[F04-PP] So Cold <<Dragon Hunter Anthology IV>>

[Koga 0]

Spoiler

Koga
Level: 43
Health: 880
Energy: 86
DMG: 16 // EVA: 2  // MIT: 25 // ACC: 4
BRN: 24 // BLT: 24 // FALN: 4 // REGN: 10

Skills
>> Katana V
     // Ferocity
     // Precision
>> Light Armor V
     // Athletics

Extra Skills
>> Familiar Master: Fighter III
>> Survival

Inventory
>> T2 Demonic Katana <<Tsuki no Hikari>> [Burn // Blight // Cursed // Fallen]
>> T1 Perfect Necklace <<White Owl Necklace>> [Accuracy // Accuracy // Accuracy]
>> T2 Perfect Light Armor <<Shadow Chance Coat>> [Evasion // Evasion // Regen]

Battle-Ready Inventory
---

Buffs
>> <<Well Rested>> -1 energy cost for the first three expenditures of each combat.
>> <<Squeaky Clean>> The first time you would suffer DoT damage in a thread, reduce damage taken from DoT each turn by 25% (rounded down).
>> <<Relaxed>> Increases out of combat HP regen by (5 * Tier HP) and decreases full energy regen to 2 Out of Combat Posts.

Koga had messaged NIGHT this time. The fourth dragon hatchling. He'd intended to contact the woman earlier, but...things had occurred which prevented him from doing so. At least, they were getting around to it now.

The man stood in some far corner of the town plaza, as had become the habit for meetings with NIGHT, and he waited for her, whilst pondering if he should mention the fact that Noct and Tala were indeed alive. It seemed wrong to keep that knowledge from her, they were her friends too after all. And it meant that she, Yukiro, and himself weren't the only ones left of the ratpack. Still, the subject was painful, and he feared the potential questions it brought with them. But still, it was NIGHT. She wasn't one to pry to begin with.

Maybe it was safe.

Koga just hoped that the permanent frown and dead look in his eyes wouldn't cause her any concern. Actually, would she even be coming? Koga recalled NIGHT not being especially happy with him after his...inquiries into DAY, and after the unfortunate plunge into the Everfall that he'd kind of forced on her, maybe she just wouldn't show up. Koga shivered at the thought of suffering this cold alone.

@NIGHT

Edited March 5, 2021 by Koga

[NIGHT 0]

When NIGHT showed up, the first thing she'd noticed was the black hole rooted in the corner of town. And it wasn't because her gut instincts had pointed her to her friend's location, no.

It was because Koga looked worse than death itself, as though Yomi had regurgitated part of the unliving and had it reshamble to forge a new entity that vaguely resembled a human being.

NIGHT had to wonder if it was because of the fall he took -- the nightmares upon nightmares where humanity felt themselves falling before they slept were an example. The alternative might've been him realizing the idiocy of asking her that stupid question, but that was more of her gripes on his, not the other way around.

So she approached the man, hands stuffed in her winter coat's pockets. A wave to her friend was to try and catch his attention, lest his sleep deprivation (NIGHT's guess) was eating his vision alive. And when he got close enough to listen, she finally popped the question.

"Are you... sure you're up for this? It may be easy, but you shouldn't push yourself to do it even if it were a 10 minute kill. You look like you need sleep."

