The Balance Core [B Rank]

Almyra smiled up at Nao, clearly happy with the results of her healing spell as well as Nao's thanks. "You're welcome!"She would help him as he picked himself up and give him a quick hug to boost morale. Morale was important, and hugs helped greatly with that... or at least that's what Almy thought. Shortly after letting go, she heard words of praise from Ashe before feeling her friend pat her head. She clasped her hands in front of her chest and closed her eyes, wiggling a little bit as she was pat, quite clearly enjoying it. Pretty much any sort of friendly contact was enough to make her feel all warm and fuzzy, well more warm and fuzzy than she usually felt. "Thank you, Ashe." She didn't hug the woman, though, since it seemed everyone was ready to move on to the next challenge. Nao pointed out early that it was a phoenix. Concentrating a bit, she was able to confirm this, based on the creature's effect on the world around it, something she wasn't quite in range to see, but could still feel at this distance.

As the battle started, Almyra flung a ball of energy at the phoenix, but it was able to avoid it before Anastasia engaged with her assault. That was pretty much all she could do against this thing... sling one spell, which missed. She could try to do more, but that would involve getting her hands... and probably lots of other parts of her burned by the creature's heat. Her cloak offered some protection, but it wouldn't do much if she were to get close enough for melee contact with the thing. It seemed best to try to leave this to the main fighter in the group, who, unlike everyone else here, was able to fly, and actually had some form of protection. Almyra would have to make sure to check Anastasia for injuries after this and heal her. She didn't want her friends to get hurt, but there was really not much she could do in this situation to help out, so she stood and watched, her right hand on her chin, biting a bit on her index finger with a worried look on her face.

Status: Rather worried and smart enough to not try to punch a phoenix without any sort of protection.
HP: 145%
MP: 79%
Spells used: Shaken Foundations
Durations- Amor Fati- 2 posts
Cooldowns- Pattern Restoration- 2 posts, Degrading Blows- 3 posts

18268/21000

It seemed that no one was really effective against the mighty powerful phoenix, despite it being slower than most small creatures. Despite it being a very large target Almyra’s attack seemed to prove ineffective. It was as if the Chaos Theorist had a weakness in that her ranged attacks were a little inaccurate. He would have to record that down to make sure he remembered to teach her how to aim a spell properly. Only then would he feel a little satisfied with how she was progressing as a mage in the team.

However despite their best efforts to formulate a plan against the phoenix they had nothing that was good against fire. Getting too close would get them burned, using heat vision would prove vert ineffective, and… now Ana was flying backwards out of the tunnel they had just come from. But at least the phoenix was down on the floor. But they now one member down.

”Dammit nothing is working!” he sighed loudly, putting a hand to his head as he looked at the phoenix before frowning. ”This bird is too much for my magic. I’m going to have to go conventional with this phoenix.” Nao would have to just find a new way to fight the Phoenix and get somewhere with it.

The Occular Mage would pull out his bow, before activating his scan. This would begin to pinpoint locations to hit to cause more damage to the fire bird. It would reveal that, funnily enough, hitting the phoenix in the head would deal more damage than hitting it elsewhere. But first he would target the wings to clip them and stop it from flying away.

Notching a few arrows onto the bow, Nao would begin to fire arrows constantly at the bird, hitting it in the wings before moving around to the front of it while it lay on the ground.

Headshot, headshot, headshot, headshot, headshot! If this was a game then it would ring out across the arena, but instead it was all in Nao’s head. The phoenix would have to look like a porcupine before he was satisfied with the outcome of his attacks. An inner rage must have worked up inside him because they couldn’t just turn this thing into particles.

”Just fucking die already!” he called out, channelling his inner Ana inside of him. He hadn’t felt like this since the time he sucker punched a Vulcan in Magnolia town. Oh this was becoming such a thrill again!

18674/21000
HP: 93%%
MP: 80-15=65%
Status: Rageful bow antics.
Spells used: Scan 1/3
Cooldown: Spell Copy 3/4
Fear Induction: 1/4

Ashe watched solemnly as Ana donned a fresh suit of armor and flew off to engage the phoenix. She stood stock still with her hands firmly grasping her blade, ready to strike at a moment's notice if the firebird tired of Ana's antics and tried to get some distance. Truly, between the mechanical mages' variety of weaponry and the mystical beasts fearsome fire abilities it was sure to be a harrowing fight...or it would have been had Anastasia not immediately tackled the phoenix, knocking it to the ground and herself out of the arena in the process.

