Worthy Core

Lollyp started off the fight with a classical lightning bolt aimed at the Bountiful Mother herself, which was easily intercepted by the Paladin and her holy-enchanted shield. By any honest reckoning, the outcome of the conflict was never in doubt - Lollyp had given up her biggest advantage by not ambushing the party, and on top of that every single member of the opposing party was higher-ranked than she was. Still, that didn't mean she was going to make this any easier on them than it had to be. "Whoa! Pretty light on your feet there for a heavy, yeah?"

Sable's smile can be heard through her voice as she answers, even if her helmet hides the sight of it. "Oh, baby girl, you ain't seen nothing yet." As if Lollyp had just given the woman a special invitation, she follows up with a sudden leap that shocks the slime and several members of her own party alike. Rising so high that her blade nearly scrapes the cavern ceiling, the Paladin crosses twenty feet in the blink of an eye. Lollyp herself is so entranced by the sight that she nearly forgets to dodge, but fortunately her flexible body helps make up for her mistake as she dives away. Twisting back around as soon as she can, the boss blasts the heavy with a stream of flame, but it merely seems to wash over Sable like water.

"The hells kind of cheat class do you got? High defense and mobility like an acrobat?" The first response Lollyp gets to her question is the swing of a glowing sword, which she barely manages to roll away from.

"Come now, surely you've got personal experience with the reason - with the power and belief of a Goddess standing behind you, what isn't possible?" Sable continues to advance with Lollyp continuing to back away, occasionally firing off an ineffective elemental blast or two as she retreats. At one point she finds herself caught in an entangling swarm of vines, a gift from the Verdant Priestess of the group, but that only causes the slime to giggle as she slips between them - even if she does have to leave her potion-laden vest behind.

"Pfft, you can't beat a slime when it comes to tentacles! But, if I gotta dump the gear anyhow...boom." After gaining a few feet of distance from the newly-grown shrubbery Lollyp tosses a fireball at the entire thing, igniting every vial she had with her at once. While some of the mixtures have no particular reaction to fire, enough of them do to both magnify the explosion and to send hazardous chemicals blasting out in a ten-foot radius. Something in the mix does actually manage to halt the Paladin in her tracks as flaming oils spread up her left side, but her voice remains free of panic for the time being.

"Dammit, gonna need a min...alright, you guys can step in if you want a shot!"

"Will do." Stepping forward, Podge punches upwards with both of his fists, triggering stony walls to shoot out from behind the boss, pinning her in. Before the Elementalist has time to swap her targets Renter steps up alongside him, this time lifting a crossbow armed with a very expensive-looking bolt.

"As you said yourself, missy...boom." Lollyp begins to dodge the shot, but it would never have been enough - moments after the bolt passes clear through her side and impacts the stone behind her, the bolt explodes with a concussive force that entirely blows the slime apart, scattering her across half the arena. Smirking, Renter lifts the crossbow and admires it lovingly. "Gods, I love doing that. Costs five gold for one of those bolts, you know, but the look on their faces..."

Having finally put out the last of the flames through the use of repeated holy aid spells, Sable snorts before returning to the rest of the group. "I thought you Thornwood types were supposed to be stealthy."

The man shrugs. "Really, I prefer the 'one shot, one kill' aspect of the school. No one said that one shot's gotta be subtle."

Chuckling, Elance gives a pleased look at the party she'd put together. "Not badly done - even if you lot are a pack of showoffs. Ain't those leaps of yours a limited deal, Greenie? Never mind Forst here spending twice what the boss loot's likely to hand out."

Sable shrugs. "Stressing the body doesn't hurt unless I overdo it, and how often do you get to jump around like that in a cave-based dungeon? Oh, right, let me answer that for you - not a lot."

"You are the expert, lass, or so you tell me. Alright, then...we skipped it the first round, but I would like to check out at least one of those special 'Floor Five' sections while we're here. Shall we take a quick detour, lads and lasses?"

After collecting their loot (and informing Renter that he was not getting an extra share for 'expenses'), the party took the portal in the following room which transported them all to Floor Five, Section Two. Each section was somewhat themed based on the floor it led from, and while Section One was little more than a raw cave and torches, Section Two wasn't much better. As with all of them, a modest healing fountain made up the centerpiece of the main chamber, and as the party checked out the various bedrooms they found wooden beds with straw mattresses, barely large enough for two people. There was one feature that made Section Two popular with the Challengers who could reach it, however - the hot mineral springs which every room contained, large enough for two to four people, depending on how comfortable they were with each other.

Staring down at one, Sable finds herself almost drooling. "Goddess, that looks relaxing. Are you sure we can't strip down for a quick break? You know, to get better first-hand experience of the place."

Elance chuckles. "Sure, start with that, next thing it's gonna be 'well why don't we try to earn the bonus loot while we're here' and then we'll be here all day."

"Well, since you brought it up..."

Elance gently whaps her friend's hip with the back of one hand. "Come on now Greenie, you're only quarter sex-demon, I know you can keep it down a little longer than that."

"Can, sure, should's another question entirely. You wouldn't deny an old friend a bit of fun, not to mention the rest of the party..." Turning around, Sable's gaze lingers on the elf, dwarf and human behind them equally hungrily.

"I said down, lass, I can practically hear the damn thing knocking at your codpiece." Hearing the woman's crude description, Lilly's face furrows in confusion before her gaze moves downward and her expression shifts to blushing.

