Spectral Waltz
Warrior of Lewd
- Joined
- May 1, 2017
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Little does she realize she's just created so much more work for herself, but at least now it's quantifiable.
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Mostly Dead Means Slightly Alive [YGO/SAO FI ft Nihilo]
- Thread starter Spectral Waltz
- Start date
Everdistant Eternity
Becoming a bear(Animal) is also Transhumanist
- Joined
- Sep 24, 2023
- Messages
- 308
- Likes received
- 2,542
Probably right. It's a system, having an excuse to add definitions for these... Things... Was probably like a thirsty human drinking a glass of water.
Anyways, nice chapter. Interesting to see how in-flux things still are with Helewise, too. Especially with the NPC's reacting to her Duel Monsters.
Chapter Seventeen
New
Spectral Waltz
Warrior of Lewd
- Joined
- May 1, 2017
- Messages
- 4,809
- Likes received
- 26,083
"...You sure we gotta go in there?"
Jonah's nervousness as he peered from the tunnel mouth -carefully staying beneath the overhang that shadowed it- was understandable. They'd begun by making their way towards the closest point Helewise' stunt had revealed, quickly determining that it seemed to correspond to somewhere in the middle of the largest mountain at the rough center of the range, a massive former volcano that peeked above even the other summits.
In the course of their approach the harpies had grown denser, and now that the massive slopes were in view the monsters could also be seen patrolling the area around its spire in twos and threes. Tightly grouped enough that a misstep could draw more than one pack if they weren't careful. With how many cave entrances they could see at different levels on top of that, finding the right location might prove tricky even with the minimap's help.
[Time Remaining: 1:31:49]
"That place screams 'Area Boss' to me, and we don't know if the locations are connected to Seiko-san." Diavel shook his head, more and more he'd been growing less afraid of showing a certain amount of knowledge and experience. "We should circle around and check the others first."
"Let's see… Otejima can't go that far from me, we figured out that much in the woods." Helewise muttered more to herself than anything else, before eyeing the rope bridge and sighing with a shake of her head, "Yeah, nah, Reg could maybe try to scout but he'd get picked off. Circling around it is."
The sigh of relief was hard to miss, and Jonah took a few steps back from the opening, rejoining the group. "Let's go then, yeah? No time ta waste."
Without a further word, they turned back from whence they'd come, hurrying through the tunnels, past the smoking firepit and makeshift structures that had been a kobold camp a few minutes prior and turning down another tunnel, emerging onto another ledge and a trail that wound down into a dip between two peaks. Reg was first out the opening, shambling at a surprisingly respectable clip before a Harpie dove down to accost him, a flurry of claws and beating wings tearing a third from his remaining health before Duke barreled into the mob with a yell, long knife flashing out into the twin cuts of a Side Bite that seemed to genuinely hamstring her, legs and talons going suddenly limp as she screamed.
Helewise' Sonic Charge buried the point of her Naginata in the harpie's throat before she could take flight again, cutting her voice off with a nasty wet gurgle before she shattered, dissolving into polygons.
Reg groaned, Duke scanned the skies, then offered a gloved fist.
They ran on.
Another series of caverns, another bridge, this one surprisingly well-cared for compared to some of the others they'd crossed. The far side bore a broad open ledge with a cave at the back, a massive shelf of rock forming a wide entrance that had been artificially narrowed by what looked like wooden barricades. Diavel's eyes were already glowing green as he held up a hand to signal a halt, squinting at the darkness. "'Searching' everyone, I see movement over there."
Helewise's own weren't far behind. "Aye, I see 'em."
At this distance little more than different shades of darkness, but the way they shifted left little room for doubt. Two shapes pacing awkwardly back and forth, a third came into view after a few seconds, pausing, before turning back and retreating from sight.
"More Kobolds?" Tokoyami whispered curiously.
"They don't look like Harpies," FlowerFae muttered back, "so probably."
"Ya know they can't hear us all th'way over here right?" Jonah chimed in.