While in the process of witnessing Ana's kamikaze attack, Ashe blinked a few times. For a moment she seemed lost in thought, looking skyward, then ticked off her fingers before nodding matter-of-factly.

"Vendrick," She stated, still watching Ana engage the bird in extreme close quarters combat. "You heard what I said to Anastasia right?"

Yes, I believe so. Why?

"I assigned her Raime, and told her that he wouldn't be much use if she got hit by the phoenix's attacks, correct?"

Yes...that is correct...

"Now I may be mistaken, but did Anastasia just grapple the giant bird whose entire body is literally on fire, slam it into the ground, and get blasted out of the arena?"

Ah. Yes, well, I do not recall you expressly cautioning against grappling the beast. Technically, it would be fair to say that it was in fact the phoenix that was hit, and not Anastasia herself.

Ashe closed her eyes in frustration. Meanwhile Nao began pelting the firebird's head with arrows and shouting obscenities in a very un-Naolike manner.

Also, in the interest of fairness, it did work.

"Yes, I suppose it did. Almy, please go check on Ana. I'll handle the rest of this."

She sighed, then took a running leap that arced high over the phoenix's head. Although still recovering from Anastasia's attack it had pulled it's wings up to hide it's face from the furious eye-mages assault, but unfortunately for the bird that protection did not extend further down. At the height of her leap Ashe spun into a blur of motion, seeming to hover for a moment while sending a hail of wind blades that battered away the phoenix's flames and cut cleanly through it's long neck. She half expected it to begin thrashing like a chicken without it's head as she landed on the other side, but the beast simply went still and began to smolder.

Ah, that's right. It's a phoenix, so it'll burn away the old body to fuel it's rebirth.

"We should probably move on before this thing gets back up. Legend is somewhat spotty on whether phoenixes rise again as babies or full grown birds, and I'd rather not fight a fresh one."

---

19138/21000
HP/MP: 100/55
Spells: Raime -> Anastasia: +50% Agility, Illusion Immunity, Silver Sword Active
Moonlight Echoes Active

Since it seemed Nao and Ashe were confident in their abilities to defeat the phoenix, Almyra ran over to where Anastasia had landed. The mech Ana was in wasn't moving, but upon getting closer to it, she saw Anastasia turn to face her with a smile and give her a thumbs up. It seemed she was alright after all, then, and was just having some difficulties with her suit. Almy turned back to see Ashe finishing off the phoenix.

She heard the sound of Anastasia opening the cockpit of her suit behind her and turned once again to see Ana waving her in. She climbed up inside and looked around, not touching anything, just looking, figuring out what controls did what, thanks to her use of Amor Fati, it was relatively easy. Once they had all reached the entrance to the next area, Ana asked for someone to take point. "I will!" Almy said, her voice filled with enthusiasm, hopping out before Ana closed the cockpit again and running ahead.

Needless to say, she was the first to encounter the dragon greeting them. "You are to be commended to making it here, but now I will ask that you leave. I do not wish for my presence to be known. If you can defeat me, I will gift you and your friends powerful magical weapons in exchange for your secrecy."
"Well... I'm going to be recording all of this, so is one of my friends, so sorry. No secrecy." She said, smiling at it. She tilted her head. "And if we defeat you, then... well doesn't that not really leave anything stopping us from taking what we want? And if you're intent on fighting us whether we agree to be secretive or not, then there's really no point in us agreeing to be secretive. As a person dedicated to preserving knowledge, I have to say that I can't agree to keep your location a secret. Or at least not recorded. And since you're intent on fighting us anyway, it would be more practical for us to defend ourselves, take the items, and record your existence." She said. "Your offer isn't very good for us, since we gain nothing if we agree and you win, only gain a weapon after we win after agreeing, but if we don't agree, we'll get knowledge and a weapon each. I think you should come up with a better offer."
"Hmm... you are a clever little human aren't you, and quite the shrewd negotiator. Perhaps we should work together to come up with something a bit more favorable for the both of us." It said. Perhaps they could get through this with diplomacy after all.

