The blow landed, though with less force and strength than he would have hoped; his own weakened state aside, far from being hindered by the corrupted, cursed ground beneath it, the dark tree seemed more resilient for it; his fist shredded through its bark layer with ease, but the impact only sent a shudder and a handful of cracks and splinters through its core wood. As the ground cracked beneath the tree, its roots writhed and twisted, before a wash of pale purple spread outwards from beneath the entity, refortifying the ground around it for a broad distance with more of its curse. Sylk's bandcoon, meanwhile, sought an opening to swipe some kind of data, but without wanting to get too close to the vampiric monstrosity, it leapt up and snagged one of the broken branches that came free under DruidMan's first assault, before racing back to Sylk and presenting her with a sizeable black, twisted twig. She could analyse exactly what it was later.
The wave of sickening weakness washed over Sylk as well, just as she receive this small prize, and a moment of staggering threw off her attempts to dodge as the withered Bluegon lurched its head in her direction and launched another pained blast of ice towards her, while more black roots held and guided its body. Some of them were out through its eyes now and what remained of the virus roared weakly after the blase. For Sylk, though she couldn't avoid it, her shield met the attack before it could do her scales a mischief, and a swarm of irate bees emerged in protest, crossing the space to sting and harass what they could of the tortured virus. With a last protesting sigh it fell still, and the roots restraining it squeezed harder, draining and crumpling its body into a mangled husk. Across the courtyard, something else twitched, as a mass of roots revealed the movement of something that might have once been a Shrimpy of some sort, and not too far from it, a walrus virus, equally pierced and covered in roots, and both looking variously crushed and emaciated. The roots covering and penetrating them started to manipulate their bodies roughly.
DruidMan was prepared to show his target some real cleansing fire up close, but just as he burst into flames, Twised-Heart pulsed with a deeper, darker shadow and its form seemed to waver, blending with the gloom more thoroughly. DuidMan found his attack connecting with nothing at all, as his assault blew right through the shadow of the tree, but Sylk had been trying to wait for just such a trick; when it phased out, she struck. Her moonray caused a pale, yet still brilliant beam of light, compared to the surrounding shadows, and though it, too lanced through the dark image of the tree, its glow seared away the wispy trails of darkness, and when it passed, the simple black wood of the tree's original form was left behind, unprotected. It writhed and swayed, branches lashing angrily, before beginning to flail and thrash all about itself, hammering the ground around DruidMan in particular with vicious smashes, any one of which might surely have dealt him severe harm, if the now-calmer navi hadn't dodged and moved, crossing back towards Sylk with a quick duck and weave that kept him away from the crushing strikes.
The sense of presence pulsed again, and the pair of navis felt further threads of cloying weakness assault each of their bodies and minds, while the two freshly awakened viruses tried to pin them down. The walrus virus released a pair of tusk attacks, heralded by a wracked bellow; it seemed to be mostly aiming for Sylk's clone, however, with one tusk striking the decoy, while the other pierced into the ground a short way from DruidMan as he took position by his ally. The shrimp virus seemed to get squeezed roughly, before a bubble blast fired out at them; DruidMan caught the brunt of this one, though as it scattered and spread, Sylk also had to weather the splashing fall-off, and her heavy scales hissed, their heat quenched. The corrupted ground beneath them seemed to pulsed as they took damage, amplifying it in a draining way, but fortunately for both of them, their natural defences reduced the damage from the new additions substantially, negating the effect, more or less.
While Sylk began to summon more of her allies to tear into the exposed wood of their foe, DruidMan remained still, carefully taking some time to observe their opponent and hopefully gain some more insight into its behaviour. One thing was for certain, now that he looked closely; as much as it could alternate two very different forms of defence, it couldn't do so instantly or indefinitely; it looked like they had successfully created a window to attack it with impunity now, and with luck it might last a little while, after Sylk stripped off its shadow early. The other thing he was able to learn was that the cursed ground wasn't just failing to affect it badly; it was indeed helping the tree's resilience. It seemed to act for it almost in the way that holy terrain would for a normal, healthy creature. It might be possible that such radiant terrain, in turn, would be hazardous for such a dark and twisted entity. The difficulty was that it seemed very determined to spread its curse, and to keep itself supported by it. Thus far, most attempts they'd made to alter the terrain had been met with a swift, almost reactive change back again, though there had to be a limit on how rapidly it could re-establish its preferred ground.
