This was done after episode 3 and in the waiting period before episode 4
So if any information or characterization gets outdated here... Sorry
Panic and fear were the overwhelming sentiment sweeping the small village as the skies were blood red, monsters pouring from cracks in the sky with the single intent to kill, people were running and screaming desperately while crying for help
A woman was on the ground, dragging her back against it as she looked at the figure overlooking her, a lizard man with pitch black scales and red burning eyes wielding a sword, it lifted its weapon to strike at her as the woman placed her arms to her head and closed her eyes expecting the worst
"[Air strike Shield]!" "[Air swipe Slash]!"
A green translucent shield appeared between the woman and the monster, stopping the sword as it made a loud clank when it hit the barrier, as the creature was stunned from the motion it didn't feel the change in wind pressure as a slash made of pure air sliced it in three halves, as the pieces hit the ground spilling dark green blood
"W-w-what?" The woman said as she opened her eyes to look at her would be killer's cut body parts confusedly
"Are you okay? Does anything hurt at all?" a voice softly spoke as the woman on the floor turned around to look at two figures approaching her
One was short as their height most matched that of a preteen as she wasn't quite the height of a normal adult, having similar proportions to an adult but with a large head with large hands and feet connected to slim limbs that could be questioned if they had muscles at all. She had completely white skin that seemed to have a rubbery quality to it, with small markings imitating blush underneath her eyes, and ebony eyelids and thick lines around her eyes that seemed like eyeliner. Her pupil formation appears as a red and blue pinwheel imprint. She has asymmetrical eyelashes, with her left eye having eyelashes on the top eyelid and her right eye having eyelashes on the bottom. She has short, straight medium black hair, with two small nuggets poking out from under a hat she wore and two locks of hair formulating the flanks of her face.
Her ensemble resembles that of a jester, as she wears a red and blue jumpsuit with round, poofy sleeves, and shorts. The torso part of the jumpsuit features dual colors in a mirrored/reverse design for the front and back, with blue on the right and red on the left, and vice versa respectively, with her sleeves and shorts being striped. She has additional yellow accents, being a pair of spheres on her front torso, cuffs/bands around her sleeves, upper thighs/waist, and shorts, and a shirt collar, implying an undershirt. On her head, she wears a matching striped, two-armed jester's hat, with a yellow brim and small, yellow bells on the tips of the hat's long arms. She had in her hands a pair of metallic claws with exceptionally long nails, with each claw having a gemstone in the back of the palm, with one side being red and the other blue
The other was taller and a bit stout being roughly taller than the average person and being much more wide in their figure as she was about the length of two people, it was hard to tell if that was because she was muscular or fat as she had no muscle definition due to being a living ragdoll, with red, yarn-like hair, a flat, reddish-orange triangular nose, and one blue button eye. She wore a long blue dress with darker blue patches sewn on, with some leather armor with some metal plates on the chest and shoulders on top of her outfit, with gloves to match. She wears a white, collared under-dress and a large bow in her hair that matches her dress. She also has a tanned beige skin tone and a black pupil in her actual eye with pink eyelids and dark red lips. Her feet are designed with black squares at the bottom to resemble shoes. On one of her arms laid a dark green shield with golden details of snakes, having a light blue gem in the middle
"M-m-monsters!" The woman said still scared, those two weren't human, not even demi-human, an sentient doll and some sort of gremlin with rubber in place of its skin dressed as a jester with a pair of terrifying metallic claws
"What, no! We're the good guys, heroes! Not-"
"Let it go Pomni" Ragatha said as she placed a hand in Pomni's shoulder, the rag doll lifted her hand towards the woman and shouted [Reinforce] as a green glow came over the woman, who felt strangely more durable "There, you have a passive defense boost, the other people of the village have gone to the lord's manor and have made a stronghold there, I suggest you go while me and my partner hold the other monster off"
The woman looked at the rag doll and jester still scared and bewildered, confused if either they were friend or foe. She just got up and ran away, if she was going to follow Ragatha's direction and advise, they didn't know
"... Three months and we still are just monsters for most people..." Pomni said with some somberness to her voice, it had been three months since the six of them just woke up in this world, weapons attached to their bodies and a message from some type of system saying that they were heroes and had to fight the waves, all while having a timer in their vision at every moment counting down to when the next wave would hit
Three months of experiencing what felt like reality, like actual real life, where there wasn't a censure filter stopping them from swearing, of them being able to take out clothes that once felt attached to their skins and being able to be nude and indecent, where food tasted like food and liquids were actual liquids, where there was a actual day and night sickle, of feeling wind hit their skin
Though there were still aspects that made them question if anything was real, the status system and how video game like it was for a magical system, that was a pretty big clue to that this wasn't simple plain real life, most of it went away when they wanted but things like the timer and their health bat persisted
The second was their bodies, they weren't humans, they were still the strange characters they were in the circus, strange abnormal bodies that didn't belong to something from reality, though they were changed as to accommodate this new world, they were much less cartoony in comparison but Gangle was still a bundle of ribbons with a mask for a face, Ragatha was still a doll Zooble was still a amalgam of parts, Pomni was some marshmallow rubbery thing dressed as jester, Kinger was still a giant chess piece and Jax was still a purple rabbit
Three months since they felt pain and one of them had a near death experience when Jax got hurt and almost died from the wound getting infected, that week was probably one of the scariest, as Jax was not acting like the usual asshole he was, he was legit desperate about dying and it still lingered in their mind that there was no Caine to fix them up if they got in problem.
Though only Jax dealt with pain the normal way, they all had pain receptors but Ragatha could literally be ripped in half and stay alive, though they had to sew her back together, Pomni still remembered seeing the ragdoll's cloth-like guts spilled on the floor as stuffing fell out, Ragatha actually had a lot more stitches in her skin now that she was the tank of the group meant to take all the punishment while the others caused damage, they had taken steps to be more resistance and dodge more
And of course, three months were they were isolated from society at large out of necessity, god how overjoyed some of them were when they first saw a small village, with people. Human people, not faceless mannequins or a small amount of uniquely modelled NPC, in fact they had encountered almost no one that looked exactly the same so that was another point against this still being in the circus.
