[EV-F07] Storm of Shadows

[Aquan 0]

Aquan took a moment to breathe. It felt weird, pausing when the chaos around him raged stronger than a tsunami. His eyes scanned the field around him, happy to take the moment to himself. His breathing slowed and he saw everyone else taking a moment to themselves to breathe. "Okay... Okay." He wiped some water from his face and stroked the neck of the horse he was riding, finding some comfort in the creature.

His attention was pulled to a player calling for help to bring the stragglers to the rest of the group and he saw a player race off to do it. "Jevi! Thank god she's alive." He mutters and rides off after her, wanting to check in with her after they got separated for a moment. His horse raced across the field in pursuit of the woman. After a moment of chasing after her and working to get the rest of the NPCs and Players alike up the mountain, he took in a breath. It was nice to look around the scenery. An odd calm before the storm as he looked at the impromptu lake that has formed.

And with that, the storm came back. Lightning struck and Jevi's horse reared up and sent her on to the ground, her body sliding towards the mountain's edge. Aquan hoped off his horse and ran forward, panic setting in. "Not someone else!" He yells and jumps forward, grabbing her hand and beginning to pull her up. His arms strained against the weight of another person, but he refused to let her go. He slowly stood up and continued to pull her up. He could feel his own feet starting to slip as the weight of someone else but he ignored it. "No. One. Else." He said and pulled hard, the woman coming fully up from the side of the mountain.

The changing of weight distribution made his body begin to slip but he refused to put the girl in peril again. He used his arms to push the woman towards his horse and that was the last thing he could do. "Live!" He yelled to her, his mind turning blank as his body fell down the cliff side, crashing into the water below.

ID: 181484 LD: 5
Receiving/ Gaining: Giving 5 to @Jevi to bring their total to 13
Total: 0

Edited January 26, 2021 by Aquan

[Katoka 0]

With a shaky hand, the small samurai reached out and gripped her katana. Lifting it felt like trying to pick up a steel girder, but her muscles strained and her bicep bulged, half dragging it around in the mid until she managed to return it to it's saya. Her hair hung limply around her face as she stared at the ground, her chest heavy as she attempted to catch her breath. Despite the pain in her limbs from the constant running and motion from the past few hours, she felt numb.

 

Katoka knew the pain was there, she felt it in a way, but a cold numbness had wrapped her body in a cocoon. She reached out at the ground before her once more, touching the mud and oil like water pooling there. She felt a twinge of pain in her heart. She gathered a handful of mud and squeezed, the dark saturated dirt squishing through her fingers before she began to ride on wobbly legs.

 

She turned around, facing the plateau that the group had found themselves on. She began to walk. Her drive now being to find out the source of this storm. The numbness in her body began to shift, now being replaced with a burning hatred so strong she felt as though her skin would begin to radiant heat. Taking her left hand and placing it on the hilt of her sword as she did when she was nervous, the sound of tendons tightening could be heard by those she passed by. Some of the NPCs and players stepped back in shock as they saw the sad and broken woman's eyes shimmer to a glowing red.

 

Katoka was angry. More than she had ever been in her life. Pure hatred was driving her body now, her chest ablaze with fury. Her friend had been taken from her and now she wanted answers. She was going to get them one way or another.

Spoiler

ID# 181485
Roll Value: 13
Giving/Receiving: N/A
Final Roll Value: N/A

 

[Jevi 0]

Jevi's breathing was heavy as she looked over at the groups of NPC and players alike that had made their way to the mountain top safely. The danger had not passed, but their altitude allowed them a few moments to catch their breath before moving on. Though, if she was being honest with herself, where else did they have to go? Below them, the dark waters slowly rose higher and higher. If they were to reach their position, they would have to try and climb the trees... and that would only work for so long. 

A player unfamiliar to Jevi made his rounds, trying to get everyone to continue moving with little results. He pleaded to the players, asking for assistance in getting the exhausted caravan back on their feet. Atop her horse, Jevi nodded, "I'll go check and see if we have any stragglers behind, if the rest of you can try and get everyone else moving."  With a light kick of her heels, Jevi redirected the horse back towards the edge of the mountain top.

She peered over the edge as the last of the bodies made their way to the top of the mountain, joining the rest of the group. Under normal circumstances, the view of the floor's horizon would have been outstanding. Now she could hardly see anything, anything that wasn't already submerged in shadowy water, at least. The sky lit up for a moment accompanied by a deafening crack of thunder. A tree nearby erupted as lightning struck it, spooking the horse that the woman sat atop. It reared back onto its hind legs, letting out a frightened neigh. 

