---

---

River watched as the spirits of the Baby Blues began to seep into the soil and taint the living tree nearby. As its limbs began to form, and the darkness emanating from it was evident, he could see his skill kicking in once more. It was much like how it had happened back when he first started, only glimpses of information and a lot of question Mark's riddling its abilities or even some stats from its stat block. His chitter form gritted its teeth as the tail swung violently before almost tucking beneath his legs. The frills on his neck began to vibrate but hadnt fully extended yet. This was a moment of fight or flight, and he was very unsure of which should be done. For now he would fight, and hope that his team could decide swiftly once given the information. He ran within range of the Treant, judging the distance he would need to attack with his whip once he shifted back into his form. His frills extended and shook as he let out a Screech. Loud thrills escaping as his throat vibrated with the Chitters screaming, hoping to reduce the Treants attack slightly before slashing at it with his beastial auto attack.

As soon as that had been done River knew he needed to shift back to be able to speak, changing into his mage form and having his wand and whip out as he did before the change. "I-I don't have much to go off here. Vulnerable to fire, resistant to water, careful of his slam attack because itll knock you prone, and one AoE attack that I can see. The rest of the info, and theres a lot, is unidentifiable for my skill level. Oh and its Strength is nearly double ours so be careful." Careful, sure, he says that as hes within whip range of the thing. River held his left hand out, pointed towards the Treant as he chanted the spell for Lightning Shot. The same arcane energy coalescing from the elements to the tip of his wand as his hair began to lift on ends until the spell completed and shot out a bolt of electricity. Following quickly after River cracked his whip at the creature hoping to deal as much damage as he could at the moment.

He looked over his shoulder towards the right and called forth for Pepper to do her aerial attack. Her feathered wings fluttering as she flew above the Treant at her Max range and slew a cone of nauxious purple gas that rolled over it using her Caustic Bite As soon as she was done she retreated back towards the party keeping her distance from the shade possessed monster.

"Wow. How extra."

The treant may have been Level 17, and it may have been boasting a Strength score almost double their own, but that wasn't all that impressive anyways, not when no one here actually specialized in strength. So what was that, 70 or so? May as well be nothing. Its backstory or whatever, its role as the protector and avenger of the Baby Blues, its threatening atmosphere and the boss music that Cecilia heard in her mind also didn't matter. The Treant was just food, and she was going to enjoy this little break in monotony. River's Chitter strikes did literally no damage, while his Lightning, once their greatest form of magical artillery, had practically been cut to a third of its efficacy against the tough bark of the oaken monstrosity. If they didn't have a proper tank, Cecilia may have actually suggested a retreat if the fight went on too long.

But they did have a tank, and not just any tank, but a Paladin with Radiating Challenge. If Aura did her job, Cecilia could do hers. Kicking her steel spear into her hand with a flourish, the Lancer dropped low, breathing deeply as the earth quaked. Just a touch taller than a one floor building, hm? There were actual trees nearby that were taller than this angry sapling. "Y'know what they say 'bout lightning and trees," Cecilia grinned, her golden eyes flickering towards the others. "They get smote!"

And then she launched off, meeting the Treat's charge. Pole jumping upwards, she twisted her body and slammed the rim of her shield into its face, before her virtual mana veins surged outwards. Cecilia blazed like a star within the shadows of the canopy, and like a star, she fell as well, streaking down into the base of the Treant with meteoric force. A veritable wave of dirt burst outwards from the epicenter of her dynamic landing and the monster was sent flying by the concussive strike.

Flying, right on top of her Mythic Spear.

Was it heroic might, or simply the programmed mechanics of the game? As the steel shaft creaked, Cecilia drove her polearm deep into the monster's trunk and raised it up, a trophy to her instance of evisceration.

Health: 2100/2100
Mana: 2000/2000

---

Prome found himself thoroughly confused "But...why would they ban Mr. Alfor? He's such a nice man." Prome wondered. Quickly coming to the conclusion that he had no idea, and that it wasn't important right now, he shrugged as he payed the copper and got to work "An hour should be more than enough time."

