Tizzy was perhaps a little wrong about her estimate on the time required, but at least the party doesn't run into any further injuries while traversing Floor Six. The remainder of the course are challenges the party had seen before, either on previous runs or earlier on the floor, but that doesn't mean the climbing and jumping go any faster. It particularly doesn't help that Reed finds it slightly more difficult to climb cliff walls with only eight fingers, but with the support of the rest of the party he manages without too much trouble.

The concern spikes though once they reach the boss arena, and the group regathers before making the final leap. Prince Thaddeus looks around at the end of the floor as best as he's able from their current position, and if anything it worries him more that he can't see any changes. "Tizzy, I don't suppose your scouting skills are telling you anything more than my eyes are telling me?"

The half-imp casts a number of spells - perception boosters, illusion detectors, and ones that even highlight potential dangers in her vision, but she shakes her head. "There's still the usual. Pitfalls on the overhang half of the arena that'll drop you right into the void. I don't...see anything on the ceiling either, at least not from what I can see from this angle. I suppose that's a good thing? I'll put marker illusions over the pitfalls to help point them out."

"Thank you, but no, I highly doubt that nothing has changed about this fight. Something has in every guardian battle thus far. But if it's not a change in the arena, then it must be a change in the guardian. We could stand here making guesses all day however, so we may as well get to it. Is everyone prepared? Reed, how are you feeling?"

The fencer gives his lord a smile and a nod, looking tired yet much less pale than he had been an hour before. "Much better, prince, the potions have helped negate the...side-effects of my injury. My left arm may still be a bit of a sore spot, but I can adapt my fighting style to protect it."

"Very well. Taly, the guardian ahead, focuses on ranged attacks and shadow magic. Tizzy, do your best to keep her from hiding. Linda, protect us from her arrows and blades. Everyone else, we'll be focusing on pinning her down and finishing her off. Nalain, lead us in if you would."

The heavily-armored orc nods and leaps across the gap to the arena floor, managing it easily with Hylii's spells boosting her strength. Thaddeus himself follows second, with the others shortly after. The mages cluster together under Linda's shields while the melee-oriented combatants fan out, but at first there doesn't seem to be anything for them to fight. Shouting out, Thaddeus attempts to reveal their foe. "Taly! Taly of Highfalls, yes? Are you waiting for a particular invitation? A challenge to a duel, perhaps?"

A cloud of tangible shadow suddenly appears on one of the small outcrops dotting the inner side of the arena, and a woman's voice shouts back from it. "Nothing specific, really! I just like to build up a little bit of anticipation before the main event, you know? But sure, I think it's time for us to begin."

It's well known that the Banshee Queen has excellent control of her voice, and so no one even bothers firing an attack at the newly-appeared cloud. It's surely a distraction, after all. One by one every outcrop on the wall ahead of them is likewise soon coated with darkness, and Thaddeus shouts back to his scout. "Do you know where she's hiding, Tizzy?"

The woman frowns. "The shadows do block my magic a bit, it's taking me some effort to check them all...but something's weird. I feel like I'm picking up something in all of the ones I've checked so far, except - incoming!"

Twelve arrows suddenly fire at once towards the party, one from each of the shadowy ambush points. Given that everyone in the party was on high alert, the number doesn't ultimately amount to much. Barriers block half of them outright, an arcane blast destroys another, and the group dodges most of the rest. That is, with the exception of Lyman, who attempts to parry the projectile flying his way - only for it to pass right through both his blade and his shoulder as if they weren't there at all. "Eh? A decoy?"

His question is answered by laughter, first from one throat - and then a second. Another and another joins in, and it soon sounds as if an entire auditorium's worth of audience members are cheering and jeering at the adventurers. While a banshee's voice is capable of a lot the sheer cacophony seems to be more than even Taly should be capable of, and a few of the adventurers begin to worry that the noise alone could potentially cause a cave-in.

