Mission name: Scout Your Surroundings
Mission rank: C-Rank
Objective: Scout the area looking for other villagers or whatever else
Location: Forest
Reward: 300 ryo + 1 EP
Mission Description: There was a small group of villagers that went out to gather some food, find them and bring them back to safety before it gets dark
Development References: Death Camp, part II
Mission Details: a group of 5 villagers went out to gather food, you need to find them and get them back to the village before nightfall. The villagers will be somewhere in the forest, being attacked by a strange monster.

Monster:

Verdandi nodded. Giving Pebbles a soft little poke with her foot. "Go fetch the bone guy" she said and the golem would grin before running off. After seeing him vanish into one of the new buildings one could hear screams and the unmistakable sound of pebb's hitting someone in the shin. Not long afterwards the little monster returned with 'Boneman' behind him. Visibly amused by the fact that the new leader of the town was limping a bit. No matter how strong or prideful the new military leadership was, they wouldn't dare try and mess with the golem.

"We need a map, markers or alike and any information on dangerous monsters within the vicinity." Verd commanded and Boneman followed. He limped towards the administration house while Verd tried to make sense of what Chi had told them. His implication of getting attacked by something obviously strong was about as scary as the other reports. Verd moved to the hut that the Squad had claimed as their base of operations. Pebbles would make sure that Boneman would find his way back there when he finished organizing. All materials. Once done Chi and Verd would work themselves through the reports of the former village leader. Verd had to admit that the way he wrote them was in an increasingly pathetic way. He basically pissed himself at the mention of large creepy looking bunnies. But on the bright side, since he had written down even such things. He certainly mentioned pretty much every notable encounter. Verd wasn't sure what Haka was doing or if she would come to actually help them sort through the files. But several reports could be figured to be connected with the creatures Verd was looking for.

A multitude of reports had explained that the clay had been abandoned due to the sightings of a powerful Golem within. Pebbles proudly flexed his stone arms as Verd would read that part out loud. The lumbering forest was supposed to be haunted of sorts. Making Dandi raise her eyebrows and looking at Chi questioningly. But brushing that topic aside the hunting grounds for the wolves were further north. Sadly not mapped here but not necessarily of importance right now. After several hours they would dig into the topics seemingly more interesting. The dead town not far from here, north west, was obviously the area were the undead people were living. Which was a funny sentence to behold. Verd couldn't help but enjoy the pun within the reported text. The undead usually ignore the humans. Making it even more curious as to why they had attacked the village this time.

Verd marked Dead Town as dangerous on the map. Further reports implied a multitude of unidentified monsters within the swamp area, especially the lake of the swamp as it's centre. The number of people that had died within that area was off the charts. More than anything else in the reports. Verd made sure to mark it as well.

Snooping further through the reports Verd had to skip a large amount of useless text where the former leader talks about his socks and that he wishes to eat them. Verd shook her head. Hunger certainly drove those people mad here. Pebbles however found this very interesting. While the Squad carried on with their investigations, Pebb would huddle off towards the living area. Unknown to Verd or her friends he would search for socks and trying to forcefully feed them to the former leader who would scream and run from pebbs throughout the whole village.

Multiple entries were made that many people before Chi had tried to find the blockage within the lake. The amount of deaths and numbers of skeletons found was scary enough. Combining this knowledge with what Chi experienced she would mark the spot where they presumably died on the map as well.

Last but not least, they would work through several pages of how horrible carrot soup tastes, but Verd would find what she was looking for. People that had vanished in the deep forest where they usually went to forage berries and the few remaining fruits that could grow in these lands. One of the survivers claimed that the hill itself tried to eat him. Reminding herself of the large shadow she had seen there nearby would make her shudder.

Anyhow. Their work was done at last. The reports all sorted. The map was ready and would require actual visual input to confirm next. As on primary intention by Haka. Verd would take the map and the marker at hand. The Squad would move on. Admiring the view of Pebbles trying to shove a sock into the former leaders mouth. Winking to her beloved devilish creature before they would pass the gate.

The Squad was moving around the perimeters of the village. Eventually a bit closer towards Dead Town as the intel over what that place was holding was basically non existent other that undead creature had been sighted. At some point the squad passed by a little hill close to dead town. Verd could see various webs on the ground. Stopping in her path as she swallowed once empty. Seeing a myriad of dead villagers pinned to the hillside within cocoons of webbed spider nets. Some of the cocoons were emptied and raided with a goo left behind that must be spider toxin.

Verd was disgusted but her breath would completely cut off as the owner of those cobwebs started to slowly crawl over the hill. It's long legs clinging to the rock formation. A intensely huge spider. Erected from it's belly would stand a human shaped body. Arms having the length of three to four normal human arm lengths. A distorted pair of breasts that accompanied the same stone like coloured skin as the rest of it's weird upper body. A bone shaped crown would linger on top of it's head and creepy looking eyes would glare from within the shadowy darkness of that helmet. Verd was not the type to be easily frightened but this creature was too much for her. Quickly Dandi would pull on Haka's arm. "Haka… What… What is that… What is that creature?" she said while slowly moving her hand towards her sword.


