Sora Naruse
Sora withdrew after the White King's imposing guard grabbed his wrist, a wry grin playing across his face as he raised his hands into the air, indicating no harm intended. He wanted to object when one of the boys had grabbed the White King's shoulder, but he decided to avoid patronizing Chiyo by allowing her to handle it. However, as the student president approached and confronted the leader of the Ivory masks, Sora could only silently withdraw with a peace sign towards the other boys that had been part of the bullying group.
He had done what he wanted and his uniform was still somewhat ruffled, thus he chose tactical retreat back to his dorm. After a day of sleeping through all his classes in school, he felt rejuvenated and ready to compete in the arena once again before meeting his grind quota before returning to the school for more sleep. Although his grades suffered due to his lack of mental presence at the academy, he managed to skirt by with barely above average grades by cheating homework off friends and being able to retain most anything he does learn while he is conscious.
When he returned to his musty room, he nonchalantly hopped on his bed, the old frame groaning under his weight. Almost automatically, Sora jumped into DGO without a second thought.
Welcome Back, Neron
Neron stood in the middle of the Arena's matching lobby. Often teams would form or people would challenge each other to duels and simply go to the Arena’s designated areas for penalty-less combat. Neron himself had become a fairly frequent face there and was beginning to build a name for himself. He had found a friend for himself in a berserker type warrior named Furious Zen, although he didn’t speak much, Furious Zen was very popular as a brawler and would often be invited to numerous teams for group matches and large scale 1v1s. Neron had paired with him a couple times in 2v2s and raised his renown extremely quickly. The silent character would often invite Neron to participate in a 1v1 as they had never actually competed to see who was better, but Neron always refused politely and happily invited him to 2v2 and other group matches.
On that particular day, Neron was feeling especially competitive, his messages to Furious Zen pertaining purely to the phrase
“PKPKPKPKPKPKPKPKPKPKPKPKPKPK”. Eventually, his fighting partner simply replied with a
”k” before they partied up and joined into a lobby. Neron immediately began spamming in the pick-up chat
“2v7 Neron and Furious Zen duo”. Eventually, some people with renown similar to Neron joined into the matchmaking lobby somewhat curiously, even Furious Zen was somewhat interested as he messaged Sora with a
”?”.
Neron merely started the match after all 7 slots were filled on the opposing team and turned to Furious Zen nonchalantly,
“We’ve been winning 2v2s every game, I think we might as well go for some real training!” He explained whimsically, his somewhat mechanized voice taking on a frivolous tone.
Zen simply looked at Neron expressionlessly, his face hidden behind a devilish looking traditional opera mask,
”...”As soon as the match began, someone on the opposing side messaged in the match chat
“Joined because of Furious Zen’s name, but who’s the other guy and why 2v7?”Neron simply replied,“Try your best :)” Before lunging forward, his duelist character circling about the mountainous terrained arena without slowing down. Furious Zen simply walked forward without much urgency, his neutral stance appearing somewhat helpless as the 7 opponents cautiously proceeded forward, uncertain of the circumstances. After a few moments spectators began to join in at the listing of a 2v7. Noticing Furious Zen’s name, some began to cheer for him, hoping to see him take on 7 opponents with perhaps a healer supporting him. However, many also noticed the fact that his paired ally was a duelist, and level 2 at that. Compared to Furious Zen’s level 7 and the opponent’s average level of 6, it seemed as if Zen’s partner was simply deadweight looking for extra glory.
