Narrowed, bored looking, green eyes stared out from behind the helm. Her long, slender, armor clad frame leaned against the wall of the room, as she examined the people around her. Though she had joined the guild, she didn't trust a single one of them. There was only so much that a single fighter could do though, if she wanted to survive, then she was going to have to play with others for once. She, the Queen of RPGs, knew that better than anyone. The main protagonist needed allies to win. She may not have been the main protagonist in everyone's eyes, but she was in the eyes of the person who mattered most to her.

Isa had been invited to join the guild by a man named Arthur. She accepted because she had no other choice. She kept a weary eye on each other member of the guild, the Golden Dragon, as their leader quietly leaned over a map. Probably strategizing. Honestly, it didn't do much good to strategize right now, when they didn't know what the boss was like. But unfortunately, this wasn't just another RPG where she could use a scanning skill, or die over and over to the boss while she found the best way to kill it. They only had one life in this game. Lose it, and it was game over for real. As scary as it was, it also added a new level of intensity to gaming.

Arthur gave them his plan, it seemed solid enough. If the first floor boss was something vanilla. They had been trapped in a game where they could actually die, who was to say the first floor boss was a typical first floor boss? For all they knew, it could have been made to wipe out everything that came it's way. The leader asked if anybody had anything they would like to add. Isa spoke up, her voice sharp and cold. "I don't need protecting. If the boss attacks me, let me handle it. Having some armored brute in my way will just make things worse for both of us."

What a person with better social skills would have said was a bit different. But the point was the same. Isa was a nimble fighter, she could dodge attacks with ease. If somebody got in front of her while she was in the middle of a dodge, it could trip them both up and cause them both to lose HP. At least if she messed up her dodge, then only one person would get hurt. She had chosen her ability set up for a reason. Because her favorite game class was dragoon, she knew how to play them better than any other class out there. And at least this way, twelve years of dance classes would help her survival and not just be a waste of time like her parents had thought it would be.

Sol stared at the leader, his eyes growing narrow as he went through the plan in his head. He wasn't used to this kind of life, but it seemed like a good enough plan. He hoped that the other front fighters would be able to keep up speed-wise. He didn't understand much about MMOs, but his star gave him a small advantage.

The only reason he had joined up with this ragtag team was to learn more about the MMO side of things. So far, he had been pretending that the blade was the bow of his violin, and he was playing an aggressive tune. He thought back to the real world, about how fragile her body had been.

"I think we'll be fine as long as we don't get hit." He thought out loud. "You armoured bunch can take some damage, but one good slash and I'm dead." He said, motioning to the simple cloak he was currently wearing. He had found that he liked how fast light armour made him feel, and heavy armour made his Burst ability rather useless.

Glaz had been invited to a guild hall by a guy he met before. Arthur, he remembered to be his name.

Well, he wasn't too proud to turn down the invitation, and his fighting style, if it could be called that, required the assistance of others. After all, Glaz was a tank, first and foremost. His role was to take the aggro from others and unto himself. He NEEDED a party for him to be able to even slay a monster.

His last party ditched him after getting the spoils from the quest and now he had nowhere to go. Truly, Arthur's invitation almost seemed to be sent from the heavens themselves, and the name of the guild was cool too, so that was another upside to it.

Arthur's plan to clear the dungeon and defeat the boss wasn't too far-fetched either and, honestly, since it was his first time playing an MMO, he really couldn't tell left from right at current.

The other players started stating their opinion, and though the girl seemed a bit rude, Glaz saw her point. When someone wiht a big body went against someone with a slim body in normal kendo, the smaller one also had to use their speed to their advantage.

This time, though, Glaz was meant to stay in the front lines, protecting his teammates. The guy that taught him the basics told him that it was his job to resist any attack coming his way.

"Don't worry, as long as you stay behind my shield, nothing will happen to you guys." Glaz tried to reassure the others. "And I like that plan... mainly because I probably couldn't come up with something better. I'm behind you, all the way."

Glaz nodded and then smiled. Yeah... this looked like a good team, despite the un-friendliness of some of them.

Mightous

Mightous leaned his back against a wall in the small room and looked at Arthur. He seemed like a capable leader and a decent enough fighter. Truthfully, Mightous felt that they were all great people to join a guild with. However, Mightous really didn't want to socialize at all. He would mostly ignore any pointless blabbering. He didn't care if they hated him really, as long as they had his back in battle.

Mightous joined the guild for only one reason. Arthur reminded him of Dylan. The looks, the leadership, everything. He missed Dylan so much... his only friend he could count on. But that was behind Mightous, and he was ready to keep on fighting.