"Hear...what knocking? Are...ohhh..."

Sable's grin now visible with her helmet removed, the much-taller woman steps behind the elf before wrapping an arm around one shoulder and leaning in. "Was born quarter-incubus, but got myself a Change when I hit adulthood. Still...had too much fun with the Lil Sable to whisk her away, you know? What do you say, Priestess, we could borrow the room and the spring for a bit and I could show you - "

As Lilly's face starts to turn nearly as red as the quarter-demon's, Elance steps in to the rescue. "Leave the poor virgin alone, Greenie, I said I just wanted to see the place. Holy Mothers above, you want to work your charms, do it after work hours."

"I'm not a vir-!" Lilly's outburst stops as she notes the amused looks of Renter and Podge at her side. "Yes, let's...keep this mission professional, shall we?"

"You're the boss, Priestess." Before turning around to return to the portal, however, Sable does lean in to whisper one last tease. "Unless of course taking orders is more your thing..."

Floor Three went quite easily for the party, both due to their particular makeup, and because the floor had been visited enough times by now for its secrets to be fairly well-known. Podge's earth magics allowed them to shortcut most of the traps in the Step Chamber, and Lilly was able to brush aside most of the sticky webbing in the Slime Spider section through the use of vines, although she did need to down a mana potion by time they reached the end of it. The following Terror Tentacle maze was outright trivial - with three holy-powered members of the party the slimy ghosts proved to be no challenge at all. In fact the longest delay in that section was the now-infamous 'Moaning Door' at the center of it. Although everyone knew it was a trap at this point, Sable insisted that she get to 'check it out', and when the door slammed shut behind her the moans were soon replaced by the sounds of repeated holy strikes. When the Paladin stepped back out a minute later, she had a satisfied smirk on her face, although she answered no questions about the room's contents.

When it came time for the puzzle chamber the place was once again shortcut by Podge's magics as he simply ripped the floor and ceiling apart, destroying every barrier and trap in their way. As they made their way into the safe room prior to the boss arena, Renter actually found himself grumbling slightly. "Pfft, what's a Rogue to do 'round here? Either the traps are just right out in the open, or they're made of ghosts! Not that I mind gettin' paid to stroll through a dungeon or nothin', but I ain't had a chance to shoot shit all floor."

Elance rolls her eyes at the exaggerated grumbling. "Well they say we've got two bosses up ahead, which means you get to waste twice as many of your overpriced bolts. Besides, if there really is an underground forest waiting for us, you'll be right in your element. So do pay mind that you don't get yourself disemboweled just before we reach it, aye?"

"If I do, it'll only be to allow you the opportunity to show off your healing magic, Mother." Renter smirks as Sable does her own eye-rolling, just before making her way to the arena door.

"Lilly, Podge, try and tie down the big one while I work over the quick one, yeah? Renter, shoot whatever makes you happy, I guess. We good? Good!" With that she pushes the doors open and steps inside, sword already at the ready. Although groups that had beaten the armor duo and lived to tell about it were still rare, there had been a few, and again the arena's secrets were already public knowledge at this point. Elance calls upon holy magic to disable the hidden Terror Tentacles whenever they reveal themselves, and stone walls and vines burst from the ground to pin Tank in place within moments of the party stepping inside. Sable meanwhile rushes forward to engage the other boss, in a move that seems almost entirely unnecessary. As undead, the bosses were incredibly vulnerable to her holy smite abilities yet instead the woman focuses on her swordplay, matching the armor blow for blow.

"Nice!" The Paladin laughs as she ducks under a sword swing before returning one of her own. "You know how rare it is I get to swordfight someone taller than me? And a lady too, rawr."

"If you are atteeemmmmpting to flirt, you are barking up the wrrrrrong boss, knight. Should have tried the slime!" Dips stabs forward once again, but her blade is easily deflected by Sable's shield.

"I'll keep that in mind for next time, then!" The pair continue to exchange barbs and blades for the next several minutes, but it's apparent the entire time that Sable is merely using the encounter as a chance to spar. Dips' sword skills clearly rely heavily on her usual strength and size advantage, and while she may still have a slight edge over Sable in those departments it's not enough to make up for Sable's vastly superior fighting technique. Meanwhile Sable's blade punctures Dips time after time, and when the armor leaves herself too widely open after one deflected blow, a final swing removes the armor's helmet from her body. As Sable turns around, perhaps hoping to repeat the encounter with Tank, she finds herself somewhat disappointed to find the rest of the team sitting back and enjoying the show.

"...Wait, what? How long have you lot been finished?"

Renter scoffs, his amused look fading fast. "What kinda heavy lets herself completely lose track of a floor boss? With the lot of us ganging up on it, the big guy took like, fifteen seconds. Yours probably wouldn't have taken much longer if you'd just smited the damn thing."

"Yeah, but where would the fun have been in that!?" Sable looks around and finds only unimpressed looks coming her way, and deflates somewhat. "Alright, fine, maybe I could be taking it a little more seriously. But hey! We're going to be the first party to seriously try Floor Four! Aren't you excited!?"

Stretching out, Elance chuckles as she begins making her way forward. "Perhaps a little. But let's keep our feet on the ground and our heads on our necks, aye? Now then, let's see what all the fuss is about."