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(SoC) Great Undead Hall, 2
| >Knight takes a stance
"[Evasive stance]"
>He activates a skill and then grabs his guns
"Lets fucking do this fellas! HEAVEN OR HELL, LETS ROCK"
| (Sorry, just had a late breakfast.)
> Aria stands up, her sword already brandished.
"Why, oh why—"
> She takes a swift backstep, distancing herself from Aias.
"Everyone, take defense!"
> Without a sign or warning, Aias charges forward — striking Aria with a heavy left swipe — giving her no time to react; the attack had her struck to the east-side wall, causing the wall to be heavily damaged in the process.
> Aria's HP was down to a clear 300.
| > Aias roars menacingly, flailing his sword wildly, as if swatting a non-existent fly near him. Soot gushes over from any crevice and orifice in his armor.
> Aria, on the other hand, struggles in her recovery. She weakly detaches herself from the close-to-crumbling wall.
"C-curses—"
| >Knight backs off, bringing out a large rifle and shooting Aias with it before discarding it and bringing out another
"Ora Ora!"
(natural 20; Today is a lucky day it seems ahahah!)
| >>242452
> Aias was sent back briefly by the force. He is momentarily [Stunned], and the shot seems to have penetrated his abdominal area — the shot gave a wide, empty hole in where it lands.
"Right where you are!"
> Aria blasted herself from the wall using [Momentum Burst] (17), straight to Aias' legs — she swung her sword, crashing it down to his left leg, forcing him to kneel down. There is now two [Stunned] in Aias' stat.
> Aias' is health dips to 9250.
| >Knight takes a step back, and pulls out a large spear
"Aight, here we go! Fly, gaebolg!"
>He throws the spear directly towards the hole (15)
| >>242482
> It pierced Aias deep, he growls in pain; he tries to stand, but the remaining [Stunned] kept him from doing so.
"He has one stun left, keep attacking!"
> Aria takes stance before leaping forward with another [Momentum Burst] (12) — she charges for Aias' other leg, but all she did was dent the armor, creating sparks at her hit.
> Aias flails, breaking free of his [Stunned] — his HP is at 8845.
| >Trapped pulls out her sword... only to remember she only had a skillet. Whoops. She spots the greatsword he was wielding and tried to wrestle with it
"Give me that..."
>(11)
| >Meanwhile, Spark backs off staying behind the front line fighters and preparing to cast a spell
| "FUCK YEAH!!!"
>Scope, standing behind everyone else, squeezes his sponge, trying to do [Acid Beam] (3), but fails miserably. The sponge melts his kneecaps with acid, and he is now [Handicapped].
>A scream of sheer agony can be heard from the kid as he falls to the ground.
| >>242640
(Feel free to roll a d20-1 to retry.)
> Aias quickly pushes Trapped away from his sword; growling to put Trapped from taking his sword away from him.
> Shortly after, a heavy surge of soot comes from the slit of his helmet. His sword readied to wind up another attack.
"He's going in again!"
> Aria warns, her sword began crackling electricity — she readies [Lightning Rod].
| >Scope manages to at least partially sit up, looks through his inventory, and realises that he has no healing.
>He tries to shoot the little opening in Aias head (12=17-5 due to handicap). He manages to get 6 shots off, but only two hit, and only one hits the opening.
"Fuck me! Does anybody have some hardcore healing? I don't think my life steal will be able to fix this!"
| >>242654
> With all the taken shots, Aias kept unfazed; in fact, he turns to his attacker, Scope, and he blazes forward at a speed impossible for a figure as heavy as he is. His sword burns shortly (18. I'm sorry) as Scope was taken on an impact, being flung far from where he stood before.
"SCOPE!"
> Aria charges towards Aias, her sword circles electricity within, but she was met with the same fate as Scope: a quick attack that she couldn't parry with her weak strength. HP at 0.
| > With her HP at 0, Aria began fading away, she has officially died from only two attack made by Aias.
> Aias growls, preparing to launch his massive size towards the intruders of the kingdom.
| (Whoops pressed submit before I finished.)
> Aias' HP drops down at a 8665 due to Scope's attack. There is no knowing what more effective way there is to deal with the beastly knight.
| >>242651
"Fucking hell, if only Golden was awake!"
>Spark is finally charged up, his hands glowing with power. He lets rip a lightning bolt (11).
| >>242671
> The lightning bolt did very little to Aias, other than distracting him, it was nigh-useless — his HP drops very unnoticeably; he is at 8600 now — only a 65 drop.
> The electricity around him instead powers his greatsword. It was set ablaze in flames again, readying his signature move at those who had attacked him last.
| "Fuckfuckfuck"
>Spark attempts a frostbolt next, if not to freeze but at least chill and slow the boss (14).
| >After being splattered against the wall, Scope died, obviously, and fades away into nothingness.
| >>242685
> While the lightning had dropped his HP lightly, the cold had given him a buff instead: [Empowered]; one quick notice can give out the idea that Aias is not very kind to elemental attacks.
> Aias delves a charging attack towards Spark — again, with the high speed, all visible from him was a blur of a black shadow.
> His attack (8) thankfully misses Spark by only inches away — the shockwave knocks Spark back, but the sword misses him. Thankfully.
| "Welp, this seems hopeless."
>Spark laughs a bit, drawing his daggers.
| /28 seconds to respawn./
> A message shows in the party chat. It comes from no other than Aria.
/I'm on a deathcam here. Don't do anything reckless, Spark./
| >Like an annoying gnat, trapped goea to wrestle with the sword somemore
GIMME THAT
(16-1=15
| /Oh nice, I was afraid this was permadeath for a second there/
>Fiz replies hastily.
/I'll just focus on staying alive, then. It seems like elemental attacks strengthen him, so I'm only good as a distraction/
>He keeps his daggers in a defensive position, ready to dodge or parry.
| >>242760
> Trapped's sudden force managed to win a tug-of-war against Aias — despite the overcoming odds; she pulls his sword away from him — and along with that, she takes cleanly the joints from some of the armor's finger.
[Firemelter Greatsword]
[+5 Damage to Undead]
[-1 Resistance to Fire]
[+1 Resistance to Cold]
> The sword is now possessed by Trapped. Its tall appearance contrasts with the loli's height.
| > Aias is, of course, not happy with this. He growls deafeningly. The broken fingers regrow, but as a molded soot instead of actual armored fingers.
> Sweeps of cold air comes from around him. In his hand, dazzling crackles of electricity comes through. If a mage is concerned that is as clear of a stance as it is: Aias is switching over to using offensive magic.
| "HAHAHAH, I HAS THE SWORD"
>She begins to hack at the knight but perhaps due to her short stature, the unwieidy sword only grazes Ais
(7)
| >>242777
> Yet somehow, the grazes managed to cause Aias to back off — seemingly retreating due to the strikes from his own sword.
> His HP was dipping heavily due to Trapped's near-miss attack — he has dropped to 8400, and he is wary of the sword's effect on him.
| /That was stupid but amazing, Trapped./
> Aria comments on Trapped literally yanking out the sword from the gargantuan Aias.
/Spark, I see Aiae is going to do magic. Do you have anything great to counter him?/
> She continues to devise a tactic in her deathcam.
/I'm down to 12 seconds on respawn. Stay alive, everyone. We can beat him!/
| (*Aias, but that's too late of an edit now is it, Aria?)
| >>242791
(huh.. Aias and aria.
I fell like aias would be arias familiar or something.like:
Aria:hwaaa this is my stando
>summons aias.
>does jojo pose.
>it sets novas eyes on fire.
I donno how i thought of that....
>morphine )
| >Trapped begins laughing
"Wait, why does an undead knight have an undead slaying sword!?"
