yui

The best shot was one that was carefully planned, with a target clear in mind. And Robin definitely had a target in mind. That eye. It had created that mist, and while said mist was now starting to fade thanks to Estelle's efforts, the fact of the matter was that whatever the eye was, it was clearly a greater threat to the party's continued safety than the zombies lurching about in here. And Robin was only going to get one good shot from the relative comfort of invisibility Ziun had provided. Which was why Robin had initially hesitated when Lana found herself face-to-face with a rather hungry-looking zombie. Normally, she'd open fire without a second thought, confident in the ability to hit her target while maybe only slightly grazing her allies at worst. But she wanted her one shot from invisibility to count, and she wanted it to be on that eye. Luckily, Estelle had things covered, with something far more safe and reliable in these situations than bullets: Magic. Not the explosive fiery kind like Robin used either, which was surely nothing but beneficial to Lana who would have been caught in the blast had Robin interfered with the same methods. Relieved that she could focus on her original goal, Robin raised a pistol, aiming it directly at the eye that had been causing the party some mild inconvenience so far. And then she fired.

A furious exchange of swords & spells was going down just over there! All the while, Morgan, equipped with the flaming arms of bone, was preparing something with the time Trevor's exchange was buying. The zombie girl twisted her torso to the side. Twisted more. More. More. Bones in her body cracked and splintered in response to turning more than their rigid structure allowed, as her body made half a rotation. Then a full one. Another. Another. Soon, it was hard to twist her body any further, and even if she wanted to, she wouldn't get the chance. As a pair of bolts shot out from Grigoriy's attack, one of them caught her square in the leg. With her full attention on further contorting her body, the bolt caused the zombie girl to stumble, which in turn meant it was time to release the built-up tension she'd been building up. As her body tipped over, Morgan "let go" of her torso's twists & bends, letting physics do the work as her body began rapidly spinning back to normal. And by planting her flaming bone hands firmly on the ground, she was able to turn that rotation into a powerful tool, effectively turning herself into a wheel of fire darting across the battlefield, on a direct crash course with Grigoriy.

