An overwhelming sense of exhaustion settled over him, blanketing his entire body. He sat propped up against the wall of the alley, eyes half glazed over. He had let his mind wander when a sudden spark swept through his brain, completely eliminating anything else there.

¿Dónde está la biblioteca?

He sat up with a jolt. He had absolutely no idea where that had come from, but the fact that it had come at all was bad. He was going stir crazy and needed to get out of here. In fact, it seemed that the sight of Mac Anu was making his head spin wild fantasies. Perhaps it was time for a change of scenery. The boy got up slowly, using the spear as a cane to steady himself. A quest.

A quest would be good. He hadn’t been on one since the disaster at the degenerating field and he was due for another. Who to go with though? He smiled as the thought was dragged into his head. It would be fun to rag on Kira a bit. He opened the flashmail menu and composed a quick message.

That done, Raquar hobbled and staggered over to the Chaos Gate at the entrance of town. He angled his hand toward the clear unrippling surface and coughed out a pair of words.

“Dun Loireag.”

The trio of golden rings cascaded down the Long Arm’s body and proceeded to dump him into the Theta Server Root Town. He had only been here once before and the sight still amazed him. Huge spires roared out of the unseen ground as bridges connected small plateaus on which the shopkeepers set up. He wandered aimlessly along the bridges and spires until he came upon a small opening, beset on either side by a pair of earthen spires, heralding something similar to a gateway.

The boy tingled, he had a strange feeling about this place, it was oddly familiar. He walked slowly towards the edge of the cliff and peered down into the abyss. He couldn’t see anything of importance down there. The Long Arm began to turn around when something happened. There was either a sudden gust of wind or something similar is he stumbled, pitching headfirst over the cliff.

A scream ripped itself from his lips as he began to tumble into the darkness. Instead of falling for an eternity that he figured, he crashed down onto a small ledge. He stood up shaking himself off, he was lucky that a fall like that hadn’t broken any bones. The only thing accompanying him on the ledge was a cave, and the inquisitive nature that he possessed almost forced him to go search it.

The first thing noticeable about the cave was that it was dark. Very dark. Not even his torch-eyes as some called them could penetrate this veil. As he neared the back of the snaking cave a faint illumination began to permeate the air. Raquar came upon the smoldering remains of a dying fire. It clicked into place. This is where he, as the Long Arm, had run into Garvix. He shuddered, not a fun memory. His eyes shifted upward, noticing a carving on the wall. Three words were inscribed into the earth, Resurrected Eternal Memory. Keywords.

He kicked out the remains of the dying fire and was on his way out when he tripped over something solid. Blindly searching with his hand, he felt across a solid piece of wood. Moving his hands up and down, he realized he had stumbled over a ladder. He mounted the object quickly, scurrying upwards until he bumped into something solid above him. Pushing against it with his head, a hatch tumbled open and sunlight streamed into the cave.

He popped out of the ground and looked around. He was in the back of the building and he caught the faint scent of some sort of animal excrement. He realized with a shock that he was behind the Grunty Farm. He jogged quickly toward the Chaos Gate, his mind racing. It was obvious that the keywords were a clue. It would probably lead him closer to being able to beat the accursed Whipmaster. Who knew, he might even see her again. He reached the Chaos Gate and debated whether or not to wait for his teammates. It probably was good as this server was likely a much higher level than he was accustomed to. But he wished they would hurry it up some.

She stood there, waiting for the one who'd called her there to arrive along with any others who might have also been asked to come along. For the time being, she kept herself completely covered in the tan-gold colored hooded cloak that she currently wore over her recently changed attire. Things had changed indeed since she'd returned... and only time would show her just how much so. The wind was clever and managed to keep her from being too overheated despite the three-quarter's length of the cloak itself. Hood up and face hidden by the shadows within it, the small form seemed to be detatched from The World, yet looked like she was a great part of it all at the same time.

They say you look like an Event character.

'...is that supposed to be amusing or...?'

Depends on which way you look at it. But anyways, check your inventory and make sure you have everything.

Seemed like it'd be a good idea actually, she thought to herself as she moved for the first time in a little while and brought her menu up to check everything she had out. HP restorers, check. SP restorers, those were spendy but, yes, she had those too. Several different bows, she was going to definitely need a little time to readjust to shooting these things again, but with more bows came more skills. She had scrolls and various fun things to use in case she ran out of SP and the restorers. Something whistled, barely caught over the sound of a stray grunty trotting over the wooden planks of the city and she looked up. One of the kites appeared to be falling directly towards where she stood, not quite the welcoming she'd expected or rather, had imagined by far but, it seemed she'd have to take care of it somehow.

Alright, remember how I showed you the first few times? One smooth motion and let 'er rip!

A small flash of light appeared as a long, smooth white wood bow appeared in her hand and an arrow in the other. Notching the arrow was a bit difficult seeing as how the arrow itself seemed to feel alive under her hand but, she managed before drawing it up, pulling the string back to her ear and narrowing her eyes as she released the string and arrow. The small projectile fell a few inches short of where she'd wanted it to go, definitely needed more practice, and sent the kite spinning down just past the platform where the Chaos Gate stood. Bow vanished and her hands were left empty as she placed the hood of her cloak back up and proceeded to do the same thing she'd been doing before; waiting for Raquar to show up, perhaps Sasuke if the message had been read right.

They're allies, remember that. I wouldn't agree to meet them if I knew you couldn't handle it.

Sekai nodded softly, as if to herself, and wondered just what kinds of things were going to be happening.... for her first time being completely back.

*BEEP*beep*BEEP*beep*BEEP*beep*BEEP*beep*

"Huh?" Jonas said as he looked up. He had fallen asleep on his keyboard, a trail of druel came from his mouth and was smothered atop the keys in an action most commonly known as... 'Waking up.'

Waking up is a term used to describe your physical, mental, and emotional state upon the top of the morning, or more presumably, the time that you first open your eyes in the morning/night (whichever you wake at). Jonas was doing just that.

"YAAAAAWWWWWwwwwnnnn...!!"

Jonas was doing just that, he lifted his face from the keyboard, a notable keyboard print now covered his face. It looked kind of like he smashed his face against the keyboard and came back up with an imprint of each seperate key on his face. His hair was all over the place, and he seemed confused while looking up to see where exactly he was.

But where exactly was Jonas? Well, that is simple! The normal place, his bedroom, of course!! It was the only place that he would feel so comfortable to pass out on said computer keyboard, or what have you.

The sound that Jonas awoke to, something sounding exactly like an alarm clock, was NOT an alarm clock. In fact, he woke to an icon popping up on the lower right hand corner of his screen. A small dialogue box appeared and it was titled "You have a new Message!" So as expected, Jonas clicked his mouse on this little link.

You see, being a rather sleepy head was just one reason why he had put an alarm on the messaging controls, the other reason was because of his duties as the AOD leader. And some job he was doing! In the past month, Jonas hadn't even put his neuro goggles on to even stop at the Clan Mansion and say 'Hi' or post a note in there letting everyone know what he was up to!

To tell the truth, he had been depressed. Depressed that the clan that he had always DREAMED of commanding had shallowed out and turned into a rather quiet and not so active clan. Then again, he lives in the olden days when he was just a regular member of his beloved Army of Darkness, nowadays the clan is probably still the highest ranking in the entirety that is THE WORLD.

