[IC] Living in Aincrad: a SAO RP

[Little_ninja]

"That's only if Howl works on quest mobs and such." Umichi stated, to let Paka realise there is a possibility he won't be able to do it that way. With a troubled Suki catching up to Umichi, he smiled softly to her, patting her. "It will be fine, all will be fine." He reassured her. Reaching the open space, he could feel it, the Dire Werewolf was around. As Suki stepped back, Umichi closed his eyes, and breathed in, drawing his Silver Boar Blade. Opening his eyes, the Dire Werewolf appeared in front of him.

The Dire Werewolf howled, with it's name appearing under it's cursor. Two health bars could be seen filling up. It was a fairly large being, at least three times larger than Umichi himself. Umichi lowered himself, poising to be ready to attack. He dashed, he was quick, the Dire Werewolf went to claw at him. With his <<Acrobatics>> skill, he jumped, twisting and flipping. As he was upside down, he quickly used a <<Slant>>, before landing behind the arm. Stepping forward, he poised and used <<Horizontal Square>>. The Dire Werewolf turned, to Umichi, who ended up behind the Werewolf. Umichi turned, assessing the damage done. "About 7% huh ..." It was about 7% for the top bar of health.

He knew it would probably take a while, especially since the cooldown for the Horizontal and Vertical Squares were a full minute, and they were his more powerful sword skills. Preparing for the next attack, Umichi rolled to his right, under the left arm of the Dire Werewolf. Managing to only get scraped by the quick arm, and causing very miniscule damage to the Werewolf as he managed to slice without a sword skill as he rolled. Rolling up onto his feet. He dashed in using <<Vertical Square>>. However, the position he ended up was not very favorable. He was right next to the right arm of the Dire Werewolf as it was swinging. He had a split second to guard, bringing up his blade, managing to lower the damage quite significantly. The blow blew him back a few meters. This battle was fairly fast paced. So much had happened in only a matter of seconds. Umichi had lost about 3% from the guarded blow, while the Dire Werewolf had lost almost 15% of the first bar of health.

The Dire Werewolf started to quickly charge at him. It was incredibly fast. With the size of it, Umichi could not simply roll to the side or jump over it. Taking two steps to his left, away from the rest of the party at that point in time, he jumped, somersaulting in the air to decrease his size by becoming a ball. His right hand and the blade stuck out to his right, scratching and carving the Dire Werewolf. As he landed he got himself some distance.

[MarshiestMallow]

Suki watched the fight, her heart pounding fast even though mostly what she did was just stand there, watching, waiting to see if she could help, or do anything besides stand there like an idiot. She might not have a blade that could do damage to the Dire Werewolf, but anything would turn around, surely, at being hit, even if it didn't do damage. Instead of using her blade though, she brought out some knives, having brought them to practice knife skills with. She licked her lips, and took aim at the beast as Umichi summer saluted into the air, and threw her knife at the Dire Werewolf, just as Paka went to pull her back, further away from the fight, and Suki let out a hiss, pulling herself away from Paka, seeing her knife fly harmlessly into a tree.

She sighed, and went to take aim again, frustrated that Paka had ruined her shot. She knew it was just because he wanted to make sure she was safe, but she was tired of being doubted that she could look after herself, and she just wanted to show that she could help, even if it was just doing a bit of distraction, enough to keep Umichi alive.

So that's what she did, as she let her second knife fly, missing again, but at least it made a noise as it fell to the ground near by the Dire Werewolf, causing it to glance towards the sound, and Suki smiled slightly, stepping back, pleased at herself

[DELETED7282737]

Yui

After they had reached the city Yui noticed that she had released Yumi her hand when they fought the monsters but she could handle the dark without her hand as long as she is near her it should be fine. She gave a quick glance around and saw that Yumi had already quickly ran of the reason was still a bit unclear to her. The other seemed to know what she was doing so she kept with the group instead of Yumi alone. They proceeded further down into the town with the whole group towards the Werewolf location. It already felt a lot more comfortable with much more light around and she got herself together for the upcomming fight. The only thing that would do much damage was the new sword they had created over the night. It didn't matter to her what did the most damage of their team, she would only need to tank the monster as best she could.