this one's weird even for a tom cardy song

13th District, January 1st, 6:00 PM... Home Sweet Home Generally speaking, the last thing somebody probably wanted after a long day of nearly dying, watching someone actually die - the mayor of Megalopolis at that - and still having to deal with paperwork after the fact, was for it to be raining when they got home. But if she was asked, Sei would admit that at this point, crossing the threshold into that one corner of town where it constantly rained was somewhat refreshing. If nothing else, it meant there would be somebody to welcome her back home. Sei had even made a point to send a text on the way back, to let Alice know for certain that she was fine, despite the roughed-up appearance she'd would be met with. Once everything had settled down, she unceremoniously made her way home, stepped inside, hung her raincoat up by the door and left her boots beside it... And couldn't help but notice the lights were all out. Which was odd. With Alice being a Fount, it wasn't like Sei had trouble tracking her down when she was nearby, and she was definitely in this building, just on the other side of a small wall that separated the house's entrance from the rest of the living room/kitchen. As Sei turned the corner to find out what the deal with the creepily-dark interior was, she did spot two little sources of light. Candles! Two candles forming the number 29 had been carefully placed in the center of what seemed to be a strawberry cake, which itself was set on a plate sitting atop a pair of brightly-wrapped boxes. "I heard someone around here's getting old," Alice teased. "Go clean yourself up; I got you a couple presents and this cake won't be good forever. Happy birthday, Sei." As Sei passed by, she couldn't help but notice the state of the kitchen out the corner of her eye. It was an absolute disaster, but one that was clearly in the middle of being cleaned before stopping abruptly. And, after a couple of minutes to wash herself off, it was time to sit down, and have a nice evening. Cake was had, jokes were exchanged, and eventually it was time to see what was in the two boxes Alice had left sitting in the middle of the table. The first was just some clothes Sei had commented on needing. A new pair of boots, some shirts, and one skirt she distinctly recalled seeing on one of Alice's rare ventures outside of the 13th District, when the two had gone to the mall together on a day that already happened to be raining a few weeks ago. The other was... "What the!! Alice isn't this thing like crazy expensive!? How did you even know I was looking at these lately!?" "I've got my resources. You aren't the only one who's got kami experience, you know." 1st District, January 2nd, 9:50 AM... Sei always liked arriving to meetings and such early. Punctuality was a good habit to form, and her relative proximity to the 1st District only made showing up early all the easier for her. And since today was as good a day as any, she opted to try on that skirt she'd gotten just the day before. Pink wasn't usually something Sei went for, but "expand my horizons" had been a resolution she set for herself for the year of 2100. So, here she was, pink skirt, white shirt, ready to investigate. Alas, she imagined the MPD was busy enough at present, and she wasn't going to make their job even harder by bothering them with questions about an incident they probably knew even less about than she did. So, her attention was less on the site and more on the people around it. Above all else, she was keeping a watchful eye out for suspicious-looking people. And possibly whoever could have been behind that piece of street art over there. 1st District, 10:00 AM... Aside from the general mood in Megalopolis following yesterday's tragedy, it was quite a lovely day today, and Kiyoko woke up feeling confident. Just yesterday she had helped save the city, made significant contributions to the cleanup at Samsara Tower's final resting place, and even made a tentative friend in her fellow literature-wielding Fount! And best of all? The girl in question wanted to read the Necronomicon! Normally Kiyoko had to convince others to do it herself, to no real success either, but this was practically a free convert if all went well! Alas, the timing of the request could have been better. Kiyoko had been putting the holy book to significant use yesterday, and having only delved into the early chapters that could be read with her limiting, purely-human form, she wasn't too certain about the finer details of its inner workings. She wanted to make absolutely certain that Kaede reading the book would let her see the things Kiyoko saw that fateful day, and hear the things she heard, so Kiyoko had said that while she'd be delighted to have an exchange of information, yesterday wasn't really the best time for it. The reason she cited was she wanted to confirm her own "family" was overall unharmed - which was thankfully the case, aside from the shock of the news - but the reality was she wanted to give the Necronomicon some time to "recharge", just in case. But that brought her recollection back round to today! Today was a very important day, after all! Not only was she planning to go home tonight having successfully converted someone to the one true faith, but it was also the day her investigations began in earnest. Before her lied a big pile of nothing, right in the middle of the city, where Samsara Tower used to be before Stratford went berserk. There were a lot of questions Kiyoko had about the scene before her, though it was more about the culprits behind Stratford's rampage than the conspicuously missing Samsara Tower. Most importantly, there was no way to use this as a springboard to spread the old word until the whole mess was resolved and the culprits were brought to justice thanks to the personal involvement of Kiyoko and by extension the Old Gods, so just who and where were they? As if staring at the empty lot and its police tape barrier would yield answers, Kiyoko had been doing just that. Until a person walked straight into her, anyway. Then her full attention was directed at them instead. "Oh, pardon me!" she said. She could detect the presence of another Fount in this girl who had bumped into her. With any luck, it was a stray thread that would lead her into the tangle of evil lurking somewhere in the city. "I must have been taking up more of the path than I thought. You're also here to see the lot, I take it? It seems to be all the news is talking about, after all." It was immediately clear from the girl's directionless stare and dark glasses, as well as the cane in her hand, that she was blind. "Whoops! Gotta watch where I'm going!" she snickered like she had just told the most incredible joke as she stood back up and dusted herself off. "I'm not really one to see much, I'm just here with a coworker," she waved a hand in front of her face with a grin, "do you know what went on here? Been hearing lots of different stuff from lots of different people." Without giving Kiyoko a chance to respond to her question, the girl extended a hand out to the rest of the group, seemingly expecting a handshake in introduction. "Usagi's the name, btdubs. What's such a colorful group doing together here?" "Kiyoko. It's a pleasure to meet you." Kiyoko took this girl's hand, giving it a shake. The name Usagi seemed awfully appropriate; her high energy made Kiyoko think of a rabbit. Gesturing to the empty lot, she explained "The short version is that for reasons and by methods I don't fully understand, somebody incited a berserk rampage from our late mayor - may the Old Gods watch over his soul - and he used the Samsara Tower as something like a skyscraper-sized suit of power armor. The way I hear it, it caused quite a mess in a bunch of districts, but he was stopped in the Sixth District. The group I've come with were planning to look into the matter to try and learn more about the whole incident." "And what about you?" Kiyoko then asked. "Something similar, I'd imagine, if you're here with a co-worker. What sort of work brings you to such a scene? Not journalism I hope, or else I'm afraid you're quite late to the headline." Usagi frowned slightly as her hand was taken by Kiyoko, but the expression faded in an instant. Removing her glasses, she wiped them off with the corner of her shirt, her clouded and blank eyes unabashedly within full view. "Y'know, mostly just clerical stuff. My boss gets real disorganized so I keep him on track." She put her sunglasses back on, smiling warmly, "It looks like his and your bunch's plans are along the same lines, make sure to keep all your eyes open!" Despite not really answering Kiyoko's question, Usagi turned on her heel and made her way away from the group, weabing between people in the crowd as her folded cane clacked back and forth, hanging from the belt loop of her jeans. "...will do." What a strange person. With that out of the way, Kiyoko brought her attention back to the other Founts. Kaede was here, and that was far more important than someone's seemingly-blind assistant. The book. She'd have to get her to read it. And while she was at it, she'd get to take a look at that fascinating rainbow scroll her fellow wielder of literature had. Manuevering her way through the gaggle of other Founts that had assembled here, Kiyoko flagged Kaede down with a waving hand until the two were within speaking range of each other. "Good morning," Kiyoko smiled. "Sorry about postponing our little exchange of info until today, but like I said, more important matters and all." Eagerly extending her holy book in Kaede's direction, she continued "I'm not sure if you'll be able to read it, but by all means, I encourage you to try your hardest. Give it a nice, thorough look. You might be surprised by what you find out!" Kaede excitedly took the book, turning it over in her hands as she ran her fingers over the spine. She looked tired, and was tired; she had barely slept the night before, her entire body wired after the events of the day and the near miss for both her and her mother. Her parents almost hadn't let her leave the house that morning, but she'd wormed her way out of it. "It has to be very old," she said, marveling at the ancient cover. "You've taken great care of it to have it still be in a condition where people can handle it with their bare hands." "Thank you. It wouldn't reflect well on me if I simply let this book fall apart, so I take great care to ensure it is well maintained." Kaede placed her fingers around the edges of the cover. She pulled the book open to its first page, her eyes wide. She held that pose for several moments, expression unchanging. Then her forehead creased slightly in a frown. She turned the page, scanning the next entry more quickly. After repeating this three more times she finally looked up. "I can't make heads or tails of it," she said, sounding a little bit offended that the book had the audacity to be incomprehensible. "It's coptic, that's for certain, but... Oh, it's like someone who knew Sumerian wrote it all and it doesn't make any sense." "Coptic, you say?" There was only a small amount of disappointment on Kiyoko's face, though it didn't fully reflect the feelings behind it. Was this some divine prank? That Kiyoko was so blessed with otherworldly visions upon first reading the book, but not Kaede? There were a couple of other explanations she could think of too, that didn't involve divine pranks. Perhaps Kaede's status as a Fount was creating some sort of interference? Alternatively, Kiyoko was more chosen than she initially suspected. Had she underestimated the confidence that had been placed in her by those beyond? Oh dear. She'd have to work a lot harder to gather new followers if that was the case. "I'm not really a linguistics expert, but that doesn't seem right." Flipping through a few of the pages, Kiyoko stopped at one point in particular, pointing it out with her finger. "See here for example, where it says ♥☼☺♀♣‼♥♣? From what little specks of knowledge I've got on the matter, that doesn't quite sound like any Egyptian dialect. There's no denying these are hieroglyphics, but perhaps they're not meant to be used in ways you're familiar with? Very interesting all the same, and having a rough idea of a time period to pin to the book is oddly comforting! Though, I'll admit, I always imagined it being a bit older than that."

