One by one, the members of the Domain's Challenger party leapt their way onto the boss arena platform, a move that made more than a few of them sweat. While retreating from a boss fight is always a hazardous affair, the thought that they might have to do so while jumping and climbing makes this encounter feel particularly like a fight-to-the-death sort of situation. At the least the boss doesn't make any attacks while the team forms up, or even reveal herself, giving Lyota time to issue a few warnings.
"Recall Fatestealer's report - the Challenger who was resurrected as the dungeon's newest boss was known to be a Midnight Shadow. Regardless of her form, be prepared for shadow magic and ranged archery attacks. She's likely already here in the room with us."
Before anyone else on the team can respond, a voice echoes out from around the half-dome of the arena. Or rather, that's Lyota's first impression, but as she attempts to narrow down the voice's source she realizes that through some trick, the noise is actually coming from multiple locations at once. "Ahhh, you're spoiling it! I was hoping maybe my first announcement of my presence would be after I shot an arrow into somebody. Guess I should offer you congratulations, though - not only are you the first team to try Floor Six, but you're my first dungeon fight! I was worried I might have to wait another month or so before someone got here, so thanks!"
Wetears grumbles as he once again forms up his shield wall of summoned spirits. "Okay, this whole 'reincarnated bosses' thing is just kind of creepy - a monster shouldn't sound so flippin' cheerful!"
"You don't like how I sound? Well, bad news then - you're going to like how this sounds even less." Before the goblin can retort Taly's speech turns into a cry. Not the piercing sound of a bird of prey, but more of a deeply disturbing wail - yet unlike any the party's ever experienced before. The noise does hurt their ears, yes, but at the same time it seems to trigger highly disorienting emotions and memories. As the group wavers, feelings of despair and reminders of painful moments begin to occupy their full concentration. A potentially deadly distraction, as Passy and Wetears both begin to stumble, coming dangerously close to several of the trap doors built into the floor of the suspended platform half of the arena.
The wail comes to a halt not when Taly ceases her attack however, but when it's overridden by a new sound. A sudden, clear trill from Lionel's flute interrupts her call, and the incubus immediately follows it up with a tune that clears his teammates' thoughts. The calming, peaceful tune seems entirely out of place in a dungeon fight, but the magical song does its work quickly and the entire audio contest lasts no more than twenty seconds. Lionel keeps his instrument handy, prepared to counteract whatever sort of revenge Taly might take out on him for ruining her assault, but instead the floor boss laughs.
"What are the odds! My first fight, and I get a musical opponent! Hells, I don't think I've seen more than one or two Bards in town the entire time I've been here, what luck."
The demon chuckles, keeping his tone light even as he attempts to provoke the woman. "Perhaps not so surprising - luck is a favorite tool of mine. Shall we sing and see whose lyrics outdo the other's?"
The disembodied voice chuckles back, but with a dismissive tone. "Hmmmm...nah. Haven't had much time to practice those moves, and I think I'll save it for someone easier. Good news, then - you get to face me with the skills I'm good at."
Before anyone else can answer, a pair of black arrows shoot out of the arena's shadows, one at each of the kobold Mages. As swift as they are however the party was ready and waiting for an attack, and Wetears is able to block the shot at Barny with his shield while Lyota actually lashes the second out of the air with her whip. As she does so, the team captain shouts her orders. "Passy! Burn out the shadows, we need to find where she's hiding! Bard, keep us light on our feet, so we do not fall for the traps! Barny, strike as soon as she's revealed!"
As Lionel begins to play a dancing tune which seems to put a magical spring into their steps, Passy lifts both hands and shoots a ball of light from each. Rather than simply fly into the stone like a pair of fireballs, the spheres fix themselves along the roof of the half-dome, turning into bright points that illuminate the full arena. As they do they reveal that the presumably smooth wall of the arena is in fact dotted by a number of perches, and on one of those perches a woman with a black cloak and mask turns to hide her eyes.
"Gah, a Light Mage, too!? It's like you bastards put together a team specifically designed to fuck with me!" Despite her brief blindness the banshee is still able to leap from her perch before Barny's blast of soulflame can reach her, and even as she rolls onto the arena floor she still manages to fire off a shot that keeps the party on the defensive. With Wetears tied up defending the kobolds, Lyota takes charge of engaging Taly directly, and the demon quickly begins lashing her weapon in Taly's direction.
