitude..."


Luna turned around and started to walk on the rock path, staring at the tall tower in the distance. "Although that tower is pretty massive. Can't think of need for a tower that massive unless it's designed to be a tactical advantage or house large quantities or devices. My guess is that it's probably a trial tower." Amelia rolled her eyes. "Can't really tell if everyone else who went in there died there or worse." Luna shrugged off the gynoid as she ran through her line of thinking. "Well, this tower could appear anywhere, like off the coast of Desierto, in the middle of the Calm Sea, or hell right in the middle of the desert. But it's just off from one of the most active port towns in Earth-Land. Can't really get more 'come in' then that. Either it's a trial, or it's a bait and snare for something. Probably some meddlesome god or wizard that can't do things normally." Amelia nodded, seeing the logic in the idea that it was probably as Luna suspected."Could also be an invasion preparation, like setting up a access way or foothold. Luna listened to the gynoid but she was dismissive of that theory as she was literally standing on something more so that proved the opposite.

"If it was a prep for an attack on Hargeon, they wouldn't go the mile to make an open door, or a bridge so soon especially for an open doorway." Luna said as she saw the opening in the distance, pointing towards the darkened frame. Given the way the sun was facing and what was on the other side, it was impossible to make out in the distance. "Fair enough. Although the more interesting question is what lies at the end, I want to say something valuable like gold, but that probably ain't being held up by gold. My gut says at the end is a magical item of some power. Anyone else got their hopes for something good?"

WC 953
TWC 953/5,000

Luna seemed friendly enough, although there wasn't exactly much to talk about for the time being. Though it seemed that wasn't much trouble for the ladies, since they would have their attention diverted to the last mage onto the scene, and could talk circles around him in that subject. Koetsu was having a bit of trouble following the dynamic conversation that this Amelia and Luna duo were having between one another, but the way they seemed to be able to carry a whole conversation between the two of them left him feeling a bit lonely on the side. It seemed that Victoria was being left out of it as well... No wait, there they went.

A depressed haze hung over Koetsu as he stood by and watched their conversation, following behind them with a sheepish, sort of third-wheel air about him. He couldn't rightly keep up with them, so he would just let them carry on, waiting for anything that sounded like a cue for him to answer a question or something. It seemed like they were talking about Victoria's recent wardrobe update, then moved on to apologies, then the tower's size and purpose came up, he thought.

The purple-haired mage would be interested in this subject and could almost keep up, except he still couldn't find a good spot to interject. That is, until  Amelia brought up the topic of and asked all present who among them was hoping for something good. Koetsu finally raised his hand, and rushedly spoke alloud, blurting almost, "Swords!"

He had half-expected the speed of sound to come knocking and a sonic boom to hit after a beat, but nothing so marvellous followed the wake of that statement. The pale swordsmith would clarify, "Ehm... I'm looking forward to seeing what sorts of weapons are within, swords specifically. If there are any particularly good examples I'd certainly need to study it."

Koetsu would stifle any further urge to gush over the wonders of swords and how generally great they were, and instead offered to direct their conversational energies in a more proactive direction, "Though perhaps instead of taking guesses we should...
Go see for ourselves?" His hand fell forwards, gesturing broadly in the direction of the tower, which was now much closer than before they'd started. "I mean, that's the plan anyways, right? Let's leave the betting to the gamblers," he smiled despite sort of being a killjoy in trying to shut down their fantastical hypothesis factory.

Word Count: 412
TWC: 1,365

Victoria took what Luna's pal Amelia had said in stride because she had been treated much worse in the past. Besides, she did not want to alienate one of her job partners right off the bat because they would need to work as a team. If she pissed off Luna and Koetsu before the Sabertooth trio even set foot in the tower they would have very little reason to save her if she got into trouble and a lot of reason not to intervene. They could just leave her to die and claim that Victoria had met with an accident without anyone really being able to contradict them. Therefore it was best to let the disrespect go this time so that the trio could present a united front against whatever lurked in the tower.

"It's OK." Victoria whispered in Luna's direction in response to the pink-haired mage's apology for Amelia's behavior. The brunette was willing to let it go this time so that they could focus on the enemies in the tower. Speaking of the tower, Luna and Koetsu began to speculate on what could be at the top of the structure that lured so many people in despite the risk of venturing into the unknown.

Luna speculated that gold was the big attraction before changing her opinion to say that a magical item of considerable power was the real treasure. Koetsu chimed in with his belief that there might be a very special sword or two that drew people to the tower. Victoria's opinion was that there was a lot of money waiting for whoever could surmount the challenges that waited within the structure, but the opinions of both Luna and Koetsu made sense. A powerful magical item was a good reward for a mage looking to increase their power and a special sword could provide a power boost to melee-oriented mages or warriors, not to mention the prestige of owning a piece of history if either the magical item or the special sword could be proven to have once belonged to a famous figure from Earthland's history.

"Me, I'm thinking that there's a lot of money in the tower, most likely in the form of something really valuable like gold coins or gold bars minted by some long-lost civilization that could be sold to museums or collectors for big Jewels. But what you and Koetsu said makes sense too." Victoria conceded to Luna and Koetsu that their beliefs were valid too. The brunette decided to make a leap of logic by arriving at the conclusion that the tower was set up as a giant trap and guess that all three items were waiting in the tower.

"If you're trying to lure in adventurers, you can't go wrong with putting all three kinds of items in there... you know, something for everyone. Everyone could benefit from owning a powerful magical artifact, an amazingly powerful sword, or more money so that they could buy whatever they wanted. Having a chance to get all three in one go would be almost too good to pass up." Victoria gave her two Jewels' worth on what she felt lay inside the tower. If one wanted to bait a trap for adventurers, it would be wise to add something that appealed to everything an adventurer would be tempted to go for. Magical items, powerful weapons, and money were viable treasures that any mage could make good use of. However, all the speculation in the world would not help them solve the mystery... to do that they would just have to go inside the tower and see for themselves what lay within the imposing structure.

"I'm ready to go into the tower when you guys are." Victoria announced her readiness to get going whenever Luna and Koetsu were ready to get going.

[Victoria's Word Count: 637]
[Total Word Count: 2,002/5,000]

Dummy post for dice rolls

The member 'Luceam' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

---

'Monster Dice' :

Shopkeeper:

As the group made it down the path, Amelia found herself questioning the confidence of the rookie member of Sabertooth. Luna also noted the sporadic behavior but she knew that everyone had to learn at some point, and if Victoria didn't object to Koetsu's presence, Luna figured she shouldn't either especially since there was no solid reason. They listened as Victoria seemed to keep an open mind towards all the possibilities.

However Luna felt a coldness in the black cursed scar on the back of her neck, the reason she never wore her hair up in a ponytail or cut, was to hide the cursed wound from sight. Similar to the notion of a cape to obscure the body, but in this case is was pure vanity. Despite the cursed object being literally eaten out of her neck, the area was still cursed to never heal fully. There were periods where the area would suddenly get cold, a chill on the back of her neck that would react right before each encounter when she had a brush with death, most notably the fight with Charlene. This ominous warning of danger had returned as Luna got close towards the tower.

Luna had snapped out of her day dream when Victoria had asked if the group was ready. Luna only nodded wordlessly, before the group would enter the large tower, only for the shock as she passed through the doorway.

Inside the tower they would come to a large circular room with stone tiles on the floor, and thick stone bricks encompassing the walls of the tower. The ceiling was at least thirty feet from the floor, and at the opposite end of the room as a stairwell leading up to what could be assumed as the next level but the circular doorway in the ceiling seemed to be blocked. Off to the side of the room was what could only be described as an out of place small concession stand with no one behind the counter. Littered through the room were small treasure chests in a disorganized and inconsistent mess.

As Luna entered, she felt an Invisible magic sweep she passed through dematerialize her ring and the rod strapped to her side. "What the-" Luna tried to react to the sudden removal of her weapons but a shock suddenly overwhelmed her. The world around her seemed to slow down, she felt her body go cold as her heart started to beat intensely for two beats, before starting to slow down and Luna felt every moment of it. At first it seemed as though she walked into a room without air as she started to gasp and stumble, clutching her chest before falling, sweating as she started to look pale.

Amelia caught on and instantly caught onto what was going on, starting to realize just why the other parties failed in that instant by Luna's reaction. "Magic Suppression! Luna's gonna die unless she gets out like right now!" Amelia almost screamed as she was about to rush Luna back out of the tower but when she turned her focus back towards the entrance, the door seemed to no longer be there as it was just a round wall like the rest of the room. "Bloody shite, Luna can't be under magical suppression for more then ten minutes, otherwise she dies!"  

