.hack//DIVERGENCE Main

[Nighthand]

Nighthand no longer prowled his rather small prison, and instead had taken a seat in the middle of the mouth. Not the best position to rise to action from, but then, he seemed content to simply wait. The monster, too, seemed content to wait it out. This head's job, or so he presumed, was simply to last as long as it could keeping the power-player out of battle. Nall's was, no doubt, the same.

Flashmails flitted back and forth, as the group outside the lava pool worked out a strategy. The monster was pretty dangerous, and Nighthand's spell controls could do nothing from inside the monster. He was, quite frankly, stuck in place for a while.

Flashmail
To: The Party
From: Nighthand
RE: Returning

Let us know if the other two heads rise above the lava; we have no way to tell if it's safe without prying open the jaws.

Hopefully, now the party would let them know when the heads rose. That would, probably, mean that the third head was already dead...

-- -- --

Outside the pool, the party was already in some difficult straights. Not dire, yet, for most of them were still alive. But even so, they hadn't made much progress.

Seeing an opening in one of the less-active players, the Hydra slid it's tail from the lava pool once again. No one noticed it before it was too late; by then, the whip-like tendril of lava-covered flesh had snagged it's second victim. Phoenix was lofted high into the air, a mirror of the move that had killed Dien earlier. The party could do nothing to save the blademaster as he was dipped in the lava and tossed back to shore, already beginning to ghost.

Part of the group was fighting, which turned out to be a mixed blessing. The way they had spread out around the pool and the dragon, it wasn't sure where to turn. It only got off one spell, the level three Vak Rom, targeting Zan.

Whether or not it hit, the serpent-like head didn't bother to watch. Almost as soon as the spell was cast, it was sinking into the lava. It's magma coating had cooled, and now it was time to refresh it.

The last ten yards of beast sank with a startling swiftness, sending a wave of molten rock up out of the pool, like a tidal wave. It slopped against the edges, breaking off more rocks to float in the pool's surface, but would no doubt deal a high amount of damage to anyone unlucky enough to be near the edge of the pool at the time.

For a moment, the only sounds in the room were the occasional repth being case, to heal the damage. The bubbling of the lava seemed to fade into the background, just a constant noise they all ignored.

Then with a roar that shook the cavern, the dragon rose from the lava once more. Just the lone head, the other two still submerged. It's lava coating was fresh and glowing, the eyes of the monster feral. The lava hadn't healed it, luckily, but the coating would certainly make it harder to hit again. This would be a long battle.

----------------ooc:

Flare Hydra Head C
430/500 HP
Molten Coat Status: Full Heat
Tail Swipe won't happen again until next Thursday.

Refer to Zan's post about the effects of Ap Ruem to spell damage. Other aps don't do much, i'm afraid.

[Rayo]

The wavemaster stayed back and listened as ideas and position requests passed around through the flash mail. The idea of cooling the lava seemed useful, but if the head was surrounded by lava, it had a powerful tool to harness heat from to keep molten. His icy spell seemed to have some effect, but no one made a move to actually test it out. The new girl volunteered to also act in a somewhat supporting role, lifting the burden from him of being the only active healer. The mage had been a tad bit worried that no one else would offer to do so, since in that time it could the healing confusion could extend for quite a while. In any event, there seemed to be some general team tactics in place, never a bad thing.

As the second blademaster of the day was killed, the deadly tail was once again retracted. With some sly movements, the boss seemed able to kill anyone rather easily. Was there any effective way to counter the tail and prevent it from attacking? Aside from a single spell, that seemed to make up the brunt of the creature’s offense. With a wave of his hand in the direction of the gravity user, the party count was restored to full, not counting the imprisoned pair.

“Rip Maen!”

Scanning his spell list, Rayo looked for anything that might work well against the monsters. Outside of the standard offensive and recovery spells, all that was currently present was Dek Raio. His odd spell manipulation hadn’t been charged up enough yet like the last time, it still wasn’t useful. The only things logged in were a pair of healing abilities and three level one spells.

Beyond the current chamber, there were at least two more places where battle could be necessary. The Rue room hadn’t been entered yet, and whatever lay beyond this area with the six different elemental sections always might possess similar threats. The first of those especially would benefit from strong fire spells, something the caster lacked. GiVak Don and Vulcan, neither would be enough on their own. According to Nall, the Hydra could at the least manifest four different abilities that were of the third spell strength level that the game acknowledged. Out of those, three of them were ones that the sorcerer could learn to replicate. A single spell of even that level probably wouldn’t kill him instantly, so there was a 75% chance if he was attacked with magic that Rayo could live through and learn the technique himself. If the opportunity presented itself and anything Vak related gathered around him, the wizard would simply take the hit and try to Ol Repth immediately after. Those abilities would make the rest of the dungeon much easier to tackle.

As much as it seemed appropriate to tack on additional storms to what the beast was enduring, it seemed more important to stick to his task. Launching spells might draw the attention of the head towards the acting healer, which would be counteractive to keeping others from having to heal. Additionally, his SP would keep itself at high or at least safe quantities if it was devoted to only the one task. Unless the Flare Hydra upped it’s game, keeping the casualties under control wouldn’t be a problem.

ooc:

Flare Hydra Head C
430/500 HP

[Lord Canti]

(Well, with the holes sealed up, it was only a matter of time until the Dragon Den Guards were finished with. In fact, Canti didn't even go after the last ones. He saw Dien handling that pretty much already. More power to him. That being said, it was back to dealing with the statue. Canti stayed where he was for now, still by the wall. He had a feeling... You know that feeling. That "Danger, Will Robinson!" and "We're...not...alone." kind of feeling. Sounds like paranoia to the average shmoe, but this is Canti we're talking about, the black-and-fiery Twin Blade who's in an elemental room that he's atuned to. Let's just say that he knows danger is probably still lurking and leave it at that. Hell, the look on the fox's face said enough. He could feel the hairs on her neck standing on end in the middle of the brown-reddish haze. Anyway, Nall and Nighthand were looking over the statue now, and one thing they noticed were the locks. Two open, one shut. Well, if that wasn't a confirmation, what was? Suddenly, it was quiet for a moment. The guards had shut themselves up...giving rise to...)

Canti: Yep. It's mama.

(Something he'd half-dreaded and half-looked-forward-to, the appearance of a boss beastie. It was inevitable, really. A dragon nest of eggs with dragon guards coming out of holes? What else would that mean except for a big fucking monster of a mom? This one was not what it seemed, a serpent or a wyrm or something. It snaked out, one head and then another, gulping Nall and Nighthand whole! Those two heads went down, another came up. What the hell? Oh, hang on... Flash mail thingy...)

Canti: Whoa! Straight from the horse's mouth!

(Dragon's actually...)

Flashmail!
To: The party
From: Nall
RE: The monster
The beast is called the Flare Hydra. It has three heads and one tail. The body is completely submerged, but should pose no threat; I don't think it can go any higher than it already is. Two of the heads have Nighthand and I in them, the third is probably what you're fighting. The tail is more than long enough to come up through a different lava pool, attack, and submerge again, so watch out.

Each head has 500 HP. Odd, it doesn't seem like much. The tail can't be killed.

It can cast all level 3 vak spells, as well as Vulcan Ch.

