[PP - F12] «Lord of the Seas» [ Ariel / Azide ]

[Takao 0]

The boss had been taken down without a problem, which wasn't entirely unsurprising. Everybody had been given more than enough time to ready themselves and prepare. Many had taken that opportunity and run wild with it, thus becoming over-leveled thus resulting in the underwhelming boss fight that had transpired. Plenty of players had headed off to the twelfth floor to see what it was like, and Takao was among them. With the activation of the warp gate, he was transported to the settlement known as Lazaro.

His green eyes opened and adjusted to the shift in light. He was in a building, a plantation house of some kind, and stood in the middle was the warp gate platform. He hurried off, not wanting to be in the way of other arriving players, and pushed open the door that lead to the outside. He was met with the sight of a village atop stilts, standing just out of reach of the murky waters. "Huh. Already reminds me of the sixth floor." he said with a slight grimace, briefly recalling the little excursion he had with Jomei on the jungle-themed floor. He walked to the edge of the wooden platform and glanced down at the murky waters, his imagination already running wild with the possibilities of what lurked below.

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

After her initial rush out of the boss room with Teayre and Cal, Ariel found herself staring at the new settlement. "This is a awfully familiar with floor 8" she said in a loud voice, noticing a brunette nearby that stopped and admired the scenery like she did. "Hey Takao good job out there" she said with a bit of sorrow in her voice as she did nothing but prepare and watch as others killed the boss. Takao actually managing to land a hit on it before others killed it. She watched as her buffs started disappearing one by one until there was none. A long sigh left her throat as this boss fight, that required a celebration now that was over and with such little effort, let her with a bad taste in her mouth.

[Azide 0]

Forsaken. Perhaps a tad too melodramatic of a term to describe his predicament, but it held a poetry to it. Would it selfish to say that today had been a disappointment? All things considered, he should have been overjoyed- the boss had been slain without even a single casualty among the clearing party. Not even the lower-leveled healer had been harmed- an impressive feat, he had to admit. All things considered, their efforts had gone off without a hitch, and the Crusader had been dispatched with only minor difficulty. He should have been elated, to have been blessed with the sight of that ethereal stairway as each of its steps appeared before them one by one. And yet, as the man called Ssendom had felled the armored titan, his elation had been tinged with a touch of something more disconcerting. 

Azide ascended the foreboding staircase, and as he took the last step, a blinding white light rendered him effectively blinded for a fleeting moment. But his vision came back, and he blinked away the disorientation. In front of him stood Takao and Ariel, two players with whom he was conveniently familiar. Around them stood all the markings of a boggy swamp- not exactly the tropical paradise he had been hoping for. "Looks like our good friends from the Azure Brigade have taken the glory once again," remarked the man, as he approached the two. Azide gave his knife an experimental twirl, before slipping it away.

Edited October 10, 2015 by Azide

[Takao 0]

Takao's attention was grabbed by Ariel upon hearing her voice, and his head turned away from the murky waters. "Oh, hey Ariel." he said, offering up a slight wave of his hand. He smiled slightly at her praise, but couldn't work up anything larger after noticing the sadness her voice carried. He attributed it to disappointment for being unable to hit the boss, and exhaled a sigh. "Bummed 'cause you didn't get a hit on the boss?" Taking a chance on his observation, he glanced back down to the water. He had his own hangups regarding the fight; being placed on the first team to attack meant that his chances of getting a reward were next to none. But, the boss that had kept them from progressing for so long had been defeated, and he couldn't bring himself to feel down about that.

His gaze was captured by Azide next, who made a remark about the Azure Brigade, earning a dry chuckle from him. "Looks like it." A shrug rolled across his shoulders, and his arms found themselves folded at his chest. "At least we're finally past the eleventh floor though, yeah? Can't be down about that. Whadaya say we go have a look around? Maybe there's some convenient quest nearby or something."

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

"Convenient quest....when was there any convenient quest at a new floor?" catching sight of Azide, the blonde wave to him. It seems he wasn't in a better mood than she was. "Seems like almost they were expecting it to be like that, judging from the formation.... pretty convenient that most members in the first groups were AB. Then again, we should be grateful to the no casualties fast kill thing!" those last words tasted like venom in her mouth, she had conflicting feeling about that particular fact.

