Doggo

With the giant monkey taking it's time to get moving and Fen drawing what attention it had to give, Aduain was gathering the amount of nen he felt he needed. This had been the single longest focus he'd held to date since arriving in Prana. But it did almost feel good to be putting out this much energy for a change. But now the monkey was moving and even seemed to be charging up itself. Still no nen coming from it like every not Morgan life form here but the hunter didn't need to see the nen to know what it was charging was bad news for all of them. This in turn caused him to try and hurry his own efforts which led to some overexertion. More nen than was needed was better than not enough and so Aduain stopped the Ren technique, stemming the flow of his nen out of his body. Now to shape the available mass of energy into his Hatsu. "Here goes guys!" he shouted as he raised his hands overhead and then swung them down dramatically. Large geysers formed along the floor at the monkey's feet. But before they erupted a mass of other geysers began in the air above its head, and then along the sides and from there outward until the monkey was in the center of a sphere of nen geysers waiting to burst. With another shout from Aduain each circle erupted at once not in small blasts but in strong streams of water-like nen. They showed no initial signs of stopping giving the hunter's companions a small window where the creature would be entirely submerged in water.

It sank Estelle's heart to go from the potential of a new ally to see Delilah running from the knight captain. Illusion magic was infuriating in the way it allowed her to continually get away with these sorts of things. The mage moved to intercept and was instead handed a bag by the devil child. The heft was one thing but the noises inside were alarming. Still Estelle couldn't help but want to see what had been given to her, an action she would immediately regret. Inside were toads covered in warts and no sooner did the mage process what she was holding did she toss the bag to the ground and let out a short shriek. This was enough to turn Theresa from her pursuit to Estelle's side. "What's wrong?" the knight asked as she approached the mage. The Fereis was immediately embarrassed as she pieced together what must have been going on here. "O-oh nothing, forgive me captain, I merely let another of her tricks fool me for moment. Allow me to assist your pursuit." Estelle replied as she steadied herself and turned her attention back to the fleeing Delilah. The woman weaved an enchantment that would make the body feel heavier and slow the child's flight. It clearly took effect as Delilah slowed and she noticed as much. She turned back and stuck her tongue out at Estelle. Theresa for her part didn't seem pleased with any of this but continued her pursuit. But as she got closer Delilah something strange happened. A small cloud appeared and it began... raining frogs? Estelle looked back to the bag she had thrown to the ground and it now seemed empty. Was this not actually an illusion? She had to be sure and she fired a small shot of light at the cloud. The magic passed through as though the cloud wasn't there. So it was an illusion after all. Not that the townspeople were realizing that immediately. Theresa's hand was also soon on the mage's wrist. "I would advise against that, miss" She stated while running forward and shouting for the people to remain calm. Estelle recoiled realizing firing more magic into an already tense situation was definitely not conducive to the people's peace of mind. Her step slowed thinking it best to let the captain continue the pursuit alone. With the moment of pause she took note of the frogs as they hit the ground. They simply disappeared. If she couldn't apprehend the culprit perhaps she could calm the others in the area. The mage took to trying to point out the nature of the illusion which took some work. With time the illusion began to become blurry which aided her efforts and eventually the people calmed. By this point Theresa and Delilah were out of sight. Hopefully the captain would succeed but in either case Estelle felt hollow over her contributions to it. "Estellise! There you are." a familiar voice called with clear concern. Estelle turned to see her father who soon managed to lay a concerned hand on her shoulder while still holding his haul of goods from the shop. "You weren't outside the store and I heard screaming. Are you alright?" "Yes, everything is fine father. The knight captain was merely having an issue taking a criminal into custody. Her illusion magics make it difficult." Estelle explained. Her father seemed to relax and ushered his daughter away from the scene. He began explaining what he had bought and the applications he hoped to use them for. He went on to explain how he thought Estelle might best help him in his coming experiments. all of which Estelle quietly agreed to. Her thoughts were elsewhere as she made the walk back to the Fereis estate.

So it wasn't just food, these things were after literally anything new they could get their hands on. Reinaan groaned at the prospect of having to watch every bag and person to make sure nothing was taken and looking at the numbers of the things it seemed impossible if they all started moving. Still, the draken didn't feel much like trying to hurt them since they hadn't done anything directly malevolent. Fire seemed like an easy way to scare things but given their surroundings that seemed ill advised. He could just as easily burn most of the forest to the ground which would certainly scare the critters away but also do untold damage and probably get something or someone mad at them. But then he had an idea. "Hey, Ziiyol." the boy called and all at once his spirit appeared at his side. "How odd of you to call with the sun not up. Shall I be the sun for you?" the spirit asked with her usual excited giggling. "No, no, no, don't get that excited. I do need you to do your dance but only the green stuff." Reinaan said trying to guide his spirit's enthusiasm. "Have you magic to burn then?" Ziiyol returned with a puzzled look on her face as she took stock of the area. "We're trying not to burn anything so stick to that. Circle the camp but dont get any on any of us or our stuff just in case." the draken responded. Ziiyol seemed to think it over a minute, a touch disappointed nothing was going to actually ignite but then she cheerfully agreed to Reinaan's plan and so began her dance. Twirling as fire ignited from her fans, a bright green in color. They would fly off as small whisps through the air and onto the ground where they would sit for a minute before fizzling out without causing harm. At the sight of the flames the monkey creatures were very apparently scared and backed away from the source of it. As Ziiyol's dance continued they eventually dispersed altogether, not wishing to be on the path of the ever shiffting green flames. Reinaan kept as careful track of the creatures and Ziiyol as he could and breathed a sigh of relief mixed with another groan as he relaxed his posture. "Glad that's over." he said to Madelyn. "Quite. I didn't realize such crass beasts were lurking in these woods. I thought the elves would at least keep such things away but it seems that was too much to hope for." the mage returned. The idea the elves that lived here could control the local wildlife intrigued Reinaan to some extent. "Sounds like a lot of work for a part of the place no one lives. Can't say I blame 'em. Unless they have some special magic for it or something." the boy responded, still watching the trees just to be safe. "Hmph, with how they act one might think they have magic for everything." she muttered in response. "Oh you know about elves. What are they like th-" Reinaan tried to say before suddenly being embraced from behind by his spirit. The warm sensation of her touch wrapped all around his face all of a sudden was alarming until he processed what was happening. "Ziiyol! Cut it out!" he demanded while trying not to shout. "Oh Reiny that dance was so much fun after all! Though you really must let me burn something next time." the spirit teased as Reinaan thrashed in place. Madelyn for her part said nothing but watched the spirit intently as if studying her. Chosen and Spirit argued a bit longer before Reinaan finally got Ziiyol off of him and to be quiet long enough to continue his original thought. "So as I was saying, what are the elves like?" Reinaan said trying to zone Ziiyol's soft humming out. Madelyn took a moment to refocus on Reinaan, having had a far off look in her eye, then she frowned. "They're quite rude in my experience. Just because they have more time to study than the rest of us they think they don't even have to pay us any mind. I mean, there's a reason so many of them hide away in this place away from other people wouldn't you agree?" "They sound like the elders in my village. They all have a dozen stories of why you shouldn't trust a human. Always just felt like an excuse to make a bunch of rules I didn't wanna follow. So yeah if it's anything like that I guess I agree." Reinaan said, different emotions struggling to take hold of his face as he thought of the ever nagging elder Draken in his village. "The elders, wonder how old THEY are." Madelyn said mostly to herself. Then, with a shake of her head "Well in any case I suppose we will have to suffer their attitudes for now won't we. If they're still even there, who knows at this rate with the state of this place." "Yeah..." Reinaan trailed off, taking to his own thoughts and resuming a largely silent watch.

