[F-01] [SP] Ruined Temple, Ruined Blade <<Katana Acquisition>>

[Tsurei 0]

It would be utter nonsense to think that he could easily avoid all 3 shotgun blasts at this range with his speed, not to mention, this was a full on skirmish, his other friends were fighting as well, they tried to spread out as much as possible after the first engagement to give everyone more space to do their thing, but for this first engagement, it wasn’t strange for stray shots from another hornet engaged with Yuta or someone else to hit Rei instead.

Luckily they didn’t do so much damage, or he wouldn’t bother to take on a group without an AOE Art like they were doing now, more than the exp or the damage these things dealt, the combat experience was what was most important to them.

Even so, each of those arrow like needles were far from painless, 1 point of damage didn’t mean a lack of pain after all, if you liked the idea of being stabbed by a few tens of needles, then you wouldn’t have trouble.

 

ID# 134129
BD: 8+3 = Hit [Rage Blow]
MD: 5 = Miss

ID# 134130
MD: 2 = Miss

ID# 134131
MD: 4 = Miss

Damage Dealt= 3 x 2 = 6

Rei: HP: 259/260 | EN: 23(-2+1)/26| 3 DMG | 8 MIT | 0 EVA| 3 ACC| 1 BLD

Giant Hornet #1: HP: 13/25 | 7 DMG
Giant Hornet #2: HP: 25/25 | 7 DMG
Giant Hornet #3: HP: 25/25 | 7 DMG

Edited January 10, 2020 by Tsurei

[Tsurei 0]

He pondered about his next choice of action too long, pinned down by needle fire, he barely realised that he was being flanked by one of the hornets, his eyes widened in fear as he whipped his attention around, already seeing that it had it’s sights on him.

With a slight jerk of it’s abdomen, back for a charge then thrusting forward, another hail of needles shot from this side, Rei rolled to the side painfully due to the uneven terrain, but being in a crouch meant he had little option. Groaning as he stood up, he ran through the terrain, forcing the hornets to follow him to get him in their effective range again. One of the giant hornets eventually reached the part of it’s programming that thought it was a good time to sweep down and stab him in the back, however, Rei had been waiting for just this moment.

 

ID# 134132
BD: 10+3 = Crit +2 [Rage Blow] [Bleed Inflicted]
MD: 3 = Miss

ID# 134133
MD: 7 = Hit

ID# 134134
MD: 5 = Miss

Damage Dealt= (3 + 2) x 2 = 10

Damage Received = 7 - 8 = 1

Rei: HP: 258/260 | EN: 22(-2+1)/26| 3 DMG | 8 MIT | 0 EVA| 3 ACC| 1 BLD

Giant Hornet #1 [Bleeding 1/2] : HP: 13/25 | 7 DMG
Giant Hornet #2: HP: 25/25 | 7 DMG
Giant Hornet #3: HP: 25/25 | 7 DMG

Edited January 10, 2020 by Tsurei

[Tsurei 0]

Turning on his heel, halting to a stop, his blade flattened against his back and charged blue, he stood his ground and swung at the passing Hornet with a sidestep, the force of the strike threw him to the side as well, allowing him to avoid some of the scatter fire from the other two hornets.

With a loud blue crash, he knew that he had procced the crit and thus the bleed, “That’s one down…!” Rei muttered to himself, struggling to stay on his feet when he landed, he quickly hid behind a tree as another hail flew his way.

He could distinctly hear the sound of one of the hornets dying and shattering into pieces. He reached over his back to charge his next Art, his next attack.

He waited for his opportunity when the Hornet would dive at him, but when the second hornet fired it’s needles at the same time he was going to strike, he was forced to twist away and dodge it last second, swinging at thin air, he was thrown to the side, wasting the Art.

