[OP-F6] Part II: A Faint Awakening

[Oikawa 1]

The jungle materialized around them. The sounds of swaying trees with rustling leaves seemed tranquil enough. As Oikawa got his bearings he was surprised when X suddenly began to become active. Attempting to spit at him, X somehow managed to bring his feet to Oikawa's chest and backflip off of him while muttering something about pink mist. Bastard..keke now I get to hunt him down! Next time I won't let him go ... nor will he have the legs to do so. Mwuahahahahaha

 

"Come on now X. I just wanted to play. Keke. Let's play who can lose the most appendages without shouting keke. Sounds fun right? Right? " The acrobatic ran in the direction of the village not far from their location. Looks like things are going to get interesting. Licking his lips, Oikawa chased the player down. Keeping up with his speed only because his level allowed him to do so. Once he found the boy, he tackled him to the forest floor and pinned him down. 

 

"Did you think I'd really just let you go? Keke. Not even close." Oikawa reach for some vines that were draped among the brambles. Testing to make sure it was durable enough, he tied the vine around X's hands and feet and tied it tightly. Heaving the delusional brat, who didn't appreciate being tied up, over his shoulder, he set off for the lost zone. Or as he and Azide knew it by, Amazon's Folly.

[Calrex 0]

A bright light flashed at the sixth floor portal as Calrex appeared through it, quickly turning to see if the others had followed him.

 

"There isn't much time. Especially with X's current state he won't be able to put up much of a fight, at least from what I can tell. We need to get to him before Oikawa decides to do something drastic."

 

He swiped down on his equipment to make sure all of his gear was equipped as he waited for the others to arrive.

 

"So far only Azide seems to know exactly where Oikawa might be going. It must be a place of importance then. Hopefully it's close by..."

 

He looked over towards the gate as he gave a few calming breaths, "The next thing to think about would be what to do once we find Oikawa. Hopefully we can snap him out of whatever state of mind he's been possessed by. If that's not possible I hope that we're strong enough to at least hold him from any illogical action."

 

"I might not have any choice..."

 

Calrex gave a sigh as he made a series of swipes on his menu, his body becoming alight as his gear changed. His entire body began covered in deep sea blue armor (Grand Chariot) as a pair of gauntlets enclosed his arms (Grand Gauntlets) and a strange cutlass-like sword appeared on the back of his hip, changing out from his Anneal Blade (Grand Blade). He gave a calming breath, which echoed inside of his helmet, his eyes now appearing as small white slats in the helmet.

 

"Oikawa, X...hold on. We're on our way."

[Zeri 0]

Zeri reluctantly came to the sixth floor. This was the last floor he wanted to come to. The first thing that popped into his head when he saw the jungle was snakes. Zeri was absolutely terrified of snakes and he guess that was why he came to this floor; to get rid of his fear.

After walking around in the jungle, he was amazed to what he saw. He almost forgot about the snakes that lied in this floor until...

*hiss hiss*

Immediately, Zeri was completely scared when he heard that noise. "W-why now? C-couldn't you s-stupid snakes hiss after I l-leave" Zeri said while looking around the see where the snake was. After a while, the hissing stopped and Zeri was really glad about that and he regain his composure. After walking some more, he seen more reptiles, but Zeri wasn't scared by them as he went up close to them and looked at them. But then, Zeri heard a familiar sound...

*hiss hiss*

Once again, Zeri was scared out of his mind so he ran as fast as he could to get away from the snake. When Zeri thought he was far, far away from the snake he stopped and tried to regain his breath. After taking a deep breath, Zeri said, "I hope someone I know comes soon, cause I don't know how much more of this I can take."

[Xanatos 0]

I watched Calrex do his new armor. It was a sight to behold. A sleek blue armor seemed to radiate the brilliance of the sea. He readied himself to pursue Oikawa with all the fervor he could muster. "We have to find Oikawa! He's not himself! Azide, where did he go? He told you right? He said that you knew where to find him!" I was frantic and pumped with adrenaline but I didn't care. We all cared for our fellow guild mates and did not want to see either of them hurt. We wouldn't let them!

[XWuZHeAR 0]

I watched as Oikawa tied the vines and the body of mine stood motionless. The potions effects wore off. Just as that thought came the pink mist blew past my mouth. Well most of the potions wore off.

"Dumbass!" I yelled out as the durability in my decoy wore off and exploded into millions of pixels as Maruchan escaped from where the head used to be.

"Maruchan! Bail!" I called out to the dog while catching him and lifting us up onto the village in the trees.

