Beta Test, Floor 1: Whose Yo daddy?

Today was a day of intrigue for many a mage. The Magic Council had tasked every guild with a new, important, job. An entrance to a dungeon had been found, and the Council wanted it scouted by any team of mages that wished to do so. It didn't matter if the mage was legal, dark, guildless or even a Rune Knight. Anyone that was interested enough to find people to go with was able to for this. This resulted in Aiyana first looking amongst her peers for those interested in joining her on such a job, thus resulting in one by the name of Quincy Zephyr deciding to join the bandaged mage. With no one else from Lamia Scale asking to come along, the young woman had asked her best friend to join along. Mao had said yes, something she seemed to say to Aiyana quite often when she asked her to come along on a job.

Not really knowing people from other guilds, she had let out a letter to the other legal guilds and had said for those interested to send a letter back. This resulted in the last two of the team joining, Minh of Sabertooth and Felicity of Eclipse Soul. As it so happened, the team now consisted of mostly slayers. Aiyana's holder magic and Mao's crystal magic were the only one's there WEREN'T slayer styles. Quincy was a Thunder Demon Slayer, Minh was a Earth Dragon Slayer, and Felicity was the Crimson God Slayer. Their team could fight any kind of higher being with ease because of this, meaning smaller monsters and animals had little chance against the group she had managed to gather together.

Now Aiyana stood nearby a small staircase, supposedly the entrance to this dungeon they were about to scout for the MC, and was awaiting the others of the group so they could begin the journey. She didn't wish to enter just yet, as she had no clue what was in there and didn't want to go on her own to find out.

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Word Count: 342

At the time Quincy chuckled at the idea of going into the dungeon... or really being asked to join in any adventure aside one with Kihia. Whenever she went out with someone other than him it was because she had to ask them! But that wasn't the case for once. Though she had signed up for a team in which she only partially knew one member and that was only by name. Though she was up for the challenge that this "dungeon" was supposed to present to her. With her strength it was hard to find something that would be a challenge.

She walked to the entrance of the dungeon with her arms in the air and her hands behind her head with a skip to her head. There she saw her guild mate waiting for her and the rest of the team by a set of stairs. "Hey Aiyana!" Called the demon slayer with a hand raising up to greet her. "So we are the first ones here it would seem?" She spoke again looking around for anyone else. "Guess so." She said flopping down to sit on the stairs and drumming on her lap. "So who else is joining us here on the dungeon thing?" Inquired the ever so talkative lightning mage.

Why did she always agree to tag along for these strange ventures? At first their meetings had been random, but as time went on Ai approached her more and more for the strangest and more dangerous tasks. ’Maybe one of these days she’ll request my help to take over the world.’ An unlikely request, her mind brought up the jeer all the same. Usually the requests held some information or proper substance as the job requests required at least a few details from clients. This however, this lacked a fair bit of that certainty.

From what little they knew of this “dungeon” the first floor or two shouldn’t be too bad, but even that was just a guestimation more than anything. There was little proof since so few ventured very far into the depths that they’d be a pioneer group of sorts. ’I suppose if nothing else, the informational gain will be worth it as long as nothing horrible happens.’ Staring at the ground, Mao looked up in time to spy a familiar figure with a stranger nearby, likely a teammate since Aiyana mentioned gathering a “team.”

One familiar figure stood there, about to open her mouth and answer the stranger’s query and Mao interrupted, ”I’ll be one of the ones joining you. I’m Mao Nakiri, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” She smiled slightly at the woman, a bit unsure how formally or informally to greet her. Curious, she peered around, eager to see who else might be joining them. ’Wonder if there’ll be anybody else I know, or will most be strangers?’

Minh made his way to the first of the many dungeons, approaching the group that had already amassed there standing looking like a titan of a man with his seemingly human likeness being just something akin to glamour before having it fade away to reveal his earthen form with a tiny birdie resting on his head to cheep away with a happy tune. He bore a wide smile as if having a neutral sense of cheeriness in him while overlooking everyone with his smile never diminishing as he stood by all of them. With a bow, he greeted them followed by a voice close to the rumbling of an earthquake.