1050

Map of the village surroundings:

Ah. Scrolls. The only object in the world that had a love-hate relationship with the spider-nin. Having nothing else to do than to be a tyrant to the people here, she had followed Verdandi to deal with the mountain of paperwork that had been delivered when she had heard about 'scrolls'. Of a mind they would include a bunch of Fuinjutsu seals or other useful explanations revealed at the hand of images, the spider ended up disappointed when all of them were just reports containing walls of written text. It was not commonly known that the spider-nin, never having had an education of any sort, was actually illiterate. While aware that these formed the written form of the extravagant speeches of humans, she could not relate the sound of the words to the sight of the lettering. No, Haka couldn't read nor write human speech. And Spider speech did not require such a redundant thing since the Spider Clan did not bother with a vast amount of rules like humans did.

That didn't mean that Haka would reveal her illiteracy. She would, like every other human, pick up a scroll and allow her eyes to dart over its content from top to bottom before rolling it back up and passing it along to the next one in line - Verdandi or Chigetsu, whoever took over first. In other times, she would toss the scroll aside in boredom, as if its content was of no use to the team. And yet in another moment, she would take a seat on the window ceiling as she seemingly concentrated deeply to come to terms with the content she could not read. Eventually it would become apparent that whatever she tossed away or concentrated on would not match with the usefulness of the information. Such things were not that hard to spot. So if she'd be pointed out at the oddness of it all, she would simply say state she couldn't read. After all, the spider cared little for her illiteracy.

Despite that little set-back, a map would eventually be drawn out. A couple of big X's would mark familiar spots as they revealed the mines, the river thing and the wargs' domains. Another few marked positions of equally dangerous areas yet to be explored based on the contents that were revealed to those who could actually read human script. Whatever they were, they would prove a less boring interaction in the eyes of the spider than whatever these civilians gave her. Haka couldn't wait to visit these dangerous places.

In fact, when she saw Pebbles chase the former ruler of the village with a pair of bright socks for whatever strange reasons the living rock formation had thought about, she grabbed the map with exasperation and walked outside with intention to immediately leave the place in search of more danger. Any bit of hope the villagers had given her in revealing a modicum of spine was instantly stripped, all hope gone with the sock Pebbles was trying to shove into the human's mouth.

The perimeter around the village would be scouted and confirmed to be in line with the drawn map. Little by little they would inch towards the Dead Village where supposedly the undead resided. Dead creatures that had hardly posed a problem, even though they had to be dealt with in a very particular way as they would otherwise refuse to remain still on the floor. However, rather than to meet more of the humanoid corpses, the Squad found several webs instead. Some spider had marked her territory here, webs spun between trees, cocoons decorating them, trapped bodies still moaning as the venom was slowly softening them up for dinner. It was a common sight to the Unmei who did pretty much the same thing on a smaller scale, but quite startling to Verdandi who had yet to see the wolf spider eating.

Verdandi's discomfort reached peaking levels when the squad was suddenly staring at a more horrified version of Ameya. A distorted and deformed creature, potentially undead too, but certainly an Unmei of sorts as it sported a hint of intellect most others of her clan did not have. An earlier generation stuck between spider instinct and human intellect? An Unmei gone mad? Haka didn't know its story, nor had she ever heard of is existence, yet she wouldn't be surprised if Sero had put it here as another sort of guardian or as an exile for failing proper evolution. Perhaps Hansha had opened in a time before her existence, and just perhaps another Unmei than her had stayed here, believing it to be a good home. Haka wondered to what purpose this whole world served, but she appreciated this dark side of her Creator. Most likely for the wrong reasons.

As its unholy eyes observed the tiny three flies before its tall legs, its monstrous voice uttered a, "Hungry... So hungry... ", in a crude but recognisable version of the spider's language. It must have once been a member of the Clan, at the very least, but Haka still couldn't be sure if it was an Unmei. Unmei didn't transform into a half-form, but there was no saying what detrimental effects it could have suffered during its stay in Hansha.

"Spider Clan gone mad.", she would say calmly. She felt no regret for its failure to remain sane, nor any empathy for its fate. Spider Clan, Unmei. It mattered not. In fact, Haka was rather of a mind to leave it as it was, allowing its reign of terror within Hansha and simply withdraw from its lair but that option would be discarded quickly when the monster suddenly shot a thick web in their direction similarly to what Haka often did with her jutsu.

---

981

There was work to do. Even if he was sore, there wasn't any time for him to take it easy when they were in this environment. Standing up slowly and giving each of his limbs a small stretch to ensure they weren't broken, Chigetsu would be ready. At long as they weren't going directly back into that lake or doing any sort of heavy lifting, he would be fine for now. The minor injuries he had received were nearly irrelevant and would have been easily ignored by nearly any shinobi, but it was the Hozuki's hydrification technique that came back to bite him in this moment. So easily shielded from harm, it was so rare that Chigetsu experienced any physical pain that his endurance to it was massively lacking. Maybe that was something he should train on, but he would much rather just never have to worry about pain than train himself to deal with it.  

Map making. Location marking. Finding dangerous monsters. It was all exciting. Reading through all the reports was not though. As he was handed each he would attempt to make sense of them as quickly as possible, scanning through their contents silently. The reports would be organized to the best degree possible. Ones that involved 'monsters' would all be categorized into one pile, while those that involved resource reports would be put into another. The ones that were completely useless and read more like pages from someone's diary... Well. Chigetsu didn't know what to do with those.  

