The tournament was over.

Lyra Kamiya, the Moonlight Shadow and the second member of the team which had proclaimed victory at the Doubles Tournament, was slumped against the faded brick of the wall outside the Trade Center. Her arms were clutched tightly around one of her giant blades; this one was bare of any scratches or blood that would indicate use, however, and instead shone slightly, the mark of a rare item. Of course it was brand new – it was one of the tournament prizes, a weapon known as the Mimiru’s Sword. As of yet, she couldn’t even use it because of level restrictions, and in fact, it hadn’t been rewarded to her, but rather to her partner, Kiwi. They’d both taken a fancy to each other’s prizes and decided to trade... but not before she’d been pulled aside by the administrators...

She closed her eyes and shuddered at the memory, whimpering weakly. Her head and ears both lowered as she gave in to the urge to cry. Why she didn’t log out and go crawl into bed to sob was beyond her; it was only a game, why did she feel like she should come here to pout?

Was it because she could never go home again?

Her ears perked slightly at something unusual with the footsteps of passerby. She’d sat there for over an hour and had grown quite accustomed to the constant sound of feet on cobblestone as people wandered past, but these footsteps had just stopped instead of fading away. The fox’s shoulders tensed for a moment... Had she been recognized? Had someone who’d watched the tournament spotted her? Did they want a battle, or worse... were they going to insult the newly proclaimed celebrity for being slumped in a back corner of Mac Anu, crying?

She nearly relaxed when the person resumed their movement, until she realized they were walking towards her. Swallowing her tears, she quickly blinked her eyes clear and attempted to be subtle about wiping her face on her sleeves before looking up with the best smile she could manage plastered on her face.

The smile vanished instantly.

“What are you doing here?” Lyra asked, a little more rudely than she intended to. The words were directed at the tall mage standing beside her, holding his wand - and she knew firsthand how dangerous that thing could be - readily in front of him.

“After hearing the sounds of something that resembled an injured animal, my interest was peaked. Who would have imagined it'd be a familiar fox?”

She blinked. A few times, in fact. ‘Which is worse... that he heard me or that he has to be a comedian about it?’ she debated, her irritation at the situation apparent in her face. “Well I’m quite alright, thank you very much,” she lied. Sure, she was lonely, but last she’d seen him, he’d tried to kill her. Last two times, in fact.

For a moment, he looked convinced, but that moment was brief. Before she had a chance to object, he had turned around and sat beside her, doing his best to make himself comfortable on the hard ground. “It doesn't seem like it, nor have I done anything to deserve thanks,” he explained, then continued, “I wonder...if your very presence last time had been intended by him...”

Now the vixen was simply confused. He’d hooked her with that confusion though; curiosity was known to kill off quite a few non-feline species as well, after all. “He?” she asked simply, regretting the question instantly, or at least how genuinely intrigued she sounded.

“...The one for whom my last job was performed. And...that ‘job’ is one that I regard with some regret.”

Now her interest was peeked. Grateful for the distraction from her own problems, she sat up and leaned onto her knees, looking at him. Still, she tried not to seem too interested. “...Should I even ask?”

Rayo shrugged, looking at the wall across the street with vague concern. “No, not really. After all...you're the one with the problem, are you not? I'm finally free.”

Now she was even more confused, and a little pissed off that he had to remind her about her own problems. With a sigh, she set her chin atop her hands, her posture vanishing instantly. “Problems... ya... heh... Don’t worry about it, I’m just having to adjust to some changes.” For a second Lyra paused, almost hoping he’d ask her to expand, but she broke the silence with a loud intake of breath before he could make any sort of response. “I should really get up and find something to do. Bored out of my skull and all that jazz,” she announced, making a show of popping her knuckles as she tried to find whatever he’d been examining on the opposite wall.

A moment later neither of them had moved or said anything, and it was beginning to get on her nerves. Finally she clambered to her feet, stretching out her stiffened limbs. “Guess I’ll go hit a field or something then,” she nodded at him, flashing a strained smile. Really she just wanted to go somewhere where she could pout in peace; she didn’t know the WaveMaster very well, and his quiet presence had started to give her the creeps.

He was to his feet instantly as well, and at first she assumed he was just heading off as well... then he spoke. “If you must then, you may tag along. We're going over to Dun Loireag...” She made a show of blinking at him, her jaw hanging open in sheer disbelief. He started to walk off, making a beckoning motion, before he realized she wasn’t moving and turned to see her expression. “...What? Come on, lets get going.” He sighed, seeming disgusted with her incomprehension, taking hold of her arm and more or less dragging her behind him.

“Wait, WHAT?! We?! I said I was going... it’s one thing to invite yourself along, but what the hell do you think you’re doing?” she rattled off, shaking her arm in an effort to make him let go.

“Right, uh huh, of course, very good, oh really?”

“...You’re not listening to a word I’m saying, are you?”

“I like that too...come now, lets not be late...”

She shook her arm a few more times in continued protest, then finally sighed and resigned herself to stumbling along behind him, making a mental note to smack him upside the head first chance she got. Not once in the entire trip to the Chaos Gate did she stop glaring at him angrily, but just the same, she couldn’t help but realize that at least now she had something to do.

((as I am currently involved in another quest, I will not be rewarded on this one))

A set of shiny rings dropped down to the floor next to the Chaos Gate. What was left was a single wavemaster, ready for a bit of “fun” in “The World” after such a long period of work and stress. The mage had logged in…a term he hadn’t been familiar with for months. Well…at least until today. This was the third time the spell caster had logged on in under ten minutes. By this point he was finally satisfied that logging out wouldn’t become an issue…probably not anyway. His outfit had gone through a slight bit of remodeling…but not too much. The material for the cloak was still a very soft silk, covered almost completely in a simple emerald shade of green, but now added an embroidery of a slightly darker shade of jade rabbit chasing a holy white dragon over a flowing stream on the bottom layer. A bit to the side from the neckline of the cloak the material was thinner, to avoid blocking arm movement. The cerulean shirt normally hidden underneath the cloak was just barely tighter, altered to account for any loss in speed while grasping for wands and scrolls. The pant legs of the matching color were also mostly fine, simply trimmed a tad at the bottom. Overall, the change in design proved to be slightly more light hearted. If nothing else…Rayo had technically been stuck wearing the same clothes for…how long? Something needed to be different before the entire Root Town looked like a crater.

Searching quickly with his eyes, it became apparent that no one worthwhile was wandering about right there. They were all either level one players or even worse…Heavy Axes. Instead of obeying the laws of magic…those heathens were the furthest things from it. At least the Heavy Blades the lightning wielder had encountered were wise enough to depend on their spells as well. Still…a Heavy Axe was equal to a sofa. It sits there and lets the family cat tear it up instead of the three year old.

After a few minutes of just floating about, the wavemaster was staring into the item shop. The selection of scrolls was rather…weak. Still, from experience the black mage knew that the Theta Server was no better. Twelve elemental scrolls in all…but only two of the Thunder element; what poor conditions for the modern age lightning user. There was that pawn shop…but the operators there seemed like druggies; it would be better to not enter that place.

Decisions decisions…the magician was sitting Indian style in the corner of the boxed in area around the Chaos Gate. Should he attempt a hard area for a challenge or just drop in a low level field to raid it for items? Party members…he might want those. They could just get in the way if they were physical fighters…but helping out a magical user in a low level thunder field could be nice. Thunder…elements are important. A nice snow field could be just what the wizard required. Still…there were other choices; earth, wood, fire…

Avoid the fire fields! That one thought needed to remain engraved in his mind for as long as possible. Nothing good came from associating with such a place. Besides…it was just too warm.

For now…it wasn’t even necessary to run off to a field. It was almost pleasant to lounge around Mac Anu without being hunted down; it was a pleasant change of pace. The city really was peaceful…excluding the random knight under Kamui staring daggers into his head. It wasn’t really the best time to pick a fight with the violent little fat man though. The spell caster might strike a Heavy Axe by mistake…

…On second thought, why not give it a go?

As Rayo leveled his staff and prepared for the introduction of Lanceor, a strange sound intervened. Was there a dying grunty nearby? The magician could only guess what was actually there, but after everything that he'd seen, monsters couldn't be ruled out either. What if Julian...

The electrically charged sage rounded a corner or two before find the object of his attention. It was...oh dear heavens...what had he done today? Propped against a smooth wall, there sat the devious little fox who had the kindness of a rampaging Hell Doberman that was bumped into by a Scorpion Tank. Her blade was an equally treachous tool of the black blood...only beaten out by her look of being completely spaced out. Except...she didn't look like her usual self, dazed and demented. Right now she appeared more...lonely, perhaps even sad. The wavemaster walked over to greet her, but then part of her normal personality emerged to say hello.

"What are you doing here?"

Smiles, smiles...why did the people with pointy objects never say hello back with those? This would probably turn out to be as much fun as casual conversation with Kamui over a cup of poisonous tea. His answer was simple, the mage was following either the sound of a pig cow or a murderous monster...oh. She probably didn't want to hear that, did she?

"After hearing the sounds of something that resembled an injured animal, my interest was peaked. Who would have imagined it'd be a familiar fox?"

That was safe...very safe. The deranged heavy blade clearly associated with the animal, and wouldn't dare question such an answer given the hint of sarcasm. That shield of being a tad bit antisocial could be a such a boon sometimes. Her fast reply bore none of the malice from the past nor the despair of the present hidden within, a comment of dismissal. Leaving...was tempting. Was it fair though? The freshly dressed wizard had viewed her as a threat because in the past she took on the form of a snake. However, to those the black mage had journeyed with as a full party back so long ago...wouldn't his one actions seem just as gaping and appalling?

"It doesn't seem like it, nor have I done anything to deserve thanks. I wonder...if your very presence last time had been intended by him..."

That man...the businessman was partially responsible for his time trapped in 'The World'. Still, the now 18 year old also had himself to blame. In order to get into the college of his desire, it was necessary to get a job. It had started out as just paperwork in an office weakly connected to CC Corp, but then that allowed his other opportunity to rise up and be within reach. Supposedly, they were owned by some branch of CC Corp, and had been asked to help find people to undergo a particular experiment, or test. The contract required a forced sleep to examine some sort of connection between a new system program and player interaction. the obligation of that new contract required six months in hibernation, which would be long enough to pay the difference between his scholarship and the tuition costs. His stay had lasted longer than anticipated due to delays within the game, or so Auth had been told. A side effect of the process appeared to be memory suppression, something to do with concious interaction or what not, it was hard to tell for certain what the hell that man had been speaking of. Sadly, the removal of his most recent memory prevented him from understanding why what had happened did happen, so the boy had missed his window of time to exit 'The World' at the preassigned location. One other thing hadn't checked out in his mind, and that was regarding the others who claimed that 'The World' was their prison. He was assured that it was all due to the same process, but why couldn't it be arranged to meet with any of them then...?

"He?"