	| NIGHT   | HP: 1690/1690 | EN: 181/181    | ACC: 5 | DMG: 19 | EVA: 4 | MIT: 79 | BH: 79    | PRLYZ: 1 | ABS. ACC | LD: 5    | Stealth Detection: 5 | Stealth Rating: 7
[Examine]  | equipment Cosmic Devourer -- [ Paralyze I | Natural successful attack rolls of 9-10 remove the enemy’s action on their next turn. Paralyzed opponents lose any evasion properties. ] -- [ Absolute Accuracy | +1 ACC. Attack rolls of 1 no longer automatically miss. ] -- [ Accuracy I | +1 ACC. ] Reinforced Black Tracksuit -- [ Mitigation I | +54 MIT. ] -- [ Evasion I | +1 EVA. ] Silver Crescent Necklace -- [ Accuracy II | +2 ACC ] -- [ Evasion II | +2 EVA ]  | battle-ready inventory - - - - - - - - -  | skills Skills Mod Count: 8/8 Two-Handed Straight Sword | Passive | RANK 5/5 > Ferocity, Precision, Finesse Light Armor | Passive | RANK 5/5  > Athletics, Sprint&Acrobatics Searching | Passive | RANK 4+1/5 Hiding | Passive | RANK 5/5 > Blindside, Vanish, Surprise Attack: Trickster Extended Mod Limit | Passive | RANK 3/3  Battle Healing | Passive | RANK 5/5 Energist | Passive Quick Change | Active Charge | Active | RANK 5/5 Extended Weight Limit | Passive   Extra Survival | Passive  Concentration | Active -- CD: 3 Familiar Mastery: Fighter | Passive | RANK 3/3  | consumed buffs Spoiler Bialas Statue | +TAUNT Mothra Statue | +1 EN Recovery Tanos Statue | +15 MIT Mōretsuna Statue | +50 HP Yamato-no-Orochi Statue | +1 LD Kumatetsu Statue | +1 DMG - - - - - -  | misc. buffs Spoiler Dimensional Backpack, Item Stash, Extended Weight Limit | +5 Battle-Ready Inventory Slots. Well Rested | -1 EN for the first three expenditures of each combat.  Relaxed | +(5 * Tier) HP per out-of-combat post. Full energy restoration occurs after two turns out of combat. Squeaky Clean | -25% DoT damage taken from the first DoT applied to this player in a thread. Skylight: Searching | +1 Expertise to declared utility skill. Cooldown of 30 days to reassign. Multipurpose | +1 LD/Prosperity/Stealth/Detection to one post per thread. Can be applied after a roll. Filling | +1 T1 slot to a food consumed by this player in a thread. Can exceed Cook enhancement caps. Col Deposit | +5% col from loot-minimum mobs, +10% col from treasure chests.

[Koga 0]

Koga had only been vaguely aware of the woman who waved at him, and it took a second longer than usual for him to recognize the figure as NIGHT. It wasn't until she spoke that he realized just how tired he was. Physically. Mentally. Emotionally. He was exhausted, and all he really wanted to do was hide in his room and sleep until the end of days. But he'd done enough of that. Three years in total, and he couldn't afford to waste more time. He still had people he wanted to protect, after all. Even if they didn't want him to, he would do his best when they couldn't see.

"Yeah. I'll be fine," he assured NIGHT. "The fight won't even last 10 seconds anyways." A party invitation was sent. "Ready?" Of course she was. This was NIGHT he was talking about. She could probably wipe the entirety of the floor on her own and not even break a sweat.

@NIGHT

[NIGHT 0]

The question she should've returned was, "Are you ready?" or "Are you sure?" Instead, NIGHT raised a brow, accepting the party invite; she turned on her heels to start down the path towards their target, though her gaze was set on the man as she peered behind her back in worry.

No, she couldn't just walk ahead of him when she knew he looked like he was about to collapse at any minute. The player slowed, falling into pace by his side, frown still plastered on her face. It hadn't been that long since she last met her friend at the Everfall. And assuming it wasn't nightmares or trauma...

"So..." The woman ran her gloved fingers through the back of her hair, expelling a cloud of breath in a huff. "Exactly why are you pushing yourself to get up and fight when you're..."

NIGHT looked Koga up and down. Gestured plainly with the flat of her palm towards him.

"When you're like this, I guess."

[Koga 0]

It was cold. As NIGHT walked on ahead, Koga trailing just behind her, the man pushed his hands into the pockets of his coat, drawing them close into his body. It did little to fend off the biting chill, but at least he had feeling in his extremities this way.

It only took NIGHT a moment to realize that Koga was lagging behind, and soon enough she had slowed enough for them to walk together. Koga supposed that meant she wasn't too mad at him at least. That was good.

Her question though. Koga didn't really have an answer. He didn't know what had made him get up and message her. There were a hundred quests he could have done on his own. He supposed in the end, he just didn't want to keep her waiting, so that was the answer that he went with. "I didn't want to hold you up. Besides, I still got to catch up to you on the Frontlines." He fell silent again there after, eyes downcast, looking only far ahead enough so that he would not trip.

@NIGHT

[NIGHT 0]

"Hold me up for... what?"

