"Oh shi-!" The curse was cut off abruptly hen she and everyone else were sent flying by a powerful coil of that mammoth, writhing body. It knocked the wind out of the senshi of the north, and she came up coughing, a hand pressing into her stomach, but in the other she held a long monkey wrench that'd...broken her fall.
"This ******** sand snake is going down." It was standing in the way of them getting home. It was hurting her teammate and girlfriend. It needed to be dust, like yesterday.
Lips drawing back off her teeth, the tall senshi rushed the leviathan , bringing the wrench down on it's thick body like a club.
Finally, Eurydike traveled out into the piercing heat of the desert. It was funny, but desert weather was one of the things that actually did suit what he was wearing - his planet was a desert (sometimes) and all he guessed.
It didn’t take much to assess the situation: Genbu and Seiryuu, among others, were attacking a huge monster. His foot happened to touch something, and so he leaned down to grab it to brandish for an attack with a snarl.
The weapon squeaked upon impact. He realized a little late it was an inflatable mallet, all obnoxiously neon like it should have been from the 80’s. Maybe he’d stick to his fists next time.
Of all the things Phaethon had seen as a senshi, one would be perfectly justified in thinking that, eventually, the universe would run out of things he had seen already. Today was, however, not that day, and he was now aware just a bit more of how much he had not yet seen. Because there was no way this was as surprising to most of the others as it was to him.
Yet here they were.
That was not a very small creature.
Was creature rude?
Person?
Fish?
Wait, no, the leviathan was a whale, right? Phaethon squinted, trying to remember the stories his very Polish grandparents had read him as a kid. Job was eaten by a whale, right? Was that the leviathan?
Was he going to be eaten by a whale? Was that what was going to happen? Eaten by a leviathan in a desert in a bottle in an alternate dimension that shouldn't exist but did anyway?
He needed to focus on the task at hand before he really did get eaten by a whale. The task at hand, of course, was not only not getting eaten by the leviathan woman but taking her down so they could safely progress to the next stage of whatever this was. Maybe that would be "out". Maybe that would break the spell and they wouldn't be stuck in a bottle anymore.
... Okay, he knew better than to expect that, or to even hope for it, really.
They'd be back in "normal" space when the universe felt like it, probably.
Phaethon looked back and forth as he saw people grab weapons out of the sand. Given he had no offensive ability, that was going to be what he had to do. Hoping he didn't end up with, like, a scimitar or something--he had no idea how to wield one and would probably chop off his own arm--Phaethon dug around in the sand. He dug until he felt something, beginning the task of wrestling it out of the sand dunes. Sand was heavy.
Sand was heavy, and this weapon seemed to be very long...
Grunting, he scrambled backwards with the end of it he could hold onto, feet digging into the sand. It was a struggle. He slipped and fell into the sand multiple times, ending up with his clothing full of the itchy grains. He complained quietly as he had to stop and shake out his shoes. The heels weren't helping either, honestly. It was very tempting to take them off and go barefoot.
Finally, though, Phaethon removed the staff from the sand and waved it around experimentally. Well, it would have to do, because he had to get a move on if he wanted to actually be helpful. She was getting closer, and he was running out of time.
At least it didn't have a blade and he couldn't lose fingers to it. That was a blessing.
Gritting his teeth--and regretting the grit in his teeth--Phaethon took a running start at the leviathan to whack it solidly with the staff.
Not nearly as much damage as he'd hoped for, but it made a pretty impressive thwapping noise.
Still was drawn to the Bottle Desert due to the rallying cries, and well---this was certainly different than the other bottles she'd been in before. Brows shot up into bangs as she sank into the sand, staring up at the behemoth creature that posed a threat in this bottle. Right, time to get down to it. She scanned the area around her first, and perked up when she caught sight of Eurydike, closely followed by Nembus, and then two other Order Senshi next to them.
A good as place to go as any.
The corrupt teleported, now joining the small group that was forming here. "Eurydike, Nembus---ladies." The corrupt nodded her head in greeting to Genbu and Seiryuu as she joined in digging through the sand, grabbing a chunk of limestone and hurling it. Though she was concerned for her friend, as an Eternal he had more battle experience, so she turned an eye to Nembus.
To find himself in this new place was a lot less unexpected than Basiluzzo might have otherwise thought it would be. He was starting to realize that weird s**t could and would happen whenever it felt like it. He was going to have to roll with it if he had any chance of figuring out how best to adapt to it.
That did not mean he was not disoriented for a moment upon landing, however, or that he did not blink out into the distance, staring the same direction, before his brain caught up and told him what he was supposed to be doing. Or, rather, what he was probably supposed to be doing. It was not like anything out there gave him ideally clear directions. But Basiluzzo did hesitate, not wanting to get too far ahead of Encke before Encke caught up to him.