When they arrived she was fully prepared and she could already see the beast charging at her party the time was passing quickly as she could already see that it was faster then expected. It was a huge disadvantage for her since she could never move as fast as the werewolf. She however didn't even care that he was faster, She could see suki trowing some of her trowing knifes to the monster but they all missed it would probably not even do any damage but she kept trying. One of the shots almost hitted but it landed next to Yui. The beast emmidiatly came charging at Yui when the knife made some sound. Her eyes grew wide as she couldn't get one of her skills in time as the monster punched her towards a tree. She could feel the impact of the tree as she hit it and fell down to the ground. She immediatly got up and came charging in front of the next person it was about to hit and got into a defending stance to reflect the attack from the beast.

[Little_ninja]

Umichi noticed that Suki was trying to distract the Dire Werewolf, which she did, as it turned it's head, he charged in, with a <<Sonic Leap>>, before cutting past with a <<Horizontal>>. However, it did not turn back to Umichi, instead it was already charging to Yui. *Tsk* Couldn't get it's attention he thought, as he knew he wasn't going to be able to catch up to it on time. Seeing Yui fly back, the Dire Werewolf came charging to Umichi again. Seeing Yui start charging to Umichi. It seems she wanted to guard for him. He noticed the way the Dire Werewolf's next attack would work. A sweeping attack with it's claw, if he tried to dodge, Yui would be caught, he couldn't make it skim past. Jumping towards the left shoulder of the claw that was raised ready to sweep into where he was and into Yui, he stabbed into the beast, trying to use any and all momentum he had into forcing it back to make it miss Yui.

The damage the stab was doing was causing it to lose quite a bit of health. Umichi was able to force the beast to stumble back a bit. It's sweep flying right above and infront of Yui. "Don't try to guard for me Yui." he called out to her, jump kicking and back flipping off the Dire Werewolf. Suddenly the Dire Werewolf howled. It was a loud howl, hurting Umichi's ears, however, he didn't waver. It distorted his normal senses a little, but his <<Detection>> skill allowed him to take notice of the 20 wolves coming to surround them.

When the howl finished, he called out, "Wolves have come!" alerting the rest of his party that could still hear. The howl itself was lasting at least 10 seconds. It seems his abilities were off cool down again. Doing a backward cartwheel to avoid another attack, he dashed in right after the attack, as the Dire Werewolf exposed it's right side after trying to claw at Umichi. Using a <<Slant>> into a <<Horizontal Square>> Umichi's positioning was actually quite bad. Ending up in front of the Dire Werewolf as he was finishing the fourth and final cut of <<Horizontal Square>> the beast was ready to charge forward. There was no time to dodge. Quickly after the cut, he placed the Silver Boar Blade between himself and the Dire Werewolf, guarding. It's charge was pushing Umichi back, chipping away at his health. Angling the blade and hiding his body behind the blade, the beast started to charge past him. Umichi lowered himself, cutting almost cleanly through the right leg of the werewolf.

The beast had lost balance and fell, it's momentum carrying it forward to in front of Paka. It's leg was still in tact, but it had taken significant damage, losing more than 45% of it's first bar of health.

[FujiwaraPhoenix]

Fujiwara and Ayame quietly trailed behind the rest of the party, warily watching around them for any sign of an ambush. As Suki and Yui began to involve themselves in the actual fight as bait, Fujiwara shook his head and sighed.

"Geez... You guys... You're crazy, you know that?" he said to himself before the Dire Werewolf began to howl. Wincing in slight pain from the noise, Fujiwara quickly unsheathed his katana and held it with both hands as Umichi called out to them that enemy minions were on the way. Just as the party leader had predicted, wolves began to spring out of the outskirts of the forest. Sighing, Fujiwara deftly slashed through two wolves with <<Ukifune>>, one after the other, before turning to Ayame.

