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Zan
Exalted Player
Posts: 206
Joined: Sat Jan 22, 2005 10:28 pm
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Post by Zan » Sun May 28, 2006 10:57 pm

Rayo had taken Zan's suggestion a step further and applied it in a more general sense, a better suggestion offered up. Why have a pairing just for some more-than-likely-suicidal trips outside of the Hideout when you can have said pairing for battles in the future? As much as the lycanthrope's ego wanted to say he would never really need a partner, that he was best working alone, he knew that (for the most part) that was untrue. It would be rather nice to have someone watching his back when he was unable. Not having to fear your own shadow because that very shadow is the stalking presence of someone who actually has your best interest at heart isn't a bad way to work. Inwardly laughing at the metaphor with the only outside expression a twitch of his lips, Zan found himself pondering how exactly he would go about finding who he'd work best with. His first reaction was to get together with Reinier, fully aware of the awesome capabilities they would have as teammates. However, as good as an idea as it seemed, there was something lacking about it.

If all the strong ones in the Freedom Fighters, all the ones who had fought through blood and bone to be there, went and paired up with ones of their caliber...where would that leave the newbies that had waltzed in not too long ago? If they tried to pair up with one another, that would more than likely only result in all of them being dead. Inexperience with the Elites could be a bitchy lesson to learn. Zan found his thoughts drifting to his fight with Rugudorull, one freakishly tall hacker with way too much interest in thunder. The guy had transforming capabilities, but they were far different than the ones Zan possessed. At the time, though, Zan had been your average player. Nothing to it. What should have been a time for relaxation had turned into a brawl and the ferocity of it all had culled the man's cowardice to the surface and he had left the group to seek out his own ends. Ironically, his 'own ends' were actually in league with those he stayed with now and it hadn't been long before he had found his way to them again. Not surprising, going back to them had resulted in his imprisonment in the game and, in turn, all the horrid things he had had to endure since.

Was it worth it, fighting out some would-be noble purpose against a malicious set of people who dwelled in a virtual world? Hell no. But Zan didn't have a choice. He would have liked to have categorized himself amongst some committee of heroes, of self-sacrificing individuals who only want what was best for the world around them. The lycanthrope knew better. Every reason for fighting, amongst any of them, was selfish. They all just wanted to go home. Or was it really just him? Did his assumptions of all these people just lead him to a false conclusion? Truth was, he didn't really know any of them. Reinier and him were closer than strangers, as was it with Nighthand, but it didn't reach too far past that. Friendship? In part, sure. But Zan couldn't honestly say if, it came to him leaving or staying to help them, he could make a selfless decision. His father hadn't raised him with bravado, hadn't nurtured him to put the safety of others before his own. No, the alcoholic excuse of a man had instead taught him to survive in any way he knew how. This, of course, was only fueled further by the Beast and the alien Instinct it imbued into every fiber of him. Pushing the pity-party aside, he once again steered his thoughts towards the right road.

Who could he work together best with amongst the three new initiates? Zhao...the kid had gotten on his nerves from the moment he had met him. Zan was sure there were reasons for his attitude and, really, didn't hold it against him. No harm no foul. However, it didn't exactly have him in the running for 'People Zan Wants to Party With.' Oh how the Heavy Blade was sure he'd just cry if he knew. Zan was just that damn special. Laughing out loud this time at his own sarcasm, he considered the next person. Canti...could Zan and that kid really get along? He did seem to be a bit full of himself, but all around he seemed simply curious. The lycanthrope couldn't blame him, it was an attitude he would have held in his position. No, though Zhao and Canti were decent people all around who were just caught in a bad net, Zan couldn't see himself fighting as efficiently with them at his side. That left Dien. Gah. As much as Zan had connected with the boy, he didn't like that he quite possibly knew the blackest of his secrets, the one he had hoped would die away from his thoughts. With Dien fighting alongside him, it would only serve as a constant reminder. But he was only a handful of levels below them and their personalities had proved to mesh well together. As long as he didn't get too inquisitive about that howl, about how Zan reacted to his knowledge of it, things would probably go pretty smoothly.

"Rayo has a good point." Zan said, lifting his lazy ass off his bed to turn and face the group as a whole. "We really should get used to some tactics and pairing up seems to be a good start. If everyone can agree with me, I think that new guys should split and pair up with other people here. That's the best way to ensure their safety and, in turn, our own. It doesn't mean we can't fight as one big group when the time comes, but this way if our numbers have to spread out we won't be left at ground zero with no one to back us up but our own abilities. Which, egos aside, aren't always the best way to get out of a scrap. Anywho, I figure what better way to pass the time than socializing with someone who could save your ass one day." Leaving it at that, Zan walked away from the lime light, away further from his bed, and found Dien for the third or fourth time that day. He should have given Rayo the information he asked for, but Zan didn’t really know the guy enough to spill out his personal blueprints. "How are you holdin' up? Managed to shake the Jinx germs yet?"

Dien smirked, shrugging at the player before him, "Been tryin' not to think about it." He paused, after a quick glance to the rabbit. "Listen, I'm sorry about earlier, I didn't mean to offend you or anything, my mind was just eager to vent and you were the first one to offer to listen."

"Nah, don't worry about it kid. You didn't offend me; you just caught me at a bad time. It's been hell just sitting here, that's all. Gets me jittery. And let me tell you, werewolves are passionate people. We don't just feel anger, we feel rage. We don't just feel resentment, we feel hate. Our joys are bliss and our sadness is sorrow. So you can imagine what boredom and uneasiness must amount to in my world." Sure, it was true. But that wasn't why he had gotten so bent out of shape and Zan could only hope Dien was a little less observant than he took him for.

"Yeah," Dien said after a short pause. There was more to earlier, but he'd apparently decided to move on, so that was enough for Dien, "boredom must be hell for someone like you." Another moment's pause, and the Blademaster started yet again, "So, what's up?"

"Like I was saying, the whole pairing thing is a good idea and none of you three should really group up with one another. You need someone experienced with the Elites. So I figure we get along, yea? I know we've only known each other for a small dash of time, but I trust you at my back more than I would the other two." Trust was used lightly, but all and all he wasn't lying.

"So you're suggesting that you and I pair up, correct?" The Blademaster smiled, extending his hand in some form of handshake. "If that's the case, then I say you've got yourself a partner for as long as I'm stuck in here."

Taking his hand, holding it in a firm but carefully not overbearing manner, he gave it the briefest of shakes before a nod was offered up and his hand was released. "Believe me, if you stick around with us, you'll be here for longer than will sit well with your stomach. But yes, partners it is. If you need to leave, for whatever reason, let me know and we'll head out together." Smiling his goodbye, the Heavy Blade drifted back to the used comfort of his bed once more.
Lv. 50 Heavy Blade
Wishlist
Special: Levels, GR Sendai, PL Sakai, Darklore.
W: Tonosama Sword, Mineuchi, Jundachi.
A: Samurai Helm, Able Hands, Rare Greaves.
I: Holy Sap, Treebane, Cooked Bile, Nightbane.
EX: Elemental Summon (Lv. 2), Overdrive (Lv.1), Elemental Attacks (Lv. 2), Enhance Dark, Elemental Breath (Lv. 2).

Reinier
Awakened Player
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Post by Reinier » Mon May 29, 2006 9:49 pm

So, the masses finally begin to gather… Ryok’s back… No sign of Hac… Guess he really did die. No lost love there… No sign of Tokki still… Gingitsune… I miss her. She was fun, but no sign of her… She seemed too strong to be dead. She’s probably off doing her own thing… I wonder what happened to Asgard… or… Jin-

“Doggy!” The single word echoed throughout the room. Hijinx, the annoyance of the group. Reinier began to gather as much sand and dirt from around the room as possible, having it gather around his right wrist. He managed to wrangle up just enough to make a spire that could cut through the rabbit’s head, if necessary. It would be near impossible to notice this sudden collection of materials from around the room, as it all crawled from the floors, up the bed post, and across the sheets in such a spread out way that it had not been noticeable. Reinier sighed as he watched the rabbit attempt to pat Zan on the head, but to no avail. The freakishly odd rabbit then moved on to its’ next victim.

Do I warn them, or hope they have enough sense to avoid the rabbit?… I’ll let them figure it out on their own… of all the people to return, it had to be Jinx. Why couldn’t it just… die. Makes my life easier…

Because, that makes things too easy for everyone. Just sit back and hope it annoys the elites so much that Royce or someone deletes it for good. Or better yet, they make it do slave work… Make Jinx build a whole castle or something with no help.

That “castle’ would be a demented “fun” house that no one would dare go in to. That castle would pretty much be a representation of that thing’s mind… something NO ONE wants to see.

Reinier closed his eyes, crossing his arms and spreading out his wings on the bed. Zan had left to speak with one of the new players of the group, Dien, so Reinier had the bed to himself. He laid down, adjusting to the feel of pressure on his wings. He gradually began to drift off in to a subtle dream state.

~*~*~*~*~*~*

“Hey Garrett!” It was Trey, a pretty good friend Garrett met through band. “The way I see it, we have two choices: Study for the biology final…. Or play The World. I’m opting for the second one, but that’s just me.”

Reinier looked around, feeling out of place. He could see Garrett, and Trey, talking like normal. And here he stood, watching this flashback take place. An odd experience for the heavy blade warrior, for sure. “Procrastination never hurt anything…” Garrett said, standing up from couch in his living room. Trey soon followed behind, meanwhile Reinier laughed to himself, distinctly remembering the two failed that test.

“The mind’s a funny thing, isn’t it?” A man appeared behind Reinier, smiling. He waltzed towards Reinier, who had begun to brandish the handle of his sword, and sat down in the recliner to his left. “I’m guessing that because we’re so closely connected, our dreams can interact… It’s nice, this dream world… it’s the only place I can truly be myself.”

Reinier sat back down, letting his hand off his sword, and simply stared at the man in front of him. “… Taimat?” Reinier leaned closer, after mumbling the name, and poked the man’s hand. He pulled back, and scoffed.

“Yup… The only place where I’m human… I only have one dream, nowadays, compared to the old days. To be a person again, but y’know… I don’t think it’ll ever happen. I know, without dreams we are nothing, but this one seems to be just that: a hopeless dream. I just wanted to tell you, though, that I really appreciate you trying so hard just for me. It warms the cockles of my heart,” Taimat said, smiling. Reinier nodded back, but before he could say another thing, he felt as if he were being dragged out of the room.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The new old guy of the group, Rayo, began to speak. He began to list his personal information, the things Reinier would prefer to keep secret. He didn’t quite want anyone to know he had become weaker, in a sense, so he just sat and silently listened to the others speak. Everyone began to list out their information, and just as Reinier had gathered up some courage to speak, the Wavemaster raised his hand to speak once more.

“Also…and I hope that we can implement this prior to anyone walking out of this room and getting out of sight, we need to pair up. Trios work too if we have an odd person out or if we have players already comfortable in a triple, but we need to make sure everyone has at least one other person to work with. The only condition I have is that every unit should have at least some sort of revival in case we get split up,” Reinier gulped at this statement.

Wonderful, partners. Well, I could go with Zan…

Reinier took a look around at the room, until his eyes fell upon the three new members of the group. They would be fried to a crisp if they paired up.

The three of them would barely be able to take on Zan or me… let alone an elite… so let’s see, there’s Dien, Zhao, and Slacker… Dien seems a little too perky for my tastes, and Zhao’s a bit… yeah. Well, Canti didn’t seem to talk too much, and that would be nice, cus it would mean I wouldn’t have to answer that many questions about anything. Bonus points for me, I guess.

Reinier gave a silent nod to himself, and hopped off the bed. He looked around, and headed off in the opposite direction of Canti. He went straight towards his safety spot, a place of comfort, a person he knew. “Hey Zanny-boy, see you picked out your sucker already. I’m thinking’ we should be in a group of four, cus... Y’know... that whole strength in numbers within numbers thing,” Reinier stood next to Zan, avoiding eye-contact with Dien.

“Eh, four is kind of a cluster Reinier. I'm thinking’ the two people pairing is the best way to go. Believe me, you were my first choice. Sad thing is, with these new kids around, we have to sort of divide up the power the best way we can, so. It sucks, I know, but it should work out for the better.” At this point, Reinier turned and looked at Dien.

“Yeah, damned assholes having to ruin it for the rest of us, making us play baby sitter and what not. Sure would be nice if some people were, y’know, not here. Oh well,” At this point, Reinier turned away from Dien and ignored him. At this point, his mood had changed and he really didn’t like the idea of pairing up with someone who he didn’t know anything about. “I’m going to need to make a potion run here soon, think we got time?”

“Subtle man, real subtle. But yea, I think if you find a partner, snag him along, and hurry your ass up, a potion run shouldn't be impossible to accomplish. Just watch your back, or have your partner do that for you. Whichever.” Reinier smiled, wondering if Dien knew he was simply joking. But then again, Reinier wasn’t really joking.

“Subtlty is my middle name. Well, Dien can take care of himself with Nights around. I'd rather have someone who can go all... Wolverine on an admin then someone who'll just log out at the first whiff of danger.”

“I don't know man, abandoning the kid already doesn't seem too entirely responsible. What if someone attacks the Hideout while we're gone? I fail right then and there with the whole partner thing. Do you really need to go nab some potions that badly?”

“This is my healing deposit. I know I can tank a lotta things, but when I can’t use spells anymore from my armor, and the only healing spell I have on a sword pretty much rapes me of all SP, yeah, I think I kinda do... ‘Sides, the only thing that could go wrong is Jinx goes insane and blows up the base... again... for the third time... in a row.”

Tossing a glance at the freak excuse for a rabbit, Zan turned his attention to Dien, calling out to the kid. “You’ll be fine by yourself for a little while kid. I believe it’s potions time for the Thing over here.” Getting to his feet, the Heavy Blade slid on the comfort of his black leather, dark-green-seamed jacket and let a sigh slip past his lips. “Alright, Pebbles, let’s get this show on the road.” With but a thought the leather jacket became a full, ankle-length black trench coat with the same dark green seams, alpha symbol on its back, and black leather hood. Flipping the hood on, his face concealed in partial shadows, he motioned fingerless leather gloves towards the door. “After you.”

“I’m diggin’ the whole... trench coat look. Lemme go ask Sparky if he needs anything, it'll take a quick second,” Reinier said, chuckling at how he made his jacket turn in to a trench coat. He scurried across the room, and stood near the tactician. “Hey, Zanny-boy and I are going on a potion run. You going to need anything? Scrolls, potions, armor?”

The mage thought for a moment, and replied, “Wouldn’t it be better if we were to wait here? It'd be bad if someone recognized either of you, would it not?”

Reinier thought about this for a moment, for it was a well thought out reply. Reinier, however, was more of a spur of the moment kind of guy, leaving thinking to others while he ran in and attacked. The more fighting, the better. “True, but it'd look even more odd if a huge party like this one were to all flock to the shop at once, wouldn't it? I'm in pretty bad shape, when it comes to healing items. I'm bone dry, actually…”

“Just try and be careful then. As for items, I'm good as is,” the Wavemaster replied. He seemed to be a man of few words, which worked out fine for Reinier.

“Sounds good... Oh, and I forgot to introduce myself,” Reinier held out his hand at this moment. “I’m Reinier. Zan and I double over as the Tanks of the group, now.”

The two interlocked hands, and gave a shake. “I’m Rayo, the only Wavemaster in sight.”

“Lord knows we need one... Well, I’m off. We'll be back soon.” With a nod, Reinier walked across the room and pat Zan on the back. “Let’s head out, hombre.”

“So are we just hitting up an item shop? Let's try and make this as short lived as possible. The Knights of War, I hear, don't fuck around.” The two walked through the door way, looking both ways before proceeding.

“Knights of who? They like the Cobalt Knights? Cus if they are, I don’t think the buddy system’ll be helpin’ us too much…” Reinier muttered, as the two swiftly made their way down the ally way.

“Knights of War. Yea, Nighthand said they’re known as the Cobalt Knights as well. They’re walkin’ around outside on patrol. You sure you want to go?” The two stopped, and Reinier turned around, still able to see the doorway of the hideout.

“We’ve gone too far to turn back now. We can handle’m, worse comes to worse.” Reinier peaked around the corner, seeing the back of a knight. The two rushed forward, avoiding him all together.

“Eh, you know what I mean. Do you still want to brave out the Knights? But yea, we can handle our own. Well, unless they’re leader is out and about. I hear she’s a real bitch.” Even as Zan spoke, his eyes were already scanning the area with wolven eyes and subtle scents, ears taking in the sounds of Mac Anu for yards. They were fine, for now.

“Yeah, Kamui if I remember correctly... Read about her on the BBS back when I used to play with a friend of mine named Trey. The woman’s psycho, worse then my ex-girlfriend, from what I hear. Deleted a kid on suspicion of hacking, no cold hard proof... the bitch... I would say let's take to the roof tops... but yeah, dunno…” The duo stopped, they had reached a dead end.

“Yea, she doesn't sound quite like the life of the party.” Zan’s eyes bleeding back to the dull grey blue of a Siberian Husky, he offered a small nod. “The roof tops are probably safer than the ground. Let’s make this quick.”

“You can get to the roof tops? If you can, then yeah, let's do that…” Reinier muttered, guessing he was definitely underestimating his wolfish companion.

