And the crab stumbles and leaks some lava. Rytlock makes a sound of approval and jumps directly towards the crab to start hitting it with a sword. Meanwhile, several crablings emerge from the corner.

Aha, and there are the large numbers of enemies she was really hoping for.

She conscientiously steps closer to the large crab, so that the crablings will cluster around it and her. It doesn't really matter if it hits her right now; she's got some impressive protections, and she's going to be healing herself, just as long as she keeps on humming. She draws out her second signet; this one is significantly more potent than the last. This is an elite signet, called the keystone signet. It doesn't do damage directly. Instead, it collects an impressive amount of power around her, which then floats around where they can get tacked on to other signets she draws. The power isn't aimed well enough to strike a single target, but for targets around whatever she's aiming at? Well. They might just have a bad time.

More signets follow; signet of weariness to exhaust the enemies before they've even attacked. Her singular hex wastrel's demise, followed by unnatural signet that explodes when pointed at a target that's been hexed or enchanted. When they finally get to attacking her, signet of clumsiness, which takes advantage of a mesmer's ability to meddle with weight to knock her attackers down. Then signet of sorrows again, and then the keystone signet again, to power up and refresh all of her other signets for use, so they're ready now—

She really wasn't kidding when she said she'd turned herself into a battering ram. These crablings are having a very bad time. Signet. Signet. Signet. Some of their attacks make it past the mantra's defenses, the minor injuries occasionally causing the echoing tune to waver, but not enough to actually make her stop. Her injuries heal with every symbol she draws, and she has had more than enough time to grow enough stubbornness to not let something like 'getting attacked' wreck her concentration.

...well then.

The wave contains enough crablings to keep her busy, and that plus what damage she's causing to the huge crab plus Rytlock, well... the big one gets desperate enough to summon a slightly less big one to give them trouble.

That fight is... kinda distracting, he has to admit. Vetareh fighting is a thing of beauty.

Trying not to get too focused on it, he asks Taimi, "So, you already have people on the Fire Islands?"

"I have some more, let's say 'trusted associates' there setting up a gate scouting. But Phlunt really organized the whole operation. Primordus's movement was something I purposely let slip," she explains. "It's good because it keeps him out of my ears for a little while, and it also makes him feel like a big shot."

"Only sixteen years old and you're puppet-mastering one of your superiors..." says James, shaking his head. "Admirable and a little unsettling, Taimi."

"I'll soon RULE YOU ALL!" she declares, cackling like a mad scientist. "Sorry. Did I say that out loud?"

She shouldn't be listening to silly comm chatter because she's a bit busy, but despite herself Vetareh giggles. Funny things are more distracting than getting attacked.

Her mantra wavers, because she's too busy giggling to hum.

"—shit," she hisses, as one of the crablings hits significantly harder than it'd just been hitting her, "fuck, damn it, ow—"

She pauses briefly in her signet drawing to recast her mantra, humming a bit more forcefully this time. The injuries sustained will heal if she just draws more signets, but that was certainly a wake up call. Vetareh is distinctly not unassailable, she just happens to resemble it to the casual viewer. If her concentration slips, there is a long way to fall.

Yeah, Rytlock notices. He covers for her before she recovers her mantra then resumes wrestling the big guy.

Eventually they're done, though.

"That was the last wave. Good job! You've generated a ton of data for me to sift through. This room could probably run any simulation I can dream up! As soon as I get Moto in here again to debug it... Come on out!"

Vetareh lets the mantra die with a huff of released breath. Eugh. That was fun, but kind of nervewracking. She does not think she wants to make a habit of using this strategy.

"Thanks," she says sincerely, to Rytlock. "So, think that was proportional to a walk in the park with the Commander?"

Rytlock snorts. "I guess when it comes to the Commander, it might have been." He walks towards one corner of the room where there's a slightly raised platform, steps on it, and disappears.

Vetareh does the same, of course. Before she remembers that she's in a fantastically complicated magical contraption and has the urge to take it all apart right this minute.

"So, did we beat Cami's high score?" she asks once she's out, because she definitely has her priorities in order, thank you very much.

"Only in this last round, and she's still leading overall."

She resists the urge to gloat, but takes satisfaction in the fact that her sacrifice was not in vain. She returns to her earlier seat and fails at pretending that she's not smug about that.

"Well, Taimi, outside a few monkey anomalies, the room was very impressive. Next time, you'll have to program in some Jormag minions." He pauses, then looks at Vetareh. "And that was the bad news, I don't know if you were listening when Taimi said it. Jormag is active, too."

Aaaand there goes her good mood. It was nice while it lasted, anyway.

"... Ah. Both of them. At the same time. Wonderful. Do we know what woke them up?"

"It was... probably Mordremoth's death. It sent a lot of magic into the leylines and the two dragons were right there to slurp it all up."

She nods, looking thoughtful.

... Hm. The Dragons began waking up after Abaddon was killed. It occurs to her that a god's death might release quite a lot of magic, even if a lot of it got slurped up by a mortal to become a new god. Then the gods all left. Right around when the Dragons woke up. Rather like they didn't want to clean up after their mistake, and abandoned everyone in the world to deal with it instead. What the fuck, gods?

Carefully, she takes a deep breath, and forces herself to relax. Now is not the time to start shouting about how the gods suck some more. She doubts Taimi and Rytlock care; the five gods (well, technically six, now) exclusively favored humans.

"So it might actually be sort of a good thing that Lazarus ate most of the bloodstone's magic. Because this way it didn't go to the Dragons, and if we decide he needs to die, we have time to figure out some way to capture it without letting it run off into leylines that feed the Dragons."

"Great idea! Let's not kill the crazy Mursaat who just ate a lot of Bloodstone magic." She pauses. "Yeah that's actually a great idea."

"Any idea what's happening with the other Elder Dragons?"

"Nothing on Kralkatorrik, and ditto for... Oh, what's its name? Brain malfunction. Starts with an s...?"

"What about a weakness? All this machinery has to be good for something!"

"Why don't you channel some patience from the Mists there, Tribune! A whole civilization of brilliant asura couldn't find it, but, yeah, I got this in five minutes!"

"The Mists aren't actually patient," clarifies Vetareh, dryly. "They are a void of patience, devouring endless amounts of self restraint and willpower into an uncaring eternally hungering maw. Trying to channel patience from there is like trying to channel water from a desert."

This said, she glances at Rytlock. She'd been avoiding squinting too hard at everyone's magic for fear of getting, well, sucked into studying them too hard, but now that 'Mists' and 'Rytlock' have been brought up in the same sentence... yes, that does ring a bell, doesn't it. She didn't know what to compare his magic to and hadn't put any thought into it, but yes, it does taste like echoes and emptiness and the Mists, doesn't it. Put together with 'The Mists does like collecting prizes,' said like he knew, and, well.

Maybe she's not the only one in Tyria that knows what the Mists are like.