DruidMan's musing were cut short by a sudden forward explosion of reaching branches. In the middle of the smaller flails, however, a more sinister attack struck. DruidMan felt himself driven harshly back to the ground on his back, as a thick, sharp spike of black wood drove itself into his shoulder; he felt corruption flowing from it, locking up his body badly while it pinned him to the ground.
Sylk seized on the opportunity while the tree was focused on her ally; each of her summons came on in turn, the first blasting the tree, as well as the two recently activated viruses with blasts that froze the lesser, withered creatures solid and scored a substantial blow against their main target. It was followed by her darker summon, which sliced into the thick trunk of the tree and left a deep, torn-open rent across it. The jagged edges leaked a dark, reddish-purple sap, with scatterings of data trails breaking away at the edges. The tree itself reared back and more upright, in a manner of speaking, while many of its spindly, black branches raked at the air above in something that might have been a gesture of pain.
At that moment, DruidMan felt a dark pulse, and suddenly the feeling of corruption spreading through him reversed and became an excruciating sensation of draining and suction. The wooden spike pinning him down didn't move, but he could feel his essence being drained by the tree, and the images of some of the other captured viruses he'd seen would probably be forefront in his mind, at least for a moment. A sickly purple toxin began to leech into the ground from the point where the wooden spike had dug in, and in moment both DruidMan and Sylk were surrounded by a broad expanse of thick, sticky poisonous fluid that wafted corrosive, cloying vapours into the air around them. They both fought back, aiming to end the fight before it went any further; DruidMan managed to raise his arm and release a round of fiery projectiles, but weakened as he was the only rocket that reached the tree itself seemed to sputter out and bump harmlessly off its wood without detonating; he'd hit the tree alright, ut his efforts had just had no strength behind them by the time it got there.
Sylk fared better; not quite as badly wakened as DruidMan, her final attack struck home against the bole of the tree and blasted it with another wood-splintering strike. It swayed, twisting and writhing more slowly now; they had done it some serious damage this time, and it couldn't be too far from beaten. A last attack that didn't require any real strength on his part, saw DruidMan hurl an unusual blob of void-like energy. It reached the distance and lodged into the gaping tear across its trunk, where a sucking sound announced its detonation. The tree shuddered and convulsed briefly, parts of it seeming to draw in as something that might have been a wood shriek ripped free of it, but after a few moments the vortex faded again and the tree sagged, enduring the attempt. It seemed they were close, but not quite close enough.
-=Dark Tree=-
ВитаяСердце.КореньКрови (Twisted-Heart, the Blood Root): 295Hp [Cursed][Strengthen: 210][Folder-Lock][Self-Slow2][???]
Withered Bluegon2Bluegon2 (Bluegon)
Bluegons do not appear before Battle 6. They are extremely territorial among their own kind, so only one HoleDragon can appear per battle. Because they live among holes, they cannot appear without at least 5% Missing terrain.
Area: Sharo
HP: 290
Primary Attack Damage/Effect: 60 Aqua + Wide Attack
Primary Attack Accuracy: A
Primary Attack Description: Exhales a wide stream of ice breath.
Secondary Attack Damage/Effect: 70 Aqua + Knockback + Ground Attack
Secondary Attack Accuracy: C
Secondary Attack Description: Creates a wave of ice water that crashes into an enemy.
Element: Aqua
Possible Rewards (Per Virus): WaterStream (Rare), IceDragon2 (Rare), Zenny
Special: As this virus is always in a hole, it is immune to all Ground attacks.
