1225/GGO - Nicolas the Renegade

GGO - Nicolas the Renegade
Date of Scene:	29 December 2014
Location:	Alfheim Online <SAO> <ALO>
Synopsis:	The night before Christmas, the Gatecrashers go after a special event boss to gain some reputation in GGO, still trying to lure out Death Gun.
Cast of Characters:	Kirito, Tomoe, Arthur Lowell, 162, 215, 325, 385, 395, Riva Banari, 596, 631

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Reker (631) has posed:
    Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the game, an event was starting to put others to shame.

    All around the spawn point, gathered at last, the Gatecrashers Union was ready to have a blast.

    Some time in the making, this event was. It was the arrival of Santa Claus.

    But this Claus was different, not the nice one. This Santa was angry and had a really big gun.

    It had taken some string pulling for Reker to get everyone gathered in one place at one time, and more importantly to keep the other Squadrons out of the zone. Nicolas the Renegade was not a normal spawn, but a world spawn, where anyone who wanted to get in on the fight could. The problem was, the prize would only go to the group who scored the killing blow. To avoid this, Reker had been busy for the past day or so, prepping the area where the boss would spawn to keep other groups out. It was a literal minefield out there. It should delay them enough, he thinks.

    Regardless, he has the group gathered up at the spawn point for the boss, and is repeatedly checking his display for the time. Boss will be spawning soon, he hopes everybody is here.

Zephyr Windstar (162) has posed:
    Gayle's here. She's likely a new face to the group. She strides along like she owns the place, drawing each pistol to check the ammo level, then her shotgun, before stretching out. "This place is still pretty neat... Shame Divine Wind can't link up." she shrugs a bit. "For those of ya that don't know me, I'm Gayle."

Rhapsody (325) has posed:
    Video Games are HARD.

Seriously, after a lot of research, Rhapsody came to realize just how hard she would have had to work to get all the gear she had right now. Problem was, if she was going to help everyone deal with a potential threat in a virtual world, she didn't want to waste time 'grinding' to get decent gear. As such? A few gold coins ended up getting her a LOT of gear in a virtual world.

Today? Today she's here to see if she can earn something a bit more 'honestly'. She had heard from Reker that this specific spawn could end up giving everyone something useful, so, here she was in a form she was entirely not used to, but one she was ready to put to use for the good of this game. Along with a lot of new friends.

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    One of the odder more recent additions to the Gatecrashers Union has shown up for this impromptu raid. It is a maid.
    No seriously, a maid shows up.
    Enter Amalie, casually holding tray with tea right from her inventory. She is, in fact, wearing the heavier armor that matches her maid outfit, that Reker got her for christmas-- with her maid outfit set to be what displays.
    Of course she's not unarmed. That would be silly, judging from the pair of p90 submachineguns slung at her hips and the heavy black ballistic shield mounted on her back like some kind of frilly turtle.
    She is serving people tea as they arrive in the middle of the minefield.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Unlike most of the Gatecrashers Union veterans from SAO days, Kagura never did get in on the fight against Nicholas the Renegade; as such, she's not really sure what to expect, Couple that with her still-wobbly grasp on Gun Gale Online, and she's having no shortage of second thoughts about being here.

In point of fact, she's probably gone through third thoughts and is finishing up fourth thoughts even as she bows to Amalie, accepting a cup of tea, and sips decorously. (She doesn't do the 'extended pinkie' thing while she's holding the cup, though; she's Japanese, not snootyEnglish.)

"So, uh ... since Nicholas is going to be using guns this time, presumably," she asks her allies, "any ideas what kind of attack patterns we should be expecting?" She's got her beam rifle and pistol from last time, as well as a handful of grenades - flash-bang and concussion types, it looks like to those who can recognize grenades on-sight.

Kirito has posed:
    Nicholas the Renegade.

    How many people active now remembered the original 'return of the renegade' quest, where he spawned as a field boss with all the reindeer and took a concerted effort to beat? Along with some puzzles? Probably not many.

    But nobody here was around for the first time Nicholas the Renegade was ever encountered. That honor goes to Kirito.

    The Black Swordsman who almost didn't show up this time.

    The moment Kirito arrived he's shuffled off to the edges of this gathering and developed a case of the anxious not-quite-jitters. he's fidgeting with his beam saber hilt and FN Five-Seven with suppressor and laser aim. At least he figured out how to upgrade his gun, right?

    The boy's glancing about worriedly. It takes a huge effort for him to calm his nerves and just breathe...

Zwei (596) has posed:
    For the past couple of weeks, Zwei has been more or less cheating within the bounds of the game. Simultaneously operating two accounts just barely within the limits of GGO's bot detection, it has been hitting every major boss, raid, and battlefield along the way. Of course, to skip some of the grind, it has paid a considerable amount of real life funds to get endgame worthy equipment, though there is only so much that can be bought at the store rather than farmed from bosses. It is more out of desire to play along with the Gatecrashers than greed for the Renegade's drops that Blanc and Cindre show up, the former clutching a QCW-50 in her hands with a browning hi-power at her hip, and the latter wielding a mark-48 machine gun and a taurus judge.

    The both of them notice Kirito pretty quickly. "What's going on?" Blac asks. "I thought you'd played tons of VR games before!"

Tomoe has posed:
Eisen had handed out holiday outfits but well there was a price to pay and she seemd to be muising over it as she looks over to Kirito along with Yuna and the ever lovable battle maid. She had to wonder how a normal player fell in with them, but if she was so insitant to help? Fine, still she thinks they should get someone from intel to find out whom she is if only to get a guard posted to keep her safe while she's diving. No Eisen has no clue at all. She's sporting the upgrade to her shotgun, as a bank of shells are now cisable along the edge. Had they not gone nuts to go after Saint Nick in SAO? She'd be a human vegetable at best but such grim thoughts flitter away as she notices the maid with the tea.

"Thank you."

She say as sh downs the tea, it was funny her brain told her there was tea, what type it was and it was good. Yet? There was no tea and her body wasn't really processing it, when she'd realized such things? She's kept her junk food snacking to the virtual world and managd to enjoy things she'd not have touched otherwise.

She's about to say something else as she moves over to Kirito and moves to just silently set a hand on his shoulder.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    ARTHUR LOWELL is here! He's established a position that's pretty much a precisely and rigorously calculated to look effortless as possible, leaning against one of the nearby trees. He's got a nice winter coat on, with a cool dramatic scarf that trails green nicely. While Amalie gets a lot of Arthur's usual flustered awkwardness just by virtue of being present, he's gratefully accepting the tea and sipping it as cool as he can. There's also a wave to Gayle, who gets a grin and a wave. "Good t'MEETCHA! And whoever YOU are TOO." Arthur giving another wave to Rhapsody. Kagura gets a brief, dramatic motion. "NO IDEA! We're BLIND, and that's FUCKIN' AWESOME! EMBRACE it!" He pumps a fist.

    Then he's wandering on over to Kirito, giving him a comfortable little backslap. "HEY man. Take it easy. NEW CHARACTER means a NEW SLATE. None of the OLD FAILURES. Don't you start THINKIN' on THAT SHIT, son." And then he's making little wavey motions at Blac. "He's got HEROIC BROODING PROBLEMS, leave 'im to it." And then he's assuming a straight-backed arms-crossed gesture, in preparation to dramatically stand there while wind rushes around once Nicholas properly arrives.

Reker (631) has posed:
    Taking his cup of tea from Amalie, Reker looks at the group as they all start to gather around. Snow was starting to fall from up above them, clouds having moved in to help set the mood. Reker looked from person to person, though when Yuna spoke up, he shook his head.

    "This is a whole new event. It's never spawned before, so I have no idea what to expect. He will most likely have guns, though." Reker says, as he looks at Kirito, catching the mods on his pistol, and Kirito's nervousness with the situation.

    Turning his attention ot Gayle, he nods a hello to her, "Everybody is partied up, right?" He asks, as he checks his HUD. He should be a party leader, Kirito as second group leader and Tomoe as third, if it's needed. Reker has everything set up into a raid group so they should all get something from the boss when it goes down.

    With the group fully gathered, Reker checks his time again, "Alright guys, boss should be spawning in five minutes!" He calls out to the group, "Everybody check your gear one last time, and get read-" He's suddenly cut off by the sound of an explosion a short distance away and a male voice screaming, "MY LEG!"

    "I need somebody to be ready in case they figure out how to penetrate the minefield. The last thing we want it some sniper getting a lucky last shot in and stealing the prize."

