[PP - F1] Such Were the Joys

[Takao 0]

The glowing red eyes glared daggers at him, whose own green eyes only looked back with disinterest. "Man..." He groaned out as the hoofed beast broke into a sprint and charged straight at him. The words he wanted to mumble next were pushed aside in favour of drawing his sword just as the monster's face met his boot, stopping its advance instantaneously. He raised his sword as he kicked the boar over onto its side and swung it down onto the monster. The blade nearly cleaved the boar clean in half, visualized by the massive glowing orange wound that was used in place of the usual gore. The beast froze and shattered into hundreds of colourful fragments of data that disappeared in the following seconds, though Takao was too busy dismissing the menu that had appeared in his face. He swung the sword around and lead the tip back to the scabbard to return the blade to its protective casing. "You'd think at some point these things would stop with the aggroin'."

Takao glanced over his shoulder and sighed. He had made it only ten steps out of the gate when he was attacked by the boar, which had perhaps been drawn back to the city by an inexperienced player who couldn't handle the fight. Takao couldn't blame them in the slightest as nearly forgotten memories resurfaced, and his expression grew distant and eyes unfocused. His hand quickly shot up to his face and rubbed one of his eyes vigorously. "Ugh, not now." His voice was low and guttural, tired words escaping his throat in a deep grumble.

- -
(This bit is just for consistency's sake.)

« Battle Sequence »
Takao » Boar

» ID : [[ 27203 ]]
» BD : [[ HIT (8 + 2(ACC)) ]]
» MD : [[ NEGATED (8 - 3(EVA)) ]]

» CD : [[ 3 ]]

« Takao »
[[ 63/63 HP ]] (Damage negated by turn order.)

« Boar »
[[ 0/5 HP ]] (8(DMG) = -8HP)

[Alex 0]

Alexander walked by the gate. His foot, momentarily frozen before exiting the town of beginnings for the first time, took awhile to cross through the exit. Alex looked out into the distance, seeing the sun. But then, as Alex looked down, he saw a player. .A rather strong looking one. If I made friends with strong players like him, I may actually stand a chance in this game..... Plus I really am tired of being lonely. I really do need some company and friends....... Alex gripped his dagger hard after he stepped out of the gate. Alexander quickly caught up to were the other player was, and said a polite "HI! And who might you be????" But then, Alex heard the snarl of the boar.

 

After turning around, Alex began to quiver. "Whaaa-Whaa-Whaa-is that thing!" Alex took a few steps back. "It looks like a pig, but the glowing red eyes... .the snarling teeth..... the purple skin..." Alex had always been afraid of pigs, and sometimes big dogs. But Alex fell on his butt this time, watching as the boar got closer. "G-G-Get back!" Alex hopped to his feet, pretending to all of the sudden not be afraid. Come on, Alex, don't be afraid.... It's just a baby pig.............Oh but then why would I have any intention of killing it! AGH! Alex's dagger was still tighty gripped in his left hand. "Die, you pathetic little boar!" Alex screamed as he attempted stabbed the boar. When Alex looked up, the boar had been stabbed successfully. But the dagger.. . was stuck in the boar! "Give that back, you bastardly pig!" Alex chased after the dagger in the boars back.

 

- -
(This bit is just for consistency's sake.)

« Battle Sequence »
Alex » Boar 2

» ID : [[ 27293 ]]
» BD : [[ Critical (9) ]]
» MD : [[ Missed (1) ]]

» CD : [[ 12 ]]

« Takao »
[[ 63/63 HP ]] 

« Alex »
[[ 5/5 HP ]] 

« Boar 2 »
[[ 2/5 HP ]] (5 HP - 3 DMG)

Edited August 12, 2015 by Alex
PermaRolla

[Takao 0]

The sounds of footsteps from behind suddenly reaching his ears made him turn, and he jumped slightly upon seeing the smaller male behind him. Despite his height, he also seemed quite a bit shorter than Takao, and most notably of a different ethnicity. He mused about how few people he met in the primarily Japanese game actually turned out to be Japanese, and mentally chuckled at how the game had actually turned out. Virtual Reality was rather popular in the west, after all. He returned his attention to the "real world", per say, and had just barely opened his mouth to speak when the second boar showed up. The likelihood that a player had run from them to seek the safety of the city seemed much more plausible with so many monsters so close to the gate.