How he knew Encke would catch up to him, he was not sure, but he didn't really think too hard about it. He just assumed it'd happen.
That being said, Basiluzzo did see the weapons in the sand, looking at his feather and then at one of those. ...It would give him something more substantial to fight with, at least, right? He could see something truly massive much too close, and he did not relish the idea of trying to tackle that with a feather and a prayer.
But what should he grab?
He didn't have too long to think about it, as the monster was coming closer. Basiluzzo reached out, hands wrapping around the shaft of a glaive and yanking. It took a moment of considerable effort, but then he had it. He did not, however, have time to stand and ponder what his next course of action would be. He was going to just have to act.
And so he did, glancing over his shoulder for just a second before rushing forward and swinging the glaive at the monster, whatever part of it was closest that he could reach.
That it actually connected and did a small bit of damage was gratifying, as much as it hurt when the monster's retaliation made Basiluzzo recoil automatically in pain. To his credit, though, Basiluzzo did not drop the glaive. He staggered back, trying to catch his breath from an otherwise glancing blow and hoping he didn't get creamed in the meantime.
He glanced behind him again, stepping back another step to fall back and give himself more room to think and plan. Rushing in had helped once, but he was hoping that proper planning would avoid a return hit altogether. There was enough of a size difference between the two of them that maybe she wouldn't be able to hit him the second time if he ducked and wove quickly enough. Of course, that might be too optimistic, even for him.
Where was Encke? Another glance behind him, Basiluzzo could only afford to divert his attention for a moment. Gripping the glaive again, he tried once more to find an angle of attack that wasn't going to get him swatted.
The eternal senshi immediately brightened when the eternal corrupt joined them - “Still!” - although unfortunately, her popping up right then he was about to lay out a blow meant it didn’t do a whole lot of anything. Fuuuuck.
He breathed out a grunt of annoyance, although it didn’t stop him from quipping at his friend, “Y’know, I got smashed by a ship before - you wouldn’t know anythin’ ‘bout that, would you?”
She had returned. Hopefully reinforcements had arrived and Meissa felt proud for thinking of the idea. Her gaze went to her mermaid tail in time to realize that once again she had working legs. Turning to the individual who had assisted her in getting to the bottle once more Meissa gave a wide grin before jumping out of the girl's arms. She was back!
"Thanks for the assist back there. I felt like I'd have taken forever to return to help with the fight. And thanks for coming to help as well. Let's go see what damage we can do, huh?"
Meissa could see the oasis in the distance and sure enough it looked like the battle was still raging. Stopping to examine the sand at her feet the girl dug up a metal rake and stared at it in mild confusion before turning to Chauvet, "dig around in the sand, who knows what sort of goodies you can find."
With that helpful advice delivered Meissa wanted to get back to locate her friends that she'd left behind, but she didn't want to leave a possible new friend behind either.
Knowing that time was of the essence is what drove Meissa to run full out towards the leviathan that was still attacking. How much more punishment could this thing take? Raising her rake Meissa slammed it into the thing's tail before getting swatted away like she was a gnat. It hurt but not as much as it had before.
The rake had done well enough but Meissa was beginning to wonder just what sort of item would have the most effect on defeating this beast of the oasis. Knowing that this creature was more water based the teen had to wonder what would be effective and what wouldn't be. Although nothing was coming to mind as she stood back. Her gaze scanned the area for any sign of Moira and Botein and failing to locate them the teen lifted her rake again for a second strike. Feeling the reverberations through the gardening tool Meissa hung onto it for as long as she could even as another wallop from the beast's tail as she was running back.
That one had some force behind it and Meissa stumbled before backing off.
Sailor Seiryuu, Senshi of the East Boss HP: 91/225
Seiryuu smiled as Genbu joined her, even as they were hitting the creature from where they were. It was even better when Eurydike joined them! She was feeling all sorts of amazing.
And then the eternal corrupt came and she felt less okay, but Eury seemed to warm to her quickly, so she couldn't say anything....Well she could, but nothing her cousin would probably want to hear. It was time then, just to focus on the boss.
The last thing she expected when she was attempting to get away from the Leviathan was to be tossed clear across the oasis into a set of nearby dunes. Her body had already been aching, whether from fake pain or real pain and honestly, that only made it worse. She coughed, and her attempt to get back to her feet was a little slower than it had been before.
Nembus actually felt a little wobbly. Maybe she should leave--
The presence of a much stronger, much brighter aura caught her attention first, and she cringed a bit at the proximity of it. Was that what strong Order felt like?