"...The one for whom my last job was performed. And...that ‘job' is one that I regard with some regret."

"...Should I even ask?"

No, the thunder elemental would avoid going into any details with her. The matter confused him more than enough, lest he have Lyra also entertain the thoughts his own heart told him was not safe to do.

"No, not really. After all...you're the one with the problem, are you not? I'm finally free."

After that, the female babbled on for a while, but her words only seeked to cloak herself and allow her to hide. By the time she got up to go, the wavemaster felt a little sorry for her. Summoning her to follow, the mage went back and dragged her at the lack of compliance. It would be better for her to get over her sadness in a place less populated. Still, being alone with her wouldn't be very fun. His BBS post from a short while ago might fulfill the the requirement of a third party, but why not be safe? As he ignored her and talked just enough so that she'd shut up, the wavemaster scrolled through his list of member addresses and picked one, flashmailing a wavemistress to whom the Wand of Storms was currently entrusted to.

<<To Jenovra:
If you lack anything better to do, meet me by the Chaos Gate of Dun Loireag. I wish to see with what skill you embrace the calling of magic. I'll be the wavemaster with the large animal.
---------------Rayo>>

Gating through to the next town with a Heavy Blade in tow, Rayo could just imagine what sort of day this could turn out to be. After all, it was his first day back after his short three week hiatus. Time would tell what tasks needed to be completed in order to resolve his past obligations.

Kamina repetitively clenched his fist at different speeds, testing his new grip. For the first time, since he joined The World he felt a sense of power belonging solely to him, a pure sense of power, not brought on, by sheer emotion. He felt like he needed to try this newfound strength. He remembered the multiple forms and kata he had been doing in the outside world and decided to try one on the clanship…Well he would have, if it was still there. But he feared returning back to that site. He let Lyra’s hard work go to waste. He was surprised however, that she didn’t ban anyone from the group. However, he hadn’t seen her anywhere but offline lately.

“Yosh!” He exclaimed, with a quick nod. “First quick training, then I go see if Lyra’s sill here.”

Finding an uninhabited corner, Kamina, removed his black Wavemaster’s cap for the last time, His hair and ears were finally free to be seen by the public. Dropping the cap he instantaneously fell into a back stance. There was no movement, other than the slow expanding and collapsing of his chest. perhaps the wind blowing at his robe as he froze, waiting for the right time to start. Electricity shot through his veins, telling him the moment he had waited for had arrived, and almost automatically he threw out a ridge hand strike with his left hand, followed by a quick jab with his right. The punching arm drew back and started a quick roll to simulate a gaining of power, nothing but show really, it brought a smile to his face, and however, it was still necessary for the kata. Three solid punches quickly followed, each one advancing him forward. Upon completion of the third punch, he quickly spun, the lightweight, black fabric of his robe, flying up revealing black pants that were not longer those of a Wavemaster. When his robe returned to its normal state of rest, he was in a reverse punch stance. With the energy that was signature to the Shooting Star of the Figment Raiders, he preformed a quick skip kick and followed with a higher, and much stronger, split kick in which he threw up the robe into the air. When he landed, he instantly returned to a back stance, watching the robe as it sailed back to the ground. Once it had reached target height, he threw a roundhouse kick, tapping it once with his foot, again tapping it with a side kick, then hooked it to his foot, bring it to the ground with a quick outside crescent kick.

With a deep breath, the new Fist Fighter brought his body back to peace. His color had not changed, however the new outfit consisted of an open, black Karate gi. The ripped sleeves revealed silver markings on his arm his wrists were covered in tape, the tape showed on his hands, under the hand guards, the starting weapon of a Fist Fighter. It was a sign that proved his efforts were not in vain. He wore a white silk belt that wrapped around his waist fully, leaving no remainder hanging. Suspended by the belt was a pair of white pants, baggy in appearance, giving room to kick but not enough slack in the fabric so that it would be a hindrance. On the back of his Vest, was the kanji “Nagare Hoshi”

Retrieving his old robe, he glanced up at the sounds of squabbling. The voice it belonged to was that of His leader, Lyra.

“That saves me the trouble of finding her.” Kamina muttered and ran up the stairs after her and her captive, who was apparently someone who was also familiar. He knew him as Rayo, the man that saved his children a long time ago, was now dragging his ex-wife somewhere which seemed to be against her will. With as much stealth as a wolf could muster, he followed the two of them to the Chaos gate. Rayo called out “Dun Loriag” and the two vanished.

“Matte Ly-chan…”Kamina muttered, bounding up to the golden ring on all fours. “Ore ga kimi wo tasukeru…”With that Kamina vanished into the chaos.

It was another day in “The World”. Another day where nothing was happening, no leads pushed Ocara in any direction, and the wind seemed no help in deciding a course of action.

“How boring! No hints as where I should go? No npc quests to do… nothing left to buy.”

Ocara jangled the small amount of Gp he had left and pulled on the buckles of his new hiking gear. He had just picked it up with some money he had been collecting, and was now pretty poor again. The Hiking Gear was a complex series of belts, straps, and protective cloth layered on to provide the most protection it could. Ocara still had trouble adjusting it just right, as the belts under his arms seemed to leave an annoying rubbing sensation as he moved. Finally just pushing the armor straps down a bit, he trudged across Mac Anu with a bored expression. His eyes darted side to side, and suddenly golden rings surrounded him and logged him out.

==========================

Rob checked around the BBS, multiple things being discussed and plotted. He muttered to himself as he blazed through topic after topic on the cluttered board.

“Junk… too weak… not worth it… boring… ah! Here we are…”

Ocara found a message entailing any people who wanted to go to a theta field to meet the person there. Ocara had never been to the second root town, and suddenly got an urge to go no matter how strong the enemies would be.

“I can handle it! More experience… it’s going to be a good day!”


=================

Rob quickly replied, logging back into the world right where he had been standing earlier. The constricting feeling of his hiking gear suddenly reappeared, Ocara sighing and looking around.

“Hmm… you change root towns at the Chaos Gate, huh…”

Ocara had been on the bridge, so he took off towards the chaos gate and shouted his destination before reaching it. Dashing through the blue portal as the system recognized his request, he made the illusion the gate had transported him upon touch. The screen turned black for him as the sounds of the town faded. The loading screen appeared for only a moment before Ocara found himself surrounded by the awe of new discovery.

Ocara looked from where he started at, the large town spread before him. The whole town seemed mostly empty space, floating islands connected by rickety wooden bridges that seemed to be grounded far below in the abyss of clouds and sky. Ocara looked around to the stone area he stood on, it’s mediocre detail seeming better just because it was new. Ocara thought about how this area was mostly for higher levels, specifically people 4 levels higher than himself. Looking down to his party bar, he saw he was auto-paired with a wavemaster with high stats.

Was it the reply on the BBS? Maybe… an auto-grouping since I replied…? This is awkward… in the party and I haven’t introduced myself, and I don’t even know where he is…

Ocara stopped exploring the town with his eyes and looked around his nearby area. Three feet to the left he saw the face of the player in his party. Along with the face, was the intricately robed body and bushel of staves. He seemed preoccupied with someone… Ocara’s heart stopped when he saw who it was.

“Wha!!”

Ocara stumbled back, the other person being none other than the insane Heavy Blade that had continuously tried to slice at him in the tournament a while back. Ocara knew her as a member of the Figment Raiders, and had seen her as such the first time. Ocara didn’t know what she was now, who she was friends with, or anything like that. All he knew is she tried to decapitate him in the tourney, and hopefully wouldn’t hold any grudges after Ocara’s… tactics during said tournament. Ocara stood offside of the conversation, waiting for a proper moment to introduce himself. He got his moment as whatever conversation seemed to simmer down. Ocara slipped in almost comically and made a little wave.

“Erm, hello! I’m Ocara… about your post on the BBS… I’m that guy! Nice to meet you… erm…”

Ocara looked down at the party bar, which displayed the characters name quite clearly.

“Ray-o is it?”

Ocara bowed and turned to Lyra.

“Hey… Again. You’re Lyra? I think I remember you from the tournament. You’re the fox-woman with the big ole’ blade of choppyness +3? Yeah, I remember now. Nice to meet you again.”

Ocara bowed, although many things ran through his head. Figment Raiders… he had failed twice. His hacks had stayed however, and his cat tail danced along behind him. His hack was like a living mark of failure, although it had its uses. He wondered if she still had position in the group or not. Deciding it didn’t matter, his thoughts continued to stir in their melting pot. His Ectoplasm spirit stirred uneasily within him, but luckily this was something that couldn’t be seen externally. Raising back up, Ocara nodded to the Heavy Blade. Ocara had a thing for first impressions; his personality was a bit more enthusiastically zany, but his approach was to make a nice first impression before blurting out something crazy. After all, mentioning someone has nice eye radii or that the team should pack a lunch in case this took too long tended to scare the normal people away before they got to know him. Therefore, Ocara would curb himself for now, and wait till battle to show off his inner self. Battle was where he liked to be anyway, and nobody is going to stop and remark about anything he’s doing when they’re fighting a thirty foot beast. The plan was great. Then again, Ocara was often dubbed master of failed plans.

Ocara watched as someone else warped in through the gates. A robed wolf-man came into view, Ocara looking around and wondering if he was with either of them. Turning back to Rayo and Lyra, Ocara readied himself for counter-introductions.

This formal stuff is so boring…

The fox found herself standing in Dun Loireag, glaring rabidly at her captor still. She had no idea why they were just standing there, and while she wondered what they were waiting for, asking risked having to actually converse with Rayo. Bored with glaring at his face, given that he wasn’t even making eye contact, she instead glared at his grip on her arm. Numerous shouts of “let go” and “fucking hell, get your hand off me!” had failed to produce results, as had shaking her arm until her shoulder had gone numb. She growled and stared harder, as though her heated glare might burn away his hand, but of course that too failed. So she jerked her arm high into the air, trying to get it away from him. His arm merely followed, though at least this action elicited an amused glance from the WaveMaster, one that was probably intended to taunt her over what she suddenly realized.

The bastard was taller than her. Meaning that she’d done little more than raise both their arms into the air. ‘Fan-tastic. If this wasn’t bad enough, now passerby will think we’re doing the wave or something.’ She grunted and tried to lower her arm, but apparently he’d decided to hold it up there. Just to spite her.

“Oh for the love of god, will you just leg go already? I’ll go with you to the damn field, just don’t subject me to humiliation on top of it.”

He didn’t answer, but for once it was because he actually was paying attention to something else. A rather familiar WhipMaster came running up towards them, hastily introducing himself. ‘Ah... “we”...’ Lyra instantly recognized him as Ocara, one of the competitors she’d taken out during the tournament. She sighed and turned her head, observing the ground as she found it more interesting than the situation at hand, though she barely suppressed a laugh when he made the error of pronouncing the mage’s name wrong. ‘That’ll hurt him later...’

