high_seas | Giant Spiders Oh My

Entry tags:

Giant Spiders Oh My

Who: the current Hazmats
Where: sailing to Manahana-lia Island, then on the island
When: August 27 through September 5th
What: sailing as fast as they can to rescue Cynthia, and the rescue thereof. They'll try to save time by jumping through Empieza but...
Warnings: spiders. Violence, talk of death, Gan Ning's mouth
Style: whatever you want, don't mind the setup
Status: closed to Hazmat crew

The minute the scream came though his journal, Gan Ning was moving. There was no time to waste fiddling around, they had to set sail to find Cynthia before it was too late. He tore through any maps and information they had on the ship, looking for anything that suggested spiders. Her clue, the spider-webs, meant that was all he had to go on. Fortunately, other pirates around the docks totally knew which island that was, and aside from impressing on him the "don't go there" part of the legend, told him where to find it.

It did seem odd that no matter where they were, if they set sail for Isla Empieza, they'd make it there in a day or so instead of weeks. Gan Ning relied on that, even though he didn't do more than skim through the harbor before setting a new course for Manahana-lia in the far west of the land. Hopefully weather wouldn't be against them. They had a long way to go and didn't have Wan there to guide the winds in their favor.

Spiders, the other pirates said. There'd be large spiders and his crew would be killed. Nope, Xingba would not let anyone die if he could help it. But that meant they'd have to fight. Roxas needed to heal so he could guard the ship, but everyone else, well...

Let's hope they make it on time.

[ooc: info on the island is here - make and date your own sailing threads but we'll hit the island about the 3rd or 4th and there'll be a fight log for that]

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[once he's exhausted his musou, Gan Ning backs up to where Lea is and puts his back to his, taking a moment to catch his breath and recover from that while the fire rages around them.

Ew, the smell of burnt spider.]

Holy crap. Look at that...

Remind me never to get on your bad side.

[Lea smirks and idly spins a chakram.]

Haven't had a chance to let loose in a while. Can't really do anything like this on a ship.

[Unfortunately, the light keeps drawing more spiders. At least it looks like they've gotten the really big ones.]

Can't keep it up forever, though.

In that case, save the fireworks for later. No tellin' what might be down deeper, if something's guardin' Cynthia.

[at least they've cleared enough of a path that they can pick spiders off as they go, if they keep moving and hack and slash their way deeper into the caves. And that's just what Gan Ning does, without the speed of his musou behind it this time.]

[Lea lets Gan Ning take the lead and keeps an eye on the path behind them to make sure there aren't any eight legged surprises.]

Do you think something will be? It can't be much bigger than these things, right? I mean, now that I've said that, it will be, but...

[That's not an appealing thought.]

Dunno but where I come from? You mow through the foot soldiers and behind 'em is always a much bigger guy. Maybe more'n one. So if spiders are anything like armies and demons? Yeah. There's gonna be somethin'.

[hack, slash, hack, slash]

Great. Just what we need. An even bigger spider.

[It looks like the path comes to an end up ahead, with a sharp dropoff into a bigger cavern. The webs on the walls shine a little bit, maybe built over bioluminescent fungus or something. Weird and creepy.]

[creepy and gross, yep. But a bigger cavern could be their goal. Gan Ning pauses at the dropoff and cranes his neck to look down and see what's there. One thing certainly catches his attention before anything else.]

...whoa! Look at that! Treasure!

[so that's what all the old salts at Deesuko thought they were coming after. It's something, all right. Anybody else would be a fool to brave spiders just for this, but...you know, as long as they're there...]

Hey, Captain Kitty! Focus!

[Seriously, what is it with pirates and treasure? Sure, he could use some extra funds at the moment, but there's this thing called "priorities."]

[that certainly snaps his attention away from the riches and glory]

What did you just call me?! I thought I told ya not to ever do that again!

Got your attention though, didn't it?

[Lea gives him a smartass little salute and hops off the side of the ledge. You can't really see him hit the bottom, but the giant fireball is a pretty clear indication of where he is.]

