Lanayru Mining Facility [Squishy Panther] [COMPLETE]

Yes! Idris had a way to force the statue to submit to his will, and made it move out of the way; Laurel now saw the chest more clearly, confirming that she wasn't crazy and that she had in fact seen it just then. Once Idris had established a firm grip on it, Laurel leapt down from the platform, grateful that she wore her boots instead of her heels, and raised her skirt with her free hand so she could run. She didn't want to risk Idris's rod giving out and the statue realising she was about to rob its treasure.

She reached the crevice, seeing that the chest wasn't locked, and pushed the lid open. To her surprise, there was no gold or powerful magical artifact in there. Instead, it contained a small, gold block in a peculiar shape, which didn't seem made to conduct magic. Laurel figured there had to be a reason for it to be guarded, so she removed it from the chest and hurried back to Idris. "Put it back!" she said, swinging the carving over her head, "I have it!"

She ran outside the statue's territory and waited for Idris to catch up before she handed him the strange item. "What do you think it is?"

"Hmmm..." Laurel fiddled with the block. It was strangely hollow, like an inorganic serpentine shape. It was quite unlike anything she'd seen before, and while she theorised it didn't conduct magic, it might conduct something else instead... She put one hand on her forehead and tried to remember the rooms they had gone through. "No, I don't think it fits anything we've seen thus far..." she turned it over in her hand. "But humour me for a moment, Lord Johansson..." She wound a strand of hair around her finger as she thought out loud. "This entire place is filled with foreign machinery that seems to function on electricity magic."

She shook her head. "No, that's not right. Electricity magic can substitute it, but the forces that power the machinery are a far less volatile and malleable kind. Similarly, we've seen a lot of monsters that have some sort of affinity for electricity magic..." She turned the item over once more. "Judging from context... do you think this could conduct that non-magical electricity? If so, we should check the machinery and the doors in this room and any we come across later. Maybe it's a key of sorts."

The chamber where Laurel had had her epiphany? "...you raise a good point," she admitted. "We were rather occupied with other things at the time..." She retraced their steps to the door they had used to enter this room, following closely behind Idris. "Soooo," she asked, her hands behind her back. "What will you be doing if and when we get out of here? I mean, I'll be returning to Castle Town to prepare for my next..." she hesitated for a moment as she thought of a word, "outing... but I don't imagine you have that luxury, do you?" After all, his involvement in recent terrorist attacks had still not been disproved. She didn't assume she'd made a terrible mistake in allowing this man to accompany her, but it was in the back of her mind.

With the Timeshift Stone active, they needed no magic to power the door, and Laurel ducked under it as she entered the room from before. The monstrous remains were still strewn across the room and didn't move, allowing the duo to look around in more detail. Laurel ran her hand across the walls, wiping sand off of intricately carved decorations and what she assumed to be instructions and safety precautions. "Makes you wonder just how many people used and worked this in the past," she mused. "The place is huge." She had yet to find anything that seemed like it would fit the strange carving they had found, though. She hoped Idris would do his part in looking for it, too.

Laurel examined the mural Idris had drawn her attention to. "I've read about these," she said, running her hand over the Ancient Hylian script in the mural. "They're depictions of prophecy, or heathen gods or demons... along with incantations of banishment." She looked closely. "I can make out a few of the words... 'spike...' 'skin...'" She shook her head. "It's too complicated. Many of the words have different meanings depending on context and the grammar is completely different from modern. I can't make heads or tails of it." She looked at the doorway. They could still turn back, of course... "M-maybe it's best we go home now," she said.

She started to step back, but as she did so, she heard an infernal screech and something huge burrowed past her in the soft sand that covered the ground. Not bothering to hide her terror, she snatched Idris's hand in one of hers, squeezing it with all her strength, while she fumbled for her rapier with the other one. "W-what is tha-" She interrupted herself with a scream when the creature burst from the sand, landing on the floor and leaping up, turning around mid-jump to face them and the impact of its landing shaking off the last remainder of the sand on it. It was the same creature that had been drawn on the walls, except many times bigger and more menacing than the drawings had made it look.

It gazed at them with one eye set in what Laurel assumed to be its face -she was no biologist- and opened its claws towards them, revealing that there were more eyes inside those. She shivered, stepping backwards and dragging Idris with her as she still clutched his hand for dear life. "W-what do we do..?" she asked, her voice barely audible over the threatening click-clack of the monster's claws.

Thousand-Year Arachnid
Moldarach​

​

Idris didn't have to tell her twice. The burrowing beast was immensely fast, but when they set foot on iron instead of sand, it had to clamber out and pursue them on foot- this slowed it down, further motivating Laurel to ignore her screaming legs and keep running. "What even is it," she asked, panting, "How did it get here? Why does it have all those eyes!?" She forced the nearby door open and slung an Arcane Bolt at the nearby Timeshift Stone, deactivating it and causing the door to drop like a rock behind them, creating a barrier between the nobles and the monster. Laurel leaned her back against the wall, sheathing her rapier and pressing both hands against her forehead.

"I don't even..." she was still panting, not used to extensive physical exercise. "I've never seen anything... like that thing... and I read a lot..." Her legs felt like they would give out any second now, but she forced herself to stay standing. It wouldn't be long until the monster crushed the door with its pincers...