“Can I get to the roof tops? You’re funny." The stray strands of dark brown hair that managed to make their way out of his hood drowned into an inky black, his eyes losing color, leaving nothing but white and a black outline of where his irises used to be. A slight smile curling upon his lips, the lycanthrope lifted into the air a few feet, laughing a touch down to his friend before his small flight resumed and placed him on top of the roof. Looking back down to Reinier, that smile broadened a touch. “You comin’?”

Reinier muttered the word “showoff,” opened his wings, and took to the sky. He hovered up to the lycanthrope, and came to a stumbling landing. “Damned new wings... What ever happened to keeping low key? Eh, too late for that now. Let's go, I think we're pretty close…” Reinier peered forward, able to see the bridge in the distance.

“I’m pretty sure my subtle rise was a touch more low key than those giant flapping obstructions. But that's my opinion.” Hiding a smile, he once more motioned forward. “You lead the way, I got your back.”

Reinier grumbled as he began to run towards the shops, Zan following close behind. The two warriors leaped over the separations in the buildings, effortlessly making their way across the city until they reached their destination. Reinier came to a stop, and peered over the edge of the building. A few Knights stood around the bridge, the shops, the save points, pretty much encompassing the area. They knew something had happened, something big, and that was most likely why they were about. Reinier turned to Zan, and muttered, “Okay... We’re here. You going to keep look-out up here, or you gonna go down inside with me?”

“I’ll keep a look-out up here. I'll Flashmail you if I see anybody headin’ your way.” Zan's hair had since gone back to normal, his eyes in turn, senses now turning away from the raven and back to the wolf. “Make it quick. Please. I’m in no mood for a toe-to-toe with the Knights.”

Reinier gave a nod, and leaped over the side of the building, landing on an overhanging canopy. He knelt down, grabbing the edge of it with his right hand, and swung down to the earth. He sprinted in to the shop, opening the door and silently shutting it behind him. He ran up to the shop keeper, pulling out a sack of gold. He tossed the two thousand gold pieces on the table, and began to pool together the items he was going to buy. He walked up to the man, and muttered, “I’m buying five resurrects and health drinks. Two thousand should cover it, have a pleasant day.”

Reinier stuffed the items in to a sack, which he attached to his belt. He opened the door silently, and as he stepped outside, a dust storm began to encompass the area around the shop. Reinier sprinted to the left, running in to an ally, and took to the air once more. He barrel rolled on top of the roof, crouching low to the ground. Reinier let out the “Let’s get the fuck out of here,” whistle to Zan.

The two made their way back to the hideout, acting more feral then man. The stayed lower to the roof as they eventually made their way back to the hideout. The two leaped off the roof, Reinier using his wings as a parachute of sorts to make the landing less painful then if he had just free fell. Zan and Reinier entered the hideout, both grinning at the success of their journey. “We’re too awesome for our own good.”

Zan's trench coat shrunk back up to the simple, relatively comfortable waist-length leather coat as he responded. “That or we’re just really really lucky. Either way, that was pretty painless.”

Reinier looked over to Zan, and gave a nod, and the two parted ways, Zan going to go play guardian to Dien, and Reinier going to play baby sitter to Canti. Reinier stood in front of the new member of the group and outstretched his hand. “To make this more formal, I’m Reinier. Since everyone else is doin’ it, I think we should pair up.”
Last edited by Reinier on Tue May 30, 2006 12:13 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Reinier's Wishlist: Sakabatou|Sharktooth
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Zhao Xun
Elevated Player
Posts: 63
Joined: Fri May 12, 2006 3:09 am
Location: Wherever I'm needed.

Post by Zhao Xun » Mon May 29, 2006 11:21 pm

Listening to Rayo's speech, I decided it would probably be a good idea to let everyone know my capabilities, just as he had. "Well, if we're going to describe ourselves to everyone, I can hop in here," I said. "I'll respond to Zhao, can cast mostly weak water spells and some thunder if need be, and can't heal or revive without switching some gear. Even then, I can only do the most basic amount of healing, so I can't be counted on to keep anyone up in a pinch."

Rayo responded fairly quickly, which surprised me somewhat. "...Maybe you should come with me then. It wouldn't be good to stick too many people together that can't adequately recover." The offer was certainly unexpected, especially seeing as he seemed to be one of the most reclusive of the group. But perhaps he was just silent.

"I suppose you're right," I responded, "And putting us weaklings with other weaklings would be suicide." I began to turn and sit down, but then something clicked in my head. I didn't know what, but I figured I should try to figure it out.

"Rayo... that name... did I ever meet you?"

He took a moment to respond, but it still came out exactly as I expected. "Well, I don't think so. With the exception of this bunch and some annoying animals, I haven't joined many other parties."

He sounded a lot like me, the more I got to know him. But I still couldn't place where this familiarity seemed to come from. "Hmm. I don't know, the name just seems familiar. Then again, I didn't really party much either, not until now. I mostly just hung around Mac Anu."

He nodded before continuing the conversation. "Well, it's a fairy relaxing area to be in, especially by the water. Still, that only holds true when the crowds are at a minimum or nonexistant, at least from my experience."

I smiled and gave a short laugh, knowing that I had felt the same way many times. "I know what you mean. I tried to avoid people as best I could when I was there... I mostly hung around the back alleys. Well, no point pursuing this angle anymore, I suppose. Anything else I should know about you?" I was getting to like Rayo more and more, but I still didn't trust him.

"That I'll keep you alive so long as I'm not stereotyped as a white mage, or else my pet might get angry. Other than that, probably nothing much." I laughed a bit at his response, though it was more of a nervous laugh. I knew, somewhere deep inside me, that this "pet" probably wouldn't hesitate to off me if I got on its bad side.

"Well, I'm not one to try and stereotype, especially since you seem like you can do plenty of damage as well. Besides, we seem to both be calm, collected individuals. I think this will work well."

"You don't happen to play chess, do you? Not that I'm sure we'd be able to find a set anywhere around here..."

I was a bit surprised at his response, but I was happy about it nontheless. "I actually do, though I'm not particularly good. Never really took the time to learn it too well. However, if you're just looking for a game, and can find a set, I'll be glad to play you."

"We'll have to do that sometime. Perhaps the pawn shop might even carry one. However, I don't feel any urge to leave this place until the administrators are done with their business."

"With the state all of you are in, I have to say I completely agree."

There was a bit of a pause, and then Rayo continued to question me... but this time, he brought up darker things. "What about you?" he said. "I heard Nighthand mention you were flagged after some events in a tower...which field was it and what happened there?"

I tried as hard as I could to remember what had happened for that entire adventure... and then I paid for it.

--------------------------

I looked around, realizing where I was. I had been here only once before... and this time, I didn't have a third wheel to stop the fight when it became too vicious. I looked straight forward, seeing my opponent clearly.

"You won't just give up, will you?"

"Of course not. I'm not your slave... I created you!"

With those words, we clashed. The distance between us seemed to simply melt away, and we were instantly at each other's throats. Blades flashed through the air, and somehow, I got the better of him nigh instantaneously. He hit the ground, and once again I stood above him, having bested him. And then it clicked.

"How... how do you always win? I KNOW I'm a better fighter than you! I always have been, and I always will be!"

"It's simple. This is a battle of minds. And mine is the more powerful"

And then it was over.

-----------------------

I snapped back to reality, not knowing how much time had passed. I remembered the question Rayo had posed, and decided I would simply answer him as if nothing had happened.

"I can't remember the name of the field... our final confrontation there sort of pushed all that out of my mind. We were led there by a hacker named Suraisu, who took us through most of the field, which was very obviously hacked. He tried to kill us at the end... probably would have if Nall hadn't showed up." It was a bit of a lie, as the main reason I couldn't remember things was because the battle between myself and Rikama had lasted for practically the entire tower. Had things within my own mind been calmer, I likely would have remembered more.

"Suraisu...I wonder where he fits in to the hacker society. Given the fact Nall even went, it must be related. Is he just another flunky or an Elite himself...?"

As if I can tell."I wouldn't know... of course he seemed unbelievably powerful to me, but Nall seemed to be able to handle him."
"I wish I could judge but with two specialty items...it's hard to say how Nall would match up to one now. Did he mention anything that sounded at all vital in any way? Accomplice names... locations... anything?"

I didn't want to try, after what had just happened, so I simply played the memory card. "I... I can't remember anything, I'm sorry. It all happened so quickly...."

"Do you have any sort of automatic log?"

"No, I don't. I'm sorry."

And with that, Rayo fell silent. I decided to leave him be, and simply lay back, comfortable with the knowledge that I now had a powerful ally who I could work with.

Phoenix512
Exalted Player
Posts: 304
Joined: Thu Nov 13, 2003 10:42 pm

Post by Phoenix512 » Wed May 31, 2006 10:00 am

Phoenix's attempt in getting some sleep failed greatly as Nighthand enters the room. He closely paid attention in what Nighthand had to say as he was curious to why the three normal players were here. It seems that they were flagged and which their appearance also explains why the Knights were combing the area harder than usual. Phoenix's experiences with the Knights were not exactly pleasant as he saw them being rather ruthless to their enemies. They probably think that all hackers are scum and just trying to make everyone else's lives miserable. Then Nighthand said a basic summary of what the Freedom Fighters' goals are and such. Finally Nighthand concluded with opening up a Q&A session which he gave a warning to Phoenix about trying to threaten Nall to get information which has not worked before in the past even though Asgard was the one who stop both attempts.

At this point, Phoenix was more listening than talking as he sat back and let the others ask questions and maybe get some new information about the overall state of affairs. He noticed that Rayo asked about Jett's Twilight item which Nighthand said that Nall has it but did not mention what its ability was. Phoenix knows about the power of Kuja's cape from experience as Nall used it in his battle against him. He thinks that Nall should not have all the Twilight items since it would make him too powerful but on the other hand, he has noticed that using the Twilight items taxes his energy. At some point, Nall either has to hide away the Twilight items or give them to others as having them all will probably kill him and the count is up to three.

The next person that asked Nighthand questions was Zan which the only thing that interested Phoenix was the field that Nighthand took Nall to which he tried to go but they refused to him which Asgard interfere in his affairs once again. Nighthand also mention that Rayo was a tactical orientated which was good since we need one in this group. Phoenix did not get any useful information from Nighthand's conversation with Zhao. After Zhao asked Nighthand some questions, he noticed that Rayo was trying to get information about the others to formulate strategies when the time comes along with Zan trying to get a buddy system going.

Phoenix would not rather have a buddy at this point as he has his loyal partner, guardian, and friend in Suzaku. If forced to have a buddy, he would prefer anyone but Hijinx. Actually Phoenix thinks that no one would want to be Hijinx's buddy since no one is crazy like she is. If he ended up being Hijinx's buddy, he would have to try to resist the urge to stab the crazy rabbit. He noticed that Zan and Dien paired up along with Reinier and Canti. Then he noticed that Rayo became Zhao's buddy which he tried to get information about how the three new players got flagged in the first place. At this point, he decided to interject himself into their conversation.

"I noticed your conversation that you two have going which I can offer some thoughts about it. But before that, my name is Phoenix which I have the ability to control gravity. I also have weapon and spell skills with all six elements along with the ability of group healing. I do also have a pet as well but I rather not show it right now."

Even though Phoenix was more forthcoming with info than Nall ever was, he would not rather tell them about the extent of his power or the personal darkness that surrounds him. He continued speaking to Rayo and Zhao about the conversation they had.

"I'm guessing that Suraisu is an Elite flunky than one of them himself. I think this because the Elites are a very cocky bunch that they wouldn't go through the trouble of disguising themselves as a lower-level hacker. Also, I know the names of all the Elites and that Suraisu wasn't one of them. The remaining Elites are Melzas who can see the future along with the mastery of ice; Xenobia who controls nature along with the ability to control people's bodies." Phoenix stopped for a moment after mentioning Xenobia before continuing on.

"There's also Rugudorull who controls thunder like you do, Rayo but he can transform into a powerful demon. Klive controls fire and is linked necromancy. The last two Elites are Royce and Garaa who are basically light and dark. I'm guessing that they probably have a secondary ability just like the other Elites do but we don't know what they are maybe except for Nall." Phoenix took a quick pause before talking some more.

"I have been in battles with Elites and it's no easy task in beating them. We get lucky so many times that we should have die long ago but we managed to survive somehow. The Elites can't use their full powers on the normal servers but even not at full strength, they are still pretty powerful. Various members of the group have met most of the Elites except for Klive. I myself have only seen Royce, Xenobia who actually used her power to force me to kill myself and Asgard with my powers, and Rugudorull." Phoenix stretched his arms a little bit before continuing to talk.

"Rayo, you mentioned about the Twilight items that Nall has. He actually has three of them. I extremely doubt he could use all three of them at once because it would drain his life to the point of death. Speaking of Nall, I don't hide the fact that I don't like how he hides things from everybody. What Nighthand left out about me was that I did actually try to threaten him to get information from him on a couple of times which didn't work out in my favor. I got this bad feeling that Nall saved them because he needed them for something. It wouldn't be the first time that he pulled this kind of crap. He draw in four players with promises of rewards if they agreed to help them which the end result that they became infected with the Twilight. Reinier and Ryok were two of the four players that Nall gave an empty promise to. Zhao, I really hoped that you and the others don't share the same fate that they did. Nall doesn't trust people and uses people for any problems that he can't solve on his own. He needs us to defeat the Elites but at the same time, he keeps his distance from everybody and doesn't really let anyone in." Phoenix was about to leave until he remembered one more thing.

"There's one more thing I would like to mention. Don't force me to have a buddy. I don't really need one. I have my faithful guardian as my buddy which she is more than a buddy than anyone is. I know that you don't want any of us to get lost or be alone but since the new guys need a buddy than the rest of us do, it's rather pointless in my opinion for the remaining members to pair up. Well, it was nice talking to you but I think I'm going to get some air outside. I'll be lying on a wall near the hideout if you guys need me." Phoenix left the hideout and took up a position on the front wall of the hideout just left of the entrance way. He needed to get out of the closed space of the hideout due to having a small crowd in it at the moment. Suzaku began talking to him after he hit the ground of Mac Anu. Kazuma-sama, was it necessary to tell them all that information even though you want them to leave the group as quickly as possible?

Yes, Suzaku. I don't want to admit it but their fates are sealed. They will become one of the damned. Whatever this mission that Nall is going to send us, they will get infected with the Twilight. I just hoped that they don't have the same kind of fate that the rest of us damned have experienced. Now, maybe I can try to get some sleep now. It seems that being outside I could sleep easier than inside. Phoenix began once again to try to get into dreamland as his pet tells him, "Sweet Dreams."

(OOC: Equipping the Elemental Breath orb on my pet for this quest.)
Phoenix
Level 48 Blademaster
Equipped Skills: Vak Revolver, Gan Revolver, Dek Vorv, La Repth, Juk Kruz, Rue Kruz, BiVak Rom, GiGan Zot
Other Skills: Rue Kruz, Rip Synk, Rip Saem, Crack Beat, Rue Slash, Ani Slash, Gan Crack, Gan Revolver

Wish List: Phoenix's Fire, Gold Necklace
EX-Spheres: LV 3 - Overdrive, LV 3 - Curative, LV 3 - Elemental Breath

Rayo
Exalted Player
Posts: 485
Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2003 7:21 pm

Post by Rayo » Wed May 31, 2006 3:47 pm

As the blade master entered the conversation, Auth marked down all of the important information, putting a big question mark next to “gravity”. It may have been no more than a word, but it was a clue to the player’s hack. Any arcade games Auth had played that involved gravity dealt percentile damage. However, since Phoenix said that he controlled it, gravity could very well mean the logical possibility of gravity. Could the swordsman let them all float, but how many, and for how long? Gravity…nice to know, but currently useless in planned application.

What came next was the most useful information Phoenix could have to offer. The black mage himself had only witnessed the capabilities of two Elites. The first was Kuja who the spell caster had previously fought, but that mattered less since the fool was already dead. The only other Elite was Garaa, from the battle that Nall partook in at the end of the tournament at Yamiyo Server. Auth flipped the pad to the next page, making notes next to each hacker that Phoenix went into any detail about.

However, the information that followed was what changed the information gathering mood into a grim one. Phoenix was starting fights within the group…similar issues in the past had never been good. Vera had been aggressive against him in the past, and according to Nighthand, Kurai also fought them. It was bad enough that there were the hackers and the administrators to protect against, why did team member have to be added to such a list? To top it off, Phoenix further isolated himself by refusing a buddy…would it be possible to coordinate with Phoenix during a battle? Sure, the blademaster volunteered statistical data, but then he refused to form up into a pair. Did he really believe that only three of the group required aid? Against an opponent like Kamui, Phoenix would just be cut down. With speed and power like that…what hope was there by yourself? At least with a few players, even just two or three, it might be possible to work together strategically and fend her or any other major threat off until they could regroup with the others. The wavemaster sighed as the trouble maker then left the hideout. It was bad enough that Zan and Reinier left to go pick up supplies, but at least their successful excursion would help the group with supplies. Nothing would be accomplished by Phoenix remaining alone and on the outside. In some ways the lightning mage wished to force Phoenix back inside, but given his earlier explanation about his previous engagements, thing would get too noisy. With so many soldiers roaming about a commotion would result in the opposite effect that Rayo wished for. Even tagging along would end badly, because then he too would be defeating the buddy system. Zhao couldn’t leave while tagged, so for now Rayo too would remain.
Rayo
Lv.47 Archer 745HP/311SP
Bell, the Silver Grunty of Thunder
Skills/Spells-Shocking Arrow of Voltage(30), Arrow of the Burning Stars(10), MeRai Rom(40), Rai Kruz(10), La Repth(20), Rip Maen(40), MeRai Kruz(20), GiVak Kruz(20), MeRai Don(20), Rig Saem(15)
Weapon/Armor/Book-Golden Royal Bow/Thunder Torque, Thunder Cloak, Able Ring, Ivory Greaves/Thunder Magic
Wishlist: YL Fukuoka, Stormlore, Winter Stone, Silver Grunty

User avatar
Nighthand
Master of Games
Posts: 1265
Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2003 9:23 pm
Class: Bladesmage
Location: ...Tracking...please wait...

