[SP-F9] Guardian of Fire (Quest)

[Mack 0]

After the first fiasco in trying to take down Cerberus on the Hell Hounds, Mack was taking no chances. Simply put, he couldn't in good conscience, put the life of the Seneschal of the Crimson Blades at risk by bringing him along on the quest. With the rebalancing of the combat engine, the blonde tank in training would simply have to find his own way and time though Mack would be more than happy to help him complete the quest by taking it a second time. When he was ready to take it. Arriving in the teleportation portal in Vulcan Town Mack jogged down the stairs and into the plaza of Vulcan Town proper, swearing to himself as he went. He hated these kinds of overheated floors, though the ninth floor wasn't nearly as bad in that regard as the fifth floor was. Tugging the hood on his cloak up over his head, Mack headed off in the direction of the town's gate. Since he knew exactly where he was going, this time, there was no need to lollygag. The sooner he completed the quest, the sooner he could leave and if things got too hairy he still had Piera's teleportation crystal for emergencies.

[Mack 0]

Heading out from Vulcan Town, passing through the imposing obsidian gates of the town, Mack began the long and arduous two day trek out to the cave where Cerberus and the Hellhounds could be found. He had enough information on the quest, between the broker’s information, the player’s guidebook, and his first aborted attempt to complete the quest with Tristan, Calrex, and Xion the Grandmaster of the Crimson Blades had a pretty good idea of the kinds of obstacles he could expect to be facing on the quest. No sooner had he passed through the inky black stone gates made of volcanic rock then Mack reached up over his shoulder and wrapped his hand around the solid haft of Invictus, bringing the axe down and into a ready position. 

[Mack 0]

Having reviewed, one last time, all of the requirements for completing the Guardian of Fire quest and obtaining the massive rewards that the quest entailed, both in terms of the potion that was granted at the completion of the quest and the experience points that could be had Mack set off across the oppressively hot volcanic landscape. As he set one foot resolutely in front of the other, the enormous axe man thanks his lucky stars that he had already completed the quest down on the fifth floor that granted the Survival skill to allow immunity against environmental status effects. When Mack had first attempted the quest with Xion, Tristan, and Calrex he hadn't been in possession of the skill yet and he recalled watching his health point pool occasionally dwindle as a result of the heat that was to be found within the inferno cavern.

[Mack 0]

Mack walked in silence for several hours through the bleak and barren volcanic landscape, the only sounds being made by the crunch of his boots on the rocky ground and the occasional grunt as he cleared this or that obstacle. The time, and distance to the Inferno Cavern, a place Mack already had marked on his map from having been there once before, ticked away slowly as the enormous axe wielding warrior picked his way over the territory along a path that was familiar to him. The first day passed smoothly and without event or interruption from any other players or computer generated mobs. As darkness began to fall, Mack sought out the familiar camping place that he and his three companions had used on their previous attempt through the quest, and then he bedded down for the night.

[Mack 0]

Awakening the following morning Mack silently got to his feet and slung Invictus, once more over his back. When he heard the familiar click of the axe sliding into its proper place, Mack rolled his head around on his neck to loosen up and then stretched his arms up over his head. In the east the sky was just beginning to lighten with the approach of the dawn and that would afford the hulking soldier the opportunity to enjoy a very brief and simple breakfast of bread and water before heading off deeper into the ninth floor in search of the lair of Cerberus and his Hell Hounds. Already knowing the specs and stats on the beasties, as he did, Mack was not in the least bit concerned about not being able to safely solo the quest.

[Mack 0]

All day Mack's time was taken up with the mindless monotony to marching through the volcanic wasteland that was the ninth floor of Aincrad. While the floor, itself, wasn't as hot as the desert fifth floor that still didn't make it overly pleasant to have to spend any great amount of time here. The ginger headed warrior also knew very well, already, that once he entered the Inferno Cavern the conditions were going to be downright hellish. All through the day Mack continued to slog along, occasionally pausing to check and see how close he was coming to his goal. As the sky began to darken to the point that it was no longer easy or practical to see in front of him the massive man found the second camping spot from the previous attempt and settled in for the night.

[Mack 0]

Rising the the morning of his second day out on the ninth floor in search of the Inferno Cavern, even though it wasn't really much of a search since Mack already knew quite well where it was that he was going, the ginger bearded axe man went through the same process as the one he had employed the previous day. After enjoying a basic breakfast of bread and water, once again while watching the sun rise up over the mountainous and volcanic landscape of the ninth floor Mack shouldered Invictus and set off in the direction of Cerberus' air. He knew it wasn't going to take all day to reach the cave, with the early start he knew he should reach the Inferno Cavern by around noon and from there, the fun would begin.

[Mack 0]

Reaching the entrance to the Inferno Cavern, Mack tightened his grip on Invictus as he stood just outside the cavern's mouth and peered in. He was, of course, well aware of the environmental status effect that was part of the cavern and he knew that his skills were such that he would have nothing to fear. It just wasn't going to be very much fun to enter the cave and have to deal with the sweltering and oppressive heat of the cavern. Mack had been to places, far more places than he cared to count really, that were hot and if there was one thing he knew it was that he hated places that were too hot and the Inferno Cavern was most assuredly too hot. Sighing to himself, Mack slung his bearded axe over his shoulder and stepped into the cave.