In any case she took a look around. 'A whole new floor for us to explore, huh?' she asked herself, as Takao wandering what this floor had installed for them. She took the opportunity to once again check her gear. It was still the same, maximum evasion and medium protection while having the largest damage output. Of course it was the same, she didn't even get to put those new shoulder pads and vambraces to the test. She looked at the crowned lion logo, it had been dyed white once again after being crimson, signaling that the hp buff dissipated. "Okay boys let's do some boy scouting in this gloomy place!"

[Azide 0]

There was that shrug again, rolling across Takao's shoulders as reliably as the rising and setting sun. He wondered if perhaps the young man had originally been one half of a pair of twins; after all, one of the siblings would occasionally absorb the other within the womb, but display no obvious resulting characteristics. But could it be possible that Takao's expressive shoulders were controlled by a twin-that-never-was? The answer was a resounding maybe.

Raising a brow at Takao's sentiments, he glanced over at the swordsman. "I guess we've been stuck on these floors for so long that our pace seems almost inconsequential at this rate," he answered, shrugging. Even if they managed to maintain an unprecedented streak of one floor per month, it would be over seven long years before they cleared the hundredth floor. And even then, what was say that the madman Kayaba would even release them at that point?

Azide took a long look at the marsh around them before inhaling deeply. The swamp was so prevalent that he could almost taste it in the air- this was not the sort of floor he'd care to be stuck on for any longer than necessary. He listened as Takao brought up the idea of some light reconnaissance, with Ariel seeming very much on board with the idea. It did not escape him that the girl seemed to share some of his own misgivings, but it was not something he wished to dwell too deeply on for the time being. "I have no problem with having a look around," he said, narrowing his eyes as his gaze followed the winding stilted bridges which strayed into misty horizons. "Can't hurt to get a head start on the others, seeing as we're already here." 

[Takao 0]

A low hum escaped from Takao's chest as he listened and idly nodded along. "Let's just hope that they don't decide to make more changes that completely change the game." he said as his gaze was cast azide, looking around for any potential floor inhabitants that might've had something of interest to say. "It'd suck if they started scaling to our level and stuff." He was quick to shake the idea from his head, in hopes that it would help prevent such an adjustment from ever seeing light. Both of them seemed on board with the notion he'd brought forth, so the brunet occupied himself with glancing around, clicking his tongue as his eyes scanned their surroundings. He focused on a man wearing a straw hat and ratty clothes that stood on an adjacent platform, glancing from one side to the other in a systematic pattern that was inherent in most NPCs. The cursor that floated above its head denoted there was a quest to be had, and Takao's eyes lit up with excitement.

"Yo, we got one!" he said, though by the time the words had left his mouth, Takao had already broken into a light jog. A hollow thud sound echoed from the wooden platform as he trod over to the NPC, and began exchanging dialogue with it. As a result, a prompt soon appeared in front of him, asking for his confirmation regarding embarking on the quest.

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

While the guys were talking about something related with the game mechanics the blonde, the idea of reconnaissance reminded her of that one attempt she'd done with Cal in finding the 11th boss room. "That was boring..." muttered the blonde to herself. Again the swamp scenery drawn her attention as she found herself looking around with no fixed point of focus. It wasn't as beautiful as the Cathedral but it had its charm, a place of solitude for those who love nature...not the kind of place Ariel liked. The city was her natural habitat and for meditation she would go to her father's dojo/fencing school.

In any case she found herself walking after Takao who engaged a random NPC fisherman in conversation. Turns out it was a quest right there, what were the odds? "Hey Takao, since you got the quest you be team leader. You OK with that Azide?" she asked turning her head towards the latecomer.

[Azide 0]

"If the designers of this game have any sense at all, they would realize how counter intuitive it would be to artificially slow our progress," said Azide, turning his attention momentarily to the swordsman. It would be nice to actually be moving onto new floors for a change, rather than crawling along at a snail's pace and hoping that their bodies wouldn't give out by the time they cleared all one hundred floors.

Not long after that, he watched as Takao darted over to some grey-faced fellow nearby. From the looks of the window that had popped up moments later, it appeared as if the green-eyed brunet had made short work of their self-imposed scouting assignment. Not that he minded in the least, as he personally preferred the cleaner and more elegant atmosphere of the preceding floor.

Azide shook his head at Ariel's question. "That's fine with me, naturally." At the end of the day, he was a simple man. A few extra skill points when all was said and done would make him a happy camper, regardless of whomever received those trinkets upon the quest's conclusion.