(Oh hell... Wasn't that just typical? It just HAD to be a fire-beastie that was strong enough to whomp the piss out of him, even with his own friggin' element. Great Jehosephat... That's some badass mother... Well, the only thing to do is fight it out and see what happens. This was gonna be one of those battles for the greater good where victory is a hair's breadth away from death, like at the top of the dark tower. The monster whipped its tail around to get at Dien in particular, since he'd finished the brood. Ouch... The others started attacking it, and Canti saw what Rayo later FMed about. All he saw coming up in damage against the hydra were ones, and that was kinda' made difficult to manage with its molten shield. Not long after, Zan sent another message. This one was important, though it kinda' pissed him off to hear about the monster's more subtle nuances. That and...)

Physical violence should only be resorted to if your SP is gone and, even then, Canti and Dien...you shouldn't bother. I don't mean to say that it'll be useless, but getting that close to the Hydra is near suicide for someone of Senna or even my level. My advice to stay away from the thing is simply that, advice.

Canti: DAMMIT!!

(NOW WHAT?! Everyone knows that his best attacks are up close and severely personal, and this sucker was gonna make it impossible for him. Aside from that, spells are crap, lousy level-one moves that couldn't wipe the snot from a dragon's nose, let alone kill it!)

Canti: Screw that! I'm going!

No, stop! You'll just get in the way and get yourself killed!

Canti: Bullshit! No one's better at dragons than me! I took on those high-rollers before and I got out fine!

(Many may be interested to know that Canti appeared to be arguing with thin air, a one-sided conversation. That was because they couldn't see the fox. To them, the fox didn't exist.)

This isn't about you, Canti. You have to think of your team. They're thinking of you, after all.

Canti: My team got me into this mess. You know that. You were there!

You got yourself in, with insatiable curiosity. Get over it. This is about them too. They've been at it longer.

Canti: .....Fine.

(But he wouldn't like it. Rayo and Senna were in the healing capacity, so he was reduced to weak-shit support mage. That really bummed him out. He casted Juk Rom. Once, twice... Man, he hated this. The only good thing about it was that he was pretty safe out here, by the wall. Being nothing more than a gnat's cry ensured safety, usually. For reference, Canti's fiery self basically ate Zan's AP Vakz spell alive. He had high heat protection, so adding to that pool was a stat-charger he could live by. Mentally, he made a comical belch sound, feeling a little tougher. Still not enough to take a Hydra blast full in the face. Meanwhile, Phoenix was tail-whipped next, and Rayo was quick to resurrect him. Good work on the support detail... Only thing was that while that happened, Zan got blasted as well. And what could HE do? Nothin'. Canti was stuck standing his ground, god-dammit. He casted Juk Rom again. It might've been weak as hell, but he got ten hits out of it - since the sucker had like...NO evasion - plus it might actually help cool the lava shield. Hey, you never know. Juk stuff is almost like wind, really.)

Flare Hydra Head C
400/500 HP

[Zan]

Zan watched, with a mix of both hope and fear, as the party fought on against the Flare Hydra. For one reason or another, he had expected the boss of the Vak Room to be something a bit more difficult. It was because of the fact that it, well, wasn't, that he found himself doubting the events unfolding before him. It all seemed like an act, like something built to chip away at the defense and caution they had built up with the battle against the dragons and the dragonlings. With only five hundred HP, the Hydra seemed like a mildly-powerful push over. If everyone simply stayed on the fringes of its attack radius, with Rayo and Senna as recovery back up, then they should all make it out without too much of a sweat. The lycanthrope mulled that over, mingling such considerations with his knowledge of Hydras from a mythical stand point, and suddenly realized what was going on. Well, he was pretty damn sure of the fact that had been pulled away from their eyes. Hydras had a nasty tendency to grow two heads from the severed stump of one. Maybe, like the dragons before it, the Flare Hydra would simply continue to multiply. There had to be a solution. How had Hercules taken care of such a menace? A flash of insight and atrophied memory and the closest thing to a smile that he could muster in his Garou form appeared over his expression.

Flashmail!
To: Party
From: Zan
Subject: Hercules

I'm not sure if I'm the only one to have considered this, but Hydras generally grow two heads in the place of one that is destroyed. That worries me. If we look at how Hercules took care of the Hydra in the myth and take a glance at where we are...we might just have our solution. For those who don't know, Hercules burned the severed stump of the Hydra heads to seal the wound before another two heads could pop out.

I know it's an odd request but, upon defeating this thing, look for an opening for you to use a Vak spell or even the magma (though I don't know how you'll wield it) to keep any such regeneration from happening. Hell, if we're lucky it'll just dunk its neck back in the magma when we kill it and do the deed for us.

Flashmail! End

Since the exhaustion of his SP Zan had simply paced in the area he had assigned himself to occupy, waiting with a predatorial glare to be able to assault the Flare Hydra for a second time. Any hope to mount a physical charge against it was deflated at the renewal of its magmatic armor. A few more seconds and he'd be at his best...just a few more. The rest of the Freedom Fighters were busy with their own attacks and their own fights for survival, something that was enabling the group as a whole to actually continue to function. Even when Phoenix had been destroyed in much the same fashion as Dien before him, Rayo didn't hesitate for even a moment and had the Blademaster revived and ready to fight once more. Zan could still remember the days when tactics were laughable, when the group simply flung at their opponents and hoped to deal as much damage as possible in the smallest span of time. Much like drive-bys. Now? Now they worked with almost a lethal efficiency, truly becoming something for the Elites to fear. Okay, so maybe not fear, but at least give a second glance to. Or a second blink. Something.

Due to the fact that Fate considered itself to be hilarious, the moment Zan had all of his SP in his possession and was ready to unleash hell, a rain of fire made its way to snuff him out. It was only because of the natural, physical acceleration of the Garou and the additional assistance of his Ap Do that he made it out of such a strike with hit points to call his own. Red pulsations around him signaled his critical state and a Heal Drink/Repth combination had him back to formidable amount of HP. Leaving the rest of his injuries to be healed by his Twilight, Zan looked upon the Flare Hydra with a new spice of defiance in his stance. It was one thing to threaten his companions and a whole other realm to attempt to take him out. Selfish as that may be, Zan's alpha-male instincts were raging and ready to take out that good chunk of the creature's life. The Beast was begging him to simply run up to the Hydra and rend it apart and, for the first time in ages, Zan found himself actually struggling for the reins. In the end logic and his humanity were victorious, but the fight hadn't been an easy one. Was that the next target of the PVM? His control over the Beast? The Heavy Blade could only pray against it.

The first MeRue Rom was called into action and did as it had the time before, each strike of jagged ice culling forth steam and cooling the liquid-fire protection that the Flare Hydra hit behind. When the spell had come to a settle and the air cleared, the armor was once again vulnerable to physical punishment. Zan didn't particularly plan on using his physical might for attack, however. The Heavy Blade had shifted into the Garou to fight the dragons originally and kept the visage up for sheer endurance purposes now. In his human form Zan would have been ripped asunder by the fall of the level three spell. Magic in mind, the lycanthrope took another bite out of his SP and launched a second MeRue Rom, this one causing the Hydra to thrash about for an entirely separate reason than the cooling of its aegis. However, such an attack had a tertiary response that Zan had allowed himself to fumble past and not stop to consider. Whereas before its attentions were scattered and untrained on anyone in particular, it now looked upon the Heavy Blade with deadly intentions. Quickly squashing down the squall of fear that had tried to well up in his gut, Zan roared and called a third MeRue Rom into digital reality, the creature thrashing about with momentary distraction.