The ground remains stable though, and so the next concern for the group is when eight different Talys suddenly dive out of their ambush points. Some head into melee, waving nasty-looking daggers, while others hang back and fire more arrows, and one plays mage as they cast shadow magic. Having at least partially revealed themselves, Tizzy gets a better idea of what's going on. "They're illusions! Or - most of them! There's too much for me to check them all at once, and some of them are giving me weird results!"

"Then treat every foe as if they're a lethal threat! Party, advance!" The vanguard of the team charges forward at Thaddeus's command, meeting the Talys in battle. Or at least, theoretically. Several of them swing their blades right through their opponents as if they were so much smoke, and judging them to be illusions, move on to find a new target. That lasts until Norlash turns his back on one dagger-armed Taly, only for the Rogue to step forward and plant a blade in his kidney.

The banshee smiles as she whispers into his ear. "Never turn your back on a lady, handsome. It's rude."

The man is in a bit too much pain to retort with anything witty, but he does recover swiftly enough to swing his heavy axe in her direction. Almost to his surprise it actually impacts the woman's blade as she ducks and deflects it, and the warrior shouts his findings to the team. "The illusions aren't all harmless! Some can actually fight!" Now fully focused on his opponent, he manages to swing an overhead blow at her the Rogue could certainly never block, only to be frustrated when again his weapon simply passes right through her. "And they swap back and forth! They're solid and then they're not!"

Norlash isn't the only member of the party to be making that particular discovery. Those who thought they were engaged with the real Taly find themselves to be fighting ghosts a moment later, and several members find themselves outnumbered as they have to treat multiple banshees as if they're actual threats. Deciding that there's clearly some sort of magical trick being played on them, Thaddeus asks a question of his mages.

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"We can hold them back, but we can't pin her down if she's solid one moment and smoke the next! Is this a power of the undead, or something more?"

Tizzy grits her teeth, trying her best to come up with a useful answer but failing. "I don't get it! They all bear marks of illusions, but something happens to them when they turn solid! I haven't seen anything like it before!"

While the scout focuses on the magical composition of their foes, Linda comes to a realization of her own. "There's only one real one at a time! I believe she can transfer quickly, but I haven't seen her actually touch two things at once!"

"Somehow leaping between her images? An unusual trick - Hylii, how about you? Can you detect which one is real?"

The dark elf frowns at the women fighting on the arena floor, until with a confused expression he points towards one of the still-shrouded overhangs from which arrows occasionally fire. "...There. I don't detect a body down here even when she's solid - but there is one up there!"

"Even more curious - but I'll see to this myself!" Pumping mana into his enchanted boots, the prince suddenly leaps through the air and lands upon the indicated outcrop. He's essentially blind as he does so, the magical shadow no less concealing for being encased within it, but fortunately he doesn't need to see in order to be a threat. The platform of stone isn't particularly large and so with just a few swings of his blade he's able to cover most of the space - and gets rewarded by the feel of resistance and the sound of a woman cursing.

"Gah! You're a real buzzkill, huh? Guess I gotta go mix it up myself, then."

Thaddeus can't see it, but he can still hear the sound as Taly jumps from the platform and lands on the ground below. She quickly ducks into another cloud of magical shadow, as do two of her duplicates, and when they emerge a moment later all three are bearing identical sword wounds across their stomachs.

Unfortunately, this particular bit of deception fools neither Tizzy's illusion-detection spells or Hylii's ability to sense nearby bodies, and both quickly point her out. Tizzy does so with a literal pointer, casting an illusion of her own over Taly's head to illuminate her with light. "That one! That one's the real one!"

"Aw, fuckbuckets." Her soured mood doesn't slow the Banshee down, and she still steps forward with her two companion duplicates to engage with Lyman. The fencer ignores the others in order to focus on his primary opponent...much to his regret as one of the illusions plants its dagger into his neck. While it doesn't immediately kill the experienced adventurer, it does have a slightly negative impact on his ability to parry Taly's own blade, and a cry from Reed does little to prevent her from planting another dagger into Lyman's chest.