Post by Nighthand » Wed May 31, 2006 11:30 pm

”The difference between what Nall did to draw in Reinier, Phoenix, and what he did with Dien, Canti, and Zhao... Well, if he hadn't gone and saved them, they'd be slaves of the hackers and in comas anyways right now.” Nighthand said, even though Phoenix had already left the building. The information was more for the benefit of the rest of the group.

”See, Nall has done some underhanded things, I know. I've been part of some of them. The bit about false promises... Yeah, he's right. Nall did promise rare items, power, and so forth to people to get them to join him. He needed players in his fight. Even so... With these powers we have, who can say we gained nothing? Sure, our bodies are in comas. And some people have bad experiences with that. I suppose I'm lucky to have.... a father that understands. Not everyone has that, I know. This isn't an easy life... but it's fulfilling, at least.”

His moral lesson completed for the day, Nighthand shifted his posture to a more comfortable one. Where was Nall? Wasn't it about time he got here? Sighing, the bladesmage stretched and ran a hand along the inside of his cloak, feeling the pockets filled with scrolls. They'd been sorted carefully so he knew at a touch what each was. A handy system.

”To answer your questions, Rayo... I hope you have a notepad handy.” He chuckled a bit. Not that a notepad would do any good if he was comatose. Again. ”I seem to be in Life or Death situations all the time, and generally it's a reaction of 'blast my way out.' So if you need to shout at me, Nighthand or Nights generally works. Or if you have the time in the heat of battle, a flashmail might do the trick. Without my powers, I have physical attacks in fire and earth, as well as the normal Death Bringer and Calamity skills. As for spells, from armor I have darkness and thunder. Not a lot, I know, but I don't use armor as much as I should.”

Once more he chuckled a little. He really didn't use armor as much as he should... He'd have a lot more in the way of spells available if he did. He'd have to work on that... ”I also have the ap spells for fire, water, wood, and thunder, as well as physical attack and accuracy. I have the dek spell for thunder, and antidote as a spell too. As for healing, Ol Repth and plenty of ressurrects. Items are where most of my power comes from, though. I have more elemental scrolls than you could shake a stick at, and with my powers they're stronger. Well... most of the time. I wouldn't always count on that. I have other abilities as well, but for now just think what you can do with that.”

Taking a deep breath, he smiled. He was powerful, sure, but it still wasn't enough. It took the combined effort of himself and Nall to be able to take out Jett, and from what their blademaster leader had said, the others were still stronger. Melzas with his predictions was dangerous as could be for their plans.. Hell, they all had their own strengths, and all of them were more than strong enough to take out this group. They were lucky that they hadn't had to face more than one of them at once.

Where WAS that guy? He should be back by now...

***************************

“Initiate phase one.”

“Phase one Initiated.”

“Begin user removal.”

“User removal begun.”

Throughout the town of Mac Anu, people began disappearing. One by one, or small clumps at a time, like wave sweeping back and forth. The crowd began to thin, with each pass of the wave. Players would find the image in their goggles of a title screen, the message “Server is not available, please check back later.” scrawled across it.

CCCorp quickly began receiving complaints, which they politely ignored after posting a notice. “Due to a recent uprising in hacker attacks, the Delta server is being shut down for a short period of time for maintenance. We apologize for the inconvenience.”

The admins placed a barrier around the town, a bit of code that separated the Delta server from the rest of The World. People could play on in other servers, but they would be unable to enter Delta. Players in Delta fields were unaffected, but once they tried to gate out of the field, they would find themselves in Theta with a message that the Delta server was temporarily unavailable.

More passes, and soon Mac Anu was empty. Empty, that is, except for a swarm of the Knights of War. It was an eerie feeling; it was like martial law had been declared upon the town. In fact, this is just what had happened. The higher ups in CC had finally decided that the hacker threat was enough to send in their big guns. There was only one problem; the ones they thought were hackers really weren't, and the ones who actually HACKED wouldn't be caught so easily.

A chime, and the chaos gate activated. Four sets of golden rings fell from the sky around the players CC had sent in.

“HAHA, it feels so good to be on a hunting spree once again! Oh how I will enjoy this...” The voice of Kamui, the famous Long Arm. She had played her way to the top ten, rising to the fourth strongest long arm in The World. Given Admin powers and told to police the game, she had finally found that the top three long arms were guilty of hacking and deleted them. She took her place as the top long arm with supreme arrogance. Anyone weaker than her was worth one of two things; utter contempt, or deletion. She tossed her head back and laughed, her long red ponytail swinging. She wore the garb of a standard player, though was far from it in actuality. A red breastplate with golden etchings sat over white and gold cloth, presumably a shirt. A split skirt brushed her legs as she walked, it's own red-on-gold matching her boots and gloves with the golden scrolls. Significant portions of her legs were bared; her character in action had many the fansite dedicated to fanservice. Some people paid with their lives for the few screenshots they got before their deletion. A set of red short-shorts kept anything more than her legs from finding light, to the dismay of her few fans.

“We're not here to play games, Kamui.” This voice belonged to Balmung. He was disgusted at the long arm's attitude; she was the worst example of an admin he could think of. Unfortunately, she was ruthlessly efficient, if overzealous, so CC wouldn't remove her. Balmung himself... He hadn't changed much since the completion of the One Sin event, so long ago. It seemed like ages ago when he had met Kite and discovered the darker side of The World... Though he was an Admin now, he sympathized with those in their comas. It was happening again, but this time, he couldn't help to stop it. If anything, his admin status made it harder. Every move he made was watched. Still... He knew there were those out there, fighting the hackers.

“I don't care what either of you say. I'm killing those pests that did so much before.” Tritoch, this time. The Wavemaster Three, the fabled Lord of the Three. Three elements, that is. The man was powerful, as were they all, though he had once been defeated by Asgard. He was still bitter. He didn't care whether this so-called group of freedom fighters hacked or not. They would die, and that was all he cared about. He held his wand ready, a gaudy thing. A golden unicorn's horn, held by the spike, and capped with a black gemstone on it's wider “base”, it had two brown falcon's wings on the end. His silver hair flowed over white robes, stripes of red, blue, and yellow on the shoulders. His elements. Below the black crescent moon on his forehead, his dark blue eyes twitched across the town, scanning for anyone out of place. He looked ready to destroy the Knights in his madness.

“And all three of you need to settle down a bit. We're here to determine if there are hackers here, for one, and to delete them if they are. Short and simple. No more drawn out battles. CC has lost enough money because of your destruction already.” The fourth one was an Admin little seen in The World; rather he spent most of his time policing the BBS. This was Kelvin Zephyr. He held himself with noble bearing, and his clothing reflected it. He, too, was a wavemaster, but quite different from Tritoch. Where the other man spent most of his time honing his power as much as possible, Kelvin was careful of balance. He knew that speed could be greater than power, and accuracy better than force. His short brown hair was spiked forwards, over a sky-blue headband, tied in the back where it hung free. His eyes were sky blue and calm, more worried about his fellow admins than the so-called hackers. Like Balmung, he too knew there was more going on in the game than CC realized. He was new as an Admin, though, so it granted him a bit more freedom. He was more radical in his ideas. Less focused on eradication and more on nullification. Why remove the hackers, when they just come back? Instead, make them impotent no matter what account they were on. He was the second of the Admins to have wings, though his were more than cosmetic. He had angelic wings to match Balmung's, but he used them to fly most of the time. These emerged from a simple yet regal kimono, varying in shades of blue, and marked with white clouds. He was aptly named the Lord of the Wind.

One of the Knights of War detached himself from the pack, heading for Kamui. He was obviously one of the higher ranked, as he didn't hesitate. He'd dealt with Kamui long enough to have no fear of deletion; less, anyways.

“All normal players have been removed from the server.”

”Good. Now find me the hackers!”

The knight too was used to her perfunctory orders; it was his job to decide what to do about them. A few gestures, and the Knights scattered in groups, searching through the alleyways to find anyone left behind, locked in the server. For the town now WAS locked; until the four admins left, no one could enter or leave.

***************************

“There's one!”

Phoenix was awoken from his slumber once again, to find himself pinned in the alleyway. Two knights on either side blocked the exits, and two more were converging on him.

I think we should make an escape, Kazuma-sama. Suzaku informed Phoenix, who agreed. He braced himself and leapt, reaching the rooftops and pulling himself up.

Below, the knights began to shout, notifying the others of what they had found. A couple of the more limber ones, twin blades, climbed onto the rooftops to follow.

***************************

”AHA! There's one! DIE, SCUM! RAI DO-” Kamui's arm grabbed Tritoch's upraised wand, directing it at the ground while her eyes directed a glare at the wavemaster.

”Don't. Let him draw out the others, first.” Her voice held steel. Tritoch WOULD die, if he crossed her, and he knew it.

Phoenix continued to dash along the rooftops, ducking under a heavyblade who had climbed up ahead to ambush him. The twinblades still gave chase, but were losing ground. Leaping the peak of another roof, he was confronted with several more knights, and made an abrupt turn and leapt off the roof, sailing over the heads of the knights below and landing on the rooftops across the street. There he paused for a moment, sending a quick flashmail to Nighthand. Despite his reluctance to rely on the group, he was too outnumbered to last long.

In the Hideout, Nighthand's eyes widened, and he drew his blade. ”Phoe's in trouble. The admins are moving.” He moved quickly to the doorway, his Corona Blade already giving off it's heat. ”What are you waiting for? Let's move!” The doorway opened and he dashed out, bowling over a Knight that had stayed in the alleyway to look for others. The knight, a low level blademaster, gave out a squawk of warning before Nighthand's blade silenced him. It was too late, however; the admin's knew there were more here, now.

Nighthand dashed into the open streets, finding himself on the middle of the bridge. Knights began to surround him on all sides, but they were wary to attack, not without their orders. Kamui, Tritoch, Balmung, and one he'd never seen before stood on the platform with the Chaos Gate. Kamui was holding back Tritoch, who appeared to be itching to attack them.

A glance back showed the rest of the party emerging from the alleyways. The knights didn't attack them yet either, simply surrounded them. Rayo would dislike the situation, but hopefully it wouldn't last long as is.

”Kamui, Tritoch, I see you made some friends. Long time no see, Balmung. Havn't seen you since the Yoroi General. What brings you out this fine morning?”

”Stow it, hacker, we're here to see your end.”

”You've killed me before, Kamui... As you can see, it didn't stick.” Nighthand grinned. Sure, he was probably pissing off the admins, but banter was his element.

”I don't know who you are. Are you a hacker?”

”SHUT UP, Kelvin! OF COURSE HE'S A HACKER! How else could he be here?!”

”No, Kelvin, we're not. But none of you ever believe us. The REAL threat is on Yamiyo Server. Not us.”

His words might have affected the newcomer, Kelvin, but they didn't have time to sink in. Tritoch was chomping at the bit, ready to be set loose upon them all, and Kamui was barely of the mind to hold him back. Still, she didn't like getting her hands dirty, and wanted a show. She held out her hand, and her spear appeared in it; a fancy red and gold affair ending in a wicked point. She slapped Tritoch with it, hard. The wavemaster took no damage, his green damage shield from Physical Tolerance activating, but he still was knocked back. ”Tritoch, just watch for a moment, would you? KNIGHTS, ATTACK!”



-=-=-=-=-

ooc: Here we introduce a new type of battle I thought up. The three recruits have seen it once before, and I thought I'd give it a shot here. I call it a Quota Battle; the enemies are essentially endless, but something changes when you reach a certain number of them defeated.

In this battle you choose the enemies you fight. There are two types of Knights of War.

Weak Knight
These can be any class of player except whipmaster, fist fighter, and archer. They're around level 10 or lower, tend to be less experienced in their battles, and tend to swarm their foes without a sense of tactics. The wavemasters of this group will occasionally heal their comrades, but no resurrects from them. They also like to cast level 1 attack spells.

Strong Knight
These can be any class, including whipmaster, fist fighter, and archer. They're between levels 15 and 30, have moderate battle experience, and have a decent use of tactics. They sometimes act as commanders of the weaker knights, and sometimes fight alone, but most often you'll find them working in pairs or trios, outnumbering their enemies without seeming too unfair. The wavemasters of this group will also heal occasionally, though they have attack spells up to level two that they like to cast. Still no revives from them, however.

Feel free to attack the four Admins if you like, but I warn you it's probably suicidal.

For the Quota of the battle, 80 should suffice. Keep a tally at the end of your posts, like this:

Number of knights killed; 3
number of knights dead total: 12

where the first line is the number you killed in your post, and the second is the running total of those killed. Don't worry about going over the quota, though. Also, there'll be an announcement where you can comment on this sort of thing, among other things. I want more feedback from people, so if you don't like how certain things are happening, I can stop doing things that way. Or if you DO like something, I can keep doing it, or things like it.

Rayo
Exalted Player
Posts: 485
Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2003 7:21 pm

Post by Rayo » Thu Jun 01, 2006 1:12 am

Auth did just as Nighthand had asked, his notepad hit page three as he marked down everything that could prove useful. Nighthand was the third to enlist in the statistics program, and that made him a bit happy. It might even encourage Zan and Reinier to withhold less information now that Nighthand was participating. With Nighthand also being able to revive…that was a lesser concern now in his mind. Nothing really seemed to missing from the group as a whole either…so adaptability wouldn’t be a problem, no matter what types of weaknesses the enemies had. Still, they all might not have to fight for a while…

“Phoe's in trouble. The admins are moving. What are you waiting for? Let's move!”

The wavemaster quickly moved to the door but, paused there for a moment after Nighthand left. Blocking the door as he was, the mage hoped people might actually listen to what he was going to say. After all, this would be for their own good. Looking to Zan, whom he’d gained some faith in thus far, his eyes silently begged for cooperation, hoping that by leading by example, they could keep everyone together.

“Remember, we just want to get Phoenix out of there, not get in more trouble. Let’s stick together and look out for each other just the same.”

With that the wizard ducked out the door and followed the small trail of blood into the main road of the root town. There were knights everywhere…they were completely surrounded. There was Nighthand at least, over on the bridge, just across from…damn. Rayo could see Kamui’s sadistic face all the way from his vantage point, emerging from the alley. How many Knights of War were there, the lightning mage didn’t know. There were only a handful when they had fought in the Theta Server, but this time the admins seemed to be taking them more seriously. Graciously, the soldiers seemed to allow the players out from the crowded entrance, probably so that they could surround them better. Their superior numbers could be utilized to a greater extent with more space. Regardless, staying put back there wouldn’t exactly help out Phoenix or Nighthand. Before they decided the team was trapped enough to actually attack, Rayo hoped to get off some sort of working strategy.

“Let’s try and maintain a defensive perimeter here. Zan, hold the front so that Nighthand can join back up with us if he needs to. I trust you can keep the door open. Dien, keep them from sneaking up on him. Zhao, target any wavemasters the enemy has if you can so we can’t be bombarded. Just keep them busy healing. Ryok, Reinier, Canti, keep those knights behind us away from us. Hijinx, if you can, go find Phoenix and bring him here. You’re good at doing seemingly impossible things with ease. Everyone, please.”

Even with a formation though, the surge of knights would probably be too much to hold for very long. Unless of course…well, bodies slow down running soldiers, right? The Great Elite flipped out of it’s carrying case and pointed directly at a batch of knights, eight or so between the blademaster and then rest of them. All bunched up…too good a target to resist.

“Now to clear the way…”

The wave master muttered silently that, along with what might have been considered a pray, as he let loose with his opening barrage. Ripping a tear in the space between them, his wolfish summon glared down at the squad, then promptly swiped a paw down at them, sending their bodies flying a few feet, suddenly leaving some ghosts where the solid bodies once stood. Speaking to some of the closer men who were raising their blades, Rayo smiled and at least planned to speak to those who’d die.

“That my friends, was my feelings that have been cooking for your boss. Would you like the stronger batch? Lanceor Ch!”

Moments after vanishing, his upgraded summon materialized again, directly in front of the charging soldiers. The five of them were swept away, leaving bloody armor chunks and whatever that blue thing was lying in front of him. At least it’d give the enemy something to trip over. With another quick appearance from Lanceor, a few heavy axes were thrown about, into building windows, for extra pain, not that they weren’t dead before their heads broke glass anyway.

The wizard let his wand cool for a moment, as he’d already burned through 190SP in the first minute of the battle. He still had a pair of SP recovery items, but it’d be best to use them sparingly. Spying Kamui again, the summoner simply smiled and waved, letting her know he was back for round two. Although Rayo didn’t want to miss her reaction, he returned his focus to the battle and glances around to see who had decided to cooperate with making “formation A” a success.


