5130/Acts of Aggression

Acts of Aggression
Date of Scene:	11 March 2017
Location:	Alfheim Online <ALO>
Synopsis:	The Gatecrashers Union go on a dungeon run, but are ambushed by PKers.
Cast of Characters:	1101, Nagato, Silica, 707, Tomoe, 631, Yuuki Konno, 437, 774

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Strea (1101) has posed:
The Temple of Njord. Seemed like a good place to go, so after gathering in the nearest town, our intrepid group of adventurers set off to conquer it!

The dungeon began as a hole in the side of a cliff overlooking the ocean. Trekking through the underground tunnel, dealing with the sea-creature like mobs, has now led into an underground temple. Littered with pools and waterfalls fed by the ocean outside, it is an impressive sight to see. The groups of mobs have been increasing in difficulty since the start, but judging by the architecture it would seem that the end is almost in sight.

But for the moment, our intrepid adventurers are busy dealing with one of the last groups of monsters in this area. A large creature, its large bulbous body dripping with sea water and slime. Large squid-like eyes sit just above a large mouth of razor sharp teeth. Four large tentacles rise out of the top of its body, the large suction cups making sucking sounds even as the curved claws surrounding them attempt to cut through their prey. In short, it's large. The word floating above its head names it: Squillite

The Squillite opens its mouth to unleash a powerful roar in the direction of the party, globs of spit flying out and worst of all, the smell! That horrible, rotten smell!

Nagato has posed:
    Tana needed a break from being the Admiralship outside of the game and hearing about a Temple that needed to be conquered, the Cait Sith grins a bit, axe in hand and off she goes with the rest of the raiding party to the temple. "It's been a while since I've been in, let's have some fun shall we?" she does some flying around a couple of others as they make way. "I'll take a more damage role here if you guys are okay with it."

    Fast Forwarding to the last monster there, Tana's up in arms with her axe and off she heads towards the mob... "Hey, ugly! I got some steel for you!" she steps forward, hitting her mainstay Sword Skill, "Whirlwind!" a tornado of axe-wielding cat is rushing towards the tentacled monster, axe and her spinning around to try and cut right up into it!

Silica has posed:
    "Be careful everyone, this is just a normal mob but it's /really/ high level." calls Silica, as she hangs back in a support position. Since Asuna's not been around much, the Cait Sith has had to take over as the group's primary healer, this also lets her sit back and observe a situation. "Be careful of the tentacles, they have a pretty long reach!" The Cait Sith then begins to chant, gathering Words of Power then casting a shield on the group.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Kanokon is putting her speed to full use, casting wind spells to try and disrupt the Squillite's stench-roar whenever she can find a moment to stand still and chant, and the rest of the time she's bounding around and trying to put more slashes into the Squillite's tentacles. "At least we know this thing doesn't eat adventurers!" the blonde Sylph jokes. "This thing smells WAY too gross to even be decayed, half-digested --"

She doesn't get to finish the sentence, mostly because she spots a couple of tentacles about to swipe down in her general direction, and she leaps almost straight up to get clear. Thank whatever gods exist in Alfheim Online that she's been able to max her Jumping skill stat. She's not QUITE fast enough to escape without injury, but it's better than taking a direct hit.

Tomoe has posed:
So here they were once more Tomoe was curious about things with this event? Theis Dungone or whatever was going on it was a good way to blow off steam for her. Of most of the GU she was one of the most active still outside in the world beyind save for a few such as Silica and Kirito. She was in good psirits as she saw Tana join up with things as she ponerd about the Temple of Njord? She hadn't heard much about this content and was happy to not know she also pauses as Kanokon arrives as well.

"...why did they have to make this smell so ... right?"

She knows this sort of smell from her long history in Lorderan after all but she's not going to let it ruin her day hopefully.

"Oh it's formost on my mind... I don't want to get caught up in /those/."

She tries to not think about it as she dives into the thick of the actions with the monsters, Dawnbreaker was already out and hacking away.

Reker (631) has posed:
    Reker's still not very comfortable in ALO, but nobody ever wants to play GGO anymore. So he pops on here, to help out when they need the assistance. With his daggers in hand, he has been doing his best to DPS the hell out of the enemies they've been coming across. This one though, it's proving to be a bit harder than a lot of the other things they've encountered.

He swings around to one side, whipping two more blades through the air at the creature. He's aiming for the base of the tentacles, figuring that's probably a weak point that he can exploit.

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    Normal mob or boss, it doesn't matter much to the fearless Zekken. She's just here to have fun with her friends, and having fun means fighting huge monsters! Well, also smaller monsters too, but the huge ones are the most fun! She's here as her avatar, of course, as that's the only thing anyone ever sees her as. Even those who attend Beacon Academy.

    Yuuki's not tanking the fight, though she's offered to lead a few times during the dungeon. She's happy to follow rather than lead however, so long as she can remain in the front line. Her offers are more a willingness to participate and pull weight rather than an actual preference. Still Yuuki often pulls aggro off other melee fighters, giving them a break and a chance to attack as a mob turns to follow. Only to attack back with a cry of 'switch!' when the mobs start to turn back.

    She wrinkles her nose at the smell, though she's secretly rather delighted this is so foul. It makes it much more fun to kill! Also, even unpleasant smells are still intense, and much better than a bland hopelessness.

    Dodging (mostly) a spray of spittle, since you never know for sure that it's NOT acid or something else horrible instead of merely smelling putrid, she zips off to one side to consider, assessing the creature for vulnerable points. Eyes, of course, but getting close to that roaring and spitting mouth isn't a great idea. Maybe come at it from behind and above... running along a tentacle's back? The non-sticky side? Seems risky.

    "Squillite huh?" she says between breaths, focussing. "I'd hate to see the full-size Squill!" she claims with a bright smile. Abruptly she yells, buffing her attack power and hacking at a tentacle as it gets too close. "Let's try to make it flinch!" she suggests, running alongside the tentacle, hacking away with sweeping strokes. "Maybe it'll pull tentacles in or something, give us a moment's opening!"

Annie Sandberg (437) has posed:
It had been a while since Annie had taken part in a big gathering in ALO, but she figured it'd be nice to get out and about with Silverbloom again. Exploring a temple seemed like just the thing- especially a water-themed one like this, since it gave her the opportunity to try out a new bit of song magic she found that would enchant weapon attacks with electricity. It might be risky in some cases but she figured the others were smart enough to know how to handle it properly. With the Squillite, though, she thinks it'd be best to focus on improving defenses first. It looked like a real tough one. She strums steadily on her harp, keeping the protection up.

Strea (1101) has posed:
Tana's axe rips into the body of the Squillite, cutting away several chunks of its HP bar even as it roars in anger. A large tentacle comes sweeping down from above to smash the AxeCat away. But thankfully for Tana, Silica's and Silverbloom's protection is up, reducing the damage of the blow.

The Squillite seems to have good 'footing' so to speak, as Kanokon's wind spells don't do much to move it. They magic helps to chip off more of its HP, even more when her sword cuts into the large flailing tentacles. The Squillite responds to Kanokon's magic with its own, magic beginning to seep out of its mouth as its body temporarily expands in size rapidly. It finally unleashes the spell, a jet of water shooting from its mouth towards Kanokon.

