Well, that wasn’t helpful at all. Maybe Mossen just didn’t know their names, or maybe the creatures were not at all like regular fauna that he found his own nicknames more suitable for them. At any rate, ‘the big ones’ was hardly a description at all, let alone ‘the crafty ones’. Biting and poisonous at least told her what they were capable of, and spider probably conjured up the most vivid image. The rest, however, remained a fuzzy blur of unknown monsters. Oh, ‘and the dangerous ones’. Right… so the ones that came before were just child’s play then?

As the group moved again, Andromeda heard bits and pieces of the conversation going on behind her. She learned that Sailor Soul was an empath and that the emotions in this area had simply overwhelmed her. Well, at least she had not been actually attacked yet. That was good. She found herself walking near Venus, making it difficult for her to not notice the senior senshi’s nervousness. At first she didn’t immediately notice the change, but when Soul mentioned spider webs, she started to see them—their transparent threads hanging across branches and enveloping trees.

Alright, so maybe they’d officially stepped into the spider territory. And Venus had stopped dead in her tracks. Maybe it was because she had faced down a sea monster before, but Andromeda wasn’t bothered by bugs more than a regular person might be. Yeah, sure, they made her skin crawl, but she felt confident these wouldn’t be the worst threat they would face here. Summoning her Chrome Blade to her hand anyway, she made sure she was ready to slice any incoming creature. Holding the weapon in her hand always gave her comfort and strength; after all, it was the weapon that had saved her life and marked her transformation into a soldier.

When she saw the eyes staring at them from within the forest, she stopped, too. “So… is this the part where we start fighting?”

“No apologies needed. We learn from mistakes. Now you know not to do that again.” Pluto said, not unkindly. Then she turned, and began to walk onwards as the other had begun to. She walked calmly, using her staff to help her walking, when she had noticed the others hesitating, or making small noises of fear. She took a brief second to stop and she looked around, hearing Ganymede cursing. She tensed to see the spider webs, not liking it or the frequency. 'At least it's not cockroaches' she thought to herself. Spiders were perhaps tolerable, but she would never be able to abide even a single cockroach. She shuddered at the thought and continued walking.

Only to stop again when Mossen did. She frowned, wondering what was wrong with him now, when she glanced ahead and froze at what she saw. Eyes in the darkness, glowing green, and it vaguely made her think of Ganymede and his helmet. She took slow, deep breathes and watched the eyes even as they watched the group. Were they friendly, or unfriendly? She twitched when she heard Venus whimpering her name and turned slightly to see the girls terrified face. She gave her a gentle comforting smile and held her hand out subtly, a gesture for the senshi of love and beauty to come hold her hand if she needed.

She heard Andromeda's comment and took a deep breath. If a battle was coming, it would come. “We can't assume anything. This could be centuries of web weaving from small spiders. We have to keep going.” She said the last part loud enough for everyone to hear, keeping her voice strong and calm. She turned and continued walking, taking the lead now, her hand still slightly out to the side for Venus to take.

“I’m sorry that you lost her, it sounds like you two were close,” Soul commented. She couldn’t imagine having to go through the pain of losing someone close to you, especially if they sacrifice themselves on your behalf due to actions you’d taken. She continued to listen as he recounted his time with the Dark Kingdom. She was unable to conceive what having to live through that was like. “You’re a very strong person to have survived all of that; I don’t think I could have if I were in your place,” she admitted. She would have been broken a long time ago and would have become a mindless slave to the Dark Kingdom.

She could see ahead of her as Ganymede tensed as Shadow mentioned the Dark Kingdom. She wanted to offer comfort, but was unsure about how to do so. She was startled back into her conversation with shadow and out of her thoughts when Shadow mentioned about them wrapping up their meals and keeping them from spilling onto the ground. “That’s just gross,” she teased.

Ahead of her Soul could hear the others become nervous as more and more spider webs appeared. She couldn’t help but wonder herself if there was something lurking out there, waiting for them. “Pluto is right, we need to keep moving,” she called out, when everyone seemed to slow down a bit, some in fear, others in reaction to those who had slowed down. It was better to keep moving than to fight in such a confined space.

Feeling a little morw courage, Sailor Venus nodded at Pluto and took her outstretched hand. The Solar Senshi had to stick together, right?

