[SP-F9] Literally Scratching a Dragon to Death. - Grandmaster Thread [Complete!]

[Kalesh 0]

Kalesh took a breath while focusing his thoughts. For the past while he had been following flight patterns in the sky, searching between volcanos, trying to find any signs of a nest or a hoard where his quarry would be resting. He doubted that they would make something as intimidating as what he looked up into the skies to see as just a glimpse in the distance unreachable, but all attempts were leading him to start and think that the monster he seeked despawned instead of landed. He refused to believe it though, that would be far too much of a disappointment for himself and a failing on the game as a whole. If you could see it, it was all but law that you should be able to reach it as well as kill it! He forced from his mind the many games which would break this self-placed law and focused on how detailed and well put together this game was. He calmed his breathing as he dug his claws into a cliff's edge of the hot volcanic floor and started to use them to scale his way upward.

Edited November 2, 2015 by Kalesh

[Kalesh 0]

As he climbed the side of the cliff he really came to appreciate how great it was to have these weapons. He could climb easily without disarming or sheathing a weapon, he could handle items with relative ease as his fingers had nothing to hold onto, and he didn't have to worry about turning too fast and whipping someone with his weapon or sheath. All in all, the pros were rather great for him. He recalled one time he snuck up on Opal from the trees above after having climbed up, or not long after when he pierced into a tree to get at a material which had been hiding within. He could stab people and be dexterous at the same time, it was certainly a good time for him when he performed such feats. He could only imagine how much he would improve as time went on and he kept using these weapons for yet more purposes!

[Kalesh 0]

He dug his claws into the ground at the top of the cliff he had been scaling, pulling himself up by the strength of his avatar which felt as if it grew each day he battled. He thought he was growing fast, but those ahead of him only grew stronger too. He doubted he would catch up, but he wouldn't give up either. He laughed softly as he dusted himself off and tried to figure out how many times he had changed his path from indecisiveness. He started out as a newbie with heavy armor and a greatsword. Then he went to light armor and a curved sword, followed by katana not long after. Now he had given up the blade entirely and focused on his body, or rather what he could do with it. He wasn't about to take up martial arts and forgo weapons, he still had weapons... they just were more hands-on. "HA!" he says while shaking his head at his own pun. It was awful.

[Kalesh 0]

He shook his head a bit and began to look around to see what could be seen. He had expected more mountains and the like to be on the top of this cliff, but instead there was a dome of sorts seemingly carved into a plateau ahead of him. He approached warily as he look around to see if he could spot any monsters or traps. At the moment though, all he could see was empty ground as he moved forward in search for... anything. This seemed like far too much a place of purpose to simply be empty and have nothing in it. A field boss? An event? A place that the developers planned to have something in but never actually got around to it due to strained budgets and Kayaba rushing the game ahead like most game developers only to add the stuff later as DLC? Each was just as likely as the last but he hoped the very first was the correct thing to assume. He was starting to grow impatient after all. You can only fail to hunt prey for so long before you give up and become a farmer instead. He didn't question why he was making metaphors to himself.

[Kalesh 0]

He tilted his head upward when he heard... wind? It didn't feel or sound like a breeze, more like wind was being forcefully made like with a large fan. His eyes suddenly shot wide when he realized it could only mean one thing! He sprinted to the edge of the plateau as fast as he could, leaping behind a rock as a black scaled dragon flew out from behind and landed in the center of the wide area with a mighty wind. If Kalesh wasn't cowering behind a stone, the dragon would have likely knocked him down with the wind atop of noticing him. Kalesh was not confident he could survive such an encounter. He peaked over the stone but his head whenever the dragon began to turn in his direction before looking up again. Soon he noticed the beast was sniffing the air before it did something... kinda funny to Kalesh. It started to kneed at the ground like a cat would before doing a half turn and laying down. He figured that the dragon was going to take a nap. He looked up and noted the sun was low in the sky, it was probably not a nocturnal hunter but rather a daytime one.