Zan could sense that his death was upon him and, quite frankly, refused to go out without a noise. With a Vak Rune carving itself into the ground at his feet, the lycanthrope indulged an impulse that he had previously denied, knees bending and strength building. At the same moment the geysers of fire burst from the earth below him, Zan was in the air, the strength of his propulsion launching him away from the power of the spell and towards the cooled surface of the Hydra. Claws dug into the cracked, rocky surface of the armor, the impact of his 'landing' and the force at which his claws found sanctuary pulling a roar from an already irate monster. Clawing the stony surface of the Flare Hydra seemed pointless and Zan chose instead to use one fist (the other hand occupied with keeping himself from falling into the magma) like a sledgehammer. One, two, three, four times his fist connected, reverberating thuds sounding out into the Vak Room's air before retaliation came. The flame breath was unexpected as it licked down his back, pain erupting and stealing the Heavy Blade of the grip he had found. The fact that he was so damn high in the air was enough to kill him, but the magma seemed much, much more threatening.

Spinning through the air, images swirling without coherency in his skull, Zan was barely able to think. The one thought that rang clear, aside from his impending doom, was the fact that it hadn't shook him off. It was true that he was falling, yes, but he was falling almost parallel to the Flare Hydra's neck. When that finally clicked, when Zan realized that not all hope was lost, it was only a second before his hands and feet were groping at air. With only a story or two before he'd hit the magma, the Heavy Blade's foot caught on a grip on a cooled chunk of rock and tightened. Sadly enough, momentum closed that door. Though he was once again falling, the tumble had ceased and Zan was able to not only register his surroundings but find grips for both of his desperate hands. The strain on his arms as they absorbed the force of his fall was unreal, something popping out of place but keeping him lofted just the same. A jerk of his arm popped the thing back in its socket and enabled him to continue his attack. A handful more collisions of his fist into the thing's neck were allowed before it grew weary of his presence and made the move he had actually expected before. A hearty wrench of its neck and Zan was once again in the air, the magma graveyard waiting to claim him.

Closing his eyes, the lycanthrope waited for the heat to envelop him like some agony-hungry blanket. When such pain was only present in the previous out-of-socket arm and the rest of him thudded against a ground of some kind, Zan's eyes flashed open and tried to make sense of the chaos. The Fate that had mocked him before now seemed to aid the lycanthrope. Somehow, someway, he had landed on one of the magma pool's dispersed rocks and had been saved from the lava's fury. Having jerked his arm out of the liquid pool of pain, the only part of him to have landed in its depths, Zan held the charred, useless limb to his chest. To say that it hurt would be both a lie and the truth; only a few nerves remaining alive in the arm enough to send such a signal. No, pain would not save him from the loom of the great beast above. It seemed so much taller now that he was near its base, the nine and a half foot tall Garou no more than an ant against its majesty. With a half-hazard casting of a fourth MeRue Rom and the draining of the last of his SP, Zan could only hope the critical state of his health and the Flare Hydra's focus on him would change.

And soon.

-------------------------------
Flare Hydra Head C
300/500 HP

[Phoenix512]

Phoenix decided at the last moment not to fight the dragon kids as darkness blanketed the field and still need time to recover from the Ap Do/Gravity combination. After the others managed to take care of the remaining dragon kids, he saw Nighthand and Nall both get captured by two of the three Flare Hydra heads. Why another snake? Why does Nall never warn us about these creatures ahead of time if he knows about them? Maybe I should give up trying asking these questions as the World must hate me. If we encountered another snake in the Rue Room, it just proves my theory once and all.

Kazuma-sama watch out!

The guardian bird tried to warn Phoenix the danger of the tail but it was too late as he was tossed into the air. Before going into the lava, he threw his necklace towards the ceiling and allowing Suzaku to escape death via lava. The Master of Gravity’s body was a former shell as it was burned to a crisp and barely anything that could have identity him survived. He had barely any time to reflect as he did not remain as a ghost as Rayo quickly resurrected him.

Okay, I guess I should attack this thing but using gravity on it would be useless as it probably do more harm than help. My spells are not the best and my best ice physical attack is on my weakest sword. I think the World is hating on me theory is really going strong as I barely can do anything against it. Well I guess I need to switch to the Singing Blade and observe the others before doing anything else. Wait what’s this?

Phoenix read the flashmail that Zan just sent out and thought. I guess the werewolf does have some brains in him. Suzaku, hide yourself somewhere on the ceiling and watch below. When the hydra’s head is defeated, attack it with your flame breath. Your breath is the only attack that can focus its target. The other Vak attacks are about useless in this respect. Well that’s not true but for the most part, only part of the spell would go to the area.

The blademaster drank two Mage’s Souls to replenish his lost SP from drowning in the lava. He looked for a chance to attack the hydra when he saw Zan attacking the hydra with somewhat of a berserker’s rage. Phoenix has done this in the past but it was a chance for him to observe this state for himself. He never realized how much a berserker rage could make someone so stupid. Zan’s attacks were part stupid and part survival since both rage and survival override any logic the person could have. Phoenix noticed that the hydra was completely focused on Zan and was about to deliver the killing blow to him.

The Master of Gravity realized that it was his chance to attack the hydra and could disable it. Alright, here goes nothing. Phoenix fire a Rue Kruz attack at each of its eyes in order to blind it. He was not sure if it was going to work but he ran towards Zan and was ready to attack it with a Rue Slash if necessary. Luckily for him, he did not need to attack directly with a physical attack as it was screaming in pain and probably could not see at the moment. The blademaster managed to reach Zan’s location and cast a La Repth on him and anyone else who was in the area of effect.

“And people thought I was the crazy one. Well I suggest we leave this area before the giant snake realizes that it can see again. As for your Heracles plan, my guardian is ready for the attack but let’s hope that using fire doesn’t resurrect the head but it is better then what we got right now. Well I’m going to leave right now and wait for another chance to attack or heal as I’m not that useful with magic and all.”

Phoenix left Zan to his devices and went to another area carefully observing the battle and possibly avoiding another tail attack as he waited for another chance to strike at the Flare Hydra.

OOC:

Flare Hydra HP: 298/500

[Senna]

While Mama didn’t have the numbers that her children had forced on the battling group, she did seem to have the same basic grasp of strategy – that is, once you have a strategy, go with it. And to that end, the group was actually having a far easier time with the first phase of this monster than might have been expected from the earlier parts.

First phase? Well, of course. Senna felt she’d have to be stupid not to expect something else, especially in this place.

With the Tranquil Spear in her hands and the Cougar Bandanna on her head, Senna had access to both solitary and group healing spells, and as she circled, moving and trying to stay out of easy attack reach while letting her SP refill little by little, she saw a brilliant opportunity to use one. Brilliant in that it was illuminated by a sizeable Vak spell. She was about to fulfill her suggested role and heal him, but he did so himself instead. Shrugging, she targeted the scroll in her hand at the monster instead and another tornado-burst of electricity wreathed the thing’s head. And then, Zan and Phoenix in quick succession made their attacks, and Phoenix’s included a heal.

She was not one to quibble. Others wanted to go on the defensive, then she’d keep an eye on it, but more or less step out of that role and go back on the offensive. Fair enough. So in quick succession, another two casts of Rai Rom left the Long Arm less 20 SP. The lights would hopefully be of some use in making it more difficult for the creature to zero in on its next target.

