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Senna
Awakened Player
Posts: 150
Joined: Sat Jul 01, 2006 10:28 pm

Post by Senna » Thu Aug 03, 2006 1:45 pm

Nodding idly in agreement with Zan’s choices, Senna found her mind wandering a bit over the list. She had at least a spell if not skills in accordance with the remaining elements. Water and Fire she should have a decent enough time in, luckily, and they were last. God bless the Ladybug, she thought.

When Zan had his… whatever it was, Senna stayed out of it. This wasn’t out of respect for Zan’s personal space or anything like that. She was simply bad at dealing with people who weren’t feeling well, be that physically or mentally. She could sometimes manage sympathetic sincerely, but beyond that it always felt awkward. She did better keeping quiet. What was the old saying? Better to keep your mouth closed and be thought a fool…

The order decided, the group began to move again, this time down a green-runed hall, which made sense. As they walked, Senna watched the play of magic through those runes. What an elaborate trap, she thought. It was almost like it was built for a group like them.

The hall ended in a leafy forest. The sound of it was soothing and tranquil, and Senna felt a little bad that they would likely have to fight here and ruin that atmosphere. There was certainly little enough peace in the world anyway.

Then parts of the forest began to detach themselves and lumber forward. So much for the tranquil forest, Senna thought. At least this time there were only three of them.

"I'm going to make a quick suggestion. Dien and Canti, you guys worked great as a team last time and I'm going to ask that, if possible, you work together again and take on one of the smaller ones. Senna, I'm sure you're more than capable of taking on one of the smaller ones on your own. Reinier and I can work together to take out Fatso."

She found she was unconsciously falling into the habit of just listening to Zan and following his instructions. Normally a leader was chosen before a field or became obvious early on. This time, she’d been fooled a little. Nall had seemed like, and still was in a way, the leader of the group. When they were fighting however, it was Zan handing out the orders. Senna, being a natural follower, was more than happy to follow his suggestions.

Though this time, she was questioning it a little. She couldn’t let that show, of course. "Sure thing," she said, again speeding herself up with the quick application of Ap Do. But the truth was, she would have to be very quick, very careful and more than a little lucky to take that thing down by herself without dying. She wasn’t actually all that much higher level than the two who were teaming up and Gan was her worst element. She supposed she had a better chance than she might think, however. Long Arms were supposed to have some of the highest attack power in the game. Maybe she could do this. Maybe.

She considered keeping the same weapon in her hands as last time. Previously it had been to give herself an offensive boost, but this time it was the defensive boost she might be able to use – the added Juk elemental boost the weapon gave her. However, in the end habit and anxiety won out, and before she approached, the knotted exterior of the Sleipnir was replaced with the smooth, dark wood of the Ichigou. Death and critical hit were both effects on this weapon, and if either of them triggered at all during the fight, it would make things a whole lot easier on her. It also had the spell Ap Corv, which she activated.

During her little spell-up session, the giant tree she was allegedly to dance with had begun lumbering toward other members of the party. Muttering a little, Senna dashed up and swung hard with both hands, even twisting her torso to put as much oomph into the attack as possible. The blade of her spear cut a furrow low across the thing’s trunk, barely a paper cut in both size and damage for a creature as big as this one. It did manage one thing though, and luckily this was the only thing she intended it to do. It drew the creature’s attention back to her. She found her mind running through an almost matra-ish conversation with itself as the fight commenced.

Ah yes, this is good. Get the giant tree thing after you. Watch the branch! Darnitall, he hit, get back, use that speed. There you go. Now dart in, dart in…Swing high! There! Stopped that branch before it got near and got your damage in too. Pause… wait… there, there’s the opening. Attack! God, doesn’t thing bleed? Even sap? These attacks are doing next to nothing. And it… wait a minute… what’s it doing?

The ground beneath her was turning green in an impossibly large (at least from her perspective) spell rune. She almost froze, but motivated herself by playing her own coach.

Awww crap, this is gonna hurt. Nevermind that, get a heal ready and brace for it!

She did brace, not sure what kind of spell she should be expecting. That became apparent soon enough as the wind began to spin, sluggishly at first but soon up to such powerful gusts that she could barely keep her feet. The stinging, cutting pieces of tree debris seemed to be everywhere, cutting at every exposed surface, and her hair was whipping so hard in the wind that it almost acted as a weapon against her as well, stinging her neck and upper back. She struggled toward the tree a few steps during the barrage, but mostly she just tried not to fall and to take as little damage as she could.

When the winds finally dropped, she found herself clinging to the barest sliver of HP. That had been a monster of a spell. She cast a quick La Repth (assuming there might be others on the field in need of a bit of HP as well) though it certainly didn’t fill her heath bar all the way up. Then, gamely and more than a little angrily, she darted in at the tree again. "Repulse Cage!" She let the skill do its word, then began circling around, leaving the much slower tree to lumber around in a circle trying to get a bead on her. She quaffed a Health Drink, then focused and repeated the skill. She was going to take this thing down. She was.
Senna, level 33 Long Arm (710 HP/180 SP)
Most common kit: Ichigou, Racoon Earcaps, Air Bracer, Snow Panther, Winter Coat, Graceful Book
Spells/Skills: (Critical Hit/Death) Repulse Cage, Ap Corv, Ap Vorv, Rai Rom, Rue Zot, La Repth
Click for full equipment and items
14300 (1/23)

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 Aug 05, 2006 4:19 pm

(Again, as stated before, when Nall spoke up like that, it bothered Canti a great deal. Maybe it was this place, this situation, but there was no way in hell that the dark Twin Blade would EVER feel even remotely at ease when someone talks like that in during serious situation. At least not until he got some serious ground under his feet, some major experience. This game wasn't fun anymore. It had ceased to amuse. Everyone around him was deeply troubled by something, himself included. The only time he felt alright was when he was kicking ass. But all things Nall aside, they had some work to do. Canti stepped into the corridor with the rest of them...)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

(The World shifted... Why did this keep happening? There were shadows blotted against the red-brown haze now. He looked around. Yes... He was still where he thought he'd be, but in another place as well. It was The World, and yet it was far more than even that. Something stretched beyond the walls, and this allowed him to divine it. A dark serpent crawled out of the hourglass and flew ahead of them, invisible almost. It was not what it seemed, but certainly meant something important. The shape of the fox met eyes with the wounded crow.)

"The battle shall be uphill the whole way, no matter what depths you sink to. And don't take your eyes off of him for a second."

(Who did she mean? Him? Him who? The wolf? The eagle? The untold shadow? The fox did not explain, nor did she remain, but only looked at him with concern. There was so much going on that he didn't know or didn't understand. How could such a hindered crow possibly survive? Surely, he would die one day...)


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

(The entrance to the Juk area was an open wooded area, rather than anything apparently enclosed. Or at least it seemed so at first. In reality, it was one of those field designs where an 'open forest' actually behaves like a dungeon on the map. Canti had no map, but this was only one room, effectively, so he didn't complain. In this place, Zan was acting kind of funny, as if he'd converted to a lupine form. He was acting...well...like a wolf, dammit! It was almost embarassing to watch him frolic around like that. Being a city-boy himself, one not influenced by the wilderness, Canti preferred working with steel and rubber, the components of a vehicle... Just then, the Twin Blade snapped to attention as, ironically, a twig snapped. They were in a clearing when a large creature that looked...kinda' familiar...was stepping into play. Heh. Thousand Trees? More like a Million Trees! That sucker was HUGE, and for the record...these guys kinda' freaked him out with those wooden stares. Two more beasties stepped out of the foliage. Wait... Foliage...stepping OUT of foliage... Nevermind!)

Canti: Oh, how I wish I had some fire now...even if they aren't weak against it.

"I'm going to make a quick suggestion. Dien and Canti, you guys worked great as a team last time and I'm going to ask that, if possible, you work together again and take on one of the smaller ones. Senna, I'm sure you're more than capable of taking on one of the smaller ones on your own. Reinier and I can work together to take out Fatso."

Canti: Oh, you can have King Redwood over there, but I think I'll cook this other one on my own for now. S'not exactly the same as the Mu-guys.

(That being said, he got to work on one of the Wood Stocks. True, they were sidekicks, but they were still BIG sidekicks, so he'd attack the one on the left. The monster stomped towards him and raised its branch-like arms to attack. Before it could, Canti unleashed a Gan Zot spell, right before applying his Shadow Blades. Wait... Why? Well, simple. He'd been developing fighting technqiues and these blades - as well as the Phantom Blades - would be ideal for dealing with wood. Temporarily halted, Canti dashed for the base of the creature's trunk-like body with the weapons in place. Shadow Blades were gauntlet-worn and like spears crossed with axes. So...chopping time! He ran by the side and swiped his weapons into the creature, biting into the wood with a heavy chopping sound as it began to turn around. Thousand Tree-based enemies were not very fast, but strong. That's way the clever player finds its back real soon or reaps only the consequences. The monster roared then as Canti chopped into a root-leg.)

Canti: I'll make you the gimpiest tree in the forest!

(It did not appreciate that, so the Twin Blade was soon subjected to the tree-beast equivalent of a backhanded strike, a move which through him across the ground. He got up at it turned around again, shaking his head. The creature glowed with a monstrous roar as a rune appeared above Canti's head.)

Canti: Fuck...

(He tried to book, but it had him because he needed that moment in order to regain his senses after the hit. However, one thing that Canti wasn't expecting was that this would turn out to be a blessing in disguise. For while he was majorly hurt by the RaJuk Rom spell, the wooded-whirlwind did him a service, thanks to some good timing on his part. The outer rim of the spell tossed him right back at the beast and he had out his Phantom Blades. Why? Because when he spun them around thusly...)

*BZZZZZZZZT!*

(...he could give them sort of a buzzsaw effect, which Canti did...straight into its wooden eyes. Splinters went everywhere, and the Twin Blade fell again. But this time, it was the creature who was at a disadvantage, and he laughed at it as he stood.)

Canti: This just in on Ent-Watch... You're deaf, dumb, blind, and out of luck!

(Afterwhich, he took up a Health Drink and drank heartily. There was a nasty chunk of health removed from his repertoire that was all that thing's fault. And for his next trick?? Canti was going to extract the remaining HP that this drink didn't cure from the monster's barked-up hide as it thrashed around blindly. He was getting it back... His vicious streak was returning with a vengeance. All he needed to do was get sorely pissed off... Canti switched back to his Bloody Twin and waited to see what happened, straight out of the Wood Stock's range.)
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.

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 » Sun Aug 06, 2006 6:12 pm

Four massive spells impacted one after another into the great trunk of Yggdrasil. Combined with the effects of the Dek Ganz, and the Ap resident on the caster, the great earth spells were highly damaging. Roots were uplifted, exposed to the air. Bark stripped off, cracks appeared in the mighty trunk.

There was more to this great tree than met the eye, however. While Zan glided around the area, intend on casting his spells, two things happened. The first was predictable, the usual counterattack. Of course, gan attack would be countered with their opposite... And the airborne lycanthrope found himself the target of not one, not two, but three subsequent spells. OrJuk Zot, it's top branches scraping the raven-formed warrior. RaJuk Rom, a great triple-tornado propelling him into the sky, and finally, the incarnation of nature itself, Krake, in it's second stage of release. The great wooden warrior shot like a spear into Zan, bursting in a flurry of razor-edged leaves and circling winds.

The second event, taking place soon after was less flashy, but perhaps more deadly, in the long run. The tree shook and shuddered, leaves falling like rain from it's branches. Where these leaves fell, the pair of Woodstocks and the great Yggdrasil itself were coated in a shining blue light. Numbers rose in the air, denoting the spells effects; healing, for each of them. Both Woodstock monsters were returned to full health, having not much damage done to them overall; the king-tree was brought to 2/3rds.

