>>933651
> Beg for mercy

>>933651
>Beg for mercy.

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(I'll be trying for hourly updates. So ETA 30 minutes or so.)

“I was a little bit annoyed already, because we had to stand around and wait here for the past ten minutes for a new teammate that we only just got told about.”

“I- I’m sorry-”

“Since that’s really Mr White’s fault, I thought it’d be stupid for me to blame you.”

“- please don’t eat me-”

“But then my bike got totaled.”

She pauses, her stare hardening.

“... What do you have to say for yourself?”

Mum, Dad, thank you for the years you have granted me. I am truly grateful for the chance to enjoy living up until now, and will never forget-

“Ahh come on Aly,-” SAVE ME YELLOW GIRL “-if you keep getting angry so much your face’ll stick!
Let the newbie live. You can pick up again after the mission anyways.”

Wait, what-

Your team leader takes about three eternities not reacting to her grinning friend, then straightens up and applies palm to face with a sigh.

“Fine. I’ll just use your share to pay for the repairs.”

You nod quickly and let out the breath you’ve been holding, then swallow it again when she turns to look at you again.

“Gear up already, we’re going.”

You’d really like a bit of time for your pulse to die down to less-alarming levels, but talking back seems like a bad idea.

>>933860

You reach into your pocket and withdraw a small translucent ball that looks like it’s filled with swirling, deep purple smoke. A quick thought is all that’s needed to start it up and engulf you in light.

It only lasts a moment, fading quickly and revealing your outfit. A loose, not-quite-frilly stand-up collar at your neck, a dark red-violet ribbon above a slate-blue double layered vest trimmed with dull gold. Long black sleeves covering your arms, puffing out before being bound at the wrists to leave ruffled ends extending some length up your palm. Shorts ending in neat cuffs, dark high socks held up by garters, thin lace up boots. A smooth staff as tall as you are, topped by a simple orb.

And a miniature black crown on your head. Which for some reason you can’t remove by any means.

Its unnaturally-effective ability to draw stares will never fail to make your cheeks burn.

>>933866

You walk with your team, following the wide asphalt highway to an opening in the huge wall that traces the city’s safe zone. The taller buildings and skyscrapers in the area were leveled long ago, though parts of their foundations are still set into the ground. You show your trainee IDs to the magicians stationed at the zone gate; the keeper there is a pleasant middle-aged man who smiles and wishes you all luck as you pass the threshold.

Immediately after the gate is no different from before it, but further beyond stand the gray structures and skyscrapers of civilisation reaching up to form a high skyline. Looking to the sides you can see the long unused entrances to the buildings, and the cracked glass windows of storefronts, blank monochrome spaces where their names would’ve been displayed.

The highway road continues, the black-gray broken up in rare places where old white markings haven’t completely faded, and along it the four of you move forward. The mist barrier gradually weakens as your steps take you away from the city, and the dark, dull purple tinge of Fog starts to seep into view.


>

[ ] Adventure!
[ ] Duty!
[ ] Improvement!
[ ] Dreams!

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(Or more as needed to wait for votes, of course.)

>>933873
> adventure?
What the fuck are we voting for?

>>933966

(Oh sorry. Character motivation, basically.)

>>933873
>[X ] Adventure!

Make sure to be explicitly clear about what we're voting for and why in the future. Otherwise people won't, because they will be confused.

Generally, it's a good idea to put it in the form of a question.

>>933873
>Adventure

>>934073

(Noted, thanks mate.)

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The leader tells you her name is Alexis Aeron. She’s slightly taller than you, her hair tied back in a long ponytail that almost reaches her waist. Her outfit follows a red colour scheme and looks sleek and stylish, though you can’t see much of it from behind due to the gatling gun strapped vertically to her back.

She speaks to you in clipped tones, eyes both forward and on the palm-sized phone-slash-data-tablet in her hand.

“What’s your blasting and utility?”

“Uh, narrow-to-precise, medium range at most, and a single-binding spell.”

She nods. “For now, just stay back so you don’t mess up our formation, and support whenever you can. It’s a short and easy mission, so we should be done pretty quickly. You’ll be free later?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll rent a training room and we can figure out how to work with you then.”

You’re a bit afraid of Alexis. You might be slightly biased.

>>934126

A soft, sweet voice that definitely didn’t make you jump comes your left. “Chris?”

“Yes … umm, Suzu?”