 

ID# 134135
BD: 2 +3 = Miss [Rage Blow]
MD: 8 = Hit

ID# 134136
MD: 4 = Miss

Damage Received = 7 - 8 = 1

Rei: HP: 257/260 | EN: 19(-4+1)/26| 3 DMG | 8 MIT | 0 EVA| 3 ACC| 1 BLD

Giant Hornet #1 [Bleeding 1/2] : HP: 13/25 | 7 DMG
Giant Hornet #2: HP: 25/25 | 7 DMG
Giant Hornet #3: HP: 25/25 | 7 DMG

Edited January 10, 2020 by Tsurei

[Tsurei 0]

Scrambling for cover, he could almost see the meandering trail of needle spikes embedded in the ground that signalled the ground the combat covered, it was hard to see the others in this dense forest, but he could vaguely see the bright sparks, the light of their arts, and the fleeting image of them dashing between trees.

Everyone was having a hard time, he was only lucky last time because of the 3 Crits in a row. Not so much this time. He glanced over his vitals, Health bar was good as always, energy was running low, it hasn’t happened in a while, but in this hectic fight, he wasn’t surprised.

If this taught him anything, it was that flying drones wielding shotguns were terrifying. He dashed out of cover when he though the hornets were close enough, leaping up, he jumped off the tree and slashed at one of them in mid air, however, the creatures were able to easily use their superior aerial mobility to dodge.

 

ID# 134137
BD: 6 +3 = Hit [Rage Blow]
MD: 3 = Miss

ID# 134138
MD: 7 = Hit

Damage Dealt = 3 x 2 = 6

Damage Received = 7 - 8 = 1

Rei: HP: 256/260 | EN: 18(-2+1)/26| 3 DMG | 8 MIT | 0 EVA| 3 ACC| 1 BLD

Giant Hornet #1 [Bleeding 1/2] : HP: 13/25 | 7 DMG
Giant Hornet #2: HP: 19/25 | 7 DMG
Giant Hornet #3: HP: 25/25 | 7 DMG

Edited January 10, 2020 by Tsurei

[Tsurei 0]

As expected, he needed to have them dive at him before he could even attempt to land a hit, that dive was when their movements were most predictable and the moment they were most vulnerable was when they were close to the ground and in the reach of their swords.

It looks like he could only wait for that moment, whilst running around, desperately avoiding their shotgun blasts, their arrow needles plunging into the earth, crunching into wood and bouncing and ricocheting off wildly from the stones scattered around.

He had run so far now that he could see absolutely no trace of his allies, which was disturbing, but they could just find each other afterwards. His eyes caught movement from one of the hornets and he quickly charged his Art, doing the usual sidestep, he caught the hornet with a powerful crashing slash, but with no Crit, it was still alive, but he was slowly working it down.

 

ID# 134139
BD: 6 +3 = Hit [Rage Blow]
MD: 3 = Miss

ID# 134140
MD: 9 = Crit + 1

Damage Dealt = 3 x 2 = 6

Damage Received = 7 + 1 - 8 = 1

Rei: HP: 255/260 | EN: 17(-2+1)/26| 3 DMG | 8 MIT | 0 EVA| 3 ACC| 1 BLD

Giant Hornet #1 [Bleeding 1/2] : HP: 13/25 | 7 DMG
Giant Hornet #2: HP: 13/25 | 7 DMG
Giant Hornet #3: HP: 25/25 | 7 DMG

Edited January 10, 2020 by Tsurei

[Tsurei 0]

His entire body jerked in startlement when a full shotgun blast impacted him from the back, the feeling of all those needles under his skin made him shudder and shiver in internalised disgust, trembling, he ran again, pulling out the needles one by one with shaky hands before panting heavily behind a tree trunk.

What was he doing being such an idiot!? This was a group battle, he needed to make sure he had eyes on the pair of them, he had gotten too excited about the last hit that he neglected the other one. He had to focus, calm down, his heart was practically roaring in his ears like a war drum at this point, sweat dripped down his body and he felt numb all over, his hands shook wildly when he held them out in front of himself.