OOC:

Flare Hydra HP: 268/500

[Nighthand]

With Nighthand and Nall still out of commission, it seemed that the party was doing well enough, albeit slowly. Could they have seen, they would have simply enjoyed the view of their party working rather effectively as a team. Well, for the most part, anyways. No machine was perfect the first time it was made.

The dragon's HP was steadily dropping, but there seemed to be no real change in the way the beast was acting. Unlike most bosses, that would adapt to the tactics used by the group in order to destroy them, the Hydra wasn't. Either a sign that it wasn't boss-level, or a sign that whatever hacker had created it wasn't up to the level of the elites. It stood to reason that the elites would choose to protect their own important facilities, but would they go so far as to design the tests themselves? If that was the case, why not simply make them inaccessible?

Whatever the case, the party continued to whittle away at the life bar of the creature, while it repeated the same moves it had before. A hurried dunk into the magma restored the creature's blistering barrier, and the tail was quick to select it's target. As befitting a monster of the game, rather than an intelligent design of the hackers, it selected the player who had dealt it the most damage; that irritating creature that clung to it's side. The tail snatched up the werewolf and soon Zan joined the ranks of players killed by tail.

Surveying the room with anger in it's eyes, the Hydra let out another roar. What sense in being mute, anyways? Not that the attacks were particularly harmful... No matter.

Fire spells seemed so natural at this point, that the group was expecting it. That part of the pattern was variable, however... While the result was still a fire spell, this was one the group hadn't expected. No Vak Rom in this case. Vulcan Ch took shape in the air, a large meteor preparing to fall. The summon would no doubt do devastating damage to all who were caught in the center of the blast, and it was targeted directly on their newest member.

Nighthand perhaps could have lessened the force of the impact, or Nall could have snatched her from her doom; with those two locked away, however, there was nothing she could do about the incoming blast. The rest of the party had little choice but to move as far from her as they could before it struck.

Elsewhere, in another room, something began to move. A pile of mossy bones trembled, and uprighted themselves. The skeleton formed, the terrain began to close in around it, giving it flesh. Bits and pieces began to turn colors, until it could no longer be recognized as rock and rot. The figure knelt immediately, abasement to it's master.

”theY comE. bE readY. shoW theM thE waY. I groW tireD oF waitinG.”

The shadowed figure's voice was not one, but many. A plethora of voices, lost in computerized effects; echoes and lag, stutters and tone shifts. Yet still it was easy to understand. The figure dropped a small white tile to the ground, where the kneeling creature picked it up. Then the creature stood. That was all. The shadowed figure simply faded, like a transparency effect slid over it. In seconds, it was no longer there.

The creature waited, as it was bid. They would come soon enough.


Flare Hydra Head C: 268/500 HP

[Rayo]

Canti and Senna tacked on some extra damage at a distance, while Zan seemed to get a bit closer than seemed safe. By the end of the exchange, it was hard to imagine how exactly the shape shifter had even survived it. Regardless, the Flare Hydra hadn’t fared well from it either. Phoenix must have been motivated by his recent death, because the blademaster also moved in, trying to blind the beast probably. Hopefully there would be some effect, but since the creature descended into the protective lava once more, any chance of that mattering probably did as well.

Following the repetitive yet effective pattern, the next player found himself below the floor. Zan was the target this time, probably either from the unfulfilled kill from earlier or just for it’s own injuries. If Zan did a repeat performance, maybe the wolf would be dunked again. The mage’s attention was ripped away from resurrection duties however, as a cameo from Vulcan was much more important. The target this time seemed to be Senna, but summons had this habit of striking everything in an area due to their slaughtering effect. Fortunately, the long arm was the other healer. Since the goal of their pact to keep the party alive involved both of them not being taken out at the same time, and since the wizard also had advised everyone spread out, he was relatively safe. Rayo backed up a bit, only to avoid skirting too close to the edge of the zone being bombarded by the second fiery beast to show up in the room. As expected, the girl was a ghost right after Vulcan landed the hit.

Motioning towards Zan and then Senna, the caster paid the 80SP necessary to revive them both. Their own SP bars would be empty, but their health was at full. Zan had some good magic he could cast, but the physical damage the heavy blade could deal was also worthwhile if the coating of lava was cooled. No point in wasting a Mage’s Soul on either of them right now.

This battle was becoming too lax, it felt too easy. The party for the most part was sitting back and casting the appropriate spells. Eventually the Flare Hydra would be killed and then they’d need to focus on retrieving their two imprisoned party members. The boss could kill off any one of them easily enough, but the rate at which it was doing so was too slow. Every so often it’s tail would claim someone, and then there was a chance of the occasional spell of doom. Half of it’s offense would cease to be if the party could somehow clip off it’s precious tail. Most of the time the body part hid in the lava, only coming out long enough to kill someone. Given the nature of the strike, as soon as a person was captured, the second half of it’s motions were both the finishing blow and a retreat simultaneously. There weren’t any practical ways to even disable the tail, much less rip it off the main beast.

No, this battle wasn’t serious enough to warrant the level of caution that the party was exercising. Plus, all those who died were still empty on SP after coming back, making it all the harder when they were attempting to use their elemental magic as their sole offensive tool. Those players needed time to regenerate, so it would be wise to draw some attention away from them. Besides, Rayo hoped that it might be possible to lure a Vak spell in his direction. From what had been displayed so far, the mage was confident he could live through one of anything the Flare Hydra could deal out, short of the tail.

<The Party

I’m going to try and lure some of it’s fire over my way and speed up this battle of attrition. Assuming it doesn’t kill me though, I’ll still be focusing on support.

Rayo>

Magic only dealt one point of damage per hit based off of everything thrown it’s way so far, but those still added up when vortexes made their way around the exposed head. Raising his staff, the mage chanted his desired incantation three times in a row.

“GiRai Rom! GiRai Rom! GiRai Rom!”

Each tornado twisted into being around the snake head, dropped a few lightning bolts, vanished and was replaced by the next. If Zan’s example was any indication, some sort of attack should be aimed at the wavemaster now. Now it was just a matter of it being the right kind of burning.

ooc:

Flare Hydra Head C
208/500 HP

[Senna]

All things considered, she was doing a lousy job as a backup, and not much better on offense. It was perhaps because of that that Senna was caught flat-footed when the creature targeted her with its next spell. And it couldn’t be a little level-one spell that she could weather, heal and move on. No, it had to be a summon. And perhaps that wouldn’t have been so bad if she weren’t preparing to cast a Rue Rom at the same time. She didn’t get her spell off, but the armor, making her water stat higher but leaving her well open to fire-based attacks, was still in place. As a result, her life went out (again) in a shower of flaming rock and scattered embers.

She’d barely gotten time to get herself readjusted to the reality of being a ghost when the situation was reversed. A not of thanks was directed to the Wavemaster who, true to his Flashmail, seemed to be doing most of the healing for the group. So, she was alive again, full HP but no SP. She had a couple choices. She still had a few scrolls in her dwindling supply. Almost out of tornado ones though, which was a shame. She had a Mage Soul, which she could use to prepare herself for more healing, but she also had a good collection of health drinks, which she could use in the stead of SP.

Still pondering the situation, she advanced toward the monster. And at almost the same time as she received the Flashmail, she’d also formulated her plan. She took a moment to shout to Zan, who seemed to be doing more damage than the rest of them magically, and see if HE wanted a Mage Soul before going on the attack herself.