"Crap, I got too relaxed there!" he shouted as he rushed to Ayame, who had been surrounded by a good seven or eight wolves. Just as he was about to use <<Gengetsu>> to clear them, Ayame quickly swung her scythe around her and used <<shockwave>>, which caused the wolves around her to be caught up either on or within the scythe, while the wolves nearby seemed to be forced back with the force. Ayame quickly followed up the attack with <<Crescent Moon>>, impaling the wolves (which had been gathered up onto one point because of her earlier attack) all at once. Breathing a sigh of relief, Fujiwara quickly turned around and dashed on over to a wolf about to attack Umichi from behind and quickly decapitated it with <<Ukifune>>.

"Well... I guess AoE's great in boss fights. It makes farming a hell of a lot easier, at least." Fujiwara said casually before tearing through another dire wolf.
"AoE?" Ayame asked in response before Fujiwara shook his head.
"Area of affect. Don't worry, I'll give you a rundown of gamer turns later." he responded before they moved out to keep the area clear of wolves.

[MarshiestMallow]

Paka didn't hesitate, as the beast came towards him. He charged, his Katana at the ready. He didn't think of using any attack, purely, he sort to keep the Dire Werewolves attention on him, giving Umichi time to orientate himself again, and charge with an attac, but he also knew that there were direwolves coming, and he activated his <<howl>> ability, during several to him, even as he continued with his attack to the Dire Werewolf. Without stopping in his stride, he used Tsumujigurumap, and the 36 degrees attack covered him, attacking some of the wolves. By then he was closer to the Dire Werewolf, and instead of attacking, he launched himself into the air, using his strength to leap to the side of the creature moving as the beast turned.

He was panting, as if he had done a 100 sprint run, but he didn't let that stop him from moving, as he back stepped to the side, keeping his eyes on the Dire Werewolf at all times, knowing it was the biggest risk, "Hurry up and slay the damned thing" He yelled, his voice easily carrying over the noise of the Dire Wolves, of the group as they fought, al the while maintain his careful movement, walking about in a circle, keeping the Dire Werewolf in front of him at all times, knowing that despite the fact it was injured, it was still a formidable opponent.

---

Suki spun about as Umichi shouted about direwolves, and looked about spotting them, she hed her Anneal blade in ne hand, and launched herself at the first wolf she came across, killing it with two moves, a Slant and a Horizontal arc. She blinked as the wolves moved towards Paka, all but the ones already engaged and being killed by Fujiwara and Ayame, and she made to go help Paka, seeing as he seemed to be drawing the Dire Wereolves attention to himself. The wolves Paka didnt manage to kill with his quick attack, Suki quickly picked over, killing them, and looking about, seeing that they had moved through the pack quickly.

She then had an idea, seeing Paka dealing with the Dire Werewolf, circling, constantly keeping it in front of him. She joined him, circling so she was opposite Paka. She had a thoery that the beast might get confused about who to attack, with two enemies circling it. Every time the Dire Werewolf made to lunge at Paka, Paka moved back swiftly, jumping to the side.

Just in case things went sour, Suki held her blade in one hand, and a teleport crystal in another

[Little_ninja]

Turning around and standing, Umichi, knowing the wolf that was about to attack him was going to be taken care of by Fujiwara, replied to Paka. "Not that easy you know, it's got a lot of health." He started to charge, seeing Paka and Suki encircling it. The Dire Werewolf had little focus on either Paka or Suki, it lunged a couple of times at Paka, but then continued it's lunge when Umichi was some distance behind Paka charging towards the beast. It charged pass Paka and went to bite Umichi's head. Getting low, Umichi slide tackled, to dodge and get passed it, using the Silver Boar Blade to spin around and face the beast. The momentum kept the Dire Werewolf going forward, slowing down. While it slowed down, he dashed, a few Dire Wolves got in his way, and Umichi sliced them away, killing them quickly. Jumping, he held his weapon in both hands. As the beast had stopped and was about to turn around, Umichi plunged the Silver Boar Blade deep into the thick skin of the Dire Werwolf in the back. The weapon went through the chest and pierced where the heart would be. Since it's body was large, the blade would not pierce the other side. His weapon did not stab for it's full length. The Dire Werewolf took critical damage, and reached for Umichi, unable to retract the weapon, he decided to kick it in deeper, back flipping away.