I have spent the last hour and a half carefully reading this post and pointing out all the instances in which you're probably wrong. Excluding the PePe thing, which Blake already covered in detail. >it could just be me, but i get the feeling that increasing power creep so steadily and so much is going to make it harder for modern/mainline ygo to grow or to maintain its market as more players move on to more balanced card games (mtg, pokemon, or more niche TCGs.) Yu-Gi-Oh's release in NA was in 2002, and it's Japanese release was in 1999. The game has been steadily power-creeping for nearly two and a half decades now, so I imagine if power creep was going to be a wall that bars entry for newer players, this would have happened years ago. >nowadays with konami taking their time to move the new years banlist to us guys here in north america, it feels kind of like they're hanging us to dry OCG and TCG banlists have never dropped at the same time, or if they have, it was the exception and not the rule. We aren't being "hung to dry", especially with the most recent banlist dropping in December. This isn't a new thing either, so I don't get what you mean by "nowadays". >more so when you consider how maxx c at3, etc. over there affects how cards are designed around them, which trickles down to us You may have a point here. But not before discounting archetypes that are released as TCG-exclusive and therefore would logically be designed around TCG's banlist, including but not limited to Kaiju, Kozmo, BA, Myutant, and Ghoti, of which all of them except those last two saw meta relevance at least once. It could also be the case that this best-selling card game with two separate banlists designs cards with both banlists in mind. >you have to make room for all these different rules and conditions added over the years (just look at how many extra deck strats there are) just to know how to play, memorize the opposing deck strats just to play against them, know their weak spots to stop combos at the right time, to build your side deck, etc That's every card game. If anything, I would argue that aside from the rulings nightmare that is the Damage Step, Yu-Gi-Oh is one of the easier card games to pick up, despite its lengthy effect texts. Yes, there's a fair bit of reading to start off, but it's not like in Magic where deckbuilding can be so complex that "deckbuilders" and "pilots" are two different entities at some levels of play due to things like mana curves, color distribution etc. >and that's assuming you got both the dollars to spare and the will to put it in, and even then it could get upended in ??? months time when new meta or new banlist comes in Again, that's every card game. >in the meantime if you come across a deck that you can't counter, or has its own counter you can't get around, whoop de fucking do. That's not just every card game, but every competitive game in general. You can tell us you just don't like Tear without making a mini-essay on power creep, you know. >compare all this to something like chess where yes, there's a lot to remember if you wanna go far, but you can depend on more of it more of the time as you always get the same starting situation every game (more or less) so it's skill against skill alone That is a completely invalid comparison specifically because chess always starts in the same situation. Card games deal a random hand at the start, so comparing it to something with the same consistent starting conditions just defeats the purpose. Not to mention one is a board game with the objective of making a specific piece unable to move, while the other is a card game with the objective of dealing 8000 damage to an opponent (usually). You could not have picked a worse game to compare to, as they're completely different genres and mediums. You wouldn't compare Castlevania and Binding of Isaac, would you? No, that'd be silly, so why Yu-Gi-Oh and chess? >or even compare it to the other games i mentioned, where the effects are kept relatively simple (or at least, not walls of text) and there are resource systems (pokemon's energy cards, mtg's mana system, etc.) to keep power creep in check. As has been pointed out multiple times already, Pokémon is power crept as hell despite having a resource system. Magic keeps adding new keywords and systems - more frequently than Yu-Gi-Oh at that - making it more and more unforgiving for new players who want to play a format not named Standard, especially when things like night/day, Initiative, and Mutate existed. Magic is also power crept as well, though likely not as much as the other two card games this thread is all about. I wouldn't know. >it's so luck based and one-sided you might as well play solitare or some other oneplayer game that you'd probably get more fulfillment out of Say it with me kids. It's. A. Card. Game. Of course luck is going to be a factor; there's a reason "luck of the draw" is a phrase that exists in the English language. It just so happens that Yu-Gi-Oh is designed to be a high-power game with a simple framework (the reason for long effect texts), which leads to faster games. In fact, I'd even argue that Yu-Gi-Oh has luck as less of a factor than Pokémon or Magic, since not only is Yu-Gi-Oh rife with search/draw cards, but you don't need to draw those precious resources you keep hyping up in addition to the cards that use them. That you're getting beaten so one-sidedly as you make it sound makes me think you're building your deck wrong, or that you're building something from 2008 and are shocked it isn't holding up 15 years later. >please share your thoughts on the subject here I've been trying to keep things professional up until now, but my honest-to-god, unfiltered thoughts, are that you're mad salty because your pet deck fell off and you're blaming concepts older than the deck itself and/or Tear that happens to be meta right now. Power creep in Yu-Gi-Oh is far from being an issue at present, with the people most affected by it being competitive players who go to tournaments, since they have to buy the packs to get the new meta which is how Konami makes the money to keep the game afloat. I play Yu-Gi-Oh to fuck around with friends, and the game fits that purpose perfectly, far more than the head-scratching complexity of Magic or the explosive nature of Pokémon.

