Press Your Luck! [Open/Party of 2]

[Yumina Makino]

As far as Yumina knew, fighting these shadow things was one of the easiest ways to get stronger. Oberon certainly didn't learn anything useful, so she had to learn how to do everything herself. First step was improving her knife skills. She couldn't just ask someone to teach her, since most adults were sensible enough to question why she wanted to do this, and wouldn't believe any of this Shadow nonsense. So, Yumina had to resort to doing what most video game characters do--beating up powerful enemies and collecting a ton of experience.

Of course, this area was significantly easier than most of the others, but that was kind of the point. The some of the last few fights involved strong monsters that actually stood a chance at beating her. While the additional challenge was a little refreshing, some were just unfairly hard. Like that giant dog. That guy sucked.

Until she got better at stabbing things, Yumina didn't feel safe enough to explore that far away into dangerous territory. The food-based enemies here wouldn't be able to resist her knife attack. These guys still followed some kind of logic, and wouldn't be able to defend against getting cut.

So far, she hadn't really run into anything worth fighting. Not since she entered the supermarket. Frowning, she spread her arms out and called out to the enemies. "Come on out now! There's no point in making this take longer than it has to."

[Marina Mikami]

So, here Marina was. Back towards the supermarket where she last encountered those creatures. It was starting to get easier to accept that this kind of thing happened every day. Key word was starting. She didn't like the fighting that came with it. After all, she had never really been in any fight before she had awakened to her Persona. And the creatures that appeared at this time still creeped her out. However, there had to be reason why it happened right? The very least she could do was explore again, try and figure things out.

Unlike last time, she at least had an idea what might happen when she got there. She had worn some older clothes, ones she didn't mind getting ripped or torn if it happened. Last time one of her favorite dresses had been ripped and it had been a pain to fix that. She also brought the parasol she had used last time. For some reason it seemed to work and she would use it to protect herself for now. She soon spotted the familiar looking building and went inside.

This time instead of a boy, she found a girl. Looked to be about high school age. She seemed to be expecting trouble or at least waiting for it. Marina couldn't help but cock her head to the side, as she watched the girl search. Why would anyone want to seek out those creatures?

[Alice]

'ey~ Two girls're in the party aisle.

Jotun of Jalapenos
Null: Fire
Weak: Wind
Skills: Viper Smash, Agilao, Cleave

[Yumina Makino]

Okay. . . when Yumina said the enemies were easier, she hadn't counted on running into some multi-armed giant. This, uh, might not be as simple as she expected. Guess this was another example of why sweeping generalizations are (usually) wrong.

"I didn't mean you. How about you just crawl back to wherever y--" The enemy wasn't even trying to listen, and began to move forward. Forget about talking, Yumina focused on summoning her Persona to use the one spell that could help now. Devitalize could mess with the guy's head and make it easier to kill him. Somehow. It never really made a lot of sense.

The giant stopped before entering melee range, in order to launch a small fireball. She tried to dodge while moving closer, but misjudged the size of the thing and got burned anyway. Since it worked once, he tried it again with the same result. The second blow caused her to trip right in front of Shadow bro. He raised both arms to strike, then missed completely, crashing into the aisles on either side. Alright, now Yumina had a chance to attack. She stabbed him in the leg a couple of times.

Guy didn't really appreciate that, and when his next attack missed as well, the giant was clearly upset. He jumped back with a surprising speed for his size. Before Yumina could move in for the kill, he swung his foot and punted her out of the aisle. She didn't go far enough to crash into the wall this time, which was the only positive in this situation.

When she tried to stand up, a sudden pain in her stomach brought Yumina back to her knees. Placing a hand over the injury made her realize she was already bleeding. Looking back up, she became aware of the other human nearby. She vaguely remembered noticing the lady earlier, but then fighting happened. The idea of having this girl finish the monster off seemed like the worst thing ever. No one else needed to interfere.

"Don't--" she began to call out, before getting interrupted by a cough. Yumina stood back up, and knew she wasn't in the best condition to keep going. Her pride started to fade as self preservation kicked in. As much as she hated asking, it'd be smarter to let someone else help. Well, this would be an awkward first conversation.

"Forget that. Could you, uh. . ." she bit her lip, and tried to figure out some way to word her request that didn't sound so pathetic. Finishing that sentence without sounding weak proved to be too much of a challenge. Oh well. As long as the other person did something, there should at least be enough time to run away.

[Marina Mikami]

((OOC: would you like this to lead into a social?))

Looks like the girl had gotten more than she had bargained for. Instead of three different creatures like last time, one creature appeared. One very big creature. It was much creepier than the dancers Marina remembered from before. It was big, with multiple arms. Though that wasn't what made it creepy. What made it creepy was the fact it was on some kind or rocking horse. Why a rocking horse? She had a feeling she wasn't going to want to see another one of those for a long time.

Marina summoned her persona as she watched the girl attack the creature. The girl had managed to get in a few good hits and had used some kind of spell on it, though she wasn't sure what it was exactly. However, the girl managed to take a beating. Marina couldn't help but let out a small gasp when the shadow had kicked the girl. It looked like it hurt big time. The girl tried to get back up, but it wasn't happening. She seemed reluctant to ask for help, but ultimately did. Or at least tried. Marina gave her a small nod, as she took out her parasol.

First things first. To get the creature's attention. She aimed her hand at the creature and her Persona followed suit. Both snapped their fingers and a ball of ice fell on top of the giant. It didn't seem to like that very much and turned its attention to Marina. Before she could get close, the creature shot a ball of fire at her. Marina dodged out of the way, but it managed to hit her hand. It hurt, a lot more than she was expecting. She shook her hand though it hurt to do so. She'd have to worry about her hand later, this creature needed to go.

She rushed closer to the giant and started to whack it a couple of times with her parasol. She was trying to get it to fall over, it didn't look very stable on the rocking horse. The creature soon aimed a kick for Marina and she tried dodging out of the way. She almost did, but it managed to hit her leg and this cause her to fall down. She tried getting up, but her leg was hurt too bad. She needed a few more seconds then the creature would allow. She held out her arm again, her persona following suit. Please work... she thought to herself as both of them snapped their fingers.

Another ball of ice appeared over the creature and fell down on top of it. This seemed to be enough, as the creature soon disappeared. That was closer than she would have liked. Marina used her parasol to help her off the floor and to limp over to the girl. She held out a hand towards her. "Do you need some help up?" she asked her concerned. She then gave her a soft smile. "Or at least give me a little bit of help out of here?" They both didn't seem to be in very good condition to be walking by themselves if more shadows were around.