Haka was being incredibly helpful. Scrolls she scanned through would be passed over to either Chigetsu occasionally, and assuming that she was aware of his organizational efforts he would slide those into the 'dangerous monster' pile. Haka was sure to be seasoned and experienced in dealing with the monsters of this realm, considering her connection to it. Chigetsu wouldn't have been surprised if she was intensely familiar with a lot of the monsters native to this place. He would regard the scrolls she tossed away curiously, although he said nothing. He had too much misplaced faith in his squad to question Haka's actions. The only thing that could potentially be their saving grace regarding the girl would be if Verdandi took notice of what exactly she was doing with the scrolls.

The strange look that he got from Verdandi would cause him to pause. A quick glance over to the scroll she had open would reveal the haunted nature of the lumbering forest. Haunted perhaps wasn't the word he would have used to describe it but seeing that the information was already here and written out made him frown. All of that embarrassment could hav been avoided, if this had been done in advance. The urge to facepalm was rising dangerously high. Regardless of her looks though the experience he had in the lumbering forest wasn't one he wished to explain, or even remember any more than he had to.

With the reports sorted and map mapped, they would be in a much more advantageous position moving forward. At the very least they would be able to search through their little report encyclopedia for any relevant information. The map too would prevent them from getting lost, as Chigetsu had been earlier in the forest. Another embarrassing moment he didn't want to speak about. Those seemed to be happening in increasing frequency lately. Scouting their surroundings to further complete the map seemed like the next logical step.  

He would set off again on, now on creaky bones and with his two squad mates. Moving in a group like this was definitely preferable to splitting off into groups individually. Memories of his first moments here in this land, consumed by fear, surfaced again. Safety was in numbers. He would stay close to Haka and Verdandi. There were too many monsters that could jump out. Staying tightly knit would work to their benefit, and Chigetsu definitely wasn't telling himself that because he was spooked. No sir. There wasn't any spooking here.  

He was spooked. Even more so as the images of corpses pinned to the hills in cocoons. Even more so as the source of this massacre revealed itself. Chigetsu's eyes would rise up the beast. It was some horrible cross between a spider and human, with a lower half that was distinctly arachnid and an upper half that seemed human until you realized how distended the torso was. The double long torso was just part of the terror. For some reason this monstrosity had a pair of breasts, which was as unnerving as it was strange. Noticing them made him profusely uncomfortable, it was too much of a human feature on what should have been entirely inhuman. Was this some experiment gone wrong? He couldn't even comprehend.  

Then came its voice. It rang in his airs, a garbled mess that snuck into his head. He felt utterly violated even hearing it. Haka's explanation, if it could even be called that, didn't help him. The way this beast moved upon noticing them was something that Chigetsu couldn't divert an ounce of focus away from, even if it was to attempt to comprehend the implications of what Haka said. It appeared, on closer inspection, to have two legs that came down from its humanoid part. Or were they large claws? It was impossible to tell. Its abdomen, leaving a strange blue fluid from some spidery orifice, would be reared forward in their direction, and a rancid blue webbing spewed forth.

Chigetsu's movements were fluid. He raised his right arm, three fingers extended. A conical blast would erupt immediately from his fingers, violently bursting out with a loud ringing crack. Hundreds of miniscule water pellets would burst out of his fingers, which half-exploded from the concussive force. The remains of his three fingers, now goo, splattered in recoil. He would be send back on his heels, pushed back inches from where he originally had been. The blast of pellets would meet the spewed webbing midair, catching it five or so meters before it would have hit the three of them. Both would burst, the water pellets shredding the webbing, and throwing the ruined trap backwards and harmlessly to the ground in piece. Remnants of mist fizzled up from where the blast had been.

With the net taken care of by his instinctual reaction, Chigetsu would further allow instinct to carry him forward. His left hand would raise to point at the monster, two fingers extended. Pop. Pop. Pop. Three water bullets would spent, all popping out of his fingertips with a crack and aimed at the horrible monster.

---

[1125]

Chakra 150/190 | Hydration 12/15:

Along with Chi's hints towards the scrolls Haka had dumped. Verd would read herself through them and slowly move from initial confusion over seeing what Chi might have missed but still go curious about. Haka couldn't read. Interesting. Verd admitted that finding a weakness in her spider friends nature and being was a first timer. At least like this. Haka's biggest flaw Verd had noticed so far was her distinct weakness towards the 'claws of men' as she called them. Being not able to read seemed to be of little worry in that regard. Neither Chi nor Verdandi would feel the need to actually point it out. Chi was casually picking up Haka's dropped scrolls and either handing them to Verd or processing them himself.

It was clear within this moment, that even while Chi was being helpful he had an utter distaste for the job. Verd had to sigh and admit that she'd end up being the only tactical nerd of the squad. However, her skills in putting all information together and finish the map would be greeted with joy and enthusiasm. Probably cause both, Haka and Chi were aware that all those marked places would hold adventures to endure yet to be seen.

Pebbles had been left in charge of the place. He seemed to have joined forces with Boneman. After torturing the former leader with socks, he and Boneman must have bonded over their mutual hate towards the weakness of the previous leader. Bone would even go as far as to implement Pebbles into the guard training. Whenever someone did something wrong or dared to speak ill or weakness. It would become Pebbles job to punch them in the groin or kick them in the shin. Specialized skills had to be made use of after all.

However, the squad had left the encampment and the gates were closed firmly behind them. The guards were almost done setting up the wooden spikes as an anti-zombie measure around camp. Pretty sure that in combination with the now skilled crossbow marksmen would eventually allow the camp to defend itself properly.

