Swamp Exploration [AB-F12]

[Zelrius 0]

 

Zelrius walked up the stps right after Ssendom had defeated the boss of the Eleventh Floor. His loot had been an Item of that of his dreams. The Absolved Blade which cut through Mitigation more than the golden haired Commandant already did. He charged through the Swamps and landscape of the newly opened floor. Rain poured down lightly and mud splashed with every step of the boy's dress shoes. The wind furiously blew his cloak around and caused a slight slowwing of his movements. "If I wasn't in a damn hurry, I might like this place a bit more." He thought as he approached one of the nearby settlements of Floor 12. The boy walked in between the opening of the Haggard fence and quickly found the city to look as depressing as an emotionally unstable teenage girl. Shaking that thought, he made his way through the town, which had named itself Lazaro in the opening and on the map data. 
For a moment, Zelrius' greed took over as he noticed a "Quest" marking above it. He approached it and a Group of Sailors were frantically describing and talking about a large monster in the murky sawmp waters that had been terrorizing local travellers, Merchants and convoys. And for a moment, he just stood there, thinking it might be worth checking out, completely forgetting what he had set out to do.

Edited October 10, 2015 by Zelrius

[Kiru 0]

Only seconds after I missed my attack the boss suddenly burst into millions of pixels and the notorious "Congratulations" banner appeared in the center of the room. "Hardest boss heh, that was less than five minutes." I scoffed and reluctantly put away my dagger. "That was the most unexciting thing I've ever experienced in this game so far." Disappointed with missing one and only attack, I turned around to see that a certain blonde wasn't staying to celebrate. As soon as the boss was down he exploded through the door. I narrowed my eyes into a glare as his silhouette completely disappeared from the room. I told him that I was going to search for the player behind Keith's incident directly after the battle but..there was something stopping me from doing so. It wasn't like I didn't want to, it was just that I felt like I needed to figure out what was his deal before I completely let him go after saying words as poisonous as those he said. Plus it would be pretty awkward if we had to do guild activities together. So, putting my death hunt on hold, I too flipped up my black hood and left everyone in the boss room behind. 

The moment my foot made impact on the new floor I was met with a new terrain and a totally different climate. I was glad I had my cloak now, as I hated the rain. For a moment I looked around the area. Mosses covered the ground and lots of ponds surrounded the area. Most likely inside of them were monster invisible to players until it was too late. I made a mental note to stay away from those and continued. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of gold, it was definitely Zelrius. Without hesitation I sprinted towards the general direction of the flash. About ten seconds later I came into contact with a worn down fence. Having no time for this obstacle I jumped over it and ran further into what seemed like a town. It was quite gloomy but it was strangely peaceful. Maybe if I wasn't chasing Zelrius I could've enjoyed it a little more. 

 

 

[Rebekah 0]

Rebekah was with the group that had cleared the boss raid, after that uneventful turn of events. She had prepared for one of the hardest boss ever, and she seen it fall without even giving a single attack at all. Well, there's go all that worrying and preparation flown out of the window. The girl knew that the next boss must surely be harder, besides a false sense of security may be settling in among the group, particularly the ones that had never been in the situation before. But today was not the day to worry about it, it was time to explore this new floor, and celebrate. She knew that she could worry about that tomorrow, when she resumes her training once again, after everything is over.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed both Zelrius and Kiru were already sprinting ahead up those stairs. Up ahead, they were not that far ahead, but instead of turning towards the next dungeon, there was another option for them. Exploring the floor, the girl knew that half of the raid party will form teams and storm towards clearing the dungeon in preparation for the next raid. Those two were still sprinting off in that direction, and she was going to follow them, albeit at a much slower pace. She did not want to burn all of her energy chasing after them especially since she had put on her light leather which was very heavy. Rebekah was starting to feel the effects of wearing armour after not having worn any in the last half a year or so, and was beginning to struggle to catch up to them.

[Ssendom 0]

Ssendom strolled into the town of Lazarus, he continued to walk with a bit of a swagger as the shoulder plates of his armor had been replaced with a Tainted looking pieces that was made stained glass. The shoulders seemed to seethe an almost evil like aura, as the glass had been shaped to look like Dragons. He didn't seem completely pleased with his acquired item, but nonetheless he would adorn his item with pride. It was his mark that he had been the one to slay the Crusader. He walked about with his helmet set to invisible so his face can describe the pride he had in his killing blow.

The swamp like area wasn't much to Ssendom's overall liking, there wasn't much of a way to do any sort of working out in such an area. Although one could improve leg strength trudging through the thick mud and water, swamps tended to be disease ridden in the real world. Nonetheless, he came for a reason to explore the whole floor. He had been sent word that the Boss Room had already been located by someone, so there wasn't a race to find anything.