With their flighty spellcaster downed, the group could only hope someone would revive him, before the tree took to blasting the rest of them with it's own brand of elemental fury. The Woodstocks were little more than a nuisance, overall, but every bit as deadly in their own right. Perhaps they would have to be taken down quickly, so as not to be targets of the massed healing spell the World Tree pulled forth... Whatever the case, the battle had just reset; at least for Senna and Canti, it had. As for Zan... His death served a double-purpose for the tree. Not only had the barrage of spells stopped, but they would be slow to return, death having the added effect of a complete SP drain.

After all, one didn't grow to be over five thousand years old without obtaining a little wisdom... even if one was a tree.

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

Post by Reinier » Tue Aug 08, 2006 6:05 pm

Flashmail!
To: Zan
From: Reinier
Subject: Sick...

Dude, I don't know what's up, but I'm feeling really sick... I think it's something to do with the Blessing, but I don't quite.. know.. I'm heading back to the hideout... Sorry man, but good luck... If it gets messy, I'll try and make it back to where ya'll are, but nothing's set in stone...

... get it, stone? Me? Powers? I'm a fucking riot.


...

Flashmail!
To: Nighthand
From: Reinier
Subject: Sick

Hey, I'm not doing so hot, so I'm back at the hideout... how are ya'll holding up over in your area? We're managing, but I'm thinking we shouldn't have split up now... I'm coughing up all sorts of crap, so I'll just talk to you later.


((OOC: Ha, Best. Exit. Post. Ever.))
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Reinier's Wishlist: Sakabatou|Sharktooth
Abraxas' Wishlist: Complementry|Summon
The Hack's Wishlist: Wall lvl 2

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 » Wed Aug 09, 2006 5:32 am

One by one the runes along the hallway’s edges lit up, heralding their transit to the other side. Already, the light from the other side emanated a jade glow that seemed to drown out that of the dim runes to either side. If Zan hadn’t been deceived this time, then they were on their way into the heart of a large deciduous forest. Another assumption made him believe that the room holding this forest would be roughly the same size and shape as the last two significant rooms had been: large and cubic in nature. It was, after all, the template design that the Elites had taken up in designing this place.

Another rune lit up beside him as they continued to walk, the blademaster towards the front of the pack. If what Raine said about the Elites flashmail system was true, then this had probably been one of the last facilities to be set up. The use of this template seemed to indicate that they hadn’t spent too much time making it, worrying more about effectiveness as a security means than about how the place appeared and the individuality of each element. It wasn’t really much to think about, but understanding their methods could be valuable in determining how certain areas might behave and how their coding tendencies went.

It was even true of himself: anyone even slightly involved in computer programming had unique methods and paradigms - coding colloquialisms, if you will. In developing Lighthack, he’d been able to use these nuances to help determine who did what damage where. Knowing a hacker’s dialect in programming language could tell a person a lot about that particular engineer: what parts they didn’t need to worry about, what parts were most stable, and what parts of the code were bound to fail. Could a similar principal be applied to the Elites and figuring out how to deal with them? Eh, he’d propose it to one of Nall’s mistresses when they saw one another again. Hell, they were probably already trying to figure out the hackers’ individual tendencies.

Another rune lit up, a handful of that variety still left before the corridor’s end. There were also behavioral tendencies in how hackers operated, and he sighed at the memory. Four long years had passed since that time and now, for whatever reason, the trial that was now scheduled for appearance before the Supreme Court was playing out in his mind in segmented pieces. Was this sleep depravation finally starting to kick in, stealing REM cycles during his more boring waking hours? Not that he really cared…
__________

The air was tense in the courtroom, buzzing with the sounds of side conversations and reporters jotting notes on conventional notepads. At the front of the room, the two sides sat, each bearing its own differences and notable lawyers. Several had joined the case after the press caught wind of it and turned it into a national event. To date, the teen on trial had counted at least a dozen news stations from across the country who wanted access to the relatively small courtroom, packing the already stuffed gallery with dozens more people. Per request of the D.A., none of them could bring cameras into the courtroom. While he wouldn’t have minded the countless red lights and shiny black circles, Jed wasn’t too unpleased with not having cameras, either. For one, he got to see the oil pastel artist’s interpretation of himself in testimony on the eleven o’clock news. Man, that was a kicker.

Already, as a result of the nationalization of the trial, his website had exceeded the bandwidth limit within the first three days of the month for two months straight. Considering the cap he’d subscribed to was a measly fifty gigabytes per month, this was understandable. He’d also gotten quite a few emails - to the point where every time he was allowed to check (once a week, per Her Honor’s grace) he’d exceeded the message capacity on his inbox by a good 500 percent. Fifteen minutes of fame weren’t that great without the publicity agent to cover everything.

The few emails that Jed actually managed to read posed an intriguing demographic. About a third of the population seemed to sympathize with him, saying they agreed with his actions, a quarter of them were intelligent in telling him that he should be hanged, and then the other five sixths were too unintelligible to even attempt deciphering (though they tended to be along the lines of “H4H4!!111 n00b, J00 g07 P\/\/n3D!!!1!!111!.” and similar grammatical atrocities). There really wasn’t too much to trying to read or even sort through it all in the half hour he had to finish up each week. All of that would be saved for later.

“All rise,” the bailiff commanded for the ten bajillionth time in this trial, “Philadelphia Superior Court now in session, Judge Meredith Palano residing.” The woman made her way to the bench and sat, her short stature masked by either the height of her stool or the overall altitude the platform provided her.

“You may be seated,” she said, and the entire room shrank into their seats. Today was the day the jury was supposed to have finally finished their deliberation, and they sat in their box, stolidly awaiting the Judge’s orders to read the verdict. Electricity seemed to bounce through the air and stay contained within the room, every eye and ear intent on deciphering the fate of this young boy from the jury’s foreman. She picked up a paper, skimming its contents before laying it back on the podium.

“Will the defendant please rise,” the woman said, and Jed rose. “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, have you reached a verdict?”

“In the matter of O’Brein versus Philadelphia, to the count of hacking in the first degree, we the jury find the defendant guilty.” Well there was a no-brainer. Expressionless, the bald man who was the jury’s foreman continued. “To the count of hacking without a license, we the jury find the defendant guilty.” Furiously pencils and pens scribbled across papers as some reporters flipped pages. The tension was rising like mercury in a thermometer on a hot summer morning. “To the count of hacking with malicious intent, we the jury find the defendant not guilty.” A sigh of relief went up in the room, along with a few gasps, a few statements of disbelief, and the gavel hit the podium once or twice, silencing them all before they could erupt into anything big.

“Thank you, juror number 2,” the judge said, and the man sat down. “Well, Jed, it looks like I have a standard sentence to give here. First, you hacked the police mainframe very intently, and without a license. Normally, that would result in three to five years in a state facility. However, since there was no malicious intent, and since you didn’t actually do anything wrong while you were in their system, I can’t very well punish you. However, the fact remains that you aren’t licensed as a hacker, so there is a fifty-dollar fine in that much alone. According to federal law, however, you can’t even apply for such a license for another four years, so I don’t see how you could obtain one. For such reason, I am suspending the fine until the matter can be tried in a higher court, and by order of this court allowing you an early application for such a license. Court adjourned.”

A swift tap, and the bailiff stood, and the rest of the room after him. Judge Meredith rose and existed through her own private doorway, and then the room went up in chatter. The teen yawned, stretching and cracking his neck to either side before turning around. Threats of appeals shot up from the D.A.’s side, while congratulations circulated through the defense team’s circle. None of Jed’s family had been present for the event, work calling both parents off and school claiming his younger brother. The trial which started in January was finally over now in May, along with the probation and separation anxieties with the internet. Hell, now he’d
finally have his computer back. First step would be to clear the thing of whatever tracking software the police might have implanted, then would be plugging it in and starting it up, and he would be home free. That thought alone made him smile.
__________

The sudden whir of spells going off and the cracking sounds they all committed as they completed their courses. Dien awoke to see fellow Freedom Fighter and friend shredded to kibbles ‘n bits by a second-level summon. Wait, what the hell was going on? Had he blacked out again? Aw dangit, this wasn’t good. They were here in the Juk room, no earth bender in sight, and the closest thing they had to a mage had just been mulched. Lovely.

With one hand, the blademaster flipped a resurrect scroll from his bag, pointing it at the cloud that was Zan and willing its contents to cast. There were another couple spells he had in mind to cast as well. First, switching to Zanzamas, he called upon its only skill for a boost in speed, and after that darted over to next to the lycanthrope. Next the Heavenly Bead Tiara was called, and as his feet skidded to a stop on the rough earth, the blademaster called its more unique spell.

“Rig Gaem,” he said, and the color washed over both of them, beginning to rapidly fill their SP gauges once more. Another pat on the werewolf’s shoulder, and he darted off again, aiming for one of the smaller trees. Now it was his turn to fight. Hell, he was surprised that one of them hadn’t picked him off already. Then again, he hadn’t done anything but stand idly by while his comrades did all the hard stuff for him. Zanzamas was swapped for the Gan Slash of Souleater, and Dien had his target.

“Ap Ganz!” he shouted, running in and knowing his SP was beginning to be critically low, even with the Rig Gaem’s effects. He’d only have a pair of level two skills before being completely depleted. When that happened, well, he’d probably end up as fertilizer if the trees had anything to say about it.

His hand ripped bark off the tree as he wrapped around, delivering a kick to its nose and cracking the stump off its place. However, a branch quickly thwacked downward, pushing him to the ground like a flyswatter does a fly. The damage done wasn’t minimal, but then again it wasn’t anything to write home about. As the tree lifted its lofty limb, Dien shoved off the ground, leaping in a high slice that embedded Souleater into the thing’s bark above its face. The scrapes in his back began to fade, and he smirked, remembering the sword’s other jewel of a skill: life drain. Blade released from the bark as the tree tried to hit its owner again, but he merely ducked, coming up in another slice that shaved off bark to one side.

Out of nowhere a flurry of sticks, bark, pine cones, acorns, and lots of razor-sharp leaves erupted around him, rendering him stationary directly in front of the tree. He swore, casting La Repth in the middle of the RaJuk Rom and hoping to lessen the damage somehow. Numbers were rising from him, numbers that would very soon mean the end of him if he didn’t act quickly. Well, no, he was going to die anyway, and as the spell continued to wreak more havoc over his body than he’d thought possible, he called the one skill he knew might have some kind of effect on this thing.

“Gan Slash!” He called, relying fully on the power of his SP to drive his Orange Glo™ sword through the tree not once but twice. The words ‘Elemental Critical’ rose from the beast, along with two numbers: one triple digits, and one in the thousands. Just then one of the sticks that had erupted from his body smacked him in the head and he fell backwards, powerless to oppose the spell as it tore his body to shreds. Well, he did his part here, and at least there weren’t any spears to worry about this time (this thought just as that same stick impaled his head from under the neck).
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Image|||Level 35 Blademaster (+200 EXP)
Wishlist: EXP, Ends of Earth, Armor with Status Effects

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

Post by Zan » Thu Aug 10, 2006 2:49 am

Zan knew that when the Juk rune appeared that he was in trouble, but he hadn't quite fathomed just how much that amounted to. The spells ripped through him with prejudice, turning his body into nothing more than a living mass of pain and screams. When his blinking health warned him of his nigh-gone hit points (something he could have guessed with all the blood strewn about him, crimson licks of his own vitae) the lycanthrope whispered his thanks to God for being spared of death, something that would both inconvenienced him and his party. However, as the fates had decided, it wasn't going to end then. Before the Heavy Blade could get in any sort of healing spell, before he could kick back one of his health drinks, the sight of the Juk summon loomed above him. The menace in its eyes was almost a mocking thing, as if it new just how easily its task would be accomplished. With the little energy, the little consciousness Zan still had, he let in a breath and dared the creature to do its worst with a look alone...and indeed it did. It was only when the pain had dissipated into numbness and the world about him blackened that he knew he was dead.