Then he began to talk to her. Finally she looked up, giving him a lazy once over...

And she damn near panicked.

It was only the realization that, even if it happened that weren’t watching her directly at the moment, her chat logs were still being scanned, that prevented her from falling into a fit of cursing. Ocara was hacked. How could she have forgotten when she was the one who’d done the work, after all? Part of her deal with CCCorp had been to turn in ANY hacked characters she met. Granted, she had no intention of turning in anyone, unless they were just an asshole or they otherwise pissed her off, but the other part of the deal... was that they’d be watching her to make sure she didn’t tip anyone off. That was why she’d quit the clan so abruptly and via phone in the real world. To save them... but Ocara... she could only hope he didn’t get caught, because if he did, they’d both have hell to pay.

But right then, something else had caught her attention, and for once it was actually something important. Kamina had just come through the gate and was heading right for her. Her eyes widened in panic as she glanced between him, Ocara, and Rayo, with the sudden memory of the mage’s lightning manipulation hack. With a sudden burst of determination, she ripped her arm free from the WaveMaster’s grip by slamming into him and then running the other way before he could regain his balance, taking off as fast as she could for the other end of town, nearly mowing down a few others as she wove her way across the bridges.

‘This is just ASKING for trouble. They’re all hacked... I don’t want to let any of them get caught... Well maybe Rayo, but still! I have to get away, in case I’m being monitored right now...’

…Noises levels. Why must Lyra continue to raise such objections to a simple field run? She was obviously going to do so on her own anyway, so why not with a group? Oh well, no one else had arrived yet, so he might as well continue the bonding beyond that of an arm. Typing in a few commands (typing in, such a forgotten pastime) allowed for the sorcerer to easily invite the heavy blade to join his party. She continued to struggle a bit longer, going as far as proving her own lack of height but ultimately accepted the invite at the same exact time. The two actions seemed contradictory but the mage supposed the acceptance to either be an accident or an act or resignation.

By this time, a new arrival had shown up and proceeded to thoroughly butcher his name. It would seem that at least one person had chosen to accept his general invitation. Only three facts were known about this Ocara so far; he couldn’t pronounce his name, was able to meet at a reassigned location, and finally was a whipmaster, making him a minimum of level 10. Shortly after, a familiar face emerged. The character that presented himself looked like Kamina, back from that unholy dungeon lined with minotaur as a head case would a yard with gnomes. Unfortunately, the former acquaintance seemed to have undergone a few changes, now taking on the appearance of a different class altogether. Kayin, Asura, and now Kamina…fist fighters must be becoming quite popular these days.

Before the wavemaster could partake in any introductions, Lyra began to move in a crazed and rather rude fashion, smashing into him before escaping off, deep into the depths of Dun Loireag. What was her issue? Did she not want to see Kamina so badly for some reason, or could the idea of questing with all of these people in her current emotional state that unnerving? Kamina hadn’t been invited along yet, true, but that didn’t mean he may not wish to. Oh right…the fox could just simply be angry with him and had been waiting for an opportunity to escape. Not that such a task would have been too difficult at any time; how well could a wavemaster pin a heavier class in place with just a single hand latched onto a wrist?

“Sorry about that…I think she just might have rabies. Anyway, yes Ocara, nice to meet you. We can head over to a field very shortly. I’m waiting for another wavemaster currently to arrive before we leave. Kamina, would you like to come over to a field with us? It might help keep the little missy sane. I’ll go retrieve her.”

There was a certain beauty linked with the party feature ‘The World’ offered all of its inhabitants. When linked by this common thread, if one player warped somewhere, the rest of the party logically followed. It wouldn’t make sense for a player to pick a random field and then get sucked away, leaving everyone else staring blankly. This also gave the 6’3” bundle of mage like goodness an opportunity to test something called, ‘being vindictive’ as the fox would be reeled in by her temporary leash. The wizard inputted the proper series of buttons to warp to Mac Anu. Before even fully materializing, he was going through the procedure to go back to the previous root town. Taking form in front of the other two players once again, Rayo reappeared…along with one other gating in player. The game mechanics were truly a work of art at times…

If the magic user had anything at all resembling luck and fortune, she would stay put this time. If not…they could always have another rematch. This wouldn’t be the first time that Rayo had battled in a root town. If any Knights of War decided to intervene…well, it’s not as if the sage didn’t have a score to settle with them either.

“Ly wait!” Kamina called as Lyra escaped Rayo’s grasp and took off like her life depended on it. He paused for a moment to realize the situation; Rayo, a hacked Wavemaster, and this Cat boy, of a Whipmaster. These two, Along with Lyra, the group formed quite a menagerie.

We have to be careful now He remembered Lyra saying. Admin is starting to tighten up security on hacked characters. Being in a group was definitely dangerous. At least out in the open, however, Animal hacks seemed to become very popular since the birth of the Figment Raiders. Keeping calm and calling no attention to you is a good way to keep from being spotted, however, a frantic, frightened creature may call attention to her and cause her to get in trouble.

“Kuso…” Kamina decided to do the next best thing that would not cause so much trouble, a flashmail. The Fistfighter’s form froze completely as Ayato went to write the message

To: Lyra
From: Kamina
Subject: Yamete Kure!

Stop running like someone’s going to kill you, if you keep that up, then someone’s going to notice you and you’re going to get caught. You have two options right now. Come back and we’ll talk this out, or, you can wait until I have the keywords. If this situation is so dangerous to you, stay hidden. But you got some explaining to do.


He sent the message to her, and then turned to Rayo. “So we meet again, genki ka?” He wasn’t really interested if Rayo was well or not really, since he had barely known him, but he has shown a great deal of kindness to him, except for now, when he decided to just whisk one of the wolf’s friends away. He wouldn’t dare try to fight Rayo however, since he knows for a fact that he is probably the last summoning Wavemaster. And even with his new strength he gained, since their last meeting, it was only enough to keep Rayo from utterly destroying him, to just killing him. He also turned to the Whipmaster. I’m Kamina, and we need to hurry up and do whatever we’re doing…

“I’m waiting for another wavemaster currently to arrive before we leave. Kamina, would you like to come over to a field with us? It might help keep the little missy sane. I’ll go retrieve her.” He accepted the invitation, but continued to look on in the direction that Lyra had ran off to. Before he knew it, he found himself back in the warm atmosphere of Mac Anu. All four of them were there. Lyra’s back was towards him, but he could be sure that the look on her face would be quite scary.

Jenny popped her neck to one side and groaned softly. Her body was absolutely killing her. Well, I guess you could say it was normal… After all, she had been slouched over a poster on her living room floor for hours on end trying to finish up her English AP project. Why does it have to be due tomorrow?! More importantly, why do we have to draw in a stupid English class?! It’s not Art! If I wanted to be in Art again, I would have just taken Art II… The moody girl shook her head defiantly as her teacher’s monotonous words pushed their way into her head once again. ‘In this class, I want to see creativity to…’ Whatever. Getting back in her very uncomfortable heaped over position, the brunette proceeded to grab a dull colored brown and fill in the background of her ‘masterpiece’. The work itself was intended to be pretty simple. Well wait… That’s not right. It was supposed to be really complicated… It just came out plain. Jenny had managed to sketch a young woman with a sulky look plastered on her dark face. Yeah, the teenager had over done the whole shading part, but who cares? The figure’s chin just looked unnaturally dark… Jenny of course had tried to erase her stupid mistake, but it had only smeared what was already there, making it even darker…and uglier.

Anyways, the lady only made up one half of the poster. A medium sized winding brook wiggled on down the center of the large page, dividing it into two sections. On the left most portion of her poster far...far...away from the woman with the abnormal chin, the girl had made a sincere attempt of having a happy scene going on, but her efforts were clearly futile. A bright yellow sun adorned the page’s top left corner, casting its many rays down on a forest. To show the rays, the brunette had settled for using a yellow marker. Sure, it wasn’t the most artistic approach, but hey…that was all the girl had. It wasn’t her fault she was a doomed procrastinator, who had never put the time aside to go to the nearest store to pick up her art supplies in the first place. The rough sketch of a child could be seen running between two trees on that one side; bright red flowers all around the thin form. Well at least she doesn’t look like a stick figure. One year in Art paid off, sort of… After filling in the background of her work, the exhausted teen took one last pitiful glance at the poster. Hey, he should be able to see that I put some work into it… It doesn’t scream Picasso, but at least it’s something. I should get a good grade… Pulling her scrunchie out of her lush almond locks, the girl quickly used it as a make shift rubber band and put it around her rolled up poster.

Yes! Done! Freedom! Jenny threw her project in her room’s most distant corner, where it joined her other school supplies. Sure, it wasn’t the most proper thing to do, but who cares? It was her room after all. Wow… Speaking of rooms... I really need to clean this one. Dirty clothes littered the floor, along with random pieces of old assignments from school. Wrinkling up her nose in disgust, the brunette eyed all of the balls of tissue that were by her bed on the floor. Guess I missed the trashcan every single time last night. Dropping to her knees once again, the teenager picked up all the trash. Thankfully, she had finally gotten over her cold it seemed. Though, her room had suffered greatly during her whole miserable ordeal. Hmm… I can just clean up all this mess after I play The World. Haven’t played that game since school started. I really don’t want to get behind…on leveling up… Jenny knew just as well as her parents did that ever since she had started her third year of high school, she had been swamped with work. Yes, her parents weren’t any close to letting her forget it either. The girl wasn’t even allowed to quest with others unless she had finished her load of work for the day. This made it very difficult for the brunette. I deserve some sort of reward… Shrugging off her worries, Jenny flopped in her computer chair and booted up her computer, admiring her new mouse pad as she waited. Yup, taking one look at the teenager’s room would give away what she liked the best…and that would be dogs.. Her computer had stickers of cute dogs stuck on it. Her mouse pad was that of a cute Doberman puppy, and lastly, her screen saver was a dog. Anyways, let’s get off the canine subject and back to the story… Casting one last look towards all of the mess in her room, Jenny bid it all farewell and put her VR helmet on.