"So I take it you all have gathered here to proceed entering the dungeon? From what I hear, this is the first of many...nothing for us to fear just yet. Ay...how could I forget introductions..." He gave a little sigh before giving his head a nervous scratch. "I am Minh, the Earth Dragon Slayer....nothing too special."

His eyes would turn towards Mao before he came over to give Mao a bear hug of sorts before letting her down. As one of the less social members of Sabertooth, he was not around the Guild Hall all the time, but when he was, it was like watching a very joyful giant going to and fro with his signature laughter filling the halls along with the cheeping of his little pet bird.

"I see the bunny has made it here as well...ain't that something Cheepie." He said with the bird flapping off to sit on her head, cheeping happily before turning to everyone else, waving one wing.

It wasn't long before the team began to assemble, almost at an annoyingly fast pace. She really didn't even get a chance to say hi as one after another showed up and did their thing before she could really do anything. Choosing to just stay smiling, her eyes showing disappointment at not being able to meet each one for a little while before them all being together at once, she began to speak after everyone heard names. Trying to ignore the adorable, waving, bird introduced as Cheepie, the young woman began by introducing herself before explaining what was going on.

"Hi everyone, I'm Aiyana! I'm glad you guys all decided to come along, as I didn't want to do this all alone. We have one of each slayer, and me and Mao can lend some good help with out magic to go along with you guys. We don't know what's in these dungeons, so we need to try and at least stay semi-close to each other. If possible that is."

After saying that, the young woman turned to face the staircase, looking down into the unknown before speaking up again.

"But I believe we can be one of the first groups to scout this place and let the Magic Council know what's going on. Let's work together and do this right!" The socialite's standard amount of excitement and vigor was there as she started walking quickly down the steps, knowing the others would follow eventually as they were all here for this specific task anyway.

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Word Count: 255

Quincy felt something off as the group had gathered, mostly from the girl who claimed to be the crimson god slayer. She tried to push past it but something in her body was telling her to hate this person. She stood up and brushed past everyone without making any noise thinking about giving the girl a hand shake but instead... a fist met her jaw. Her face looked at her with disgust and then quickly shifted back to her normal face and ran behind Ayiana "I am so sorry! I don't know what came over me!"

The demon slayer cried behind her basically ignoring everything everyone was saying, feeling like garbage for hitting someone for no reason while being in a good mood. She straightened her face and looked at the entrance of the dungeon with her hands pressed against eachother "So... We have to go in there to fight a bunch of things? Awesome!" She then started to run towards the stairs and skip 2 steps at a time as she ran down there, kinda spreading herself thin from Felicity just in case her instincts make her hurt the slayer again.

She had not been expecting that, the short mage giving out a small squeak when the rocky slayer quickly gave her a zealous hug and her feet even left the ground for those few moments. Mao hardly met many of her guildmates, but the few times she’d seen Minh around there’d been an all-too happy hug awaiting her. Regaining her footing after a little wobbling around, Mao laughed a little, ”Ah, it’s…a pleasure to see you again Minh, and you as well Cheepie.” Offering the ridiculously adorable bird a few, light head scratches she just managed to catch the very awkward and unusual greeting from one Lamia Scale unto the nervous sounding Felicity.

’What was that?’ she thought with some alarm, eyes wide as she pondered if it might be some compulsion on the part of Quincy, or possibly some other instinctual response. Regardless she couldn’t understand it, feeling the barest hints of nervousness around the self-proclaimed Crimson God Slayer, yet she easily chalked it up to dealing with any stranger. The prospect of hitting things brought some comfort to the apologetic girl, though before following their pseudo-leader and rearing-to-go Lamia party members Mao helped the other girl up, ”Err…sorry about that,” she didn’t really have a reason to apologize, but some habits die hard as she followed the rest of the group into the questionable abyss.

The crystal using mage felt comforted by the sheer amount of minerals, entranced at the beautiful array of colors, finding the almost sea arrange of hues relaxing as light caused the gem formations to glitter. It did feel like the place had some curious vibrations about it, but she couldn’t yet put her finger on it.

