Doggo

With arrows flying true and companions striking at the downed creatures, Estelle was pleased to see the monsters being progressively vanquished. There were scares on both sides to be certain. Chris managed to stab a creature enough times to finally put it down and Lana was about to do the same. Or that's what the mage thought. She saw the creature had wrapped itself quite securely around the woman's leg to the point using her axe in the tradition manner could cost her the limb. The mage got to her feet, careful not to trip for the hurry, as she made her way to Lana's side. She was still trying to prod the creature off to little success but Estellise swallowed her pride and sense of disgust and grabbed onto the head-like end of the monster to try and extend it off of her companion's leg. Her index and middle finger on her right hand began glowing brightly as she pulled the monster into position despite its thrashing. "No sudden movements Lana." Estelle grunted as she felt the magic ready to fire. Not but a moment later the ball of light pulsed brighter and shot through the eye of the monster it had been pressed up to and clean through the other side out another of the eyes. This the Fereis mage repeated some few times until the monster went limp and yielded to her grip. With a fair bit more stretching of the disgusting flesh she was able to pull the monster off of her friend's leg before she ultimately tossed it as far from both of them as possible. Estelle did her best to forego falling to the floor again as she caught her breath before offering Lana aid to stand. No sooner than her friend was standing again did she immediately channel more magic and sent some eight or so additional light spheres into the room and up to the ceiling. These the mage circled about to light every crevice of the ceiling but the search found nothing. The balls dimmed some but didn't disappear immediately as the mage didn't trust the dungeon to not still be hiding something. "Well... I wonder if they might have left us alone if we had just moved on." Estelle pondered aloud as the three regrouped. There were still two mysteries at least to uncover in the room. The issue of the treasure chests that had yet to disturb them while they were fighting. There was talk of what to do and ultimately the chests were to be investigated and opened if possible. But Estelle had decided to stand behind the others as they investigated, magic ready to fire at any unwanted guests that might appear.

The impact of the lion's paw onto Reinaan's back and shoulders was something the boy had no real comparison to draw for. He had imagined caveins while exploring the mountain tunnels of home perhaps feeling something like this but thankfully he had made enough room that the impact was still helping propel him toward his target. There wasn't time to be sure nothing was broken or dislocated but his next series of movements would help him figure that much out. The draken found himself able to still move his arms as he closed in on the two-headed lion. The heads stood a fair bit above him making disfiguring the eyes or noses difficult. Another roar sounded and the others reacted in alarm as the word demon hung in the air. Reinaan couldn't afford to be distracted in the position he was in so he raised his halberd and plunged it into the chest of the monster. Again it was difficult to pierce the beast's flesh but the tip plunged a bit deeper in than his first attempt. This kept the lion's faces both focused on him while Ryia moved about to prepare her attack on the hind legs. Reinaan found himself needing to move immediately as both faces launched their breath attacks his direction. Running out only invited a claw through the back so the boy took a more radical path and ducked under the body of the lion itself, just narrowly avoiding the breaths. The tip of his tail felt the conflicting temperature changes it had been that close. Reinaan got to his feet and took a crouching stance as he moved toward the lower half of the underbelly. This was where he wanted to keep himself for his next maneuver but the beast was beginning to move in response to Ryia's attacks. "Ziiyol, you're up." He grunted as the fire spirit appeared beside him under the beast. The spirit had several questions to this approach but the boy dismissed the more playful comments and given the presence of the gate and the demons the spirit was inclined to be ever so slightly more serious. As she had done many times before she disappeared into her partner as Reinaan's body began emitting stray sparks. The fire claws extended off his right hand and after the lion had attacked Ryia in response to her blows to its leg the thrust his hand upward and plunged the full length of the firey weapons into the monster's gut until the tips of his own claws were even piercing the flesh. The lion emitted another roar from the sudden searing pain in its innards and both faces began spewing their breath attacks without regard to anything. Reinaan tried to begin twisting the claws as they were lodged in place but the monster took off at a run, charging forward in Ryia's direction. It was all the boy could do to cling to the monster's hide to keep the weapons in their place. Ryia managed to dive out of the way of the charge and unyielding magical breaths as the monster was paying her no attention. Rather than slam into the wall of stalagmites ahead, the monster took a sharp turn as it approached in an attempt to dislodge the blade stuck in its inttestines. Reinaan was flung off of the beast and was sent spinning, avoiding an impalement of his own but he got well acquainted with the floor. This fresh series of impacts so soon after the heavy impact to his back had the boy taking a minute to get back to his feet. The world had to stop spinning first.