As Tomoe closes in to hack away at its body, the Squillite displays some impressive agility as it jumps, spinning around to face the Salamander. Large mouth opening, it goes to take a bite at Tomoe's arm.

Reker's aim is dead on, the daggers slicing in to the base of one of the tentacles. Said tentacle separates from the creature, vanishing in an burst of pixelated light. The Squillite thrashes around at the loss of a limb, likely catching Reker with a body slam.

Yuuki's powerful sword strikes cut into the creature as she runs along one of its remaining tentacles. What's left of the creature's HP bar quickly dives until finally it's all gone. The Squillite freezes, before going bright and exploding into pixels.

The temple cavern goes silent as the sounds of battle fade. However the group only has a few moments to congratulate themselves on the kill, before the sound of clapping echoes through the depths. From further ahead, a figure walks out from behind a pillar, applauding.

The man comes to a stop and smirks, saying towards the group, "Very impressive. I have no doubt you could take on the boss. But I'm afraid you're not going to get that far." He raises his hand and snaps his fingers. More people begin to move out from their hiding spots, stealth skills and spells having kept them hidden until now. Many of them appear to be Salamanders like their leader, though there are several other races mixed among them. In total there looks to be a couple dozen members, most of them sneering at our intrepid adventurers in anticipation of what's to come.

Looking pretty smug right now, the leader continues to smirk as he asks, "So do you want to do this the easy way, or the hard way?"

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    Amongst those who walk out from their hiding spots, there's a tall, slim Imp; his slimness makes his ears look comically long. Though his face looks almost regal, like one might expect of an aloof fantasy elf. Long, straight dark purple hair, and he's dressed in long robes that do nothing to detract from the overall regal, aloof look.

    In truth? That's one Dorian Pavus behind that avatar. See, he'd been checking out this thing called 'Alfheim Online' and had been approached by a group of people for something the leader of the group called 'PK'. Now, Dorian isn't stupid. He'd looked up all this MMO terminology before he'd jumped into this. 'PK' was player-killing. It didn't kill the person attached to the player, he made sure of that. Still, a reprehensible thing to do, particularly to people who had just been fighting a major boss.

    Didn't stop him from agreeing, though. Tevinter, after all, is known for its reprehensibility. Besides. Loot, and hey, nobody's really dying, right? So who cares if someone's a reprehensible ass?

    At least, that's what he wants them to think. He just has to wait a little longer before he springs his trap. Just a little longer...

Silica has posed:
    "How about you turn around and walk away before we teach you a lesson." comes an oddly grouchy tone from the tiny Cait Sith. Silica does /not/ look pleased to see the Salamander and his cronies, given previous attempts by other guilds to freeload on hard working guilds to get easy boss kills. "You call it the hard way..." she cracks her knuckles. "I call it the fun way."

    Who is this person and what did she do with the sweet Silica?

Reker (631) has posed:
Slammed by the monster, Reker winds up hitting the ground and tumbling a bit, before finally coming back up onto his feet. He pops a health potion and gets ready to re-engage, but there's no need as the rest of the group takes the monster down.

Of course it turns out the REAL monster is other players, as the others show themselves, "Tch. PvPers." He mutters. He's had his share of experience with PvPers in GGO. He didn't get to be one of the top ranked pro players without it. It's times like this he wishes he could bring his GGO avatar into ALO, show these guys a real fun time.

Nagato has posed:
    The HP gets chunked from that Squillite and that makes Tana grin, but the skill stun allows that tentacle to smash the AxeCat away, getting sent flying a bit aways, but thankfully, she'll have to thank Silica and Silverbloom for their protection... she should have gone tank today... oh well. She goes back in for another strike but with everyone elses aim and damage, the boss dies before she can go in again... she huffs a bit, "Oh well, good job, everyone... we should hea...."

    There's a man there... where did he come from... hell, where did the rest of that group come from... and she grumbles, the axe going away as she equipment swaps to a bit more heavy armor, a shield and a sword. "Mmm, look, if you're here to poach our guild's kill, you're dealing with the wrong guild." she moves to get in front of the healers... and she mutters something, an earthen shield to make her defense up. Then... comes a weird question from the Cait Sith over the radios....

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
The problem with most dungeons in ALO is that once you execute a jump, you're more at the mercy of game physics than if you could pop your wings out. As such, when the Squillite nails Kanokon at the top of her leap, there's really not a whole lot she can do about it - and she takes two big hits to her HP bar: one from the water jet blasting her, the other from the follow-up impact with the wall.

Fortunately, it doesn't QUITE zero out her HP bar ... but she looks distinctly groggy and disoriented as the Salamander 'toll collectors' show up. Doesn't matter whether the toll is to be paid in GP or HP, it's still going to be expensive.

"You smoke-brained skulduggers are kidding, right?" Kanokon asks them, her tone distinctly pointed and piqued. "What exactly do you ash-eaters get out of this, anyway? I mean, besides a lesson in how much further you have to go before this is anything even vaguely *resembling* a smart idea. Do you even know who any of us are, or did you just get bored with waiting for *easy* prey to show up and decided that we might be easier pickings than if somebody came in here and *didn't* have to make squid snacks out of that thing?"

She may not LOOK like she's up to wreck the Salamanders' party - and her HP bar would tend to confirm that - but she certainly doesn't SOUND like the fight's been knocked that far out of her. Maybe bluster will do the trick - but even if it doesn't, she's more than ready to make the Sallies regret picking this fight.

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    Yuuki's not particularly offended by PKers, having had no association with SAO and having had much of her introduction to the server of ALO through PVP duels. Alfheim Online, like CCO and GGO and many other VRMMO games, was founded with PVP in mind. She can understand and accept people who play that way.

    That's not to say she'll just roll over and die. Or surrender to their intent! She turns to face the PVP leader, listening to his speech with a faint smile on her lips. When he offers the choice however, her grin broadens into an outright beam that threatens to illuminate the cavern. "HARD WAY!" she cries out, bouncing up and down with her offhand raised in the air like a particularly enthusiastic student hoping to answer a teacher's question. Then she pauses, considering. "Do you have more people?" she asks, a mischevious twinkle in her eye. "I mean, we can wait if you need time to get them. But we're healing up in the meantime. You might want to start fighting with who you've got right now..." she suggests.

Tomoe has posed:
The fighting seems to be going well enough so a sshe keeps hakcing and slahisng her way at the boss she's yet to use any swword arts though. she shifts bringing up her shield to intercept the bite with her sheild. She is able tpo pull back but the thing end sup forcing her to stop the attack for a moment. She foes howeve rpop off a taunt as she needs it but it seems finally the beast is down and she lower her weapnf or a moment.

"Oh, I see /how/ it is."

There's a very not lice look on her face for a moment.

"How about this, You guys walk out you don't lose a bunch of skill points, huh? If you think I'm afraid of you and your little band here...your dead wrong."

Given Tomoe's history with PKers its going to get ugly if it breaks into a fight.

Annie Sandberg (437) has posed:
There are always those who want to want to do things in the way that's easy for them but ruins things for others. But she felt ready to keep things up for a bit longer. "Well, that squillite wasn't too hard," she says. "I think this'll make for a much better warm-up- and a much better story to tell later." She is a bard after all!