Was that what--
Stillwaterite's voice made her jump a bit, and Nembus swirled around before her body settled a bit. In some ways, it was nice to see Stillwaterite. Not necessarily nice to see the reminder, but nice to see her. Even as her body ached, Nembus attempted a bit of a smile. It was probably more effective than she gave herself credit for.
"I could be doing better," admitted Nembus, with a sheepish laugh, as she moved to dig around in the sand dune. It felt like a large conch seashell likely wouldn't do much, but it was at least something. Taking something as a better option than nothing, she pulled her hand back at hurled it.
And despite herself, Nembus giggled a bit at the reference to ships.
He supposed there were transitions more jarring than going from the middle of the sea on some kind of pirate boat manned by ghosts to the middle of a desert near the oasis with the sounds of a towering leviathan nearby.
There were, for sure.
There weren't many.
Basiluzzo seemed to gain his footing a bit faster than Encke did, which Encke admittedly found a bit amusing. Maybe it was the whole dancer thing. Maybe Richard--Basiluzzo had already started accepting that this powered life was just a bit of a trippy mess and he needed to get used to it. In a lot of ways, powered life was a bit of a trippy mess, but it usually wasn't this trippy. He had been a member of a circus before, been sucked into mirrorspace before and had to run a gauntlet there, been subject to some intense cruelty at the hands of -- but this was definitely the first time that he had gone through a series of alternate dimension bottle trials.
There was a first time for everything even after these many years of being powered, he supposed.
Basiluzzo had taken off, and when Encke came back to reality, he shook his head and darted after him. The time for reflection and the time for being sappy and letting Basiluzzo kiss his cheek and hold his hand was over. There was clearly something over there, and Encke had to go deal with it. He also had to make sure that Basiluzzo wasn't going to somehow get himself killed, considering he was a complete newbie and this wasn't really how Encke planned on training him. Talk about trial by fire--
Or by giant leviathan, he guessed.
Encke watched as Basiluzzo managed to locate a glaive of all things, and slash at the leviathan with it. Fairly impressed, Encke whistled lowly, watching as it actually made a strike and seemed to do some damage. "Good job!"
Praising his love only turned the leviathan's attention towards him, though. He supposed it was good to get the attention of Basiluzzo. Probably. He seemed to be handling himself okay, but this thing looked dangerous. And angry. And rampaging. In his direction. And he needed to protect Basiluzzo from the rampaging--
Quickly, Encke dug through the sands to find something that was hopefully as useful as Basiluzzo managed. Unfortunately, Encke wasn't so lucky. He did manage to find something on the heavier side, though, and pulled an eighty-pound weight out of the sands. There was a moment where he couldn't help a surprised noise at how easily he had managed to pull that out--sometimes he forgot how much strength being eternal gave him--before he swirled around and used his momentum to chuck the weight at the leviathan.
The leviathan didn't exactly appreciate it and slashed back at him, but it retreated to another victim for a moment, at least, and Encke was fairly sure it had left some kind of mark...
"I think we make a pretty good team," offered Encke, with a laugh. Of course they did. How long had they been together?
Not that he was sure he wanted to be teaming up in this life with his love quite yet, but maybe he could adjust--
Amasis
Inventory Attack Potion - 50 DMG Super Potion - 25 HP
The evil leviathan creature was not going down easily it seemed. Slowly Meissa could feel her energy level flagging and tried to launch a renewed attack on the giant beast. Time would tell if it would be enough.
There didn't seem to be enough energy left in her body to fight with. Meissa didn't want to use up those precious health potions if she could help it but feeling as beat down as she was perhaps it would have been better to spare one. Gamely she pressed on and found an abandoned sandal lying in the sand. With decreasing vigor she reached down to pick it up and lob it at the creature.
The giant horrible looking beast kept attacking and attacking and it didn't look as though anything she threw at it - be bones, shoes or feathers - was having any impact on it at all. Everyone around her from all factions seemed to be trying the same thing (though others had found more practical weapons, making Sweetite immediately very jealous of their good fortune) but it was taking what felt like forever to have any impact on the thing.
And then, of all voices to hear, an obnoxiously chipper voice with an obnoxiously pirate accent called out among the fray, causing pink eyes to turn slowly to see... yes. Yes, it was the pirate cat, again, in all of his furry, cheerful, eyepatched glory.
As a wicked little thought came to mind, Sweetite offered an uncharacteristically happy smile towards the Order Mauvian.
"Ahoy there~" she offered as bare feet crossed the sand over to the small feline. She kept the Leviathan in her peripheral vision, at least long enough until she managed to snatch the small cat up from the sand, holding him by the scruff of his neck.
"Seems I found a decent weapon to use, after all!"
And with that triumphant declaration, Sweetite launched the poor Mauvian towards the Leviathan.