Aura nearly punted the 'Chitter' in the middle of the group when she first saw it. It was only due to a second glancing look that she discerned that 'it' was in fact the guild's Shaper and she lowered her shield against it. That was going to be troublesome to discern, even if there was an indicator to tell her that the Shaper was a friendly unit - especially in the heat of the battle, when she didn't have time to play Guess Who. Although it was idly fascinating to watch in a way. How did the game even process the different body type to the brain? Was it just a player model change? Aura decided to save questions for when they didn't have a treant in their face.

On that subject..."A Creepy laughing treant. How original." Aura deadpanned as she raised her shield, keeping a steady poise as she advanced towards the monster. One foot back, shield held center-right and tilted up, sword held against the side of the shield, ready to quickly shift the orientation as the situation demanded. And eyes watching with an unimpressed gaze as a lightning bolt was hurled against it, the Treant's health barely being tickled.

It was time to do her job - but carefully. As much as she did have Radiating Challenge and more importantly, double Fortress passives that drastically raised her Natural Resistance, she didn't know what the Treant packed - and neither did she know the extent of her companion's healing/recovery capabilities. The treant had probably the usual root attacks that many video game tropes had, and Aura didn't think the map would already throw and impossible challenge at them - but Aura knew all too well that assumptions and arrogance were the biggest, most insidious killers. A lesser taunt, scope out the attack pattern, then push in with the Challenge if the thing couldn't scratch her too much. Meanwhile, her companions should be able to find a way to take this thing down.

Aura saw other Paladins roaring whatever battlecry they came up when they were using a Taunt, but invariably suffer from a sore throat afterwards when they had to shout insults a bunch of times throughout the day. Aura was neither witty nor bothered enough to pick out whatever personal flaw that the mobs supposedly had. So she settled for a solid clash of shield against her sword-pommel, keeping stance and position as solidly as possible.

---

Holly’s eyes go a bit wide at seeing a large tree, which came to life to avenge its fallen comrades is a bit wild to say the least. However, she tried to not freak out from the fact this tree came to life but she would embarrass herself though. ”Why are we fighting a Treeant?” Holly questioned with a slight emphasis on tree more than what it is. However, she did hear what River said especially since that sounded like a terrible thing to fight, most of all. It caused her to move back slightly from the group since she is an archer and not a melee combatant alike the reckless Ceci or Ciara, which is the tank of the group.

She decided to pull out her Ivory Bow and put an arrow into it, which she started to pull back for a Greater Power Shot. A few seconds past, and she releases the arrow directly at the tree, which is attacking her and her allies. However, she puts another arrow into her bow and releases it straight away at the Treant. ”Why did I emphasis tree? When I was talking… god damn… this is more embarrassing then saying I suck at Yahtzee. Even though that part is true...” Holly thought to herself, with a soft sigh at her embarrassment. She was a bit embarrassed at that, however. There was more important things to deal with than her embarrassment it’s life or death with this game anyways.

Holly puts another arrow into her bow, which this time she starts to pull back for a regular power shot. It takes a few seconds less than the greater variant of her skill, which she releases after awhile. She puts another arrow into her bow, and releases it at the Treant. However, she notices her AP points are only at three, which means her next three attacks will have to be regular arrow shots in a row. It takes her a few seconds to put an arrow in her bow and attack the Treant with it, which feels like it happens slowly. However, after that she watches her arrow count, which is 66 and the cool down on her actions, which she used. ”Great… 66 arrows left. I hope I don’t have to use them all on this angry laughing tree.” Holly thought to herself. It only took her a bit to realize she’s still calling it a tree, even though its a Treant at least she’s thinking it and not saying it out loud again.

She hoped the rewards for defeating this Treant will be good even though, its nice that Ciara taunted the tree. ”Thank god for you being here Aura…” Holly said, with a relief in her voice. Even though the evil treant and this game isn’t going to pull their punches even though they decimating most things, however. If River couldn’t read most of its abilities and what not means its definitely a higher level. But Rare mobs are usually higher level in most mmorpgs, elite status and what not.

Health: 2700/2700
Mana: 3300/3550(+450)









“Well, this should be exciting. Instill Tenacity.” Aura shined a faint rainbow hue for a few moments before returning to normal. That would give her a bit more to eat hits with. Area monsters that spawned in retaliation to farm parties were normally a bit tougher than their level suggested so it wouldn’t hurt to keep Aura well defended.