Losing a large amount of health, the Dire Werewolf was left with about 85% of it's last bar of health. With each passing second it's health was dropping. The Dire Werewolf could not take it out, and decided to kill Umichi with all it had. Calculating the rate it was dropping, he found it would take about three minutes for it to finish off the Werewolf without him needing to do much else. He was left weaponless, but was able to dodge with more ease as the weapon's weight was not there and would not get in the way.

"It will be over in about three minutes. I can't really attack anything, but I can distract the Werewolf, so just take care of the Dire Wolves and stay out of the way." Umichi told the group, back-flipping away from the Dire Werewolf as it clawed at him. A Dire Wolf came to his side, he turned around and kicked it in the direction it was charging, leading it to go closer to Suki. "Wolf incoming Suki." Umichi called out. Completing another slide tackle under the Dire Werewolf.

[MarshiestMallow]

Suki didn't even hesitate as she spun, seeing the Direwolf coming towards her, she engaged it in battle even as Paka aimed to help her. Suki gave him a reproachful look, even as she attacked the Direwolf with a <<Horizontal Arc>> and quickly following it up with <<Slant>> and killing the wolf.

She knew the wolves would keep on appearing, until the Dire Werewolf was gone. Even though only one person could fight the Dire Werewolf with the Silver Boar Blade, but they couldn't fight the Dire Wolves as well. She was sure that was why this had to be a group quest. She looked around, moving to stop a few Direwolves off to the sides.

She engaged the direwolves, attacking one, as she moved about to avoid another wolf, changing between <<Horizontal Arc>>, <<Slant>>, <<Vertical Arc>> and <<upper Cut>>. She dispatched the three wolves quicker then she had thought to, and she looked about again, but it seemed like for now, there was no more left. She looked to see how Umichi was doing, and how much longer the Dire Werewolf would survive.

[FujiwaraPhoenix]

Fujiwara sighed and shook his head. Three minutes... Well, as long as the sun didn't start peeking out and ruining all the preparation that was made to get this godforsaken mission going, he wasn't going to complain. Quickly cleaving through another two wolves, he quickly glanced at the sword stuck in the werewolf.

"Can't we just... I don't know, slam it further in or something? A DoT isn't going to make this any faster, and we can just juggle aggro or something to keep it off whoever's brave enough to stab it in deeper... Or pull it out. Whatever works, I guess?" he asked before noticing Ayame murdering another wave of wolves with <<Shockwave>>.

"I didn't understand any of those terms, but you seem to know what you're doing so i'll just leave that to you. I'll just keep these wolves off your back." Ayame said as the giant clump of wolves shattered into polygons. "In theory, you could have some setup to force... Is it okay to ask you all some things after we're done with this mission?"

"Ah... Sure, why not? You won't understand most of the calls we make without learning anyhow, so... yeah, sure." Fujiwara responded before quickly dodging a wolf as it jumped at him and sliced it in half with his katana soon after.

[Little_ninja]

Taking a small side-step to dodge a charge by the Dire Werewolf, Umichi replied to Fujiwara, "Well, I doubt anyone else has <<Acrobatics>> so I doubt anyone else but me can reach that high. Also ... it's stuck in there pretty good, so I can't actually pull it out or even push it in further, I can't pierce the chest from the back by pushing it deeper, so let's just let it die slowly." Explaining the situation at hand, as the Dire Werewolf charged into the nearby tree.

