[Chapter #0.1.2 - Life is a Bridge]

"-e--! --!!!" The Shadow Drop Bear vanished upon being struck by Grimm's attack. However, a new Shadow immediately pushed itself through the crowd and took its place in the fight.

Meanwhile, Axis frowned. "We're like, a merchant thing. We don't really get involved in many fights, and that should answer both of your questions, right~ Lemme enjoy myself once in a while and stop snagging all the kills!!!" She pouted, stomping the Sleep Paralysis Demon under her foot (read: charge crushing it).

Shadow Green Lady, Level 7:

Shadow Sleep Paralysis Demon, Level 8:

Shadow Slogutis, Level 5:

Taking strike some of the Waddle-doo's fell back to the back of the group, while others started to tend to their wounds once more, though the healing from before helped a great deal with the wounds, and some of the ones that had been forced to fall back returned to the line. and they once more started to charge a new strike on the enemies, the stones gathering once more before they launched a barrage of earth spikes at the enemies.

action:

Waddle-dee Squad:

"That is not how I meant that, however, if you did gather a large amount of such people, even they could take out an enemy by simply outnumbering it completely. It is still better than just them lining up to be executed without a chance, in case no professional has their hands free at that moment." In his opinion, it was better for an inexperienced person to try handling that gun, than for them to lay down and die without making any attempt. The former could still lead to death, but the chances would be lower than with no effort put in at all.

Action:

Grimm:

“Let them have a chance instead of simply protecting them, huh?” He would consider that. “Well that is certainly not the first thing that comes to mind when it comes to these sort of situations.” His first instinct was to get the ones that could not fight to safety and only have them fight if they absolutely had no choice. To have them swarm out and overpower the enemy? Fight with them? That is certainly not a tactic he would normally take. The guy had an interesting way of thinking that was for sure.

He’d give an amused hmph. “Well, I like to make my job as entertaining as possible. Much too boring to look at it as just what it is. Regardless, maybe you should just get good Axis to catch up with him,” he’d tease her, his tone completely harmless as he shook, taking note of her brutality. At least the enemy was going down so he wasn’t complaining and wouldn’t be as long as they came out of this more or less alive and with as little damage as possible.

Anyway, the enemy wasn’t going to let up. Just as one went down a new came in already flinging attacks that thankfully missed the little ones just as another enemy decided to try to get in his space. Hopping back the blow would miss him. "Nah guy. I dun want you touching me," he would say as he stabilized himself just in time to see the little ones get knocked about by a different attack. “Careful, little ones!” he called just as that same enemy was following up with an attack on Axis, but it seemed the woman was a bit quicker on her feet than the little ones and the blow missed her. In response to that nonsense the little ones would throw their earth attack, Grimm would unleash his attack, and Axis her own and this round he would join them as his fingers went across his harp to form an attack.

Action:

Tequila – Level 1:

Axis Tension:

The Shadows would fall one after the other, mowed down by the party's relentless assaults. It would all seem well, as the party stood faced with two Shadows and a Demon, their last enemies.

However.


A heel click resounded through the hallway at that very moment as a very literal chill ran down everyone's spines. The temperature was... dropping?? And very rapidly, at that. The party would be able to see ice crystals forming on the gate at the other end of the hallway. Ice crystals that spread like flowers, riddling the metallic gate with cracks. Their breaths would grow shallow and become visible in the cold air. "W-what is happening?" Axis shuddered. She was scantily clad even as a Shadow Self, so she was obviously feeling the cold. The Waddle Dees would get a telepathic alert from their peers. 'Another enemy! A Demon? Unable to confirm.'

The gate wasn't going to hold, it was painfully apparent... Whatever was on the other side was about to break its way through!!! All the party could do was watch in horror as thorny rose whips formed from the ice crystals, tearing the gate to shreds. At the end, a powerful blast of cold pushed the gate away, dislodging it from its weakened handles and slamming it down upon the ground. Even colder air began pooling into the hallway as a lone figure walked in. With every step she took, her heels resounded upon the metal floor and rose whips made out of ice spreads across the floor. They spun around the Shadows, tearing them into nothingness. They spread around the Demon as well, but instead of destroying it, they seemed to become absorbed into its body. The Demon writhed momentarily before its movements went limp. Seconds later, its body began moving like a marionette.