Using her unused hand, Venus unlatched the chain from around her waist and held it in her hand, ready to strike at anything that came her way. Her confidence slowly built up as she walked by Pluto's side, and a hardness formed in her blue eyes. "Stay alert, everyone," Venus advised, wondering if she was trying to tell herself instead of everyone else.

"We can't," Mossen replied in a high-pitched squeak to both senshi urging them forward. He was as close to motionless as he could be, his wings beating quickly as his eyes stared into the growing darkness beyond the path, but his pupils were not focused at the many glowing green eyes near knee-level... following his gaze, one could just barely make out two small purple slits, eyes that were only just opening, the light they radiated dimly illuminating the large, many-toothed smile beneath them.

The lips of the mouth slowly changed, the smile disappearing as it formed words, "Feed."


The bushes exploded as the many green-eyed things burst outward, scuttling on eight hairy legs towards the senshi! They were as the webs suggested - large black spiders, with eight glowing green eyes a piece; their size was comparable to a golden retriever in height, but their legs were bent as they walked and their length was much larger, with a dangerous-looking back-end.

Introductory Battle! wrote:

10 spiders attack the group!
These spiders have a speed of 5, and are splitting to attack each person in the group! 

Senshi with a dexterity twice five (10 or above) will be able to attack or defend, and their action will go through automatically. These senshi are Enyalius, Achelois, Bellatrix and Venus. Watch Enyalius's (and, today, Achelois's) response as an example.


Senshi with a dexterity greater than five can attempt to attack their target before it attacks them, or choose to attempt to defend before the spider attacks (which is equivalent to attempting to evade the attack) These senshi are Andromeda, Shadow, Soul and Pluto. As an example, in your next post you may choose to attack and attempt to defeat the spider before it reaches you, or choose to defend and put all your concentration in evading the attack; I will respond with what actually happens. **or tell you over skype - jump in there for questions.


Senshi with a dexterity less than five will attack or defend after the spider attacks them. These senshi are Ganymede, Leviathan. As an example, no matter what you do, the spider will attack you first. You may then respond with your action - attempting attacking or attempting defending (attempting to evade).


I'm on Skype for questions on this process!

---

As the spiders rushed towards her, Enyalius drew her sword, her shield coming to her arm unbidden, and rushed forward to meet the attack, blade first. With her speed and precision, she speared one enemy nicely, then put her boot on its body to free her sword, half watching it to see if she had dealt a fatal blow, half turning to check on Achelois.

This would typically be the end of my post READ HERE FOR INFORMATION:

DM wrote:

Enyalius attacks the spider!
The spider is super-dead!

As the spider collapsed under her boot, the lifeblood oozing out quickly, Enyalius turned, ready to step in where she was needed; the spiders had reached her allies.

---

Achelois spotted the spiders coming her way and, rather than attack, she chose to evade the oncoming beast; while wings were mostly useless in this setting, she did manage to dive out of the way and catch herself on her fall by floating a few feet above ground, her staff ready to knock any predators away as she watched the battle.

HANDLING DEFENSE:

Keep going? With all those eyes surrounding them? Yeah… she didn’t think so. She would love to hope they weren’t dangerous and would let the group pass without giving nothing more than their creepy glares, but she knew it was unlikely. Raising an eyebrow at Venus and Pluto’s clasped hands, Andromeda stayed put where she was, looking around at all the eyes to see if any were moving toward them. She didn’t want any of them catching her off guard while she walked deeper into their midst.

Mossen seemed to agree with her, though he seemed to be looking at something else. Following his gaze, she found eyes that were differently colored than the others—purple instead of green. Oh, goodie. Was this Mamma Spider or something? When she heard it actually spoke, she felt all the hairs on her body rise up instantly. She was guessing they were going to be the food in this feeding process.

She jumped as they burst forth all at once from the bushes around the path, surrounding the group of senshi easily. She had guessed that they wouldn’t be the squashable kind of spider, but their size still made her waver for a bit. All those eyes. Those were the ones that really got to her. As if nothing could escape their sight. Andromeda raised her Chrome Blade and, as the nearest spider tried to jump her, she attacked, slashing it with her blade.

She hit her target with a fatal blow and watched as the creature’s body was slashed nicely, leaving it stunned on the ground with probably not much energy left to get back up.

Pluto had been about to turn toward Mossen to ask what he was talking about, when the spiders came forward. She jumped a little, a sharp noise leaving her lips before she realized it, not quite a scream but definitely a noise of surprise. She squeezed Venus' hand a moment before she let go, quickly grasping her staff with both hands. If she was to be an example, now would be the chance to be a good one.

