Keine Quest (Part 2): Broken History

[DracoOmega]

>"There's something! Mokou, think you can hold them off until we get inside?"

>"You want to squeeze in there?" She considers for a moment. "Well, probably still better than being out here. Yeah, I've got ya."

[Hello Purvis]

>"If nothing else, it should keep them from surrounding us!"
>"Rumia, lead the way, please."

[DracoOmega]

>"If nothing else, it should keep them from surrounding us!"
>"Rumia, lead the way, please."

>With that, you head towards the passageway, while Mokou dashes forward and starts to engage the spirits gathered near the entrance. A couple of them slip past her towards you, and fire a few quick bursts. Rumia moves out of the way of one blast, but another clips her leg and she stumbles. You narrowly avoid tripping up in her. Two more descend to your left and spray fire across the group of you.

[Hello Purvis]

>Open fire on them.
>"I've got it, Rumia!"

[DracoOmega]

>Open fire on them.

>You open fire on the spirits nearby, while trying to shift towards the wall. You nail a couple, and dodge around their fire, but several more filter down from above. You can see Mokou tearing a swath through some other spirits, about 20 feet ahead of you.

>"I've got it, Rumia!"

>"O- ok," Rumia says as she gets to her feet again, and runs towards the opening.
>You're probably about 50 feet away from the opening, now, although more spirits are closing in from the sides.

[Hello Purvis]

>Fall back toward the hole. Keep the pressure up so they can't swarm us.

[DracoOmega]

>Fall back toward the hole. Keep the pressure up so they can't swarm us.

>You keep angling towards the hold, while taking out what spirits you can on the way. Mokou is still engaged with the larger mass near you, but she also shifts as you move to try and place herself between the spirits and your route of escape. You're mostly left dealing with the stragglers. Still, with all the angles of incoming fire, and having to move in a way that doesn't allow you to keep a good eye on all of them, you sustain a couple more hits.

>Mokou has managed to clear out most of the spirits immediately by the hole, and form a tiny open space for you. Arrayed in front of her, and still fortunately out of range are a frightening number of new ones, however.
>"Get in!" she cries. "You don't want to be still out here in 15 second's time."

[Hello Purvis]

>Take Mokou's word for it, and aerodash in!

[DracoOmega]

>Take Mokou's word for it, and aerodash in!

>You make a dash across the last 10 feet to the opening. Rumia gets there slightly before you and disappears inside. As you're about to enter, you see the air around Mokou flare up and form into the outline of wings. It is suddenly not at all cold in here. You scrabble inside as quickly as you can, and find that it's a very tight squeeze in here. You won't be able to turn around at all without exiting it entirely.

[Hello Purvis]

>Can we stay airborne to keep crampedness to a minimum?
>Keep going, we're smart enough to know things are gonna get nasty.

[DracoOmega]

>Can we stay airborne to keep crampedness to a minimum?

>It really is little more than a crawlspace, here. You could hover a couple inches off the ground, but then the top of you would probably be scraping against the ceiling.

>Keep going, we're smart enough to know things are gonna get nasty.

>You keep crawling forward as quickly as you can with Rumia ahead of you. Fortunately, her size manages to be something of an advantage in this space. After a couple moments, you hear Mokou yell out, and the relative silence breaks into a cacophony of energy blasts, and the sounds of the air burning.

[Hello Purvis]

>Keep going. Mokou will tell us when it's fine.

[DracoOmega]

>Keep going. Mokou will tell us when it's fine.

>You continue moving forward in the tunnel. It's dark enough in here now that you really can't tell where you're going at all, except by feel. Fortunately the rock beneath you is smooth, or you think you'd be tearing your clothes to pieces by now. Wouldn't be especially kind to your legs, either... The passage bends and twists and soon the battle sounds muted behind you. Even craning your neck around, you can't see the opening anymore.

[Hello Purvis]

>Keep going, Periodically feel the walls, if necessary, to make sure we're still in the tunnel and not in a new chamber.

[DracoOmega]

>Keep going, Periodically feel the walls, if necessary, to make sure we're still in the tunnel and not in a new chamber.

>You continue down the passage, feeling the walls at intervals to see if they've given way to something wider. Eventually, it feels like the passageway splits in two directions. You have no idea where either of them goes, of course. You could probably use the room here to turn around, if you wanted to. Rumia seems to be going ahead down the right passage, from the sound of it.

[Hello Purvis]

>"Hold on a minute, Rumia."
>Call back: "Mokou!"

[DracoOmega]

>"Hold on a minute, Rumia."

>You hear her stop moving.

>Call back: "Mokou!"