Aduain for his part had been trying to drive his weapon further into the monkey's face. The big monkey was frankly opposed to this and had been swatting at the stinging annoyance at its face. The fish was pretty good at swinging around his pole and had thus far managed to avoid getting swatted off but there was only so much more of this he could put up with. The beast next somehow managed to lift itself into the air, nearly breaking the ground beneath it just by taking off. How it had the strength to do that the hunter could only wonder. But more immediately concerning, aside from how fast Aduain himself was going while holding on for all this, was that the beast was looking to crush Trevor. It looked like Aduain had enough time to enact a rescue similar to how he had aided Fen but it turned out the magician didn't need his assistance. The fish took in the chain maneuver in some awe until the monkey landing on the floor rattled his world something fierce. The floor just barely managed to avoid giving way upon the impact at which point it simply lay where it was, not immediately taking action. "A buncha water huh? I can do that!" Aduain shouted in response to Trevor's plan. He was thankful for the clarification. He'd caught enough of Trevor calling to Fen to know he was involved but not enough to know how. The current task was simple enough but there was going to be a complication. But first thing was first, Aduain planted both his feet on the monkey's face and pushed to free his weapon before backflipping off the monster altogether. Thankfully it wasn't interested in immediately attackin him, allowing the fish the time he needed to regroup on the same side of the room as his teammates. With some force he stabbed his trident down into the floor in front of him before assuming a stance. His feet were shoulder length apart, his arms down but entirely at his side and his forearms extended forward. "Ren!" Aduain called out forcefully as an explosion of nen erupted from the small frame. To those unable to perceive nen there was little to see but a lot to feel in terms of the air blowing firmly from his direction. "So I can get you the water," the hunter started, straining to speak as his focus was in keeping his nen output going. "But with how big this thing is I'm gonna need a bit to gather the nen for it. It's not moving much right now, try and keep it that way for a bit!" he called out. He didn't so much as step forward or turn his head to do so, so intent was his focus on outputing enough aura to power his hatsu at the needed scale.

While waiting for her father, Estelle's wandering eyes landed on a concerning scene. The girl that had played her tricks of illusion magic with apple vendors and others in the marketplace, in custody of Theresa, captain of the knights. Words of their meeting surfaced in her mind. She had warned the child she couldn't sustain herself forever. Theresa's comment that she went too far seemed an inevitable outcome, and not one Estelle could muster much sympathy for with what she knew. Before she could linger too on the scene, let alone act upon it to make sure there wasn't some illusion magic at work, a sentence from no where caught her off guard. As it happened it wasn't from no where and the mage turned to see a woman before her. "...Mages. What a bunch, am I right?" the voice said. Estelle took in Robin's appearance, one she was not familiar with. Her hair, skin, eyes all were fairly striking in their color to say nothing of her garb. Interrupted as her thoughts were, the Fereis didn't full process the question. "... A bunch of what?" she said with genuine confusion. "Mages, I said. They're really something. Never heard anyone so passionate about ink of all things, but those two in there seem really into it." The stranger clarified. Estelle's thoughts caught up with her as she fully engaged in the new conversation. "Ah, yes of course." Estelle said, a bit flustered. "Well, father's work is delicate enough even small impurities in materials can have rather disastrous results. I hope he has not asked to see it made in person." she seemed concerned and looked back into the shop herself for a moment. Nothing was amiss, just her father carrying on. "Never realized magic could be so sensitive." What was at first a passing amusement toward these mages and their clearly very important ink was now genuine curiosity. "And you say that's your father in there? Can't imagine it's a boring life at least, being a mage's kid." "It certainly has its moments." Estelle said a small chuckle escaping. "Normally magic is only as unstable as the mage weaving it. But father has ever insisted on blending schools together, something of an unknown territory. Or perhaps forbidden is a better word? Discouraged rather, yes I think that captures the sentiment much better. Even others of House Fereis scoff at the idea- o-oh but look at me go on. Please, if you had business in the store do not let me keep you." "Oh, I'm just looking for something to eat. Happened to catch you head in and then straight back out, then I vaguely overheard them talking about ink and I just had to know what the big deal was." With a shrug, the pirate commented "Would probably be easier back when the market was smaller, before that Dungeon popped up, but that's life I guess." At the mention of the Dungeon Estelle instinctively yawned, still tired from the Dungeon run earlier in the day. "Oh excuse me, you bringing it up simply reminded me how tiring it was today. To your point, there are many charming places to eat these days you are right. I could be a better guide but I do not often have a chance to eat in town as it is." Robin perked up. "Been down there, eh? It just so happens I've been looking into the place myself. How about we try to find some place to eat and you tell me all about it?" "Oh that would be wonderful! But if I stray too far from father he may well buy more supplies than he can reasonably carry on his own. Our group often meets at the Drooling Dragon. You could join us there tomorrow." Estelle offered without realizing several key factors to this arrangement. "Sounds great! I'll see you and yours then." Robin replied and the two parted with a warm smile and wave shared between them. Now about those key factors. Estelle realized only after the woman left they had not given each other so much as their names. Not a solid start to adding someone to the dungeon exploration team. As if looking for something to distract from a perceived embarrassment her eyes rested back on Theresa and her captive. The mage hoped it was as straightforward as it appeared.