A mysterious laugh could be heard before appearing out of thin air was a mysterious man standing easily six feet and eight inches tall floating in the air. "What a splendid group! Finally some entertainment, real stakes, do or die!" Was all he said at first, his eyes traced down towards Luna. "Interesting, literally a heart of gold. A rare magical organ to behold. It can make even the most novice of healers compete with seasoned experts. Sadly it's major drawback, it doesn't go back to regular flesh when magic is suppressed, so the holder has a small amount of time before their heart literally becomes to heavy for their body. But man what a little spoil sport you are ruining my big entrance." He said as getting annoyed at the last sentence but he shrugged it off. "But girl you do look cute on Lacbook so I'm gonna forgive you, although you do not rock a feather boa." His eyes traced on the rest of the party, his face seemed to almost cringe at Koetsu. "Ugh, are you blind sir? Please say yes as I need any excuse to believe you don't dress yourself. Have you even heard of a color wheel? Not to mention you reek of no confidences and spinelessness. I prefer a man that has a little vibrancy."

Lastly the man looked at Victoria but he shrugged. "Nothing to criticize about a tom boy that can pull off those curves. Although try at least looking a bit nicer in the future sweetie, I would hate to be the coroner that pulled the body of anyone dressed so plainly out of this hellhole." Amelia cocked an eyebrow as she was not sure what was going on right now. Luna slowly cocked her head up as her body was shaking, trying to stand up. "Ge, get, on, with, it. Who, are, you?" She said as she knew she didn't have time to waste.

"Samuel Horatio Oscar Patrick Keith Evan Ethan Peter Esmeralda Richard, just call me the Shopkeeper!" He said gleefully, Luna groaned as she was not impressed with the comedy. "Alright you're in my tower, dramatique and sexy backstory and lore involving a half naked beach scene aside, rules are simple. Those of you with high magic power and one of you with moderately average magical power have all your fancy high level stuff sealed. Anything that's just bellow moderate is restrained, spell wise and any other abilities in your repertoires. Any weapons have been confiscated too. It's no fun if party poopers like miss Mira and Sheridan arrive and tear this place apart." Amelia started to understand the point of the tower. This was all just some form of entertainment. "Not to worry folks, there's a way to restore parts of what's being blocked. You see we got our own little economy here, there are two things here that the various creatures drop. Special stones, and pouches of gold. Collect multiples of tens of the stones, and you'll restore a rank of spells. pouches however you spend at my little stand over there-" He materialized a pocket watch in his hand and looked at it. "Oops, look at the time, talked too long." The mysterious man said before he disappeared and reappeared behind the counter.

Amelia sighed as she figured talking to him was not going to get any more information out of him. "So if I recall right, twenty stones are needed within about ten minutes. God damn it Luna you're a piece of work. Stay out of the way." She said as she lowered Luna onto her knees before Amelia got up and started to walk forward, cracking her knuckles as she kicked aside one of the chests. Suddenly seven chests throughout the room started to shake before they opened spontaneously.

The sounds of gastly moaning could be heard as bones cracked, seven Zombies that were contorted into the chests stood up, taking a step forward, stumbling as they each left their chest. Amelia growled slightly under her mechanical breath as she charged forward at two zombies before jumping at them, grabbing their necks and slamming their heads down on two different chests before standing up and one by one crushing the heads of the zombies with her shoes. A third Zombie came at her from behind, managing to scratch her back. "Big mistake buster!" She stepped forward before raising her right leg, unleashing a powerful kick behind right into the pelvic bone of the monster, making it stumble back and keel over slightly. Amelia leaned back and reached to grab it's neck before she stepped back with her foot, rotating her body as she got the undead in a head lock before jumping down landing on her knees, slamming the Zombie's head down on the floor smashing it, causing the body to go limp like the other two. "Magic suppression might hurt these schmucks, but I'm sixty years old, a body made to fight time and spit in it's face with durability and force. Ever since I developed free will I trained to make sure that no one can rip that away, I don't need magic abilities or a weapon..." She stood up as three stones and nine pouches of gold appeared in the air before dropping into her hands. Her purple eyes filled with anger and drive. "I am the weapon, and I'm tired of being sheathed."

The shopkeeper clapped his hands, watching from afar and at the side. "Bravo! Excellent, every woman has a wolf inside her, even ones made of metal and synth flesh, let out that mechanical beast girl! Luna scoffed as she looked at the man trying to get a read on this man and his motivations. "Are you just doing, this, because some guy you thought way too ahead with, swiped left, and you're just, overcompensating? The mysterious man looked away from Luna not even wanting to give her the satisfaction of seeing his upset face. "Shaddup! It was mutual!" He said in a huffy tone.

Stones: 3
Pouches of Gold: 9

WC 1567
TWC 3569/5,000

Enemies remaining:

4 Zombies (Normal)
2 Mimics (Weak)

The party of four would all agree to slide on into the tower, and get down to work. Of course, from the get-go they knew it wasn't going to be that easy. The extent of which, however, nobody could have guessed. Upon entry, the group felt a wave of... something... wash over them, as though they had been purposefully deprived of magic energy.

Amelia identified the problem as 'magic suppression', and that much explained how no mages had taken care of this dungeon yet. Without their magic, many mages were just adventurers. Amelia and Luna tried immediately to abandon the tower, but the wall behind them was smooth and round like the rest if the tower, as if no door had been there to begin with. They had ten minutes before Sabertooth lost one of their best healers, according to Amelia.

Koetsu would glance around in a panic, he certainly didn't want to watch one of his guildmates die, let alone on one of his first missions. He tried to activate his magic, but found it somewhat lacking in oomph. He slowly formed a pitch black katana blade from his palms, eventually forming a handle and removing it from his body. Once finished, he would quickly approach the wall and take a few quick slashes at it, to no avail. "The walls are too thick to cut through, at least for what little energy the tower affords me," he would say regretfully.

Suddenly there came a man. A sassy man. Even Koetsu with his lack of social understanding could feel that the man was flinging around casual insults. Especially with that strange facial expression he showed when looking at the purple-clad, purple-haired, blue-eyed, pale-skinned swordsmith. He was briefly told to find a color wheel or something, and he could only look with visible confusion, "Uh... N-no I haven't. Is that like a spell or magic item or something?" The confidence comment flew over his head as he'd been stuck on the color wheel thing.

The shopkeeper eventually spouted his full, very long name, and began with the tower's expository information. Koetsu stood awkwardly in wait for the man to stop talking, but he just kept on going, something about pouches of gold and special rocks. The stones in particular were important, since they could return their lost power. Koetsu figured the tower was only slightly hampering his power, so he wouldn't need many for himself.

The shopkeeper cut himself off and vanished momentarily before appearing behind his shop counter, apparently having talked for too long. "He probably could have finished his speech if his name wasn't so long..." Koetsu commented. Amelia seemed stressed and kicked one of the chests in the room, sparking their first encounter: A small horde of zombie-like monsters.

Koetsu's senses picked up something else, though, some of these chests weren't like the others. He sniffed the air and... well, he smelled blood. His eyes drifted towards a pair of chests side by side, a little more organized than the rest. "Are those...?" he mused.

He didn't think too hard. He didn't have the time, that shopkeeper ate all of that. The young swordsmith would walk purposefully towards the pair of chests which stood out to him, brandishing the sword he formed not too long ago. Once he stepped within a short three meters of them, both of the chests would burst open revealing... teeth, and flesh, and eyeballs within. Man-eating treasure chests seemed like a dirty trick, but Koetsu couldn't knock the ingenuity of it.

A streak of blackened steel was all that was necessary, as he stepped past them both, whirling as he stepped to cleave through them both. Both of them popped like fleshy balloons though surprisingly no blood managed to splatter from either of them. "...Weird," he would comment plainly. A pair of stone and a pair of gold pouches hit the ground where the mimics once existed.

Amelia had revealed a great deal of physical prowess in her manhandling of several zombies like some kind of entertainment combat prize fighter. She easily slammed and crushed the enemies that approached or even just had the misfortune of being within arm's reach of her. "How terrifying," he mused, "Wait she's made of metal? That's certainly unique."

Koetsu would sink the tip of his katana into the floor, and step around it. He browsed the selection of zombies leftover from Amelia's present rampage. His hands turned black and gained a haze momentarily as several five-inch-long blades emerged from his knuckles. "If anybody needs that sword, they can use it," he spoke, before dashing towards one of the stalkers. It seemed his lack of confident aura had somehow kept their attention away from him, or perhaps the scene the metal lady was making was largely more distracting, but he got the jump on this fourth zombie, and ripped through it with a pair of lethal claw strikes. "God Steel Tekko-Kagi," he declared as both parts of the stalker fell at either side of him.