Gripping his blade tightly, he heard the buzzing of a Hornet, lunging out with a charged Art, he slammed it into a tree where it immediately shattered.

Lucky him.

 

ID# 134141
BD: 9 +3 = Crit + 1 [Rage Blow] [Bleed Inflicted]
MD: 6 = Hit

ID# 134142
MD: 7 = Hit

Damage Dealt = (3 + 1) x 2 = 8

Damage Received = 7 - 8 = 1

Rei: HP: 254/260 | EN: 16(-2+1)/26| 3 DMG | 8 MIT | 0 EVA| 3 ACC| 1 BLD

Giant Hornet #1 [Bleeding 1/2] : HP: 13/25 | 7 DMG
Giant Hornet #2 [Bleeding 1/2] : HP: 5/25 | 7 DMG
Giant Hornet #3: HP: 25/25 | 7 DMG

Edited January 10, 2020 by Tsurei

[Tsurei 0]

Only one more left to go, he ducked behind a tree just as the cascade of arrow like needles splintered into the wood and grass around him, he peered out just for a moment to get a visual capture of the giant hornet that was buzzing around menacingly in the air, it seemed to be content with just firing those stingers at them from the air out of reach, and he couldn’t hide behind the tree since the programming of these monsters made it want line of sight at all times and only attacking when it had it.

This meant that Rei would have to dash from tree to tree so as to not get caught up in the blasts of stingers, by this point, he was well and truly lost, though he supposed he could just follow the aftermath of stingers that protruded from the earth and bark to haphazardly make his way back to the party.

 

ID# 134143
BD: 1 +3 = Miss [Rage Blow]
MD: 7 = Hit

Damage Received = 7 - 8 = 1

Rei: HP: 253/260 | EN: 13(-4+1)/26| 3 DMG | 8 MIT | 0 EVA| 3 ACC| 1 BLD

Giant Hornet #1 [Bleeding 1/2] : HP: 13/25 | 7 DMG
Giant Hornet #2 [Bleeding 1/2] : HP: 5/25 | 7 DMG
Giant Hornet #3: HP: 25/25 | 7 DMG

Edited January 11, 2020 by Tsurei

[Tsurei 0]

Losing his patience with the hornet that’s been bombarding him like an assault drone as annoying as a bee buzzing in his ear, he ran over, letting the hornet fire a shot, at him, most of which missed, but still a few stray stringers prickled his skin through his clothes and armour, he ran up and leapt off the ground, hoping to kick off from a tree to attempted to cut the giant hornet out of the air, but no luck, again the giant hornet weaved out of the way easily, was there seriously no other way than to wait for it to come down?

Resigned, he kept running away until eventually he realised that he was actually going up the mountain slope that they were searching for, better yet, he found a strange archway, like a stone Tori gate, it looked old with the stone cracking and covered in moss,

 

ID# 134144
BD: 1 +3 = Miss [Rage Blow]
MD: 7 = Hit

Damage Received = 7 - 8 = 1

Rei: HP: 252/260 | EN: 10(-4+1)/26| 3 DMG | 8 MIT | 0 EVA| 3 ACC| 1 BLD

Giant Hornet #1 [Bleeding 1/2] : HP: 13/25 | 7 DMG
Giant Hornet #2 [Bleeding 1/2] : HP: 5/25 | 7 DMG
Giant Hornet #3: HP: 25/25 | 7 DMG

Edited January 11, 2020 by Tsurei

[Tsurei 0]

However beyond that gate were a set of man made stone stairs leading up a meandering path up the mountain, the path looked rather steep and he couldn’t see the end of the stairs from here, the dense forest grew thick on either side of the stone bricked path, he was sure it ended higher up, but the forest prevented him from seeing further. On either side of the stone path were also stone lanterns in various states of disrepair, some were merely covered in moss, some were cracked and some were destroyed as if they had been impacted by something, their scattered remains on the ground. There were also statues of two large lions on either side of the Tori gate, guardians or protectors of the like.