And since they were real people, their reaction when they saw a group of non human creatures all carrying weapons was the most human it could be, they screamed in fear and ran away until some of the valiant ones came with weapons of their own and tried to kill them, forcing them to retreat to the wilderness. They didn't attempt doing that again without disguises ever again, so even though they had a entire new world to explore, they were locked from interacting with its inhabitants because of the stupid bodies they had. Pomni had a breakdown into laughter from this that lasted a good while
The only time they weren't seen as monsters was when they were randomly transported to a village where the wave hit and fought it off until it ended even though they hadn't killed the boss, the people there thanked them and although it was clear that their appearance unsettled them, they still were cheered as heroes which felt nice. Although they did almost died in that wave not because of the monsters but because the Royal guard, an elite group of knights meant to protect the kingdom and the people bombed the place with a rain of fire, if it wasn't for the strengthening methods Ragatha had been using and the armor they stole from a group of thieves, they would be scorch and dead. At least karma came immediately after and the commander of that squad (who was calling them devil spawns and Ragatha in specific as Satan for some reason) got killed by a giant zombie, and the rest of the squad kept their mouths shut about them and didn't try to attack them by surprise out of honor for being saved
They commemorated with the villagers, helped a bit with reconstruction, collected the remains of a dead chimera and parted away in a carriage with this bird they gained from a farmer that they raised. That really helped moving around the country, although they did have to avoid tolls and others passing
They had done so little and yet so much in these three months, they mostly grinded levels and unlocked new weapon forms, but they also went about stopping a evil plant monster from a cursed seed that some idiot with a spear gave to a village to end a famine, from slaying a zombie dragon that had started a plague and was beginning to move out of its territory in search of something or someone, and helping out some survivors from a civil war
The last thing of note they did before this wave was helping a little girl dressed in blue who had run away from a bandit attack, the girl was very nice and although she was a bit scared she quickly embraced the bandwagon of weirdoes. Oh, and she was rich too, that was Jax's main reason to put up with the escort, though they were too reluctant to go into the city even with she saying that they would be fine and no one would harass them as long as they were with her, almost all their experiences with people ended in disaster and the girl understood that, so at least they did receive payment when she brought it to them, two hundred gold coins, more money than they ever had even after Jax looted most people they met
Pomni hoped that this wave would finally be the one to prove that they were not monsters but just people trying their best to help with the exception of a certain purple rabbit. It would be nice to not be feared and despised by even children for something out of their control
"Let's not wallow in it, we have to join back with the others" Ragatha said as she started to walk back as Pomni was quick to follow her. They approached the center of the village where a loud arrangement of sounds were being made as they could see their companions fighting the monsters of the wave
The one who threw a set of knives through the heads of a few goblins appears to be made up of candy red ribbons that form a humanoid shape, her face is a white porcelain mask with black eyes and mouth. This was the ever sobbing member of the group, Gangle
Gangle had gained a pretty good improvement with this change of world, as she had gained a control over her form she didn't have before, now she could shape her body in many ways, to being a single thin string of ribbon, to the part she had most enjoyed in the brief period her comedy mask was not shattered was that she could mold herself a human body type, with fingers and "assets" though it was more thin than a normal person, though she didn't mind as she now could dress up in clothes.
This led Gangle to become their go to infiltrator to get in tons and get resources as long as they dressed her enough to hide her physique and a hood to cover her mask face, they didn't attempt to do this much because Gangle all alone by herself was... Well a lot of things could and did go wrong when they did such maneuver
Gangle was the only long range specialist in their group, as her weapon was the vassal projectile, which she used to throw anything from Kunai, boomerangs, Chakram, hatchets and throwing knifes. Gangle wasn't the best thrower when they got here but she improved a lot, though her doubt sometimes got the best of her
The one squashing a lizard man like a pancake was an anthropomorphic lilac rabbit who was very tall, lanky and slender, his once round face now had a snout that was very sharp and angular, he has long bunny ears on the top of his head, with a rather long neck. His eyes have yellow sclera, with square black pupils. Having yellow teeth that usually have a flat shape to them, but when his mouth is opened, his teeth appear sharp and jagged. With thin eyebrows that were mostly unseen most of the time
He wore light, pink-colored overalls and pale-yellow gloves. His overalls have yellow buttons on them and also have a single lighter pink rectangular pocket on the front and lighter pink sections on the bottom hem of his overalls. He had a set of leather armor consisting of a chest plate, greaves at his calves, no boots due to his large rabbit feet, gloves and a red bandana on his neck that he uses to cover his mouth from time to time simply for style. This was the group's jackass and trickster, Jax
Jax had always been a complicated guy to deal with, but he actually seemed to have gotten... Less bad since getting here, after the incident that almost killed him he had been less sociopath and more annoying prick after recovering, probably because he was only alive because of them. That by no means meant he had softened up only that he knew he owned them that, to everyone else they encountered he was still the same, and in more than one occasion he had said for them to kill and rob people that they had fought
He actually enjoyed this new world much more than everyone else, the killing and splashing of blood made him ecstatic and his only complaint was that he could only use a hammer and couldn't use a gun, not that he didn't love smashing stuff but it was the slowest weapon to swing. He was the second strongest of the team in sheer stats due to his levels and weapon forms mastered only behind Ragatha due to her having access to every strengthening methods of the others while he only had his own
He and Ragatha bickered a lot still, not just because of their clashing personalities but because of their positions in the party, as Ragatha was assigned by the system as party leader due to her weapon having a "legendary" suffix in it while everyone else had "vassal" and thus she had a form of leadership role, she wasn't the best at it because she was a bit too soft at times and needed a spine, she had gotten better but she still allowed some to walk over her, though she had a few moments were she would snap for a bit
With one heavy swing, three shadow goblins were cut in half, that attack was made by an individual who was made of random colorful shapes and parts that make them resemble a Mix-and-Match toy. Their head has been a hot pink isosceles triangle tilted downwards. Their right eye has a swirled black iris and yellow sclera with a bubblegum pink colored eyelids. Their left eye has a black iris with a white/cream-colored sclera and a blue eyelids with 3 thin black eyelashes under it. They have a bean-shaped, cheese-patterned body with darker-orange dots interspersed on it. Their arms, legs and other parts were all different from day to day. This was the sarcastic and mostly apathetic abstract art amalgam, Zooble
Just like Gangle, Zooble had received an improvement from this new system they were in as they now could swap limbs on the fly with a thought but also they could get new parts from stuff they absorb into their weapon. They mostly had monster forms, but once they killed... their first real human person, after a bit of discussion if they should bury the man or not, Zooble got themselves the ability to equip two human limbs to themselves. They usually used the human head, though it still retained some of the oddities of their "normal" head with the eye colors and pupils, pink hair and retaining the horns. That made Zooble the accompany to Gangle when going to towns, as long as they could hide their other parts
Zooble wielded a vassal axe, a heavy and powerful weapon though it was slow to swing, it still dealt the most damage. Their weapon and Jax's had some similarities but Zooble's was focused more on high single damage while Jax's was more area of effect damage
A lizard man was knocked out by a single fist that wasn't attached to a arm as it quickly returned to the side of an alder wood-colored king chess piece. He had a pair of usually silver gauntlets that at the moment were in a form with a dark blue palette on his hands that were detached from his body and two large asymmetrical eyes with blue pupils. Though he lacked a mouth, he retains the ability to speak and breathe. He wore a violet royal cloak with white fuzzy lining spotted with black dots. Under that was a simple leather armor
Kinger was still Kinger, a bit aloft and crazy but he had been mostly unaffected by the change in setting to the point that the others thought he still believed them to be at the circus on one of Caine's adventures. Though it seemed that he had improved a bit mentally, being just a smidge less jumpy and paranoid, specially at the waves for some reason, though Pomni assumed that's because of the darkened skies
There was one big change with Kinger though, he had legs now, no one understood why but perhaps the alterations in their bodies was so they could function in this more grounded reality and perhaps because his usual movement of dragging the bottom of his base along the ground wouldn't work that good here, whatever force sent them to this place made that alteration
Kinger had the vassal gauntlets, weapons for close range fights, though Kinger wasn't a martial artist to be able to fully use the gauntlets to their theoretical max, the fact that his hands were not connected to his body allowed him a lot more range, specially since it allowed for some great sneak attacks opportunities
