Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

[Guan Yu]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

Nina hits, Iris gets countered and Iliana finishes. Again. Dat lucky mistress.

The blade of the maid-knight hit home, gouging deeply into the creature's neck. This was still not enough though, and the thing trashed around with the blade still embedded in it's neck, tugging Nina all over the place as it attempted to get her off. Iris aimed another stab at it, but the lizardman veered it's body just enough to reduce the intended lethal poke into a mere scale-grazer. With the blind girl exposed after the unexpected evasion, it clubbed her hard to the side of the head almost immidiately, sending the blind girl off her feet and down on the ground. Before any further nastiness could happen, Iliana ended the struggle with an arrow to the eye, the creature still struggling several seconds after the finishing blow had hit home. But eventually it went limp, sliding down to the ground and detaching from the green-haired girl's sword.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

Wrenching her blade free of its neck, the blood splattered maid headed over to Iris, checking her friend to make sure she was all right. When Iris waved her away, Nina still hesitated, looking concerned for her frail companion, who despite all her skill still sadly lacked general sturdiness.

Nina helped her up and only after firm assurances from the blind girl in sign language did Nina sigh, smile, then ruffle the warrior's hair.

"Next time let me take the hits, mmkay?"

Nina nodded to Iliana again. "Make that two for you, my Lady."

 

[Guan Yu]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

"Hmm, if you insist." Iliana replied, looking at Iris with mild concern. To help alleviate their concerns, Galeon stepped forward. Urging Iris to lift up her robe for a bit, the knight performed something that they had seen before, healing magic. It was nowhere near as effortless and quick as Elise's, but the older man could still get the wounds closed with some application of energy. A quick look at Nina also helped her get rid of the hole that the bonepick had left on her arm. "Good thing that I came along." the knight thought out aloud as he finished.

Once the group had collected themselves, they had two directions two choose from. One would be to go straight down the corridor, the other to turn at the corner and travel into the direction from where the bone lizard had arrived from.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

In the rush of adrenaline and concern for Iris' well being, Nina had overlooked her own wound. Genuine surprise stole across her face as Galeon touched her and knitted her wound.

"Oh... ah, thank you Sir Galeon. Yeah, we're lucky to have you."

"I don't know that we need anything more from where that bone lizard came from. Let's head straight this way," she said, pointing down the corridor.

"Is that all right?"

 

[Guan Yu]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

The group decided to head onwards to the corridor, not taking up on the sidetrack where the frenzied lizardman had been. As they passed the side corridor, they could see that the edges of the path over there were lined with piles of bones, all of the visible ones hinting at being the same kind of lizard. Maybe going there was not a good idea...

The pathway ahead continued with the same oppressing bleakness, the graves and memorial plates seemingly endless. It took a good while for them to see anything besides those things, but after some further descent and wandering, another ominous sight waited for them. Behind a large door, they came to a ledge with sturdy stairs of dark obsidian leading down to truly massive cave that actually had an earthen floor. And it seemed like death was not going to let up on them, as there were simple wooden crosses everywhere. The place was practically a forest of nameless graves that stretched out as far as they could see. A good distance away from them, a small mausoleum building stood among the swathes of graves like a giant overseer of some sort. Had they actually descended so far into the mountain that they had gone under sea level in depth? That they couldn't tell. Regardless, the chillyness of the more compact tomb had not vanished, and the place was as creepy as that, despite the much increased space.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

"So many graves, so far underground." Nina said aloud as she peered about. "Where did they all come from? Did people live here inside the mountain? What an odd place for burial."

Nina turned to look at Yura, wondering if the more long-lived and well-traveled weapon master might be able to shed some light on the mystery.

 

[Guan Yu]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

"This is pretty odd, for sure. Nothing like I've seen before. If I was asked, this massive place looks like it's for the non-humans only. All those bones and the guardians we've met up to now speak as much. Such a secluded place might explain their lack of guards, you won't exactly prosper here. But still, there might be another entrance somewhere on the mountain. This many humanoids don't pass by the complex and go unnoticed. All these graves suggest that there are thousands buried in this one cave alone...." the weapon master gave her best guess to the situation. It appeared that she was as unsure as the rest of them about the origins of the mysterious gravesite. "More I'm intrigued about their reasons to coming in such a place. If memory serves me correct, those types of lizardmen live in the neighboring region's wetlands. They shouldn't be found here, unless specifically knowing to come here...." she continued, looking analytically at the mausoleum that sticked out like a needle in the huge field.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

"Perhaps if we head towards that mausoleum, it might tell us something more about this whole area. Certainly it's the central landmark of this area. What do you think, my lady? Shall we head there and check it out?" Nina asked.