[Kalesh 0]

Kalesh knew he had to wait. He had played enough Monster Hunter to know what to do in these situations. Hide and wait, watch for the beast to fall asleep before approaching and then land a critical blow to a weak point before it can wake. Do this, and the battle is turned in your favor. The added bonus would be that the creature wouldn't have all its energy, it would be tired, more prone to mistakes. If Kalesh was going to try and kill such a beast, and he was, he would need the battle to go in his favor. That meant taking advantage of every possible trick in the book. He didn't care if it seemed cowardly or some such to some invisible omnipresent being watching him, if he stayed alive and won glory, then all was worth it to him. he watched for several hours for the creature to stop twitching and to go fully limp, the sun setting bit by bit until the night cycle began and the monster seemed to relax fully in the darkness. Kalesh was happy he had his usual mask on. Any penalties the darkness tried to apply to him were overpowered by the buffs on his body.

[Kalesh 0]

The time was now. That was what Kalesh thought to himself as he stepped out from behind the rock with his claws ready. Some players might have tried to go for the soft underbelly, or maybe slice off the tail and flee with their trophy, but Kalesh had a slightly... different idea. He didn't want the dragon seeing him, that was the bottom line. If it saw him, even if it was not nocturnal, that meant it would be able to attack him. He had no idea how much damage a beast of this size or strength could muster, and he had no plans of finding out. He crept to the dragon's front, standing in front of its snout as he raised his hands and inhaled. 'here we go.' he thinks as he calms his nerves and jabs both his clawed hands forward! Moments later an angered and pained roar echoed through the ninth floor as the dragon swung its head, Kalesh's hands dug into the eyes sockets of the scaled monster which now tried to shake the parasite atop it!

[Kalesh 0]

Kalesh was swung around, the dragon panicking to try and dislodge what was in its eyes while Kalesh hung on for dear life. Gloves or no, feeling your fingers digging into and holding onto the inside of an eyeball was not a pleasant sensation, but surviving was a far stronger desire than his desire to let go! He started to feel a distinct warmth and Kalesh reacted on gamer instinct! He released the right eyeball and swung to his left, barely moving out of the way of the dragon's face as it breathed scorching hot flame! He could feel the heat from his new vantage point on the dragon's skull, now clawing madly as the scales of the monster while it kept shaking and flapping its wings in uncontained insult and frustration. He was certain that if he had attempted this any sooner, his arms would have been ripped off at best from the swings! Suddenly Kalesh felt himself fly into the air! "Eh?" He says in reflex as he feels what he was once gripping shatter as he went through the air. "EWWW!" He says before making a loud 'oof, as lands onto the dragon's tail a moment before it screamed angrily and fruitlessly tried to search for its attacker.

[Kalesh 0]

Kalesh blinked as he saw the monster's wings rise, gasping as he suddenly clawed his hands deeply into the thick tail of the monster which currently wanted less than nothing to do with him. It flapped its wings with great force, nearly making Kalesh think he was going to be detached as the... monster took off into the air?! "[censored] no!!" He exclaims as he is made to go higher and higher into the air as the monster began to circle, presumably to try and wait for its eyes to heal. Did it not know Kalesh was on its tail's base? It was going to soon, because Kalesh grinned and started to climb forward, the monster acutely aware when a claw entered its lower body, and then another, and another as he made his way up, leaving pixelated marks behind as he moved higher and higher up the beast's body as it started to retaliate.

Edited November 2, 2015 by Kalesh
merged

[Kalesh 0]

Kalesh gasped and held on for dear life when the dragon began veering from side to side, rising and lowering suddenly in altitude and even doing barrel rolls to try and detach the red haired parasite that was causing it such pain and discomfort! Kalesh clung on valiantly despite his rapidly shrinking stamina. He could only hold on so long before he'd just run out of energy! He kept scaling, only really having one shot he figured. He was soon resting between the two mighty wings of the beast, taking a deep breath and waiting for it to end its next attempt to dismount the dragon rider. In that moment Kalesh leaped to his right and snagged onto the dragon's wing! Clawed hands dug into the webbed membrane, and like a cat on brand new curtains, he began sinking down with his claws leaving a path of crimson which made it impossible for the monster to retain air! Kalesh knew this meant he was going down too, so before he could slip off he threw himself towards the dragon's body again, feeling the beast veering off course and losing altitude!

