[IC] SAO - How will you survive? - Anniversary

[Undying Curiosity]

Raven shouted back at Cash signalling him to attack. Got it!, Cash thought as he activated his sprint skill to put himself in the perfect position to attack. Cash ducked once activating his hiding skill. Of course, this didn't do anything for cash when it comes to hiding, but he needs it active to get bonus damage from his back stab skill. After ducking Cash pushed off the ground, and with the games help he glided through the air into a few feet from the boss' back. Cash dug his dagger deep into the boss lowering it's first health bar to nothing, and starting his second one. The wound spewed small flames out of it burning Cash's hands a little bit. As Cash hung there on the monsters back, he noticed Bachus and Karen doing an exceptionally good job at fighting. But a horrible turn of events occurred when Karen step in the way of an attack protecting Bachus with her life. She took the hit, ultimately fading out of existence.

Cash couldn't believe it, the pain of the small fires scorching his hands faded. For a moment, Cash actually thought they would make it out of this boss room without a single death. But even when he looked around there were legionnaires scattered across the floor, exhausted from battle and injury. While cash was stuck in his trance a chain that was flailing wildly, managed to grab a hold of Cash's leg. The chain which held onto Cash's leg was on enroute to the ground. In a single instant ,when cash was hopelessly flying towards the ground, The monster started to be pushed backwards. Instead of the chain dragging Cash towards the wall where the monster would be nailed to, it broke Cash's leg off. Sending little bits of pink data flying out.

Cash could hear the battle cries and see them charging towards the boss as he fell to the ground. With the urge to survive he quickly opened his inventory and clicked on one of he stronger potions he had bought. He applied it moments before hitting the ground. His health bar boosted to full with he applied the potion, but then just as quickly snapped to half when hitting the ground. He looked up again at the monster, seeing a multitude of attacks barrage the Boss. Cash couldn't join because his leg hadn't regenerated yet, and the realism of this game made it hard to hold his dagger with all the burns on his hands. He could only sit back watch the monster be punished.

[rusty4297]

Ryan frowned, but shook his head as Raven ran back into the fight. He wasn't sure that Raven was right about the tank bit, but he was sure he was right about the thinking about it right now part. He looked to the ground before looking at the boss once again and charging. He let out a battle-cry once again as he rushed towards the boss. His axe glew as he aimed for an attack, once again simply going for aggro, seeing as an axe can't very well do any piercing damage at all. He was about to use a skill to hit the boss, but then he saw Cash lose a leg. Not going to lose anyone else I know... Not on the first boss! He stopped the skill, running back towards Cash and picking him up. He ran as far from the boss as the room would let him take Cash before putting him back down. "If your leg comes back during the fight, join us in there... If it doesn't come back at all... remember that those in this party are still your friends and we'll try to find a way to let you walk again... Even if it's just in this world."

[Silyan]

Time seemed to freeze from Rena's point of view, seeing that searingly hot chain come towards her and all. 'I'm gonna die, oh my god. I'm going to die. ' Her eyes shut tight, her stomach clenching at the idea, but… she didn't die. Her head whipped around as she scrambled to grab her spear and get out of the way. Someone had helped her, and Rena stared at Aaron for a moment with the word thank you pretty much stamped on her forehead. 'Now if you get your ass out the way, maybe you can say thanks after you survive the boss fight.' she snapped at herself, feeling her face flush when she realized how idiotic she looked standing there.

With a nod of gratitude, Rena tightened her hold on her spear and stepped out of the way. Her breath was coming out shaky as she made her way to a safer area, keeping an eye out for any more attacks.

[souleaterfan320]

juno had been zipping around the battlefield waiting for an opportune chance to attack, and for the legion to take down at least two bars of this hideous beast's health. he new it would be devastating, but this? this was like real war. people dying, blood shed,... he watched as karen, bachus's second in command died, and became furious with anger...
"NO MORE DEATHS! ILL KILL THIS DAMN BEAST IF I HAVE TO MYSELF!"
he used agility to dodge the incoming swing from the beast's arm, and ran up it, heading towards its head. it looked at him with an angry glare, and attempted to flatten him with its free hand. he jumped back a little, failing the landing. his health slightly dropped and he continued on, reaching its shoulder, jumping into the air, and prepared to stab it in the eye.
"DAMNED BEAST!"