A wavemistress appeared in Mac Anu with her form-fitting robe on, her loose amethyst cloak over. The young player smiled at everyone passing by as she put her long straight raven colored hair up in a tight bun, her trademark purple ribbon being the thing to hold it in its place. Rose had noticed a party invite earlier while skimming through all of the latest posts in the BBS and actually had the guts to reply in it. Normally, the teen would just randomly track the said person down and surprise them. Well she was doing something similar… It’s not like she waited to see if they actually replied after her and confirmed her joining, but hey, the girl was lazy and didn’t feel like checking for any updates herself. The violet mage double checked her inbox. Nope… No new flashmails… Hmm… Well, guess I’ll just have to hunt this person down. What fun! The overly energetic player smiled broadly at her thoughts. Now let’s see. Dun Loireag… The petite girl walked up to the Chaos Gate and muttered the two words. She had never been in that root town. It was for stronger people. I wonder what level this Rayo is exactly… Maybe I’m being stupid for coming along. I’m only fifteen and all…

The wavemistress materialized into a very unfamiliar field indeed. Random bridges leading to all these floating clumps of land were all around her. Clouds lazily soared on by. Grunties squealed from one rickety building off in the distance, across one particularly long bridge. Rose’s kind eyes went from shop to shop, choosing to rest on each of them for a few seconds before moving on. The players at this field were definitely stronger; with out a question… Heavily armored characters from all walks of life lumbered by her, each flaunting their many rares or ultra thick coverings. Wow… Grinning nervously at a heavy axeman, the teen decided to go off and explore. As of now, no one by the Chaos Gate caught her attention. Maybe the person she was looking for was somewhere else? The raven-haired girl began to cross one of the long thin pathways. Maybe she could buy her gruntie a friend…

This was when all the mayhem and craziness happened. Some lady went zooming by the magic-user, almost knocking the poor young girl off her feet. Luckily, the teen managed to maintain her firm grasp on her staff, for if she didn’t, her weapon would have been long gone. Falling down below…disappearing in the misty clouds.

“Hey, watch it.” Just as those slightly irritated words escaped the agitated wavemistress’ lips, she realized that whatever smacked into her wasn’t pure human. It had ears and a tail… “What the…?” Clad in her purple garments, Rose stood glued to her spot. “Do you by any chance know a Rayo…?” The figure was slowly getting farther away. Hopefully the woman would hear Rose. She could hope…couldn’t she? If the heavy blade didn’t pay the girl any attention, then yet again, she’d find herself standing in the middle of a pathway looking newbish. Well sure enough that happened… The whole ordeal made the violet mage look like a true idiot. “Ok then…never mind…” The teen’s large eyes followed the sprinting figure until it disappeared behind a building off in the distance. Guess she didn’t hear me.

Sighing to herself, the spell caster walked back to the Chaos Gate. Her eyes fell on a group of players, one looking quite tense. Wait a minute... That's the woman that hit me a few seconds a go.

“Um, excuse me. I don’t mean to interrupt, but do any of ya’ll know where I can find Rayo?” The girl looked at the four players with a truly puzzled look. That can't be her. She just ran by. I never saw her pass me again.
105/105 SP

(Notice: if you know me, you'll know how I get when I need something described. Bear with me, I'm revamping Jenovra and the overdetail's more for my sake than anything. () Hold on, long post time. ><;; typogalorethyme
Sorryfortakingsolongtopostgleek!X3~)

Mac Anu was, like always, a pleasantly bustling palace of newcomers. People chatted, laughed, traded, even joined up for parties to go to stronger fields. Many people met at the landmark bridge in the center of the Route Server, from family to friends to lovers. The river beneath it was always a relaxing sight, and all enjoyed its sparkling clear waters, always rushing...

Somewhere above the river, a woman sighed. Heavily.

Jenovra sat down, feeling vaguely idiotic to even be doing this. She brushed the stray pebbles from her rippling skirt folds, attempting to get comfortable at the stone edge. She looked further down at all of the other players, much younger and light-hearted, leaning all along the walls or even showing off by balancing on the corners. Several of them had their feet or arms down, lazily spearing the river with long poles or whips or what have you.
The little grunty beside her looked up plaintively. Jenovra coughed.
God, the things she does for peace...

Fresh from the avatar edit shop, the woman was nigh unrecognizable from her previous skin, but for her towering height and unmistakable persona. However, spending a few moments talking to the woman would reveal that she was no different verbally from before. And oh, was she becoming agitated already. (OOC: duck and cover!*runs*)

The most distinct difference had to be her hair; instead of the thick icy-blonde she'd sported since avatar creation, it was now a muted ash. Her trademark long forelocks had also been lopped; the wisps left hung down to her chin on one side of her face. On the right side, three separate locks were tucked behind a pale ear. Besides that, all was gathered tightly into a dissimilarly loose bun, wrapped secure with a strip of ornate velvet. From the top stuck four thin hair chopsticks, each tipped with a crystalline diamond (Hmm, methinks she kept a few 'party gifts' from her last adventure, no?...). Her entire new look had lost the forest-sea foam of before; quiet the opposite, it looked like a muted cross between a overly elegant ship Captain's uniform and an opera house outfit.

Her old, puffed green top was gone, now replaced with a fitted, thin material of a feathery weight, color and texture. The sleeves were sliced into two distinct parts, with the high, sturdier collar wrapped about her neck and closed around the middle, a stripe of pallid blue that would appear through the rest of the outfit on each side. Around her willowy middle, in an almost upper-class form of jest, was loosely laced a smoky mint corset against the backdrop of a comely universe-in-blue shawl. Hanging down elegantly from her collar was a familiar royal purple shard of pure temptation- the Philosopher's Shard. A woman has to have jewelry if she's dressed to the nines for an opera, doesn't she?

Speaking of operas, a shawl of sorts hung upon her arms, wrapped loosely above her elbows and about the bare upper arm. Due to elegance needing a bit of support around these parts, the satiny fabric was sewn shut behind her back and the bottoms buttoned, unseen, to the top of her snug navy-and-gray armsleeves.
In exchange for her new, darkened hair, the woman's skin had inversely become even paler than ever before, hints of powdery olivine pigment the only thing from becoming appallingly so.

One of the only reminders of her previous format was the familiar seafoam color of her dress, albeit duskier now. It was sliced tastefully on the right side, allowing freedom of movement of any pose or stance- not that she'd need it all that much, being as she didn't have to huff and puff and weild about a slab of iron to show strength in The World. A white satin underskirt, doubled-thick and frilled at the inside edges, swept just an inch shorter from the outer skirt. On the left side, a thick brown belt looped around her legs and inside of the dress. A rustic grey buckle peeked out, half-concealed. Several inches were bare between it and her knees, from which there began her updated footwear.

Her leather boots, trusty yet worn, were upgraded with a sleeker, more protective material, a calming tawny Woman's version of a ship captains boots (except knee-high and more fashionable), aqua edging the cut up the middle. She was currently trying her best to keep them out of the water, though her grunty was making a hard time of it as she clambered around to inspect the scene. Eh, the fungus growing through the cobblestones could always be part of the scenery, she figured, if she didn’t eat it later.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Sefie had talked Jenovra into ‘posing’ for her. She had wanted a trip to the Route Server water, her mommy had no excuses to use, and within ten minutes they had found a spot. The 6’7 WaveMistress had seen no point in it, but the pet just kept going on and on about how AJ had done it and Xander was with their dadoo all the time so why can’t she go it’s not like she’d fall in or anything and she was hungry anyways so please…
One can only mute the sound on the game for so long.


Minding her dress, she tried to retain her ladylike disposition as her legs strayed over the side, begrudgingly resting against the water-worn side. She began to cross her legs, but the squeal by her companion quickly put a stop to that. A few moments later she attempted to at least straighten her skirt better so that it wouldn't be completely filth-covered, but the pink grunty gave another tiny squeal of protest. She rolled her eyes at the beast, but allowed it to clamber onto her lap with what was as close to a purr of delight that the digital beast could get. Jenovra, unmoved, looked boredly about for potential news.

Sefie nearly fell into the river when the Flashmail appeared through her head. Jenovra calmly nabbed the squealing animal’s bandana, setting her down to inspect this surprise. The holographic square would give no information other than its unexpected sender. Hmm, suspicious.
She opened the Flashmail with extreme caution.

…

Oh, GOD, not ANOTHER one.

--

”BYYYYYYYYYEEEEEE MUUUUUUUMMMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!”

Jenovra waved idly behind her at the screech. Really, there was no point in correcting her anymore.

At the very least, she’ll be able to get rid of a favor and away from Sefie. Who else would be there, she wondered?

She flicked back open the FM in her hand. Hmm, Theta Server; It would be a new server and experience, to be sure, however… She smiled grimly as she snapped it shut. The chances of her becoming paste on something’s boot was much too high for her liking. Jenovra stopped, the chaos gate slowly passing through her figure on its rotation.
Ah, to hell with it all.

Jenovra thumbed through the Gate menu, searching for the Server section. This would actually be the first face-to-face encounter with the host of the jaunt; their only connection was a borrowed wand, anyhow... unfortunately, that was enough of a favor that she--

In a flash of holographic gold, the woman was sent staggering to the right several steps. Normally someone logging in or out was all well and good, and happened often enough. However, having FOUR players all appear at once, half of them looking as if they were running from a mass-murderer, ALL of them Figment Raiders (lest they’d given up rights on their trademark anthropomorphic avatar’s nature). Once again, this would only be mildly irking if they A. hadn’t warped nigh on TOP of her, then B. completely ignored this indecency, and C. disappeared less than a second later. She huffed. Thank you, netiquette!

Rather than taking her Wand of Storms to the nearest blinking object, she rapidly reentered the menu and warped to Theta.
Before she’d even a chance to look at the surroundings, her vision was blocked by none other than the group from a moment before, whom were now conveniently blocking the entrance out of the Chaos Gate area with their bickering. Well, don’t that beat all! The fox one also seemed vaguely familiar, as did the one huddled behind the incomprehensibly babbling Fist Fighter (whom, despite the description given, was NOT Silk).

That was all nice and everything, but certainly not a problem of hers. Now, to search for a needle in a haystack for someone she’s never met.

“PARDON me,” she added, feigning haughty indignance over sounding insulted- for she wasn’t. It was just a simple thing, no need to get all hot and bothered… Emotional vent or not, the player had decided to become less irate on this character. There was no need to be a bitch until it was needed--

Wait.

Was that Ocara there?

…Oh, it’s Game ON, baby.

Ocara watched Lyra turn to him, looking bored as he started to introduce himself.

Ah, that’s strange..

Then, as Ocara was nearly finished with his words the fox-lady’s eyes lit up and her stance became slightly more ready for action. Ocara always had an eye for little things… when he remembered to look. As the wolf-man warped in, Lyra broke free from Rayo’s grip and took off.

That’s strange as well…

Ocara watched her zoom across the thin bordered walkways in the airy town, soon disappearing from view. Rayo started talking, Ocara turning to him now.

“Sorry about that…I think she just might have rabies. Anyway, yes Ocara, nice to meet you. We can head over to a field very shortly. I’m waiting for another wavemaster currently to arrive before we leave. Kamina, would you like to come over to a field with us? It might help keep the little missy sane. I’ll go retrieve her.”

Ocara had barely time to nod at the Wavemaster before his screen went black. It flashed a blue light before going black again, Ocara wondering what exactly was happening. In the real world, Rob hit his monitor.

“Damn thing…”

Ocara reappeared in Dun Loireag again, the rest of his supposed party materializing around him. Ocara watched the wolf person introduce himself as they never had moved from their spot.

“I’m Kamina, and we need to hurry up and do whatever we’re doing…”

Ocara nodded, bowing slightly.

