[F-01] [SP] Little Emerald and a Stingy Mimic «DHA 1: the Emerald Hatchling»

[Tsurei 0]

“Still, that was insane, the combos you were pulling off there, Rei,” Yuta patted him on his shoulder as he mused deep in reticent thought, too busy and wrapped up in his own analysis to hear his friends chatting to each other behind him as they walked,

“What?” Rei looked over, not quite catching what was said, forcing Yuta to roll his eyes exasperated and repeating himself,

“I said, your combos were pretty incredible, I didn’t get to see you fight during the Nepent hunt since you were finished before me, but since when did you get so good?”

“Just experimenting,” Rei shrugged, “Besides, this was still a game, if you thought of each Sword Art as a special move, it would make sense to chain them together depending on the situation,”

“I guess…” Yuta looked away and mumbled, and here he had gone out of his way to show that was impressed, just for Rei to make it sound like no big deal, he knew that he himself hadn’t gotten a good enough grasp of all his Arts to combo like that.

[Tsurei 0]

He felt a bit of shame in having shown his hand without Rei taking the bait per say, but even without knowing the specific feeling he was having, Rei still picked up that he said something a bit too dismissive when he saw Yuta retreat a bit,

“Well, if you’ve played as many fighting games as I have, it makes a bit more sense,” Rei shrugged, “With Arts you usually have a favourite, right? Like a single hit that’s quick and does a decent amount of damage and so on,”

“Hm?” Yuta tilted his head back at Rei, his worries gone and now engaged in conversation, he felt only curiosity at his words, he personally preferred stealth and rpg games after all, whilst Rei was a fan of the same things, he also played far more games in general,

“Like, my Ukifune, it’s a sword art that hits the enemy into the air,” Rei motioned to demonstrate, “The sword art system is a little special,”

[Tsurei 0]

“With such a broad thing such as combat, how does it detect which sword art we want to do?” Rei wondered, “Normally, it requires you to be in a specific stance, this is the `Charging phase,` where we gather energy in the form of light into our weapons, waiting for the system to decide what Art to execute for us,

but the Arts themselves are vague, Ukifune is just a strike that intends to send the enemy upwards, so, so long as that’s the motive behind the stance, the system, which runs on our brain waves anyway can pick up on that, which is why I can use my sheath as the catalyst to launch the enemy up,”

“R-right…” Yuta nodded, trying to concentrate and focus on Rei’s long winded explanation, he knew that Rei loved game systems and delving into their mechanics, even so he hated the more technical games because they were too mind boggling, but when he found a system he liked, he would delve into it to a ridiculous degree that even a game lover like him had a hard time catching up.

[Tsurei 0]

No, he was a normal gamer, but Rei pretty much gamed every single minute of his free time, which was impressive to say the least he supposed,

“Anyway, back to combos, holding onto that idea that sword arts are not set in stone and there are ways you can modify them slightly depending on their wording, you can execute some creative combos, like… Ukifune to launch them into the air, even if the art itself is low tier, weak and costly, it stuns the enemy and launches them up, perfect for any combo, from there, just about anything will work out, such as the long charge time for Gen Getsu, my current strongest attack which requires me to trace the awkward circle in the air before a single powerful strike,”

“Right…”

“And apart from skills that synergise together, there are favourites, like my Tsuji Kaze, it’s the one and only ranged skill I have, launching a shockwave in the shape of my attack that goes a few meters away, it’s practically a projectile attack, it’s not the strongest, but a ranged attack is amazing in a near melee only system like this,”

[Tsurei 0]

“It’s quick, easy to execute, ranged, decently powerful, the execution isn’t impractical, the cost is nice and low, and it looks pretty cool,” Rei counted various points in his imaginary list as to why his current favourite sword art was awesome, “Essentially, it’s not my most damaging art, but it’s definitely my favourite,” he turned to look at Yuta, “Have you figured out your favourite yet?”

“Er… not really… no… I didn’t really use all of them all that much…” Yuta gulped and glanced away, rubbing at his neck feeling incredibly inadequate for this kind of conversation, he often discussed practical combat techniques with Rei in reality, even though they were not exactly fighters or violent people, but as expected he was kinda lost right now, he supposed Rei was just easily capable of adapting to things like this, the whole being stuck in another world was definitely his kind of best miracles to ever happen to him.

[Tsurei 0]

“I suppose it’d have to be the Tornado Kick,” Yuta spoke after a long period of thought, “I mean, it’s quick enough to pull off, it’s powerful and can be used for multiple targets, it’s not too flashy either,”

“I can see that,” Rei nodded in understanding, no doubt analysing his answer which made him a bit uncomfortable when he came to that conclusion, but instead Rei turned to look at the other two, “I’m not expecting much, but do you guys have a favourite attack?”

“Apart from passive defense and letting the enemy kill themselves on my shield?” Takumi gave a smartass response, materialising his wicked looking shield in his left hand, even now, it still looked like the shield belonging to an incredibly cruel and sadistic person, the various hooked claws glinting in the setting sun, it was truly a weapon that suited a villainous character,

“Yeah… apart from that…”

[Tsurei 0]

“I would love to see your Arts, just to see what they’re like,” Rei asked, seriously interested, he leaned towards Takumi which made him lean back in response, feeling overwhelmed when he saw the grin on Rei’s face and the glint in his eye, he was only ever this riled up when it came to weapons, combat or games, those were the only 3 subjects he was ever that interested in as far as Takumi knew having been good friends with Rei for nearly 10 years now,

“Sure… when we have the time,” Takumi relented in the end, unable to refuse since he knew Rei was not going to stop bugging him about it if he refused, it was going to be embarrassing and knowing how critical Rei was, he was going to judge him a lot, but he supposed it would get him to stop, and it would actually be useful advice considering he needed to actually be able to fight.

“You too, Kenji,” Rei glanced over at him, surprised that Takumi had agreed, Kenji couldn’t feel like he could refuse either,

“Y-yeah…”

“Excellent, look, we’re nearly out of the forest,” Rei pointed out, “Can’t wait for dinner, I’m starving!”

Edited February 12, 2020 by Tsurei

[Tsurei 0]

Summary

Spoiler

Thread Completion (2 Pages) + Along the Way

800 Col

2 Sp

600 Col

4 T1 Mats

Quest Completion

1 SP

500 Col