Riva Banari has posed:
THE LEGEND OF BULLETARTIST RIVA CONTIUES!

today, she is present in a skimpy Mrs. Claus outfit that she got for Christmas for Reasons. At least she HAS A GROUP NOW, right? Riva waves to the others as she approaches, not bothering to talk as she sees them. She gestures over into the distance past the minefield, and then waves her hands and makes gun pew pew motions. She turn turns and makes hand gestures towards Amalie the Maid, and waves her hands in greeting, hopping over to her and leaning over to stare at her for several seconds, then begins making a complicated series of gestures. Maybe she's trying to learn how to sign? After a few seconds she starts flailing a bit. She then taps her chin, trying to think of what to try next. The arrival of Arthur and the others cause her to slump a little, emitting a /sigh.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Kagura winces at the scream ... actually, more at the scream than the explosion.

Really, is it any wonder she's not at her best in GGO? As if the game's combat wasn't close enough to her real-world fighting style - and she's been having some rocky times on THAT front - her inherent compassion doesn't sit very well with PvP combat. She could handle it somewhat better in the fantasy-based Alfheim Online, but ...

Kagura shakes her head briefly, and starts double-checking that she's got full powerpacks loaded in each of her weapons, and double-checking that her grenades are arranged properly (and safely; even if the game glosses over weapons safety, she's keeping to the best habits she knows to cut down on friendly fire or other collateral damage).

It's as she finishes checking her grenades that she looks up. "Would flash-bangs or stun grenades be enough to keep other players disabled, if we have to ... ?" she asks, the uncertainty in her voice echoing that on her face.

Zephyr Windstar (162) has posed:
    Gayle erks. "I think I missed the invite..." she makes the gestures to open her menu, then huffs. "There, missed the notification... I'm used to my Device, she pops the note up RIGHT IN MY EYE LINE before putting it off to the side." she grumbles as she hits the accept button. "I've specced for evasion and close range, hopefully I can dodge his attack pattern. This'll be fun either way! First big group fight I've been in." she offers, grinning.

    As Riva arrives, the fiery redhead gives her the once over... only to be interrupted by the explosion and scream. "That'd gonna leave a mark later." she says, rubbing the back of her head. "We all loaded up? Weapon check! Make sure you've got full magazines, don't wanna get caught empty!" she calls, clapping her hands together.

    She /finally/ notices Kirito being all broody off to one side, and a sudden change washes over her. She doesn't know the story behind it, but she's fought alongside Kirito before, and this is totally unlike the Swordsman she knows from the field... So she goes over to join Eisen and offers her own support with a hand on his other shoulder. "Whatever's eatin' ya... we'll get through it together, alright?"

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    "FIVE MINUTES? Sheesh. ALRIGHT." Arthur discontinues his stance for a moment to go hassle Riva. "WHAT'S THAT? TIMMY fell in the WELL? Seriously, though, you got your MUTE goin' on? I can lend ya my CHAT GLASSES for HANDS-FREE TYPING if you want 'em. Gimmie a NOD or SHAKE or whatev'? Usually my OUTRAGEOUS EMPHASIS has gotten MAD INFECTIOUS up in you. What's up?"

    Then there's the topic Reker brings up of keeping the other players away. "WELL SHIT," He says. "KAGURA has a good idea there, keepin' 'em DISORIENTED to keep 'em off the MAIN AREA, but SUSTAINING that shit is ROUGH. I kinda wanna TAKE ON some SHOOTER NERDS since I'm HELLA DISRUPTIVE but I guess I gotta be INCOGNITO or some shit." He makes dismissive noises and gestures at that last part. "So YEAH, we probably need some DISORIENTING and DISRUPTIVE types to handle that, 'cause I'm APPARENTLY gonna need to FOCUS ON NPCS or some shit I guess." A helpless shrug! Then a sweeping gesture to the rest. "Hey, YOU jerks, someone who likes YELLING and FLASHBANGS or whatever, be ready to run INTERFERENCE, yeah?"

    He'll be going back to his stance on the five-minute mark, of course.

Kirito has posed:
    THUMP.

    Kirito finds himself with Tomoe's hand on his shoulder, bringing him out of his little funk. Well no, Arthur's backslap does that a bit more noticeably! The young man with the far too feminine avatar jumps a bit! "hw--"

    Blink, blink. The boy's face turns difficult and scrunched for a bit, but he exhales... and hardens his gaze.

    "... Yeah. Sorry." He's a group leader. He can't be getting all distracted. First, nobody can die this time... and he doesn't want to see any party members die because of him, ever!

    Casting an unsure peer matched with a nervous smile at Blanc/Cindre and Gayle, Kirito scratches the back of his head. "Ah... it's an old story. Maybe later." Maybe later short for probably never, unless someone presses.

Tomoe has posed:
Eisen looks to the other as she's got the third group and she's checking over the status of everyone else, she had an event item but she's not wearing it. She's got a Santa hat on sure, but no outfit, if anyone had caught it was given it was combat cheesecake grade and it seems unless she's on the beach Eisen isn't very keen on it given how cheese cake it is, or who knows why else? Either way she's locked nad loaded.

She however seems very concerned about and she smiles faintl at Kirito.

"No I understand I never expected you to come but It's good to see you here come on lets have some /fun/ with this."

She looks to Arthur for a moment and then to Riva.

"You two do seem to have a lot of fun together, don't you."

Yuna gets a nod.

"Eh we may have to PK them, this is a game, right and seriously they should instance this stuff or use a bit where if you tag and so so much damage you get credit."

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    Once the party has been properly tea'd, Amalie gives but a single curtsey. Simply doing her duty after all, but the maid shows absolutely no care in the least when another player wanders into the live minefield. In fact, she simply cocks her SMG. "If the mines don't finish the job, I'll clean that up later." She does offer.
    And yes, she is ignoring Riva.
    "Huh? I'm sorry I can't understand you. You should really actually try to learn Sign before attempting to RP it!"
    But then she's beside Arthur. "Ah! Young Master! Have you remembered anything yet? Did my gift help?!"

Rhapsody (325) has posed:
"I haven't had a LOT of experience in here, but I'll do what I can!" Rhapsody replies to Reker. Her gaze has slipped from one person to the next, replying to Arthur's wave with one of her own. She was wondering who some of the people here were, but then again, she could imagine some folks were wondering who SHE was. Well, she'd answer if someone asked.

As Amalie passes by, she even helps herself to some tea while she's waiting for EvilClause to spawn. She takes a moment, with her free hand, to check on her blade, her weapons, and anything else she brought along.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    "Heroic brooding huh?" Blanc responds to Arthur in a blase sort of tone. "That sounds inconvenient. I'd enjoy hearing the story though! There's not actually that much information on the really infamous VRMMO." Yuna is saying things that don't make much sense though. "Why try to disable them? Just shoot them. It's only a videogame! It'll take them hours to get back out here, and we'll be done one way or the other by then!" Cindre speaks up as the mine goes off in the distance. "We will leave Blanc near the rear to intercept anyone attempting to interfere with the battle. I am built for strength and vitality, so I am carrying ammunition for the both of us."

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva yelps as Arthur addresses her, and she shrugs to Tomoe before reddening in embarassment as he calls her out on her lack of speech.

Amalie criticizes her lack of ability in Sign as well, and Riva visibly wilts. She shuffles over to Arthur and leans in over towards him, whispering, "Well, I've accidentally gotten a ton of people to mute me so I started thinking I could try to communicate with gestures."

She pauses, and mumbles, "It's not going so well."

Reker (631) has posed:
    "Flashbangs would be great." Reker says, as he looks Kagura's loadout over for a moment or two, "And yeah, try to focus on the boss as much as you can, but when the other players get close, we'll need to take them down quick to prevent them from getting the boss."

    Reker walks over towards Kirito, "Hey man, look don't take this the wrong way, but I'm gonna need your head in the game, okay?" He says, "Whatever it is that's gettin' to you, you can tell me when we're done. Trust me, I'll probably understand better than you think." He grins and then slaps Kirito on the back, "Plus I doubt this guy is gonna expect melee combat. It'll be good to throw him off his footing."

    Reker looks over at the group, and then motions for them to spread out, "Everybody into position, here he comes." Reker moves off to the side, as the sound of bells through the night ring out. Up in the sky, the clouds catch a shilouette in a sleigh, before something jumps from it. The figure falls from the sleigh and slams into the ground, before he rises up to his feet. The namebar reads Nicolas the Renegade, and he has four health bars. Unlike the previous versions, however, this one doesn't have an axe or a messed up face. This one has a Vulcan Cannon. The massive man roars out and fires a burst of gunfire from the weapon into the air.

Rhapsody (325) has posed:
Jingle bells! The sound of the bells and the sight of the sleigh would lull a less-prepared player into a false sense of security, most likely. At the sight of Nick, and his gun, all Rhaps can think is what she says: "He's got a damn Mini-Gun! Look out!" That said, the sword-slinger takes a few potshots with her side arm, but otherwise dives for any kind of cover she can find.