Jonas read this out loud to himself in his room. He was all by himself, so he could do as he pleased without bothering anyone!

"Get my BUTT to the Theta Server??? Who does he think I am? Some random guy that he can talk down to? I'll have to show him an example of customs and courtesies for when a lower ranking person is speaking to an Officer... or hell! When a clan member is speaking to their Leader and 2nd-in-Command!!!"

Jonas put his game face on, as well as the neuro-goggles and turned his audio up on the computer as well. He had gotten himself in character just by reading the message that the young troop had sent to him.

--In THE WORLD--

The portals appeared as always, going from the bottom- up. The golden rings spat from it the data that held the player known as Sasuke of the Blue Sky. But this wasn't the old Sasuke, the red cape and the swords by his side still there, but his clothing had changed! It seemed that in the real world Jonas had gotten himself a little busy and revamped Sasuke for good times sake! But it was a nice change anyway, and a very needed one. With new times comes new appearances, and this one was Sasukes'.

His new clothing really wasn't too big of a difference from his prior appearance; his chest armor is now not shown on his chest (even though it is still equipped), his clothing now took a more modern form- it was a t-shirt with black sleeves but a blue body and thin white stripes divided the different colors from each other, the pants had black around the outside of his upper thigh and the rest of it was blue with the same thin white stripe. His shoes were still sandals, and he still wore the old shin guards. His shoulders did change though, only one shoulder would have a piece of armor on it, and that was his right shoulder. He wore no fore-arm guard on the right arm, and on his left arm he had his old fore-arm guard, and a metal plated upper sleeve for protection of his arm on this side. Now he wore an actual belt, unlike his old cloth that he would bind his waist with, and attached to the belt would be his sachel on his left side and a sword on the right. Across his back there was still his trusty Gakaku, and near the collar of his t-shirt on the left side there was what seemed to be a pin. It turns out that the pin is actually a button that- when pressed, his long flowing red cape would appear from! His helmet stayed the same, but his face mask now covered everything underneath his eyes, practically, instead of having a hole for his mouth.

Seems like a rather good description, but there could be so much more to it.. but regardless, he now stood in front of the Chaos gate in the Theta server, as asked by his comrade in the AOD.

Sasuke turned to take a look at the server, he wanted to watch as people couldn't recognize him and he stood waiting by the gate for the others. But of course, Raquar would be there already, where was he?

Sasuke turned around and there was Raquar, just around the other side of the Chaos gate, and he thought to himself...

What a PERFECT chance to Ninja this fool!!!

Now just what to do, Sasuke had done so much to his other half- Sekai, and the poor girl is probably losing her mind every time it happens. But then it snapped! *CLICK!*

Sasuke stepped back towards the edge of the platform that he stood on. Just as his heels hit the edge and he swayed from slightly losing his balance, he hopped off the side and reached up to catch the edge with his hands. He then shimmied his way to the other side of the platform to just near where Raquar had been standing.

He peeked his head up, seeing that Raquar was still standing in the same spot, he had other people around him though, but no matter! This might scare the living daylights out of them, but it will be well worth it if he hits his target!

*POOF*

He flung himself in the air! And yes, "Poof" was the sound that he made when he flung himself. Sasuke looked down at the, still, unsuspecting Raquar remained motionless. He had gone a bit high in the air, luckily his shadow won't fall in front of Raquar because of the placing of the sun at this time of day.

Oh shit... !!!

Raquar regained motion and had started to walk to the other side of the Chaos gate, probably to check and see if Sekai or Sasuke had arrived yet. He left only a hooded player, looked something like a female Archer-type player, in his place.

Well, regardless, there was no time to fix himself. He came down and with all the energy he could sum up at the time, he shouted and howled at the person he was coming down on! Sasuke landed on this hooded players shouders and knocked her to the ground with himself still on top of her back side! He shouted when they connected, "BOOOOOOOYAAAA!!!"

"Hahahaha! That was soooo good. Stupid Raquar, moving out of the way!" he said.

Raquar turned around to see his leader sitting upright on the ass end of the hooded player that he walked away from no more than 3 seconds ago. Raquar seemed like he snickered a little bit, from Sasuke's point of view that is. He looked as though he were laughing and he gave a little point at the player that Sasuke was now perched upon. He just sat there for a moment until Raquar walked over to him.

"How you doin there, troop?" Sasuke asked Raquar. With a smile, he replied, "I'm doing just fine!" and then continued to burst in laughing.

"What's so funny?" Sasuke inquired.

*Enter a high pitched feminine shriek came from underneath the hood*

"Oi...???" Sasuke lifted the hood from the persons head....

"SEKAI!!!!!", a look of surprise filled Sasuke's eyes, but he turned quickly to a rather large smile- unseen due to his new appearance.

The two male players happened to spout out laughter in unison, Sasuke quickly got himself off of her behind and stood next to Raquar, note that they are still laughing.

"Well... heh..haha! Shall we do this thing then?? bo-hahahaha!" Sasuke laughed as he asked the two of his troops, Raquar still laughing, and Sekai with tears in her eyes.

The Chaos Gate was getting crowded. Players swarmed to and from either gating into the mountain top city or gating out into a field. There were even a few like himself standing around looking like complete idiots because they were either waiting for people, or had nothing better to do. There was even a hooded character that looked oddly familiar standing off toward one side. He couldn’t quite identify why the person looked familiar he just knew that he or she did. He began to tap his foot impatiently, when were those two going to get here?

There was motion off towards his right, and his shifted slightly to notice a pair of oddly familiar gloved hands gripping the ledge of the spire. What in the world was Sasuke doing hanging onto the edge of the platform? He took a couple steps forward and his question was answered. The current leader of the Army of Darkness had vaulted himself into the air, and seemed to be heading straight for the spot the Long Arm had been standing a few seconds ago. Instead of crashing into the boy like he was sure the Blademaster had expected to, Sasuke had instead crashed into the familiar looking hooded character with a high pitched yell.

"BOOOOOOOYAAAA!!! Hahahaha! That was soooo good. Stupid Raquar, moving out of the way!"

What was he supposed to do? Stand there and get jumped on? He turned back towards Sasuke and couldn’t help but to snicker. The hooded figure the man had landed on no longer wore her hood, and the face was quite a familiar one. He walked over toward the so-called “ninja” and offered him a hand up, trying to contain as much laughter as he could.

"How you doin there, troop?"

Raquar managed to sputter an answer to the question before bursting out into gales of laughter.

"What's so funny?"

The boy continued to laugh, wiping tears from his eyes as a yelp resonated from underneath the Blademaster.

Sasuke was completely taken by surprise as he glanced down, directly into Sekai’s eyes. The man leapt almost as high as he had originally and came back down spluttering with laughter.

"Well... heh..haha! Shall we do this thing then?? bo-hahahaha!"

Raquar nodded, clutching his side. He turned toward the Chaos Gate and wheezed out the Key Words.

“Resurrected Eternal Memory.”

The golden rings quenched the laughter as the trio was transported to the desired field. The fading rings were the only spots of light on the dark field. An inky blackness covered the night sky, blotting out any stars that may have shone through. The boy could make out the shades of the landscape through the darkness. A tree here, a hill there. But the most refreshing thing about the darkness, was that any monster portal would be clearly visible for miles. He turned around to where his two companions had just materialized, and noticed one of the portals just previously mentioned situated directly behind them. He nodded that direction and took off.