Estelle's aim was proving functional but not effective as much as the situation felt it called for. Impairing one of the creature's ability to move was all well and good but that left the other on its path to attack her, and three more had joined the fray to attack her friends. Frustrating as that was, the mage had to be sure not to get injured herself before helping the others was feasible. With the still stable dark mantle closing in the Fereis changed her stance and began channeling the light between her hands again. This time instead of forming an arrow a column extended upwards and took shape as the woman clapsed her hands around it. She had formed a blade of light. "It cannot be that hard." She muttered under her breath at the thought of swinging a sword, even if one of her own creation. The rather unathletic mage had never been trained in anything so base as the martial arts or swordsmanship so it came as no surprise to any observer that her swing on the creature lacked any form or mastery. It was a wild swing and even that much might have been generous. Still, it managed to gash the webbing between the tendrils, causing the creature to move more erratically to try and stay airborne. That she had hit it all was a boost of confidence that proved dangerous when her continued wild and uncoordinated swings failed to follow the altered movements of the monster. After enough attempts the creature had wrapped several of its tentacles around the mage's right arm and was beginning to wrap the rest of its body around the appendage. Estellise shook her arm vigorously to attempt to dislodge it before the mouth could find her flesh to no avail. She still held the blade of light in her off hand but lacked the confidence to use it without lopping her own arm off. There was no form or training to the mage's next maneuver. While skilled in evocation she artificially restricted herself to using light. It was graceful and proper of a lady of the Fereis to use elegant magic. But what Estellise needed at the moment was not grace but raw power. Magic surged into the hand wrapped up in the dark mantle followed quickly by the sound of stray sparks. With a final push a small explosion erupted and shook the area. But much more importantly, the force had ripped the monster off of Estelle's arm. In fact it had more shredded the monster to now scorched pieces. The mage would have been relieved if she had kept her balance. The force of the blade had knocked the woman to the ground with a thud. A moment passed before the pain set in and the mage looked in dismay to see burns setting in up and down the length of her arm. "Not my brightest idea." Estelle berated herself but there was little time to care about herself immediately. She still held the blade of light in her other hand and there were still three of the creatures left in the room. It wasn't difficult to ready the sword as a longer arrow which she aimed from her space on the floor at the last of the new arrivals that had yet to make a move for either of Chris or Lana's positions. She let the blade-turned-projectile fly while fighting through the pain in her arm.

If only the air were water, Aduain might have been able to avoid running into Melissa. But as the air was very much not water the fish had nearly knocked her over before stumbling and getting back to his feet. The others who had left the park with the fish showed up to make sure everything was fine and the two exchanged some words. Thankfully, no one was hurt so it wasn't that long before the now even bigger group of near strangers were on their way toward the mental pull together. The group made it to Mauvache's Arena, as the building called itself, without further incident but all the while the fish was making excited observations of the fairly obvious to the others. Even the slightest things seemed enough to impress him which caught more than a few curious glances from passerby. Inside the building was no different as the bunny-eared man came into view. It was just such a unique sight that the hunter couldn't help but get worked up thinking about how something like that had happened. They didn't look glued on anyway so that left weird nen applications to explain it. There wasn't much time to bug the man about it before the group was swept away to a room covered in screens. Aduain rolled from one thrill to the next with little issue or reservation. Everything about being in Prana was so stimulating there was no point to compartmentalizing things. Just taking what he could get and moving on was going to be the order of business. More than the strange figure that appeared on the screen, Aduain seemed riveted at the appearance of the large screen she spoke from high up in the room above them. The hunter had seen screens on tvs and computers but never anything quite this slim or seemingly disconnected from discernible power sources or inputs. He wanted to touch it to make sure but a quick hop confirmed it was farther away than he thought. This led to progressively higher hops to get a feel for how much he'd have to put into it to reach. The words Mauvache spoke were not particularly processing in the fish's mind but he got the request at least. She wanted help protecting her people. He already did a lot of that as a hunter so it seemed like an easy yes from him. Trevor and Melissa spoke in turn as Aduain's leaps got closer and closer to touching the screen above. "My, my, well, I brought you here." Mauvache said to Melissa with a clearly confused tone. "But I already said that so I'm sorry but I'm not sure what you mean." She continued but before Melissa could voice any response her attention was distracted by Aduain finally putting his all into a jump and tapping the bottom of the screen before falling less than gracefully back to the floor. "Can I help you?" she asked him, clearly amused from his antics. The hunter had managed to avoid falling down for the dozenth time so far in Prana so he was thankfully feeling ready to speak to his curious host. "I dunno about other worlds or universes but the job sounds like what I was doing as a Hunter so I'll just keep doing what I do here, no problem!" Aduain started enthusiastically. Though there were some loose ends to work out of course. "But you can send us back when it's all over right? I was on the verge of an ocean shaking discovery." the hunter commented, the thought of what he was finding in the sea floor ruins returning to his mind. It felt like so much had happened already but it really had not been long since he had arrived here. Mauvache gave a chuckle. "Yes I suppose this is old hat for you. Well...I should be able to, yes." She responded. Aduain seemed content knowing he could eventually get back to his dive in his world when a sudden realization flashed across his face. "Oh! You guys have more water than that fountain right? I'll be fish jerky in a week if there's not a pool or something." the hunter asked, clearly concerned. The concern was multi-layered. For one, if that was all the water they had, he'd feel bad about having swam in it. But also he'd go crazy if that was all he had to work with, never mind the drying out. "Well, yes, there are plenty of pools. Some large enough to be considered a beach, even!" the woman in the screen replied. Aduain placed his hands on his hips, just below his gills, and put on a confident posture and tone of voice. "Well, I'll have to be the judge of that!" the fish declared. He was content to end the conversation with her there to allow the others to speak but this time Mauvache spoke first to him. "Ah, there's something I'd like to bring up, as well. You see while I do not mind it, some people may be uncomfortable with how, ah, out in the open you are." she said as a doorway slid open off to the side. A ball-shaped robot with a pair of pincer arms holding a tray came out towards Aduain with what eventually became clear were a tie and pair of shorts. Aduain was putting together what she had been referring to, his utter lack of clothing given he'd been diving, though not entirely. The robot held his attention the longest, it was such a curious thing. But the boy eventually settled the tie loosely about his neck before putting the shorts onto his head, sliding a few of the tentacle protrusions on his head through one of the legs to keep it in place as his new hat. That had to be what she was on about right, after all she had a hat on. Maybe hats were just common courtesy here. That could be fun. "Cool stuff, thanks!" he spoke as he degraded into incessant giggling as he hopped to the edge of the room. The fish started doing his best to try and see something of his reflection in one of the various screens in the room. He'd get a solid look later in a mirror or pool or something but for now he needed to know just a little bit how cool he looked.