She stepped forward, taking in the rather large group with a moment of despair. But she would do what she could, she raised her staff up above her head as she cried out her attack, “Chronos Typhoon!” she directed it at the oncoming group of spiders.

Venus shrieked as soon as the wretched creatures appeared. Her reflexes kicked in, and she immediately lashed out at the enemy, her years of training pushing her to spin with her leg extended. Her heeled foot smashed against her opponent, roundhouse-kicking it before it could attack her. She had no time to think or to analyze the situation - her fear was driving her adrenaline.

The spider screeched and regained its balance before lunging at the blonde senshi. Anticipating this, Sailor Venus rolled to the side and out of harm's way. She heard Pluto call out her attack, and from recent battles, she knew that there was a chance Pluto could have killed the spider Venus was working on. She stood up straight, recovering from her roll, flipping her long hair out of her face to analyze the rest of the situation.

Pluto's attack had missed, so Sailor Venus immediately decided to try the same strategy. Focusing her love for her companions into one burst of energy, Venus caused to crescent beams to form on her forehead. Touching then and raising her hand into the air, she shouted, "Crescent Beam Shower!" Beams of light erupted from her hand, falling down to attempt at penetrating Pluto's, Soul's, and Venus's spider. A cheer of victory almost erupted from her lips, but she held it back. The fight wasn't over yet.

Attacks flew, both magical and physical, as the senshi defended themselves against the ambush; before crossing farther into the battlefield, Enyalius turned to quickly take care of the spider nuisance plaguing Achelois, her friend hovering in the air with her attention focused solely on their allies. With a quick run and a lunge, her sword struck true into the spider and she pulled it out quickly, its body twitching as nerves finally died; these enemies weren't all that powerful, but the other in the woods...

Mossen was still standing stark-still, his eyes on the mysterious enemy in the forest; she turned her attention towards it, ready to defend if it attempted to attack them while others still fought.

Pluto cursed under her breath when she saw her attack had missed two of the spiders she was aiming for. Then she was pleased to see that the spider advancing on Venus had keeled over. It was time to try and end this as swiftly as possible!

Once again, she raised up her staff for an attack and cried, “Chronos Typhoon!”, she directed her attack at her spider, Soul's and now Ganymede's as well.

Ganymede Knight stood his ground as the spiders charged faster than he expected, realizing that he couldn't dodge. It crashed into him, trying to pierce his flesh with its sharp mandibles, but they only bounced off his armor. With a grin, his axe built up an electrical charge before he tried to slice the spider open, but the sound of it powering up allowed it to scuttle away in time.

Ganymede took the opportunity to stand up again as the spider went for a second try, running into him but not actually causing injury. "You'll have to hit harder than that!" Ganymede taunted it as they wrestled in place.

Soul braced herself when the spiders appeared out of no where to attack them. She smiled gratefully at Pluto when the attack the elder senshi performed managed to do some damage to the one that was attacking her.

The Senshi of Spirits quickly summoned her rod, extending it to become a staff. Gripping it in both her hands, she allowed to power to grow quickly at the crown of the staff, before throwing it at the oncoming spider, quietly calling out Soul Blast as she did so.

Something bothered Shadow about the way Venus had suddenly frozen after he finished speaking. Did he hit a nerve, maybe? Arachnophobia was common, but he didn't expect the object of his admirations to react so strongly to signals of their presence. Sometimes his jokes simply had poor timing.

Shadow had thought to try and comfort the senshi of love and beauty. To his chagrin, Pluto had committed her own similar reasoning to action and taken Venus's hand; perhaps there'd be time for him to offer support (and an apology) later. Soul was surprisingly understanding of his past with the Dark Kingdom, while Ganymede had reacted in a similar fashion to Sailor Io when they had first met one another.

It's a common sentiment. The full story isn't easy to swallow in one sitting.

Once they had started forward again, Shadow realized that Venus had been right to worry. Multiple spiders, dark as night, had emerged from their cover to attack them! Each of the hungry creatures were lined with with an array of eerie, orblike green eyes.

There was no point in letting his weapon collect any more dust. The spiders were a direct threat to him and every other member of the expedition, most of all their cynical faerie pathfinder. When one of the offending arachnids approached him, Shadow drew his sword and struck the offender down without hesitation.