"Well, while I dodge all of this let me explain some of the terms Ayame. DoT stands for damage over time. It refers to a type of attack that ..." The Dire Werewolf slashed at him, he jumped onto it's claw. "continuously damages the enemy for a set amount of time generally speaking. Some DoT can kill the enemy, others cannot, it depends on the structure of a game." The other claw came to slash at him, he back-flipped once more. "Aggro on the other hand refers to aggression. I am not sure how to explain it too well, but it means making the enemy angry. When someone ..." The Dire Werewolf went to bite his head once more, and he dive rolled to his right. A Dire Wolf came to him, at the end of his roll he bounced, and ended up on top of the Dire Wolf by pure coincidence. Wonder if I can ride this thing. Umichi became curious over such a possibility. There was no way to control it's direction and it was headed towards Paka. Jumping off and dashing away to keep the Dire Werewolf away from everyone, he continued his explanation, "When someone takes aggro, it means that the enemy is currently targeting that person. Therefore the attacks are directed to that person. A good way to juggle aggro exists in this game. It's an outside system skill called <<Switch>> that can occur between party members, switching the aggro from one player to another. This allows players to switch positions mid-battle to recover HP and burden the learning abilities of AI-controlled monsters. Was there anything else you needed to learn?" he asked Ayame, finishing his explanation, still dodging the Dire Werewolf.

More than two minutes had passed since the start of his explanation, it's health was almost red. "Almost there guys." Hitting the red portion of health, the beast howled once more, it appeared to have gotten bigger, but as it went to attack Umichi, it's pattern was the same. "No change in attack pattern, that's good." However, he underestimated the size change, getting a few claw scratches, barely cutting him. His health dropped about 10% from the small scratches. Having still a 1323 health left from the damage he received in total. It wasn't too much, but he would rather not take any more.

[MarshiestMallow]

Suki continued to fight the Direwolves, trying to keep track in her head just how much time was passing, not wanting to risk looking at the time on her menu to find out. She was counting the seconds as she fought the wolves, thrown off slightly when Umichi tried to ride the Direwolf. When he leaped off, Paka attacked the Direwolf, killing it quickly, turning to intercept another one.

Suki turned her attention back to her own fights, ducking as. Direwolf made to tackle her, bringing her Annael blade up for a <<vertical>> attack, slashing the wolfs belly, causing more damage to the soft underside then she would have with a regular attack on any other part if the body. The Direwolf shattered , and Suki rolled up, blocking a direwolfs claws as it came at her. She pushed back, but was overwhelmed by it's strength, and let herself tumble to the ground.

Paka attacked the Direwolf before it could lunge again at Suki, killing it, and helped his cousin up, offering Suki his hand. Suki took t, pulling herself up, panting slightly. She hoped this would be over soon, as she and Paka turned, placing their backs against each other in an unspoken agreement of protection. Together, they continued to fight Direwolves, trying their hardest to keep them away from Umichi, every so often looking to make sure they were going to be mauled by the Dire werewolf.

Suki saw Umichi get racked with the beast closed and winced, hoping the battle would be over soon, knowing that as it's health decreased, the dire werewolf might get aggressive. She checked Umichi health, resolving to keep an eye on it, and have a health crystal at the ready. Health crystals worked faster then potions, and Suki therefore thought she'd have a better chance at saving Umichi if something went wrong.

[FujiwaraPhoenix]

"Ah... Nothing else off the top of my head. Thanks for the info, though. You're probably going to be getting these sort of questions a lot from me, so I apologize in advance." Ayame said as she cleared another wave of Dire Wolves. It was weird, though- The wolves seemed to not know how to react to her scythe, and thus they seemed to simply stop moving when near it. Fujiwara seemed to notice the strangeness of it and began to think out loud.

"There's actually a half decent chance that making that scythe made the AI completely derp out. It'll probably fix itself over the next few floors or something... Probably. That stuff's game breaking." he said before cutting down a few more Dire Wolves. "On the upside, free EXP! Free drops! I know I'm not complaining there."

[Little_ninja]

Waving his hand a little, Umichi told Suki, "No need for that, pay attention to the Dire Wolves and Dire Werewolf, not me, I'll be fine." Back stepping once to dodge a claw he then replied to Ayame, "No problems, it's all good. Oh, I doubt it would even take a floor to fix something like the AI patterns, they have decent learning curves and the system is pretty advanced." His words were redirected to Fujiwara at the end, side stepping a lunge attack by the Dire Werewolf.