The tail was going to kill someone every turn, it seemed. She wasn’t completely sure how it chose its victims, but she figured proximity couldn’t hurt. If it was going to kill someone, may as well be someone already down on SP. Besides, she was curious to see this thing up close. So she took a bit of a running start, putting the agility of her class to good use, and jumped for one of the stone floes out in the magma that surrounded their enemy.

She landed on the first, took two steps without breaking stride and landed neatly near the center of a second, further from the edge. She felt light on her feet, the heady feeling of everything clicking just right. She was…

In her speed and exuberance, she overshot her third jump, landing with one foot, bracing the second ahead of her and just avoided tumbling into the lava head-first, nearly doing the thing’s work for it. Stopping there, she looked up to assess her location.

The force of her landing had caused the stone island she was on now to drift a little, so she was treated to a slowly drifting view of what, from this close vantage, looked like little so much as a pillar of fire.

Maybe, in retrospect, this wasn’t her best idea.

Ah well, she was here. And since she wasn’t likely to do a whole lot of damage, she had to get its attention some other way. Another leap brought her closer still to the ginormous neck, and she took a hard swipe at it with her lengthy weapon. Attention huh?

One habit of many people in The World that Senna never understood was talking during battle. Some claimed it would demoralize the opponent, but that was rubbish. The only way that would work was if the attacker had a knowledge of what would really get under the other person’s skin (and they, in turn, were so weak mentally as to not see through the plot and let it affect them), or if the person listening were already convinced of the inevitability of their loss in the battle. In that case, the words were needless and should really only serve to distract the speaker. The fact that they didn’t led her to suspect most of the bravado in duels was pre-recorded somehow.

Still, the words drew attention to the speaker, and that was what she wanted. So just this one time…

“Come on, you volcanic reject,” she shouted up - and up and up – toward the thing’s overgrown head. She took another swipe at its neck, flinching as bits of orange-glowing magma flew off, narrowly missing her arms and face. She made another calculated jump to another island, a little closer, and thrust her spear straight at it, hoping to bury the weapon as far in as it would go then rip it out sideways, a tactic she used often and which she hoped might give some indication how deep this molten shield actually went. “Why don’t you try that tail-trip trick on me? I’ll pin it to the stupid island you wanna-be salamander.” Another swipe (since the jab had proven she didn’t have the leverage to make that sort of attack effective), another jump back to the previous floe, altering its lazy course again. She couldn’t tell if she was doing damage, but one thing was sure – the creature’s neck filled her field of vision. It was virtually impossible to miss.

She had no thought that the creature might understand her, but she was hoping if she made enough of a pest of herself, it just might. Alternately, who knew? Maybe she could actually contribute in some small way from her vantage on one of the floating rocks. How were they floating, anyway? And why…

Pushing thoughts of the physics of The World to the side for consideration another time, she shouted, “Down here, you overgrown excuse for a snake!” and made another swipe before looking for the next sizeable floe to jump to.

OOC

Flare Hydra Head C
208/500 HP

Zan, if you want the Mage Soul just write it into your post?

[Hijinx]

Leaning against the wall, Hijinx frowned at the new enemy. She couldn't touch it physically until it's shell cooled a bit more, and Urbosh only had an Ap Do orb equipped. To commemorate the thought, the fist-fighter gave her pet a poke to wake it up and get the spell renewed. The success of that allowed a brief moment in which a fanfare congratulated her success. After failing to hold back a snicker, she returned attention to the problem at hand*. Without the ability to cast at a range, there was only so much she could do. It didn't take long to decide that dodging the fire breath would be a good start. She couldn't help but remember fighting Shinja while dashing out of the way, something that was more than likely attributed to the fiery surroundings, with Senna and Zan picking up some attention in the meantime. Always the opportunist, Hijinx took the chance to examine the ceiling. Maybe they weren't big enough to block the pools, but if she knocked the right ones down, the stalactites might pierce the earthen armor and cause substantial damage.

"Wake up, it's time to get to work!"

Swinging Urbosh at the ceiling violently, Hijinx held on tight and hoped the impact wouldn't sting too much. As expected, he instinctively wrapped around the first thing he hit up there, pulling the fist-fighter up soon after and cushioning the blow when she hit. Now it was just a matter of seeing whether her idea would work or not. Held up by Urbosh Hijinx delivered a series of savage kicks to the base of one protrusion. When it became apparent that no progress had been made, she relaxed and fell back, her pet suspending her in the air like a harness while she surveyed the goings on below and formulated a new plan of action.

*It's important to note that at this point, Hijinx hurled a snowball at Pheonix.

OOC:

Hydra Head C: 208

[Phoenix512]

Phoenix watched as despite his best efforts Zan getting killed by the same tail attack that ended his life not too long ago along with Senna in her own painful way. Then Rayo once again used his spell of resurrection to bring them back to life but without their full SP before proceeding to get the hydra’s attention. He also noticed that the newly resurrected Senna somehow became crazy and started to attack it with her spear but not doing a good job at it.

There’s something wrong with this battle. Why is the hydra not trying to avoid our attacks? Even though it has a high defense along with the lava and its coat, wouldn’t it try to finish off quickly? It hasn’t changed its tactics except using the Vulcan Ch summon to kill off Senna but it should go after Rayo instead. Kill the healer and support before dealing with the fighters is the correct way for this battle but it doesn’t want to do that. Unless the Elites’ own lackeys are getting weaker and dumber or it want us to kill it in this fashion. Too bad for us that we don’t have the option to find another way expect this way. I think that the main body contains the weakness of the hydra but it’s submerged in the lava. I doubt that Nall or Nighthand would try to get themselves eaten and find the heart of the hydra. Even then, they could die in the lava after hydra disappears. So basically this is only way available to us…

At that moment, Phoenix was hit on the left shoulder with a snowball by the former rabbit, Hijinx. He didn’t why she threw it at this battle of peril but then again, he doesn’t understand most of the things that she does. One of these days, she will get a nasty twist of fate for all the jokes she plays on us but anyway I’m going to ignore her for now. I should weaken this thing and prepare for the worst when we do kill off this head. He changes his Fishing Gloves for his Silver Bracer since tornado spells have been able to get more hits than his single spells like Rue Kruz.

Phoenix suddenly remembered that he had an Ice Storm scroll in his inventory. He did not care much for scrolls but in this case, it was a good thing to have at the moment. Maybe he should invest in more scrolls since the party only has one true spellcaster and the rest of the party was weak magically. He used Ice Storm scroll at the flare hydra which got a few hits in a form of a Rue Rom spell. Let’s see how much it likes electricity after getting hit with some ice.

The blademaster proceeded to cast a rapid succession of three Rai Roms at the hydra which he hoped that it would do some extra damage with the water from the Rue Rom acting as a conductor. The hydra screamed in pain as it was being shocked by the electric attacks which Phoenix headed towards Rayo. He cast another Rai Rom at the hydra before reaching Rayo’s current location.

“I hope you don’t mind for some protection but I wonder if you noticed this battle seems a little bit too easy. The snake we faced at the other hub was much harder than this thing. Wouldn’t an Elite lackey monster would be somewhat tougher than this? What if we are falling into a trap by attacking this thing like this? I think something bad is going to happen once we kill this thing. We should probably keep our guard up even after we kill this damn snake. I swear that we been facing too many snake like creatures lately.”