You turn to the large, round eyes of Suzu Sigilind, a girl that gives off a kind of demure impression. She’s about half a head shorter than you, with almost-shoulder-length hair that curls up at its ends. Her outfit tends towards a more natural, organic style, fitting its green colour scheme, and a large hoop with a golden bell attached to it spins and floats sedately around her right hand.

“Umm,” a short pause, recovering from her false start, “Alexis isn’t trying to be mean to you, Chris. She’s actually really nice, in her own way, though some people think she’s scary.”

“Everyone thinks that, Suzy, not just some!” Your other teammate says, moving from her place in front of you to throw an arm around the girl in green’s shoulder.

Mika Myrri. The same age as Alexis, you feel like Mika is the type to always be moving about. Her energy fits the bright yellows she’s donned, and on her hands are a pair of gunmetal gray gauntlets with opaque swirling orbs set into the back of each.

She’s wearing a big smile, which seems to almost always be the case.

“This morning was a little special though huh! You super destroyed her bike!”

Ha ha ha please don’t speak so loud she can hear

“Oh, Chris, you’re twelve right?” You nod, and Mika turns her hold on the smaller girl into a hug. “Suzy’s not alone in being the youngest anymore!”

“Mika, I- I can’t walk like this-”

“Mika,” Alexis calls back and you straighten yourself up like a soldier in a parade, “stop dragging her back and take vanguard. We’re already taking longer than we should.”

“‘Right~”

>>934135

“We’ll be close in a few minutes. Suzu, start overwatch.”

“Yes!”

You feel a surge of power as the girl in green jumps into the air, floating up until she’s almost a hundred metres high.

“... Is it okay for an aerial mage to wear a skirt?” You ask.

Alexis gives you a reply while Mika passes her to take the lead. “It’s fine. She’s got shorts underneath.”


> Take positions!

[ ] You’re pretty agile. Hop up onto the lower roofs and balconies and help scout forward.
[ ] Jump up, but stay close.
[ ] Move forward towards Mika. You’re better at closer range.
[ ] Stay near Alexis. Help as a blaster.

>>934142
>[X] Stay near Alexis. Help as a blaster.

>>934142
> stay bear Alexis and get ready to pew pew

You go over the mission briefing in your head. A small, lone Fog Shard was spotted, growing slowly, and your team is to get rid of it before its Barrier gets formed or other complicated things happen.

That might be the most basic kind of mission a magician team, even as just trainees, can be given. It’s also located straight down the highway your team is currently on, so no terrain issues, and at a distance to the city where its protective Mist is still fairly strong.

Which is why you’re uneasy when the mauve-coloured Fog ahead looks thicker than expected. Thick enough to make seeing through it difficult.

“This isn’t right,” Alexis says, her hands tightening around the grips on her gatling gun, “get ready.”

A hissing noise worms its way into your ears. It grows louder, closer, and soon enough you see their source through the obscuring gloom.

Ghoulish little things with gangly limbs, bestial and alien, scrambling low on fours. Barely substantial creatures of purple smoke, sticking to the surface of the ground and crawling on the sides of the nearby buildings.

Fogglings. Also known as blast fodder.

>>934142
>[x] You’re pretty agile. Hop up onto the lower roofs and balconies and help scout forward.
Agility is god-stat and more fun than tanking.

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>>934385

Suzu calls out from above, her soft voice magically enhanced. “Contact, medium wave, just forward! No others spotted!”

The girl in green brandishes her bell hoop, and with each resonating ring the creatures slow as if weights were placed on them. You can sense that her spell is limited to an area, but with further ringings she summons and empowers another debilitating field to cover the width of the highway.

Mika runs forward and takes a martial artist’s stance, the orbs on the back of her gauntlets spreading and morphing into round shields, but getting rid of the things is ultimately Alexis’ job.

Her crimson ponytail flourishes behind her as Alexis brandishes her weapon. The heavy gatling gun’s barrel turns with a distinctive whine, and then roars as it unleashes a barrage of glowing red bolts. The projectiles crash into the Fogglings, their scratching screeches crying out with each that fall as the surrounding terrain is pockmarked with craters of cracked stone and brick.

They’re fast, but your team holds. Mika smashes her fists into those that get close, and you’ve run forward into your own effective range. Steering clear of Alexis’ line of fire and taking note of Mika’s left-skewed position, you brandish your staff at the Fogglings that crawl along the building walls to your team’s other side and send forth lances of violet light, swatting the little things to the ground where they disappear into nothingness.