Pretty soon I was in a herbal tea cafe and explaining my story to the owner.

"Wait- wait so you made a Decoy of yourself?" The owner asked.

"I made a decoy of myself!" I replied quickly.

"How?" The shop owner said.

"You see if you make something of equal size i.e. I used vines. Then take a piece of your body like a hair and place it on the spot of the decoy the game thinks the graphic system is failing and auto generates the rest of your features." I explained to the shop owner.

"So how did you fake a cursor." The shop owner asked as I sipped my tea.

"Oh! I uh had Maruchan here hide in the head piece so you know a green cursor would appear." I told the shop owner.

"Your something else kid. You know that?" The shop owner said as I simply nodded.

[Azide 0]

Azide opened his eyes and stepped out from behind Calrex and Xanatos, with Quantum Slicer lying sheathed at his hip.

Teleportation was not always as glamorous as it was made out to be. Not to him, at least. True, one would have to be something of an idiot to deny their usefulness- but the sudden change in scenery made him prone to feeling nausea. It was somewhat comparable to motion sickness, only much more convenient in that the problem could be avoided altogether by simply closing one's eyes. And so he did- always.

"Assuming that insanity keeps one's memories intact- which, to be fair, is somewhat of a large assumption- I have reason to believe that our friend Oikawa will be hiding within a certain section of jungle. Now that sounds hopeless, being that we're on the sixth floor and all, but I'll do you one better and narrow it down further." He stepped forward, placing himself at the lead of their group and glanced around until he located the appropriate path. He gestured to it with an open palm. "Amazon's Folly; I have a strong suspicion that that's where we'll find our missing council members."

One time could be written off as a fluke. Nothing more than an unfortunate occurrence, or a freak accident. "But twice? That's the beginning of a pattern." Had his decision to accept Oikawa's challenge spurred the change?

He'd never quite forgotten the incident- it'd been his first duel, after all. Up until today, he'd held no regrets with his choice to bury the uncomfortable memory for the both of them- Oikawa had been none the wiser, and he'd felt it best not to worry him.

But perhaps he'd steered a careless course.

[Zeri 0]

After getting tired of being terrorized by snakes, he decided to message someone in his guild in hopes that he can meet him. So he message the first person's name that came to him, which was Oikawa. So he opened up his menu and send him a message.

To: Oikawa

From: Zeri

Subject: Location

Hey Oikawa, it's me Zeri. I was wondering if you are on the sixth floor? If you are, I hope you wouldn't mind sending me your coordinates, or if it's more faster for you meeting up with me, I send my location to you as well do you can decide what to do (enters coordinates). When you get this, please message me back.

After Zeri had sent the message to Oikawa, he started to walk back and forth, trying not to move too far for his location while tring to get his mind off of the snakes that lurk in the jungle. "I hope Oikawa comes soon..."

[Oikawa 1]

Oikawa stopped as his captive seemed to have stopped squirming about. Throwing X to the ground he was surprised when the dummy exploded and a very healthy X shouted at him before grabbing his dog that seemed to be inside the body of X or a clone rather and sprinted off into the trees. What the hell just happened. I was duped by X. Of all people. 

 

Oikawa's stupefied state returned to one of malicious glee as he read his most recent message. Why pick on a brat like X when you can torture a newbie like Zeri? Oikawa twisted his lips into a sadistic grin before laughing out loud and clutching his sides. This is just to easy. I can finally rip someone limb from limb and not have to worry about them fighting back. Zeri, you should've picked a better friend because now I'm going to enjoy watching your data blow in the wind as tear you apart and you beg for mercy. 

 

"It'll be marvelous hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha"

 

Oikawa quickly typed out a reply and sent the boy some coordinates. I hope you like agony because that;s all your going to feel once I dismember you keke. He licked his lips in anticipation. Anxious to earn his yellow status and watch as his first victim is erased from virtual reality.

 

 

 

To: Zeri
From: Oikawa - The Faint
Subject: Re: Location
Hey Zeri! Yeah I'm actually just outside Amazon's Folly. I was planning on doing some light training but you can join me at this location (insert's coordinates) if you want. If not let me know and I'll meet you at your coordinates.

[Calrex 0]

"Amazon's Folly huh? If it's anything we should definitely follow the trail. Let's get moving..."

 

Calrex's voice gained an echo through the helmet of his armor as he nodded in agreement with Azide's suspicion. He looked down, opening and closing his fist a few times before following the others, using his Sprint ability to move at a faster speed than he normally could without the skill, heading down the path that Azide had pointed out. As he did he continued to keep an eye out, letting his eyes relax.

