The Living Lab (NDE, Medium Adventure

[Wycliff]

While the arms of the creature met with that of Connor’s new limbs and were slowly torn asunder by the force of the man’s new limbs it didn’t halt or give off any signs of being in pain. Not even the shards of the broken sawblades that had been created by Miranda really caused this thing to show any signs of pain. The blood pooling from this monstrosity was black and thick almost tar like as it slowly sludge out of the wounds that it had suffered from the two Shinigami. It’s gaze fixated on the both of the shingami with a look of hunger across it’s face.

The moment that Conner tossed the limbs aside the creature stopped moving and once again let out a horrific screech of anger and hate. The limbs that were once his burst into chunks of flesh and black tar like blood that went everywhere. The limbs weren’t even close to the creature yet it still screamed out as if it had been targeted by those thrown limbs. It’s long arm resumed it’s slow creep towards Miranda not caring about the blade slashing it’s limb. It was by this time that Conner had gotten closer to the monster and Miranda’s attack to chop of his head.

Once more as the guillotine like object came down towards his neck the monster howled out again. It’s entire body froze still. It’s long arm stretched outwards towards Miranda stopped as if it couldn’t move as the howl echoed out destroying the guillotine keeping him from being decapitated, yet shards would still hit him in the back causing more of the black ooze blood to spill out. Conner’s attack was able to go through and the blade sunk deep into the man’s leg however soon Conner would find that the bone of the creature kept his blade from being able to cut cleanly through the limb. The black tar blood covered Connor’s blade and his hands. As the screaming stopped it looked down at Conner it’s arms reaching back to clap the shingami between them.

-400 for two screams



The polar bear like being with it’s charge right at Camila was stopped for a moment as a blast of lighting kido shot it in it’s shoulder. The beast stumbled back for a bit bright red blood pouring out of the wound that had been created by the attack. It’s expression changed from that of hunger to anger. It roared at Celes, it’s attention turned away from the weaker of the two shingami and towards the stronger one. As the roar ended a chill filled the room as snow started to fall from all over and the hair of the polarbear like monster started to harden into an ice armor.

This armor slowly formed all over the body of the beast forming a suit of ice that stopped the bleeding, but more importantly than that the edges of the armor seemed to be sharpened almost knife like. The bear creature ran towards Celes ready to strike her down with the full force of it’s paws onto the shingami. Yet as it started it’s charge towards Celes it was hit by a blast of kido by Camilia. The first kido blast shaved off some of the armor exposing the flesh underneath, however slowly the armor started to reform, and the second bolt of lighting crushed a different part of the armor.

It wouldn’t be too long before the bear’s ice armor would reform, yet as it did it’s focus went back to Camilia and started it’s charge to her. It’s focus and the target of it’s attack was now the weaker shingami once more. The chill in the area was making it so that their breath could be seen and the metal door was painful to the touch as the metal had cooled to a degree to cause frostbite. The room wasn’t that cold just yet, but the longer they stayed here the colder it would get. By the time the bear would get to Camilia it’s armor would be reformed totally. The reforming was happening without thought, however it wasn’t exactly fast.

[Connor Greaves]

Disappointment was a good way to describe Connor's feelings right now. As he stood there, his blade deep in the large leg of an even larger monster, he had to wonder, just how safe he was at the moment? His question was answered, as his head whipped back from the overwhelmingly loud scream of this horrible monster. His mask flew off his face, as his normal pair of hands went to cover his ears in a despite attempt not to go deaf from the agonizing death rattles this thing was making. The limbs attached to his torso violently shuddered, before the upper halves of two different torsos grew from Connor's chest.

The one on the right yanked the blade out of the beast with both of its hands, letting out a spurt of poisoned blood. It would have sunk the sword right back into the abomination before Connor saw, through the two new pairs of eyes that he had, that the beast shuddered still. It let loose a second blood curdling scream. Connor cried out again, falling to his knees before the beast. The monster made to clap him into a bloody red smear on the palm of its hands. The two torsos growing from him, locked their two most inward hands together, before making a blocking motion with their outward arms. As the palms of the giant slammed into Connor, his bodies held, shaking against the power of the monster.

Connor, with a determined roar, had his sword stab into the hand that it was blocking. It sank into its flesh with ease. With this attack, that was four times it had been exposed to his poison. If the abomination could actually feel anything, then it would be in excruciating pain by this point. The shinigami glared up at the creature. "BLOCK THIS!" The arm holding Tamashī would swing up, creating another poisoned wave, this time from directly from inside its body. Instantly the counter went up from four to seven. The blade would travel up its arm, and would hit the upper torso of the beast.