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

The smell of wet, rotting wood and bunched mold permeated the air of the condemned apartment building, setting the scene for what Conner knew to be a very standard Downer hang. They liked the places that went ignored, they enjoyed wallowing in strengthening disease and the weakness of anything organic. Rolling his neck, cracking free the tight spots that had been bothering him, he remained firmly planted at the entrance (an entrance that was missing its door thanks to a twitch of the teen's leg). The bitchy thing about Downers is their ability to literally disappear in darkness. It's what allows them to stare back into the eyes of a frightened child's parents as they swing open the closet door to let their frightened offspring know that nothing was waiting to hurt them. If ever, as a child, a person feels their fears building, heightening, it is the horrid whispers of the Ones Who Hide in Blackness. Though, as far as Conner had ever come to find, the Downers are physically human and they must eat and sustain their bodies like any other person, fear and negative emotions of any sort seem to be their opiates.

Knowing all of this is what had brought the high school student to carry flashlights with him wherever he went, day time or not. Conner wasn't on any Downers happy list and any patch of darkness passed could be his last. Huh. Shaking his head, amused at the thought, the teen lofted the flashlight and flicked it on, a beam of white light lancing like a spear through the pitch blackness of the hall. Careful ears waited for any movements, any distortions in the air at all as he began his walk. Conner could feel that other part of him, the part that his Click had opened wide, begin to stretch out like invisible antennae through the building, searching the Downers out, coaxing them into revelation if they were even there at all. This wouldn't be the first time Dust had gotten some misinformation. The teen did little more than analyze old furniture, cracked walls, and peeling salmon paint as he went room to room until, at last, he heard what he had been listening for. Choked breaths sounded from one of the last rooms in the hall, the seven on the door flipped upside down as if to warn him away with cryptic and ominous caution. Flipping it the bird, Conner turned the doorknob, turning off the flashlight for but a moment to allow his eyes to adjust to the darkness and what it held.

The girl he came across, only a few years younger than himself by the looks of it, looked at him with wide, frightened eyes that told him things words could not. Her body shook and tremored with shock, whatever fear that was massing in her body likely unexplainable in her mind. All she knew was that she felt watched, she felt stalked, and anything positive that she had hit the streets that light thinking was overwhelmed by dark whispers buried in her skull. Bullseye. Flipping up the hood of his sweater, he flicked on the flashlight and flooded the area around her with light, six faces appearing hunched over her and, now, facing him.

"You know the rules, kiddies. None of your kind is allowed on Dust's turf. I believe I've run into this motley before, now haven't I? Looks like you didn't get the message the first time." His words were only met with the stare of human faces his way, blank looks filling their blood-red irises. "Papa's got a little gift for you. Come and get it, assholes." Time slowed down, perceptions sharpened.

The world came alive.


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

Before his mind could continue the memory, he was suddenly back in his own body, a spell cast over his body by a very helpful Blademaster. Thank God for Dien. The kid had been smart enough to not only revive him, but bring him back with a much needed spell under his belt. Zan had learned a very important thing about what he would probably face in the rest of the Archway rooms. The monsters, at least the big ones, had a tendency to counter attack at a level that some might consider 'over kill.' Nodding his thanks to Dien, the lycanthrope turned his attentions to the biggest tree, coming to a hover where he had previously stood as he prepared himself for further assault. The first thing he wanted to do was fuck the creature up. That was a given. But the plan formulating in his brain came to nothing more than 'beat it until it's little more than splinters.' It was a good idea, in theory, but the Heavy Blade had no real way to go about it. Quieting his Rage, coaxing into something more productive than mindless fury, Zan came to something a bit more logical. The Big Bad had proven his abilities to heal the injuries of his companions. Though, as stated, Zan wanted nothing more than attack the head honcho himself, he knew there were better ways to go about it.

"Well, that didn't work out well. New plan people. If you weren't already, focus on the little ones. Well, littler. If we take out his buddies, the overweight one won't have anything to distract us from the real danger in this room. When both of 'em are taken out, focus everything you have on their leader." He would have wished them good luck, as had become routine, but the whistle of a flung and oncoming tree branch distracted him from doing little more than an acrobatic loop in the air.

With the help of Dien's spell, Zan knew he'd have all the SP he needed if he'd allowed himself some patience. The thing about patience in such a situation, however, was that it was nothing more than a luxury. The biggest of the trees had either targeted him as the leader or simply an annoying big mouth because the flail of branches and a thumping trunk seemed to be coming from it and it alone, as if the Heavy Blade had been claimed. Knowing that it was probably simply that his companions were busying the others, Zan did his best to ignore the semantics of it all and focus on not being ground into the earth in calcium splinters and globs of flesh. The lycanthrope was rather proud of his ability to evade the attacks launched his way, his motions constantly bringing him out of harm's way as his SP continued to rejuvenate, the air of passing bark usually no more than an inch from him. The close calls continued until, finally, the fact that he had only used the raven form a handful of times caught up with him and his lack of mastery pulled a loud 'umph!' from his lips. The massive branch that had collided with his gut did so with a thick thump, internal injuries blossoming as he fell to the earth like a bird with a broken wing.

By the sound of it, his impact was as painful (if not more so) than the attack that had grounded him. Groaning his complaints, one arm draping around his gut, Zan tried to ignore his half-drained hit points bar and collect himself enough to switch out weapons. Giving the Horse-Killer a temporary goodbye, he welcomed the presence of the Life Sword, the Ol Repth that swept over him coming like so much sweet relief. Weeks in a hospital passed in a blink of blue light and shimmering power. On his feet not a second later, Zan took stock of his surroundings and prepared to leap over any oncoming bark if he was forced to. Luckily for him, he had landed somewhere off in the woods, the cuts he had felt raking along his back as he fell now making since through the chaos that his fall had been. Branches from non-sentient (he hoped) trees had made his descent that much more unpleasant. Battle sounded to his right and, turning to face it, Zan took flight and appeared a moment later above the treetops, spotting the struggling Freedom Fighters almost immediately.

An inward glance at his SP told him he was at a little more than half way up, a fact that enticed him to be a touch more disgruntled than he was. Shouldn't Dien's spell have been making this faster? Snarling with annoyance, a sound that came out as little more than a huff (vocal cords no longer human-wolf, but human-raven as they were), he flushed the Gan Echo into his vision and scanned the desert ground below for just the collection he needed. For a while it eluded him, the lycanthrope having to wade his way through arching metal from his friends and the leafy limbs of his enemies. When what he sought finally came into view, Zan hovered horizontally over it, blurring his fingers over its surface until a neon orange, circular glyph had appeared to the rest of the world. Slamming his palm into it, calling the Amp Ganz into being, Zan indulged himself in a pleased sigh at the power that surged through his fingers and coursed through his veins. Another glance at his SP and he knew that, although it hadn't filled yet, what he had would be enough for right then.

"Dek Ganz! Ap Ganz!" A quick twin shout of the skills, the former on one of the smaller trees, the latter on himself, and he was ready to issue his come back.

The Dek Ganz gave him attention he didn't want, but it would be dealt with. The first GiGan Zot left his lips with a snap of power, the attack focused solely on the 'small' tree that had identified him as the new target. Bringing his hand up again, preparing to launch the same attack at the same tree, Zan was downed once more with a heavy crack against his left leg. The force of it twirled him through the air, the world around becoming little more than a blur of color and the danger that loomed about. The smack of his body into something gargantuan and solid before he hit the ground let him know he had, unfortunately, run into the head honcho once again. Gravity ignored him as he tried to regain his 'footing' defying it, a quick ricochet later and he was aimed to hit ground once more. Only a last minute, frantic grab at his power kept him an inch from hitting the ground. Closed eyes, previously glued shut in anticipation of pain, timidly opened, expecting little more than further trauma. Luckily enough, attention had been snatched from him by the actions of another and he had all the time he needed to let loose another GiGan Zot at the small tree that had been the objective of his first spell before taking to the air above the trees once more.
Lv. 50 Heavy Blade
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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).

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 » Fri Aug 11, 2006 9:06 pm

(This was getting on his nerves... Not only was the Wood Stock creature rather resistant towards getting carved up into itty-bitty pieces, but the damn thing was suddenly and unexpectedly - dare we say intolerably? - cured by its big boss-man. Here was how it went... Canti had just taken out his Bloody Twin to make use of its very useful Life Drain ability, when the bastard monsters aimed all their spells at Zan and...they destroyed him! Not just killed, but practically annihilated! Jesus H. Fuckin' Christ... One minute, casting spells, and the next...poof! That was no way to go...and that was not the way HE was going to go! Oh hell no... Nobody kills Canti but Canti! And if you have to figure out what that means, then you haven't been paying attention. Fortunately, Dien was on the rebound, curing Zan of his immediate death and low-SP situation. Canti's was currently full, which was good for him, because he was about to blow it all to put this tree-hippy in his place!)

Canti: Wood Stock... What a joke...

"Well, that didn't work out well. New plan people. If you weren't already, focus on the little ones. Well, littler. If we take out his buddies, the overweight one won't have anything to distract us from the real danger in this room. When both of 'em are taken out, focus everything you have on their leader."

Canti: Oh yeah, no problem. Except that everything is the real danger in the room...

(Well, it WAS, after all. Was a Wood Stock any less of a threat than the Yggadrasil if killed? This was a matter of their lives on the line, right? So anyway, the Wood Stock he'd been facing was stomping towards him, and he jumped aside as a branched arm came down from above, smacking the ground. While it was busy on that, Canti struck it with Twin Darkness, a flowing combo of dark-element hits. No elemental critical, naturally, but damage nonetheless. The monster backhanded at him and he grabbed onto the arm as it was swinging, latching on by way of the knives. It tried to shake him off, but he wasn't coming off easily.)

Canti: Yeah? Don't like it? Gan Zot!

(THWACK!! Stones rapped into the Wood Stock's 'head' and Canti let go of it to momentarily take advantage of the effects of it being stoned and stabbed into its trunked chest. A Life Drain came through, but the tree-beast knocked him away, throwing him into a roll. He got up quickly, jumped onto the creature's arm so that it would catapult him up into its treetop! A buzzsaw-like effect was heard just seconds after...)

Canti: Tiger Claws!

(Twigs and leaves went flying. The Wood Stock shook and shuddered to make Canti fall out, which he did, and then it blasted him with RaJuk Rom. The fiery Twin Blade was thrown by the tornado, not dead...but rather close. Common sense would tell him that he should next use a Health Drink. That is...if he was using common sense. Oh, but Narrator... If he's not using common sense, what IS he using? The answer, of course, is uncommon sense. Canti drew himself up...slowly. The Wood Stock was approaching... It swumg down a branch-arm...and was stopped. Well, sort of. The Twin Blade had jammed one of his knives into where the wrist might be and he was barely holding it still, but it was not able to strike him either. Not yet.)

Canti: Twin Darkness.

(Suddenly, he rounded on the beast and attacked...pretty close to where its hip would be, if it had hips. The Twin Darkness seemed to explode in every hit as Canti's focus became very...efficient. Yes, that's the word. Efficient. Terribly efficient, monstrously efficient, vindictively efficient... Knives raked along the side of the tree as he quickly darted around to its back and started carving back some health with his Bloody Twin. There was once a friend of Canti's who had grown his fingernails to be like claws. They were strong enough to actually hurt someone in the intended fashion. One day, he'd found out from another friend of his, that this person had shredded the bark off of one of the trees near the school. At the moment, this Wood Stock was beginning to take on similar characteristics as Canti kept to its back and sliced away...)
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.

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Nighthand
Master of Games
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Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2003 9:23 pm
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Location: ...Tracking...please wait...