>She goes in for another thrust (13)
| >>242796
(Aias would be a great name for the stand of Aria. Come to think of, Aria has yet to have an ultimate move... *begins writing some stupid thing about summoning a stand for ultimate move*)
| >>242789
/It depends. If he uses ice magic the best we can do is just try to dodge. Lightning magic, tho, I got a new spell that might work/
>Spark is watching in awe as the diminutive Trapped swings the giant sword wildly
| >>242800
> Aias dodged Trapped's attack (15); the thrust managed to give Aias a graze, but it was enough to dent a number in Aias' HP — it's now a lower 8250.
> The spell he had prepared earlier seems to be getting stronger. The electricity began randomly striking off random paths in front of Aias — not strong enough, but enough for it to be a legitimate concern.
| >>242806
/The only spells I know of are in the fire, and lightning school. Please tell me we actually have a better plan for his ice magic./
> Aria replies, but not long after, it appears that she has been respawned. Not in the room, but she has been respawned.
| /Just counter his ice with your fire then? Also where are you?/
>Spark looks around for Aria, trying to keep Aias in his field of view.
| (Sorry. I was finishing Lain. Amazing series, but now, back to this shit.)
/I think I respawned, but I can't see! What is going on?/
>It's Scope. He's back. Damn it.
| >>242818
"HERE!"
> Aria bolts forward, striking Aias with triple-activated [Momentum Burst] (18-3) — flashes of light was visible, but only for a short nanoseconds, and after so Aias was pushed back, crashing into a wall — a payback for the attack he had done before.
> Although the attack was nice on display, it only dropped Aias' HP marginally; down to 7900.
"That.. should have—.. done a lot more."
> Aria breathes heavily, trying to hold herself steady.
| >[Open Eyes](18) Scope opens his eyes successfully.
/Oh! I'm back here! Coming soon!/
| >>242844
/Scope, I want you to prepare long-ranged shots. Make sure you do fire damages. Spark just inspired me to do something./
> Aria enters the message rapidly into the party's chat.
> Aias has already recovered from Aria's blast of attack. In his hand is a thunder, waiting to be casted upon his feeble enemies — and he warns those with a simpleminded growl of terror.
| >(13)The sound of burning fire can be heard, as a bright light comes closer.
"I'm burning now, but fuck it!"
>Scope comes a little closer before aiming at the big boys (not golden) left knee, and start shooting.
>(16) He fires 10 burning rounds, 6 of them hitting the target.
"I will have this buff for about a minute! I'll probably be at 10 health after it stops! Just ask, and I will open fire again!"
>(19) Scope quickly reloads before the enemy gets to make a move against him.
| /Guess it's now or never/
>Spark rushed to the front of the party with a [Dash], crossing his daggers in front of him.
[StormBarrier] (18)
>His daggers begin to crackle with energy, ready to absorb the lightning damage
| >>242897
> The attack surprised Aias. Fire chars his armor quickly, and the soot from his body was lit to a burning wild fire. A heavy [Burning] began chipping away his health at a constant rate, added to that was his dropped resistance against most attacks he was impervious to before.
> 7300, 7250, 7100 — the fire quickly burns the HP. Aias struggles to maintain any form of defense against it.
| "Let's do this!"
>Scope aims at the statue yet again, with his health slowly going down. (18) Scope unloads on Aias, and hits it in the back, head and legs with 9 bullets, the 10th hitting the wall.
"I hope it drops bat ear chips! It's impossible to get that shit in stores!"
| >>242941
> Aias, writhing in pain of being burnt could not devise a strength to dodge the bullets. They struck on him effectively, breaking parts of his armor, and thus exposing him more of the hot, burning debuff he has.
"Never again do I wish we have bat chips!"
> Aria charges forward, trying to keep Aias contaminated to allow for easy attack by Scope. Her feign attacks (11) mostly allowed for Aias to be pinned in one concise space.
> Aias is [Burning] with 6000 HP.
| >Scope is still burning, and he reloads.
"I think this will be my last magazine before I loose my buff, and those chips were fucking amazing! I actually think I've become an addict! I have had this horrible feeling ever since I ran out of them, and I need more!"
>He aims at the boss (13=8+5 for pinning), but due to his increased craving of bat ear chips, he gets distracted, and only hits with 5 bullets, even though it is a huge, non-moving target.
| >>242972
"Yeah, we'll deal with that later!"
> Aria shouts, seriously trying not to think of the bat chips again.
> Aias, meanwhile, fell to his knees — unable to contain the fire around him. He became idle, almost looking like he had given up. The shots from Scope only helps to exemplify the fact, as he did not react at all to the attack.
> His HP was doused to a low 5700. The [Burning] still lasts for another considerable amount of time.
| "I have a bad feeling! I think this boss is about to do some halfway through health bar shit!"
>Looking slightly worried, but also happy, Scope moves a little further away, and reloads. His health is at 5, but the burning has stopped.
"Could anyone throw me some healing?"
| "I got you."
>Spark digs through his inventory, finding [HealingPotion(Splash)]
>He throws it at Scope as hard as he can (2)
| >The healing potion hits the ground, far away from where Scope is standing.
"It's the thought that matters I guess, but that was kind of disappointing! Do you have another one?"
| (I know I'm not the DM but I think that throw failing was pretty obvious.)
| "For you? Plenty."
>Spark throws another (20). He aims directly for Scope's face
| "Do you think it's going to do anything else?!"
> Aria looks at the now-stationary Aias. Confused as to what to do.
"Attacking may lead to a trap, and I don't want to risk the thing healing to a degree of better health."
> She began to take a stance. 5500, after the [Burning] had stopped, is a low-enough number for her to try out another attack.
| >>242999
(I'm not going to stop anyone from dictating an action as long as it's to the concern of their character. Feel free to do so! I'm only DM-ing the story, Aria, and the NPCs after all.)
| >>243006
(That's what I thought. Just making sure.)
>The healing potion hits the tip of Scopes eyeball perfectly! It heals him so hard, that he is immediately back at full health.
"Fuck yeah! I think I'm starting to like you!"
>>243005
"If everyone gets a little further away from it, I could try to shoot it with some hardcore shit and see how it goes!"
>After that incredible heal, Scope is ready to fight.
| >>243019
"I'm going to poke him. Be ready of anything stupid happening once that happens."
> Aria readies her sword, and within seconds, she launched herself with [Momentum Burst]; as she nears Aias, she takes a strike and—
> Aias right hand flies and swats Aria away, immediately draining her HP to a low 500. Aias rose, the charred marks of the burn visible in his armor.
> A strange layer of electricity coats Aias now; two buff, [Empowered] and [Conductive] was put in his stat.
| "You can be pretty fucking stupid some times!"
>Scope squeezes his sponge [Fire Beam] (16) and the tip of his rifle starts glowing, but so does the rest of his rifle too.
>He quickly fires an extremely hot beam, the width of a bullet, into his shoulder right shoulder, before dropping his rifle. His had gets burnt, but he barely looses any health.
"Some kind of ice spell, or just something cold directed at my sniper would be appreciated! Sorry for being kind of high maintenance!"
| >>243035
> A coughing comes from where Aria stands, she is obviously not enjoying being thrown freely in the room.
"I had to do it!"
> While the beam did cause a sizeable damage, causing Aias to falter off slowly, it ends up building even more of Aias' electric coating.
> Aias HP is now at 5250, and the room is feeling less cold, and more.. humid?
| >>243037
"So it's getting hotter in here now? Now I really need some cold shit, and we should probably start attacking with either normal or cold attacks!"
>Scope tries to touch his rifle again, but immediately burns himself on it, but doesn't really loose any health.
| > Aias' hands generate a spark of electricity; the conductivity of the now-humid air lets loose of even more power for Aias' spell.