[Mack 0]

ID: 49153
MD: 8
CD: 8 (Regen. activates)

Mack: 114/117 (28/28) (81-66=-15 HP) (+56 Regen.) (-3 Required Dam.)
Hound 1: 30/30
Hound 2: 30/30
Hound 3: 30/30

Mack made his way through the cavern, Invictus at the ready with his hands wrapped tightly around the leather wrapped haft of the weapon. His head was on a swivel and the hood of the crimson cloak that denoted his station within the Knights of the Blood Oath was pulled back to reveal his equally crimson features. It was entirely too hot in the cave to be dealing with the added heat from the hood. Somehow, though, the three hell hounds still managed to get the drop on him, seemingly appearing from nowhere and locking their jaws around each of his arms to prevent him from swinging Invictus while the third snarled and went for the left ankle. To dislodge the beasts, Mack slammed them together using one as an improvised club until they all let go and assumed a more proper battle formation.

Edited February 24, 2016 by Mack

[Mack 0]

ID: 49181
BD: 7
CD: 1 (No Regen.)

Mack: 114/117 (22/28) - Lumber Jack (3x1x13=39 Dam.) AOE [-6 ENG]
Hound 1: -9/30 (-39 Dam.)
Hound 2: -9/30 (-39 Dam.)
Hound 3: -9/30 (-39 Dam.)

With a supreme air of unconcern, Mack advanced on the trio of dark furred hounds. It didn't exactly take a genius to figure out this was not going to be a particularly difficult fight and the red-headed man, knowing that a tougher fight was coming in the form of Cerberus, was not about to wind or over exert himself dealing with the warm-up act. Springing forward and activating his second tier Lumber Jack sword art, Mack went to work. With a tomahawk chop, he slammed Invictus into the first of the dogs and it exploded into pixels. With a quick sidestep, Mack swung the axe laterally across his body to catch and obliterate the second of the hounds. Finally, he slid his hands up the haft of the axe and protecting his hand with the bladed head as he punched the final hound into pixelated nothingness.

Edited February 24, 2016 by Mack

[Mack 0]

+6 HP - Out of Combat Healing, Survival Skill
+3 Energy - Out of Combat energy regeneration

With the second step of the quest completed with the defeat of the three hounds, the first had been making his way back out to the cave once again, Mack settled down in a cross-legged position on the warm stone floor of the Inferno Cavern to wait for a few moments. He wasn't overly worried about Cerberus, not really anyway, but there was also no reason to be stupid. The hulking axe wielding warrior was in no big rush, so there was absolutely no reason to not wait around for a few moments while his energy and health bar returned to their completely full states. Even though he was confident that he could tackle Cerberus right that moment, given the state of his stats and what he knew or could guess at in terms of the stats of the boss it was better to have something, like a full health and energy bar, and not need it than it was to need something and not have it.

[Mack 0]

+3 Energy - Out of Combat energy Regen. - Full Energy

Keeping one eye on his energy bar, Mack watched as the bar slowly but surely continued to tick ever onward and upward in the pursuit of maxing itself out once again. When it reached the completely full point Mack pushed himself up off of the stone floor and dusted off his hands, quickly, by clapping them together a few times. That done he wrapped both of his hands around the leather wrapped haft of Invictus and planted the butt cap of the weapon on the stone floor as he considered which of the myriad paths leading off from the main one would be the right one to lead him to his ultimate goal in completing the quest, namely the lair of the three-headed mythological guardian of the underworld named Cerberus.

[Mack 0]

OOC: Of course, the mutt would nearly kill me before the regen.

ID: 49189
BD: 10
MD: 10 (One roll for ALL THREE HEADS, Ignores Mitigation on MD 9-10)
CD: 7 (Regen. activates +54 HP)

Mack: 93/117 [26 x 3 = 78 Dam.] [+54 Regen] (10/28) - Explode Catapult (3 x 3 x 13 = 117 Dam.) AOE [-18 ENG]
Head 1: -42/75 (-117 Dam.)
Head 2: -42/75 (-117 Dam.)
Head 3: -42/75 (-117 Dam.)

Deciding, after a couple of minutes thought that the middle path was the one that was most likely to lead him to Cerberus, Mack took off down the path in the middle. Truth be told, the enormous man was not being as careful and quiet as he should have been. The ginger headed axe man was so confident in his ability to dispatch Cerberus without having to worry too much about the colossal dog's stats that Mack was making considerably more noise than was wise. Just as the hell hounds had, Cerberus got the jump on Mack. The leftmost head chomped down on him, then he was tossed to the center head which did likewise before tossing him to the rightmost head to complete the set. There were several choice four letter words as Mack slammed a gauntleted fist into the final head's nose. Cerberus yelped and dropped Mack.