>You don't hear a response, but you can't hear the fighting very well anymore, either. It's quite possible she can't hear you.

[Hello Purvis]

>If she went and blew herself up, how long would it take her to get better?

[DracoOmega]

>If she went and blew herself up, how long would it take her to get better?

>You're.... honestly not sure. On the bright side, you can still faintly hear some noises that suggest that there's still fighting going on. Of course, just because the spirits are firing, doesn't necessarily mean she's in any shape to fight back. Oh god... the spirits are probably implacable enough to never let up, no matter what shape she was in. What must that be like....? You try to shake these thoughts out of your head. That really doesn't even bear thinking on at the moment...

[Hello Purvis]

>"I think I better go back. Give me a few minutes, Rumia?"
>Urge Rumia to go right a little ways, then pull a turnaround. Hover an inch off the ground, enough to give decent back clearance since we know the way is clear, and proceed until either we see a light, or emerge.

[DracoOmega]

>"I think I better go back. Give me a few minutes, Rumia?"

>"Is quiz lady going to be ok? Rumia doesn't know where to go.... Rumia's scared...."

>Urge Rumia to go right a little ways, then pull a turnaround. Hover an inch off the ground, enough to give decent back clearance since we know the way is clear, and proceed until either we see a light, or emerge.

>You move Rumia off to the side and maneuver yourself around without too much difficulty. Then you set back down the tunnel, sounds of fighting growing louder as you move forward. As you come around another bend, you spot Mokou in the distance. She seems to have crawled into the tunnel backwards, and is trying to fend off spirits that have followed her in. They have a number of advantages in the closed space, since they have no mobility problems, while Mokou is unable to dodge anything, or even attack properly.

[Doll.S CUBE]

> Assist her retreat with a few danmaku

[DracoOmega]

> Assist her retreat with a few danmaku

>The confined space makes it equally difficult for you to attack effectively, and you're very likely to hit Mokou as well if you try this, unless you get closer to her first. On the other hand, maybe clipping her with a few bullets is an acceptable trade-off, given the circumstances?

[Hello Purvis]

>Would we be able to attack effectively, were Mokou not in the way, or is it too confined for our stuff as well?
>"I'm behind you, Mokou. The path branches ahead."

[DracoOmega]

>Would we be able to attack effectively, were Mokou not in the way, or is it too confined for our stuff as well?

>Well, a lot of your typical patterns would end up wasting most of their bullets against the walls, and it's awkward to aim well with so little mobility. It shouldn't be too difficult to toss fire directly in front of you, though.

>"I'm behind you, Mokou. The path branches ahead."

>"Sorry I'm late!" she calls back, as she attempts to blast another spirit. "How far?" You can hear her stifling cries of pain while she speaks. One of the main problems seems that she simply can't adjust to take out things that aren't in front of her, while it's easy enough for the spirits to slip past her. Thankfully, most of them don't seem intelligent enough to do this. However, she's taking a fair bit of fire, either way, since she simply can't dodge anything.

[Hello Purvis]

>"Just a little bit ahead. Lay down flat, I'm going to try to hold them off for you, I think I may have a better shot at hitting them here. How many are there?"
>If she complies, try to get our familiars in front of us, aim high, and shoot.

[DracoOmega]

>"Just a little bit ahead. Lay down flat, I'm going to try to hold them off for you, I think I may have a better shot at hitting them here. How many are there?"
>If she complies, try to get our familiars in front of us, aim high, and shoot.

>Mokou flattens herself against the floor as best she can, and you fill the air above her with bullets. Some of the spirits swoop under them, but several are destroyed. A couple shift towards you, and fire small bursts.
>"I blocked off the tunnel entrance with a fire barrier as I crawled in," Mokou responds, sounding a little pained. "But a bunch of them swarmed after me before I finished. So in here, about as many as you see, probably. Out there... hundreds, easily. And it ain't gonna hold too long with me away from it."

[Hello Purvis]

>How many seem to be left? Try to tag a few more, and not get danmaku'd in the face.
>"Right!"

[DracoOmega]

>How many seem to be left? Try to tag a few more, and not get danmaku'd in the face.
>"Right!"

>There appear to be 6 or 7 left. You very quickly reduce that by two more.
>You manage not to get danmaku'd in the face by looking down and trying to awkwardly shuffle aside. Doesn't stop you from being danmaku'd elsewhere, though, and you feel a line of bullets trace along your back, leaving a searing sensation. Another burns part of your leg and ankle. You see Mokou tag another.

[Hello Purvis]

>Wait for a good opportunity to snag a few more, then open fire.