"The party was formed before you even took up your role, former Field Inspector. But it seems to be a good matchup indeed - you were quite the rulebreaker in life, were you not?" The fury demon's mystic weapon manages to latch on to Taly's ankle after a few attempts, and as it does so the woman screams out in far more pain than a simple whip strike could account for.
"AHH! I wasn't - wasn't that bad! But that fucking hurts, and I ain't the Masochist of the family, so fuck off with that shit!" Drawing a blade from her waist, Taly moves to slice off the whip holding on to her, a move which bothers Lyota very little. As a physical representation of Lyota's demonic magics, there's little most mundane blades would be able to do to damage it - and then she realizes a moment too late that Taly's weapon is no normal knife. Even as it comes into contact with the glowing strand the metal is already taking on the form of a dark shadow, and to the demon's intense surprise, a single flick of Taly's wrist leaves the last few feet of the whip lying on the ground and fading into nothingness.
"I - what? I've never seen anything but anti-magic spells disrupt a Soul Lasher's weapon! What did you do!?"
Several more blades appear in Taly's hand before she answers, each of them quickly flung towards various members of the party to keep them on the defensive. "You Domain types are good at soul magic, right? Manipulations of soul energy and all that? Well then you should know - shadow magic decays soul energy, haha!" Rather than return to a ranged engagement, Taly rushes Lyota and tackles her to the ground, keeping close enough that the demon's whip will be of no use. She's sadly disappointed to discover that the woman is plenty strong enough to handle a round or two of wrestling, as the pair roll across the floor.
"Decaying souls!? You were a monster before this if that's the tactics you use!"
"Oh, please - it heals like any other wound! Unless I kill you, I guess." After that statement Taly distracts her opponent by slamming her head into Lyota's nose, and as she straddles the woman she lifts her shadow-enhanced dagger high. Twenty feet away, her team freezes for a moment, wondering if they're about to witness their captain killed in front of them.
And Taly hesitates.
Lyota's first look is one of confusion, but as she glances at Taly's eyes, she immediately realizes her opportunity. Slipping her own dagger from her waist, she manages to shank Taly in the side, and yet that only seems to make the banshee angry. "Dammit! Fine, you asked for it!" The boss once again lifts her blade high - only to wince as a pair of dice materialize from the air above her, before falling on her head and bouncing off. She looks around in confusion, wondering if there was a hidden party member sneaking behind her, once again delaying her foe's execution.
This time Lyota's party takes their chance without hesitation. Blasts of flame and light strike Taly in the head and chest, throwing her back onto the floor, and to add insult to injury Wetears even throws back a few of her own blades at her. It's not enough to kill a Banshee Queen right off, but with no shadows left to hide in and her throat wounded in the first attack, the fight is essentially already over. The Rogue does manage to scramble to her feet, taking magical hits the entire time, but Lyota once again trips her to the ground with her whip, and this time Taly doesn't get the chance to free herself. After a very intense round of arcane blasts from the party's kobolds, Taly's remains are little more than a smoldering pile on the arena floor.
While Lyota feels at her bleeding nose, Wetears eyes the dice lying on the ground. "Now, I ain't seeing shit, right? Those are your dice there, Fatestealer?"
The man nods as he retrieves them, although there's a look of concern on his face as he does so. "Indeed they are. They appeared at quite the fortuitous moment, did they not? Bad luck for our opponent, there."
"Yeah..." The goblin eyes the incubus. "Ain't that backwards of what you said? I thought it was supposed to bring you good luck first, then pay you back in shit luck later, right?"
"That is how the magic was taught to me, and how it's acted in every single instance I've used it in thus far. Perhaps it's simply a very rare effect?"
Lyota returns to the conversation, after Barny finishes a very unusual treatment of shooting healing flames up her nostrils to fix her nose. "Hrmph...everything smells like smoke now, but thank you, Wielder. I did enjoy luck of the more mundane type, whatever the case might be with your magic dice. I could sense that the woman we fought has taken lives before...and yet she seemed unready to take mine. Another oddity of using reincarnated souls for dungeon monsters, I suppose, I've never heard of one having an issue with violence so far."