Mack checked his health bar, the regeneration on his gauntlets had kicked in, but his health bar was still in the process of climbing out of the yellow part of the danger zone. Now was no time to worry about not ending this fight immediately. Growling, he drew back Invictus and clicked in the hardest hitting area of effect sword art that he had. Sweeping Invictus through the air in front of him right to left, Mack clobbered all three heads. Reversing his hand, he swung the bearded axe the other way left to right and nailed all three heads again before slamming the butt cap into the ground and catching the entire beast in an enormous energy shockwave. Cerberus yelped, and dissolved into pixels.

Edited February 25, 2016 by Mack

[Mack 0]

ID: 49198
CD: 4 (No Regen.)
+3 Energy, out of combat
+6 HP, out of combat

Mack grunted and advanced over the smooth and warm stone floor to the place where Cerberus had been when the creature had been pixelated into nothingness. His eyes scanned the floor and area around the spot, eventually spotting the potion that was the quest reward. It was a tiny teardrop shaped bottle filled with an angrily red looking liquid. Mack tapped it with a finger to pull up the description of the potion, Cerberus Soul which would grant a tiny amount of burn damage to Invictus for a short period of time. "Two points burn damage is a bit of a joke after the re-balance," he muttered to himself.

Edited February 25, 2016 by Mack

[Mack 0]

ID: 49201
CD: 10 (Regen Activate, HP full)
+3 Energy, out of combat

Plopping down on the nearly unpleasantly warm floor of the Inferno Cavern, Mack pulled up his inventory and stored the quest reward from having defeated Cerberus. He also watched as the regenerative qualities of his gauntlets kicked in to fully restore his health. All that was needed now was to wait a little bit longer for his energy pool to completely restore itself then he would be back on his feet and on his way out of the cavern. While it was true that he had an escape crystal that he could have used to greatly speed up the return trip the truth was that Mack only had one of those items and her preferred to save the crystal for a time when he really needed it as opposed to a moment when it would simply be a convenient time saver to be able to use it.

Edited February 25, 2016 by Mack

[Mack 0]

Full Energy - 3 Turns out of Combat

From where he was, still seated on the floor of the Inferno Cavern, Mack watched as his energy bar continued to tick steadily onward towards being completely refilled. Just a few more moments and he'd be ready to go. Really, the only thing left at this point was to wait for everything to be in a state of complete readiness and then to climb back to his feet and make his way back home. Or, at least, to make his way back to what passed for home in the digital world he currently found himself inhabiting. Silently, the enormous warrior watched as the last few ticks of his energy bar restored themselves to full, sucking down a bottle of water while he waited. Mack was beyond ready to be free of the oppressive heat not only of the Inferno Cavern, but also of the floor itself.

[Mack 0]

With his health bar once again returned to fully functional and filled status, Mack was ready to get a move on. Pushing off from the warm stone floor, the ginger headed axe man got to his feet and wrapped his hands around the haft of Invictus. Taking the axe in his hands, Mack slung it across his back to secure it and then worked his neck and shoulders for a moment until all of the joints had popped. He knew that, strictly speaking, this wasn't necessary in the digital world of Sword Art Online. Still, the familiar actions felt good and old habits were hard to break. Grunting, he set off back down the pathway he had followed to get to the lair of Cerberus in the first place. It would take a couple of days on the return journey, but that was no big deal.

[Mack 0]

Without a word, Mack tromped off back down the corridor. When he emerged into the area of the Inferno Cavern were several different pathways branched off from the main path that everyone entering the cavern had to use it became a very simple matter to find his way back out of the cave. With the hounds all defeated, including their chief three-headed king, the journey was a quiet and uneventful one. When he came within sight of the mouth of the cave, Mack sighed. He knew it wasn't going to exactly be cold outside the cave. Nonetheless, it would be cooler outside than it was inside the cavern and that would certainly be very welcome. Trudging the last few feet out of the cavern, the enormous axe wielding soldier stepped out of the cave and back into the volcanic landscape, enjoying for a moment the cooler temperatures compared to those in the cavern.

[Mack 0]

After taking a few minutes to simply enjoy and relish the fact that the outside world was not nearly as unbearable and, frankly, hellish, as the Inferno Cavern had been Mack reached up over his left shoulder and wrapped one beefy hand around the leather wrapped haft of Invictus. Slinging the bearded axe down off of his shoulder, he carried the weapon easily enough in a ready position, occasionally using it as a walking stick, as he began to make his way back across the volcanic landscape in the direction of town. He knew there was going to be a long walk ahead of him, but with a bit of luck he'd be able to make it back to the same camping site that he had used on the previous evening before it got to be too late at night. As anticipated, the dogs had not been that difficult to handle.

[Mack 0]

The sun had fallen from the sky, bathing everything in an inky black darkness lit only by the moon by the time Mack reached the camping spot that he had used on the previous night. He hadn't really expected to be able to make it to the spot again before the sun went down. Still, he had rather thought it wouldn't be quite so late as it was before he was able to return there. Once it had gotten dark he had been forced to move a bit more slowly just from a desire to remain safe and not get jumped by a mess of mobs. Entering the small cave, Mack moved to the very back of the cavern and set up his camping spot for the night. It would be safe enough in here this evening, just as it had been the previous night and, in the morning, he would be on the move again.