Zephyr Windstar (162) has posed:
    Gayle unslings her shotgun, racking the pump as the call to get ready goes out. "Locked, cocked and ready to rock!" She gives Kirito another look, before she dashes off to get closer to the spawn point, sliding behind a rock. The slam, bellow and the roar of a gattling gun makes the teen cringe for a moment. "Mal'zahn... I'll never get used to the sound of Mass-based weapons..." she then pops up and dashes around to try and Flank, firing off a shell of buckshot at Nicolas, trying to draw his attention so others can get behind him. "Oi! Fatman! Overhere! Your beard looks like a scraggling Par'Thran's tail brush!"

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
"KYAAAA!!!" Cue Kagura diving for whatever cover there is, hard enough to leave a dust cloud rising from where she was standing before the bullets began raining down.

It's a couple of seconds thereafter before the muzzle of Kagura's rifle peeks up from behind the stump she's using for cover, and a couple of plasma beams (or whatever GGO's energy weapons use) go shrilling towards Nicholas the Renegade's face. Those who are in the right position to see Kagura herself would notice that she's actually using the rifle's scope, or what amounts to one - something at least a little better than iron sights, in any case.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Arthur is already having a hard time keeping his cool. It is tough to deal with this maid. "I don't remember forgetting anything." He says, helplessly. There's a little agonized hand-wringing there. Looks properly dramatic. "I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't even know what would cause me to not remember." He's taking it in a good-natured sort of way, though, kind of. He's at least caught on to the fact that Amalie is a roleplayer.

    There's a quick snap to Blanc. "YEP, it's MAD INCONVENIENT, but it's STYLISH and REQUIRED, so GOTTA DO IT. Anyway, SEE YA! Thanks for COVERING THE FLANKS, yo." And then there's a thumbs-up to Riva. "I UNDERSTAND COMPLETELY." He says. He got banned a lot himself. And then he re-assumes his dramatic position. The slamming shockwave rushes over him, flapping his scarf dramatically as his arms stay staunchly crossed. "ALRIGHT FATMAN, you've JINGLED YOUR LAST BELL." He calls out with bravado, then dramatically flourishes as he spins his suddenly-appearing steel broom around one hand while he continues his trash talk. "You best GET YOUR ASS back in your SLEIGH 'else I'm boutta drop the EXPRESS to KICK IT RIGHT BACK to the NORTH POLE." The broom comes to a combat-ready position that bares its bristles at Santa.

    All this trash talk mostly disregards the fact that Nicholas, even as a game NPC, completely outclasses Arthur in terms of physical endurance and his weapon outdoes him entirely in ranged damage output, but for a moment he actually looks cool, kind of. "LET'S MAKE THIS HAPPEN." He immediately launches into action, his ROCKET-BROOM suddenly blasting around Nick's flanks, hoping that his trash-talk managed to draw aggro. Ideally it'll make Santa focus fire on Arthur, giving the group some time to get the situation assessed, establish superior cover, and maybe get some bearing on what does damage and what doesn't.

    He is also yelling, because he is Arthur Lowell.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    And there's Nicholas. Zwei spares an infinitismally small fraction of a second trying to access the boss' source file to try and read its stats and attack patterns, before remembering that the game data is being hosted elsewhere. Resolving to go in blind like everyone else, it has Blanc and Cindre split up in opposite directions the moment the boss begins firing.

    The former sprints through the snow towards the treeline, interposing herself between the boss and the minefield where she will be both harder to see and harder to hit, while still able to shoot at the Renegade and any players coming into the killzone. The latter makes for the largest rock he can find, opting for harder cover to take a prolonged shooting position from. Unfolding the bipod, he props the mark 48 across the top and lines it up by eye rather than bothering to use the sights; bracing the stock to absorb any recoil and then squeezing the trigger just long enough to fire a three round burst directly towards the boss' head; testing to see where its weakpoint hitbox might be.

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    Amalie pouts. She has every reason to, with her YOUNG MASTER sill suffering a TERRIBLE amnesia. "A-ah... It's okay Young Master. One day you'll remember. And then we can go back to the way things were, where I was always your faithful robot maid that served you tea and shot unwated tresspassers~robo." See, she said robo at the end of her sentance. She really is a good robot roleplayer.
    Whelp it looks like it's go time. With everyone tea'd, and Riva sufficiently given PROPER ROLEPLAY TIPS, Amalie unslings her shield and...
    Nicholas the Renegade slams on down from the skies and primes a very mean looking gun. With no cover near her in sight the maid braces, slamming her ballistic shield into the ground in fornt of her in a huge CLANG of noise to try and provoke the festive gunman's attention to her while she hunkers behind it and peppers bursts of fire from her SMG over the lip of her shield.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe looks to Reker and humms as she's ready now se checks in over with the group and she seems to be ready. She notices the target ahead and gets ready this is going to be quite the fight from the looks of things and she's quivering in excitment from the looks of things here as she waits to make her move.

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva nods to Arthur, her demanor turning closer to normal. However, it's suddenly go time. Riva looks like she's surprised to see the appearance of the Renegade, and she throws herself to one side, trying to both get out of the immediate fire arc of the vulcan cannon while also keeping herself from landing on a landmine. She fires her weapon, one of the MAC-10s that she was given by Tomoe, and sends a few quick bursts towards Nicholas. She's going to help, dammit!

She makes a mental note in the panic to learn how to sign properly later. Apparently emotes and random gesturing just aren't going to cut it.

Kirito has posed:
    How does he keep getting so overwhelmed by those memories? Kirito blinks a few times, rubs his face... then freezes at the approaching jingle bells. But only for a moment. "Yeah." The Black Swordsman declares, igniting his Photon Saber with a *SNAP-HISS*. A purple energy blade extends from the Kagemitsu G4. "You're right. Let's have fun! This boss is going down!"

    Time to get all psyched up, not mopey!

    Kirito will just... try not to think about the way Arthur's being dismissive of his troubles. It's definitely a sign that he should man up a bit more.

    Nicholas' landing kicks up a mighty wind that sets Kirito's outfit whipping and flapping wildly in the wind. The boy takes a deep breath, and spins his weapon about. It hums and thrums threateningly with every swing but he doesn't wait for Nicholas to get ready. "Alright, here goes!"

    He goes rushing in at full speed to try and flank Nicholas and start hacking and slashing from the side - to stay out of the line of fire and maybe draw that vulcan his way. Because he's damned FAST... will Nicholas be able to keep up?!

Reker (631) has posed:
    With two fast tanks and at least one heavy armored one, Nick is going to have a hard time taking this crew down. With Arthur coming in from one side and Kirito coming in from the other, Arthur is the one to get Nick's attention first. It's probably because of all the trash talking. The big man swings his huge gatling cannon over towards Arthur, the weapon spinning up and raking 20mm rounds along the ground as he turns towards his target. This will allow Yuna and Zephyr to blast the boss with their weapons from a distance.

    Reker himself is quick to move away from the person being focused on, moving the opposite direction from Arthur, his SOCOM-47 coming to bear as he strafes to one side, firing a couple bursts of rounds at Nick.

    As Reker moves, he looks to the group, "Rhapsody, bust out that incindiary ammo! Anyone else who's got it, use it! He's weak to fire weapons! Anyone with grenades, get them in close, but watch out for Kirito and Arthur!" He fires another burst from his rifle, trying his best to direct traffic while working on dealing damage, "If he's like any other rotary cannon bosses, he'll have a sweeping attack. Everybody be ready for that!"

Rhapsody (325) has posed:
    "I'm on it!" Rhapsody calls back as she tucks herself behind the tree she dove toward. A magazine is ejected from her gun, another with the requested fire ammo is shoved in, she actions the thing, and then dives out from behind the tree again and proceeds to empty the whole thing as she fires at Saint Nick.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    "Weak to fire huh? Is that information from SAO, insider intel, or was this posted on a wiki somewhere before it was released?" Blanc sounds uncharacteristically sarcasting, but both of Zwei's accounts move with perfect synchronization. Cindre rezzes a taped stack of 5.8x21mm incendiaries from his inventory and hurls them towards his 'partner', before detaching his box magazine and threading a new belt; finishing at the exact same time Blanc loads up.

    Stepping out from cover simultaneously, the two begin opening up on the Renegade's back as he turns to chase Arthur; filling the clearing with the clatter of SMG fire and the automatic thump of the heavy 7.62. Rather than focusing on a single point, the two of them trace their streams of fire in alternating patterns across the boss' hitbox, raking lines of flaming particle effects down his torso, limbs, and ammo pack to see where the super effective damage will stick. The two of them operate in steely silence, not using the radio, or even so much as handsigns, at all.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
"No incendiaries here, sorry!" Kagura calls out - then ducks under cover to double-check her weapon's options. It's an *energy* weapon; maybe there's a toggle to make the beams hotter rather than simply piercing?