As the Dire Werwolf went to claw at Umichi once more, he took a small step back, and crouched. The claw was barely centimeters away from him, nipping his hair. This was as he planned. With the beast's health disappearing, Umichi charged and pushed into the Dire Werewolf's left claw that swung at him, forcing the beast to twist awkwardly, just as if a person who made a wild hook punch and missed. It's body twisted and with the momentum it fell on it's back. The impact caused the Silver Blade Boar to finish piercing it's skin and finally the Dire Werewolf was finished.

---

A congratulations box appeared telling them of their spoils of the battle.
Each party member received their own message.

---

Umichi

Congratulations said
Exp - 280
Col - 400
Items:
- Dire Werewolf Fang

---

Suki

Congratulations said
Exp - 160
Col - 250
Items:
- Dire Werewolf Carcass (Quest Item)

---

Yui

Congratulations said
Exp - 160
Col - 250
Items:

---

Paka

Congratulations said
Exp - 240
Col - 350
Items:

---

Yumi

Congratulations said
Exp - 210
Col - 275
Items:

---

Fujiwara

Congratulations said
Exp - 240
Col - 350
Items:
- Dire Werewolf Fang

---

Ayame

Congratulations said

Exp - 130
Col - 200
Items:
- Claws of the Dire Werewolf

---

Status Effect
Suki is being weighed down and weakened. A status effect symbol appears next to her name. Her movement speed is decreased and her movements in battle are significantly slowed therefore fighting is almost impossible.

---

The dire wolves disappeared as the Dire Werewolf shattered, dropping down Umichi's Silver Boar Blade. With that, he was pretty close to level 10. Picking up his weapon, he flicked through his menu and swapped out the Silver Boar Blade for his <<3S3D2Q>> Anneal Blade. Looking at his party members, some had lost some health but everyone seemed healthy, looking over to Suki's health he saw a status affect symbol. "Suki you alright?" Umichi asked turning to her and approaching her. Luckily all that was left to return to town.

[MarshiestMallow]

Suki let out a soft breath of relief as the Dire Werewolf was destroyed. She smiled, and looked up when the notification appeared. Her relief was short lived, apparently, as the Carcess was her reward. It weighed her down heavily, and she let out a small gasp of shock. She gritted her teeth, and stood up straight. It was slow, and she felt as if the gravity had been turned up high, accept that everyone else wasn't effected.

It just had to be her, getting caught with the heavy Carcass. She nodded when Umichi asked of she was okay, and said "apparently the beasts body is heavy. I don't think I'll be able to fight, or go very fast. I'm sorry" she knew it wasn't her fault, but she couldn't help but say sorry, knowing it would slow the rest of the group down.

She sighed, "I think getting back to town would be the best option, and as fast as I can...there might be more dire wolves around, and Frenzy boars and maybe Nepents, and I can't fight..." She opened her inventory, seeing that she couldn't do anything with the carcass. "I'm stuck with it" maybe she should have put more effort into her strength ability. Too late now.

Paka was watching, keeping an eye out to see if there were any other monsters around, not letting his guard down. He was sure that monsters would be drawn here because of the fighting, and wanted to be prepared

[FujiwaraPhoenix]

Fujiwara breathed a sigh of relief as he saw the Dire Werewolf shatter into polygons. That fight (to him, at least) felt like it took ages. Looking at the others, his relief rapidly turned into annoyance as he realized that the quest wasn't over.

"Well... That's a bit of a letdown. This shouldn't take too much longer to complete, though. We're just escorting Suki back, right? We can treat it like that, if that's the case; move slowly, move in a diamond formation around the escort and murder any monster that comes our way. I'll take the left, and I guess Ayame can take the rear. Umichi, since you're the highest level here we might as well have you leading the charge... Which leaves Paka guarding the right. Does that sound about right, or should we use a different strategy to get back to town safely?" he asked before turning to the rest of the group. Ayame shrugged at his suggestion and smiled.