At the second watch's conclusion, Reinaan was awoken by the others for his turn. His and Madelyn's turn actually. It wasn't an exciting thought given her, to him, baseless distaste of him. But the time alone together might give him a chance to rile her up as payback. The boy went and readied his halberd, half to lean on at first as he woke up. He took to yawning and issuing some frankly inhuman groans as he tried to rouse his faculties. The next step was stretching to be ready to fight if something wanted to. It was at this point he first turned to Madelyn. "Nice of the chosen life to stay glamorous for our new friend." he teased. The forest floor surely was nothing like the gaudy inns she preferred to stay in. The mage for her part seemed very grumpy, whether entirely for the comment or not Reinaan was unsure. "One must make the best of any situation they're thrust into." she responded with whatever dignity she could muster. "You must have found all the good rocks then." Reinaan said, not teasing nearly so badly this time. "I'm gonna be picking grass and dirt out of my scales all day." he said grumbling and taking a moment to try and brush himself off. She gave him a grossed out look but then stiffly walked over to a better spot to set watch. "Yes well I suppose that's what happens when you don't wear any clothing." She remarked. So that was part of why she didn't like him. With how little his companions commented on it the boy had nearly forgotten people didn't tend to approve. "The price of comfort and freedom." he sighed dramatically as he took his own position. "But I guess fancy schools don't have the time to teach that kind of stuff. All those books." "I wouldn't exactly call it fancy." she muttered, then, rubbing at her eyes, said "Though it does worry me you equate books with fanciness." "Not like I can read 'em to check so it's more fun to think all that stuff's exciting. At least I hope humans don't sit around doing stuff they think is boring." Reinaan replied, all too proud almost of his illiteracy. "Not everything is about having fun you know, hmph, but I suppose that's something you just don't understand." Madelyn replied. Reinaan read a lot of contempt into it that maybe wasn't there. "Hope I never have to." He muttered as silence set over the watch. Silence except for the various noises about the woods. Nothing immediately was out of the ordinary. Or at least nothing was immediately approaching them. But eventually that changed. Sounds concentrated in the branches, the occasional flashes of eyes giving away the watchers. Madelyn's own remark was after Reinaan had caught on but he was quick to confirm there was indeed a sound. "They're moving in the trees." he responded succinctly. A noise slightly louder took precedence as something was scurrying down one of the trees toward the cart of the group's supplies. Reinaan moved to intercept and came face to face with what the creatures about them were. A strangely small primate stood before him, not bigger than a normal house cat. However it's legs and tail were more reptilian in structure and its eyes were big and dark. Bigger almost than they seemed to need to be, at least as the draken was concerned. The creature was attempting to reach into one of their bags which the boy didn't see as needing violence but should probably be discouraged. With the shaft of his halberd he rattled on the side of the cart a few times which caused the creature to tense up and scurry underneath after looking at him. "Think our guests are just hungry, don't look big enough to be much of a threat. Easily startled too." he called to Madelyn while trying to get another look at the one under the cart. She hesitantly got closer. "Ugh, such a dirty little beast...I hope there aren't too many of them." She said. Reinaan tried to suppress a groan at how quickly she labeled non-humans as dirty, ugly or otherwise unappealing. But there were other things to be doing. Reinaan looked under the cart but couldn't see much except for the occasional flash of the thing's eyes, but he could tell it was clinging to the underside of the cart. "Go away, shoo!" he heard from Madelyn, who had moved over towards the side of the cart. It was probably best to not have the thing so close to their supplies all night so Reinaan bent down and tried poking at the thing underneath with the shaft of his halberd. It connected and a quick squeal was heard as the creature dropped to the forest floor and ran off from under the opposite side of the cart. The Draken was a touch disappointed it felt the need to run but he could understand. Something that small and foraging in the dark couldn't be all that strong. With a sigh the boy leaned on the cart. "Well guess we're watching supplies for the rest of the night." he observed while he turned his eyes back up toward the branches. Hopefully the others weren't getting any big ideas.

With Tinkermon's help, Shion and Jeanne now found themselves in a much better situation. Not being entirely surrounded by small violent digimon was definitely an improvement. Jeanne's own digivice lit up after some of the initial scraps though she took longer to take stock of what it meant, first watching Shion. Her partner turned into a bigger version of itself and got right back to fighting. Jeanne looked from Fido, back to her device, lingered on Fido a little longer and ultimately pushed the button. Suddenly her partner was noticeably taller. "Woah, look at you. You found your limbs... and a tail... and some sick looking claws." Jeanne commented with a whistle while looking over her now Gazimon. "Well Fido, we sticking with poison bubbles or you got some new tricks?" "I told you I'm not Fido, I'm Gaizmon" her partner protested not even skipping a beat at its new form's name. That was data for you. The two stared each other down for a second before Fido explained to its partner the new attacks it had. Jeanne's eyes widened some before her face fell back into a cheeky smile. "Seems kinda underhanded doesn't it?" she teased. Fido assured her it was perfectly respectable because if it wasn't he wouldn't have been made to have them. "Well whatever lets you sleep at night I guess. Time to get that big bug. Let's lead off with Pitfall." She declared half-heartedly. Fido eagerly took off digging into the ground beneath them, going first several feet down before burrowing off to help Shion engage her target. "You know I didn't have the heart to ask it if this would even work on something with wings." Jeanne said while repressing a snorting laugh to Shion. Hopefully Fido's trap laying wouldn't be for nothing.