Even with his dying breath however the man still does his best to accomplish his mission, and his left arm grabs on to Taly's own to keep her from simply ducking away. Nalain and Reed are both moving to try and take advantage of that fact, but Tizzy beats them both, blasting the area with a wide-cone burst of magic. All three Taly's are caught up in the attack, but while one simply ignores it two are sent flying - one of them minus an arm. Watching the two, Tizzy blinks at her own results. "There's the real one, and a solid illusion! The real one's the injured one, get the other before she swaps again!"

Sadly that suggestion arrives too late, and once again Norlash's axe buries into the stone to no result. Nalain and Reed meanwhile focus on their more concrete opponent, and the heavily-injured Taly grins as she finds herself being teamed up on.

"Man, getting illusion spells was pretty neat, but I wouldn't mind being a bit more durable...but hey, I got one of you pretty good, didn't I?"

Reed shouts back as his thin blade thrusts forward. injuring the woman's remaining arm. "You will pay for that! You killed my father, damn you! Prepare to die!"

Nalain's sword takes one of Taly's legs, and the Rogue nearly falls to the ground. She does still manage to look up though, and gives Reed one last smile. "Always am. But now...I suppose we'll see what sort of man you are, Reed Blair."

The fencer's only response is his blade through her left eye socket and then her brain, and the magical shadows dotting the arena begin to fade.

...But the fight isn't yet over. Some of the shadows remain, and while half of the false Talys disappear as well, several remain fighting. Snorting, one of them even speaks. "Damn, leaving me in the middle of our team-up fight, Taly? You did get one though, suppose I oughtta at least try and match your score before I go. How about...you!" Turning to face Hylii, the false Taly suddenly dashes towards the mage - as does every other copy of the banshee. The mage is hardly defenseless, being quite effective with a blade of his own, but against nearly half a dozen women at once it does prove to be a bit much.

The elf scores the first hit on Taly, only to find that it's not a hit at all a moment before a dagger slashes his side. Realizing that it's no time for half-measures the man begins to cast every spell he has - focused on himself as the target. Speed boosts, skin hardening, perception enhancers, the man is left practically glowing as his body is covered in temporary runes. Rarely has the party seen him go all-out, and few seem to be more surprised than Taly as the mage turns on them - and starts winning.

Of course, 'winning' is difficult when many of your blows have no impact at all. Yet despite the swapping power of the illusory opponent Hylii does actually score a few hits and finds to his delight that every copy gains an injury he manages to inflict on one. At the same time Taly's blows on him have next to no effect, barely scratching his enhanced skin even when they get through his leather armor. Still, the man's magical reserves can only sustain so many powerful spells for a short time, and it seems to be a race to see who runs out of endurance first.

Fortunately for Hylii, not every member of the party is engrossed in the fight. As Taly's magical shadows begin to fade away Tizzy suddenly notices a static illusion on the wall, hidden atop one of the outcrops. Putting forth the extra effort to counter it, the illusion crumbles away to reveal that what appeared to be part of the rocky wall of the arena was in fact a gigantic, skull-decorated mirror. "...What the...wait, wasn't there a mirror like this back in the lounge?"

One of the Talys turns back to see what she's talking about, and sighs as she notices. "Well, in the words of my current role model...'aw, fuckbuckets'."

That's all she has time for before a final blast from Tizzy shatters the giant mirror, and rather than just fade away, every remaining Taly suddenly shatters in the same way. The rest of the shadows soon clear up as well, and the appearance of a treasure chest indicates that the fight is finally over.

Not that it's much consolation for Reed, crouched over the body of his father. Thaddeus soon joins him, and puts a hand on the young man's shoulder as he offers what consolation he can. "Lyman was a brave man, Reed. You take after him in all the best ways."

The fencer nods, but his voice is cold as he responds. "I...I realize this isn't the time for revenge, my prince, as we're here to recover your ancestor, not destroy her. But I swear, I will not let her kill another of us."

Unseen and unheard, Guy ask a question of their employer. "I do hope Taly knew what she was doing. We're rather committed now on eliminating young Reed, don't you think?"

Xenia responds with a shrug. "We'll see. There's still a couple floors left to go...who knows what could happen next?"

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