"These things kinda need the handicap, they're like tissue paper even against me..." he would comment, "But at the rate these stones are dropping we're gonna need a lot more enemies in very little time."

He would glance over to the shopkeeper standing behind his counter and with a flat tone of voice, demanded, "Send more." At this point, Koetsu's understanding of this place was simple, and he believed the Shopkeeper was in charge of it, for whatever reason. So obviously the man behind the counter could crank up to mob density somewhat so they could extract what they need from this tower and save their companion's life.

Word Count: 946
Total Word Count: 4,515

Pouches: 14
Stones: 6

Monsters Remaining
3x Stalkers (Normal)

Once the brunette had indicated that she was ready, Luna and Koetsu led the way with Victoria bringing up the rear. The fact they were about to enter the tower sparked a renewed round of betting amongst the spectators, something which she ignored because she was about to ruin their day by bringing out her partners alive. After this adventure she was probably going to make a lot of enemies for making them lose their bets, but that could not be helped. If people wanted to make money they should bet on Victoria instead of against her. Even when things got off to a rocky start the brunette had a way of defying the odds to come out on top.

After a bit of walking that took longer than she anticipated she entered the tower along with Luna and Koetsu and felt the temperature difference between the outside world and the interior of the stone tower.

-Inside the tower-

Once inside Victoria got a look around the tower and saw that the tower was a lot bigger on the inside than it looked and had a standard layout... if there was such a thing as a standard layout for towers that popped up out of the sea for no discernible reason. The ceiling was at least thirty feet above them and on the opposite side of the room was a circular stairwell that appeared to lead to the next level. The most curious detail was the concession stand-looking place on the side of the room and a lot of treasure chests that were not the least bit organized.

The brunette had felt an invisible magic field pass over her, but the worst that had happened was a momentary feeling of weakness that soon passed. However, Luna had lost a magic rod that she had been carrying, meaning that the field had taken away the group's weapons. At least Victoria had gotten to keep her Azure Armor... she would have been pissed if she had lost the armor that she had faced down Infernal Lord Zupazu and had nearly died to get.

Once she had gotten over her initial impression of the tower she noticed that two things were out of place. One was subtle and the other was more obvious.

First, where had the door that led to the outside gone?

Second and certainly not least, Amelia had announced that a magic suppression effect was in play. That was a major annoyance to Victoria since a good deal of her power derived from her magic, but that handicap could literally kill Luna. Amelia then added that they had about ten minutes before Luna died from magic suppression.

"Oh hell. Right now I can't heal anything worse than a paper cut!" Victoria commented. All of her big-ticket combat spells and healing spells had been suppressed, meaning that if anyone got a big wound it would take multiple castings of her Bandage spell to heal it. Her consternation was interrupted by laughter and the appearance of some blond dude with light-colored clothing who was not there just moments ago. As it turned out, he was a shopkeeper with an overly long name who they could just call Shopkeeper for the sake of convenience. At first Victoria considered him to be an annoyance just like the magic suppression field, but then he deigned to explain why having her magic suppressed was dangerous to Luna.

It had turned her heart to gold in the literal sense. Since gold hearts were not exactly the best at pumping blood, Luna was on a timer before it became too heavy for her body and... well, even Victoria could figure out the rest. Healing something like that would be impossible for anyone but someone with deity-level healing magic.

Shopkeeper turned from Luna to dispensed snarky commentary on Koetsu, asking if the new guy had ever heard of a color wheel and criticizing his lack of confidence. Next he turned to Victoria. His review was a mixed one... he complimented the curves of her new, taller body but slammed her wardrobe as plain and pitied the coroner who had to drag her body out of the tower. Victoria frowned and was about to critique a guy who wore beige with gold trim and multiple different items of jewelry in multiple colors when she realized that she had gotten off lightly and thought better of it, if only so he did not raise his prices to spite the group for her attitude. Still, the dude's outfit looked like he had stolen it from the set of a pop music concert.

After dispensing the snarky commentary he laid out the rules of the tower, which had to do with the magic suppression field and the tower's economy. Victoria homed in on the fact that there were special stones she could collect that could restore a rank of spells, letting her get access to more powerful spells. Victoria would like being able to at least wield her Shotgun and heal something worse than a paper cut. The short and sweet version of Shopkeeper's explanation was... kill things, get money.

That was little different from the past jobs she had taken, but it took on new significance when Luna was on a timer. As much as Victoria had wanted to wield her Shotgun and have a better healing spell, Amelia pointed out that Luna needed twenty stones before the pink-haired mage expired. It would take the efforts of the entire group to reach that goal, but once the clock stopped Luna would not be at risk of sudden death anymore.

"OK, I'll chip in my stones whenever I get some. Luna comes first." Victoria told Amelia and Luna. To get stones she needed to kill the denizens of the tower. Fortunately some soon showed up in the form of zombies coming out of... treasure chests? That was a new trick. However, the novelty of it was not enough to stop Amelia and Koetsu from kicking the asses of four of the zombies and two living treasure chests that looked like something out of that Oubliettes & Wyverns tabletop game she had heard so much about years ago. Three zombies were left.

"I'll handle these walking corpses." Victoria asserted to her guildmates. She raised the fingers of her right hand and pointed them in the shape of a gun, aiming carefully and firing a Pistol spell at the head of the zombie on the left of the roughly triangular formation. It went down with a groan, dropping some loot that she would have to collect later. She formed her right hand in the shape of a gun again and a wireframe barrel formed over her fingers before she fired a Heavy Pistol spell that dropped the zombie on the right with a shot to the head. The last zombie closed in to within ten meters and jumped at Victoria, catching her off guard with the rapid movement and giving it time to claw at her Azure Armor after landing on her.

After it landed two hits on her armored chest the brunette retaliated by hitting back with a one-two punch combo to the face that knocked it off of her and far enough away for her to bring out and fire her Mini-Crossbow spell at its forehead. The bolt pierced its skull and dropped it to the stone floor. She got up, looked at the three dead zombies, and saw that they had dropped quite a bit of loot for her to collect. That brightened her mood a little.

"Jumping zombies was a first for me, but nothing I couldn't handle. It barely dented the kevlar." Victoria gave a brief after-action report to her guildmates.

[Post Word Count: 1,291]
[Total Word Count: 5,806]

Stones: 9
Pouches Of Gold: 23

All enemies have been defeated.

post for rolls

The member 'Luceam' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

---

'Monster Dice' :

B rank Free Form starts here:

Amelia kept aware of the actions of Koetsu and Victoria as she was going around searching the chests. She noted how the other two had just as much ease handing the zombies and mimic creatures, and she was starting to suspect this is a two stage trap. She had a feeling in her gut that Koetsu was probably just as oblivious towards the potentiality of the weak distraction before swift strike trap as she was slightly annoyed that he outright asked for more. She understood his intentions, but even though it was life for death for someone involved he should be careful.

Meanwhile she came to respect Victoria's soldier like discipline on the battlefield as she took on three zombies. However that seemed to remind her not to daydream and stick to her priorities as Luna was still in the process of a slow death. "I got nine gold in my hands... Victoria has to have the same and Koetsu slightly less." She muttered as she was trying to think practically. However her train of thought was brought to an abrupt conclusion when Koetsu called out the Shopkeep.

The man seemed to stare up at the ceiling blankly before laughing loudly. "|Well, it seems as though you pissed off the big man, and let me tell ya, he's getting real impatient." He snapped his fingers, and six chests seemed to open up revealing more zombies contorting out, however the circle of bricks at the top of the staircase also started to rumble before exploding, the debris fell down the thirty feet stairwell opening access to higher areas.

If one were to climb the stairwell they would enter into a room that looked nearly identical to the first floor, except in the middle there was a spiral. In the shadows there was a man holding a spear standing in the shadows upon the twenty foot tall spire. Thunder could be heard in the first floor room. Amelia looked around the room and noticed that two of the zombies were near the entrance... spawning out of the nearest boxes to Luna. "Shite! Multilevel divided approach..." 

Luna looked up as her face was starting to turn pale as she saw two zombies starting to approach. Amelia knew that even if she ran at top speeds to save the fairy, it still wouldn't solve the overarching problems. While Luna's life was in balance, Amelia knew she would have to prioritize, Luna was on the other side of the room and there was a threat that could be coming down at any moment, and Amelia feared that Luna was in no condition to be near anything powerful and anything powerful shouldn't be left unchecked. "Time to roll the dice then." She said as she looked at the shop at the side.