>>934397

Their numbers are thinning, but before the wave of Fogglings is suppressed your focus is snatched by a rumbling in the ground.

Further forward, a significant but rapidly-decreasing distance from your team, black triangular objects taller than your height jut out of the road. They move through the asphalt like dull knives, carving an ugly wound into the ground and throwing up the broken blocks with clouds of dust.

There’s multiple of them, though you can’t count exactly how many, and after a moment’s thought your eyes widen with realisation.

They’re shark fins.

“Demons approaching!”


>

[ ] Forward engage! Get pressure off Mika!
[ ] Defend and intercept! Don’t let them get through to Alexis!
[ ] Suppress! You need to get them out of the ground!

>>934405
>[ ] Suppress! You need to get them out of the ground!

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(Slight delay as I go hunt for foodstuffs.)

>>934405
> ] Suppress! You need to get them out of the ground

>>934485

(I left the house.
It was 35 deg C outside.
I should not have left the house.)

(Update ETA about 30 mins, I think. Sorry, longer delay than intended.)

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Fog-corrupted wildlife, twisted into sinister forms. Sturdier, dangerous. The size of a big car or van.

And permanently angry.

“Suzu! Keep the rest of the Fogglings down!” Alexis shouts over the noise. “Mika! Chris!”

The road splits open and a huge, sleek creature of obsidian black bursts out, the shifting surface forcing Mika to the side where she lands with a painful grunt. The demon crashes down not far from her, forming a crater that it clearly intends to turn into a tunnel.

The girl in yellow picks herself up desperately, morphing her liquid metal into spikes that extend from the knuckles of her gauntlets. She rushes forward with her intent on stopping the demon before it forces its way back under the earth, but its whipping tail sweeps through the air to steal her footing and knocks Mika down again, a hasty barrier spell preventing the worst.

>>935103

One, two more surge past her, their fins parting the solid rock in their wake, thunderous rumbling in concert a frightening warning to the danger underneath.

You need to get off the ground, and them out of it.

You jump to a first floor balcony as the monsters tear towards your position and steady your staff. You focus your magic for, one, two beats, the percussive sound of your own heart pounding in your ear, louder than the cacophony of combat around you, then unleash your spell downwards.

A violet lance pierces the asphalt and strikes the black crystal skin of one of the terrible beasts, turning it off its course and causing it to crash into the unseen foundations of the building across the road. Without missing a beat, you adjust your aim fire a second blast, eliciting an echoing shriek from the other monster and forcing it to slow and surface in front of you.

But there’s one more, there’s always one more, and though your third blast to its tail makes it jump out of the ground like the biggest and scariest dolphin in existence you can’t stop it from reaching your team leader.

Alexis leaps backwards instantly and engulfs her weapon in white-red energy, tearing from the light a large double-barrelled shotgun. She pulls a shell out of a pouch at her waist, pushes it into the firearm’s open chamber and pulls the trigger, her magic flaring violently as the weapon lets loose a booming crack, opening a horrible wound in her newly-arrived adversary.

>>935125

Another resounding blast from her shotgun finishes the job, its inner Core flashing with light before the wailing beast starts evaporating into dark purple pieces. Alexis takes stock of the situation and shouts. “Get back, Mika! We need to get some space!”

“Haha! That might be easier said than done, Aly!”

You feel magic surge in your opponent, and on instinct dive forward and out of the way. The demon opens its mouth and a dark bolt of burning crimson rips through the air, searing the back of your outfit. You catch yourself on another balcony ledge, scrambling to regain your footing.

Mika’s voice cries out. “Damnit! Sharks aren’t supposed to have lasers!”

She’s crouched, staggered to her knees from blocking her own opponent’s sudden bolt of magic. You look up frantically, and see the first shark you shot angling itself skyward at the girl in green who’s still focusing her spells on preventing the Foggling horde from joining the fray. The demon’s maw is open and surging with magical energy.


>

[ ] Join the front line! Mika is getting overwhelmed!
[ ] Get up there! Suzu’s going to get shot down!
[ ] You need Alexis’ firepower! Get these two sharks out of the way!

>>935148
>Get up there! Suzu’s going to get shot down!
I don't think the other two are in immediate danger.