“Enfeeble.” A sickly green wisp slithered around the Treant, cutting it’s strength a little. Hopefully, the combo of Buffs and debuffs would help keep Aura from needing too much healing next round. “Alright, keep an eye out. We don’t have a lot to go on so watch your step. It might be able to manipulate the plants around us if it’s anything like other games. We don’t want to get ambushed by adds.” She kept her wand at the ready, the Weaken Magic spell on the tip of her tongue if it tried to do something outside of the expected physical attacks. She stuck close to River, wanting to feed off that wonderful battery of magic she was used to.







Level 17 (Uncommon)
Health: 12,239/15,000
Mana: 7,000/7,000

The Treant barely responded as the Stunned debuff ticked upwards from 5 seconds to 20 seconds, its mouth going slack and eyes dimming momentarily. The purple fog seeping out of its mouth whirled around everyone coming in melee range but dissipated far too quickly to have any real effect. Inside the still Treant, the Shadows writhed furiously as their giggling sharpened into a shrill scream. Two of the blue orbs were being ripped to shreds by the other shadows and massive bolt of blue energy blasts out of the yawning abyss. The energy barely dimmed as Willow caught the spell with her own but its still slammed directly into Aura’s shield, massively damaging the Paladin. A notification popped up on her dashboard, warning of a 25% reduction in all equipped item durability.

The Treant stirred after the assault, blinking its eyes and howling in anger. The roots writhing in it’s legs pushed themselves into the ground and the Treant settled into the spot. A tiny green emblem reading Ingrain appeared beneath the Monster’s health bar, timed at 2 minutes, and suddenly its health shot up by 1000. More shadows poured out from its mouth, one for each player, and rose above each player. They took on the silhouette of children, giggling and dancing around the players before all but the one in front of willow vanished. The shadow giggled and said in a sing song voice, You’re it!.





Prome’s crafting went quickly and efficiently, his smithing skill high enough to knock out the required steel in almost no time at all. Ten steel bars sat in his inventory after little more than ten minutes with plenty of time to spare on his purchased smithy spot.

Well, things always looked like they were going well, until someone took four thousand damage in a single attack, huh? That made things serious real fast. As Cecilia skidded back, watching the creepy shadow children crawl out from the Treant's mouth to absolutely explode Aura, her eyes narrowed. She focused on her breathing, forced the fear down into the pits of her stomach. The Paladin meant nothing to her, of course; just another pub that they needed to pick up before they got themselves a permanent tank, but Cecilia wasn't going to let her die for no good reason either. Vengeance, that was what that attack had been called. Was it consistently four thousand, or did it scale proportionate to Treant HP lost? Ingrain looked to be healing over time as well, one thousand HP every thirty seconds.

If Vengeance scaled, they couldn't win. If Ingrain could be stacked, they couldn't win. In the Lancer's mind, the dice were tumbling in her skull, rattling and rattling and rattling, but never landing. They'd only show the result at the end. But regrets continued regardless. God, if she had purchased Beam Shot before, this would be so much kinder...or a scaling Vengeance would have instantly obliterated their tank.

Cecilia sucked in a breath. Whatever Willow was dealing with, she couldn't help her with. As a Lancer, stuck between the roles of tank and DPS, there was only one thing to do: be annoying and look fabulous.

"Redeeming Glow!"

Warm light bathed her as she charged in once more, streaming towards the rooted Treant as swiftly as her legs could carry her. Gritting her teeth, she leapt up, confounded gravity, and drove her spear right between its two yellow eyes. Sap seeped before she kicked off the tough bark, twisting in the air until she was upside down. Deal damage, stun, and repeat. The creature had high Fortitude for resisting such things, yes, but she hadn't put her back into it that time. Now though? As her feet found purchase against its canopy, Cecilia kicked off again, the last beads of light from Redeeming Glow making her lightning incarnate.

An echoing crack, and her lightning-enhanced spear found its way in the Treant's right arm. With a heavy kick, Cecilia sent it all the way through, swinging down to catch her spear as it fell out the other side, leaving a hole. It was just a hole, of course, but a mark was a mark regardless. If they couldn't do it this time, she'd at least give the miserable bastard something to remember her by.