If the party was amenable, Nina would head off in that direction, weapon and shield at the ready.

 

[Guan Yu]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

As it was still Nina's lessontime, the group was accepting of the suggestion without any grumbles to the contrary, despite Iliana's initial, slight hesitations against going down any further. But the mistress gathered herself, coming along with the rest of them.

After a few steps on the ground level, the graveyard itself showed that it was not all that dead. With everyone on the dirt floor, spirits of the dead began to rise from their resting places. As the weapon master had expected, none of the spirits were entirely human, each one of them sporting at least a few animal or monster features on their bodies. Despite their appearance, the spirit horde was not hostile, floating there and looking at the group with unblinking gazes. For some reason, they didn't seem happy about the foreign presence. This was somewhat unsettling to Iliana, but the mistress kept her composure in the face of the deathless horde.

Even with the thousands of ghosts staring them down, the team made way towards the mausoleum. As they approached, something began to affect Iris, as the girl started getting visibly excited about something. Once they were only a few hundred feet away from the grim building, the girl broke into a run and zoomed away, making her way down the open door and stairs ahead.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

"Iris! Wait! We've got to stick together!" Nina ran after Iris without thinking twice. "Come on, we can't let Iris get too far ahead of us!"

Nina sped after Iris' wake, hoping that Iliana, Yura, and Galeon were right behind her.

 

[Guan Yu]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

If Iris heard Nina or Iliana call out to her, she was not paying them heed. The remaining group hurried up, though they would not be able to keep up with the blind girl's superior speed if they remained in a group. There was a lot of stairs beyond the door, which went down as one would expect. The walls of the stairwell were all of a sudden blank, the gloomy grimness turning into complete blankness of the grey wall. Just the cut and worked stone, no memorials or graves.

Not too far in, they could hear a familiar type of shriek, one that had been made at them during the previous encounter with the lizardman. At the bottom of the moderately long stairway, there was a pair of the lizard people. One of them was layed out on the floor, looking quite dead with Iris' blade sticking through it's neck. The other, upon hearing the foursome coming, turned away from the corpse and faced them. It was pretty much like the one encountered earlier, but much more healthy and strong-looking, bearing a more protective layout of select bones on it's body. Standing up to full nine feet, it levelled it's bronze poleblade horizontally in front of it, preventing entry.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

Nina, seeing Iris' weapon but no Iris, charged ahead in a bull rush, not thinking about how intimidating the monster looked. It was wielding a polearm, but it was in a confined space, limiting it's mobility to stabbing motions. From her lessons with Yura, Nina knew that if she rushed in close to the monster, deflecting the initial strike of the pole arm, then she would be at a major advantage over the creature.

So she put her plan and knowledge into action, getting in close, deflecting the pole arm strike and viciously stabbing her blade deep into the monster's legs, trying to cripple the monster's ability to stand. The bigger they are, the harder they fall, she thought. If it couldn't stand, it'd fall hard.

Spoiler

Attack, using knowledge of weapon vs weapon combat and aiming at the legs.

 

[Guan Yu]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

20 vs 20 hit | 7 vs 23 counter | 15 vs 12 hit
8 vs 15 miss | 21 vs 7 hit | 13 vs 5 hit

Nina's dynamic entry proved itself very effective, the bone-encrusted lizardman's pathetic attempt at swinging the long pole going over her head. Twin stabs from the girl's falchion cut neatly into the creature's leg muscles before a pair of arrows from Iliana's bow sends it tumbling down on it's scaly behind. Still, before there can be further interruption from the girl, a heavy sweep with the shaft of the polearm pushes her back. The lizardman is now some distance away from the stairs, fighting from one knee but still defiantly holding it's ground against the invaders.

