[PP-F2] Bees, Glorious Bees <<Return of the Queen>>

[Birdie 0]

Continuing on from this thread:

"All Might? Honestly, I never would have guessed you trained Martial Arts." With a 'fwip', the fencer's rapier clicked into place as she returned it to its sheath. In less than three minutes, they went from discovering the enemy camp to eradicating their numbers completely, and the quest criterion was evidently fulfilled as indicated by the changed icon. After Aereth spoke, she nodded. "Mhm, that didn't take anywhere near as long as I was anticipating..." In the absence of a distraction, Birdie's trail of thought wandered back to their rudely interrupted conversation - what he meant by refusing to let them take another person. She wasn't square enough to so boldly inquire who it was, but he'd said it with certainty and intent as if she should've known who he was referring to.

Still shaken from the past discussion, she tried her best to steel her emotions and seem unphased. "It's a short walk back to the camp, t-then I guess we're free to do whatever. You feeling up for another quest?"  She corrected her shaky tone as convincingly as possible and walked across the clearing to Aereth, where he'd slain the Treant King and spell the end of <<Elvish Rivalries>>. "I haven't been doing very well to keep up with them, so any of the more recent ones work for me."

@Aereth

Edited August 2, 2017 by Birdie

[Aereth 1]

Aereth chuckled. "Yes. I picked the material arts skill up back in the days where I needed it to get my strongest OHSS sword art. But in the end I was very disappointed by the poor damage output of that thing, so I switched to material arts." Aereth answered, and continued as soon as Birdie mentioned how that quest didn't take nearly as long as she expected. "I'm free for today, so if you want we could go down to the second floor and do that new wasp queen quest if you'd like. It should be much more challenging than this one."

Aereth noticed how she seemed to be lost in thoughts for some moments before she asked of he wanted to do another quest. "Do you have something on your mind?" he asked, and waited for an answer. It really seemed that something was bothering her. Sure telling somebody that the Laughing Coffin was after you was a shocker, but somehow Aereth had a feeling that it wasn't only this that caused this high amount of un-comfort in Birdie's behavior.

@Birdie

[Birdie 0]

"Can't say I could argue with that." From what little she knew about the One-Handed Sword classes, the Straight Sword variant had fairly average AoE and the strongest skill required Martial Arts, a realisation which came disturbingly late.

Return of the Queen didn't sound familiar- there was Long Live the Queen, so she had to assume the two were somewhat connected. "Works for me, let's swing by the Elf camp first then head on down." Turning and starting back down the path, a few seconds would pass before Aereth proposed a question. A slight frown took over as she lowered her eyes to the floor, contemplating how to properly phrase what was irking her. "Y-yeah, a little. W-what you said earlier, about seeking vengeance on Laughing Coffin and making sure that they can't take anybody else from you... w-well, there's no way to ask this without sounding like an insensitive b**ch, b-but... who did they take from you?"

@Aereth

[Aereth 1]

"Great, then let's go." Aereth agreed, and both of them started to head towards the elf camp once more. Finally Aereth understood. He hand't told Birdie yet about his first encounter with the Laughing Coffin. He intended to tell her before he would have left the Celestials, but unfortunately she went MIA before that could happen. The brunette stopped, and turned around to look his female friend into the eyes. Blue met brown, and both of them radiated a mixture of feelings. He could see, how Birdies were filled with guilt and shame for asking the question, but also with a hint of curiosity about the person Aereth was talking about earlier, while his own were looking pretty much empty of any emotion, covered by his facade. But if somebody would look close enough, he or she would definitely see at least some of the endless regret, sadness, hatred and many other negative feelings he had locked away inside of him, to keep them from emerging. He did his best to keep up the facade of the strong and confident man with the unshakable determination of making Aincrad a safer place, but his eyes sometimes betrayed him. And this was one of this moments.

"You are no insensitive bitch. I wanted to tell you some time back about that but unfortunately never had the chance." With that he opened up his inventory, and fetched the very same picture crystal he showed Itzal when he told him the truth. He silently handed the crystal over to Birdie and said. "I didn't join SAO alone, you know..."

@Birdie

OOC: The crystal shows a picture of a very happy looking Aereth and with a girl with long brunette hair in combination with bangs, Aereth's arm is rested over girl's shoulders and their heads touching slightly. Both of them are wearing standard starter cloth armor and were sitting on the grassy ground just outside the north gate of the town of beginnings.