They're not mine but I ha- No, I don't. I meant you and yui do a thumb war.

Thumb war at dawn is what comes next.

Estelle's magic was ready after her initial shock at seeing the strange monsters attacking them. Lana had been quick to swing her axe about, quickly injuring two of the five squids. But three of them were still in the air and all seemed interested in the mage's face. The Fereis was able to shoot one out of the air with a light arrow but the other two were nearly on top of her by the point she had fired. There wasn't enough time to fire on both so in a panic Estellise squatted down to enchant her shoes. Now with an actual athlete this enchantment would have let them move effortless about the room with great speed. But for the mage who had committed very little of her life to physical training it was just enough to get out of the way of the two attacking dark mantles with an awkward dive to boot. The ground was no place for a Fereis mage but Estelle was more thankful to not have those teeth lodged into her face at the moment with the several feet of room she had given herself to work with. Her physical movements were anything but graceful in this position as she managed to get first onto her backside and then finally began the process of getting to her feet. The goal at this point was to simply not have to repeat this maneuver and so she readied her aim again to fire on the two who had attacked her.

The Draken's search for more slimes didn't accomplish much but that was the point so Reinaan still felt accomplished in that the rest of their trek down the tunnel proved uneventful. Of course, it was difficult to feel all that good about it with the strange sense of mounting dread building in the boy's stomach. Damien was the first to speak in confirmation of what all those who had experienced the first could now recognize as a demon gate. There wasn't much time to focus on it as the gate had a protector like last time. But there was no crazy fire mage blocking the way, instead a massive, discolored, two-headed lion stood before them. Reinaan had been ready to charge it but before he could Ryia placed a hand on him. The hardening of his scales under the earth magic was a strange sensation but not an unwelcome one when the boy gave his chest some playful taps with his claws to see just how much had changed. This pause gave Reinaan enough time to stop and think how to approach the fight even as Ryia and Lindow sprung into action. Large cats tended to focus on fast moving things so despite his instincts, Reinaan began moving at a calm pace with his weapon ready toward the left side of the tunnel to try and get around to the beast's side. It's magical attacks as shown by its attack on Ryia were going to make things more difficult but other than that it seemed no more intelligent than any other big cat. Lindow had it's focus now with the man's most recent attacks and so the draken moved without notice. The beast did nothing to stop Lindow's last sword throw, taking a hit to the face but not the eyes. Rather than a magical attack it would swipe a paw at the Thunder Chosen to keep him off of it. At this point Reinaan began moving in toward the creature's side but it took notice of him before he could get as close as he wanted. Instead of hopping onto the things side so he could claw his way up to the top to constantly harrass it, the fire chosen had to settle for thrusting his halberd forward to pierce the beast's side with the spear tip. The flesh of the beast was much harder than expected so while it drew blood, it didn't go nearly as deep as the boy had intended. The monster had just breathed fire in Lindow's direction before the attack which then took its focus. It turned to focus on the draken and backed up which got Reinaan's weapon out of its side. The boy locked eyes with the fire head of the beast, though the ice head seemed to want in on the action as well. Both sides stared and growled at each other. Though the draken broke the tension by calling to his allies. "When it's not looking at you don't run!" Reinaan shouted, imparting his earlier strategy to the others. He didn't have time to provide additional information or spell out that now that the beast was looking at him the others had a chance to get to the side or behind it to attack it. The beast was preparing to attack Reinaan and the boy had to focus back on his opponent as it took a swipe at him with a claw. Instead of blocking he charged the twin headed lion to try and get inside its range and close to its necks. However successful he wanted to keep its attention now that he had it.