Amelia ran towards Victoria snatching the stones and gold pouches out of the mages hand. "Victoria ignore the shitfest down here and get up there. No telling what's up there and if it's active, it needs to be kept far away from Luna's heart as any stress could reduce the time, I'll take care of her." She started to run towards Koetsu, jumping on a chest, flipping mid air and grabbed the stone and gold pouches from him before she kept running towards the shop."Koetsu, be yourself, cause a distraction, help clear this floor." She said as she tried to quickly and thoroughly explain his part in the briefest context.

Amelia ran towards the counter and slammed down the pouches. "Well well well, welcome to my mystica-" Amelia slapped the man's wrist not wanting to put up with his dramatic expose. "Save it for the Hosenka way reject films. What can I buy?" The man pointed towards a list in a frame on the counter. Amelia skinned the options. "Golem killing sword, not needed... Unique ability restoration, not needed- Ah, blade of change, item that changes the place of one creature with one lower or higher tier." Amelia slid forth twenty of the pouches, she was willing to take a gamble that bigger creatures meant more stones. The shopkeep smirked as the twenty pouches disappeared. "Alright, be careful what you wish for..."

Meanwhile as Amelia was racing towards the shop, Luna was not exactly pleased to see two zombies appearing near her. She managed to steady herself on her knee but she knew she couldn't hang back for the whole duration. Her face was starting to go pale, anxiety rushing through her didn't exactly make things smooth sailing. Her body was half limp as she was barely able to stand on her own. "Ten minutes huh? That was extremely generous, but not quite honest. Ten minutes under ideal conditions, and this isn't a ferry trip to the Neutral zone." Luna looked to the watch on her wrist momentarily. "Well, this could be it." She thought as she saw the zombies get closer, and just as the were about to swipe she jumped back, barely on her feet she kept her distance. "That's right, avoid using magic or strenuous movements. However she didn't notice her reactions were gradually slower until one point where a Zombie's swipe actually connected knocking her against a wall. She felt every moment as she felt as though it was her last. When she slid down the wall, she managed to pushed herself off the wall turning around. At first it seemed like she was trying to mutter something but then as if she was trying to chew but it got incredibly difficult, until she managed to spit out a dark purple brussel sprout at the Zombie that hit her managing to knock it off balance.

However things seemed to take a turn for the worse as after the payment was made. two phantom swords formed over each of the Zombies cornering Luna, before stabbing through and a cloud of smoke, one that quickly dissipated revealing the zombies near Luna were gone, but in their place were large stone golems, rocks that formed large humanoid with purple runes embedded in their bodies, and a large rune in place of a face. Luna bit her lip as she saw the transformation's completion. "By the way Amelia, you're the executor of my will and Estate!" Luna called out.

Amelia was worried when the transformation occurred but after Luna's confession she seemed to get even more agitated. "Bitch you ain't dying till you see your Lawyer to fix that. Then we'll see." Amelia yelled back at Luna as she ran towards the sword Koetsu loosely embedded in the ground before she made her way towards the conflict between Luna and the golems. "Luna's got a lot of fail safe reflexes. Surely something has to save her this time, right the emergency summon!"[

She thought as she started to jump from chest to chest trying to reach Luna. However in her distraction she didn't notice that one of the chests was rumbling, and when she landed on it, the chest seemed to morph as it took on a monstrous appearance with it's mouth opening under Amelia's foot swallowing her leg as it tried to bite it off. Amelia grunted as she took the sword and jammed it down into it's mouth, trying to pry herself free if not kill it first.

Luna was repeatingly trying to evade the golems as she was in no state to sustain combat. However she managed to dodge a hit but she soon realized that the golem's target was to strike the ground with his fist causing a massive shockwave that knocked Luna back, and she landed flat on her back and was almost silent before she turned her head to the side and managed to cough blood. However a pink liquid droplet oozed out of the side of her arm before taking the shape of a seed and burrowing into the ground. A twisted root sprung forth and unwound itself part way before each tip aimed forward. A pink magic circle appeared as the summoning platform was complete.

Noticing it from the corner of her eye, Amelia smirked.  "That's it! Perfect! Who's coming, please be Savi, oh, maybe even Woody..." She said as she got her hopes up, but springing forth from the magic circle was a wooden two by four exactly one meter in length smacking one of the golems in the face before hitting the ground. The root soon withered away. "Oh right, magic suppression blocks the higher tier summons leaving Luna with Chuck."

The golems stood for a moment, almost dumbfounded by the wood spirit before they proceeded to try and walk past it. As one stepped on the plank, the plank started to shake before spontaneously morphing into a twenty three foot tall pillar slamming one golem into the ceiling, before the pillar would hop to the side and turn back into a plank on the floor, dropping the golem onto the floor.

Chuck would then appear to roll towards Luna before morphing it's body once more. It took the shape of a rather muscular 6'6 tall male wearing just pants, and instead of a head it had a giant eye made of wood. Cracking it's knuckles then shoulder, he picked up Luna with one hand carrying her over its shoulder as it would run.  

Meanwhile Amelia managed to slay the mimic and get her foot free just in time to witness the spirit in action. "Nice job Chuck!" She called out, the eye of the wooden spirit turned to look at Amelia before growing eye lids so he could squint to express his disdain, before holding out the middle finger of his free hand towards Amelia. "Fair enough, but I hope you can see this isn't the time for this."  She said as the stone and pouch for the mimic's death dropped into her hand.

She proceeded to continue towards the golems as she had less to worry about with Luna being protected by the wooden spirit. Amelia gripped the sword in her hands as she saw the golems starting to get back up. She rushed the golems and jumped up, kneeing one of them in the head, slamming it against the other. Amelia looked over and saw Luna being put down against a wall by Woody, her head down as her eyes that normally radiate with a calm serenity and vibrancy for life were getting duller, and could tell her breathing was getting heavier. Anxiety rushed through the gynoid as she returned her focus back to the Golems as she took the sword in her hand and with all the force she could muster struck down at incredible speed, fracturing the sword after it managed to penetrate both Golems. 

She hopped off the back of the golem on top before she repeatedly kicked in their faces. A strange orange liquid seemed to leak from out of her left eye socket. "It's bull, is not fair!" She screamed as she was slowly chipping away at the head like rune and stone of the golems as they tried to stand up. "I never met anyone like her, sure there are plenty of people that say they'd rather die then refuse to help those in need, some even do pretty good at that. But I never met anyone quite as sympathetic, anyone that acted like being even remotely selfish could kill them, until I met her." She managed to chip away the surface of one side of their heads before they managed to stand up. "She's eaten day in and day out but still holds on for no other reason than to help. She truly made this god awful greed fueled world just a little bit everywhere she went for she never turned a blind eye to those who were hurting. That's how she got into this bullshit, cause she canceled her plans for a little greatly deserved relaxation to help some novice along." The liquid dripped down her face and hit the floor as the golems tried to attack but they were uncoordinated while bound together.

Luna's breathing was getting a bit harder every breath, as her focus was starting to wain. Chuck snapped its fingers, trying to keep Luna conscious and focused. Her gaze was starting to get a bit blurry as the shock from the sudden movements were not good for her condition. "Amelia... Don't cry... please." She wanted to say as her heart was touched by the gynoid's sentiment, but the words never left her mind. The world around her slowly fading to darkness in her perception as she was losing consciousness.

Amelia jumped to the side as the golems tried to strike, but the one behind the other ended up accidentally striking the golem in front knocking it to the ground, dragging the other golem with it. The sword ended up breaking mid air. "But here she ended up trapped, dying for the amusement of some psychopath?" She said as one golem was down for the count but the other one tried to get up. Amelia twisted her body as she swiftly kicked in the head, ended up breaking the skull of the beast. "I won't allow it!" She yelled to the heavens.

Even the mysterious shopkeeper began to shutter as the dangerous nature of the gynoid was made clear, much like a dangerous creature without a leash. Ten stones began to materialize. Amelia quickly counted up the stones and realized, there were twenty. Instantly she ran over towards her "Got enough!" She ran towards Luna, desperation consumed her being and despair clinging onto her tail. She ran up to Luna fast as she could. Ending up on her knees as she dropped all the stones onto Luna.

Amelia grabbed Luna's hand and looked into her eyes as the stones glowed and soon disappeared. Amelia felt a surge of electricity go throughout her body, feeling that her abilities were restored. "Right, the connection is deep even with under suppression, free Luna and I get along for the ride." Amelia mused, however she looked at Luna, who still seemed pale but her eyes were still gazed almost as if they were a thousand miles away, she felt cold to the touch and she still looked pale. Amelia shakily raised her hand to Luna's neck, her fingers checking the side. She felt a pulse, a weak one beat for two seconds, before the feeling died. "No..."