 

"Let's see how well this new skill works..."

 

As his eyes relaxed he activated his <<Reveal>> skill. While he wasn't able to see completely through the trees it seemed like they became transparent enough that he could easily check for anyone hiding on the other side of them. Of course, the further away the objects were the more they stacked up on top of each other the harder it was to see through them.

 

"Alright Oikawa, where are you?"

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

As Ariel and Kimba materialized the after the rest, the blonde listened to their plan. 'Amazon's Folly..why does it sound so familiar? I don't think I've been there before..have I?' she wondered while looking with a complex face at Kimba, hoping she might have some answers but the white cub simply tilted her head and growled. 'I guess she doesn't know it either.'

 

Her gaze swifted to Azide, asking with a serious voice: "How do you know it is insanity..I mean it couldn't happen at once like it did. There must have been a process that led to it or he already subdued that part and something simply triggered it to revert back to that state. Is there any chance he had some dubious concoction...I trust you didn't forget what happened to Mari not so long ago?" a chill ran through her spine as she remembered the events in that day. The blonde herself experienced 'something' new then..it was something like a buried part of her unconscious or at least that is what she made herself believe.Shaking off those thoughts, after hearing Azide's answer the blonde would go dashing after Calrex in the jungle, making their way towards the indicated spot.

[Zeri 0]

After a little while, Zeri had received his message from Oikawa. He read it but got an ominous vibe from it. When he finished reading it he sat down and try to think of why that happened and what he should do.

"Possibility number 1. Someone got to Oikawa and sent that message to plan an ambush." So he thought about it and came up with this. "So if that's so, sending Azide a message is the best option."

"Possibility number 2. That is Oikawa that sent me that message but he's hiding something." Once again thinking, he came up with this reason, "Well why would Oikawa hide anything from me? We're in the same guild, so there's no reason to unless he's..." Zeri shook his head and said, "That's crazy. He would never do anything like that, would he? If the worst case scenario happens, best thing to do is send Azide a message like before."

"Possibility number 3. Maybe its because of all these snakes I'm like this. So best to get away from this location and try to find someone."

Trying to think of the best option to choose wasn easy for Zeri cause what he thinks is right might be wrong and costs him his life. After thinking it over he came up with a safer option. "So I do message in hopes that him or whoever it may be won't come and find me and move to a different location and message of this to get his opinion on this." So Zeri opened up his menu and send two messages.

To: Oikawa

From: Zeri

Subject: Re: Re: Location

It's some distance from me but I'll come. But I have a real good feeling you holding something out from me, so I gues I find out when I get there.

To: Azide

From: Zeri

Subject: Oikawa

Azide, Oikawa sent me a message that he's on the sixth floor at a place called Amazon's Folly doing some training. But I have a bad feeling something happened to him.

After Zeri had got finish sending the two messages, he took a deep breath and said, "Ok, I have to go in the woods, so I can't let my fear get the best of me now." So he took towards the woods.

[Azide 0]

The joint recovery squad took off with an explosive start as their destination was made known. They raced into the dense jungle, carefully evading every gnarled tree or low-hanging branch that stood in their way. As they delved further into its heart, his eyes darted around the undergrowth, desperately searching for their renegade friend. The friend tracker would be useless here- the last time they'd attempted to use their maps within Amazon's Folly, all that had come up was static.

Suddenly, a message popped up in front of him, addressed from Zeri. Without letting up his pace, he pulled up the message's contents and skimmed through the lines. "Oikawa messaged him?" he wondered. That was certainly a twist- but it was Zeri's reservations which interested him the most. "What kind of sick and twisted message could Oikawa have sent to make the poor guy so suspicious?"

With a swing of his sword, he hacked off the outstretched limb of a tree which had been blocking his way. The branch was sent into a brief free fall, then shattered altogether, leaving a clear path. He came to a stop just before it, then signaled for a pause. Nimble finger worked on a reply, while he addressed the other members of their ragtag group. "I just received word from Zeri- it seems as if Oikawa contacted him earlier, but he doesn't seem to be buying whatever facade that Oikawa might be presenting him with."

Another tap sent off the message.

To: Zeri

From: Azide

Subject: Re: Oikawa

Actually, we're on our way to meet Oikawa at the moment- we're not as far into the jungle as he is- so how about you meet up with our group instead? Sending our coordinates. Be quick, and keep an eye out.

