Worthy Core

As he rides down the moving platform that makes up the majority of Floor Two, Grizza looks over his team and thinks to himself: we're in trouble.

Oh, sure, the party had done just fine on Floor One - they were nearly immune to everything on it save perhaps the rabbit boss himself. Roxxy herself was as stalwart as always, and the man standing next to her, an earth elemental named Flint, was just as tough. The two magma elementals, a woman named Cinder and a fellow named Ashley, were nearly as durable if perhaps a bit more...distracting. The magma elementals had more fluid forms than their earth cousins, and ever since running into Zappy and her new self-sculpted body the pair had been experimenting with shapes more pleasing to the eye of the average mortal. The drider was pretty sure they were only doing it to see if they could, but that didn't make it any less awkward when Cinder would ask him if her chest mounds were big enough, or when Ashley would ask how fluid his ass ought to be.

None of that was really a problem, exactly. But as far as party compositions went? For a five-person team, they were surprisingly one-note - Grizza served as the party's Mage, while everyone else was more or less there to take the hits. Certainly, the magma elementals had some additional damage capabilities. Not only could they set things on fire if they were touching them, but they could even throw chunks of themselves at foes as literal fireballs. That was a limited resource though, apparently requiring a fair bit of downtime to recover from later as they absorbed new stone into their bodies. The pair could also project flame itself somewhat, as they had back when they were purely fire elementals, but it sounded as if that was now even harder for them to do than to literally dismember themselves as weapons.

The biggest problem though was that they had no healer, and worse, even if they did, traditional healing didn't work on elementals. Grizza himself had the only most basic First Aid spell available thanks to his time in the Army of the Valleylands, and he'd mostly be reliant on health potions to heal himself with. As for the others? Well, at least elementals weren't much debilitated by pain, one could lose an arm and it would only be a temporary irritation, but it still wouldn't help them recover in the midst of a dungeon intrusion.

So, with a bit of reluctance, the Arcane Mage sighs. "I think after we clear the second floor, assuming all goes well of course, we should take a break for the day."

Roxxy looks up from where she was stomping on an errant spider. "Really? I heard the pro teams usually take on the first three floors in a day when they're starting off. And we haven't even taken any injuries yet!"

"True, but we're not exactly a professional team, are we? Three of us have never Challenged before at all, and even you've never properly attempted a dungeon, Roxxy. We're doing well, but I don't want us getting overconfident. I'd actually like to take some time to review our performance, you know, see how we might improve before the next attempt?"

Cinder laughs from the other side of the platform, where she's been apparently irritated by her inability to exactly equalize the size of her new breasts. "Improve? How do you improve on perfection? Did you hear the way that last boss screamed when he melted?"

Grizza winces, having been attempting to not remember that specific memory. "That was...an efficient victory, yes. But I worry about the next encounter ahead. Lollyp is known for her creativity, and I doubt she'll strike at us with something as mundane as short blades and kicks."

Flint pounds one fist into his palm. "I sure hope not! I mean, hells, I betcha I coulda stood there all day and he wouldn't have gotten anywhere near my core! I signed up for this gig cause Zappy said it'd be exciting!"

"Exciting is fine. Despite what you might think, however, a wise Challenger does not risk their life more than necessary." Grizza pauses as the platform comes to a halt, just outside Lollyp's boss arena. "Still, I'm glad you're willing to take the hits. Usual formation, shall we? Lollyp's known for her fondness of ambushes." The elementals nod and gather up in front of the arena door, preparing to take positions specifically designed to protect the relatively 'squishy' drider. The two earth elementals would go in first, followed by Grizza who would end up flanked by the magmas. While monsters would generally attack the frontliners to zero effect, the other three could more easily resort to ranged attacks, with Grizza shouting out orders as he saw fit.

Grizza has to admit to himself, he's a little uncomfortable finding himself in the team leader position while being at such a low Challenger rank himself. But with the elementals being so impulsive and uneducated about the world in general, they often seemed to respond to him like children following the commands of a schoolteacher, as eager to please as they were to try most things. And when they had attempted to give orders...well, needless to say, it was easiest for Grizza to shortcut that by simply taking command himself. "Flint, lead us in, would you?"

The elemental does so, opening the arena door and quickly stepping inside in order to make room for the others. Despite their large bulk - even the lighter magma elementals were easily above three hundred pounds in weight - the team moves quickly, taking up their arranged positions. They scan the various cracks and crannies of the room for signs of a magical slime, but as usual it's Lollyp's voice that appears first.

"Wow, you're really doing it, huh? An elemental-based party? Heard the rumors but I didn't think you'd actually go for it! Just so you know, I ain't taking it easier on anyone just for being neighbors!"

Cinder shouts out a response, a laugh in her voice. "Like we'd need the help! I bet a slime would melt real fast."

The elemental gets a laugh in response as well. "I may be a slime, but you forget - I'm also an elementalist." With that said the battle begins, as four alchemy bottles suddenly drop from the ceiling. Grizza destroys one with an arcane blast, while quickly deflecting a second with a magical barrier, but two of them more or less hit their targets. One lands directly on Flint, covering him in ice, and another just barely misses Ashley. Despite that Flint is breaking through the frost starting to grow over him within moments, while Ashley takes a leap backward in response to the bit of splash-back he received from the nearby impact.