Minh after giving the ceremonial hug decided that it was not for the best for him to intervene or attempt to, seeing that will provide little to no comfort for anyone. So with that in mind, he went ahead in front oh Aiyana, giving her a little bow before heading down there with Cheepie left with the ladies to use his cuteness to defuse anything, or if the situation calls for me, he will have to make himself even cuter. The rocky male however decided it was best to see what laid down here to decide what is best for everyone else who hopefully will be working together very well. That was a bit of a pipe dream, but a man can do so nevertheless. Now, the one issue he thought of immediately was how their entire dynamic would play out as a team....perhaps it wouldn't be a blunder later on.

The stairs didn't go down very far, not far at all. She looked around the place, noting the many colors the crystal formations on the walls held. Greens, yellow, blue, violet, pink, brown, and clear. All of them ranged from transparent to translucent, making it an awe-inspiring visual. Awe-inspiring, that is, until a small crystal hit her directly in her forehead. Bringing her hands to her head, the girl let out an unamused breath. That had kind of hurt! After lowering her hands she looked around and noticed imps on the walls, as well as flying about the caves. On a nearby wall, one of the little imps was in a laughing fit while pointing at the bandaged mage. She looked down to the ground, noticing the apatite crystal that was thrown at her, and picked up the object.

”You little shit!” With that one phrase, the girl threw the crystal as hard as she could. The imp saw it coming too late, too busy laughing the whole time before opening it's eyes, and was hit between the eyes. The crack echoed, although slightly, as the creature dropped to the ground. It was dead, more dead than a man becoming a zombie and then getting shot in the head. With a shrug Aiyana turned to see the entrance slam shut, all of them no trapped with no way out.

”Well...Looks like we have no choice but to explore anyway, job or not!”

The place had a lot of different ways they could start off in, which wasn't too much of a surprise to her, and she didn't know where to start. All she knew is they would need to stick together. If one of them got lost, it would be impossible to find them again.

Whether or not they had second thoughts about leaving mattered little with the sudden slamming of the door, the phenomenon curious yet it’d go unanswered for now. ’Mechanism? Spell? Or…these imps?’ Silly little creatures started throwing little stones at them periodically, their maniacal laughter making it sound as if they’d pulled off some fantastic caper when they barely caused the lightest of bruises with their pebbles. Mao quickly ducked behind the tall, imposing man of rock however, listening as the pesky pebbles plinked against the man’s abs. ’Obnoxious.’ The little guys fluttered about, giggling like school children, surely there was more to this place than just them?
 
Get in here, I’m bored.
 
”Hm?” Ears reflexively tilted about, trying to catch that curious noise amidst the silly clatter, ”Did you guys say something?”
 
Hurry up. Stop playing with those rats.
 

There it was again, some voice barely tickling at the tips of her ears. Well, call her a bit crazy, but it sounded perhaps a little annoyed? Pushing lightly against Minh’s back as if to steer him – keeping the man between her and pesky imps, she pointed from around his midsection, ”We should take that tunnel…I think something’s calling for us down there…so we should be careful.”

One of the imps would find itself coming almost too close to Minh who would immediately whip out his hand to snatch the thing before bringing it to his mouth before he crunched off the head to throw the body aside very causally before walking down the path that Mao had pointed out where he too could hear a very faint whisper. Though for him, it was rather one of underlying malice and probably the beast that was needed to be slain to progress onto the next dungeon. Whatever the case, he was already on the move while the imps were screaming up a storm from watching one of their own get executed so terribly, From Aiyana, they were hesitant, but from what Minh has done, it was something on a much greater scale of panic. This was not considering that a small bird was flying to and fro, cutting them down like wheat, and while the bodies of imps fell down around the part, Minh would turn back after taking a number of leading steps.

"Let us progress, and do mind the dead, Cheepie has been very pent up lately."

He would then resume walking quickly with his hands snatching the imps that flew too close out of the air to chomp their upper bodies before tossing the rest away, probably finding some humor or having a snack out of these little cretins. Though in all honesty, he also enjoyed the look of this beautiful cave system with its crystal formations.

