<Nocturnal Harmonia>

[Bloodedge]

"Well you're not the only one!" Yugi said about the wait Makima obviously didn't care for. He couldn't understand why this entire trial wasn't completed with the felling of Igris alone. To also be required to survive this army for four hours, Brainface had to be on some kind of futuristic, alien drug! Whatever the case, Makima promised some sort of reward if they did a good job and made it back safely. Maybe 'reward' wasn't even the right word for it. She called it... a treat. "Can't say no to that!" Yugi exclaimed as he underwent a series of movements quite similar to what he'd seen Mai do earlier this day. That catalyst reached his left hand, pairing with his sword to sweep one knight off its feet to start. As he followed through to slash the next knight twice and leave Megiddo to the fallen enemies, Miko's words of dissatisfaction reached his ear. "Feel how you want. If you're salty about it, you don't consider yourself important. That's a fucking you problem!" he announced. Yugi sent his own sword back to Inventory to focus on using the catalyst. Having a bit of control with that weapon in hand, he decided to take a strange approach.

Yugi didn't get a chance to control some of Megiddo's beams earlier. Now though, he could do that while using Sharingan to perform a trick. When he drew Megiddo's beams, he aimed them at himself ─ at the catalyst specifically. Knowing it to be a resonator of sorts, Yugi kept himself low ─ even beneath a group of knights at times. Beams were drawn through their bodies and into the catalyst, only to be bounced from crystal out into other knights and archers. That distraction was still bothering him. The more it happened, the more wary of it Yugi became. It definitely wasn't stray spells or arrows; the mages weren't even in his line of sight presently. There had to be another type of enemy in this chamber. . .

[Apollymi]

Apparently, Makima wasn't the only one waiting. Yugi had a hint of frustration in his tone, she supposed as annoyed as she was by the wait, it had to be significantly worse for those actually living the moment. "I imagine you're not having the best possible time. The order of these things is a little ridiculous... good thing a healer is among the first you found or this could be potentially quite annoying for you," Makima mentioned. All things considered even without access to a true arsenal without the limitations of normal classing she could have a decent bit of faith that they'd make it through. Beyond that point there was the matter of a treat, which was gladly accepted. He didn't even know what it was yet, but she was used to that sort of reaction, "Hai hai, I'll see to it then," she mused about the 'treat' she would be arranging. Meanwhile, Miko was mostly thinking to herself about the nature of her feelings, by the time Yugi commented she was rolling her eyes and sticking her tongue out. "I know is a me problem that's why it was an I statement, and not a 'you're a dick for that' statement," Miko sassed. It was one of those minor arguments of semantics, that the pair of them had quite often. "Wow... you two really are partners I guess. That Drain power feels interesting as well... but you should have all your mana back by now. I also reset all of your fractured bones and healed your bruises," Tae mentioned.

"Hai hai, I appreciate it. And I'll hang on to the excess for a while. If you like the skill have Omen-kun put one together for you... I'm sure we have a few of those runes to spare," Miko claimed casually. Soon enough though Miko was stretching and getting ready. "Tag me in!~" Miko chattered getting ready to toss herself into the fray in Yugi's place until such a time as he was healed. She figured such a thing would be fine to do in light of the situation, she even called down more Megiddo to clear a path for them to run between the healing space and the center of the horde. Whatever was amiss about it, it was something the pair would have to figure out between themselves by the end.

[Bloodedge]

Yugi never stopped moving around the room. In doing so, he kept drawing the attention of knights in a mobile 10-meter radius, keeping the healing area sufficiently spacious. It was doing a number on his already-low fatigue, however. His movements showed as much, if only sometimes. Evasions that should have been easy were becoming narrower. Critical strikes would occasionally miss would-be vital points and require a second shot, stab or slash. Still, he persisted. The promise of a treat from Makima didn't have to be something specific. She knew what he wanted, and he knew how she was. As for Miko, Yugi scoffed whilst vaulting over a knight, using Ruler's hand to pull an archer from the rafters and slam it into a group of knights below. "If you don't want a response, keep it in your fucking head!" he argued during the descent thereafter.

Soon enough, the words Yugi needed to hear were spoken. Miko was ready to be tagged into combat. "On it!" Yugi replied. One High Knight he'd been working on for the past couple of strikes fell at his feet. Yugi vaulted over that knight, intending to dart down the clear path... but there was a stagger in that first step. Something sharp and metal pierced his lower back, just under his right kidney during takeoff. Yugi stumbled forward wincing, looking over his shoulder to prepare a retaliation... but there was nothing immediately behind him. 'Fuck!' he thought. "Hrrk! Watch out! There are assassins!" he warned when passing Miko, unable to even perform his preferred tagging method. Instead, he would continue tumbling to stop right in front of Tae. "Gah! 'Sup? Figured you could use a slightly harder job, y'know?"