[Takao 0]

"I don't think the people who trapped us in a death game would care about being counter intuitive." Takao quipped without taking his eyes off the prompt. He read what the transparent box had to offer and pressed accept, then swiped open his menu and delved into the long list of options. He stopped at the party feature, and send an invitation to both Ariel and Azide. He shifted the window aside and opened both the field map as well as the quest window, creating a small tree of interface menus around him. "Hmh... Alright, so it's a field boss, I think." Takao said as he read through the information he'd been provided with. "This guy called it the "Lord of the Seas". Kinda weird, given that this is a river, buuut whatever." He dismissed the slight naming oversight and resumed reading. "There's a broad spawn area on the map, so we'll have a look around there."

All of the the branches of menus were dismissed with a single motion, and he turned to face the two. A quick glance at their equipment reminded him of their brief encounter with the Iron Guardian not too long ago. They were two high damage dealing players and one utility strong, which he figured would be more than enough to clear the quest without issue. "If it's needed, I can tank it with my parry skill, but I think we should just try to nuke it." he said as his glance carried over to Azide. "Assuming you don't one-shot it, anyway."

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

"I don't know about 'people' but that self proclaimed GM surely is getting his kick from observing us struggle." said Ariel as she remembered that fateful one day, they cleared more than 1/10th of the sky castle but there was still more to go. With a sigh, she watched Takao as he gave them the quest details:" So basically we're going after Nessie!" she claimed with a cheerful voice, as she was a bit of enthusiast of legends and such. She then glanced at Azide and asked: "Is there something on you mind?"... she'd noticed a small change in his behavior lately but didn't quite knew where to put her finger.So she took the most blunt approach she knew and simply asked, whatever or not should he reveal something it was completely his decision. As his friend, she liked to thing of herself that way, she had to ask.

Then turned to Tak and answered: "I've got a bit better with the rapier myself" she said with a small grin. "I say we nuke it!"

[Azide 0]

A shimmering window blinked into existence before his eyes, and he skimmed over its contents as precaution; after all, finding himself on the receiving end of some elaborate scam was not something he really wanted to add to his resume. After finding everything to be in order, he gave the dialogue his blessing and watched as two health bars appeared underneath his own at the corner of his vision. "Fair enough," he remarked, meeting Takao's gaze as the hovering screen faded from view. "For such an acclaimed title, the quality of this game is rather hit or miss. For instance, you ever read the Sword Art descriptions before the latest patch?" Azide shook his head, a frown making the corners of his lips droop like a limp reed of grass. He wouldn't be surprised if they were to come across some game breaking glitch at some point that would doom them all.

His eyes drifted to map which had appeared at his side, listening absently as the other two continued the conversation. "As great of a boost that would be for my ego, I wouldn't get my hopes up for a one-shotter from any of us," he said, scanning the map for any details which might have otherwise gone unnoticed. He sighed, finding nothing of the sort, before glancing back at Ariel.

For a moment, he looked at her- his head turning slightly, but his eyes remaining trained. The moment came to an end as Azide exited from the last remaining window without so much as a glance at it. "Nothing important," he said, before setting off in the general direction of the sprawling spawn point.

[Takao 0]

[OOC: I'll spawn the bossdude in my next post. also, sorry for poo-tier post. been writing reports and stuff for work for almost 5 hours straight, brain is kill.]

Takao chuckled lightly at the reminder of how hastily the last patch had been released, with plenty of errors and subsequent hotfixes to correct the various problems that arose shortly after. Yet things seemed to have mostly leveled off, and changes were becoming few and far between. "Hah, yeah, some of those were pretty silly." he said, though he didn't offer any further response. Another chuckle escaped as response to his comment about the ego boost, and before long, the three of them were setting out into the swampy wilderness of the freshly unlocked twelfth floor. "So... given that it's a river monster, and the area is just a big old circle, I figure all we need to do is just follow the river down stream a little ways." he said, lazily pointing southward down the flowing body of water. "It'll probably spawn somewhere down the line. I'll lead with a stun, then you guys just nuke the dude with everything ya' got."

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

Seeing Azide's apparently casual reply the blonde decided to let go of the subject with a casual "If you say so." Her attention now being held by the new theme about the game's latest patch, she would lie if she said she didn't like it. "Well at least they try" she added at the end. Sword arts made mob slaying a whole lot more easier now but like your topical old man she added. "But with the sword arts, late bloomers won't know the thrill and pain of beating a mob with high HP just with the basic attack. In any case mobs seem to be more aggressive now. Take the crusader for example." 