Post by Nighthand » Sun Aug 13, 2006 6:35 pm

Nall looked over the battlefield with interest, noting each new development as it came, but not really raising a hand to help. He didn't need to, here. Not yet, anyways. With the heal the trees gained, it set them back a little, but not much. Not enough to make much difference. Other than the disappearance of Reinier, not much changed.

One after the other, the two WoodStock enemies fell. As each died, numbers rose above the great central tree; 9999. The king tree was fully-healed, but it was a good thing the two smaller trees were taken out first. It saved the group a lot of trouble from the full-heals later on.

The group was alone now, face to face with one giant tree. A tree which wasn't too happy to have it's companions destroyed, nor was it very happy to be a target.

With a great, creaking roar, the tree's branches began to shake and quiver. Leaves began to fall around the clearing, a few at a time. As they struck the ground, they erupted into bursts of energy; Juk Rom spells. Low powered, for the tree's access to higher level spells was already demonstrated. Still, it would make any concerted assault less effective, and would probably drain the group of HP slowly but surely.

Nall gazed around, far enough away that when the occasional leaf landed nearby, he simply moved a few feet to the side, out of it's way. Reinier was gone, Cypher had never arrived. Senna was fine, for the moment. Canti was low on health, and before Nall could toss out a healing spell, the twin blade was caught in the center of a swirling fall of leaves. He slashed with deadly precision, cutting leaves from the air; it seemed when the leaves were destroyed before they hit the ground, they didn't detonate. Still, there were too many for the dark one to handle, and a few slipped past; enough to sap him of the few remaining hit points he had.

With Zan, for the moment, taking care of himself in the air, and Canti joining Dien in the ranks of the dead, Nall decided he would act to support the group, at least a little. A pair of ressurrects were activated, and Canti and Dien found themselves in the land of the living once more.

All that was left was to take out this final tree, gather the artifact they had come for, and head on to the next hallway.

Zan
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Post by Zan » Tue Aug 15, 2006 1:53 am

Zan's plan went into action with a rather speedy efficiency and rapid execution, the support trees falling to their deaths with the various acts taken against them. With their lives stolen and their data slowly rippling away into nothingness, Zan was finally given the chance to once again face that which had so effectively opposed him before. The lumbering oak towered confidently above him, the best expression it could muster to pass for a grin seemingly plastered on its bark-ridden face. The Heavy Blade took such a look as a challenge, and indeed it was, Zan's hovering form lofting to eye level with the creature.

Though its focus wasn't solely on the lycanthrope in the least (plenty of others surrounding it and keeping its attention divided), but their encounter before and his barrage of Gan spells seemed to have put it at a particularly offset mood against him. Of course, it could always just be his imagination, but Zan felt as if he had something in particular to prove against this monster. Although the Heavy Blade's Ap Ganz had remained steadily in place, the Dek spell he had cast on the Y man previously seemed to have worn off. Renewing it, he spiraled around a falling branch, hands lashing out to attach himself to the grooves on its 'flesh', clinging to the flailing limb with all the might he could muster.

When the branch stilled, when the Big Man drew his attacks elsewhere, Zan darted up the length of the outstretched wood he had attached himself to, half-flying and half-running to get to his goal. The moment he had, the moment the lycanthrope managed to get up close and personal with this particular obstacle, it noticed his presence as a more significant threat than previously assessed and shook him from his placement. Though Zan should have been able to grasp gravity like a clenching glove, the bark that caught him in the face sent him spinning to the ground with nothing to catch him but earth. The 'oof' that was yanked from his lips and his lungs at that moment was notably pained, Zan's hit points taking a not-so-healthy drop from full to barely half of what it had been.

To make things worse, as they always seemed to get before they even slightly drew nearer towards better, a storm of leaves tumbled towards him and the rest of the group, each of these leaves kicking up Juk Roms, the hiss of their power riddling the lycanthrope with more cuts and scrapes than he could count. Not dead but hardly alive after stumbling away from such a thing, unable to muster flight in his condition, Zan swapped the Life Sword into his hand and welcomed its abnormal weight. In this form he seemed unable to exact physical combat on anything, but the supportive skills his weapons possessed were thankfully still up for use. The Ol Repth that sunk into his skin was far more than welcomed, any damage he had taken from the recent encounter with Fatso becoming little more than a whispered rumor on the wind.

Zan held his hand out then, culling a GiGan Zot into fruition, aiming its potential trauma at his enemy with the same prejudice it had continued to show him. With that done, Zan spent his next burst of energy on maintaining the rest of the group. He flew in wide circles around the large clearing, ducking the potentially fatal fall of wooden limbs and keeping a careful eye on the damage his friends dished out and received. A subtle casting of La Repth echoed across the group, hopefully healing his companions of most, if not all, of the wounds they had received during phase two of the assault against Big Man. Shooting upwards, ceasing his circular revolutions, Zan appeared above the canopy of trees in search of someone, his bird's eye view scanning the ground below until he spotted Nall in his nonchalant, off-to-the-side stance.

Still the man continued to simply stand by while the others fought to bring down the hulking behemoth of a monster. The lycanthrope suspected it was simply another one of the Elite of Time's tests, some particular scenario in which he leaned back to see how well the Freedom Fighters should do if he wasn't there to help them. Was that it? Was that the big secret here? Maybe, just maybe, Nall was thinking of leaving them? Such a thing was hardly conceivable as the Blademaster was the frontiersman of this little cause, this war against the Elites. Would he really be so bold as to simply drop out, leave them be? No, probably not. The more likely case was that he planned on taking on things bigger and more horrendously dangerous than the feeble things he now looked upon with them.

In all truth it would probably be a better use of their collective resources. Taking the majority of the Freedom Fighters out on quests as big as Nall and Nighthand was suicide more than it was anything else. Had the leader finally realized that there were better ways to manage the power the Freedom Fighters had? Like Rayo and Reinier, Zan was growing into a self-appointed leadership position that had come from Nall's lack of intervention in anything they did. Was that, too, something done to see who would rise to the occasion and selflessly direct the masses? If it was, which it probably was not, it was clever.

Shaking off the root of the things that had been bothering him since they first started fighting in the Gan room, Zan flew back down to join his friends in the struggle to conquer this room and claim its artifact. As he had ensued in doing so many times before, he flew up towards his enemy and summoned forth another GiGan Zot, the rumble of its activation ringing like sweet music in the Heavy Blade's ears. A similar rumble followed, but the different octave caused Zan to glance upwards as reality seemed to crackle for a moment before the Juk summon ripped its way into creation and careened into the lycanthrope, sending him tumbling through the air for the umpteenth time with hardly a sliver of hit points to call his own.

Instead of smacking against a tree or the earth or anything else that would have removed what little speck of life remained in him, Zan actually caught his fall mid-air and stabilized himself. Another call upon the Ol Repth on his Life Sword and his SP was depleted, the lycanthrope now rather useless until once again he had the energy he needed to launch another assault. Hopefully...hopefully of his fellow Freedom Fighters would finish off the job.

Hopefully.
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).

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 » Tue Aug 15, 2006 9:44 pm

(Through the efforts of the whole, the smaller two trees of the living, breathing forest troupe died and went "TIMBERRR!!" or something similar. The point was that there were no more support trees. The Wood Stocks went the way of Jim Morrison. However, Canti did not appear to be one who noticed. In fact, Canti didn't appear to be noticing much except the actual enemy being dead at the moment. That much was wrong in of itself, and he missed the fact that there were leaves falling and causing Juk Rom spells. Therefore, he was struck down by one and was killed...)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

(The crew fell, having not seen the gust of wind in time. He looked towards the sky and wondered...just what the hell was going on? This brown-red haze... It dominated his vision for the time being and he did not see... What was going on? How did he end up this way? The fox strode on by quietly, her eyes sympathetic. She told him that he was not focused enough yet. With a little more concentration, there could be nothing he would not see, nothing that would escape him. All the land before him could be a plate to snatch food from if given the right focus.)

"Now awaken..."


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Canti: What the...?

(A ghost. He was transparent. And then...a Resurrect was thrown his way and he was alive again, with low health, and no SP. Canti quickly downed a couple of Health Drinks to restore his HP to full or close enough. He looked around, taking in his surroundings? Something had changed... This wasn't what he last remembered. Dien had been dead, and was now resurrected as well. Zan was airborne still. Nall was in a different position than he last saw him in. What the fucking hell? Well, there was only one fricken' tree left and he was gonna give it what for. But as he was running towards it, Canti composed a message.)

To: Zan
From: Canti
Subject: The hell?

Zan, what the hell just happened? I just got revived and I don't remember being dead! Where're the damn Wood Stocks?


(He jumped and slashed down at one of the Yggadrasil's root-legs before hopping off and striking against its bark exterior, waiting for his SP to refuel itself enough to put upon a real attack. It was a tough call to see whether or not Life Drain or Spell Drain was the better ability, but Canti decided that Life Drain was it.)

Flashmail!
To: Canti
From: Zan
Subject: Ass-raped.

You got raped by falling Juk Roms. Nall revived you. The support trees are thankfully dead.


(Trust Zan to be blunt like that, even during a battle. Alright then... Fair's fair, right? It didn't really answer his question, so Canti thought up another one while briefly switching to Fuse Blades to stab-climb up one side of the giant tree boss. Funny thing... Hadn't he seen this sucker in a Kirby's Nightmare game or something? Where do they get these monsters anyhow?)

To: Zan
From: Canti
Subject: Look who's talking.

Heh. I understand you had an orgy of your own there, pal. But seriously, what happened? Did I black out or something?


(That ought to set him straight. After all, he'd been the target of three spells at once, deliberately done by their rejects from the man-eating woods of Lord of the Rings. Canti was tearing his knives into the tree-beast as much as possible, the HP-droppage from it slow, but steady. And then...)

Flashmail!
To: Canti
From: Zan
Subject: The truth.

No, actually, the Juk Roms took me on a few dates and tried to get me drunk, but I told them to fuck off when they tried to bring me up to their room. And, no, you just died. If you black out when you die, then sure, otherwise I don't know what to tell you.


(He wasn't taking this seriously, and that bothered Canti. Something felt wrong here, and he didn't know what. He composed a message and sent it off, but not before seeing an attack coming his way, forcing him to jump off of the Yggadrasil and back away. No way HE was falling for that now. Hell no...)

To: Zan
From: Canti
Subject: Not what I meant.

No no no... Being dead is the first thing I remember, like a bad hangover all over my body. I can't think of anything BEFORE that and after fighting the Wood Stock.


(A huge branch came his way and he leaped over it, barely. Another sweep came on by and he took it, but latched on. His HP went down, but he struck the arm repeatedly with his Bloody Twin, trying to make up the HP again as the creature was suddenly absorbed onto something more potent than him. Canti clung to it precariously, but he wasn't about to let go just yet. He could use this.)

Flashmail!
To: Canti
From: Zan
Subject: Gettin' old on us?

Sounds to me like you have a bad case of Alzheimers. If you're going to start going all 'old man' on us, I'm not going to be the one that helps you go to the shitter. No fucking way.


(Oh, very funny. You could just see how much Canti liked THAT ONE by the way he was digging deeper into that arm, rejuvinating HP and composing a sarcastic retort.)

To: Zan
From: Canti
Subject: Kids these days...

Watch it, young whippersnapper. You don't wanna get ole' Uncle Canti riled now. I just wanted to know if I finished off the F-ing tree-hippy or not.


(The response practically had a smirk attached to it, as Canti noted his SP growing faster. Just a little longer...)

Flashmail!
To: Canti
From: Zan
Subject: Scary...

Let me feign fear for a second. Good, with that done...I couldn't tell you. All I know is the damn things died and now we can focus on Fatass.


Canti: Huh?