Both flushed at that, embarrassed, while Duke had a thoughtful hand on his chin. "There's probably more behind the barricades, javelins or something, since bows and crossbows don't work in here."
"For now, at least, given the rate at which we're getting patches." Helewise muttered. It only took a few people getting archer types from cards and Cardinal would once again grumble and do her thing. At least, she imagined the AI was not happy with all this. "Do look out for nastier throwables, doesn't take much to put a bunch of awfulness in a crude baked mud pot and toss it at someone."
Both parties collectively winced at that, a couple of them winced again.
"You're worried about bombs?" Diavel sounded somewhere between impressed and appalled.
"Maybe not explosive bombs, but something that breaks into toxic sludge or blinding powder? Yea." Helewise grunted, grimacing at the historical source of toxic munitions.
Namely, dipping your arrowheads, javelins, whatever in dung to make people die of sepsis.
"I… I wouldn't expect that from first floor mobs, but I wouldn't expect a lot of things." He answered after a moment, clearly grappling with himself in an effort to work out his answers. "I don't remember hearing–, seeing anything about Harpie Ladies in these mountains during the Alpha."
He took a moment, clearly thinking, then nodded. "We're running out of time. Zeero and I will lead, your Zombie-" he nodded to Helewise, who gave him a thumbs up, "–just behind us. If we need to storm the opening we want shields first and undead mobs are supposed to be immune to poison."
"I'm out of health potions," the other tank's expression spoke of determination though it didn't quite reach his eyes or voice.
"I gotcha." Jonah materialized a bottle of red liquid and passed it over. "Don't waste it, okay? S'my last one."
"Do or…" Tokoyami trailed off as he realized what he'd been about to say, "ahah… Sorry, sorry."
He muttered something that sounded like '...can't just say that' under his breath. Duke and FlowerFae were visibly psyching themselves up, the former's dagger gleaming as he brought it in and out of a sword skill's pre-motion while the latter bounced on the balls of her feet, hands clenching and unclenching.
"Spears behind shields, daggers ready to switch in from the back." Diavel continued, grimly focused on the far side of the bridge. "If they come out to meet us, spread out, don't get surrounded."
A few glanced nervously up at the distant harpies fluttering around the high peak in the distance. Helewise' eyes flicked to the timer ticking seconds away one after another.
[Time Remaining: 1:14:08]
Breath in, breath out, let the lungs work like bellows. Focus on why she did this, why she put one foot in front of the other, why she stuck out her neck. That inextinguishable ember of no, I refuse. Her fire flared, flames licking at her neck all the way from her chest, scale patches smoldering like burning paper where they met pallid skin.
"Let's go."
Each of the first thirty seconds crossing that bridge felt like they could have been a minute. One quarter, then one third, then halfway… They watched the Kobolds getting clearer and clearer, dark scales gleaming in the light reflected from outside. smaller movements on the peripheries of the entrance. One more behind each barricade, then two, yellow eyes luminous in the shadow of the overhang.
Two thirds, then at three quarters the wind brought them a familiar cry as the mobs suddenly turned, pointing and jabbering.
Blades rose as the tanks hefted their shields. "Charge!" "Banzai!"
–only to falter as their voices overlapped, glancing at each other for a beat. Then Diavel huffed while Zeero smirked, and wordlessly they moved to make good on their declarations.
The bridge groaned underfoot as they went from a walk to a jog, then to a run. Boots clattered on the boards, Reg going into a strange shambling lope followed by Jonah and Helewise.
Four Kobolds scrambled up from behind their barricades and hurled crude short spears that fell just short of the shieldbearers, three clattering off stones to tumble into the abyss while the last one managed to sink into a patch of dusty earth before toppling over with the wind of Zeero's passage. Five more kobolds spilled out of the gap between the fortifications as the hurlers ducked behind their walls, almost certainly grabbing for more ammunition.
Two were familiar, mobs they'd already fought across a half dozen little mining encampments. The other three were bulkier, not just better armored but thicker in a way that suggested muscles, wielding short spears and raising leathery shields in a crude mirror to Zeero and Diavel's tactics.