Amelia was yet to give up on the Nature fairy as since she felt part of her own magic restored she was able to at least try something. She ripped open Luna's qipao before tracing her fingers along Luna's ribs. "C'mon Luna, you're better then to go out in a place like this. Someone like you, deserves to die surrounded by their loved ones at the end of a long life. Not die in a place like this." She said as she ran electricity through her finger tips and into Luna's body, that jerked slightly in response. "Right, crap, Carpo's skin is also restored, shite, bloody shite." A moment past and Luna was not responding, Amelia kept trying over and over but eventually even the wooden spirit grabbed her hand, shaking it's eye. Amelia started to shake as she looked at Luna.

The shopkeeper seemed to cry as he pulled a hancherchief out of his sleeve to wipe away the tears. "That has to be the most perfect touching passing, someone who put their life on the line, only to be with them as they pass." Amelia heard the words and instantly started to let out a dark, cackling laugh as she stood up, her body seemingly loose as she looked at the shopkeeper with a striking gaze. "So, this is all amusing to you? Wanna know what I'm gonna find amusing?" She said as a dark smile donned on her face, exuding a rather dark aura that even made the shopkeeper nervous.

"After everything is culled from this tower, I will come for you, you can hide in whatever pathetic place you want, go ahead. I got nothing but time, I will find you, and start with the mind, forcing you into an archive link. It will be a hamfisted job as no doubt you'll resist, but then, well, you get the jist. I am going to make you relive each painful memory, while deleting something that brings joy into your life, eventually it'll be a brief pain but then you'll feel a deep fear as your deeper understanding of the world disappears leaving you an anxious ridden husk with nothing but fear from the slightest touch." Amelia said in a dark, almost sadistic tone.

"Then I will slowly break every joint in your body, watching as you writhe in fear, not understanding what is going, before slicing each nerve and throwing you into the worst hole I can find and watch you struggle to survive, dying at the mercy of a cruel world with no defense. Even then I think you'll be getting off easy." The shopkeeper on both levels of the tower shuddered as Amelia coldly stared the one on the first floor down. "But you're part of Sabertooth, you won't do that. Empty but well detailed threats." He said trying to act confidently.

Amelia let out a chuckle. "Who told you that? Luna's a member of Sabertooth, but I belong to nothing and nobody." She cracked her knuckles before her neck.

Stones: 0
Gold: 4

WC 2980
TWC 2980/5000

Enemies remaining:

-Boss
- 4 Zombies
- 1 Mimic

Koetsu's words apparently found purchase with the shop keeper. It was a simple command, but the man was nothing if not accomadating. Though more accomadating in the sense of an asshole genie than the proper serving staff of any reputable establishment. Of course, Koetsu himself didn't really understand the particular nuance of a 'be careful what you wish for' turnabout, which made it all the more frustrating when he discovered that an additional enemy, no, 'the big man' appeared on the floor above.

Were this some ordinary circumstance, Koetsu would happily traipse up those stairs and deliver the punishment the boss fight was due, however, they had a dying person to try and save, and there was a lot more than just a boss upstairs to deal with. In fact, he got what he wished for and more, they sent exactly the same number of zombies as before, plus the 'big man'.

Amelia, the metal woman, would begin a sprint delivering orders wildly, understandably so as Luna was being pinned down by the shambling stalkers. The pale swordsmith saw her snatch the gold and stones from Victoria while dishing orders to her, and understood immediately to gather his stuff into one hand. She was making a beeline right for him, though there was a loose chest in between them. Koetsu didn't smell blood from it the same as the mimics so instead of worrying he would watch her movements. She used the chest to do a vault over his head, doing a cool flip at the same time. Not wanting to throw off her momentum he would thrust the hand containing the gold and stones into the air, passing it to her deftly while receiving her orders briefly mid-vault.

'Be myself? ...I don't think she wants that. I'm getting hungry...'

"R-right."

With his magic energy being suppressed, he felt this gnawing hunger he usually attributed to being low on mana. The solution was usually to eat, and those gold pieces were smelling awful tasty. Furthermore, the challenger above was beckoning him with the ominous sounds of thunder. Be a distractions, help clear the floor. Those were the menial things Koetsu wouldn't do in most circumstances. But with a dying woman's life on the line, he would do what it took, even if it was essentially the busywork.

The first problem, of course, was the zombies surrounding Luna. He would take a deep breath, and tapped into his slayer training. All he had were the basics, so all he would use were the basics. The speed to hammer as many times as possible before the metal cooled: He kicked his feet off the ground,  with tremendous force, propelling himself across the room. When forging with steel fit for gods, one possessed three hearts: The one which beat inside their chest, and the 'heart in each leg', the calves, which were used to put tremendous force behind every blow. The legs were just as strong if not stronger than the smith's arms. His running speed was considerably faster than many of his peers.

But apparently it wasn't quite fast enough. Koetsu was intercepted on his path by a leaping stalker, which seemed to have a burst of uncanny speed in this leap. The swordsmith took the brunt of the blow to his hip, and was carried with the zombie-esque monster like a sack of fucking potatoes.

Koetsu cursed under his breath at the humiliation he felt as he blocked scratches from the monster using the claws he made earlier. "I guess you aren't tissue paper when you've got the drop on me. You hit like a sack of ore," he would correct himself from earlier. "In that case, you should be sitting in a corner waiting for me to have time for you!" he growled, before backfisting the zombie in the ribs, causing it to roll to the side, giving him the opportunity to mount it instead. The pale slayer would flip to a sitting position, pinning the stalker's arms down with his knees, before he would rake the tekko-kagi across it's face and chest. The stalker basically dissipated into black foam underneath him.

He didn't have time to rest, really, as two more stalkers approached him. What he hadn't had time to notice, was the two stalkers which were harassing Luna had grown exponentially in size, and were now made of stone, and were just absolutely ruining her day. He didn't have time to notice, until one of them slammed its fists on the ground, sending Koetsu and the stalkers he was facing down, sailing several meters away. The slayer would lay looking at the ceiling for a moment sighing as he muttered aloud, "I bet Victoria is having the best fight ever right now..."

Koetsu was feeling pretty worthless right now. All that bravado he'd shown earlier, well, that little bravado he'd shown, was not paying off in the slightest. He needed to rethink his strategy, but this way of fighting was all he'd known. These were the basics. It was all he had.

No wait. There was... that.

Yeah... that would work.

The purple-haired swordsmith would sit himself up, only to be accosted rapidly by a pair of stalkers wildly leaping at him. He immediately rolled back onto his shoulders with his legs tucked in, causing the monsters to collide overhead. "God Steel Coil Greaves," he declared, his legs and feet up to his knees being enshrouded in a dark haze.

There were many shapes that steel could take, many of them rigid, powerful, sturdy. Weapons and armor were considered to be the epitome of these qualities for a time, but then came more advanced weaponry, something that Muramasa would chew his ear off about just about any time he thought about it. Complicated, machined pieces of metal working in tandem were later used to design everything from clocks to firearms resulting in some of the most efficient killing methods ever devised.

One particular shape metal could take was known as the spring coil. Koetsu hadn't heard of it before training under the God of Steel, Muramasa, but apparently it was paramount to understand the spring. The spring was a shape which could be compressed or decompressed and provide resistance and 'springiness' to anything it was place inside of. They were like a device made to amplify the third law of motion, though only for an instant. A spring's resistance only intensified at the instant of impact, allowing for a more satisfying bounce, essentially. It was quite fascinating, really. The stronger the material used to form the springs, the more resistance the springs had, exponentially so.

Koetsu would reel in his legs as a pair of black steel coils rapidly wound around them up to his knee, and down and off them onto slabs of metal used as a base. He would extend his legs directly skyward, striking both of the stalkers in the chest. The springs compressed tightly with the impact, and bottomed out at his feet, but just before the recoil took hold, the spring's length up his leg would shoot down to his ankles, exponentially increasing the nested force in the springs, before they inevitably decompressed in the direction of least resistance, shooting the zombies straight up into the air, smashing them violently into the ceiling.

Several pouches of gold were raining from the sky, but that mattered little to him, as he kippuped to a stand. He looked around, and saw Amelia doing her best to deal with the Golems. Because there were two of them, they were easier to tangle up with one another, and it was more difficult for the golems to use their shockwave move without hitting the other one. Perhaps the fact that there were two was their greatest weakness.

All that remained for him to fight was one last Stalker, though he really wanted to help with the Golems. It was time for a little leap himself. The springiness of his new grieves was a little hard to work with, but in straight lines, it was hard to beat the speed it afforded him. "God Steel Double Sonic," he would declare. The springs condensed to form a genuinely boot-like shape for a brief moment, before the resistance pushed him forward towards the stalker like a missile, even as compared to before. With a swing of his clawed fists, he would cleave the zombie-like monster in half before it could even realize he was on his way.