>>935148
>[x] Get up there! Suzu’s going to get shot down!

>>935148
>[ ] Join the front line! Mika is getting overwhelmed!

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(Also: should I wait longer for votes? I'm not used to /qst/'s pace.)

>>935256
Depends on how many players there are. Like right now, 10 mins should be enough.

You’re not certain you can just leave your opponent to Alexis, but the fact that it’s still facing you should give her the advantage of surprise, and her shotgun has plenty of power behind it.

Either way you don’t really have time to hesitate, because across the highway the monstrous shark is already firing its magic.

It belches its blast of crimson straight at Suzu. She cancels her spells and turns, casting her defensive barrier, but the projectile rips through the distance far too quickly for her to react, the sizzling heat burning her outstretched palms.

It splashes angrily onto a transparent shield of protective magic, engulfing the air with its ghastly light, but leaving the girl in green unharmed.

Because you’re there in front of her, your own hand brandished outward to support the spell, your body shedding off the truly black, truly colourless fragments of the void that you [Stepped] through to reach her.

Suzu’s eyes are wide. “Chris, you can fly?”

You turn back to look over your shoulder at her, smiling sheepishly. “No.”

>>935387

Gravity takes over and you plummet downwards. Turning and swinging your staff wildly behind you looses an unaimed burst of power, propelling you straight to the demonic beast, the source of the flaming missile, and you land on it with no shortage of pain shooting up your legs.

The thing is trying to burrow again, trying to regain homeground advantage, making the act of staying upright on it incredibly difficult. You get your moment though, and with it you summon a metre-long blade of violet that leaves a vividly shimmering trail as you spin the weapon to hold it downwards, stabbing it straight into the obsidian monster.

It shrieks, convulsing, throwing you off its dispersing form, and you manage to stabilise yourself well enough to refocus and fire a wild shot at Mika’s opponent.

Your lance’s aim is off and the power behind it is weak, but it’s enough to make the shark recoil. Mika takes the opportunity to introduce it to her menacingly spiked fists, and with a pair of blows her opponent too is out of the fray for good.

Then you feel Suzu’s magic behind you; she’s cast her suppression spell onto the other demon shark, letting Alexis open a nice hole in its body with a well placed shot, finishing off the last of them.

You take a breath and ready your staff-turned-spear. The girl in green is no longer holding back the Fogglings, but compared to those demons the rest is child’s play.

>>935394
>>935387
So we can make a lightsaber and portals too? Why didn't we mention that to Alexis when she asked?
Can we shoot laser beams through the portals?

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>>935394

Why would you ever think you’d be so lucky.

A barrage of crimson energy pierces through and smashes into the ground in front of you, the shockwave knocking you off your feet.

“Chris!”

Mika’s placed herself in front of you, her gauntlets again taking the form of round shields.

The four of you stare and see a truly gargantuan shape, too wide to avoid smashing and carving through the structures on either side of the road. Huge rock-like things stab outward from its already spiked silhouette, its massive snout parting the Fog as it hovers slowly, ever forward. Red beady eyes pierce the dull purple veil, and magical energy arcs across its form.

It’s a whale. And to make things worse, it’s a composite demon; those shark creatures are embedded into its form, little bumps compared to the leviathan, acting as the turrets of a floating death fortress.

One of your teammates says a bad word.


>

[ ] Ha ha ha NOPE. Get a freakin’ building between yourselves and it!
[ ] Hunker down! Shield up! Shield up again! Trade fire!
[ ] No way you’re getting out of this easily. Blitz! Rush that thing and get to its core!

>>935406
Looks like intel dropped the ball on this one.
>Arrange the team into dramatic poses and announce your passionate motto to it.
But seriously
>No way you’re getting out of this easily. Blitz! Rush that thing and get to its core!
And by rush it I mean teleport behind it. Nothing personal, kid. pew pew

>>935406
>[X] No way you’re getting out of this easily. Blitz! Rush that thing and get to its core!

>>935405

(Because she only asked for your supporting capabilities, since even with just the three of them they could get this super easy mission done with and head into a training room, where they figure out where you fit in for real.

Super easy, don't worry about it.)

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>>935425

(I'm going to go ahead and open the floor to team name and motto suggestions.

... Open indefinitely, until whenever they'll be needed.

Possibly never.)

>>935465
We probably have to use the corporate motto invented by lawyers.