She peeks out briefly to double-check how much the Renegade is moving around, then ducks to prime a grenade, winding up as well as she can *before* she pops out of cover again to throw it, and immediately ducks again. The grenade is flying in a high arc, so it should avoid both Kirito and Arthur. It might even land in a fold of Nicholas's hat before it goes off.

Zephyr Windstar (162) has posed:
    Gayle huffs. Guess she doesn't have enough points in her Taunt skill yet. She racks the pump again, but keeps it back as she ducks behind a tree. Reker's suggestion gets her unloading the weapon, then feeding orange shells into the breach. "Incendiary huh? Lets see how he likes these!" she mutters to herself. She takes a breath, then rounds the tree, hopping a mine before charging in headlong. "YAAAAAAAAAA!" she fires her shotgun as she charges in behind Nick, racking the pump and firing as fast as she can, spraying burning pellets over the Boss's frame. She then breaks off. as Yuna hucks the grenade, dive rolling to the side, but mistiming it and slamming into a tree trunk. "Gnnngh, ow."

Tomoe has posed:
Eisen wishes Frika was here givne the fire but she hears about it she loads in several shells she'd brought a few of her own and the spaz-12 is loaded she breaks into a run makes for the boss. She opens fire with the shotgun, over and over again as she tries to keeps moving and that's when she's practically flying, she's flopping from tree to tree and never remainign still, if one's seen Pale Rider fight? It's a hell of a lot like how he does it.

Riva Banari has posed:
GUNFIRE EVERYWHEEEEEEERE! Riva yells as the gun goes firing everywhere, and she works to run past Nicholas and try to stay behind him so the warned sweeping attack won't catch her. She thinks.

She gets told about the weakness of Nicolas. Fire? She can do that, right? Riva pauses to eject her clip and fiddles in her red suit, trying to find where she put her ammo. "Where is it... Where!?" She mutters.

"There!" She snaps a red-tagged ammo clip into the weapon and racks the slide. "Let's do this!" She yells (not that most people would hear her), and she unleashes a torrent of bullets, trying to not shoot the melee fighters as she does so.

Kirito has posed:
    Kirito's onslaught can be measured in slashes per second. Currently around three or four! his onslaught is simple and remains focused on Nicholas' legs, back and the one side! Purple light splashes from each impact! The only trouble is... these Photon Sabers build up heat. How long can he keep this up?

    "My eyes are open then! I'll watch for it!" Although there's a big discrepancy between ALO and GGO, his attention's flickering up towards the boss' EYES. He knows how this model tends to look when he's readying for something!

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Arthur slips around the gunfire, dodging massive caliber shells that threaten to tear him apart! A couple seconds of fire from that gun will turn him into chunky salsa. His deft movements may prevent Nick from harming him, but the harsh G-forces required by the dodges and the occasional bouncing off of trees required to dodge around the gunfire is damaging him indirectly and eating away slowly at his endurance. "SHIT YES, THIS IS WHAT I CAME HERE FOR!" Arthur is calling out, wildly! There's an eager, upbeat response to Reker. "He tries a SWEEPING ATTACK, motherfucker, I'll show him a REAL SWEEPING ATTACK!"

    He's expecting his trash talk to not be all that much aggro for now, though, and expects the other, more direct combat effects are going to draw attention away from him soon! And so he elects, primarily, to focus on support and helping the others. As soon as fire focus comes off of him, he's going to start blasting back and forth, trying to attack the gun itself to keep Nick from keeping sustained fire on Riva, Zephyr, Zwei, and Rhapsody by sideswiping the massive firearm! He then sees Kagura's grenade arcing through the air and as he rushes by it, he swipes his broom at it, expertly attempting to SLAM DUNK the think right into Nick's face! And then, a swift retreat! He's slamming into the ground, skidding through the snow on those boots of his while his broom suddenly disappears. He's trying to reach Gayle and bodily HOIST into cover behind the tree! He has the feeling that bosses in this game may take advantage of those people who wind up being prone outside cover and she seems quite vulnerable!

    He's already gasping for breath and panting heavily with the exertion of his rapid-style support, but has OVERWHELMING, ENTHUSIASTIC ENERGY and WILLPOWER!!

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    To say Amalie is comfortable behind her shield...
    Would be a correct assessment. Hunkered in a crough, one arm holding her bulwark of heavy armor in front of her as she ejects the magazine from her P90 and slides in a fresh one. But when someone is OUT OF COVER the maid is UP.
    Hoisting her shield up and keeping the beavy metal face between her and the jolly gun toting fat-man, Amalie is hustling. She's fairly fast with that thing and her equip load, letting Arthur's GLORIOUS SWEEP ATTACK and the others hold aggro as she books it. Skidding to a halt directly in front of Gayle, she slams the shield down again and braces, presinting a wall of respitr and cover as she lines a shot down the sights of her SMG and spits another sharp burst at the festive gunner.

Reker (631) has posed:
    The fire rounds start to come in hot and heavy on the boss, striking into him. His life bars chip away quicker, each of the rounds doing a sustained damage over time debuff to the boss as well. Reker glances back at Blanc at the question, "Call it gamer's intuition!" He calls back. Honestly it was a guess. He's just lucky he's not resistant to fire because he likes being warm. Then again there's not a lot of stuff out there that enjoys being on fire, right? Rhapsody, Riva and Gayle are pelting it with a lot of damage, enough to make the first health bar drop off. Almost as soon as that health bar does, the boss stops firing and shifts positions.

    "Here comes the sweep! Everyone take cover!" Reker calls out, moving to dive behind Amalie's shield and use the surface of it for cover. Kirito can move behind the boss to avoid the arc of damage and it seems that Arthur is going above it.

    One can almost hear the theme song from some basketball movie from the 90s as he alley-oops that grenade right into the boss' face mid special attack. The grenade brings down a huge chunk of the boss' second health bar, another chunk gets taken out when Reker pops back up with his grenade launcher and fires two of the 40mm rounds.

    The boss' attention gets brought to Reker, who ducks back behind Amalie's shield, "Go now, hit him from the sides!" He calls out to the team, hoping Amalie's shield can withstand the sustained 20mm firepower. It should be able to.

Rhapsody (325) has posed:
    Sweep attack? Well, with her sidearm empty, Rhapsody dives back behind the tree to try and avoid THE SWEEP while she reloads. "Actually..." she reloads with regular ammo, opens up her weaponry inventory, and calls up her MP7. "Got more fire ammo for you you ..." she mumbles, trailing into some Ravnican curse word before coming back around the tree with both hands on the SMG. "HEY. WHITEBEARD. TIME TO SHAVE!" And then she unloads in a bunch of short bursts, aiming for Nick's beard. Maybe it's a weak spot!

Zwei (596) has posed:
    "Wow, you guys aren't bad!" Blanc chirps from the treeline; her face flashing with the strobe of her muzzle flare as spent brass goes flying in a steady stream from above her hand and into the snow. Clicking empty, she dives back into the treeline, making a beeline for a specifically calculated destination where the line of sight between her and the Renegade is intersected by three overlapping trees, providing maximum cover in case his rounds are capable of terrain destruction. Throwing herself into the snow, she rolls over onto her back to free up her hands in order to reload, doing so with lightning speed before rolling back into a proper position and taking aim around the tree's roots.

    Cindre remains silent, rolling back behind the hefty rock he had chosen for this explicit purpose; using the lull provided by everyone ducking from the impending sweeping attack to attach a new belt to his current, mostly expended one. Slinging the gun over his shoulder on its strap, he reaches to his belt for a pair of high explosive charges, meant to be detonated by remote. With a strength build, it is trivially easy for him to hurl both of them backwards over the rocky outcropping; launching them through the air like grenades. Despite the throw being essentially blind, he'd already calculated the arc ahead of time, and so both of them should land right on Nicholas' center of mass. Timing the throw precisely, he thumbs the detonator the moment they make contact, just in case they won't stick to bosses.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Kagura hunkers down even harder as the Vulcan cannonfire sweeps over her, dropping her rifle and covering her ears for good measure. Not that she has to worry about ear damage that much - she'd be in more 'danger' if she was actually closer to Nicholas as he's holding down the trigger. Or, y'know, if she was *standing up* in the big guy's line of fire.

Once she doesn't have to dodge bullets quite as much, Kagura scoops up her rifle and bolts for a big old log, scurrying along its length with the log between her and the Renegade ... and as she emerges on the other side, she takes aim and starts sniping at Nicholas's flank, run-and-gun style. It's not as impressive as if she could just hold the trigger down for rapid fire, but she makes her shots count pretty well - at least until she dives behind a conveniently placed boulder. She leans out to squeeze off one more shot, then resumes cover to swap powerpacks in her rifle ...