******

Number of knights killed: 19
number of knights dead total: 19
Rayo
Lv.47 Archer 745HP/311SP
Bell, the Silver Grunty of Thunder
Skills/Spells-Shocking Arrow of Voltage(30), Arrow of the Burning Stars(10), MeRai Rom(40), Rai Kruz(10), La Repth(20), Rip Maen(40), MeRai Kruz(20), GiVak Kruz(20), MeRai Don(20), Rig Saem(15)
Weapon/Armor/Book-Golden Royal Bow/Thunder Torque, Thunder Cloak, Able Ring, Ivory Greaves/Thunder Magic
Wishlist: YL Fukuoka, Stormlore, Winter Stone, Silver Grunty

Zan
Exalted Player
Posts: 206
Joined: Sat Jan 22, 2005 10:28 pm
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Post by Zan » Thu Jun 01, 2006 2:41 am

There was a still in the air, an eerie calm that had continued to build and prosper in the Hideout as time progressed. Zan's Beast was rattling in its cage, growling and snarling at the cages the Heavy Blade's will had set around it. As happy as the lycanthrope was to have that part of his mind under his control now, there was a loss to his Instinct because of it. Not by much, no, but enough that he had to view it like the guy on the porch watching as his attack dog yowled at the night's secrets. Zan was itching to do something, to move, to take action. Nighthand had been pretty clear on how bad an idea that was and, having already ventured out once, Zan wasn't all too keen on putting himself in that position again. The Knights didn't smell too powerful; it barely trickled from their bodies from some and a touch steadier from others. No...they weren't the anxiety he felt. There was something else, like the subtle rattle on the train tracks before you turn and find yourself with a face full of rusting iron. Sighing to himself, almost praying for another lucid memory from Lowen, he turned to offer up some conversation to his new-found partner.

Fate, however, had another plan.

Nighthand seemed suddenly startled, his eyes shook up and his body rattled as he swung open the Hideout door. The call to movement, to action...Zan barely allowed the human half of his brain to hesitate in confusion before he was to his feet and half-way towards the door. However, remembering Dien, he shot a glance back and motioned for the kid to stay behind him. It wasn't an order, but a heavily implied suggestion. They had to keep this together, as a group, as a pair or else the whole buddy system was pointless. Keeping track of another individual was paining, almost. Nerve-wracking. He was so used to bounding off on his own in the general direction of the other Freedom Fighters with the general goal of 'Kill shit,' held in mind. The lycanthrope had made it to the door when Rayo paused and blocked his way, eliciting an unintentional growl that was met in combo with an apologetic look in the tundra of his blue eyes. Zan's nerves were firing off signals already, Instinct becoming a heavy suggestion in the back of his head. The raise of his nose into the air with an indulgent breath and he found himself gagging; caught between the alluring copper-tang of blood and the overwhelming and acrid stench of power. Four of them that mattered with drove upon drove of those that did not. An amplification to his hearing and, still standing at the threshold as Rayo prepared to talk, he knew that all the players had up and left. No more idle chatter. No, Mac Anu was now a place of rustling armor and bitter arguments from the four he knew to be out there.

"Remember, we just want to get Phoenix out of there, not get in more trouble. Let’s stick together and look out for each other just the same." Not exactly a harsh request.

"I have no arguments. We need to stick together. It's like a swarm of locusts out there, if you guys could only smell the power coming off some of the people. Rayo's right, keep together and we keep alive. Mostly." The Heavy Blade could only hope egos would allow some people to listen.

Zan walked forward with Rayo, emerging beside him in time to see Nighthand on the bridge with the four people that Zan had sensed not too long ago. One of them seemed to be out of place compared to the other three, wings on his back similar to the only player amongst the four catching some hint of familiarity in his eyes. Balmung of the Asure Sky. The guy was a legend. Oh the ironies of having such an icon now become an enemy. It was a sad thing, sure, but it wouldn't stop Zan from trying (and probably failing by the way power collected and dripped from the guy) to take him out if he got the chance. Before he could dwell on it any further he found his view obscured by the shuffle of the rest of the hivemind, dozens upon dozens of the Knights of War surrounding the small group of Freedom Fighters. Zan's jaw came to a cautionary clench, but his body otherwise showed no outward signs of fear or wavering faith in his own abilities. He had such signs in his thoughts, sure, but he wouldn't let them see that. A deep breath taken, Zan willed his Clabro form to file out over him as Rayo said his next bit of advice; the Heavy Blade's muscles swelling a touch and toning out, defining, his senses suddenly alive and thriving with reflexes for added flavor. It wasn't his full power, no, but he wasn't entirely sure it was a stable thing to summon up. If he came out to be that hulking black...thing...again, Zan didn't know if safety could really be offered to the rest of his peers. No, he was fine. For now.

"Let’s try and maintain a defensive perimeter here. Zan, hold the front so that Nighthand can join back up with us if he needs to. I trust you can keep the door open. Dien, keep them from sneaking up on him. Zhao, target any Wavemasters the enemy has if you can so we can’t be bombarded. Just keep them busy healing. Ryok, Reinier, Canti, keep those knights behind us away from us. Hijinx, if you can, go find Phoenix and bring him here. You’re good at doing seemingly impossible things with ease. Everyone, please." Again, the guy had some good ideas stored in his head.

"Already on it." Without a second thought, Zan drew out the rippling, bladed structure of the Flame Sword as he stepped forward and past Rayo to the front flank of their attackers.

Fire ate along the edges of the sword, licking a red-orange energy across its surface in tune with Zan's growing eagerness and contradicting caution. An exhalation and they surged forward, a warning horizontal slash of his brandished weapon halting a few but allowing a handful still to slip past him. There were far too many for him to keep back on his own, but he was doing his best. Knowing full well that the people before him wouldn't be halted by another feigned blow, Zan braced himself as those few that had stayed charged his way. The Heavy Blade slammed his weapon forward, the Flame Sword crunching past armor and sliding through flesh like a knife through hot butter, the hot energy from the sword's blade blistering the man's organs. Using his charging momentum and Zan's supernatural strength, he hefted him up and over his shoulder, dislodging his sword from crackled flesh as he prayed that Dien was wise enough to move out of the way and let the body hit another target. Ducking below the hefty whoosh of an axe, Zan regained his posture, his weapon wielded with the strength of the wolf that allowed him to strike with the speed of a Blademaster, the Flame Sword tore through the first half of the aggressor's neck.

With the man's graying corpse now resembling a PEZ dispenser (something an old movie had inspired him towards), Zan turned his attentions to the next Knight closest to him. This one, a twin blade, was stronger then even the Heavy Axeman before him and his weapons landed home, raking twin lines in an 'X' formation across the lycanthropes chest. Zan did nothing for a second, instead allowing the Knight's mouth to drop open in confusion as the wounds knitted themselves shut. Before the Knight could compose himself, the Heavy Blade lashed a hand into his mouth, four main fingers tightening around the back of his front teeth while his thumb braced under the man's chin. Before the Knight could react, Zan once again flexed the potential of his wolf and ripped the lower jaw clean from its socket in one wet tear, shoving the jagged and broken attachments into the eyes of a Knight that made himself known as that one went down. The Beast's animosity was beginning to influence his attacks, he knew, but it was also offering him power in return. Not really wanting to turn such a thing down in a time like this, the lycanthrope filtered his strength, his power into both of his arms and drew a horizontal line across a trio of Knights in one quick slice. Without looking back, Zan flipped the Flame Sword to face behind him, thrusting into one that had slipped past him in his slaughter. Feeling the body fall to the floor and off his blade in a lewd wretch, attentions were turned once more to the wave of bodies still coming from the front.

Fangs extending from both his upper and lower canines, Zan could feel himself not being forced but wanting more and more to slip the sheep flesh of his skin and become a predator. No no...not yet. However, resisting the temptation as he was, he watched with hungry eyes as another Knight was unfortunate enough to be staked on the end of his Flame Sword, the force behind Zan's attack immense enough to have blood trickling onto the Heavy Blade's hands from a wound that was only an inch or two away. Not quite dead, the Knight looked on in silent horror as Zan indulged his hunger, forcing the man's head back, exposing his throat as all four fangs sunk deep into the warmth of his neck. A hot splash of blood hit the back of his throat as he bit down into the Knight's trachea and jerked his head away; yanking a glob of flesh away and gulping it down before he could control the knee-jerk reflex. With that enemy gurgling away unintelligible words as his body died and his spirit sifted from the remains, Zan found his mind wondering to the skills the fire-enveloped blade had. A shout of, "VAK DRIVE!" and the Flame Sword ignited into an inferno, flames tossed around as two Knights fell with his first slice, another two with his next, and a single one with his finale. Flesh cooked and blistered even in death, wafting a tempting aroma into the lycanthropes nose that he refused to give into a second time.

Waiting for just the right moment, Vak Smash was called into power, into action; a Knight who had unfortunately tripped over a sudden jut of earth pinned to it, grayed to it as Zan's weight hoisted into the air. One Knight caught the danger and darted to the side, the one directly behind him (his vision once obscured by his leader) running head first into the blade, his head stuck vertically half-way; bone and brain matter greasing the wavy edges of the Flame Sword. Held perpendicular to the ground and the gore around him, his body held in suspended animation in a sort of head stand before all of his weight and the mass of his wolven strength came crashing forward. Two died in the initial fall of the blade, cleaved completely in two down the middle, while three more were consumed in the ripple of the red-orange blaze that echoed around the impact. Their burning, agonizing cries and popping of blister-consumed flesh was ignored as an actual threat found itself in front of Zan. There was a glee in the low-level Twin Blade's eyes as his blades made their way towards Zan's throat, stopping out of shock and lack of distance as Zan's palm pressed hard into the Knight's forehead.

"Nice try, asshat." A jerk of his hand to the left and the kid's neck snapped, vertebrae shattering with the unnecessary force Zan put behind it, the corpse simply slacking to the ground. A look around and Zan knew that plenty had fled past his one-man post, but several more were actually running around it. Zan supposed eating a piece of one of them and ripping off the jaw of another wasn't exactly the way they wanted to go. Sadly enough, though, the lycanthrope's job wasn't done. Still more didn't fear him enough, their numbers coming and crashing towards him. Even then, with the endless tide of Knights heading his way, he could think only one thing as a smile curled upon blood-stained lips, that same crimson trail trickling down past his chin.

Bring it on.

------
Number Killed: 21
Total Number Killed: 40
Lv. 50 Heavy Blade
Wishlist
Special: Levels, GR Sendai, PL Sakai, Darklore.
W: Tonosama Sword, Mineuchi, Jundachi.
A: Samurai Helm, Able Hands, Rare Greaves.
I: Holy Sap, Treebane, Cooked Bile, Nightbane.
EX: Elemental Summon (Lv. 2), Overdrive (Lv.1), Elemental Attacks (Lv. 2), Enhance Dark, Elemental Breath (Lv. 2).

Phoenix512
Exalted Player
Posts: 304
Joined: Thu Nov 13, 2003 10:42 pm

Post by Phoenix512 » Thu Jun 01, 2006 4:42 am

Phoenix was jumping from rooftop to rooftop avoiding the Knights of War who were chasing after him. People must have an agenda of disturbing my sleep today. I doubt I will get any sleep any time… Before Phoenix could finish his thought, he noticed there were three Knights in front of him. He tried to escape from the left and right but there were Knights blocking those paths as well. He noticed that the way he came to the rooftop was blocked as well. Let’s see, various types of classes but most of them are low-leveled except for one. I’m guessing that one is the leader of this unit.

Phoenix counted a total of 13 Knights surrounding him. He drew out his sword and said, “I know that you guys probably think I’m some evil hacker but I’m not for the record. I don’t really want to fight you guys but since you guys are so set on wanting me dead, I have no qualms on fighting for my survival. I say, 13 against 1 is a little bit unfair to me. So, let’s even up the odds for me shall we?”

Phoenix grabbed on his necklace and forcefully removes it around his neck. Then he threw it up in the air which it suddenly transformed into his guardian bird, Suzaku. Suzaku, I equipped the elemental breath orb onto you already. Use its ability to deal with the wavemasters along with any possible threats. Ignore the leader at the moment. Suzaku gave a slight nod to him and began its attack the nearest wavemaster with its firebreath. Meanwhile, Phoenix was dealing with four Knights with the class of Longarm, Twin Blade, Heavy Blade, and Heavy Axe. Each one was converging on him at a different side.

I really wish that I can control the gravity of multiple things at once but I don’t. I think I’m going to after the Heavy Axe first. The Heavy Axe was coming at him from behind which Phoenix altered his gravity to half-normal. He ran as fast as he can towards the Heavy Axe and did a slash across the chest of the Knight. Phoenix reverted back to his normal gravity in order not to fall off of the roof as the Heavy Axe became a ghost. He turned around to see not just the three Knights who were part of the initial group but other Knights except for three Wavemasters and the leader of the unit. One of the Knights was jumping from behind Phoenix’s location which Suzaku gave him a quick warning about him. Phoenix noticed that the Knight was directly under the space between the rooftops. He focused his gravity powers on the Knight in the air which he made him experience the gravity 10 times as normal. The Knight quickly fell down without any horizontal movement and could not stop his descent since he could not move his arms or legs. The Knight had no chance of survival from the fall as he broke his neck on impact and resulting in his death.

Thanks for the assist, Suzaku. How many more wavemasters you have left to deal with? The bird responded with that has two more left which brings down the count from 13 Knights to 10 now. Removing the two wavemasters and the leader from the equation, Phoenix had to deal with seven Knights in front of him. He noticed they were not moving towards him but they were close together though. There were four of them in front of Phoenix with the other three acting as a rear guard. Then he suddenly came up with a plan to get rid of them. He cast Rue Kruz at the middle Knight which distracted the other two Knights in the back. Then he cast Vak Kruz on the ground near the middle two front Knights which cause a small dust cloud which was followed by other dust clouds at the left and right the front line from Vak Kruz attacks.

The seven Knights were not used to battling in abnormal conditions like Phoenix was. In the confusion, Phoenix jumped into the middle of the two lines which gave a series of slashes across the back for the front line and across the midsection for the rear guard. After the dust cloud settled, the seven Knights all collapsed onto the ground with their bodies devoid of color and became ghosts. Phoenix saw Suzaku taking care of the last wavemaster by burning him alive which he gave out a scream before joining his comrades of the world without color.

Phoenix turned his attention to the leader of the unit that he and Suzaku took out just now. The leader was a level 30 Fist Fighter and had a heavily toned, tall muscular body on him. The fist fighter had no shirt on him as he wanted to everyone to know about his body and how great of it is. Phoenix looked at him in the eyes and said, “Some leader you are. You let your subordinates die without even helping them at all. Its scum like you is the reason why the Knights are hated in general. You just assumed that all hackers must be destroyed regardless if they hurt anyone or not. We have more honor than you will ever have.”

Phoenix’s words made the leader very angry and began to charge Phoenix. He sees the fist fighter heading towards him but before he could make a move, the leader disappeared. The next thing that Phoenix knew was that he was receiving a kick to the head. Before he could figure out where the kick came from, he was pelted with kicks and punches to the head and midsection. He fell to one knee which Suzaku asked him if he was alright but the answer to that question was a no. Phoenix sees the leader right in front of him at that point which he spoke to him very loudly. “Why the leader should fight weak opponents? It’s the subordinates’ job to deal with the weak ones. The leader only fights when there is no one left to deal with the problem. You are weak. Even your measly hack is weak. You became a hacker because you couldn’t deal with the game. You had to cheat in order to succeed. Your pet bird is a weakening as well. Even now, it’s not doing anything now. By the order of the Knights of War, prepare to be deleted.”

Phoenix closed his eyes as he took a Health Drink. The fist fighter leader was doing the same attack motion that he did to Phoenix the first time around. He was trying to build up much speed and confusing his opponent to his current location. This tactic was a big mistake on his part as Phoenix was really focusing on his gravity field. Once he managed to keep constant tab on it, he began with his plan. The leader began to head towards Phoenix to make the final move on him but suddenly his right leg felt like that it was chained to a ball and chain. The fist fighter could not move at all as his right leg broke under the pressure of the intense gravity. “You hacker bastard! You couldn’t win against me normally. So you had to resort to cheating.”

Phoenix went towards the fallen Knight leader and look down on him for a moment before talking to him once again. “You don’t really understand our true plight. Most of us didn’t want these powers. I wish I could be a normal player like the most of the World but someone decided I wasn’t worth the privilege of being a normal player. I was given a cruel destiny. I meant what I said about didn’t want to fight you but for now, I got to survive. No hard feelings but work on being a true leader. Fight with comrades not watching them getting slaughtered.” After Phoenix said those words, he stabbed the fist fighter at the neck with his sword. The Knight leader joined the rest of his unit as citizens of the colorless world.

Phoenix put up his black hood as Suzaku perched on his shoulder. He scanned the city to find out where the others were but he noticed the four admins instead. It looks like that Kamui and Tritoch are still up to their old tricks. No wonder that scum like that fist fighter become a leader of a unit. The other two I haven’t seen before but one of them looks like Balmung. Normally I would feel excited with meeting a legend like Balmung but his presence here means that he might kill us all. The fourth admin is rather unknown and I don’t know his stance is like Kamui and Tritoch. Anyway, I finally found the others but I think I’m going to stay out of the way. Suzaku, let’s head towards them.

Phoenix noticed the carnage that was occurring where the other Freedom Fighters were. He would not be caught in the crossfire at this point but he is going to be nearby if they were caught in a pinch. He and Suzaku jumped from rooftop to rooftop as he noticed that the Knights of War were too busy focusing on trying to subdue the remaining Freedom Fighters. Phoenix and Suzaku landed on a roof that was overlooking the rest of the Freedom Fighters. They lie down on the roof hoping that they will not be noticed by any of the Knights or the admins. Phoenix decided to send out a flashmail to the others telling them that he’s nearby.