He pushed off the wall and slowly walked over to the table and looked over the map with Arthur. He heard "Does anyone have anything they'd like to add?" and opened his mouth to speak, but when other people started to talk, he sighed, walked back to the wall and sat down against it. Mightous listened to them talk and thought to himself, "We better make it out of this alive."

Lloyd studied the grain of the oak table in silence while he waited for the planning to begin. He wasn't well versed in group strategies, so he was more than willing to leave the thinking to Arthur. Besides, he knew his role. Same as it always was; strike the enemy from behind, destroy them before they ever saw him coming. There was no way he could pull off a one-shot on the boss though, even with the boost from his Falcata. Hence the guild gathered around the table.

More than used to playing solo, Lloyd had been confused and made skeptical by the offer to join this guild. In the fields he did his best work on his own, without a party to slow him down or draw attention. The boss room was going to be different though. It would be impossible for him to fight on his own. Arthur looked strong, and he had gathered other strong people around him. Lloyd figured this was his best shot at actually making some progress. It was also likely that he would never have to worry about being the center of attention, with the 'knight in shining armor' at the head of their group.

Finally, Arthur stated his plan. It seemed simple enough, as long as every did what they were supposed to do. Isa's request made sense to him as well. His fighting style involved a lot closing with and distancing himself from an enemy, and it would be fatal if someone tripped him up at the wrong moment. Still, she could have delivered it a little more tactfully. As far as Lloyd was concerned, nobody else had anything particularly important to add. The front line would have to take care of each other and keep the boss' attention through the burst damage he would be putting out. Something else occurred to him, and he spoke up without ever lifting his eyes from the table.

"Do we know if this boss has or can summon minions? I won't be able to do anything worthwhile if I have to split my focus." While the statement wasn't entirely true, Lloyd preferred to take on one target at a time and obliterate them before moving on. Even a small group could cause him serious trouble if he didn't have backup.

Isa tsked and shook her head as one of the armored brutes completely ignored her comment and proceeded to say something about staying behind his shield. In return, she muttered something very rude under her breath which was directed at him. This is why her least favorite characters were always the tanks. Protecting may have been what they were good at, using cover on someone who had just used blink was a complete waste of time, health, and brain cells. If he was really going to be dumb enough to get in her way, then it would be his fault when they both ended up dead.

So the boss was slow, two handed, weapon user huh? That information would have been nice to have before the plan was made. Isa could do a lot of damage to a slow opponent, and not take a single it. Using her as a distraction in this case would be very smart. Let the armored brutes do all the damage while she kept the boss busy. But, the plan was made already, and she doubted the armored brutes would want her fighting on the front lines, if the ones reaction to her comment was to be believed. It looked like they were about ready to set out, so Isa opened up her menu and equipped her spear. It was annoying carrying it around unless she knew she was going to get into combat.

The Sonic Spear appeared out of nowhere, Isa grabbed it with her dominate right hand and held it, blade end facing the ceiling. It looked like there was one more thing to do before setting off. They had their badges to collect. Isa strode over to the table from her place against the wall and took one of the badges, her five foot ten frame allowing her to reach the box easily. After glancing down at her body, in order to figure out where to pin the stupid thing, she took a step back. Finally deciding on pinning it her chest, on the white cloth material she wore under her armor. Her long, green, tresses half covered the badge, but to be honest, she didn't really care. There weren't exactly many places she could pin it.

Isa lingered on the edge of the group as the others finished up whatever they needed to get done. She regarded them all in her usual, cold, manner. The butt of her spear was planted on the ground and she had to resist the urge to tap it on the ground in a bored manner. She was hoping this game was more difficult than some of the RPGs she had played recently, otherwise it would be boring. Things couldn't keep her interest for long unless they made her think. One of the reasons she liked turn based combat so much, unlike other game genres, you had to think about your moves before making them, and didn't just have to react to whatever came your way.

Sol listened to all the plans, trying to make sense of them all. He had never played any kind of game like this before. He tried to make sense of the distance that the dungeon was, but had never been the best in math class. All he knew was he was fast, and he knew how to fence, somewhat. He thought back to childhood, long before she made the rash decision to play this death game.

Karen watched her big brother fencing. It was like a dance, or a song. Either way, the fight interested her. Her brother was winning, obviously, and she had been jumpin up and down like a little maniac.
"Calm down, Karen." Her mother commanded, and she stopped immediately, sitting very still for the rest of the match. Afterwards, her brother came over to her. "Hey, K! I didn't know you were here!" He laughed, swooping Karen up into his arms.