[Kalesh 0]

There was a loud crash against stone from which Kalesh was flung from the body of the angered draconic monster, Kalesh's vision blurry as he tried to recover from the impact, feeling a strange fuzzy feeling through his right arm. He pushed himself up with his left arm only to fall to the side on his right. "Huh...?" He says as he looks down to realize he had... lost some weight. His right arm was nowhere to be seen but he quickly heard a faint crystalline shattering. It didn't take long to figure out where his right arm had gone. "Nononono." Kalesh thought to himself as he forced himself up and onto his legs, thankfully having them both still. The dragon was starting to rouse as well, the eye on its left seemed to not be recovering, like it had been permanently scarred, but the right was back and healed! Kalesh swiftly ran to the side of the dragon that it had been blinded, trying to stay out of sight until his arm recovered!

[Kalesh 0]

He probably looked like an idiot, running around a dragon as it looked around and roared in anger while wreathing the area before it in fire, but it was keeping him alive. As long as it didn't know where he was, he was fine! Losing an arm however was taking some getting used to. He fumbled his balance from the shifted weight and ended up face first in the rocky earth. He groaned and heard a loud roar. Kalesh instinctivly rolled to the side and pushed himself up, a sharp claw slamming into the ground where he had once been laying. "Meep" he says as he begins to run again, this time towards the dragon so that it would have a harder time reach him without hurting itself! It would need to waste energy moving away or something of the sort he thought, and sure enough it turned away... while spinning and Kalesh soon saw a tail whipping out towards him!

[Kalesh 0]

Kalesh readied his claw as he raised it high, slamming downward vertically as the tail came into range! The thickest part of the tail went past him harmlessly, while fours chunks of meat hit his body with far less force than the blow would have otherwise, glad he was able to react to that, let alone slice through, with just his left arm! He didn't have time to think about that though, the dragon which was now missing the tip of its tail bellowed out in anger as it swung its claws towards Kalesh who had little other choice than to leap backwards and land on his butt, barely dodging the sharpened claw points which were aimed for his stomach! The rough landing alone was enough to give him a decreased health pool, he was not going to let himself get hit at this point if he could avoid it by any means! He tried to push himself up onto his legs again and he was overjoyed to notice his arm reforming, soon coloring itself in and giving him back the limb and claw he had been missing!

[Kalesh 0]

It was at this moment the dragon lunged with its fangs, Kalesh nearly stumbling back as he suddenly tried to jump, but that didn't go as planned. The beast hit him snout first as Kalesh dug into the dragon's flesh, his legs pushing against the lower mouth of the beast, trying to keep from losing his footing and landing into the beast's maw! The dragon suddenly snapped it's jaw open, dislodging Kalesh's claw from it's snout and forcing him instead to grab the beast's fangs! It was trying to crush Kalesh with its powerful jaws, his entire body pushing back against the pressure to trying and push it back! Kalesh felt the sharp fangs cutting into his hands, and even one into his right foot! He groaned in effort as the dragon pushed harder and harder, trying not to stare into the mouth of the creature which seemed to want to make him into its next meal!

[Kalesh 0]

Kalesh felt his strength starting to slowly diminish, along with his health from the impalement. He was buckling, it took everything in Kalesh's power just to hold it at bay as long as he had! He groaned and pulled his foot off the fang that impaled it, but that was a huge mistake unfortunately as it lead to his opposite foot slipping on the wet mouth of the angered beast. It wasted no time, a long serpentine tongue lashing out and grabbing Kalesh, drawing him into the depths of its mouth! Kalesh knew what as coming next as darkness engulfed him. He hacked and gut as the tongue and jaws of the monster, it must have felt like swallowing a porcupine to the dragon, but it powered through and soon made a swallow that Kalesh had no choice but to be directed downward into the dragon's long throat! "Nahnahnahnahnah" He said in refusal as he started slipping down relatively unchewed!