Jevi's eyes went wide as her hands scrambled for something to grab onto, but was thrown from horseback. Her body crashed into the cliffside, tumbling down the steep, rocky surface towards a watery grave. Suddenly, a hand grabbed her, a familiar hand. Aquan, his soaked blonde hair sticking to his face as he struggled to pull the brunette up... but at a cost. A simple slip from the change in weight was all it took for the man to take Jevi's place, tumbling down the mountainside. "Aquan!!" she shouted, reaching out a hand to rescue him in return, but with just a hand's distance between them, it was pointless. She watched in horror as he plummeted, splashing into the rising water levels. 

ID 181701
LD 8
Giving/Receiving 5 from Aquan T__T
Final Result 13

Edited January 26, 2021 by Jevi

[Elora 0]

  ♪  Lost Souls  ♪  

"ELORA WHERE ARE YOU?!", she heard Katoka cry out as her body plunged into wintry darkness.

"I'm here!", she tried to scream without respite. "Katoka - please - PLEASE HELP ME!", her mind raced as her lungs began to sting from the impending asphyxiation. Waves of panic rushed through every fiber of her being, sending clear visions through the static of her blurring sight. They were of...they were of her future -- a life that she would never experience, and a potential she would never be able to fulfill.

She imagined it all: finally having the courage to become an alchemist, to be supportive and to be proud of her best friend's successes, to become vulnerable, and to accept the unconditional love of her...

Elora closed her eyes as she thought of him. Of whatever they were. Of whatever they could have become.

A sharp and violent intake of the wicked liquid caused her throat to constrict in pain.

Her concentration wavered. 

With hands outstretched, she clawed at the void around her, struggling desperately to tread its vastness and resurface to some sense of normalcy. 

What was normal anymore?

She slowly felt herself begin to slip away as her mind ached to return to something familiar -- something that she would know to be true. Memories of her past flooded her mind in the wake of her mistakes, of the actions that lead to such a pathetic departure.

�̬̠̫ͬͫ͟�̖͕̞̬̣͓̙̝̽͡�̼̪̟̘͈ͨ͡�̜̖͇͔̼̣͂̒͞�̫̯͈̦̍ͪ̎̒͟�̛̟̼̝̐͆ͫ remembered her life of failure and her inability to live up to anyone's expectations. She remembered how she could never be better than him, how she'd forced her to abandon all hope in that ever changing, and how he'd never even wanted her to exist in the first place. Oh, how he would relish to see her in this moment, suffering at the hand of her own shortcomings. No matter how hard she'd tried, how much she'd yearned to change, she could never escape the kind of person that she really was: lazy, useless, undeserving of limitless chances...undeserving of love...

Finally, she could no longer outrun the thing she feared the most ---

 

Vanity tags: @Katoka @Freyd - The Whisper in Shadows

Edited January 26, 2021 by Elora

[The Shadow 3]

Round Fifteen

Around him, the gathered players and NPCs shifted. For the slightest, most hopeful moment, Benovault thought that he had finally reached them. Perhaps they were gathering their things, and once more trudging forward, even begrudgingly. Instead, when he turned to address them once more, he came face to face with the angriest woman he had ever seen. No, anger was hardly the word for it. To call the expression she wore anger might be to call the Pacific Ocean a puddle. It did nothing to capture the magnitude, nor the depth, of the fury rolling off of her in waves. Benovault thought the air warmed when she approached, but that might have been his imagination. Momentarily shocked by what he saw, all thought of escape took a back-seat. "Ar-are you alright?" he stammered.

He looked as though he might say more, but a trio of screams drew his attention. The great black sea of shadows had breached the edges of the meadow, and raced in from multiple sides. Only one path remained clear - the one that led upward, into the line of trees. I wonder if this was what the Titanic felt like, Benovault mused, watching first realization, then panic, consume the crowd. A whole lot of people suddenly understanding that there were very few lifeboats. 

† Aquan has been consumed by the Storm of Shadows.
Round Fifteen will end in 72 hours [January 30th at 11:00 P.M EST]
[Timer]

The LD Threshold is 14.