Flashmail
To: The Freedom Fighters
From: Phoenix

I’m currently overlooking your current position from a nearby roof. I rather not reveal my current position and want to surprise the enemy if you guys get into trouble. If you have anyone looking for me, tell them to come back to you. And besides, you guys seem to having too much fun at the moment. Why ruin a good thing?

End Flashmail


Phoenix and Suzaku watched the carnage of the battlefield as he rested from his injuries along with the pain of using his gravity powers. Suzaku, prepare to go out there at a moment’s notice. Suzaku gave him an understood before going back to watching along with her master.

Knights killed: 13
Knights killed in total: 53
Phoenix
Level 48 Blademaster
Equipped Skills: Vak Revolver, Gan Revolver, Dek Vorv, La Repth, Juk Kruz, Rue Kruz, BiVak Rom, GiGan Zot
Other Skills: Rue Kruz, Rip Synk, Rip Saem, Crack Beat, Rue Slash, Ani Slash, Gan Crack, Gan Revolver

Wish List: Phoenix's Fire, Gold Necklace
EX-Spheres: LV 3 - Overdrive, LV 3 - Curative, LV 3 - Elemental Breath

ryok
Elevated Player
Posts: 70
Joined: Fri Oct 01, 2004 6:38 pm
Location: Unknown

Post by ryok » Fri Jun 02, 2006 2:14 am

-Yamiyo? A server that even the rulers of The World can't see. Odd, I'd think that the makers would be smart enough to stop any serious hackings.

-As Nighthand continued ryok felt more and more out of the loop. He didn't remember being told any of what was being said when he first 'joined'. It wasn't like he planned on joining them it was just kind of an accident. Though ryok didn't mind it all that much. He didn't have to worry about the hassle of real life stuff anymore. He could relax, and do whatever he pleased. Maybe he didn't want to go back, back to that world. Maybe he did want to go back and it was just the negative things that he thought of because that was his nature. His mixed feelings confused him still, and all of what Nighthand said still brought about more questions. Questions about how even their leader didn't understand it all. Although questions of that sort weren't fair, no one actually knew how exactly the virus worked.

-Moving to the corner of the room he sat undisturbed. He didn’t know how to talk to the people who he didn’t really know. Of course he could express his feelings about what had happened, but they wouldn’t change anything. Except for maybe the person’s he was talking to disposition. He sat in the corner not having anything to say as usual, as everyone else conversed. He honestly wanted to be a part of the group some how. Shrugging it off again he sat content with his eyes closing on him. His normal sleep routine was disrupted before hand by the overzealous rabbit of the group. He was nearly asleep, his thoughts void, when something changed. A shiver rattled up his backbone and he sat up straight. Looking about the room he noticed Nighthand talking. All he heard of his first sentence was…

-“…Admins are moving.” He wondered about this as well. Why would the Admins be any problem to them at all? If anything they should be sympathetic towards those who were stuck within the game. Unless of course they didn’t believe the hubbub dealing with the comas, and the whole being stuck in the game situation. Which would explain why they didn’t believe in the Yamiyo Server. Which was to them something that our group made up in order to throw them off. In any case that would mean that they believed them to be the hackers. Which gave ryok a good reason to fight in any case. He had died before, and although he didn’t understand it all to well he was still fine. What about being deleted though? It must’ve been different on many levels. Nighthand left the building with Rayo behind. The wavemaster stopped in the doorway and turned to all of the fighters.

-“Remember, we just want to get Phoenix out of there, not get in more trouble. Let’s stick together and look out for each other just the same.” The words rung in his ears as he had hoped to join a battle that he could actually help in. He would soon though find out that it was just as he had hoped. Following the group out he was the last in the room. Looking back he hoped it wouldn’t be the last time he stared the inside of the room down. Turning out the room he walked out into the alley that led out to the main road. Following the trail of blood and the fleeting shadows of his comrades he stepped out on to the battlefield. Looking about he noticed the first awkward thing about the whole situation. The normal players had been kicked, and only they had been left. The streets were filled with sweating Knights of War. Some versed in battle and some just signed on to help against the alleged hackers. Ryok smirked staring the masses of enemies that stood before their group. Again the wavemaster known as Rayo spoke out to them. “Let’s try and maintain a defensive perimeter here. Zan, hold the front so that Nighthand can join back up with us if he needs to. I trust you can keep the door open. Dien, keep them from sneaking up on him. Zhao, target any wavemasters the enemy has if you can so we can’t be bombarded. Just keep them busy healing. Ryok, Reinier, Canti, keep those knights behind us away from us. Hijinx, if you can, go find Phoenix and bring him here. You’re good at doing seemingly impossible things with ease. Everyone, please.” Ryok’s orders were clear. He clutched his blade with the anticipation of tearing through the skin of another player. He had never killed another player, nor had he harmed one. Though this time he planned to do far worse. He tore away from the safety of the group to have some fun. With the smile still plastered on his face he took off away from the bridge to meet his fate.

-His hand grabbed at a speed charm, which slowly faded as its powers were absorbed into ryok’s body. His legs tightened as the charms full affect sank in. The closest group of knights was drawing near. Approaching the unlucky first target he pulled his blade from its sheath and took advantage of his newbish defense stance. Pulling the blade up he placed in perfectly in between the knights shoulder pad and breastplate. Ryok pulled his blade up through the collarbone, and out into the air. The knight’s sword fell with the limp arm to his side. Ryok drew back his hands still wrapped around the blade. He thrust forwards again the blade cutting through the knight’s soft unprotected neck. His whole body fell back into the crowd behind him as ryok pulled his blade back. Ryok hopped backwards, guiding his sword back into its sheath with his thumb. The groups broke as his initial attack sunk into the men. Who had previously believed that they wouldn’t be attacked because they served under the almighty ‘CC Corp’. He hoped that the other two sent to hold the people who planned to attack their backs were already fighting. With that thought passing he readied as another weak stance flew towards him. Grabbing his blade he whispered the words of his favorite attack, the one that would kill this knight off.

-“Karin” Lit the blade on fire as he crouched slightly and pulled the blade horizontally through the knight’s chest. The blade met with the leather strapping between the breastplate and greaves. It seemed to melt under the heat of the blade as it passed partially through the man’s hipbone and crossed his chest where it burnt and chopped any organ tissue in it’s path. The blade exited with a jolt of force as it snapped the collarbone. The top half of the knight slid off; the bottom half falling over onto the ground. The bottom half fell over, as the man was replaced by a ghost.

-Ryok spun, the heavy steps of an axe man clear over the clashing of blades, lifting his sword up to block the axe as it fell. His arms strained under the mere weight of the blade. He slid his sword back, hearing the sound of his joints as the blade bore down on to him. Rolling the blade hit the ground with a loud crunching of cobblestone under it. Ryok placed his hand on the back of the knight’s leg whispering another spell. “Miu Lei” The purple glyph appeared under the axe man’s feet. Turning he stood straight looking around at its comrades. Ryok pointed out a group and the axe man went into action. Taking out the light armored men that stood in the axes path first, one being an archer let off a few shots towards ryok as he jumped over the blade of the axe to survive. Ryok, enjoying the carnage around him, was struck by the first arrow in the thigh. Which caused him to shift attention to the other approaching arrows. His blade still in hand was lifted in time to deflect one while the other struck his right shoulder. Ryok breaking off the shafts left the arrowheads inside. The axe of the charmed one stopped with a heavy blade and another axe man. The heavy blade taking a grave blow across the chest, and fell to his knees. Ryok quickly cast a silent Vak Rom finishing the heavy blade off. A flashmail beeped in front of him as a volley of arrows hit the charmed axe man. Ryok grabbed it out of the air and quickly scanned its contents…

Flashmail
To: The Freedom Fighters
From: Phoenix

I’m currently overlooking your current position from a nearby roof. I rather not reveal my current position and want to surprise the enemy if you guys get into trouble. If you have anyone looking for me, tell them to come back to you. And besides, you guys seem to having too much fun at the moment. Why ruin a good thing?

End Flashmail



-With that major detail filled out there was nothing now to worry about except the admin. Discarding the note he looked up from it to see his charmed fighter wearing down. Ryok sheathed his sword, and dashed towards the back of the charmed axe man. Knowing that alone the axe man would be defeated he decided to help. Running at the man’s back he pulled out another charm as the previous one wore off. He turned dropping back on to his thigh. He slid under the axe man’s legs and stopped just past the opposing axe man’s legs. Turning he pulled his blade out yelling out the words for another physical attack…

-“Kannon!” The blade slid across the back of the axe man’s heels, the tendons falling apart against the force of ryok’s attack. The axe man fell to the side that was cut first dealing a deadly horizontal slash to the charmed one’s stomach. Whispering the words of Vak Dom at the fallen axe man he turned towards the archer. Who had already released a volley of arrows at ryok. Rolling from his side position allowed the arrows to pass him. He turned to his back and sat up. Standing he jumped into a quick sprint towards the well-versed archer. A few shots fired hit him in the right bicep and stomach. He ran through them knowing if he took a second to heal he’d be done. A horizontal slash across the archer’s body was clear. He backed not seeing her on the ground. Turning he ducked under the on coming arrows, but was hit by a low one that was intentionally shot low. Turning towards her new position he pulled the last two arrows to hit him from his arm and stomach. Standing again he went into a full on sprint. This time a Dek Vaks held her in place. The archer let off a few more arrows as the glyph dissipated, and before he slid to a stop and used the rest of his Sp on her. The flaming blade cut her clean in half, through her light armor.

-Ryok turned from the fallen archer pulling the shaft and arrows from his chest, and calf. Taking out a Mage’s Soul, and three health drinks he chugged them looking around for more battle. He found the closest staff-wielding knight and went all out on him. A quick Dek Vaks took out the wavemasters resistance to fire. Which caused him to shift targets to ryok. A golden glyph appeared under him. Ryok’s legs trying to run as the lightning bolt struck him. Ryok’s shoulders fizzed with smoke as he dropped to one knee. Rolling again from the formation of another glyph he held out his hands. Following through the motion a Vak Rom/Dom combo was whispered into the air. The double fire spells gave ryok enough time to follow up with another attack that he enjoyed using on enemies. The words for Kannon were lipped and the spell was preformed. The wavemaster dropped onto her back her light chest armor in pieces. Ryok smiled as he stepped beside her and dropped his sword into her chest. He stepped away looking around for his next opponent…

Knights killed: 9
Knights killed in total: 62
Last edited by ryok on Thu Jun 08, 2006 2:34 am, edited 1 time in total.

Image
Ryok| Lvl. 27| Heavy Blade| Demonic Sword| Kagayuzen| Fire Bracer| Suzaku Fiery Pants
Karin| Kannon| Miu Lei| Vak Rom| Vak Don| Dek Vaks| Ap Vaks
Skill Drain| Death

Wish list:Black Sharp Angelic Wings| Time Headband| Unique Weapon

Hijinx
Exalted Player
Posts: 591
Joined: Thu Apr 03, 2003 11:28 pm
Location: New look, check it out!

Post by Hijinx » Fri Jun 02, 2006 2:35 am

After receiving the flash mail from Pheonix, Hijinx pouted a little and looked around at the mess everyone was making. The blademaster she was supposed to save had won, but badly, while zan did things to people that looked less than pleasant. Rayo was playing with his electro-doggy before all of this, and nighthand was standing firmly in place with his word drawn. Taking a brief moment to judge the situation, she decided that now was in fact the perfect time to make a friend, and went to perform the task with zeal. Hopping up to the roof tops, she sat down on the edge facing the river and let her feet dangle while she dug through her pockets for something. While all of this was going on, a knight had begun to sneak up on her. Confident that he wouldn't be heard, he slipped his blade out of the sheath and took a few cautious steps towards the rabbit's back. When he judged correctly that he was in range, the blademaster rose the weapon high above his head and grinned, trying to imagine how cool he was going to look. Before he could so much as blink, the rabbit was already standing on her hands looking at him, her feet gripping his neck firmly while he tried to figure out how she was so quick.

"Don't be rude..."

Casually flipping forward and regaining her relaxed position, she tossed the poor sap into the river and pulled out Urbosh, smiling at the blob as it burpled cheerfully.

"Go play with the stupid armored people, okay?"

It sloshed off the roof with gusto, doing it's own version of a cartwheel and latching onto the soaked knight's face and knocking him back into the water. Meanwhile, Hijinx had found what she was looking for and went to work, writing a flash mail to the new Administrator, someone named Kelvin.

"Hiya! :bunny: "

"Hello there. I assume you're one of the fighters out there... which one?"

"I'm the fun one with all of the free time :woo: ! And how are you today :?: "

"Ah, so the odd animal-like person out there. I'm fine, thank you for asking. I'll be blunt; I'm sure you know why we're here. Are you, in fact, a Hacker?"

"Nope! I can do lots of stuff though! Your friends look kinda grumpy, maybe you should give them a hug? :sweatdrop: "

"I somehow doubt that would work, unfortunately. They would probably label me a sympathizer and kill me too, if they could. What do you mean by 'lots of stuff', and what about the rest of your group? Are any of them hackers?"

"I'm almost 99.99% sure they aren't, but I'm not sure about the ugly dog. He bites you know..."

"So tell me. How do you all have such inexplicable powers without hacking?"

"Well, if I told you that it wouldn't be a secret, now would it? Maybe you should ask the management, he can probably handle that one! :bunny: "

"The management believes you are hackers. Thus why I, and these three, are here."

"Not YOUR management, OUR management ^_^. One second, I'll grab him for you!"

A please hold message began to scroll across Kelvin's screen, accompanied by easy listening music and little dancing rabbits on the upper and lower borders. Calling up a holographic orange terminal in the air, she leaned over and looked back down the alley. Seeing the person see was looking for, she smiled pleasantly and called for him loudly.

"Nighthand! Message for you from the new admin guy!"
Hijinx the Lucky Former Rabbit
Level 35.000 Fist Fighter
Equip: Fist Guards, Wyrm Hide, guard cap, Snow panther, silver bracers
Item: 5 ressurect, 2 antidote, 10 healing potions, 6 Emperor's Soul, 3 Raging Earth, 5 Ice Floe, 4 Gale Breath, Knights Bane, 10 Speed Charms
Money: 1103gp
"The problem with life is there's no back-ground music."

User avatar
Dien
Exalted Player
Posts: 226
Joined: Fri May 12, 2006 1:59 am
Class: Blademaster
Location: The "Who's Online List," Stalking People...

Post by Dien » Fri Jun 02, 2006 4:36 am

(OOC: Just as a note, I’m not counting any kills I may make other peoples’ characters do in my kill count)

Conversations swirled around Dien’s head as he pseudo-catatonically tried to comprehend the gravity of someone having more power in a game than the administration. Ok, so maybe it wasn’t that impressive, but the fact that the Admins virtually ignored it was the thing that got him. They were supposed to have more power and clout than most normal characters, and do everything in their power to keep it that way – why not now? It wasn’t really his concern, save for the fact that right now they could make his life a living hell.

Slowly he slinked back and out of the conversation, letting it finish its course. He’d never been terribly comfortable in such a social environment; conversation always seemed awkward, and he could never figure out just what the hell to do with his hands. Ah, what did it matter? The blademaster sighed, reclining into one of the couches and letting his brain stew over the events that had happened. He could still feel the warm spray of Amy’s blood as his blade tore open her flesh. No, it hadn’t been her – he’d convinced himself of that much, anyway. How could he have cut her, believing it was actually her?

Stop moping,” came a voice, familiar to his mind by now, “you did what you had to do, and you did it well.

Danielle,” he said, letting his head turn almost drunkenly to the side to view the AI who’d helped him so, “and here I’d thought you’d left.

It was tempting,” she said, leaning back next to him, only appearing more graceful compared to his blunt and open recline – still invisible to the rest, “but remember, I’m tied to you now.

What do you mean you’re tied to me?” Last he knew, Danielle had been Futune’s AI, installed on his brain, and acting out herself on Dien through some connection she’d established.

Think about it for a minute,” she said, leaning forward and turning toward him, “if I were really still operating from Futune, how could I even be here? He lagged out in the word-search room, and while you were having a fit over what to do, I installed myself on your hard disk.” For a while, Dien was silent. He wasn’t exactly thrilled with the fact that his security had been breached so much by her hacking, but then again what was he going to do about it? Besides, she wasn’t exactly bad to have around, either, in spite of her artificiality.

You should ask first, next time,” he said finally, turning to find her disappeared yet again. A smirk crossed his lips, and he stood. Arms reached to the sky in a stretch as he leaned his head from one side to the other, forcing his body into submissive consciousness. He let out a sigh and began turning to face the group once more, only to be pounced rather violently by an eccentric…what the hell was it?

(OOC: The first conversation with Zan goes here, in the flow of things)
__________

Something changed. Upon mention of the howl, the heavyblade’s entire demeanor seemed to almost grow heavy – as though with sorrow or grief. The biggest question was why he was so upset about a howl. Pursuit of the matter would have followed, but a hidden part of Dien held him back from further questions. Still, that burning desire to just know – man, if that didn’t kill him before the end of his login he didn’t know what would. Lazily he stepped back toward one of the chairs in the room and sat in it, letting the relaxed pandemonium of the room sink in. Everyone seemed eager for something, eager to do something or fight someone. The tension alone would have put the blademaster out of the game, were it not for the orders given by their savior to stay put.