[YipeeXD]

Bachus was now struggling to hold the boss in place. He battled against the searing heat of the bosses body pressed against him before it was finally too much. He had to release it, or the heat damage would make him go into the red. He jumped back, the sweat dripping down him, and his health in the yellow. He had jumped so far his feet were touching another wall. He pressed on the wall and pushed himself forward, darting at the boss, sword first. He yelled as he plunged into the bosses neck, and a deafening roar rang out. It health lowered into the red, and everyone was still attack. It tried flailing chains and limbs around, but everyone's attacks were too much. It dropped to zero, before roaring in pain and scattering as blue data.

A congratulations message appeared, and Col/Exp was distributed to players in the room. there were no drops however. It was over, the first of one hundred floors. A stone door slid open on the opposite side of the room, leading to a staircase, clearly to the next floor.

Bachus had dropped his sword, and was kneeling, panting in exhaustion. He whimpered, despite his huge figure. "K-karen..." His eyes were welled up, mainly because he was really starting to like her. There hadn't been many casualties. Just a few solo players, and Karen.

[Minarawr]

Mina had been waiting in front of the massive stone door to the boss room, organizing her bag, feeding her pet and looking around. There was a battle going on inside, so Mina hadn't joined the group of people. In her eyes she wasn't strong enough to help against this boss either way, but she felt somewhat guilty for not helping either way. Even though she wouldn't trust the people inside, she thought it would be best to help where she could, certainly with her pet's healing ability and buff.
Her pet, Izanagi, seemed to notice she was feeling down and rubbed his head against her hand, mewing softly. She looked down and smiled weakly at the winged feline she had received on one of her first quests.
'Yeah boy, you think we should help out too?' she asked softly. Izanagi mewed again and purred faintly, brushing his abnormally long and fluffy tail against her face. She laughed slightly and pulled the pet onto her lap, brushing through his fur. 'Next time we'll help, okay?' she said.

At that moment the notification of the defeated boss popped onto her screen and she smiled, jumping up. Izanagi flew into the air and floated next to her. 'Alright, let's go to the next floor and congratulate the people that defeated the first boss.' she smiled a bit. The stone doors opened for her and she walked in, looking around. Most of the players were still in the room, though some were clearing out. Mina was about to congratulate the players, when she picked up on the depressing, thick air around her. Seeing the faces of the people around her she froze a bit and humbly approached them, not speaking yet. They had obviously lost some people, it was not in her place to be cheerful right now.
She told Izanagi to get off her shoulder for now, which he did and walked over to a nearby player. 'Uhm.. hey, what happened..?' she asked, Izanagi floating next to her and looking at the player questionably as well.

(Can be any player or and NPC, whatever you want x3)

[rusty4297]

Ryan saw the monster die, looking to the ground as he sheathed his battleaxe. He then looked up, turning his gaze in the direction of Karen's last location before she had died. He then turned his eyes to Bachus, watching him sit in his sadness. He frowned, obvious anger in his face, then turned back to Cash, pulling him up and helping him walk on the one leg he had. "Come on, let's get you to an inn..." He looked around for his friends, seeing Raven in the slight distance. He shouted in Raven's direction "I'm taking Cash to an inn, I don't know how this game works when it comes to removed limbs, but hopefully it comes back somehow..." He waited for Cash to be ready before beginning to walk towards the stairs to the next floor.

[Zarkun]

"I'll catch up! I should find Faeron." As Raven turned from yelling to Ryan, he almost ran over the girl with the pet who was addressing him. "Oh, uh, well, we won." He smiled triumphantly and then sighed, shaking his head. "But not without a cost. The Legion of Light lost several members, including their second in command, along with having lost several solo players. One of my party lost a leg, though the game won't let him play without it. I saw a guy loose an arm and get it back over a couple days. But, uh, yeah, that's about it." He looks around before facepalming and looking at the girl again, noting the winged cat with her and smiling. "Oh, right, manners. I'm Raven, my party's Blade master. You look like a beast master, but I don't know your name."

[Minarawr]

Mina stepped back a bit when the player she had spoken to almost ran into her after shouting to another one. She nodded a bit at his notion of winning, that much she knew. Her face turned a bit grim when she heard they had lost some members and somebody important. Her guilty feeling about not helping out, even though she didn't know these people, fell onto her stomach like a ton of bricks.
She was surprised the player, apparently called Raven, was still cheerful enough to think about manners in this situation. She nodded a bit. 'Yeah, I'm a beastmaster. One of few, apparently, cause I haven't seen any others since I started. This is Izanagi, my very first pet.' she said.
'My name is Minata. Call me that, or Mina. Doesn't really matter.' she said weakly.

