Pinball

Lessa arrived quicker than he'd expected her to. Pinball stepped aside and let her have her space. He felt a bit out of place. Lessa seemed a lot more invested than he was in this strange discovery, but wasn't that why he'd messaged her? Pinball watched as she peered deeply into the slime, searching for anything she could use to identify the player's identity -- -- and with a start, she'd found it. Cord? Cord? Who was Cord? Pinball didn't remember anybody named Cord -- though the face trapped in slimostasis did seem mildly familiar -- but Lessa certainly did. She wasted no time dig

"Hello," he replied. He pushed himself off from the mushroom stalk he was leaning against and nodded. "Of course. Not a problem." He turned and started walking. Pinball said nothing about the last quest they had taken together -- but in hindsight, why would he? What was he going to do, ask if she was feeling better? It was a weird question and he didn't feel like having an awkward conversation about it. He'd see for himself if she was feeling better or not shortly. "The Leech Lich," he said, "is down by the Stygian River. It's going to be a bit of a walk to get there again."

“I’m not really a combat guy,” Oz admitted, coming as no surprise, “but I’m thinking now would be a good time to kill the thing." "Yeah," Pinball replied. The Titanium Warden, having briefly taken a knee, slowly began to rise. The magma bubbled and burst from its exposed chest, where Pinball had torn its armor apart. It spit steam through the glowing cracks of what armor remained, its eyes a boiling red. Pinball flipped his knives into his hand. He didn't close the distance this time. One after another, he let the blades fly. One landed heavy in its shoulder, sinking deep into its r

"Christ—jump scare much?" Pinball shrugged. He'd said he was going to help, but he ended up not having to. Morningstar's attack had been a little excessive, and put them in a pretty tricky position. If Pinball had to attack, he wasn't going to be able to use Sword Arts without risking killing it, and that could have lead to complications on its own. Thankfully, Mishiro bailed them out. Her attack was pinpoint -- precise. Pinball was impressed, though his expression certainly didn't show it. Terra Firma switched its stance and disappeared beneath the sands. All was silent.

The final showdown was over quickly, and Pinball was pretty happy for it. The bear stumbled forward, weak and defeated. It didn't seem to have a fraction of the vigor it was showing him just moments ago. Pinball flicked a knife into its face and called it a day. The beast burst into a cloud of dust and light, leaving Pinball alone on the broken forest path. He glanced down at the pop up menus on his interface. Standard loot rewards, dungeon rewards... good. Maybe now the bears would stop spawning. He dismissed the menus and checked his inventory. He was making pretty solid progress. Hopefully

That was his opening. The bear was slow, tired, exhausted -- whatever you wanted to call it, whatever a mob that was at the end of their rope could be described as. It tried to bite his head off his neck and Pinball rewarded it with a dagger through the bottom of his jaw. It swatted at him with a paw the size of him and Pinball jumped out of his range, hurling a pair of knives into its chest. It roared, but Pinball could tell by the roar that it didn't have much fight left in it. Pinball took another step back. Another. The bear lumbered forward, weak, its head drooping and its paws heavy. Pin

He held his dagger at the ready. The bear was getting impatient. It didn't seem to want to wait anymore. Pinball hesitated. The bear sense it and charged. Pinball took a wider stance. Again, it was fast -- faster than any other bear Pinball had fought, though probably not the fastest creature (or person) he'd faced in Aincrad. The bear practically leapt at him. Pinball tossed a knife up -- a bad throw -- but it was all he could do before he had to duck and slip out of the way. The ground where Pinball was once staying was instantly cratered, and the ground shook from the impact. Pinball let ou

His battle healing, at this point, had healed up most of the damage the bear had initially inflicted to him. He was probably able to eat another one or two of those swipes, though if he could at all help it, he was going to avoid it. Pinball watched. They were still playing their little game of cat and mouse, the bear testing his perimeter, and Pinball holding it down. It was scared, now. Or maybe scared wasn't the right word. Maybe it was just hesitant. Pinball didn't want to give the mob any more credit than it deserved. It was digital. It had no thoughts, it had no feelings. All it had was