After a few seconds of travel, 5 of the players intercepted the nonchalant Furious Zen who instantly jumped into action while 2 others went searching for the second adversary. Furious Zen automatically began with firing off a series of 3 bloody grapples that attached to 3 of the 5 players engaging him and pulled them to himself without much grandeur. Instantly, he slashed as the 3 players also jumped into action. 2 of the pulled players were Mage classes while the third was a Rogue class. Automatically the two mages tried to leap away as the 2 players that were not grappled began to run at Furious Zen. Zen’s dual axes slashed manically at the two mages, using a leap ability as one of the mages tried to teleport away, landing on top of him and cleaving downward ruthlessly, smashing the mage in two. Just as he looked up, he spotted a arcane bolt barreling towards him from the other mage as the squishy class retreated frantically. Zen simply lunged slightly to the side as the arcane bolt narrowly missed the side of his head, following his simple move, he burst towards the mage like a silent demon. His health untouched as he swung his axes in a circle and cleaved directly through the mage’s conjured mana shield and sent him tumbling backwards but still alive. Furious Zen was about to follow through when the Warrior tank class finally intercepted him and slammed into his side. Zen was unfazed as he rotated in mid-air and smashed one of his axes down towards the head of the tank. The tank shielded himself from the swing with a large shield and used the short sword in his other hand to swing at Zen’s abdomen. The berserker merely hopped back out of the range of the swing, perfectly measuring its range before tilting forward to lunge back at the tank. However, before he could lunge in, the rouge he had pulled before stabbed him in the back with a gouge, causing bleed damage and a temporary stun.
The tank took advantage of the stun and slashed down with the sword before following up with a shield bash, chaining the stun as the mage began to deal heavy damage to the incapacitated Berserker. The Rouge was about to follow up with a twin bladed attack when a black shadow fell from above at ridiculous speeds while yelling something unintelligible, a blade leading the shadow’s fall as he slammed into the Rouge, flattening the female character mercilessly. The figure of an armored character withdrew his sword from the rouge and quickly continued his assault with a few slashes before she could recover and retreat behind the Tank. The appearance of Neron startled the surrounding opponents, but it was difficult to become wound up about a level 2 Duelist without their first feat. However, the odd appearance of 4 missile-like chasers that floated about Neron put the more experienced Tank and Mage to become slightly more wary. Unfortunately, nobody took Neron seriously and most of the focus was on the retreating Furious Zen who was slowly regenerating health from his life leech. The Tank began to pursue the retreating Berserker but Neron stood in the way with his shield raised just below the eye slits.
”Ah, not quite, I can imagine you want to chase those sweet cheeks across the map, but I’m quite jealous and would like to simply dance.” He taunted happily.
The spectator’s excitement had increased many fold watching the prowess of Furious Zen taking on 5 other players, and the cheers exploded when Neron dropped from one of the cliff sides to take out 75% of the Rouge’s health, making up for a difference in 3 levels by a surprise attack and a series of brutal follow up slashes to the lightly armored class. Neron had taken notably less damage than expected from his fall due to the roguish padding beneath him, but he was at 80% going into the fight. Despite his disadvantaged appearance, many began to cheer for him as the underdog.
The Duelist who had finally approached from the side to take on Neron and Zen laughed as the Tank was stopped by Neron and his banter. The Duelist called out as he moved to circumvent Neron and head towards Furious Zen.
“Ignore the trash! He’s only a level 2 noob, Zen’s at 60%, we can’t let him regenerate!”The Tank nodded in acknowledgement and raised his shield above his head preparing to use his shield smash ability to knock down Neron and pass over him, however, Neron’s pride did not allow the instructions to pass over his head. His eye slits glowed with mock fury as Neron jumped just as the Tank slammed down his shield and kicked off the shield, distancing himself from the Tank as he raised his head to look about
”Who just called me ‘trash’? Wait up for a moment! Let grandpa come over and teach you how to fucking spell ‘trash’”He quickly retreated to Furious Zen, cutting off the Duelist’s flank and causing a stalemate as both sides waited to make the move, Furious Zen slowly healing but nobody willing to lunge forward and face both Zen and another Duelist at the same time. However, Neron’s yelling did not cease.
”Who said it? Who? What are all of you waiting for? A bunch of level 6 players and you’re afraid of a little nooblet level 2 duelist? If I’m trash, what are you? Maybe non-recyclable trash? Completely worthless trash? Maybe steaming hot piles of shit? 1, 2, 3, 4 nice little pieces of trash lined up in a nice and orderly fashion? Are you all waiting to be thrown in the trash bins? But wait! You’re all non-recyclable, remember? Have some awareness you shameless trash. Every second you exist, you pollute this place, you should just stop…””SHUT THE FUCK UP” The Duelist finally screamed in annoyance.