Looking towards the 'river' in question she started strolling towards it while nodding once again to Tak's plan. "I thing we all would use a ego boost right now. Let us be at least the first ones to finish Nessie! if nothing else."

[Azide 0]

Without missing a beat, Azide answered the blonde with a terse, "I do." This was the time for work- not a quaint little tea party where everybody would make small talk, gossip, and discuss their feelings. The sooner they got on things, they sooner they would get on with them; it was a truism, but that didn't make it any less true. And upon further consideration, neither was it the time for tautology.

Takao kept suggesting that they 'nuke' the so-called Lord of the Seas, which he had to assume must be gamer jargon for a high-power assault. The days of complete ineptitude in the world of Aincrad were nothing more than an unpleasant memory, but every once in awhile, some stray remark or terminology would remind him of his lacking experience in the field of gaming. "I can only assume that The Lord of the Seas would feel most comfortable in the water," he said, narrowing his eyes on a far off log which floated down stream. "So let's send the bastard sky high."

[Takao 0]

« Sea Wyvern »
300 HP
96 DpA

- -

Almost immediately after the party of three entered the marked zone on the map, an inconspicuous wake began following behind them. The ripples atop the river's surface were hidden by the movement of the water, disguising its presence almost perfectly. The beast that lurked below the murky water slowly worked on gaining on them, until the party had reached a point that triggered its AI to attack. The monster burst from the waters and bellowed out a powerful guttural roar, alerting Takao and undoubtedly the others with him to its presence. He jumped at the ear piercing sound and his head snapped toward the origin. As a result of months of conditioning, his body immediately fell into a stance with his feet shifted apart in a specific way to root himself to the ground. With his sword in hand, he'd positioned it in just the right way that a simple turn of his wrist would activate the pre-motion of a sword art, which he then proceeded to do upon identifying the large river inhabiting sea monster. Despite having been caught off guard, a smile worked its way onto Takao's face, and he twisted his wrist slightly to activate the sword art, causing the length of his blade began to glow light blue. "Alright, let's do this!" he said to the two before tensing his legs and pushing off the ground. Guided by the system, his blade found itself slicing through the Sea Wyvern a total of nine times, and ending with a hilt blow that realistically would've done very little to concuss the behemoth. But, luckily, this was a game, which meant things didn't always have to make sense. His boots connected with the scaled underbelly and, using the monster as a foothold, Takao kicked off and landed with a hard thud back onto solid ground. After skidding to a stop, he turned to Ariel and Azide. "It'll be stunned for a little while, so feel free to go crazy."

- -

« Battle Sequence »
Takao » Ariel » Azide » Sea Wyvern

» ID : [[ 34842 ]]
» BD : [[ HIT (5 + 3(ACC)) ]]
» MD : [[ C.HIT (10 - 3(EVA)) ]] (Damage voided due to stun.)

« Takao »
[[ 137/137 HP ]]
[[ 21/33 Energy ]] «Nova Ascension» used. (-12 Energy)

« Sea Wyvern »
[[ 201/300 HP ]] [[ 10(DMG) + 1(Charge) * (9*1) = -99HP ]]
*STUNNED*

 

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

 Azide did raise a valid point as she didn't knew if swimming was a thing in SAO, luckily the mob was ahead of them and made its presence known. Takao sprinted towards it and managed to stun it for the team. As soon as she unsheathed her blade, her body began glowing golden in the same time her blade began glowing blue. She was simultaneously activating a sword art and sword skill in a pre-move that required her to lower her center of gravity. Next she charged towards the mob and began stabbing it in a frenzy of showy twists and spins, reaching up to a spectacular combo of 13 hits. Then she backed off and let out a loud 'Tsk' as its HP remained in the red zone with a slither of health. 'If I had used a damage crystal or potion he would've been dead' she thought as she turned her head towards Azide. "All yours!" she said, while the post-movement penalty kicked in for that high-end skill.