Two of those three met the charging tanks while the third made the mistake of leading with its spear instead, charging at Reg. The crude weapon took the zombie in the gut, punching through him in a single furious thrust, only for the zombie to simply keep going even as his HP dipped into the red. Unwilling or unable to let go of its weapons the kobold screeched and flailed, Reg's health falling lower and lower even as he kept the foe pinned.
To the mummy's left and right shields clashed, Diavel's straight sword hastily forcing aside a stone spear aimed at his exposed head while Zeero was not quite so lucky with the one that went for his thigh, only managing to turn the thrust into a glancing blow that left a line of crimson pixels on his thigh.
"Tristan!" The axeman forgot himself in the heat of the moment, angling towards Zeero and forcing Helewise into a half step as he cross her path.
"Jonah! Auh-!" Planting his feet, he shoved at the Kobold's shield with a furious cry, pushing it back a step. "Switch!"
The spear snaked back out in an emerald Linear as Jonah brought his axe down, blade glowing red in a heavy Vertical. Zero ducked to one side in the instant of freedom, getting out from between them just fast enough. Had the Kobold aimed for the blonde teen's axe itself the two attacks could have deflected off each other but the AI hadn't switched its targeting yet.
A stone spearhead dug into Jonah's side, taking another chunk out of his health, an instant later the axe came down on the Kobold's collarbone, and while the Vertical lacked the sheer power of something like an Avalanche, the monster had no room to even attempt a deflection.
Behind the barricades, the hurlers were standing back up, readying for another volley. "Incoming!"
Cold calculus ran behind toxic green eyes, a lonely little island of sense in the roaring inferno building up inside Helewise's skull. Trajectories, times, angles, vulnerabilities.
"Reg!" She called with both fanged maw and her soul, already in motion as her tail coiled like a spring and released its force in perfect sync with her legs. Her boot found itself cradled in a mummified and near-skeletal hand that endured with all the strength and stubbornness of the undead, the impression of a soldier's red grin at duty done to the bloody end ringing across their bond from their point of contact. Reg couldn't speak, not truly, but one didn't need words to convey the sentiment of 'go get 'em, boss' as he hurled her forward in the same stroke as she activated Sonic Charge to become a virulent violet comet.
Light. Sound. Bright and loud, too much for the Kobolds to handle even before the stunning shockwave tore through the hurlers. It forced all of them to turn to her, even when they were horribly indisposed to do anything about her. Carried by the skill, the tip of her weapon had found one kobold's mouth and punched out the back of its head while the shockwave bowled the one next to it over, sending it tumbling. The other two on the far barricade were stumbling, shaking their heads as a hint of dark mist swirled in their eyes, Blindness status.
Otejima slotted in like a missing puzzle piece, completing the shape the party made, perfectly in tune with her as she slid out of the post-motion delay into a Horizontal shrouded by ghostly flames and swung by two overlaid pairs of arms. The downed hurler went still as the stroke crossed its throat before coming apart. The other two yelped as blue-purple fire lashed out, beating at the flames that licked at their scales and clothes rather than making another attack.
Her mana was draining like water, and each attack in this state was tearing further chunks from it. Reg's HP hit zero, his presence in her HUD flickering before fading out as the battle outside quickly turned in the wake of her explosive intervention. Sonic Charge was still on cooldown, but she hardly needed its boost to cross the gap between the barricades. Mid-leap, she caught a glimpse of the fight outside, Jonah fallen back from the front, Diavel and Zeero pressuring the remaining two guards while Duke lashed at their flanks. Then she was on the other side and driving a Linear for the third hurler's chest, violet flaring at the tip of her glaive to punch straight through the leather jerkin and out the mob's back in a spray of crimson pixels.
The mob fumbled, swiping at Helewise weakly before it shattered. The one behind it switched targets and a javelin hurtled her way from point blank range an instant later, punching into her shoulder and taking another chunk from her HP. The bar turned a sickly green as a Poison status took hold, a creeping sense of not-quite-nausea suddenly tugging at her stomach, but the hurler had disarmed itself just beyond her reach.