Pomni's and Ragatha's weapons were also special, as Pomni wielded the vassal claws, which although did little damage compared to the others, it made her much more agile and faster, so her damage per second was the highest in the group. While Ragatha's was the most unique as it was labeled as legendary shield and it was very unusual in how it worked, for starters it had the lowest attack stat as it had been on one when they spawned and it had only increased to a five, second was the fact that while the others only had one strengthening method to upgrade their weapons, Ragatha could use all five methods simultaneously which helped with her having the highest total stat count in the group
"Oh hey, where were the two of you at? Kissing in an alleyway?" Jax suggested as he looked at the approaching pair, that only rolled their eyes from his remark
"Search and rescue, most of the village is in the lord's manor" Ragatha clarified as she went up and joined with Zooble, casting a skill to boost them
"Ok, so now we just deal with the boss and get this over it" Zooble said with a nod before sighing annoyed, they had been doing this for at least a hour or three by now and the darn thing hadn't shown whatever ugly mug it had
"Where is it anyway? Shouldn't it have appeared around now?" Pomni asked as she looked around, from the vague description that the status magic gave, wave bosses were larger than the minions it was invading along with having red glowing eyes and usually having a sort of name appear along with their health bar
"Hum, maybe we can ask the ones aboard that smiling vessel?" Kinger suggested as he pointed upwards, the rest of the crew looked at where he was pointing to see a old pirate ship floating as it approached the village, sounds of fighting coming from it as well as explosion and attacks, they could faintly make the sound of voices screaming though it was overshadowed by the weary laugh that was coming from the ship itself as it had a set of holes imitating eyes and a large horizontal crack that was like a smile filled by large sharp teeth on the front as a toxic glowing purple and red color came from those features, with two anchors close to the "face" which for them looked like earrings, making the ship look like it had a face and was possessed by some ghostly spirit
"If I had to make an educated guess, I would say it is in the big scary ghost ship" Jax said as he looked at the naval vessel, the sound of some type of fighting happening on it was apparent but it was hard to figure out if it was part of the aesthetic or if someone had gotten in it and was fighting the boss
"Alright but how do we get in? It's so far away..." Gangle asked between a sob. The ship stopped in the air as a set of two anchors fell from each side close to the face, from the mouth of the ghost ship some figures went to the anchors and slid down the chains as the circus group saw some zombie pirates land down, about twenty of them
"Well, guess we can climb the chain after we deal with this Halloween party" Pomni said a bit annoyed, as everyone got together in a battle position
On top of the ghost ship, the three cardinal heroes and their groups fought against the monsters aboard, with Ren the sword hero fighting a zombie pirate captain, Motoyasu the spear hero was fighting a set of tentacles emerging from the back of the ship, and Itsuki the bow hero was fighting a set of cannons that were glowing purple as he was fighting the ship's "ghost". Neither of them were having success as the monsters kept regenerating their health bar as they didn't die when hitting zero
They didn't understand what was going on, why was the game not working as intended? If this was like the games they played before getting summoned then they should have already spawned the real boss, the Soul eater. Instead they had been stuck at the same stupid enemies for three hours and they were running out of potions and stamina
"Doesn't *huff* make sense..." Ren said through a labored breath as he stepped back, he watched as the zombie he had inflicted thousands of cuts into, that should be a pile of minced meat was still standing as the wounds slowly regenerated, heck, even the freaking clothes were regenerating
"Stop complaining... Just keep going" Izuku said as he kept fighting, he couldn't stop until he beat this wave, his ego would never allow
"Motoyasu-sama... Let's get out of here, I'm exhausted" the red haired second princess of the country, Malty Melromarc, was tired of this. Usually she and the others of Motoyasu's party could just sit back and relax as the spear hero took care of everything easily enough. But they had to actually have to do stuff to help out like casting support spells. Malty even used a fire spell trying to burn down the ship to get it over with but the thing put out the fire almost instantly and now the princess wanted to just leave and let someone else deal with it
"Don't worry Myne, I can do this!" the galant spear hero called out to his companion with a pet name he gave her, trying to ensure the trust of his companions on him
The heroes and their parties felt the ship rock only to them to have themselves grabbed by the tentacles on the back of the ship, ropes from the poles as they were held up in the air as the middle hatch of it opened up as it glowed green as creepy laughs came from it as the heroes and their groups were thrown inside. Having to deal with whatever sinister thing dwelled inside of it
"W-w-what was that?" Gangle asked as she peaked up the deck with her head, she definitely heard something, like helpless screaming and sinister laughter
"Ambience noise, now move it Ribbons!" Jax said as he wanted to throw gangle out of the chain and watch her fall, at last he couldn't afford her dying right now in specific with the wave
The group hopped aboard from either side of the ship after climbing up the chains connected to the anchors. They saw the zombie captain turn to look at them, as did the glowing cannons and the tentacles that sway side by side
"Ok, I take the zombie, nut crack and color mix take the cannons and crybaby, snow white and dollface deal with the tentacles" Jax commanded as if he was the leader of the team as the rest looked at him annoyed for the nicknames he gave them
"I saw a lot of stuff with tentacles, I don't want to see if those were true..." Gangle said eerily as she saw the way those things moved and already imagine what those things would do if they wrapped around them, Pomni was the only one to look at Gangle wondering what she meant, either she was referring to an adventure in the circus or... Nah she didn't seem like the type... Then again...
Pomni was snapped from her thoughts as a tentacle slammed at the deck, quickly followed by the inboard cannons starting to fire at them. Jax was so distracted by avoiding having his brains splattered by a cannonball that he forgot about the zombie as it launched itself towards him with its sword raised
Clang
The sword clashed against Ragatha's shield, the golden snakes adorning it suddenly came to life and pounced on the zombie, injecting it with venom as the thing took a step back to recover
"I didn't need your help, dollface" Jax replied displeased at having his life saved again by the ragdoll, he could very well have reacted in time to protect himself
"Shut it for now, long ears" Ragatha said as she stood by his side, the use of that nickname always brought mixed feelings to him, on one hand he hated it and on the other... It meant Ragatha was going to have a spine for the moment, which he didn't know if it was a good or bad thing
The heroes started their assault on the monsters, Jax and Ragatha were side by side against the captain. Ragatha would defend Jax with her shield as he swung the heavy hammer against the zombie, the rabbit always letting out a frustrated growl as the zombie dodge his relative slow attacks, making him wish even more he just had a gun as he was supposed to be the one dealing damage but Ragatha was the only one doing so with the counter skill of her shield as the poison kept staking upon the zombie
Gangle and Pomni were the closest to the tentacles and thus the ones that were taking care of it, Gangle cut them by using her projectile now in the form of sharp buzzsaws to deal with them from a distance while Pomni slashed her claws at any that tried to approach them, occasionally using a skill or two
Kinger and Zooble dealt with the cannons as the mix-match fighter dodged incoming fire and struck with the axe with vertical and horizontal slashes, Kinger mean while was a bit more defensive as he went and made dents in the cannons while occasionally punching a cannonball away from hitting himself or the others
But as they kept on fighting, they soon realized a problem, when Jax finally landed a hit on the zombie captain that sent his head flying of the ship and his health bar to hit zero, instead of dying on the spot, it kept moving as a shadowy energy appeared from its neck and took the shape of its head, as they watched his health bar slowly fill back up. The same thing was happening to the others
"They don't stop regenerating!" Gangle shouted as she saw the tentacles she had just cut off regrow with the same black energy as the zombie
"Even the frickin cannons heal, what bull crap is this?!" Zooble said as a cannon they split in half just mended itself back together, Kinger observed until he had an odd feeling of being watched, he looked around for a bit until his eyes landed on the shadow of the zombie captain, where he was met with two red glowing eyes that blinked before closing itself
"Ah! There's something looking at us from the shadows!" Kinger screamed as he pointed at the shadow, but everyone else was focusing on the fight
"Yeah yeah, save the rant for the later nutcase" Jax said as he dismissed Kinger's claims, it wasn't the first time he said stuff like this and it usually was just his paranoia taking the better of him
"No look!" Kinger exclaimed as he launched his hands forward in between Jax and Ragatha. Grabbing the zombie's arm and ripping it off as he threw it overboard, before pointing intently at the shadow as Ragatha and Jax watched
"The zombie loses an arm but the shadow doesn't, then a new arm appears to match the shadow! Plus look at the red glowing eyes!" The chess piece said as the rabbit and doll saw that the shadow did indeed still have the missing arm, a pair of red eyes appeared in the shadow before closing, as the dark energy appeared in the zombie's missing arm region and regenerated it
"So the boss is hiding in the shadows? Okay then" Ragatha said as she turned her shield into a different form and turned to Jax "Hit me Jax!"