Strea (1101) has posed:
The Salamander leader eyes the little Cait Sith, "Brave words little girl. But I think you're underestimating us." The leader doesn't seem to budge his position despite the attempt at smacktalk. Some of his party aren't as confident... And yet others seems even more hyped up at the resistance.

The leader shrugs, "Very well. If that's how you feel about it..." He points toward the party, "GET THEM!"

The temple echoes with the sounds of battle cries as the majority of the PVP party charges our heroes. There's quite a few of them, with a wide variety of weapons in use. It does seem that they have failed to bring in any serious magic casters, for one reason or another.

The first wave clashes against the group. They're not newbs, that's for sure. But they're definitely not in the same class as as those they're trying to prey one. Silica and Silverbloom appear to draw the most aggro initially, being the spell casters and potential healers that they are. Of course that means they have to try and get through Tana first. And try they do!

Reker and Tomoe find themselves secondary targets. A couple of dagger uses trying to move around Tomoe's strong defense and strike her vulnerable areas. Meanwhile Reker finds himself up against a large, heavily armored two-handed user supported by a bow user.

Kanokon and Yuuki are left alone for the moment... Though if they're looking for targets, not all of the PVP party has engaged. A few still stand back, including the leader himself.

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    Silica's sudden RAAAR attitude shift gives Dorian pause. That's... unexpected. He actually draws back a little from the vehemence in her tone. Though he composes himself a few moments later, crossing his arms across his middle and leaning against a nearby pillar. "Are you all QUITE sure?" he asks the targeted party. His voice isn't recognizable as Dorian's either. One of the benefits (and possibly also a drawback) of these online avatars -- he doesn't even recognize his own voice. "You must be very confident of your odds." Brightly and cheerily he adds, with a tilt of his head, "Or complete idiots, one of the two. Either way, it really doesn't matter."

    He's right, it doesn't. But for very different reasons than anybody probably thinks.

    As soon as the fight starts, the tall, aloof-looking Imp -- 'Melsanthos', if anyone can see his avatar's name -- uses his wings to pull back, behind the PvPers' party. Maybe he's one of their healers? Though an Imp might be an odd choice for that. Maybe he's just squishy? Light race and all, and the glittering magical staff in his hand doesn't do anything to discourage that. Or, well... maybe he's got something else planned. Since the first thing he does is start casting a damage-over-time fire spell.

    ON THE AMBUSHERS!

    "Before you say anything, yes. Yes I am a bastard. But only for the right reasons." A grin (which looks more than a little creepy), and then he charges right at the ambushers. Suddenly he turns wide, heading right for the wall, and uses Wall Run to go around the ambushers' party. He'll make to get to where the ambushee's party are. He's had a lot of practice at 'run real fast' thanks to the Fade Step maneuver in the real world, so this bit of locomotion shouldn't be a problem for him.

    "Well, hello there~," he says pleasantly to the ambushed party once he lands again. "I'm actually here to help. As you might have been able to guess from the... well, rather literal burning of my former bridges." A smirk, which somehow doesn't look as creepy as the grin.

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    Yuuki knows the capabilities of her team. Tomoe's solid, and an amazing tank. Tana is tanky even if she's choosing to claim she's DPS today. Both of them dish out plenty of damage, but their best abilities keep them anchored, protecting the softer fighters in the group. She's a little less sure of Silverbloom and Kanokon's abilities, but they've held up well in the fighting. Silica's great, and even faster than her little Cait Sith body suggests. No, she probably doesn't need to worry about the PVPers going after that group. Not for a brief time at least. She has time to engage selected enemies, and maybe test them out a little.

    She's watching the Imp that holds back, making sure to remember positions in case he uses magic to put the lights out. So to speak. But mostly she's focussed on the leader. When the PVPers move, swarming towards Silverbloom and Silica, she leaves them to Tomoe and Tana. She readies her sword, but blinks in surprise when they just try to get past, leaving her free to go one-on-one with their so-brave leader.

    Yuuki shrugs, then she moves. In a blur she's abruptly in the leader's face. She leans in, peering at him, letting him make the first move once he gets over his surprise. She's seemingly entirely open, head to toe, her sword held back. He has his choice of targets.

    Of course that assumes he can attack faster than she can counter... which it's been pretty much proven no one in the game can do. When his weapon moves to strike she smashes it with a powerful parry, flinging it aside and rendering it useless. Then she carves seemingly effortlessly into the guy, dancing around him in a swirl of crimson and violet. One that adds more and more crimson streaks to her target as she dances.

    Yuuki's a bit surprised at the sudden yet inevitable betrayal of her fellow Imp, but she flashes him a wide grin and an upraised V with her fingers.

Nagato has posed:
    "I don't believe you know who you are messing with." comes Tana's voice, sword at the ready... she whispers a bit behind her to Silica and Silverbloom, "Keep the healing coming, I'll make sure you two are protected." the shield, a light shield of sorts. "Okay, so you want to charge? I can do that." Tana's shield is raised and she holds her ground, her sword glowing as if she was going to go into a sword skill as she charges the group... "Do not attack my friends!" comes a battlecry from the battlekitten!

    It's here she leaps into the air, shouting and stabbing her sword into the ground in the middle of the charging group, bursts of lightning heading everywhere to try and cause electrical damage to the six trying to go for her healers! "Lightning Fall!" she's kinda stuck there for a bit, moving her shield to try to get at least some defensive capabilities going along with her earthen shield spell.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe does take notice of Silica? Wait she's going off okay it is time to kick some ass here with these PVPer being the targer. Tomoe in a bad place and she seems to be geting caught up in a pvp fight now she smirks.

"Heh you must not like your gear much."

She moves ot intercept and while large and tanking? Tomoe's response times is well above normal for a player of ALO, like noticably so. She's not like Yuuki but there's few people faster then her and most are in her guild or in Yuuki's guild one way or the other she doesn't think these guys are beyond her. Even Silicvia is going into a attuide for blood here. DOrian is trying to give them one last chance to pull out but it doesn't look like they are taking it. She now does get hits and her HP drops she on the other hand She's moving to counter attack and she's not playing nice with how she's doing it ither, there's even the odd shield slam. Then comes Doran's plan? Damn he played them well she makes notes to never get on his bad side, if she can ever avoid it but some part of her can appicate such a tactic. At least no one will end up actually dead, today righ?

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Kanokon makes a face as the Salamanders begin their attack - only to get sneak-attacked by someone who LOOKED to be one of their own. At least the focus of hostile attention is on her party's front line, meaning the Sylph is temporarily unmolested. It's time enough for her to quaff a healing potion, at any rate, and while the potion does its work?

She recites another spell, waving her hand slowly along an arc loosely parallel to the Salamanders' line ... and when the spell goes off, it's a powerful updraft, hopefully enough to mess with the Salamanders' collective balance and maybe even turbulent enough to prevent *their* rear echelon from providing effective support, at least for a moment or three.

It's not really a damaging spell, just a prank writ extra-large, but she has enough faith in her teammates to figure they can handle this without more blatant assistance from the Sylph.