Zephyr Windstar (162) has posed:
    Gayle is watching her HP bar as the debuff timer ticks agonizingly slowly down. She glances to Amalie and cocks a smile in appreciation for the cover. No sooner than the stun wears off, the lightly armoured woman is up on her feet again, claps Amalie on the shoulder to tell her she's clearing the area, then darts away to get clear of the sudden onslaught of 20mm slugs tearing up the area. "Captain Cruddington on a tea plate! That was close." she says mostly to herself.

    Once clear and in the flanks again, she opens up and empties the shotgun into NtR. "Damn, out of Incendiary shells..." she dismisses the shotgun into her inventory, instead opting to pull both her glocks, dropping the magazines and reloading with orange-tipped rounds. "Lets see how you like these!" she crows, leaping up to start trying to scale up the fatman, keeping herself on the far side from most of her allies fire. "EAT IT FATMAN! I AIN'T GOT ANY TURKEY, INSTEAD, HAVE A HEAPING HELPING OF DEATH!" She punctuates her statement by firing her pistols down into the Boss at point blank, clinging on as best she can to whatever's available on the Mob's outfit.

Riva Banari has posed:
"YEAH! YOU SHOW HIM!" Riva yells after Arthur, forgetting the whole 'trying to be mute' thing. It's not like most people can even hear her anyway. However, there's a small problem in the form of the SWEEPING ATTACK. Riva yelps, and dives to one side. YEAH, TOTALLY SAFE!

Click.

Riva looks down, but it's already too late. The land mine explodes, launching the BulletArtist straight through the sweeping attack. Digital red pizels spray everywhere as she gets caught with a nasty hit. Riva strikes the ground, tumbling, ad she skids to a stop and groans. "Uuuuuuuuugh."

With another grimace, Riva raises her gun, trying to focus as she levels her gun... But she shakes and falls to one knee. "Ugh, nothing's working right..."

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    Like a small moving wall with impeccable Maid Grace, Amalie sets her boots in the ground the instant Reker announces the sweep. "Keep your heads down!" Shouted over her shoulder once she's braced and Reker, Arthur when he gets there, and Gayle are taking cover behind her.
    This is going to be a rough one, evident from how she holsters her SMG.
    All of her focus goes into an iron grip on the handles of her shield, and the eyepatch wearing maid is already gritting her teeth. It's gonna be a rough one, because bullets start spanging against the shield, her health already draining just from holding up against the force and each impact, whittling down. She's fine for now, but if it keeps up for too long she won't be. Especially as several shots actually penetrate, punching through the barrier and slamming the maid dead in the chest. She staggers, armor holding up, but a raging red glow of a bullet wound fizzling angrily on her stomach as she puts herself on the line to make sure no one behind her gets so much as scratched.

Kirito has posed:
    Guessing an enemy with a HUGE MACHINE GUN would have a sweeping move as an AoE is kind of a no-brainer to anyone who knows guns. But Kirito's memory flashes back to the first fight with Nicholas. Yeah, his huge axe, he was very fond of swinging it in huge cleaving arcs. And as he keeps watching the boss' expression and health bars and they reach a certain point... he can practically FEEL Nicholas' AI making a decision.

    And Kirito pre-empts it. Is it some instinct, some gamer's intuition, or an inexplicable muscle memory that fires off, causing him to LEAP and sail out of the way of all the explosions and swepping rounds?

    Nevertheless he does so, hair and outfit wflapping about spectacularly through the whole manuever. When he finally lands... it's behind Nicholas. He spins about and opens fire with his pistol!

    Thankfully, Nicholas is so HUGE, how could he possibly MISS?! "That thing's way too similar for my tastes!"

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Arthur takes no moments to catch his breath behind Amalie's shield besides giving her a quick pat of appreciation on the shoulder and a declared, "Thanks for the COVER." Then his broom's right back out and he's blasting off again, serpantine patterns slipping away from the maidbot as he rapidly skips over the ground on his rocket ride. "GOT IT." he calls out to Reker, slipping under the gunfire dramatically on his knees in an elaborate sliding motion before he gets to the side.

    "SWEEP TIME. Time to show him how a REAL BADASS does SWEEPING!" This time he's making sure to team up with Kirito, who he's neglected. He's all ready to go tag-team on the melee, but Kirito elects to focus primarily on the mid-range! Oh well, he can't have the Black Swordsman's angle lacking melee, so he skids to a stop near Kirito's side of things, and begins a lengthy, thrashing series of swipes up and down the body, intending to plunge his broom's metal bristles into where Kirito's mid-range bullet wounds are made, accentuating each strike. The bristles themselves spin to life, turning into a BLENDER that tries to catch each wound as it's made and tear it wider and more viciously. As usual, Arthur continues yelling all throughout it.

    But Arthur is not actually able to keep up with Kirito very long, even with his energy, and Kirito has to reload sometime, so he'll back off, retreating far above... Where he begins leaping alongside Tomoe! Even with his rockets he can't match her parkouring maneuverability, but he does do what he can to work in tandem with her. His broom has a rifle built into its handle, after all! Blasting around far above, he attempts to rain down his own INFERNAL FIREBOLTS from above, which are semi-explosive incendiary rounds with a heavy dose of unholy energy to boot! He's gonna back off for a moment and blast from above for a bit, until the situation changes up.

Tomoe has posed:
Eisen is not alone no she sees that Arthur is adding to things, and she can't help but grin thankful for the help and it's clear. This is not the grim serious woman that was a clearer. She's for a moment just someone having run and it shows. She bounces from tree to tree taking shots where she can. She however does move to take cover behind one of the trees, she moves quickly back out and keeps on the move once it's safe.

Reker (631) has posed:
    The combined efforts of the team seem to be rapidly dropping the boss' health bar. Rhapsody might have found a weak point, as she strikes the beard with those fire rounds, causing it to light up. The boss bellows in pain and changes his focus from the shield towards her, but is interrupted by the sticky bombs that detonate right against him. This stumbles him and leaves him open to Gayle's sudden blitzkrieg rush onto the boss, the point blank shots doing more damage, particularly from this range. The boss makes extra effort to swat her off of him, taking his hand off the trigger of his weapon to do so.

    As Riva sets off the mine, Reker moves from behind Amalie's shield and dashes towards her. None of the team's dedicated medics are around, so he brought several health packs just in case. He tosses one down next to her and then drags her behind cover, "Use the medkit and stay down."

    The assault from the back by Kirito and Arthur tears the boss' second health bar down to zero. As soon as that zero hits, he roars and unleashes a blast of ice in a circular wave around him, knocking anyone nearby back and putting a temporary freeze debuff on everyone in the area.

    The boss finally speaks, his deep voice booming across the battlefield.

"On Lee, on Grant, on Chaffee and Sherman! On Pershing and Walker and Patton and Sheridan!"

    "Oh shit." Reker knows what all of those names mean. And it doesn't mean anything good. That sleigh that he came in on is back, only this time it's towing something under it. Those tow cables release, and the massive form it was carrying drops down and lands next to Nick. The Renegade puts one foot on the tread housing of his tank, and then climbs up onto it, and inside. The engine of the vehicle roars to life just in time for the stun to begin to wear off of the gathered players.

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva was all messed up, but Reker gives her a hand. She nods and gives a quick, "Thanks!" As she takes the medkit. As instructed, she stays low and begins wrapping herself up with the medkit. It's taking some time, and her work gets interrupted when someone knocks NTR into Phase 2. "OH GOD!" Riva yells. "TAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANK!" She claps herself, shuddering from the freezing wave debuff. "God, what're these even useful for?" She mutters, trying to shake off the effects. "This is a hell of a fight! Do you guys deal with this ALL the time?"

She peeks up over the cover, and gulps. "Does anyone even HAVE anything big enough to deal with that thing?"

Zephyr Windstar (162) has posed:
    Gayle ducks the swattings, clinging on like a /very/ tenacious and angry mosquito, shooting fire bullets. She goes flying when that ice burst lashes out, falling into a snow drift. "That wasn't even his final form!" comes the muffled announcement from within... she then comes out of the snowdrift toting a single-use LAW. It's one of those cheap-o things you'd find at a vendor, those one-shot items for adding a bit more DEEPS to an attack pattern.

    "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" she calls, before squeezing the trigger.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Kagura CERTAINLY wasn't expecting an airdropped tank to be Nicholas's 'second form' for this battle - and she's now officially worried as to what he might break out by way of a THIRD form, given how this is only going into the third of the Renegade's HP bars.

All of that, roughly, goes through her head while she's recovering from the freezing shockwave; by the time the debuff wears off, she's come up with something vaguely resembling a plan, and is on the move as soon as the system lets her. She's slung her rifle across her back and is wielding her pistol instead, gripping it with both hands ... and once the boulder's no longer between her and the tank, she heads TOWARDS the tank, snapping off shots at the tank's outside guns and the right-side tank treads' drive wheels (rather than the treads themselves). It's not a head-on approach, of course - she's aiming the whole time to run past the tank.