As soon as he did that, Connor would Shunpo backwards. He was in terrible pain, and didn't fancy his chances with another round with the beast from that close. He slammed against a wall, back where the room would have originally ended, if the majority of it hadn't been broken down. He lied there, barely able to hear a thing aside from a constant ringing. He doubted he would be able hear anything but that for a good few minutes. He tossed he sword forward, embedding itself into the floor. Instantly, everywhere ten feet around the blade was covered in constant waves of poison. Hopefully Frost would be able to make use of this.

Collected Souls: 200
Poisoned Wave: 150
Shunpo: 50
4,550/6,000

[Miranda Frost]

The creature did feel pain, that much was evident by the screams of agonizing effort as it struggled to keep fighting. The wounds delivered to it by Frost and Connor were substantial. Limbs were split and cleaved  and chunks of flesh were being cut away. The amount this beast bled was uncanny and honestly quite sickening to watch. Its head rested in such a painful position with the minimal amount of flesh and muscle keeping it attached. No being should be able to survive with a wound of that caliber for long.  her hands covered her ears as she saw that beast struggled to build up the air required for those screams, wincing as the battering scream caused her to stumble back. Still, it was of no consequence. with the decent shape the two shinigami were in, it was only a matter of time. She'd glance down at the limb she had severed, its bleeding nub pathetically crawling towards her. 

 Miranda would step away from the nonthreatening appendage but also as connor sped past her and hit the wall. "A little dramatic much, Mr. Greaves?", she'd scold lightly with chuckle playing in the undertones of her voice. "Guess the roles are shifted. Watch my back will ya?". with that she'd leave a gift as a crystal blade formed before him. Taking the form of a Russian Calvary blade, the shaksha. This one handed blade would be more than enough for him to protect himself with while he recovered. The light blue of the crystal blade hummed with the reishi within. It'd hover there before him like a sentry whether he'd take it or not, it was no consequence of her at this point in time. "Been meaning to try something here, I am curious."

 The beast had the height advantage and thus many of its wounds reflected the angles they had to inflict. What if the beast had to look up with that nearly severed head of his? "Unlikely~", she'd laugh as she stepped upon a meter long and wide platform she formed before her with her two saw blades flanking her with a fresh coating of poison courtesy of Connor's pool. She doubt she needed it, as the creature had enough running through its veins already. Between fighting the poison and the shinigami, she doubted more would help much. It did seem to give the creature pain, that much was clear, so its use was noted. In her mind this fight was over. She was perhaps slightly winded, but her method of attack was not very draining of her stamina, meanwhile this creature showed signs of fatigue, whether from the overuse of its scream, the extreme blood loss, the poison, or a mixture of all three. She was still in near prime condition and would undoubtedly outlast this creature.

 There in lies her strategy. With how powerful that scream is, it must take an awful lot to do. When threatened with death, the beast will instinctively protect itself. Her projectiles and her control of them will be more than enough to evade any swatting it may do, so the scream may indeed be its only means of defense against her, at least for the time being. On her crystal platform she'd raise into the air with two more saw blades  formed a mere two feet from its flesh in a flash of crystalline blue she'd come to adore. Miranda was growing impatient. The blades spun with lethal intent and immediately closed the distance. With that range, if the beast did not notice the immediate creation of those spinning discs of death, the remaining flesh and muscle would be threatened. At 600 speed, Miranda couldn't imagine it surviving if it couldn't react immediately. Still she'd have one focus on isolating and severing that windpipe, that should do it.

 It was decent plan, but such plans would have contingencies. Should the two be shattered two more would immediately replace them. Should the beast try to swat at her, she was fast enough with shunpo and object creation to snap to another platform on the fly. Perfect~

-200 for four new objects, two saw blades, one sword, and one platform.

[Celes Castellanos]

As Celes was firing the Byakurai at the beast, it seemed that she was getting its attention. In fact it roared at her menacingly causing Celes to smirk. There was certainly strength in numbers and diversions were a clever battle tactic. They needed to go about this smartly, else they may not have had a chance. Yet it seemed that despite Celes' efforts to get the beasts' attention, Camilla was meanwhile blasting it with rather powerful Kido blasts. This Celes was thankful for. She had powerful spirit in terms of density, but the actual potency was lacking.

