Turtle Rock-n-Roll [Cloud & Guy]

(Btw we've been misspelling "Bulblin" as "Bulbin" for this entire thread.)

While Julius handled the beast, Sienna made quick work of the archers. A fistful of Ember Seeds was snatched out of her pouch and hurled towards one of them. A screech of pain sounded from the fool's gullet. A moment later, he could be seen scurrying away from his hiding spot, frantically blowing on one of the burn marks across his exposed green arms mid-stride.

It gave her the moment she needed to cast the only spell she knew--and in a moment a huge, black, skeletal hand appeared adjacent to her.

Sienna's finger stretched towards the other archer. "Crunch him," she quickly bellowed the command, only for the monster to immediately scamper towards its prey. The poor fool was still trying to take aim at the Hylian. Not recognizing the biggest threat here--that would be his undoing.

Sienna's head whipped back towards her burned prey, eyes wide to see the damn bastard was more clever than his counterpart--arrow already notched and aimed right at her. In the split-second he took to loose it, Sienna managed to roar out a sudden, "PULSE"--knocking the arrow off its course, and causing the archer to falter back a step. Of course, the coward wasn't going to stay there, nor run up and fight her--damn thing was a coward, already running away to find another hiding spot.

Sienna sneered, growling in annoyance. It was about this time she heard a sudden *CRUNCH* of another Bulblin's body being pulverized in a gigantic, monstrous fist. It was enough to turn her sneer into a twisted grin, at least.

'No more playing tag,' Sienna thought. With all her strength, Sienna shot forward towards the Bulblin, who was prepping another arrow. Her Magnet Gloves weren't going to bend the arrow from its course, and her Pulse wasn't ready to shoot again. She didn't care. The panicked little bastard let loose his arrow, summoning from Sienna a tumultuous roar of pain--digging through her gauntlet and stabbing an inch into her shoulder--but she just took all that pain and fueled it into rage. Her roaring, armor-rattling, heavy little body leaped from the ground with a titanic dropkick, smashing the archer's chest hard enough to break a rib. But that wouldn't be enough--oh no.

Before the Bulbin could recover, Sienna stomped two heavy boots onto either of his shoulders. Her one uninjured arm charged up a ferocious dark power, her voice rising to a fever pitch of fury--before launching downwards, cloaked in evil and magical shadows--shattering the creature's face and skull in a grotesque splat that shattered even the tile beneath it, likely sending a quake throughout a greater part of the dungeon.

...

Breathing heavily and clutching her shoulder, Sienna turned towards Julius--who to her surprise was already adjacent to her again, asking the perfection question. Even if she was injured, even if archers were annoying twats, even if she was pissed she might not be able to finish killing everything in this place--she would always, always be happy to finish off a Dodongo.

"Of course," she bellowed from behind the mask, a slight grin in her voice. Using only her good arm, Sienna quickly whipped her wakizashi from its sheath--the sword slipping out with a smooth sound.

The Dodongo was flailing and roaring and screeching--it didn't even seem cognizant of its surroundings, let alone its foes. The beast would die if she just left it like this, but, there is no satisfaction to be had in that. Choosing her moment carefully, Sienna abruptly tore forward with a Roc-enhanced leap, launching her blade deep into the monster's gaping gullet. Though she lacked bombs, even a Dodongo couldn't handle a sword lodged through its upper vertebra...

...or, well, so she assumed.

Just as her sword-arm lunged forth and struck true, the monster's massive mandibles snapped shut, tearing through her armored arm and sinking deep into her wood with sickening crunches and snaps. Sienna's eyes shot open with a howl of utter agony, struggly to pry and force the monster's jaw open with her free, still-injured arm. Whether by its will or her own, the maw sprung free, sword still lodged in its throat, only to blast a gigantic wall of flame right into Sienna's face, audibly singing through her mask with crackling flames. The warrior fell onto her back, clambering desperately to her feet--clutching the mangled mess of her right arm with her already-injured left arm, hissing in pain.

"JULIUS--" she spat, furiously, "--DESTROY THAT CRETIN."