[Zarkun]

Raven smiled again and nodded. "Mina it is then. Sorry if you weren't able to make it in. The Legion's glorious leader was eager to get in here and beat the first boss." The last part about Bachus was said with a lot of sarcasm and venom, but he sighs and motions for her to follow him while he looks through the faces for Faeron, wanting to make sure we found her before heading up to the next floor. "I guess I shouldn't entirely blame him, we all made mistakes that got people killed. The Legion was the best off in terms of casualties, actually suffering none now that I look at the list." While they'd walked, he had opened the menu to review the raid party members and stopped at Karen's name.

So young...damn the devs for trapping us here, but damn Bachus for letting her take the hit. He could have avoided that first chain to begin with. Despite what he said to Mina, he was angry that Karen was gone, and it was probably misplaced anger, but it just felt good to blame Bachus for the time being. As they slipped past a couple of Legion members that were talking, Raven spotted Faeron and waved at her to get her attention.

[CoyoteKisses]

The battle was finally over. With a sigh, Faeron twirled her spear over her shoulder, glancing around as the rest of the players either headed to the next floor or just talked among themselves. Fortunately, there weren't too many casualties, despite Raven's and her prediction...but at the same time Karen's death meant a lot more than it should have. She grit her teeth as she closed the menu for the exp and col, pissed at herself for not being able to do more. However, the thought of Cash, Raven, and Ryan flew to her mind. Where were they? They weren't -

She glanced around, catching the side of Raven talking to a beastmaster. She ran over towards the two of them, her lips pulling up into a small smile. "Hi," she greeted before turning to Raven. "How are the others?" she asked, fearing the worst.

[Zarkun]

"Fine. Well, mostly. They're both alive, but Cash lost a leg during the fight, I'm bruised to hell and Ryan is probably fairly beat up too. Other than that, we're all here." He hung his head as he remembered Karen once again, who'd also been a member of their group before joining the Legion of Light. Unable to stop himself, he gives her a hug. "I'm glad you're alive. Loosing Karen was bad enough, but to loose you too..." He trailed off, partly because he wasn't sure what else to say, and partly because he suddenly grew embarrassed by what he'd just done and he pulled back quickly, his cheeks flushing.

"S-sorry. Don't know what came over me." Remembering he was with Mina, he quickly introduced them. "Faeron, this is Mina, a beast master. Mina, this is Faeron, our spear wielder."

[Kaithas]

IC: Aaron pulled Fury out of the monster's body as it evaporated, reholstering it on his back and walking away, patting the whimpering Bachus on the back as he did, before joining the others that were still near the door. He limped as he walked, one foot evidently burnt worse than the other, his armor scorched in some places from the fight.

His adrenaline was gone, that ache he had whenever his anger left him coming back as he drank a healing potion, his life bar and stride recovering as he did, finally reaching their group. "I think we can beat this when I see people like you fighting these monsters. Nice job, all of you."

[Minarawr]

Zarkun said
Raven smiled again and nodded. "Mina it is then. Sorry if you weren't able to make it in. The Legion's glorious leader was eager to get in here and beat the first boss." The last part about Bachus was said with a lot of sarcasm and venom, but he sighs and motions for her to follow him while he looks through the faces for Faeron, wanting to make sure we found her before heading up to the next floor. "I guess I shouldn't entirely blame him, we all made mistakes that got people killed. The Legion was the best off in terms of casualties, actually suffering none now that I look at the list." While they'd walked, he had opened the menu to review the raid party members and stopped at Karen's name. Despite what he said to Mina, he was angry that Karen was gone, and it was probably misplaced anger, but it just felt good to blame Bachus for the time being. As they slipped past a couple of Legion members that were talking, Raven spotted Faeron and waved at her to get her attention.

Mina could feel the hatred in Raven's voice as he spoke of his Guild leader, causing her to blink slightly in confusion. It seemed Raven held a grudge against his "leader", most likely due to the deaths they had suffered. She followed him as he motioned her to, Izanagi flying along and landing on her shoulder again, purring lightly.
'In grief it is normal to want to blame somebody...' she stated after he spoke again. 'It's only human.'
She glanced around and brushed through her pet's soft fur with a slight sigh, her stomach still feeling heavy with guilt. After greeting the new person Raven had led her to she sighed a bit. 'So, what are you all going to do now?'