As they reached the point of clash with the weird human spiderling, Verd tried to understand the words that guttered from it's horrifying voice. Hunger she could understand, which basically was the most important part of it. Learning spider tongue was certainly a hobby she'd keep up as it came in handy more often than she wished to admit. An experiment gone wrong or an Unmei gone mad were both prospects she didn't wish to linger on for too long. Verd watched the web flying towards their direction and was quite glad that Chi perfectly dealt with it.

The spider began to spew a few condensed green bullets of seemingly pure acid. Verd figured it was her turn to give the defence and formed the tiger sign before thick water gunshots were fired from her lips. Accurately hitting the acid shots mid-air and colliding with them so they would be stopped in their path. A total of four shots were needed to stop the incoming threats as Verd missed with one of her aims on first try.

However, the creature was yet to even start it's disgusting fighting technique. It'd scream loud as it lifted a cocoon. Shoving her fangs into the body of her victim. Toxins slowly dissolving the poor fella as she slurped him up like normal people would empty their orange juice box. As the empty corpse was tossed aside. Verd used the time to tap her foot multiple times to the ground. What initially wouldn't seem like much was sending chakra of her own into the ground below the spider monster. Seemingly in preparation for something else to come.

In a sudden burst of horrifying disgust, the creatures belly would suddenly swell up after having consumed the human. Getting fatter and fatter until the large green blob on her body slowly busted. In an utterly disgusting way green fluid would escape the sac that just exploded from her skin and at least three dozen pretty huge spiders had been given birth to. If Verd had eaten more this morning she'd have probably puked at this. But as the spiders were incoming for their position. Obviously born to kill. They had to do something against it.

The spiders started to glow on their back as thick green globed would form and deform their skin even while they were running for the squad's position. While it was unknown to Verd and Chi, Haka would certainly recognize that behaviour as it was nothing but an acidic version of her own suicide spider technique. However, little crawling time-bombs or not. Verd was determined to kill the bunch of disgusting monsters and inhaled deeply. She put her palm on either of her squad mate's shoulders and gave a few quick, tactical commands. "Lock your feet to the ground. I'm bursting wind. Haka, use fire!" she gasped, things had to be quick, there was no time to ask for pretty please.

Verd's grip on her squad mate's shoulders would become strong. In case either of the two had not properly used the supernatural walking technique she might be able to keep them to the floor with her grip alone. If they did both successfully lock themselves to the ground, Verd could use her grip on their shoulders to make her coming wind technique even stronger and give it a full blow. If Haka would indeed follow suit and shoot fire into the wind blow, a combined technique would cause the whole field in front of them to be set on fire. Killing every suicide spider in it's path and making them blow up where they stand.

Dandi and Haka wouldn't be able to kill all of them even as the intense wind gush proceeded to blast the fire like a demon forth towards the monster they were fighting. Meaning that both Haka and Chi would have to take care of quite some left-over spider's as well by themselves.


1030 / 2080

Chakra 135/200:

Chi being the fastest to react would counter the spider web with a technique of his own, leaving Haka to make a couple of preparations of her own. As was becoming an increasing habit, she'd mark the two members of her team with the slight sting of the familiar Spider Seal just in case it would be a necessity for them to be recognised as allies. The chances for this seemed small, since Haka could not say with precision if the giant spider was an Unmei or not. That piece of information being important in the selection of her own techniques as the last thing they'd need was a spider of that size being allowed a solid boost in its movement speed.

Not waiting for her flies to escape, the monster would once again attempt an attack, spitting acid at their direction which would be countered by another volley of water gun bullets before it started to spawn a group of acidic spiderlings, the new born starved and eager to munch away at whatever the brood mother would throw at them. Their suicidal part would not be recognised by Haka who was not in the possession of such a technique, though their pulsating backs did not herald much good either way. As Verdandi was formulating a counter-offensive and expecting Haka to provide her with some fire, she shot the girl a glare for her commanding tone while she molded the chakra needed for a jet of flame. The Unmei's natural ability to cling to any surface would not require for her to make use of the Supernatural Walking Technique as a similar effect was always in effect for the spider-nin, so as Verdandi grasped her shoulder tightly and readied her own technique, Haka would spit out her chakra flamethrower in the monster's direction so that the Fuuton technique would catch fire as it passed through.

The combination would take out several of the spiders but not all of them, leaving a few stragglers to move on with disregard for morale. They were hungry and would not be stopped be trivialities such as blazing hurricanes when something better was to be found at the end of the road. As they moved forward, the pulsating acid would grow bigger as they channelled what little chakra they had to prepare their suicidal explosion which would leave the team wounded and at the mercy of their brood mother. Forming the spider, bird, snake hand seals, she would slam the ground and allow chakra to bleed out to create a 10m radius around her, the seal instantly denying the use of any offensive technique fuelled by chakra with the exception of those she was familiar with - the Spider Seal serving as Haka's sign of recognition made sure her companions would not suffer its effects. The seal would activate once, draining away the chakra within the spiderlings and making the ominous glow die out as their ability to explode was removed. Only the spiderlings would remain, now forced to make use of their weaker mandibles rather than the threatening power of the acidic terror. A threat swiftly dealt with as Haka pragmatically kicked a couple of their light-weighted bodies into the raging tornado.

However, the brood mother was about to move away out of the tornado's flame, making the combo that had been set up redundant as it would move away to avoid being hit while choosing a new and possibly better position to strike back.