> Aria began to analyze the situation — her Clairvoyance at play — as she held her sword; unsure, still.
> As the knight builds even more of the electricity, the room began to follow: sparks, countless of them appear and reappear across the room.
"Scope, shoot it!"
> Aria urges Scope to loose fire, feeling hopeless herself.
| "Wait! What? How? Fuck! Don't put so much pressure one me!"
>Scope quickly looks through his inventory, and finds some tiny bombs.
"Damn it! I usually use these for suicide, but I don't think I have any other choice!"
>He activates one, (15) and throws it at the knight. It explodes right in front of the chest area.
| > Aias was momentarily stunned, but the bombs caused nothing but scratches to his armor now — the build-up of electricity was made to a pseudo-shield — 5150 and counting.
> The coating of electricity around Aias shines brightly. Sparks fly off from his armor, his [Conductive] bolsters any, and every, electricity around him.
> From where the players stand, Aias is a rod of lightning now; not a single bit of him is visible, he is covered in bolts of thunder.
| "This is not good!"
> Although most of her teammates are probably aware, Aria warned them for a brace of impact anyway.
"—Buckle up for a shock!"
| "Fuck sake! Don't just take it! Everyone except Golden will probably die!"
>(6) Scope starts running, but only gets a few meters before stubbing his right toe in his left foot and tripping himself. He faceplants pretty hard, and is now at 3/4 of his health.
| >>243124
> No matter how much the party would try to escape, the hall is already littered with particles ready to strike. A mild [Stunned] was struck to those without protections to electricity.
> They are forced to sit still as Aias prepare to launch an all-out attack, possibly a lethal one, at the face of the party.
| "I guess we're dead, then! Hopefully Golden survives so we can respawn!"
>Scope tries to move (-1=19-20 due to shock), but he can't move.
>Scope tries to take out his sponge (-2=18-20), but he can't. So sad.
>Scope does one last attempt at moving. [Take Out Doujin] (-19=1-20) He can't even do that. Why, o why, must fate be this cruel.
"I welcome death..."
| >>243730
"D-don't worry! Spark has himself covered!"
> Aria notes Spark's Storm Barrier — feeling hopeful at its possible protection.
"I can't move—.. curses."
> She tries to move an inch, but the electricity shocks her for doing so; she fell to the ground, holding the paralysis.
> By this point on, the [Stunned] has became a surrogate [Paralyzed] — if Aias outputs more power, [Stunned] will surely turn to [Paralyzed].
| >As all this was unfolding, Knight suddenly comes out of a dark corner, lauching two small swords at the boss, but they all miss and he entangles himself, making his cool dash more of an awkward roll (1: Critical failure) he arrives close to Aria and breaks a vial of Cure on her!
"DAMNIT MY COOL SWORD THROW, HOW DARE YOU MOTOR REFLEXES"
>He screams before getting out a gun and firing before once again discarding it
| >>243820
"Don't move any closer, Knight! The boss is fielding the area with stun trap!"
> Aria, while thankful of Knight, was still wary of the plausibility of Aias launching an all-out blast of electricity.
| >Knight takes A guts pose
"I got it all covered lass, now feast your eyes on THIS"
>He activates a skill
[Backstep]
>Knight jumps back and suddenly moves back, leaving after images, as he stops, he holds a large rifle
"Get foked mayte!"
>He fires (1, another crit failure, today is not my day)
>The gun discharges and blasts Knight away
"NONONONO"
| >Scope tries to look at Knight, but can't.
"It's all for naught. Just give up. It's not worth it."
| >>243852
>Covered in soot maybe, but Knight is never defeated!
"How can you abandon hope! I will destroy him, just you wait!"
>He pulls out another rifle, this time a large black Sniper
"NOW BEGONE THOT"
[Power shot]!
>He fires an AA round directly at Aias (15)
| > The bullet pierced the electric coating, hitting Aias' shoulder — at a turn, discharging even more of his electricity. 5050 is his HP now.
"Nothing even works anymore—"
> Aria hopelessly said, noticing the very minimal HP drop.
> The hall began emitting random blips of light due to the high amount of electricity — Aias growls, as if blasting slowly the many voltages he has been storing.
| >Scope tries once again to read his doujin, but can't. It's hopeless. He starts sobbing uncontrollably. All hope is lost. Not even The Fast Fucker or whatever his title was can do anything.
"just give up... don't make this even more painful for me..."
>Scope tries to take a suicide bomb out of his inventory, but can't. Of course he can't. Nobody can. Life has lost meaning.
| "NEVER GIVE UP, NEVER SURRENDER, YOU WANT THIS BACK? HAVE ITAA"
>In an act of desperation, trapped throws the greatsword at Ais with all her might
>18
(ayy)
| >Knight pulls out a cigar, and sunglasses
>He looks at Aias and then at Trapped
"Time to do it, activate code sequence 666, BLAZBLUE, KIDOU!"
>He grabs the huge sword he recovered earlier and throws it like a spear, aiming for the hole in Aias' armor!
(19, lady luck, my godess)
| >>243862
> With that revelation follows a strong surge of electricity — a roar of thunder—
> But then—
>>243863
> The sound of steel piercing a hollow object was resonant. Trapped's throw pierced Aias' helmet, pinning him to the wall, canceling his attack; the sword had struck him, he is [Locked].
>>243864
> Thus, the two Undead-slaying sword was thrown at Aias — with another penetrating him, Aias growls in pain, [Bleeding] was set. His HP drops rapidly, all the way to 3850.
| >Knight turns around and does a pose
"That's how it's done, my thanks for the support"
>He then laughs boisterously and dashes towards Aias
"QUICK, WHILE HE'S PINNED!"
| (If I'm correct the electricity is still there.)
>Scope keeps crying, and his thoughts get more and more depressing.
| > The [Paralyzed] effect has been lessened, allowing the paralyzed players to move yet again — and Aria took no waits to do so.
"No more!"
> She plants her sword down the ground; it began generating swarm of fire — in mere seconds, the room heats up from being humid to unusually hot!
"—Burn, O' Fire!"
> She had activated Ember (15)!
> Aias' [Bleeding] turns to [Scorching] — he is unable to handle any extreme heat, his armor glows radiantly. His HP lowers 3650 and counting.
| >Scope gives taking out his doujin one last effort, and he actually does it!
>He looks surprised, and it doesn't seem like he believes it at first.
>After looking at the cover for a minute, he starts reading furiously.
|
| (Is this dead now?)
| >>244910
(I didn't really think about you in particular, it was more the absence of every single player. I think I heard that there are like exams and shit going on now, so I guess that might be a reason for it? Also as you say, work.)
|
|
| (well i am only a reader but im hyped how this story will end hopefully your guys find some time to play) -Ritrivia
| >>248045
(Hopefully! I'll find some free time later on, eventually — and I hope the rest of the player does too as well. -xnbc/Aria)
| >>248061
(Yeah. I can't really continue on my own after my last action, but it good to know that you can play soon. I hope the rest come back too.
-GG)
| > Aias trembles — unsurprisingly, the heat was more than enough to make him stay in one place. The heat, while damages the party in turn, was also damaging Aias.
"SCOPE, DO SOMETHING!"
> Aria points to Aias while shouting in Scope's direction.
"I need to keep the fire alive!"
| (Golden's out. Im kinda off /cyb/ because of things. I don't even have the energy left to give him a proper farewell lol)
| >>248789
(I'll assume he logged off or went AFK, yeah? Anyway, hope you return soonly then!)
>>248794
> Aria inhales a breath, thinking of a way to deal with Scope's inherent doujin addiction.
"SCOPE, YOU CAN HAVE MY DOUJIN HERE!"