“I’m Ocara. Nice to meetcha.”

Ocara looked over and saw a Wavemaster run by. Heading into town, Ocara dismissed her as just another player. A few more passerbys later, and she was back.

“Um, excuse me. I don’t mean to interrupt, but do any of ya’ll know where I can find Rayo?”

Ocara looked at her, looking over to Rayo. Ocara did a little hand gesture over to him, trying to be discrete in case the Wavemaster didn’t want anyone to know. Turning back to the others as if he hadn’t just turned completely around, he stumbled back as Jenovra appeared from nowhere. He pointed, backing up a step in shock.

“You!”

Ocara’s arm shook a small bit.

“Ah… erm… hi!”

Ocara took a quick glance behind him, the only place to run being off the side of the cliff. He decided it might be a nice fall depending on how Jeovra was feeling today.

“Nice to… see you again. Yeah.”

Looking around, Ocara figured everyone was here. He didn’t think it would be a huge party or anything… and he figured they should kill some monsters before some player kills another.

“So…. What field will we be visiting today? Perhaps a Dark field?”

The ectoplasm spirit in Ocara was acting up again. Being of the dark elemental, it didn’t like the thunder fields. Every shock of lightning in the distance scared it enough for Ocara to feel it. He really hated lightning and thunder fields now-a-days. Focusing back on the group, Ocara awaited the actions of his new allies.

The mage stood silently to the side of the gate, waiting for the entire party to actually be ready for departure. The group wasn’t one he was the most familiar with. It had indeed been some time since Rayo had last run into the wolf, close to a year ago. At that time, Kamina had been quite brave in defending his ‘family’ there, and also possessed the ability to summon a great beast, one that was rare to see. All of the summoned creatures were in reality, but there was no better destructive force that one could wield. It was a shame that the former wavemaster had altered his class, but fist fighters did have some nice potential in combat. Between their speed, close range combat, and relatively balanced attributes, nothing would be able to destroy one completely without a substantial level advantage. With the exception of the martial artist, only the fox was known to him previously, but her physical style of combat was powerful enough.

There was still that one last wavemaster to wait for, but the team didn’t need to wait long. Walking up to the congregation of players, a wavemistress began speaking with Ocara, and was supposedly looking for him. Was this the one? Checking her visible information proved that she was not. Crimson Rose was not the name the spell caster had been waiting to see. Nonetheless, it would be necessary to discover exactly what she wanted, lest the girl’s purpose of his presence remain a mystery.

“I’m Rayo. Can I help you with something?”

The attention of the comparatively higher leveled player was diverted as another female wavemaster arrived, begging his interest. Even before the correct data appeared to confirm it, her weapon of choice settled the question of her name. Never mind the fact that any number of players could be toting around a Wand of Storms, the nicks, scratches, and indentations were remarkably familiar. Yes…marks in a tool of magic wasn’t something to be proud of, but unlike his Great Elite, that stick wasn’t rare. The game designers seemed to make those types of items more durable resilient. Still, it wasn’t anything a good cleaning and polishing wouldn’t mostly cure. By this point, the older weapon wasn’t much of a necessity since the only possible reason to use it would be the slight spell variation. His current choice already had the level two lightning spell, and the wizard also contained scroll forms of Rai Don. Jenovra and Ocara already quickly exchanged a few words and glares, making Rayo wonder how many possible combinations of player vs. player had a chance to erupt in the root town. Surely even now, those blasted Knights of War didn’t have any warm feelings towards him; starting fights with them was one thing, but doing it while nuking a few other people would have too many fronts to survive. Fortunately, no one threw a punch yet and Ocara was trying to get everyone on task.

“So…. What field will we be visiting today? Perhaps a Dark field?”

Dark fields…those types of monsters would be easier for him to kill, but at the same time his protection from them was considerably less, even more so because of his durable poking staff of choice. Maybe a neutral area could be the best thing for them. Before they could go to any real fields…why not have test run?

“Instead of going to the real field first…why not a simple warm up exercise? I believe that I’ve located such a place that could be desirable for such a motive.”

After making sure everyone who wanted to join the party had done so, the lightning sorcerer spoke the combination of phrases that would deposit them into a fairly weak area to start off with. Theta, Raging Silent Nothingness. The name had such a peaceful ring to it, suiting the party in its entirety. The area was only level 23; the element was earth so there shouldn’t be any significant advantages of disadvantages. If worse came to worse, he knew that between Lyra and himself, nothing there would stand much of a chance in face of them. If anyone else was of even an average strength, it shouldn’t pose much of a threat to them either. The area surrounding them seemed a bit dug up, perhaps from a recent battle or explosion. If one were to go down the gentle sloping decline of the hill they had warped to, they could reach the single monster gate that from where they were, only glimpses of the light could be stolen. Waiting until everyone was ready or someone decided to charge down over there or to another battlefield, the magician waited patiently, content to watch for now before launching into a flurry of spells himself against whatever would present itself for the team to massacre.

ooc: I took out the field this morning so…info.
Raging Silent Nothingness, Lv.23 Earth Field
Monsters on the field and in dungeon levels:
-Hell box
-Grand Mage
-Baby Worm
5 Level Dungeon, with a stone castle dungeon look.
On the 2nd through 5th floors, I also ran into Ironball Freaks and Lamia Hunters. The 5th floor was loaded with Armored Shoguns. Oh yes, and floor #1 was lacked much in terms of choices on where to go other than through but a single door.

“Life isn’t fair,” came a pointed growl. It was followed less than two seconds later by an angry snarl, accompanied by a wild swing that was meant to smack Rayo upside the head.

It managed to connect with a tall WaveMaster, but missed its mark by a gender. When her attempt to smack the much higher level player wasn’t met by a sarcastic remark or her immediate death, she opened her eyes to see what had happened and decide on a new course of action.

What she saw was the monstrously tall Jenovra, and her eyes lit up with fear at the simple ideas of “Tall, pissed off, WaveMistress”. Had she known that she was almost double the girl’s level, she’d have reacted differently, but at the present time her only logic was to duck behind the tallest object available, that being Rayo, and whimper like an injured puppy.

The next few seconds went by a lot smoother than she’d expected, all things considered.

“...I thought you were afraid of me...?” he questioned, not even bothering to glance over his shoulder at her.

Her response was quick and nearly silent as she hissed between her teeth, minimizing her tendency to gesture to the best of her ability.“I’m more afraid of her! So shhh! I'm not here!”

He shrugged. “...I guess it makes some sense. The wand she'd threaten you with would be my own, talk about irony.”

“...you KNOW her? Now I'm really scared.”

"As you should be. Don't worry, I'm not going to bother killing you. Doing so is completely pointless...it has no lasting effects. You'd simply change form and become a ghost. No...we have matters to discuss, matters that can be handled better now than in the past."

Before she could come up with a snappy contact to what she viewed as a threat, he had turned his attention to the others and she was left to stand slightly slouched behind him, arms crossed and brow furrowed. It wasn’t that she hated him or anything, it’s just that she had issues with being around anyone who could mow her down without even touching her. It was just creepy. He was creepy! He’d been bad enough before, but today he just wouldn’t stop smiling, and that made her concerned for her life. Of course, that woman – Jenovra, the text over her head read – was even worse if only because she was so tall. There was no logical reason for anyone who wasn’t going to be physically attacking to bother with being that tall. Lyra quickly reasoned that the WaveMistress’s player must have been extremely short and have used the character to compensate. Nekkiko herself was 5'10 and yet still dwarfed by everyone in her family except her younger brother, prompting her to throw an extra two inches onto her character model. It made sense for a shorter person to do the same only more extremely.

She was ripped from her thoughts by another sudden change of scenery. Taking a deep breath in a futile attempt to calm herself after the golden holographs vanished, she began popping her knuckles pointedly. “Could someone please WARN me before we move?!” she grumbled, her eyes darting between her human shield and the group as a whole.

The king of sarcasm was the first to respond. “The golden rings tend to be a rather obvious indication, one that was already installed into the game.”

She tried to burn a pair of holes in the back of his skull, temporarily forgetting that she was supposed to be hiding behind him. “Are you capable of opening your mouth without being sarcastic?”

“...Well it was either that or ‘no.’. Take your pick.”

“Ano... Ly-chan? Kimeta yo... Anata wa kikanai...”

She glanced at Kamina and blinked a few times, sweat-dropping and scratching behind her ear. So she’d succeeded in both missing a vital conversation point AND making an ass of herself in one foul swoop... how typical.

Determined not to lose form though, she shrugged it off and got out her weapon, eyeing the nearby monster portal. She checked the field information quickly and then nodded, satisfied that she could do some damage here, especially in this large of a group. “Well then,” she started, trying to keep out of line-of-sight from the tall WaveMistress as she glanced over their other companions. ‘Oh fabulous... They’re almost all hacked. This won’t look good on my record...’ “I don’t know about ya’ll, but I’m ready to kill some shit, ne?”

Ocara watched Rayo respond to his suggestion of a Dark field.

“Instead of going to the real field first…why not a simple warm up exercise? I believe that I’ve located such a place that could be desirable for such a motive.”

Ocara nodded, although he didn’t really ever warm-up.

Maybe I should…

Just as he thought this the rings of teleporty doom locked him in place and warped him off to the field they were to train in. Ocara loaded quickly, the others beating him there.

Damn! What kind of computers do they have? Faster loading speeds than mine?

Ocara looked to the people with higher stats than him. Their levels were fairly accurately portrayed by the total Hp or Sp they each had. Ocara couldn’t make any exact numbers, but the big bars and high numbers pointed to just about everyone being higher than him, if not all.

I can still be useful.

Ocara turned to Lyra, who had begun conversation suddenly. She was talking mostly to Rayo, the two of them exchanging snappy remarks and glancing at each other oddly. Ocara looked around, a speck of a portal in the distance. The field was an earthy tone, random spires of stone jutting from the ground. Birds circled high in the sky, their data spinning in endless circles around the mud-caked earth. Ocara started to walk towards the speck, not getting very far before Lyra burst out with a loud:

“I don’t know about ya’ll, but I’m ready to kill some shit, ne?”

Ocara looked at her from the corner of his eye, as that was the only way he could see her. She looked ready to kill, and Ocara hoped she planned on killing the monsters. As he ran across the plain, dust clouds kicked up behind him. Ocara dully watched the field move past him, the portal getting closer than before. It’s rings could now been seen moving, the swirling patterns lulling Rob to sleep as he pushed his character on. It was when he finally got there he realized it had taken a lot less time than he had thought.

Time sure flies when you’re tired, huh…. Ok, time for a wake-up fight!