"With pleasure" the rabbit said as he changed his hammer into a different form, the shield and hammer were now two different elements that when struck made quite the light show
The others were quick to close and cover their eyes, when the weapon met the other, a blinding light was created from the chemical reaction as it was a flash bang to all sides. A loud shirk was made as the zombie melted down as purple steam came out of it as did the tentacles and cannons, the light faded and the heroes took a moment to recover
They looked up to see the purple steam all join into a single mass that then took shape and color into something resembling mostly a fish of some kind but only the type you would see in the dark depths of the ocean, draped in white cloth or dead skin. It had a dark, evil-looking face with red eyes and long fangs. And the fact it was almost see through and it was possessing stuff moments prior indicated that it did not have a physical body, it was a ghost
[Soul Eater, devourer of the passed away spirits]
[HP: 1250]
"Alright we drew it out... How do we kill a ghost?" Pomni asked as from what she knew of ghosts, they are intangible and thus unable to be harmed by common methods
"Dunno, vacuum cleaner?" Jax suggested, they knew he was probably joking but frankly that did seem like a viable option for their current situation.
Gangle threw a couple of knives at it that simply went through like it was just thin air. The creature let out a deep roar while they could also hear a second more high pitch voice laughing alongside it as the creature's mouth glowed with purple energy as it fired a beam of energy, as the crew rolled down out of the way
"Physical attacks probably won't work, better use skills or magic" Kinger suggested and the rest nodded, but a problem arose
"I'm running low on SP, I couldn't regenerate much with all the fighting we were doing before..." Pomni said sheepishly as the rest grunted alongside her, this wave was going on for so long that it had them drained of their skill points too fast, they had been managing and saving it up but since it had been going on for three hours, they had already used most of it. Ragatha looked through the status magic, herself, Jax and Gangle were completely depleted, Pomni was with just about 20% of energy and Zooble and Kinger had the most but it was just about halfway
"We might have to use... That" Ragatha said and the implication alone made them flinch, they knew what she was talking about and were against
"Hey, we are not using that fucking voodoo dragon shit! I would rather die than have it take over one of our bodies again" Zooble said in indignation of the idea. When they defeated the zombie dragon, they got to dissect the body to absorb the different parts of the body and so everyone could get a fair share, but they found something inside of it as instead of a heart, it had a dark crystal gem in its place, they didn't think much of it besides how odd it was, they cut it to pieces and each absorbed one, not only getting them a ton of weapon forms based on dragons from it
But they also got something else, all of them unlocked a Dragon Galileon Cursed Revenge series. Those weapon forms were insanely powerful not only in their stats but also in their abilities, but when Gangle equipped her to test out, she was immediately over taken by the spirit of the dead dragon who sent her into a berserk state. It was very difficult to get her out of it, and she almost killed Zooble but with a talk from the heart from most of them (and a few hits on the head by Jax), they were able to pull through the possession and get Gangle back to normal
But the problem persists, they could feel it, that cursed spirit lay dormant inside of their weapons, the moment one of them equipped one of those weapon forms, they would be possessed by sheer hatred and become like wild animals, Gangle said it felt like glitching when you're stuck by someone who abstracted and that was enough for them to not use that thing since
But the power was great, and just the boost they could use about now, the problem was how long they could realistically try and hold off the possession and keep control, and if they could come back from it
The dodged another beam of energy from the soul eater, as Ragatha blocked the monster when it went for a claw swipe, Zooble and Kinger attacked with some skills, the creature seemed to have been damaged but it wasn't by much, swiping its tail as it almost sent Kinger overboard if not by Pomni using a claw skill to shot her claws as grappling hooks to catch him
Jax went and attacked it with his hammer only for it to phase right through the monster, it went to attack him but Ragatha got in the way, blocking the blow but sending both of them backwards as they hit a pole of the ship, Gangle threw out some daggers coated in poison but they didn't hit the creature, the Soul eater opened its mouth and shot another beam as the crew dodged
"Is no use, I'll do it, I'm going to use that series" Pomni said as she stepped up, looking as Kinger and Gangle were distracting the Soup Eater
"Pomni you sure?" Ragatha asked worried as last time, they almost had to kill Gangle because of that possession and if they couldn't snap her out in time
"Yeah, I'm sure. Plus it wouldn't be the first time I was possessed and forced onto the backseat of my own body..." Pomni said as she still remembered what had happened in that spooky manor adventure, she went through the weapons menu and equipped the form. Her silver claws being replaced by a pair of dark metallic claws that emanated black energy and had a more dragonic look. She grunted in pain as dark veins appeared around her face, she fell to her knees as the rest watched her squirming in pain as her teeth started to become jagged and sharp as the dark energy from the claws went up her arms until it reached her shoulders. Her eyes opened up, now glowing red as her hair became more messy and wild
"Raaaaaagh!" A loud and booming roar escaped the jester's mouth, it looked around as her eyes laid on Ragatha and Jax, both thinking she was going to attack them, but Pomni slapped herself in the cheeks as she then looked at the Soul Eater. Pomni was struggling to think straight and wanted to sink her teeth into flesh as she claws out the insides of something, but she just needed a target for this aggression
She pounced at the Soul Eater, and instead of phasing right through, her claws sank into it as the monster let out a scream. It began to fly around madly as it tried to shake Pomni off. The jester held tight before lifting up a hand as the energy in her hands became a black fire as it swiped it at the ghostly fish as it made a small burst of dark flames
The Soul Eater screamed as it crashed on the ship deck and Pomni left go, flipping in the air as she landed on all fours, the jester looked at the monster as did the rest of the crew as they watched. The Soul Eater got up, but they could see a dark burn across its body, Pomni was damaging it
The monster began firing energy beams from its mouth, but Pomni simply slashed the beams away as she took steps to approach it. Upon getting close enough, the Soul Eater started to fire a single continuous beam of energy that began to push the jester back as she protected herself with a pair of black energy wings that had spawned from her shoulders.