> A glimpse of a blush was visible in her. In her mind, she just said such an idiotic hook for someone with whose addiction is close to dangerous.
| >Scope stops reading, and his eyes are on Aria in less than a second. His intense stare tells you that this probably wasn't a good idea.
>After two seconds, he leaps at you so fast that all you see is a pimply blur, and the doujin is no longer in your hands.
>You can hear someone, Scope, breathing right behind you, as he examines his newly acquired doujin.
| >>248918
> It was an almost-professionally drawn doujin. A watermark put below it, but it was barely recognizable.
> The content of the doujin was only that: Aria drawn in various poses, some exposing her lithe body in a risque manner.
"You happy now?!"
> Aria interjects Scope, regretting her action.
"Let's beat this thing, and I'll give you some more."
> At this point, Aria might as well have a deal with the devil.
| "Looks like I have been beaten to the punch when it comes to lewding you, but it's not a surprise."
>Scope is speaking in a more serious tone. He looks around at a few different pages.
"The art is high quality, and the model is pretty good. I approve."
>He turns to look at Aria.
"Even more if we beat it? That's not necessary. I'm not that greedy, but I would gladly accept."
(1/2)
| "Ok! How are we going to beat it? My rifle is still too warm to pick up, and the fact that the room is getting hotter doesn't help! I don't have any other weapons, so we're kinda fucked!"
>Scope quickly looks through his inventory yet again, only to see the same thing as always. The suicide bombs. He takes one out. He has an idea.
"If I kill myself, wouldn't that mean that I get my weapon back?"
>He activates it, and throws it into his mouth.
"Bye!"
>His head blows up again.
| >>249495
>Spark has sheathed his daggers at this point, attempting to use ice magic to guard against the heat damage.
"What on earth is that kid doing?"
| >>244948
(Hail working chummers, My whole body broke down recently too, sorry bout that /cyb/ has been on my backburner despite my best intentions -The lighting fast Knight heart, and it saddens me nobody got that joke)
| >>249502
(Freely roll a d20-1 for the ice shield effectiveness.)
"D-don't ask."
> Aria stands up, keeping close contact with her sword, as well as taking a glance at Aias every now and then.
"Spark, can you support Scope's rifle? I'm sure it'll heat up when he fires a shot. I want you to actively cool it down."
> She turns to Spark's direction, seeing his ice magic at play whilst making a quick plan herself.
| >>249598
> The spell Spark activated barely made an effect — not near him, and definitely not in the room. A small gust was all there is; the heat returns immediately.
> As the party spoke idly, Aias attempts to struggle. The heat made his movement sluggish, the clanking from his armor audible, and it effectively burnt down his effectivness in battle.
> [Scorching] effectively downs his HP to 3200.
| >>249528
(Fuck. Sounds painful. Get better my dude!)
>Scope is back again. With his sniper ready.
"I HAVE MY SNIPER, AND I CAN ACTUALLY US IT!!!"
>After coming a little closer, Scope aims at Aias (9) and starts shooting. After firing one shot at the target, he he somehow misses the trigger, which gives the rifle just enough time to heat it up to the point where he can't hold it any more, and he drops it.
"Damn it! I don't want to use up all my bombs!"
>He grabs another bomb.
| "—Then don't!"
> Aria interjects, opening her list of skills to see if anything is even remotely helpful in the situation.
"... There's nothing. Come on."
> She mumbles her frustration. In the corner of her eyes, Aias was pronouncing a bigger strength. The [Ember] is losing its effect!
"He's already down to that much HP.."
> She sees Aias' lowered HP. 2900. That's good enough for her.
"Scope, can you fire if the room is cooler?!"
| "Of course I can! It would need a little time to cool down though!"
>Scope hesitantly puts away the bomb, not sure of how Aria is going to change the temperature.
| "Or not..."
>Spark raises his hands and casts [Blizzard] (9), attempting to keep it away from Aias and closer to the party
| >>250332
"I only need that much assurance!"
> Aria pulls her sword from the ground, relieving the room of [Ember] — the humidity was felt, but [Blizzard] helps dissipate a number of them.
"This is all I can do!"
> She takes a stance. Readying for a momentum to take her forward, towards the recovering Aias.
> Stacking up multiple skill, Aria dashes in an instant. [Momentum Burst] was activated first, and shortly after, she continues with [Overheat] (16).
| > As she nears Aias, she swung her sword — throwing it to the knight's knee. The heated sword melts the kneecap rather effectively; Aias fell to the ground, one leg effectively disappearing from his body.
> Without much support, Aias is [Disabled] — his HP thrown down to 2500, he is no longer [Scorching] however.
"I'll leave the rest to everyone!"
> Aria gestures to the party. Her sword was melted alongside Aias' knee, thus, she is weaponless for the moment.
| >The sniper is now cool enough for Scope to pick up, so he does just that, and aims it at Aias head.
>(6) He fires 10 bullets, and one hits.
"I might as well just use that bomb!"
| >>250371
> Aias desperately tries to stand up, but without much result, all he managed to do was hold himself up — and one of the shot from Scope hit through his helmet.
> 2300 and counting.
"Just use the bomb! I'm sure he won't mind!"
> Aria backsteps closer to the party, not wanting to be struck by any sudden attack.
| "Ok then! I didn't expect you to be that harsh of a leader!"
>He activates the bomb and throws in his mouth.
"See you soon!"
>His head blows up yet again.
| >>250378
"I DIDN'T MEAN TO USE IT ON YOU!"
> Aria shouts at the fading body of Scope. She had at least two chances of giving a facepalm, but in her good sport, she decided to hold it in.
"Okay, he's down to thirty seconds respawn—.. what to do."
> She shifts her attention, the boss in the ground still looking one too dangerous to deal weaponless.
"Aias isn't capable of doing any real attack; but what is there telling that he won't lunge forward?"
| "Watch this!"
>Spark grinned, raising his hand and summonimg further ice magic, forming a [FrostLance] (17). Once fullly formed, he made a throwing motion, propelling it into Aias' other knee (19).
| /You could have said that before I killed myself!/
>Scope will respawn in 10 seconds.
| >>250678
> The lance pierced Aias' knee rather easily. The hollow armor doesn't stand a chance against it. His HP is now 2000.
> However, Aias began pulling his damaged knee, removing it entirely, rather than leaving it dangled. He fixes his [Disabled] by making himself legless.
"That—.. doesn't look good."
> He utilizes his hand, moving about like a wild animal. He leaps toward Aria at a speed faster than he was before.
"Gh!"
> Aria was visibly startled.
| > Aias strikes with his left hand, but Aria was able to dodge it rather easily (18).
"Spark, I need support!"
> Aria waves in panic, she is visibly weaponless, and her only resort is to outpace the berserking knight.
| >Physical, rather than ice damage, seemed to be doing well, so Spark draws one of his daggers, clasping it in front of him with both hands. He gathers his strength as Aias turns its back to him, chasing the swordswoman. Leaping into the air, he casts [FrostBlade] (13), encasing the blade with a long blade of ice to enhance its range and damage, and attempts to thrust it into the gap between the armor and helmet of the monster (19).
| >Scope is back yet again. He starts running towards the party, stops, aims and (12) unloads on Aias. Two bullets hit the head but the rest misses.
>The gun doesn't overheat this time, and (15) Scope reloads immediately.
"I should move closer for some close range combat! I've always been better at that!"
>(9) He tries to get closer, but stops because of a rock that was sent towards him with high speed, due to Aias "new" form destroying a lot more the environment more than before.
| >>250737
> At the thrust of the blade, Aias violently convulses. There was no neck connecting the two parts, but the blade made a hit just slightly off the shoulder — pinning down the knight, rendering him immobile for a short while.
"Thank you!"