---

589
Total: 1570

155/200:

Verdandi chuckled. Knowing well Haka didn't enjoy the bossy tongue. However, despite her mental rebellion the fire blast was casted and the flaming tornado was a beautiful sight to behold. What one technique couldn't achieve just yet, a combination of two attacks certainly grew into something one had to glare on in awe. Verdandi moved forward and stepped on one of the disarmed spiderlings. Crunching the now weak little beast beneath her boot easily. However, the real deal was not really done with the three young ones just yet. Fletching its invisible teeth in it's dark hood as it pulled forth it's long sword like weapons. Verdandi was thinking of a very effective way to stop her the very moment the monster started charging them. Leaving her squad mates behind for a second. Verd would focus her chakra into her feet and started to move at intense burst-speed towards the incoming attacker. The faster she would move the less time the creature would have to think of a very witty way to counter. As expected, it would lift its long arms forward. Verdandi would jump and form the boar sign before she quickly unsheathed her blade above her head. Both of her hands tightly wrapped around her Wyrm's Tooth blade to strike downwards.

As Verdandi would use all of her strength to clash her blade on the two defending ones. She would feel the trigger of the prepared technique do it's magic. The water trap activating. As Verdandi's blade would hit her opponents, the earth beneath the monster would brake up into shatters in a large 7m radius. Due to the wonderful combination of movements, it would appear to anyone watching, including the monster, that Verdandi just basically stomped the creature and the hole into the ground by pure, brutal force of her sword impacting. Verd used the clash to spin herself backwards and a bit away from the trap as said would quickly close itself with earth rubble that the suiton neatly moved into place. Trapping the enemy deep below ground and allowing Verdandi to slowly drop down on the floor.

Being cool like that, Verd would casually walk back towards her team mates while brushing some dust off her shoulder. Pretty sure that Chi would totally loose it while Haka probably already figured it out what really happened. The intense climax of joy would however not last eternally long. After some mere contemplation and some stomping of little spiderlings, the earth behind Verdandi would erupt and the creature would return back to earth. It showed to be having some trouble getting her eyes properly straight set on her targets for a minute. But as it would make the three of them out she would scream in a way that could make many weak-minded people soil themselves.

Obviously enraged by Verdandi's offense, the monster came back sprinting towards her. Verd could parry the first attack barely with her sword before she got madly punched in the guts. Being tossed back quite a few feet, luckily not stumbling over as her chakra quickly returned to her feet to keep her stable. The impact however was so strong that Verd lost grip of her blade in the process, making Wyrm's Tooth spin away to the side. The monster however was still charging forward. Verdandi was aware she would not be able to outrun her enemy. She couldn't really defeat her at this point. But maybe her team mates could.

In an attempt to make an opening for her squaddies. Verd pressed her palms together and shot the last of her defensive energy out by creating a huge wind blast that would shoot towards the incoming target. Despite it's seemingly monstrous strength and will to endure. The wind blast was shot in such close proximity of it that it would send the nightmare flying backwards a good 5 meters before coming to a halt. With Verdandi now sort of out of energy, her Squad mated had however plenty of time to proceed the continuous onslaught against the nasty creature.


690 / 2770

Chakra 120/200:

It had dodged the flame tempest, but Verdandi's perfect choreography of blade clashing and jutsu use would leave the monster quite vulnerable for a moment as it was stuck in the mud and dazed by the ground crumbling down. A shriek would be heard as the monster tried to grab onto something to prevent its falling, but it would not do. The monster tumbled down and dazedly needed some time to recover.

Disregarding the perfect dance and the combo, Haka's pragmatism was not interested in praising a good job. At this instant, while Verdandi flipped back through the air, she dashed forward to make use of the opportunity that revealed itself. Channelling chakra into her limbs as she moved forward, Haka jumped up and aimed straight for one of the sword arms of the monster. Unable to react due to its stun, an unhealthy snap would be heard as her flying kick would hit the first of her arms cleanly, rendering the first arm useless to wield a blade as the bones shattered upon impact. To Verdandi it would not come to a surprise that Haka aimed to take out those limbs able to hold up weapons as the Unmei didn't exactly hide her general disdain for the 'claws of man', but such insights might be less easily picked up by Chigetsu.

Haka's innate ability to stick to any surface would come in handy to give herself a step-up to jump to the second sword arm with similar intent to render it useless, but her plan would be foiled as the giant brood mother smacked her away mid-air with unexpected speed despite its pain. Airborne and unable to dodge the attack, Haka felt the enraged beating like she was but a fly herself, landing rather hard into the ground a couple of meters further to the side. The spider-nin would stand up, biting away the pain with a frown of annoyance and fixated her eyes on the giant. She dusted off her clothes as she noticed it crawling out of the pit with a vengeance and despite being given a broken arm by her smaller kin, it seemed she was of a mind Verdandi was more deserving of its wrath than Haka.

Charging Verdandi, the monster would be brought to an imbalancing halt as a blast of wind pushed the giant backwards some 5 meter, just barely inches away from being pushed back into the pit where it had crawled out. Verdandi needed a moment to catch her breath, and Haka was currently out of position to do much more as unlike her team members, she didn't have much in terms of lethal offence currently. The only defe/nce she had remaining to strip the monster's offence would also cripple the others of her team in the process, so an alternative option was preferred.