9:30 AM, Naranja STEM homeroom As was the case more often than not, Wendy had arrived to the homeroom early. Her days started early, after all, and she was often in the room before most others. As was generally the case, Wendy used this spare time before class to study. Lately, her attention had been on the geography of Paldea. If she was going to live in the region, it only made sense to not just live here, but to also understand where she truly was, right? Though, admittedly, she had yet to venture outside of Mesagoza. She'd have to do that inevitably, since she did still have a job to do here and all, but she imagined the school staff wouldn't take kindly to one of their students just up and taking off into the wild to research a weather phenomenon the people of Paldea were altogether completely unbothered by. "I'm sorry, everyone. Director Clavell was speaking to me about the announcement today." Ah yes, the announcement. Wendy had heard gossip about it lately, though she wasn't paying much attention to it, so she wasn't privvy to the details. After a bit of discussion on the matter, it was time for classes to start proper, and they would continue for the next two and a half hours, until noon. At which time... "Attention students and teachers, this is Director Clavell. At this time, I would like you to lead your students, one class at a time, to the courtyard for our special announcement. We'll begin with the General Studies..." As the students assembled to hear Director Clavell deliver this important announcement, it took some persuading to get the crowds to simmer down so he could be properly heard. And once he started speaking, Wendy made sure to give the good Director her undivided attention. A treasure hunt. At first she wasn't particularly interested - going off in search of chests of gold never really sounded like her thing - but as he clarified that this treasure could be anything and was more likely than not a highly personalized "treasure" more in the metaphorical sense, the hunt suddenly seemed much more appealing. After all, Wendy was already here to seek out the greatest treasure of them all. Knowledge. "Of course... I will have to wrap this up shortly, so you can all begin your planning... We have organized the groups for your travels. If you are unsure of who your group contains, find a teacher or refer to the board we have put up in the main hall. Please, stick together for safety if you choose to travel across the region. For now, I will end on these important words. Never stop striving for anything but the best for yourself, students. If you lack direction, look to those around you for help. Your teachers will do whatever we can for you, as well as your friends, and of course... Your Pokémon. Never forget that." The crowd was about ready to disperse, but Clavell held a single hand up into the air, "Before you leave, we have two guest speakers. One, you all will likely know well. The other is associated with the Pokemon Activities Committee. Please, welcome Top Champion Geeta and Mr. Raoul Contesta to the stage." Raoul Contesta was first. By the sound of it, he'd be overseeing contests in Paldea, a new addition to the region. Wendy had some familiarity with them from her time in Hoenn, so she liked to think she'd be at something of an advantage if she were to pursue them recreationally. On the more battle-focused side of things, Top Champion Geeta claimed that the region's gym leaders were working to make this year's gym challenge the best yet. The concept still felt a bit foreign to her. The way she was used to gyms, people would just walk in, battle trainers, then square off with the gym leader to get the badge. Trying this out was also an option, to be certain. But those were all ultimately side goals. She didn't forget what really brought her here. Research on behalf of the Weather Institute. Not that she imagined the rest of her group would be interested in that. Of course, first she'd have to find her group. The board was already swarmed by other students by the time she had arrived, and she had trouble getting up close to find her group or the names of her teammates. The first thing she noticed, however, was a posted note, seemingly from a student. Urging members of Group 13 to meet up behind the western Pokémon Center. And, as luck would have it, once she was able to catch a glimpse of her name, it seemed that was the very group she belonged to as well! Truly, luck was on her side today! While Wendy would have hated to keep her team waiting, there was one detour she had to make first. A return to her dorm. An adventure across the Paldea region was set to begin, and if she was leaving the academy, she wanted to make sure she was ready to go. She had to make sure her bag was properly packed. Most of it was just potions for her pokemon and books for herself, and a spare poke ball or two. Nothing special, really. She had to make sure the place was effectively shut down before she left too; lights out, other electronics turned off, and ensuring anything that could be charged was fully charged. And of course, there was the matter of Wendy herself. She'd come here with a purpose, but also with an understanding of what she was signing up for. This was a job that could and very likely would involve getting wet, assigned to a person whose body really didn't like getting wet. While a conspicuous towel existed among the various items in her bag, more important were the conspicuous items on her body. A blue raincoat and matching boots adorned Wendy's body by the time she left her dorm, and stepped out into the rest of the academy campus, and Mesagoza in general. She wasn't going to pretend like it didn't grab a few looks here and there, but this was also not the first time Wendy had done this; in the time since getting to Paldea, if she left Naranja's campus for any period of time, and even if she expected to be on campus but outdoors for particularly long periods of time, it was never without this getup. Just in case. Eventually, she did make her way to the ladder mentioned in the note, to find two others had already arrived. A boy, and a girl, neither of whom she recognized. "Hello," she simply greeted. "I'm Wendy, Group 13 like the pair of you."