The boy had run for only a few yards before the portal began to spin and twirl rapidly. It regurgitated something his headset marked as a Baby Worm. Something of course, that was obviously mismarked. The creature was nearly eight feet long and the amount of flesh it had on it could cover the player a good ten times over. It opened a gaping mouth, lined with rows of needles and roared, spraying spittle and some disgustingly colored goo everywhere.

This was not going to be pleasant.

“Ow…My head…” Bane shielded his eyes with his lower arm as he burrowed into the quilt to escape the morning sun’s rays. He turned over and moaned; his night wasn’t exactly the best night’s sleep he had had, nor was it the most enjoyable. He swung his legs over the side of his bed and rubbed his eyes. With a long yawn and a scratching of the back of his neck he went over to his computer monitor and turned it on, while it booted up, Bane picked out a long sleeved shirt and a pair of jeans out of the closet and got changed, finishing just as the computer screen buzzed to life with the Altimit icon.

“Welcome to The World!”

Bane brushed his hair back with his sleeve and placed his visor over his eyes, finding that it had become a little small. He picked up the controller and found himself falling towards the streets of Mac Anu. The golden rings set Bane down on the cobblestone walkway in front of the Chaos Gate and he stretched, waking himself up a little. He looked over the crowds of people walking about the streets, his excitement overwhelming his common sense as he jumped for joy, knocking down a few people in the process. Bane spun on his heel and hyped himself up for his next adventure, with a quick glace at his inventory, he restocked on some items and then dashed back to the Chaos Gate. Bane shouted at the gate to take him somewhere and he selected a keyword he hadn’t tried before. “Dun Loireag!”

The golden rings circled Bane and warped him away to Dun Loireag. When Bane first arrived, he looked around. He noticed that players were roaming the field as well. It was only after a while he realised that he wasn’t in a field at all, but rather in the next Root Town. “So this is Theta…” Bane looked up at the sky and at the various stone spires and shops surrounding the town. He walked back a few paces and turned around, bumping into a woman dressed in viridian green. “Ah!” Bane stumbled backwards and fell over onto his backside, whining a little as he dusted down his white lab coat. “Now my coat is all dirty…” Bane looked up at the character he bumped into and apologised. “Sorry about that Miss…” He stopped mid bow and realised he didn’t know the girl’s name, not that he usually did anyway. “Um…I’m Bane by the way…” He held out his hand and smiled at the girl. She was very interesting indeed. After exchanging pleasantries, and gaining a part in her party, Bane gated to the field with a hope that he would get to meet some new people and possibly level up.

Unfortunatly, it appeared as though he wasn't going to be able to meet properly with everyone. "Ok, battle mode on!" Bane drew his sword and grasped it firmly, gritting his teeth and firmly planted his feet into the ground. He watched as one of his fellow team mates were duking it out against a large worm type creature, that had obviously been misnamed due to it's large size. Bane resheathed his sword again after reassessing the situation and pointed at the monster. "Rai Rom!" A helix of static electricity erupted from Bane's left arm and collided with the monster, chipping slowly away at it's HP.

He had officially picked the wrong field to go to today...

"Rai Rom!!" shouted Bane, the lightning surged through the air and struck the monster worm, and then he dodged out of the way so that another attack could be dealt. That's where Sasuke comes in handy! Always prepared, Sasuke moved up to make his blow, except from the angle that he was coming at, he would be striking at the lengthy portion of this monster.

"I've got to conserve my SP, I'll have to use physical attacks against this guy. There's still so much more to go for this field!"

Sasuke had the 7-Star sword drawn already, and with that he hurled himself high into the air and came down slicing the monsters back side. There wasn't much else that Sasuke could do, he only had a sword and a few scrolls.

A few scrolls? That's it! Use a few scrolls on the beast!! Combined with physical attacks, it'll be almost like he used a skill like Vak Crack, or Gan Slash, depending on the type of scroll that is. So he'll do elemental damage and physical damage, sounds good!

Sasuke shuffled around his sachel attached to his hip, he was trying to find the certain item that he needed. All he was doing was feeling around, he would grab the first one that he felt, and with that he had pulled out an Ice Floe.

Great... an Ice-type spell.. what good is that!!

"Ice Floe!!" Sasuke called out, he had stepped back from the monster. It turned to him and hissed, then jutted out after Sasuke. Just as it's mouth reached Sasuke the spell took effect, as well as Sasuke disappeared and reappeared above the monsters 'head' doing what seemed to be the same type of attack. He slashed down onto the monsters cranium just as the spell attacked the monsters cranium. It was like doing Vak Crack, or Rue Crack this would be, except Blademasters don't have skills that are water-type. Now, while that's all fine and dandy, it just seemed perfect how Sasuke pulled off the technique and knocked the monster down.

Sasuke landed on the ground and moved back to the formation, Bane stood behind him now and they both took a defensive stance and waited for Sekai and Raquar to strike the beast. When the other two finally finish their strike, Sasuke had a plan. A four way attack from all sides with different elements. This fight shouldn't take too much longer...

A beautiful day

Digital dreams incarnated in front of the scarlet donned blade master, removing any purpose for his dreams to play with his thoughts and offer an alternative to a crummy life. Yes, the wonder of ‘The World,’ where one’s fantasies come true, and the world left behind once a large headset was strapped on seemed severely unattractive and not worthy of one’s own time.

Three hops off the ledge he had previously been lounging on for hours on end had him bolting through traffic, disturbing players and sending merchants and their prospective customers in fits of rage that died down as soon as the crimson blade master slipped through the crowd.

Now that the running start had been accumulated, it was time to keep moving and find something worthwhile to be done. The idea of lost identity had finally lost its effect, its ‘wow!’ factor that had him walking around like a zombie, mouth open and eyes bloodshot not a week before. But after the hundredth time clicking at the log off button with no following effect, he’d merely chuckle and keep on moving.

And then the beep came. Midst his escape, he was alerted to the presence of ‘friends’- labeled that by the game, god knows if he’d recognize them!- that had logged on and were currently in a certain field. Three jumbled up words representing a field quickly followed, and the option to join them popped in.

But should he…?

The names of each one were read more than once, pronounced with care, allowing each vowel and syllable to roll of the tongue in the hopes his memory would kick in and all would be ok. But nothing happened…nothing would be quite ‘ok’ anymore; he’d need to choose quickly.

So he did. Three clicks now had him running to the chaos gate with an adventure in hands, and partners that would hopefully save him were saving a necessity. The famed three golden rings revolved furiously in front of him, attempting to decipher his future, or help him in his predicaments, but would soon fail.

The trance felt was now wearing off, partly due to the failed attempt, but mainly due to the angry mob behind him, consisting of now familiar faces with familiar expressions; this wasn’t the first time he’d pissed them off. As the commands were inputted, the blade master did a quick turn in place, swiveling on his heels in one swift motion. As his gaze rested on their unsheathed weapons, he waved and winked.

“Enjoy this beautiful day!”

And with that, he was gone. Hopefully the players known as Sasuke, Sekai, Raquar and Bane could have answers.

"Is that??"

Sasuke was distracted from the fight against the baby worm, which at that point was a BAD idea. The monster lashed it's mighty tail at Sasuke and smashed him across the upper body which threw him to the right like he was a rag doll.