Chances were good that this was the exact path that would lead them straight to the temple that he sought after, that being he case, he might need to make his stand here.

 

ID# 134145
BD: 7 +3 = Hit [Rage Blow]
MD: 3 = Miss

Damage Dealt = 3 x 2 = 6

Rei: HP: 252/260 | EN: 9 (-2+1)/26| 3 DMG | 8 MIT | 0 EVA| 3 ACC| 1 BLD

Giant Hornet #1 [Bleeding 1/2] : HP: 13/25 | 7 DMG
Giant Hornet #2 [Bleeding 1/2] : HP: 5/25 | 7 DMG
Giant Hornet #3: HP: 19/25 | 7 DMG

Edited January 11, 2020 by Tsurei

[Tsurei 0]

He would likely not be able to find this place again, and there were barely any landmarks to get here, he also couldn’t be certain how long those stingers would remain existing in the world since they were surely not permanent objects or else any adventurer who passed by here before would have left the place in a seriously off-putting state if the whole forest was littered in what appeared to be swarms of shotgun hornets with stingers littering the area like a archer division during a war.

Or is it that no one came here before? No, the information had to come from somewhere right?

It was pointless to think too hard about this, he turned to face the giant hornet and glanced around, so far he was lucky to not have run into other enemy spawns, or he would have a train of them following after him. He had to take care of this hornet somehow.

 

ID# 134146
BD: 7 +3 = Hit [Rage Blow]
MD: 2 = Miss

Damage Dealt = 3 x 2 = 6

Rei: HP: 252/260 | EN: 8 (-2+1)/26| 3 DMG | 8 MIT | 0 EVA| 3 ACC| 1 BLD

Giant Hornet #1 [Bleeding 1/2] : HP: 13/25 | 7 DMG
Giant Hornet #2 [Bleeding 1/2] : HP: 5/25 | 7 DMG
Giant Hornet #3: HP: 13/25 | 7 DMG

Edited January 11, 2020 by Tsurei

[Tsurei 0]

The giant hornet swooped down at last, offering Rei the one of the few chances to attack it from the ground, he hurriedly charged his art and swung down at it, his blade cutting into it’s body leaving a large red gash, however, it was still alive, flying past him in a semicircle like dive, it spun around in the air and fired off another shotgun blast of stingers, forcing Rei to throw himself to the side, less the damage, he couldn’t bear the prickling sensation of what felt like a large syringe poking into it, he wasn’t averse to needles as much as Yuta was, but he certainly didn’t like being poked and stabbed like it.

Several more blasts followed, making Rei run in circles around the small clearing of the base of the stair entrance, keeping to the forest around it and taking cover behind trees whenever he could.

 

ID# 134147
BD: 3 +3 = Hit [Rage Blow]
MD: 10 = Crit +2

Damage Dealt = 3 x 2 = 6

Damage Received = 7 + 2 - 8 = 1

Rei: HP: 251/260 | EN: 7 (-2+1)/26| 3 DMG | 8 MIT | 0 EVA| 3 ACC| 1 BLD

Giant Hornet #1 [Bleeding 1/2] : HP: 13/25 | 7 DMG
Giant Hornet #2 [Bleeding 1/2] : HP: 5/25 | 7 DMG
Giant Hornet #3: HP: 7/25 | 7 DMG

Edited January 11, 2020 by Tsurei

[Tsurei 0]

“Hey, Rei, where did you go?” Yuta’s voice of concern travelled through the party chat directly in Rei’s ear, surprising him. Flinching behind a tree as a shower of splinters fell over him, he pressed a finger to his ear,

“I’ve still got one hornet on me, I’ve found what appears to be our ticket to the temple,”

“Alright, we’re finished up here as well, shout so we know where you are,”

“Got it,”