[CoyoteKisses]

"Cash lost a leg?" Faeron looked down on the ground, worried. Now that this game was geared towards actual feeling - wouldn't Cash be in a lot of pain right now...? At least he wasn't dead. She opened her mouth to say something before being hugged by Raven. "E-eh?!" She blushed at the sudden embrace, but couldn't help herself but hug back too. "It's okay," she murmured when Raven let go. She then turned to the beast master as Raven introduced the two. "Nice to meet you," she said, contemplating on what Mina had said.

"Keep fighting," she simply said, shrugging. Then, Aaron approached them. "Ne, it's good to see you too."

[rusty4297]

It wasn't long before Ryan and Cash found an inn. Ryan paid the money for their entire party to sleep there the night and brought Cash into the room. He placed him down and proceeded to go to the door. "Sorry Cash, I don't know when that leg will heal, or even if it will, but we need to get started for the next boss..." He opened the door, walking out towards the closest open area with monsters to kill for EXP and col. I didn't do enough that fight... Not nearly enough... Karen died... Cash lost a leg... He shook his head before he could think of anything else that he might remember from the fight. Just fight to make sure it doesn't happen again... That's what I need to do. He eventually ended up fighting the nearby monsters, returning to town whenever necessary to ensure he wouldn't farm himself to death.

[Undying Curiosity]

Cash's fear and desperation were the only things keeping him awake from passing out due to the pain, but once the boss exploded into beautiful shards data which floated off into the game, Cash was burdened with the impossible task of fighting through extreme drowsiness. The pain from his left leg didn't feel like pain anymore, just a numb sensation that seemed to numb his mind as well. I don't think a potion can stop this kind of feeling...Oh, i'm walking...Did Ryan just say Inn? Cash thought as he floated in and out of consciousness. Through a blurry vision, Cash could see Raven and Faeron, he could also see another girl with them. From what Cash could gather, she looked like she was a beastmaster. She had medium length white hair that bordered the edge of her pretty face, a mask covered her mouth and nose but her eyes and skin gave away her hidden beauty. Cash looked back at the door that lead to floor 2, grateful that Ryan had his back. "Thanks man...Even after you fought your hardest...You still got time to walk a fellow player to the Inn..."Cash managed to say, which probably came out as more of a mumble.

As Ryan helped Cash to an Inn, Cash tried to get a look at thee second floor. Cash's mind was to numb from the pain of loosing a leg but not being able to pass out, this was officially the most pain Cash has ever felt. The numbing pain of his leg shot up his body as he accidentally bumped into the door way, the vibrations from which disturbed the open wound just above his knee. Cash didn't react. Cash felt the softening touch of a wool blanket engulf his face, as he fell onto the bed. Cash didn't have a chance to thank Ryan again before he passed out from. He gave in to the pain and let himself fall asleep.

[Kaithas]

IC: "I'm going to the next floor. We still have daylight, at least here, so I figure it'll be good to at least see what's out there." Haunt scratched the back of his head. "I'm not in such good shape though, so it may be best if I could get someone else to go with me..."

[Zarkun]

Raven nods in agreement with Faeron. "She's right. We'll keep killing monsters, getting exp and getting stronger. It's the best we can do to minimize casualties in future boss fights." Turning to Haunt, he indicates the door to the group. "Well, we're all here ourselves, so if we can, shall we go on to the next floor?" He looked at each face, his own a mask of grim determination after everything that had happened. Underneath it all though, he was beginning to sink into depression, having lost someone that, even though she was no longer in their group, he'd felt responsible for. To put it simply, he'd lost a friend and almost lost two, with Cash having lost a leg. I need to be there faster, pay better attention so I can pull them out of harms way.

Dismissing the thoughts before his depression was made any worse, he smiles eventually. "I figure we can get something new to eat tonight."

[Kaithas]

IC: A nod. "Let's go. The faster we get there, the faster we can train, the sooner we can kill that bastard."

Haunt grinned slightly, turning on one heel to face the door, drawing Fury and holding it lax in one hand as he stepped up the stairs and into the doorway, his other hand moving to his cut ear, fingers moving to the smooth skin that covered the notch slashed in it as he walked through, emerald green armor disappearing in the light coming through. First through, he reckoned.

Level 2, unlocked.

What he saw on the other side...