He rolled over, grabbing his elbow in pain, atleast it was his off hand. He could still use his right side and he still had the use of his legs and the speed that he is known to have. Sasuke had a strange motivation due to the appearance of his former leader and friend, Cypher. This motivation put his inner demon to the side and allowed him to act by his own will. It was the reversing effect for him, that inner darkness was starting to take over that in which was Sasuke and turn him to a darker, more sadistic killer.

Sasuke popped to his feet, putting the pain aside and regaining his stamina. He did that sort of movement where he would confuse the enemy, going from left to right and looking like he was going to attack on the opposite side that he ends up attacking at, the feint. His sword flared up, he held it somewhat like a baseball bat and then hopped into the air and hollered at his enemy.

"Vak Crack!!"

The sword slashed through the monster. And to make the story short, the monster disappeared into junk data. If there was any way for a monster like that to take a few shots from lower level players and then to take 3 shots from a player who is well on par with the monster, that wouldn't be seen today. The monster vanished, the fight was over, and it was about damn time!

Sasuke came down and landed just infront of Cypher. He sheathed his sword temporarily and greeted him.

"Hello Cypher, it's been a while since I've seen you around these parts. How have things been?"

Sasuke knew that small talk is a rather bad idea while going through an active field and dungeon, but he hadn't seen the man he called 'Leader' for such a long time. Since the days that he has called Cypher his 'leader', Sasuke has aged in the real world as well as grown up in THE WORLD and now leads the clan that Cypher once led. Infact, he gained the leading position from Cypher, a great sense of honor and gratitude instilled with that.

It was time that the team moved on. It seemed that what was supposed to be a short adventure will turn out to be a bit longer than expected. And what was supposed to be the 4 Ninja-like players in the Army of Darkness will now end up being 5. The more, the merrier. And so they will move on.

Sadly, Sekai and Kira had gotten distracted and had gone temporarily AFK due to what appeared to have been a pillow fight gone completely to hell in the large room Sekai still lived in for the time being. Mika and Hanako had started yelling at each other in a mixture of broken English and Japanese until she'd broken in and gotten the two to settle down on opposite ends of the room and play a multi-player fighting game that seemed to take their aggressions out quite nicely.

Ahh... shit?

'I wouldn't say that exactly but... um, why is there an angry bunch of people coming from the direction of the Grunty farm?'

Who knows and cares, c'mon now, you need to get to the field so we can keep those dumbasses outta trouble.

'Considering the trouble we seem to attract? How is that any comfort?'

Just shut up and go, I wanna hit Torvald a few times, maybe scare 'im with a close call with an arrow.

The keywords were said and all seemed fine when she arrived. The great hulking mass of what looked to be a Baby- Kira started groaning and muttering things under her breath that Sekai couldn't quite catch. Apparently Kira disliked Baby Worms, why that was? Sekai couldn't say, frankly more than a little disappointed that she'd missed out again on seeing a new opponent. Hopefully the next series of battles would bear a little more than one enemy. And with an assorted group of leveled players... there were sure to be some complications.

I don't like this place for some reason.

The silver haired archer dug through her inventory and skill list, discarding certain spells in favor of other ones before thanking the Gods, and the rather indignant Kira who piped up, that she had the upgrade to the Repth spell. Now able to cast the healing spell on the entire party in case of injuries, she felt a little more stabilized knowing that she could quickly fix a potentially dangerous situation.

"La Repth."

A blue light covered those involved in the battle, healing wounds and aches from the battle and restoring any lost HP as she caught up the the group, the hood of the cape lowered to reveal a familiar face to those who'd known the girl before. Raquar and Sasuke were likely the ones to recognize the long haired girl with golden-brown eyes and a gentle aura about her. She paused a ways away from where the entire party crowded about, looking a little uneasy but determined to go through with this and regain her footing within The World again, even if it did mean having Kira help and coax her through the entire process.

Hey if nothing else? She made one hell of a healer and had pulled collective asses out of the fire before.

“Ice Floe!”

The ninja clad in blue armour held a scroll hi above his head as it unfurled and a barrage of ice plummeted from the sky and collided with the monster. But, what seemed really amazing to Bane was watching the player run swiftly up the monster and deliver a physical attack in time with his own spell. It was awesome, the was no other word for it; such skill speed and grace were all things Bane envied, however, he would have a chance to properly converse with the player after the monster was dead. He came back and took up a defensive stance just in front of Bane, probably waiting for one of the other two to make some sort of action. “Is that…?”

Sasuke turned his head and lost concentration. The monster’s massive tail lashed out and whacked Sasuke firmly across the chest, sending his body flying rag-doll style stage right. Bane didn’t have time to wonder whether or not he was ok, he would’ve liked to go and check; but the current situation didn’t allow such a folly move to be employed. Bane switched stances to offensive and prepared an immediate counterattack, however, as he was about to make his motion, Sasuke was back up and rearing to fight. “Vak Crack!” Sasuke’s blazing edge ripped through the monster, taking a severe chunk of its HP and reducing its total down to zero.

"Hello Cypher, it's been a while since I've seen you around these parts. How have things been?"

“Um…Mr Sasuke…” Bane made an attempt to converse with the Blademaster as he passed, but was ignored when another Blademaster came into the situation. From the looks of things, they had something in common, they were chatting like old friends before it hit Bane like a bag of bricks. “Could he be…THE Cypher?” Cypher was a name that Bane had heard before. Apparently, he was supposed to be the ex-leader of the AoD; however it seemed as though he had given it up to someone else. He decided to leave them be and looked around.

“La Repth.”

Bane watched as a green aura washed over his body and healed his minor wounds. He wondered where the spell had come from and then saw the same girl he had met in the root town. “Yo! Sekai!” Bane rushed over to where she was and bowed. “Thanks for the healing…and also for allowing me to join your party.” Sure, he didn’t know whether or not it was in fact Sekai’s party or Sasuke’s, either way, he still could now continue on knowing he had done the right thing and thanked the person responsible for the journey. He looked over to Sasuke and Cypher, both of which were now smiling and reminiscing on old times. He walked over, and tapped Sasuke on the shoulder, light enough for it to not be a nuisance.

“Captain…um…Sasuke?” He was a little nervous, as he usually is in front of strong or high ranking players. “Can you teach me…um…how to be that fast?” Bane smiled a little and then realised he should be saluting. It never occurred to him, not even once, that Sekai herself was just a tier below Sasuke, and the same measures should’ve been employed; however, he would find out in due time. Bane always liked to be liked in return, and showing proper respect was a sure-fire way to get someone to like you back in return, even if it did take time.

He hated the idiotic nomenclature of the things in this game. Something that could easily crush the life of anything it lay down upon was called a Baby Worm. The fact that was covered in rolls of flash and its mouth was framed with millions of little needles. Of course, the name was supposed to lull you into a false sense of security. The boy was jolted, literally jolted, back out of his musings by the sight of huge rolls of something resembling flesh by dryly electrocuted by a wayward spell. As the thing writhed and thrashed, the Long Arm looked around to see if he had catch a glimpse of the caster. It was a Heavyblade, short, but not Ko. His name didn’t quite come to memory, only the familiarity of seeing him around the mansion once in a while registered in the boy’s mind. Ah, there were time for introductions later.