>>935481

(Yield, evildoer, or face the delicious fizzy taste of Coca-Cola!)

>>935465
Fierce
Offensive
Optimistic
Dames

“Umm, is this where we’re supposed to run?” Suzu says. She’s flown closer to the rest of the team, and you can hear panic creeping into her voice.

Alexis sounds stressed as well. “I’ve turned on the rescue beacon. If anyone has any ideas on stalling…”

You’re tired; though maintaining your spear and throwing your basic blasts aren’t too taxing you’d be lucky if you can pull off another three [Void Steps] without passing out, and you’re pretty sure the others are feeling the consequences of dragged-out combat as well. But you feel like you’d all need a lot of luck to not get turned to cinders turning your back on that thing.

Mika’s shields change again into the form of spiked knuckles. “I wanna punch it in the face.”

…

Alexis’ protest is interrupted by the sizzling sound of another magic barrage, and the four of you scatter as the shots make more craters in the much-abused landscape. True to her intentions Mika rushes forward towards the massive floating whale, shoehorning the rest of you into participating in Operation: Punch It In The Face.

>>935579

Suzu twists and weaves in the air above, pushing her agility to its limits while casting her suppressive magic. Her spells can’t last long, not while dodging the shots flying in her direction, but they still let Mika make headway through the remaining Fogglings quickly. The girl in red keeps up, brandishes her shotgun at anything in range.

Being the least space-constrained of the four, you [Void Step] yourself right on top of the hideous leviathan.

You fall through the air and immediately duck under half a dozen shark-sourced blasts, a stray thought wondering if your hair was set on fire, and sweep your spear blade at the nearest of the car-sized demons. You wound one easily but can’t finish it off, leaping across the whale’s rocky skin away from the crossfire of hellish magic, except the crossfire is freakin’ everywhere.

You can’t see them from where you are, but at least you can take solace in drawing attention away from the rest of your team.

A monstrous shark opens its ugly gullet and you see the threatening light within. Taking the opportunity and a possibly-stupid risk, you jam your weapon straight into its mouth, withdrawing it a moment after you feel resistance.

You push yourself flat against the floor, and your efforts are rewarded with a wave of searing heat that takes a defensive spell to avoid reducing you to dust, and the demon, two of its nearest fellows, and a sizeable chunk of the leviathan’s skin evaporates in the resulting explosion, causing the massive beast to let loose a deep, deafening wail that you feel with your entire body.

>>935586

Your blasted hearing returns to catch the tail end of Alexis’ magically enhanced voice, shouting a frantic warning.

The leviathan’s mouth starts to open, slowly, menacingly, the pace and inevitability of a glacier. Magic gathers into its maw, glowing energy drawing and growing in tune with a painful rumbling whining hiss.

A moment’s stillness, then a massive beam of raw power erupts from the giant demon’s mouth and tears through the dead city, blasting through the road and turning stone into dust with a monstrously loud crashing screech. You brace yourself and stab your spear into the giant’s stony hide but you’re still thrown off, flying through the air, slamming into something solid, spitting blood, barely able to summon a shield to take the worst of the impact.

And when it ends the scene is clouded in dust, a swath of destruction through the road where your allies stood. You were thrown onto a balcony a few stories up, and by straining your ears you can very, very barely hear your team coughing, thumps of debris shifting and falling. Magic still burns in the air, and you find yourself facing one of giant’s round eyes.

But as the electrifying energy from its attack dissipates, another light takes its place.

A painfully bright yet distinctly dull purple, coming from the inside of the titan’s mouth.

The light of a Fog Core. A demon’s heart, and its greatest weak point.


>

[ ] You call that blasting? THIS IS BLASTING!
[ ] Time for your dental appointment, Mr Whale!
[ ] Deep fried to perfection!

>>935596
>Time for your dental appointment, Mr Whale!
So their weakness is that they explode if you skullfuck them while they are charging ther lazers?

>>935596
>[X] Time for your dental appointment, Mr Whale!

>>935406
>No way you’re getting out of this easily. Blitz! Rush that thing and get to its core!

>>935596
>[ ] You call that blasting? THIS IS BLASTING!

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Ignoring the aching pain all over your body, you climb onto the crumbling stone rails of the balcony and leap off before it breaks, making a rough landing to the next. You continue on with haste, getting closer to where you think your team was, the whale’s beady red eye following your movements.