The Soul Eater stopped as it began panting in exhaustion from over exerting itself. Only to look with wide eyes as it saw Pomni unscathed from its attack, the wings opened widely as the jester stared the cowering monster, the black wings wrapped themselves on her face as they morphed into a dragon head
"[Dragonic execution: ENDT DAOND]!" Pomni shouted with a rather demonic effect on her voice as she did two claw swipes as energy flew from it and hit the Soul Eater as it made large cuts on its body as Pomni then threw her head back and opened her mouth, throwing it forwards as giant blast of red and purple flames in a spiral came out from it, burning the soul eater as it screamed in agonizing pain, after a few seconds it ended as Pomni stood there, hunched down
The rest of the crew took their heads out from behind Ragatha who had her shield up, they looked to see that the Soul Eater was dead, having most of its skin burned down and most of its exposed muscles now black from the burns, as half of its skull was visible
"Pomni you did it, the boss is finished!" Ragatha said as she got out of defending and stepped closer to the jester
"He's here... My killer... The boy with the sword..." A voice spoke through Pomni, much deeper than the jester's usual voice as it looked their way. The others were horrified, it hadn't done that when it possessed Gangle, it didn't speak through her. Before any of them could react, Ragatha had gone and hugged Pomni as hard as she could while restraining the jester's arms
"Pomni, hear my voice, we are here. You're stronger than a dead dragon! You're our friend! Take back control!" Ragatha shouted as loud as she could as she could feel the horrible feeling of pain from the energy flowing through Pomni's arms. The possessed jester broke out of the hug as it gave Ragatha a backhanded slap that made her fall to the ground , it lifted a claw hand to strike the downed doll but its hand was wrapped by a rope, looking to see Zooble with their axe in a different form with a rope shooting out from the handle, they tried to pull but Zooble had swapped out their arms for one of other monsters, even adding a extra pair beneath to help pull against the powered up Pomni
The possessed jester went to strike with the other hand but it was restrained by Kinger's hands pulling their arm, the dragon in Pomni's body tried to pull but Kinger had practically rooted his feet to the ground, he also pulled and tugged on the arm as he stretched out, one of Pomni's many bodily quirks she retrained was her elasticity but the more stretched out her limbs were, the more they were hard to move.
Gangle threw a few balls made of webs onto Pomni's body as the sobbing ribbon ran in circles around her, that exploded on impact, covering her in webs to further restrict her movements
The possessed jester had the energy from its arms go up its head and form the dragonic face again as she opened her mouth to spew out flames, but was stopped as Jax placed the handle of his hammer in her mouth and got her in a choke hold
"Alright, remember my suggestion when this first happened? I think we should go for it" Jax said as he kept the jester's head pointing upwards as steams of fire came out from the gaps between his hammer's handle and Pomni's mouth, and he saw as black marks were appearing from beneath the layers of webs as the dark energy from the claws was becoming flames in the jester's body. Ragatha got up and started to approach the restrained and possessed jester
"Pomni, I know you're in there, please fight it off. You're stronger than this! I can't afford to lose you..." Ragatha said as she looked at the jester fighting against her restraints, the wild bestial look in her eyes, the savage rage that filled her head making her the same as monster, and that black energy... It reminded her of the worst part of the circus, abstraction, the lost of one's self and mind as their bodies became black glitching masses filled with multicolored eyes. She had seen it so many times before and it still hurt, specially now as she stared down at Pomni, in the circus Caine could just placed the abstracted in the cellar, but here? There was no Caine or cellar, the only way to ensure Pomni wouldn't hurt others and herself in this state was to... Put her down, permanently. And that was something that the doll couldn't accept
"I can't afford to lose anymore friends..." She said as she went and put Pomni into her arms in a hug, a much more gentle embrace than before, even as she felt the pain those black flames hit her and possibly burn her into smothering ashes
A tear fell from the doll's face, and the sound it made when it hit the ground silenced the world as whole, time stopping from the perspective of Pomni as she woke up to a dark void filled with blazing fountains of purple fire. She looked at the distance to see a shining light coming from the distance, shaped like a door. She went to walk there but was pulled back by black chains that were wrapped around her torso
"No! I won't allow it! My revenge draws near!" A booming voice came from all directions of the scorching abyss, Pomni ignored it as she kept moving forward against the chains, each step more difficult than the last, the chains kept on tightening and pulling her, but the jester kept pushing towards the light. She was not going to let herself by used as flesh suit for some dragon to go and hurt her friends and everyone else because of some stupid grudge
"Stop! Your body is mine! Submit already!" The voice called out as now Pomni's chains were burning hot as she screamed in agonizing pain. She gritted her teeth as she looked at the distance, she was close to the light, she couldn't give up when she was this close
"I'm... Not... Yours!" Pomni said through labored breaths as she pushed against the chains again with conviction, she had endured mental torture before, the circus and Caine's shenanigans had given her at least a good mental fortitude for such insanity. The black chains broke apart as the jester was finally able to move unrestrained, running towards the light
"Nooooo!" The voice screamed as Pomni jumped into the light. In the real world, the cast noticed that Pomni's body stopped struggling and the black flames disappeared, they all let go for a moment and took a step back as the jester was completely silent and with her head down. Before they heard heavy breathing
"P-p-pomni?" Gangle asked concerned as they all approached her, the jester looked up at them, red and blue pinwheel eyes back instead of the red glowing ones
"Better make sure, say something only the real Pomni would say!" Jax said as he lifted up his hammer way above his head and changed it into a form that had spikes on the usually flat side he used to smash stuff "Or is hammer time"
"Shove a corn up your ass, Jax. Christ, why couldn't you have stayed in the circus" Pomni said as resentment was clear in her voice, instead of being offended by this, Jax's had his grin grow wider as did the rest of the cast
"Welcome back bitch" Jax said as he turned the hammer into its neutral form and placed it down to his sides, Gangle went ahead and used a throwing knife to cut Pomni's web restrains off, once free the jester touched her wrists as she felt the pain crossing through her whole body, Gangle had really undermined how painful this felt but it seemed to be fading quickly
"I almost lost it to him... He will try harder next time..." The jester said as she looked on her claws, and the other reflected on that. This was probably the last time they would be able to use that weapon series, next time they wouldn't be able to help whoever got possessed from snapping out of it
Kinger looked above and stared down at the flag of the ship, he was certain that it was staring at them a few moments prior, he shrugged it off and returned his attention to the group. Floating well above the ghost ship was a woman in a purple kimono robe, with raven black hair, scarlet red eyes and two iron fans with gems in the handle
"Kyo's research proved true on the fact there were three incompetent heroes" the woman, Glass whispered to herself as she looked at the scene, she had been watching the three legendary heroes and their groups fighting the same enemies for hours, exhausting themselves and wasting resources until they were beaten and captured by the ghost ship. She could have killed them at any moment but decided to wait to see if they were worthy of having the title and weapons they held
"But it seems that there's also a competent one, with a team of vassals to her side" she admitted as she was going to leave after the legendary heroes got swallow by the ship, but then they appeared. A group of creatures unlike any she had seen before, monsters by any sense of the world but bearing vassal weapons and a legendary one, that was enough for her intrigue to reemerge and for her to continue to watch
Something that the other heroes had been stuck in for hours, they solved in a manner of minutes by observing their surroundings and having a way to draw out the boss. Their fight against the Soul Eater wasn't a spectacle to watch, but Glass had a warrior's eye for details, she could tell that they were exhausted and depleted from having been fighting for three hours straight and thus didn't have their best performance for the bout
She thought they might have died there but they pulled out a surprise trick up their sleeves, a cursed series of some kind though from the way they spoke of it, they did not gain it the traditional way like she did with her series of melancholy.