Sienna was hissing and grunting in pain, body shaking on the ground. It was all the woman could do to keep from screaming. Even if she was the toughest thing on two legs, getting your arm burned and broken in the mouth of a gigantic Dodongo was the incarnation of agony--and she was far from immune to it. Her incinerated mask and scorched face certainly didn't help either. Perhaps the least helpful of all was this damn Hylian thinking he knew how to fucking help her. "Don't--" she grunted, stuttering, "--damnit, get that--off. Fuck!"

Her mostly intact arm, shaking violently, pulled the tourniquet from her body. She didn't have the time to explain sap didn't work like blood. At least he wasn't doing a completely awful job up to that point. Her quaking hand wanted to put pressure on the wound--she would survive this. It was the depths of hell, but she would survive this... but even as hard as she was focusing, her shaking hand couldn't grab the wound. Her head rolled back, eyes clamped shut... trying to think--to focus--to remember what could be done to fix this. It wasn't the first time she had suffered a brutal injury, if the countless scars across her face and body were indication.

Suddenly, in the darkness of her mind, she remembered something... something... risky. "T-technique..." she muttered, mostly to herself. She didn't have time to explain to Julius the move she was going to perform, but--as much as she would hate to admit it--she needed his help to perform it. "H-help me up--nnh!--damnit, help me stand...!"

With the help of Julius, Sienna's wobbling body was back on her feet. She was struggling to both overcome vertigo and maintain balance. She had to focus on every step she took--right towards the Dodongo corpse. This would be a fitting end to a monster that injured her so gravely. For the beast, she felt overwhelming disdain--but a minute amount of respect. The corpse was still fresh--good. The amount of meat in this Dodongo meant the technique had a good chance to work, she hoped. Vulture Purge. She had few chances to practice the technique after she discovered it... While it healed brutal injuries, that meant she had to brutally injure herself to practice it. Unfortunately, there wasn't a reliable failsafe if she didn't execute the technique properly...

With all the focus and willpower she could muster, Sienna moved her hand towards the skull of the Dodongo--stumbling and almost falling onto the massive face of the thing. "Don't--help--me," she snarled at Julius. The man had done enough.

Straightening herself out, she exhaled a long, slow, quaking breath... focusing... Nothing happened at first, but she gradually begin to feel the sensation she hoped to find. Focus needed to be maintained for this to work--it had failed halfway through in the past. No, she thought, it would work this time--the first time she needed it this badly, it would work. Energy--a painful, vicious sort of energy--flowed through her fingertips, up her arm, and first begin to heal her shoulder. Only then did it proceed through her other arm. One audible crack after another sounded as wood and muscle snapped back into place. The flow of sap ceased. Wounds closed. Finally, Sienna could stand and breath calmly. Relief washed over her mind and body.

What life had remained in that decaying corpse was now gone, absorbed into her. Though it remained intact, the Dodongo seemed... thinner... stiff... sickly... as if it was already on the edge of death prior to becoming a corpse.

Non-nonchalantly, Sienna turned towards Julius. Nothing was said at first. It felt strange, standing like that. Her face was exposed without the mask. Her arm--freshly scarred--was feeling the open air in who knows how long. She wasn't sure what to make of the expression on his face. With a sigh, she finally spoke, "...You owe me another sword." With that said, she turned towards the sickly corpse of the beast. There was, in her voice, the slightest of grins, "The skull... would it be better as a mask, or a helm?"

Julius spoke in depth of the sword. Of course. Despite the tiny spite in his voice, despite the fact they were in the midst of a monster's lair, the man would always be eager to talk about his art of smithing weapons. It was useful. And if the man had to talk about something, at least it was about their greatest mutual interest.

As he spoke, Sienna moved to retrieve what was left of her wakizashi. Julius of course hadn't done much damage by tossing it aside--but the thing was crunched in a powerful jaw, scorched with incinerating heat, and was already worn down too far before that. The blade itself wasn't merely bent, but snapped in half--how, she was not even certain. Nonetheless, she plucked up the hilt and moved towards Julius, handing it to him.

"A similar hilt," she noted, "and yes, a similar edge." The man obviously understood her fighting styles well enough, given the last weapon he forged for her. Indeed, she moved a bit different when wielding this light, efficient blade compared to her heavy weapons. Still, there was an important distinction, "It is important I have a lightweight weapon that can be efficiently wielded in one hand."