[Kalesh 0]

Kalesh dug his claws deep into the dragon's esophagus, holding on for dear life as the monster began to choke and gag on the player who even now was trying to climb his way back up as roughly and painfully as possible for the monster that was attempting to eat him! It was slippery and tight and disgusting but Kalesh kept his eyes shut and tried not to breath as he hacked at the monster's flesh until it finally hacked and spat him out onto the ground in a slobbery pile, making Kalesh groan and shoot his eyes open to see the light of the moon and the darkness around him while the dragon roared in utter rage and protest to being denied its dinner so violently. Kalesh figured that he wouldn't hold out much longer, he needed to go on the offensive, or he'd end up a black soot stain on the volcanic floor. With that in mind Kalesh began a wild charge at the equally angry monster with his claws clenched in preparation for his next move!

[Kalesh 0]

Kalesh noticed the dragon raise it's right paw, making Kalesh gasp and shift his direction to his left, digging his feet into the ground and slashing his hands forward as he is collided with a claw! He barely held his ground, being pushed back with his feet leaving a dirt trail while his clawed hands dug into the bottom of the dragon's clawed paw. He felt a sickening crack through his left side which made him groan as Kalesh raised his right hand and slashed downward at the beast's wrist! The joint was sliced apart, hand shattering as the monster reeled back in pain from the loss of its limb and the assault of the smaller player. Kalesh saw the dragon's mouth began to glow and Kalesh took the chance to run forward, barely managing to slip under the gout of flame which was aimed towards him, keeping his run forward to keep from getting caught up in the approaching torrent of fire!

[Kalesh 0]

He leaped up, using his evasion skill to its absolute maximum to land himself onto the dragon's soft underbelly, going as far as to dig his own teeth into the dragon's hide for additional leverage as he started to hack away with his left hand at the beast's sensitive flesh, feeling beast's inner warmth as it screeched and even started to slap at him with its remaining hand, doing substantial damage with each hit as Kalesh kept swiping and slashing at the increasingly large net of cut marks on the creature's virtual flesh! This went on for nearly a full minute, Kalesh feeling himself weakening more and more by the moment both in health and stamina, but refusing to give up until both ran out! His persistence paid off, if he had hesitated a moment he probably would not have experienced what came next. Kalesh's grip was lost, as the thing he had been holding disappeared, a shattering of pixels left him with nothing to cling to so his weight inevitably fell backwards and into the volcanic dirt below him. He did it!

[Kalesh 0]

"Whoo~!" He shouted with his hands pointed upward into the sky. His health was dangerously close to the red, far closer than he would ever had liked to go as he rolled over and pushed himself up onto his legs as his passive healing started to take effect since he was out of combat. He looked his items and such over, eagerly making sure none would break on the trip back. Their durability was a bit on the low side from the damage, the crash, and probably a bit from the swallowing too. Still, they would survive and so too would he! Back on his tired legs he said triumphantly "To Vulcan~!" As if it were a grand voyage. Checking his map, it very well might have been that. The dragon had flown off rather far, but thankfully he wasn't lost thanks to the known locations of the map were geographically unchanged. He just had to go in the right direction and he'd get there eventually. He looks to the labyrinth tower to get his direction and begins walking!

[Kalesh 0]

It took him quite a while to reach Vulcan, by the time he did though his wounds had been fully healed. As he passed the invisible little line of invincibility he threw his hands up into the air and said aloud "Yessss! Ambition accomplished!" He had been too busy ensuring nothing jumped him on low stamina or health to check, but he swiftly tried to see what he had gained from the whole ordeal. It seemed that the only thing he had to trophy this experience by was a big chunk of dragon meat. He couldn't be happier! "Ohhhh man. you are going to be sooo delicious." Kalesh says without a care for how insane surrounding players must have thought he was for talking to himself. He quickly prioritized himself as he clenches his clawed hand into a victorious fist. "Get you guys all good and repaired, take a looooong nap, and then enjoy a nice meal!" And that was that. He deserved a short rest he figured, if he could kill a dragon with his claws, that was a mark of power. He momentarily memorized the dragon's face as a constant reminder... Black scales, but with a crimson scar across the left side of his face. "Hm." He says while looking at some of his crimson hair.

[Summary]
+1 SP
+400 Col
+Wild Dance Rank 5!