Just up the path lay the team's destination, a stone door built into a hill! But in the group's path, an obstacle had shown itself. A significant one, at that. Seven of those Drengr. Fighting what appeared to be quite a large, silver-furred bear. Now, Abby was no hunter, but she knew well enough to know that bears were to be given a respectable berth at best, because simply put, evolution had played favorites when creating bears. They were huge, strong, tough, and were great at both running you down and climbing up trees. And they could swim. Because why not? "Sooooo...I take it we avoid the bear?" Just two days prior, the mere sight of such a creature would have prompted Abby to suggest the same thing. But circumstances were quite different now. If a handful of chosen heroes, equipped with magic and weapons alike, couldn't handle a mere bear, this world was probably doomed. Plus, if the way the Drengr had been talked about back in town was any indicator, if they killed the bear, they'd probably turn their eyes on the Exalted next anyway. So the best course of action would probably be to-- "Stop, villains! You, uh, will not harm this, er, innocent...creature?" Would be to do that, yes. Abby wasted as little time as her short legs would allow, getting into the action as best she could, hammer forming in her hand. Rather than getting straight into smashing more heads, however, Abby lifted her runed hand, pointing it at the bear. She wasn't sure what she was doing or how; same as how she'd never wielded a warhammer before, it was just kind of there in her mind, by what felt like instinct. Which was why she knew that she could fire a small bit of magic from her hand, into the bear's wounds, to help close them up. "Don't eat us after this and we'll call it even, 'kay?"