Mao was the first of them to start hearing the still, small, voice that seemed to lead them through the caves maze-like system of twists and turns. Aiyana would have focused on listening for it a bit better than she way, but the way Minh was devouring the rocky creatures was too creepy not to ignore. And then his pet bird was pushing through them like they were target practice, which they really were with how weak they turned out to be. A little while longer and Aiyana began to hear the voice much clearer than she had before.

”You're so close! Just a bit further this way and we can play!”

The volume of the voice had grown quite loud in her ears as she pushed ahead of the group.

”Over here, definitely around this corner!”

As she turned the corner, she realized that the tunnels had ended in a large cave made entirely of the apatite that the caves seemed to be ridden with. Stalactites of the gemstone lined the ceiling, appearing to be loose from the looks of it. On the far end of the cave, however, is what would draw all of their attention.

”Memory, give me the Greki the Lone Wolf.”

With that said, Aiyana looked over the giant liger that seemed to be made of the green, traslucent, apatite the cave was made out of. 'Well, time to see how this team fights together. Here's hoping we mesh well!' With that thought made, the bandaged mage drew her khopesh and started in the direction of the creature.

Walking in the aftermath required a little ignoring, Mao focusing instead on the raining of imps from above courtesy of the adorable bird. ’I wonder what he puts in Cheepie’s bird seed…’ She didn’t know what Cheepie’s true diet was, but she preferred to think of the cute little thing as a normal bird with…well some exotic strength to it. The annoying flying pests started giving them a bit more space, what with some of them wanting to maybe keep their heads, not that it mattered with their avian friend hunting them down mercilessly as the group progressed down the tunnel with the voice offering different tones to each listener.

Their…prey? Enemy? Quarry? Mao wasn’t sure what to call it because as beautiful as the gemstone liger was, she could already envision the poor thing losing chunks of its face and body to Minh even as they’d inevitably have to destroy it.

It wouldn’t offer them mercy after all.

It also wouldn’t just chuck a few pebbles, giggle like a school girl, and let them be on their way either. If they wanted to get out of this place they’d have to take the sucker down. If Aiyana was the ever persistent optimist, then Mao would be the hesitant realist as she sighed, pulling the bow from her back and with a flick the arms extended, ”Just be careful please…”

Felicity had finally recovered from the attack and fixed her nose. Incredible that the GM of Eclipse Soul would get attacked by a simple Lamia Scale member... Well it was time to girl up and do something about it. She however entered a room that had these Imps. Annoying more than hurting and Felicity ignored the annoying hits that stung, but not much else. There was more things to be more concerned, and that was what else could be in the room. There was a peculiar smell that she could not finger and it. It was like nothing she smelled before and in fact it was middle of wondering that she saw it. It looked like some green liger that was standing on its hind legs and looked like...

"Aiyana watch out!"

Felicity bumped Aiyana to the side just out of the way of a shockwave that formed as soon as the creature slammed its front legs. However Felicity got caught in the blast and was tossed back into the caverns towards the back. She was slightly hurt, but the damn Imps continuing throwing stones was just insult to injury. Standing up she looked slightly different, no longer was there a shy Felicity... There was instead a mage with the look of killing intent....

HP:95%
MP: 100%

Minh was much more aggressive and quick on his feet as he saw the wave of spikes come barreling towards them, and he was unfortunate to not have been closer to take the hit for Aiyana, allowing another one of his members to be attacked instead. With a rumbling battle cry, the man smashed through the spikes to close the distance on the large liger whose expression seemed to be like that of surprise before finding the ground beneath it erupted upwards in a series of tendrils driving into its figure with two wrapping around to keep it in place. Of course it pulled heavily against its restraints with some success that would not come to fruition as Minh slammed his arms down upon its face with a loud crack before headlocking the beast with them while tearing off part of its jaw with his own. The liger roars loudly with a fury unmatched as it strained against Minh's earthen tendrils with renewed strength while trying to break free of his hold. However, that power would be in vain as Cheepie flaps above the beast before transforming with a massive cloud of steam before another screeching roar rocked the cave as another massive beast reaching a size of twenty feet descended upon the Liger as well, clawing with its forearms and legs while using Minh's headlock to close its jaws around the beast's head with a powerful crushing force.