The lemur gave no solid response one way or the other regarding his ability to manipulate chaos. The way the hedgehog explained things, he figured that's what his powers had to be but he'd never known them as anything other than simply his own abilities. To slap a fancy title on it now wouldn't mean much or change how they worked. Flurry was curious however to hear that there was a crew involved. This wasn't a one-hedgehog act then as he had assumed. It made sense really, going it solo wasn't the life many wanted to shoot for. The prospects of joining a team were mixed for the lemur. There'd probably be more food and resources to go around for sure. Tech he wouldn't otherwise get his hands on was always a tempting offer. But answering to someone's orders seemed like a pain. Still, all this chaos talk had him too interested to just ignore. Flurry returned Roxie's, as she introduced herself, hand giving a playful yes captain in response before the chaos tracker took over the pair's attention. "Heh, genius might be a bit much" Flurry tried to play down the compliment like it wasn't that big of a deal, all the while hiding the pride swelling his chest at someone in this ghost town acknowledging the worth of his talents as more than just a handy-lemur. He relinquished his grip on the object to let its owner better inspect the now functional display, ever curious to what it was doing. Despite figuring out the basics to the coding language, he still didn't much know what the actual functionality was supposed to be. The initial joy of seeing it work was soon replaced with concern over the color of the screen being incorrect. Probably just a semicolon out of place was Flurry's initial thought until Roxie brought to attention gunk as she called it. The lemur followed her line of sight only to see the once barren canyon now filled with a dark substance that looked like something out of a complex supercomputer simulation. That alone would have been alarming but immediately more concerning were the entities spilling out of it and scaling the canyon walls. There were too many to count. A mix of awe and terror gripped at Flurry's heart as he stood paralyzed for a moment. Roxie calling attention to the few of the creatures heading their was was a helpful wake up call. "No friend or customer I'd ever have. We gotta get out of here!" the lemur shouted as he scrambled to grab his computer and ran for his tent. He didn't intend to take all of his things at this point of course, most of it was pretty easy to replace. But he had a tech bag that he slid the tablet into. This much at least was precious to him, the rest he could leave to whatever fate these monsters had for it. "Go go go!" he called out more to himself than Roxie as he bolted from the tent and in the opposite direction of these things. Running away wasn't going to be easy of course as his head was constantly turned behind him to try and see what the things from the canyon were even doing. A few of them probably weren't a big deal, but if they all focused on him and Roxie there wasn't much he could see either of them doing about it. For a moment he thought of what might happen to the nearby town. They wouldn't stand a chance. The thought slowed his retreat until he stopped and turned back to face the oncoming. Before he could think of playing the hero he had to know if he could even do anything. "Let's see how you like this!" Flurry shouted as he swung his free hand not carrying his bag in front of him, causing a powerful blast of air to shoot outward in the direction of the attackers. The desert sand would be forcefully swept up into the strong wind and blown around the area but most immediately in the faces of the enemy.

Reinaan eventually caught himself without injuring Ryia but he paused a moment to ensure his footing was sure and not about to upended by another slime they had missed. Looking around they all seemed to be dead or dying which gave him the confidence to begin moving again after releasing Ziiyol's power. The fire spirit appeared behind her partner, a wide smile on her face. The Draken went to retrieve his now soaked halberd as the Earth Chosen thanked him for the help. It was a bit difficult to tell if she was just being down on herself but the woman seemed almost disappointed she hadn't been able to handle it alone. That was a feeling the young hunter knew all too well. "Hey, don't worry about it. Not everyone gets to stand out on every hunt." the boy began, drawing on familiar terms to him to get across the lesson he'd learned. "But that's why we're a team. Give it a bit and I'm sure we'll trade places. Just matters we're always there for each other." Reinaan concluded as the party regrouped and prepared to move on. As Madelyn and Damien began speaking, Reinaan was caught off guard at the start of snicker escaping his mouth at the swordsman's sticky situation comment. For someone he thought he was on bad terms with he hadn't expected to find something funny. But this would just show weakness in this awkward social game. Best to keep it under check. "Let's go!" Reinaan enthusiastically declared as the group came to their next crossroads. It was largely a way to keep himself psyched up but it was also an exercise in seeing how well the place echoed. Probably not the smartest action. Everyone seemed to already know which direction they wanted to keep moving down and the draken had no disagreements. The boy would stick to the front of the group again but this time he had has his face angled down at the water. He couldn't afford to miss any more slimes. The next batch might grab someone before they had any time to react.