Flurry found it comforting he could get a rise out of a robot of all things. Either that spoke to his talent for it or to Eggman's coding capabilities that Chimera had enough personality to react. Though it seemed that idea of a nap was going to be prolonged a touch longer as the robot hedgehog began fiddling with the controls. While the take off was not an unexpected result, the speed at which the machine was ready and sailing through the air was a bit alarming. Still, Flurry seemed a lot less bothered than the others, Ken especially, but then flight was something of a normal occurrence for him. Not ever this fast of course but the experience counted for something. With everyone settling in to life in the fast lane the question of names came up. Chimera had official designations for the ship, not remarkably helpful but expected of a robot. At least his team name was at least an attempt at humor. Ken wanted a better ship name and a team name which seemed like a bit of a jump. To the lemur they were all just victims of similar circumstance, not destined allies. So the idea of naming a group he didn't yet intend to stay with seemed like something of a fool's errand. Ken's names were something else too. Dawn Piercer and Shadow Stompers? This kid really never had been anywhere in his life. Something to bring up with his grandpa if they ever met. Zane came back with a much more reasonable Team Horizon though agreed to the ship name. "Hey, whatever works for you guys." Flurry started, trying to keep it casual and not diving into the full on apathy he felt toward the subject. "I tend to agree simpler names are better" he said, seeming to side with Zane, "Let's not talk about the files i've named too simple and lost track of course, gotta be balanced." the lemur muttered at double time his usual talking tempo. "Yo, pilot! How long you think til the Egg-PIercer-Mach-whatever hits land?" he playfully shouted to Chimera while mixing the ship names in whatever first came to mind.

With minotaur defeated, treasure claimed and all thoroughly tired from the day's adventure Estelle was relieved to be exiting the Dungeon for the day. Lana and Chris each went their own ways leaving the mage to her own devices. This amounted to little else than the woman walking home. Perhaps for the fatigue she held her head lower than average and focused more on the path before her rather than take in the sights of the city. Before long the edge of the Fereis estate came into view at which point the noble raised her glance and tried to stir herself. There was a pressing need to disarm her mother's criticisms which were inevitable regardless of how she looked. Though the act of lightening her heart and mood would soon need little artificial aid as of all people her father stood before her, apparently on the way out of the manor. "Estellise!" he called out cheerfully and rushed to her side. The two embraced warmly before the man took to inspecting her. "Back from the Dungeon I take it?" "Is it that obvious?" Estelle asked with some degree of embarrassment as she nervously played with her hair as if that were the giveaway. "You might want to at least catch your breath before you go in, your Mother's been in something of a foul mood today." He responded with a weak chuckle that spoke to day he had been having. "Do not tell me that is why you are out here?" the woman's concern for her mother at this point was clear. But her father assured her that wasn't it. "No, I was meaning to make something of a quick trip but you know how work goes. Despite knowing I needed something I kept going and going until the point I needed it and now well... a bit of a mess, you'll see it well enough when we get back." he spoke and began walking, ushering his daughter away from the estate with him. "Father, surely the servants could-" Estelle started in protest. "No, no you know full well where I intend to go. Best we do it ourselves." he replied to which his daughter did all at once realize where he intended to go. Old habits died hard with him and it had been some time since the two had been in. After a brisk walk of idle chatter the Fereis duo found themselves in the marketplace, specifically at a storefront for the Thelgo family. At nothing more than a glance the skilled enchanters took note of the cape Estelle donned and hounded her with offers to buy it to the extent she whisked herself away outside to leave her father to his errand. Ink was his main sought after commodity and the woman could only brace herself for the cascade of bottles he would inevitably come out of the store with. Each with a unique ingredient to enhance specific enchantments or withstand different evocations. It set her heart at ease that at least some things never changed as she turned her aimless gaze back to the square at large. Perhaps a familiar face might come into view this evening.

As the biggest monkey of them all launched its big attack, a gentle geyser of water opened up beneath Fen's feet to lift her up and over the path of the attack. No sooner did the stream reach max height did Aduain appear at her side, playfully tapping his feet as if proud of his work the pair were standing on. "Heya guys! Looks like you found the reaaaally big one. Glad I caught up!" The fish hunter joked seemingly as playful as ever. Though he was clearly roughed up a bit and not solely from unfortunate rubble pile that had covered him earlier. He'd been able to yell through to the others to go on ahead to assure he wouldn't hurt them upon busting out. But Aduain had not counted on just how far they'd gotten ahead and the fact he'd blasted holes in the pile in the wrong direction several times. The extra time running around only brought more monkeys his way which landed a few hits here and there before in frustration the boy had finally just left the situation with a powerful jump upward. The sight at the top was quick to show he should have put all his nen in his feet and jumped sooner because his two teammates were already going at it with the biggest monkey of them all. But at least they hadn't it killed it yet. The hunter readied his weapon as the beginnings of several more of his nen geysers appeared straight ahead of him toward the target. "Mind your step Fen. Can't promise that one'll stick around too long when I get going." Aduain warned regarding the stability of the watery platform with one of the more serious expressions he'd worn thus far in his time in Prana. That didn't do much to make him look threatening but it was still noticeable. The air shifted, a small gust issued in all directions from his body as his nen flared. Like a blue fishy bullet the lad was off, bouncing off the various geysers as bursts of water shot forth which pushed him faster at an alarming speed toward the face of the beast, trident tips leading the way.

Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova Artoria Pendragon (Base vanilla Saber since there's a million of her) Hessian Lobo James Moriarty Tamamo-no-Mae

Jeanne felt some sense of pride that Pagumon's attack had actually landed to some effect compared to Shion's game of dodgeball with her own partner. As far as she was concerned she'd tagged the boss and if the other's killed it she'd get a bunch of experience anyway. A win however you sliced it if she didn't have to do any more work than that. Granted that was until a host of small bug digimon were making their way towards the pair. A fairy digimon had run into assist and began lecturing them, Shion most especially, about how they were treating their partners. Being lectured about code on how to treat code was an irony Jeanne appreciated almost as much as her friend trying to explain how little brain power early mmo gameplay required prior to Tinkermon being downed by the bugs. With Shion throwing her partner again that left Pagumon to defend their position from the encroaching bugs not getting pelted. "Aight, Fido, gonna need a lot more poison where that came from." Jeanne said dryly pointing to the enemies at hand. Pagumon took stock of the number and thought of how best to spread the attack out before responding. "I keep telling you my name's Pag-" it tried to say. "Yeah yeah I know your name but if that fairy wasn't full of shit you're gonna be changing soon anyway so hold that bit 'til we get there." Jeanne interrupted as she picked up her partner to get him a better angle before teasing it by pushing its cheeks together as if she could force the bubbles at. Pagumon wriggled at the gesture and asserted itself and began laying down a spray of poison bubbles to halt the advancing kunemon.

"Making enchantments permanent is possible but-" Estelle cut herself from launching into the complex mechanics involved in taking her fleeting power ups to objects and installing magical structures into them and the object in question to make the effect last independent of her own exertion. It was hardly the time to get into theory with Lana still directly in harm's way. "We will talk after you get your new shoes." she concluded with Chris succinctly as he took off to enact the plan. Lana for her part was still directly getting the minotaur's attention with word and axe to mixed effect. Trying to help her without drawing the beast away from the intended location seemed complicated on the surface. But it was simple really when she just stopped treating magic like it was ordinary matter. Sure an arrow had to fly pretty straight from the point it released but magic was magic. With this astounding breakthrough in logic Estelle readied her aim and fired three of her usual light arrows into the air well off the side of either Lana or the minotaur. Next was the unorthodox part as the Fereis began exerting her magic again to start curving them in their path. The arc was wide and her aim wasn't going to be great to start. But as long as she kept them high enough they'd sail over Lana's head but look like they'd come from behind her. Hopefully if one landed under this probably overly complicated solution it would draw the beast yet forward to the lava without immediately trying to hurt Lana. That was if she could land one. The first three all missed their mark rather extraordinarily though at least weren't flying at her friends or herself. "This could make for a pleasant parlor game without the monster or the lava." She grunted in some frustration as she fired a second volley attempting to curve the batch better this time.

A mix of water and lightning proved to be super effective as far as Aduain was concerned. None of the monkeys were left standing after that. The trio pressed onward ever closer to the biggest monkey around before having to enter another room. Fen's word of caution was appreciated mostly because she formed another cool ice weapon when she did it. The fish took a moment to think about what it would be like to hold so much ice all the time before concluding he'd personally be wearing gloves all the time. He hadn't thought to buy any kind of warm gloves at the clothing store because this important train of thought had yet to cross his mind. But that was Fen Nen for you, really got the brain moving. No less so than Trevor's not-nen Aduain hadn't yet concocted a good nickname for. It did so many different things it was like having a bunch of different hatsus. There was probably some legendary hunter who could compare but nothing came immediately to mind. "Ow! Oh right." The hunter realized while doing all this thinking one of the ten or so monkey creatures in the new room had already tackled and pinned him to the floor before slashing at his face. Three times in particular which somehow struck the hunter as a fairly average attack, maybe a little lucky. The scratches to his face were nothing to sneeze at but also nothing his nen wouldn't start patching up so long as he actually focused now. With a small exertion the boy reared his legs up underneath the animal and jumped to his feet, moving the beast off him in the process. He still had his trident in hand so it was good all the not-nen thinking hadn't distracted him that bad. "My turn!" Aduain cheered as he dashed forward and thrust the back end of his trident into the creature's gut. The blow knocked the thing back and into another of the monkeys. Both involved in the collision soon stood, obviously fuming from their angry screeches. The two were now charging Aduain who was in the middle a large yawn. This seemed to only make the angry monkeys angrier and somehow the fish felt any sort of feeling of tiredness leave his body. Or at least enough that he wasn't going to actually fall asleep. Still he pointed down to the approaching attackers who ignored him only to be shot up into the air by a geyser of the hunter's nen that had formed below them. Aduain jumped up to meet them in the air and skewered one with the trident which quickly stopped fighting. The other managed to slash his back in the middle of it all which the hunter responded with another skewering, this time a bit less cheerful about it all. That one actually stung a bit which killed the just playing around vibe he was going for. "So, we got a shortcut or something? These guys are kinda boring." Aduain called out to his teammates before casually kicking another charging beast away from him.

The Fire Chosen's approach to the injured beast was cut short as his own weapon in an ally's hands dealt the killing blow. Still it took Reinaan's body a moment to slow down and ultimately stop as he studied the corpse for several moments longer to be sure it was actually over. This might have gone on indefinitely had he not felt the sensation of being watched yet when he looked around there was no one staring at him directly. Regardless it was enough to let him relax his stance, slouch his shoulders and breathe a little deeper. Information offered by Damien informed the boy this beast was only something of an adolescent and the adults were larger and spinier. It was enough to make the draken think of the growing he still had to do and almost elicited feelings of sympathy for having cut this one's journey short. An unfortunate fate to be sure. But not one he could dwell on as the group needed to find a safe place to make camp or else they might never stop fighting things like this. First however, Ryia had come to present his weapon to him. "You handled it pretty well." Reinaan half-laughed at the girl's awkwardness in just trying to thank him for losing his weapon in the middle of the fight. But rather than draw it out for her he happily lifted the weapon out of her hands and began looking it over for any damage it might have taken. "Nice to know I can trust you with a polearm in a pinch. Maybe I should figure out shields and stuff sometime." the boy mused now content with the state of his weapon. The first step to getting a good spot to rest was getting the mounts out of hiding. The lizard and mule weren't terribly hard to find among the trees after Reinaan finished unspinning himself around from the fight to remember where they were. Kloqah for her part seemed almost in awe of her small lizard once she saw the dead very much larger lizards about. With Damien's advice the boy stood ready to lead the caravan deeper into the woods.