Special: While this virus will never leave holes, it may still swerve to avoid attacks.
Special: This virus can use an action to duck inside its hole. This counts as a dodge. It may reemerge from that same hole, or a different hole on the battlefield, as a free action afterward.: DELETED
Withered Shrimpy2Shrimpy2 (Shrimpy)
Shrimpy viruses are able to move between attacks as a free action, however dodging still costs them an action. They must pause movement to attack. Shrimpy viruses may move over fragile panel types without damaging them, such as moving over Cracked panels without breaking them. Shrimpy viruses cannot be forcibly submerged or smashed through fragile panels, even if thrown. They can submerge of their own free will, however.
Area: Yoka, Beach, Sharo
HP: 180
Attack Damage/Effect: 45 Aqua + Spread 2
Attack Accuracy: A
Attack Description: Bub-V
Element: Aqua
Possible Rewards (Per Virus): Bubble-V, Zenny
Special: ShadowShoes: DELETED
Withered WallandWalland (Walla)
TwinFangs can actually block attacks. This is very useful to the Walla, as they do not move or dodge once battle begins.
Area: Yoka, Beach, Sharo
HP: 160
Attack Damage/Effect: 60 Null x 2 Targets
Attack Accuracy: A
Attack Description: Opens mouth to launch a pair of steel spikes at the enemy. The spikes can block or deflect incoming attacks, and they cannot strike the same target twice.
Element: None
Possible Rewards (Per Virus): TwinFang2, Zenny: DELETED
-=Determined Gardeners=-
Sylk.Exe: 445Hp [Poison][HardBody][Fire Casing Quenched!][Anti-Wood Trap][In Front of Twisted-Heart]
DruidMan.Exe: 375Hp [Poiosn][HardBody][In Front of Twisted-Heart][Hold!][Freeze!]
Simurgh: EJO
-=Court of the Fountain=-
30% Cursed
- Doubles Final Damage.
- Cannot be in Sigs.
- PanelShot: Converts attack to Self-Damage.
35% Poison
- -10 HP/action standing, -20 HP/action submerged.
- Zombie nullifies damage, heals 10 HP/action on contact.
- Cannot be in Sigs.
- PanelShot: Poison(20).
10% Cracked
- Changes to Broken when stepped on, chance to fall in when triggered.
- Burrow: Change terrain to Broken, Null 50 to burrower.
- Panel Crack attacks, >100 Damage Break/Impact/Drop attacks: Change terrain hit to Broken.
- PanelShot: Splash1.
15% Metal
- Cannot be Broken or Cracked except with Geddon/PanelShot, cannot be Burrowed into.
- Elec attacks: +100% Source Damage.
- 100 Damage Aqua attacks: Change terrain hit to Cracked.
- 100 Damage Fire attacks: Change terrain hit to Furnace.
- PanelShot: Imbue Elec + Break.
10% Missing
- Permanent bottomless hole.
- Doubles dodge penalties for bad RP.
- EJO if you fall in.
-=Observations=-
[???] This entity is mysterious; you don't know its full details or behaviours, nor what might be affecting it. Players will automatically learn more as the fight progresses, but can also take deliberate efforts to learn more about its strengths and weaknesses.
The tree does not appear to be negatively affected by cursed or poison terrain. It has been observed that viruses fully corrupted by the roots also enjoy this benefit.
Cannot move, but can reach the full courtyard and a decent distance above itself.
Utilises both SteelBody and Shadow defences alternately, and consistently refreshes its casing-like bark
Does not utilise any element itself, but seems to have a variety of restrained and infested viruses that it can call to a semblance of life, around the courtyard.
Strengthens itself and weakens foes.
Utilises draining attacks to restore its own health.
Upon dealing damage, it appears that Cursed Ground seems to act like Holy terrain for it, reducing its damage taken. It regularly spreads this curse around, and tries to keep the ground beneath it cursed as much as possible.
Can also spread poisoned ground under its enemies.