Takao's eyebrows raised in surprise when Alex fell to the ground. He raised his left hand slightly, his right still holding onto his sword. "Uh... Hey-" he said as Alex jumped back onto his feet, dagger in hand. Takao wordlessly observed as he stabbed the boar, and nodded in surprised approval as he watched the health gauge drop. His jaw became lax as he continued to watch the scene unfold. The boar ran with the dagger still in its back, so Takao decided to put himself in the monster's path. As the boar approached him, he raised his foot and kicked it onto its side, then reached down and pulled the dagger free. Even as the monster got back up onto its feet with barely a sliver of health left, he knew it wouldn't stop until one of them was dead, so he moved back to Alex and tossed the dagger to him. "Heads up, it's comin' back." He said as he moved off to the side.

- -

» ID : [[ 27361 ]]
» BD : [[ HIT (4 + 2(ACC)) ]]

» CD : [[ 3 ]]

« Takao »
[[ 61/61 HP ]]
« Alex »
[[ 5/5 HP ]]

« Boar 2 »
[[ 1/5 HP ]] (1(Unarmed DMG) = -1HP)

[Alex 0]

Alex watched as the player knocked the boar to one side, using his foot to knock his dagger out of the beasts back. Alex studied the beast as it ran around in their direction. Alex waited for the moment that the boar would look at Alex- but until then, Alex would just have to wait. His eyes were staring at a dialogue box as Alex prepared a sword skill. The dagger began to glow a bright green color, and it seemed the other areas around the dagger seemed to have their brightness settings reduced. This is my chance.....My chance to prove myself... Come on Alex..........

The boar finally got a good look at the shining green dagger, as Alex's eyes opened wide. You had never seen a boar that fast unless you were in Sword Art Online. "Holy Shizz!" Alex leaped to the left side, and the boar went recklessly  right past him. But it was not long before the beast sprinted at Alex again. "Here goes nothing!" Alex ran up to the boar, as fast in a sprint as ever, and held his dagger low. Okay...wait for it.... Alex thought to himself. As the boar neared, Alex yelled: "Sky Uppercut!" But the boar easily dodged the strike. The Alex became faster and faster, tossing the dagger from one hand to the other hand, striking from both sides, merely to trap the foe. Now it should work......NOW! Alex activated the skill as the dagger began to glow brighter. "DIE!"  But the hit missed and the boar walked away, towards the other player. And it was all because of how much of a baby Alex was. God Dang it!

 

 

» ID : [[ 27499 ]]
» BD : [[ MISS (2) ]]

» MD : [[ MISS (2) ]]

» CD : [[ 6 ]]

« Takao »
[[ 61/61 HP ]]
« Alex »
[[ 5/5 HP ]]

« Boar 2 »
[[ 1/5 HP ]] 

Edited August 14, 2015 by Alex

[Takao 0]

Takao took a few careful steps back from the charging boar as it rushed past Alex. Although they had both managed to land a single hit each, Alex's earlier strike had dealt critical damage, which meant that he had accumulated more of the monster's «Hate». Green eyes kept a watchful glance on both the boar and the boy beside him as the monster disengage from its charge and turn to face them both again. He stood a mere meter or two away, yet still in the boar's line of fire, so he slowly moved back and placed Alex between himself and the irate monster. "Hm. That was weird," Takao's eyes set on Alex momentarily before returning to the boar, the blade of his sword twitching slightly. "Sword skills don't usually miss."

He was careful with his observations, specifically of Alex, since he didn't know very much about sword skills utilized by dagger users. He mused that it was an interesting learning experience for both, although with the positively livid boar making its return, Takao imagined that Alex would be doing more of the learning. "Try not to spend so much time on the «Pre-Motion», and wait for it to come to you instead. You'll give yourself more of a chance to get ready."

[Alex 0]

Alex nodded towards the other player. Now, Alex was scared of the weak little boar. It was the boar that was frightened of him. "Ready to go to H-E-Double Hockey sticks Boar?" Alex sped up as if he was using the charge skill at rank 0. Alex stared at the boar's gleaming red eyes as he tossed his dagger from his left hand to his right(Even though he's primarily left handed). He held the dagger with the point end down, a perfect way to hold the dagger for an uppercut. Well, that's what Alex thought. Alex slashed the dagger upwards into the air, watching as it slashed across the boar's face, then watched as it disaappeared and turned into millions of little crystal shards flying around in the sky. 

 

Battle Dice:6

Loot Dice:10

 

Loot: 1 Mat, 25 Col

Edited August 17, 2015 by Alex

[Takao 0]

(Hey uhh, heads up, a LD roll of 10 wouldn't give you anything. You need to roll at least an 11 for the monster to drop something if you qualify for a drop.)