A single step transitioned into a smooth linear, crimson visual aberrations mingled with the azure trail as it cut across her foe's chest, burning through armor and biting deep into bone.
By the time the post-motion released her, the mob was still reaching for the cluster of javelins. Its grasping fingers came apart into shards before ever touching another weapon.
Outside, Tokoyami was pressuring one of the two Kobold scouts with a series of swipes and stabs, his dagger whittling away its HP while shimmering golden barriers guarded him in the moments of stillness between attacks. Mystic Elf trailed serenely in her summoner's wake, the constant precise motions of her fingers the only sign of any sort of effort as she glided through the battlefield. Jonah was at the back downing some sort of potion while Diavel, Zeero, and Duke were now ganging up on the last of the Kobold guard, carefully rotating to keep themselves from taking any hits as they took it apart. The other scout was glittering dust on the wind around Flowerfae's fists as she slowly straightened from her crouch and took in the battlefield.
That was all the attention she could spare them before she had to get back to work. Flashy stunt or not, she still had a part to play here.
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Jonah's nervousness as he peered from the tunnel mouth -carefully staying beneath the overhang that shadowed it- was understandable. They'd begun by making their way towards the closest point Helewise' stunt had revealed, quickly determining that it seemed to correspond to somewhere in the middle of the largest mountain at the rough center of the range, a massive former volcano that peeked above even the other summits.
In the course of their approach the harpies had grown denser, and now that the massive slopes were in view the monsters could also be seen patrolling the area around its spire in twos and threes. Tightly grouped enough that a misstep could draw more than one pack if they weren't careful. With how many cave entrances they could see at different levels on top of that, finding the right location might prove tricky even with the minimap's help.
[Time Remaining: 1:31:49]
"That place screams 'Area Boss' to me, and we don't know if the locations are connected to Seiko-san." Diavel shook his head, more and more he'd been growing less afraid of showing a certain amount of knowledge and experience. "We should circle around and check the others first."
"Let's see… Otejima can't go that far from me, we figured out that much in the woods." Helewise muttered more to herself than anything else, before eyeing the rope bridge and sighing with a shake of her head, "Yeah, nah, Reg could maybe try to scout but he'd get picked off. Circling around it is."
The sigh of relief was hard to miss, and Jonah took a few steps back from the opening, rejoining the group. "Let's go then, yeah? No time ta waste."
Without a further word, they turned back from whence they'd come, hurrying through the tunnels, past the smoking firepit and makeshift structures that had been a kobold camp a few minutes prior and turning down another tunnel, emerging onto another ledge and a trail that wound down into a dip between two peaks. Reg was first out the opening, shambling at a surprisingly respectable clip before a Harpie dove down to accost him, a flurry of claws and beating wings tearing a third from his remaining health before Duke barreled into the mob with a yell, long knife flashing out into the twin cuts of a Side Bite that seemed to genuinely hamstring her, legs and talons going suddenly limp as she screamed.
Helewise' Sonic Charge buried the point of her Naginata in the harpie's throat before she could take flight again, cutting her voice off with a nasty wet gurgle before she shattered, dissolving into polygons.
Reg groaned, Duke scanned the skies, then offered a gloved fist.
They ran on.
Another series of caverns, another bridge, this one surprisingly well-cared for compared to some of the others they'd crossed. The far side bore a broad open ledge with a cave at the back, a massive shelf of rock forming a wide entrance that had been artificially narrowed by what looked like wooden barricades. Diavel's eyes were already glowing green as he held up a hand to signal a halt, squinting at the darkness. "'Searching' everyone, I see movement over there."
Helewise's own weren't far behind. "Aye, I see 'em."
At this distance little more than different shades of darkness, but the way they shifted left little room for doubt. Two shapes pacing awkwardly back and forth, a third came into view after a few seconds, pausing, before turning back and retreating from sight.
"More Kobolds?" Tokoyami whispered curiously.