[Setsuna 0]

Latching on to Lessa's wrist, and using the anchor to peel herself free. Setsuna whirls in anger, ripping clean the head of one as she pivots with the blonde as a focal. The girl was nothing more than a weapon, eager to put an end to this mess in her own special brand of violence. But with this small gesture, the girl would continue, how long was still a question. 

"One down." Setsuna quipped to the woman as if offering the kill to her as payment. "There seems to be no end to them, as if they are being placed here intentionally and not at random." A flare of disgust and outrage as a metallic click of her blade shut finds the katana returned. "Glad to see that cowardice isn't infectious." Spoken as she forms a barrier between the NPC's and the rising mass of horror that aimed for them. Until her final breath, her intentions would remain the same. A single check back and the blonde was gone, swallowed whole by the shadows cast.

One harsh swallow, a place of a hand to the handle of her katana, and a screaming tear of the steel. "Two down."

ID: 181734
LD 15
Giving/Receiving 
Final Result 

Edited January 28, 2021 by Setsuna

[Lessa 1]

#181735    LD: 5

There was nothing remarkable about Lessa’s death. She did not die saving a child, or pulling a helpless elder from the sea of darkness. Nor did she die on horseback, going out in a blaze of glory like the Valkyrie of old. No, Lessa met her maker in a far more mundane, far less glamorous way.

She didn’t run fast enough.

There was something oddly poetic about Lessa’s failure to outrun the rising tide. Alyssa had never been an exceptional runner (or real runner at all, if she were being honest with herself). She had liked jogging, but mostly the idea of it, and the fact that dragging herself around the block allowed her to eat another slice of pizza. As such, she had never been fast. In Aincrad, her turtle-like features had appeared again in the form of heavy armor. No need to outrun something if you can take a hit from it, right?

But there was no hit to take here, no damage to mitigate. Instead, there was simply a shocking cold, startling her senses, and rendering her immobile. Fear and panic crashed like waves in her chest, but both paled in comparison to the cold. She could only think of the cold as she slipped under, which was a small blessing, as it saved her from hearing the screams.

[Katoka 0]

"Ar-are you alright?" stammered a man to Katoka as she strode past him. She stopped and turned, the fear in his eyes barely registering to her. She didn't answer. Instead she continued walking, passing NPCs and the few remaining players as one real path to some semblance of safety was revealed. The cries of those around her were muffled, almost like she had cotton in her ears. They were all distractions now, the only thing that mattered was finding the thing that did this to Elora. Her fury rolled off her in waves, like a campfire that had grown too large to control.

From the shadows around her leapt four wolves of ebony, their eyes glowing yellow. A crack of thunder sounded and Katoka was holding her katana again, the bodies of the shadow beings lying on the ground behind her. They dissipated into a smog like substance that floated into the air. Move wolves emerged but were just as helpless against the samurai's rage. With each monster that attacked she cut them down one after the other, her pace never slowing she reached the edge of the forest.

Thick black tendrils lashed out from the darkness and wrapped around Kat's wrists. She stopped and looked down at them, tugging to no avail. Was this how she was to go next? Ripped in half by whatever these were? "DO YOUR WORST!" she screamed out, her voice already horse from earlier.

Spoiler

ID# 181736
Roll Value: 10
Giving/Receiving: Receiving 4 from Jevi
Final Roll Value: 14

 

[Jevi 0]

Jevi's fist pounded into the rocky surface again and again, once Aquan's body had vanished from view beyond the murky depths. "Why!?" she shouted to nothingness.. "You didn't even know me.." she said softer before raising to her feet. Her eyes lingered on the spot where she last saw him fall before nodding confidently, turning her back and rushing back to the group. The water levels continued to rise and rise, as the storm continued to rage above them. Bolts of lightning through the inky black sky barely did enough to light her way, except for when the storm's wrath crashed into a tree, the bark and leaves bursting into flames for mere moments, before being snuffed out by the heavy rains. Her shoulders crashed into trees that lay before her unknowingly, like shoving through a crowd.

Her yellow eyes searched the darkness for the convoy that she followed, until a commotion just off to her side caught her attention. The struggle and shout of a girl's voice, fighting for her life against the ravenous shadows. Jevi gnawed on her lip, remembering Aquan's sacrifice not moments before, and the plenty others who risked their lives to make sure she made it this far. Without a moments thought more, she rushed to action. Her hands grabbed onto the girl's shoulders, yanking her to the side with all of her might. The tendrils that held onto her ripping and tearing, freeing her from their grasp. Another set lashed out, grabbing onto Jevi's ankles, yanking her off of her feet, another around her waist, and a final one around her throat. Her eyes opened wide, looking up to the familiar figure "Go! Run!" She shouted, before the shadow dragged her back into the endless darkness.