Takao hefted his sword up onto his shoulder as he watched from a short distance away, his eyes loosely following Alex's movements. Although not as fast as a rapier's sword skills, the dagger was a close second in terms of speed, which made tracking the exact movements with the naked eye rather difficult. Takao wasn't particularly a fan of the weapon's usage as anything other than a sidearm, he didn't think it offered any kind of strategic advantage. He much preferred a weapon that kept the enemy at a distance, and it helped that it was a weapon he was already rather familiar with. Even so, Alex's dagger did the job just fine, and by the time Takao had blinked and the sword skill had been completed, the monster was reduced to shimmering fragments of data. He raised his sword and aligned it with the scabbard on his back, then slid it down into the protective housing. He couldn't imagine much on the first floor would prove to be a danger to him, which afforded the brunet enough confidence to stow his weapon away even after the second ambush. "Nice." Takao said as he approached Alex, hand raised and stretched out for a high five. "I'm Takao. Was that your first kill?"

[Alex 0]

(OOPS! Sorry bro. I'll fix it.)

 

Alex stared at the dagger and at the beautiful gleam it had in the reflection of the sun. "Uh, hey, yah, my names Alex." Alex liked watching Takao fight and handle the weird weapon- which people in the game called repiers- with speed and accuracy, all the same advantages of a dagger, but it seemed to have one big advantage. You could hold the enemy at bay further away and avoid getting hit more with a rapier than a dagger. But then again, Alex liked daggers. The reason why? Alex could always hold the dagger backwards, forwards, do uppercuts and much more with a dagger. A rapier, well, pretty much all Alex knew you could do with one was Lunge and Stab. At least, all he knew. "Nice rapier skills dude!"

[Takao 0]

Takao glanced over his shoulder to the hilt of his sheathed sword, then back to Alex with a raised eyebrow. He knew his weapon's blade was slender, but he didn't think it was thin enough to be considered a rapier. "Uh... Well, it's actually a straight sword, but thanks!" He said with a bit of uneasiness in his voice, likely from not wanting to sound pretentious with his correction. The brunet shifted his thoughts to Alex's clothing, which definitely had the look of something who was just emerging from the City of Beginnings for the first time. "So, you're just gettin' yourself started then, huh? What brought you out here?"

[Alex 0]

Alex felt weird answering that question. "Well obviously because I know that nothings going to get better if we dont help it. We can't just all sit on our freaking butts in the inns and expect thingd to get better on there own! And I like it out here! The sunsets are pretty." Alex looked at the straight sword again, realizing he was looking at the sword from the wrong angle. It was definatly not a rapier from this angle. "Yah, sorry about thinking it was a rapier! I was just thinking what the reason for me using a dagger and not a rapier is and took a quick angled look at your sword and from that angle it looked like a rapier! So sorry though." Alex looked around at the beautiful world and sighed. This world is so amazing though, the only reason I want to clear it is for the lazy and scared bums of floor one get back into the real world and actually get some real excersice in when they get back to the real world, cause if your in here, if your that scared, you can't do anything. Sure I am that "scared". But I want to come out here anyways, I could give a crap how scared I am. especially with boars.

[Takao 0]

Takao nodded and shrugged his shoulders some. "Fair enough. I know some people that come out here just 'cause they get bored or something. Doesn't always end up going the way they hoped. But it's cool to see the initiative either way! Maybe I'll be seein' you on the frontlines soon." He said as his gaze began to wander toward the wilderness of the first floor. He'd been planning on doing something out there, but the boar's interruption and Alex's sudden appearance had completely wrecked his earlier train of thought. "You should check out the scenery on some of the higher floors if you like this one. There's a lot of variety in the floor geography, and we're only up to the eleventh."

With the conversation shifted toward their weapons, and Takao's curiousity ever-present, he decided to ask what had been on his mind. "How come you picked the dagger?"

[Alex 0]

Alex thought over the question a  bit himself before answering.  "Well, I'm not very good at heavy weaponry. Not at all. I like how fast the dagger strikes, Love  it in that way. And sure, you could say, why not pick the rapier, but the reason  I chose a dagger instead of a rapier is because the rapier is boring. it's fast and keeps opponents at a distance, but all I can see me using it for is lunging and stabbing. With my dagger, I can do uppercuts, I can do stabs just like the rapier, and I can do so much more, which I'm learning more every day." Alex said as he finally answered the question. but then he began to wonder why Takao had chosen the one-handed long sword. "So, umm, why did you choose a one handed long sword Takao???" He asked while continuing to think over the question he asked in his head.