Sol felt a tear beginning to well up in his eye, and wiped it away quickly. Arthur tossed out the badges, and Sol reached for it, fumbled it, and then reached down to pick it up off the ground from where it had fallen. He needed some practice, that was for sure. It had been forever since Karen had seen her older brother fence, and even longer since she had fenced herself. He kept up with the group, running through everything he knew about MMOs in his head.

Nobody really did seem eager to have a tank with them, but well, it didn't matter.

Glaz sighed a bit, before stepping forward and taking one of the badges. Afterwards, he store it inside his inventory and turned again to Arthur.

"All right. I'm ready whenever you guys are." Like Isa, he too extended his hand to his side and his gigantic lance materialized.

It was most definitely an odd feeling. Before and in the real world, Tohru had battled with swords, both real and those made out of wood, in his family's very own style of kenjutsu.

Since coming into the game, Glaz thought that using a katana would be as effective for him as in the real world, but he was proved wrong later and when he first went into battle against the monsters. His body did all the work with the system-set movements, and he couldn't really get used to his body moving on its own accord while using a blade.

He decided to change for a lance after that. Better range and seemingly more powerful. While he did like the whole lance deal, he still felt that his flank was way too open for attacks, which was when he decided to use the lance and shield combo.

He could protect himself and attack. It seemed perfect. Until now, it pretty much is for him.

Right now, though, he had to focus on the fight currently right in front of him.

Mightous

Mightous stood up from his position and grabbed a badge. He studied it for a moment then grinned because this was his first guild. His first guild badge. He quickly wiped the smile off his face and put the badge on his belt.

Unlike the others, his weapon didn't materialize out of thin air. No, his weapon was always at his side. He unsheathed his sword and pulled out a rag. He began to wipe it down as he watched the others prep. Fortunately for Mightous, most of them seemed to be as anti-social as he was.

He held his miaodao out in front of him and inspected it for scuff marks or dirt spots. It was clean and sharp. Perfect. Mightous sheathed his sword but kept his hand on the hilt and waited for the others to be ready to depart.

Lloyd nodded as Arthur gave out more information, revealing more about the boss' nature. If it was as slow as he implied then there wouldn't be too many problems. While one powerful blow posed a serious threat to the lightly equipped swordsman, his speed and evasion were high enough that he wasn't really worried. He would just stay on the monster's flank and inside his reach as much as he could. With the others drawing attention it looked to be any easy fight from his end. He just hoped nobody did something stupid and got hurt. It was only the first boss, but that didn't mean much. In some games, the first boss isn't intended to be defeated the first time you face it.

When the badges were presented, Lloyd took one and inspected it. He'd never really belonged to such a group before, and from the looks of it neither had many of the others. They were an odd assembly, but perhaps that was for the best. Pinning the badge to the tan scarf around his neck, he glanced around at the rest of the group. It looked like everyone was nearly ready. Lloyd's falcata already rested across the small of his back, hilt sticking out from behind his right hip. He saw no reason to equip his shield at this point. The rest of the group would be handling defense, and he needed to be as mobile as possible.

Isa walked along with the group, not getting too close to any one member. On her face was her usual cold look. She carried herself confidently and with all the grace of the dancer she was. Her spear was held loosely in her grasp and she looked ready for combat at any moment. She also had the tact to ignore any and all looks sent her way. Picking a female avatar in any MMO was sure to bring around the creeps. But still, she had chosen to use her own looks. It was a virtual reality game, having a male body would have been weird, especially now that they were trapped for a while. If she was going to fight to survive, the least she have was a body she was comfortable with.

Isa was glad for the silence, nobody in the group felt like talking apparently. That was fine for her, it gave her time to do what she did best, think and observe. She watched the people as they went by, seeing who had what type of weapon, who was scared and who looked calm, and many other things. She was basically assessing the other people in the game. If they wanted to get out, they were all going to have to work together. Unfortunately, not everyone agreed with her, just like with all MMOs, there would be player killers. People who murdered others for one reason or another. In some ways, this entire game reminded her of the .Hack games. Those had always been her favorites.

The guild leader, Arthur, just had to go and ruin the perfect silence. He asked them a valid question, but that didn't mean it wasn't annoying. "I'm known as the Queen of RPGs at my school. I've played plenty of games like this, especially ones with turn based combat. I'm good at guessing enemy weaknesses and boss exploits. Though I don't usually play MMOs, I prefer one player games." She explained, though she left out the exact reasons why she didn't play MMOs. It was mainly because people were stupid and she didn't like dealing with them, as well as the sexual harassment from picking female avatars, then there was the fact that they were usually a lot simpler than one player RPGs and she got bored easily.