Pretty spares a brief glance at Randall, although he is somewhat distracted by Trush's attempts to impale the demon on his sword. "You break curses now, do you? But why would breaking a curse on them help...ah, I see now what this is."
"It's not an easy process, but manageable. If I could get a hand restraining that drider?" Randall points out the wide-eyed Slinz, and a moment later the young woman is the centerpiece of the entire battle.
The remaining squires move to form a line around the Arcanist, only to be scattered again by more hurled rocks from Catapult Carrie. Nalaff summons galestorm winds to shield her, but a redirection spell from Tiffany sends the storm right back in his face. Finally Bank takes up position in front of her, holding his shield steady, but Grenwald continues to be his match in battle trading him blow for blow.
All of which provides ample distraction for the roguish Randall to slip in unnoticed, and the first sign Slinz sees of the man is when he's suddenly straddling her arachnid back, holding a dagger to her neck.
"Don't kill me - no, get off!" She fires off a beam of light at the man but given the awkward position he easily dodges it, laughing.
"Killing you would be easy - but perhaps not ideal. Hard to predict how that will affect the curse, hrmmm? But if we sever those webs first...well, I'm sure you'll be much happier living curse-free, for at least a few moments, eh?"
The Miserables had of course spent some time investigating the curse Slinz's family had placed on her and how it might be removed. As useful as it may be within Worthy Dungeon with its reversed luck, a curse to ruin their careers should they happen to try to work anywhere else is still not exactly a positive thing. Their findings indicated that it was not exactly a straightforward process. Generally divine intervention would be required, should the curse not be removed by the person who created it in the first place, but it's not something any standard cleric can perform. Even Nalaff, an Expert-level cleric of Roe, has no training in removing curses.
So it's somewhat of a surprise for the Miserables to watch as Randall's second dagger glows blue and begins cutting arcane strings which grow from Slinz's torso. Shaped like a spider's web, the hidden curse reveals itself only to be snapped string by string as the Problem Solver works. Trush and Sevastion both move to save the girl, but now that Randall is within range it's too late to reach her. A spatial shell cast by Tiffany went up around the pair the moment he reached his target, and the wandering bosses can only flail as they find their movements taking them in random directions.
"Stop!" Slinz takes to the desperate act of rolling over, attempting to dislodge the man, but it's not enough. The drider can feel something in her soul shifting, and in a way it feels somewhat freeing - but intellectually Slinz knows that the curse is the only thing keeping herself and her companions alive in this fight. "Leave it alone!"
"Ah, but it's been such a problem for you, hasn't it? I can tell. Such terrible fortune. Let me fix it for you."
As the man's blade slices through the final arcane strand, Slinz shouts out one more time. "IT'S NOT A PROBLEM! MY FAMILY LOVES ME!"
What happens next is confusing for all of those present, even Xenia with her god's-eye view, and it's not until she can discuss it with Sincere later that a likely theory of events can be pieced together.
Randall, a man with the esoteric 'Problem Solver' class - a fact later confirmed by Lord Raylin Highbranch - is a rogue with spells quite unlike those of normal Challengers. Unlike most magic which targets things of substance, the half-elf's spells attack on a conceptual level. Trained to fight 'problems', whatever those may be, the man's mystical abilities can shift somewhat to face the issue in front of him at any given moment.
The curse placed on Slinz by her family ruins the luck of herself and her companions while they attempt to do anything related to their chosen career - Challenging. Not enough to kill, but enough to ensure that they never made any progress and would eventually have to give up the attempt. Within the dungeon, as long as the Miserables are performing towards that particular career their luck is instead quite excellent.
Curses are an issue for the person who has been cursed, not generally the opponent the cursed individual is fighting. In order for Randall to turn his abilities towards curse-breaking, he must do his utmost to conceptualize the curse as a 'problem' he is 'solving' for the person affected, in this case Slinz. This self-deception is difficult to maintain when you're in the middle of a battle riding the woman in question like a bucking bronco, and she's shouting out loud that the curse is not, in fact, a problem to be solved.
Just as the last strand snaps, Randall's focus slips and his magic realizes that it's been used to create a problem, not to solve one.
Just as the last strand snaps, the Miserables immediately suffer a wild reversal of cosmic fortune.
Just as the last strand snaps, Slinz casts her most powerful solar flare spell in an attempt to burn the dangerous rogue off of her.
Approximately one-fifth of a second after the last strand snaps Randall's esoteric magic, in an attempt to correct itself, encounters the shifting luck of its target and exchanges the concept of 'Problem Solving' to take on the concepts of 'Change' and 'Reversal'.
