Crushing Despair(Temple of the Seal)

[prythian]

(No posting here until after Gathering Hope is complete! Only for Temple of the Seal participants.)

The water seemed lively enough, full of the usual fish and creatures.

3 colored orbs, two red and one green, gathered together in the midst of the water, glowing. A thick translucent jelly began to gather around them, forming it into a large blob. It immediately spread itself out into an upside-down triangle, the two red orbs forming corners up top, and the green orb in the bottom corner. It swooped down like a manta ray, trapping fish inside of it. They immediately blurred and dissolved inside of the creature.

The Amoebite had an endless appetite.

[prythian]

Black smoke streamed in from the sky above Atlantica, turning into an ink cloud the moment it touched the water. The inky material flowed through the water currents, looking all the world like a snake of pure darkness. It finally found the Amoebite, turning it black as it touched it. The darkness cleared off, leaving the Amoebite translucent once more. The gelatinous creature suddenly swelled up, growing a good deal larger.

[Beaver Dude]

Dee Dee hit the water with an almighty splash.

Sinking, the little Black Mage spun and thrashed as he figured out how exactly one moved in the liquid world. He hadn't wanted to come here but... something had pulled him here. A voice. A call. He had long lost sight of even the barest hint of the Traverse Town children and he would take any lead.

Diving, the Black Mage conveniently ignored the fact he couldn't breathe-

And because there was magic, he simply didn't.

[lysander]

Beneath Dee, a merman rushed upwards through the water, on a crash course towards Dei. At the last moment, he hooked around, and suddenly he was swimming with powerful strokes at the mage's side. His skin was toned, with a slight tan. His long black hair was well-groomed and verged on beautiful, while his red eyes seemed worried. "You got here just in time."[/color] He muttered as they surged through the ocean water. The lower half of his body was covered in iridescent scales of blue and green, and laden with a strong dorsal fin. Yet to contrast the strong nature, delicate membranes hung like silk skirts from about his waist, shaded in soft coral colors. Strength and beauty awkwardly combined.

"I've only just gotten here myself, but there was no way I was going to take that thing on alone. Lets go."[/color][/size]

[Beaver Dude]

Wait. What? Dee bubbled. With another strangled thought he ignored the fact that he couldn't speak underwater. "What thing?" Dee yelped. Naturally squeaky, panic and not-really-understanding-what-was-going-on made it shoot out into the audible frequency stratosphere. "In time for what?"

Understanding dawned as Dee tried to awkwardly get out of the powerful merman's clutches. He didn't care much for dignity, but as far as touchy-feely went, Dee was certainly on the larger end as far as personal bubbles went. The proximity was somewhat alarming, really. Not used to underwater physics, he was mostly unsuccessful.

"You sent the call! You can help Dee later, right?"

[prythian]

The Amoebite, sensing new prey, turned and flowed through the water, a menacing mass of jelly. It stopped just short of the two people, as if somehow understanding that they were more dangerous than the average sea-dweller. The red orbs began pulsing, at first slowly, but then they began to speed up, and a glow built up inside of them.

Multiple energy bullets shot out towards Lysander and Dei.

[Beaver Dude]

Whether out of luck or skill, Dee was the first to notice the hostile magical signatures. His big eyes blinked. A number of possibilities rushed through his head, but trapped as he was by the mermaid's arm (and uncertain of his ally's strength) most of the obvious options were not feasible.

"Hold on!" Dee squeaked. Bringing up a transparent dome of pure force, he held it steady against the incoming magica.

============

Action recap: used guardian shielding ability (+ enhancement equip so it can block up to strong level attacks).

[/size]

[lysander]

Holding onto Dee just a little bit tighter as the mage squeaked, Lysander watched as the barrier appeared between himself and the magic bolts. They descended slightly further, but Lysander dramatically slowed a distance away from the amoeba, and stopped some forty feet away. With one hand still steadying Dee, a silver gun appeared in the other, and the barrel was immediately pointed at the 'eyes' of the amorphous form. "Can you swim in all those clothes?"[/color] He asked in a rushed tone. His hand glowed a slight silver, and energy began to resonate from within it. Considering he'd seen it eat up fish and foe alike, he didn't think regular ammo was going to cut it.[/size]

[prythian]

The Amoebite stopped firing just in time, as even Shield Aura can't last forever against a barrage of powerful attacks. Instead, the red orbs began shooting out energy balls that stayed next to it, floating in the water. Soon, it was surrounded with a large field of red energy balls, like a deadly minefield. Its amorphous body compressed and slid in such a manner around the minefield, avoiding the energy while keeping up a constant, shifting movement.