As the Kido blasted against the polar bear, Celes took note of the reforming of its armor. It seemed that there was a delay between being broken and reforming. She also noticed that snow began to fall. The doors they came through almost seemed to have a glossy appearance, almost as though it were beginning to freeze over. There was a noticeable drop in temperature among the room as well. Celes just sighed. It seems they were on a timer to defeat this bear before it could reduce the temperature to fatal temperatures. 

As it turned back to Camila, Celes quickly began to close the distance. The Shinigami through use if a Shunpo, landed upon the beast with her feet. Without hesitation, Celes would bring her blade straight down the creatures head, trying to chip away as much of the armor as possible. Celes' idea that if one could break the armor, a simultaneous action from the partner would be able to get through and do some damage. As Celes sliced downward, attempting to skewer the head and deal a blow to the armor, she looked sternly at Camila. "Blast it with your Kido while I create the openings!" Celes was prepared to be hit by Camila's kido if it meant that they could deal with this creature.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Reaitsu}
-50 Shunpo
Reaitsu Total: 2825/3000

[Wycliff]

Conner, Miranda, Camila and Ceres were all in a difficult position all four of them were fighting beasts that seemed to be impossible amalgamations of flesh and desire. Even with all the attacks that they threw at the monsters the two impossible abominations wouldn’t fall. Each strike weakened them, yet they still stood tall, even if the one that Miranda and Conner had been fighting had seen better days. That monstrosity was too dimwitted to properly fall to pain, though if it could feel pain it would have passed out from the combined attack that both Conner and Miranda did against that monster. The polar bear like monster that Ceres and Camila had been fighting was singed by the kido but it hadn’t stopped it’s attack and was about to maul Camila, that was till the tremors started.

The whole base started to shake violently and the flesh covered walls started to shriek out a horrible cry of both pain and joy. Black blood started to pour from the walls as they started to slowly contract inwards. The sound of metal crunching and breaking could be barely heard over the screeching as the whole lab started to pull itself inwards into the deepest part. The ceiling above the shingami groups split open and they could see the sky and the city above them. The two monsters stopped moving the moment the base started to shake.

The screams coming from the walls stopped as a deep laughter echoed out from the loudspeakers and a bizarre voice yet familiar came over the loudspeakers. “You’ve failed…… I’ve been born…. I shall consume everything mother has created for me.” The voice had hints of the man that had been talking to the shingami before, but now it was alien, insect like in tone. This messaged played as the enteritly of the base was ripped down into a deep void. The monsters were wrapped around tendrils of flesh dragging them into the black void. The Shinigami would find that they could stand on the air again. Whatever had been sucking in the ambient reiatsu was no longer doing so.

The base eventually collected into a small mass of flesh able to fit into the palm of a hand. Standing at the bottom of the pit was a strange bizarre monster. It had a humanoid form, yet it seemed to be covered in insect chitin. The four shingami could barely move as the immense pressure coming from the monster was keeping them from being able to act. It held the ball of flesh upwards into the air for a moment before opening it’s mouth, reviling that instead of normal teeth it had several mandibles. Without delay it dropped the orb into it’s mouth swallowing it whole.

It hunched it’s self forward for a moment before a wet slushing sound came out as wings busted out from it’s back. It took a look at the four shingami and for that moment all four of them could see it’s face clearly. There was what one could call the remains of a hollow mask all around the creature’s face, its eyes were that of a human instead of insect ones, it’s purple eyes looked at them as if they were nothing before turning it’s head back to the sky and jumped upwards into sky, shacking the ground and creating a massive dust cloud. As it jumped a garganta was opened and the monster vanished into the darkness of the garganta. The four shingami were alive, the base was gone and there wasn’t a trace of where that monster had gone. While they were alive they had failed with finding out what had actually happened here and maybe even failed in stopping the birth of a true monster.


(OOC: Due to alot of reasons I'm stopping this adventure here, I'll be reporting it for grading and there will be a possibility that in the future I'll make another adventure that continues this. Feel free to do a closing post.)

[Col Arana]

Okay, so a ton of people hopped in and out of this adventure. So, unfortunately, none of the participants are going to be awarded full TP as none of the individuals were present for the entirety of the adventure. Under normal circumstances I'd overlook this, but some of the characters joined in more than halfway through the adventure entirely. I'll be listing the number of pages present for each individual below, alongside their TP reward.

Miranda 4 pages (800 TP and 4000 Ryo)
Conner 6 pages (1200 TP and 6000 Ryo)
Camilia 3 pages (600 TP and 3000 Ryo)
Celes 4 pages (800 TP and 4000 Ryo)

Faust, as the GM, was present for all 7 pages and therefore is awarded 3500 TP and 35,000 Ryo.