100% HP + 10% Shield
90% MP

Her charge was interrupted by the bloody girl pushing her out of the way. Instead of being knocked down like most would, Aiyana was simply pushed to the side as if she had jumped sideways. The bandaged mage turned to ask what she was doing, but noticed she had been blasted to the other side of the place by the shockwave that had been coming at them mere moments ago. She gave a sign of thanks using her hand, hoping she would see it before Aiyana lowered the hand back down and began charging at the liger Minh had already engaged with.

Using the dragon slayer mage's attacks as a distraction, Aiyana was allowed to get a full swing with the blunt side of the weapon onto the liger's back. A resounding crack resounded out to echo across the place as a piece of the creature splintered, but stayed attached. A howl of pain was heard from it as it lashed out with claws, the impact of them dealing more injury to her than the actual slash. She was knocked onto her back, her shirt taking most of the slash that was in it. As the woman was getting back onto her feet, Greki was already on top of the other animal-like creature. The sounds of growls, bites, and whimpers could be heard as the large loner did battle with the creature, breaking his own teeth to injure the rocky animal that had hurt its master.

Things were getting a little chaotic already as people started ganging up on the thing shortly after it knocked one of their teammates away. Mao might’ve gone to her aid if the air around the woman didn’t turn a little questionable. ’Probably best to avoid for now…’ If it persisted however there might be issues as she dashed to the side, more interested in keeping her distance from everyone if only to avoid providing a close target. Besides it was a little crowded right now around the beast what with not only two mages, but two pets in sorts biting at the thing’s hide as well. Mao might’ve pitied it had it not already been trying to kill them and preventing the group from freedom.

As it knocked Aiyana aside the fury of the other three seemed to continue, the wolf’s anger heightening, but the crystalline beast had enough of everyone’s actions as it knocked the beast aside and managed to dislodge from the giant raptor when it went to clench its jaws harder around the thing. Unfortunately it couldn’t quite toss the slayer aside, dragging him along for the ride as a great jerk of its body freed it from the final restraints. The beast’s actions appeared questionable as it ran straight for a wall, Mao questioning if it could disappear into the cavern walls due to its similar composition only for the thing to start running up the vertical structure.

She immediately lodged an arrow.

Whatever that beast  currently plotted needed to be stopped as she shot the vibrantly red arrow, the thing growing in size when it neared the liger and its current path until the bulbous conglomeration of crystals couldn’t seem to hold it in another second. At the woman’s mental commands it exploded, decorating the wall and ceiling with sharp shards, some firing into the beast’s back. She’d done her best to aim the thing away from Minh, hoping that the man could otherwise save himself from any stray shots, but the short mage accomplished her goals. The thing fell down on its side rather than complete the journey, anger vibrating its body until it hummed with power. Clouds above started to form, spelling a new untold danger. All she could do was notch another arrow and further the tint of blue, for the beast making it look as if she’d strengthened the darkness of it whilst to her compatriots a more sky blue tint lay beneath it.

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HP: 100%
MP: 85%

Spoiler:

Minh gave an grunt as he found himself being dragged upwards while keeping a death lock on the creature's head only to then find himself hurling downwards onto the ground with a small booming sound due to the two of them being made of dense earthen material which is usually extremely heavy. Afterwards, he found himself sailing once more as Felicity began her unadulterated rage upon the poor beast which Cheepie standing there giving a dead pan stare at his friend being trounced about like a rag doll of sorts onto to settle once more with him giving a growling sigh. Minh was also given a nice view of the female's chest which ranked quite a lot in his book of chests. Upon seeing her bloodrage dissipate like so, he stood up to deliver the final blow upon the crystalline beast with 5 very thin tendril drilling through its body all the way before expanding into massive ones in a near instant, sending shattered body parts flying everywhere like some kinda blood shower if one can count it as such.