It wasn't as though NIGHT was an impatient individual. Hardly the case in most respects; haste made waste, after all. Neither was the woman was up to much these days either, aside from spending time at home and speaking  to others in preparation for the inevitable.

Suffice to say, the player wasn't pushing for time. So, surely, Koga had to be doing it for himself, right?

"You can get to the boss fights at your own pace," she added, a loose attempt to reassure the man of her expectations for him. "Though you're not missing out on much, anyway."

The lack of enthusiasm from her companion was certainly off putting, however. Even the weakest sort of adventurer might be carried by high spirits. She ribbed him lightly, hoping he would open up -- or at least brighten at the contact, as best as he could at the moment. "C'mon. Rough time last night?"

[Koga 0]

"A rough couple of weeks," Koga clarified. The universe never ceased to amaze the man with how quickly it could just turn his life upside down and then throw it into a gutter. Normally, he'd at least reason that he wasn't really alone in that aspect, every player still stuck in SAO being one more person who the cosmos decided to flip the bird at, but he doubted there were many who had been put into the position he had. It was like a plot out of a movie. Convoluted, infuriating, and ultimately, a slow and painful thing. Death seemed preferable to this. Even Yuki and Tala, had managed to get back on their feet quicker than he or Noct. Yuki and Tala managed to somehow repair their relationship, but he and Noct had gotten no such closure. It seemed cruel.

Should he even tell NIGHT that Noct and Tala were back? He knew the door he would be opening if he did tell her, but at the same time, she deserved to know. They were her friends too, and that's not even to say all that NIGHT had done for him the last few months.

"Noctua and Tala are alive," he finally said in a voice completely lacking in the joy that it should have had. In it's place, defeat.

@NIGHT

[NIGHT 0]

"They're--"

NIGHT nearly stumbled forward in her stroll, ready to have fallen face-first into the white fluff just as the news broke the silence they shared. That couldn't be right. Their names in her friends list, the last time she'd checked...

-- Had she forgotten? A system bug, a glitch, a mental error -- something? It made no sense, then, if Koga had been missing for ages over a matter that didn't even seem to occur. At this point, NIGHT had stopped walking, eyes running over the text on her menus if only to verify the information for the third, fourth, fifth time in a row. This news was unexpected, and it was meant to be good.

Wasn't it?

Had Koga continued to walk, NIGHT would've glanced back at him -- either way, she tried to meet the man's face with a tepid expression on her image. Something was off, of course it was; if this reunion was one of joy, Koga would've been beaming at her with the news by now.

It felt as though a stone had dropped in the pits of her stomach, as she ran through the implications in her mind. Was it even in a good place to start asking about his position in the matter?

...Maybe, if anything, only the most technical of details. NIGHT wasn't one to intrude, so she wouldn't. Except if it were to understand the system they worked with better.

She'd gather herself beside Koga once more, starting to trek at their usual pace again. "So then-- how could their names...?"

"--Sorry. I meant, how'd they come back... for the lack of a better word... 'alive'?"

[Koga 0]

Koga stopped when NIGHT nearly tripped over his words. He watched as she opened her menu, and stared at what he only knew to be true because of the pain it had brought him. Pain it never should have.

He could see the gears of her brain turning, trying to process this information as she glanced back towards him, comprehending the impossibility of a system that they'd both already known to be filled with impossibilities brought on by glitches. Bugs in code. This was just another.

They started walking again, and NIGHT asked her question. Koga answered as best he could. "I got ambushed on Floor 10 by some undead wolves. Noct just happened to...stumble into the fight as it started." It was ridiculous statement. The kind of ridiculous that made one question the probability of it even happening in the first place, let alone a second time, should it ever. "Tala, well, I guess she went to go talk to Yuki once she realized Noct and I had run into each other. She'd been following her and just...I dunno, the idiot forgot to message me." Idiot. The word lacked the usual mirthful jest, or even the angry insult. It was just a statement. Tala was, in fact, an idiot.

@NIGHT

[NIGHT 0]

"No, like--"

Not what she'd intended -- but by the gist of things, it sounded as though they'd been alive the whole time.

So their names...