With that said, a hand reached towards her left hip--pulling out a seldom-seen small knife measuring at most four inches. She brandished it for Julius to observe. "Unlike my brother, I do not consider this a weapon. ...I will trust you with the details of the sword, lest something important occurs to me."

Sienna scanned the room quietly for a moment, ensuring no foes had made their way into the room. Only then did she move towards the corpse, and forcefully lodge her knife in its neck, carefully beginning to cut through its thick hide. "This will take a minute. Do as you will." She paused for a moment, thinking on Julius' comment about its size. Only then did she add, "I will need to use your Adventure Pouch, for this."

Over the course of a couple minutes, the air filled with the soft yet disgusting sound of steel slicing and cutting through layers of scales, muscles, sinew, and more--until finally all that remained was the spine, which Sienna broke off with a guttural CRACK. The severed head was indeed colossal--big enough for her purposes, surely. After taking a moment to drain the blood, she shoved the Dodongo's visage into the Julius' Adventure Pouch. The bones could be cleaned later.

"Yes." She stood. As the man came towards her, she offered up the pouch, then reached for her glaive. "Let us press on."

As she moved towards the room's exit, her head tilted down to look upon her arm--naked, and exposed. There was a mild grimace of disgust. She lacked the protection of her mask as well, and even her wakizashi was gone. Obnoxious and worriesome as this might be, she put it behind her--and lifted her head to face the challenges that yet lay before them. She once punched a multi-headed dragon into the ocean while nude. Whatever this place had left to offer couldn't hope to compare.

...

The armor-clad duo walked through a silent hall. Soon, rooms passed. It became a blur. What followed paled in comparison to the challenges thus faced. Julius' blade split the helm of a helmasaur, only for Sienna's glaive to lodge through its face. Keese were cut down. Two Bulblin brutes thought they had a chance against these invaders, only to realize they were vastly outclassed, even if not outnumbered.

In a room filled with slimes, zols, and gels, nearly all of them were cut to shards and stomped beneath heavy boots. It was a slaughter--and to Sienna's disappointment, not a very satisfying one. Sienna looked to Julius, giving him a slightly perplexed, annoyed expression. Progress had been fairly smooth up to this point, but suddenly there was no obvious exit in sight.

"...There may be a switch. A hidden exit." Sienna's eyes scanned the ground. Unfortunately, it was almost completely painted in the slimy remains of the monsters they stomped to death. The only other notable features were torches upon amber-colored walls, and a dozen or so pots lining the rooms. There had to be something here, she knew. They passed a fork ages ago, but this entire branch of the dungeon wouldn't exist without purpose. She was sure of it.

Well Din be damned. Sienna was beginning to think this entire romp would end with nothing more interesting than a particularly lucky Dodongo. Not only was this thing a three-headed turtle-dragon made of rock, but it could spit both fire and ice as well as any Gleeok, and was so powerful a Captain of Guard had been knocked out already--or, close enough, anyway. It was such an impressive beast she almost didn't want to maim it. Almost.

Hopefully it at least had babies she could ride around or something.

The woman had already been squaring off with the red head by the time Julius was knocked down, trading blows back and forth with her glaive. Its damn fangs alone could have been a worthy foe. She found herself struggling to dodge and deflect those snapping fiery jaws enough to land a clean strike--but soon sunk her weapon brutally deep into a crevice of its rocky hide. A squeal of pain forced the other two heads to join...

...And soon Sienna found the glaive ripped out of her hands, still embedded in the cheek of fire-face--unarmed, and out of reach of what might as well have been three savage monsters.

A shot of ice and a blast of fire launched towards the woman in an instant, barely giving her even the time to clutch her cape and backshift out of the way in the nick of time--only for the third head to abruptly spring forward like some kind of goddamn elastic snapping turtle, clearing several meters and indeed the entire room to reach Sienna, clamping its powerful jaws right onto her helm, audibly cracking the steel--and refusing to let go, threatening to crush her entire skull like a grape.