Some of the others seemed interested in not having the park around them explode either Aduain was happy to find out. Of particular interest was was the weird little flowers that had appeared over Roy and Mr. Purple. It seemed like some sort of healing hatsu but was still not quite like anything the hunter had seen before. The fish boy was about to make it a point to go and introduce himself to Trevor to understand the trick but something caught his attention. A shout stating something was fishy. Aduain was fishy. But somehow it seemed if that was literal it would have happened when they all first came to in the area. So Aduain concluded this had to be one of those figures of speech humans were really fond of. He liked them too he just wasn't great at following them all the time. This distraction turned into a chain of distractions as a mysterious person appeared out of nowhere. He seemed intent on there not needing to be any further interventions between the two combatants. More importantly, he spoke to the group at large stating answers to their questions were in the city. Well he said Arena but Aduain could only imagine that was somewhere in the city. At this point, the girl with the amorphous person both couldn't be seen anywhere in the park so they must have really gotten a move on ahead of the others. That magic man and the other girl present both wanted to follow suit was all Aduain needed to know it was time to get on out of here. And now there was little to distract him from what he had originally intended to ask. With a quick pole vault of his trident he at Trevor's side. "Heya!" the fish greeted the man after getting some residual giggling out of his system from the leap. "Name's Aduain, I'm a Hunter. That's some real cool nen you were using there on those two. Dunno that I ever met someone with a healing hatsu, nevermind that looked like little plant things in the process." He would give the man some time to answer before running up ahead a bit of him and Fen to try and get to the city faster. Still he didn't wanna leave any more of the group behind than he had to. In fact he ended up walking backwards to be able to talk with any of the other people who had arrived here with him when suddenly they all disappeared from view, causing him to tumble backwards a bit. Upon standing up he seemed to be in the city but there was so much more going on than any view from the park could have ever given him. People, machines and lights everywhere. It was overwhelming for a moment as he took it all in from his back lying on the ground. Still, one couldn't lay about forever and there was still a nagging sensation in his mind of somewhere he needed to go. The boy hopped to his feet to get a proper look around. Before too long some of the others who were on the way out with Aduain came back into view. Nothing much about Prana made sense but that just made it all the more exciting. "This way I guess!" Aduain declared with uncertainty and enthusiasm despite it all. It wouldn't be long before the fish saw a bright flash of light in the direction they were going which was either a sign of trouble or an indication they were going the right direction. The fish picked up the pace, wanting to track the light source down before it moved too far away. It proved fairly easy for him to weave in and out of the various people moving about the town until the two from earlier finally came into view some several minutes after their handling of the Spike Brothers, not that Aduain had seen any indication of them. At least Aduain thought it was them. The person that didn't have a shape never looked the same from moment to moment so it was hard to decide if it was the same shapeless person or not. But then Aduain had never met someone like them before so Prana would have to be really weird to have more than one running around. The girl by their side though, Melissa he believed he'd heard her referred to as, she definitely seemed like the same person from the park. All this thinking about if these were the right people was well and good but this along with the distractions of the city had also prevented Aduain from making sure not to run into either of them. And the city wasn't exactly made of stuff he could plant his trident into to stop himself. "Heads up!" he shouted in alarm to warn Melissa and Devin of the incoming fish. With a little luck he hoped to run right between the two, maybe trip a bit and finally come to a stop some five feet in front of them. That was the plan anyway. How gracefully executed it would be remained to be seen.

At this point it seemed Sergei would not be rejoining the group. It left a somber tone to resonate with the aggravation Estelle had already been feeling in her heart but there was little to be done about it. She couldn't force anyone to adventure with her after all. For that matter Estelle was surprised but almost happy the group seemed intent on tackling the Dungeon again. It hadn't been her intention to go today as there was much reading to catch up on. But with what all had happened, a distraction was welcomed. Entering the dungeon was a much smoother process this time as it did not require any of Estellise posturing to the guard about their situation and aim. Instead they were allowed to pass straight in while the Dungeon took them to the sixth floor where they had left off. An oddity of the Dungeon to be sure that it remembered where they had been already, but a blessing that they need not battle through the first five floors again simply to make further progress. This sixth floor was a markedly different room than the five before it had been. Two chests stood in a somewhat dim room. The edges and ceiling of the place were shrouded in darkness, something Estelle sought to remedy as Chris began examining the treasure before them. "In situations like these, I think it best to gather more information." Estelle replied to Chris' query as a ball of light materialized at her finger tips. It drifted through the air to the edges of the room, repelling the darkness as it went. But if there was any anticipation of uncovering a monster it would be disappointed as there was nothing in the room with them. At least on their level anyway. That they couldn't see the ceiling remained curious. Estelle stared up toward the darkness for a moment before turning back to the others. "I advise we step away from the treasure for a moment. We may yet have unpleasant company waiting above us." the mage cautioned as the sphere of light returned to her. With a brief pause the orb regained its brilliance as Estelle topped the small bit of magic power off before sending it upwards. At first there seemed to be only a cave ceiling and stalactites. But a second look would show something indeed lurked above as things began moving between the stones. A rush of air accompanied five bizarre creatures dropping down to meet the group of adventurers. They resembled squids but were about four feet long and at the center of their tentacle like web of appendages there was a disgusting toothed mouth like a lamprey. No sooner did they land than did they begin charging the group to latch on to them. Estelle stepped back in shock and after a moment began readying her magic for offensive use.

is this a cowcow reference

Reinaan's attacks were certainly effective at tearing off chunks of the slime. But there had to be another core somewhere or else it would have melted already. And for that, the slashing was getting frustrating as it wasn't ultimately getting him anywhere. The creature seemed to be moving to grab at the Draken which he intercepted by slashing at the parts that moved towards him, but still that wasn't going to stop it from reforming and doing it again. It was Ryia who broke through the frustration by calling to the boy's attention that there was in fact another core after she had begun slashing away at the monster to get toward it. With both Chosen having slashed so much of the slime away, Reinaan now could see the core as well and didn't need much more than the Earth Chosen's calling attention to it to know what he had to do. "Dead slime coming up!" he shouted as a means of psyching himself up. He wasn't entrely eager to but that didn't stop Reinaan from closing what distance there was between himself and the slime before he pressed his entire body up against it before drawing his hand with the flame claws back. With a shout he trust the claws into the mass of the slime which easily tore through the bulk of its matter. As it got closer to the core some resistance set in but not nearly enough to stop the fiery appendages from piercing deeply inside, ultimately striking and shattering the core inside. This would prove to be the large slime's last core as what was left began to melt away. Leaning into it as he had been, Reinaan found himself stumbling forward in Ryia's direction. In a split second he dropped his halberd in his off hand and retracted the flame claws to not hurt her as he began flailing his limbs about to find his balance unsuccessfully.