She could kill them, she was levels above them in gear, level, skill and stats. She clenched her fans as she looked at the timer in her vision, a minute before the portal back to her world closed, she sighed as she knew that it would take more than that to kill them and the other heroes
"Until next time, heroes" she whispered as she flew upwards into the rift, intended on finishing them on the next wave
The circus crew saw the sky return back to normal after a few moments, smiling at surviving another wave, until the boat began falling, the ghost ship now was just a old broken vessel now that the ghost possessing it gone and the waves magical effects ceased. They all screamed as the ship hit the ground, taking a few moments before trying to move again
"Uhuuuuuughhh..." Pomni said as she lifted her head, she was already tired of pain, if it wasn't for the fact her body was more rubber and marshmallow fluff than an actual fleshy body, she would already be dead
"This is definitely the second worst fall ever..." Zooble said as they were split into pieces, slowly pulling themselves back together. If it wasn't for a thousand meters fall into spikes they had endured in one of Caine's adventures, this would definitely be the worst one
"Everyone alright?" Ragatha asked as everyone gave out different responses, a pained thumbs up or slight nods of their heads, Ragatha looked around and saw that there were still the bodies of the monsters there on the ship "Okay, so now we need to collect the-"
"Dips on the boss!" Jax said as he went to snatch the soul eater, only for it to disappear in as it glowed, he looked around and saw that one of Zooble's arms was there as it then made its way back to the amalgam, much to the rabbit's dismay "What? Zooble!"
"You know the rules, save everything in storage so we can SHARE it later, we want everyone to get a fair share, remember?" Zooble said as they finished pulling themselves back together, Jax just pouted annoying before making his way to the cannons
"Fine, at least we finally have artillery with the cannons" Jax said as he absorbed one and a cannonball as he stored the rest for later. The rest of the crew collect the tentacles of the kraken, the zombie captain along with anything else that could be useful like ropes or buckets. But they soon heard some noise
"Did you guys hear that?" Gangle asked as the center of the ship was exploded from the inside, the crew all joined back to Ragatha's side and prepared their weapons, only for the three legendary heroes and their groups to emerge from the hole
"Ha! Told you I would lead us to our escape! Now to deal with the boss..." Motoyasu stopped his speech as he and the others saw the group from the circus. The two groups stared at each other, neither knowing who the other was but an underlying feeling of aggressiveness was felt by the circus side as the group of humans had some looks of disgust and hostility to them
"Uhm... Hey?" Ragatha said as she waved at them, trying to sound as friendly and no hostile as possible. That earned her a shot to her shoulder as Itsuki fired a magic bolt at her, going right through her weak armor and making a hole where stuffing came out
"Ragatha!" Pomni shouted as she grabbed the doll in her arms before she could fall
"Never seen this type of monster before, what do you guys think?" Itsuki asked his fellow heroes as these monsters weren't from his game, the fact that one of them talked and the other showed concern for the others well being seemingly flew over his head
"Don't know, but I'm sure we will get something from their dead bodies" Ren said as he was very intrigued by them, sure they seemed intelligent like people, but any reluctance he felt towards killing a sapient being was washed away by mental excuses like how they were monsters and they were just A.I of a game
"Those weapons look nice, but their gear is low tier" Motoyasu said as he and the other heroes could tell that those things had thrash beginner gear, generic armor from either low level thugs and adventurers, but those weapons looked really good and unique, they could possibly get something good from absorbing them or at least replace some of their party members weapons for those
"We are good guys you pricks! Just because we look weird doesn't give you all the right to attack us! We just ended the wave and you fuckers want to brawl?!" Zooble shouted in indignation as their fists clenched hard on their axe
"I'll say, Since they have already attacked, we can murder them now can't we? Plus they have nice stuff with them that would be better be used by others..." Jax said as he tapped the handle of his hammer against his palm, a wicked grin on his face as these idiots had just gotten themselves a fight, they looked tired and beaten up, admittedly he and his "colleagues" did as well but their perks as heroes and freaks would probably give them the edge just like in all their previous fights, he couldn't wait to use that black haired kid's outfit as it definitely had better stats than his current one
"Let's just go..." Ragatha said as she got out of Pomni's hands, holding a hand to the hole in her shoulder as she looked down
"Ragatha but they shot you and-"
"We. Are. Leaving!" Ragatha said in a stern tone, Pomni flinched at that, Ragatha took a deep breath before looking at Pomni with a more sober and tired look "It was an exhausting day and we all need to rest"
Jax scoffed as he knew the ragdoll well enough to know that she was mad at the situation, but the people-pleaser and pushover she was would rather leave this group of adventurers go without even a scolding. Ragatha nodded at Gangle who gave a slow nod as a response as she threw a metal ball weakly in the ground, it rolled close to the three heroes that looked at it before the thing exploded into thick smoke
"*Cough!* *cough!*" the heroes and their groups all coughed as they had their vision obscured by the fog, once it disappeared they could see that the circus group was already gone
"Damn it they ran away!" Itsuki shouted irritated as he looked around at the distance to see if he could catch a glimpse of where they were as they couldn't get too far without either teleportation or flight, until he realized the possibility that they could have someone with invisibility spell
"Talking monsters... And those weapons they had... What could they be?" Motoyasu asked as those were the most unique creatures he had seen so far, humanoid monsters capable of speech, he reminisced about them, that doll and jester kinda of looked okay, but he wasn't freaky enough to like them, only if they were more convencionaly attractive he would give them a chance but since they weren't his type it didn't matter
"Some secret enemies? Maybe we activated some special conditions on the wave?" Ren questioned as that was the only feasible explanation, though somethings didn't line up, they weren't immediately hostile, and they seemed closer to players NPCs than monsters by the way they talked and moved, their weapons were also odd since he could swear he saw the rabbits hammer change form for a moment, but only legendary weapons reserved for players could do that, and if they were players then why did they look like that? Was there a character creation/selection menu? He waved those thoughts away, if they were players then that would mean they were people, and thus he would be in the wrong for wanting to kill them and feed it to his sword. There had to be another explanation "They said they killed the Soul eater... Shit, were they some kind of helping system in case someone gets stuck in the wave? Like a "skip the minigame" stuff?"