---

483
Total: 2053

130/200:

He had been paralyzed. Too intimidated to move, Chigetsu would stand in shock as the spider charged forward. His left arm was pointed forward and prepared to fire, but he couldn't. He wasn't even shaking anymore, or if he was he couldn't notice it. The charge was theoretically great for him. Easier to aim at closer range, and a switch to melee combat would be easier for him to deal with than dodging webs and acid. These were thoughts that ran through his mind. Rationalizing away fear by stating how much of an advantage he would have with this change of pace was easy, but actually following up on those thoughts was something else entirely. He was suck still trying to hype himself up as Verdandi jumped forward and seized the initiative.  

Chigetsu would be stuck watching. His arm would slowly lower, unable to shoot anything with his ally so close. Getting out any more water bullets was probably a thought that he should abandon either way. Her skill in combat would quickly leave him in awe, along with the trap that had been created in advance. The terrible beast collapsing underground and being covered up by the wreckage was incredible. It was such a smooth and clean take out, and then the perfect landing that Verdandi stuck just added to it. Chigetsu would brush his hand back into his hair, staring with wide eyes towards Verdandi. "Wow." It was the only thing that he could say, whispered under his breath. He wouldn't know what to say other than that. The high of combat began to fade away, and as his fear evaporated he would be left with a dopey smile.  

It didn't last long. Bursting up out of the ground would be the same demon, screeching in anger. The sound itself made Chigetsu flinch, liquefying reflextively. His body expected immediate danger with how much fear he had felt in that moment, nearly having a heart attack. Set on rushing down Verdandi, likely motivated by revenge after that first attack, it would quickly close the gap and engage once again in combat.

He swallowed his fear, beating into his chest with a fist. Haka's cleverness showed with her jump kick, targeted to remove the beast's ability to wield its weaponry. That she was smacked away didn't discourage Chigetsu from following her lead, although he did hesitate to glance in her direction, checking to see how she took the blow. That she was still able to stand was enough for him to not worry right now. Following the burst of wind that pushed the beast back Chigetsu would form two hand signs and following that his right arm would burst forth in a flurry of tentacles. These tentacles were quickly becoming his signature technique and taking advantage of the knockback from the wind he would be able to thrust in with them without having to worry. Their slimy lengths would be able to slap onto the monster, twisting around and attempting to restrain the spider in some sort of hold.  

The sucker pods lining the underside of the tentacles did their job perfectly. The spider demon's shrieking and struggling wouldn't bring it any closer to removing them. Having a broken arm likely didn't do it any favors with this situation either, all of the tentacles wrapping around it in an attempt to bind its arms to its torso. The beast would visibly flinch in pain whenever the tentacles struggled against its right side. The main focus would be on the left, where Chigetsu's tentacles struggled with removing the remaining blade from the spider's left arm. A struggle of strength between the two didn't get anywhere though. Despite that Chigetsu's tentacles were too sticky for the monster to remove directly it was only the upper body that he had thought to bind.

It would quickly seize on this. By thrashing its upper body around it would test the strength and restrictions of the tentacles, and with a swift movement of its eight legs it would whip itself in a counter clockwise direction. Seizing on the weight advantage it had on Chigetsu it would utilize it in a swift movement to whip the tentacles attached to it and throw the male off his feet. Obviously not expecting this turn of events, Chigetsu would be thrown to the ground and thrashed about over the dirt and rocks as the monster continued to toss him around. If there was any doubt that this creature had some sort of intelligence before it would be gone now. Chigetsu's tentacles would be used to its advantage, and with another thrash she would toss Chigetsu like a flail. He would be swung by the tentacles towards Verdandi, using Chigetsu as an improvised projectile before resuming its charge. If she dodged out of the way of her thrown ally he would collide into the ground, smashing like a water balloon. At the very least his tentacles seemed to have worked in binding the monster's remaining sword arm to its torso. The downside to this was that it didn't seem to discourage it from going into melee whatsoever.  

---

[875/2693]

Chakra 130/190:

Verdandi slowly wrapped herself up. Haka didn't spare her time wasting and sitting around and took the very first opening to attack the beast and grant a good amount of damage. She rendered the arm of the beast quickly unusable and hence massively lowered its damage potential. However, while Verd was already in the dirt, Haka had to take a blow of herself. Seemingly without any further interruptions the beast was charging towards Verdandi. Seemingly annoyed by her bold attack despite that Haka was probably doing more concentrated damage than Verd in the whole process.

Dandi was wrapping herself up while Chi used his turn to tentacle the beast. However, as much as his appendages were disturbing the creature. He could however not control her for long. With Haka on the ground and Chi about to be launched at Verd, Dandi had to find a solution. She would be counting on Haka to see the importance of the moment and help as well. Verd used the chakra string technique to shoot a string spider style onto the end of her sword. Starting to pull it back in her direction. Meanwhile the incoming Chi-projectile was getting clear. Verdandi had yet, despite her affection for the puddle person, not the time to rescue him herself. So, as she walked forth to charge the tentacle constricted monster, Verd simply created a water clone of her own. The clone would get himself into baseball-catcher position.