With that taken care of, he turned to face the group. "Alright, I've instructed him to meet up with us instead. Something tells me Oikawa wouldn't make for the best company at this time. Maybe he's not a morning guy." He shift gaze to Ariel, addressing her earlier concerns. "I have reason to believe that his little outburst was not alchemy-induced," he said simply.

In fact, the first time it had happened, the alchemy profession had been so exceedingly rare that he doubted Oikawa could have gotten his hands on any concoctions at all. It was only recently that they'd become more common.

He looked up ahead, then to the virtual clock at the lower right corner of his vision. "You two should be able to handle him well enough. I can't risk putting X in danger, so it'd be best if you reached him as soon as possible." He sheathed his blade, and lifted his head. "I'll wait for Zeri- you guys keep searching."

[Calrex 0]

Calrex gave a nod as Azide had the other stop, suggesting that they split up so that they could take care of more tasks at once. Apparently a player named Zeri had contacted him about Oikawa sending him his coordinates in order to rendezvous.

 

"Wait...that doesn't seem right? Why would Oikawa be concerned about finding anout another player if he's occupied with apprehending X. That could mean one of two things from my knowledge, either he is already 'finished' with what he was trying to accomplish by kidnapping X and is looking for a new victim, or X somehow managed to escape and Oikawa decided to abandon him..."

 

He scanned across the group. Including him there was Azide, who had decided to stay behind to meet up with Zeri, Ariel, and Xanatos.

 

"Oikawa right now is level 14, so if Ariel and I went after him that should be sufficient in case he decides to ambush us. Besides it would be good to have someone stay with Azide just in case."

 

"Alright then, let's split into teams of two then..."

 

He looked over at Ariel as he gave a nod of affirmation, "Ariel let's keep looking for Oikawa."

 

With that he turned and began to continue searching through the forest, "I'd best not rush moving through these trees. My Reveal skill is working fairly well, but if I move too fast things will become a blur no matter what skills I possess."

 

Calrex gave a calming breath as he continued to move through the forest at a moderate pace, his eyes scanning through the trees with his <<Reveal>> skill active.

 

"Where could he be hiding? He's gotta be fairly out in the open if he tried to coax another player to meet up with him..."

[Zeri 0]

Running through the thick woods as fast as he could, Zeri tried to make sense of what's going on until he read Azide's message. "Given by his coordinates, It shouldn't be too much more longer till I run into him. Ok, better put the pedal to the metal to get to him." Now sprinting as fast as he can, he made a push to get out of the dense woods. After a little bit of running, he made it out and saw a person standing there, it was Azide. Breathing really hard, Zeri managed to say, "Glad...to...see...you're safe." After Zeri caught his breath, he noticed something was on his leg. It was yet another snake. His fear kicked in again and he grabbed the snake, threw it and yelled, "GET OFF OF ME!!" Then he turned to Azide and said, "If I remember the message correctly, he should be quite some ways from here. Also what's going on cause when Oikawa sent me that message, a big chill went down my spine like something had happened to him. Azide...I want to know everything that happened so I can make sense of this."

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

As Azide revealed that a player named Zeri was at this floor and spoked via PMs with Oikawa. The blonde thought that the more they were the better the chances were, of apprehending the stray one without a fight. But she realized that this new person probably was a low level since she hadn't heard of him before. Her suspicion was next confirmed when the S1 guild leader suggested that they would split up, him meeting with this new player before they reached their target.

 

She nods to Azide as he stayed behind then directed her attention at Calrex: "Okay then, finding him won't be too much of a problem, the real issue is how do we knock some sense into him without injuring him...*a faint smile appeared across her face as she muttered the next words, more to herself than Calrex* too much that is." She was still worried about the blond rapier user that wielded a sword but something deep inside her mind told her that he wouldn't just put his weapon away and 'talk'.

 

Next seeing Kimba run on the ground below, she voiced the next question that was in her mind: "Hey did Oikawa teleport King with him as well?"

[Oikawa 1]

So the nob isn't as slow as I thought. Hmm I suppose I should speed up the encounter. I'll go to him. But just to be safe I won't PM him. If he takes the most direct path then I should be able to meet him half way. Hahahaha I can feel it now. The pleasure of slicing him ti pieces and watching him wither in agony  will bring me euphoria. AHAHAHAHA I CAN NEARLY TASTE IT! IT'S RIGHT THERE "Zeri I'm going to kill you and I'm going to enjoy seeing the life leave your worthless digital body. It will be grand. Then I'll find X hahaha and I will strangle him slowly and painfully his life will drop to zero and poof he'll be gone. I don't know how Oikawa put up with his mouth for so long. But it's okay because I'll make sure to decapitate the boy before he even reaches zero. Ha..Haha. Hahahahahahaaha"

 

Finally getting over his fit of maniacal laughter Oikawa, began to head off for Zeri's coordinates.