Please be kind to my son.

With some smart action from the mages, the only slime left that had appeared in the middle of the group was on its last legs, unable to hurt Keres while she was free to toss it about and break its core. This left Reinaan with three options. Finish off the weakened slime near him was the first and least productive. The Water Chosen and light mage seemed to be in no immediate danger with it. But that wasn't true of Lindow and Ryia, both of whom had limbs being pulled on by clingy slimes. The boy's gut told him to rush to the Thunder Chosen's aid due to their friendship but he had enough sense to take stock of the fact that Lindow's opponents were smaller and weaker, and Damien was there who hopefully would intervene if it got out of hand for the witch hunter. Ryia meanwhile had struck a core yet the monster had not died and was even now practically on top of her, threatening to tear an arm off. With a growl the draken charged forward with his halberd aimd forward, ready to skewere the second core that Ryia had called to his attention. The slime creature made no movements fast enough to intercept the boy and it soon found the metal tip of the draken's weapon piercing its second core. Reinaan had powere through the actual slime fairly easily and already the creature was shrinking some, lessening the tight grip it had on Ryia's arm but not fully relinquishing it. For some reason it didn't continue deflating until there was nothing left like the others. It was smaller, but still definitely alive. But to the best of his abilities, Reinaan couldn't make out another core to explain the phenomenon. The boy hissed in frustration as he attempted to hoist the monster off the ground to slam it back down to the ground as he'd seen Keres do to the smaller slime. But the slime wasn't viscous enough for this upward force to do much but move his weapon through the mass of the slime. "Ziiyol!" Reinaan barked to his spirit. The fire spirit answered the call quickly, knowing her partner's intention and merged with him. In the same motion the draken retracted the halberd with his left hand as he slashed at the remaining bulk of the slime with the flame claws now extending off his right hand. One way or another it was going to let go of Ryia and die.

Estelle seemed worried about Sergei's whereabouts being as yet unknown. She had hoped their group would stay together longer but even the single exploration the four of them had undertaken together was more than she could have hoped for when the idea first entered her mind. Concern for the missing ally was soon overshadowed as Chris moved to share what had happened to him in the morning. What he spoke of, and being attacked, it was all most unusual. The less than honorable display of magic was enough to be angry about. But the connection to the Kalo family, the mentioning of the church, and the bizarre heart that Chris had on his person, all of it was a bit much to take in at once. Rather than stay angry at the interaction with the church earlier she decided to focus in on the heart and what had happened surrounding it. Of course, that chosen focus brought with it a degree of repulsion. "I can say with some degree of confidence that this... thing" Estelle started, not wanting to acknowledge the object in Chris's hand as a heart. "Is intended for summoning magic. It is not something I have studied in any great detail mind you. But still... something about it seems wrong. At the least it is not for any summoning spell I have heard of." the mage continued as she began tapping a finger on the table as she tried to think. "As for the Kalo family, they are not particularly friendly with the Fereis. Not that they are hostile either, they simple tend to keep to themselves. Most of the other families dismiss them off hand for they do little to play in the power balance of this city. Their leader however is a charming man" Estelle spoke with some degree of distraction before she focused back on her explanation. "And despite that the family interacts little with my own. The short of it is that this magic is certainly a specialty of theirs, but what they would gain from attacking you is beyond me."

Flurry hopped in place in reaction to the hedgehog's slamming her hands down on his work bench. Nothing but a reflex but it was enough to get his heart pumping for a bit. She soon backed off to begin explaining chaos to him. The lemur was almost distracted from continuing to mess with the chaos tracker's code as the hedgehog spoke. Almost. He could multitask well enough as she spoke of things he could vaguely remember hearing about. Chaos being part of everything, the old heroes, the emeralds both normal and mastery variety, all of it rang somewhat familiar but none of it was anything the lemur had paid all that much attention to. Still, the way she told the information was pretty engaging. The combination of the shock, her story telling, and his continuing to crack the code kept Flurry's heartrate up as if it was all leading to something. And it was, but not what the lemur had been expecting. A playful wink from the hedgehog threw him off as he did his best to not blush or make further eye contact for a moment before she attributed the strange powers of some Mobians to this chaos as well. "Chaos does all that huh..." Flurry spoke as he pondered the hedgehog's words. Instinctively his long striped tail curled up behind him before unwinding and repeating the process. It seemed like something of a literal representation of the gears turning in his head. A smirk crept onto his face as an idea came to him. With a forced yawn the lemur thrust both of his hands into the air and arched his back to stretch out from all the typing he'd been doing just as a random small gust blew in the hedgehog's face from the direction Flurry was sitting. It lasted only a moment but it definitely defied the prevailing winds of the area and had no discernible source. Returning back to the chaos tracker, Flurry continued combing the code and removing errors. He was zeroing in on the device's issues and the talk of chaos and emeralds, however much truth there was to any of it, was helpful in thinking of how to tell the device to track it. "As far as a discount goes, if I can get this working I wouldn't charge you much of anything if you took me along to see something interesting." Flurry started playfully. The lemur hit a button on the screen and almost immediately was ready to backtrack on the change only to see no error message as had been expected which widened Flurry's eyes a bit. His attention was absorbed in the work as he quickly flew through a series of a lines, making the slightest alterations and additions before compiling the code again. "Think we might almost be there." He said as he stood and brushed his backside with his hands to be rid of the endless sand that had clung to his fur. Flurry disconnected his tablet from the tracker before handing it to the hedgehog. "It might need a few more tweaks but let's see if we're moving in the right direction miss... uh... hedgehog" he trailed off. It only occurred to the lemur he had never done the formalities that would lead to his knowing his customer's name. That was fine normally but it felt odd here for some reason. "Name's Flurry by the way, if my sign didn't say." He added meekly. His sign didn't state his name but there was no room to remember the specifics of that in his head at the moment.