Neron paused, simply watching the other group as a few quick moments of bated breath passed between the two stalemated groups. The 2 searching players finally appeared on the other side of the ridge, causing both Neron and Furious Zen to become further disadvantaged. Neron simply looked towards the Duelist with his helmeted features and once again began taunting,
”Huh? It was you? Good, you also look like a duelist. Awesome! But what’s this? You look different from other Duel Masters. Seeing how you look less handsome than a crumpled can on the side of the road, could it be… you’re the legendary… “There was a pause before Neron suddenly yelled while spamming in the text chat a single phrase;
”TRASH MASTER?”Following his battle cry, Neron launched his four chasers directly at the opposing Duelist as well as marking his as the target for his {Augmented Focus}. Without a pause, Neron slashed downward with his buffed speed while the Duelist’s retreat became sluggish following the landing of the four tracers. With a flurry of attacks, Neron began to slash into the opposing Duelist and launch the chasers as they formed at point blank. The other players began to move to oppose Neron, but Furious Zen used his leap ability once again, slamming into the Mage and throwing the Mage at the Tank to earn their attention. As Neron’s strength built from the chasers, he quickly cleaved the Duelist to less than a quarter of his health. He began announcing his attacks as they came, but by the time the Duelist could register how to counter, it would be too late. Thus, Neron followed through with a flurry of announced attacks. Occasionally, the Duelist would exchange blows and abilities, but he was wholly subjugated and overwhelmed from the beginning by Neron. Eventually he cried out a simple but ever-so-profound,
“MOTHERFUCKER” before his body turned into a corpse and he was put into the muted spectator lobby.
Furious Zen was able to fight the three others to a stalemate, however, he was unable to gain any ground as he slowly lost health due to the fact that one of the searching players had been a healer while the other was another tank. Having the two other players join in, Furious Zen began to fall to a disadvantaged state until Neron finished the other Duelist and hopped into the fray. The Rogue had been healed to about 60% health remaining, but Neron fired off the 9 chasers he had remaining from his last fight while putting a {Augmented Focus} mark on her. Automatically, he put himself at a large advantage and quickly began to cleave away at her health. Unfortunately for Neron, The second Tank nailed him with a stun from his hammer and unleashed a series of abilities on him, taking him from 72% health to 48%. Neron recovered quickly, launching the 4 chasers around him at the Tank to knock the Tank back while he finished the Rogue. Reallocating his focus mark to the Tank, he began to fight the Tank with amped up speed while he continued to debuff the Tank. Unfortunately, the Healer was a veteran himself and was able to keep up with Neron’s damage output on the Tank despite all of his buffs and advantages.
Suddenly, Furious Zen leapt past the Tank and used a flurry of burst damage abilities to crush the Mage. The first Tank turned to engage Furious Zen, but the Berserker was already on his way to take out the Healer. Helplessly, the Healer began to retreat and was unable to allocate the same amount of heals to the second Tank. Neron quickly began to overwhelm the Tank with 29% health remaining he took the Tank from 82% to 15% in a mere few seconds. He began to save his chasers as he continued to attack, stopping them from launching but also losing his debuffs after the 10 seconds went up, slowing his dps quite notably. Eventually the Tank fell with Neron holding onto a 23% health bar. He had stacked 27 chasers to which he launched at the Healer all at once, blowing the Healer off the side of the ridge and to his death. Without further ado, Neron and Furious Zen quickly teamed on the remaining Tank and finished him quickly. Furious Zen stood at 50% health while Neron was at a much closer 22%.
Zen chuckled and typed,
“close one”, before leaving the arena and appearing back in the Arena Lobby. Neron quickly followed suite as everybody paid their respects with simple gg’s. Neron reappeared in the Arena Lobby to some newfound zeal as many of the spectators had come out to congratulate and speak with Neron, who had stood on par with the renowned Furious Zen. Neron relished in the interaction and playfully added some to his friends list for later dueling as he left the Arena. He was quite tired following the intense 2v7 and was completely mentally fatigued from the fighting. Eventually, he made his way to the Ivory Mask territory in hopes of joining the guild. He began asking around like a true noob. Although he had done plenty farming and arena training, he had yet to really learn many of DGO’s mechanics.