(This didn't make any sense. Why should he even have a gap in memory or even not know if he'd killed a damn monster? His focus...? Maybe that was the answer. In any case, that was about all he could really get out of Zan, and it was just about time he struck something a little more vital than a giant ass arm.)

To: Zan
From: Canti
Subject: Fat?!

Hey! He's not fat! He's big-boned! Damn tree-fartin' hippy! ... Yeah, my South Park impressions suck. Anyway, I'm on it.


(A pause, as he readied himself...)

Flashmail!
To: Canti
From: Zan
Subject: Yeah...

...Right. That embarassment passed, keep up whatever assaults you have under you belt on the Big Man. He shouldn't be too hard to take down with all of us attacking him. Her. It. Whatever.


(Canti smirked. He was just about to get up and do some major damage when he noticed that Zan was suddenly shot out of the air! He'd stopped himself, and he was healing, but that'd been a hard hit, a summon attack. That was it. Canti had had it. In the wake of the creature's last attack, he hopped up onto the arm he'd been holding onto and began to run up it. It couldn't cast for the next few seconds, so he'd be able to make it. The monster shifted and moved around, trying to throw the Twin Blade off. No go, no luck. He'd already figured on this happening and jumped up to land squarely on the upper-part of the branch arm. And with that, his Bloody Twin in hand, he jumped for its head-area, attacking...)

Canti: Tiger Claws!

(Non-elemental strikes raked the upper-part of the creature's head, where it was more treetop than anything else. Then, stepping off of that part, he timed himself as he fell down and shouted out "Twin Darkness!" as he came in coincidence with the face. Time appeared to slow down for that one second as explosions of sudden knife-wielded darkness issued forth with every slash into the creature's face. Canti then hit the ground and backed off quickly, not waiting to see the effect, but knowing that win or lose, it would be better to put some distance between him and it.)
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.

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Senna
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Posts: 150
Joined: Sat Jul 01, 2006 10:28 pm

Post by Senna » Fri Aug 18, 2006 4:07 pm

Senna would have loved to be helping the members of her group, but at the moment she was caught in one of the undeniably irritating things about playing any game over the internet.

Lag.

It was rare anymore for anything to happen bad enough, even locally, to slow down the game. However, that seemed to be exactly what was going on right now. The movements of everything before her eyes suddenly became hiccupped, disjointed. She tried to move, but her character seemed uninterested in responding in more than the most halting manner. She could see bits of action in stop-motion, like a slide show. Things seemed to be going okay. Sort of.

“Come on, move,” she fumed at the computer, but it continued its halting progress for a while longer before finally releasing her to her own motion again. As she made sure all was in working order again, she also took stock of the larger picture. There was only one tree left, and it was shedding leaves down over the group. And as each leaf landed – goody goody – it burst into a shower of confetti-like leaves and twigs, complete with sharpened points and razor-like edges. What a party.

She tried to shield herself as best she could, dropping to a crouch to give the swirling leaves as small a target to hit as possible. It was a terrible battle so far, as compared to the first. Two were dead shortly, and Zan seemed to be taking care of himself, so Senna switched briefly back to a lesser head armor to use regular Repth spells, counteracting the damage taken from the Juk Roms as it was dealt. As a result, as the flurry died down, she was down on both HP and SP, but not critical in either. Good enough.

She speed-boosted and attack-upped herself again, then used a Mage Soul. She did NOT like being that low on SP. Using her newly enhanced speed, she made her way around to the back side of the tree, as determined by the side opposite where the creepy face was carved in its bark.

Her thought process was pretty simple. It was always better to have an enemy pinned than to let it focus all of its attention in one sphere of sight. She didn’t know what kind of spread this thing’s vision had, but she hoped – HOPED – it wasn’t some sort of computer magic bull 360 vision that would let it see everyone at the same time.

She began concentrating her attacks on the back of the tree, first at one of the foot-like root appendages. A quick slash then a jab and… crap, the point of her spear embedded itself in the tough wood and decided for the moment, it would like to stay there. Switching her grasp so her thumbs were pointed up instead of down, she stepped up onto the root, pulling the spear along like a lever as she ran past. The move seemed to work – the spear turned slowly in the slot it had made in the wood, then came free as the angle finally changed enough. Senna didn’t pause in her headlong run though, using other roots and low limbs as stepping stones as she worked her way higher and higher. A slash here, a stab there to yank herself up to another level, she was climbing and doing damage at the same time, constantly moving in case the tree decided to try to swat her loose.

All this dancing, moving work finally brought her to a decent perch where she felt her footing a bit more sure than it had been anywhere since when she was on the ground. Aiming for the hefty trunk, Senna murmured, “Repulse Cage

The spear wasn’t her strongest, but the spell up and her own level and class lent a certain power to it anyway, and the furrows it dug into the bark were impressive, if not particularly devastating. Clear sap bled from them in small rivulets like sluggish blood.

Senna didn’t take more than a moment to notice that, be pleased with actually causing damage. It wasn’t something to be proud of. Further up – the branches were thinner up there, but the area-wide range of her attack would be able to do more damage if there were surfaces in all directions instead of just one. So thinking, she made her way upward again, higher and higher. When she reached the crown, she could see Zan airborne nearby. Interesting. But this wasn’t a time for pondering. Really, this was a time for attacking, and attacking as grandly as with as much damage-causing power as possible.

She used Repulse Cage again, and was gratified to see that this time, as she cast the spell, the limbs were thin enough that she was actually cutting all the way through some of them, sending a shower of branches and leaves downward. Well, if something worked, no reason to go away from it. Stale moves might be a deduction, but it could also win a battle.

One of the larger branches from below swept upward at her – apparently the tree didn’t like the haircut she was giving it. She swung around behind one of the thicker upper branches, effectively using the tree as a shield from its own attack. It tried several times to get at her, then withdrew its limb. She peeked out cautiously as it retreated. Going after easier prey maybe. Or-

Crap. The telltale runes of a spell were drawing in uneven lines over the tops of nearby branches, fragmented by the uneven surface it had to work with. Senna tried to scramble out of the way, but even enhanced speed didn’t give her enough of a boost when the going was so difficult. Another Rom spell, this one a good deal more powerful than the ones below. She kept moving even as the wind forced her to squint, as the leaves and twigs cut into her over and over again. It had to have a limited spell area. If she could just get out of that area she’d salvage a bit more of her HP.

Unfortunately, she spell finished with her before she could get clear of it. She felt like crap, but cast La Repth, helping to fill her HP and maybe giving the others a bit of a boost as well. She looked around then, to see she was in another part of the crown. Very well. Another repulse cage, another bit of a haircut, another…

As the skill ended, she found herself facing toward the outside, looking past the last layer of branches and into open air, and it was at that moment she realized something. Climbing had the necessary effect of leaving her high up above the ground. Her eyes widened a moment, then she clutched at the nearest stable thing, a stunted and sappy branch of the enemy tree. What was she thinking? Why was she up so HIGH? And the most important question of all – how could she get back down fast without either looking or falling?
Senna, level 33 Long Arm (710 HP/180 SP)
Most common kit: Ichigou, Racoon Earcaps, Air Bracer, Snow Panther, Winter Coat, Graceful Book
Spells/Skills: (Critical Hit/Death) Repulse Cage, Ap Corv, Ap Vorv, Rai Rom, Rue Zot, La Repth
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Nighthand
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Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2003 9:23 pm
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Location: ...Tracking...please wait...

Post by Nighthand » Tue Aug 22, 2006 5:58 pm

So much going on in a sudden flurry of activity. With all the earthly status effects still going, the pair of GiGan Zot's that Zan called forth from the ground dealt heavy damage to the king-tree. Lacking in the support units it would have sacrificed to restore its health, it had no no choice but to fight as best it could.

Being the biggest tree in the forest was all fine and dandy, until you need to move. Having sat, rooted, in one spot for so very long, Yggdrasil had no mobility. The very earth around it had made it a part of itself.

Shaking and shuddering from the elemental hits on its trunk, the king-tree barely took notice of the two warriors cleaving its branches. The only attempt to shake them it made was a reflexive attack with its inner branches.

It was Senna who delivered the final blow to the tree, a fact which might have elated her at a different time. To be useful to the group, rather than just someone tagging along, was a good feeling. It was quickly drowned out, however, by the tree beneath her fading into intangibility. Suddenly lacking in anything firm to stand on, and quite a ways into the air, the Long Arm could do nothing but let gravity take hold.

Zan came swooping into action. The prolonged flight he'd been keeping up was draining on him, but he couldn't just let her fall. He angled himself down, picking up speed to snatch the falling long arm from the air. He caught her, but the unexpected weight was too much, and he had been diving too fast to reach her in time. Twisting in mid-air, angling himself for the softest-looking thornbush he could find. He released Senna closer to the ground hoping she could tumble to safety, and twisted again, doing his best to avoid killing himself by smacking into the forest.

Canti was left pretty much alone near where the trunk of the tree had been, now just a muted crater in the landscape. Seeing something glitter in the bottom, the raven-winged twinblade jumped in. As he thought, it was the greenly glowing leaf they had come to find.

The moment the twin blade emerged from the crater and back to level ground, a beam of emerald light shot from the forest path. Canti felt far less worried than he might have been otherwise; after all, this very thing had happened to him in the last room as well.

Zan and Senna emerged from the forest, gathering near the exit of the clearing, where Canti and Nall waited. Reinier had long since disappeared, and Dien straggled behind, having been unable to rejoin the fight for whatever reason.

"Well, that took a bit longer than it probably should have, but oh well... Oh and uh, guys? You want me to help, just say so, otherwise I think you can handle this. Anyways, lets get back to the room, place that leaf, and move on to the Darkness room, alright?"

Nods of assent followed, and the blademaster led the way back to the central room. Once returned, Canti set the leaf in position, Nall's senses watchful. There was no doubt about it this time. Energy had dispersed to each of the remaining rooms. It seemed like each time they defeated a room, the others grew more powerful... Hopefully not too powerful for them to handle, however. A rumble followed and the Juk Archway was closed off to them, but they didn't stick around to watch. They were already heading down the Ani hallway.

It wasn't long before they emerged into the room that fit the element. The walls were made out of carved granite, thick slabs unlikely to be movable. The floor was polished obsidian, mirroring the ceiling. Four pillars near the corners were made of ragged black crystal, looking sharp as blades should one be forced into it. It was a rather large room, giving them plenty of room to fight, should it come to that.

In an eerie similarity to the first room, there was nothing in this one save for the prism they sought, floating in the middle of the room, near a fifth pillar in the center. It screamed trap, but there was nothing for it.

Nall himself was the one to reach for the prism this time, honestly not expecting anything. When his hand closed on air, his thoughts were confirmed... But when a force struck him and he flew nearly into a pillar, it was another story. Crawling to his feet, he realized what had happened.

Rather than reseting THEM to the start of the room, and releasing monsters like the Gan room had, in this case the prism itself moved. It now hovered near one of the pillars; if one thought of the entry as the south wall, it was on the north-west pillar. Oddly enough, the pillar that had stood in the center of the room was now gone.

Monsters were still released, however... In place of the prism and pillar, they stood. Three of them, tall as a man on a horse, for that was essentially what they were. The front half of a midnight-black horse dark knight rider sitting easily in the saddle. Each knight had a sword in hand, and the horses themselves had hooves fit to trample. Where the back half of the horse would have been, it faded into ghostly nothingness.

"They're just normal game enemies, you should have no trouble! Level 26, just over 1000 HP, and darkness elemental, they only have one spell; BiAni Don!" Nall informed the group. The fight should go smoothly enough, though if Rayo had been here, it would already be over. His help shouldn't be needed, but he was ready if it was.

------------------ooc:
Alrighty. Dark Riders. They have four basic methods of attack; the spell I mentioned, attacking with their swords, attempting to trample you, and ramming you into the sharp pillars.