After a moment he noticed his fellow Commandant Zelrius, who was more like the ring leader of the Azure Brigade but still stuck to the rules he had set in place. He stopped next to the Golden Haired Boy, and noticed what the boy was looking at. Ssendom looked at the people listening into the words about a giant monster and grinned, "I have a good hunch that we know what we're doing next, don't we?" He chuckled as he stated. Standing next to the boy with the most Uniques in this world, adorned with a unique now of his own.

[Zelrius 0]

(OOC, Sorry been really busy. Short post, Apologies)

The boy grinned back to Ssendom, happy he was able to keep up. "Maybe not quite yet. Though I would like to find the location of it and possibly grab a corridor crystal so we can jump back and forth until it closes." From under the hood, Zelrius could hear the data of rain jumping and bouncing off of the gold trim and azure colored hood itself. He let out a breath as he thought to himself Not entirely sure what I am going to do running out here in the rain. Suppose I've wasted a few minutes instead of scouting, so that's out of the question. The boy wondered who was out scouting right now, given he didn't remember seeing anyone else rush out of the boss room.  "Good work back there with the Crusader, by the way. Azure made short work of him and some of the others helped a bit too. Congratulations your unique." Now his thoughts turned to the other Commandants and he smirked. "Don't suppose you're the only other one to run out of there, eh?" 

His grin stayed as he turned around looked toward the town entrance. "Perhaps we will wait for them." He hadn't really known if anyone else was coming, but Zelrius could only watch and wait.

[Kiru 0]

(short post bewareeEeEEe)

My running pace decreased bit by bit, then slowly into a walk when I saw Zelrius. He was standing with Ssendom near a group of what seemed to be sailors with a "Quest" banner marked above them. I looked from him, to the group and narrowed my eyes. I connected two and two and sighed just a little. Even after fighting a boss in less than ten minutes he still could not pass up the opportunity to get stronger, or wealthier than he already was. Zelrius wasn't going to be satisfied with just clearing a floor, no, he wanted more. Therefore, he would most likely be waiting at that point just in case anyone would have followed him, aka the commandants. It was like he predicted that I would come after him. "Tch." I walked forward, my cape slightly waving as I did, towards the group of two. As I got closer my intentions of figuring out what his deal was faded, now the only thing I wanted to do was let out my complete anger at him for neglecting someone that was like family to him. I focused on Zelrius and when I got close enough I spread my arms from under my cloak and shoved him hard backwards. Following that, I grabbed him by the collar. By now my hood had fallen off and my facial expression was visible; anger. My cheeks were red and the hand at my side was shaking. I clenched my teeth and stared at him, not that I could find his eyes. "Too busy huh? Explain to me...why you said that earlier. Especially before the fight, you knew that it wouldn't sit well to leave it at that!"  My volume grew louder towards the end and I continued to stare. Just stare at the blonde boy.   

[Rebekah 0]

The girl continued to walk straight ahead. It was going to take a while before she was going to catch up with the group, but even up ahead she was able to see that Kiru was slowing down from her quick jog in front of her. As Rebekah continued to walk forward, she realized that there was not one but three players in a group waiting there for someone. She knew that one of them had to be Zelrius, as she knew that Kiru had chased after him, but did not expect another player to join them. She had seen him before, around but had never talked to him for a long time. After taking her time, she realized that they were waiting for her, as she did not check her messages between the time the raid had ended, and the moment that they had arrived onto this floor. "So, what are all of us doing, standing out here, just minutes after the last raid had ended?" Rebekah asked. The scouting parties had already sprinted far ahead of them, so that was not what she was planning to do today, besides she was not in a hurry. There were no reasons to rush things, especially after they had defeated the first boss in about about five months.

[Ssendom 0]

(I am on the phone so short post sorry. I think this is a hing for us now xD. -Ooc)

Ssendom watched as a girl got a bit physical with Zelrius, he noticed a mark near her health gauge and it showed to be that she was from Azure Brigade. Ssendom wasn't one for being uninformed, quickly doing the math on the members of Azure Brigade and her closeness with the golden haired boy himself that this must be Kiru, plus she wasn't wielding a rapier. He looked down the ways and noticed a blonde walking toward the small group who had a rapier hanging at her side, "So these are the Commandants Kiru and Rebekah." He whispered to himself in a low tone though still just loud enough to be heard by Zel and Kiru whom were directly next to him. He walked forward to hold out a hand in greeting to Rebekah since Kiru would be busy heckling Zelrius, "Please to meet you Rebekah, I heard of your work on the Floor ten boss Orochi. Very nice job handling that by practically it just being you and Mari." He praised the Blonde without a name or title to address her as since this was their first true meeting, "If you haven't a clue as to who I am by now. I am Commandant Ssendom, appointed as such with the temporary step down of Ex-Commandant Oikawa. Tis a pleasure." He greeted her in a formal manner.