The freakishly large and ugly caterpillar had recovered from its dry shock and was no weaving its way toward the caster. If the Long Arm was going to do anything in this fight, he would have to catch up and start attacking. But, of course, as fate would have it, as soon as he got near the beast, a huge barrage of ice assaulted the creature, courtesy of their temporary leader of the Blue Sky. This attack of course, caused the worm to flail about some more, and it was at this point, that the boy realized he was just a little to close. The tail of the beast thrashed about, and caught Raq on an upward swing, sending him literally, flying.

Wind ruffled his face as he shot upward into the darkness, gradually beginning to slow and reverse direction. This was his chance, from up here he could do serious damage. He could impale the thing, his strength increased due to gravity, or he could start assaulting the thing with spells, maybe he would get lucky and even an elemental critical would show its face. As he began to drop back down, he decided on impalement, it was best to save one’s SP for when it might be really needed. He began to pick up speed, however, it appeared his decision had been the wrong one. As soon as the figures below were no longer specks and actually contained visual characteristics not blotted out by altitude, he heard a single command that thoroughly disappointed him.

“Vak Crack.”

The worm blazed with new life before slowly vaporizing into tiny pieces of useless data. The boy that was currently rocketing down from above felt a huge tear of disappointment. He didn’t get to do a single thing in this fight. Not only that, but he had been knocked skyward by the stupid beast, and now would look like a complete idiot coming down. There was no more time to think as the boy’s spear embedded itself in the lush soil, sinking a few feet and causing waves of shock and resistance to ripple through the shaft and up into his arms. The vibrations got to be so bad that he lost a grip on his spear, and thudded into the ground as well. He groaned and attempted to get up, something his sore muscles disagreed with vehemently. He collapsed back onto the ground and stared up at the starless night, feeling completely and totally like a useless idiot.

A single string of words however, had him up off the ground and staring in disbelief.

"Hello Cypher, it's been a while since I've seen you around these parts. How have things been?"

It was at this point that the boy began to feel embarrassment. Here he was dirty and disgraced in front of Cypher, THE Cypher. He had seen the man only once before, in an empty field with four portals where he had first met Sasuke and . . . he trailed off as a warm glowing light washed over him, healing the minor wounds he had taken. And her. He looked over his shoulder to the now approaching player, a female whose had changed her looks a bit since the first time they had met but was still the same old Sekai. He nodded his thanks and greetings at her before managing to make his way over to the two Blademasters. When he finally reached his superiors, he took a moment to beckon over all of the other members before addressing the small audience.

“Alright. As far as I can tell we’re all gathered here. I’ve got a little somebody who needs a bit of exercise. He’s getting a little flabby on the sides. So I vote we do a little bit of field clearing. Not the whole thing necessarily, but at least a few before we head into the dungeon.” He pointed off to the left a bit. “We can start with that one.”

"Then that one, it is!" Sasuke said as he led the band of AOD members towards the next battle.

They all traversed the field and came to their next point of contact, a rather large- spinning- portal, of course, golden in color and giving off small specs of dust as it spins. It was yet again time for a fight with an unknown monster as of yet, but soon to find out.

Sasuke took a step forward and opened the portal with a bright flash of light! And what appeared from there?

"A Treasure chest?" He said.

He moved up to it and reached out to open it as if nothing was wrong. This is a special instance of the game! Sometimes while on the field, a monster portal won't have a monster in it, instead it will have a sort of treasure! As with such, Sasuke grabbed the lid of the box and attempted to pull it open just for it to snap open and lash out at him!

"A Hell Box!!"

*BATTLE MODE: ON*

And it was just at that time that a few monsters happened to roam in onto the players as well. What was really bad about it was that the monsters were pretty tough, noting that they look a lot like a few pieces of armor attached to a glowing orb in the center.

"Shit!" Sasuke yelled, "Split up! Take them out! Now we've got three monsters on our hands. Those are Armor Shoguns, watch out for them! They're strong!"

And with that, Sasuke pulled out his weapon, the 7-Star Sword, and continued with a strike of his own. The Hell Box had already snatched him and scratched him, he was lucky that the Hell Box didn't cast Ranki Lei.

You better kill him quick, otherwise.....

"Shut up!" Sasuke shouted... at his inner-demon speaking out in his mind. "Vak Crack!"

Sasuke's sword lit up in flame as he struck the monster, it only wobbled back a little after the flames died when the attack came to a halt. Just as soon as it came back to a steady position when the technique had finished, the Hell Box opened the lid of the chest and grabbed Sasuke, then a distinguishable glyph formed over the ninja-player. And onset from there... Ranki Lei had been cast, Sasuke was now what was called 'Confused', and the next thing to happen from that.....

The closest member of the AOD in that particular area happened to be none other than Raquar! Sasuke had his pace set high, due to the Speed Charm, so it was only a second later that he was running at Raquar with his sword held up high. He started a physical barrage of attacks on the player whom he called his 'troop', someone he shouldn't be attacking, but yet he couldn't tell the difference because he was not immune to the Ranki Lei spell.

Now you've done it, you dumbass! You got confused, and I can't even do anything about it! You better let me do somethin soon, or I'll.....

“Alright. As far as I can tell we’re all gathered here. I’ve got a little somebody who needs a bit of exercise. He’s getting a little flabby on the sides. So I vote we do a little bit of field clearing. Not the whole thing necessarily, but at least a few before we head into the dungeon.”

What Raquar said was true. Bane could use the boost in experience and the more time he spent in the field helped him get a better understanding of how the AoD did business. He got lost in his own thoughts about this and noticed Raquar point off into the distance, followed by a hastened Sasuke leading them all into battle. It was all happening so fast, but as Bane expected, ninjas were rumoured to be fast and silent, as well as efficient killers as well. A single treasure chest, goldenrod in colour spawned from the next portal, a pleasant change from a monstrous worm to say the least. Bane was however a little disappointed due to the lack of monster activity on the field’s behalf.

“No monsters then?” Bane looked over on the horizon and saw a few shadows getting closer. He put his hand up to his brow to tone down the sun’s glare and continued to scout. It was then he heard his commander shout.

"A Hell Box!!"

Bane cursed under his breath and looked back at the silhouettes that he was tracking before; as he expected, the monsters he ordered had decided to arrive right on time. Bane then realised that Sasuke had said “Hell Box” which then brought a grave expression to his face. What bane lacked in levels was a hand written bestiary that he had complied from not only his own journeys but anyone else’s that he had recorded while conveniently eavesdropping on conversations. From what he could remember, any monster from the Mimic class group was prone to act like a treasure chest until a player or allied unit came within range before transforming into a monster; however, as they increased in rank they gained some nasty abilities, such as the cursed Ranki Lei, the confusion spell.

"Split up! Take them out! Now we've got three monsters on our hands. Those are Armor Shoguns, watch out for them! They're strong!"