"Willow!" Cecilia backed up again, each leap sending her ten feet further away. "If Aura gets chunked again, I'm out! We don't have the heals for this!"

---

---

River watched as they're new tank got slammed with almost 4,000 points of damage. The ability seemed to be called Vengeance, and it appeared as though it reflected back the damage they deal to it back. What sort of a cooldown was the ability on? How much mana did it use it for it? Was this a beatable monster? So many questions ran through his head as he looked on with horror at the sheer damage it did. Two of its attacks did seemingly nothing, one of which marked Willow as "it" but there was no clarification on exactly what that meant. "Aura, here!" The familiar green wisps of air and mana swirled around River as they made their way to his wand. A beam of healing energy flying out and hitting Aura, healing her while he gained 25 mana back. River anxiously tapped his wand against his leg as the 10 seconds felt like years, waiting for the tic back and then another beam towards Aura, then once more for three total heals hitting her.

It wasn't much, but the 75 mana was a start in the right direction. "Cecilia, if vengeance is a scale off of damage dealt, then perhaps we dont want to burst it down. If we can force it to waste its resources I'm sure we can beat it. Slow and steady may win this race. Deplete the mana and theres no Vengeance. No vengeance means we can burst it down later. This Imprison however... I'm afraid to see what it does." River steadied himself, keeping his eyes on the Treants abilities while also making sure everyones health would be ok. He still had enough action to cast another Beam if anyone got hit after its 10 seconds were up.

---

Holly’s eyes go wide with the massive amount of damage was done to Aura, it was insane. However, the shadows that were above her was a bit terrifying to say the least. ”Uhh, crap… I don’t like this one bit…” Holly thought to herself, while starring at the shadows and back to the Treant. It’s pretty much a bit terrifying to say the least but she wondered what to do, with her bow still out all she wanted to do is less damage than she probably did to it. She took a bit of time to figure out that certain things weren’t really that great. However, she decided to at least fire her bow with three regular arrows since her two skilled based skills missed completely.

She took a bit to understand, that one of the shadows vanished and it was basically doing a skill against Willow. This made her worry a bit more than usual. ”I agree with you River… However, that Imprison… ability sounds terrifying.” Holly said, with a slight sigh. She did notice it did increase its health by 1,000 but it probably means it also works for mana too. However, she doesn’t really have monster knowledge to understand what it’s abilities name is. She is irritated at this stupid treant but she noticed her Power Shot is back off of cool down. However, she hopes this time it won’t miss compared to the last time.

Holly puts another arrow into her bow and takes a bit to move back her bow string and releases it to use a Power Shot. However, all she does after the Power Shot was put another arrow in her bow and releases it directly at the Treant. However, she didn’t really want to do anything more since how much damage she does could be not that great for Aura. ”Cautious is better than dealing tons of damage and getting killed by a Treant.” Holly thought to herself, with a slight annoyed look on her face. However, she was grateful there was basically two healers in the party or this would probably be much worse. She decided to walk backwards slightly more, hopefully the treant won’t try anything to her.

Health: 2100/2100
Mana: 2000/2000

---

"...and done!" Prome chirped as he finished the last ingot. "Well now, that took a lot less time than I thought. It's kind of a shame to leave when I still have so much time left...oh well. Science waits for no one." With a shrug, Prome made his way back to Alfor's home.

{{Due to IRL circumstances, a character post was unavailable}}

Actions:
Passive Activation: Honor and Glory - Immunity to physical and magic damage for a few moments
Passive Activation: For Honor/Glory - +5 STR and +5 INT for a few minutes
Passive Activation: Inspiring Presence - 5% Chance to recover 200HP
Potions: Use 2x Diluted Potion - Recover 15% HP * 2
Shield Raise - User raises a shield, reducing incoming ranged attack damage for 30 seconds
Meditate - User focuses for few a minutes, recovering 200HP
Aggravate - User makes a single target attack the caster for 30 seconds
Magic Shield - User gains a magical shield that reduces the next physical damage by 20%

CD:
Shield Bash - 1.5min