• 40 HP
  

  MAX 128 HP

• 40 EN
  

  MAX 100 EN

• 11 STK
  

  Dissonance

Location: Hylands

-10EN from attacc

Corvella, @Ash Vargold, @Celestine, @Rook the Quick, and @Shangri La all stepped out from the portal, arriving at the Hylands coast. Looks like the monsters have already took control of the sea lives. "Look! There!" The blonde clad in dark pointed above the sea, towards a massive dissonance rift where monsters periodically jumped off from into the sea. "We gotta close it somehow. Anyone here with some magic? If we can't close it, we can try overloading it!"

Unfortunately, a cat-shaped tentacle followed through the portal and quickly snatched Celestine and dragged her into the water. With no hesitation, Corvella quickly dropped her shield and dived into the water to help her. There, various fish-shaped monsters were already waiting for her. With her berserk skill, Corvella's predatory strength awakened and she quickly closed the distance between them, engaging the monsters in a close-combat. The pain tolerance enabled her to ignore their strikes and hold off multiple monsters, and they were ripped apart by her bare hands thanks to the temporary berserker strength in effect.

Turning the monsters in front of her into floating bodyparts, Corvella spotted the tentacle still trying to drag Celestine even deeper. With that speed, even the knight herself couldn't dive that fast to reach the tentacle, and the pain tolerance from going berserk is slowly fading away as she felt the pressure of the water. She cannot go any deeper than this, she could only hoped that the girl will manage to escape the tentacle by herself.

Attacc
65 + 45 = 110
Tracker / Roll
Target: 290 / 400 HP

 

• 45 HP
  

  MAX 100 HP

• 30 EN
  

  MAX 100 EN

• 16 STK
  

  Dissonance

Location: Hylands

+20 EN from Recover Energy
-5 HP from Dissonance (Careful)

He was a man of impulses and quick-decisions, a man of spontaneity and portal-jumping without hesitation. No— he did look back. He looked back at D’vangeline, her glowing shield, her barrier with acid pittering and pattering against the light and sliding down like raindrops on a windshield. But he was already jumping (the tentacle slammed against the ceiling like a giant fist) and soaring after @Shangri La (as fractures spread across the dome) and tucking arms and legs and swords into a somersault as Rook went swoosh into the portal, a basketball in net.

And in his head he heard, again, THE SOUND and he remembered faded pastel playgrounds and drooling fear and children's laughter and many knees and hands that pinned him down and something tied around his mouth inside his mouth Déu meu, they couldn’t hear him screaming for Mamá—

Rook came out of the portal like a coiled spring, unleashing feet and blades and wild eyes on— falling? Oh no! He turned about midair and spied the rift above them as he plummeted, the water down below him churning thick with dorsal fins and thrashing fishytails. Rook tucked his knees and shut his eyes and splash!

The coldness and the wetness shocked him to the core. Tendrils from the foul infection streamed slicksoft against his neck as salty, briny burning lit up pain across his blisters.

A bubble of air trapped in Rook’s mask was enough for him to gulp as, shocked, he merely sunk for several moments, pelican-eyes squeezed shut. They opened to see silent streams of bubbles— more bodies splashed around him, small kitten @Celestine and (rejoice!) the knight @Corvella rising towards the surface.

It was time!

His breath held fast, his swords gripped tight, Rook turned his face towards the shimmering, the sky, the sea-monsters which swirled like snakes above him. And up he swam.

Recover Energy
Tracker

 

• 54 HP
  

  MAX 100 HP

• 30 EN
  

  MAX 100 EN

• 17 STK
  

  Dissonance

Location: Hylands

The shock of icy, salty air could have knocked Ash out, just from the sheer contrast to the moist, warm belly of the beast. He pulled the cloth covering his mouth to take a breath of fresh air, to enjoy something that wasn't actively trying to digest him.

I could just run now... not have to deal with this game anymore...
...wait, what am I thinking, I can't do that!