[Calrex 0]

"Hold up Ariel..."

 

Calrex slid to a stop as he stopped moving, looking around. Something was moving in the forest and didn't seem to be coming from the direction that Azide and Xanatos were in, "I wonder if that's Oikawa or X. Might even be this Zeri person. In any case it might be in our best benefit to head in that direction."

 

He looked over at Ariel, motioning towards the direction that the sound was coming from. With that he clenched his fists, making sure that his <<Reveal>> ability was still active. "Hopefully it's someone that we're actually looking for."

 

ID: 14023

Loot Dice: 10 (Search and Detect +1) = 11

 

As he continued to make his way through the trees Calrex began to pick up on a voice. A recently recognized voice.

 

"Then I'll find X hahaha and I will strangle him slowly and painfully his life will drop to zero and poof he'll be gone. I don't know how Oikawa put up with his mouth for so long. But it's okay because I'll make sure to decapitate the boy before he even reaches zero. Ha..Haha. Hahahahahahaaha"

 

"Gh..."

 

Calrex looked back at Ariel and motioned for her to get down as he ducked into the bushes, "Looks like we found Oikawa. Any ideas on how to approach this?"

[XWuZHeAR 0]

I took another sip of the warm tea.

"Hey this is like nor sh*tty tea." I told the owner.

"Don't you have to be tending to your friends kid?" The shop owner asked me.

In resoonse I quickly swallowed the tea nodding and opened up my menu. I went over to the friend tracker and had a pretty nice layout of where everyone was. Then I opened my messaging system.

>to: ariel, azide

>subject: staging the offensive.

>>Ok you guys are really dumb if you think Oikawa could catch me. The potions effects have worn off. So anyways we have an insane oikawa. Sorry to say this but hey I know when it's time someone might need to be put down. Think about it ;) and get into position to jump him il be there shortly.<<

From: XWuZHeAR

"Alright later pops gotta go make some moves." I said as I got up and walked out the cafe.

I then jumped into the trees and began making my way to my position.

[Azide 0]

As Calrex and Ariel took their leave, Azide leaned back against the trunk of a large tree. He closed his eyes and focused on the faint sound of wind that howled in the distance, but reached his ears as a faint hush. The chirps of crickets and birds alike began to fade, and were replaced by a familiar voice: his own. Or rather, the one which gave voice to the thoughts in his head.

Together, they reminisced about the last time Oikawa had entered such a state. In fact, it was the only time he'd seen it- until now. That nobody else seemed to be aware of it indicated that it wasn't exactly a common occurrence. There was a madness to his voice that stuck out like an Ice Elemental on the ninth floor. What had triggered it before? It was more of a rhetorical question, as he remembered the answer rather clearly- the change had taken place upon the appearance of two giant spiders. But then again, arachnophobia tended not to turn upstanding citizens into psychotic maniacs. So what had triggered it really? And better yet, why had it been triggered?

Sometime in the course of his musing, Zeri had approached him, making a breathy comment about his safety. How much did he know about the Oikawa situation, exactly? Then he noticed as the boy brushed away a slithering creature from his leg, and Azide stroked his chin in contemplation. "Hmm... a snake? Now there's an idea..."

His guildmate's next comments were, however, by far the most interesting. "What do you mean by, 'a ways away from here'? Are you saying you know where to find him?" He stepped forward and looking Zeri in the eye. "It's very important that you take me to him, if you're saying what I think you're saying."

[Zeri 0]

"Well he sent me a message sending him his coordinates. But what had got me all nervous is why would he want me, at such a low level, help him train. Wouldn't it be more better for him to get someone more at your level to help him with that."

Zeri started thinking for a moment came came up with something, "Well I I'm right, which I hope I'm not, he might come to me cause I sent him my location as well. So it'll be much faster to cut through the woods like I did." Then he started to think if he should go along. Soon after he sent Azide a friend request while saying, "I doubt Oikawa knows where I'm truly at, but I think that it be best if I stay here." But he then thought of the worst possible situation, "But what if he somehow runs into me...Azide I'm no match for him so what should I do?"