Struggling to free herself, Sienna couldn't shake the beast--even with her strongest roaring pulse. Pineed against the wall and staring down the monstrous gullet, she couldn't even draw her last real weapon. With seemingly no other option, she cloaked her fist in shadows--roaring in fury as she struggled to concentrate enough to fuel a Warlock Punch...

Julius' attack against the monster couldn't have come a second later. As the creature reeled back and roared in pain, its stone head plucked the helmet it was biting on with it, ripping it off Sienna's skull a split-second before audibly CRUNCHING the thing into useless scrap between its powerful, recoiling jaws. Despite the situation, her fist was still charging with vile, brutal power--and her feet were locked to the ground, focusing intensely.

As if on perfect cue, Julius launched the glaive right into the fire-head's eye, causing it to bounce and plop down from the impact--landing right in front of where Sienna was standing. As her roar climbed and climbed, she finally launched forward an unimaginably brutal punch, using all of her physical and magical strength to SMASH that glaive through the monster's skull. Like a hammer driving a nail, she crushed the glaive into its face--the weapon splintering apart as it drove through its eye, its cranium, and clean out the other side of its colossal red skull.

Like a warrior dropping a useless weapon, the dragon's third neck disconnected from its body, dropping the red stones onto the ground with a quake which rattled the entire room.

Without her mask, Sienna's face felt naked and exposed. Breathing hard, she glanced towards Julius, who was already finishing off the icy head, and distracting the stone head. It gave her the moment she needed to slip her Megamouth Mask onto her face for protection instead. By the time she snapped it in place, she heard a second tell-tale rumbling -- Julius had already dropped the blue skull, leaving only the central body.

Suddenly, the room began to quake more and more, until the third head -- on its own--sprang forth from its body like a colossal rocky snake. It shot through the room, the gigantic head rebounding off the walls at incredible speed. Was this a defense mechanism? Was it searching for an exit? Sienna didn't particularly care, but it was flailing so wildly the entire structure was beginning to crumble and shake. Dents, then holes burst through the walls--this couldn't last.

Waiting for her moment, Sienna watched for the monster to launch towards her. Julius could handle himself. Finally, the moment came--a clean shot. The thing's own damn speed would be its downfall. Striding forward, Sienna ripped her final weapon from its sheath--the cleaver surging from the size of a knife to a colossal blade longer than Sienna was tall. Cloaked in the shadow magic of its gems, the sword was slashed forward so Trinexx would rush headlong right into the blade as she swung it. A terrible noise of metal cleaving through stone echoed through the chamber as the monster's face was cleaved nearly in half, and Sienna skidded backwards several meters are she desperately pushed the blade forward...

For the second time, Sienna found herself slamming back-first into the wall... Her blade had crushed clean through the monster's mouth and entire head, lodging longways through its neck as Sienna's quaking knuckles held the hilt. As her gaze met that of the monster's corpse, a shuddered groan of sick pleasure ran up her spine and from her face. Thankfully, the mask covered the twisted grin in her eyes. She didn't torture the beast, but damn if that wasn't a poetic and brutal victory.

With a delighted sigh, Sienna ripped her sword from the monster's body, and returned the weapon to its minuscule scabbard at her hip. She glanced towards Julius, then over her shoulder towards the audibly-crumbling depths of the place, then back towards Julius. Behind the man, whether he realized it or not, was a hole smashed through the wall by Trinexx itself--seemingly leading back into the murky outdoors of the valley.

"Leave," Sienna offered, plainly, as her heavy steps worked towards her companion and the exit beyond him. "I doubt this place will stand much longer."

Sienna gave little more than a slight nod in response. She expected the second weapon he crafted for her would impress as well...

With little interest, she turned away from the man as he left. Reaching into the pouch attacked to the back of her mail, Sienna pulled out a small instrument--where did she even get this kazoo, she couldn't remember. Bringing it to her snout, Sienna blew into the Horse Call, knowing her mount would soon arrive from its tune.

Only when the open breeze of the valley grazed her leaves did Sienna half her armor was missing, and she once again needed to replace it. "...I could consider crafting him something, as well. An exchange of services."

The woman turned towards her beastly Wolfos, who had arrived alongside her swift as a thunderbolt. She reached out, giving him exactly two pats as his reward. She then leaped upon the back of her beast, and sped off in search of materials for her mail.