Corvella and Raid were already charging ahead after Celestine, who was being dragged under by another one of those goddamn tentacats. He stayed back, eyes on the rift, which swirled with malevolence. He needed a way to shut the rift, to rend it apart before anything else could come drip-dripping through.

"Spirits, heed my call!"

Spirits from the coast were already crowding around, fragments of fish and crabs and plankton drawn to his scent like moths to a flame. There was plenty of death in the ocean, and the tainted eels were simply adding to their numbers.

"Rise, and eclipse this tainted malevolence!"

Blue foxfire bloomed across the surface of the ocean, lighting the dark waters of the midnight sea. Firefly specks drifted up from the wave to crowd around the portal, forming shapes like plankton as they encrusted it like barnacles. The chatter was deafening in Ash's ears, a chorus of angry voices rejecting Titanius' dark will.

Overloading the Rift
26 = 26
Tracker / Roll
Target: 174 / 200 HP

 

• 45 HP
  

  MAX 100 HP

• 30 EN
  

  MAX 100 EN

• 13 STK
  

  Dissonance

Location: Hylands

-10 EN for normal attack

Being nearly eaten by an eyeball was an experience Shangri La never wanted to experience again. Her skin still crawled, body ached, and the sensation of being ground would not dissipate. To say the least, she would stay away from the kitchen grinder for a while.

Thoughts elsewhere, Shangri La didn't even try to slow her fall into the depths of the ocean. Thankfully, the shock of the icy cold water was enough to withdraw her attention from the recent past.

The woman didn't recognize any of the other portal eligible players. That was to be expected, though. She was still a newbie; something that was painfully evident by her lack of stats. Her attention was drawn to @Celestine as a tenta..cat chased after her.

Shangri La lost her polearm to the monster but she was ready to spring into action, to help her newly established party member, when @Corvella brought the all-consuming predators to their attention. Between the tentacle (if you could call it that), sea creatures, and portal she was unsure what to focus on.

She glanced between @Rook the Quick, whom appeared to be biding his time, and @Ash Vargold, whom was already attacking the portal. With her missing weapon she knew she'd have to rely on her ranged magic. That could reach the portal. The others, thank the heavens, had weapons and gear.

Her presence was quiet but still easily heard, "If everyone else can focus on the monsters and keep them off of us, we can focus on the portal." We being Ash and her, which she indicated with a quick motion of her hand. She recalled hearing the magician say that the portal had to be defeated but that was impossible with the terrors of the deep circling them.

Although flexible and ready to change the plan at any given moment, Shangri La focused her attention on the portal for now like she had previously suggested. Concentrating while treading in freezing water wasn't the easiest but she somehow managed through tensely drawn brows.

As she twirled her hand a vortex began to appear, rotating in the opposite direction of the portal. She hoped that the mini tornado-esque movements would disrupt the portal from continuing in its current position. That was the logic behind it but whether it would work was up in the air - literally.

Disrupt the Portal
79
Tracker / Roll
Target: 95 / 200 HP

 

• 84 HP
  

  MAX 109 HP

• 32 EN
  

  MAX 127 EN

• 22 STK
  

  Dissonance

Location: Hylands

+5 Dissonence from "Mmroooow!!!"

"Aaahhhh."

Cel landed on the beach, breathing in, and exhaling the fresh air with a sigh of relief. It really served to contrast the foul atmosphere she'd been in before, so coming out here was kind of a no-brainer.

"No doing the worry, peoples. I am knowing how to do the eel fishes the electri-- WAAH!!"

Before she could even launch a single attack (or so much as process what was going on), something grabbed her by the ankle and submerged her like a submarine. Arguably worse than a submarine, actually... this thing was tenacious.

Were she a fighter, maybe this would've been a simple hack-and-slash job, but as a magician, she needed the oxygen to speak the words, and the water made that kinda difficult (which was ironic, since water was like one-third parts oxygen). Heck, her lungs were already burning...