Annie Sandberg (437) has posed:
Silverbloom has to get moving a bit more with the player opponents' advance- even without enemy spellcasters there'd undoubtedly be arrows, spears, or other such flying things coming at her. Thankfully the others were doing their best to keep that from happening so she could mostly concentrate on the buffs. Dorian's stunt was especially helpful, sowing a bit of confusion in the ranks that would hopefully keep attention away from her. "Well, you may be a stinker, but you're OUR stinker for now," she says to him, with a bit of a Bugs Bunny impression.

Reker (631) has posed:
It seems that Reker is not a very high priority target. And that suits him well, because it allows him to take on his targets. "You people and your mid-fight banter." He shifts his weight as an arrow from the archer swings past, catching him on the shoulder. He isn't going to take that lying down though, as he wheels around and throws two blades up towards the archer. Once those have been released, he turns his attention back to the guy wielding the two hander.

He dives to the side, grabbing a larger dagger from his belt so he can wield it against the guy with the big blade, "C'mon dude. You've got no chance here, better back off while you've still got some HP."

Strea (1101) has posed:
Several of the ambushers suddenly go up in flames, letting out cries of... Well, annoyance mostly. Behind them, the Salamander leader looks somewhat annoyed, "Wasn't sure about that one... Well, that's fine." He nods to one of his lieutenants, a large looking man in full armour, wielding a lance in one hand and tower shield in the other. The man nods in response, taking a few steps forward towards Melsanthos. The name that's floating over his head? 'Brute'. Well, that's original.

Brute brings his shield up, then goes from a walk to a run. He's quite fast too, apparently defying the heavy armour he's wearing. He charges the Imp caster, attempting to shield slam Melsanthos into the air.

Tana's Lightning Fall strikes amidst the group of PVPers, knocking them to the ground and knocking off a fair bit of their HP bars. It doesn't take them too long to rise though, a couple charging Tana and swings axes at her. A couple more are thrown into the air by Kanokon's wind spell, before bouncing across the ground. They groan a little. Unfortunately this draws the attention of one of their friends. He charges towards Kanokon, sword slashing through the air towards her.

One of the dagger users fighting Tomoe takes the shield slam, getting knocked down. The other one slips around her assault, going for a stab towards what he believes to be her unguarded side.

Unfortunately for Silverbloom, she's been spotted by one of the PVPers. The man charges her with a cry, swinging a large mace at her.

Reker's thrown daggers strike home, digging into the chest of the archer. He cries out in defeat as his avatar explodes into pixels. The much larger two-hand wielder grunts as the daggers cut into him, but his armour keeps them from taking too much of his HP away. He taunts, "Try again, little man." He swings the large flat side of his blade at Reker, trying to knock him away.

The Salamander leader flinches as Yuuki is suddenly right in front of him. However, he doesn't go to strike her, instead he simply stands there for a moment... Then smirks.

In an equal of speed his other lieutenant is suddenly between him and Yuuki. Sword in hand, she swings at Yuuki to attack, but the blade is parried. However it is not sent sailing, instead coming up to intercept Yuuki's follow up attack in an impressive display of reaction time. With the two swordfighters briefly locked in their battle, the leader starts to step away, "Take care of this, Selene." Yuuki's opponent, a girl no bigger than she is, nods silently in agreement. Selene then jumps back, breaking the sword lock. She then darts in quickly, launching into a series of slashes and jabs that put even Yuuki's defensive skills to the test. The attacks are FAST. And strong. But the Salamander girl's movements are strange, especially to someone as skilled in the art of the blade as Yuuki.

Meanwhile, the Salamander leader disappears into the shadows of the dimly lit edges of the temple cavern.

Nagato has posed:
    Tana's used to an axe, she uses one mainly here... and outside the game, she uses one if she has to get close to something, usually they don't last after her cannon shots. But here? She's got sword and board right now and with the couple that gets up after her sword skill, her HP gets chunked quite a bit from those attacks, red streaks across the pseduo-tank-sith's body, dropping her to a knee as she swings her shield arm to break herself free from the attackers.

    The swing does give her a look around and with someone going after Silverbloom, Tana's eyes scowl and she kicks up off the ground, sword raised above her shoulder, leaping into another sword skill, "Get away from my healer, damn you!" activating Sonic Leap, she moves to try to close the distance quickly with the oncoming assailant, trying to shove her sword into him so its Tana that the assailant should be attacking. "Get your ass over here you cowardly shit, how dare you attack a healer!"

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    'Melsanthos' offers a grin in Yuuki's direction at her V-sign. This one's not creepy, though. It's conspiratorial. And Silverbloom's comment gets a chuckle. "I always was, you just didn't know it," he says, with a wink. Yup, battle banter. This is definitely a thing! Ah, party banter. Though he's not technically part of the party. At least there's not a burly Qunari to embarrass him, so there's that.

    Though here he's got some trouble as suddenly there's a Brute charging him. Literally. And Dorian has forgotten that the Imp is a Light Race. So, rather foolishly, he attempts to block. It doesn't cause QUITE as much damage as Brute was expecting, but Dorian definitely feels it. Clear when Melsanthos does indeed go flying into the air, with a surprised cry.

    But he's not content to just wait to be slammed to the ground. You see, there was a reason Dorian chose Imp. Not only because 'Dark' magic, either. Dorian chose it for its strategic use -- Imps can fly indoors, even if only briefly. Hopefully Brute has forgotten that.

    He gauges Brute's movements, expecting him to make a followup attack -- a jumping overhead attack or something. The sudden appearing of the Flight Controller is a dead giveaway that's what Melsanthos is planning. And if it's not, the appearance of his wings is. He flies in an arc to miss any followup attacks from Brute, making sure his arc takes him down so that he can drop down to the ground again without fall damage. That wasn't a very professional-looking arc, but he can't afford to waste indoor flight time.

    "Well, well. Living up to your name, aren't you?" Melsanthos observes. "You do know 'Brute' is an insult, yes?" Though, Brute can't hit him if Brute can't SEE him. So he adopts spellcasting pose for a spell to Blind this Brute.

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    Well now THIS is a surprise! Yuuki's eyes widen as an opponent comes out of nowhere to intercept her. She thought she'd known all the top duellists in Alfheim Online, at least as-of a year ago. This girl must be new, or a transfer in from another game. Being matched doesn't upset Yuuki however. She sets in to business, striking and parrying madly against this Selene.

    Yuuki can see the attacks coming, though it's taxing to keep up with her opponent. Fortunately for the Impgirl, she doesn't rely on knowledge of an opponent's fighting style. Yuuki herself has no particular style, and she doesn't have vast fighting experience to draw on. What she has is a VR-born perception that lets her see and defend against almost anything thrown her way.

    It seems, duelling this girl, that Selene must be from outside their world. Yuuki may not know fighting styles on an instinctual level enough to predict moves in advance, but she's fought enough duels in Alfheim Online to at least recognize when someone isn't using a derivative of Japanese fighting styles.