Half a second after the last strand snaps the spell is blasted by Slinz's solar flare spell, mixing with it and spreading it across a wide volume.
Seven-tenths of a second after the last strand snaps the magic mixture slams into the inner wall of Tiffany's spatial shell, absorbing that magic as well. Within the twisted space of the shell it takes approximately three more seconds for the altered solar flare to reach its external borders, at which point Randall's conceptual energies now contain the essences of 'Reversal', 'Sunlight', and 'Spatial Warping'.
Approximately four seconds after the last strand snaps, the blinding shell of Tiffany's spell collapses - into a black hole the size of a basketball. Slinz and Randall never have time to realize what went wrong, going straight from the distraction of the intense light and heat to the instantaneous crushing of their bodies by the new, unknown magic. The spell doesn't stop there, immediately pulling in everything around it. The body of a nearby squire goes first, followed by Trush and Sevastion - their monstrously strong legs providing them with no advantage when they're pulled off of the ground entirely.
Nalaney Greengrass almost goes next, having gotten too close in her attempts to rescue Slinz and with her short stature making her a trivial weight for the spell to pick up. Only a magically enhanced charge from Bank is sufficient to knock her out of range, and as the Greengrass twins watch in horror their team leader takes her place in the spell's gravitational grip. Scarlot's unconscious form is the next to meet its end, dragging itself across the stony floor until she flies into the air, compressing in a bloody display.
Not that anyone else is watching by this point. Pretty is already retreating for the ledge leading back to the rest of Floor Six, shouting for his companions to join him. "Fall back! This is - I have no idea what this is! Fall back and get out of range!" Demson, having been a back-liner, is quick to join him although the kobolds Carrie and Grenwald are finding themselves to have a bit more trouble. Grenwald releases his hold on his shield, allowing it to fly backwards into the growing hole so that he can get a better grip on the ground.
"Fuck! I think this thing might be getting stronger! I'm not - a rope! Anyone got a rope!?"
"Hold on, maybe I can - ugh!" Tiffany, having quickly joined her commander on the ledge, turns back so that she can literally give her companions more space. She succeeds, creating a second shell around the tempestuous spell, but the black hole begins eating away at it in a way she's never experienced before. It's rare for the woman to find another warp mage to spar with but this reminds her of those few occasions, with the unusual need to fight for control of space itself.
Fortunately, the spell works well enough. The kobolds both make their way to the ledge in their brief moment of freedom, and their opponents are quick to take advantage of the same opportunity. Nalaney, Nalaff, and a last remaining squire dash their way out through the exit to Floor Seven as Pretty watches...but it's safe to say that the incubus has more pressing concerns at the moment. "There were some powerful spells cast there, but the effect can't last forever! It'll burn through its mana before much longer at this pace!"
Grenwald watches on doubtfully, and feels the sudden renewed rush of wind as Tiffany's latest shell finally cracks. "Probably...but let's be standing a little further back until that happens, yeah?"
"...Agreed. Further back!"
The survivors continue leaping from ledge to ledge, quickly making the climbs and jumps required to reach a safe distance. Even so, the last gasp of the spell as it burns out is easy to see. There's a sudden explosion of air and rock, and the half of the arena which hangs over the yawning abyss is blown entirely off of its foundations. With a rumble more akin to a hurricane than to a thunderstorm the tons of rock crash into the distant bottom, bringing more stone with them as they fall. When it's done all that remains of the Floor Six boss arena is a massive vertical crater, carving out the side of the canyon where the combatants were just standing a minute before.
Carrie collapses onto her tail, laughing with relief. "Ahahaha! And people say I make a mess of the place when I cast my spells! Well...safe to say we ain't getting to Floor Seven today, huh?"
Pretty slowly shakes his head, his normal irrelevant attitude gone for the moment. "No...no, I don't think we shall. Call forth the garrison troops to secure what we've taken, but for now...we return to Floor Four."
As the Greengrass twins fall onto the ground in the Floor Seven entrance chamber, obviously still in shock, Tizzy rushes forward to check on them. "That's - fuck, what was that? I didn't get a good look from where I was hiding, is there...can we go back for the others?"
Nalaney takes a moment to refocus herself, but eventually turns to face Tizzy with a distant stare. "I can feel it. The curse...it's gone. Slinz is gone. Bank too. We're..."
She trails off and Nalaff finishes the sentence. "The Miserables are done."
Unseen, Xenia hovers in the space where her arena once stood. She searches in the vain hope that maybe, just maybe, the ending of the spell might have ejected the lives it had swallowed up so suddenly. Her perfect dungeon senses don't allow her to fool herself, though - all that was released from the dying spell was force and dust.
"...Fuck."
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