"...Kneel, swine." The figure spoke. It was dressed in a way someone might call cute, as it had a penguin hat on its head, yet it spoke with killing intent seeping through its words like poison.


Axis immediately held her gun up, pointing it at the penguin girl. "Like hell are we gonna kneel. T-tell us our object- ACHOO-!!"

The penguin girl closed her eyes and shook her head. "An incompetent swine, unable to even speak. If you'll stand in my way, I'll devour you. You can only be worthy to serve as my sustenance. Kneel now and we can do it painlessly. Refuse and we'll do i-"

Axis stopped the girl from speaking further by firing her gun at her. However, a rosewhip blocked the bullet.

"TSK-"

The girl seemed stunned for a moment, looking at the cracked rosewhip with a bullet lodged in it in a sort of daze. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, slowly opening them.

Subzero Terrain:

Green Lady (Ice), Level 13:

Penguin Demon, Level 10:

With the Cold coming in and then the door being destroyed the Waddle-dee's moved infront of the whole group, trying to shelter them from the sudden cold blast of air with their own bodies. Trying to keep the group warm as the Demon approched, it then started to talk to them as it seemingly infected the previous demon.

The Waddle-dee's were ready to let the others retreat and to hold the demons themselves if required, but then Axis asked them to contact the captain and inform him of what was going on, and so they described the situation to the Waddle-dee's in the bridge.

On the bridge one of the waddle-dee's was writing out on a notepad the situation going on keeping all the details, having to fill out a few pages, at least for a while till another Waddle-dee ran up to the one taking the notes with a larger piece of paper and the first nodded and redid the notes on the larger piece before runing over to the captain and gently pulling on his pant leg to get his attention and handing him the paper informing him of what was going on and what the group was seeing, as well as the data given by Matty.

Another Waddle-dee wandered over to Matty and handed her a note that said "Thank you for the help ~ Waddle-dee squad"

Back at the front, the Waddle-dee squad readied themselves for combat, with the knowledge given by Matty's scan they all started to charge up their attack, but then looking to the enemies, then their allies being affected by the cold, the waddle-dee's all nodded to each other, then as they did so they all started to turn dark once more, a shadow going over every one of the Waddle-dee's turned Waddle-doo's, before their forms flowed and combined into one large cloud like being with a single eye, the waddle-doo's having merged into a Single Kracko


They had decided they couldn't let this go on to long, they had to protect the other residents of the ship, that included their team mates, and they were not about to let some demons harm the place that they now lived.

The large cloud like creature looked down at the demons, it's body suddenly flashing inside the clouds that made it up, like a storm cloud, and then suddenly it unleashed a wave of lightning, followed by stones launching towards both targets like Hail, only to be followed by even more lightning.

action:

Waddle-dee Squad:

Well....

So much for all those attempts to paint this as fun. Clearly, that wasn't how it was about to go. Grimm would frown as the sudden increase of cold poured in. Whatever was causing that was undoubtedly not the same as the mostly mindless creatures they've been taking down up until now. None of them had such an influence on their surroundings. Being made mostly out of metal, Grimm didn't feel the cold as negatively as a normal person, but he could nevertheless tell that this was about to be a problem, even more so since the gate wasn't holding up against it either. "You wanted stronger opponents, but I don't think that was a very smart wish." Not by the looks of it at least.

The fact that the newcomer soon revealed themselves to not even look very demonic only made it that much more questionable. Was this one a demon too, or something else? "..." Of course, with the hotheaded one around, there was no time to think about the situation much, as she chose to aggravate right away. "So much for that...." He'd sigh. Also, a new person? It didn't seem like they had more hands ready before... "Where'd you come from? I thought it was just us in this area." Not that he had anything against help, but maybe knowing more about what was happening outside of this hallway right now would be of use.

