KEVIN: So...uh...shall we advance?
SAM: Taking the initiative, you stretch out your arms. "Well, now or never." You head towards the final door, whistling a quiet tune to keep your beat going. "Ready?"
KEVIN: "Oh, shit, we're doing paragraph now?" Kevin said to the Story.
KEVIN: "Sorry, aspect noises. Ready."
SAM: You raise an eyebrow, but don't comment. The Orchestra is certainly weird enough by itself, not your place to comment. "I, uh... alright then."
SAM: Turning back towards the twin doors, you give a hard push.
KEVIN: Humming along, you brace for....whatever it is.
Melodiarch COMPOSIT roars from the ground! The towering djinn emits a fraymotif-like boss theme, covered in liquid metal like a shitty ripoff of the Silver Surfer but with underling-y characteristics. The imps around it suddenly pull out musical instruments!
KEVIN: Kevin confused og. Switching narration! Raaaargh!
Kevin does a weird thing and hops around, opening fire on the conductor of both sound and story.
SAM: 1... what? 1 just- ah, screw 1t.
Taking out his cannonarm yet again, the first salvo is launched aiming at the boss.
KEVIN: It's beginning to make sense! Ahahaha, Kevin feeling amazing!
It appears that Kevin's ability obtained with the second boss was [Whisper To Me]. Kevin certainly is abusing the hell out of it to make sense of his aspect. Greaaat.
KEVIN: I heard that sassy universe! Ahahaha!
Kevin shifts fire to the supporting musician imps, leaving the boss to Sam.
Giving another strange glance over at Kevin, somewhat confused by the Fluxnanigans, you flick your headphone volume up and run up towards the boss.
SAM: Well, let's see what th1s guy's g0t!
Using the heavy artillery as a melee weapon, you attempt to whack Melodiarch with the business end of your cannonarm.
Of course, the djinn laughs...and promptly gets hit in the face by a cannonarm. Don't mess with a cannonarm, boss.
SAM: Ha! Eat, uh... Well, actually please D0N'T eat 1t, but- well, y0u get the p1cture.
At least, hopefully he will after you launch a blast following the blunt whack.
Melodiarch tanks a cannon to the face, causing it to recoil and a loud jazzy beat to show up out of nowhere.
KEVIN: Woo, yeah!
KEVIN:
Give it your all!Kevin enjoys speaking with physical formatting a bit much. Story and all.
SAM: 1 am attempt1ng t0-
You jump back, trying to avoid any counterattacks that are likely to fly your way, but it's a little difficult with the heavy weapon.
KEVIN: Passivist narration. Dance, dance!
Kevin promptly is swarmed by imps. Whoops.
SAM: Aww, crap.
SAM: Th1s 1s g01ng t0 be a fun 0ne...
KEVIN: Allow the slaying to take up your soul and charge! Yeaaah!
Sam finally decides to switch out the clunkier ranged weapon for a somewhat less clumbersome Guitaraxe. Better than nothing. You wait for the offensive of Melodo.
Melodiarch shrugs and turns into a bird, and begins whistling at an annoying pitch.
SAM: Fuck. 0w. That's ann0y1ng as hell. St0p 1t.
KEVIN: Secondeeeeed
Acting what could admittedly be considered a little out of decorum for a boss fight, Sam makes sound shields around his ears to block out the noise. And most of any other noises. Not his best life decision. Nevertheless, he starts firing some attacks at the bird.
Kevin continues working his way out of the imp pile while Sam applies Sound to the boss.
SAM: 1'm n0t sure 1f th1s 1s actually d01ng anyth1ng, t0 be h0nest.
KEVIN: Kevin should totally spamtext psychocommunication back when Kevin gets ==>. Sam can be brain texting buddies with Kevin!
The assorted beasts watching from his head agree with this for less than moral reasons as the imp pile finally stops from getting taller.
Sam gives it another go, trying to build up the buffs over time. The screeching still hasn't gone away; you're not sure why you though blocking your ears would do anything, since you're already deaf as a Sound player, but oh well.
KEVIN: Try turning around noise! Ngaaaaaaah.
SAM: Want t0 swap r0les f0r a b1t? 1 need t0 get s0me m0mentum g01ng.
KEVIN: A little help would be nice. Send heeelp.
Kevin flails with spears from the small horde of imps, trying to keep back the attacks Kyoko-style.
SAM: C0m1ng, c0m1ng...
You give a light roll of the eyes, before moving further away from the box and sweeping your weapon into the swarm, trying to cleave a few down and open a path.
KEVIN: Kevin will take spotlight. Thank Sam!
Kevin impales through a last few imps and resumes gunning for the boss Undyne-style. Yaaay.
KEVIN: Kevin taking moment to insult boss' horrible sound!
Melodiarch is unaffected by this burn and continues making the annoying noise, charging up a special.
SAM: Alr1ght, let's crank up the v0lume.
You continue swinging the guitar to and fro, haphazardly whacking it into the numerous imps. The explosion of sound after defeating each is not only satisfying, but highly nutritious for you.
Now you're getting into your groove.