She doesn't have any apparent intention of trying something fancy like 'hiding behind the tank,' though; tanks may not be Formula One racecars but they CAN move at a pretty decent clip - playing 'chicken' by trying to run past it like this is about as suicidal as she's going to get.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    "So the beard's the weakpoint! That should make things easier!" Blanc calls out from the treeline; spraying fire straight into the fluffy white expanse across the Renegade's chest with pinpoint accuracy. Cindre is just about to join her when the freeze debuff hits, catching him in the middle of working the bolt. It doesn't really take a world war nerd to recognize the names of at least one or two tanks in that corruption of the old nursery tales, but Zwei happens to be a nerd on every subject to begin with, meaning that the short recital is enough to immediately start changing its mental simulations in the few seconds remaining until the freeze wears off.

    Blanc sprints back from the edge of the minefield in a blurr of shooting snow, abandoning the forest where a tank shell could easily fall in only her general area and wipe out her cover. She joins Cindre behind the sturdier outcropping, who seems to be putting up the machinegun and drawing something else out of his spacious inventory. The benefits of a strength build are revealed as he produces a loaded stinger launcher; flipping open the IR optic and sighting the tank before the turret can track to him. A roar of igniting rocket fuel sounds out with a flash of fiery light, ascending straight up into the air on a column of black exhaust. Arming halfway into its flight, the missile adjust its course using the launcher's designator, flipping over sharply in mid-air and diving straight back down onto the tank's top, where the armour is thinner.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Arthur winds up frozen in mid air. FUCK.

    After slamming headfirst into the ground, he's much more severely wounded than he was before. When he's back on his feet, he's bleeding heavily, but doesn't seem to mind it at all. In fact, being stuck in ice was a chance for Arthur to catch his breath and calm down for a moment, and he's back with RENEWED VIGOR. His rushing attack on the tank now comes with an abrupt rocket-boost. He completely disregards any potential immediately relevant active defenses that are likely to slam into him, instead focusing entirely on getting inside the main gun range so it can't hit him, and then doing an intense IMPALING gesture on the tank itself from the front.

    The defenses are likely modern military stuff: Ablating armor, layers of pre-exploding interference, and other suchlike. Arthur gets square in the line of fire for allied rockets or grenades, and attempts to viciously blend through the armor to expose a large weakpoint! He will tank every bit of burning and bruising he gets from friendly fire in order to wear away explosive countermeasures using a sustained assault of bristles, trying to prompt his allied melee fighter to do the same self-destructive awfulness.

    He also tries to dig in his heels and use superhuman resilience and strength to STOP the tank from moving forward while he does this.

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    She survived standing off against the sweep. And though Amalie may be hurting for it, she remains in place long enough for the mute-- er. Riva to get a breather behind her when Reker tossed her that way but. When the disorientation of being stunned and frozen starts to wear off, she looks up.
    "... That is a tank."
    Speaking the obvious there as she looks at the tank. She looks at her shield. Back tothe tank now back to her shield.
    Sadly her shiels is not diamonds. But even she knows not to stand and go toe to toe and try to tank an actual tank. Up comes her shield, slung onto her back again like a turtle as she unholsters two P90s once she's able to move. And she focuses more on moving than on shooting.
    "Small arms aren't going to scratch that thing, someone shove a grenade down the hatch!"

Tomoe has posed:
Eisen is enjoying herself that's much is clear. She flips about never stopping always moving now a she now twists about she's tyrying to get in close again, after all she's got a semi auto shotgun and she's gong to use it she lands infront of Santa and opens fire trying to empty the entirely of her load into the old man's beard. Blast after blast comes from the shotgun and then she's forced to flee before he might be able to counter attack.

"Come on let's be jolly, let's deck the halls with bows of holly!"

Rhapsody (325) has posed:
    Tank. Tank! TAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANK!!!! This is not good at ALL! Seeing a tank drop out of the sky, only to have Nick climb into it? "Aaaawwww this sucks!" she calls out before trying to unload as many bullets into the man as she can before he disapears between inches of armored plating plus a big ol' cannon. She isn't sure what to do until Yuna chirps on the radio. .. Good thought! She sends something out over the radio, then starts to charge the tank, mindful of where the cannon is pointed. Hopefully, if Kirito and her can get to the tank they can work together to carve the hatch off the thing! Only if her allies can get the defenses down, though...

Kirito has posed:
    "Nice assist! Thank you!" Kirito asides to Arthur moments before the broomster's vamoosing to help someone else. Kirito was in full dash back towards Nicholas while waiting for his Photon Saber to cool slightly, but as soon as he's back in range--

    As soon as he's back in range... Nicholas unleashes WINTER STORM HELLELUIA.

    "Uuuaghh...!!"

    Kirito's forced back and nearly blown over, but he manages to turn the weird backwards momentum into a recovery flip... or tries. He goes tumbling and skidding, but finds himself slowed terribly. "Ghh..." Nope, can't just tank the debuff, not if THAT keeps happening. "...There's no helping it..." A battlefield gear switch is not easy at all, but Kirito's an expert at using his menu. The Black Swordsman menu-fus at lightning speed, and in about five seconds has managed to replace his entire gear set with the Santa outfit. "...." The boy grins awkwardly. Won't help this time but maybe next time...

    Just as he thinks he's got an idea of what'll happen next though...

    THEN THERE WAS A TANK.

    BOGGLE.

    "Tha--" That's wrong. That's absolutely wacky.

    Kirito clamps his lips shut. All he can do is accept the weird American humor while scratching his head. NOW what?

    He's got NO idea how to deal with a tank! He peers around the corner, draws in a deep breath...

    "That's a tank alright!" He yells Riva's way. "And something like this!" The tank is... new, really. Unfortunately this debuff has slowed him considerably. He's only able to power walk for a bit... and by the time it's worn off, NTR's already gotten his tank going. Well... that's the whole point of the debuff really!

    But seeing Rhapsody rushing in... Kirito leaps in to do the same thing! "HUUUUUOOOOOAAAAHGH!!"

    Igniting his weapon again he comes down to strike at the hatch with the Photon Saber! Time to see how well the tank can hold out to a close-up assault!

Reker (631) has posed:
    It would seem that Nicolas the Renegade had hoped that this crew would be unprepared. He was wrong, it seems, as several anti-tank weapons immediately come to bear on the tank. Gayle's LAW soars through the air and strikes an armored pannel. At least it looks like it does, but when the smoke clears, it reveals the tank has reactive armor, which would exploded outwards to destroy the rocket before impact had Arthur not torn the reactive armor to shreds with his blender broom. Several of Kagura's rounds strike the tanks wheels, but it will take a lot more than bullets to destroy a road wheel or tread.

    The tank's turret turns towards the boulder that Blanc and Cindre were using for cover and fires a 120mm blast at it, obliterating the rock. At that same time their rocket comes down and slams into the top of the tank, where it does not have the reactive armor.

    "The top is the weak point, but watch out! It's got more than just armor!" Reker calls out. Rhapsody and Kirito will get to find this out the hard way as they try to close in on the tank, which sends out a massive electrical blast in a dome around the turret. Anyone going for the hatch will need to try to dodge that or hit it while it's recharging.

    As for Reker, he has a really stupid plan. The tank's cannon has finished reloading as he rushes up past Amalie and grabs the shield off her back, "Need to borrow this for a second!" He yells out, as he rushes right at the tank. The coaxial machine guns fire upon him as he throws the shield into the snow and then jumps onto it, sliding through the snow like a snowboard. The predictive line from the cannon pops up for him and he falls backwards onto his back on the sliding shield. There's a massive explosion of snow as he slips just under the tank's maximum turret depression and under the tank itself.

    Under the tank, he slaps several sticky explosives to the base of it before he slides out from the underside and rolls off of the shield. Hitting the detonator, the last of the third health bar on the tank disappears in a flash of explosives.

    "Now, the electric shield should be down! Carve that hatch open!"

Riva Banari has posed:
"Of course it's a tank! I JUST SAID IT WAS A-" Riva flails a bit, before she pauses.

"Oh, right." She sighs, slumping again. Being /muted sucks.

Kirito responds, and Riva brightens up as she sees him get on his own Santa gear. "SEE! I knew it'd be useful!" Riva yells, but then she sees Rhaps and Kirito leap in. "Oh god! Be careful! This guy is nasty!" Riva calls. Of course, with her lack of experience, who knows how this really measures up in the grand scheme of things.

At this point, she just settles for popping up and throwing her grenades. They're weak and low-level loot grenades, but hey, she's helping! Really!