"Gah! Is that cold!? Cold sucks!"

"Focus, everyone, she's here!" Grizza points with a wand at the opposite end of the arena, where Lollyp has just made a landing and is already beginning to charge her spells. A direct physical attack against the elementals would be useless, she knows, having recalled just how weak she was when she and Roxxy briefly fought each other so many months earlier. Magic, on the other hand, is another story. Grizza begins to prepare a wider shield in order to defend against any projectiles or lightning blasts, but the man is taken somewhat by surprise when he's struck by a chilled wind instead, blowing at him from the side. "Gah! I can't defend against such a wide-area spell, we need to shut her down fast!"

Although he may have been hoping for Cinder and Ashley to answer with a round of liquid-hot rocks flying through the air, Grizza's dismayed to see that even a relatively indirect attack like this seems to be nearly shutting the magma pair down. "Cinder! Can you move?"

"Move, yeah! Project anything, though?" She reaches out a hand, and a bare spark of flame appears in her palm. "...That's a no!"

"Don't worry, I got this!" Flint charges on ahead, swinging his fists. Like all of the elementals the man chose not to try using any typical weapons, but given that most monsters can't withstand a one-hundred-pound fist to the face at high speeds, that generally hasn't been much of a concern so far. His charge is halted however with a massive ice lance hitting him directly in the face, shattering his head into fragments.

"Ha! One down, four to go!" Lollyp turns her attention next to Roxxy, attempting to repeat the move, but the slightly-more-experienced elemental is quicker on her feet and smashes the next projectile out of the air. Lollyp's taken entirely by surprise by what happens next, as Roxxy points one hand in the slime's direction and suddenly blasts her with a lightning bolt.

"Ha! Eat lightning crystal!"

Unprepared for the attack, Lollyp drops her wand as her body begins to lose cohesion. "Fffffuck! I f-forgot we gave you those things..."

"Yeah, they've been great!" Raising her other hand, Roxxy repeats the move with the crystal embedded into its back, her reward for helping with the hunt for Sincere. Even the second blast isn't sufficient to kill the boss, the crystals only being equivalent to a low-tier wand in strength, but it does manage to completely disable her ability to move for several moments.

Which is more time than Grizza needs. "Alright, thanks for the opening! I have this!" Pushing forward a little, Grizza lifts his wand and fires off a swarm of arcane missiles. It's a rather inaccurate attack when used in this volley-fire form, but against a target who can't move it proves more than sufficient for the task. Three, five, and finally eight small explosives eventually slam into the woman, each of them blowing off a part of her body mass, and by time the spell is over her body is already beginning to turn into a red puddle. Despite that, Grizza's first move isn't to celebrate.

"Flint! Can - can anyone do anything for him!?" He rushes over to the decapitated elemental, somehow still standing on his feet, but comes to a halt as to his surprise Flint raises a single finger. He then begins to grope around at his body for a bit, before eventually grabbing on to one shoulder and yanking out a chunk of it in one hand. Slamming the acquired rock into the hole between his shoulders, he then finally turns to Grizza and responds.

"Keep it steady, team boss! Didn't come anywhere near my core, so it's all good. A little distracting though, I'll admit."

Grizza pauses for a moment as he stares at Flint's new head, which looks even less face-like than he's used to for an earth elemental. "...Right, of course. Silly me. ...I'd really like to know more about how you actually work though, at some point, you know. Elementals in general, that is."

Roxxy multitasks by responding even as she rushes over to check out the boss loot. "Feel free, I guess. Not like I know! Oh hey, Grizza, check it out! This one should be good for you!" As he comes over, Roxxy holds out a prize in his direction which he accepts and looks over.

"A wand? Elemental...ice? No, ice and air, actually. Neither are my specialties, but this could still prove useful." As he says that, his brow furrows and he turns back towards his companion. "Roxxy, if I remember correctly, those crystals you were given - they were the focus components of wands, isn't that what they said?"

The elemental nods. "They said they were weaker cause they weren't full wands, which is why they gave me two. Why do you ask?"

"Well...they're lightning wand crystals, clearly. Your personal mana is earth-aspected, is that not an issue with you using them?"

Roxxy thinks on that for a moment before shaking her head. "...No? I mean, it feels a little bit wasteful maybe, but I think the crystal takes care of it, and I got tons of earth mana in me. I mean, we elementals are basically made of the stuff, right? We're not like you fleshies, running off of...eating...birds, or whatever it is you do."

"Right, right..." The Mage taps a finger against his chin before asking a follow-up. "How many such crystals do you think you could 'wear', as you do those two?"

"Well crystals are practically rocks, so integrating them into me was super easy! So like...however many crystals we had, probably?"

"Interesting..." As Grizza turns back towards the rest of the team, there's a smile on his face. "Tomorrow we're going back into town, and we're buying as many low-grade wands from the Association as we can afford. I know they have plenty, given how many people have been running this floor. I think we may just have a solution for our versatility problems..."