it's time to get weird again

i don't even know if i'm allowed to post this one but i'm gonna find out by posting it

Teimei listened carefully to the answers her teammates-to-be had provided. What made a successful team? No two answers seemed to be the same. Skill. Knowledge. Communication. Friendship. Each answer received a nod of acknowledgement, before she went over her own opinion and the matter of the team name. "All good answers, and all important. In short, it all boils down to experience! With the game, and with each other! Building one will lead naturally to the other, so expect plenty of raiding moving forward, both to get that valuable experience and also to expand the possibilities for our respective decks! To that end, I'd like us to go to the Magnet Isles to fight an old boss or two. Just to get some raiding experience under our belts. But first, I should actually get the team properly made." The team charter. That had to be turned in still. The votes were... interesting. One vote each for Team Excise, Team Frontier, and Team Beyond Excise Frontier, and then the outlier. Team Beyond. The only name that had gotten a vote of confidence from someone besides the person who came up with it. "We can change it later if we come up with something better, but for now..." Teimei turned, briefly interacting with the NPC and turning in the team charter. This was the point where she was tasked with assigning the team a name and an acronym. After a short moment of getting through dialogue and such, the five players assembled in the building would see a set of letters appear above their usernames. <BYND> "For now, we'll be Team Beyond! May we live up to our name and go beyond, whether that's beyond a metaphorical horizon, or beyond the expectations of other teams. I'm not sure what KaibaCorp plans to announce on anniversary, but hopefully we'll be ready for it by the time it happens. For now, we've got some Magnet Isles to visit. We won't learn without experience, after all!" True to their name, the Magnet Isles were islands that acted as magnets, with the distance between one island the others being fairly short and covered by bridges of solid electricity. Of particular note in this area was the general scenery. While much of Battle Horizon's world featured vast plains, towering mountains, and lush forests, the Magnet Isles were distinctly none of those things. Or rather, what a computer might think those things were if it understood nothing about things like trees. The plant life here was in fact not plant life at all, but towering tangles of wires and poles built to resemble trees and bushes. The very ground beneath the team's feet, indeed, was made of metal. This was very clearly an area geared toward machine-type opponents, and it showed in how what enemy monsters could be found roaming around were indeed machines. But Teimei had led the group to a raid boss's domain, not to the sights to be seen. A mountain in the island's topography gave way to a cave, which first gave way to what appeared to be some sort of weapons factory, and then to an underground hangar. From within, the team could hear whirring and clanging, as the assembly lines within labored away at creating deadly armed robots. RAID BOSS: XYZ-Dragon Cannon DIFFICULTY: 3* STATUS: Available ENTER THIS RAID? [ ENTER WITH PARTY | OPEN PARTY FINDER | CANCEL ] "Here we are. A three-star boss sounded like a good starting point, since they're still easy, but not completely braindead. That just leaves the matter of turn order. Someone has to bite the bullet and go first. Any volunteers?" OOC