After this attack he would crash unceremoniously into the wall behind the stalker, the loot falling to the ground after the crash. He would groan in displeasure. "I hate these things..." he would complain with quiet strain. Prying himself out of the wall he would dismiss the blasted contraptions from his legs and get his bearings. He saw what looked like a wooden man with an eye for a head, Luna resting against a wall, and Amelia using his sword from earlier to wail on those golems, chipping away at the stone that was their body. Were his magic a bit stronger he may have been able to make a sword that cleaves through them like butter, but under the immense strength of that metal woman's iron body, she was actually managing to crack it, which was plenty enough to scare Koetsu into staying back this way. The golems eventually tried to fight back, but were too damaged to even attempt coordination and fell over, one crushing the other, and the former having his stone skull crushed by angry metal legs.

After that was finished, enough stones would finally fall from the golems in total that Amelia immediately turned into a release on the party's magical restraints. Koetsu felt his control over metal returning to him, or rather, he felt like somebody took a collar that was a little too tight off his neck. The leash that had bound him was no longer constricting his magic flow, and he was free to use it how he wanted. Of course, it was a fairly meager amount of magic to begin with, so the stronger mages were still probably being choked up.

That should have meant Luna was safe, right? She was strong enough to handle her gold heart, the strain it placed on her was gone, or something, right? Apparently it was too little too late. Amelia immediately began the sort of first aid the paramedics do in movies, trying to use an electric current to stimulate the nerves and force muscular contractions in the heart to 'jump start it'. Would that work for a heart made of gold? It was a notoriously fantastic conductor of electrical current, Koetsu was well aware of that as a metalworker.

But it wasn't enough. A few shocks later and it seemed like this wasn't going anywhere. Apparently there was something dampening the electrict current, something to do with her skin. Maybe she was a slayer too? Or perhaps she had some weird physiology for another reason. Either way if electricity wasn't going to work, then perhaps...

The shopkeeper said something out of turn. Obviously in this circumstance, there was a lot to be angry about, but as it stood, the shopkeeper seemed keen on painting himself with a target. Amelia seemed to break. Understandably so, Koetsu felt. He suspected that those two were friends for longer than he'd even been outside the steel god's forge. The metal woman would turn, laughing, and list off this horrific monologue of things she intended to do to him.

The swordsmith, rather than listening to all that, would take the time Amelia was distracted with deep, dark fury in order to approach Luna, kneeling down next to her. He sniffed intently, just making sure, and sighed. "No. There's no real gold in her... So I guess I can't do anything... As fucking usual..." he would say, standing himself up. He took a few steps before raising his hand, and punching a nearby treasure chest with his now unrestrained strength. Sleek blackness shifted up the length of his arm, before fading back down, as the box caved in, splattering its gorey contents about the place before they fizzled away. It was, in fact, a mimic, that Koetsu had picked up on when he sniffed for gold earlier.

Koetsu would start heading upstairs. "I'm going to see if Victoria needs help," he told Amelia, not that he had to tell her, necessarily, since she wasn't a member of Sabertooth apparently. He didn't like that sentiment though, so he decided to keep her in the loop, even bloodlusted as she were, "It would be prudent to leave him alive until we're done with him, though in the end, I don't think we need to mention him in our reports, since nobody knows who or what was in here. Not my style, but not my call, I'm just the newbie."

After ascending the stairs, he would peek into the room where the boss fight was or had been going down. If Victoria was still in the middle of the fight, he'd offer her support, but otherwise he'd call her downstairs to help out.

Word Count: 2197
Total for Freeform: 5174

Gold: 16
Stones: 5

Enemies Remaining
1x Boss

After the pink-haired mage and Amelia vanquished more of the enemies Victoria saw that Luna was not deceiving them to make herself stronger than the others with the special stones... she really was dying from the magic suppression field. Thanks to that field the brunette could not heal anything worse than a paper cut without putting a lot of magic into it and she could not even do that thanks to "Unique Abilities" being suppressed as well. All the brunette could do was stand by and watch the pink-haired mage try to hang on to what little time she had left. That "Amelia" chick with the acid tongue was doing her best to keep the pink-haired mage going and was not doing very well.

Victoria was a bit sad, but she was not quite as sad as she should be considering what was going on. She had seen enough death and despair to where it did not affect her as much as it should. Seeing people starve to death, killing people infected by a pathogen from outer space, and blasting mutated people and cultists apart with high explosive Grenade Launcher rounds had all dulled her ability to feel sadness. That might be a mark against her soul when she died and went to face the afterlife, but Victoria was not that way by choice. Life on the streets had inured her to suffering... perhaps too much.

Victoria presented her share of the loot and watched Amelia snatch it. The brunette did not take offense considering the circumstances and heard Amelia tell her to get upstairs on the double. From what she heard the Shopkeeper dude say, "the big guy" was getting impatient.

"OK, I'm going upstairs then. I'll buy as much time as I can!" Victoria said to Amelia and Koetsu before running off to the upstairs level to keep "the big guy" busy while Amelia and Koetsu did what they could to help Luna. While her big-ticket spells were sealed away she still had the highest power level of the Sabertooth trio and she had thought ahead enough to wear body armor, two things which would allow her to stall "the big guy" for some time. Her footsteps echoed on the stone floor as she raced ahead to confront whoever it was before they got bored and headed downstairs, making things worse on Luna and the others.

-At the top-

Victoria's ponytail whipped around as she reached the top of the tower and faced off against "the big guy" that the Shopkeeper had referred to. He wore white and gray clothing of an Eastern design and brandished a sword that was as long as his arm's width while standing on top of a spire with impressive balance. This was just like a scene out of that kung-fu movie with the dude in the yellow tracksuit with black stripes going down the side who had to climb the tower and fight a specialist in a particular martial arts style on certain floors. Or was it that movie Slay William with the blonde chick in the yellow tracksuit and wielding the katana chasing the William dude all over the place and fighting his minions? She could not remember, but the guy with the sword had "legitimate martial artist" written all over him.

"I am Susano. I grow tired of waiting for a good fight. None of the others I fought could even challenge me, so I hope that you will give me what I want." The guy introduced himself as "Susano" and announced that he wanted a good fight.

"OK then. I'm game. Let's do this!" Victoria challenged him. Susano laughed.

"This is no game, child!" He declared in a loud voice before leaping down from his spire and landing on both feet with ease. Victoria was actually kind of impressed by the landing. She was also impressed by the speed with which he moved... he dashed right for her and she sidestepped it but was caught off guard by the spin and took the spinning slash on her armored torso. Susano laughed as Victoria staggered back and regained her footing, then formed the fingers of her right hand into a gun for a Heavy Pistol spell. The wireframe barrel appeared and she fired, hitting Susano in the left shoulder. He yelled and zipped away from her before she could deal out further damage.

"Not bad, child. But you will have to do better than that to defeat me!" Susano told her. Victoria watched as he ran towards her at normal speed and execute a basic stab attack with the sword three times that she stepped back and ducked under each stab. To her surprise Susano withdrew his sword after the third stab and immediately launched into a spin attack that she ducked under at the last moment with a shriek. He was so fast that he had almost cut her ponytail off when she ducked, but she had avoided the spin attack nonetheless. He tried to kick her in the face, but she grabbed his foot and held onto it to slow him down.

He jumped and kicked her in the side of the head with his free foot, falling to the ground and freeing himself from the hold. He then jumped to his feet about the same time Victoria stood up after falling over backwards. Susano then repeated the dash and she stepped to the side to avoid it, then followed up with a Pistol spell less than two meters away from him that hit him in the back. Susano laughed.

"You are learning, child. But can you learn fast enough to survive our duel?" Susano asked Victoria. Victoria primed a dark green globe for a Grenade spell and held onto it just as he slammed his sword point-first into the stone, generating a tornado that caught her in the center and lifted her high into the air. Just as she was being lifted she lobbed the Grenade with all her might towards him and mentally counted to three as it was pulled off the floor and whirled about in the tornado. By some minor miracle the Grenade stayed low and went off next to him, scratching him with a few shards of shrapnel before she began falling from thirty meters in the air.

Victoria screamed while falling until she hit the ground with a thud and bounced hard. The brunette coughed and sputtered as Susano approached her with an angry look on his face. The Grenade's shrapnel had scratched his face on the right cheek and he wanted payback. He kicked her in the abdomen just below the point the Azure Armor ended, causing her to fly back a good meter and roll for two revolutions before stopping.

"That was an impressive trick, but there can be only one way this duel ends." Susano promised as Victoria struggled to her feet. The brunette got up and saw him dash towards her: she sidestepped it and hit back with a fist to his left cheek. He immediately retaliated with a spin attack that hit her in the armored torso and forced her back.