"My game didn't have that" Motoyasu said and Itsuki agreed with a nod, but that notion hurt their ego's as that meant that they had been so bad at their job of fighting the wave that the "game" had to help them out by sending other people to deal with it, they couldn't simply accept that
"Forget it, let's just get the loot" Itsuki said as the others nodded at that notion, only when they took a careful look around the ship did they realize that there wasn't anything worth a damn to absorb, as they pieced together that those creatures had already gotten all the loot
They left in a hurry after using the smoke bomb, Ragatha using both hands to cover the hole in her shoulder as to not let stuffing fall and thus giving a trail that could be followed. After getting far enough, they rested for a bit, most sitting down as exhaustion came over them for having been fighting for hours, Ragatha pulled out a sewing kit from her inventory and tried to fix herself
"Let me help" Pomni offered as she took the needle and thread, helping move away the sleeves of Ragatha's dress as to not sew her skin and dress together like it happened in the past
"Those pricks, I swear if I see them again..." Zooble let out as they were frustrated at those idiots, sure they all looked like freaks but even after seeing they had the capability of speaking and higher thinking and were not hostile, they still attacked! It was infuriating how they didn't even give them a chance
"Yeah, good going dollface, we could have snatched up some good gear and get a little payback" Jax said as he looked at Ragatha with a frown, Jax was no specialist in armor but those guys clearly had things better than they had been using for these two months, heck their armors were starting to show wear and tear by now and the usual fix ups weren't doing it anymore
"They were innocent adventurers Jax, they simply just-"
"Just what? Shot you and made very clear their intention to dissect our bodies after they killed us? Oh yeah, they were innocent alright" Jax responded sarcastically with a laugh at her, getting his face close to hers to accentuate the sarcasm
"Can you shut it for a moment, we cleared the wave and everyone is safe now, we can take a break" Ragatha said as she just placed a hand to her forehead as she was getting a migraine from the stress. Jax took that as an invitation instead of a rejection as he pushed Pomni away from fixing the hole in Ragatha's arm as he got really close to her face, large grin on his face
"Classic button eyed pushover, don't tell me you aren't the least bit mad about it? We work or butt's off, saving those ungrateful villagers, getting attacked and hurt by monsters. Come in to stop the whole mess by dealing with a seemingly invincible boss, having to use that dragon shit and almost losing the anxiety crisis here, just for some smucks to show up to kill us after we did all the work! You're telling me you're just over that? Didn't any of those words get to your yarn head? Doesn't that make you mad?"
"Of course I'm mad about it!" Ragatha shouted as she pushed Jax away from her, huffing and puffing as she looked down to her sides, wrapping her arms around her legs
"... But what can I, or any of us do about it?" She said melancholic as she reflected on their situation, this was a different hell than the one she was used to, the circus had become an accidental existential hell because it was a children's game turned into a prison, but this place didn't have a obviously and incompetent ringleader that tried to help only to fail miserably. No, this was a torture because of what they were, humans that lost any semblance of their humanity but their minds, forced to live in a world that saw them as monsters for something they had no control or fault of their own, if they could still abstracted then it would have happened already because Ragatha was in that direction, they were supposed to be heroes, forced to fight the apocalypse for the sake of the inhabitants of this world, and how were their altruism repay? By having verbal insults and threats thrown at them all the while they were hunted like beasts to be slaughtered, the few that didn't want to kill them still felt uneasy and disgusted about them. They couldn't live normal lives, they were freaks, forever
"Embrace it, they say we are monstrous freaks? Let's be those monstrous freaks! Certainly would be easy with all the power we have" Jax suggested as he stood with his arms spread out, a seemingly less malicious smile on his face that was a betray to his genuinely malicious thoughts he was having, laying waste to a village as he pillaged it while having his fun executing whoever was in the way
"We're heroes Jax, not villains" Gangle said weakly, he sent her a glare and the bundle of ribbons shrank upon herself scarred
"And what has being a hero been giving to us? Nothing but misery. At least villains get to have fun" Jax argued back as that made them think, being good doers was not really paying up as the media usually played it, and it definitely would be easy to be villains with the power of these weapons, and the usual down side of being a criminal of having a target on your back? They already had that. But most of them could think of themselves doing it, something like stealing to survive or killing in self defense was things they did ever since getting here but to genuinely go out of their way to cause misery didn't sit right... The general consensus being that their situation being shit didn't give them the right to ruin it for everyone else
"... If being a villain is so good and being a hero sucks so much, why are you still here with us, Jax?" Zooble asked him as it was truly weird Jax hadn't gone ahead and left to become the true menace to the world he could with the power of his vassal hammer. It still felt weird he hadn't killed any of them in their sleep yet
"Honestly? You bunch are entraining to watch, the melodrama alone is worth it. So don't become lame and I won't leave" Jax gave them his reason to have been sticking with them and from what they knew of him, it was in character, as he did throw firewood whenever needed to get a reaction out of one of them.
"... What now?" Gangle asked as she looked to the others, everyone looked down to the ground to think for a bit
"Maybe we should take Melty up on her offer?" Pomni suggested as everyone looked at her. Melty had offered them to be knighted as heroes officially employed by the crown as a way to give them protection so they could enter at least enter the capital city without being attacked on sight, it was a offer made out of gratitude, though they could tell that there was probably some selfishness in that offer, either because as princess she would want to have powerful heroes protect her kingdom or because she was a lonely child, that never really had friends before, only servants and from how attached she seemed to have gotten to their fillolian, it was obvious she wanted to keep them around
"And how do we know she isn't going to lock us up and turn us into her personal pets or sideshow attractions?" Zooble asked, a dose of pessimism was essential for survival in this place and good to balance out the usual optimism Ragatha brought. It was a fair question but it was unlikely, after traveling with the girl for about a week and a half they could tell that her offer was genuine and out of innocence, but the problem was everyone else, how much protection could they truly get from the authority of a princess? They could only hope the king would have enough gratitude from them saving his daughter to not care about their appearance
"We don't, but it is better to try it instead of wandering aimlessly through the kingdom" Pomni said and everyone took a moment to think, they didn't have any aim or direction, having gone where the wind led them so far, it would be nice to settle in somewhere, sleeping under a roof on beds instead of having to sleep inside a old and busted carriage all together, eating decent food and a hot shower as good bathing in rivers got old fast
"Plus our carriage and Amber are still in the capital city forest, we have to retreat it" Ragatha commented as their main mode of transportation was still back in the capital, and the fillolian that pulled it, a orange mix breed called Amber was there as well, and they couldn't let him alone for too long, otherwise he might wander off and get itself in trouble. Ragatha checked her status magic "Says here we're about... Fifty kilometers from it, can we reach there in time?"
"If Zooble let's us ride them like a bike? Sure" Jax said with a smug smile as they sent a glance at Zooble, who seemed offended at the idea, although it was true that they could technically turn into a bike or car, as they could replace their hands and feet for wheels they could spin on command, but that didn't mean they could handle carrying any of the cast besides Gangle who barely weighted anything and could just wrap herself on Zooble instead of having be held or hold on to
"Just because I can replace my leg for a wheel doesn't-- sigh, whatever, but I'm not carrying you fat asses" Zooble said as they pointed a finger at everyone before landing their finger on Gangle "only Gangle is light enough"
"We can follow on foot, just make sure Amber is okay" Kinger said and with that they departed, as Gangle wrapped herself around one of Zooble's arms, as the amalgam turned their feet into wooden wheels and gave them a wave before they were off
"... I'm not walking all of that" Jax said as he crossed his arms and did a little pout, Pomni just sighed heavily as he was really being an ass, granted he was less annoying during the wave but seems he was back to his usual ways
"Kinger can you carry him?" Ragatha asked as she looked at the chess piece, he was looking at a tree very intently before slowly turning his head to look at her
"... Oh! Sure" Kinger said as he picked Jax up with his hands, the rabbit seemingly weighing less than he should, probably since he was unhealthily thin "Let's go Jax!"