Wetears chuckles. "Might just be lucky cause we were her first fight, then. Well, anyhow - unless the dungeon's got another surprise floor ready for us, shall we wrap this up?"
While the kobolds begin to check out the reward chest, Lyota begins making her way towards the exit at the rear of the half-dome arena. "Yes, let's. I don't know if we can expect violence from the Core Guardian, but - " As the fury demon crosses the threshold into the next tunnel, she suddenly grabs at her head with one hand while holding on to the tunnel wall with the other. "Gah! It's - too much!"
Lionel rushes forward, helping her back into the arena. "What is? The feelings you were getting from the dungeon core?"
"Yes, it's...there's more than distance separating dungeon floors, the magical barriers along with my meditation were holding back the worst of it for me today. But the core chamber lies beyond and - and I do not know if I can proceed. If I encounter the core in person, I do not know if I can restrain myself."
Barny grimaces as he looks back at the path that brought them here. "Well, that's going to be a problem. The exit portal out's probably in the chamber itself, we'd have to go all the way backwards through the floor to get back to the one we last passed. And we can't just, you know...not ever see the core chamber. Do you want us to make sure it's clear, then you can like...rush through and out?"
Lyota grimaces, more than a little shame apparent on her face. "I - I won't abandon my team just for the sake of my own weaknesses! Just - just give me a few moments to try and center myself..."
"And hope that you don't lose control at the worst possible moment?" In shock, the members of the Domain party turn their heads to find a man waiting for them in the tunnel ahead - Sincere, looking more than a little sinister in the gloomy lighting of Taly's arena now that Passy's temporary solar spells have begun to fade away. Wetears immediately moves to defend the team with his shield, and shouts out a challenge to the arcane demon.
"Really? Too impatient to let the fight come to you? No worries, I don't mind taking you on right here!"
Sincere simply shakes his head before responding in a calm tone of voice. "Not at all. It's clear to see that things have become more...complicated. So, Soul Lasher Silverstar. How about you and I have a little chat?"
DaScoot
To be honest I don't know if it's more of a surprise at this point if I do kill off some Challengers or if I don't.
Enjoy!
One by one, the members of the Domain's Challenger party leapt their way onto the boss arena platform, a move that made more than a few of them sweat. While retreating from a boss fight is always a hazardous affair, the thought that they might have to do so while jumping and climbing makes this encounter feel particularly like a fight-to-the-death sort of situation. At the least the boss doesn't make any attacks while the team forms up, or even reveal herself, giving Lyota time to issue a few warnings.
"Recall Fatestealer's report - the Challenger who was resurrected as the dungeon's newest boss was known to be a Midnight Shadow. Regardless of her form, be prepared for shadow magic and ranged archery attacks. She's likely already here in the room with us."
Before anyone else on the team can respond, a voice echoes out from around the half-dome of the arena. Or rather, that's Lyota's first impression, but as she attempts to narrow down the voice's source she realizes that through some trick, the noise is actually coming from multiple locations at once. "Ahhh, you're spoiling it! I was hoping maybe my first announcement of my presence would be after I shot an arrow into somebody. Guess I should offer you congratulations, though - not only are you the first team to try Floor Six, but you're my first dungeon fight! I was worried I might have to wait another month or so before someone got here, so thanks!"
Wetears grumbles as he once again forms up his shield wall of summoned spirits. "Okay, this whole 'reincarnated bosses' thing is just kind of creepy - a monster shouldn't sound so flippin' cheerful!"
"You don't like how I sound? Well, bad news then - you're going to like how this sounds even less." Before the goblin can retort Taly's speech turns into a cry. Not the piercing sound of a bird of prey, but more of a deeply disturbing wail - yet unlike any the party's ever experienced before. The noise does hurt their ears, yes, but at the same time it seems to trigger highly disorienting emotions and memories. As the group wavers, feelings of despair and reminders of painful moments begin to occupy their full concentration. A potentially deadly distraction, as Passy and Wetears both begin to stumble, coming dangerously close to several of the trap doors built into the floor of the suspended platform half of the arena.