Just then, the entryway to the room opened again, and in stepped one of the most powerful characters Dien had yet seen in the game. His name, as he quickly learned, was Nighthand, and everything about him brimmed with authority – it was clear that he was their leader. Sunlight poured in around him from the game’s virtual and perpetual sunset, blackening his already dark silhouette until he stepped inside, letting the door seal itself behind him.

A cape fell off his shoulders, furling its way to the floor darkly, with golden insignia on its almost leathery surface and blue suede beneath, which only covered the pitch of black shoes, black pants, and a black shirt. There were traces of white found in the shirt, but no more than the light of the stars in a night’s sky. Pale skin erupted from the collar towards his head, which was crowned with the pale light of the moon in long strands of hair. Everything about him seemed to scream darkness and nighttime, which was obviously the player’s forte when it came to the elements.

From the way he talked, though, it made that Nall character seem like some kind of god. Granted, he was obviously stronger than any of the three players he’d rescued, and probably on a par with Suraisu in terms of combat abilities, but he hadn’t gotten the same sense of power from him as he got from this Nighthand guy. Nall had been introduced as the tired healer, but even before they knew who this heavyblade was, they’d heard of him in a nearly reverent tone. Maybe that was it…

After a few moments of silent thought, Dien returned to the game, surprised one of the AI personalities hadn’t decided to interrupt his solitude. Zhao had approached the dark leader, and the two got to talking about multiple personality syndrome and other types of schizophrenia – that and Twilight’s effect on it. It was something he’d considered for some time, or at least since he’d first heard the concept of a virus that could trap a person inside a game. What happened to the mind?

One idea suggested that the mind was sucked right out of the body and made home with the virus that was present on every computer that had the game installed. In this way, the user would essentially be turned completely into code, and their minds separated from their bodies altogether. If this were so, though, how could the trapped players still be alive in the real world? This transfer would kill the body entirely if not done with extreme precision, and even then it would leave the bodies of the users comatose.

Wasn’t that what he’d said, though? They were all comatose: every single one of them besides the three newbies who’d shown up just recently. That made sense too, seeing as how Dien’s beta version practically left him comatose in front of a computer screen with a message flashing on it so that no one who walked by would freak out when he didn’t wake up right away. Wait, what would happen to him if he were to be overtaken by the virus? He was already in the same position they were: he could already feel pain, and his avatar was just as real to him as his own body. In fact, working out in the World had actually gotten his real body into the best shape of its life. What would happen if he got trapped? Zhao uttered the final words of the conversation before letting Dien approach the leader-type, a concern in his face not yet registered.

So the person's consciousness becomes rather permanently affixed to their avatar, correct?” he asked, his mind already beginning to work out a method to finding out what he wanted to know as fast as he wanted to know it.

In essence, yes.” Nighthand turned to face him, and Dien had to admit a little trepidation in the presence of this famed and revered character, even if only through his voice.

So uh,” he managed, having to regroup his thoughts that had been blown away by the player’s speech. He’d have to get over what fear he had of this player before they could even think about working together, and his words finally came forward, “what do you think would happen if the game already established that kind of connection with a player - and that player got infected?” Nighthand gave him a rather odd look, seemingly almost annoyed at him, but still he offered up the answers Dien sought.

Basically, I don't know. The one thing I DO know is you simply won't have the option to log out. Nor will you be able to access anything running on whatever system you use. For all intents and purposes, you HAVE no real-life body to work with. This,” he said, poking Dien in the shoulder, “is your body.” The pain lingered for a moment, as it does with most hard pokes to places that aren’t used to poking, and the blademaster’s hand went up to rub the now bruising flesh.

So no applets and no logging out, and then God only knows what else,” Dien said, finally finding his confidence again, if oddly by the poke to his shoulder, “is that what you're saying?” Nighthand gave a nod, and the lower in level of the two continued. “You're not painting a very good picture for me to stay logged in right now. I'm already on pretty good terms with the CC Corporation, and I'm sure any flags would just be dissolved with one or two flashmails and phone calls. I don't mean to sound like some kind of brat, but why should I stick around?” It was an honest question: an email to the guy who’d given him the game and he’d be fine – hell, he could probably even help these people find a way out if he tried, but he’d have to stick to the outside.

I don't care if you do or not. If you do, then you'll become one of us. CCCorp will deny your existence with any ties to this game. The Admins will hunt you down, and so will the hackers. Basically you're only hope of survival outside of a hacker slave-field would be to stick with us. On the other hand, you can log out. CCCorp might believe your story about a hacker in some tower, and might get rid of whatever flag there: IF they can - if the hackers haven't already marked you. If you choose to log back in, you'll be as big a target as Nall; as ones that got away. The Hackers don't like not getting their way, and they don't like prizes being snatched from their grasp. You log out now, that's your choice. But you ever log back in again and you'll be in this exact same situation – we just won't be here to help.

That silenced the blademaster. The scenarios he painted were biased, sure, but were probably more accurate than Dien’s own. If he could make it out of the game without being deleted first, who was to say that Furugawa could help him? The more he thought about it, the more he didn’t like his options – it was either stay here in hiding with these guys, and probably end up stuck in the game for a virtual eternity in the process, or go back to the real world and face off against the CC Corporation, possibly jeopardizing lighthack.org and his own freedom. Their rumored influence in the real world was frightening, and even though he’d been so kind as to fix their bug for them, he doubted they’d be so kind as to take that into consideration when dealing with him. Right now, staying in the World and possibly becoming trapped in it was ironically the most freedom-oriented thing he could do. Timidly he looked to the heavyblade again, letting out a sigh in the process.

So then, uh, I was wondering; has anyone ever tried to hack you guys free?” Well, he could at least try to help them from here with his applets that would likely be gone after only a few more hours.

A few have, I'm sure. Just about every method to get us free has been tried at some point or another.” He drifted off, reminiscing quickly before continuing. “Twilight isn't something you can hack – it’s more than just code.

Mind if I have a look?” Dien asked, and Nighthand shot him a confused look. “See, I'm kinda a hacker, and I just want to peek at your code and see if there's anything I could do.

Actually I DO mind. I've had more than enough of hackers to last me a life-time. Maybe you can convince someone else, but I'm not going to be your lab rat.” Dien would have stepped in to stop him, but relentlessly he went on. “You can't touch Twilight, but who knows what havoc you could wreak.” Whatever nerve he’d struck had been met with an equal pang in his own mind and feelings.

Oh well,” Dien said after a quietly frustrated sigh, “can't help it if you don't trust me. Thanks for your time, in any case.” At that, the blademaster promptly turned around, returning to his spot on the couch for the time being. That is, if any spot in this hole could be called ‘his.’

Oh stop it,” Danielle said, appearing again finally, “you’re just bitter that he, like a lot of the big-time companies doesn’t want your help.

But why?” he asked her, surely grabbing the attention of a few in the room with his flabbergasted shouts at the air.

You heard his story,” was her reply, “he hears the word ‘hacker’ and his mind automatically goes into defense-mode, probably.

And that’s exactly why I started lighthack – to do away with pretenses like that so people who just want to help can.

You knew even at its inception that it probably wouldn’t catch on or be that popular, so why complain about it now?” Dien just stared off, bitterly letting his mind wander down paths best left unwritten by me and unread by you. He couldn’t really be mad for too long, though, which was upsetting because he wanted to be. He needed something to get riled up about, something to help break the tension that still wound around the room like a spider’s web. The rabbit’s head would have been missing if Zan had delayed even a fraction of a second longer, along with a few limbs and other body parts. Glancing to the character now, he had half a mind to see that idea through to completion, if only for the sake of being bored out of his mind.

No, he wouldn’t do that, not now. Anger wasn’t his thing. Sure, he could get angry, but it wasn’t what controlled him. It couldn’t, not for more than five minutes in any case. Some part of him wouldn’t let it stick, wouldn’t let him be angry for very long. As nice as it sounds, it was really more of a mixed blessing. There were times when he knew he should have been angry, but wasn’t, and times when that lack of anger had been his downfall. Then again, it was why he hadn’t shot up his school yet. A sigh and he looked around at the other players in the room once again. Most of them had converged in some kind of group around the emerald mage called Rayo.

After a few moments of listening to him talk, it was obvious that he was taking some form of charge amongst the troupe, or that he was trusted as the brain of the operation: strategist or tactician as the first ‘recruit’ to lag out had called it. In any case, he was collecting information on the players: levels, classes, abilities, skills, spells, etc. It was everything that a good strategist needed to create a plan. Of course Dien offered up his information, standing and walking over to the bundle of people, even if the wavemaster didn’t quite hear or acknowledge him at the time. There was no way to tell if he’d heard that the blademaster named Dien was level 11, had the skills of Crack Beat, Revolver, Vak Slash, and Gan Slash (with Life Drain) available to him, had the attack spells of Juk Rom, Rai Rom, and Gan Zot available, or that he had the support spells of Ap Ganz, Ap Ruem, Ap Do, Repth, and La Repth available, or even the long list of items he had (I think I’ll stop there – you get the idea).

In any case, the man had suggested a buddy-system of sorts, and before Dien could even voice his opinion, he was paired. It wasn’t a bad thing, as he’d at least been paired with Zan, but it still sucked to be so out of the loop. Alone, and still very segregated from that loop, he meandered back to his spot on the couch again and plopped down, letting time pass him by as he zoned out for a moment, letting his thoughts run rampant with the rest of his brain. There was something strange about it – something that was beginning to take control of him, and he could only watch. Granted, it wasn’t doing anything, but the thought of it was disconcerting nonetheless.

Then all hell broke loose.
__________

Somewhere along the way, Dien had managed to get caught up in a whirlwind of fighting. Thanks to the levels from the tower, he didn’t have to rely on Zhirin’s weapon anymore, and at once found himself in the throws of battle, wielding his Souleater (Zanpaku-to?) and managing to fend for himself amongst the fighting. So far, though, he wasn’t really fighting so much as watching. Zan in the height of his form was almost artistic in his brutality, letting blood spew out along with organs and other bodily fluids from his victims in any given direction. Granted, he wasn’t getting them all, but at least he was keeping them far enough away that he didn’t really have to worry too much about an attack from behind.

At least, not until one of the squad leaders who’d had his entire group taken out almost instantly decided revenge was fun – and not the clean kind either. It didn’t hit Dien until it was a little too late that his comrade was about to be attacked, and his eyes widened, the reality of the battle finally beginning to sink in. With a sudden movement, he pushed forward, overcoming the fear that had held him hostage in a quick moment before the player knew what was coming. The blade slid through the fighter’s waist quickly, taking with it an extra helping of the player’s HP and feeding it back to Dien.

Ah, so that’s what it means by ‘souleater,’ he thought, spinning around and running him through quickly while he still reeled from the first attack. It didn’t take long for the weaponless fighter to react, though, and a quick punch sent the blademaster sliding back toward Zan, his feet scraping roughly along the cobblestone. Somehow, he felt…weaker. Weaker? Wait, no, that wasn’t right. Glancing down, he saw blood seeping out of his chest where he’d been hit, and his eyes instantly jumped back to the fistfighter, who smirked at the wounds in his torso beginning to close up.

Aw, no way,” Dien said, twirling the sword around in his hand. This guy had Life Drain too. “Alright then,” he commented, switching to his new rare sword for an instant, “let’s even things up a little: Ap Do!” The SP drained from his body like someone had pulled the plug on some kind of drain, but the rush it rewarded him with was impressive. Now he and the sergeant before him would be able to have some more even-handed fun.

Openly Dien ran, ripping his sword back to one side in preparation for a brutal attack. Leaping into the air, he pulled the Souleater behind him and calling out its weaker, albeit more familiar skill: “Crack Beat!” His opponent’s eyes widened for a minute, and he quickly stepped to one side, avoiding a brush with death for only a moment. The blademaster’s feet hit the pavement, and in the same instant he ripped his sword to the right in the soldier’s direction, cutting through some amount of unseen flesh and gaining enough HP in the process to close the bleeding hole in his chest.

You hackers,” the man said, stumbling slightly as Dien turned to face him, “when will you learn?” The blademaster could only smirk at the thought. He was the only real hacker among them, and he wasn’t even one of the bad ones. No time for that, though. A blue haze surrounded the player and all those immediately around him, and he stood tall again, looking his hacker-opponent in the eyes and calling the same ap he had. In an instant, Dien found himself bounding away from a seeming explosion of dust and earth where he had once been, the fighter following in hot pursuit as his gloves began to glow.

That’s just it though,” Dien said as he handplanted off the ground and let his foot pass through his pursuer’s jaw, “out of the lot of them, I’m probably the only hacker,” He finished his flip, landing only a few yards away from Zan and turning to face the fighter who stood, rubbing his jaw before cracking his neck. “and I just met them a little over half an hour ago, so what you see isn’t my doing.” The man coughed, his expression fixing itself into a dead stare, at Dien, even more of a glare.

Out of nowhere, his chest exploded, sending blood and gore everywhere as what remained of his corpse fell backward to the ground, his ghost appearing gray over his form. Shocked, he looked to Dien, who only gazed back, just as surprised at the explosion. The ghost pointed to the blademaster inquisitively, who in response only shrugged, clueless as to what the hell had just happened. Dien looked up, seeing the flying heavyblade make a pass over the area they were fighting in. From the ground, the walls, and anywhere there was dirt, several spikes and blades of saw shot outward, catching anyone unfortunate enough to be in their way in a deadly trap.

The blademaster cocked his head to the side as the fighter saw no signs of slowing down, flying straight past him and continuing his bombing. A sharp pain in his side alerted him to the cut inflicted by a buzz-saw-style blade, and he cried out, clasping his hand to the new wound and calling out La Repth to cover any friendly injuries inflicted by the uncontrolled bombardment.

Still, the city was hardly cleared of soldiers, even with the amount of bodies that had been grayed by the recent bombing. If anything, it only thinned the crowd slightly so they’d come with less frequency. Speaking of which, why hadn’t any of the other soldiers attacked during his duel with the commander? Oh wait, that’s right, they hadn’t. A quick glance confirmed that he’d effectively separated himself from Zan and the rest of the group – bad idea. Even worse was that he’d let down the wolf’s guard. Not that he couldn’t handle a little bit of extra pressure as the fighters ringed around him, while he slaughtered whatever was brave enough—or unfortunate enough—to wind up in the middle.

Not cool, guys, not cool,” he said, walking towards the crowd. Only one soldier took any interest in him – the player in layman’s clothing walking calmly towards a group of soldiers about to attack. If that wasn’t a dead giveaway, he didn’t know what was, but the fact was that this soldier had been the only one to spot Dien.

Ani Slash!” he shouted, and without hesitation his rare sword pulled him forward in graceful cooperation, darkness arcing through the air behind the weapon while Dien struggled to evade the lethal attack. One swing, then the second, and it was over, the rippling energy behind the blade staying behind in its wake and solidifying the path in a crisp haze of death, all of which shot outward when the blademaster least expected it and left two thick lines of white, burnéd death across his chest. It stung, it was cold, and it seemed to render the parts of his body that it touched unto death itself. Dien let out a cry as he held up Souleater to block a quick downward attack by the other blademaster.

So you wanna see elemental slashes,” Dien said, his sword beginning to glow in a horrendous orange. Reinier was beginning another pass, and this time the blademaster intended to take full advantage of the rampant earth element. He looked up at the other blademaster who only watched on, almost hatefully as the dust and sand came off the blade like tongues of brown inferno, “how’s this?! Gan Slash!

Two slashes were all he had, and the flying earth-wielder passed overhead, their earthen strokes shot outward from the swing, as though the slice itself had thrown two individual blades of earth at the opponent. Easily the opponent, rare-sword-wielding blademaster was rendered in four by the attack. It didn’t stop there, though. The earthen arc-blades themselves split in two, forming a quartet of lethal earth-blades. A display of power was more of what to call it than an actual attack, and Dien watched as the carnage continued. At least, he tried to, until he was rudely interrupted by the shapely silhouette of one of the few female knights in the field.

Please, miss, I don’t want to fight,” he said, gripping his hilt firmly. Not an instant later, and a handful of thin lines appeared across his chest, before he even knew what was going on.

Spare me, hacker,” came her harsh reply, pushing him back with another rapid set of blows. Blood spewed from the wounds, and he leaned forward, clutching his fist to the now open skin. A health drink formed there from his inventory, and he downed the liquid, letting its alcoholic appeal seep down his throat and dull the pain.

Like I said, I don’t want to fight you,” he said, a scroll forming in his hand as he stared bluntly at her face. At any other time, he’d consider its fair tones and the dark hair that lined it to be beautiful, and even the fierce expression as well, but for now, she was the enemy, “but if I have to, I will. GiGan Don!” Her body was locked in place, and in that instant, Dien threw himself forward, cutting the veins of her throat as the spell’s activation carried out. Crimson liquid poured from the wound, and she gasped, reaching her hands to her neck in pain before turning into a ghost.

Sorry,” he said, “it’s nothing personal.” With that, he turned, ready to face even more fighting.

(OOC:
Body Count:
1 Commander killed
1 Footsoldier killed (blademaster)
2 Footsoldiers killed (result of Gan Slash gone nuts)
1 Footsoldier killed (that last girl)
2 Footsoldiers wounded (result of Gan Slash gone nuts)

5 killed
67 total
)
Image
Image|||Level 35 Blademaster (+200 EXP)
Wishlist: EXP, Ends of Earth, Armor with Status Effects

Reinier
Awakened Player
Posts: 164
Joined: Fri Oct 01, 2004 4:49 am
Location: UNKNOWN ERROR, please try again later
Contact:

Post by Reinier » Fri Jun 02, 2006 8:43 pm

With the success of the Potion Run, Reinier felt the need to relax in a near by recliner. He plopped down in the chair, his wings cascading to the sides of soft upholstery. He closed his eyes, wishing for something to happen so they fight.