"They don't look like Harpies," FlowerFae muttered back, "so probably."
"Ya know they can't hear us all th'way over here right?" Jonah chimed in.
Both flushed at that, embarrassed, while Duke had a thoughtful hand on his chin. "There's probably more behind the barricades, javelins or something, since bows and crossbows don't work in here."
"For now, at least, given the rate at which we're getting patches." Helewise muttered. It only took a few people getting archer types from cards and Cardinal would once again grumble and do her thing. At least, she imagined the AI was not happy with all this. "Do look out for nastier throwables, doesn't take much to put a bunch of awfulness in a crude baked mud pot and toss it at someone."
Both parties collectively winced at that, a couple of them winced again.
"You're worried about bombs?" Diavel sounded somewhere between impressed and appalled.
"Maybe not explosive bombs, but something that breaks into toxic sludge or blinding powder? Yea." Helewise grunted, grimacing at the historical source of toxic munitions.
Namely, dipping your arrowheads, javelins, whatever in dung to make people die of sepsis.
"I… I wouldn't expect that from first floor mobs, but I wouldn't expect a lot of things." He answered after a moment, clearly grappling with himself in an effort to work out his answers. "I don't remember hearing–, seeing anything about Harpie Ladies in these mountains during the Alpha."
He took a moment, clearly thinking, then nodded. "We're running out of time. Zeero and I will lead, your Zombie-" he nodded to Helewise, who gave him a thumbs up, "–just behind us. If we need to storm the opening we want shields first and undead mobs are supposed to be immune to poison."
"I'm out of health potions," the other tank's expression spoke of determination though it didn't quite reach his eyes or voice.
"I gotcha." Jonah materialized a bottle of red liquid and passed it over. "Don't waste it, okay? S'my last one."
"Do or…" Tokoyami trailed off as he realized what he'd been about to say, "ahah… Sorry, sorry."
He muttered something that sounded like '...can't just say that' under his breath. Duke and FlowerFae were visibly psyching themselves up, the former's dagger gleaming as he brought it in and out of a sword skill's pre-motion while the latter bounced on the balls of her feet, hands clenching and unclenching.
"Spears behind shields, daggers ready to switch in from the back." Diavel continued, grimly focused on the far side of the bridge. "If they come out to meet us, spread out, don't get surrounded."
A few glanced nervously up at the distant harpies fluttering around the high peak in the distance. Helewise' eyes flicked to the timer ticking seconds away one after another.
[Time Remaining: 1:14:08]
Breath in, breath out, let the lungs work like bellows. Focus on why she did this, why she put one foot in front of the other, why she stuck out her neck. That inextinguishable ember of no, I refuse. Her fire flared, flames licking at her neck all the way from her chest, scale patches smoldering like burning paper where they met pallid skin.
"Let's go."
Each of the first thirty seconds crossing that bridge felt like they could have been a minute. One quarter, then one third, then halfway… They watched the Kobolds getting clearer and clearer, dark scales gleaming in the light reflected from outside. smaller movements on the peripheries of the entrance. One more behind each barricade, then two, yellow eyes luminous in the shadow of the overhang.
Two thirds, then at three quarters the wind brought them a familiar cry as the mobs suddenly turned, pointing and jabbering.
Blades rose as the tanks hefted their shields. "Charge!" "Banzai!"
–only to falter as their voices overlapped, glancing at each other for a beat. Then Diavel huffed while Zeero smirked, and wordlessly they moved to make good on their declarations.
The bridge groaned underfoot as they went from a walk to a jog, then to a run. Boots clattered on the boards, Reg going into a strange shambling lope followed by Jonah and Helewise.
Four Kobolds scrambled up from behind their barricades and hurled crude short spears that fell just short of the shieldbearers, three clattering off stones to tumble into the abyss while the last one managed to sink into a patch of dusty earth before toppling over with the wind of Zeero's passage. Five more kobolds spilled out of the gap between the fortifications as the hurlers ducked behind their walls, almost certainly grabbing for more ammunition.