ID 181741
LD 10
Giving / Receiving 4 to @Katoka
Final Result 6

Edited January 31, 2021 by Jevi

[The Shadow 3]

Round Sixteen

It would not be long now.

Somehow, that understanding was shared among the survivors. In what felt like seconds, the sea of shadows had consumed the entire meadow, and ninety percent of those who had gathered there. Of the handful who remained, only a couple were NPCs, their eyes wide, their lack of understanding clear on their faces. When had they stopped computing what was truly happening? Had they ever fully understood, or had they simply run due to some programmed flee function? Truth be told, the mingled shock and confusion also lingered on the faces of most players. No one knew what was happening, but the strange sense of finality weighed them down like bricks. It would be over soon.

Had Benovault survived the flooding of the flat, he might have offered some encouragement. Instead, only silence hung between the remaining few, linking them like cables in the darkness. Only one route remained - the steep, narrow path high into the mountains. Only a short distance separated them from the summit, but it might have been an eternity.

† Jevi and Lessa have been consumed by the Storm of Shadows.
Round Sixteen will end in 72 hours [February 5th at 11:00 P.M EST], or after everyone has posted.
[Timer]

The LD Threshold is 15.

[Setsuna 0]

As Setsuna pressed against them, with every fiber of her being. Her muscles ached from insistent and unending swings. A small ring from her HUD continued to no end, it was screaming out to alert her that it was empty. But every second it could, she would empty it once more. A violent tear of her steel cleaves wide arcs through the air causing a scattering film of white to freeze the blackened rain as it fell. Sections and droves of the hordes of blackened kin are cut down with each vorpal swing.

"For Freya."

A memory of Hugo, of Misery, of Mishiro. The names of some she did not know, of those she would not get the opportunity. A curved blade impaled and torn upward as a small child held a tool of destruction, casting fragmenting shards of horror filled monster to the stars.  With a puff of energy that causes her to displace, a white jump and a lean down. A glimmer and a click of a saya, before a group of three, falls to pieces.

"For those that fought against the tides."

Her eyes stood out against the ever dimming lighting, thunder in an overcast that did little to brighten the sky. Her hair dyed black with the ink from that very rise. Like a wolf with that cyan blue glow that matched the guillotine in broad strokes. She had made her choice, and instead of allowing that fear to claim her. To attempt to flee from it in these final moments. Setsuna would not. Lessa hadn't. Alkor had fought back, and even little Blueberry had resisted its tide. Unknown forever to the girl with hair that was no longer her own.

"For those that have found hell before me, I will see you soon."

The gasps of NPC at her back, as they looked on in anguish against the one player left standing, fighting for their lives with no pause. No fear, and no emotion. A weapon, a tool, an end. The older among them attempt to corral the children, telling them to avert their gaze. To look away. They knew all was lost. A press toward their numbers, deeper and deeper through it all. A lime green glow of another fighting against them from an opposing side, from the flank Setsuna manages upon Katoka.

With a heavy panting and a katana gripped tightly, she was winded. Out of breath, and spent. "This is it, do not fear the end. The names of those that have fallen before you will not be forgotten. Your name will not be forgotten. Carve the names in their corpses, until you can stand no longer." Setsuna twists her face to a grim smile, a light again painted upon it like the very same that had felled FTK all that time ago.

"One more time, just one more time."

ID# 181977 results: Battle: 10 (Sugar we're going down swinging)

ID 181977
LD 10
Giving / Receiving 
Final Result 10

Edited February 3, 2021 by Setsuna

[Katoka 0]

As Jevi was consumed by the darkness Katoka felt herself snap back into focus for a moment. Her anger was still there, but now her tunnel vision had broken. She cut and slashed at the new tendrils of darkness that lashed out at her. Beasts crawled from the rising tide and she dropped them one by one. A crackle of electricity rippled down her arm and leapt from her katana as she drove it into the chest of a hulking bear.

"I can't let them die for nothing." she gritted her teeth. More power crackled through her, snapping to life with every strike and thrust.

"I won't go down without a fight." thunder crashed knocking a hoard of cat like voids away from her.