He couldn't let that happen again. He stayed his distance. The bear didn't let up. It wanted him badly. But Pinball was ready for it this time. He kept his distance dancing on the outside, halting its charges before it ever even had the chance to advance. Every time it reared up to charge, Pinball threw a knife in its direction. It was smarter than the other bears, too. It wasn't passively accepting its death. Pinball's blades hurt it bad and it knew it. It stayed its distance, testing for an opening, but Pinball wouldn't give it one if he could at all help it. The bear got brave and charged h

The bear recovered. Pinball stayed his distance. He wasn't going to face it head on, not if he could help it. But it seemed like Pinball wasn't going to get the chance. The bear was quick -- quicker than all others before it -- and it was in his face before Pinball could even properly gauge its speed. It stood up, bringing both of its massive paws up and then down on Pinball. Pinball dropped his knives and caught the bear's paws. Almost immediately his knees buckled, and Pinball's arms were shaking. The power was unreal. What had he been thinking. Why hadn't he just rolled away like he normall

The bear charged. Pinball charged too. He leapt over the bear and onto its back, burying a pair of knives in its shoulder blades, much like he'd stunned all the others before it. And like all the others before it, it too collapsed, its limbs betraying it. Pinball bounced off the back of the bear and landed on his feet. He flipped the new blades in his palm. He was going to take advantage of whatever he could -- but he'd learned his lesson about taking the bear head on. He was playing it risky enough by rushing out and leaping over it like that. No, Pinball hung back. He threw a pair of blades

The bear was giant. Twice the size of the biggest bears he'd ever seen. It stood head and shoulders above Pinball on four legs. If the last group of bears had claws like daggers, this bear had claws like shortswords. Pinball was half surprised that he hadn't been ripped in half when he'd been swatted aside like a doll. If he had bones, he was sure that every single one of them would be broken from its attack if not from the fall after. Pinball set his jaw. All that meant was that he was going to have to make sure he didn't get hit like that again. Or if he did, that he was prepared to run away

He walked along the path for what felt like ages. As far as he could tell, there were no more bears to be found. Pinball was confused. Had he been mistaken? He was just about to call it quits and head back when a massive roar sounded behind him. Pinball spun around, blades in hand -- and he was too late. The bear's giant paw slammed into him and sent Pinball flying. He hit the ground hard. His health dipped below half. His head was spinning. His heart rate quickened. When was the last time a single hit had sent him so dangerously close to the edge? With a practiced hand he pulled out one of hi

Pinball stood still, watching the last remaining bear as it sized him up. It was unbridled fury, all fat and muscle and fur. And teeth. And also claws, too. He reckoned each one of its claws were the same size as his daggers, if not just a bit shorter. Pinball tilted his head as it rushed him. Too brazen. Too rash. But that was alright. He wouldn't complain if things worked out in his favor. All it took was a single smooth sidestep, and a couple of knives in its side to finish it off. The bear, mid-charge, was carried off its feet and slid face first into the grass and dirt, causing the ground

He danced away as the bears rushed him again. They were fast, but Pinball was faster. They were vicious, too, but Pinball hit a tad harder. The bear swiped at him and its paw slammed heavily into the ground. Pinball's response was to bury a dagger between its eyes with enough force to nearly send it flying off its feet. The other one was closer than he'd expected. The bear swiped heavily at its head, and Pinball ducked, feeling the displaced wind and hearing the woosh of its mass overhead. He spun around, looking to finish the last remaining big bear with a slash across its muzzle. He missed n

Unlike the last group, though, these bears were tougher. There was the incrementing difficulty; but that wasn't quite the whole of it, he knew. Pinball's knives buried themselves deep in the flanks of both bears, digging through muscle and fat and fur. They each roared angrily, taking swats at him, but Pinball was quicker than that, and he wasn't going to be caught lacking by a couple of middle of the road dungeon mobs. Pinball let his hands fall beneath his cloak, flipping a new pair of blades into his palms but not revealing them yet. His mind briefly went back to the bears near his house, o