"I honestly don't have an issue with that plan. It seems pretty safe to me, but at the same time I'm not really experienced with this sort of tactical maneuvering so I'll leave it to you." she said before slinging her scythe behind her.

[Little_ninja]

"Hm..." Umichi thought. "How about trying a teleportation crystal? Do you have one specifically for Citadel?" He asked. "Well, can't say it will work for sure, but it's worth a try I guess, right? And if it doesn't then as Fujiwara suggested, that would probably be the best option. I would also recommend Yui and Yumi to scout ahead, to make things easier." Umichi suggested turning to the two girls. Flicking through his menu, he changed his <<Acrobatics>> skill for <<Throwing Knives>> and re-equipped his Set of Iron Throwing Knives. Sensing an enemy he threw a knife using <<Single Shot>> and killed it. Probably a Frenzy Boar or Dire Wolf. The knife was thrown behind him, so no-one was in the way. Nothing else was coming up from his <<Detection>> skill. He waited for Suki to try use the crystal, if she was able to, then he would tell the rest of the group to either use a crystal or make haste to the town. However, is she couldn't, Umichi would walk up to her, and start to lead the group, back to Citadel.

[MarshiestMallow]

Suki opened her menu, taking out the teleportation crystal for citedal, but it wouldn't work. Something about the Dire Werewolfs carcass negated it, and she shook her head, sighing. "Nope, not working. Going to have to walk back" she said, shifting slightly. She waited for Umichi to move in te lead, following after her, feeling ridiculous that she had to be escorted so, with the others around her. She felt useless, and it just frustrated her.

She hated the fact that she was moving so slowly, burdened so much by the carcass. She knew she wasn't truly affected, but the way the game was made with the nerve gear, she was soon panting, and her muscles began to feel hot, and she felt like she was tiring. "This thing must way a hell of a lot more then me" she said between breaths, and steps as she concerntrated on each step, on movin forward, and on not falling.

She decided that they couldn't reach the city fast enough, and she irrationally began to look for it up ahead, hoping for some sign that it was close as the sky began to lighten. She could see it, just in the distance and she let out a relieved breath.

"What the heck do I do with this thing? Who are we meant to take it to?" She wondered, realizing that she had no idea where to go once they reached the city. She would just be glad to be rid if the carcasses burden.

Paka took the right side, coming up along side of Suki, to make sure that if anything did attack them, he wouldn't let any slip through on his side, his guard. He wouldn't let Suki be attacked while she was vulnerable, and he looked about vigilant. He had his katana ready, and he spied Yumi off ahead, scouting up and around them, every so often he saw the scattering pixels of a monster being killed, and assumed Yumi and Yui had dealt with the frenzy boar, or Direwolf.

[DELETED7282737]

Yui

Yui felt for some reason confused as they attacked the Werewolf any further. She stopped moving for some reason assuming it was something with her body in the outside world or maybe in game. As the battke ended she felt normal again 'Must have been lag or something like that' She grabbed hold of her sword as the message popped up that she received some xp and col. The fight had ended and Yui felt like she needed some more sleep they headed towards town in some sort of formation Yui only needed to slay the monsters ahead of them so it wasnt to hard. She finished of her third dire wolf and leveled up towards level 8. She putted all her stat points into strenght again and continued to slay the beasts if there were any near them till they arrived at town.

[FujiwaraPhoenix]

Nodding, Fujiwara took his positions to guard Suki on the trip back. Even if in his mind the mission was basically over, being complacent with the current situation would more likely than not be a death sentence. Walking alongside the group, he put his hands on his katana and its sheathe, ready to draw it at a moment's notice. Ayame, as directed, took the rear guard. Occasionally turning around to decimate a pack of Dire Wolves, she smiled bitterly and continued walking on with everyone else.
"Mmm... I don't know if a life of fighting is the only way to go... Is this really all that there is so far? Fighting for the sake of fighting? Are there truly no alternatives? Maybe there's another way to contact Mr. Akihiko or something...?" she asked before Fujiwara interjected.
"It's probably more than just fighting in the end, even if the game name is 'Sword Art Online'. Given the articles, I'm pretty sure that even if the endgame goal is to scale the tower, there might be other ways out. Maybe the server might screw up and let us all out. That's probably wishful thinking, but hey- Gotta admit, it's still possible." he joked before the atmosphere returned to being neutral as it had been.