 

Alex didn't know how to name the moves he did with the dagger. He just simply did them. The only move name he knew was an uppercut, (Which he didn't know what you call a "downcut") and lunge/stab, which wasn't always the best idea with the dagger. But Alex fought switch handed, tossing the dagger from one hand to the other occasionally. There was also different ways you could hold the dagger, to make attacks that are  different, more difficult, but also more fun doing and more damage dealing.Alex found himself holding the dagger in his left hand with the blade pointed down more often than not though.

[Takao 0]

Takao's head tilted to one side as Alex explained his reasoning for his choice of weapon. "Just lunging and stabbing? I guess I can see where you're coming from there, but there's still a broad range of movements you can do with them. Rapier fencing was probably one of my favourite kinds of sparring back in the real world too. so maybe I'm just biased." He said with a shrug of his shoulders. It was easy for him to forget that, as much as Sword Art Online boasted their swordplay demographic, it was will an MMO at its core, which meant that weapon statistics were far more important than practical design choices. His own sword was a testament to that fact; while it was primarily based off a specific weapon typology he'd done extensive research on in the real world, the hilt was more suited for two handed use than the one handed style he preferred. Yet it still worked just fine nonetheless, and you certainly wouldn't find him complaining about the inaccuracies.

"Hm? Oh, well, I chose it because it's what I already have some skill in. I was part of a HEMA club in high school - er... It's a martial arts club for historical fencing and stuff. I figured I'd have a bit of an edge when it came to cutting down the competition, so I went with what I knew!" He couldn't help but feel a little giddy at his ability to slip in a few puns.

[Alex 0]

Alex chuckled a bit at the pun, and admired how Takao was able to make puns that well. Alex couldn't do puns worth crap, even if he found them online. "Real life, eh? That's cool" Alex said.  "In real life, I'm just a high school dude who loves to code, draw my little ponies, and listen to practically every genre of music. I also enjoy reading. Is there anything you did cool besides the fencing IRL?" Alex already felt he could trust Takao. "I haven't fought very many monsters in this death game. In fact, that boar was one of the very first few monsters I've slayed in this game. This game is simply amazing..... Makes me wish I was that popular and awesome."  Alex sighed. "But no, I'm just a friendless, unpopular, uncool, programming brony." 

[Takao 0]

Takao chewed on his tongue as Alex spoke, and moved to seat himself on the grass when he'd finished speaking. "I didn't really have time to do anything else besides the HEMA club after school, so... not really. I would hang out with my friends I guess, but that's it." He shrugged his shoulders and reclined against his arms to assume a more comfortable position. "I never really cared too much about being popular though. Looking back on it now, it just seems like a whole lot of maintenance for such a minor payoff. I'd much rather just have the friends I made." The small smile on his face that he'd been maintaining for the duration of his speaking had very quickly turned to a frown after he'd finished, and he glanced off into the distance to stare at nothing in particular.

[Alex 0]

Alex sat down by Takao then thought for about two minutes before replying. "Yah, " Alex sighed, "I like a couple of quotes similar to one but there's this one.... If you try to be like him, who will be like you? I always think about it. It's not like the quote is a big deal, but it's just that I never feel that I'm really being myself. I really have diverted too much from the real Alex... I honestly have no idea who I really am anymore....." Alex sighed once more as he pulled out a bottle of water, and began to chug it down. Right afterward, Alex pulled out the tasteless, stale tasting bread provided to every player in Sword Art Online. "If you don't mind me asking, what level are you bro?"

[Takao 0]

Takao hummed a low note as Alex spoke, not nearly loud enough to interrupt him, more so just as a gesture to display his attention. The conversation had delved much deeper than he'd been anticipating, though he couldn't exactly place the fault on anybody. The game had a negative effect on a lot of players, and some experienced a severely damaged mental state. Alex didn't seem to be anywhere near that bad, at least not that Takao could tell. The brunet slowly reclined onto the grass and situated his arms behind his head before shrugging slightly. "I wouldn't think too much into it, man. You're young, you've got plenty of time to figure out who you are. There's a proverb we have in Japan that goes like... "Kamenokō yori toshinokō"." Takao glanced up above his head as he spoke in his native tongue and chuckled at the automatic translator's failed attempt at translating. His dialect wasn't so easy to pick up, it seemed, judging by how the translator went on about age and turtle shells. "It basically means that wisdom and experience come with age. I'd recommend just takin' it easy and going with the flow for a while, y'know? No reason to get yourself all stressed. Oh, and I'm level twenty seven."

[Oikawa 1]

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