    It only makes Yuuki grin though. Duelling, especially against someone GOOD, is SUPER FUN! Forgetting about the PK leader for now, she whirls on in against her current opponent. She trusts in her armor, letting it take glancing hits while she parries or dodges the most effective attacks. Instead of defending against the poorly-aimed attacks she uses the opportunity to strike back. She doesn't have to block every blow, or avoid getting hurt. She just has to deal more damage to her foe than her foe does to her. And considering she's got support in the form of Silverbloom and Silica... she doesn't even HAVE to be better than her foe.

    Of course she WANTS to be! She doesn't want to win a duel because she has healer support. "Where were you a year ago?" Yuuki asks, pleased, as she presses in close to her opponent after a particularly powerful parry. Power parries, like her whirling dance and her willingness to take hits to maintain her offense, are a major part of her skillset. She's much stronger, in game stats, than most people would assume given her speed. To be anywhere near top speed in ALO, most players spec nothing but agility, keeping only the minimum in strength needed to wear their gear. Yuuki... is different.

Annie Sandberg (437) has posed:
Silverbloom's about to break off her performance to switch to her staff to defend herself from the rushing mace-wielder, but thankfully Tana seems to be able to intervene. Instead, she switches things up, changing to an attack-up tune to hopefully make it easier to finish them off. "Thanks a lot Tana. The show must go on!" She keeps an eye on the battle between Yuuki and Selene, interested to see how it plays out. It's somewhat surprising that the Salamander is doing so well, to be honest.

Strea (1101) has posed:
The PVPer's eyes go wide as he suddenly as a sword poking out of his chest. It was certainly a surprise! And he was just in reach of that Sylph too... But now, his avatar explodes into pixels and nothing but a floating light remains. Of course, as a sacrifice to saving Silverbloom, Tana gets a pair of swords in her back for her troubles, the two PVPers taking advantage of the opening.

Brute does indeed go in for a follow-up attack, stabbing his lance towards the Imp traitor. Of course Melsanthos proves too agile for the larger Salamander, the lance striking stone floor. He turns to follow the Imp around, grunting back at him, "You die now." He raises his lance... But then there's suddenly a flash as he is struck blind by Melsanthos's spell. Roaring in anger and confusion, Brute starts to swing his lance around wildly, trying to smash it into the offending Melsanthos.

Selene says nothing in response to Yuuki's question. She must be the strong, silent type. Or perhaps more likely silent fury. As each blow and counter blow is struck between the two combatants, Selene's speed continues to grow as does the look of fury on her face. But as her speed increases, her precision seems to equally fall. More and more she fails to parry or evade Yuuki's attacks, choosing to press her attack more. This does mean more of her HP is getting sliced off with each hit, but her relentless assault is starting to put Yuuki's own HP bar in danger.

Tomoe has posed:
The battle carries on Tana is doing well Tomoe notices. She doesn't let up though as she has a foe comming in. She's moving in now as she's intending to try and fiisht the downed player. Well she was but she's got anotehr to worry about and she moves in an attempt ot paryr the attack and then she readies a sword skill a simple one Beat crack a rapid serie os strikes intended to overwhelm someone.

"Fairies huh...how do you deal with an actual swordsman?"

She comments but she's sitll losing HP from the attack she's not invurable and she's also feleing the feedback...

Reker (631) has posed:
The flat of that blade strikes hard into Reker and knocks him backwards. He lands hard, skidding to a stop. He lays there for a second, "Ow." He mutters, picking himself back up to his feet, swaying briefly as he does, "Okay." He says, tilting his head to pop his neck. With the big man heavily armored, Reker will have to think of something new.

He sheathes the combat dagger and pulls out two more of the throwing daggers, "Lets see how you handle these, big guy." He twirls the blades in both of his hands for a moment, before he shifts his stance, activating a sword skill to pierce armor, as he throws the first blade, wheeling around and putting a flame sword skill into the second dagger as he throws that one as well, aiming to stack one on top of the other and light the guy inside the armor on fire.

Nagato has posed:
    Tana /was/ doing well. After all, she saved Silverbloom from attack, saved Silica from attack, and she gives a thumbs up to Silverbloom, a smile upon her face, "I'm glad I could help, keep up the singing, it's helping!" At least, she got to finish that off before the blades of two swords peirce her armor and show on the other side... she weakly turns her head around and... her HP was already pretty damn low... "You ...backstabbing... ba...stards." the swords slip away from her body and she falls, shattering into pixels and her remain light floats in front of Silverbloom...

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Yeah, Kanokon didn't think she'd get ignored forever, especially when she cast a spell to assist her teammates. She's more or less ready when that one Salamander charges at her, swinging his sword ...

And she has enough experience with swordplay to time his swing, flick her own blade up at JUST the right time to divert the swing waaaay off-course, and delivers a three-stroke Sword Skill that should have the effect of hamstringing him - at least until the game's code decides he's been 'crippled' for long enough.

One more slice after the Sword Skill lets go of her, and then Kanokon sprints off to help protect Silverbloom. "Hey, I don't care if you don't like our taste in BGM," she snarks at the Salamanders, "but you want to pick a different tune, pay the piper in gold, not steel!"

Her sword flashes out one more time .... trying to cut a Salamander's ear off?

Well, if the game LETS her .... sure, why not?

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    Melsanthos grins as Brute goes ballistic, and this time it's one of those creepy ones. Too bad it'd be lost on the one it was meant for, thanks to that Blind spell. Though it does fade as he noticed Tana go down, and he frowns. Ideas start forming, and he looks back to the wildly-swinging Brute. That hit definitely made Dorian aware of the limitations of his avatar! Time to use the avatar's speed to his advantage instead of trying to 'tank'.

    What this means right now is for him to lead Brute to swing in another direction. So he runs around the larger avatar, putting himself between Brute and another of Brute's own party! In fact, one of those who just killed Tana! But a simple 'hey, over here' wouldn't work, no. That would be easy to see through. Instead he tries a taunt.

    "You do realize you look exactly like a crazed ape, swinging about like that, don't you?" It's loud enough to get Brute's attention. However, he's not turned his back on the other enemy party member that he's trying to bait Brute into hitting, though. He's aware that's a bad idea.

    Though as soon as he's said it, he ducks down and rolls to the side and out of the way, figuring the roll would be a quieter means of escape than just legging it in a random direction, since there's no footsteps to hear. He may not realize that hitting one's own party members may not be happening. But even if not, there's a chance it'll get in the other PvPer's way, even temporarily.

    But Dorian hasn't gone far. Slashing doesn't do much against armored opponents, he thinks. Bashing should. He may or may not be applying real-world physics in a situation where it doesn't apply. Either way, once Dorian can bait Brute to go in the direction he wants, he'll unload on Brute's back. With the staff.

    Dorian's actually pretty darn skilled with the staff in his real life, and can bludgeon a handful of moderately powerful Fade demons to death. Let's see how it translates to the game...

Annie Sandberg (437) has posed:
Tana's save helped but it came at a heavy cost. Unfortunately, Puca magic is more suited to buffs than it is to resurrection, so she can't help her ally there. More to the point though, now she's got to protect herself. Switching to an attack stance, she strums on her lyre again- this time producing the harsh tone that signifies a sonic attack. That should help keep them at bay until Kanokon can finish the job.