The wail comes to a halt not when Taly ceases her attack however, but when it's overridden by a new sound. A sudden, clear trill from Lionel's flute interrupts her call, and the incubus immediately follows it up with a tune that clears his teammates' thoughts. The calming, peaceful tune seems entirely out of place in a dungeon fight, but the magical song does its work quickly and the entire audio contest lasts no more than twenty seconds. Lionel keeps his instrument handy, prepared to counteract whatever sort of revenge Taly might take out on him for ruining her assault, but instead the floor boss laughs.
"What are the odds! My first fight, and I get a musical opponent! Hells, I don't think I've seen more than one or two Bards in town the entire time I've been here, what luck."
The demon chuckles, keeping his tone light even as he attempts to provoke the woman. "Perhaps not so surprising - luck is a favorite tool of mine. Shall we sing and see whose lyrics outdo the other's?"
The disembodied voice chuckles back, but with a dismissive tone. "Hmmmm...nah. Haven't had much time to practice those moves, and I think I'll save it for someone easier. Good news, then - you get to face me with the skills I'm good at."
Before anyone else can answer, a pair of black arrows shoot out of the arena's shadows, one at each of the kobold Mages. As swift as they are however the party was ready and waiting for an attack, and Wetears is able to block the shot at Barny with his shield while Lyota actually lashes the second out of the air with her whip. As she does so, the team captain shouts her orders. "Passy! Burn out the shadows, we need to find where she's hiding! Bard, keep us light on our feet, so we do not fall for the traps! Barny, strike as soon as she's revealed!"
As Lionel begins to play a dancing tune which seems to put a magical spring into their steps, Passy lifts both hands and shoots a ball of light from each. Rather than simply fly into the stone like a pair of fireballs, the spheres fix themselves along the roof of the half-dome, turning into bright points that illuminate the full arena. As they do they reveal that the presumably smooth wall of the arena is in fact dotted by a number of perches, and on one of those perches a woman with a black cloak and mask turns to hide her eyes.
"Gah, a Light Mage, too!? It's like you bastards put together a team specifically designed to fuck with me!" Despite her brief blindness the banshee is still able to leap from her perch before Barny's blast of soulflame can reach her, and even as she rolls onto the arena floor she still manages to fire off a shot that keeps the party on the defensive. With Wetears tied up defending the kobolds, Lyota takes charge of engaging Taly directly, and the demon quickly begins lashing her weapon in Taly's direction.
"The party was formed before you even took up your role, former Field Inspector. But it seems to be a good matchup indeed - you were quite the rulebreaker in life, were you not?" The fury demon's mystic weapon manages to latch on to Taly's ankle after a few attempts, and as it does so the woman screams out in far more pain than a simple whip strike could account for.
"AHH! I wasn't - wasn't that bad! But that fucking hurts, and I ain't the Masochist of the family, so fuck off with that shit!" Drawing a blade from her waist, Taly moves to slice off the whip holding on to her, a move which bothers Lyota very little. As a physical representation of Lyota's demonic magics, there's little most mundane blades would be able to do to damage it - and then she realizes a moment too late that Taly's weapon is no normal knife. Even as it comes into contact with the glowing strand the metal is already taking on the form of a dark shadow, and to the demon's intense surprise, a single flick of Taly's wrist leaves the last few feet of the whip lying on the ground and fading into nothingness.
"I - what? I've never seen anything but anti-magic spells disrupt a Soul Lasher's weapon! What did you do!?"
Several more blades appear in Taly's hand before she answers, each of them quickly flung towards various members of the party to keep them on the defensive. "You Domain types are good at soul magic, right? Manipulations of soul energy and all that? Well then you should know - shadow magic decays soul energy, haha!" Rather than return to a ranged engagement, Taly rushes Lyota and tackles her to the ground, keeping close enough that the demon's whip will be of no use. She's sadly disappointed to discover that the woman is plenty strong enough to handle a round or two of wrestling, as the pair roll across the floor.
"Decaying souls!? You were a monster before this if that's the tactics you use!"
"Oh, please - it heals like any other wound! Unless I kill you, I guess." After that statement Taly distracts her opponent by slamming her head into Lyota's nose, and as she straddles the woman she lifts her shadow-enhanced dagger high. Twenty feet away, her team freezes for a moment, wondering if they're about to witness their captain killed in front of them.
And Taly hesitates.