20000/21000

Status: Negotiating!
HP: 145%
MP: 81%
Spells used:
Durations- Amor Fati- 1 post
Cooldowns- Pattern Restoration- 1 post, Degrading Blows- 2 posts

Nao was tired. He was tired of having to constantly fight giant monsters as if it was going out of fashion, and he was tired of his friends getting injured by these giant monsters, AND he was definitely getting tired of all these dumb tunnels. This place was just as dumb as the constantly shifting Magnolia town where the dumbest things seemed to reside. It was incredible how something could actually be in match of that!

His brows furrowed a little as he looked around to work out where they were to go next. As the phoenix disappeared after its rebirth it seemed that the next tunnel was before them… great. This was just so perfect huh?

And before they even got to plan what the heck that roar was, both Ana and Almy were racing ahead of the rest of the team before Nao could even look down the tunnel and see what the creature was. Did his team seriously forget how to team with this mission? Whatever it was just another large dumb creature to take care of. This was just something that he had to deal with he guessed.

Walking down the tunnel he began to work out what the creature seemed to be. Some kind of dragon like form, yet it didn’t seem to be so angry rather it was calm and seemed to just wait them to arrive rather than be psyching itself up. Other details about it seemed to flash through his mind, before he ignored all the information and stormed through the tunnels.

Continuing down the tunnel he saw Ana just standing there as if her machine had stalled, before hearing her message on the prism lenses that she was going to be a little while until she got her armour working again. Why didn’t she just make a new set of armour? She was a mage!

Whatever! New plan! We just need to have a new plan! And then he saw that Almy was out there facing the dragon. Did she not get what the last three monsters had done to them? Why was she forgetting that?

The Ocular Mage would stomp his feet towards the dragon that was in front of them, listening to Almy reason with it about making a fairer deal and something about forgetting? Whatever it didn’t matter.

”This is just pointless!” Nao grumbled, his eyes flashing more of a red colour in tint before he used his beam on the wings of the dragon, searing them harshly. ”We don’t need anymore deals, or puzzles, or challenges or anything! We just need to get a magical item and get out of here!” The dragon would’ve reacted in surprise but Nao would have continued to fire his beams over and over again.

The heat of the room would rise as the beam damage kept on piling up, striking the dragon again and again with his laser. The scan was telling him places to hit that would work really well. Hitting the face, the eyes, the nostrils, the neck, the wings and the joints of the limbs. Attacks against each and every one of them.

This was the element of surprise… In front of the dragon but a surprise attack nonetheless. He would keep attacking it as it finally began to realise what was happening. But it was too late. Nao was pissed. And you would never want to piss someone who shoots lasers out of his eyes.

”No more cryptic messages!” One beam. ”No more puzzles and tricks!” Two beams. ”And no more making us have to fight your fucking cronies to get some dumb magic item that I’ll probably disenchant for dust anyways!” A third beam hitting the dragon and knocking it back before it had the chance to do any kind of spell.

”I’m sick and tired of this island, and I just want to get out of here now!” Ranting and raving, Nao would continuously laser the dragon until there was nothing.
20666
HP: 93%
MP: 65%
Status: Pissed off.
Spells used: Scan 2/3
Cooldown: Spell Copy 4/4
Fear Induction: 2/4

Almy and the dragon were going to reach a pretty good deal when suddenly a very angry Nao came in, blasting the dragon over and over with his eye lasers. She didn't understand why he was so angry. Minus the monsters challenging them, the island was rather nice. She just stood there, watching him burn away at the dragon with his eye lasers, a rather unimpressed look on her face. By the time Nao was all done with his rant and killing, Almy spoke, clearly quite annoyed with her friend.

"Naoooooooooo, that was ruuuuude! We were talking! And there was no reason to kill him!" She frowned and crossed her arms, letting out a "Hmph!" before starting to walk on back to the ship, very miffed at Nao interrupting the opportunity for her to have a good conversation with a dragon, and even more miffed by the fact that he just straight up killed the thing because he was sick of the island and wanted to go home, which meant Ana would leave as well and she wouldn't get the chance to explore more. She didn't even care about getting any magical artifacts or anything. She was too mad at Nao to want to search the dragon's horde. Besides, someone in the group would probably grab something for her anyway, not that she really cared about having a magical weapon. At least they would all be able to remember this, since they made no deal to keep the island's location and nature a secret, and the dragon behind it all was dead.

Job completed!