Aurelio looked to Kalani, “We need to persist with the assault while my ability is in effect!” He took a deep breath and lined the sights of the [Ember Lance].
Give me something good.
The system was running on auto-pilot for him at this point, his will in line with remaining inside the bounds it’d set before him. The two dice on his sights bounced up and twirled in the air before ramming themselves back onto the sight with a dazzling display.
Two cerulean dice landing on five pips each.
The successful roll was the go-ahead necessary for his body to instinctively take over, the churning energy of his weapon increasing in heat and intensity before shooting out its payload in brutal fashion.
|Chosen draws one wound|
|Chosen deals one wound|
His ability had come in handy, the ferocious shot finding the angle through a softened, supple section of flesh he’d temporarily created.
Aurelio felt a hand on his shoulder and a surge of warm energy wash over him.
|Commander used COMMAND|
He looked up and saw Kalani’s eyes were awash with power, orange hues washing over her body and eyes to give her a near radiant quality.
“Continue your attack!” Kalani commanded his fatigue to cease and revitalized his will to continue the assault. She’d essentially deferred her turn to him, giving him the ability to pick up his rifle once more and fire.
|Chosen draws one wound|
|Chosen deals one wound|
A molten shot streaked across the battlefield, through the Malignance’s pus-covered flesh, and out onto the dirt beyond it. They were making up for the middling opening play. At minimum, they were out-pacing its healing factor.
Assuming that Kalani continued to defer her actions to him, they could keep pace and whittle the monster down to nothing over time. Any additional wounds inflicted by the other two would be gravy to that effort.
Aurelio watched Oja struggle to shift position out of their infected tile and into the enemy’s blindspot before swinging with the [Carbon Cleaver].
|Sawbones drew zero wounds|
Oja was not able to rend flesh under their blade. They swung out with the weapon and stumbled on the delivery, the edge arcing wide to swat away budding tendrils of flesh.
“I will not be denied!” Oja cried out.
|Sawbones used OVERFLOW|
Their body erupted, syrupy brown flames licking at their metallic frame, giving them the juice necessary to stamp their feet onto the ground and perform a pivoted back swing.
|Sawbones draws one wound|
|Sawbones deals two wounds (DESTRUCTIVE 1)|
“Gruuuuah!” The Malignance shrieked in pain.
Oja buried the [Carbon Cleaver] deep into the monsters flesh. Pink flesh bubbled and sizzled against the heated blade as it ran its course through the folds of the monster’s lower body.
The lopped off sections of meat landed on the ground with a wet thud, juices leaking out of the flanks of carved flesh like a freshly grilled steak.
Not quite as appetizing.
Phineas entered the fray immediately afterward with the [Black Needle]. He stabbed forward with their rigid weapon-
|Scout drew zero wounds|
And found the thin needle was once again subsumed by the rolls of pink flesh the monster was composed of.
“Fucking christ!” Phineas struggled to reel his weapon out from within its folds, boot squelching on soft flesh for leverage to yank the weapon out from its myriad folds.
The Malignance did not give Phineas the dignity of getting back into a readied position, unceremoniously swatting a lazy tendril at the compact scout. Its uneven, sinuous body gathered up once more, strips of flesh knitting itself back together to reverse the wounds it’d suffered.
Meat was squeezed and twisted at angles until it became an asymmetrical tower of bubbling flesh.
It tore away at thin slits underneath the skin, revealing lopsided maws of various proportions.
The Malignance bellowed a cacophonous cry. It cried out with a blood-curdling force.
Aurelio watched as his companions, one by one, rolled their pair of dice to stave off the effects of the attack in play.
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An {Archives} prompt appeared in his sights and he readily accepted the information.
|Malignance used SOULS OF THE DAMNED - On a 7 or Below: Targets lose Ignition Points equal to the monsters tier and they acquire -X Strength equal to the monster’s tier for the remainder of combat.|
A rotten attack from a rotten creature. The strength reduction would be especially painful considering the weapons they’d brought to the fight.
Cantwell would be delivering in spades here.
His attention was redirected to his allies, who, one by one, shrugged off the effects of the monster with their high rolls.
Aurelio was not so lucky.
He was at the threshold with a total of seven and felt the wailing of the creature creep into his bones and clench around his spark. The pallor and heat within him dwindled and the strength in his body diminished along with it.
It was unfortunate but not the end.
Again, the round reset and he assessed the position of the pieces on the battlefield.
They had yet to interact with the terrain on the map. A casual glance of the area confirmed the presence of a hardened sludge deposit and the soft glow of fireflies.