[Apollymi]

Yugi never stopped moving around. He was quite busy even while being admittedly not in his peak form. Miko kept track of him as well as listening around for the movements of the other creatures. There were a lot of heavily armored footsteps, a bit of mage chanting and something else she was familiar with but couldn't quite pick out of the lineup of sounds just yet. What she could pick out of the sounds however was Yugi's specific words about her vocalization choices. "Not all inside thoughts are meant to stay inside, some are forced out and let go of," Miko settled. She saw no point in explaining the full dialogue. She heard too many things all the time to feel the need to respond. One could even say that the fact that Yugi felt the need to respond just because she said it, might have said more about him than it did about her. But she wasn't the sort of person to bother over that. She'd already admitted that she worked through most things on her own, and her feelings of inadequacy were fleeting, but still needed acknowledgement to be moved past.

Miko was soon enough though, switching places with a clean bill of health. Still, before she and Yugi could properly switch places he was stabbed in the back beneath a kidney. Her eyes widened. He made it to the healing circle with a warning about oassassin's, and Tae was soon grabbing him up, hand already outstretched, performing the 'Mana Surgery' to close up his wounds and make sure his internal organs didn't take too much damage. "You could not do that. You already died once today right, best not upset anyone else~" Tae claimed almost nonchalantly. "So while I fix you up, do you want to explain why you have an actual Sharingan and how the hell I ended up here? Because I feel like I'm missing quite a few things..." Tae mentioned having her hands on the lad she could tell his body had become even more defined. His physical status had to be in the realm of the higher tier A-ranks by now. And his perception had to count as something special at best. While she ponered those points Miko took up residence outside of the 10 meter safe zone. Much like Yugi she wouldn't be remaining still, but she'd take up a different method of keeping herself safe. One catalyst would be found in her hand, the other was pulsing around her, like a short order shield. When she heard arrows, it would pulse, disrupting the forward motion. While she used the remaining time on Megiddo to keep the circle around the pair safe. Instead of his quicker movements though hers were a bit more reactive and directly more like dancing.

[Bloodedge]

"Making random exceptions now, huh," Yugi said as the final comment on that topic. Shortly afterwards, he was escaping the fray only to be stabbed in the back. Of course there were assassins. Yugi would nearly believe those types existed in this quest just to further annoy him. Rangers were equally a problem in some cases, but there was something he could do about that as well. First, he just had to regroup with Tae successfully. That did happen in due time ─ with Tae catching his stumbling form and beginning the healing process immediately. Of course, there was a bit of teasing to go along with it. "What's wrong with dying again? Apparently the first time got us a moxie proc once per hour... within range," he claimed, rolling over to face the archers up high.

Yugi's right arm, now emptied of the catalyst, stretched out. He moved it in jerking movements that were just careful enough to avoid ripping open any partially-healed wounds when the recovery process was just beginning. With no mana leaving his body, he jerked down one archer, then another, then another. He'd take that task unto himself as Tae sought further explanation, which he now had plenty of time to give. Of course, he also had time for something else. "You don't want to talk about the time you found to repaint your toenails instead? Everybody's changing colors; nothing weird about Sharingan," he said first and foremost. "I got my Perception over 50, and this happened. You got here because it's part of the job-change quest. Bondmates of at least Concubine level can be summoned one at a time, for twenty minutes, with twenty minutes of cooldown after. I would have tried calling, but... obviously I'm already on the phone and the countdown was already starting. Any more questions? How about one for you? You don't happen to have an Ume-style heal in your kit, do you?"

[Apollymi]

"Coming from the guy who also had something to say when I said nothing. Yep~" Miko once again simply stopped her speech on a single word full of sass and sarcasm. All the while noting the end of Megiddo and moving up her tempo just a bit. She was spinning between multiple armored beings, seeming to chirp while using those catalysts of hers to vibrate them on an individual basis. She was also keeping a small radius around herself to make sure she didn't get stabbed. She'd not been able to pinpoint the 'Predatory Silence' as she'd taken to calling it, but she was able to keep fending off any creatures in her immediate vicinity with more ease than the Igris fight had granted them. Yugi was the type to say whatever thing crossed his mind whether someone needed acknowledging or not. Miko simply wasn't the type to let him get away with circular logic when he'd already argued the opposite side before. It also seemed to be the case that he wasn't letting such things go in her case either, but that was simply part of their likeness and nothing to worry about. As Makima watched on she decided the pair had a fairly healthy relationship based on how they interacted from one moment to another.