The next group of bears came, and this time there were only two of them. They weren't standing on their hind legs, thankfully, and just seemed to be normal bears. But they were much bigger than the last four, and Pinball was beginning to notice the pattern of their names. He frowned. It definitely felt like a prank, at this point, but what was he supposed to assume? That Cardinal itself had decided that today of all days they were going to mess with one specific person? That was much too far fetched and he wouldn't even entertain the thought. Pinball let the bears come to him this time; he was

Two of the four bears he'd paralyzed didn't get up. They succumbed to their injuries with whimpers, shattering into two distinct clouds of azure fractals. Good. That only left the last two. They struggled to get back up, their massive paws digging holes into the earth with every frustrated stomp. Pinball didn't wait for them to recover. Why bother? The outcome was going to be the same. He buried a dagger in the skull of the two of them, putting them out of their misery. They, too, followed their companions, passing away in explosions of light and dust. Pinball's hands vanished beneath his cloa

It wasn't long after he started down the broken forest path that his suspicions were proven true. Four big bears stood guard. They were standing on their hind legs. What? Pinball had never seen that before, but he didn't have time to question it. He threw himself into the thick of it, his daggers flashing, one in each palm. The bears took swats at him, but they were two slow. He slammed the blades almost surgically into their joints, halting their movements. Each of them roared in pain, and Pinball retreated a few steps, retrieving a new pair of blades. He tilted his head and looked down. He r

Pinball went in for a closer look. As it turned out, the path DID lead somewhere. Just as to where, he was uncertain, but judging from the path of destruction leading to and from whatever destination laid at either end of the path, he could only assume that it had something to do with the ocean of bears gathered on his front door. Pinball ate a piece of cake to keep him quick on his feet and equipped a different knife and trinket. He was gearing up for combat. If he was right in his assumption, he was heading into what was basically a nest of the big brown grizzly bears. And as the old saying

He kept Untraceable just in case he was wrong, and there were still people out there that wanted him dead. He wouldn't be too surprised. If someone killed Mishiro, or Bahr, or even Acanthus, Pinball would probably chase their killer down through every floor of Aincrad ten times over. Pinball frowned even deeper, if that was possible. It was during this depressing train of thought that Pinball noticed a path that had previously not been there. He squinted. It led through the trees, across a path of trampled plants and broken twigs. It was too conspicuous to be an accident. He thought that

Well, he had the free time to take a breather now. Pinball crossed his arms. He was standing by his front door, looking rather annoyed at all the bears gathered in the woods outside his previously isolated home. That was another thing. If he couldn't get all these bears away, was his home going to be hidden for much longer? It wasn't like he desperately needed the solitude like he used to; there came a point when people stopped chasing him down, stopped trying to make him pay for the horrible things he'd done. Now he only kept it hidden out of habit, out of comfort. It was nice, after having s

The last group. He cut and tore his way through them. They, like all the other great bears before them, fell too. Pinball found himself closer to his house then, and he glanced over his shoulder to appreciate his handiwork. Or lack thereof. He'd barely made a dent in the great bear army's numbers and it was more than apparent to see. He frowned. Once again, he found himself lost as to how they had gotten there, and without an answer as to how he was going to make sure it didn't happen again. Because he could dedicate a couple of hours to clearing them out, sure -- but after that, then what? Wh

The end was almost near. He could see the outskirts. Just a few more bears had to fall before he was free of them. Not to say that their numbers were thinning -- Pinball had cut through a great deal of them at this point, and still there was a veritable ocean of them outside his home. He'd need to be a little more efficient when he came back to start clearing them out again. Whatever his plan had been wasn't working well enough in practice. He'd need to adjust. He found himself momentarily wishing there were such things as dynamite he could use. If he could just toss a couple sticks in there,

He cut and tore his way through the passive grizzlies. Still, they did nothing more than huff and snort, stamp their giant paws in the grass, and look otherwise irritated or unbothered, he couldn't particularly tell. Pinball's hands felt like they were going numb every time he buried a knife into the hide of one of the giant beasts. The dull impact Cardinal sent to his brain was not quite pain; his hands could not grow tired or sore, not really, but the sensation was none too pleasant after a certain amount of time of experiencing nothing else but it. Pinball could see the end in sight. Just a