Grumbling at what he thought was a crude maneuver, Shadow then glanced at the wound that had been carved into the eight-legged critter laying before him. "I hope I'm not losing my touch."

DM wrote:

Shadow attempts to attack Pluto's spider with his sword!
Does it hit? 
--He rolls a 3! His attack misses!

---

Sailor Venus attacks Pluto's Spider with Crescent Beam!: 3MP cost
Does it hit? This is a single-target magic attack! As Venus's dex > 2x spider speed, she automatically hits it!
--Automatic hit!
How much damage? Rolling a d6 for base damage
--She rolls a 5!
Control Bonus +13!
MP Bonus +1
----Total of 19 points of damage to the spider!


Pluto's Spider has been defeated! the web surrounding her does not fade...

Quote :

Sailor Enyalius's Spider has 0 HP
Sailor Andromeda's Spider has 0 HP
Sailor Achelois's Spider has 0 HP
Sailor Venus's Spider has 0 HP
Shadow's Spider has 0 HP
Sailor Soul's Spider has 0 HP
Sailor Pluto's Spider has 0 HP

Sailor Leviathan's Spider has 10 HP
Knight Ganymede's Spider has 5 HP

---

Unaccounted-for Spiders These spiders cannot be touched, as they are technically 'claimed' and 'in battle' with characters who have yet to post; their battles are happening simultaneously with the above battles, but are as yet a mystery as to their outcome.

Bellatrix's Spider has 10 HP remaining*

Seeing that his spider had been struck and weakened by Pluto's attack, he lunged at it again.

"Ganymede Lightning Slice!" His axe expanded and bore down on the spider.

DM wrote:

Ganymede attacks with Lightning Slice!: 2MP cost
Does it hit? 
--He rolls a 4! The attack hits!
How much damage? Rolling a d6 for base damage
--She rolls a 1!
Control Bonus +6!
MP Bonus +1
----Total of 8 points of damage to the spider!


Ganymede's Spider is defeated!


Leviathan's Spiter attempts to attack by sucking Leviathan's blood!
Does it hit?
--The spider rolls a 4 and hits the target!
How much damage?
--1 point of damage!
--No armor bonus as Leviathan cannot move! The Spider is striking a weak point!
----Total of 1 point of damage to Leviathan!

Leviathan cannot move! Leviathan cannot retaliate!
Leviathan has 20 HP remaining.

Quote :

Sailor Enyalius's Spider has 0 HP
Sailor Andromeda's Spider has 0 HP
Sailor Achelois's Spider has 0 HP
Sailor Venus's Spider has 0 HP
Shadow's Spider has 0 HP
Sailor Soul's Spider has 0 HP
Sailor Pluto's Spider has 0 HP
Knight Ganymede's Spider has 0 HP

Sailor Leviathan's Spider has 10 HP

---

Unaccounted-for Spiders These spiders cannot be touched, as they are technically 'claimed' and 'in battle' with characters who have yet to post; their battles are happening simultaneously with the above battles, but are as yet a mystery as to their outcome.

Bellatrix's Spider has 10 HP remaining*

Sailor Venus's eyes widened when Pluto was attacked, bound so that she was practically immobile. "Pluto!" Venus yelled, anger and panic building up. Summoning more beams of light, she aimed at the spider that had attacked her fellow Sol Senshi and shouted, "Crescent Beam!"

The spider was obliterated, and Venus rushed to her friend's aid. "Hang in there, we'll get you out!" The blonde senshi desperately searched for a method to free the guardian of time. Her eye landed on Shadow's blade, and an idea struck. "Shadow!" she shouted, trying to gain his attention.

Satisfied that the skittering spider would skitter no more, Shadow's attention turned to the remaining spiders. If he could pierce their exoskeletons this easily, there was no need to resort to mystical powers; better to save that mystic ammunition for later. His brow furrowed at the spider assaulting Pluto. That's a lot of webbing, he thought to himself; the dog-sized silk spinner would surely be looking to feed to replenish its stores. Unwilling to let the guardian of time be reduced to a spider's snack, Shadow leapt towards the spider to deliver what he had hoped would be a killing blow.

Unfortunately, his hungry quarry had enough sense to evade his attack. His disappointment was quickly wiped away by seething bright lance of energy which erupted from behind his position. Screaming towards the spider, it ripping through the bothersome creature as if it were an archery target accepting an expertly fired arrow.