As it turned out, being used as a flail while already operating on less-than-livable body functions was not the best situation to be in. Aside from her body being the perfect size to make her an excellent bludgeoning tool, with her skeletal extra arms only furthering her suitability for the role, there was the matter of centrifugal force and kinetic energy. Two concepts of physics Morgan understood at an incredibly surface level, but only really by name and the simplest summary of how they worked. The combination of these forces presented a problem for the girl, not to mention the being electrocuted and then additionally used as a projectile weapon. It hurt, and that was definitely a good thing, as that meant Morgan could begin accumulating power in earnest, but at least for a short while, it left her neurons fried. Grounded and forced to focus on regeneration, Morgan observed from the floor as Trevor spouted a bunch of drivel about the past. While this was going down, she could feel movement returning to her body. To her fingers, then her hands, and her arms, and finally, to her entire body. "My past means EVERYTHING! The memories and connections I made in my world, when I died...and even when I was granted another life at the end of my journey and arrived at this point." "Mne fioletovo!" "Who cares about the past!?" Morgan said, raising up the skeletal arms affixed to her body, and slamming them into the ground, launching herself off the floor. It wasn't much, but she could feel her aura increasing from her recent stint as Grigoriy's weapon. The zombie girl kicked off - or punched off, rather, but the same general principle applied - from her spot on the floor, sending herself on a course directly toward Grigoriy. Before she could get in swinging range, however, she shoved her skeleton hands into the ground, grinding herself to a halt, aiming to bait out a swing that would go right past her. Grigoriy stopped his thrust just before impact, stepping back and turning as Morgan made her approach. He went to swing at her instead but paused mid-way as she grinded to a halt. With a grunt he backed away and instead of slashing sent out a bolt of electricity. As Grigoriy backed up, Morgan resumed her approach. Even if it meant taking a bolt of electricity to the face, that would only benefit her as the damage was used to further bolster her aura. More importantly, continuing the approach would mean that he'd be forced to continue staying on the defensive, or try tricks that she'd now be on the lookout for. Aware of the possibility that it could be used as a handle to turn her into a flail, Morgan dashed right for Grigoriy, raising one of the skeleton arms to swipe down, but notably grabbing the arm in question with her own hand this time as well. "And you back there! Stop being afraid to hit me too! I'm a tough girl built to last!"

“Go around me. I’m also looking for more of whatever magic that was because there’s definitely more where that came from. Hit the deck if you hear me scream something, I guess. Keep following Ziun, and definitely remember to keep moving.” The boy had a solid plan of action. Stay on the move, try to stay hidden, don't play the full party's hand all at once. Robin could certainly agree to that, but she opted out of any sort of verbal confirmation. Illusion magic was finicky stuff in her experience, and she wasn't going to chance anything if she could help it. Instead, she gave the lad a nod and a quick thumbs-up, creeping through the area between him and the wall, trying to keep her distance from the action at large. If she could get close enough to that eye, which she suspected to be a much greater problem than the zombies shambling around, she could probably have an easier time taking it out. Less distance between gun and target meant less time to dodge, after all. However, this plan did come with the tradeoff that Robin didn't have much in the way of offensive options for the time being. The best she could do was keep her runelock pistol at the ready, and additionally unholster a regular one to try and frontload as much firepower as possible for when it was time to shoot the eye full of holes.

i wish to fulfill my healer destiny. but i also want an axe, cos i want to hit things with the axe.