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    Combat's not just about being fast or hitting hard. As Selene gets faster and faster, Yuuki gets confused. Her body operates automatically though. She defends when she must, attacks when she can. But she also takes note of how erratic her opponent's getting. It's as if she's not able to perceive what she's doing. Not fighting Yuuki at all, somehow, but executing some sort of pattern that allows her to go fast but not to defend. Like it's an extended sword skill or some other kind of programmed attack.

    Yuuki may not have a lifetime of fighting art to draw upon, but she's also not just someone who happened to get fast. She's a fighter, heart and soul, not someone simply granted a gift. It's time, she guesses, to turn this fight around. "Is this the limit of your speed?" she asks conversationally. She wants her opponent to get FASTER. To continue her attacks, but on a more predictable pattern. To take away any chance of the girl reacting to a sudden combat shift. Her health is dwindling rapidly, going past orange and into red. And then Tana falls. Nooooo! Well, she can't possibly lose now! They have to win the fight so Tana can be brought back, rather than having to return to town and start over.

    Abruptly Yuuki shifts the pace. She deliberately leaves her head open, luring an attack that would surely finish the duel. Instead of parrying like she'd normally do, the imp drops into a low crouch. Her sword halts in position; it and her crouched posture triggering the start of a Sword Skill. Her blade glows violet, and she launches upwards into a backflip, her sword extending out in a brutal uppercut. And if that wasn't enough, as she lands she has her sword drawn back in another starting position. She charges forward as her feet touch down, spinning two complete circles with her blade once again extended and glowing with Dark energy.

Strea (1101) has posed:
Tomoe's sword skill is enhanced by Silverbloom's attack buff, easily breaking through the PVPer's guard to strike him several times. After the final strike, his avatar glows and explodes into pixels. The other dagger wielder, who had been knocked down by Tomoe's shield slam, looks in shock at the defeat of his ally... "Screw this!" He's suddenly up and making a mad dash out back towards the dungeon's exit.

The larger two-hander fighting Reker stumbles back as the first dagger pierces his armour. He loses a fair bit of HP, but is still in the fight. He goes to charge Reker when the second dagger strikes the same point. The flame skill procs, the man crying out as he is engulfed in flames. He runs around for a few seconds in an instinctual, but ultimately useless, attempt to disperse the DoT flames. Until finally his HP reaches zero and he explodes into pixels.

Kanokon's sword skill does more than just cripple. Boosted by Silverbloom's buff, it drains away the last of the PVPer's HP and he vanishes like his friends in a blast of sparkles. Silverbloom's sonic attack hits the two, briefly disorienting them as well as knocking down some of their health. Kanokon's graze, combined with the attack buff, is enough to finish one of them off.

Brute is not very bright, if you hadn't guessed. He probably would have fallen for the 'Hey, over here!' comment anyway. So the insult is just as effective. Hearing approximately where his opponent is, Brute charges in an attempt to body slam him. And of course, he goes sailing right past him. Instead he hits the remaining PVPer who had taken Tana down. No damage is inflicted, but the PVPer is knocked to the ground by the larger man, "H-Hey, watch it!" Brute looks confused for a moment, until the strikes from Melsanthos begin to rain down on his back. They knock him off balance and before he can recover, his HP bar drains down to empty. Groaning, the large Salamander keels over and slams into the ground with a massive clang. Then he explodes into pixels. The other PVPer on the ground looks with wide eyes at the defeat of Brute. Looking around further, he realises he is the only one left (apart from Selene). He pauses for a moment, then drops his sword and raises his hands, "Please don't kill me!"

'Is this the limit of your speed?' Perhaps an odd question, considering the level Selene is operating at. But she doesn't notice it anyway, too focused as she is on HURTING her opponent. So focused she doesn't even register the obvious threat of the sword skill as she just charges in for a strike. But Yuuki's blade reaches its target first, smacking into Selene and knocking her upwards a short distance. Selene just seems to float there are Yuuki continues with her follow up, the twin slashes carving large red lines into the Salamander girl.

Selene falls, crashing to the ground as her HP bar depletes to zero. Finally she explodes into sparkles, her remain light flaring to life where she had fallen.

Silence. The sound of victory. Apart from the one that had surrendered, all the PVPers were defeated. Except...

"Yuuki! Behind you!" A young woman's voice calls from seemingly nowhere as the PVP party's leader suddenly appears from stealth. As predicted by the warning, he is behind Yuuki as he stabs towards her back with his dagger, unleashing a devestating backstab sword skill that could likely finish Yuuki off... Had she not been made aware of it.

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    Yuuki's taunt was, of course, intended to be odd. Selene was faster than Yuuki, at least at that point. Taunting her about not being fast enough, even with that, was meant to provoke her. It's admittedly not the BEST of trashtalk, but then Yuuki doesn't exactly practice that art.

    She's relieved to see the girl explode into pixels. That match took a lot, but the battle isn't yet done. She doesn't drop her guard. The yell of her name immediately catches her attention. That, her wariness and of course her speed save her from an ignoble game-death. She whirls, her sword trailing behind her sudden movement. As she sees the incoming attack she adjusts her sword's motion, bringing it across hard in a signature power-parry.

    With her back defended, Yuuki doesn't immediately attack. Instead she grins. "Nice try." she says instead. Then she turns to the others. "We need to finish him, the surrendered one, and the one that fled. Then we can raise Tana back up and go fight the boss!" she says. Of course there's also the question about the backstabbing imp, not to mention the voice that warned her by calling her name. But of course Yuuki's less concerned about that than she is about her friends!

    Of course the heroes don't HAVE to finish off the PKers. Doing so will make them all rez back in town though, minus their loot and some skill progression. A fair payback for a slimy tactic right? And a penalty they won't pay if any of them live to raise their fallen teammates.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe isn't complaining about Silverblooms help heck she's pretty happy for it. she's now looking at her foe she's able to finish one off and now looks to the other one for a moment.

"Oh you think your getting away, oh hell no."

Tomoe gives Silverbloom a look before she breaks into a run afer the guy as he's trying to get away. However she'll pause she'll start to chant a spell, runes fly about her and a moment later, bolt of light are seeking out the fleeing PVPer, given how things work in ALO? The Victors get a cut of the fallen's inventory after all.

"LEt's noe lose anyone else?! Shall we FINISH THE GAME?!"

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    Melsanthos breathes a sigh of relief when the PKers' party seems in various stages of defeat. The sound of the woman's voice though, draws him back up attention, and he looks up. it doesn't take him long to spot the aggressor, and scowls. Maybe it's just his avatar or maybe there's something of the player behind it, but that scowl looks a little like an animal bearing its fangs.

    Once he sees that the other Imp has managed to parry, his response to the PK leader is fire, not surprisingly. Fire has been the kind of magic he's been usng most of all, since he does feel more than a bit of a kinship with it in his real life. In fact, it's that DoT he used at the beginning. Now though, since there's only one target, he can better focus on the leader. "'Liar liar, pants on fire'~," he drawls.

    Tomoe gets a nod. "Good idea. Let's make it 'Game Over' for this lot."

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"Man, don't pick a fight with someone who knows how to manage their HP better than you do," Kanokon chides her fallen foe. Or maybe it's directed to more than one opponent. She wipes her sword off (an unnecessary gesture in ALO, but still) and re-sheathes it ...