I'm going back to the one-post-a-week thing, at least for this group. My next post will be monday, however, rather than tuesday. Feel free to kill the monsters, or to just attempt to grab the prism without fighting them, it's your choice.

Zan
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Posts: 206
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Post by Zan » Wed Aug 23, 2006 10:16 pm

At last the Freedom Fighters' culmination of teamwork came to fruition; the overbearing mass of bark meeting its demise at the hands of a very functional Long Arm. Zan turned his eyes from its dissipating form, honing his focus instead on the area around him. After a quick check for possible needs of healing and finding none, the lycanthrope once again shifted his gaze to the Big Man. He was gone, sure, but such a thing had left Senna hovering precariously in the air with only one obvious way down. Gravity gave her just the nudge she needed to face her fear and a hunch told Zan such a thing wouldn't end up well for his fellow Freedom Fighter. Body aching from his time in the air already, the Heavy Blade pushed himself that much harder, speeding towards the descending woman with arms outstretched and muscles prepared. His aim, thankfully, was as true as ever but his logic wasn't quite intact. If he was already so exhausted with holding up his own weight in the air, how exactly was he going to adjust to her sudden addition? By the time such a revelation struck him it was already to late, Senna suddenly careening into his arms and bringing the both of them down to the ground at a slightly faster speed.

Cursing under his breath, Zan did all he could to slow and cushion their fall, a quick thought causing him to adjust his position so he'd take the full force of the impact. However, even that seemed foolish and in a last ditch effort to minimize the pain for them both, he rolled her from his grasp and inwardly wished her luck. Thorns greeted him almost immediately after, air shoved from his lungs in a choked sound as cuts and scrapes began to decorate the exposed sections of his flesh. Though his back was safe from the fierce bite of the thorns, it had been the focal point of his fall and the stiff ache that pulsed and settled between his shoulder blades was far from welcomed. The lycanthrope did his best to bite back the pain as he rose to his feet and emerged from the forest to slip back into the clearing once again. Where the Y man had been now rested a crater of sorts with the item they sought serenely placed at its center. Canti was more than happy to take care of obtaining it. Green light made itself known in the same manner the Gan had displayed. With the fancy light show good and over, the group migrated from the beautiful scenery into the dull and dreary archway chamber. No one wasted a second, the item deposited and steps made to the Ani Archway before a sane person could blink.

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

Conner stood at the epicenter of the writhing, groaning bodies on the floor, each one clutching broken ribs and fracture, displaced bones. Worse still was the smell of cooking flesh that now lingered with the mold, all thanks to the hand-to-hand contact with the high school student's hands. The first time he had touched a Downer and caused their flesh to boil with that alone, it had churned his gut, the teen unable to fully handle the feel of churning skin beneath his fingertips. With nothing but sore knuckles and a split lip to wear as battle badges, Conner spit a loogy of pooling blood at the front of his mouth onto one of his combat buddies. Running his tongue over the wound on his lip, the teen smiled, coming to crouch before the defeated, momentarily unaware of the shell-shocked girl that hugged the corner wall.

"Now, see, that's why Downers stay out of Dust's territory. If there are anymore of you here, I'll find out about it. Best tell whatever friends you have to book it and go elsewhere. Don't make me see you again, I can guarantee that, the next time, you won't come out breathing. Now go." They simply stared at him, wide-eyed with agony and anger. Conner took a deep breath and elaborated. "GO!"

In a flash of dexterity and grace that no human should have possessed, and indeed none did, they were gone. His threat on their lives had been empty, of course. Fully human or not, or whatever the fuck it is they were, the teen got nauseas at the thought of taking another life. Besides, ideally, a Downer could be turned. To decide that one of them could never make such a change seemed arrogant, something God should decide. Not him. It was only then, juggling thoughts of violence in his mind, that his eyes fell upon the one he had saved. Saved. Such a presumptuous idea. Not giving her any physical acknowledgement, he came back to his feet, a walk already initiated to the exit when her voice hit the air.

"Wait! Who are you?" When Conner didn't reply, but simply continued to walk away, she spoke up once more. "I-I'm Mari. Who
are you?" A sad smile, its nature hidden in the darkness, hit the teen's lips then, his gait never halting.

"I'm nobody."


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

The granite side walls and obsidian flooring/ceiling combination was almost horridly plain, barely made up for by the five pillars that rested so comfortably in the expanse of the room. The one in the center displayed their prize, something Zan knew to be too good to be true just as all else with a modicum of intelligence did. Nall was the one to take the inevitable plunge this time around, fingers passing along its surface before once more the room changed. Unlike their first experience, their position hadn't shifted, only the contents of the room. No longer did a center pillar exist, but instead hosted the sight of a trio of Dark Riders. Their ghastly visages made a momentary thump of fear pound against his chest, something that made Zan growl in annoyance with himself. What the hell was wrong? He had taken down things worse than this, bigger than this. So why exactly was his Beast backing up within his chest? He shook it off the best he was able. This wasn't the time to question the growing issues with the creature that dwelled within. A conscious thought to his SP and his spells and he knew he possessed no specialty against these beasts. However, to waste the massive bar of Skill Points he possessed in his half-Raven form, the one he still wore, seemed...well...a waste.

The Heavy Blade's Amp Ganz was still in effect and, logically, it would be faster to stick with that as his spamming ability of choice. Smirking now at his foes, Zan extended his hand, lips opening to announce the GiGan Zot's arrival as his will fueled it to be. What happened in its place was much less helpful, almost detrimentally so, the bare flesh of his forearm and the tips of his fingers (the rest of his upper arm hidden behind black leather, the same going for the dark fingerless gloves he wore) displaying a single streaming word as his limb froze eerily in place: ERROR. The pain that followed as the word continued to race along the contours of his skin was crippling, the sensation several degrees worse than the unintentional distress wrought upon him by a very apologetic Blademaster. Unable to halt the cries that clawed from his throat, Zan crumpled to his knees. Sadly, the Dark Riders didn't seem like they planned to wait for his recovery and instead seemed to take advantage of such a thing, one aiming for him as the others sped off to assault his companions. The next thing to greet the Heavy Blade's eyes was a blur of black and the hoof that cracked downward along his jaw, the force of it commanding his body in a backwards heap.

The collision with his back to the obsidian floor reawakened the pain from the ending experience in the Juk room. An unconscious attempt to scream was halted with even more pain, his jaw dislocated and (more likely than not, Zan assumed) splintered. Hoping that the debilitating disease of code that had begun to unravel him in this form, veins of orange-red beginning to branch off along his form, coat and all, with data peeking through to the surface like an eager child, the lycanthrope dropped himself to a human state. As predicted all the pain his arm ceased and his corroding visage ceased and sealed, leaving him only with the worry of his facial injury and the sound of approaching hooves. Muscles hastily toning with the flush of the Clabro through his system, Zan pulled the Life Sword into his hand for the umpteenth time and flipped to his feet in a forward twitch of his body. The Ol Repth that coupled with his natural healing abilities eased away all of his pain, creasing his physical troubles into nothingness in time for the lycanthrope to catch the fall of a blade with his kidney. Nice save. The force of the attack and the subsequent bloody independence of the sword shoved Zan to the side like a rag doll and left him to ponder his failures with pooling blood at his side.

Choosing instead to down a Health Drink to seal his injury and conserve SP, Zan switched out the Life Sword for his Light Giver, its power setting comfortably in the palms of his hands. His foe was relentless, the lycanthrope given hardly a second to recover before a BiAni Don shook from above and dropped towards him; the shards of darkness almost seeming to smile through their menace. Zan's first reflex was to run, to get out of the way, but he had allowed this thing to torment him enough. Instead he called a Rai Drive onto his blade, yellow energy zipping up the Light Giver to crackle in miniature, threatening bolts. Though the Heavy Blade did indeed dodge a number of the falling pieces of Ani matter, most were met with the clash of his electrical blade, each confrontation resulting in a reverberating of clear energy and the lessening of the skill's strength. When the blackness had ceased, his blade too lost its glow. The Dark Rider that had assigned itself to him simply paced, back and forth, the steed it road eyeing him with red indignation. It seemed to be summing him up, reestablishing the threat level it had previously placed on his head. Damn straight.

Whatever cockiness it had assured itself in before seemed to return, the half-horse hoisted into the air in a showy display of neighing and snorting before it began its charge on him. This time Zan depleting the remaining reserved SP he had and called upon the Rai Smash on his Light Giver for assistance, his form suddenly perpendicular with the ground as his Rai-charged blade flicked and dug itself into the obsidian with odd ease. The Dark Rider never skipped a beat, no flinching or doubt showing on its face as Zan flipped through the air and over the horse, his blade coming to a fall over the rider's head. Instead of meeting a fleshy comfort of steel digging into meat, the Heavy Blade's ears rang with the metallic clash. The flip completed, the lycanthrope landed on his feet, turning around almost as quickly to eye the state of his opponent. Luckily, it hadn't come away with that little meeting unscathed, its usual confident pose now slumped forward and shaking. Good. A plan clicked and Zan shifted his stance into that resembling a baseball batter, sword up and waiting for the pitch. Once more the monster charged towards him. The Lycan did nothing more than wait, wait for that perfect, precious moment that he needed. When it came, the Dark Rider little more than a few feet from him, Zan held his batter stance but did so from the opposite side he had previously awaited the enemy. The daring quickness of it offered the Dark Rider no time to adjust, defiant eyes given to him as he shoved all of his strength into a upwards, diagonal lash of his weapon. The force of it shoved completely through the horse's thick neck and removed its head from the rest of its body, his blade continuing until the upper half of the rider crumpled off of the horse (thanks, mostly, to the momentum of the monster's approach).

Although the horse continued its forward race headless and saddling the legs of its rider, it exploded into data upon its clash with one of the granite walls. The rest of the Dark Rider soon followed and a glance around revealed the others keeping the remaining ones rather busy. Curious eyes soon found the prism's location; Zan knowing what he was about to do was probably one of his worse ideas. Shrugging, thinking such a thing as part of the process, he launched himself towards the northwest pillar and wrapped his hands around the item. As expected, the pillar disappeared and the prism reassigned itself to one of the three remaining. In place of the sharp foundational items were three more of the Dark Riders, of course. Zan dive rolled out of the way of their charges without thought, Instinct and self-preservation overtaking him with good results. An about-face displayed another Dark Rider that had chosen him as its victim. Oh, no. Oh hell no. He would not be bitchslapped around again. Bones snapped and reformed before he even realized it was happening, fur rippling and splitting along his skin like a rich brown waterfall. Zan's face sporadically bulged outward as his transformation sped up, teeth filling with rows of razor fangs, hands and feet stretching out with lethally long claws as his body filled in the blanks with expanding muscles and raw power that met in perfect proportion with his nine and a half foot standing height.

The Garou culled forth, the Beast raging fully beneath his sternum, Zan watched with nigh-glee as the horse lifted into the air like the other. This time, however, the rider seemed to be having difficulty controlling it for a moment, as if it was doing what it was doing not for show but out of fear instead. Such was the way with animals. Humans were too foolhardy to sense superior predators about them, but the animal kingdom was rich with the instinct for such a thing and the horse knew, knew that Zan was higher on the food chain. The orange-amber of his wolven eyes gleamed as the predictable charge was made, sword raised above the Dark Rider's head as it prepared to strike. Fresh strength ebbed in the lycanthrope's muscles and begged for use; such a thing Zan was more than happy to indulge in. His massive, hulking form launched towards the wall, claws digging into it and strength holding him parallel to the granite and firmly in place as time slowed, solidified. The Dark Rider eyed him in that stilled slice of chronos, knowledge of its impending death obvious in its body language as time once more clicked into place and Zan sprung towards it. Tendons tightened as the Lycan crashed into the rider, an uncountable number of bones shattering like brittle china as his legs kicked back against the steed, sending it flailing and neighing as it hit the wall with a fleshy thud.

