Going Underground [Mod]

[Jaelyn Callahan]

It was a rare day when Jaelyn would come this far out into the outer circle. Very strong shadows, and the threat of one in particular that had potentially remained out there, looking over her ever since her persona awakened, normally kept her from going beyond the easiest to access areas. Not anymore, though. She was getting stronger, amazingly, and the shadows that had posed such a great threat before were becoming more manageable. So she decided to see how far out she could go.

It was when she had almost reached the very edge of the outer circle, where some kind of strange barrier kept her from leaving the city entirely, that she ran across an old mine. She wasn't sure what kind of mine it was, but there had to be something valuable inside, right? Yeah, had to be. And probably plenty of shadows to test her increased strength against as well. While burning them alive, ideally.

With that in mind, she started through the entrance and into the dark tunnels within.

[Erithania]

Behold, enemies.

Dirty Mother

Skills
Agilao
Bufula

Null: Ice
Resist: Fire
Weakness: Light

Messy Gigas

Skills
Viper Smash
Hamaon

Null: Strike
Weakness: Darkness

[Jaelyn Callahan]

What the hell was this? The first shadows Jaelyn encountered once inside were another of those damned muscle men and...an obviously feminine shadow lying across an ornate couch. Despite the fact that they were in a freaking mine, the couch looked (from what Jaelyn could see in the dim light) nearly spotless, while the shadow lying on it could have been an ordinary human woman if not for the black skin and orange mask that looked like it was glued onto her face.

Fortunately for Jaelyn, she had the sense to only spend a couple seconds gawking before summoning Andras to boost her speed. The two shadows lit up the tunnel with their respective attacks, the man's a burst of pure light and the woman's a large fireball. Ducking behind a support beam, Jaelyn managed to avoid the light attack, while the fireball collided with her body to very little effect. "I'd have thought you two would like the darkness, living down here," Jaelyn said, summoning Andras and creating clouds of darkness around the two shadows. "That just makes it more fun for me, I guess." The darkness converged on the two shadows, dealing normal damage to the female shadow but seeming to eat through the metallic exterior of the male one.

So if it was using light attacks and weak to darkness, then living down here it had to be using its own abilities as a night light. "Heh heh...that's almost cute," she said. She braced herself to avoid any incoming attacks, once again avoiding the flare of light from the muscle man shadow. The female shadow, meanwhile, switched to ice attacks and managed to hit her for slightly less negligible damage. Jaelyn retaliated with another Mamudo, which seemed to badly mess up the muscle man but not quite finish it off. Another light and another ice attack came back at her, with the same results. Only the ice hit.

"Scared of the dark?" Jaelyn asked the male shadow, which had thus far completely failed to hit her with anything. She laughed softly as she summoned Andras again for another Mamudo. The pitch black ends of the tunnel seemed to flow inward, converging on the two shadows. "It's okay. Supposedly, people see a bright light as they die. Although...you're not exactly a person, are you?" As Jaelyn finished talking, the darkness swallowed the muscle man up entirely.

The lounging female shadow remained, though, and fired another blast of ice at Jaelyn without missing a beat. This time, Jaelyn managed to avoid it, and rushed the shadow while summoning Andras again. A barbed spear appeared in Andras's hand as she ran. Then, while she skidded to a halt in front of the shadow, Andras threw it, impaling both shadow and couch. The couch nearly fell over from the force of the attack and the combined damage the shadow had already taken, but managed to remain standing long enough for the shadow to fire off one more ice attack. At point blank range, Jaelyn could do very little to avoid it, but powered through it as she attacked one more time, impaling the shadow through where the heart would have been for a human. The couch collapsed from under the shadow as both dissolved.

[Erithania]

Behold, victory.



You found Level 3 Knives.

[Jaelyn Callahan]

As the shadow finished dissolving, Jaelyn caught sight of something glinting on the ground where it had been. She knelt down, brushing what little bits of it remained, and found a set of knives bundled up in some expensive-looking cloth. "What have we here?" Jaelyn asked, picking one of them up. It consisted of an inwardly curved blade and a handle with a hole at the top. Jaelyn had seen one of these back home. A karambit, if she remembered correctly. Why did the shadow have them?

"Oh well, it's not like it'll need them now," Jaelyn said, taking the entire bundle and stashing the knives wherever they they would go. Satisfied, she stood up again and started making her way back. While part of her wanted to continue on, she was also freezing from taking so many ice attacks and wanted to get back to somewhere warm.