“Kalani,” Aurelio gestured at the resource deposit, “Head over there and crack open the black egg over there. We should get something good out of it.”
Kalani shook her head, “No, we’re sticking with the plan that we’ve set out so far. There’s no need to alter the state of things when we have the advantage for a resource point that’ll be there when we’re done here.”
Assuming it was there when they were done.
He didn’t push the situation further.
Aurelio would go and interact with the terrain himself if it wasn’t for the movement requirement on his [Ember Lance]. He needed to be stationary to line up the shot, consuming both his movement and his acting actions for the ability to deal damage.
And with his gauge on a razor's edge, he couldn’t afford to spend his ignition this round on something as frivolous as a JOLT for the chance at gaining a resource.
Begrudgingly and beleaguered, he lifted his sights at the monster and fired once more.
|Chosen drew zero wounds|
The snake eyes on his sights spelled doom for his action this turn. The attack went wide, nowhere close to hitting the creature's fleshy exterior, acting more as a flare being shot into the night sky than a molten payload of destruction intended for harm.
|Commander used COMMAND|
“Focus!” Kalani commanded.
That font of fire left her body and coursed through his own. Once more, he lined his shot and fired with a rekindled vigor.
|Chosen draws one wound|
|Chosen scored a CRITICAL HIT!|
|Chosen deals one wound|
|Chosen gained x1 Infested Pearl Monster Resource|
Aurelio entered the zone. The aiming was above average at best but that didn’t matter. The trajectory of his projectile, the spiral dance it performed as it streaked across the battlefield like a comet, was perfect. It bored a hole through the monster's abscess, pus and other viscera leaking out of the wound.
With a satisfying thunk came the aforementioned infested pearl. Any additional resource was welcomed in his book. What the resource would be used for was beyond his consideration at the moment.
All his mind could think about was that feeling of perfection he felt in giving that shot all he had.
“Let’s go!” Phineas cheered.
Emboldened, he once again stabbed at the Malignance-
|Scout drew zero wounds|
And once again, he found nothing but resilient flesh. Before he could curse his luck, however, the monster twisted itself like a wrung out towel to face him and viciously swung out with a thick tendril. It grabbed at Phineas’s leg and flung him across the battlefield.
|Scout suffered one points of damage to LEGS (L)|
|Scout is KNOCKED DOWN|
“Phineas!” Kalani cried out.
“He’s fine, commander! We need to focus up and continue the assault.” Aurelio shouted back. So long as no one was at risk of a grievous injury, he’d be giving them a clean bill of health. He wasn’t the Sawbones of the crew and Oja might disagree, but their wounds were something they could shrug off so long as they didn’t suffer a grievous injury.
Oja looked at Phineas and made their own determinations of his state of being before turning back to the monster with an overhead swing.
|Sawbones draws one wound|
|Sawbones deals no wounds|
Their blade found another pound of flesh to carve through but it appeared to be a vestigial piece that the Malignance was more than happy to shed off of its body. Nothing vital was cleaved off. They’d failed to offset its regenerative capabilities for the round and it was eager to put the pressure on the rest of the crew.
A sac formed in its body and filled with a congealed fluid, the contents sloshing and churning inside the sudden growth. Its many eyes locked onto Aurelio, their consistent damage dealer, and it delivered a payload of its own.
A black-orange ball of snot was launched in the air like a catapulted boulder, aimed directly at him.
|Chosen used DISENGAGE|
With a silent curse, he called upon his ignition and avoided the worst of the blow, the aftermath of the shot exploding underneath his feet as the infestation the Malignance consisted of spreaded out underneath him.
The round upon them, he moved out of the infested tile and towards the sludge deposit. He’d make the best of a bad situation by attempting to acquire the resource and position himself at a new vantage point to attack from.
Kalani trailed behind him, keeping a two-tile distance between them as he made his way to the resource.
“If your affairs are in order,” the commander reached out with their hand and pierced his spark with borrowed vitality, “Keep that creature at bay!”
“Yes ma’am!” Aurelio shouted. The action was second nature to him at this point, the threads of fate aligning the shot at the creature's weak points with his finger excitedly pulling the trigger.
|Chosen drew the TRAP!|
Oh no!
Aurelio watched as the Malignance’s body reacted to the otherwise successful shot with an instinctual tactic. It turned itself inside-out and consumed all that surrounded it.
|Sawbones is CONSUMED|
“FUCK!” Aurelio cursed.
They’d whittled a little over a quarter of its health down and it was adapting to take out the other combatants.
He crossed his fingers and hoped that Oja would succeed in cleaving their way out of the creature's pit.
With the accuracy of their weapon, they’d need all the luck they could get.