RIGHT about when someone yells a warning to Yuuki. Kanokon's too far from Zekken to do any good on that front, so she's looking around, wishing that ALO gave her credit for her real-world hearing. That might be an unfair advantage, so as a gamer, she can't really argue the logic of it. And by the time Kanokon lays eyes on Yuuki, the last PKer is pretty thoroughly handled, so she's content to watch the final outcome rather than join in.

Strea (1101) has posed:
"No. No! Idon'twanttorespawnintown!" Flash! Tomoe's spell strikes the fleeing PVPer, engulfing him in light and causing him to explode into pixels.

The leader's attack is parried, his weapon knocked from his hand and sent flying. As it clatters to the floor, he steps back and then stands straight, "I'm definitely impressed. Even with her edge, you still took her down."

At the talk of finishing them off, the leader just stands there and smirks. And the smirk remains as the flames of Melsanthos errupt beneath him and his HP bar begins to decrease. He doesn't move, nor fight back. He just stands there and accepts his loss, the flames licking at him from all around. Only once his HP bar reaches zero does he do anything, "Another time perhaps..." His avatar explodes into light.

Realising that he's about to be killed, the last remaining PVPer panics. He quickly opens his menu and hits the logout button. Of course, being out in the field his avatar remains behind, just going still as the strings to its operator are cut. Easy to finish off for anyone who chooses.

Strea (1101) has posed:
One by one the Remain Lights for the PVPers begin to fade, only those that died last still lingering until they too are eventually gone.

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    Yuuki's not vindictive or malicious, but she IS a gamer. She can respect the PK leader's decision to accept his fate. She can even respect the one that tried to run, since if he'd gotten away he'd have saved his party's item loss. It must suck for a group like this to lose all the loot they got getting all this way into a dungeon, just shy of the boss room. She'll enjoy her share of the loot though, even if none of it's an upgrade for her. It'll be a memento of a tough battle and a hellishly tough duel. That girl was surprisingly capable!

    "What did he mean, with her edge?" Yuuki asks rhetorically. It's not like the Salamander's Remain Light is going to reply right? Or that anyone else here is a mindreader. "She was faster than me, but it's not like speed's the only important thing in a fight! Right?" she asks. This from the purple lightning fighter herself.

    She's not going to let the question bother her though. Instead there's something more important. "And hey, who was that who warned me? Is there someone hiding here? Asuna? Mmm, no, that wasn't Asuna's voice. Heellooooo~?" she calls out, peering into the darkness. Imps do have some degree of dark vision, it's true, but she hasn't invested much into the skill. Scouting's not really her thing since most of the time she's with others who need light to see.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
With the fighting basically over, there's no danger to rezzing a fallen ally, so Kanokon pulls up her item menu, selects the necessary item, targets Tana's Remain Light and selects [Use]. From there, it's up to Tana whether to accept the resurrection or decline it.

Either way, after that Kanokon seems content to recover the rest of her HP and whatnot. There *is* a dungeon end boss battle ahead, after all ... assuming the rest of the group is still good for it.

Nagato has posed:
    Tana's Remain Light nearly fizzles when the revival item's used upon her, and Tana /quickly/ accepts it, her avatar rebuilding itself and dropping her to her knees... "R...remind me to get eyes in the back of my head. Is everyone..." she takes a weak look around, "Where did everyone go? You guys finished them off, didn't you?" a rapid turn to look for Silverbloom and Silica... "A...ah, you two are okay, good." comes a relieved sigh from the Cait Sith...

    She picks herself up slowly, walking towards Yuuki... "Ugh, what's going on now?"

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    Melsanthos comments as the leader's avatar explodes into light, "Smart one, at least. Knew he was beaten. Though he could have fled instead of eaten a death penalty." Pause. "Speaking of which..." He dismisses the loot window quickly, and looks in the direction of Tana's Remain Light, hoping there's still some time. He gives a relieved sigh when the Sylph uses that resurrection item on Tana. He's got one, but Xiaomu's closer. Also she's probably been playing longer, so she may have more than one.

    With that dealt with, Melsanthos turns his attention to Yuuki's connundrum. Someone DID call out to her, and he didn't see anyone. Solving this mystery might give them some rest time. Or it'll provide them with another enemy, one of the two. Either way he's looking around to try to find the source of the voice.

    Tana's question gets a nod. "Someone called out a warning to her --" He looks to Yuuki, whose name he does not know. "--When the leader of this brigade of idiots was going to strike her in the back from stealth. We don't know who it was."

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe will take the loot she go off the PVPer maybe that wuill teach them a lesson about trying to jump someone who isn't in the mood for PVP. Tomoe's generally in the arena or battlegrounds sort. She seems to be calming down for a moment and she seems tobe far more grim about it than Yuuki she didn't play nice with this, but then again given her suriving through the Death Game it's a but understandable.

"Try the arena next time and be thankful you have a next time."

An odd comment to be sure for the Raid leader.

Tomoe walks over with a grin she says. "SO finish em off or leave him somewhere embrassing?"

SHe notes as Xiaomu brings up Tana.

"Good so that certainly was ... a thing wasn't it? Ie everyone all right?

Strea (1101) has posed:
The voice calls out from hiding again, "Umm, I did? And yes... And no, not Asuna. Hehehe, I guess there's no point in hiding anymore..."

    A figure walks out from behind one of the temple pillars, except this one isn't a dirty Salamander looking for a fight. Instead it's a young woman. Her rare set of armour, and the fact she was able to hide from everyone here through the whole event, suggests she's pretty up there on the power scale. Her weapon, a large two-handed sword, means sheathed on her back.

    The new (not really) arrival turns to face the group and smiles, "Hello. My name is Strea." She brushes her hair behind her ear before she continues, "I've been following your group for a while because... Well, I need your help!"

Annie Sandberg (437) has posed:
Silverbloom gives a thumbs up. "Everything's fine here. Thanks for the saves everyone," she says. "What's next? Are we moving on?" This fight was a bit tougher than the last, but there was still more to come. It seemed, however, that there were other things to think about than the upcoming boss. Another player was approaching, someone who'd just helped Zekken survive that last trick, and now wanted help in return. "Hello," she says in reply. "I'm Silverbloom. Thanks for your help."

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    Melsanthos does tense a bit when the young woman appears from behind the pillar. But he too seems to realize, even without knowing her gear is high-level, that she's probably not someone to just attack willy-nilly. Also she hasn't attacked them, so there's that too. The introduction gets a nod, and he offers his own name. Well, his avatar's name. It'll help the rest of them get to know him too. "I am Melsanthos. How do you do?" As she doesn't appear to be an enemy, he chances a bow, hand to his chest. One of those fancy noble bows.

    And then she's asking for help? Melsanthos blinks. There wouldn't be a quest NPC this far out, would there? He's still learning the mechanics of this game, after all. "You did help us, it would only be fair. What's the matter?" he asks Strea. "I can't promise I can be of any help, but I can listen." No penalty for listening, at least.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe looks to STreya for a moment and grins for a moment she then moves to put her weapns away and offer Strea her hand to shake.