Spoiler

Just so you get a general idea of how the girl looks like.

 

[Birdie 0]

The sound of feet dragging on the dirt halted all movement. Birdie had turned to meet Aereth's gaze but all she met with were the empty husks of a broken man's eyes. Exploring every hint of emotion ingrained in his facial expression, she could feel the immense emotional turmoil he was overcoming to answer her heavy question.

She took the item from Aereth without a word and tapped on its side to bring up a menu. Tapping 'Show Picture', an image was projected from the crystalline item. She froze. Her eyes grew wide, inspecting every detail - of the first floor-esque environment, of an early Aereth in beginner's armour with the grandest smile she'd ever seen him with, and of a brunette sat beside him. 'I didn't join SAO alone, you know.'

Oh... O-oh my God...

Birdie understood. Aereth had entered the game with the woman in this picture. Laughing Coffin had taken her from this digital world, killing her in the real one too... he wasn't doing it because of an ornate sense of heroism. He didn't want the glamour, the fame and the glory of slaying Laughing Coffin. He wanted pure, cold-blooded revenge against the PK'ers to avenge his fallen partner.

Birdie closed the picture and held still for a moment, silently handing the crystal back to Aereth. She looked him in the eye, eyebrows expressing greater regret than before. "I am... so sorry. I-I had no idea... sh*t..." Everything she said before, about imploring him to be careful and trying to convince him he didn't need to thrust himself into this - it hit her like a ton of bricks. "Please, just... forget about everything I said back there. I-I don't think I'd have been able to stop myself if they'd taken Arc way back when..."

@Aereth

[Aereth 1]

That crystal by far the most precious thing in Aereth's possession. The last remnant of the person he had lost. He carefully took it back, and stored it away. Very rarely the brunette was actually looking at the picture stored inside of the item, but still the item was more precious than anything else he owned. He had been trying to move on ever since his capture, but still had his weak moments from time to time.

"Hey, hey. There's nothing to be sorry of. Like I said before, I've been wanting to tell you much earlier. And you also don't need to worry about me doing something too risky. I need to at least hit tier three before I can do anything to them... It's funny... I've even been trying to avoid the LC because I knew how strong and dangerous they are..." He said in a warm voice while putting a hand on his partners shoulder, and his facade of confidence and determination back up.  Aereth had been preparing to take on the Laughing Coffin ever since he started to grind for his first experience points.

@Birdie

[Birdie 0]

As he spoke, Birdie pulled her eyes towards Aereth. All of the negative emotions welling inside of her began to subside, reassured that he wouldn't go and do anything reckless too soon. The bluenette breathed a sigh of relief, doing nothing to resist a smile. "As long as you believe you're strong enough when the time comes, I guess that's all that really matters. Thank you for being smart about this, Aer." She crossed an arm over her chest and put her hand over Aereth's, signalling the trust she held in him.

As she rested her hand on her hip, Birdie took a second to scope out the map and check out their position, wondering how far they were from the Elven camp. "Looks like it's only a minute walk back to the Elf Commander, then it'll be a brief walk back to... town... o-oh." Making the realisation that travel by teleport gate wasn't possible, she made a sidelong glance towards Aereth with troubled eyebrows. "S-so, um, how should we go about proceeding to the second floor?" 

@Aereth

[Aereth 1]

"Yeah, I know that I need to be careful around these guys. Back when I lost Alice, we got ambushed by two LC members. I wasn't careful and strong enough, and Alice had to pay the price for that. I don't think that I can ever forgive myself for what happened. But I know what I will fight every PKer in Aincrad until this nightmare ends. One way or the other..." Aereth said and gave back a weak smile to the bluenette. Even though he knew that he couldn't have done anything about it, because many other people have told him so, and even after the weeks he spent in imprisonment, where he had been thinking about it and sworn to cope with it, it still preyed on him with every day.

Thankful that Birdie changed the subject again, he chuckled and fetched two teleport crystals from his inventory. "These two things should drop us somewhere on the second floor. I don't know where, but at least both of them will drop us on the same spot, so we don't have to look for each other. So I'll just wait until you handed the quest in, and we can go down afterwards?"