> Aria takes a leap behind, giving herself the distance she needs to avoid being attacked.
| >>250751
> The bullets prove to be as effective as any physical damage now. Aias is at his end, and the shots fired from Scope's rifle was more than enough to shorten Aias to a close-to-death state.
> With his HP at 1200, he starts to adopt a more aggressive strategy: his movements became faster, and his attack surely reflect the changes (d20-4 to all attack attempt on Aias) — he is, at long last, in his wits end.
| > With an ending growl, Aias ran, targeting Aria, still. He attempts to ram her, as though an angry bull — and with his speed, it would surely do more than send Aria to see death once again.
"Why me?!"
> She barely dodges the attack (12), the graze sent her back, her feet could only hold so much push before she tumbles and began rolling backwards.
"—Curses."
> Aria stands up, and Aias is already taking another charge.
| "I'll try to finish him of!"
>Scope pulls out his sponge, and tries to do a [Normal Buff]. (6) Somehow, when he squeezes the sponge, a lightning strike hits it, but it deals [Normal] damage, not [Electric].
"I'm fine! I have one HP! But as long as I doesn't get hit it should be fine!"
| >>250768
> And again, Aria rolled to avoid Aias' charge (14). The fact that such a massive suit of armor could move in a speed closer to her was unbelievable, but she doesn't mind all that: she wants to survive now.
"SCOPE, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
> She sees Scope's HP — and she doesn't see a single good out of it. In her peripheral vision, Aias is already starting to take another dash. With her HP at a 1000, panic rises on her.
| "It's not my fault! I can't control it! I tried to buff my normal damage, but it didn't go too well!"
>Scope stands up after the lightning strike, picks up his rifle, and aims at Aias.
"Don't worry! I got this!"
>He tries to run a little closer, to get higher accuracy. (15) He runs towards Aias, but stops before he gets too close. He's only close enough to get a +2 accuracy, but that should be enough.
| >>250777
>(1+2-4=-1) Somehow Scope stumbles, and lands with his head at the end of his barrel, and the finger on his trigger. A bullet goes straight through his head, and he dies.
| "Scope, I—"
> Aria dodges another attack, this time less than successfully so (7). She was sent backwards at a greater speed, and a [Disabled] debuff was visible on her.
"—How do ankles even break in this game."
> She tries to stand up, but her right leg is clearly not responding. As a result: she is now limping her dodge.
| /This game is surprisingly realistic when it comes to stuff like that./
>25 seconds until respawn.
| >>250810
/I can't feel my leg anymore./
> Aria desperately resists the pain, and Aias is on the mount to strike her to yet another wall.
"Scope, I hope you have a plan when you respawn."
| >>250816
/That's reassuring./
> With speed, Aria types in the message. Already half-expecting Aias to lunge at her and maul her to death.
"Come here, O' Beast!"
> Aria shouts at Aias, and indeed, the knight charged towards her. She open her arms, as if embracing the death close to her.
"Now!"
> [Dash] was activated, but it was not quick enough (3). Her [Disabled], combined with Aias strong push broke everything alive in Aria's frail body.
| /Well, I tried./
> The message was sent to the party's chat. The dead Aria was left waiting to respawn.
/My sword broke though. Even if I respawn, I still won't have anything to whack enemies./
| /Guess it's up to electricity boy then!/
| >10 seconds until respawn.
| >Meanwhile, Spark has been hanging on to the dagger embedded in the armor as Aias attacked the others.
/I sure hope this doesn't heal him or some BS lol/
>[LighningRod] (14): Spark calls forth a bolt of lightning, channeling it through his dagger into Aias' core in an attempt to bypass the armor and reach the darkness within.
| >>250985
> The electric damage done very little to Aias, but it thankfully doesn't heal him, as Spark hoped. Aias flails, trying to get Spark off him. His HP is now at 1075 — closer to death than ever before.
/How is steel resistant to electricity?! I thought the common rule is that they're weak to zaps of thunder./
> Aria enters, referring to the rules of a particular game about taming monsters.
/I'm down to 20 seconds. Scope should be respawning somewhere./
| >>251159
(I don't think I hoped for that.)
>Scope comes running back, and tries yet again to close in on Aias (15), and he gets just as close as before, giving him that +2 attack bonus.
>He aims at Aias head, (3+2-4=1) He gets of two shots, but somehow he forgot how to use a sniper properly, and somehow, even with the minimal recoil of his custom made rifle, the stock hit him in the head due to recoil.
"How the fuck does that even work?"
| >>251185
(I'm confus. I wrote 'Spark hoped', not 'Scope hoped'.)
/Well, how do YOU think a rifle would work?/
> Aria comments rather ignorantly, not realizing the scope of the problem (pun not intended).
/Don't kill yourself. I'm still 18 seconds away from respawning./
| >>251202
(I meant he. Sorry. I don't think HE hoped for that. I also believe that that joke was at least 90% intended.)
/I wasn't going to! I can still use my gun! Last time was accidental!/
>Scope stands still for a little bit (7) and keeps being slightly stunned. He then snaps out of it, and reloads his gun.
| >>251209
(I hoped that it wouldn't heal, him, which is what happened, so xnbc was right lol)
/Guys I'm not sure how much longer I can hold on/
>Spark is hanging off the dagger with one hand as Aias flails around (9).
| /Try holding on, everyone!/
> Aria said, still oblivious to her teammates' problem.
>>251219
> Aias spun in a circle, trying to maximize his chance of both throwing off, and catching Spark. It's a magnified merry-go-round, but with an undead knight trying to kill those on the ride.
/8 seconds, and I'll be there!/
> Aria is not helping the situation at all with the messages.
| >>251219
(Oh fuck! I'm dumb.)
>Scope aims at the dagger, even though it's spinning around, but sees that it's just not possible. So he takes out his sponge.
>(18) [Slow Time] Time slows down around the players, but as kind of a sacrifice, everyone looses 10 hp each second.
>Now that time is slowed down at about 85% Scope actually has a decent chance at hitting the dagger, so he tries just that.
>(8+5+2=15) He hits the dagger with one bullet, and two bullets miss and hit Aias.
| The slow down thing will last for 23 more seconds. It has been going on for 30.
| >>251259
> The two stray shot grazes Aias, stopping him in his tracks, but barely doing any real damage — dropping on 75 from the original 1075 HP.
> The activation of the magic seems to have taken Aias' attention to Scope. Either that, or the shot he fires.
> He began taking a charge to Scope, all with the same great speed he had before. The push of the charge, and the shot dagger proves to be rather bad for Spark.
| "HA!"
> From the behind the party, Aria rushes forward, a stick at hand, and [Momentum Burst] activated (nat 20, woah) — her path coincides with Aias, striking the knight away from Scope, downing his HP to 850.
> Aria stood in front of Scope, saving him from one ramming bull, but also breaking her semi-weaponized stick in the process.
"It's not like I expected that to last a single attack."
> She drops the broken stick — immediately noticing the slowed down time.
| >Scope looks surprised at Arias sheer stupidity, and also her extreme luck, but he's grateful for her wanting to save him.
"Here! To show you my gratitude, I give you this! Use it, and come back with another stick!"
>His left arm is stretched out towards Aria, and in his hand is a small bomb.
"I will only have two left after this, but it want you to have it!"
>You can tell by his voice and facial expression that this is not a joke. He seems sincere, and he is.
| >>251288
"That's sweet of you, Scope, but don't worry; I have plenty of those."
> Aria calls forth another stick, before accepting Scope's gift. Its unmistakably a metallic-looking stick.
"They don't do much damage, so no one quite sanely uses them in the game—"
> She pauses, thinking of what to do with the bombs apart from doing a kamikaze attack.
"—Right. So, what else can I do with these?"