After Phoenix talked to Rayo, he proceeded to cast another Rai Rom at the hydra to reduce its HP even further. I’m really hope that I’m wrong about what’s going to happen after the battle but things like this are usually come true for me since the World hates me after all.

OOC:

Flare Hydra HP: 148/500

[Dien]

Time slowed, but at the same time seemed to speed up. Something about the lava…no, that wasn’t it. His body was in a husked and beaten form on the ground. Breathing was hard in the dense air, and the nearly consistent sound of spells echoed through the room in a constant cacophony. Mostly it was just Rom spells, but occasionally someone would find their way to the dragon to attempt some physical damage to its coated form.

For Dien, all this passed like a summer rain: no effect rendered to him as his comrades fought around him. His body ached, not nearly as much as before, but he was in pain. Slowly he stood, watching the rest of the players in the room seem to blur around him. Spells were being fired off at seemingly instantaneous intervals from various points around the room. It was all going too fast: like one of those time-elapsing cameras. Dien caught almost every detail, and yet none of it caught his attention. Soon, too soon, it was all over. The party turned tail and left without him, leaving him alone in the room of this element.

“It really must suck to be alone,” came a voice from behind him, and the blademaster turned, “or am I wrong?”

“Look,” Dien said, pulling out his sword and pointing it at the man, “I don’t know who you are or what you’re…what you…” A sudden sensation of overwhelming fatigue overtook him, and his body began to fall forward, unable to keep his balance as his every muscle began to ache. A black cloak sat on the figure’s shoulders, its hood keeping his face in the dark.

“With no one to support you, I’d imagine it to be one of the worst things you can do to a man,” the man took a step forward, the fiery glow of the room illuminating the bottom half of his face, “or even an AI.” Stop, Dien said, his mind processing the implications of that statement faster than he could move. The fatigue was gone and he pushed himself forward, a new vigor burning through his veins as the icy sword began to glow not with its icy coat as usual but with a ring of flame.

“You bastard!” he shouted, bringing the sword down and breaking open the earth in front of the man. Steam shot up from the wound, but the man just laughed as it surrounded his form. In one move, his foot planted into the hole and closed it up while his hand found its way to Dien’s chest, sending him reeling backward toward the lava’s edge.

“So it seems you do care for Danielle, then,” he said, stepping towards the fighter who was struggling to regain some semblance of a stance, “that’s reassuring, as up until now it had seemed as though you didn’t really care that she was gone.” He began to run towards his prey, and Dien raised his sword only to have it batted away into the magma swelling behind him before a hand grasped about his throat.

“Y-you’re wrong…” he managed, his body limp under the man’s grasp, “I…I do care!” From Dien’s eyes, rage and hatred burned outward, burning straight through the unseen eyes to whatever heart there was in this figure. He froze, and Dien ripped his hand away, swiftly pounding his stomach before turning about and dropping an elbow into his hunched back. The man fell to his knees, and Dien pulled out the next sword from his inventory, holding it to this figure’s throat.

“I guess you do,” he said, not shaken in the least bit as he stood and began walking away, “continue to prove it: come for me and come for her.” Darkness enshrouded him, enwrapped him, and sucked him into its domain: the man without a name. Frustration and rage boiled up inside Dien, and he screamed at the ceiling: no one in particular there to hear his anguish. It was only when he stopped screaming and saw Hijinx attempting some form of dance amongst the stalactites that something struck him as off. Didn’t she leave…? Glancing around revealed the entire rest of the party still there, despite his clearly vague memory’s dictation of their departure. They weren’t the only ones still around, though.

Overhead, looming nearly halfway into the room’s massive height, the head of the dragon that had pulled him under stood, still being beaten upon by spell after spell after blinding spell. Why doesn’t anyone just slice off its head…? he asked, and then the answer was made clear to him as the thing dunked its head into the lava and came back up, a fresh coating of the stuff clinging to its unseen scales. …oh. So spells was it, then? He sighed, checking his inventory and knowing that he wasn’t cut out to be a spell-caster. Ap Ganz was readily available and accessed, causing the boy to glow a bright orange.

“Right,” he said, switching out for one his more-favored pieces of equipment: the Heavenly Bead Tiara, “Rig Gaem. Gan Rom. Gan Rom.*” The spells were fired off in rapid succession, barely any time in between them. As the energy was sucked out of Dien’s body, he could feel himself beginning to get weaker. One knee was pulled to a rest under him to support the rest of his body, and he grasped his chest, eyes wide at the adrenaline that was beginning to pump through his system. His spells activated around the beast as his own pupils dilated, painfully enhancing his view of the darkened dirt by his hands. Mental processing was gone, and his gaze shifted curiously to the creature that had let out a cry on his onslaught.

Instinctively he stood, running towards the dragon and pool of lava it was in. With one leap, he found himself sliding along an island towards the small crust that had formed about the base of this thing’s neck: that would be his place of attack. Another leap, and he was on the small ledge that was there, the rock still soft from the heat as it began to melt at his boots. No time… he thought, pulling out glitter and leaping as high as he could in the air.

“Rue Crack,” he shouted, but only Canti and Zhao would have been able to predict what was next, “Revolver!” Mid-skill, he shifted skills, redirecting the momentum and remnants of the Ruem energy about the blade towards the spinning skill. A total of eight revolutions ensued, each one pulling him further down the shaft of the beast’s neck before he landed with a crash on the ledge. It gave way, sinking his leg into the magma before he could do anything about it. He cried out in pain, pulling back the singed stump to sit with him at this thing’s neck. Dien knew he’d be screwed once the beast decided to dunk its head again, and downed another health drink. All he could do at this point was pray that it would work fast enough to allow him to get back onto the island before the fresh coat of magma was gained.
__________
OOC:
Before: 148 HP
Damage: 48 HP*
Final: 100 HP

*if Ap Ganz doesn’t make the Gan Roms worth 20 apiece, then he cast four instead of just the two.

[Zan]

What had been a limited effort between Zan and only a handful of others was now an all out brawl against the Flare Hydra, the near-full extent of the Freedom Fighters' capabilities coming to shine in light of the opposition before them. The Heavy Blade could feel the power rocking through the room, subtle vibrations of magical and physical clashes making the many hairs on the back of his neck stand up on end. They were slowly coming to their goal against this head of the hydra, a goal that they had been so desperately working towards. The lycanthrope would have to be a fool to think it would just be over when the one head fell, but wanted so deeply for this room to simply cease being a problem. He, like everyone else on the team, wanted to simply grab the piece of the puzzle they needed and move the hell on. All that remained, in regards to elemental rooms anyway, was that of Rue. It was undoubtedly be their hardest challenge thus far, but at least it would be the last of the elementals. After that they'd have to push through whatever opposition they faced on the way to hubs and, finally, they'd be free of this God-forsaken field. Was there a person left that actually still wanted to be here?

What surprised the Heavy Blade the most was that Jinx had seemingly shaken itself of uselessness and had begun to actively participate in the challenge, becoming some semblance of helpful. It was a start, a good start, and he could only hope that such a thing persisted. Everyone else, even Phoenix amazingly, was doing their part. Those that had seemingly had nothing better to do than stare around, judge people's tactics and only hump the Flare Hydra twice were actually doing something that the rest of the Freedom Fighters could benefit from. Hooray for actual teamwork! Such teamwork was not hard to see in all of its glory, the five hundred HP that the Hydra had started with drastically widdled down in only a few minutes. What Zan had expected to draw on and take as long as the damn dragonlings and following dragons had was actually coming to a steady close, a close that could actually be visually taken in. One thing that came to mind about the time, something that appealed to him as impending doom, was the fact that the tail hadn't claimed a victim in a small while...and a small while was all it usually took. There was little doubt in his mind that another person would ghost out because of the seemingly unblockable move if they didn't kill the Flare Hydra. Soon.