@Birdie mobile post, so sorry for crappy formatting and typos. xD

[Birdie 0]

As Aereth mentioned putting an end to his nightmare, Birdie wanted so desperately to frown but she didn't- she couldn't. He was right. The nature of seeking vengeance against Laughing Coffin and its affiliates meant that in all likelihood, he could succumb to the same fate as the PK'ers he sought to kill, and it was a price he was graciously willing to pay. It was a daunting possibility and one the bluenette didn't want to think about, but she could at least admire his dedication to the cause. Closing out their perhaps most depressing conversation to date, she gave him a weak, feeble smile.

"We're rolling the dice on this one? Alright, sure." She inspected the crystal briefly before shoving it away, raising her eyes back to Aereth. "Mhm, if memory serves right then the camp should be right around... aha!" Passing one last tree that led away from the forest, the Elven camp came into sight nearby. "I'll be right-"

---minutes later---

"-back!" Running back from the Elves' camp, the bluenette called out to Aereth as he drew closer. "Sorry I took so long, the Elf Commander seems to enjoy the sound of his own voice." Birdie rolled her eyes. "So, about these crystals. Will our destination be completely random? Like, it doesn't follow a pattern or pre-designated locations or anything?" She called up her inventory and materialised the crystalline rock, priming it for when he gave the go-ahead.

@Aereth No sweat. ^^

Edited August 7, 2017 by Birdie

[Aereth 1]

"Kinda. It seems that this is the fate of every orange player who doesn't want to travel from floor to floor by foot." he said with a sly smile. Aereth nodded and sat down on the very same spot he waited the first time Birdie made her way into the camp. "No stress. I'll be right here." 

some minutes later

Aereth opened one of his eyes as he heard that somebody was aproaching him. Thankfully it was just his blue haired partner. "No worries. I know these situations. Unfortunately you can't skip the unimportant stuff." He hated talking to NPC's but that was nothing to discuss now. "More or less. I know a handful Alcheminsts that sell their leftover teleport crystals to me for a good price. They usually just drop you near vacant locations of the destined floor. So no fear in them dropping you off the edge of the floor." Aereth added with a chuckle, and activated his own crystal. "See you down there." With that he vanished into light and was gone.

Some moments later he re-emerged on the top of the very same mountain he had gained his material arts skill. "Well.... Still better than walking down from the fifth floor... I guess?" he said to himself, and waited for Birdie to join him.

@Birdie

[Birdie 0]

"Vacant locations... I see. Slim chance that'll be any place noteworthy," Birdie muttered under her breath, curiously gazing at the stone. "Yeah, I'll see- Aereth?" She stared at the spot where he once stood, blinking. Releasing a sigh the bluenette rolled her eyes, and brought a hand to the crystal, tapping the item's side to twice to activate it. "See you down there."

---down there---

Blinding white light enveloped her vision and faded just as quick, revealing a grand view of the hilly landscapes which made the second floor so appealing. As the woman turned her head sideways, a small hut resided on her left and Aereth was stood waiting to her right. "You weren't kidding, I literally have, like, no idea where we are... oh, though I think that hill right over there is Urbus," she proposed, pointing towards a green hilltop in the distance. An inspection of her mini-map didn't do much to help, either. "Alright, let'spick up this quest at a notice board and see how far away this new wasp queen thing is..." The bluenette hummed curiously. "Hey, what happens if you use a teleportation crystal on the floor that you're on? Think it could bring us closer to the boss?"

@Aereth

Edited August 7, 2017 by Birdie

[Aereth 1]

Aereth chuckled. "You're right. Actually, this is the place where you can get the material arts skill, see that hut down there?" Aereth asked and pointed down a little bit. "This is the place where the quest NPC lives... That old hag...." he added in a low voice, and then turned his head to face Birdie again. "Unfortunately that's not how it works. I'm no Alchemist, but I think when creating teleport crystals the Alchemists can choose where the place where the teleport crystal drops them off. And usually I don't know where they drop me. But sometimes I'm lucky and I am able to get some teleport crystals that drop you at the same location." the brunette said, trying to tell her the little bit of information he had on that matter.

After that he walked over to the edge of the platform they were currently standing and looked down, the very steep terrain. There was one small serpentine path that led down the platform, but  "Now the problem is just how to get down." A grin creeping over the face of the brunette as he said this sentence. "You remember the training on floor eleven with Itzal?"

@Birdie

[Birdie 0]

When Aereth talked about the Martial Arts quest giver, she couldn't help but chuckle and roll her eyes. "You think highly of that NPC, I see." A hint of disappointment flashed in her eyes as he explained the mechanics of the crystals, though she was quick to mask it with an understanding smile. "So that's what you mean by random. That... makes a lot more sense now, even if it is a little disappointing." In her mind, she imagined teleporting around the floor until they landed right in the middle of the Queen's domain. Looking back, it did seem like a childish desire.