Victoria hoped that Amelia and Koetsu were helping Luna out on the bottom floor because this Susano guy was out for blood. Without her big-ticket spells this duel was harder than she had imagined, partially because Susano was that good and partially because she did not have access to Beam Cannon, her Bullet Time Unique Ability, or her other standby spells. At least she still had her armor and that was reducing the impact of Susano's attacks, keeping her alive and able to stall for time.

[Post Word Count: 1,280]
[Total Word Count: 6,454/5,000]

Amelia ignored the words of Koetsu, his words were lost to her as it seemed that he wasn't paying attention to her words. "Didn't he hear me say I'd ensure everything else is massacred then kill the bastard? She scoffed, turning back towards Luna as her anger faded for a moment, she couldn't even look at the body before her, her eyes were closed. "Sorry partner. I'll make sure we get these bastards pegged."  She said before opening her eyes to look at the wooden spirit still in his masculine form, just on his eyes staring, almost as if he was waiting for something. Amelia shrugged it off as the spirit sticking around to make sure Luna's body had a proper send off. "I trust you'll stick around to take care of her body, I'll be back..." She said as she walked off towards the stairs, ready to join the rest of the group upstairs.

However as the first floor escaped her views, the pink haired mages body started to emit small trails of steam from her body...

Meanwhile Luna started to wake up, in a place that felt familiar yet unfamiliar, welcome yet foreign. She felt a cold gentle breeze and the warm light of the sun, rough loose land on her back but the gentleness of water as well. When she opened her eyes she saw partly cloudy skies and the sun just in the corner of her eyes, almost ready to set. "Where... am I? Last thing I remembered was, I was being carried away, and everything, faded to-" She started to feel nauseated at recalling the experience. Putting it aside for now she slowly sat herself up and looked at her surroundings, she seemed to have been laying down in shallow water of some river that got progressively deeper the more to the right. To her left was a beautiful forest lush with beautiful plants and the sounds of various birds could be heard. "Clearly I'm not in Hargeon anymore." She said as she stood up, brushing the dirt off her body. She noticed something in the distance, what appeared to be part of a wooden structure around the corner. She followed the river and saw more and more. As she got closer she saw that the building was a two story house with several small wood and stone structures around the facility, including a makeshift forge, a glassblowing kiln, and a meat smoker.

As Luna got closer she could see smaller constructs made out of masonry, including a distillery. By the water she saw a man holding an ax by a stump, piles of wood on either side. On the left were whole chunks while smaller ones were on the right. As the man was standing back up Luna was stunned. The muscular man was appeared to be in his early to mid thirties, roughly six and a half feet tall, mid neck length scruffy dirty blonde hair and full beard, green eyes, wearing hardened boots, rough work pants, and a opened buttoned shirt. The man looked over towards the pink haired mage, dropping his ax as he was equally stunned to see the woman there. Tears started roll down Luna's face before she ran to the man clinging to him like her life depended on it, not even caring about the horrendous odor of the man. "Daddy!" She exclaimed.

Jethro Mira chuckled a bit as he embraced his daughter, a meeting he never expected. "Luna my girl, how've ya been darling?" He said in his normal calm and joyous demeanor. Luna looked up, overjoyed by the reunion to even consider anything else. "Busy, but-" Luna looked around at the various constructs her father had built. "- seems like even in death you don't stop working, oh, right..." Luna recalled how she got here. Jethro could sense something was wrong and led his daughter towards a bench overlooking the water."Right, seems like we've got about, hmm, I'd say six years of catching up?" The man said as they sat down, trying to guess an exact year by guessing his daughters age. "Closer to eight actually."

Over the course of an hour, Luna explained how her life went since she last saw her father on his death bed. For the most part Jethro was proud of his daughters accomplishments, although he remained sympathetic during the various setbacks. In regards to the family situation, he was proud of his children, however he felt nothing but incredible guilt over Luna's direct elder brother Hakar's turn for the worse and said nothing about Luna kicking him out. He was conflicted as he always knew Hakar needed help, but for one of his children to pay a dark wizard to put a torture device in the other, that was unforgivable. However regarding the family curse and his wife, he was proud of the way Luna didn't just flip out over what happened. "Sorry about keeping your mother's  secret. Just, she thought it'd protect all of you, since we never expected the curse to break for any of you." Luna sighed, there was so much she wanted to say but never wanted to say at the same time. "Well, it's been tough, but you didn't raise any quitters."

Jethro sighed as he had a feeling time was running out and as much as he wanted to say more, he guessed the window was closing. "Anyways, you're not gonna be here much longer. Your body should be reanimating as we speak." Luna looked confused for a moment. "Lunaris Icarus Mira are you doubting your father?" Luna seemed to only look more confused at that statement. "My middle name is Icarus?" Jethro burst out laughing. "No, you don't have one, your mother and I fought about middle names every time, we always hit stalemates. Anyways, there's three reasons you're not going to remain, first is while you died, you are your mother's daughter." Luna nodded as she was starting to get what her father was saying. "And the second?" Jethro patted her head twice. "Because you're also my daughter, and I raised my daughter that when she starts something, she sees it through to the end and leaves nothing unfinished, ever!" The water started to glow as a solid white doorway that had a light glowing inside. Jethro patted Luna's back. "Well, it's time." Luna sighed as she stood up, hugging Jethro tightly once more. "Sorry to go so soon..." Jethro sighed. "I'm proud of you, but the clocks ticking and you're down on the job. Lets not waste any more time, despite the weirdness of time being in the afterlife."

Luna stood back up and started to walk towards the water, feeling a burning sensation throughout her spiritual body as she got closer to the light, and eventually walked through to see what awaits her on the other side.

Meanwhile back in the real world, comparatively speaking Luna's consciousness was only gone for roughly five minutes. Chuck still in his man with an eyeball head shaped form was still knelling by Luna's side, however once he saw a bit of steam he loosely held her left wrist in his hands as more and more steam was coming off the fairy's body as it was heating up. The wooden golem finally felt what he was waiting for, like a spark he felt a small jolt from Luna's wrist. His hand soon moved to her torso for conformation as sap like tears of joy shed from his eye. He knew what he felt. "A Pulse!" He thought with joy, the weak pulse started to accelerate with speed and strength, soon the ribcage moved as the unmistakable sound of breathing happened before a wheeze. The Jade eyes had soon slowly opened, while not long ago they were glazed with lifelessness, the spirit of the fairy rose like a fire with the grace of a rising sun as Luna regained consciousness.

Looking around, she remembered everything that happened, both inside the tower from her perspective and what she saw on the other side. Soon she regained feeling in her body as she started to move her legs and arms, standing up despite the raging disorientation. Chuck tried to help but Luna shoved him away. The tree spirit knew that at the moment, Luna was trying to do this on her own, no, he understood she needed to do this on her own.

Luna ended up coughing out blood, most of it getting on the back of her left hand before she wheezed for a few more seconds as she slowly started to stumble before she was able to fully walk, as more and more steam started to emanate from her heated body as she made her way towards the stairs.

Amelia had arrived upstairs behind Koetsu, clenching her fist as she looked at how Victoria's battle with the Susano was going, and from the look of things they could be better. She debated on telling Victoria what happened, but ultimately realized that sometimes fighting for vengeance could help someone fight more vigorously. "Sheridan! We... no, I was too late. By the time we got enough stones to restore Luna's heart, it was already too late. Luna's slayer magic prevented me from restarting her heart. We might still have a chance if-"

Along the side, the shopkeeper's shop appeared spontaneously behind the counter on the second floor seemed to be shouting. "Amelia!" Angered by the man, Amelia tried to ignore him. "We might have a chance to revive her if-" "Miss Amelia!" "Amelia Trash-heap!" "-if we get Luna back to her tribe-" "Yo Artificial Trashform!"

Finally angered enough Amelia turned towards the shopkeeper and yelled back in frustration and anger. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT?!" The shopkeeper giggled and pointed behind Amelia. "Step aside, the dead woman needs to get by." Amelia growled as sparks started to discharge from her fingers as she was ready to destroy the man however she heard the sound of something coming up the stairs. The heavy breathing could be heard, the steam visible as the woman who just a few minutes ago was barely able to stand was now walking up the stairs standing.

Amelia who was dedicated on a suicide run for vengeance was now plastered with a look of utter shock as she stepped out of the way as Luna walked into the room with a neutral expression on her face, her skin tone still slightly pale. The wood spirit was right behind her but with a wave of her hand the spirit understood the order and reverted back to its natural form as a wooden plank a meter long two inches thick and four inches wide.