An almost achingly static noise seemed to choose that time to ring in his ears, a pressure in his skull pulling his gaze to the actions of the Blademaster he actually liked. Something in him, the PVM more likely than not, was trying to reach out for Dien. Why? What did Dien what that it lacked? An inward glance, a moment of calm in a time of chaos and he could feel the weakened virus churning for strength within him. The last thing he had remembered with the damn thing was its assault on him, its nigh-prevention of his transformation. Something had to have happened without his knowing, something that had Dien seeming like a good little snack. Mind you, they all always seemed delectable in the back of his twisted little psyche, but the fact that it was on the surface of his thoughts scared him. What did the Blademaster possess that his Beast hoped to consume? Making a mental note to question the kid later, Zan pulled himself from salivating mindsets and once again tried to focus on the task ahead. Casting the last of his SP (only part having regenerated) as an Ap Ruem on himself and a Rue Kruz to cool the armor of the Hydra, the other having faded, the lycanthrope watched the monster's health drop. Dien seemed to be doing another chunk of damage, Gan spells whipping about and leaving the Flare Hydra at...hey, he could kill it! Well, if his SP would just regenerate anyway.

As if reading his mind, a loft of Senna's hand and a Mage Soul invigorated him, a breath of cold air sweeping through his cells and calming his craving for magic. Nodding thanks in her direction (able to do little more in the form he held), he considered the necessary strategy. Was such a thing even necessary? The only "strategy" he had was spamming the bastard with the only powerful ice spell he had in his possession. Taking a second on that thought...how would be fair against the next room? With no powerful Vak Spells (physicals aside) to speak of, how would he wade through the frozen waters...and hopefully that was metaphorical...of the next room? Well, ideally Nighthand wouldn't be stupid enough to be constricted or eaten or bound in any other fashion two times in a row and they'd actually have some nice magic on their side. It wasn't so much that the group was lacking in that really, simply that there most powerful magics were in the hands of a guy who had chosen to heal them. It was a good job for a guy with a Rip Maen spell, and he had given an attack or two in assistance, but Zan couldn't help wishing they had asked him to join in. There was the whole "don't put aggro on the healer" to consider, so he couldn't blame Rayo. All he could do now is finally put this particular head down and wait for the next one to roar up through the magma.

Ew, Zan mulled, that actually wasn't a very clean visual.

Shuddering and shrugging the thought off, he cast the first of his MeRue Roms. Crags of ice and masses of frozen tundra knocked the bully of a snake around, its recognition of the spell and its impending doom bringing its focus once again on him. Cursing, he let another of the spells off and began to run as far away from the magma pool (and hopefully the Flare Hydra's attentions) as he could. Sadly enough, the etching of the Vak rune a few feet from him quickly retracted that plan. Turning on his heel and running back the back he came, Zan tried to ignore the searing heat of the level three spell behind him, glad that such flames were eating at his flesh in a more...direct manner. If the lycanthrope had better speech capabilities he would have followed Senna's lead (her insults something that would have been genuinely entertaining if he hadn't been busy trying not to die). However, lacking the ability to piss it off with words, he used the tools he did possess and took down another thirty of its hit points with a third casting of his famed spell.

With hardly any hit points to claim as its own, the Flare Hydra's desperation was blatant, a meteor much like the last one coming down with a radius that (unless someone decided to walk up and have a conversation with him at that time) would have luckily only taken him out. Luckily? Fuck that. Not in the right mind to finish it off when he should have, Zan simply bolted, lycanthropic speed aiding his journey. It didn't matter, really, for it seemed drastically unlikely that he could escape something as cataclysmic as a meteor. Everything became a blur after that, the world around him hissing by as he burnt up the energy in his muscles, fuel igniting in an inferno that took him with it. When the chaos and settled and his eyes opened (thought Zan couldn't, for the life of him, remember closing them), the meteor's impact was mere yards from his standing. Sure, just being near it had put him into critical...but he was alive. Thanking God and whatever else might have assisted in his good luck, Zan lifted his hand and towards the Hydra. A very human hand. The...hell? The Heavy Blade's vision wavered with his weakness, hand starting to shake with the effort that it took to even hold it up. Formulating the last MeRue Rom against nearly muted lips, he watched with weak but happy as the last of its HP was stolen.

Now all he could was hope he stayed awake and that whatever was next in this endless room was something they could take out. Quick.

----------------------------
OOC:

Flare Hydra Head C
000/500 HP
DEFEATED. HOPEFULLY. KINDA.

[Nighthand]

As the final blows shook it's frame, the head of the Flare Hydra let out a roar louder than any they had heard before. The roar of pain and defeat. It seemed to lose it's muscle control, flailing for a moment before all control was lost. The massive, stone-covered neck toppled, falling like some immense hose. The slam with which it hit the ground shook the cavern, sending dull ripples through the magma. Not that the monster needed any signal to know that it's third head had fallen.

Though the first head to die, it still wasn't out of the fight. It formed quite an obstacle, preventing full circular movement around the lava pool from which it had risen. They could still circle it, but they would have to climb up and over the now-solid rock surface of the dead neck. Of course, that could lead the way for easier physical attacks, as the neck still emerged from the center of the lava pool, forming something of a bridge.

Of course, all they needed left were the targets. Targets which rose simultaneously out of the lava. Two more massive heads, exactly like the first, towered above them all.

-------inside the heads--------

Nighthand had been sitting rather quietly, just waiting for whatever notice he would have of being free. The last thing he wanted to do was call a false alarm and kill himself in the lava. The flashmail chime sounded, and he received a letter... from Reinier. Not what he had hoped, but at least it was something to do.

To: Nighthand
From: Reinier
Subject: Poke

Hey homeslice, just wanted to pop in to say that I’m okay. Turns out I wasn’t that sick, just having a bad reaction to my new powers. Funny huh? Allergic to what’s supposed to help me out later on. I’ve gotten a little stronger, and hopefully I won’t be as useless as when I first joined the group. Pretty funny how things change, huh? Still terrified of Xeno, though… that spear… ugh… ‘Though, I found a sword that would make that spear run for its’ money. If only I still had that thing… oh well. But yeah, Sheena is miffed that you don’t Flashmail her. You should do that. And the mighty Nights couldn’t handle a few monsters in that one field? Kinda sad… Well, I’m going to bed. Talk to you later.

~Reinier

Sheena was miffed... heh. Probably more from Nall's silence than his own. After all, he barely knew her.

Flashmail!
To: Reinier
From: Nighthand
RE: Poke

It happens. And hey, those monsters were pretty nasty. What would YOU do against a horde of caterpillars? I didn't think so. Anyways, right now I'm kind of trapped in the mouth of a giant lizard. Oh how things change, huh? Can't get out, under a pool of magma. Nall too. So really, I don't much know what's going on, nor does he I imagine. Woah! This thing started to move, and fast. I'll see ya later.

And move the thing had. It rose, quickly, despite the viscosity of the magma surrounding it. Nighthand didn't need a flashmail after all to tell that he was now above the magma level. The thing had risen like a carnival ride, and now was his chance to escape.