Jax seemed a bit uncomfortable but then he simply shrugged, having pretty much gotten what he wanted. Ragatha and Pomni followed close by as they kept to themselves, usually they would try and talk to pass the time but today was not it after this wave, they hoped things would get better
-- ???? --
A young woman walked down a wooden dock, sitting by the edge of it as she threw her fishing rod forward as it felt on the water, as she now started waiting. She had brown eyes and long brown hair tied into pigtails. She wore a western Gothic dress along with a haori coat on top that was given to her by her best friend and possibly more, Glass.
She idly kicked her legs forward as she hummed a soft tune, she thought on the events that occurred since her imprisonment to the infinity prison, the isolation and lack of social interaction really took a toll on her in the first month, she considered suicide at one point but stopped herself telling that there was hope and she would find a way out
She didn't find a way out but things improved... Somewhat. At least she had social interaction back
"Knew you would be at the lake" a voice called out to her, she turned her head to see a yellow-fading-into-green alligator seemingly made of gummy with a white underbelly, white eyes and a brown cowboy-looking hat, he wore some usual cowboy attire like a belt with a large silver buckle, brown leather boots and a brown jacket, having a red scarf with the words "NPC" written on it in white. He had a slim build, and rounded spines going down his back. This was Gummigoo a creation of the new "prisoner" that entered a few months ago
When the infinity prison shook like it was about to fall apart, kizuna thought she was going to die but instead, something really strange happened. A big light came from the distance and kizuna went to investigate, only to find a new area to the realm, a circus with a carnival park and lake attached to it, it was there she met Caine, a inhuman being with a pair of dentures for a face and two floating eyes inside of it
He seemed a bit confused after "being forced into rebooting" and "relocated to a different server" as he said but he quickly brushed that aside to focus on her as that was his function, entrain guests. Kizuna didn't know what he was, all she could assume was that he was another prisoner or some type of warden
She leaned on the warden theory as he had some really powerful abilities, being able to manifest structure and creatures from thin air, although he said he felt strangely weakened and that he seemingly lost some powers as he apparently could create entire dimensions and worlds filled with life, now he couldn't do anything beyond flying, teleporting and spawning stuff in
He was scarily unhinged and kizuna worried for his sanity or lack of, but he seemed to always put her needs before anything else so she felt safe... For now
He was like a genie in a way, he granted most of Kizuna's wishes as long as they were to his capabilities, and the first wish she made that didn't involve a way out of this prison was for people to interact as although Caine seemed okay, he was a really bad person to speak with as he barely listens, his assistant Bubbles was not much better
Caine mentioned something about other guests and how Kizuna would love them but they disappeared when the circus malfunctioned. He considered using npc but said bad things would happen if he confuses players with Npcs, all these uses of game and computer talk really made question what Caine truly was, if he was truly something pulled from a game and placed on this interdimensional prison or if he was just insane
Kizuna gave him a suggestion to mark the NPCs with invisible tags only Caine could see that marked them as not being real people, and add the word on some part of their design so he wouldn't forget. When his eyes turned into a blue screen she got scared but then he just exploded into cheers at the idea
So now she had people to talk to, a set of uniquely modelled NPCs because the mannequins were a bit too bland for her, it was nice having people to talk, each with a basic personality sure but it seemed like they became a bit more tridimensional as time went on, Gummigoo and his companions were cool to hang out with and great hunting company as Caine couldn't do much against the monsters that inhabit the infinity prison besides pulling up a wall, he allowed Kizuna to hunt because that was a good distraction or "adventure" as he put it
There were others, she particularly liked hanging out with Martha Mildenhall the ghost lady because she was a good chatting buddy and the candy princess Loolilalu was a bit nuance but well intended, but Kizuna wasn't as much of a fan of partaking in things like dress up or other high class activities, she was happy just sticking to fishing thank you very much.
"Hey goo, what are you doing here?" She asked him as he stopped and shrugged his shoulders
"Meh, work's done for today, max and Chad are keeping watch over for monsters" he pointed to the watch tower close to the tall walls surrounding the circus, before he scoffed a little laugh "Fishing again I see, you spend almost every hour here, don't you get bored after a while?"
"It helps me relax, more so than Caine's ideas" Kizuna replied as she looked at the sky, gosh did Caine had some interesting but overly strange ideas on how to spend the time, like it never could just be normal, bowling but the pins were alive and reacted to everything you did, meditating but you had to keep perfect balance on a tiny board or fall to a pool of cranberry sauce, hide and seek but the seeker was a insanely scary angel that seemed more unholy than anything
"Right, I'm just here to tell you dinner is in an hour, be there by then" he said as he tipped his hat to her and walked off to join his companions
Kizuna went back to looking at the lake, and waited for a fish to catch the bait, she wished to return to her friends and the real world she now had a duty to protect. But at least, the wait would be a little less unbearable
[Author's Notes]
So after rewatching the three episodes of TADC on Netflix, I got inspired. This probably a bit of a crack fanfic that probably won't work as more lore and character development happens in the show but I just had to get out of my system
So some additional explanation for those who are going to ask about it:
• Takt initiated his plans of stealing the vassal weapons earlier than in canon, he gets most except for the staff, the carriage and the whip; when he goes to get the whip he gets overconfident on his power and announces his plan to kill the whip hero and dominating the kingdom as well as the world; the whip hero gave himself willing but it was all a trap as Takt his entire harem got hit with ten Last judgement spells at the same time, Takt was incinerated to nothing but he could revive himself, the problem is that he lost the star weapons that seemingly vanish after the attack
• the first wave happen and everyone is desperate since there's five star heroes dead because of Takt. Melromarc still tries to summon the heroes but this time they purposely botch the ritual for the shield hero in hopes of either that immediately killing him or leaving him a broken mess; because of that interference, Ragatha and the others were summoned to a random part of the country with the legendary shield and the missing vassal weapons
• big thing for this if it was to become a fully fledge fanfic is that Melromarc is kinda of screwed, the circus cast is solving some of the heroes blunders, but because the shield hero was "never summoned" they don't have a escape goat to put all the blame, sure, they tell the masses about the evil shield devil and that he is in Siltvelt planning their doom, but without prove of his existence as well as the continuous blunders of the three heroes their creditably is put in question by the average folk
• very few people know of the circus cast, and any rumor about them is dismissed as looney talk. They do less than Naofumi in the original since they can't enter towns without causing a ruckus and getting attacked and as such become a myth like big foot. Not even Queen Mirellia or the church know of them until the third wave, the meeting with Melty was pure coincidence and how a queen's shadow discovered that the shield hero exists and has five vassals with them in Melromarc
I had in my mind that they would look a bit different in the shield hero world, as their cartoonish look is given a more detailed and realistic change to it
For how they would be in the shield hero style, I mostly envisioned the artwork of SundayToYou, specially for Pomni, Jax and Zooble /SundayToYou
MILEZPERPROWER design for Ragatha from their Ragmaster Au before her transformation into ringleader "Rosalyn" was also on my mind specially on the colors and a bit of her build towards being larger and wider, as I really like their take on /MILEZPERPROWER
Kinger having legs was inspired by artist Chezzy and their GameMaster Kinger /chez_cinnamon_
Yes, Jax being the hammer is a reference to Carnival AU by sm-baby
https//sm-baby
I'm pretty split on what Gangle would look like in a more realistic setting so either something like Boxer au by brynn and butter ( /burrotello ) or @botanipop version ( /botanipop/status/1786734393081602101 )