Because I think I'm funny or it's topical given your blog. Or I'm almost through my first watch of the show. It's a mystery really.

Dark Synchros have negative levels/stars. The first example from the Yugioh 5Ds anime is Frozen Fitzgerald which is level -5 with the following summoning conditions from the yugioh wiki which it shares with all other depicted dark synchros: "1 non-Tuner - 1 Dark Tuner In order to Special Summon this card, subtract the Level of a "Dark Tuner" monster from the Level of 1 other monster you control; the value must equal the Level of this card." So to summon it you could use a level 8 Dark Tuner and a level 3 Non Tuner (3 - 8 = -5), a level 7 Dark Tuner and a level 2 Non Tuner (2 - 7 = -5), a level 6 Dark Tuner and a level 1 Non Tuner (1 - 6 = -5) and so on.

Roy and Mr. Purprle were definitely still trying to kill each other Aduain had soon found. Or at least hurt each other as this didn't feel like they were just feeling their opponent out. Granted that was likely due to all the yelling they were doing at each other without really listening to one another. The aquarian could follow Mr. Purple's ideas well enough but what exactly it meant for them all to be from different worlds escaped him. Despite his appearance and not having given the demon anything else to refer to him by, it did wrinkle the boy's non-existent nose a bit to be referred to simply as a talking fish. Aduain had a sneaking suspicion about the two he hesitated to put to words, even in his own head but as the shouting really ramped up there was little he could do to silence. "They're both knuckleheads huh..." Aduain muttered as Cyan's sword caught fire. That much at least was really cool, most of the fighting was. But the core of the issue was Roy was pretty intent on killing the only source of remotely useful information immediately present. The fish went from passively watching to tensing up as the two continued. Roy's power in particular interested him. Though no one here felt like they quite had nen, Aduain couldn't shake how Roy's powers acted like he did. Right now he was using something almost exactly like the Ko technique where one could divert all of their nen to a specific part of their body, in this case Roy's fingertips. The fish had yet to train at this technique well enough to consider using it in a fight so initially he was caught up in awe for seeing it used in this strange new place. But then Mr. Purple's entire body caught on fire and the two seemed intent on destroying the entire park, something Aduain didn't appreciate as he was still standing on it. The fish readied his weapon as air began to flow violently around his body. An explosion of the boy's nen that could be felt by even those who could not use nen took hold in the form of the Ten technique. In a flash Aduain had moved from his position on the sidelines and was between the two meatheads just as they were closing in on each other. The boy thrust his trident upward, catching Roy's aura loaded hand between the prongs and shove the hand's aim into the sky to release it's attack into empty space rather than Mr. Purple's head. But Mr. Purple was currently on fire and still charging in so in a single motion Aduain dropped to the ground in a handstand. His trident would begin to lower but the boy would add a kick to Roy's arm to entirely dislodge his weapon from the man's limb before his next move. Aduain lifted one hand from the ground to catch the weapon as it fell then did the splits in this position, one webbed foot aimed at either combatant before his nen surged in front of both of them. The boy's nen flowed into two circles at the ends of either foot which soon erupted into powerful geysers of what looked and felt like water. There was enough pressure to push both Roy and Cyan some distance apart from each other though how effective the boy's nen taking on the properties of water would prove at dowsing the figurative or literal flames engulfing either of them remained to be seen. With his single hand on the ground Aduain pushed up several feet into their and did something of a cartwheel to land back on his feet before looking to either of them with a scowl on his face. "Are you two idiots done?" The fish questioned authoritatively such that the question was more a command to stop than anything. He was a Hunter after all. This wasn't his first time stopping a street fight. He turned to Roy first. "Killing the only guy who knows anything is stupid!" he shouted before turning to Cyan. "And not just explaining what's going on if you know is stupid too! If you wanna kill each other do it somewhere you're not breaking anyone's stuff!" He continued admonishing them for lack of concern to any of this Prana place's public property. His expression softened after his scolding concluded though. "Anyway, you're both really cool so I hope you don't go through with the whole killing each other thing. Been nice knowing you if you do! I'm heading into town." Aduain concluded with a smile as he began a light run off towards the others as he felt the need to usher them away from the more violent duo. Though despite the precise movement he had displayed to intercept the two he now tripped and rolled back to his feet attempting to play it off like it was planned.