The only way down the hill was a steep curvy path, it brought a bad feeling to the bluenette's stomach just looking upon it. As Aereth mentioned their first lesson with Itzal on the eleventh floor, she lifted an eyebrow in curiosity. "M-most of it... whyyyy?" the woman asked cautiously, recalling the events that transpired that very day. A lot of searching... we found a ruin... I think he and Itzal ran off at some point... What does that have to do with this? W-what on Earth is that man planning? she regretted even asking herself.

@Aereth

[Aereth 1]

"Yeah. Not really. Just let me know if you wanna do that quest at some point. Just to annoy that stupid NPC." Aereth answered with a chuckle on his own. Back when he first took the quest, the NPC put the make up on his face, and left him alone with the rock. Even when it started to rain, that old hag didn't show up to let him in for some rest. And he could have sworn he saw her how she watched him from the window.

"Teleport crystals usually are f*cking expensive, so I just drop by some Alchemists and buy everything they don't need anymore. Safes me a lot of money." Aereth said with another small chuckle as he saw the slight hint of disappointment in the bluenette's face.

"Good... Milady." Aereth answered, smile still intact, and extended his right arm towards Birdie. He of course was referring to the small training session where only she and Itzal worked on her fear of heights, but Aer didn't know that Birdie was thinking about the other session they all had together. As soon as Birdie would take his hand, Aereth took a tight hold of her and swung her on his back piggyback style while activated his <<Charge>> skill. "You better hold onto me tight." He said with a chuckle, and jumped off the platform. This was by far the fastest way down, and with Aereth's high level of balance and speed, he could easily jump from rock to rock until they would reach the bottom. Would something like this work in the real world? Hell no. But did Aereth care? Not the slightest....

@Birdie

[Birdie 0]

"Milady?" she criticized, eyebrow raised. With little choice in the matter, Birdie hesitantly took hold of Aereth's extended arm- what came next was a blur.

By the time it was over, her eyes were sealed and wrapped impossibly tight around his neck, clutching onto him for dear life. "... is... is it over?" After five seconds passed without any movement, she inched a single eye open and was met with an open plain, trees scattered here and there with docile creatures roaming the land, and finally, the back of Aereth's head. "What...-"

"-the hell were you thinking!" She leapt off her ex-rival and bent her knees upon landing, glaring at him with the fury of a thousand Suns. "It wouldn't have taken that long to get down, do you know how irresponsible that was! Oh God, what if you fell? What if we died?!" Shifting from feelings of anger to unease in less than three seconds, she softened her eyes and sighed. "How the hell did you know that was going to work?"

@Aereth

[Aereth 1]

After the few minutes of jumping and falling the pair finally reached the foot of the mountain. And as soon as Birdie got down from his back, the bluenette started scolding him for the stupidity of the thing he just did.
Aereth chuckled. “I’m sorry, but if I had told you what I was about to do, you would never have agreed. And besides that, the first time I fell down from up there I ended up with about 20% of my health left, and I was only about level 25 back then.” Aereth said while smiling at Birdie. “I wouldn’t have let you fall. Ever.” The brunette then added with honesty in his tone. If he wouldn’t have been sure that he would get both down safely, he wouldn’t have jumped. “I just wanted tospeed things up a little bit, and here we are. Still at full health, and ready to slay some mobs.”

@Birdie

[Birdie 0]

Hmph, 'never would have agreed', you got that right. A look of concern overwhelmed her as Aereth mentioned surviving with 20% of HP the first time around. She truly didn't understand what compelled him to try the manoeuvre more than once, but it was hard to argue that it wasn't the fastest way down. Arms crossed, she eased up with a sigh and nodded in resignation. "Ugh... F-fine, I guess it was pretty fun. Just like... warn me the next time you try something like that?" Looking up to Aereth, she hoped to get verbal confirmation from him but didn't quite hold her breath.

Taking initiative, Birdie huffed and headed along a dirt path. "So," she started, swinging her eyes to the man. "What do you know about this quest? Does it have something to do with Long Live the Queen?" Flashing back to the time she took on the first Wasp Queen, she'd sought the help of another- Zandra, of all players- though it ended up being a painful waste of the axe-wielder's time.