NIGHT hummed, eyes cast to the snow as she mulled over the information. So it wasn't as though they'd died and had been brought back, after all. Never mind, then. And had Cardinal been the interloper, nothing could've been done about it, she supposed.

It was none of her business, how Noctua and Tala managed to stay out of the public's eye for so long. And for what? Reasons she didn't find herself privileged to. But it didn't make sense for them to disappear together, nor for the fact that they'd gone missing without accounting for either of their significant companions-- significant others?

Bah. Dealing with humans was a pain.

The player huffed, stuffing her hands into her coat pockets. "I don't get it," she stated. What blank look on her face only morphed into a frown, the more she gave thought to it, the more she tried to come up with a systemic reason more than a mortal one. "But weren't you there? You-- or maybe Yukiro? They couldn't have run off under your watch, right?"

[Koga 0]

NIGHT appeared to be sorting out just how everything could have happened in her head. Working through every possibility. Koga let the woman think. She'd ask her questions, and Koga could answer them one by one.

At the first, he balled his hands into fists inside his pockets. "She left before we were supposed to have the wedding. Tala saw her and followed."  The man shrugged, "I don't know what happened after that. Just that Noct lost track of time, and Tala forgot to send us a message. System greyed them out for some reason, and...yeah..." It wasn't like any of this made a lot of sense. It didn't make much sense to him either, but there it was.

Looking up from his feet the man saw their target just in front of him. Wordlessly he his hand went to his sword, and he began to dash towards the dragon. With a swift draw, his blade bit into the dragon before it could even move. A quick glance over his shoulder and a look at NIGHT indicating for her to finish the creature off.

@NIGHT

Spoiler

[1] Koga | HP: 880/880 // Energy: 72/86 (86 -14) // DMG: 16 // EVA: 2  // MIT: 25 // ACC: 4 // BRN: 24 // BLT: 24 // FALN: 4 // REGN: 10
[0] NIGHT | HP: 1690/1690 // EN: 181/181 // ACC: 5 // DMG: 19 // EVA: 4 // MIT: 79 // BH: 79 // PRLYZ: 1 // ABS. ACC

Icefyre - The Diamond Hatchling | HP: 80/250 (250 -170) // MIT: 50 // ACC: 2 // EVA: 1 // DMG: 75
[Stunned]
<<Tiny Ice Breath>> : On a roll of 9 - 10 (naturally), this boss will breath ice on your character and immediately be frozen in place for a turn removing your evasion properties.

Koga uses Iai
Koga deals Fallen damage to Icefyre!
Icefyre is stunned!

Spoiler

ID: 185572
BD: 9 (6 +4 -1)
DMG: ((16 +4) * 11) -50 = 170

 

 

Edited March 16, 2021 by Koga

[NIGHT 0]

"She left before we were supposed to have the wedding."

So what Koga meant was -- he was left alone at the altar.

On purpose.

How could she not recall?

The woman stared back at him, mouth agape, feeling as though she'd just set off a mine when she shouldn't have, when she should've remembered something strange or off-putting happening. Weren't they all present, somewhere high up in the Greek mountains of the seventeenth? The player worked to keep her mouth shut, a pushing grating noise of regret against her throat -- that only served to underline just how fragile forever unions were. Thank goodness she wasn't planning on getting into one for a long time, if at all.

"I don't know what happened after that. Just that Noct lost track of time, and Tala forgot to send us a message."

"Lost track of time," she repeated, still awash with ghastly emotions. Her mouth seemed to form the words in her mind's absence, "How could she have lost track of time? For a whole year...?" 

NIGHT blinked slow, faint; the only thing that reeled her back to reality was the flash of something white. She'd cut loose on her hesitance, sword breaking free of the system's hold and banishing Icefyre into inaccessible realms, leaving it nothing but cinders and crystals in its wake. The player continued walking, almost as though nothing had occurred between them in the brief encounter, forgetting that this was the end of their stop. 

Noctua's marriage was definitely one thing. But then... why did Tala... tail Koga's would-be bride like that? 

Now it was NIGHT's turn to lose the braincell. "Don't tell me they eloped away together, without warning..."