Zephyr Windstar (162) has posed:
    Gayle huffs as the Reactive Armour deflects her rocket strike. She drops the spent LAW, the tube hitting the ground, then shattering into light motes as it deletes itself. She checks her inventory quickly... nothing else, no HE rounds, no grenades, not even a melee weapon. She relays as much over the radio, "I've got a couple medkits, if anyone needs healing!" She then hunkers down behind some cover, hoping the Tank doesn't take a liking to her.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    It was probably too much to expect that a piece of scenery would survive a boss attack in a simulationist videogame. Both Blanc and Cindre are sent flying from the shockwave that carries through the rock, peppered by flying pieces of stony shrapnel that leave glowing red lines stratched across their avatars as their health depletes a third and an eight respectively. Neither of them hit the ground on anything but their feet; Blanc twisting through the air to land with catlike agility and Cindre ducking into a handspring roll that allows him to snag his machinegun on the way past.

    The moment the two have their boots on the floor, they break off into a dead run in opposite directions, moving along an inward spiral towards the tank from both angles so that even were its gun to follow one, the other would be in its blindspot. Blanc dives into a high speed slide under the turret's vertical traverse, while Cindre leaps up on it from behind; vaulting the treds and climbing up onto the hatch, tossing Blanc the remainder of his charges. Producing a physical blade, Cindre jams it into the locking bolt of the hatch; putting his nearly maxed out strength points into the task of grinding away with the sharpened edge until the mechanism gives out; shooting digital sparks with every twitch of the point.

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    Shield yanked from her back, Amalie practically spins when Reker runs by, and uses it as an impromptu shield-board. But it's all well and good, he handled the shields on the thing, which means it's prettymuch time to move.
    Without the weight of her super heavy shield dragging her down, Amalie's sprint speed kicks up a few paces.
    She's going right for the tank, in the wake of Reker's slick shieldboarding, but where he goes down, she goes up. A leap onto the front of the tank, just past the barrel of the main gun. Both SMGs in hand she shoves their barrels at the view ports and decides to just try and empty the clips into it.
    She's a nuisance at worst, a distraction at best while the others work on trying to cut and pry the hatch.

Rhapsody (325) has posed:
When she first rushes in, Rhapsody ends up getting thrown hella-far by the electrical surge of the tank. When she lands, leaving her imprint in the snow, she just sits up, yelling, "Oh that is NOT FAIR!" before slowly climbing back up onto her feet. This is in time to see Reker go -sliding- -under- -the- -tank- on a shield! "... whoa." that was really cool. "GOOD JOB REKER!" She calls out again before charging for the tank again, tugging loose a few of the grenades she had gotten from Reker for Christmas.

    If Kirito is close by as she charges, the swordman would have one of the grenades tossed to him with the pin still in it, "Lets carve us a Christmas Ham!" she calls before trying to lunge up onto the tank, coming down sword first. Link eat your heart out.

Tomoe has posed:
Eisen had an idea but it seems she does need to do the outfit change, she's not happy about doing this let alone in the field but what choice does she have? She dives into cover now behind at tree and she gets the menu open soon she ends up in a pair of black boot,s red shorts, what can only in the most kindest sense be called a winter mini jacket and long glove thankfully it's all green and she just sighs as she leaps back into combat making use of the gear's bonues aginst hte boss as Reker is now getting the shield down? She tosses several plasma grenade and gets back to moving though damn she's blushing something fearce right now after th grenades go off she'll land on the tank again level the shotgun and empty the damn clip at the door.

"Your on the damn naughty list!"

Yes she's angry embartasse and he's going to kick the hell out of this thing for it, seriously though she wants the drops!

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Good thing Kagura DIDN'T try to get at the turret before the electric shield was (hopefully) taken down. She takes a moment to reload her pistol, then leans out of cover, taking a few more shots at the tank - useless shots, maybe, but she's trying to help keep Nicholas from focusing on the players on his tank's roof. She's also still trying to come up with ways to limit the tank's mobility ... her grenades aren't anti-tank from the outside, after all. And it sounds like incendiary grenades are going to be the way to go ... which she doesn't actually have in her current loadout.

Oh well. As was noted, GGO isn't really Yuna's kind of game, but she's here to help her friends.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Explosive, reactive armor explodes in Arthur's face, as do the impacts of several rockets. His body is burned and rattled viciously by explosions and shrapnel, but he keeps going. "COME ON OUT you BIG RED FUCK, I'll run out of EXPLODING ARMOR before I'll ever run out of your IGNOMINIOUS FATNESS." Arthur is probably in need of healing soon, but for now he refuses to /let himself feel wounding/.

    He has a good thing going here. He attempts to bring his blending force to bear even more harshly on the armor plates impacted by the explosions of RPGs. There are many possible countermeasures for a hatch, but nobody expects you to SMASH THROUGH THE ARMOR! Arthur continues trying to blast through, and while it's unlikely he'll make a breach large enough to strike or get inside, he doesn't need to. He just needs to get a hole large enough that he can activate his ROCKET THRUSTERS and flood the tank with smoke and heat all at once, trying to disorient and burn Nick. Actually kinda trying to cook him alive in his tank.

    There's still a lot of enthusiastic shounen yelling about this.

Kirito has posed:
    Just as Kirito nears his target.. ZAAAAAAAP!

    "A... BARRIER...!" And a RATHER PAINFUL one of sorts. Kirito struggles at the arcing bolts for a few seconds - losing a good third of his health in the doing. He's eventually repulsed instead of breaking through as intended and snags the grenade in the middle of another backflip.

    The young man's soon shielding his face from a storm of debris and dust and wind, but Reker's explosives to the trick. "That did it! Onward!

    Flipping up and over Arthur he drops in to team up with Rhapsody. The Photon Saber ignites with another sizzle-crackle-HISS, and he brings it down for the hatch with a mighty STABBING FORCE. On contact, there's gonna be ONE HELL of a lightshow! All he needs to do is pry this thing open and then GRENADE!

Reker (631) has posed:
    With three people trying to pry at the hatch for the tank, it's not going to last. And soon enough the combined efforts bust the hatch open. Inside of there, Nicolas glares upwards at them, and fires a pistol up at the trio on top of the tank, but it seems that they're going to be able to drop the explosives inside without issue.

    The various attacks from others serve a good purpose as well, shotgun blasts and SMG strikes against the tank's hull are chipping away at it's HP bar, Arthur's method proves quite effective as well, destroying the coaxial machine gun, and they're shifting the aggro rapidly between each player. With only the main tank cannon to fire, and it can't settle on a target long enough to get a shot off with the rapid strikes coming in.

    "Get off of the tank as soon as you put the explosives in!" Reker yells at the crew on top, "Everybody else get to cover, that thing's going to go up like a roman candle when those grenades go off!" Reker himself grabs that shield back up and uses it for cover against the tank as they get ready to finish it off.

Rhapsody (325) has posed:
    Rhapsody didn't have to be told twice to get the heck out once she drops her grenade in. With the help of the others, the hatch gets pried off only to find Nick firing up at them all. Rhapsody actually flails a little and falls back, landing on her rump, though she's quick to recover. After a moment, she'd pry off a grenade, yank the pin with her mouth, drop it in, "Merry Christmas!" and then she'd dive off the tank, "FIRE IN THE HOLE, FOLKS!" she yells before trucking for cover.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    Cindre takes the pistol shots without much fanfare, leaving luminescent red holes in his character model's shoulder as the sidearm eats chunks of his massive and heavily armoured healthbar. As soon as he rips he lock out, he kicks the hatch the rest of the way open and holds it there; long enough for everyone to pile in on it, but more importantly, just long enough for Blanc to vault up from the treads, leap over the hole, and deposit the entirety of her demolition charges straight through the hole, sending them bouncing into the cockpit. Task completed, both of Zwei's accounts dismount from the tank behind the turret, running towards the treeline to take cover from the inevitable shrapnel once Cindre squeezes the detonator trigger one last time.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
"Got it!" Kagura shouts to Reker ... then looks at the cover she's currently hiding behind, and how far it is from the tank, and how far something bigger and sturdier is.

Cue running very, very fast and practically diving *under* her boulder of choice as if she's trying to tunnel into the snow. (She isn't actually.)

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    The hatch is up. Explosives are in. And Amalie's SMGs click empty.
    She does not need to be told twice once she nabs her shield back she leaps the hell off the tank in a tumbling dive roll. She lands badly on her ass and looks confused for a moment before picking herself up, breaking for what should hopefully be minimum safe distance and then turtling behind her shield again and hopes her shield will hold through any explosions to follow.

Kirito has posed:
    The hatch is forced open and shatters into shimmery, rising voxels as all broken things do. With this pretty array of particles covering him, Kirito reacts at full speed to Nicholas's pistol barrage!