They come into sight, all three of them having taken refuge in an alleyway. You see blood, though with the distance and the dust it’s hard to know who’s taken what injuries.

Alexis looks up and meets your eyes through the settling dust cloud.

You hope she’s thinking what you’re thinking.

You take off again, running and leaping to the next balcony where you can see the gargantuan thing’s mouth closing slowly shut.

There’s still a significant amount of magic in the air - potentially dangerous when mixed with looser, less controlled blast spells (which is why the demonic sharks have been hesitating to fire on you), or in some cases with magic energy weapons like your spear. You can still feel a static-y sensation on your skin, but it’s fading by the second.

But if there’s a spot that’d still have a lot of it, it’d be inside the big dumb whale’s big dumb mouth.

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>>935731

You really don’t have much magic left, and your painfully low reserves come close to depleting when you [Void Step] yourself on top of the monster’s massive chin-like protrusion. You’re undoubtedly in line of sight of several demonic sharks, and you don’t want to bet on them holding fire, so you don’t hesitate.

The giant’s teeth are taller than you. They are also in the way. You need to fix that.

[Midnight Harvester]

Brilliant violet energy erupts horizontally from the orb atop your weapon, taking the form of a wicked blade that curves inward as it extends over three metres in length.

A vicious scythe, as big as you can make it with your remaining magic. Big enough.

You step forward, draw the weapon back, and take a wide swing at the giant whale’s stoney gray teeth. It roars as your magic tears out a large section of each tooth close to their roots, and they fall with resounding thumps as the force of your strike tears them away.

Behind you, Suzu floats in the air with blood staining her eyes, hands stretched below her. A streak of red shoots up and grabs them, and the girl in green heaves and swings forward the battered form of Alexis onto the monster. The girl in red runs forward while shoving a pair of shells into her shotgun and then focuses her magic, engulfing the weapon in light as it grows into some sort of double barrelled cannon.

And when the teeth fall away Alexis steps in front of you, heaving her firearm and pointing it through the hole you’ve made before pulling the trigger.

>>935736

Okay, now your hearing can’t not be screwed. The healing bill is going to suck really, really bad.

Her shotgun blast detonates the thick residual magic in the gargantuan demon’s mouth, causing a chain explosion that fills its cavernous maw. The light turns purple as the blast the thing’s Core deep inside, and as that becomes blinding you feel Mika’s liquid metal hand, no doubt stretched impossibly far from the orbs set into the back of her gauntlets. You’re pulled through down back to the ground, the landing knocking the air out of your lungs, and the rest of your team dives down with you with layers of barrier spells jolting into existence as a world-shaking shockwave shatters the space into pieces.

…

...

...

“Holy hell that was AWESOME!”

“Mika, you’re making people stare...”

The energetic girl, her wild spiky hair now its natural chestnut brown without her Gear, spins on her heel and falls forward onto Suzu in a clumsy hug.

Your team is back in the busy streets of the city, having just left the medical clinic. The mission itself didn’t actually take that long, but between the adults that responded to Alexis’ rescue beacon dragging the four of you back to the city, and the time spent on healing, treatment, and a few hours’ rest, by the time you were all let free the sky had already turned to evening. Thankfully the only major injury was to Mika’s right arm, which seems to have done nothing to chip away at her mood.

“But it was super cool! Isn’t that, like, the biggest thing we’ve ever beat? And, and that explosion at the end!” She makes an excited squealing noise. “My ears are still ringing!”

… Is that supposed to be good?

>>935756

“Mika, you’re blocking the path for others,” your team leader says. She turns to face forward again while the other two catch up.

“We’ll definitely get a lot more allowance for this. It turned out to be way more difficult than cleaning up a single Fog Shard,” Alexis continues. “Maybe I can pay for my bike repairs already.”

-Crap crap is she still mad the healing was really expensive will we actually make that much

Your heart has a seizure when she turns to look at you, and then has a seizure for a completely different reason when you see the small smile she’s wearing.

“You did great, Chris. Mr White is a bit… very flaky, but I think he chose really well for our fourth member.”

You can’t form a coherent response so you look away and laugh quietly, feeling abashed.

“Yeah, yeah! You were super cool out there, Chris!” Mika somehow manages to one-armed glomp you from behind as Suzu walks up, giving you her own gentle smile.

Your cheeks really are burning.