Rei ended the call there and glanced up at the giant hornet, he should finish it as soon as he could, running over, he saw a prime time to attempt another jump, he leapt up onto a rock with one large hop, using the foot he landed on to propel him further towards a tree he then kicked off that tree to get at the hornet, perhaps thanks to the series of kicks that changed his direction about two times motion, he managed to catch the hornet off guard and land the first and last mid air Rage Blow on it,

 

ID# 134148
BD: 10 +3 = Crit +2 [Rage Blow] [Bleed Inflicted]
MD: 9= Crit +1

Damage Dealt = (3 + 2) x 2 = 10

Rei: HP: 251/260 | EN: 6 (-2+1)/26| 3 DMG | 8 MIT | 0 EVA| 3 ACC| 1 BLD

Giant Hornet #1 [Bleeding 1/2] : HP: 13/25 | 7 DMG
Giant Hornet #2 [Bleeding 1/2] : HP: 5/25 | 7 DMG
Giant Hornet #3 [Bleeding 2/2]: HP: 7/25 | 7 DMG

Edited January 11, 2020 by Tsurei

[Tsurei 0]

Slamming with a critical hit he could have done with a lot earlier, the hornet crashed into the ground, bouncing slightly before shattering in mid air as Rei fell past it, landing lightly, Rei let out a small breath, he had been running and dodging all this time, he was rather exhausted. Leaning against a tree that wasn’t too battered, he panted heavily, slowly working up his breath to shout for the others as he gazed on the stairs.

It was a lot of stairs. He imagined that none of them were going to enjoy the climb if the temple stairways in real life had anything to go by, there could be thousands of them.

“…. Oi! I’m over here!” he took a deep breath and shouted into the forest,

“We’re coming over now!” came the shouted reply from Yuta.

After a few minutes of waiting, Rei saw the three allies approach, their clothes and armour somewhat ragged and scratched, punctured by some stingers no doubt.

[Tsurei 0]

“How’d it go for you?” Yuta asked with a small wry smile and giving a wave, pushing his way past one of the trees on the slope,

“Well, it I’m not in any danger but it was pretty bad,” Rei replied with a small shrug, resting his hand on his hip and looking down at them,

Yuta put his arms around himself and shuddered, “I really hated them, have I mentioned I can’t stand needles?”

“Yup,” Rei nodded, “It very much felt like being poked by needles or syringes at the hospital,”

“I really don’t want to fight anymore of them,” he shuddered again,

“So? Where’s this entrance?” Takumi cut to the chase, looking for an answer that would hopefully end this long journey,

“Right up here,” Rei jabbed his thumb over to the stone Tori, “Looks like a religious area, we might be onto something here,”

“Thank god for that,” Kenji sighed deeply, “I don’t want to stay here with those things anymore,”

[Tsurei 0]

“Who would’ve thought giant flying drones wielding shotguns were so terrifying,” Takumi rolled his eyes sarcastically, the fact that it was a giant flying insect shooting stingers at them made his skin crawl as it he wanted to run far, far away from them, they didn’t compare to the spiders though.

“Right, it makes sense in a videogame, but seeing it in person is terrifying,” Rei chuckled as they began to make their way up the stairs,

“Holy hell… how many stairs are there!?” Yuta cried out, looking at the endless stairs going up the mountain,

“Who knows,” Rei shrugged, not bothering to count,

“It looks like several hundreds,” Takumi make a vague guess, scanning it over,

“These look like Komainu,” Yuta traced his hand over the statues, “Yeah, our odds are good, I just hope this is what we’re looking for,”

“This is like Risshakuji Temple all over again,” Rei laughed as he started up the stairs,

[Tsurei 0]

“Yeah, want to race up again?” Yuta nodded, quickly catching up to his side with a small grin,

“Hah, sure, why not?” Rei rolled his eyes sarcastically, “We’ll just go ahead and kill our legs again,”

“Come on, for old time’s sake,” Yuta smiled brightly,

“I don’t really remember the pleasant of numb legs and exhaustion to be a pleasant memory,” Rei gave a small wry grin,