Apparently, Yugi's near-death experience came with some buffs for the Players. Makima found this news interesting but Tae was a bit more practical even while not being a gamer. "Oh? But don't rewards like that have diminishing returns. Like you get one good thing and then after the first time you get scraps. Best not die over something like that..." Tae thought, though she couldn't argue against the initial goodness of his 'first' death given what it did. No matter, she pieced together his kidney and once she was done with that, she moved on to his side. She noted the previous healing measures. It seemed to have been reopened a time or two, but the healing itself had initially been pretty clean. Seeing such things was a good measure of healer ability. And while they spoke she kept up such notes in her mind. "It's been hours since I last saw you and I always redo my toes after coming out of a Gate, it's a part of my routine," she explained without having to do much thought. Apparently, the lad's eyes came with his increased Perception and she was here because she was Concubine level and could be summoned here. Well, she at least saw the need. Yugi had several wounds which had started healing but weren't allowed to close fully. She was going in behind those in most cases and finishing it up, but that wasn't too hard. Kidneys, side flesh wound, multiple fractured ribs, bruising along his spine, strain in his eyes and exhaustion were his main problems. Interestingly, the damage to his central chest cavity had been healed completely but the crack in his sternum was still present after everything that had happened. "No, all of that makes a decent amount of sense... I would say you two definitely shouldn't be here alone, and that the boss you took on was way outside of acceptable range for you, but you already killed it so, omeidetou..." Tae said as she moved on to his ribcage repairs. Did she have more questions? "Yes I have thousands, but I'm not weird enough to ask all of them at once," she said while her eyes darted about. She saw Miko darting by, holding the line of their protected space from a charging shield holder, by jumping feet first into the shield and pushing him back into the crowd. Just the same Yugi's question about powers made Makima raise a brow there was too much she wasn't familiar with, but Tae knew enough of Aeon's works to have something to say, "No one is taking obvious pervert powers except for kids. I didn't even develop any... though I do have a fitting theme for myself..." Tae clarified while knowing she had no intention of giving herself healing saliva or anything of the like.

[Bloodedge]

Diminishing returns were typically things Yugi had great awareness of. In this case, none were clear, but there was one potential negative. "Usually, yeah. But... even though this is like a game, it still isn't one. The only problem is the potential crutch, which I don't intend to use. Even if Death was hot when I saw her, I don't think she'd like me hitting on her if I rushed back in," Yugi rambled. Regarding his comment about Tae's recently-repainted nails, apparently she had a routine kept after raiding Dungeons. How interesting; there seemed to be multiple Hunters doing that sort of thing. "Sou. No further comment. Except to say you should try red. Good contrast," he said plainly.

An explanation given was received well. Tae had many remaining questions, as anyone would, but she apparently had no intention to ask all of them here and now. She did however, find it imperative to note that the Players shouldn't be here alone ─ adding congratulations for even defeating the boss. "I get the feeling he shouldn't have been as difficult. I've been noticing some problems with the System. I think there's something off about the multiplayer scaling... like the original design was for one person, and there's an AI still kind of struggling to make constant adjustments One person going through the intro here probably would've leveled up enough to have less problems. Probably," he chattered aimlessly. Yugi was starting to feel quite decent compared to how he'd been for the past fifteen minutes or so. Still, he'd let the doctor continue her work as he continued ensuring no archers were allowed back up into the rafters. Sadly, Tae didn't have the sort of power he referenced... but she was right about having a very fitting theme for herself. "You do. How's your combat, though? I could help you lean into the 'plague' part better than ever. Besides, at this rate, you'll be here for an extra ten minutes after the healing's done."

[Apollymi]

Yugi was apparently aware of some things that could go wrong with relying on mechanics. He even claimed he didn't want to use a crutch and claimed 'Death' was hot. That wasn't that unusual, Takemi Tae was a doctor she'd heard plenty of things about the 'Grim Reaper' or 'Death' and what they might have looked like or how bland the afterlife looked like it owuld be. "Sou ka, well not all women are into dogged pursuit," Tae said casually enough that it seemed like she wasn't questioning him. Well, obviously she was being sarcastic. Moving on from that topic, Tae explained that she always had her toes repainted after coming back from a completed Raid and was met with the idea of choosing red for contrast. "I'll consider it." she said about the nail color. She wasn't really pressed an she enjoyed dark colors but a bright red would probably look very nice as well. By the time she said that, she'd effectively fixed up most of the deep tissue injuries and was now making sure his bones were sturdy and the rest of his frame wasn't injured.