[Beaver Dude]

"Dee - errr, I... think so." The black mage said, uncertainly as he disengaged himself from the merman's arms. "Please don't get yourself hurt on my account."

He flailed about uncertainly but managed to at least get the whole up-down, left-right axes correct. That was the neat thing about belief.

Contemplating the new defenses, Dee took aim and out of his hat a small Fireball hissed into existence and sped towards one of the energy orbs that was relatively far away from him and Lysander.

Now the question was - how easy were they to trigger? What was the blast radius like? Would there be a blast radius? Would it swallow the fireball? Was this energy protective or - as he suspected - capable of being triggered and more or less destructive in the essentials?

"You will help Dee later, right?" He called back towards the merman.

ooc: could we have an idea how close the mines are to the creature's body? Are we in danger of being hit at the distance we're at?

[lysander]

As soon as Shell Aura went down, a silver-white laser fueled by Lysander's latent magical ability rocked forth from the barrel of his revolver, on a direct course for the amoebite. Lysander didn't know if it would hit right away, though he didn't doubt his own abilities, and he felt that despite the enemy's fluid movements, the attack would hit. He glanced over just in time to see Dee orient himself, and then his focus was back on the Amoeboid, watching the energy mine field expand.

But of course, he didn't just float there doing nothing. Suddenly, with a gun in each hand, bolts of silver-white energy were flying towards the amoebite with aim born from ageless experience, keeping the weird "eyes" as his focus. Hopefully one of his shots would hit them, seeing as they seemed to be spraying out those mines left and right. "I figure we're partners now." He said with an affirmative nod, though his focus wasn't taken away from the opposition, and he began to move, not closer, but to a better vantage point.

[prythian]

The mine that the fireball hit immediately expanded into an explosive sphere, sending a pulse of water outwards. The shockwave created by vaporizing water wouldn't harm anyone, but it would certainly stun them. The explosion and subsequent shockwave didn't reach far enough or use enough force to trigger the remaining mines though.

Unfortunately for Lysander, the beam hit directly in the center of the creature. It pierced through the jellylike mass, shooting through it. It exploded quite a few mines on the way, however, triggering more shockwaves. These kept the Amoebite still long enough for several of the bolts to hit dead center on the two red orbs, seeming to fracture them slightly.

The green orb pulsed, and an aura appeared around the two red orbs. The Amoebite currently seemed stunned, and a path had been mostly cleared through the mines, which the two could take once they recovered from the pulse-like shockwaves.

[lysander]

[That Marketplace for Lysander is coming up some time tomorrow. Tomorrow, tomorrow; my promise. So I'm going to weaken the shockwave so that tonight that shockwave will deal the damage it would to a normal character. Math equation: Lysander receives double damage, as per his current profile. In this thread, he will initiate a procedure which will halve (or whatever) the damage of the shockwave. Thus receiving the same amount of damage he'll receive after the marketplace conversion. Make sense? If not acceptable that's fine.]

The amoeboid's fluid movements were surprising, even to the very movement oriented cowboy, but when he blew up the mines and the amoeboid was stunned, tactics ran through his head. Of course, he took the time to fire off his charged energy beams at the three orbs, but the coming stun wave had him concerned enough to turn away from his target. Towards his ally. In a short and sudden burst of speed, and a sudden swish of his large frilly tail, he was quickly within range of the black mage. "I may have called for help, but... This is too much. I can't risk you getting hurt." He whispered into the other's ear, before planting a hand on the other's back.

A portal swallowed him up, and tossed him worlds away.

"Thanks stranger... But now... I'll face you on my own."[/color] In quick succession, he used his hands to direct several powerful counterflows of water, to offset the pressure wave that the mines had sent flying at him. As the wall of water collided with him, Lysander felt the jarring impact, and was knocked backwards by it's force. Despite the damage it might do to him, he'd do his best to shake it off, and reorient himself. With a cry of determination, his muscles tensed and the water swirled about him. His four cleavers appeared about him in a square formation. "Scared? You should be. I can't forgive anything, monster or man, that'd bring harm as you do, hombre."[/color][/size]

[prythian]

BAM BAM BAM! The beams hit on target, damaging the orbs more. In response, the green orb glowed even stronger, the greenish color spreading throughout the entire fluid form. The more damage it took, the more it would attempt to heal in response. The amoeba shook itself back into motion, flowing swiftly through the water faster than Lysander could hope to move in these conditions. The Amoebite was home inside of the water.

It spread outwards, like a flat wall with the orbs moving around inside it to prevent being an easy target, attempting to engulf Lysander like a net.