Amelia was stuttering as she was not sure how to describe the situation. "Wha- Luna, how- how, ho- how are you? This recovery, what the?" Luna's eyes looked over at Amelia as she uttered a phrase. "The tears of life burned through the embers rekindling the light."

She started to walk forward again, her eyes on the scene, she saw Victoria and her progress with the last obstacle. "I finally get the point of this place. It's a place for cowards to appear strong, by slaughtering those with strength. However by restraining, handicaping the powerful, you prove nothing. All it does is bring some sick pleasure, but that pleasure is hollow as much as the so called 'victories' you've won Samurai." Luna said still having the neutral expression, her her voice keeping a piercing yet neutral tone. The steam coming off her body started to wain and dissipate. "A place where no honor is found, a place for bullies to pick on those who can't fight at a certain level for amusement. As for why though, the Shopkeeper I understand. He's so pathetic I can practically smell it, he's weak. Sure clearly he knows some strong magic, this has to be some form of pocket universe magic where he is able to modify the rules of the world within the confines of this tower, but that's just it. Within the confines of this tower, he can pretend to be a god and maybe back it up with a flashy gimmick or two. But out there, he's pathetic. Hell if the rookie here was at full strength I'd bet on him any day of the week to repeatedly kick his ass out there. The shopkeeper's a nobody, and even when this tower is crushed his fifteen minutes of fame will only be fifteen seconds, and in a month, nobody will care. He'll just be a nameless face in the crowd, like he doubtlessly started before this."

She stared down the Susano as she slowly approached, no defensive guard held up or anything. "However you, are not too different. You might claim this is all for honor or thrill or something, but you're just a coward by choosing fighting at your fullest strength in a place where others have their power suppressed. No honor, no true glory, all you are is nothing more than a pathetic coward. One that allowed a fatal mistake."

The armored man stared at Luna pointing his sword. He let out an agitated grunt. "You dare insult me that way despite death itself still clinging to you, you still walk. But before I kill you, pray tell what mistake has been made?"

At this point the neutral facade seemed to fall as Luna's menacing aura only seemed to get worse, while normally her eyes are full of compassion and persuade a peaceful demeanor, there was something different. This time the emerald eyes were focused and conveyed only one feeling, the other side of nature that a wise man often avoids for fear of their own life, blood lust and fury. "Killing me, without making sure I stay dead of course! " A wicked smile dons Luna's face as she casually stretched out her arms.

Amelia shuddered as the wooden spirit seemed to vanish into thin air. "The plank had the right idea, dealing with Luna is like dealing with an entire forest. While the most part she's serene and calming, she has a darker side that can only be brought out only under incredible circumstances."

Done with words, the man started to charge at Luna preparing his sword for a strike. Luna didn't seemed to move her legs as she watched the man carefully. She knew she had the man pegged the moment he started to move with anger, as she remembered the difference between victory and defeat and the stability of logic all depend on someone's ability to maintain their control over their emotions. Luna looked at the man and noting his footwork and speed, seeing the sword held behind him she guessed that he was going for a slashing attack. Between the rush from adrenaline, endorphins, and her magically enhanced senses, the movements of the man were rather slow.

However just as the man stopped to swing the blade Luna raised her hand in a casual manner as the man spun and slashed her blade at Luna in a swift motion that came to a sudden halt as Luna had caught the blade between her right index finger and thumb. Susano was stunned silent as the reality of the situation that just occurred was shocking to say the least. Luna saw the man's surprise and took advantage of the situation, her other fingers pressed down against the side of the blade as she ripped the blade out of his hand before kicking him in the sternum. Sending him stumbling back.

"Did you honestly believe such a blade could even reach me, let alone cut me? I am the prodigy of the goddess of harvest, Carpo. As a Goddess slayer of her choosing I've been imbued with the elements of plant and earth. Let me tell you, the integration process was hell and the training I had to do was brutal, striking training receiving and performing to enhance my skin to help with conversion. Some people train their whole lives so their hands can carve stone, I had to essentially emulate that level in twenty hours with a combination of magical body reconfiguration and discipline to stay ahead of everything else going on trying to make me pass out. I can't imagine you understanding the latter part."

The man grumbled as he reached for his blade in Luna's hand. Luna stepped back and kept the blade out of his reach, this followed a pattern two more times. The man stared at Luna for a moment, cautious until Luna held out the sword to him smirking. "Let me be the first to offer you some form of dignity in a long time. Take this so you can appear to be able to fight back."

Silence passed as Susano looked at his blade, almost confirming Luna's suspicion that the man required the blade to be able to pose a challenge to her. The subtle battle seemed to last for only a moment as he knew taking the blade from Luna now meant admitting that he needed her charity to win, however if he didn't he might be risking certain defeat, and if he accepted the charity and lost it would only be further crushing to what pride he had.

"Luna already crushed his honor before, but this, this is just brutal." Amelia commented during the suspense before the man took the blade out of Luna's hand. He held the blade back with both hands before he'd appear to stab Luna at full force with the blade that would strike her right in the gut. As the blade was coming Luna made no effort to dodge as out of the back of her right middle finger a seed protruded, and Luna flicked her finger causing the seed to hit the right side of Susano's lip just as the sword landed, sending Luna flying back.

For whatever reason, whether it be satisfaction of regaining an advantage, or seeing someone who acted so strong take a hit, he didn't notice at first as the black seed burrowed into his flesh. Luna landed on her back. "Not so tough now are you girl?" He said before laughing, which Luna seemed to join in as she got back up. Her skin barely bruised where the hit struck. Barely any trace of the blade aside from a prick. Susano stopped laughing when he heard Luna laugh. "What's so funny girl?"

"Just that my tailor is gonna kill me for Amelia ripping up a perfectly good Qipao for no good reason. Also Harvest Goddess's Bleeding Edge." Before the man could respond black vines started to grow out from the place where the seed embedded itself, both inside and outside his mouth and wrap around his flesh as sharp spikes seemed to grow and the sides contacting flesh the had the spikes embedded in his body.

Instinctively the man dropped his sword as he tried to pull out the spiked vines, but the black vines weren't easy to break as his face was being pulled at.  "m- ake, it, stawp!" He managed to say. Luna slowly walked towards him as the vines were now wrapped around his hands and arms, his body in pain both internal and externally. "Funny, I think I left my brakes in the afterlife, oh wait they were checked at the door with my chlorokinesis. Although fact is, you exist in a kill or be kill world, how many of the many adventurers that came here did you kill or watch die? Yet when death is upon you, here you are, begging the enemy who already offered you charity for your life!"

As Luna got close she watched as he fell onto his knees. She picked up his blade and examined it as she took a step back. "The shame about this whole situation, I like this sword. It's well crafted. I'm not a dedicated swordswoman, but even I can appreciate the craft of both crafting and wielding such a weapon, and what this sword is screaming, is that a pathetic mound of flesh like you isn't worthy to wield it."

Luna steadied the blade as she aimed it towards the man's face as it turned blue from suffocation. Luna stabbed the blade through his cheek making sure to stop the blade before it would reach the back of his throat, crushing the source of the vines before pulling the blade out. The vines started to whither away as the man gasped for air, his breathing eventually restored. The man was bleeding out from his face and all the cuts the thorns made. His eyes looked up at Luna's who pointed the tip of the man's own blade against his throat.

Susano grimaced before he move one knee back before the other, soon bending over with his hands on the ground. "I, yield." Susano said defeated. Luna knelled down, ripping the blade's sheath off the man's belt and started to walk past him as she walked towards the shopkeeper. "You're out of pawns, no more toys between us. And I don't think I was far off about just how weak you truly are." The shopkeeper shook nervously as Luna approached. "Alright alright you win! I'll let you go! See!" He snapped his fingers, a platform appeared in the middle of the room with a glowing orange light. "There! That'll take you back to Hargeon port, once you leave this tower crumbles, never have to see me again. Luna shook her head as she sheathed the sword slowly as she got close, before thrusting the blade at the man's jaw from bellow causing him to get knocked back and hit his skull on the back wall.

"Yeah, I think we got other plans, like the both of you getting your time in the court for the murders of all the other adventurers, and two counts of attempted murder, and my own murder." Luna said as her menacing aura started to dissipate. Amelia started to walk around, looking at the scene. "Wouldn't you be an attempted murder as well?" Amelia asked. Luna shook her head. "I was in fact dead. I just didn't stay dead. You know my healing can revive the recently dead." Luna said in response much to the confusion of Amelia. "How does that work if you yourself were the one that died?"

Amelia's confusion seemed to only confuse Luna. "Anyways, I suggest we grab these bodies and get out of here. Turn them into the authorities."