> She refers to the bombs at hand.
| "Well, they don't really do a lot of damage when used as a normal bomb, but when it's inside your mouth it's a guaranteed death!"
>Scope pauses for a few seconds. It seems like he's thinking.
"Didn't that thing try to grab zzdf? Maybe if you let it catch you, and then if it tries to eat you, you could try to throw the bomb down it's throat! It's basically suicide, but in your current state, there isn't really anything else for you to do!"
>15 seconds left of time thing.
| >>251737
"You're proposing a plan in which I put myself in that thing's hand, detonate the bombs, and kill myself in the process?"
> Aria had to clear up what she heard, of course, in state of disbelief.
"—That sounds reasonable in paper."
| >Suddenly someone clears their throat nearby
"Well, according to my IQ of aproximately five zillion, thats sounds like a logical and good plan. Sorry lass, but yer gonna have to take a hit for the team, no hard feelings I hope"
>Its Knight, and his laughter raises again, seems he's finally back!
(Sorry for the wait, got myself back up in somewhat okay shape, both mentally and physically, recently so I should be good now)
| >>251780
(Good to see you back!)
> Aria sighs, willingly putting herself for a suicidal attack is a bit hard to swallow.
"You know, Knight, I expected you to come up with a saner plan when you're returning — but I guess we're cornered here."
> She eyes the wild knight. The time-slow effect gave her enough time by itself to gain composure — she let out all her doubts, just for a ludicrous-sounding plan.
| (Welcome back!)
"Yes, but it's poisonous, and makes you suck at everything you do!"
>(1) Scope thinks that he should probably shoot at Aias while time is slowed down, but doesn't.
"Aria! Get ready! Your time of suicide is drawing near!"
>Scope reloads his gun and looks at the timer. 3 seconds left of slow down.
| "Dont say suicide! Noble sacrifice is more like it fella!"
>Knight does a thumbs up and then takes out more guns
"Yosh, here we go! "
| "I'm just saying it as is, instead of sugar coating it!"
>Scope aimse at Aias, ready to shoot.
>Time stop is over.
| > Aria takes a step forward at the party — after its long-winded discussion of which terminologies is best for the kamikaze, of course.
"Come here!"
> She lures Aias with her voice, but Aias goes past her, taking a ram at Scope instead.
"Curses! Scope, watch out!"
> Aria ran as fast as she can, but Aias is coming in closer to Scope.
| (*takes a step forward from the party.)
| >Knight jumps out of the way and then hits the incoming Aias with all his guns before discarding each one and retrieving others
"Watch out mate!"
| "JESUS FUCK!!!"
>(14) Scope tries to jump out of the way, and he kind of does. At least half of him does. The other half, the legs and crotch is torn straight off, and his HP drops to 200, with an extreme bleeding debuff (-45 HP per second), and he looses consciousness.
>His bloodied, torn off, but still alive, torso, lays on the ground right besides where Aias just rammed him.
| >>252018
> Aria ran past Scope, catching up to Aias instead.
"Sorry!"
> She shouted as she is already meters away from Scope — facing Aias straight in the slit of his helmet.
"I've had enough. Come here, you mongrel!"
> The stick she equipped began glowing as [Momentum Burst] was activated, she takes stance and charges at Aias (10-4) — but misses, slides, and plants the stick inside a wall instead.
"Hah! This is part of the plan!"
> She optimistically says.
| >Scope is down to 10 HP.
| >Scope is dead. Both parts of his body fade away.
| >>252112
/I'm hugely sorry./
> Aria enters to the chat in a hurried manner, trying to pull out the stick, but failing at exactly that (8).
"This is an innuendo waiting to be built, Aria."
> She looks behind her, Aias is ready to grant her the same fate as the stick she plunged into the wall.
| /What at you sorry about? It's not your fault!/
| /I still feel guilty./
> Aria's response was short, her hand frantically searching for a way to handle the tension.
"—Time to test out my dumb luck."
> She gave up pulling the stick, and waits for Aias to come after her — truly taking only a short second for him to take the cue, and began running in her direction.
> As Aias is coming closer, Aria's feet can be seen preparing a step — at the zap of her reflex, and by losing her balance, Aria dodges Aias (13)!
| > Taking her momentum, Aria summons forth another stick — this time, [Overheat] was activated unto it. The heat radiates, glowing the stick to a bright white.
"Now!"
> Aias charges yet again; not minding much of the wall he destroyed as he obliterates it with his speed. The moment Aias came close, an object resembling arrow of light was thrown by Aria.
> It barely gave any hit. The graze melts through Aias' shoulder (15-4), dropping him down, causing him to crash to Aria.
| > Aria didn't have enough time, nor the reflex to be able to avoid Aias moving body whilst running backwards — she soon was dragged by the suit of armor, horrendously dropping her HP to a staggeringly low 80.
> Aias, meanwhile, stood with 700 — but not for long. With her low HP, Aria charged towards Aias, two bombs in her hand — she wants to hug Aias with explosion.
"You're coming with me!"
> The bombs were activated, as she nears Aias, a small explosion was made (11-4).
| > But it only gave the knight a fraction of the damage — he backed off for sure, but it caused nowhere near enough damage to kill him. 550; not an HP the party would expect for a result from a kamikaze attack.
/I'm really sorry now./
> Aria dies yet again, her message visible.
/But someone is ought to down him with a single shot! I believe in every one of you!/
| /The bomb was supposed to go down it's throat.../
/That's the worst kamikaze attack I've seen.../
| >>252360
/I was at 80 HP, and I don't want to risk guessing the anatomy of a living armor, okay? He may or may not have throat, and he may or may not just outright kill me./
> Aria interjects, knowing full well of her failed attempt.
| /That doesn't matter.../
| /Alright, alright — how many seconds left before you respawn? I'm at 21./
> Another message was sent to the party's chat by Aria.
> Meanwhile, Aias is at unrest — he circles forth between the many corners of the hall.
| /17.../
|
| /Okay, we have time to plan things out./
> Aria focuses her death cam on Aias. Not-so-struggling at making a plan now.
/550 is easy enough to tackle, but I want a guaranteed hit. I need to pin him first — after that, we spit fury on him. How about that?/
| /Sounds good! How to we spit that fury?/
| /I can poke a stick at him? I don't know. Do you still have more of those bombs? I can repent myself by doing a better kamikaze attack./
| /Too late for that! You had one chance to do it! I'm not giving you any more bombs! I have my rifle, so damaging him shouldn't be a problem! I was more just asking if you wanted to end him on some incredible, epic and highly climactic way!/
| >>254610
/I think I, and the Lighthouse, collectively burned our luck during the Ruins of Symphony raid./
> Aria enters, noticing her countdown getting closer.
/9 seconds. Okay, that went faster than expected./
| /Oh shit! Spawning soon! Bye!/
| >Scope comes running back towards the boss. He aims at the mutilated giant and yells.
"THIS IS FOR ALL OF DOUJIN KIND!!!"
>(8-4=4) He doesn't even do anything. He just drops the gun, says "Shit!", and picks it back up.
| /Oh great—/
> Aria notices her respawn timer. 0. It's time to do what Scope had failed. At the moment of her respawn, she came back running, another metallic stick in her hand.
"Go!"
> The stick was thrown with [Overheat] — again, a glowing white (16-4), piercing the left-hand side of what-would-be-ear of Aias. His HP down to 500.
> Aria slid, letting her legs stop her momentum.
"That was supposed to land a headshot."
| "My turn!"
>(14-4) Scope hits Aias with 3 of the 10 bullets that he fires.
| "I'm going to literally fuck myself if this keeps happening!"
>Scope reloads, and looks like he's about to use that new magazine on himself, but he doesn't. He just walks a little further back, and starts aiming at Aias yet again.