« Battle Sequence »
Takao » Ariel » Azide » Sea Wyvern

» ID : [[  34877 ]]
» BD : [[ HIT (9(nat)) ]]

« Ariel»
[[ 137/137 HP ]]
[[ 20/33 Energy ]] «Over Radiation» used. (-13 Energy)

« Sea Wyvern »
[[ 32/300 HP ]] [[ 10(DMG)+1(CRIT) + 2(Charge) * (13*1) = -169HP ]]

Edited October 12, 2015 by Ariel - The Crowned Lion

[Azide 0]

From otherwise placid waters, the Lord of the Seas erupted to the surface in a flashy show of intimidation. By the time Azide turned his head, Takao had already run off to perform a round of acrobatic theatrics which resulted in one paralyzed field boss. Following this, Ariel cut the distance between herself and the aquatic beast to nothing in a matter of moments, before going medieval on the fish out of water. It would appear that the girl had grown considerably more proficient with her weapon since the last time they'd engaged in combat- hers was an Art that he had never seen before today. A mental note was made of the approximate damage done by the technique, for future reference.

With the end of the battle already in sight, Azide drew Chemikaze from his hip and gripped the handle tightly between his fingers as he sprang into a full-speed charge. In an instant, there he was- face to face with the stunned and dripping monarch. Memories of a certain Wasp Queen came to mind; was it time for another bout of regicide already? It seemed like just the other day that the creature's anthropodic counterpart had fallen. Regardless, it was just about time to put an end to this thing's alleged wrath.

Time slowed to a crawl through the toffee-colored eyes of the man dressed in green, and his gaze snapped to four distinct locations across the front of the beast. Like clockwork, the system guided the glowing dagger into, through and across all four points over the span of an equivalent number of rotations. When the Sword Art came to an end, he trailed his sights up to the virtual timer, confirming that less than a single had passed since the initial blow.

Azide swiveled around to face his peers as the massive creature flopped over onto the marshy ground. From behind him came a choked and gravelly cry, and the sound of breaking glass overpowered the muffled patter of his footsteps, alerting him that wyvern was no more. The revelation brought to mind a somber phrase. Le roi est mort, vive le roi.

« Battle Sequence »

Takao » Ariel » Azide » Sea Wyvern

» ID : [[  34887 ]]
» BD : [[ HIT (7(4+3) ]]

« Ariel»
[[ 129/129 HP ]]
[[ 15/31 Energy ]] «Eternal Cyclone» used. (-16 Energy)

« Sea Wyvern »
[[ -160/300 HP ]] [[ 10(DMG) + 2(Charge) * (16*1) = -160HP ]]

[Takao 0]

Emerald hued eyes watched as his companions dispatched the monster with ease. First Ariel struck with impressive might, utilizing a mixture of damage amplifying skills accompanied by precise accuracy to strike the beast. The health gauge dropped rapidly, and reached its stopping point just in time for Azide to launch his attack. The full extent of the damage was unseen, though from what he knew of the sword art that had been used, there were no doubts in his mind that it had been a tad overkill. He couldn't necessarily blame Azide though, or Ariel for that matter, they'd both been robbed of the opportunity to both strike the boss that had halted their progress for so long as well as receive any kind of equipment in return. A weak smile worked its way onto his face. "I really chose the wrong weapon." he said aloud in a low tone, though he expected both of his two companions to be too preoccupied with the field boss to hear.

With the boss's defeat, a transparent prompt appeared in front of him, displaying the spoils of their battle. As the party leader, he'd received an item for the defeat of the monster as well as completing the quest. Though his lack of participation opened a pit of guilt in his stomach. "Awesome work, guys." he said upon dismissing the window. "It dropped an item for the quest, but since you guys did most of the work, does either of you want it instead? It has the same effect as the Banshee's Scream."

[Ariel - The Crowned Lion 0]

As she regained her motory functions, the blonde witnessed, what she assumed Azide's most powerfull blow. She showed a grin as he did the 'cool guys don't look behind them at the explosion' act when the 'sea lord' vanished into polygon. She was sure that he, as a kindred spirit, released all the frustration gathered throughout the boss fight, as she did. 

Hearing Takao talk about a reward she simply shook her head and with a light smile replied. "I for one don't want it. It was rewarding enough to actually get a chance to hit it!" She said, clearly mocking the already ended boss fight.

Next she directed her attention towards Azide: "For a thing as small as it is, that dagger really packs a punch doesn't it?" She asked in a amused tone, most of her previous anger  and rage already dispersing. Her mood was starting to improve visibly.

(Short phone reply..sowwy)