Tales of the Abyss - Karma by Bump of Chicken Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood - Period by Chemistry Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - Gurenge by Lisa Owari no Seraph - X.U. by SawanoHiroyuki[nZk]:Gemie One Piece - Hikari e by the Babystars Aldnoah.Zero - &Z by SawanoHiroyuki[nZk]:mizuki

With nothing left to do but actually play the game they had spent so much money and time on, Jeanne was content to hold off on giving her friend too much more trouble along the way to the first battles they would encounter. With the sheer number of players present fighting the various digimon that had spawned the woman wasn't sure she'd able to hear herself think let alone continue jabbing at Shion effectively. And while many were giving their all to this base encounter, that simply wasn't cool enough and so Jeanne sat back for a moment despite Pagumon's eagerness to participate. "Shouldn't we help everyone?" Pagumon offered, practically vibrating in place on the ground by Jeanne's side. "Don't worry Fido, we're just gonna watch the master at work first, see how it's done." Jeanne sneered back. "My name is Pagumon!" the orb-cat protested a moment before regaining its composure. "Ahem... is your friend Shion that good?" it asked curiously as it looked at the pair of Shion and Gea getting into action. "Well she paid more money than me and got a broken perk so yeah she's gotta be better than me." Jeanne chuckled. The chuckle transitioned into something more of a cackle as she watched Shion launch her digimon at the large bug like she was playing dodgeball in school. It took Jeanne a moment to settle enough to turn to face her partner. Eyes locked, Jeannes in deadpan betrayed by a wicked smile creeping onto her face, and Pagumon's in terror. "Y-you're not going to- you can't- i-i-i'm not good at flying!" Pagumon screamed in fear of a similar fate. "Relaaaax Fido. I ain't even asked you what you can do yet." Jeanne teased. Pagumon propped itself up, a false bravado taking over ever so slightly. "R-right! I have a really helpful attack! I've got Poison Bubbles!" the digimon proclaimed. A whistle feigning being impressed escaped the digimon's partner. "You sly dog. Here I thought you were way too uptight but you're packing poison? Now this, this we can work with. Fire away." Jeanne gave the gleeful command. Pagumon wanted to protest and defend its honor despite the attack but feared further argument would have it similarly flying through the air. Instead it hopped into battle and unleashed a stream of poisonous bubbles at the Kuwagamon.

The continued running with the temperature only rising, only te end up by the source of the heat in the form of a lava pool was proving taxing to Estelle yet she managed to keep well enough ahead of the minotaur to stay with the group. Their new surroundings afforded them some small amount of time to formulate a plan. Some sort of explosion to push it into the lava was what the Fereis gathered. She rummaged through her provisions and procured the blast powder in question. She had yet to take it out from among her things, always being distracted by some goings on at the manor to more thoroughly investigate it. That a simple flame spell could ignite it and spare her summoning another explosion was what seemed the most immediately important. Lana meanwhile began the effort of trying not to die and one could argue how effectively that was going. Sure enough she had the beasts attention, giant rocks and all. Estelle took the opportunity to pass the blast powder off to her more agile friend. "You need only get it on the beast, whether still in the bag or dispersed on its body. I will ignite it once Lana draws it close enough." The uncertainty in her voice betrayed her lack of confidence in this working as cleanly as intended but there were few other options. An idea seemed to flash across her face as she quickly weaved an enchantment on Chris' shoes. "That should silence your footsteps... or at least relative to Lana's japes." Estelle informed him, trying not to laugh under the circumstances at the very odd things Lana had yelled at the minotaur thus far.

Aduain was more absorbed in the fact robots had driven the car conveying himself, Fen and Trevor to the assignment than most any other detail along the way. Even with the office building currently under siege in sight the hunter's mind was buzzing about what else robots in Prana could do. That was until the enormous monkey came into view and tore off a piece of the building. That thing had to be like ten of him. Maybe twenty of him. Of course from this far out the thing didn't even look like one of him but that was just how vision worked. At Fen's idea the trio soon found themselves climbing stairs. The fish found himself more bouncing up them as his fins made the occasional awkward fit for the steps going up. At least it wasn't an issue of stamina, he'd barely touched his nen. But that would likely need to change soon as the group found themselves blocked by rubble and moving into a side room some few floors up. "Monkeys all over!" Aduain cheerfully exclaimed as he readied his trident. Fen led off with her ice hatsu. No wait it was magic, not hatsu or fen nen or whatever other silly string of word's had bounced through the boy's mind the day before. Either way, several of the new monkeys had slammed their faces into a wall of ice and now Trevor was using his not-hatsu, probably also magic though maybe not fen's style of magic, to produce lightning of all things. The hunter vaguely remembered a very particular scholarly folk on one of his missions stating that pure water didn't actually conduct electricity as Trevor called for water to be added to the mix. But as a saltwater creature, Aduain's hatsu naturally took on saltwater properties so really the thought was only a passing fancy as the boy was already preparing his attack. "Couple'a geysers coming right up!" Aduain shouted as spouts of his nen appeared over each of the monkeys' heads. The force of the blasts would be strong enough to shove their heads down if not prepared but likely not enough to outright knock them down. More importantly the nen would have the intended effect the thunder-slinging mage was looking for.