It took quite a struggle, but she finally managed to grasp the thing's neck and strangle it, forcing it to release its grasp. Glancing around quickly, Cel caught hold of another vaguely humanoid shape (@Corvella), and held out the tentacat towards her, hoping she'd be able to finish it off.

Swimming up as quickly as possible, Celestine's eyes widened. Of course... flailing tentacles would help her swim faster, wouldn't they? Eww...

Once she'd finally sprawled out on the beach, Cel laid there, avoiding glancing at the water. She was almost certain the reflection would show her something too horrifying for her to handle. The gross, slimy feeling was bad enough. Instead, she gasped over and over, slowly satisfying that burning feeling in her lungs.

Skip

 

• 35 HP
  

  MAX 100 HP

• 20 EN
  

  MAX 100 EN

• 16 STK
  

  Dissonance

Location: Hylands

-10 EN for Stable Attack
-10 HP from Extra Turn

Swirling whirling like vortexes of snakeskin around the portal, Rook breached the surface and blew water from his mask like scuba gear, froth and steam and muffled gasps for breath. Fsssst! His sandaled feet kicked, treading water as he took in his surroundings and the foes at hand. A lively bunch of long and scaly eels encircling the unnatural object of interest, a barricade of bodies slithering and swimming just like cottonmouths and barring passage to the rift the chosen had come here to dispel.

Rook was merciless and thoughtless in his retribution, carving monster-slices left and right with sword and dagger, hand in hand in methodological fashion. He sliced and sliced until a path was left among the floating blood and gore and fishguts for the others to pass by; he hacked at monsters as they buried pointed teeth in his ankles, in his belly, and still Rook battled on. He swam, and he fought. And every strike was a second where he didn’t have to think about what he’d thought, what Titanius had triggered, what memory he’d long repressed in stagnant silence.

Stable Attack, Fighting Monsters
(25+24) + 20 = 69
Tracker / Roll
Monsters: 221 / 400 HP

 

• 70 HP
  

  MAX 100 HP

• 20 EN
  

  MAX 100 EN

• 13 STK
  

  Dissonance

Location: Hylands

+35 HP (healed by @Lucia Mierz before entering portal)
-10 HP for extra turn
-10 EN for normal attack

Combined efforts of wind and spirit were successfully in harmony; the portal was overloading with foreign energy that it was incapable of handling. Closing her fingers into a tight grasp, her vortex died down. The drain on her already diminished energy bar was too heavy for her to sustain it any longer. She glanced at @Ash Vargold, hoping to catch his eyes. If successful, her eyes flicked up towards the portal as if silently asking if he could finish the portal by himself.

Unfortunately, there was no time to receive an adequate answer. One of the large sea creatures was head towards @Celestine. No, she thought to herself as she watched the merciless predator pinpoint on the immobilized player. Shangri La could not tell if she had freed herself from the tentacles grasped or not. Either way, she was unwilling to take the chance.

With a shove of her hand, a gust of wind pushed at the leviathan. In that moment her energy source flickered. The gust wasn't as strong as she wanted it to be and her target was hardly damaged. Its attention, at least, was drawn to her. With bloodthirsty eyes, it shot towards her with incredibly speed.

Shangri La was disadvantaged in the water: it was hard to maneuver in the water compared to on land. She was able to create space by using the enemy itself as a board of but it was not without its consequences. Pain shot through her left leg. Treading suddenly became incredibly harder but, for now, she had distanced herself.

Attack the Monsters
7
Tracker / Roll
Target: 214 / 400 HP

 

• 54 HP
  

  MAX 100 HP

• 20 EN
  

  MAX 100 EN

• 17 STK
  

  Dissonance

Location: Hylands

-10 EN from extra action

The spirits clustering around the portal were thinning, lights flickering and blinking out as they glutted themselves on dissonance and fell away. Others came to replace them, but their numbers were thinning. Nonetheless, they needed to close it. He nodded in response to @Shangri La, the message coming through loud and clear.