Ocara drew his Burning Cord, the metal whip lashing out into the thick soil. The portal spun and spun, releasing the monsters from inside. Ocara had no time to really sort through the monsters that appeared, as a flat paneled box covered his entire screen in short order. Ocara realized a monster was right on top of him, and rolled back as it snapped and clawed at the air. The monster looked like a treasure chest, claws extending from the corners as to strike the moment something got near. It shook and moved on four legs which sprouted from it whenever it needed to move. Ocara noticed it looked just like the Mimic enemy he had briefly seen before, however this one was of a different color. Color swaps were a viable way to reuse monster models over and over, as the developers tend to hate to make too many monster designs. Ocara figured it was also something to do with the amount of space the game took, but he had never intensely studied anything about game design so it was all guesses. Back to the fight, Ocara had his whip flinging towards the enemy before he thought about it. The metal cord smacked off the side of the box with a thud, the blunt metal leaving a small dent in the wooden side. Ocara pulled his wrist up and around, his arm dancing in a pattern that flung the tail of his weapon in a half-arc before striking up the way his arm moved. The upward whip strike hit with a greater area of the whip, delivering more of a power strike. The box was pushed back a small bit, but soon gained the necessary information on its attacking target. Sprouting its odd legs, the chest started scuttling forward with its mouth rapidly opening and closing. Ocara looked back, running to where the group was.

“Ah! Someone get up there and tank that thing! I don’t have the Hp for this!”

Ocara kept running as the box chased him, hopeful the “pull the monster back to the group” plan would work. Of course, when did his plans ever work?

Hmm. Let’s review: within moments of entering the game, she’s set upon by a besotted screeching ball of pink; soon after, she receives an invite from a player she’s never /properly/ met; this is followed by being annoyed several times over by one group of players in the course of three minutes. To add onto this, she was now part of that group- the members of which she’s met either through having her boob tenderized or screams of terror. Lovely day, isn’t it?

“Ah, yes. Pleased to make your esteemed acquaintance as well.” Hallowed eyes glanced up at the Party information on Lyra’s screen. “I can only how relieved I am that we are starting off on the right foot.” Or fist. Or language. A-hem. Her gaze swept the group’s perimeter, calculating their classes, health, magic, default personalities.

A woman with double- if not more- her HP (and a sword half the size of her) now cowered behind a deadpan Wavemaster she could only fathom to be Rayo. To the left, a player previously acknowledged as an idiot was next to an equally clueless, yet distinctly purple, Wavemistress. Last was a… a… well, her best guess of what his class was a Fist-Fighter, probably of the Figment Raider persuasion. Then again, nearly the entire group looked like Figment Raiders.
She absolutely loathed Figment Raiders.
Oh, THIS was going to be fun. Just brilliant. Triple her level or not, Rayo might not find this trip as pleasant as he’d expected.

She sighed inwardly. There was a 1:1 ratio of WaveMaster per, ah, everything else. Yet she was of the lowest level of the group, quite obviously by the high-level weapons and equipment. There were SO many reasons to just log out, and they hadn’t even gotten to a field yet.
And that, folks, is First Impressions 101.

Quickly enough the motley crew was off to the so-called ‘Warm Up’ field (which happened to also be, golly gee, twice her level! Is she seeing a trend here?). Jenovra appraised her inventory as the rest commenced with idle banter. ‘Bla bla bla kill bla bla bla fight bla bla bla grunt…’ No need to partake in their intellectual conversations yet; she’ll grow sick of their voices in due time.

Not more than a moment after the fox with bad aim shouted for fighting stuffs, a loyal minion rushed off to comply. Hmm, yup, that strategy stuff never works well. Then again, whenever the Whipmaster finally reached the portal, he quickly remembered the notion of a ‘tactical retreat’. Jenovra raised her eyes heavenward. Dear God, if this entire jaunt is going to be this fun, she might as well kill herself now before one of the party’s stray hits snuff her instead.

She’d have to bring up the point of level disadvantages right after the battle, as well.

Jenovra assessed the monsters below. Hmm, these were new… unhurried, she dragged her cursor over each one, studying the elements and information from each computerized member of the enemy's group. Hell Box, neutral element, level 22. Le sigh. Time to switch wands again…

Wait, what? You expected her to help out? Hon, you’ve got a lot of learning to do.

The mage gave Crimson Rose a brief yet odd glance. Her lack of movement and facial expression could only mean one thing, there was no longer The golden rings that removed her moments later only further turned his face into one with a visible eye twitch. The field wasn’t that much over her level, really…

Well, that did remove a wavemaster but the group was already well populated in regards to that class. The girl’s level was about in the middle of the group, so it wasn’t as if her loss would affect them greatly. That still left the crazed lunatic, the wolf, the one holding a wand of his, and the…oh. Taking his eyes off of the group to look check on the status of the now gone wave mistress, Rayo had missed the chance to watch Ocara run down the hill, engage a hellish treasure chest, and then run away like a little kid. If he had been watching, the wavemaster might have at least noted approval for the initiative. Unfortunately for Ocara, all he saw was a player running away.

Aiming the Great Elite with a quick spin, the glowing end pointed towards the approaching duo, both monster and player. Edging it up just barely, the summoner discharged his quick and murderous assault upon the creature. Lanceor materialized directly on top of the crawling menace but just far enough away from the retreating whipmaster to avoid causing dual casualties. It provided both a quick one hit kill and a shield for his questing companion. One a bit of the dust cleared, what was left was a mostly charred yet closed box with all of three or four points of health remaining. The Hellbox was persistent enough to survive through a summon, maybe this area wouldn’t be quite as easy to clear as the battling mage had expected.

“Oh, still alive?”

With deliberate haste his left arm rose up, making a motion of dismissal. As his palm was level with the creature, a series of sparkles surrounded the beast, finishing it within a split second. The Rai Kruz didn’t leave as much as his pet had, with only a scorch mark on the ground left to vanish in the common graying fashion.

“No...no, I guess I was mistaken.”

Once the burial site for the monster was emptied out into the digital air, the wavemaster did a quick once over of Ocara who seemed to be fine from his encounter. Turning to the rest of the team, the lightning mage took notice of the lack of overall movement and motioned silently towards the pair of Baby Worms that had not joined their fried buddy and had alternated between prodding each other and sticking their heads towards any pillars nearby, inspecting them. It was the perfect chance to take advantage of their lack of common sense, especially with a full group of players to do. The duo was still out of range, so the only killer to show his true colors so far began to walk in the direction of the two bugs, taking his time but ready to cast a spell if it became a necessity.

The cat tailed player would of course be motivated to help with the next bout of destruction, and the black mage never expected the heavy blade to have the patience to not swing her oversized sword at something. Besides, wasn’t she still scared of the only other wavemaster left back in the group huddle? The insects were larger than the last monster, and generally bigger meant a greater degree of stamina. A single spell may not be enough, but a barrage would turn them into a cute pile of ash. Drastically quicker too, given the close proximity of the oversize worm buddies. A Dek Raio might even be worthwhile if his opponents failed to make tracks in the presence of the party. In any case, now would be a good time to see if the party could actually fight, as a team or otherwise. If not, it’d be like a day at a shooting gallery which wasn’t meant to be respectful towards the soon to be corpses of the monsters that lay in his view.

Ocara was the first one to throw an attack, much to his surprise. Even more so to his surprise was the fact that it was still alive after the attack. Lyra was the one to initiate the battle, and then the cat Whipmaster, who called himself Ocara rushed in without gathering data on his opponent.

“Ano baka...” he mumbled after finally retrieving the data on this monster.

Dammit…these monsters always creep me out Kamina muttered. Oh well, I got Rayo to…

Almost on cue, Rayo moved to help Ocara. It didn’t take much for the lightning mage to smite the enemy. He seemed rather cruel in his attack but it didn’t matter too much he guessed.

“Oh well, way to go Rayo!” Kamina cheered. He glanced over to the female Wavemistress. “You ok?” Of course she was ok, she hadn’t done anything that would cause her to have damage inflicted on her, but she seemed to have a frown on her face that concerned him. Maybe he was looking too far into things. Before she could answer, he decided it was probably best if he didn’t pry into the stranger’s affairs. This was very awkward, his ex-girlfriend, the silent, usually cynical Rayo, a person that looked like he wanted to be a Figment Raider, and a posh Wavemistress. The best escape he had right now was to move on.

“Eeto…” Kamina started, mainly saying it to the only one who would understand him, “Ore ga sake in iku yo” After leaving his whereabouts, he took off running south. He always found the entrances running south… The further he got from everyone, the less tension he felt on his shoulders. However, his sense of fear grew. True the field was not too far higher than his level, but he had no idea, how effective his attacks were. This was his debut quest as a Fist Fighter, He couldn’t die now.

BATTLE MODE ON

“Nani!?” Kamina cried. The sound of quick steps being made in his direction gave him the impression that the monster was one that used speed to its advantage.

“Shimatta!” Kamina started to move back in the opposite direction when he found that his legs would not move. A green glyph had formed at his feet, the next part he was not going to enjoy. His stomach felt like it was going to implode as the stone spikes launched the wolf off the ground and a few meters away from his original position. The void left inside of him was one where air used to be. Now he panicked, grasping every little bit he could. His skin felt as if it was on fire, from the multiple scrapes he gained, rolling to a stop after the attack, and He heard that annoying a key that comes from damage to the ears. However, the pain only led to Kamina’s joy. With a quick howl, he dashed for the Grand Mage, drawing back as he gained speed. Before he healed himself, or before he died, he was going to knock this creature back to where the rest of them were…

Ocara ran, the box right behind him. He saw the group still at the same spot before him, and glanced oddly at everyone as they stood there doing nothing.

Come on! Take this thing!!

Ocara yelled in his mind, the prayers answered as the high level wavemaster Rayo had twirled his wand and cast a spell of some sort. Ocara remembered how close he was to the box, and suddenly paniced.

“AHH!”

Ocara quickly used a speed charm, the roar of a great and powerful spirit emerging behind him. Ocara had no idea what it was; he had never actually seen Lanceor, and with his back turned running this would continue to be the case. A huge tremor shook the ground, Ocara tumbling forward as he felt the heat from an immense electric shock behind him. His tail and hand hair stood up on end, the black fur roused by the abundant static around the area for the moment. Inside him Ocara quaked in fear for some reason; his heart beat like his life was in danger. He felt no pain yet his hands tingled with anxiousness and his face flooded with sweat. He couldn’t help but yelp as the explosion of thunder behind him gave it’s final blast and left the world. Ocara lay on the ground, never having moved from his initial tumble forward. He looked up nervously, the world spinning before his eyes.

Ahh… my head… all my insides hurt… and this feeling…

Ocara grasped his head, sitting up slowly.

“Ugh…”

Ocara couldn’t place a finger on what was causing this sudden sickness to overcome him. As the remnants of Lanceor subsided, Ocara started to feel gradually more normal. Suddenly, in another flash of nearby lightning strikes, Ocara was feeling a little more nauseous.

Ahh! Not again!!

His eyes made the world dance with its mirror through the air, his back tingling with chills. The nearby monster was defeated, and the second volley of lighting subsided around the same time. Ocara almost at once felt back to normal, the lightning now nowhere to be seen.