Spoiler

ID: 185573 | BD: 5 + 5 - 1 = 9 | GALAXY DESTROYER vs Icefyre.
 | The strike lands! (-9 EN)
 | 19 * 13 = 247 DMG | 247 - 50 = 197 DMG 

 

[1] Koga | HP: 880/880 // Energy: 72/86 (86 -14) // DMG: 16 // EVA: 2  // MIT: 25 // ACC: 4 // BRN: 24 // BLT: 24 // FALN: 4 // REGN: 10
[1] NIGHT | HP: 1690/1690 // EN: 172/181 // ACC: 5 // DMG: 19 // EVA: 4 // MIT: 79 // BH: 79 // PRLYZ: 1 // ABS. ACC

Icefyre - The Diamond Hatchling | HP: -117/250 // MIT: 50 // ACC: 2 // EVA: 1 // DMG: 75

[Koga 0]

Koga looked at NIGHT in bewilderment, mouth agape. "N-no! What, are you insane?" A part of him wanted to laugh, it wasn't like NIGHT normally to say something so ridiculous, and yet because of that she probably thought it was a legitimate possibility. "No, Tala was tailing her for...actually...I don't know why she followed her. Or, at least I don't really understand why. She said to keep an eye on Noct, but...I don't know, nothing Tala does really ever makes sense to me. At least not that kind of stuff."

The man let out a long sigh, eyes returning to his feet as they walked on. The quiet of the wilds was comforting, as always after all. "Anyways, yeah, they're alive. I just thought you'd want to know." He paused. "Hold on, did you really think they eloped together? Like in secret?" On second thought, even if NIGHT really did think it was a real possibility, it still was hilarious.

@NIGHT

[NIGHT 0]

The laugh, the bemusement, the doubt -- she got it all. But despite her initial instincts imagining her idea's alternative, the more Koga tried to reassure NIGHT of its impossibility, the further it only worked to support her theory. So when the player stared back at her friend, thoroughly puzzled and alarmed by his lack of understanding for his family members' situation, she wasn't asking for forgiveness, having said her peace with the situation.

No. It just seemed as though she was making a thoroughly complex, highly evidential statement.

"You couldn't possibly have me believe..."

A whole year. The player couldn't even imagine losing contact with anyone in Aincrad for that long, despite her poor track record with keeping in touch with companions. "Even though it's unusual," the woman swallowed, brows furrowed and scanning the snow, "It's still a possibility. No facts discounted, all evidence to be considered..."

Her suspicious eyes worked in a glare to Koga if he'd continued to dismiss her inkling. "--Then you get more information out of them," she quipped, irritated. "Unless you're telling me either of them's done this before. I don't know them as well as you do."

NIGHT slowed her footsteps as they continued, realizing the gravitas of her words.

"... Did. As well as you... did."

[Koga 0]

"NIGHT, I doubt-" the woman cut him off before he even had a chance. So, she was serious. Deadly serious. Koga just stared at her as their pace slowed down a little. She had, inadvertently, pointed out something that had been hiding in the back of Koga's mind all this time. He didn't really know them anymore. At least, they weren't the people he'd known.

Noctua, for her part, seemed like a completely different person now. He had no clue who she was or who she'd become. She was a stranger to him.

Tala, on the other hand, was less changed. Moreso that she finally began to feel remorse for all she'd done, a concept that had been previously foreign to her. In a way, that was a good thing, and Koga was glad for it, but still, she wasn't the same anymore.

"Noct's always had a habit of running away," Koga sighed, eyes returning to the road. "I thought she'd gotten over that, but I guess I was wrong...You're right then, I suppose, I don't really know her that well anymore." He paused. He debated trying to refute her assertation again. "They'd both have rings on if they really did get eloped, wouldn't they?" he asked the woman, allowing himself to entertain her dangerous line of thinking for a moment.

@NIGHT

[NIGHT 0]

Did they?

Was it a requirement of running away in the name of love, to be eternally bonded through the use of something symbolic? Rings?

NIGHT wouldn't know. It wasn't as though she was an expert of the ways people showed each other affection, kept secrets, held relationships with each other. She'd tasted a bitterness stinging on her tongue as she ruminated it, flipping the thought over like a stone tumbled in her hands. There was something about that suggestion that was... charming. Romantic, idealistic.

Life wasn't a fairy tale, and so she settled on her answer.

"I don't think it's necessary." The player paused, tilting her head slightly. "Not unless there's a handbook on the matter. And even then..."