Action:

Grimm:

“Damn girl,” Tequila would say impressed that Axis pretty much tore apart the shadow halting his own attack. A bit of sadness there, but hey he wasn’t going to be crying over that. The shadows were falling easily enough, making one feel rather of proud the work that was being done. And look the demon had showed up with two more shadows. Well now it looked like this show would soon wrap up, which would be nice. He honestly wanted that nap right about now and it would be easier to sleep if the enemy was gone and the issues with the ship wrapped up. With the way they were working, this should be easy provided the demon didn’t fuck up things. He might’ve given words of encouragement, but the sound of heels clicking through the hallway stopped him. The sound was one thing, but this whole temperature thing? That was a completely different thing. While he was indeed a machine and not made up of the same material as a human or alien, he could feel the cold sink into him, feel it threatening to lock up his joints, the more the temperature dropped. On top of this strange flowers of ice began to form on the gate….and he knew it wasn’t going to hold.

It broke alright. Instinctively he pushed Axis behind him to protect her from any debris that could slice her up as the Dees did their best to protect them from the brunt of the blast. With the gate was destroyed and the temperature dropping to a point everything was freezing over, Tequila would find himself frowning at the situation as he saw and heard what this rather….cute…Sigh. He would admit as much as he hated demons, this one was pretty cute for a demon, but that was beside the point!

The point was while she had taken care of the shadows, it seemed she also took over the demon with her ice whip things and was giving them the order to kneel or die. Umm...How about no and like no to that too! That was the thought that crossed his mind as Axis moved back to the front line and pretty much agitated the enemy by firing at the cutie pie…

“Oh for fuck's sake,” he’d grumble as he pinched the bridge of his nose a bit with a huff. Can we not auto upset the enemy? No talking allowed? Not that he really trusted a demon to actually be reasonable, but it did carry a human form and a superior complex so he had to wonder. Even more so since that attack seemed to take it by surprise.

Anyway after that happened, Axis was telling the Waddle Dee’s to warn the captain, which they seemed to do.

On top of all this, he saw Matty coming out…er, nope. She went back inside, but shortly after would appear in his view bring a small smile back to his face. He couldn't get mad with her for that one. Hell if he wasn't a bit sturdier, he probably would've done the same. “Heh. No problem, love. You stay right there and keep Cap’ company.” He would begin and then seeing the feed of the enemy he would sigh inwardly. Well, he might not be able to help with attacking, but that didn’t mean he was useless. After all, fighting wasn’t his strong point anyway. “Thanks for the information, Matty. We’ll take care of things here.” He would tell her before answering Grimm. “Matty was on the bridge with the Cap’, helping out the other new arrivals with her abilities. Pretty happy she was free enough to help us out a bit.” Sure would’ve been a pain in the ass to go into this completely blind.

Not that it seemed to matter considering the front line fighters were already on the attack. The Waddle Dees had become a powered up version of themselves and unleashed a series of attacks upon the enemy while Mr. G just straight up eliminated the Green Lady. This guy in his one shot kills man. So glad he was on their side. Axis seemed to want to keep dealing out the damage as she aimed the gun at the enemy and fired.

“Look your Highness, you can’t just walk onto someone else's property, destroy their shit and then command them to bow. That doesn’t make people want to do that you know?” he would say as strummed his harp causing Margarita to cast her healing upon the team.

Action:

Tequila – Level 1:

Axis Tension:

Edit: Missed > Ice Cloak | Base chance of dodging enemy attacks becomes 20% while Ice or cold terrain effects are active | Passive | Tier 0 on enemy. Re-rolling for misses Axis due to it being 2 misses and not one.

Misses on 1 or 2

Random number (1,10) :

9

"T-t-t-thanks, Dees. T-t-teq too." Axis tried grinning at the Waddle Dees and Tequila as they tried to guard her from the cold. It wasn't helping much as the cold permeated her body. She seemed to be suffering the most from the cold out of everyone here.

As Grimm shot the Green Lady down, it dispersed. However, that didn't seem to sway the Penguin Demon girl in the slightest. She sighed, clicking her heel. "Fool. Not that I expected anything more from you, but you fool. I had hoped to make some more use of that Demon's body, but alas. My parasite was still inside it. Don't you swine dare think you've destroyed it with that measly blow."

A thorny branch made of ice would start growing from the Green Lady's dissipating form. It spread across the side of the hallway, somehow making the air even colder with its presence.

Thorny Parasite, Level 10:

Penguin Demon, Level 10:

(forgot to roll Frost Bite)

Waddle Dees and Tequila are Frostbitten on 1-2
Waddle Dees

Random number (1,10) :

8

Tequila

Random number (1,10) :

3