At the same time, "Are you two living some weird sort of Beta Test? Also what level have you gotten to? When I last saw you it was 22 and you were C-rank. But this muscle definition, the changes to the girl's body that are visibly noticeable and all that is going on with you says you should realistically be around A-rank," she wondered given all the complaints he had. It seemed to be the case given what the lad had to say about the boss's difficulty. That was at least the only explanation she could think of given his explanation. Beyond that there was the idea about her and potential combat viability, "Combat? I'm a Healer, combat isn't my specialty and combat abilities aren't expected..." Tae said with massive confusion. Of course it would be at a time like this that the actions of Miko came back to the forefront. With Yugi watching the rafters she was able to keep an eye on the movements of the creatures on the ground except for the assassins pretty well. And as now punching towards a charging shielder with an odd cry. "GETCHO PAPER UP!~" the Black Flash skill activated and was something Tae got to see first hand as she shattered a shield and knocked back an opponent she followed to the ground with a flat palm absorbing mana before it kicked the proverbial bucket. She'd then quickly flip off that hand and spin her catalyst around singing a quick note to stun the group around her before she started with the pulsing slashes.

[Bloodedge]

The Players were absolutely living through some weird beta test, perhaps even a pre-alpha. So many inconsistencies within the System pointed to that likelihood, and Yugi wasn't letting Brainface get away with the unfinished product. "Yeah. Or you could say we're playing No Man's Sky on release day," he said, even correcting himself immediately. Tae went on to question their current level. They were level 22 and around C-rank during their last meeting, and could now be compared to A-ranks in some way. "I think we're right on the cusp. After taking Igris down, we hit forty-si─" Before Yugi even finished his sentence, one of the knights killed by Miko pushed them over once again. [LEVEL UP!] appeared in the System, putting the Players at... "Forty-seven," he corrected again mid-sentence.

Despite the number of ridiculous things she'd seen and heard from the Players thus far, Tae had the audacity to talk about Healer-types not specializing in combat ─ and not being expected to have combat ability. Ah, but Miko brought proof to the contrary with perfect timing by delivering Black Flash to one of her foes. Yugi didn't speak on the matter. He knew Tae heard that outcry and saw the resulting damage, so... he merely pointed. His point had been made with no effort whatsoever. As such, Yugi moved right along to the original topic he meant to broach. "As I was saying, I can help with the plague theme. I'm pretty sure I could make a 'kiss of death' type thing... or an actual plague. You could be... Plaguespreader Mommy♥~" he joked, fingers wiggling in a mockingly ominous manner. "You also seem like you'd go for the spider thing. I can give you the webs, no thorax needed. Though you've got that equipped anyway, it won't come from there~"

[Apollymi]

The Players were living in a strange version of the world. Where they were playing a game that obviously needed testing. Oh well, it was to the benefit of anyone they managed to care about that they had access. "Didn't that game burn, and everyone demand refunds because they couldn't do anything in it?" That one had a huge blow up in the media before the developers went radio silent for a while. But soon there was more pressing information, apparently the pair of teens had gained, 25 levels in the 8 to 10 hours since Tae had seen them last. "WHAT YOU PUT UP 25 LEVELS IN A WORK SHIFT?!" That kind of thing was crazy even back when games were just games. These two had to have been in full grind mode for the duration of their time apart. She supposed she wouldn't be getting accurate measurements for the growth of this pair if they were managing to spike so quickly.

At the same time Miko was hearing a level up and she had a thought about increasing her Perception which she figured might help with the Assassin's but either they weren't attacking her directly or they couldn't get close enough. She figured it might be the case that she could end up accidentally crippling herself for a bit and she wouldn't want to do. At the same time, Tae was learning that Healers had quite a bit of flexibility when connected to Players. "Not giong to question why, she can do Black Flash a thing only done by S-ranks," Tae murmured but she definitely wanted to study both of them now. No matter, Plaguespreader Mommy was the idea that the lad was talking about. "Ehehe~ I made a joke like that earlier and the Egghead didn't get it," Tae mused appreciating the lad. "I do and have always liked spiders. And you're pretty bright, so go ahead and since I'll still be here I'll test out what you come up with~" Tae claimed. She hadn't the slightest bit of fear. From what she could tell most of these creatures were rather weak. They weren't phantoms but they also weren't any monstrous creatures either. She could in good faith do a bit of experimentation. At the same time, Miko was still busying herself keeping the area around the pair clear, she could hold that line even as she sent one of her catalyst flying around the circle with Ruler's Hand while the Mana Pulse from it vibrated and disturbed each one of the knights who' been trying to move into position around them.