[Zelrius 0]

Zelrius grinned as he watched a certain Two-toned hair colored close friend of his make their way to Ssendom and Zelrius. Taking a step in her direction, Zelrius realized in a moment that she gave off a less friendly air than he. Within a moment, Zelrius felt her hands shove back on him, to which he quirked an eyebrow toward. A hand reaching for and pulling on his Collar, The golden haired boy had already guessed her mood before the hood had fallen off to reveal it. His arrogance slipped away in moments, his face relaxing to visible concern. Putting one hand on the one Kiru had around his collar, Zelrius spoke in a calm, collected voice. "Kiru," The boy simply started softly. "I miss him just as much as you, but we have to move on now. He's gone, and even if he was still around, clearly he doesn't care about us anymore. Just let it go. It's hard I know, but I eventually let go of Miaki, Garou, Nikki, Clarence, Daeron, Unknown, Aoife, Grim, Ryujin, Rage, Cicila, Oske, Ruri, Haine and Keith. There are people who's names I don't even remember who are gone. I would love to go and avenge every single one of them, but I simply don't want to live in the past anymore. They're all gone, It's time we moved on." Zelrius spoke these words, knowing that it would probably only make Kiru more angry, but everything he said was the truth, They were gone and didn't matter anymore.

[Kiru 0]

My concentration on Zelrius faded for a moment as I looked from left to right. Rebekah was now here along with Ssendom, someone I didn't know personally. The one thing I knew about him was that he was in Azure. The impression I was giving him probably wasn't the best, but nothing could be done now. Most likely this situation would be confusing for him and Rebekah but I didn't care very much. This was necessary if I was going to ever work with Zelrius again. I returned my attention back to Zelrius and for once I listened to what he was saying without interjecting. Throughout his speech my face gradually became less intense towards him. By the end of it I had more of a frown than a scowl. Deep, deep, deep down I knew that he was right but I didn't want to believe it. Another thing was I saw Keith with my own two eyes just a few days ago. But that was the problem too, that I saw him. Seeing him brought back everything, causing me to not perform duties of the Azure Brigade, miss events, and even get behind a few levels. I eased up on his collar and rubbed my pointer fingers on my temples. "I understand....I just...I know I need to move on I just....I...." I sniffled and stared up at the virtual sky. "I saw him you know? I saw him...I saw him Zelrius. His hair was a different colors and his health, it was nearly at zero. His clothes were torn and he looked so scared. Keith looked terrified of everything." I admitted, knowing I neglecting telling specific details to Zelrius before the boss battle. This wouldn't change his mind much, I knew that, but I just felt a need to do it. "I know..okay" I looked down at my feet and then directly into Zelrius's eyes. "I'm going to stop searching for him. There's one thing that I'm going to do though, I'm going to confront the person supposedly behind all of this. After that if I don't see Keith I will move on...for the sake of everyone else and for me." It hurt to say it but Zelrius had a point. I felt something stain my cheek. "Sorry." I muttered and wiped furiously at my eyes.  

[Rebekah 0]

When she had approached the group, Ssemdom had taken the time to introduce himself. The mention of the tenth floor boss made her once again reflect on her past experience in these raids. It had been a long time since someone had spoken about Mari, or any of the other long list of players that she had not seen in a very long time. The girl had still remembered all those players who were the front liners when she was just starting out, and when she got strong enough to join them, they had disappeared. It was going to take her a long time to grow strong enough but at least someone had complimented her for her efforts for once. Rebekah was not expecting to hear that but it was nice to hear that every once in a while. The girl replied, "It was a pleasure to meet you as well." Even though she had stop training as hard, she had kept notice of a bunch of players who had grown exponentially quick into a front liner, and he was one of those players that was part of the new generation of players. There were only a handful of prominent players who joined after Zelrius' and the first generation and now, Mari, Lessa, herself, and Tristan.

As she looked over at the other two players, she realized that it had been a long time since anyone spoken the word Keith, especially with emphasis but Zelrius just did. As Kiru responded, Rebekah was a bit shocked to hear that she was planning on moving on with her life, which goes against everything what she had expected of Kiru's behaviour. 

[Ssendom 0]

(God muse is slightly ded sorreh.)

Ssendom changed his stance to a more comfortable feeling way, his arms crossed each other as he leaned back on his back leg. He didn't really have much to say to Rebekah nor did he have much to say to Kiru as well, and anyone who knew him at all understood that he wasn't much of a talker. He looked over at Zelrius wondering how far the little show would go along since he didn't exactly understand anything that was going on between the two of them. Even more so the Dreadnought kept to himself and didn't bother to ask any questions either. Ssendom started to walk towards the exit of town to get the group hunting started.