"Oh god." Laurel's eyes went wide as a realisation struck her. "W-with all the sand here and those huge pincers... there's nothing in here that can keep it inside." She turned to Idris. "W-what if it gets out of the mine? What do we do then..?"

"R-right," Laurel said, swallowing painfully and trying to recollect her nerve. She was terrified. Getting close to that thing could spell death for her, as she could easily get crushed in its pincers or impaled on its sting... but they had little choice. "Magic is too inaccurate to be reliable," she explained to Idris, drawing her rapier and forcing her voice to stabilize. "And you don't have a weapon." She showed him the rapier. "But I do. It's not ideal, but a sword to the eye should really hurt it, especially if I enchant it."

For a second, she remained quiet as she let Idris process her meaning. "I'll have to get close," she then emphasized. "So I need you to watch the thing closely and warn me if I'm about to die." Pointing her rapier to a nearby pile of debris, she added, "You can hide behind there- the less it sees of you, the better the odds it will stay within range of my sword." Another loud bang was audible as the monster started to tear a sizeable hole into the door keeping it away from them. Laurel squeezed her eyes shut, trying desperately to expel the terror in her mind. She had to do this. If the monster escaped and wrought havoc on the people, it would be her fault.

Swinging the rapier down, an arc of sparks following the trail of the newly-enchanted blade, she turned around. "Lord Johansson," she said. "...Idris. I believe you're innocent of the charges made against you." She clutched her weapon so tightly her knuckles turned white. "If I survive today, I will do everything in my power and use all my contacts to clear your name."

Another bang resonated through the room, and the door vanished altogether. Laurel heard the skittering of eight legs and the victorious clicking of enormous pincers, and turned around, fighting the natural urge to freeze in her tracks as she stared it down. Instead, she raised her sword, pointing it at the large eye on its face threateningly. "Go! Hide!"

"Oh my GODS Idris, this is so not the moment to play the gentlema-" Laurel had been screaming at Idris as well to the point where they couldn't make sense of each other's words, only to instinctively dodge out of the way when the scorpion decided to whack him. That was what he got for not listening to her! She didn't watch to see where he landed, instead returning the beast's attention when it focused on her. "C-come on," she said, "Just because my voice and my knees are shaking doesn't mean I'm afraid of you..."

It clicked its other pincer, lashing towards her. But that was much of a mistake as it terrified her. As much as her instinct as to dodge out of the way, she forced herself to keep in mind she would not GET out of the way and instead lunged forward, burying the sparking and surging blade of her rapier halfway into the eye in the middle of the pincer. It closed around her, spasming wildly, but she was close enough to the eye that the pincer didn't actually break her- stepping forward and lunging so deeply had saved her life.

However, the monster raised its pincer, lifting her off the ground, and looked at her with the eye on its main body. As Laurel looked up, she saw its stinger slowly coming closer, too. Oh no. She'd hurt it -a lot- and she would pay.

"I just told you, if I get out of here alive I will FIX that," Laurel sneered as she crawled to her feet, observing the beast. The pincer she had attacked moved erratically, but the monster seemed to still have control over it. So it wasn't out of commission quite yet... still, Idris had taken out the stinger, removing one of its weapons. That would make it slightly safer to approach it. "Well, we can't run," she said, lifting her rapier and enchanting it again, this time with fire.

The beast screeched again, back on its feet and lunging towards her with the unharmed pincer. Laurel took a risk, diving forwards and under that swipe. Before it could recover, she got up on one knee and thrust her flaming sword forward, landing it in the already-wounded eye on the other pincer and setting it aflame. She then dove to another side, avoiding the fallout, and watched as the monster trashed its claw around, screeching in fear at the small flame that was rapidly consuming it.

Finally, it fell limp, the monster once again turning to Laurel and clicking its remaining pincer. Getting caught would not be an option this time... if it caught her again, it would crush her. No two ways about it.

Urgh. As much as she hated having to be saved by Idris when he had been throwing a tantrum -and provoking one of her own, most inelegantly- she had to admit, his spell was well-timed and effective. By now, Laurel estimated she could use her Shock Enchantment again, so she turned her rapier yellow with surging power. She had no idea if she could do any damage to the thing without enchantments, but getting close without dying was such an ordeal that she wasn't about to take the chance. Fire was clearly the way to go, but the fact remained that spell was still on cooldown.

She waited until the remaining pincer was wide open and close by. "NOW!" she cried when she saw it, leaping forward before it could be withdrawn. She didn't wait to see what Idris did, instead lunging, assuming he would break the spell before she caught on fire, and pierced the eye on the second pincer.

Laurel screamed when the monster popped up below her, launching her along with the debris. She landed hard next to Idris, only barely managing to catch her fall with her hands. She hadn't really recovered from the shock when he grabbed her rudely by the arm and dragged her off. She thought to chew him out, until she saw the monster charging at them. Without its heavy pincers, it was a lot faster than before. "NOT SO SLOW YOU IDIOT!" she screamed, jerking her arm free and launching herself up the ladder.

She got out of the way so Idris could climb up to this level as well, and brushed her hair out of her face so she could look down at the monster. "Say, Idris... how do you know it can't climb- OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE!" Contrary to Idris's words, the monster had set its legs on the wall and started climbing up it. Slowly, admittedly, but it was still coming at them. When would that thing stop moving?!