"Aria! Do you have any plan besides whatever this shit show that we're doing is!"
| >>255594
> Although largely ineffective, the shot gave them some time as it deterred the knight — downing his HP yet again to 450.
>>255951
"I can probably one-shot him if you have any dagger or sword — or I can give him a stun! I don't know, I'm useless as a support class!"
> Aria replies with a shout, her inventory of stick is running out as she calls another of them.
| "Why would I have any melee weapons?"
>Scope suddenly lowers his rifle. He has an idea.
"I could try to make some kind of limited dagger with my sponge! Like a 60 second energy dagger or something! It would probably be risky though!"
| >>256647
"You can try!"
> Aria returns the shout, eyeing Aias for any sudden movement from him.
"—These sticks aren't doing any effective damage!"
| "Here we go then!"
>(11) Scope takes out his sponge, holds it high into the air, and squeezes. The result isn't pretty.
>A rain of small energy daggers gets shot at Scope from out of nowhere. Around 50 of them
"..."
>Scope dies, but one normal sized energy dagger with 30 seconds left to live remains.
| > Aria ran, taking one of the dagger in the process of ignoring Scope's death.
"Sorry—"
> She mumbles, turning to Aias.
"This is shorter than what I would use, but let's hope this works."
> A strong gust of wind comes, encircling Aria — forming a torrent strong enough to chip of rocks around — thus, enough for her to execute her plans.
> A very weak [Sword of Air] was activated, with that Aria emblazes the dagger in a flame with [Overheat].
| > She aims, trying to pinpoint Aias' head as a target — but him as a moving target is too hard to deal with — so she goes to a backup plan: immobilize him.
> The stick in her hand was charged with heat, coming from the same skill. Another arrow of light was formed; and with a click of her finger, she let loose of the stick, firing it towards Aias' hands using the sharp air (18-4) — it was enough to momentarily pause him — reducing his agility.
"That's done—"
| > With Aias stunned, she let go of the dagger, its glow apparent as Aria fires it like an archer. The energy blade shot out at a great speed (16), sinking to Aias' shoulder and penetrating it with ease — throwing Aias off to the wall, as he does a growl at the end of his life.
> He fades, his corpse fills with soot as the darkness carries him to nonexistence.
| /That was actually slightly cool! Good job! I have 15 sec left! I'll come take the loot soon!/
| >>257921
/I'm a one-trick pony after all./
> Aria enters, noticing the boss drop messages — one of which is a 'level up' window for her, and the other being the items received by the party.
[Material: Chipped Armor]
[Material: Iron Plates]
[Spell: Thunderbound]
[Spell: Wyth's Chaos]
[Quest: Memory of Wyth: Aias]
> She glances at a few of them, feeling disappointed at the lack of usable items.
"No weapons.. Ngh."
| > Another window pops open, showing the loot for each player — available to the spawned players. For Aria's case, there was one noticeable name:
[Item: {Broken} Custom-built Spatha]
> She frowns at it, recognizing it as her weapon. At least it was hers before it broke. The rest was materials, similar to the ones the party received.
| /I'm highly disappointed! At least you're going to give me more doujin! Coming soon, so get ready!/
| >>257996
/Yeah, yeah. I have about two stacks of them. I'm sure some of them are creepily made as well./
> She responds to Scope's message before taking a lot at now-broken sword. It barely functions as a sword anymore with its dull end.
| >Arai suddenly hears a voice from behind her.
"Where is the hentai, and what do you mean by creepily made?"
>She can feel Scope breathing down her neck.
| >Spark sits up with a groan from where he'd been knocked down, and is greeted by the floating UI announcing the loot they had earned.
"Sorry I wasn't much use guys. Magic absorption? Talk about bad luck."
>He jokes weakly. He scrolls through his menus, attempting to identify the new spells they'd received.
| >>258027
> The two spells received by the party was put to the party's inventory, upon an inspection, the two greets Spark with description to follow:
[Thunderbound]
[Trusted spell of great knights of Wyth. Blankets the land in surge of electricity; bleaking any, and all attempt of resistance with Stun.]
[Wyth's Chaos]
[From your hand, create a cloud of soot, able to be burnt with a simple flick.
> Spark himself receives a spell, but it was not shared by the party.
| >>258027
> The spell was a simple one:
[Greater Thunderspear]
[Spell of the proud knight, Raedric. Form spear of brilliant radiance — piercing undead, and dragonkin at an ease.]
| >>258013
> Aria was startled, taking a step away from the sound, only to find Scope in place.
"Sheesh, you."
> In her hand, she had already prepared two stacks of doujin — and hentai. They fades away as it goes to Scope's inventory.
> At inspection of the stacks, it's visible that whoever drew the first stack was talented with the brushes. Able to recreate every inch of Aria in a careful, accurate manner. There is about eighty pictures, all of which is Aria — and only Aria.
| > The second stack was a simpler one. It was fan art of Aria, all with a wildly varying pose, style, and whatnot.
"Never mind what I said earlier. All of them are creepily drawn."
> She goes to say before turning to Spark.
"Well, who would've thought, yeah? I was sent useless after a few turns. It's not like I was as useful as I think I'd be."
| "And who would've thought you'd be the type to carry porn of herself around."
>Spark teases her while moving some of his skills around to add the two newly aquired lightning spells to his roster.
"Anyways, I wonder what's next."
| >After receiving the two stacks of pornography, Scope sits down to read look and read through some of it, while waiting for the others to do decision making.
| (I'm very sorry for the lateness. I had some not-so-great things happening here — /u/ was in the back of my mind due to the urgency of the events. -xnbc)
>>258467
"—Not quite, those are the fresh stacks I received today. I burnt the many hundreds from yesterday."
> Aria responds futilely to Spark's comment, before nodding it off.
"Since this is pretty much a dead end, I guess we need to go back?"
| (Is good. I have some late responses too, even though I don't have anything urgent.)
>Aria can feel cold metal against the back of her head. The barrel of a gun.
"You DON'T. BURN. HENTAI. You either keep it, sell it, or give it to me. I'll let it slide for now, but you have been warned."
>Just as quick as he had stood up, Scope sits down again, and continues reading.
| >>260895
"B-burn is a metaphor for giving them away to the likes of you."
> Aria answers, surprised by Scope's intimidating response.
"I'm just waiting for an item forwarding feature, really — if I could forward those hentai to you directly, I'd be more than happy."
| >A series of global messages is sent through the chat of the current grid, one after the other:
>"Player 'Conquest' has joined the grid with an assassination bounty of...250,000 zel! Find and kill them to claim the bounty!"
>"Player 'Famine' has joined the grid with an assassination bounty of...500,000 zel! Find and kill them to claim the bounty!"
>Two logos are marked on the map with the locations of these two players...except, they cannot possibly be correct; they're off the map!
| >Specifically, they seem to be off in the top-right corner of the world map, where no land should possibly be. What could this mean?
| >Suddenly, another series of messages is sent through the global chat:
>Player 'Cokeaddict' has been killed by Conquest!
>Player 'Smashngrate' has been killed by Famine!
>Player 'ClassicArcher' has been killed by Famine!
>Player 'Reeseeeeeee' has been killed by Famine!
>Player 'Cansolegamer' has been killed by Conquest!
| >Then, a final few messages:
>Player Conquest's assassination bounty just went up to 300,000 zel!
>Player Famine's assassination bounty just went up to 700,000 zel!
>Another message, this time from another player:
>Conquest: We are the Horsemen. This has been a lesson to any and all who cross our paths. We are the end, and we are coming. Stay out of our way if you wish to live, but know...We'll find you at some point.
| >Player "Conquest" has left the grid!
>Player "Famine" has left the grid!
| "Great. We have two poetic PK-ers, and we aren't exactly in the map either."