Zan stood for a moment over the still-breathing form of the rider and bared his teeth, palm lofting slowly upward as the snarl rippled along his lips. By the time the armored thing registered what was about to happen it was too late, the lycanthrope's palm flattening its head into the obsidian floor, blood and brain matter squishing out in a rather artistic one hundred and eighty degree pattern. Zan was digging pieces of metal from his palm as he spun and lumbered towards the horse, the small wounds healing almost instantly. The mount's eyes were rolling this way and that, pain apparent in its face. Instead of quenching his primal thirst on the stream within its veins, gorging himself on the rich liquid, Zan instead gave it a quick death, a single swipe of his claws along its throat painting a diagonal slash of blood along the granite wall it had landed against. The moment it went still it disappeared with its rider, code momentarily dispersed before it too was nothing.

Zan faced his friends then, eyes swimming with alien thoughts, and roared his bloodthirst.
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).

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 Aug 26, 2006 7:06 pm

(The tree was apparently too slow for the people fighting it on its own. It was a monster of blasting proportions, not an actual fighter per se. So, when it came to the up-close-and-personal stuff, it was not nearly as useful as its smaller brethren. Of course, against a number of players who had the will to kill, there was a certain hopelessness for enemies in that case. Besides, they had Nall's support apparently. But what Canti wanted to know was...was he letting them do much of the work through laziness or because he wanted to beef up the rest of them? Personally, the dark and fiery Twin Blade hoped for the latter, because dammit, being lazy in THIS JOB was trouble. It wasn't Canti himself who finished the last monster, but rather Senna who did the deed, though he didn't see her do it. Not that that mattered, of course, so long as the monster began to dissolve before his very eyes. Of course, that next left Canti to view Zan and Senna's apparent airborne flight-stunt, which caught him by surprise. How long had Senna been up there? He didn't even notice her in all the battle-rage. Still, it seemed that Zan sort of handled the situation well...possibly injuring himself in the process...)

Canti: That had to hurt...

(Of course, as the tree-beast-king disappeared, he left behind a little present, AKA the very doohickey they were looking for. It was a perfect match for the gate outside. He went down into the crater that the monster had made and grabbed it. As soon as he came out with the leaf, a somewhat familiar sensation occurred.)

Canti: Huh? Oh yeah...

(He'd kind of forgotten already about the huge pulse of energy rushing from the hallway to energize this item with its power. Call it a short attention span. In any case, that meant this area was clean and they could head out again without fear of any trap in the hallway at all. Canti's mind wandered as they headed out into the main room again. He was thinking about things that...were none too pleasant...)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(You have to wonder, just for a minute, what sort of situation causes someone like Damon, who can get pretty down and out if you let him, to become violent in a way that is contrary to his otherwise defeated mindset. You think his job keeps his mind off of the dark side of life? His hobbies? His vices? Not always. Sooner or later, you get down to the nitty-gritty of his problems in cold sobriety. His life has no meaning, there's no reason for him to exist, and he's tired of it all. He isolated himself from anyone he'd ever call his friends. He wandered the streets of Boston, not even getting into the proper Red Sox spirit. He loitered, brooding on the subject of his disordered life. What makes such a downer want to become violent instead of suicidal? The answer...lay in his interactions...with people. People were assholes, always have been. That's why his was silent in the company of people he didn't know or WANT to know. For instance, one day he was outside of a warehouse, leaning against it, a man told him to go away. When Damon failed to heed his demands, not even looking at him, he shouted. It had begun to rain at this time...)

"You heard me, kid! Beat it!"

Damon: I don't want to. I just wanna be nothing.

"The hell?"

Damon: Just leave me alone. I don't want to be me anymore. The more I am, the more I hate it...

"What the hell are you talking about? Get out of my sight!"

Damon: Wish I could. Wish I could...

(The man had been a construction worker inspecting a building for demolition. Obviously, they couldn't work in the rain, but he had to check out the layout of the place himself. Damon wasn't being a squatter. He was just hanging out...possibly until he was nothing. Maybe he'd catch Pneumonia and die. Maybe he'd just get wet and live. For the moment, Damon didn't care anymore. However, that wasn't completely true either. In sort of a wild contradiction that he didn't even understand, he stubbornly clung to life as well. That was why, when the worker tried to grab him and haul his ass out of here, he was kicked in the groin and double-punched in the diaphragm, shortly before this youth savagely leapt at him to grab his neck and smack his head into the man's. These acts drew them both to the ground where Damon just kept punching him in the eyes, the nose, the mouth - even though his head and knuckles were starting to bleed. He had taken the man by surprise and just felt the need, in his resistance, to take out his misery on something. When he got up, he said only once thing before leaving.)

Damon: Suddenly, I want to live again. Wonder why...


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Canti: Wonder why...

(He didn't know. For all the knowledge of the known friggin' universe, he did not know why the hell he kept doing this. Right now, he was as close to being dead without going through with it. Why did he cling to it now? Why not end the torment? Canti seemed to grow a tad bit darker, like his attitude. He did his thing, depositing the leaf where it belonged. The other rooms benefitted and so on. That left the trek into the darkness arena. How fucking ironic... His mood, his element. Go frigging figure... The room was like a dungeon ought to be. Foreboding in all ways, and deadly. If you crashed around this place, it could be deadly. Speaking of which, Nall was almost driven into one as he reached for the black prism thingy in the center of the room. Trap? Oh yes. The goal moved and monsters...manifested. Canti had seem them in The World's online bestiary. The front half of a man on horseback, Dark Riders is what they were.)

"They're just normal game enemies, you should have no trouble! Level 26, just over 1000 HP, and darkness elemental, they only have one spell; BiAni Don!"

(Seems Nall knew them well enough himself. BiAni Don... Two blasts of a darkness explosive from above...possibly. He couldn't remember, exactly. It didn't matter. Here's how things went... Zan was the first one to engage in battle, but he seemed stuck or something, as if something unknowable reached out and held him down or something. Then, he was brought to his knees shortly before one of the Riders struck him across the floor. Canti didn't have time to find out what was wrong, because he was the next-closest guy around. He switched off of his Bloody Twin, though, as there was something slightly more important here than doing Life Drain damage, and that was elemental criticals. If he did that with his Fuse Blades, these relatively ordinary enemies would be blown away in no time. Actually, only one attacked him at first, leaving #3 to go off and attack someone else. But for Canti, this was not a problem. He was able to parry that dark blade with its thundery antithesis, slashing at the horse's head to make the Dark Rider suffer. You know what they say about people who stick their necks out, after all... However, the Twin Blade was suddenly thrown back by a rearing of the legs in attack, and then BiAni Don was thrown at him!)

*Whoooom...POMF! POMF!*

(One pop and then another of dark spell. Canti felt the impacts like.....dull thuds. What the...? He got up and checked his HP. A small drop and that's it. He was still Mac Anu material and a second-level darkness spell did only a small amount. Was this what they meant? Had he found what The World was giving him through the Twilight Virus? His darkness was manifest and protecting him? It was... It was like these monsters. They weren't easily hurt by their own element. It was the same for him now. This...made things easily. Canti smiled, nay grinned fiendishly, as the Rider.)

Canti: Where is your god now?

(The horse screamed at him, and the Rider cast BiAni Don again. Canti looked up and playfully sidestepped it this time. They didn't have the upperhand anymore. They didn't have the home field advantage. They both had the same element working for them, but he was the one with the lightning blades...)

Canti: I'll tell you where your god is... I'm you're only god now! And I am NOT a happy god! THUNDER DANCE!!

(The horse shouted and the horse-rider let out a cry of shock as the winged Twin Blade charged and attacked it. After already taking damages from the attacks before, the Dark Rider was now whittled down to nothing as Elemental Critical! displayed and it died. That left... Well, it was complicated. There were three and Zan killed one, but now Zan had released three more and was killing his second one in the form of a werewolf now. So, with Canti having now killed one, that left three in total, the latest two a little closer to him. Well, by the time he chased down the one, Dien and Senna would have killed it, wso he went after the two and began to taunt.)

Canti: Yo! Gimp-soldiers! How about a piece of my ass to complete the picture?

(That got their attention. Actually, they knew not frustration of any sort since they were basically ghosts and not gimps, but it made Canti feel better to get a bead on them. The two of them attacked, one after the other. Canti parried a ride-by-slash first, and then got kicked in the head to send him tumbling towards a pillar. That...was low. Again, the darkness-element was dulled against him. Whatever enhancements to screw around with Canti by way of element met up against a high stat-defense. They were weaker against him. Canti walked up to the rammer and hit him with Thunder Dance as well. He criticalled, but he wasn't dead. Just low. The Twin Blade had to roll out of the way of his sword and then bring his claws up to skewer the legs of the other Dark Rider so that he wouldn't get trampled.)

Canti: "How the mighty have fallen?", you say? Like hell!

(Throwing the other Dark Ride off balance, the equally-dark Twin Blade stood up and kicked its non-existent ass, slicing from the rear in a chase that would look comical if it weren't actually serious. He was chasing the Dark Rider, with the other one chasing him, all in a circle! A bit later, though, he hit Thunder Dance for a third time and killed one, putting the other in the red. Now, as he watched Zan going all werewolf on things, Canti jumped up and catapulted off of its head with a kick, this action killing the third for him, but fifth in the grand total of all. His aim in this act? To leap for the gold, the black prismy-thingy. He seemed to soar towards it, and then...it vanished.)

Canti: Oh, fu-

FWOMP!!

Canti: Owww...

(The goal had vanished, leaving a new trio of Dark Riders in its place. Canti got into an Indian-style sitting position with a pissed off look on his face, muttering curses under his breath about cheap-shot hacker traps and damn cannon foddering Dark Riders. He had little to fear from these guys, but he wasn't fighting them YET. He needed a second to get use to this, dammit. Besides, he needed a Health Drink.)

GM Edit - Prism now by south west pillar. After that it will go to the only remaining pillar, north east. If you intend to activate the final one, speak to me.
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.

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Senna
Awakened Player
Posts: 150
Joined: Sat Jul 01, 2006 10:28 pm

Post by Senna » Sun Aug 27, 2006 8:39 pm

When she started to fall, there was a moment of profound relief – at least I’m going to get down. Somehow that thought was less scary than the actual experience of being up high and looking down. She didn’t scream – it wasn’t a lack of any fear or anything like that, but a simple lack of time and the experience of actual terror. So when something slowed – or, changed to be more accurate – her fall, it didn’t even register at first.

There was a sudden, jarring and entirely unexpected slowing of her descent, and as it first happened, she had an odd thought – Something’s wrong. Not a thought that someone might have come to her aid, but a thought that there was actually something bad happening. But almost immediately the descent began again, slightly slower and more controlled.

Emphasis on the slightly. She had time for a glance, a moment of recognition, then the freefall began anew. Thankfully, this time she was much nearer the ground, and while Zan’s aid didn’t make it a soft landing, it certainly made it a lot less painful and possibly deadly than it might otherwise have been. A much better option than the straight drop-sudden stop she’d been working on when the tree disappeared.

Crossing her arms over her face protected it from the worst of the thorny landing site, though in the process she nearly dropped her spear. She rolled when she hit, and the only part of that which was by design was that as she hit, she tried to relax as much as she could – tensing would only bring more injury. And when the world finally stopped moving crazily all around her, she just lay there for a moment. That… had been an experience she hoped never to repeat.

Getting to her feet, she shook her head once, twice, trying to clear the ringing in her ears. Well, it felt good to still be alive, if sore. After a quick check of her SP, she cast La Repth to try to alleviate some of the current problems she was having. There would be time to regen again out in the hall, she figured. Better to get fixed up now.