A small girl came into view. She was familiar. The cold air that hung around her, the way she swung her katana. Setsuna. Kat knew her, she was the one that made her armor. The two of them helped save Raidou from the Forgotten King so long ago. The two samurai fought, side by side as the darkness crawled and struck at them like an infection.

"Your name will not be forgotten. Carve the names in their corpses, until you can stand no longer."

A smile spread across Katoka's face, "I'll make sure they know how much of a mistake it was to cross me. To attack us."

She returned her sword to it's saya and assumed her striking position, "Once more then?"

She could feel the temperature around her drop, which was a feat in itself considering how cold it already was. She saw the icy fog as it surrounded Setsuna next to her. Focusing her rage Kat felt her muscles tighten as electricity arced from her body. In an instant the two women lunged forward at speeds that were unthinkable for a normal human and began their final assault on the hoard of shadows.

 

Spoiler

ID# 182017 BD: 9 (Fighting the good fight)
Roll Value: 13
Giving/Receiving: N/A
Final Roll Value: 13

 

[The Shadow 3]

Round Seventeen

There were those in the Town of Beginnings who had never left. They had never ventured outside the walls, nor had they climbed the teleport platform. While it may seem crazy, remaining in one place for so many years, they preferred it to the risk of death. They had, perhaps foolishly, believed that they might seek eternal safety within the safe zone. As such, they had never expected that their first foe might be a black ooze, rising from the floor itself, and pooling beneath their feet.

On the fourth floor, great chunks of the glaciers had calved away, toppling into the abyss. Stark white snow had careened down mountain faces, powerful avalanches that succeeded only in being swallowed by the sea of shadows. The horrified citizens of Yōgan Village had watched lava as black as night burst from Mount Kazan, and consume the ninth floor, not in scalding lava, but frigid dark. The bell in Taft's cathedral tolled the hour, a haunting sound that echoed in the dead city. Even gods were not spared from the carnage, as the ocean rose like Titans to claim their precious Mount Olympus. Whether by stubborn pride, or inadequate programming, all the all-powerful NPCs could do was watch.

Even the war on floor twenty-three was forgotten, both Dark and Forest elves standing together against the common enemy. Unfortunately, their combined weapons and wisdom did little against the waves, which rolled like an endless army across the elven fighting force. It continued its morbid march upward, surging over tiny islands, and flooding like water over a broken levee into the floor twenty-five maze. With an unbridled fury, it plowed into the walls, seeping around corners until even the pathways themselves had filled to overflowing. By the time it streamed into the labyrinth proper, the Storm of Shadows had evolved into an unstoppable force. The wind howled and the thunder rolled, masking the distant peel of an alarm.

† Setsuna and Katoka have been consumed by the Storm of Shadows.

This concludes part one of the Storm of Shadows. For the sake of continuity, no stories should take place between now and the end of this saga.
Please do not make any posts set during this time period. While you're welcome to describe the flood in your own threads, your characters should not be doing anything after they have been consumed. For questions regarding this, feel free to contact Lessa.

---

Rewards
Note: In order to be eligible for participation and SP rewards, you must have posted at least three times, per standard OP rules.

1. 2 additional SP (plus thread rewards and quarantine bonus).
2. 1,000 col per post.
3. Bottled Shadows (Consumable): A vial filled with a black, tar-like substance. When consumed, it causes chills, and often a brain-freeze. Can be used to re-roll a LD of 1 (after the roll is made, in the same post).
4. For Setsuna and Katoka, who survived the longest: A Wobble In Time (Consumable): A black ticket with an odd metallic sheen. Can be used in a staff-run event or boss fight to negate one activity strike.

Name	Posts	SP	Col
Aru	2	0	2,000
Katoka	16	8	16,000
Alkor	6	5	6,000
Setsuna	16	8	16,000
Valentine	6	5	6,000
Grimm Reaper	9	6	9,000
Nightingale	1	0	1,000
Daemien	13	7	13,000
Assassin	2	0	2,000
Mishiro	10	6	10,000
Jevi	15	8	15,000
Blueberry *	12	7	12,000
Aquan	14	7	14,000
Koga	7	5	7,000
Lessa *	25	11	25,000
Elora	13	7	13,000
Dracul	1	0	1,000
Misery	6	5	6,000
Azhoda	8	5	8,000
Freya	5	4	5,000

* Indicates a Shadow event writer.

All col rewards have been sent! - <3 Lessa