At his commander’s warning, he grabbed his sword and retreated back to the group. He knew that he couldn’t fight these alone, so his best bet was to provide backup support just in case of an emergency. Bane’s eyes scanned the line of monsters and everyone taking up their defensive positions, some being more aggressive and decided to take things head on rather than the rational method of defence and support. Sasuke was already doing a great job with his attacks, making Bane look up to him even more as a fighter and role model. However, the Hell Box had other plans; rather than being honourable and fight the group head on, it targeted Sasuke, one of the stronger members of the party and successfully took control with a Ranki Lei spell. Bane’s eyes widened in fear as he knew all too well what that meant; Sasuke was going to kill anything close to him, no matter whether or not they were friend or foe. He furrowed his brow, an indication that he began to think and got an idea. The commander was targeting Raquar, so that left Bane free to fix this certain mess that they had gotten into. He dashed over to Sasuke’s side and held his arm in place as he uncorked a vial of orange fluid and emptied it into Sasuke’s mouth. As he expected, the Restorative worked, and Sasuke was free to once again move and act on his own free will.

“You ok Commander?” Bane kept his sword drawn, ready to fend off any foes that got close enough. It was then he also remembered that Sasuke had used a fire attack just then, meaning Bane could help further by pumping that stat up. “Sasuke! Ap Vakz!” Bane’s left hand glowed with a burning, yet passive crimson aura before dispersing and colliding with the Blademaster. He was helping, he was truly at the top of his game as a healer…and yet…With the low SP count and extremely limited range of support skills available, he wasn’t at all in the position to call himself a healer. If he got his hands on some funky rare armour then maybe, but for the time being, all he had was his Ap Vakz and Repth. The Hell Box had apparently chosen the young Heavy Blade as its next target; and it didn’t seem happy that its spell had been counteracted so quickly. It opened its lid-like mouth and stuck it’s tongue out at Bane. He raised the blade of his sword to parry and disengage the monster’s attack, but not all went to plan. Its tongue wrapped around his sword and with a quick shake and tug, it flew out of Bane’s hands and landed a fair way from his position, the closest one to it being Sekai. Having no other option, he drew his Kuchikimonji and braced himself yet again.

“Man…this could’ve gone better…”

He ducked under another attack mode by the Hell Box and then managed to pull out a scroll from his leather pouch. The Hell Box made another lash at him with its tongue but this time grabbed his right hand, the hand he held his sword in. As the tongue was occupied with disabling any physical attack from him, he decided that now would be the best time to trigger the spell, but in such a way that would contain the force to inflict maximum damage. He threw it into the monster’s gaping lid and watched as it made an attempt to spit the scroll back out at him. It triggered just before it could reopen its lid, the Green Gale scroll affecting it as best as it would before it died down again. Bane couldn’t kill this alone, he needed help.

“Grrr…these guys…are…tough…” Bane retreated behind Sasuke for now, making sure to keep some Heath Potions and a Repth spell at the ready when he was called.

'Hell Box is a relative of the Mimic, that one needs to die quickly and two, oh dear Gods; what are those?!

Armor Shoguns; those are some serious things to worry the hell about right now. Kill one, come on, we have the damn arrow skill to do just the trick. You'll have to double tap though.

The wooden bow was gone; replaced by a bow that had strapped itself on to her left arm as she swung the bow up, finger on the trigger as she closed one eye to sight the enemy she wanted to hit; aiming for the sphere in the middle of that gold and turquoise armor glowing brightly and aimed as carefully as she could. She couldn't do the trick of using two arrows at once but... two level two fire arrows would have to do some serious damage... right?

"Flaming Arrow of Inferno!"

...That had been a little more 'omph' than expected, Sekai thought to herself as the bolt seared, exploding open into a comet of fire that engulfed the Armor Shogun she'd hit. That was a lot of HP actually, she thought to herself blinking a little as she took a step back and fired a second one of the same bolt; hell, that nearly took it down to near nothing HP wise.

"Juk Rom!"

A swirl of green light with brush and razor edged leaves struck the orb in the center, ripping away the rest of the HP and leaving her with a sore lack of SP. She headed off to one side, moving about carefully in case she was neede-

Hey! That Heavy Blade just stole your job!

Sekai fought the urge to connect her palm with her face at the way the woman was sounding so indignant. She'd been busy taking care of the enemy and here Kira was complaining and being insulted by the fact that, well, someone else had caught the fact that the Hell Box's confusion attack had hit their commander and needed to be healed... and had taken the liberties of doing so themselves rather than wait. Which was fine with her really.

'Kira; it's okay, he's allowed to heal people too. It's not a crime to have someone besides me be the one who helps people when they're hurt.'

You do it better.

Kira muttered, sulking at being scolded and glowering at the fact that they'd narrowly missed getting hit by some gigantic damn blade when the Hell Box had taken over. Hits were flying left and right as she narrowed her eyes and let another chunk of her nearly empty SP go down for the group-wide healing spell.

"La Repth!"

You did that to humor me, didn't you.

'I... okay, yes, a little.'

Feh.

"La Repth!" Sekai said as she cast the spell on the players.

Sasuke was back to normal, all thanks to Bane. He had only swung at Raquar once before Bane cured him of his ailment. Now it was time to kill that damned monster, a confusion attack again could be a little more destructive, so it needs to be killed as soon as possible.

"Bane.. go around to it's left, I'm gonna take the frontal attack and hit it with a Vak Crack, hit it with a Vak Drive from your attacking point. It'll be down for the count, lets go!"

Sasuke rubbed his index and middle finger down the length of his blade and raise the weapon, still pointing at the monster, above his shoulder. He crouched down awaiting Bane to reach his attacking point and when he made it there he unleashed his assault!

"NOW!! Vak Crack!!" Sasuke screeched.

His sword lit in flame, he raised the weapon straight up and hammered it down on his opponent for some crazy amount of damage. In a moment the monster would be dead, but that's only if Bane completes his attack without being struck by the monsters' confusion spell.

All the while, one of the Shogun Armor's had been destroyed thanks to the team work of the other members on the field. Sasuke had no time to congradulate them, though it wasn't much of a feat for those players, especially not Sekai since she was so high leveled. The other one was still on the loose and attacking at Raquar now, hopefully Sasuke wouldn't need to run and save him, but if needed then he would pounce all over the monster and break it down before it knew what happened!

But as for now, it was Bane's turn to make the monster bleed. If he successfully attacks the Hell Box with his second level skill then he could easily kill it, but Sasuke left the killing of that monster to Bane, what would he do?

From Bane’s safe spot behind Sasuke, he was able to absorb the proceedings in the battle and note them down later when it was time to update his personal database. Sekai’s weapon changed; she didn’t draw a new one, but her original weapon changed, a feat that Bane probably hadn’t discovered due to the fact he restricted himself to only bringing two swords to a field at any one time. But that was not all, because as soon as this new weapon had replaced its wooden counterpart, Sekai prepped a blazing arrow aimed straight at the closer of the Armour Shoguns. It appeared that someone else could use a boost from his Ap Vakz spell too, but judging by how far she was from his current position, there was no good chance to get close enough to cast it. She apparently didn’t need it, as the monster’s HP was reduced to zero with a final Juk Rom spell. It appeared that Sekai was annoyed with something, as he facial expression gave away that she was not impressed with someone.

“Opps?” Bane gave a nervous laugh and felt a soothing green aura wash over his body and mend what damage the Hell Box had done, along with a minor fatigue he had picked up from fighting. It appeared that Sasuke was healed as well, and from Bane’s knowledge, that meant that a level 2 Repth spell was cast, La Repth.

"Bane... go around to it's left, I'm gonna take the frontal attack and hit it with a Vak Crack, hit it with a Vak Drive from your attacking point. It'll be down for the count, let’s go!"

