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MARUYAMA'S NEW ABILITY: YIELD YOUR FLESH
-Maruyama may spend 3 RESTRAINT to massively empower his PARADIGM blade for a medium duration.
-While empowered, his BLADE's attack roll is WILLPOWER+COGNIZANCE+4, deals mixed damage, and has a 75% chance to reflect any attack.
-This ability automatically activates when he takes a total of 4 FLESH damage in combat.
LEX'S NEW ABILITY: COMBAT CRYSTALIZATION
-Lex may choose two weapons to imbue with anomalous properties. This is free but only two weapons may be imbued at any given time
-This weapon heals its user 1 FLESH or 1 RESTRAINT, whichever is lower, on hit or when the user passes a FLESH/TALENT/VIOLENCE check. Anyone can use this weapon.
-Lex may spend 2 FLESH or 1 RESTRAINT to CRYSTALIZE a weapon or piece of armor. CRYSTALIZED weapons deal 5 extra MENTAL damage on hit while CRYSTALIZED ARMOR provides passive damage reflection (min 1 FLESH + RESTRAINT, based on damage taken) on hit. Only two items can be CRYSTALIZED at any time.
Huh. Cool!
With every squad having enough people to stand by itself, you think you're ready to head down to B5. There are two questions you have - Well, there's a lot of them but you swore that Star had some cryptic warning that he was going to be here on B4. And what about the prototype bomb?
You ask Clover about the STAR thing and, well, you'd imagine Benjamin would've been looking for the bomb.
Their answers aren't really that reassuring though.
BENJAMIN:
"Well, we found the bomb but it was only a husk. Someone <span class="mu-b">took the payload before we go there.</span>"
"We destroyed or took a lot of the other weapons though!"
(All of your other squads have been restocked with ammo and replacements for their weapons. Your squad is fine on weapons, to be frank.)
(BENNETT also took the payload? So why is he still here, following you?)
CLOVER:
"Sonnva bitch wasn't even here. Searched every last bit of this place. Only trace I found was a fuckin' egg, a buncha of...f-flower petals, and, like a weird ball of <span class="mu-b">melted goo</span> left behind."
"<span class="mu-b">He's probably on B5 or somethin'."</span>"
(So, seems like that one anomaly you made friends with is here.)
(He seems oddly upset at the flower petals, though. You think you mindread him having a history with a flower anomaly before?)
You don't really have time to ask any more questions. You need to get moving before this whole place is leveled by a nuclear bomb. You've survived a lot but a nuke is a bit much, you know?
Your new squad takes the lead while everyone else simply follows behind you. The staircase spirals down, down, down, down into the earth like a drill mindlessly spinning into the earth.
Rung after rung, flight after flight, foyer after foyer. You went down at least two dozen flights of stairs at this point. You could've easily placed three more floors between B4 and B5 with how much excess space they left.
You don't think this is any weird spacetime trap - They just really want B5 hidden. You soon realize why.