What… what’s with the lightning? Why is it making me so sick? I should stay quiet about it for now… maybe it‘ll pass…

Ocara got up, trying to pretend he hadn’t just sat on the ground spazzing for the last minute.

“Well that went well!”

Ocara saw the group looking past him, to the other enemies which had escaped the portal that sealed monstrosities such as them within. Ocara turned to see a pair of rather large worms poking about in the distance.

“Worm time. Everyone ready?”

Ocara decided not to run in unaided this time. Had Rayo been paying any less attention, and that box might have had him for dinner. Ocara readied his weapon, the whip comfortable in his hands. He still had some scrolls if he needed them, and also his whip skills.

“Let’s go!”

Ocara failed to notice Kamina running off in another direction, too fired up for the next fight.

The advancing mage tilted his head slightly, watching the fist fighter run away out of the side of his eye. Considering that Kamina probably wasn’t strong enough to solo here, the wizard wasn’t really sure why the wolf had chosen to abandon the group so suddenly. Being cautious wouldn’t have been a negative trait for him to have. Then again, this was similar to the last time Rayo had battled alongside the former wavemaster. That guy had run off to either save Lyra or gather up her remains after leaving his younger two friends with the mage. Coincidently, they had also been spell casters; it was a good thing the three player party of wavemasters hadn’t actually encountered anything with an immunity to the magical elements. On top of that, Kamina had neglected to equip his only staff with any real destructive capability. Picking him up after the battle would have to be a bit of a priority he supposed.

In the meantime, there were two monsters just waiting to be defeated. No one had charged up to this group yet, but Ocara was coming up the side, slower than he could but at least the whipmaster was making strides forward. The wavemaster stayed at his present pace but angled himself close enough to talk to the other warrior.

“I think I’ve seen these before somewhere when I was wandering through fields one day. I don’t recall specifically, but they do cause some sort of detrimental status effect that I know I’d want to avoid. Keeping recovery items on hand wouldn’t hurt. I was planning on going left, and then looping around behind them. Feel free to take the other side or whatever works for you.”

Keeping to both his word and his plan, the mage darted forward in a careful dash, pounding each foot on the stone casually while getting into a dodging stance as the sarcastic mage closed in. Veering by the leftmost worm, he ducked underneath it’s head as it moved forward to get within it’s own attacking distance. Now the tame worm lifted up the back end of it’s body and lazily dropped it from above the practically skipping sorcerer. Sidestepping the plummeting tail with less ease than he imagined, the planner put some extra effort into the final stretch of his run, skidding as he spun around in a semi circle behind the pair of behemoth worms. Drawing up his left hand, the controller of lightning did the logical preparation with the spell Dek Raio to set up for his following utterance of magic. Elevating his other hand with his index finger pointing straight up to the sky, the only protection the guy had was that at least he hadn’t realized that the pose might remind someone of a distant form of disco.

“Rai Rom!”

Bolts of natural (digital) lightning intertwined into a swirling vortex in the time span of a split second in the cloud materializing over the monsters. The tornado fell on top of the pair, dealing them a vital wake up call about the threats that needed to be contested if they didn’t want to end up like the first of their kind that resisted. Damage splashed around, numbers appearing and disappearing at a rate equivalent to that of Ocara’s prior heart beat.

The magician regained the poise of his normal stance as he pulled back a bit to avoid anything coming from right on top of him. One could say that the monsters had split the group up, but the better way of seeing things included a picture of the worms being sandwiched.

“Aaaaah!!! Someone get up there and tank that thing I don’t have the HP for this ”

The fox vaguely recognized the monster that was in pursuit of Ocara. Only vaguely because she’d never seen this specific one, but rather, the lower level version known as a Mimic. She had bad, bad memories about those, and that left her rather pleased with the idea of smacking this Hell Box into happy little splinters. ‘Tank, eh? I guess he means me, given that I’m the only one here who can take two blows and still be standing. Damned light classes.’ She took off, passing the WhipMaster, the prospects of battle and getting as far away from Jenovra as possible distracting her from the fact she was pissed off at Rayo. Adrenaline tended to cause her to switch gears and was a rather lasting effect.

She was only a few yards away when there was an explosion of lightning in front of her. Two conflicting thoughts entered her mind: ‘Pretty colors ’ and ‘HOLY SHIT ’.

The expletive won out at the last second, escaping from her mouth as she threw herself out of the summon’s way. She knew that damned beast anywhere, and she’d be damned before she got run over by it again. She glared back at the WaveMaster responsible, starting to stand back up to take aim as the monster still had a bit of health left.

“Oh, still alive?”

She froze. Then she hoped like hell he meant the monster and not her, taking off in a hurry to get out of range and find something else to kill. Ignoring the inevitable electrocution of the box behind her, she zeroed in on the pair of wyrms, then glanced up at the group before taking off after them. Rayo was already motioning towards the monsters, and she’d be forced to redirect her rage if he kept killing things before she had a chance to hit them.

Somewhere behind her, Kamina was still blabbering on in Japanese. She wondered for a moment if he realized she was the only one who had even the slightest clue what he was talking about, then decided thinking was a waste of time given the circumstances and sped up with a quick dose of Ap Do. Sure enough, she was still too slow, meaning that Rayo had Dek Raio’d the pair of monsters before she had reached them. “Oh no you don’t,” she grumbled, swinging her Devil Blade as her entrance into the match. “MINE ” Her voice carried all the anger of an animal defending its kill, and that was essentially what she’d been reduced to by adrenaline; an animal on the hunt, taking out the week’s stress and rage in the only way she knew.

Her weapons bore no thunder skills, so there was no way for Lyra to take advantage of the elemental reduction spell the mage had cast upon the wyrms. Still, they were within the range of levels she stood a chance against, and so she set to work with her katana, laying a large slice along the side of one of the pair even as another spell exploded between the two. This one was a simple Rom, not some insane summon, and so she didn’t feel threatened by it. Instead, she continued to attack the one, hoping the others would be curteous enough to head for the other and keep it out of her hair.

Ocara watched Lyra shoot past, Rayo mentioning how these monsters have status spells and taking off towards the two worms. Ocara followed a bit behind, Rayo coming to the monsters and casting Dek Raio upon arrival.

Rai spells? Seems to like em, huh. Well, I can use that…

Ocara held out his Silver Bracer, electric sparks flying off it as he cast Rai Rom onto the worm Rayo had targeted with Dek Raio. Rayo raised his wand, Ocara’s voice shouting the same thing at the same time as Rayo.

“Rai Rom!”

The pair of electric storms kicked up on the poor worm baby, the thing looking relatively confused by the ambush. Ocara felt the uneasy sensation again, his stomach only slightly uncomfortable this time.

Maybe it’s going away…

Ocara waited until the spells were over, taking the chance to attack the worm which had been blasted by spells. Taking his Burning Cord into his hand, Ocara brought his right hand from the side and pulled hard to the left. The whip followed his movements, sweeping wide from the right and slamming into the broad side of the foe. The metal pain was enough to make the monster turn to Ocara, Ocara’s mind suddenly going into panic mode.

Crapcrapcrap!

Ocara attempted to remain calm as the lumbering behemoth of a worm charged him. As it neared, it raised up on its hind legs, casting a shadow onto Ocara. Ocara quickly snapped his whip from the left back to the right, the weapon catching the worm in the stomach as it started to fall. It made a squeaking noise as it was hit, stopping halfway down its crush and recoiling back. Ocara pulled back on the whip as soon as he hit, rolling back to avoid being crushed by the worms massive body. As he rolled to safety his weapon returned nice and coiled to his hand. The Baby Worm finished being stunned from the stomach damage, continuing the attack it had started before. The only difference now was that Ocara was no longer in the spot which the worm cast a shadow upon. The monster slammed down hard into the ground, dust flying up from the earth which was covered in a layer of perpetual grit. Ocara took a deep breath and regripped his whip for another attack when/if the worm got to move forward again. Out of the corner of his eye, Ocara saw Lyra bashing the hell out of the other wiggling foe.

At least I won’t have to worry about that one. Well, let’s pay attention to the enemy, huh?

Ocara’s eyes quickly shifted to the worm, who was getting back and up making some sort of angry worm noises as it started to inch forward towards Ocara.

The Baby Worms seemed to offer enough of a challenge that the party was getting interested in fighting them. Both Lyra and Ocara were engaging them, each seemingly having chosen their own target to focus on. That was just fine, the lightning mage had his choice of where to direct his own efforts. His feet ceased to twitch, no longer needing to worry about being needed immediately. Lyra should have little trouble keeping her victim isolated given her cutting blade and the size of the gaping wounds that would leave. Ocara hadn’t been able to handle the last creature, but the Hellbox was more maneuverable than an oversized sloth. The whipmaster should be fast enough to protect himself, and hopefully acting like a flea would be a fine substitute for being able to heard the giant.

Trusting that neither of his allies would falter alone, the sorcerer turned his attention towards the Baby Worm that the heavy blade fox was currently slicing. Teaming up with the stronger player would let them obliterate that beast first, allowing them both to move on and aid his fellow light warrior. Then the whole portal could be cleared and the lost Fist Fighter could be found.

Aiming at a strike towards the head of the beast, the wavemaster made an appropriate gesture with a corresponding phrase of Rai Kruz. Resonating electrical balls popped into his screen, hesitating but a moment before bashing into the worm. Only one pecked an eye slit, whereas the mage had hoped to blind the insect more severely.

Thunder precision wasn’t quite what it used to be…not since his extra skills were gone. Unknown to the sage himself, he had inadvertently removed one of Lyra’s current fears. His hack had left him since the escape he had pulled. Leaving and entering The World freely came at but a small cost. So while his lightning manipulation talents were not created during that time, they needed to be sacrificed. Shortly before Auth took on his temporary contract with CC Corp, his hack had seemingly been used up. Unbeknownst to the player, it had simply wet dormant, and a new aspect was developed during his time spent during his assignment afterwards. What choice did he have but to let his superior delete it from his character? Well, it wasn’t as if the wizard needed it in the same way he had before. His own life was no longer being guarded directly through this game, so in a way it was fair to give up his edge. Regardless, the presence of a hack wasn’t going to change whether or not he’d do something on the digital plane.

“Hey Lyra, why don’t we finish this one up? If you take another good chunk out of that thing and then clear out for a moment, I could stun it long enough for you to give the coup de grâce.”

Seeing as how slinking foe had already taken enough damage, Lanceor and a strong enough chop should probably send it into overkill. Rayo attempted to make eye contact with the girl to secure agreement on the plan, because while he’d willfully cast Lanceor if she followed the actions, setting her on him by doing so against her wishes would not be his course of action. Instead, using Rai Rom until it croaked would suffice.