Bane looked over his shoulder at his commander. He nodded hastily before closing his eyes and drawing from the deepest pits of his strength for a burst in strength. As it was dramatic in all, he grasped the collar of his cheongsam in his left hand and charged himself with a speedy Ap Vakz; making sure that if his attack did hit, it would have the devastating effect he needed to finish off the foe. Sasuke broke away and waited in position and Bane dashed over to his Magnifier that lay in the sand just a few yards away. He skidded to a slow halt as he pushed off his weighted feet, blade brandished across his body, and bringing it to his side, ready to pounce.

"NOW!! Vak Crack!!"

“Vak Driver!” Bane’s sword gave off a blazing crimson red as he ran forward, jumped and slammed the edge into the monster’s head. Sasuke had done the same with his, and as the combined Vak auras that surrounded the blades collided with the monster, the monsters HP depleted in a wave of heat that flowed into the ground. His SP was back down to zero again, but he still had his inventory to fall back on if anything happened. The main threat was gone, but there was still one remaining Armour Shogun to be taken care of. Bane grinned as his efforts had paid off and all that was left was to dispose of the remnants. He shouldered his blade and took up position next to Raquar, a Long Arm that was in the AoD, and one that Bane hadn’t exactly met with before. His blade was eager, and his body was full of adrenaline; he wanted to kill something else. He stepped forward and guarded against an attack with the flat of his sword, the impact making his feet sink slightly into the soft sand. He gritted his teeth and waited for the next attack, drawing out another Green Gale scroll. As the monster got attacked again, Bane rolled to the side and leapt forward, pinning the scroll on the monster so that it triggered. A flurry of leaves, twigs and wooden debris flew wildly around the Armour Shogun’s body, chipping away at its HP.

Bane was spent for this round, perhaps he should converse more once the monster is dead. But for the time being, with a monster continuously pounding on your position, there was barely enough time to talk. He would be fine for now, and if someone else got close enough to distract its attention away from him, he could escape. But this was a Heavy Blade’s duty: to act as a meat shield so that no one got hurt…excluding themselves of course.

Stealthy and flamboyant as ever

A sly smile began to crack across the porcelain face mask Cypher developed over the years, a result of his emotional loss at the hands of idiotic and selfless players and people scouring the wonderful invention known as the internet. But every once in a while, certain people and certain things were cause enough to break out the happy side, allowing his joy to spread to others, as well the joy of others to seep back in.

In the case of the streaking blue flash in front of him, anxiously toting a sharp sword oozing with monster’s blood, the joy fest would commence.

“...it’s long enough to bore an entire sea of college students, as well as provide endless entertainment to a bored community college English teacher; needless to say, I’ll read you the story of my life when THOSE aren’t trying to fill their tummies”

The ‘those’ part of his retort was not emphasized out of spite, as experienced had granted Cypher enough tactfulness to know not to waste even the most simplest of requests, ideas and emotions. No…his inability to provide Sasuke, as well as the others, with a fully detailed breakdown of his whereabouts the last couple of…of…what was it, hours? Months? Years…?

Whatever it was, it’s been too long…

A simple digression….regardless, leaving Sasuke’s question unanswered was due to the newest digital invasion on their privacy, all thanks to a few pesky Armor Shoguns. Cunning, terrifying, and rather upset at the Army of Darkness’s intrusion, the intricate coding that drove them forward awakened their primal instinct; as such, the weapons were drawn and the killing intent was about to be fed.

Ironically enough, despite the many times Cypher enjoyed knocking the monsters down to thinking levels of mental retardation, he often found himself mirroring many of their tendencies and odd quirks, especially during battle. Yes, just as they drew their weaponry, so did Cypher, and just as they snarled, so did Cypher.

Well, maybe not a snarl, but still…

Two glares locked onto each other, containing reasons to fight for the sake of living. On one side, there was a forced block that gave no option but to live; under the guidance of others, the will to fight was an order, not a choice. On the other side, there was…there was…

The same thing.

“Hah…”

Each time he caught himself entering that machine like state, a chuckle would leave his digital lips, spreading out through sound waves that’d hit any around that would lend an ear. And just when he realized how monotness the entire ordeal was, a giant wave of nostalgia swept over him and set in, almost drowning him out completely. A large bump in his throat was created- on both the digital and real worlds- and it wouldn’t leave him anytime soon.

So there he was, alongside his brothers and sisters of the Army of Darkness. Despite his shady past, he’d been reunited once more under once cause, and would take the time to appreciate every moment spent along side them. With the grin of child, Cypher’s weapon was removed from its sheathe, pointed towards the remaining untouched fiend, and cocked back, ready to strike down anything that opposed him…

And anything that opposed the Army of Darkness.

"Alright, last one!" he said turning himself to face the next victim. Bane had dealt the death blow to the Hell Box and had continued with a scroll to attack the, now, dead Armor Shogun.

"I've got this one."

Sasuke ran past Cypher who had just unsheathed his weapon, his former leader could have easily murdered the Armor Shogun without even straining himself. Sasuke had some damn good ability as well, though, so he had decided to kill this Armor Shogun all on his own.

He reached into his satchel and pulled from it an Ice Floe. Sasuke unrolled it and tossed it out at the monster as he neared it. A blue glyph formed above the monster and water rose from the ground and then jutted at it, stricking it with ferocity! Just as soon as that glyph had formed Sasuke had jumped high into the air at the monster. It's glowing orb- abdomin was shining brightly still. It was time to end that shine, he pulled another scroll and toss it at the monster before he too came crashing down on the monster with a Gan Slash.

"Gan Slash!" he shouted when he unleashed the devestating technique combined with a Green Gale's tornado of wood-element.

The monster roared and howled, it was a metalic and machine-like tone that it gave. Sasuke landed when he finished his technique and came to the ground infront of it's feet to continue assaulting the monster. Slashing with his weapon like a regular hack-n-slash quest, Sasuke struck the monster countless times before the monster itself swept it's mighty gauntlets down at the ninja.

Knocking him away like an annoying fly, Sasuke rolled to a stop on the ground just behind Sekai where in which he hopped back to his feet and dashed off at the monster, winking at the female while he passed her by.

Sasuke gave out his war cry while running for the monster again, "AAaaaaaaaaaaaHHHHHHHRRRRGGHH!!!!!"

Not enough SP now Sasuke... now what?

"DIE!!!!"

No one noticed, not even himself, Sasuke dropped his weapon when he was pounded by the Armor Shogun so in return he pulled out the next one..... Gakaku.

"JUST DIE!!" Sasuke shouted, his eyes changed from blue to red in a quick instant. He was trying not to use the weapon that would turn him like this, but he accidentally, or maybe subconsiously, unsheathed the blade so to defeat his enemy.

Sasuke hurled his body in the air in his fit of rage. He slashed up the monster without it even noticing. It's body turned grey and fell to the ground, as soon as that happened it had burst into junk data.

Sasuke had to sheath his sword in order to move back and pick up his newest weapon, the 7-star Sword. The mode he was in should be feared by others, but probably wasn't due to the fact that almost none of the players noticed the change. Hardly any of the other players have faught along side Sasuke, and with that they wouldn't know his tendencies in battle.