    *VVVVVVVVVVVVWHM!*

    Molten sparks fly from the edge of his skillfully-interposed Photon Saber, negating the bullets one after another. And when Nicholas finally needs to take some other action.. Kirito pulls the pin on his grenade and HURLS it in then LEAPS away while grinning. "DOUBLE Fires!"

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    "HEY FATMAN, LOOK OVER HERE YOU SHIT." Arthur is calling out. The rocket exhaust he blasts through the wreckage of the machine gun is superheated, incredibly difficult to see through and breathe in. "Don't look at those NERDS you DUMB FUCK, CHECK OUT MY SICK FIRES and KEEP THE EYES ON ME!" He's doing his god damndest to make sure Nick can't have his eyes on the grenades and toss them out. Fire will, ideally, stream in through the mechanisms to be an incredibly urgent distraction. Arthur is pinning himself to the tank with gravity while he blasts his smoke and heat into it.

    Then he realizes everyone's completely bailed! Oh shit. He releases his gravity and allows the intense thrust of his broom to rocket him to safety! To safety, sort of. His broom kinda sputters in mid air and he winds up sort of slamming limply into the ground and rolling to a stop. It would appear those massive wounds are catching up with him. As his broom clatters to a stop nearby, he does his best to sort of crawl behind a tree, or Amalie, or something like that. He's kinda heavily wounded by now.

Reker (631) has posed:
The hatch is open, the grenades go inside. Everyone bails out of the tank. The grenades go off almost simultaniously and a few moments later, a huge jet of flames shoots out of the top of the tank. Only a few moments after that, there's a huge explosion as all of the tank's ammo goes up, and it launches the turret off of the tank and sends it spiraling through the air. It crashes and explodes into particles, as the tank does the same thing. Up above where the tank had been, there appears the following:

CONGRATULATIONS!

    Reker looks up at the word in the sky, and then around at everyone who's still standing. Each person who participated will get something to drop into their inventory. At least a blue quality item or better, from the looks of it. Reker moves over to where Arthur is, "We need to get you some medical attention ASAP. I doubt an in-game medic kit is going to work on you, man." He tries to help Arthur up to his feet, "You are one crazy son of a bitch, you know that? Thanks."

    Looking back at everyone else, Reker just grins, "Great job, everybody! This'll definitely get us the attention we need to get!"

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    "HA HA HA HA HA!" Arthur says, laughing from his prone position. "It'll take more than THIS to kill me! At least, what, TWO, maybe THREE more bullets!" He takes Reker's hand gratefully. "I think the in-game shit will TOTES work, though. I mean, if it's ANYTHING like VITALITY GEL in MY GAME, then, y'know." He gives a thumbs-up. "Besides, I may have gotten SCREWED on the CLASS ROLLING, but I'm still HARDCORE enough to TAKE IT! Like THIS."

    Arthur gives out a dramatic yell and flexes really hard for some reason. Several pieces of shrapnel shoot out of his body, alongside a few small spurts of blood.

    "Alright! So THAT was GREAT! Really got the BLOOD PUMPING, let's do MORE OF THAT!" He does a quick fistpump. He looks so unsteady that he won't actually be able to get up if he falls down again, but this seems to have gone well for him, somehow.

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    For the record, Amalie moves up for Arthur's sake when he gtes to crawling, he shield gets between him and the explosions of the tank cooking off and popping from within. And Nicholas The Renegade is blown to smithereens and the raid is up.
    Phew.
    Slapping herself with a few medpacks to get her HP back to normal after that explosive fiasco, she is suddenly RIGHT BY ARTHUR.
    "Ahhh! That was reckless! You could have been hurt badly!" Once again she does not seem to mind real blood in a VR Game at all, as if it were completely normal. "If you die, you'll never remember your past! You should listen to Reker, he knows what he's talking about, because he was a secret military super soldier made to save humanity from alien invasions."

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Kagura waves tiredly at Reker, letting out a less-enthusiastic-than-dictated "Hurrah" in response as she leverages herself back to her feet, brushing off snow.

Then she hears Amalie disclosing Reker's backstory.

Cue a facefault with enough kinetic (and emotional) energy to kick up a fresh spray of fluffy white powder.

Kirito has posed:
    "Who are you calling a nerd?" Kirito mutters. He doesn't mind it so much normally, but PUBLIC. Oh well. It's unlikely anyone heard that mutter. Standing up spiritedly, he puts on quite a show of twirling his beam saber and executing a few flourishy strikes at the air. In the same motion it's shut off and re-clipped to his belt. The man with the girly face looks over his shoulder to gauge Arthur's wounds, and deems... yeah, that's not TOO worrying. Aside from cleaning up some of the blood...

    Yeah, it'll take more than that to put Arthur down, but damn...

    Kirito hurries over to the fallen warrior and kneels. "I don't mind if you stink with a gun while FullDiving if it means less lethal injuries." He points out. Because who wouldn't be concerned for this crazy guy?

    But Arthur's manner gets him grinning pretty quickly.

Rhapsody (325) has posed:
    "VICTORY!!" Rhapsody calls out after EXPLOSIONS are done. It's a pity that these are not explosions of SCIENCE!!! but she'll make do for now. "Good work everyone! That was great! We didn't even have to push him out into the mine.. field.." pause. Glance around, then at Reker. "um.. how do we get out?" she asks, suddenly very curious about all the mines. She at least, while waiting, has the thought to check her inventory to see what her drop was.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    Though it had been unlikely that they would lose, Zwei still feels a sense of satisfaction at that tank going up in flames and the cheesy congratulations sign that goes up after it. The upgrades dealt out as loot will definitely be useful, but Arthur seems to have its attention more than anything. Cindre moves over while Blanc is busy with inventory tetris. "I doubt you value your life so little as to feel as if you were risking it for a videogame. Is that simply incredible confidence, or incredible pride, that you would rather nearly kill yourself than have to perform suboptimally?"

Reker (631) has posed:
"Oh. Just use a recall crystal." Reker says, as he grins to Rhapsody, "You did buy those, right? If not I have plenty of spare ones." He digs around in his inventory for one and then tosses it to her. Turning to Arthur, he hands him a medic kit, "Here, patch yourself up with that. I have no idea how to treat you, I admit...Well I do, but not with an in game kit. And besides, I still say you need a hospital. Or a healer, I guess."

    After heaing Amalie go over his backstory, he grins faintly and then hands her the shield back, "Thaks for letting me use it. As far as the aliens go, we'll definitely make sure they don't come back after they see what we did tonight."

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva just takes cover as things explode! The BulletArtist gets to observe the conflagaration from behind cover, oooooohing from a safe location. Special seasonal rare loot lands in Riva's Inventory, but she'll check it out later. At the moment, she's gathering up by the others, and clapping Arthur on the shoulder. "Come on guys, give the man some space! Holy crap, we all /kicked ass/ out there!" She exults, clapping her hands. "I haven't ever seen teamwork like that before. We all pulled through great." God knows how many will actually hear her though.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Arthur plants one foot on a stray piece of wreckage and puts a finger up dramatically. Amalie and Cindre both get a sort of generalized response. "A MAN has a FUCKIN' OBLIGATION! Put EVERY OUNCE OF BLOOD and EVERY BIT OF HEART HE HAS into EVERYTHING HE DOES! NO EFFORT SPARED, NO BACKING DOWN!" This isn't an actual explanation. The actual explanation for Arthur willingly sustaining such severe wounding is not explained, and won't be explained for some time.

    He grabs the medic kit from Reker dramatically! "THANKS." And then he SLAMS it bodily over his chest, spilling bandages and syringes and such all over him. For some reason, when the rush of medical supplies clears, he actually seems less injured. What? "ALSO," He says, making a fresh up-pointing gesture. "RESPAWN applies for ME TOO around here, if it's ANYTHING like ALO, so it's ALL GOOD!" Wait, what was the point of any of that speech then?! And then, hey, Riva! The shoulderclap gets a wide grin and the offer of a fistpound. "HELL YEAH, I gots the MAD GODDAMN TEAM SPIRIT up in here."

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva Banari totally gives Arthur MAD FISTBUMP ACTION. "Well, now that we WORKED HARD, it's time to go PARTY HARD. We should celebrate!" She looks around. "What kind of stuff is there for that around there?"

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe flops to the ground and as she sees they won and she shakes her head a little bit as she looks to Arthur for a moment with a bit of a helpeless look forgetting how she's feeling about her clothing she'll take a look at the drops later and she starts lauighing now as ARthur seems like he'll recover, right?

S"So that was a heck of a run and umm we're all playing VR games we're all nerds."

Shje pauses to check over her friend she'll worry about her modestly later and she tilts her head a little bit. She'll get out of the outfit soon enough.