[Argh. ARGH. Fine, two can play this game, Lea. Gan Ning doesn't hesitate to follow, taking a running leap and crashing onto the floor below with the shrillest jangle of bells ever. And doesn't stick the landing, he has to roll out of it in order to save himself from serious injury.

He comes up swinging, finding the cavern already thick with spiders.]

Damn this damn cave! Ugh! Get off me, you eight-legged freak!

Hey, we're the ones breaking into their house! You even wanted to steal their stuff.

[Not that Lea isn't cutting a swath through them himself, of course.]

The hell do giant-ass spiders want with treasure anyway? [turning the flat of River Master to swat a spider away rather like a baseball bat. Look at it go! All the way to the wall where it hits with a thud.] They can't use it!

[but that gives him a though. Cynthia is their best treasure-finder. If she made it this deep into the caves, she would have seen it too - and thus been easy pickings for the horde. HMMM.]

We gotta keep movin'. Cyn's probably around here somewhere...

[Lea salutes and continues to toss Fire spells at webs to conserve magic and immolate as many spiders as possible.]

Hey, you don't know what kind of expenses spiders have! Not that we've got time to ask or anything.

[He's looking up, trying to see if there's anything stuck in webs. That's where spiders put stuff, right?]

[spiders and their tax accountants. Ask them later, Lea, they've got a lady to find.

Gan Ning works his way through the gathering crowds of spiders, fending off their fangs at least, while he comes around a corner. Way up high at the end of that finger of the chamber is a super-huge web, and sure enough, smack in the middle of it is a blond human figure. He can't see from here if she's okay, or even alive, but it's the thing they've been looking for.]

Lea! This way! And don't set her on fire!

I can aim, you know!

[He just hasn't been bothering because, well, giant spiders are pretty big and he doesn't need to.

It doesn't take long to catch up with Gan Ning, but he's not exactly sure what to do when faced with the web.]

Sooo...I cut her down and you catch?

Hm...yeah, that seems about right.

[but before he can even take a step, he can feel the tremor of something large crossing the floor toward them. Ning freezes in place and looks over his shoulder to find Cynthia's true captor.

Holy shit look at the size of that thing.]

....oh hell.

Okay, that's not fair!!

[Lea looks up at the spider, absolutely horrified.]

They aren't allowed to be that big! I hope you have a plan!

[He's bad at plans. Please be good at plans.]

Plan? [uuuuhhhhhhhh...] Hit it! Hit it a lot!

[he has no idea whether this thing is poisonous, or how big its...no, there's the fangs. Pincers. Whatever spiders have. Well, shit. Gan Ning just grits his teeth and charges, hacking at its legs and trying to avoid said large pointy things.]

That's not a plan!!

[That's not anything like a plan!

He throws his chakrams (what else is there to do??) but they're not exactly made to cut through an exoskeleton that huge. He's not even sure how much his fire is going to do.]

Don't big things like that usually have a weakness somewhere?!

[Lea you are asking the wrong man for a plan. Just sayin'.

He skids to a stop back beside Lea, because hacking at the legs isn't working and he almost got thrown into the wall. Only by using another musou burst did he avoid it, but now he's too exhausted to do it again.]

Yeah...somethin'. There's gotta be a soft spot somewhere. The belly, maybe...

[or the eyes, but those are extremely well-guarded right now]

You're telling me we have to get underneath that thing?!

[It has a mouth in the way and that thing is freaking scary looking.]

Why can't it have a target on it or something...

You got a better idea?!

[he's at a total loss. 'Hit it until it dies' is the only real strategy he can think up by himself.]

Look...maybe if one of us can distract it long enough, the other one can get around behind it...

You got a preference?

[Not that it really matters which of them does which, really. They're probably screwed either way.]

Depends - you wanna get up close and personal?

[Captain doesn't mind potentially sacrificing himself for his crew, but realistically, Lea can probably provide a better distraction.

The spider princess looms ever closer, clicking her pincers menacingly]

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