Smacking the boss with another interrupt splash so it stops whining for a few seconds, Kevin pretty much continues shooting, rolling around to dodge assorted dives from the winged beast.
SAM: And a 0ne...
You grab a load of imps on the edge of the weapon's blunt side, swinging the weapon in a wide arc around you, and turn towards the boss.
SAM: ...and a tw0!
KEVIN: Yeah!
You proceed to throw the sound-charged imps at the boss like missiles.
Kevin watches in awe as the imps slam into the bird, musically exploding.
SAM: Aww y1s that 1s the sh1t 1 l1ke.
You nod your head solemnly in approval, before having to quickly react to the remaining imps being rather upset by losing some of their number.
Kevin hops over to help clear the imps. We've got imps to clear, woo!
KEVIN: Hey, think you can finish it?
Taking in the pulses from all the exploding imps, you turn over and give a distracted thumbs up.
SAM: 1 can certa1nly g1ve 1t a g0.
KEVIN: Yesss!
SAM: Buy me a b1t 0f t1me, 1'll see 1f 1 can't create s0me shenan1gans.
Switching to your multi-shot magical brass-shard cannonarm (quite the mouthful, huh?), you swing it round you to get some space before starting to load again.
Kevin decides to do some shenanigans himself, messing around with jabbing spears into imps.
Rather than loading it with the usual stuff, you condense all the metal into one slug at the center. Thinking about it, this'll probably wreck the gun, but it'll be so worth it. An echoing sound starts building up.
KEVIN: Hit 'em with your best shot! Fire away!!
With a sound vaguely reminiscent of some obscure rock song, you launch the slug, and (not through choice) the entire front half of the gun at the boss. You blink a few times, then start running in the opposite direction of the dangerously vibrating metal.
SAM: Y0u, uh, m1ght want t0 m0ve.
Kevin spamsteps the fuck away from the soon-to-be-asploded boss.
The sound of somewhat trashy guitar grows louder for a moment, before going quiet. There is then quite a large 'vwoom' as a shockwave carries little shards of the weapon into the boss and generally the entire room.
Kevin unfortunately doesn't make it behind enough cover in time, and is raked from behind with a bunch of sharp metal objects.
KEVIN: Ngh!
Kevin falls over anticlimactically as the boss dies to death.
Similarly, having to carry half of a brass cannon doesn't do Sam any favours, and he smacks into the wall. Again.
SAM: 0w.
SAM: N0t... qu1te the plan.
Kevin bleeds quietly on the floor.
You remain planted in the wall for a few moments, before giving a soft sigh and pushing yourself slowly out.
SAM: Y0, Kev1n, y0u gucc1?
Sam ==> Please bring Kevin to a quest bed before he finishes bleeding out. I'm on Derse, please hurry. ow.
KEVIN: ...
SAM: 000h.
SAM: 1 uh
SAM: Welp, sh1t
You stumble over, attempting to grab him. You realize that your arm is currently nonexistant, so you switch to your more human one and manage to slug him over your shoulder.
Rocket boots on, you stamp a few times and manage to get them going, nearly tripping over a few times before flying back out and looking for a sleeping slab.
The glow shape looms within walking-before-Kevin-dream-melts-distance, conveniently.
SAM: 546865726569746973 g0tta hurry...
You give a brief flight towards it, then decide against it after several near-crashes from being so off-balance. Staggering up to the tower, you start climbing.
Getting to the top, you unceremoniously plonk Kevin on the top of the not-really-stone bed.
SAM: S0rry ab0ut, uh, th1s 1n general.
You fall back, lying on your back. Not your greatest moment.
Shortly after, Kevin manages to bleed out and die, causing him to ascend.
The ascension-y stuff happens. Land familiars flock to his corpse, the spire things start glowing, Skaia does the glowy stuff...
In a few seconds, the newly divine Smith of Flux is ejected from the Battlefield's relevant Skaia bed by the cloudcannon, in the direction of LOFAB.
Shortly enough, Kevin returns and collects his inventory from his corpse, taking the equipment and captchaloguing the remains.
KEVIN: You are not going to like what I just saw on Skaia.
You lazily tilt your head upwards.
SAM: Eh?
KEVIN: It's really naughty.
SAM: Naughty d0esn't have t0- 1 mean, uh
SAM: Well what 1s 1t?
KEVIN: Skaia miiight be shipping our coplayers.
SAM: ...what? 1 th0ught that feature, l1ke
SAM: 1sn't meant t0 ever be act1ve
KEVIN: It's acting weird here according to Story. I'm looking forward to Shipping Grids.
SAM: 1... 1'll have t0 g0 check 0ut the tune ar0und there s0met1me, 1 guess.
SAM: 0h- uhm, s0rry ab0ut the wh0le
SAM: Expl0d1ng gun k1ll1ng y0u th1ng
SAM: 1 uh
SAM: Yea
You flop your head back onto the ground.
KEVIN: It's fine.
Kevin shows off his fancy new smith outfit, complete with blacksmith's apron.
SAM: Well, there are benef1ts 1 guess
SAM: Well uh...
SAM: What n0w, 1 guess?
KEVIN: Idunno. Guess we could go wander around.
SAM: ...eh, sure.