As she cleared the underbrush, she saw Zan doing likewise not that far away. A single nod and a brief word were both given to him. “Thanks.” Mentally, she added a tally to her inner scorecard. He hadn't had to do that, and it probably cost him some to do what he'd done. She owed him one, at some point. A bit of her pride was coming through in her constant drive to stay in the black in her work relationships, perhaps, but the tendency had served her well so far.

As the group formed up again, Nall motioned for them to head out. "Well, that took a bit longer than it probably should have, but oh well... Oh and uh, guys? You want me to help, just say so, otherwise I think you can handle this. Anyways, lets get back to the room, place that leaf, and move on to the Darkness room, alright?"

She just nodded. They all did. She wasn’t sure what to make of this guy. Why would a member of a group need to be asked to help? And why bother with a comment like the first one, which wasn’t constructive nor necessary? It was, in essence, a useless and free-standing put-down of the people who’d fought and she didn’t understand why a leader would say such a thing. But, well, this wasn’t her party, to use an old expression, so she didn’t really have any place to question what they did.

The ritual for this second achievement was the same as the first – as they departed the Juk room and put the item in the mural, it closed off behind them and left them with only four tunnels left to choose. As per the earlier decision, they chose the tunnel leading to the Ani room, which turned out to be a strikingly monochromatic place. Nall tried to take the prism, and in a move that did not probably surprise any of them, creatures appeared. The fact that it was only three regular level 26 monsters was a bit of surprise, though she suspected – and later events would prove her correct – that they would not be the sole contingent of this room.

The closest Dark Rider, her target, tried to follow its compatriots toward other members of the group, but Senna had a different idea. Apparently it knew that old saying (one of many) – strength in numbers. She had no intention of letting it try to use that to its advantage.

Senna drew a scroll from her sleeve, holding it between two fingers and almost losing it for a moment. Before the little piece of paper could wriggle its way out of her grasp entirely she invoked it, calling down a bolt of lightning.

CRACK! The lightning split the air, causing the sound that gave the element its name to follow. Her aim had been off – the bolt had struck just the very leading edge of the creature, the head of the horse-part. It was enough though. Blinded by the spell’s afterimages, the creature turned angrily toward where it had last known Senna to be, guessing (rightly so) that she was the cause of that bright light. Senna backed up a pace, cursing herself for not having picked up a Rai-based weapon before now. Lord knew she’d had enough opportunities. Fortunately for her, unfortunately for it, she did have some other things in her arsenal. Focusing on a spot just ahead of the charging rider, Senna cast “Rai Rom

The spell kicked up, and as expected, the Dark Rider charged into it, its form illuminated starkly by the lightning that sparked and crawled over its form. But while the spell seemed to be doing decent enough damage, it wasn’t slowing the creature at all. She barely had time to dodge to the non-sword side of the thing, and had no time at all to get her spear into a proper position to meet and deal with the rushing rider. The half-horse’s hooves flashed dully in what illumination the room afforded, looking at deadly as the rider’s blade.

Not wanting to face that, instinct and plan collided in a desperately dumb move – Even Senna recognized this as the case as soon as she’d acted. She reached up, grappling at both horse and rider and kicking her feet up off the ground with the scant purchase she found there. One planted on the horse’s rippling side and the other was left swinging in the air.

The move saved her momentarily from the hooves, but she now had both hands and one foot occupied, leaving her in no position to attempt to fight or defend herself, and letting go right now would still drop her beneath those deadly hooves. The rider switched his sword from one hand to the other and began trying to cut at her, though the angle made this less effective than it would have been were she on the ground, especially as his momentum was no longer aiding his swings. Great. This is the crappiest horseback ride I have EVER been on.

The rider wasn’t as dumb as a lot of the monsters in this place, and changed tactics almost immediately – or at least he changed directions and stopped swinging his sword at her quite so vehemently. Senna, back-on to whatever they were riding at, had no idea what was going on, since she could only see where they’d been in a crazy spin of creatures and players and black stone. Closing her eyes against the unsteady motion of it all, she called on Rai Rom again.

The effect was even more interesting up close. Senna realized it quickly and shut her eyes against the brilliance of it, lest she blind herself temporarily with her own spell. So, not that it mattered because of her angle, but even if she’d been facing forward she wouldn’t have seen the next move coming. She felt it though – a rough, jarring, tearing sensation starting along her left side, and the motion of her world just stopped for a moment. The horse tore itself free from her, and it almost felt like she just hung in the air a moment before falling to the ground. Her HP was taking a massive dive, she realized as she groggily opened her eyes. She felt disoriented. What happened? Why was she on the floor? What…

The rider was coming back, and this time the horse’s hooves were almost at eye level. Senna started to stand, but her body protested, as the wounds all along the left side of her back – when had THOSE gotten there – each sent their own message to her brain – you’re in no position to be moving. Well, that didn’t matter, she had to get up, HAD to. She put a hand behind her to try to use the wall to get to her feet. Her hand encountered resistance briefly, then kept moving. And quick glance over her shoulder showed why. The rider had driver her backward into one of the rough pillars, which were a good deal rougher to be pushed into than they’d looked at first – it was as though the thing were bristling with knife points. No wonder she was a mess.

Drawing on the only plan she could come up with at the moment, she pulled forth another Lightning Bolt – when had she gathered this many of the darn things? – and invoked it, aiming it just ahead of her own form, between herself and the rider. The sudden light should startle the animal, if not the rider, and divert it long enough for Senna to heal enough to move and get to her feet again.

Thankfully, it worked. The bright light sizzled down, dividing the air between attacker and target. The horse reared up, already upset by all the lightning and still working to clear its vision. As the rider sawed on the reins, trying to pull it back under control, it moved right and both horse and rider lost their intentness on Senna for a moment. It was enough.

She cast Repth, then made a quick equipment switch to the Cougar Bandanna. Next heal would be a La Repth. That done, she was back on her feet, and again on the offensive. As the rider finally oriented back on where Senna had been, he found to his surprise she was no longer there. He turned his head, looking for her that way before turning his mount, and found her coming at them from the middle of the room, keeping away from the pillar entirely now. He began to bring his mount around to face her, but seemed to realize he wouldn’t get there in time and instead ducked his head a little and called in a spell of his own.

It was Senna’s turn to face a magical attack. Though there was less danger of blinding from the darkness spell, it was more powerful, and therefore more dangerous. As the black-flame-wreathed bits of material pounded down, she switched to the Archspear, for whatever scant aid that might offer, then continued her pursuit of the enemy. As the spell came to its conclusion, Senna cast La Repth, hoping the others could find it useful as well, then switched weapons again and began a barrage of regular attacks on the rider’s side as he turned toward her. Three deep cuts, then a hard thrust to the rider’s midsection and both parts of the thing finally stopped moving. They still stood there, as though not believing what had just happened. Then the horse’s legs buckled, they both fell forward, and the rider was gone.

Senna started forward… then stopped. Not of her own doing, unfortunately.

No, not again, not again!

Liss ripped off her headset and almost threw it, letting out a near-scream of rage. She heard her mother shout her name questioningly and, barely keeping her voice in check, shouted back, “Nothing, sorry!” Then the headset was back on, and she was working the controls, trying to regain movement.

Luckily, this time it didn’t seem to be as big a problem as last – the hiccup only lasted a couple seconds, perhaps as the company reset something down the line. Canti was leading two of them on a merry circular chase as she saw the world kick back up to its regular speed again. She started over to help, but by the time she was even remotely close, he had dispatched the pair and taken a flying leap at the item hovering by the pillar. He grabbed it, and as before, the thing disappeared, along with the pillar, and three more monsters came into the room.

Good, so there was still some work for her to do after all. She didn’t smile – she wasn’t HAPPY about this current situation and would continue to grow less happy if the problems with her connection continued – but there was a grim sort of determination as she moved in. These things were spawning like rabbits - well, if rabbits spawned, she supposed, but that wasn’t really the right word.

She unleashed another Rai Rom, this time at the group of newly emerging creatures, trying to catch all three in the spell’s area. At the same time she began working her way over to the next pillar. With the ones already dead, there were four of them to three monsters. Give the group a little time to get these ones worked down and then let out some more. It sounded like a good plan.

This time no Riders waited for her to cull them out. One of them focused on her as apparently the first person it saw and came charging at her. She donned a Speed Charm, then circled around to greet it.

The addition of a horse made the rider fast and gave it an angle that normally would give it an advantage, especially if people were fighting by the sort of old rules where the mount was generally less of a target than the rider. However, being on a horse also meant that getting a full head of steam put so much momentum into your run that close-quarters maneuvering became more difficult. Senna stood in the path of the charge for a while, unwittingly mirroring the move Zan had made earlier, then ducked aside at the last second. However, instead of cutting high and decapitating the thing, Senna went low, dropping to one knee and bracing the butt end of her spear against the floor with her foot behind it for added leverage. As the rider approached, she swung the spear on an arc, using her foot as the pivot.

The spear being braced on the floor instead of against the balance of a player gave it a little extra strength, and the movement caused it to bite deep along the side of the horse, starting just to the side of the throat and following back in a wide gash until it reached the rider’s leg, then tearing decently into that as well. As the rider cantered around and resumed a stance facing Senna, she brought the spear up, standing as she did so, and spinning it to move the pointed end to her other side.

Another charge, and she used the same tactic, only this time instead of dropping and grounding her spear, she kept it in her hands and slashed at the horse’s throat. There was a gurgling sound as the skin and flesh there parted, despite that there should be no air going in or out. She’d finished that cut and was shifting her gaze up to look at the rider itself when a dark shape came out of the left. Her arms went up, bringing the spear with them, but with all the momentum of a charge and a mount behind it, the swing of the rider’s sword cut deep and knocked her sprawling.

Crap,” she muttered as she scrambled to her feet and used a health drink. The thing was already coming around again, and that last hit had HURT.

Using her enhanced speed, she ducked around to the off-side again, and this time crouched, waiting for the right moment. “Double Sweep.

Normally the skill would do a decent but not crippling amount of damage, but this time the enemy was actually running onto the attack, literally pushing the weapon deeper by its own movement. It had hit the horse again, which was really starting to tire. She could see froth around its mouth and its eyes seemed to be moving, but not in coordination with one another. It pranced a little, the motion not as graceful as she was used to horses having – even ghost half-horses.

As the rider tried to regain control, Senna was moving again, darting, slashing, whittling down its HP. The horse finally gave up and rolled over, forcing the rider from its saddle, but by then it was too late. Senna had the speed advantage on the ground, and while she took some cuts, she knew what to look for. The guy’s entire offense was based on horseback fighting. On the ground, his swings lacked a lot of their power and his reactions were sluggish. It was not an easy battle to finish, but at least it ended a little easier than the last.

The fight had put her near the pillar with the prism, sos he jogged over to it. If it continued along the predicted pattern, this would bring out three more Dark Riders and send the thing to the final death-pillar. And if someone grabbed it from where, what then, would they finally have it? Would it disappear and appear at the ceiling? Would it unleash some massive king-monster, or just end this whole dance? The room offered no clues, so she decided to try it. Why not? What other choices were there, really?

She grabbed it, and as before, it disappeared. And in its place… you guessed it. Three Dark Riders. Senna started backpedaling, chain-casting Rai Rom with what was left of her SP while they were clustered. After that… her hands were tight around the weapon she was using now, the Tranquil Spear. She could still give a decent accounting of herself, she thought, SP or no.

((OOC: Seven dead, three injured and two whole, I believe?))
Senna, level 33 Long Arm (710 HP/180 SP)
Most common kit: Ichigou, Racoon Earcaps, Air Bracer, Snow Panther, Winter Coat, Graceful Book
Spells/Skills: (Critical Hit/Death) Repulse Cage, Ap Corv, Ap Vorv, Rai Rom, Rue Zot, La Repth
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