Lyota's first look is one of confusion, but as she glances at Taly's eyes, she immediately realizes her opportunity. Slipping her own dagger from her waist, she manages to shank Taly in the side, and yet that only seems to make the banshee angry. "Dammit! Fine, you asked for it!" The boss once again lifts her blade high - only to wince as a pair of dice materialize from the air above her, before falling on her head and bouncing off. She looks around in confusion, wondering if there was a hidden party member sneaking behind her, once again delaying her foe's execution.
This time Lyota's party takes their chance without hesitation. Blasts of flame and light strike Taly in the head and chest, throwing her back onto the floor, and to add insult to injury Wetears even throws back a few of her own blades at her. It's not enough to kill a Banshee Queen right off, but with no shadows left to hide in and her throat wounded in the first attack, the fight is essentially already over. The Rogue does manage to scramble to her feet, taking magical hits the entire time, but Lyota once again trips her to the ground with her whip, and this time Taly doesn't get the chance to free herself. After a very intense round of arcane blasts from the party's kobolds, Taly's remains are little more than a smoldering pile on the arena floor.
While Lyota feels at her bleeding nose, Wetears eyes the dice lying on the ground. "Now, I ain't seeing shit, right? Those are your dice there, Fatestealer?"
The man nods as he retrieves them, although there's a look of concern on his face as he does so. "Indeed they are. They appeared at quite the fortuitous moment, did they not? Bad luck for our opponent, there."
"Yeah..." The goblin eyes the incubus. "Ain't that backwards of what you said? I thought it was supposed to bring you good luck first, then pay you back in shit luck later, right?"
"That is how the magic was taught to me, and how it's acted in every single instance I've used it in thus far. Perhaps it's simply a very rare effect?"
Lyota returns to the conversation, after Barny finishes a very unusual treatment of shooting healing flames up her nostrils to fix her nose. "Hrmph...everything smells like smoke now, but thank you, Wielder. I did enjoy luck of the more mundane type, whatever the case might be with your magic dice. I could sense that the woman we fought has taken lives before...and yet she seemed unready to take mine. Another oddity of using reincarnated souls for dungeon monsters, I suppose, I've never heard of one having an issue with violence so far."
Wetears chuckles. "Might just be lucky cause we were her first fight, then. Well, anyhow - unless the dungeon's got another surprise floor ready for us, shall we wrap this up?"
While the kobolds begin to check out the reward chest, Lyota begins making her way towards the exit at the rear of the half-dome arena. "Yes, let's. I don't know if we can expect violence from the Core Guardian, but - " As the fury demon crosses the threshold into the next tunnel, she suddenly grabs at her head with one hand while holding on to the tunnel wall with the other. "Gah! It's - too much!"
Lionel rushes forward, helping her back into the arena. "What is? The feelings you were getting from the dungeon core?"
"Yes, it's...there's more than distance separating dungeon floors, the magical barriers along with my meditation were holding back the worst of it for me today. But the core chamber lies beyond and - and I do not know if I can proceed. If I encounter the core in person, I do not know if I can restrain myself."
Barny grimaces as he looks back at the path that brought them here. "Well, that's going to be a problem. The exit portal out's probably in the chamber itself, we'd have to go all the way backwards through the floor to get back to the one we last passed. And we can't just, you know...not ever see the core chamber. Do you want us to make sure it's clear, then you can like...rush through and out?"
Lyota grimaces, more than a little shame apparent on her face. "I - I won't abandon my team just for the sake of my own weaknesses! Just - just give me a few moments to try and center myself..."
"And hope that you don't lose control at the worst possible moment?" In shock, the members of the Domain party turn their heads to find a man waiting for them in the tunnel ahead - Sincere, looking more than a little sinister in the gloomy lighting of Taly's arena now that Passy's temporary solar spells have begun to fade away. Wetears immediately moves to defend the team with his shield, and shouts out a challenge to the arcane demon.
"Really? Too impatient to let the fight come to you? No worries, I don't mind taking you on right here!"
Sincere simply shakes his head before responding in a calm tone of voice. "Not at all. It's clear to see that things have become more...complicated. So, Soul Lasher Silverstar. How about you and I have a little chat?"
DaScoot
To be honest I don't know if it's more of a surprise at this point if I do kill off some Challengers or if I don't.
Enjoy!