Despite her mood, Estelle had still managed to take a somewhat circuitous route to the Drooling Dragon. The mage was inviting any opportunity for a happy moment to distract her, but looking for them made them flee away from her sight. In truth the frustration was simply poisoning her view of things, and she knew that much. But still she could hope. Or at least she would try to. It was not to be so ultimately she found herself at the door to the now familiar establishment and was relieved upon walking in to see Lana and Chris already sitting together. It was time to put the early morning's event behind her or so she thought. A smile worked its way slowly onto her face, struggling to maintain its balance given the lack of genuine feeling behind it. But it wouldn't do to bother her friends with the dreadful politics of the mage families and the church. "So good to see you both." Estellise attempted a warm greeting as she moved closer to them. "No finer way to start the morning than a hearty meal hm?" she tried to laugh as she sat down with them. The soft rumbling of her own empty stomach reminded her of her folly in not eating breakfast earlier. The Fereis looked around and a thought seemed to click in her head. "Oh my, Sergei is not here too is he? Were you all waiting for me? I would hate to have been any kind of delay." Estelle spoke in concern. She seemed to have completely forgotten what she had told Lana after their first venture into the Dungeon. Had she begun reading and studying magic today she would have been hours longer before she even thought to come to the Drooling Dragon.

Whatever the mages were yelling about, Reinaan was glad to know the slimes were focused on him rather than anyone else in the group. That Madelyn could complain about being given orders was better than getting lectured forever after about not sufficiently protecting her. Ryia was currently busy holding the biggest one off from the rest of the group and the boy knew he'd need to wrap up quickly to get back to helping her. Lindow and Damien seemed capable of keeping the larger group of slimes in the back under control. As the two slimes left that had surfaced in the middle of the group moved along the floor for the Draken's legs he took a step back to consider how to attack. The decision didn't take long as the boy considered his weapon but ultimately inhaled as he readied his flame breath. Spraying the two slimes along the ground with the fire he could see them beginning to melt away and expose their cores which began to crack under their heat. The liquified bodies proved unable to do any sort of grabbing which had given the room he needed to handle both at once that using his weapon might not have given him. With swift movements the draken plunged the spear end of the halberd into each core, causing the creatures to more fully melt away as the others struck down had done. A smile now occupied his face as he seemed happy with how quickly he had wrapped up the worst positioned of the slimes. But a thought crossed his mind and so he rushed to Madelyn and Keres' sides and began scanning the floor around the group carefully. "No more in the middle of us right?" Reinaan called out, wanting to be absolutely sure the women wouldn't be suddenly assailed if he moved to dispose of other of the monsters. This brought his attention back to Ryia who was handling the largest, most formidable looking of the monsters by herself. The Fire Chosen readied his weapon again and stepped away from the mages after one last quick scan to make sure there weren't any more of the slimes hiding in or around any of the water or simply on the exposed floor of the tunnel.

woof

Mr Purple was funny, Aduain had concluded. Angry, but funny. He had a name of his own which the fish could only remember the first bit. Cyan-something it was. But nothing about Mr. Purple was even remotely cyan. In fact Aduain was way more cyan than Mr. Purple was. Whoever had named this man didn't understand colors very well clearly. Aduain liked his name for the demon better and was determined to stick to it, perhaps help the man see that so long as people were going to name him by colors, he should at least go by one that he had on him. Though the fish did furrow his brow at being called annoying. Mr. Purple had barely seen anything yet. He knew more about the city and the young Hunter wanted to get what intel he could from the only discernible source. Perhaps the bar would be helpful after all. A drunk did tend to be a bit more free-lipped about things. Aduain was about to try and close the gap, thinking of how to approach the next interaction, when he felt something approaching from behind. While he didn't have a physical need to, the fish still ducked to ensure he wasn't hit as Roy went flying over head and grabbed Mr. Purple. When next the Aquarian looked up to see this new person standing on Mr. Purple's chest after having thrown him into a tree. "These guys are really tough." Aduain said in awe as he looked over the unfolding scene. He hadn't counted on any serious fights breaking out but one thing was clear, Mr. Purple needed to not die before he'd shared what he knew. The fish approached the two slowly, not wanting to waste the lack of focus on his own self. While waiting to see what Mr. Purple would do to get out of the situation, or if he even needed help for that matter, Aduain planted the tips of his trident into the ground so he could get a tiny bit up off the ground to observe. Somewhere in the middle of this he had the brilliant thought to try and see just how strong the people around him were. He wasn't great at it but the fish focused a bit and activated the Zetsu technique, slowing the flow of his own aura to try and observe the flow of the others. "Well they're alive, that's good." he spoke to himself curiously. "Doesn't feel much like nen though. Prana's reaaaally weird." Aduain continued before his gills suddenly gasped for air in a panic as his Zetsu had gone just a touch too far at shutting off his own aura. The distraction was enough he lost his grip on his trident and for the third time found himself face down in the grass as his aura and breathing reset to normal. The place could really do with being completely submerged in water the more he thought about it. For now he scrambled back to his feet to get his eyes back on Roy and Mr. Purple. Hopefully they hadn't kept up with the trying to kill each other thing.