"Please, just a little more," he muttered, burning energy to amplify his call, to get anyone, anything, to come to his aid...

Something is coming, something is coming!

Ash's eyes snapped open as the spirits scattered away from the sea, whispers of fear filling the air. Moments later, a long, spectral tentacle rose from the waves, hanging in the air for long moment before crashing down on the rift and ripping through it.

you're noisy, Ash heard as an grumbling voice, as the ghostly limb sank beneath the waves, and he wondered if whatever spirit that had been was aiming for the rift, or for him.

Whatever the case, at least it was one less thing to worry about. "It's closed! It's just the monsters now!"

Overloading the Rift
95 = 95
Tracker / Roll
Target: 0 / 200 HP

 

• 74 HP
  

  MAX 109 HP

• 22 EN
  

  MAX 127 EN

• 22 STK
  

  Dissonance

Location: Hylands

-10 EN for Attacc
-10 HP from Overclocking

After a minute or two to catch her breath, Cel finally turned her attention to the water.

Eels.

Lots of eels.

And one BIG eel comin’ right for her.

Luckily, Cel’s beast taming let her know a thing or two about eels and their weaknesses. For one thing, they were weak against death. So all she had to do was kill them to win. Seemed reasonable.

The giant eel crashed out of the water and smashed its head into the sand where Cel had been a split-second before. A gust of wind and sand accompanied her quick dodge to the side, where she unleashed a powerful air slice, cutting the thing clean in half. It wriggled a bit, before finally collapsing.

"I have had ENOUGH of the slimeys for the whole year! Do not do the come back!"

Turning to the tall catboy (@Ash Vargold), Cel gave him a thumbs up as he Kraken-bombed the rift.

"What WAS that?! Magic of the squids?! Can you not use something LESS SQUIDDY?!"

A wayward tentacle from Celly’s shoulder slapped her on the cheek.

"Grrrr..."

Attack Eels
(39 + 25) x 2 = 128
Tracker / Roll
Eelz: 86 / 400 HP

 

• 25 HP
  

  MAX 100 HP

• 0 EN
  

  MAX 100 EN

• 16 STK
  

  Dissonance

Location: Hylands

-20 EN for Reckless Attack
-10 HP from Extra Turn

It was hard work.

Grueling labor. Hacking, slashing, stabbing—endless eels, serpent after serpent. The portal beasts had gorged themselves on marine-life flesh, they'd eaten up the food chain small-to-large until they stole the throne of predators and crowned themselves the sea-kings. Rook was a demagogue of royals in the water, leaving executions in his wake like history-pages.

But Rook was tired.

There was no fervor in this butchery, there was no joy of battle or exhilaration when he fought to stay alive, to stay afloat, to stay preoccupied with other things and other thoughts. There was no jumping, or fencing, or dancing. Each movement was slow-motion, swishing brine and red-dyed bubbles, carnage set in .5 speed (and frame-by-frame the scene played out with swirling squalls and spectral squid and steel-on-scales—)

…but he was Rook the QUICK!

A last run! A last fight! A last burst of energy as Rook buried both his blades in the body of the last beast (the last, last beast!) and rode it as it writhed, pulled himself onto its back like a mountaineer as it reared from the water. “WEEEEE!” The force propelled him like a champagne cork and he landed on its head, his sandals suddenly engaged in tap-dance on its sloping brow. Its giant gaze loomed with slitted pupils like Titanius itself, bloodshot red and malice-filled.

Rook looked into its eye.

See me…

One final strike: the little swordsman Rook (with his sandals! And his bird-beak! And his tapping-pattering-feet!) pulled back his bloody rapier and flipped up into the air, soaring high, the monster’s snout below him. He had one thing left to do before he fell into the water (strength depleted—vision fading—portal closed.)

With both feet first, a jackhammer-javelin of gravity and spinning force, he kicked the creature back into the sea.

Reckless Attack, Fighting Monsters
(47+34) + 20 = 101
Tracker / Roll
Monsters: -15/ 400 HP