@Aereth

[Aereth 1]

"Yes I will try and tell you the next time." He said with a chuckle. Most probably he wouldn't, since she would definitely out-argue him. Smooth talking was one of Aereth's virtues, but as soon as it comes to arguing about something with females, he would loose the arguments almost all the time. Better ask for forgiveness than for allowance. 

He shook his head, and started to follow the blue haired scout on the dirt path. "Kinda." he replied as blue ores met his own brown ones. "My information brokers told me about it. They discovered it's location, and it was the Wasp Queen again. Just on steroids and with some minions. I heard rumors about probably four or five minions that must be defeated before you can find the queen, but that's it." Aereth concluded, before checking his map. "We should be close though. I feel like the minions have to be somewhere around this area..."

@Birdie

[Birdie 0]

"Minions... would they happen to be those things over there?" She lifted a finger to a group of angry, buzzing yellow nightmares in the distance. Back in the real world, bees and wasps and all flying insects were her biggest fear. Although she couldn't quite put a finger on it, something about their gigantic size in Aincrad made them less fear-inducing, as if they were just any other ordinary monster in the game.

She grimaced before glancing at Aereth. "Alright, I'll pick one off, you focus on the other four. Fair?" Offering the man a smirk, she twisted on the spot and sped off towards the oversized bees, brandishing her Fleuret mid-stride. Of course, that was just the most efficient way of doing things- her main class of weapon had a disturbing lack of AoE so picking off a single target was all she was able to do.

A wave of uncertainty washed over her as their buzzing grew louder, though determination kept her going til the very end as she pushed her blade arm forwards, triggering Over Radiation. The system placed Birdie behind her target and she unleashed a flurry of thrusts and swirls, stepping away once the Sword Art expired.
-----
ID# 87683 - BD: 8+3=11 - MD: 7-3=4

[1 (#1)] Birdie - HP: 720/720 - EN: 72/72

• Sword Art Used: Over Radiation [Damage: 12*14=168-25=143]

[0] Aereth - HP: ???/??? - EN: ??/??

Bee Minion #1 - HP: 107/250 - MIT: 25 - DMG: 125
Bee Minion #2 - HP: 250/250 - MIT: 25 - DMG: 125
Bee Minion #3 - HP: 250/250 - MIT: 25 - DMG: 125
Bee Minion #4 - HP: 250/250 - MIT: 25 - DMG: 125
Bee Minion #5 - HP: 250/250 - MIT: 25 - DMG: 125

@Aereth

Edited August 8, 2017 by Birdie

[Aereth 1]

Following the line the finger of the bluenette created, Aereth now also was able to see the group of mobs. "Exactly. God, how I hate these big insects. Believe me, if there was a quest with huge spiders, I'd be out.." Aereth said and removed his cloak to reveal his armor.

Aereth gave back a deadpanned look, and simply nodded. "Sure. Just make sure to visit the monument from time to time if I don't make it." Aereth joked, and ignited the Flame Aura enhancement of his armor. Simultaneously his <<Dimensional Shift>> materialized into his left hand, and he was ready to battle. A smile crept over his face, when he activated his <<Charge>> skill in order to close the distance and get the first hit on the oversized insects. 

Aereth shot forward, and his blade began to emit a black aura as he was charging up the Shadow Explosion sword art. "One... Two... Three... Four..." Aereth counted mentally as the blade shifted through the defenses of the helpless insects. It really seemed like his phase weapon was doing a splendid job. Unfortunately he had not much time to celebrate, since the wasps now started to retaliate. Dodging by simply side stepping and jumping back a couple of times, he found himself back to back with his partner. "Everything alright on your end?" he asked, in a joking manner.

ID# 87684 results:

Battle: 10

Mob: 3-3

[1 (#1)] Birdie - HP: 720/720 - EN: 72/72

[2 (#2,3,4,5)] Aereth - HP: 880/880 - EN: 71/88

• Sword Art Used: Shadow Explosion [Damage: (12+3+2)*9-13 = 153-13 = 140]

Bee Minion #1 - HP: 107/250 - MIT: 25 - DMG: 125
Bee Minion #2 - HP: 110/250 - MIT: 25 - DMG: 125
Bee Minion #3 - HP: 110/250 - MIT: 25 - DMG: 125
Bee Minion #4 - HP: 110/250 - MIT: 25 - DMG: 125
Bee Minion #5 - HP: 110/250 - MIT: 25 - DMG: 125

@Birdie