[Little_ninja]

Walking along, seeing Suki walk slowly and breath heavily, Umichi wished he could do something about the situation. Occasionally throwing a knife out to kill a Dire Wolf or Frenzy Boar. Most of the path seemed to have been cleared by Yui and Yumi. He stopped for a moment and walked to her to see if he could help her. Lowering himself, and slinging her arm around his shoulder, he tried to lighten her body by lifting her a bit. She was quite heavy, well the weight of the carcass was more so the reason of that. It seemed to help a little though, and their pace was a little faster. It wasn't by much but it helped.

Once Ayame and Fujiwara started talking, Umichi sighed. "I doubt that contacting Kayaba would do us any good, he isn't going to just change his mind. I mean what would the point be then? In this world there are many ways to live though. Fighting is one, blacksmithing, cooking, setting up a shop, appraising items, fishing, etc. There are many things you can do in this game, and with each one you can live in this world. But to get out, I doubt there's much else to do but beat the game. Also, wishful thinking it maybe, it might not end that way. If the server screws up, many things can happen. Data gets jumbled, so you are weaker than should be or your weapons are broken for example. Some people might end up freezing. A lot of things can happen, it'd be nice if it only ends in a way where everyone is logged out. But it's extremely wishful thinking." He said in addition to their conversation.

After a while, they had reached Citadel. There was a crowd celebrating. Reeds, the town mayor, came up to Umichi.

Reeds said
"Thank you so much for getting rid of the blasted pest. I see you have brought us it's carcass as proof.
Hm... I think we can work with this." He turned around and beckoned an NPC over. The two whispered.
"We will take the carcass now. Give us a moment."

---

Status Effect
Dire Werewolf Carcass has been removed from Suki's inventory. Suki can now move like normal again.

---

The NPC that was beckoned over left and came back seconds later.

Reeds said
"Now please, accept this as a token of our gratitude. You may stay here for the next two days without worries of paying either."

---

All members of the party have received a pop-up box.

Creature of the Full Moon Complete said
Rewards

EXP - 750
Col - 1200
Items - Wolf Fur Jacket

---

The Stats of the Wolf Fur Jacket are as follows

Wolf Fur Jacket said
Health + 10
Defense + 5
Extra Warmth (Good in Cold areas)
<<Hearing>> + 5

---

Time skip = 10 days said
Since then, 10 days have passed. The main party have reached their way to Tolbana. There is a level limit of 10 max with exceptions of Umichi. Along the way, Yumi received a message at some point and had decided she had to leave the party. It was unfortunate but they said their goodbyes and wish to meet again. The maximum amount of col that can be added to each character's current funds is 10k.

---

"Finally here at Tolbana huh?" Umichi said. "Seems like quite a few of the other high end players have set up here already. Might be hard to find a place to board. Well, what do you guys think we should do? Three things we can try to do for now. Go to the Labyrinth, find a place to reserve for the night or do some quests" he turned to his party members. Smiling at them all, he had equipped the Wolf Fur Jacket. It looked quite good in his opinion. The fur was nice, and gave him a rugged type of look.

He was just barely level 12 now. He had been juggling a few of his skills and they were fairly high level for the first floor. However, nothing went passed 150 except his Single-handed straight sword skill which was 163. It would take quite a long time to get to 1000. He had collected about 3.5k in funds, so he had 10164 col. He wasn't the richest player, but he was doing fairly well. Recently, one could sell a plain Anneal Blade for 25k. There had been only 4 reported to have been completed other than the ones Umichi and Suki had. He was considering he would sell it soon, his spare. The repairs for his enhanced Anneal Blade always cost quite a bit, which was possibly why his funds didn't increase as much.