The combinations of magic and weapon had kept the giant lizard at bay for the moment in as much as no one had been bitten yet. Lindow seemed determined to give the beast a fair shot at biting something however. The man took one of the beast's eyes, always helpful in fighting larger creatures, and narrowly avoided becoming a snack by diving off to the side. It wasn't the neck as Reinaan had suggested but the boy was ready to follow through on his own advice. Even more so once Lindow's lightning blade struck again, this time severing the damaged leg entirely. Without the support the monster was lopsided. It still stood but moving forward or backward seemed beyond it at this point. It's body, neck and head were all still mobile but as the draken had wanted, the threat was much easier to control with it's mobility so limited. "You know what a neck is?" Reinaan teased Lindow between large breaths as he began charging the lizard, looking to get to it's right side. The lizard of course wasn't going to just take the attack lying down and swung it's large head at the approaching Draken. With a few feet between the head and the ground Reinaan opted to go low and dove down and to the left, tumbling to the beast's bad side. Upon missing the beast tried to stumble forward with its remaining foot. Reinaan then hurried to his own feet and readied his weapon, grabbing the halberd low on the shaft with both hands and holding it back over and behind his head as far as he could to give the largest swing possible. When ready the boy slammed the weapon down into the neck of the lizard. The blade of the halberd's axe was driven in deep, but the attack was not the full decapitation one would have hoped for. Given the size of the neck in question it was perhaps foolish to think a single strike could do it but here Reinaan was. Almost immediately the boy found it expedient to release his grip on his weapon as the lizard reared up in pain. It stumbled between it's one working leg and the fresh bleeding stump that was the other and fell to the side, hitting a nearby tree in the process. "Dammit, that wasn't enough!" the draken called to the others as a rallying cry to finish the kill. The boy took off running. "Don't let it get back up, it can probably still move!" he added, unsure how much fight was left in the beast.

That Ken had made the group boot Chimera up together wasn't exactly surprising but the sentimentality of it all was still a bit off putting to the still-skeptical-repairing-the-robot-was-the-right-thing-to-do-lemur. With the improvised nature of the repair job Flurry was fully expecting that if Chimera even began its boot up process, the robot would just erupt into a fresh batch of sparks and crumple to the floor again. Against all odds, the job seemed to hold and the robot was functional again without exploding. To have his work called amateur would have offended Flurry had he done much of anything with Chimera's code. But as it stood his mechanical skills were amateur by his own standards so there wasn't much to argue. The later admission that there might be some talent in him might have pacified Flurry if not for the assurance that whatever talent he had amounted to nothing next to Robotnik. Flurry took to a lot of thinking as the others spoke with Chimera. The robot was going to fly them out of here which was appreciated. Not that he needed to repair it but tackling this egg-tech was hurting the lemur's brain. Chimera could tout the doctor's brilliance but until any of his coding made real sense it was going to be difficult for Flurry to appreciate it. With the facilities explained the robot was seeking any last minute questions. "Yeah I got a million but no room left in my brain for the moment." Flurry said with a sigh as he stretched out his back, twisting from side to side. "I'll come pick your brain- er, processors after a nap." the lemur decided, a yawn punctuating the point. How long had he been slumped over working on Chimera? Probably not nearly as long as it felt but the body wanted what the body wanted and right now that was sleep.

Pray return to the Waking Sands.

Here they were in the thick of it. Ugly umbrellas disarmed and both on the ground under a downpour of bugged out wasted pre-order dollars. Only at this point as the initial assailant only Jeanne was really getting wet here. That couldn't last. And yet she didn't so vastly overpower her friend that she felt she could get shion to take the brunt of the rain. Somehow grabbing the girl's arms and getting them behind her back, flipping her around and shoving her on top all while not losing control of her seemed a little bit out of the unathletic Jeanne's reach. Holding her down for the moment though, that was easy enough even if it meant taking the brunt of the rain. Still she could get her friend's face wet well enough. Jeanne began tugging at the hood and then the sleeve but quickly found it wasn't so easy to remove an equipped item from off another player. One might call it impossible even if one wanted to commit to absolutes like that. In the current state of affairs Jeanne was confident given enough time she could indeed force the jacket off her friend but she wouldn't be given the chance. This attempt at de-coating her friend gave Shion the opportunity to fight back and soon Jeanne found herself on the bottom of things. A plus in a way that now Shion was taking the rain but she still had the coat so that wasn't effective. And also Jeanne couldn't well stay on bottom, that would like admitting defeat. A series of rolls proceeded as each girl fought for dominance before Jeanne shifted tactics. She let go of Shion's arms and tried to wrap her own around her friend's neck to get her down into a headlock where she could make her submit. Or maybe at least in that position Jeanne could mess with her cloud UI. It was somewhere in the midst of this that Jeanne realized something. "You know..." she started, the excitement in her voice and tension in her arms draining. "Kicking your ass is a pretty normal thing to be doing in the most expensive video game ever. Should probably get to doing something we can't do at home huh? Something... digimon-y." She said, the now very concerned Pagumon watching from the sidelines rapidly shaking his head in agreement of the proposal. Shion likewise paused in her struggle to keep herself on the bottom half of this impromptu bout of wrestling. "Come to think of it..." Glancing over to her own Pomumon, Shion commented "I guess so." The raincoated girl got back up to her feet, dragging the sliders for the size and intensity of her rain cloud back down to the minimum. If she was going to be perpetually bothered by this thing, it would have been best to have minimized the bother it would be to her. "Something like heading out of town and beating up some starting monsters, yeah?" "Well sure, if you wanna be a normie about it." Jeanne started as she picked herself up and started wringing herself out. "Could probably skip a lot of the grind and just pvp some nerds don't ya think? I gotta tell someone if they die in the game they die in real life eventually." "Ah yes, the pinnacle of MMO gameplay," Shion sarcastically quipped. "Low-level pvp. Nothing beats watching the gaming equivalent of two toddlers that can barely stand trying to hit one another." "Well to be fair to the toddlers," Jeanne started as she placed a hand light on one of her friend's shoulders. "They'd put up more of a fight than you!" She sneered as she began laughing and ran a bit ahead. "But fine fine, let's go beat up the starter mobs cash in a few levels actually get to some content." she called back. "Let's!" Hopefully, the first impression of the actual gameplay would be better to Shion than the first impression of the game itself. Word of mouth from other players quickly led the group toward the plaza where the first real action of the game was said to be taking place. Pagumon seemed to be relaxing some at the idea of the girls no longer fighting each other and so Jeanne had her little fuzzball lead the way.