The real Verdandi quickly charged in. Her sword soon returning to her palm by the chakra string. The first swing was crucial, Verdandi's blade would directly aim at the creature's shoulder and soon sever the remaining working arm from the main body. Verd would proceed to kick the weird creature towards the throat and have it fall down. A continuous number of straight slices would go through Chigetsu's own tentacle arms. Luckily, he wasn't to be damaged while the Hyouton enchantment was off. Verd would press the button to turn her sword quickly into a shark tooth covered saw and rip it through the legs. Slowly starting to Remove the remaining legs on the creature while Chi's tentacles would be dropping as sacrifice in the process.

At one point a loud dudd could be heard in which Chi collided with the water clone of Verdandi. Oddly enough the clone did catch the blob person. However, the impact sort of killed the clone and forced it to turn back into water. Slowly. However, the process kind of mixed the two chakra's and body outlines together. Turning Chi, the moment he would return to be solid into some form of female Chigetsu for a moment. Having certain curve features adopted by the clone.

After the creature would lose her legs and Haka potentially helping to stab the damn creature down. Verd would proceed to drag her saw-like sword over the spider monsters belly and let the guts slowly empty over the floor. Verd would hope that Haka will turn the thing on fire and give it a proper burial in flames. However, the beast would find it's end at last.

With an exhausted team. Verd would lead the way back to the village. The gender-bent Chigetsu would probably turn out to be an interesting conversation topic… and the intensely nasty creature they just had slain. Verd would pull out her well-made map and added a sign towards where they had killed the creature.

It was yet just the start. More evil would remain in Hansha and asking to be found and destroyed. Until eventually some sort of peace could come back to this strange plane.

[EXIT]

610 / 3370

Chakra 100/200:

WC Usage:

As the two girls recovered, Chigetsu went over to the offence. Wrapping his tentacles around the monster, the idea to restrain its movement was quickly lowered in effect as the weight and size of the spider monster opposed that of Chigetsu easily and soon turned it into a failed rodeo show. For a moment, it wasn't sure who was trying to tame who. Chigetsu was being swung around like a flail, the clumsiness of his actions yet efficient enough to restrain the last sword arm of the spider. Weapons down, jutsu down, all that remained was dealing with its giant size.

Verdandi would charge in, aiming to deal with the last sword arm once and for all just in case the spider would break loose of its constraints. The pain of lost limbs, the confusion of a flailing Chigetsu, it was sufficient to drive the spider berserk as it tried to shake off the two unwanted pests that were harassing it. It was unfortunate efficiency was lacking as the three of them dealt with the monster, but Haka guessed it couldn't be helped. A creature that size had a treacherous amount of power and the advantage of not easily being brought down.

The ice Princess would continue her onslaught, striking down the spider and then proceeding to cut down the legs as it laid down. Then, as the creature was helpless, she ripped open its stomach with her blade. Screeches of agony would fill the air as mercy would not be brought. Verdandi gave Haka a look as if she was expecting her to add more to the pain, but was answered with a cold disapproving stare at the slow rate she was killing this creature. Rather than to put the creature ablaze and watch it burn up to cinders alive, Haka took her obsidian kunai and jumped towards its unprotected chest. Backed by her Arms of the Mighty, she drove her kunai deep into its bare flesh, piercing its heart as her hands sank into the body unopposed. A last gasp would be heard before it finally dropped dead. The agony it had suffered for the carnage it had brought... both had come to an end today.

Haka sighed deeply, letting go of the tension the battle had caused and eyed Girlygetsu who was no longer being flailed around. His fear had not gone unnoticed, his lack of stability neither. It was strange to realise Chigetsu had shown such sort of weakness for a first time when he was generally bringing the fear to the battlefield. It had proven to be a true challenge even for the three of them and yet she couldn't help but feel part of her respect for him slip away.

Shifting her gaze to Verdandi, scorn would colour the spider's eyes a fuller red than they usually were. The girl usually disapproving of Haka's swift kills on humans had now opted to draw out the pain of her prey rather than to finish it as swiftly as she could, opting for a theatrical display of power instead. The spider could not even remember one moment where Verdandi had been so brutal and merciless since the worst the spider was aware of was the ice princess killing humans with a swift ice spike through the body. But of the three of them, she was the only human as far as Haka was aware. Did this mean Verdandi was losing her mind like the others here in Hansha?

"Our hunt was sloppy.", she would eventually declare, dissatisfied with the general performance. The fact they needed the full squad to deal with it was not the problem. If need be, she'd have summoned a whole swarm of spiders to deal with such a creature, but their coordination, their mental strength, the swiftness in killing... It was lacking. It showed there was a need for them to come up with better tactics. Learn new tricks and figure out new strategies. They had won this time, but how would they fare the next time? Returning to the village, the spider would have all the time to think about it. One thing was certain... Though her plan to take over the Spider Clan was about to break through soon, she yet felt too weak to take control.

She hated weakness.

---

[EXIT]

726
Total: 2779
-2000 mission (300 ryo, +1 EP)
- 700 extra ryo (+175 ryo)

Spoiler:

Chigetsu would collide with the clone with a loud splat. It was a squishy fluid one, sounding similar to if somebody squeezed a sausage casing filled with paint until it popped. If that metaphor didn't get it across for you it sounded hella gross. Chigetsu's fluid like body was interesting at times, especially when it made weird sclorping sounds like that. The fact he collided with a water clone probably had something to do with the sound that the impact made. The sheer force that the spider was swinging him with was enough to splatter him right into it, colors of Chigetsu coating the Verdandi clone like a fresh layer of paint. The two of them would fall down to the ground in a puddle of goop, semi-solid and somewhat dazed. The two separate fluids would initially remain separated like oil and water, with the Chigetsu juice remaining on the outside while the Verdandi clone formed the insides. The sheer force of the impact sent everything squishing around and spinning. The air in his lungs bubbled out in a froth that mixed with their bodies. As he attempted to regain control over his form and find some way to inhale again to refill his now emptied lungs the transformation would take place. His liquid had originally fit over the clone like a skintight suit of water, but that hadn't lasted for very long. The impact had dispersed the clone and made it return back into its liquid form. It was Chigetsu that kept the liquid inside his body shaped as it was, like a water cast of the Verdandi that had been inside of him.