>>935758

“It’s way too late,” Alexis says, taking out a keycard and opening the door of an apartment building that you apparently just arrived at. “Lets just take a bath and rest now.”

-A bath?

“You’d be in a hotel or something right now, Chris?”

“Uh, yeah, Mr White said he’s still figuring that out-”

“We’ll all end up living together anyways, like the other teams,” Alexis says matter-of-factly, grabbing hold of your wrist. “Come on. We’ve got extra clothes and towels.”

“- Wait, but-”

Suzu takes your other other hand, pulling you into the building with Alexis. “You don’t need to hold back, Chris,” she says sweetly.

Total ineffectual sputtering. Blush spreading to cover your face in enough heat to fry an egg. “- But, but-”


Mika’s uninjured arm pushes you forward slowly from behind. “Yup, yup. You’re tired, right? Head on in already!”

You clench your eyes shut, crying out in overwhelming embarrassment.

“But boys shouldn’t take baths with girls!!”

…

…

“““- Wait, what?”””

>>935761
NOOOOO, a fucking magical boy quest! DROPPED!!!!11

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END EPISODE, ROLL CREDITS!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmkYEpXbfUA

Thank you very much for sticking around and reading this far! I had a lot of fun, and hope you all did as well!

I do have interest in sticking around as a QM, though I feel like I need to better figure out when I'm running or something - I mean, it's probably in the middle of the night for most of you!

I'm also very sorry for the twist at the end that's a lie im not fucking sorry at all

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>>935771

Also, pic related is my reference for Chris. Just in case anyone was curious.

I'm going to welcome and encourage any and all feedback as well! I'm not really looking for a full-blown review (though maybe I should ask for one in /qstg/ later); just telling me a scene/sequence/idea/character/whatever you liked or disliked would suffice, or if you've got ideas for how something could've been done differently that'd be welcome too.

QMs are attention whores - otherwise we wouldn't be here!

>>935767
maniacal laughter

Okay, well played, friend. I may have missed the thread, but now you have my attention. If you choose to continue this quest, I'd find it hilarious to see what a magical trap would do.

>>935781
All in all I think you did really well, particularly in the action scenes. There was a legitimate feeling of tension and danger and honestly I was surprised you didn't end up killing off at least one of the older girls.

As for you're little twist in the end, I thought it was hilarious. Admittedly there are plenty of anons who might drop this because of it I feel that it adds something unique and interesting to the /qst/

I seriously would be interested in seeing this quest continued.

I'm down for more.

Let's get good and totally turn this team into a harem by accident be the best magical person we can be.

Please no actual harem shit though. Many girls liking him is fine, happened to me once, but anything more is... eh

>>936449
This
They could all just be chill nudists who tease his little winkie but don't actually do anything lewd or lovey.

Thanks fellas! Really glad you enjoyed this episode.

My current, tentative plan is to run this again on the 20th, same day same time. I think I'm going to break the episode up into two or three parts, writing four or five updates on one day with a one to two hour delay between each, then leaving the rest for the next day. I'll post an early announcement in /qtg/ before running, so keep an eye out if you're interested.

Don't hesitate if you've got questions/suggestions/opinions, of course.


>>935795
Thanks for reading through! The way I writes leans away from 'game' and more towards 'story', so I do hope people coming in after the run finishes still find it fun to read.

>>936038
The combat scene actually ended up longer than I expected, and I tried really hard to pace it well. It's great to hear that it turned out okay!

Though I'd rather not be, I fear I might be too soft for harsh consequences. I'm not sure if I'd have the heart to do more than rip off a limb and permanently disable one of the main characters, haha.

>>936449
>>936681
No lewd! I don't want to be put on a list!
Personally, I dislike harems. Seems almost impossible to write in a way that isn't just shallow wish-fulfillment.

Damn. Missed the thread.

>>936956
>No lewd!
Its not lewd unless you make it lewd.

“But boys shouldn’t take baths with girls!!”
>Oh, c'mon. It's not that big..a deal. *giggle*
You then all hop in the bath and help scrub each others backs. No one does anything lewd and you get out of the tub and go on about your business.
As you sit on the couch reading you see the girls walking around nude. and turn red.
When they ask what's wrong you say "But girls shouldn't walk around naked in front of boys!"
>Oh, c'mon we do it all the time. It feels good, you should try it.
They then go on about their business as if this was perfectly normal.

>>944827
But it IS lewd anon.