The wolf glared furiously at the dancing sprites through the crimson film his trickling blood formed over his eyes. Blinking the stinging, salt from his eyes, He attempted to get up again, only for both witches to run off at top speed again. His SP had just reached 20 again.

“Repth!!” he cried, and then dove to the right, tightening into a ball and rolling a little ways further than his original landing point. He quickly sprung to his feet and took off again. This time, the green glyph formed one step behind him and the spire of rocks erupted from the ground, inches from his tail. Again, his lungs felt like a piston chamber, the burning was almost intolerable. He wiped the blood from his eyes again, and this time, made use of his items. Taking a speed charm, he felt the effects of an AP Do spell take effect. : The quickening of the pulse, the sudden surge of adrenaline, and the amplified current of electricity from the nerve endings to the brain. Kamina quickly tightened his Fist Guards and dashed in a zig zag pattern towards one of the witches, burying his fist into the bridge of her nose. The witch released a shriek of pain. But Kamina kept moving. With a baseball slide, he turned and planted the sole of his foot square with her back and in an explosion of nerves and adrenaline, sprung her back into the air. The furied Fist Fighter loosed a howl then leapt into the air, delivering a spinning crescent kick to his foe, knocking her into her partner. The two scrambled to their feet. But at that point, the former Wavemaster was already crouched and poised, his amber eyes giving off a fierce glow. Another howl was loosed as the wolf rushed and lunged towards his opponents. The gap quickly closed. Two more feet and then….

Two green glyphs formed at Kamina’s feet, binding him to the ground. The earth rose to form large boulders above him, at the same time it shuddered violently at his feet. Kamina’s eyes dilated as his body was launched up into the air by the level 2 earth spell, only for his body to be crushed by the boulders falling towards the earth. By the time the magic faded, Kamina’s crumpled body had already turned an ashen color. With this done, the witches skipped off to find a new prey.

Ocara watched as Rayo moved to the other target.

I could have used that help a little more… ah geez, it’s coming right at me…

Ocara watched the immense worm sluggishly inch towards him, Ocara rushing towards the worm in a berserk attack.

“Damnable worms!”

Ocara watched the worm get closer, its body rising up as Ocara pushed his legs to propel him forward.

“Stomach!”

Ocara lashed out with his whip, the worm taking another shot to the vulnerable stomach. It crashed back down, Ocara far from being hit by it. Using his class’s natural speed, he ran past the worm’s recovering body, whipping its side as he passed. The worm squealed in annoyance and pain, turning its whole body on a dime. The massive form of the creature slammed Ocara as it came around, his head dizzy as he rolled backwards across the dusty plains. The hit had done quite a bit of damage, the enemy a bit stronger than him.

“Repth!”

Ocara healed himself, looking to the worm that was about ¾ dead by now.

“Big finish! Here we go!”

Ocara rushed the worm, the monster inching forward for a tackle. The monster’s large form carried much momentum, and Ocara now stood as it continued rushing forward at unstoppable speeds.

“Yee-haw! Here we go!”

Ocara rolled to the side as it flew by in a straight line, the dust from its stomping feet clouding the area around it as it passed. Ocara found a particularly bulbous part of its body, tossing his whip at it as the monster was nearly past him. The whip wrapped around it, Ocara being dragged off his feet as the worm continued to charge, unable to stop. Ocara felt the worm slow down a slight amount, his body having just enough weight to lightly touch down on the ground, making a trail of dust behind him as his feet caught the ground lightly. He started pulling himself up his whip, hoping it wouldn’t fall off. The worm squealed, every pull on the whip tightening the weapon around a fat mound on it. Ocara finally got to the body, pulling himself onto the back of the charging worm. Lashing the worm around the head with his whip now, Ocara pulled to the left as it made a loop around the fat neck.

“Giddie up!”

Ocara’s pull made the worm turn the opposite way, Ocara making a 180 and charging back towards where he had been. The worm went faster and faster, enraged by the pain of the whip, carrying a person on its back, and the exhaustion of continuing to run at full speed on its underdeveloped legs. Ocara saw the other worm now, the one he was riding on going fast enough to make it back to the spot in mere seconds. Ocara stood up, tightening the whip around its huge neck severely and making it move at an alarmingly fast speed as the pain increased and it started to panic. Ocara aimed it for a rock nearby, the worm charging in blind panic. Ocara got ready as it got near the rock, releasing his whip from its neck and jumping off. It flew towards the rock, but upon feeling its restraints lifted, did a sort of rolling back flip over itself, facing Ocara with a raised body.

“Crap!”

Ocara pointed a hand out, having seconds before the worm would slam down upon him. He cast Gan Zot on the rock behind the worm, the earthen spikes slamming into the base of the stone from the other side. With a loud crack, the rock spire he had been trying to ram the worm into shattered at the base and fell forward onto the large foe. The thud heard upon the sharp stone impaling the infant monster was a relieving sound to Ocara, his mind suddenly realizing he was still under a falling worm’s corpse, and also now a large spiky rock. He raised his other hand, casting another Gan Zot to hopefully stall the falling things long enough for him to escape. He was just about out of Sp now, but the resulting rock spire did indeed pierce the worm from below and stop its fall long enough for Ocara to roll back out of range. The spell dissipated as the magic was over, the worm having no more support and falling to the ground with a heavy crash. It’s body faded, the stone that fell upon it doing the same and soon reforming as if it had never been broken. Ocara gave a sigh of relief, sitting and waiting for his Sp to recover. He looked to his allies, Rayo and Lyra, hoping they were just about done.

As she’d hoped, the others had finished off the remaining monsters, allowing her some much-needed slaughtering.

Somewhere along the line, Kamina had gotten finished off as well. Noticing this, Lyra started sorting through her items, wandering toward the WaveMaster’s ghost in the meanwhile. This marked the first time that day she’d actually headed in his direction as opposed to running away; she doubted she was being watched in the field, and so was a bit more willing to interact with her hacked friends in this context.

Unfortunately, she lacked the healing items neccesary to revive her friend anyway, making the gesture essentially useless. She sighed, glancing up at him with laid-back ears, then glanced half-heartedly back over her shoulder at the remainder of the group. “Anyone got a Ressurect? I’m out.”

While she waited for a responce, Lyra took the moment to gather her thoughts. The battles had been so quick and so many that she’d barely gotten to make note of who was there with her, let alone really comprehend her surroundings. That wasn’t a bad thing, though; today, she just needed to lose it, to be out of her head for a while, and The World was a great rage outlet. After all, Rayo had dragged her out here to cheer her up, hadn’t he? What point did it have if she didn’t let the trip serve its purpose?

But now she was starting to think too much again. The lack of action was making her uncomfortable - the adrenaline was draining from her as quickly as it had filled her, leaving her downtrodden in its wake. She wanted to get moving again.

So she told the others that fact, and, true to form, the fox didn’t mince any words.

“Which way to the dungeon? We here to get to the treasure or to clear the whole field? I could use a few levels.”

((short... sorry. I happened to have a free half-hour though...))

Watching the final beast fade away, the mage patted himself off as he approached Lyra. Needing to hasten his pace in order to catch up, the wavemaster jogged over to her and saw what the blade wielding nutcase had found this time. Kamina had disappeared after the during the encounter with the monsters, and all that was left for them to work with was a ghost at this point. The aggressors were already on the horizon, so hunting them down didn’t seem too entertaining a thought, not that the black belt might not wish to nonetheless. Laying a hand to rest on where the player’s shoulder would be if he was solid, the enchanter muttered a short prayer for him. The brilliance of all of the shades of colors that made up the wolf were once again apparent, brought back by a simple Rip Maen.

Hmm…if they continued to scourer the wasteland like this, the group would only be fragmented further. One of the pair of wave mistresses had popped out already, and Kamina had been killed separately. The dungeon would limit their mobility but at the same time would force them together.

“Might as well just head straight to the dungeon….wherever that is anyway. I never seem to have Fairy Orbs on hand. and my map isn’t picking anything up. It’s blending in with the landscape well enough that I can’t see much of anything on it as it is. Besides…”

Rayo grinned outwardly, exchanging one of those knowing looks with the eager heavy blade, just knowing exactly what there was to make her day already.

“…I know of a decent test we could find down below. It’s sure to keep you well occupied for as long as you want. You can then fight to your heart’s content, how does that sound?”

Patting her shoulder as he passed, the arcane mage picked a direction that would move them further from their starting point and set out, assuming no one would really care where they went. If someone did, or perhaps knew where to go already, they were completely free to pipe up and deliver the directions. There weren’t any monster portals within range of their intended path, so nothing should interfere with reaching the dungeon too much.

Pushing back from his desk, Auth took a sip of his lemonade before laying it back down on an adjacent table. Not bothering to remove his goggles, the boy groped around for the TV remote and flipped it on, tossing the device back into the old fashioned wicker basket.

Turning towards the fox in the game, the wavemaster motioned for her to match pace with him. Flexing his hand a little, Rayo wondered how much distrust there was between them right now.

“Seems that it’s going to be raining all day…I guess there won’t be much else to do right now. Hm…is it okay for you to spend some time here, or do you have some work to do? I wonder a little how quickly you finish things like that, given the number of times you’ve been off thinking of this or that while doing something completely different. Are you always just thinking, or just when you’re on?”

Hmm. It took no longer than the first battle for two to disappear- one dead, the other simply flakey. The spastic powerhouse and not-so-quietly overconfident one seemed to be able to handle this level well enough.

For Jenovra, it might as well be death row.

One shot from any monster here and she would be out- possibly two, but she hadn't exactly been improving on her physical defenses lately. Another new obstacle would having to be able to stand up to monster's spells more often- if anything the fare she was used to could only cast one offensive spell, max. Cost-efficient resurrect spells can do wonders in reversing damage but not for improving what's already there. She might as well give it a shot, anyhow. The two ringleaders talked away as Ocara tried not to pass out and the overly-hairy kid relearned the joys of being solid... erm, as solid as game sprites can be. A quick sidle and she was in the main group again.

"If you don't mind my asking," Jenovra cut in, addressing the ever-chatty Lyra and Rayo (they were there, she didn't know them, and they knew what they were doing more than the others- whichever answered didn't matter to her). Did she catch a silence between retorts? Everybody quiet for a moment? Good. "What exactly would I be useful for here?" She flicked a manicured (battling characters with perfect fingernails. Gotta love game physics) finger at her level amount.

"I haven't invested enough time and effort into this game to consider playing on this high of a level. Honestly I don't believe I'll do much of a dent in even a weak monster's health, though the opposite holds less than true, I'm afraid. I'm also not one to be concerned about healing too often and haven't anything better than the standard Repth, thus me being a 'healer' is out of the question." She looked apathetically over at Ocara and Kamina. "Most non-wavemasters even have that spell at their disposal. By all means, though; if you have an inkling of how I can be of use besides wasting my time and yours, I'd be delighted to listen." She smiled thinly. Now will be a prime moment to learn just exactly what sort she was dealing with.