“Didn’t you love the view at the top though?” Yuta raised a brow,

“Yeah, I believe I also mentioned that it would have been better if we weren’t both coughing our lungs up,”

“You guys went to Risshakuji Temple?” Kenji was just behind him as they walked up, grunting in effort as he took them two at a time,

“It was that summer trip you made when it was raining?” Takumi guessed recalling through memory,

“Yeah, that’s the one I think,” Rei nodded, looking back,

[Tsurei 0]

“Yep, it was only us two because you guys bailed because of the rain,” Yuta sighed in annoyance,

“Oi, you really can’t be expecting us to go out in that,” Tatsumi frowned back,

“Meanwhile Kenji here quickly made an excuse when you said you weren’t coming,” Rei shrugged,

“T-that was…” Kenji tried to make an excuse knowing that he had been found out, but couldn’t deny it,

“Still, I really didn’t expect you to come either,” Yuta looked over at Rei with a small smile, “I was just about to leave when you came running through the rain soaked through,”

“Yeah, the storm was really random, I happened when I was walking, halfway to the station,” Rei nodded, “So naturally I had to run for it,”

“You should’ve brought an umbrella,” Yuta grinned,

“I checked the forecast and it was fine,” he shrugged, “The rain stopped by the time the train got over to Yamagata though, so it was nice timing,”

[Tsurei 0]

“I’m surprised you went ahead with it,” Takumi sighed,

“Well, we were already at the station and honestly, I just wanted something to do by that point,” Rei shrugged, “The stairs were a bit slippery by then so I seriously thought we were going to fall down at some points,”

“You should be more careful…” Kenji worried,

“It was fine,” Yuta grinned, “We got to the top after a while, paid our respects and had a look around,”

“Even coming back down those stairs were painful,” Rei sighed deeply,

“Yeah, we hung out in the cafe for a while after,” Yuta smiled, looking distantly, “then the arcades, then a movie,”

“Yeah,” Rei nodded, “We have a bit of karaoke afterwards then got the train back,”

“It was a hell of a long day,” Yuta shared in the nostalgia, “But it was seriously fun,”

“Yeah… it was…” Rei sighed, “It was one of the few trips were ever actually went through with,”

[Tsurei 0]

“We never did manage to go camping in the forests or go to the beach in the end,” Yuta sighed in disappointment,

“We just did a bit of camping, as for the beach, who knows, it’s always too crowded,” Rei shrugged,

“It’s just that I can’t wake up early enough for those things,” Takumi excused, “And it just seems like a lot of effort,”

“Jeez, even I can bother to work up the energy to hang out,” Rei rolled his eyes,

“… We’ll go on a trip again when we get back, won’t we?” Kenji hoped, looking up at them with wavering eyes,

“… Yeah,” Rei gave a assuring nod, “We’ll go on another one, with everyone this time… for sure.”

“After months of therapy and rehab,” Takumi shrugged realistically,

“We’ll do it after we graduate as a celebration!” Yuta cheered,

“I think I only had half another year to go,” Rei nodded,

[Tsurei 0]

“Same here,” Takumi thought back, “Though I have no idea who they’ll take us back after all this time,”

“Can’t they just re-enter us back into the year,” Kenji asked,

“yeah, considering out circumstances, we should be able to just re-enroll,” Yuta nodded hopefully,

“I wonder if they’ll let us?” Takumi sighed,

“Well, we can consider all of that when we get back,” Rei shrugged, “We’ll have to spend a long time getting to the top anyhow, we’ll explore this world for all it has and make some great memories here, how about that?”

“Or traumas depending,” Takumi replied off-handedly,

“All part of the fun,” Rei grinned, “I mean, we’ve just gone camping, and we’re going up the thousand steps to the temple, the things are different, but it’s still similar, yeah?”

“You’re not wrong…” Takumi gave in, “But still, I swear I can’t believe you only care about having fun considering our circumstances now,”