Sorting through his scroll quickly, he pulled out one he knew would work for his purposes. He held it up, and the pitch blackness of the inside of the jaw seemed to get darker as it oozed out it's energy.

”Blade of Night, I offer this energy to you once more. Return to me and grant me the service of your power! Feed on the flesh of this beast, and free me from this prison! Come to me, Nightblade!”

A rend in space opened up, like the slash of a monster's claw. A deep purple glow shed light into the jaw of the monster. The scroll was sucked in, and it's place was taken by the silhouette of the handle of the blade. He grasped it and pulled, the blade coming free in his hands.

It seemed to have changed, though he knew it wouldn't have changed much. Simply a different pattern to the facets, a different number of ridges on the grip. Nothing too major. Still... he had his blade once more.

He jabbed the blade into the roof of the creature's mouth and it reflexively opened it's jaw to roar in pain. Yanking the blade free, he leapt out of the jaws, unheeding of the situation outside.

Probably not a good idea, considering he was several hundred feet up in the air, at least.

The blade, anyways, was smarter than Nighthand seemed to be. The trailing whip caught itself on one of the Hydra's fangs, both stopping his fall and letting him down safely. After all, there was a reason the whip could extend itself, and that wasn't just for looks or to trip over. Though tripping Nall had been fun...

Riding down on the whip, and falling the last twenty feet as it let go and retracted, Nighthand landed and turned in time to see Nall burst free. Burst being pretty much the active word. He didn't need to make the hydra open it's own mouth, he just pried open the jaws with his blade. Seeing as he was as high as Nighthand had been, he paused for a moment to ponder how to get down, as the serpentine head tried to crush him back down. Finally, he just shrugged and ran down the monster's vertical face. Gravity tried to take hold but he ran faster than it allowed, able even to avoid the burning that he would otherwise take from the lava coating. Burning off his excess speed with a stray run around the Cavern, he came to a halt near Nighthand.

”Let's not get eaten again, shall we?

The heads had not been idle, however. And they had a few tricks up their sleeves. Not that they had sleeves, but still. These monsters, just as deadly as the lone head before them, made it just that much more dangerous to fight. Their combined thrashing churned up the lava, making it much harder to dive in for physical attacks.

And of course, they could both breath fire, at the same time.

Still, it was almost like the pair didn't know who had last attacked them. They didn't target anyone, merely waiting, as if for someone to break the ice.

-----------ooc:
Flare Hydra Full
HP 998 / 1500

Yes that's correct. They have the combined HP of the full creature, with the 500 already missing from the first head dying. The other 2 points of damage are from Nighthand's stab.

That brings up an interesting point; every hit, regardless of which head takes the damage, deals the damage to both heads. Attacks that dealt 1 damage before, now deal 2. Attacks that dealt 2 (apped rue spells) now do 4.

And for the record, Dien, only Ap Ruem has an effect. The other aps don't increase damage.

Other than all of this, everything from before still applies. Except, for whatever reason, the tail. They'll still kill someone each turn, just not with that trick. Almost like they only control two appendages at once.

[Rayo]

After Phoenix finished explaining his concerns, the wavemaster gently nodded. Those were valid things to be worried about. This battle wasn’t pushing them towards the brink of death at all. What would happen when this form was vanquished? Would the Elites simply have their toy do nothing, forcing the party to waste valuable time rescuing their leader pair? The matter would be even worse if that remained true and the tail still poked up to kill them off.

“I don’t mind, but we might be in trouble if it casts any area effect spells or a summon our direction. I’ll count on you handling anything physical however, thanks. Our current opponent isn’t as tough as it could be, but we can’t judge the true difficulty of this place until we escape after successfully completing our mission. We haven’t cleared this room, and we have at least one more afterwards. Plus, we’re still short changed number wise. After this we’ll need to do something about Nighthand and Nall."

The end came quicker than the mage expected. Senna, Hijinx, Phoenix, Dien, Zan…practically everyone jumped in to finally finish off the Flare Hydra head. A good victory, but the party was still beat up from it all, more magically than anything. The party wasn’t being granted any break or reprieve, with the two heads snaking out of the lava to replace the third fallen one. Lucky in some sense, the sorcerer’s chance to pick up something useful for the rest of the dungeon hadn’t been completely ruined. Unlucky of course, because a single head before had been fully capable of magic. Unless the body as a whole was restricted, it would be a prudent decision to believe that both could perform separate attacks simultaneously. Furthermore, that damned tail still lurked beneath them all. If the beast was finally angered enough to go out on a real rampage, a defensive healing position would be a losing battle. SP was required to fight them effectively, and that sort of death toll would crush their chances to mount any real offense.

Wishing to fix part of that problem, Rayo parted with one of his more withheld items, activating a Mage’s Soul with a certain heavy blade as the target. With MeRue Rom, Zan was the other free participant in the room capable of dealing effective damage against them. Besides, items were purchased in order to be used…or so the wizard had heard.

Before the wavemaster was able to formulate a flash mail to suggest a direction for the use of their assets, Nighthand and Nall took care of it themselves. The pair landed safely enough, despite the fact those two had started so far from the ground. The fact neither would have been taken out by the monster was refreshing, especially since the defensive abilities of the team just rose dramatically. Nighthand was simply powerful, the wizard had seen this so clearly when the snake from the previous field had squared off against him. The heavy blade could hold his own, and would provide a target that just wouldn’t be capable of dying from something like this. Nall on the other hand, his speed might allow him to do something about the tail.

<Nall

The main thorn in our side so far has been the retractable tail, it’s accounted for all but one of our deaths. Do you think you could keep an eye on it so that it stops picking people off? Thanks.

Rayo>

<Nighthand

Could you spare an Ap Vaks this way? Depending what is thrown at me from Hydra, I might not wish to dodge. The extra defense would come in handy, thanks.

Rayo>

<Senna

You’re on primary revival duty right now. I’m switching over to offense so that these heads don’t get too much of a chance to take us out. I’ll still watch for ghosts, but I might miss some of them. Thanks.

Rayo>

As his mind sent the messages, the caster held out his precious staff in front of his face vertically. His other hand braced the Great Elite from behind; those heads were going to focus on him after this or else they were completely hopeless and the summoner didn’t want to be interrupted before his first strike was done.

“Lanceor Ch!”

Drawing out his favored familiar, his thunder god split a crack in the air, wind rushing in as if a window had just been opened. Curled up, lightning covered the dog like a blanket, only to shoot out to sides as it stretched. Since Lanceor had a much larger attack radius than the average spell, both Flare Hydra heads were pierced by the summon’s attack. Repeating the process as soon as the results of the first had transpired, the mage busily circled his wand through the randomly chosen place in front of him, pulling out Lanceor Ch again. This time only the head of his creature appeared, taking shape right off to the side of the pair than in between them. Past the bared teeth and within an open mouth, the cloudy head charged a ball electricity. Rumbling thunder was sounded as the attack was spit out, an attack that enlarged into a spear as it left the source. The thunder javelin passed right through the first, leaving the shocking effect before slamming into the second it’s second piece of Flare Hydra.

With the impressive display over, the SP bar dropped dangerously low, but not so low that nothing could be cast. Just not the previous attack yet, assuming the monster let the thunder mage live long enough to collect the amount necessary.

ooc:

Flare Hydra Full
HP 758 / 1500