> Aria sighs, slight hint of comical depression in her face.
"I'll let you guys decide whether or not we should be wary of that."
| "It doesn't matter! If we were to stumble upon them, we just kill them!"
>Scope is already finished with one of the fanart books, and has moved on to the next.
| >Spark scratches his head
"I mean, we shouldn't have to worry about them in the dungeon, right?"
| >Player 'Famine' has joined the grid with an assassination bounty of...1,000,000 zel! Find and kill them to claim the bounty!
>This time, the logo that marked the player's location was, in fact, in the map...And at the end, in the loot room past the final boss of this very dungeon!
>Some of Famine's stats were also displayed as part of the tradeoff of being wanted and hunted by other players for fairness.
>Famine's player level: 95!
>Clearly, this is a VERY old player.
| >Titles: "3rd Horseman of the Apocalypse", "Way of the Crow", "Province Prince: Nightmare Realm"
>Killstreak: 24 confirmed player kills since last death!
>User Status: Idle/Away
>It seems Famine is sitting, afk, in the final room of the dungeon.
| >>262474
(A little correction here. If I remember correctly, this dungeon is outside of the map. Also, we're in a dungeon, which I believe is a party only thing, and I doubt Aria accidentally invited you. I'm not completely sure when it comes to that last bit, but I do see a lot of flaws in this. It should be fine though, and I'm not trying to ruin your entry. Maybe it works if you have done the quest before?)
| >>262714
(Oof, I'm sorry :X uhh, okay, so I guess I'll explain my interpretation: I figured that since Assassination Bounties were for PvP that somebody who has a bounty wouldn't be able to gain immunity by going into special areas like dungeons, and that it would just be a group choice thing if they choose to attack the person with the bounty, but the one with the bounty can't escape being hunted by going into dungeons, you know?)
| (As well, I also figured that big dungeons likely had checkpoints at big boss fights so that you could come back to them later, and that the end of the dungeon would be a checkpoint that you could teleport to and from, but only if you had recently beaten the dungeon before the reset, whether it is a daily or weekly or monthly reset or whatever.
I just tried using MMO logic, but it seems I didn't read up enough, and for that I apologize ;; if I need to change/fix anything I will :)
| (Ooooooo...
I shouda been more specific...
What we would do when something like this happens is leave it to the individual DM.
Like cry would approach it this way and i would do it this way.
Thanks to this being a side story it should not matter that much unless you are going to bring things from a sidestory to the main quest.
But if that happens i would just fix the lore accordingly.
If you ask me what i would do
Then i would say you *could cheese it like>>262747
(cont)
| (after all the player worked hard for the gear and XP.
Also when i made this the mind set was:
What if this was real life?
Thus i will make it realistic if the fantasy crep was real.
So if it were real,then a dungeon that only *you* can go into would be fine if you were to use it to cheese hide from a bounty.
Just my take though, again i will leave it to Xnbc.
>morphine_blues )
| (I think I agree with morphine here. Cheesing should be fine. It was just that you didn't really cheese. We can say that the whole hiding from bounty thing works. Though, as morphine said, we should wait for xnbc.)
| (I mostly apologize for not reaching out sooner. Thankfully Morphine has given a straightforward rundown.
I can see several fix for 'how can you be here' problem:
a.) The party is oblivious that the dungeon is also a shared dungeon. This breaks one thing: the fact that there isn't any other player in the dungeon.
b.) One of the end-goal/reward of the quest is an item allowing access to the dungeon; this is the most MMO solution I can think of. 1/2)
| (However, 'B' also breaks the consistent no-other-player zone. So an extension of B would be:
c.) An item, and multiple channels. The dungeon shifts; giving virtually unlimited combination of map for the players whenever they enter. The two PK-ers just happen to be in the same map/dungeon channel as the party.
I'll leave this as an open choice. I'm fine whichever picked, I don't like to decide this upon by myself. -xnbc)
| >>262833
(Maybe use solution B, but have the quest only appear every second week or each month. That way, it would make sense for the "horsemen" to be able to teleport there, and it would also solve the fact that nobody else is there. Only a suggestion.)
| (oh sorry for not doing this sooner.
I was reading this
https://m.imgur.com/gallery/IhcoS
before you attempt to read it,know that it took me 1 hour 20 min to finish.*and i read quick!* )
(another alternative or option C as i call it is this.
There was more then one quest note.
Aria saw the note in a board in primaria right?
Who said there was just one?
Even if there was only one in primaria, there are other cities with quest boards)
(cont)
| (famine could have saw a copy before aria and and took the quest.
Due to them being higher lvl then nova [who is 70] and ellie [who is 68]
They could have just rended through the dungeon.
Again just my 2 cents.
>morphine_blues )
| >>262852 >>262900
(These are great, but it only moves the 'where are the other players' problem a bit. You'd think that there'd be other people in a simple fetch quest. Remember, this isn't like the raid, where only a couple of people have found the place.
Come to think of it, I just set up a big block for the story progression, didn't I? -xnbc)
| (Here is my input to what you guys have said:
I think that it would make sense that there wouldn't be any sort of special protection for somebody with as high of a bounty as Famine. I imagine that you guys took the Dungeon quest and, as a result, are in your own instance away from every other player. Famine is visible but physically there in every instance because of his bounty, meaning that everybody who has the dungeon group instance that separates then from other players (cont)
| Can *choose* to hunt Famine if they wish, but to Famine, until the very moment they attack him they will be invisible because of the dungeon group instance they are in. If they *choose* to attack him, he'll automatically enter their instance for the battle and there will be no group instance barriers between them at all.
[Notice that it didn't display if Famine was in a party or not ;3]
Now, onto how Famine could be there: I like the timed quest reset idea, that the (cont)
| Dungeon itself resets after a certain timed interval so that it can refresh and everybody can get loot from it repeatedly. Famine, whether alone or not, has just already beat and finished the dungeon, so until the reset happens he doesn't have any enemies in his instance [besides the players hunting him but I'm referring to PvE here] since he already beat the dungeon, and so he can just run through it if he wants to, although he doesn't get any loot or anything for it.
-Pirat3]
| (workable in my eyes.
Also new rule.
If you want to join and you made a "how to join SoC" thread.[which seem to happen a lot cuz there are like 5 of them in total]
We are discussing how to integrate your character in the how to thread and *not* the game.
That way all this does not happen again and disrupts the story.
Note that this is more if a request then a rule.
>morphine_blues )
| >>262973
(>looks down sheepishly.
I'm sorry :/ I didn't know, otherwise I wouldn't have intruded this thread without working out what I had planned with you guys. I wanted the element of surprise, mystery and secrecy around these players, but I should have run things by you guys first. Is there anything else I should do?
-Pirat3)
| >>263368
(dont worry about it ^-^!
Its probably my fault that i didnt say that beforehand.
Anyways.
There is this thing me and maskur would do.
It can be sumed up as follows:
If stressing out the lore stops the game from progressing, then make like adventurers league and don't worry about the lore.
So famine is there now and there is no need to think it further.
Why dont you guys go back to role-playing?
Again just my 2 cents.
>morphine_blues )
| (Might as well start a new thread while you're at it lol, we have 2 more posts left after this)
| (New thread in progress! I had work blocking my time here, so I won't be as active. I promise there'd be some post in a day though. -xnbc)
This thread is permanently archived
| > The view was clear, the party stood idly; and Aria in particular has fear painted in her face.
> Healthbar pops clear on top of the figure, revealing its written name.
[Aias, Iron Guard General]
{HP: 10k — Boss}
> Aias roars barbarically. Standing tall at four meters, the greatsword he carries was no more intimidating. An armored figure with the mind of a berserker.
> He stood still, but it's clear something was winding as his stance builds to that of an attacking pose.