"Nicely done!" Shadow turned briefly, calling out a brief word of encouragment to Venus as he worked to assist Pluto with escaping from her half-formed cocoon. He didn't have to think hard to figure out what she implied by looking at his sword; certainly it would be sharp enough to sever the spider silk.

That, at least, was the plan. To Pluto, Shadow whispered as he carefully maneuvered the tip of his weapon to the sticky fibers entrapping her torso. "I'll get you out. Just warn me if you're going to make any sudden movements.."

As she finished off her spider, Andromeda spun around quickly to see how her teammates were faring. She was surprised and horrified to find two of them encased in spiderwebs. As Venus came to Pluto's aid, she spun toward the other victim. Ugh, it was that lovely Leviathan. Still, she was still an ally... And when she saw the spider starting to suck her blood, her horror made all her unpleasant thoughts about Leviathan vanish. She slashed at the webbing with her blade, trying to at least sever its connection to its spider and get the spider's claws away from her.

Ganymede Knight yanked his blade out of the spider's unmoving body and kicked it aside. He then saw Sailor Leviathan in trouble and after a moment of hesitation, ran over to help. His wings expanded as he sped up, his entire body crackling with electricity.

"Ganymede Thunder Eagle!" He aimed his flying tackle at the spider trying to suck her blood, only for it to jump out of his line of sight. He slammed into a tree instead, bringing it down. He emerged from the foliage and shook off the leaves, clearing his head. He needed to focus on his target if he wanted to actually hit it, he thought.

Sailor Achelois saw the attack on Leviathan, but realized that it did not look too bad; she held her healing magic, watching as some of their allies attempted to free the captured senshi and avoided attacks.

---

---

Within the forest, the purple-eyed being moves forward slowly, its eyes sliding from opponent to opponent as it closes the distance to the battlefield, the grin fading from its face.


Enyalius, watching the monster's approach, raised her shield arm; rushing into the forest to preemptively attack would only get her caught in the webs, and then possibly killed. She would track it with her shield, and take its first attack for the group.

She only had to wait for it to make its move.

"Prepare," she cautioned, her voice calm despite the adrenaline coursing through her veins.

Shadow carefully looked over Pluto's bound form for a few moments, holding off on applying his weapon until he could find a safe place to begin cutting.

He then sighed in exasperation. At the moment, he didn't feel the elder Senshi was in dire danger, so it was better to avoid causing any harm. "Okay, this is a problem. I can't free you without injury. There's no good angles to work with - not any that I can see."

Sailor Leviathan shrieked and dodged the incoming spider just barely. Her worst nightmares were coming true. Even worse, Sailor Venus, her hero, was scared of these things. These things were truly horrible.

"L-L-Leviathan Illus-"

But before she could activate her attack, she was caught in the spider's webbing.

"Help me!" she shrieked. If she had a shred of pride or honor, it was immediately forgotten.

The spider sucked on her shoulder, cutting straight through her fuku. For a moment, she passed out and thought of how odd it was that Neo Queen Serenity's daughter had pink hair. 

She soon woke up and, luckily for her, Ganymede Knight came flying into help! He was actually good for something!...

Or not. She was doomed. Her first real mission as a senshi and she was already dead.

But then Sailor Andromeda came to assist her! She bit her lip in fear and hoped that the senshi's tactic would work. Fortunately it did.

With tears in her eyes, she actually bowed her head toward Andromeda.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

But then, something caught her eye, there was another creature coming toward them. She couldn't move herself and becoming invisible wouldn't help. Inspired by Andromeda, she knew there was a way she could help.

"Leviathan Illusion," she said with gritted teeth.

Some distance away, near the incoming creature, an image began to form in a haze. It appeared to be another one of the spiders, but it was three times as large and rather fuzzy. It had two expressive, cute eyes and a u shaped smile. It waved its stubby arms at the monster.

"I'm 2spooky4u!" it said in Leviathan's voice. 

It was only a simple illusion though with no real physical presence. It could be fazed right through.

OOC: Sorry for the lack of posts. On my work break. I'm not sure if this last part is OK, considering Leviathan is incapacitated, so just ignore it or have it do not effect if that is the case. Thank you!

Having found his bearings again, Ganymede Knight ran back to Sailor Andromeda and Sailor Levathan, placing himself in front of the one who had just been tied up.

"Just stand back, alright? We can handle this," he said, guarding her from further attacks.