Reorienting and standing up would have his water mix with the water of the clone. Despite all this mixing and matching of fluids the original shape was kept, imprinted into him. The Chigetsu that stood would be very unlike any other Chigetsu that the others had seen. This one had subtly feminine curves, along with being a tad shorter. Anyone relatively perceptive would be able to tell that he was adorned with a female body now. It was actually a direct copy of Verdandi's, as an aftermath of her clone mixing with him, just with Chigetsu forced into her shape. Lacking any sort of manly gruff, Chigetsu didn't look particularly out of place with a female body. He was androgynous enough that if the others hadn't seen him before there would have been no ability to tell that he was actually a male.  

Of course, the change wasn't something he initially noticed. Femgetsu stood quick in a daze, too busy trying to reorient her focus on the spider queen to realize what had happened. With her tentacles still stuck tight to the beast she would at the very least be attached. Its squirming was still something she could feel, so at the very least it hadn't escaped. Quickly her eyes would clear, and she would watch as Verdandi sliced through the monster's gut. A splurt of blood would be juiced out of the monster, and its intestines would spill out in a disgusting mess. Chigetsu would watch. That her tentacles had been sliced through to achieve this was nothing but an afternote. The tentacles could be reattached easier. That damage could be healed. What couldn't be healed was her shattered pride. So useless. She had been paralyzed with fear and indecision the entire time. If anything, Chigetsu had been less than useless, more like an active detriment to her team. Losing control of her body like that and being flung around was embarrassing. Almost as much as his initial terror. Why? What had she been so afraid of? It wasn't something that even Chigetsu could understand. She would be left staring at the dying monster. Haka's piercing of the beast finished it. It was all over.

So useless. Her non-tentacle hand would be clenched tight into a fist. Narrowed eyes stared down at the dead beast. As soon as the rational part of her brain return all of the fear turned into hatred. There hadn't been any reason to be afraid. That monster hadn't even shown any ability to hurt him. The hydrifation technique protected him from so much, and there were other ways to deal with any spurts of acid or webs. There wasn't any reason to be afraid. The entire situation replayed in her mind convinced Chigetsu of that. The spider had him stuck in fear, but really its ability in combat wasn't nearly impressive enough to deserve such a reaction. He had seen the combat skills of Nozomi, even if briefly, and in that little spar there hadn't been any fear. It drew Chigetsu back to the first moments she spent in the Hansa. Parazyled by fear and indecision, unable to take a step forward or back.

The tentacles retracted back. Chigetsu's arm was good as new, all the cut off bits easily absorbed back into her body. The impact from being thrown wasn't anything to be worried about either, just minorly dazing. It was one of the many benefits of the hydrification technique that minor damage like that could be ignored. Despite being technically hit, Chigetsu was the only one who hadn't taken any injuries from this threat. Haka and Verdandi had been hit as well, but their injuries appeared minor if anything. It just served to point out that there wasn't any reason to fear this encounter to Chigetsu. A calm mind and steady blade hand would have resulted in this monster biting the dust without any difficulty.  

Femgetsu would nod at Haka's declaration. Sloppy. That was certainly a way to describe it. Chigetsu had become dull as a blade. This failure to sharpen into a propper tool was unforgivable... Or perhaps this was part of the sharpening process. There wasn't any way to know. Still scrunched up and tensed, Chigetsu retained the appearance of rage. Anger coursed through her body now. Nearly all of it was directed at himself, but a part made him look with frustrated eyes over towards Verdandi. She had proven her superiority over him time and time again now. Initially it wasn't something that had bothered him. Ice beating water felt natural. He could accept being defeated when it was a natural occurrence like that, but this wasn't a matter of ice or water. But Chigetsu had proven herself mentally weaker now too, rather than weaker in combat due to elemental advantage. It wasn't just Chigetsu's body and skills that needed to be sharpened, but her mindset as well. Of course, this wasn't Verdandi's fault, and there wasn't any reason to be upset with her, but Chigetsu was irked all the same. Frustration radiated off of the waterblob, and the mental fatigue from the Hanza was starting to take its toll on Chigetsu, who wasn't normally the most stable person. With clenched hands and a bit of a grumbly attitude, Chigetsu would prepare to return to the village with her squad mates.

Staring down at her body, Chigetsu would blink. She had only just noticed her now feminine form. She would be stuck in place for a few moments, standing still and blinking in shock as she stared at her chest. "What? …" She would be aghast. When did this happen?  

---

[EXIT]
[1248/3941]

Chakra 120/190:

[-2700] Double Mission Pay

[1241] Remaining WC
[2373] Adding saved WC from this thread

[3624] Total
[-3000 wc / -250 ryo] Learning Water Release: Water Heaven Convergence
[-500 wc / -50 ryo] Learning Richochet