I could kill eighty people right now. Easily. I’m just so bored…

And what makes you think this will happen anytime soon? When have we ever had to fight that many enemies at once? Just hold your horses, and Nall will eventually show up. We’ll go out on an adventure and get to fight tigers, bears, spiders, or something fun like that…

It was at this moment that Reinier pulled out his Horse-Killer, and a wet-stone he had obtained from the pawnshop, and began to sharpen the blade. He found it relaxing, brushing the stone away from his body, sharpening his sword to the point of it being able to slice a hair in two. He blew off shavings of his sword, periodically looking around the room to see what everyone was doing.

His eyes lay upon Nighthand, who suddenly jolted and seemed to be ripped in to reality. He swung to the group, and called out, “Phoe's in trouble. The admins are moving.” He made a move to the door. Reinier uttered a single word, “So?” He could honestly care less as to what kind of danger Phoenix had thrown himself in to, he most likely deserved it. Nighthand took a second look at the group, seemed aggravated, and called out, “What are you waiting for? Let's move!”

Reinier let out a groan as he climbed up to his feet, the boy waving his sword around next to his side to get the excess shavings off the blade. Sparky blocked the pathway out, and began to speak. “Remember, we just want to get Phoenix out of there, not get in more trouble. Let’s stick together and look out for each other just the same.” Reinier gave a slight nod as he followed the group out in to the alley way. Zan gave his input, and Reinier agreed. The way he spoke, the amount of force the group was now up against sent a chill down his spine.

The good kind of chill, the kind that made him get excited. Reinier began to run behind the group, noticing a nice trail of blood from where Nighthand probably got just as excited about “helping Phoenix.” The group soon found themselves in a nice open area, an area near the bridge. In the distance, Reinier could see the head honchos, but they didn’t seem to want to dirty their hands with trivial matters like this. Sparky began to speak once more, this time giving the group a nice battle plan.

Sure, Reinier liked the patented “Blood makes the grass grow, kill kill kill,” method, but this would work nicely too. His job was to guard the flank, where most likely the stronger fighters would come to try and attack the group. A sadistic smile slithered across Reinier’s face, as he brought up his blade and began to charge in to the group.

Stop!

Taimat’s word echoed in Reinier’s head, and he did just that, came to a sudden halt. A low leveled warrior had charged Reinier, his sword drawn out. He went for a jab, but the sand and dirt in the area created an automatic shield that made the sword slide down to the ground. He fell down with the sword, Reinier stepping on the warrior’s neck to listen to Taimat.

Let’s think for a moment. Look around, there’s every type of fighter here. Blademasters, like the one under your neck, Heavy Blades, Whipmasters, and Wavemasters especially. Will you want to fly with those combinations out here? You’ll be one giant chicken wing when they’re done bombarding you with spells.

Reinier pondered this, as a group of low leveled fighters began to encircle him. The fighter slipped his sword down to the ground, piercing the skull of the warrior who’s neck he was standing on, as he thought about this. Reinier thought as he inspected the group which would attempt to ensnare him. No Wavemasters, just four Heavy Blades, four Blademasters, and two Twin Blades. Reinier nodded to himself, as he thought out how he would kill them, and the answer to Taimat’s thoughts.

You’re right, it’s too dangerous to fly too much around here… but if I stay low enough to the ground, I’ll be able to get away with a few moments of flight. If you want to make your appearance, go for it. Thanks for the advice, Tai.

It’s what I’m here for. Oh, and look behind you, one of them’s being brave.

Reinier’s sight shifted to the side, noticing one of the Blademasters were trying to be brave. Reinier pushed his whole body downwards in to the man’s legs, and pushed up when he made contact. The fighter flipped over Reinier, and when his head was perpendicular to the ground, Reinier twisted around, swinging his blade in an arch, and slammed his blade in to the fighter. The fighter hit the ground twice, as Reinier managed to slice the kid in half.

This seemed to upset the group, as they all charged forward, letting out their blood curdling screams. Reinier kept his cool, kneeling down and pushing his hand against the ground. A rather large ring of earth around Reinier shattered, broke itself up, and became nothing more then a storm of dust around the player. The scarlet haired warrior shot to his feet, his arms shooting outwards, and the dust storm flowed outwards like a wave, gathering up dust, sand, dirt, and gravel along the way. An ambient haze drifted over the area, making visibility a tad harder for the enemies.

The remaining nine enemies seemed to care less about the haze, or the fact that Reinier had been the one to cause it, they continued to charge as if nothing had happened. The warrior threw out his left hand, causing a spire to shoot out of the ground in to one of the Twin Blade’s hamstrings. Twisting his body around, Reinier sliced horizontally upon another enemy to his right. The sand shield covered Reinier as sword arched for Reinier’s head. His wings shot open, and leaped upwards and around the confused foe. He gently landed on his feet, spinning around with his sword outwards.

A head and a hand fell to the ground, as the rest of the body fell to the ground. One of the Heavy Blades leaped high and from behind one of the fallen corpses, his sword straddling his back. With a shift of Reinier’s foot, a spire shot up and through the body of the headless body. The spire made contact with the Heavy Blade, hitting him in the stomach. His body seemed to fold in half at the point where the spire made contact, as he continued to fly higher from the impact of the attack. Three different spells made contact with the airborne swordsman, most likely from the assortment of “ready to kill” Wavemasters around the area.

The screams and hollers of the foes all around made judging distance through sound near impossible. Reinier’s head shot in all directions, trying to judge who was where, and at that moment he noticed something bad. His buddy, Canti, was no where to be seen in the mush of people. Reinier gulped, feeling guilty as he most likely failed by now to play guardian. In fact, he failed in protecting the flank as well, seeing as how he seemed to have been cut off from the group. As he was thinking this, a way-ward Long Arm charged towards Reinier. He noticed this, and simply took a few steps back, and made a spire with a claw-like top pop out of the ground to trip the man.

The spear-wielder fell to the ground, only to be met by a saw blade of earth popping out of the ground. “Die hacker!” the screams of a Blade Master echoed from under him, his sword making a slanted arch upwards. Reinier threw his arm upwards, ready to defend, but was greeted by a whip wrapping around his wrist. He slid backwards, landing on the ground, and found himself being dragged. The grip of the whip began to tighten to the point where his hand popped open, and his sword flung down below him until he passed of it.

Reinier was lifted in to the air, and tossed over the Whip Master. “Double Mortal Scorcher!” Reinier had been flipping in the air over the Whip Master when these words were uttered by a way word Fist Fighter. Punch number one, both unexpected and powerful, landed on Reinier’s sternum, shattering… something. Blood flew out of Reinier’s mouth upon impact, but there was no time for rest as the second attack came flying from the left. Reinier corkscrewed through the air, having been nearly knocked out from the blow, unable to regain his composure and use his wings to steady out.

The fighter wrapped his hand around Reinier’s ankle, and the two spun around like the moon and the earth. After two rotations, Reinier plummeted downwards and landed on top of a Wavemaster, who could not have been more then level five. The force of the landing crushed the Wavemaster, who died on impact. The Fist Fighter sped towards Reinier as he gradually sat up on top of the Wavemaster’s corpse. He came to a close stop Reinier, who attempted to plan out another attack. “Ensatsu!” the fighter called as he reeled his leg in to the air. The kick came down, and simply smashed in to the sand shield. His foot stopped, but his leg continued to go.

The crunching of the bones in his leg echoed slightly, as he let out a whelp of pain. A Heavy Blade’s corpse landed next to Reinier, most likely from another Freedom Fighter, a high level one wielding what appeared to be a Devil’s Blade. Reinier leaped to the side, grabbed the weapon, and tossed at the Fist Fighter’s head, landing in to a roll. The sword pierced the fighter’s skull, killing him on impact. Reinier leaped forward, grabbing the sword, and did a front flip to rip the sword out of the Fist Fighter’s skull.

He stood in the middle of yet another ring of fighters, his breathing heavy and uncontrolled. He shot his foot down in to the ground, and instantly four rather large rocks shot up out of the ground. Reinier plunged the sword in to the ground in front of him, and brought his hands together, one hand hovering over another with the palms facing each other. He gradually brought his hands together, the rocks smoothing out and beginning to spin in a saw blade manner. His hands shot outwards, and the blades flew out, slicing off the heads of four fighters instantly.

“Weaving Weed Fading Strike!” A Whip Master called out. Reinier spun around to see four outstretches of one whip speeding towards him. Instinctively, a rock pushed itself out of the ground and hovered in front of Reinier. With a punch forward, the rock sped off towards the centered of where the whip had divided itself. With a successful hit, the divided whips wrapped themselves around the rock, as it continued towards the Whip Master. His eyes widened as the rock made contacted with his face, and the two smashed in to a near by wall. Blood and brains splattered against the wall, as he gradually slithered down the wall, and peeled himself off the wall on to the ground.

Where’s Canti? You really should be helping him. Oh, behind you, Wavemaster.

I know I need to find him…

Reinier twisted around, grabbing his sword, and sped towards the Wavemaster. He knelt under him, and delivered an eloquent slice which pierced through his abdomen like it were butter. The corpse curled down, and gradually fell to the ground, as Reinier peered around the chaos for any sign of the Freedom Fighters. In the distance, he noticed Dien. Reinier rushed forward, deciding it would be best to help the kid out.




My Kills: 14
Total Kills: 81
Image
Image
Reinier's Wishlist: Sakabatou|Sharktooth
Abraxas' Wishlist: Complementry|Summon
The Hack's Wishlist: Wall lvl 2

Lord Canti
Exalted Player
Posts: 300
Joined: Sat May 13, 2006 3:58 pm
Location: In da' plains of hell, natch.

Post by Lord Canti » Sat Jun 03, 2006 4:17 pm

(Now, the silent thought-process - or whatever Canti's distracted mind had to pass for such - had come to an end. It was not due to any part of him being otherwise unable to concentrate because of anything ON his mind, but rather an external distraction. That is, someone...or something... shouted out "Doggy!" and hopped in from above. Canti's otherwise stern empty-eyed gaze was wrought with confusion as a rabbit came in and began to act...really cheerful. It was hard for him to wrap his mind around until he realized that this was another one of their uber-players, a Freedom Fighter Fellow. Strange one too... In any case, the player - labelled as Hijinx, ironically - thumped down on the sleeper and tackled Dien by way of greeting. Against all reason of their otherwise grim situation, Canti was found laughing his ass off in the real world, which could be clearly seen in The World that he'd dropped his controller.)

Canti: I think I've found a new favorite lunatic...

(And it wasn't just because the rabbit had basically clobbered Zan and Dien that he found it so funny. It was done with such off-the-wall behavior that it simply could not be hated. This one had style. Not HIS kind of style, but style nonetheless. Seeing this display and hearing Zan complain about it so vehemently broke the tension for now. Canti settled down as Dien was pulled from Bugs Bunny over there, complaining about the actions of that wascally wabbit. Ha-ha-ha-ha. But seriously, he couldn't see what Zan and Dien were objecting to here. They NEEDED a break like this. Too much serious stuff going on ever since the human lightning-rod issue... And damn, but he started hearing them talking about HIM now! Geez...)

"You asked if we met each other before. And, as far as we came to a conclusion, we haven't. But damn kid, there's somethin' there. Maybe it's because you seemed to be the only one of the three to come in without an attitude. Well, that Canti guy wasn't too bad either. Unless you've been seein' wolves or hearin' howls, of course."

Canti: Great... No matter what I do, there's always someone there, trying to size me up against some other shmoe. Gimme a freakin' break...

(For reference's sake, Canti was pretty much rolling his eyes at Zan in disgust, but it was kinda' hard to tell when you've got no visible eyes beyond black pits. Dien went on about this wolf howl business. Funny. The only howls Canti heard in the tower were demonic, indescribable sounds of a freakish nature. They were unnatural, like the resemblance between Canti and Nighthand here, in ways. Honestly, black eyes and winged with dark undertones in clothing... What the hell? They'd never even MET before... That was what had the Twin Blade's attention as he spoke up. Things were now on the move again, which meant it was time to get real. Or...wait. No. Not real. Well...YOU GET THE IDEA!)

"Well, alright. Some of you haven't been here for a while, and some of you have never been here before. None of you has been here as long as I have, or knows as much as I do. I've been with this group since it formed... I've been stuck in this game for too long. I'm sure you all want information. Some of you more... violently than others. Since there's new people here, I might as well start from the start."

(That pretty much called everything to order. Start some shit now and you were gonna be in neck-deep without a life-preserver, if you get the general drift there. Nonetheless, however, there was bound to be something ineffiably wrong with this whole thing. The World as they - Canti, Dien, and Zhao - had known it was now thoroughly re-arranged like someone's mashed-in face. The first thing that caught the Twin Blade's attention was having been flagged. That word was acid to him. Flagged... Caught, prodded, bullseyed, marked, drafted - all of these were likewise to the same feeling. A sudden desire to make the flagger die came into his mind. He'd been having a good time in The World without some pain-in-the-ass making him the center of someone's unwanted attention. True, he may have been a show-off, but this was different. This was someone butting in, maybe trying to rub him out. Not good. No one accuses him of anything that was never done. That was like asking the murderer to find you and kill you in the most painful of ways. it was dumb. Canti made note of this as Nighthand explained about the Knights of War and other stuff like that. So, The World was not to be taken likely. Fine. It just meant this: No one could be trusted from the powers on high. On top of that, the hackers who were really in control here were all pumped up by the Twilight Virus, a powerful World-changing piece of work that made them like Suraisu...and probably even worse than him. Of course, it looked like that this merry band of Robin Hoods weren't helpless against the Elites. Two of them were down out of...how many? Nevermind. The idea was to stay alive while they didn't. It wasn't just about good and evil here. There were many more levels to this thing. Canti's mind drifted out of the convo for a moment, thinking about all that he'd seen. Suraisu had he had spoken in the tower, one-on-one, once. It wasn't like his official talk with the others. It wasn't their now-former guide, but him talking. For some odd reason, he didn't seem like he could be totally committed to this evil thing... Canti knew evil, and he wasn't enough of it. Maybe-)

"Rayo has a good point."

Canti: Eh? Wha?

"We really should get used to some tactics and pairing up seems to be a good start. If everyone can agree with me, I think that new guys should split and pair up with other people here. That's the best way to ensure their safety and, in turn, our own. It doesn't mean we can't fight as one big group when the time comes, but this way if our numbers have to spread out we won't be left at ground zero with no one to back us up but our own abilities. Which, egos aside, aren't always the best way to get out of a scrap. Anywho, I figure what better way to pass the time than socializing with someone who could save your ass one day."

(Okay, sure. That made sense...maybe. Personally, Canti liked being a loner, though. No responsibilty to others and no others to feel responsible for him. It cut out the need of the R-word entirely. That way, if he lost, he could know that he lost only under his own short-comings. No regrets in biting the big one if it was just too big to handle. Still, he'd go along with it...he guessed. He heard Reinier talking to himself in reference to him, but said nothing. Nothing right now anyway. Asshole called him a Slacker. What the hell, man? Anyway, He later heard some BS about the Knights of War and their big shot, Kamui. Funny. He'd heard of a Kamui before, but didn't give it any mind. Honestly, why care? Well, it mattered NOW, but back when he heard about her - described as a total bitch - it wasn't important. Canti waited as Reiner and Zan went off for items. It was only a matter of time, and soon he returned to do his 'duty' in looking after him. Canti had his arms crossed, looking a little annoyed.)

“To make this more formal, I’m Reinier. Since everyone else is doin’ it, I think we should pair up.”

Canti: Yeah, that's fine with me. I'm Canti, or should I say 'Slacker'?

(Yes, he'd heard him, and now the jig was up. Enough of this chit-chat stuff for now, it was time to get moving. Stuff was happening and Canti could feel it. That strange red-brown haze... It was back, just for a second. Spider-Senses tingling? Yeah, maybe something like that, although it didn't exactly say what was what right now. Canti was not immediately aware of impending doom, of course. It was just a feeling, just a hunch.)

"Phoe's in trouble. The admins are moving."

(Ah shit. He hated being right at times like this. They all dashed out of the hideout in time to see some knight, presumably a Knight of War, get bowled over by the stampede. This little action, however, led them to a swarm of Knights. Lots of 'em. It was beginning to remind Canti of all the tales of the Crimson Knights he heard and all the stuff like that. In fact, this was almost the same thing except for the Admin backing. Looks like there were four of 'em here, and all of them looked like hell in a basket. As it was, they were surrounded, with Admins in view. The general consensus on the issue of Kamui was confirmed. She WAS a bitch. Tritoch didn't seem much better in attitude. Balumg and Kelvin, mind you... Well, Nighthand was treating the Azure Sky with some respect and the other Admin seemed to have a mind of his own on issues. Still, all judgements were reserved for later. Now comes the killing time... And we all LOVE the killing time! Oh yes. When all the fighters spread themselves out and took care of their own flanks, Canti spotted a gap in the rear flank, somewhere around Reinier's position. Huh. Looks like someone flunked flank.)

"...Reinier, Canti, keep those knights behind us away from us."

Canti: Way ahead of you.