Picking up the sword he moved to Raquar, the supposed leader of this certain quest. He asked him the question again, "What's next, troop? What is it that you want to complete now? To the dungeon or continue with this damned field of heavy hitters?"

Several small blue streaks superseded one giant blotch of sky blue pixilated wonder, moving at speeds rivaling light’s own travel. Cypher’s digital periphery led him to understand the nature of the sudden occurrence, a discovery which soon forced several smiles to once again break out across the hardened blade master.

It was none other than Sasuke.

Choosing an alternate route that differed from Cypher’s idle banter, Sasuke’s ability to act on queue was a talent the crimson blade master seemed to have ‘lost’ during his time away from this World. Instead of reacting to the appearance of one last fiend, Cypher’s dominant did all but strike, finding itself at the end of drawing one of his many swords, eating valuable time away that would’ve otherwise led him to a premature death, had they been facing a foe closer to his level.

A ‘tsk’ escaped Cypher’s lisps as this all went down, not because of his lost opportunity to be the ender of this fiend’s digital soul, or because Sasuke had bested him in the art of the kill, but because he had been so…so, ‘rusty.’ While meeting his ever valued Army of Darkness here wasn’t an event coincidental with his long awaited return to this wonderful online world- he had enjoyed a fight or two on a few fields before Sasuke’s name appeared as online- his lethargy in battle had not been eliminated in his smaller bouts, possibly due to his poor choice in enemies.

Ah, but did it matter? His ‘inability’ to promptly attack served advantageous to everyone in the group. For one, he would not hog away any experience meant for this of the lower levels, since this field didn’t really propose any real challenges to the seasoned master of the blade. Secondly, his sudden appearance after a lengthy dormant state- appearances and re-appearances has unfortunately grown out of control for Cypher- would not be played up as the main attraction in their little meeting, as an old friend reappearing out of no where to slay all in sight tends to draw lots of attention.

So with admiration and joy, Cypher’s pixilated hazel eyes traced the blue streaks Sasuke’s rapidly traveling body left behind, nodding with satisfaction at the good form and excellent delivery, both qualities a proper leader should own. The sword that was unsheathed remained tightly gripped in his hand, its handle choked by a solid set of fingers and hands eager to strike away at any foe with life pulsating through it.

Minus a few setbacks regarding SP, Sasuke’s overall battle performance was impressive. When the ability to execute fancy attacks no longer presented itself, mastery of the sword allowed him to slash away confidently, knowing the life of the fiend would soon be brunt away. And it was…after a few brute slashes, the shogun fell to its feet, taking its last artificial breath before dismembering into raw data and returning to the system.

Without taking a break or a pause, Sasuke’s body retained motion, moving over to Raquar, where a decision regarding the group’s overall movement would be made/

” What's next, troop? What is it that you want to complete now? To the dungeon or continue with this damned field of heavy hitters?"

Cypher’s lips were sealed and he would only smile. Either choice was fine with him, as he merely longed for battle alongside his old brothers and sisters. While they decided, the eager blade master looked up and away, admiring the beauty of fake nature one last time.

“Alright, Last one! I got this one.”

Bane looked over his shoulder and saw commander Sasuke run past Cypher and reach into his satchel type pouch for something. Sasuke’s arm flew out from the pouch, grasping in his hand a scroll of some description. Bane saw the scroll unfurl and glow a blue aura, before a blue glyph shone brightly above the Armour Shogun. Bane was held in place as the monster grinded its weight into him as he parried it off with his Magnifier. As the monster drew back, Bane grabbed his Kuchikimonji from the sheath on his right so that he had one in each hand.

“Hayabusa!” Bane spun around, rending the monster asunder with his duel blades striking simultaneously against the shelled armour of the creature. His second attack would have allowed him to deal the final blow right then and there, alas, the monster had already began attacking; whipping Bane off to the side mid attack and dealing a massive chunk out of his HP. In Bane’s place, a tower of ice shot up out of the ground and impaled the Shogun; obviously the scroll Sasuke had used contained a Rue Zot spell. That was not all! Sasuke dropped down from the sky with yet another scroll and delivered a Gan Slash skill to the shining orb that floated underneath the monster. The combo of Gan Slash and a scroll triggered Juk Rom seemed to fit the bill as the monster started howling in agony, only to be hacked to bits by a flurry attacks coming from the ninja known as Sasuke. The monster counter attacked with a fist like smash attack which aimed straight for Sasuke.

“Sasuke!”

Sasuke was swept to the side and recovered by rolling along the ground so that he was next to Sekai. This, surprisingly, didn’t seem to deter him from attacking again, as he shrieked out a war cry that made the hairs on the back of Bane’s neck stand on end.

“DIE! JUST DIE!” Sasuke had changed weapons, and Bane saw his disposition change; he was acting as though he was under a berserker type effect, but nothing showed up as abnormal on his status window. Bane searched his inventory for something to cure Sasuke of his ailment, but found nothing. Sasuke delivered an uppercut, dividing the monster clean in two and fell back, sheathing his weapon and watching as the monster disappeared in a multitude of coded strings. He approached Raquar, things appeared to be normal, in fact, the rest of the group hadn’t noticed the change in Sasuke’s disposition, although, they could just have decided not to react in any major way like Bane did.

"What's next, troop? What is it that you want to complete now? To the dungeon or continue with this damned field of heavy hitters?"

Bane walked over, treading carefully over to Sasuke as he placed his left hand on Sasuke’s back and whispered a healing spell to restore Sasuke’s lost HP. “Repth...” A greenish blue aura spiralled slowly from Bane’s hand and coiled around his fingered before digging deep into Sasuke’s flesh and healing the minor wounds the ninja had sustained during battle. He hadn’t been noticed yet, but then tugged softly on Sasuke’s arm.

“Excuse me…s-sir…” Bane stepped back when Sasuke spun around in reaction to the Heavy Blade’s touch. “Could it be possible…if maybe…we went into the dungeon? The way I see it, the monster’s here will keep on coming, and if they decide to run away, we’ll be playing tag just to finish them off.” A thought crossed Bane’s mind as he spoke this, as he recalled a time where he had to chase a mob of Goblin’s down for a friend who was playing with him at the time. He then withdrew his statement and tried again, this time, more confident. He bowed first and then saluted to the commander before talking in a calm manner.

“Commander sir, I suggest we head to the Gott Statue at the bottom of the dungeon, where we will be able to partake in the spoils that await us. Also, the monster’s there should be slightly easier to fight, as we won’t be dragged into random encounters as we might be if we remained outside.” Either way, Bane was determined to head towards the dungeon as it was. He stepped around Sasuke and headed west, towards the dungeon entrance. A low grumbling was heard underneath his feet as he broke out into a run for the dungeon, however, the rumbling grew louder and before Bane knew it, he was in the jaws of another Baby Worm, just like the one from before. His weapon had gotten stuck and he was left to fend for himself with his bare hands and whatever spells were in his inventory. He saw through the gaps in the teeth and cried out to the other party members below.

“Yeah, I kinda got stuck in here, so can you help please?” Bane’s balance was shot again as the worm’s tongue shifted underneath his feet. He grabbed onto the monster’s teeth for some balance, but somehow, he knew that that wasn’t his only concern. He knew that whilst he was in the monster, he would be susceptible to their attacks as well.

Sasuke --> +1 Level - +Matoi - +Raging Earth

Bane --> +1 Level