"Would they show it to you?"

She let the query sit, the two dark figures trudging through the snow in silence. NIGHT mused upon the idea a little further. "It's all speculation, though," she finally concluded, haplessly, with a vague shrug. "It would probably fall to them to verify, or otherwise."

[Koga 0]

The man couldn't help but sigh again. This whole conversation had taken a very unexpected turn. Poor ol' Koga's simple mind had been barely keeping up with it until now. "Yeah, well, in the crazy, fucked up universe where that was the case, I doubt they'd tell me if that's what happened." It was definitely not what happened. Koga had to keep telling himself that, lest his wandering mind latch onto the idea a little too much.

The man paused and looked around, and realized he had no idea where they were anymore. They'd just kept walking after they killed the dragon after all. "Uhm, NIGHT," he addressed, "you know I enjoy our...weirdly seriously chats, but uh...aren't we a little lost right now?" Seriously, Koga had been so immersed in their conversation he hadn't been paying attention to where they'd been going. Hopefully NIGHT had a better idea than he.

@NIGHT

[NIGHT 0]

NIGHT blinked twice before looking around. Indeed, they had strayed from their original path, but a quick glance at her map co-ordinates told her exactly which landmark she'd subconsciously been trekking towards. It caught her more by surprise how she'd decided upon this direction to traverse down without realizing it, than the fact they were headed elsewhere at all. Not today, the player concluded. Company was wrong too.

"'Lost' is only an apt descriptor if you don't know the floor well," she quipped back, trying to triangulate their angle of return towards town. With a gesture, a pointed finger down a cluster of trees in their vicinity, NIGHT started to walk, expecting Koga to tail along. A wave of her hand spurred her thoughts back to their conversation. "So that's been stealing your sleep, then? ...I can't blame you. I don't envy your position, either."

--ghosts of their pasts haunting them. she wasn't alone, then.

"I don't know what I can do to help," the player mentioned suddenly, after a moment of pause. She glanced over her shoulder as she spoke, trying to slow to match Koga's pace again. "But let me know if there's anything I could do. Like making sure you get dinner, for one."

She raised her index, gently jabbing it in the direction of her companion's eyes, to the bags seemingly underneath them. "Making sure you get enough sleep--" NIGHT stated strictly, "--for another."

[Koga 0]

Well, at least NIGHT wasn't lost. That meant they could get out of the cold at least. Koga hadn't even realized how cold he was until just now. He hated the cold.

He nodded at NIGHT's assumption about why he hadn't been able to sleep. And then, he blinked in surprise. He hadn't expected her to offer him any kind of help. Not by way of food or making sure he slept, whatever that might entail. A terrifying prospect. 
"Uhm, t-thank you, NIGHT," he said, "I...I appreciate it...really." He didn't know what else to say.

"Uhm, sorry, by the way. That I always dump all my problems on you. I'm sure you have enough of your own to worry about." He still wasn't sure what it was that was going on between NIGHT and DAY. Or their weird conversation they'd had so long ago on Floor 9. "Uh, if you ever need to talk too, the offers there." He hoped he didn't make it sound like he was only offering out of a sense of obligation or something else.

@NIGHT

[NIGHT 0]

"Uh, if you ever need to talk too, the offers there."

It took the player a moment to consider her friend's offer, trying to recall when she'd spoken to anyone about her problems during her time in Aincrad. Right, the closest person to have known of them was Chase -- even then, it was by incident more than kinship. NIGHT hadn't actually managed to explain her situation freely to anyone else she'd known in her stay in the black castle.

She contemplated the thought of it. A raw sourness at the back of her tongue reeled her expectations in for the future, and she hummed instead to get rid of it. "Maybe some other time," the player revealed. "We have to look out for each other, after all. That's what friends do."

When they'd finally reached the settlement, it took all of the player's energy not to pull Koga by the back of his coat, shoving him onto the teleporter with force, as if it would kick his position directly towards his home. "I don't wanna see your status online for the next few hours," she instructed him, once they'd reached its proximity. Her arms were folded, eyes glowing sharp under the shadows of her bangs. "And take the next few days off if you need it. For your sake. I'm not making myself available, either, unless it's an emergency."

"So take care."