(And he was, seriously. A couple of guys came right at him, normal weaky guys, and he just ducked under their swords to back-thrust his Phantom Blades into them. He'd started with his non-elemental blades just to be sure. The two guys were caught in the stomachs as Canti slid between then and spun around to strike again, hips and throats this time. That was two down. Then, right after he saw Reinier put the hurt on some of the Knights, Canti took one look at the weaker fellows coming his way and grinned. There were five of them, their classes varying, but their looks remaining close to the same. Tsk, tsk... They were just a horde of faceless minions, a bunch of expendable casualties, red shirts, live baits - you name it. What a shame... Canti put on his Wolverine-like Fuse Blades and raised an arm dramatically with an evil laugh.)

Canti: Nyah hah hah hah hah!! You shall fall victim to my ungodly powers! Devil's Lash of DESPAIR!!!

(The Knights reeled in shock and fear for their lives...for one moment...as nothing happened. Well, nothing in the sense of a huge and powerful attack occurred, but something DID glow unexpectedly. It was the effect of Ap Do cast upon Canti, which suddenly accelerated the Twin Blade like a kid on a sugar-binge. He ran right up and kicked the middle guy in the balls while his fellows were getting a handle on what just happened. The first one was a Wavemaster, a support guy for Twin Blades and Long Arms. Nice combo, expecially if they wanted to clobber him at once. Too bad Sir Heals-Alot was in a bad way. Wavemasters were so weak... Anyway, the other four were taking a snack of his HP right now when...)

Canti: Slash, slash, bub. THUNDER DANCE!!

(They looked...ewww... In a closed-quarters position, separated from an assailant by...not much, it was a bad idea to get too close when his SP bar was full and he was full of pep. Sparks and slicing blades flew as Canti tore into Knights 3 through 7 on his kill-list. Funny that. Killing made the grass grow? Mac Anu didn't have any PLANTS. No fun there... Anyway, these guys were nothing, maybe half his level, if that. Canti had some bites out of his health at the moment, so he pulled out a Health Drink and...)

*THWUMP!*

(Something whizzed by his ear as he began to drink.)

Canti: Huh?

*THWUMP!*

(Again, though this time he kind of ducked, and...a Blademaster nearby got struck in the shoulder. Canti first looked over at the Knight and saw an arrow in his shoulder, then looked the opposite way and noticed an Archer taking careful aim, pulling back on his bow and...)

*THWUMP!*

(...missing. It wasn't that his aim was entirely bad or anything. It was just that it had an accelerated and evasive foe to deal with. Nevertheless, he kept trying, each arrow very nearly hitting the mark, a crackle of lightning both seen and felt as they passed by. Upon the second time the Blademaster behind him was hit, Canti realized what had to be done. At the same time, the Archer ALSO realized what had to be done. That is, he started using more arrows for cluster shots just as Canti turned and flung the Blademaster right in the way)

"AAAAAGGGHHH!!!"

Canti: Heh heh heh heh heh...

(From there on, after the Blademaster had been killed, Canti put away his Fuse Blades and pulled out something that was even stronger, which he'd gotten recently but didn't have the level for until now, after the tower. Arrows came his way and he pulled a combination of avoidance and deflection with his new Shadow Blades, Darkness to counteract the Lightning power. At the last few feet, Canti dove as he caught an arrow or two in his body, his knives doing the age-old act of Carpe' Jugulum, or "Seize The Throat". Archers were much less formidable when you're right up in their faces. And while Canti's evil laughter rang loudly in the ears of the Archer, he didn't feel like being another victim and kicked the guy off, hard. He had to be Level-20 or something to manage that so quickly. Canti twirled his knives around, facing the guy with a dark grin.)

"You hackers make me sick..."

Canti: Sorry, shithead, but you've got it all wrong. I don't do the cheat thing. I'm just a Grade-A lunatic.

"Yeah, right. You'll say anything to justify yourself."

Canti: Not much of a justification... Never said I was trying, but while we're on the subject, you're the absolute worst Archer I've ever seen.

"What?! You..."

Canti: C'mon, Squanto. Plant one right in Canti's ass. I dare ya.

(He patted his rump teasingly and the guy went for it, just as more Knights came his way. This was going to be fun! Oh...one and two and LEFT! Doink! To the side! Doink! And...duck! Doink! That was nine dead now. Death by not-so-friendly fire. Ouch... Canti let the Archer do all the work for him, wounding several guys before he threw soon-to-be Dead Guy #10 into the guy's face. Then, he pinned them BOTH down with his Fuse Blades back in action, the blades going through the dying Blademaster and jabbing the Archer in the chest. Soon, it was just the Archer and then he died too, through not without cause for "Repth". The other wounded guys ran off to regroup. How sad and annoying. Then...)

*Bing-Bong!*

Canti: Mail? Here? Now?

(Well, he had a spare second or two, so he opened up the message and read on. Hmmm. Seems Phoenix had thrown the bad guys for a loop and was now in hiding on the roof nearby. Sneaky... He liked it. Anyway, this meant that they had an ace in the hole in case of trouble, which meant that they should be making trouble for anyone who goes off trying to look for their errant fighter. Canti looked around and saw a Heavy Blade with a higher level than him poking around. His back was turned to Canti and he seemed to be seaching around. Okay then. This was what the guy had been talking about, so...)

Canti: Gan Zot!

(A load of stone fragments converged on the Heavy Blade's ass, causing him to shout as the spell struck. He turned and saw Canti standing there, picking his thumbnails with his knife.)

"You dirty bastard! Who do you think you're messing with?!"

Canti: Oh, I dunno... I figure you're just compensating for something.

"WHAT?!"

(He actually looked at him now, instead of his fingers, picking up his other Shadow Blade.)

Canti: Well, I figured from the big sword and armor that you-

"That's not true at all!"

(It occurred to him that his armored opponent actually sounded kind of feminine. Ah, whoops. Mistaken identity of gender... But Canti didn't let that steal his steam.)

Canti: Well then, why bother? Everyone knows that Speedy Gonzales is the better fighter.

"A cartoon character?"

(Canti sighed.)

Canti: Boy, you are slow. I could've groped you six times by now.

"Hey, watch who you're talking to, pervert!"

(Just then, the Twin Blade pointed to a tiny speck in the distance and shouted at the Knight, "SHINY OBJECT!!!", with much enthusiasm. The Knight looked and Canti let out a guffaw as he ran in and attacked his opponent. However, at the last second, she apparently turned out to be faking and blocked his strike. Ah ha... Well, that meant that this one wasn't really that dumb at all. Damn... Neverminding that fact, the two of them clashed and clanked with their blades, Canti doing alot of ducking and dodging, due to the physical superiority of his opponent.)

"Rue Rom!"

(A watery tornado spell quickly blasted up at Canti, throwing him back some and dealing a moderate amount of damage. He was far from dead, but still damaged nonetheless. What confused the Heavy Blade was the fact that he wasn't dead.)

"I don't get it. Shouldn't there be a critical for that?"

Canti: Sorry, but as much as I look like the devil, I just don't have the element yet.

"Dammit..."

Canti: Think of it this way, if you give up now, you'll have only failed. Keep it up and I'll humiliate you.

"Shut up!"

(Ah, but it was far too late. One of Canti's best methods of dealing with a battle was to get his enemies nice and pissed off so they reacted exactly how he wanted them too. The Heavy Blade took some sharp and wild swings, but the accelerated Canti was very hard to touch, fighting like this, what with him ducking and dodging away while shouting "Missed me!" or "Oh, so close!" like that. The Heavy Blade struck downward then as Canti rolled aside, and then became a victim of his Dark Dance...twice. And that put an even dozen on his current thrill of the kill. Canti jumped up, waving his arms to draw more attention from the Knights, planning to keep up the slaughter...)

Canti: Hey! More cannon fodder please!

_________________

My Kills: 12
Total Kills: 93
I'll have a doozy of a sig later, I swear. It'll reflect ".hack//CODE" an' everything.

Hey look! A profile! It's got items and stats and things! Cool! If it isn't fully up to date, it will be, so don't worry 'bout it.

Zan
Exalted Player
Posts: 206
Joined: Sat Jan 22, 2005 10:28 pm
Contact:

Post by Zan » Mon Jun 05, 2006 12:35 am

-----------------------------------

"We can't help them now! They've made their choice; don't let it be in vain!" Julie shouted, aiming her words at the woman in front of her; dainty fingers that had wrapped around the other woman's wrist now squirming into inhumanly large digits capped off with curled and razor sharp four-inch claws.

To Julie's dismay, the woman lingered a moment longer, eyes glued to the sight in the alleyway that road the length between several apartment buildings for several yards. The large, light black (in the dark, dark brown sort of sense) creature loomed over the small creature that she had in a vice grip in her hand. However, despite herself, she found her own gaze lingering over the tragedy in front of her even as her body continued to knit itself together through her change. Steam rose from the sewer grates down the length of the alley, the cold New York night biting the human woman below her but leaving Julie without so much as a goosebump. The steam proved to be an annoying, obscuring thing, leaving the woman only the faintest outline of three creatures like herself. They stood side to side, filling up the path, blocking it from things that would make even the most perverted, twisted sociopath wet himself. For a moment she wanted to offer up her help, to stay as the other woman wanted in turn. But no, those three were keeping back that tide so that their people could get away, flee. Not just the area, but the city, the state. The whole God damn country. It was back to the Emerald Isles for all of them. They never should have left.

Even as Julie forcefully hoisted the Fionnuala into her arms, like a man would his bride through their home, she knew she couldn't leave this place. Not forever. Her husband was here and, though she had gotten him used to her frequent absences, she refused to abandon him forever. She loved him, yes, but more than that she owed herself to him. The man had been there when even her fellow faol couldn't, or wouldn't. Push those thoughts aside, Julie...a warning to herself to focus, to keep going as she leapt to the top of the apartment structure to her right in a single flex of her legs, jostling the small thing she had in her arms. Even from up top she could hear the otherworldly, inhuman excuses for
noises the things were making as they fought to get past the three who blocked their way. It was something she knew would haunt her, would taint her dreams until the day she died. Looking over the opposite edge of the building with her mind still going haywire, she watched with mild interest as cars flowed with a blatant oddity; one moment whizzing by with lightning, unthinkable speed, another moment simply seeming to hold them in the thrall of a universal pause button, and so on and so forth. Simply having them spill here was messing with everything, pissing off the laws of physics and Mother Nature and all that bullshit.

The last thing to reach her ear drums as she leapt into the cold, bitter night sky and away from the chaos below was the symphony of tearing flesh and the woman in her arms crying for her love.


-----------------------------------

Zan stumbled as the memory played through his thoughts in the expanse of only a second, throwing him off enough to have the butt of a sword cracking across his jaw. The bruise that had blossomed forth was gone as soon as it had appeared, throwing off his attacker just enough to give the lycanthrope the time he needed to steady his thoughts again. No time to think about Lowen's linking consciousness. No, he had to protect the people behind him. Backhanding the same Knight with the force of the Beast behind the blow, Zan watched with a sort of twisted satisfaction as his vertebrae shattered and his head stopped just shy of a complete one hundred and eighty degree turn. With the Knight now crumpled up at his feet, Zan's attention found itself honed in at the row of Long Arms that charged forward, spears held straight out. One even went so far as to stupidly javelin the weapon at the Heavy Blade, something that was caught in the air without a blink and turned back on the aggressor; impaling him in the eye and out the back of his head with his own weapon. The three Long Arms remaining didn't even waver, but went on with a renewed conviction. Bully for them. Zan was fast in his Clabro form, but nowhere near the capabilities of his full-on transformation. Which, really, considering how he was doing now wasn't too shabby. However, it was this limitation that had the spear to his far left stabbing into his shoulder and screaming against the inside of his shoulder blade. Yelling his pain with a single f-oriented obscenity from his lips, Zan pushed aside the other two weapons and shot his hands to the sides of their wielders' heads. With a wincing smile on his face, Zan shoved their heads together, skull fracturing, bone concaving and freeing blood and gray brain matter as the corpses fell.

The movement had only made the pain in his shoulder worse, more so as the man who held the spear yanked it free and buried it into his gut during Zan's momentary distraction. Though the first wound was already half-way through closing itself up, the second was doing so at a slightly slower pace as the weapon was dislodged. In this form he could only spend so much energy on his regenerative capabilities and it was starting to show. The Long Arm in front of him seemed to think he had the upper hand as Zan staggered back, the left corner of his lip lifting into a snarl. Ignoring the sound and the lycanthrope's change of stance all together, the Long Arm went for a third stab into Zan's throat. That, of course, wasn't going to fucking happen. Backflipping as the spear came, the sharp point of it barely drawing a drop of blood as it grazed his chin, Zan captured the weapon inbetween the indent of his feet as the flip came to completion, leaving his own weapon on the floor to end the flip properly. The Long Arm lunged for his weapon as two others of his kind stabbed forth from Zan's flanks. Two thoughts came to him then; one, why was Dien letting these guys take advantage of his vulnerabilities and two, why were all the Long Arms so damned focused on him? Ignoring the first because, well, Zan was letting plenty past him from his own side, he came to focus on the second. Grabbing the spears by their middles as he took a step back, the other Long Arm's weapon stilled pinned underneath his feet, he guided his would-be attackers into each other with a forceful shove of either spear into either direction. As both of them found themselves impaled on their allies' weapon, Zan ended the stupid looks on their faces with the call of claws to his fingertips; the same claws reaching raking their jugulars and pulling other, less vital veins from their neck with a lewd snap and a fleshly afternoise as he threw the slop in his hands to the ground.

Already calling his claws back to normal fingertips, the blood still stained and still dripping along his digits, he watched with a touch of entertainment as the man at his feet tried to free the spear from beneath Zan's wait. Smirking a touch, the Heavy Blade put a heft of his strength into his other leg and snapped it forward, popping the man's jaw upward so hard that the teeth that didn't crack and splinter out of his mouth dug deep into their opposing gums. With the man's eyes drifting into the back of his head, but still showing consciousness, the lycanthrope ending it with a shove of his foot into the top of the man's head hard enough to issue a loud pop into the air before the man went still. Retrieving his blade from the ground, he readjusted his arms to its weight and five and half foot length and watched for the approach of more enemies. They still approached. God damn it, how many were there? Sure, the smart ones were offering him up a small berth of room from the sheer condition of the gore he had placed around him, but still they came. Growling to no one in particular, the Heavy Blade heaved the fire-bathed Flame Sword into a slice that arched in a half-circle, lopping off the head of a Twin Blade to his left and a Heavy Blade to his right. Zan felt the next enemy before he saw him, a slam of a foot hard enough against his hand to free the Flame Sword from his grasp. Glancing at his assailant, Zan found a Fist Fighter a handful of levels above him smirking with satisfaction.

"What? You think that's impressive, asshat? No, this is impressive." Zan gloated as he lunged his fist towards the man's face.

Oddly enough, knuckles only met air as the Fist Fighter windmilled past him and slammed his own balled fist into the back of Zan's head with enough force to jolt his head forward and tear blobs of color in sparkles across Zan's vision. Well, ow. Completing the forward stumble with a fall to his hands and knees, Zan had barely a second to recover before the Fist Fighter's metal boot slammed up and into his ribs, audibly breaking one or two of them and sending Zan in a gasping roll away from the attack. Though his hack was already stitching his bones and everything else back as they should be, it wasn't doing it fast enough. As the Knight charged towards him, Zan recalled his Flame Sword back into his inventory and called out the Life Sword instead, casting off an Ol Repth before that weapon was kicked from his hand and the other foot dug home into his stomach. Forcing all the wind from Zan's lungs, tweaking his diaphragm, the lycanthrope found his oxygen-deprived mind losing its tactics. Instead of breaking the man's knee like he had the chance to do, he simply shoved the leg off of him and came to an unsteady waver at his feet.

By the time the man had recovered as well and fought his way back through the crowd, Zan had regained his composure and dodged the incoming bodies. Punch after punch was turned aside or simply blocked by the lycanthrope, but he couldn't for the life of him (literally) find an opening to make his own attack. It was only when fate pulled a luck card for him that one of the Knight's own people smacked into him and induced a stupid look to the side from the Fist Fighter. Not wasting time, Zan simply jumped into the air and cracked a roundhouse kick into the man's jaw, spinning in the air, bringing his other foot across the man's face in the same manner before he was grounded once more. Calling the Life Sword back into his inventory and, in turn, back into his hand, he sliced at the Fight Fighter, a clean and diagonal cut splaying out from the man's temple to the beginning of his left jaw; clearing out half of the head from the other. Switching in the Flame Sword to his equipment, he used a duo of Vak Drives to clear away five more people and an almost perfect circle around him. There were enough bodies due to his assaults to create such a circle around him now; an unorthodox and small additional defense, sure, but it was still a nice addition. Wiping a trickle of sweat from his brow, smearing the blood on his hands onto his forehead like some bizarre war paint, he resumed his fighting stance with his sword held out before him and his feet to either side. Something odd struck his Instinct then, a sort of wary assurance as he took one more glance at the bodies piling around him and around his fellow Freedom Fighters.

Somehow, someway...they were just digging themselves further.

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Kills This Turn: 15
Total Kills: 108
Lv. 50 Heavy Blade
Wishlist
Special: Levels, GR Sendai, PL Sakai, Darklore.
W: Tonosama Sword, Mineuchi, Jundachi.
A: Samurai Helm, Able Hands, Rare Greaves.
I: Holy Sap, Treebane, Cooked Bile, Nightbane.
EX: Elemental Summon (Lv. 2), Overdrive (Lv.1), Elemental Attacks (Lv. 2), Enhance Dark, Elemental Breath (Lv. 2).

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