Nina 5/6 FP Iliana 7/7 FP
Elite Lizardman 11/15 HP

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

Nina caught herself against the wall as the sweeping pole arm slammed her into the stones. Grunting, she picked up speed again, noting that by falling back into his current crouched stance, the lizard man would again be only dangerous on his initial stab. Without his mobility to leap back and reposition, he would leave himself open to her falchion's wild cuts once she got beyond the range of the lizardman's sharpened pole.

She ran forward, ready to deflect and twist her way around the incoming weapon, ideally finishing her twirl with a deep cut against the enemy's body.

 

[Guan Yu]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

22 vs 5 critical | 6 vs 12 miss | 10 vs 8 hit
14 vs 4 hit | 11 vs 10 hit | 19 vs 19 hit
Dese girls, they just don't fail..

Despite Galeon and Yura staying out of the battle, Nina and the mistress fared pretty good on their own against this enemy. Taking on two of them might have been bad, so it was probably a good thing that the other one was dead.

Easily sidestepping the attempt at poking her with the pole, the maid-knight laid upon the creature with her somewhat wild and reckless slashes. It produced good results, a deep gash appearing into the lizardman's face and another onto a shoulder. Iliana managed to score two hits into the fray as well, her good aim enabling easy hits past the girl that was between her and the target. Finally, the guardian managed to gather itself somewhat, swatting Nina with a fist to get her away. They were back in the same situation once more.

Nina 4/6 FP Iliana 7/7 FP
Elite Lizardman 6/15 HP

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

Nina could see that her strategy was working. Her sensei's words had not been lost on her. She decided to go to the well once more, as it was likely the best option for putting down the combatant. She didn't want to give it time to think and come up with a new strategy.

She charged in, again focusing on deflecting the initial blow and then laying about with her sword. This time she hoped that she would be able to stay low and avoid the monster's scaly fists as well.

 

[Guan Yu]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

8 vs 17 miss | 16 vs 20 miss | 20 vs 5 critical
22 vs 20 hit | 18 vs 7 hit | 22 vs 21 hit
22 vs 13 hit | 21 vs 5 critical | 18 vs 5 hit

Not bothering with further change in strategy, Nina kept her attack going in the same lines as before. She managed to cut the lizard twice after evading a clumsy attempt at stabbing her, Iliana scoring twice as well, the other hitting the opponent square in the chest and barely missing the heart. After a third hit from the green-haired girl's blade, the creature was on it's last legs so to speak. Still, it managed to get out a brief response to her, dropping the pole down as it was too hard to get anything done with it. A clawed hand lashed out, tripping the girl up and sending her down onto her butt. With a sudden burst of speed, the remarkably big lizardman was on top of the maid-knight, smacking her square in the face with a powerful fist. This almost knocked the lights out from Nina, who bruteforced herself to stay conscious after the jarring impact. Before any further brutality could occur on the girl's pretty face, a final arrow embedded itself into the reptilian humanoid's eye. Having it's life cut away, the assailant flopped onto Nina, covering her almost completely with it's dead body.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

"Ngahh! Eyah!" *Slam!*

Nina's vision went black for a moment as her head was smacked down roughly into the stony bricks littering the mausoleum's floor. She felt her face welting up and blood trickling down from her nose as well as several other cuts along her body, but she willed herself to stay away, to keep fighting, prepared to give it her all.

*Thunk!*

The arrow pierced the lizard's eye with a squelch, and the beast's assault was stopped dead. The large form then crashed down onto her body, and she was covered by it, feeling too battered to immediately shove it off.

"Ow..." she moaned, but kept her complaints to that alone, not wanting to appear weak in front of her sensei and her mistress.

 

[Guan Yu]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

With Nina not trying to get away from the dead weight covering her quite immidiately, she soon felt the lizard get removed from her. Yura had come forward and used the blades of her axes to flip the body off, onto it's back next to the girl. Iliana was quick to come to her aid as well, the mistress helping her up and on her feet. "Are you alright? That looks like it smarts pretty good." the tan woman asked. "Should Sir Galeon have a look at that? Or are you able to go on?"

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

"If it doesn't take a lot out of him, I won't say no to Sir Galeon's help. But we still need to find Iris..." Nina said, holding her nose to stop the gush of blood. "My needs can wait..."

Unless Sir Galeon or one of the others was insistent or it could be assured that it would take only a moment, Nina was inclined to press on, not wanting to waste a moment with Iris being swordless and in danger.