The more Ken spoke the more Flurry realized just how sheltered the Hedgehog actually was. Whoever his grandpa was he'd kept the poor boy almost completely isolated from society. And while he may have had good intentions trying to teach Ken things, it sounded like fighting was about all he wanted to do. That was simple enough anyway. Keep everything sufficiently dumbed down was a simple enough solution to things. The trick at this point was not looking at Ken like he was a wild animal when he said things that didn't make any sense to the lemur. Something told Flurry that was going to be a lot harder than it had any business to. Zane on the other hand was a lot easier to make sense of. "Oh man, Metropolis! Now that's a town to live in." Flurry started excitedly before settling some. "Ya know, for a bit anyway. Some cool stuff and all but too many people." the lemur spoke as though he had lived there. Despite being such a population and tech hub he had actually yet to pass through on his wanderings. During both of the other's answering his question Flurry had been mulling over in his mind just how much he ought to share with these strangers. They both seemed weirdly trusting of him despite not knowing him and that kind of honesty wasn't something he was used to. "Maybe not so dangerous but I'd probs wanna be spending my time making something as complicated as Chimera here." He began in offering some kind of answer of his own. "On the coding side anyway. I really can't stress bad of an actual mechanic I am. You just pick up some hardware stuff when you overclock stuff into obliv-" the lemur said before being cut off by some beeping from his computer. An unusually fast diagnostic. Well, calling it unusual wasn't fair he had no idea how Chimera normally operated. Maybe this was slow for the machine. "Well, what's the damage?" Flurry questioned the screen, hesitant in case he was going to have to start replacing fuses. His heart sank. "Ugh, come on! I know you overheated and everything but you couldn't have shut off before blowing that?" the techy questioned the unmoving Chimera at this point. Still he seemed to regain some energy after more thoroughly examining the results. "Well, thinking positively, he didn't fry any of his processors or his motherboard. Less positively, I need like half a dozen replacement fuses from..." he looked around to the ever present piles of junk. "Any of that." He moaned in frustration as he stood up and began digging around inside Chimera again. He withdrew two small tubes with even smaller wires running down the center of them. One the wire had snapped and was black on the broken ends, the other was clean and still connected. "Good fuse," he started whiled holding the unbroken fuse forward. "Bad fuse." Flurry continued while holding the burnt one out. "I need as many of these good ones as we can find from around here before I can even think of booting him back up." He explained to Ken and Zane. Hopefully all of this Eggland tech used the same building materials. The coding language wasn't giving him much confidence but between the three of them it seemed they were fortunate. With how broken everything was, that any fuses were still in working order felt like something of a miracle. Once reconvened the lemur set about working for what seemed an eternity as he fiddled with the fuses, withdrawing broken ones from Chimera's body and replacing them with the new ones. Flurry said and responded to almost nothing beyond requests for tools or parts out of reach. Eventually he wiped his brow with a sigh and began putting Chimera back together, taking full advantage of Ken's brute strength to move the heavier components into proper place. "So, he's not on fire, more than cooled down, fuses replaced, body put back together in about as good an order as we're gonna get with what we have. Who wants to do the honors?" Flurry said to the others while motioning to the touch screen keyboard on his computer which held out for Ken and Zane to see. There was a lot of technobabble but what seemed important was the large phrase "BOOT UP?" and the yes option currently selected.

The way Fen talked about magic had captivated Aduain. He'd encountered the idea in fairy tales and the like and a lot of people's hatsus could easily be misunderstood for magic if one wasn't aware of nen and its capabilities. But for the fishy hunter this was all just part of the world. Magic sounded like even the users of it didn't understand the mechanisms behind it, quite like Fen's own inability to comprehend the television. It might have been one of the strangest things he'd ever thought about if he hadn't stepped into two different worlds in as many days. But whether the world operated by magic or nen it sounded like fun was still fun no matter where one came from. The reading and gardening was a bit tame for Aduain's tastes but this guild of hers sounded like a good time. Like if the hunter exams crowd just always hung out together. The moment of reflection on how her friends were fairing cast the fish's mind to home and a twinge of pain and sadness flashed across his face for it. But there wasn't any time for that. "Well we'll definitely have to upgrade this place! There's a lot more cool stuff to show you from what the menu was showing. I'll have to see what kind of money we get working with after a little bit. Oh and after I figure out if I can buy a pool or something for my room. Flooding it sounds fun but then if you ever opened the door you'd have to start over. Which could be fun but a lotta work." The boy rambled at length for his plans with the place yet something about Fen's presence seemed to be enough to keep him from actually acting on any of the more destructive proposals. At least for tonight. Eventually the two parted and Aduain was feeling pretty good about things. That was of course until he woke up half way into the night. He was thoroughly dried out. Forgetting to flood the shower room was one thing but at least not taking a shower was quite another. So while the world continued sleep the fish entered the showers and let the water run over him. The next thing he knew several more hours had passed and an alarm was blaring. The fact he'd slept here both nights just went to show he really needed that in room pool. Something to check out later. Before long the boy was only slightly dripping wet as he gathered with the others. There were two threats that needed tackling. And while both sounded fun, the one with more details caught the fish's attention more readily. Of course this conflicted the boy as he wanted to see what the other hunter in the room was capable of, and Morgan seemed intent on showing him. But then a flash of brilliance. "I wanna fight the big ape!" He declared excitedly throwing his lot in with Fen and Trevor. "I'll race ya Morgan!" Aduain declared, turning to face the zombie. "First one done wins!"