Spire of the Betrayer [Open, Party of Two]

[Ariane Ivers]

The more often that Ariane came here, the more curious she became about what could possibly be at the top.  Everything she had read or played told her that a ridiculously tall tower filled to the brim with monsters had to have had something of worth in it, after all.  She supposed there was a chance that it really didn't have anything, and that it was just the cherry on top of the 'nothing makes sense anymore' sundae that had become her life.  But, hell, there was a chance she'd find something of worth here, and damn if she wasn't going to at least hunt for it.

Dressed in her usual leather jacket, jeans, and heavy boots she trudged up the stairs with her hands in her pockets.  So far, the enemies she found here had been a tad underwhelming, so she really wasn't all that concerned with what could jump out at her.  A fight was a fight, and while she certainly wouldn't object to a good one for the sake of practice she'd much rather something that could give more answers than questions.  It seemed the more she fought, the more that happened.  It really was becoming annoying as all get out.

[Kate Minola]

Kate had gone back to the tower for another exploratory foray. She felt guilty about it, but every time she did, she kind of pretended that she was in a video game. It was silly and very childish but it helped her cope with the situation. It was much better than pondering the reality.

She was better prepared than last time, too: She'd broken in her shoes properly and had even gotten their inner soles re-laid so they were more comfortable. No more fighting with sore feet for her!

She scaled the staircase easily and at the top, chalked an arrow on the wall with some bright red chalk she'd bought for this purpose. After almost getting lost a couple of times, she'd deemed it wise to take precautions. She expected a fight at this high a level honestly, but she wasn't very worried. Her confidence as a fighter was getting better and better all the time.

As she turned past a corner, she caught sight of someone - oh she'd know that red head anywhere by now.

"Hiya Anne," she said with a smile and a wave. "We've got to stop meeting like this, love," she added jokingly with a wide grin.

[Alice]

Partying up again? One more time gets a joke.

Siren
Resist: Slash, Light, Dark
Weak: Pierce, Lightning
Skills: Allure, Lullaby, Diarama, Recarm

Stonka
Weak: Pierce, Fire
Skills: Heat Wave, Twin Shot, Evil Glare, Auto-Tarukaja

[Ariane Ivers]

At the sound of the familiar voice, Anne turned with a smile on her face.  Laughing at the Kate's comment, she replied lightheartedly, "Hey!  Yea, or at the very least meet somewhere that we're not running the chance of, you know, fighting for our lives."  With how often she had been fighting alongside Kate, she was beginning to get comfortable around the other woman.  She could definitely hold her own, and had come quite a long ways since they met around her neighborhood.  Glancing down to Kate's shoes, she nodded in approval.  "At least it looks like your poor shoes are behaving now.  Was it the microwave that did the trick?"

Before she could comment further, she heard the same screech of the bird woman from the last time they met.  "Well, familiar faces.  I'll take the obnoxious healer if you want to play matador again.  It didn't seem to like your attacks last time at any rate, so no sense in changing what's not broken."  Cracking her knuckles, she charged for the bird and aimed a hard punch in it's gut.  It yowled in pain, healing a portion of the damage done.  Preparing herself for the long haul, Anne punched it as hard as she could twice more when it flung it's arm-wing-things to the side, and Anne felt her eyes began to droop again.  So, it was going to try it's luck with that again.  Shaking the sleep off, she struck out at the harpy-siren again.  As a last resort it began to... sing.  Scoffing, Anne quirked an eyebrow.  "Really?  Singing?  Because... that's..."  And that was when what it was actually, other than apparently a harpy, occurred to her.  For a moment, Anne's eyes glazed over, her face scrunching together in confusion.  The song it was singing suddenly seemed like the most beautiful thing she had ever heard, but in the back of her mind something kept pushing through it.

Shaking her head off, she looked at the bird almost forlornly, as though she didn't want the song to end but she knew she needed to kill the monster singing it.  With one last solid punch, the siren and disappeared, taking the song along with it.  Shaking herself off from the residual effects of the song, she turned, cheeks tinged with embarrassment.  "Well.  That happened.  I guess it's not everyday you're sung to by a weird bird-woman while you're trying to kill it."

[Kate Minola]

Kate grinned at Anne's comment. She had grown to like this gal very much. She was a very skilled fighter and she was quite pleasant to be around as well.

"Yup! Stuffed 'em with wet newspaper and stuck 'em for three minutes on high!" she chuckled. "They know better now."

Unfortunately, the now familiar faces of the one-eyed bull and siren showed up. Old hands at this by now, the two ladies were quick to respond.

"No problem," she said a little wickedly. "Go on and call me Ol' Faithful even, haha! Come on Cyclops, let's put out your lights."

She nocked an arrow and watched curiously as the bull stood its ground and grunted loudly, eyeballing her closely. She actually felt a chill run down her spine from confronting the creature's wicked stare, like she wanted to turn tail and run... but she narrowed her eyes and shook it off. No dumb bull monster was going to put the willies on her.

"Sorry darlin'" she quipped, "but I've got a Greek mom and ain't nothing scarier than the evil eye of a miffed Greek lady!"

Just as the bull rushed her, Kate drew her arrow and struck it straight in the eyeball. The monster bellowed in pain and lowered its horns to pierce her. Kate shrugged defensively and just before the horns made contact, Antiope appeared out of nowhere, covering Kate with her shield. The creature's horns struck the Persona and the powerful force concentrated on the tips backfired, launching the bull off its feet and onto its back.

Kate immediately directed Antiope to attack and the amazon struck her shield with her spear and pointed the spear at the monster, creating a powerful blast of fire on it that killed it with a flash of flame and heat.