"Tomoe the Iron Lily of the GU, what do you need help with Strea, I'm curious to hear why you sought us out." After all the GU is a collection of SAO surivors and multiveral players so she's /very/ curious now. She also grins over at Melsanthos for a moment.

"Nice work there, with the ambushers I owe you one. Also remind me to /ever/ make an enemy of you."

Nagato has posed:
    Everyone else seems to decide that this Strea is a good girl... though Tana looks curiously at the new player, "Tana, of the Gatecrashers Union. Thank you for your assistance earlier." she stretches a bit and downs a potion. "I'm not one to turn down assistance in need but... I'd like to know what's going on that you need our help for..." another look, "And with that gear, why you didn't assist us physically. Dying sucks...."

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"You need our help," Kanokon echoes, looking Strea over.

There is a peculiar form of math, somewhere between trigonometry, statistics, and calculus, which is unique to gamers. It's not a form of math which is particularly susceptible to being quantified in actual numbers, which makes it harder for non-gamers to comprehend, but business types might be able to grasp the underlying equations (or inequalities).

It's less a profit-loss analysis than a series of derivations and approximations, and as Kanokon finishes crunching the not-exactly-numbers internally, Silverbloom goes so far as to thank Strea - which is, well, not *inappropriate* nor even particularly inaccurate. It was Strea's voice which called out a warning or two, and ignoring that would just be bull-headedly wrong and rude besides. Melsanthos follows her lead, then Tomoe, and with a faint sigh, the Sylph decides she really has to follow suit. "Name's Kanokon," the Sylph finally introduces herself, waving slightly and offering a breezy little smile. "So, uh ... not to be rude, but does this thing you need help with have anything to do with this dungeon or its boss .... orrrrr are you looking to drag us out in mid-run to go halfway across the world on an unrelated sidequest ... ?"

She's not consciously trying to be rude or dismissive, REALLY she isn't, but come on, interrupting a party in mid-raid? It'd better be either directly related to this very dungeon, or something that they can get back to when they AREN'T in mid-dungeon.

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    Yuuki looks Strea over and smiles. She looks strong! That's in large part due to the neato armor and sword, but there's more. There's how she followed them, remaining hidden. There's other little clues too. But more importantly there's just something there that can't be reduced to a simple explanation.

    "All right." Yuuki answers. Not outright agreeing to whatever Strea wants but agreeing to hear her out. She's inclined to accept however. Partly because Strea helped, and partly because it's a throwback to how she asked for Asuna's help. Though admittedly she and Strea haven't duelled... yet.

    Sheathing her sword but keeping a hand on the pommel, Yuuki faces Strea openly. "We should go back to town. Talk over something to drink maybe." she suggests. "Oh! After we beat the boss of course." she adds, grinning sheepishly.

Strea (1101) has posed:
    Strea seems quite happy to have been well received by most of the group. It puts her at ease a little, especially as Silverbloom starts with the introductions, to which Strea responds, "Hello."

    When it gets to Tomoe, Strea shakes her hand and says, "Oh, I know. I know who most of you are~ Tomoe and Silica in particular..." She looks between the two, "I feel like I've known you for so long, yet we've never met before." She giggles quietly, "Isn't it weird?"

    Strea looks at Melsanthos, tilting her head a little, "Though I'm sorry, I don't know you... Nice to meet you anyway!"

    As Kanokon asks about the details of her request, Strea quickly raises her hands, "No no no, nothing like that! It's just... I've noticed that some players have been acting rather strangely lately... The Salamander girl was a good example. And I'm trying to figure out why. But I can only do so much by myself... That's why after learning about the Gatecrashers Union and its members, I decided to ask you all for help!"

    As Yuuki's suggestion of talking in town, Strea nods enthusiastically, "I'd be happy to explain everything to you all later. But of course, there is still the boss to beat. And I'd be happy to help if you like?" She smiles, "I'm a pretty good tank, if I do say so myself!"

Silica has posed:
    "You, know us?" asks Silica, ears flicking curiously and her tail lashing behind her, betraying her emotional state. She's confused and a bit suspicious, but the gnome /did/ just help them, so she's willing to hear her out at the very least. "If you promise to behave yourself, I don't see any reason to not bring you along." She sheathes her dagger, then with a quick change flare of light, pulls out a small yellow crystal shaped like a wand, then begins chanting the Group Healing spell, dousing everyone in cool, healing water to top off their health.

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    Melsanthos waves lightly, dismissing the apology. "No need to apologize. I've only been playing for a few days now," he explains, as to why Strea might not know him. "It's good to meet you as well," he notes with a smile. The mention of players acting strangely gets a nod. "That's actually why I started playing. From what I heard, this level of in-game violence is unusual. So I decided to come and investigate myself. I'm not in this 'Gatecrashers Union', but I'd be happy to help however I can."

    As for the boss? Melsanthos tilts his head. "I'm already here, I might as well assist, too. It would probably be easier than traipsing back through the dungeon alone anyway." Monsters have probably respawned behind him.

    Also, he does feel the need to assure the party at large of his intentions, "And no, I have no intentions of betraying you. I only came with the Idiot Brigade back there --" He tilts his head to indicate the places where the Remain Lights of the PKers were (and where the avatar of the fear/rage-quitter might still be, staring gormlessly off into space) "-- Because I heard them talking about ambushing players in a dungeon, and thought they needed to learn a lesson about not kicking people when they're down."

    He smirks a bit. "Also I'm a newbie, I'm not stupid enough to try that with clearly more experienced players, even if I WAS that kind of man. Which I'm not, surprisingly."

    Silica's use of the healing wand gets a nod in her direction. "Thank you," he offers, with a smile. "I think we all needed that." Then to the party at large, "Well, then. Shall we? There's a boss that needs killing."

Nagato has posed:
    Tana hears the word tank and she lets out a sigh, swapping out her shield and sword back to her great axe. "Maybe with you in the lead, I won't have to worry about gut checking a sword." she gives a bit of a bow towards Strea... and a hug to Silica, "Thanks for the heals, I'm glad you're safe." comes the smile from the other, pet-less Cait Sith. "Shall we go ahead and kill the boss?"

Annie Sandberg (437) has posed:
"I've heard the same thing," Silverbloom says when Strea mentions the odd behavior of players. "It is pretty concerning... Do you think it's caused by something in the game, or something outside that's affecting the players? ...Or should that wait until later?"

Strea (1101) has posed:
    "Later will do!" As she joins with the party, Strea is overflowing with excitement. She grins as the group walk into the obvious boss room, "This is going to be so much fun!"

    As the doors to the boss room begin to close, Strea puts a finger to her chin and muses, "Though it's a shame Kirito wasn't here... Oh well. I'll just have to catch him next time... Heheh." The boss room slams shut. Silence once more returning to the temple.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe looks at Strea for a moment she nods slightly tilting her head at the woman as she says knows Silica and herself? Do they have some kind of fan? A Fan she can handle she just hopes this isn't a stalker situation a she rights her head. "Yes it's very weird I have to admit, you mean stranger than normal? It was a PVP gank squad that we coned purple to more or less. Sounds like a plan and shall we get to it?"

Oh Tomoe may have a chance to go DPS here for once which would be a nice break.