Two were familiar, mobs they'd already fought across a half dozen little mining encampments. The other three were bulkier, not just better armored but thicker in a way that suggested muscles, wielding short spears and raising leathery shields in a crude mirror to Zeero and Diavel's tactics.
Two of those three met the charging tanks while the third made the mistake of leading with its spear instead, charging at Reg. The crude weapon took the zombie in the gut, punching through him in a single furious thrust, only for the zombie to simply keep going even as his HP dipped into the red. Unwilling or unable to let go of its weapons the kobold screeched and flailed, Reg's health falling lower and lower even as he kept the foe pinned.
To the mummy's left and right shields clashed, Diavel's straight sword hastily forcing aside a stone spear aimed at his exposed head while Zeero was not quite so lucky with the one that went for his thigh, only managing to turn the thrust into a glancing blow that left a line of crimson pixels on his thigh.
"Tristan!" The axeman forgot himself in the heat of the moment, angling towards Zeero and forcing Helewise into a half step as he cross her path.
"Jonah! Auh-!" Planting his feet, he shoved at the Kobold's shield with a furious cry, pushing it back a step. "Switch!"
The spear snaked back out in an emerald Linear as Jonah brought his axe down, blade glowing red in a heavy Vertical. Zero ducked to one side in the instant of freedom, getting out from between them just fast enough. Had the Kobold aimed for the blonde teen's axe itself the two attacks could have deflected off each other but the AI hadn't switched its targeting yet.
A stone spearhead dug into Jonah's side, taking another chunk out of his health, an instant later the axe came down on the Kobold's collarbone, and while the Vertical lacked the sheer power of something like an Avalanche, the monster had no room to even attempt a deflection.
Behind the barricades, the hurlers were standing back up, readying for another volley. "Incoming!"
Cold calculus ran behind toxic green eyes, a lonely little island of sense in the roaring inferno building up inside Helewise's skull. Trajectories, times, angles, vulnerabilities.
"Reg!" She called with both fanged maw and her soul, already in motion as her tail coiled like a spring and released its force in perfect sync with her legs. Her boot found itself cradled in a mummified and near-skeletal hand that endured with all the strength and stubbornness of the undead, the impression of a soldier's red grin at duty done to the bloody end ringing across their bond from their point of contact. Reg couldn't speak, not truly, but one didn't need words to convey the sentiment of 'go get 'em, boss' as he hurled her forward in the same stroke as she activated Sonic Charge to become a virulent violet comet.
Light. Sound. Bright and loud, too much for the Kobolds to handle even before the stunning shockwave tore through the hurlers. It forced all of them to turn to her, even when they were horribly indisposed to do anything about her. Carried by the skill, the tip of her weapon had found one kobold's mouth and punched out the back of its head while the shockwave bowled the one next to it over, sending it tumbling. The other two on the far barricade were stumbling, shaking their heads as a hint of dark mist swirled in their eyes, Blindness status.
Otejima slotted in like a missing puzzle piece, completing the shape the party made, perfectly in tune with her as she slid out of the post-motion delay into a Horizontal shrouded by ghostly flames and swung by two overlaid pairs of arms. The downed hurler went still as the stroke crossed its throat before coming apart. The other two yelped as blue-purple fire lashed out, beating at the flames that licked at their scales and clothes rather than making another attack.
Her mana was draining like water, and each attack in this state was tearing further chunks from it. Reg's HP hit zero, his presence in her HUD flickering before fading out as the battle outside quickly turned in the wake of her explosive intervention. Sonic Charge was still on cooldown, but she hardly needed its boost to cross the gap between the barricades. Mid-leap, she caught a glimpse of the fight outside, Jonah fallen back from the front, Diavel and Zeero pressuring the remaining two guards while Duke lashed at their flanks. Then she was on the other side and driving a Linear for the third hurler's chest, violet flaring at the tip of her glaive to punch straight through the leather jerkin and out the mob's back in a spray of crimson pixels.
The mob fumbled, swiping at Helewise weakly before it shattered. The one behind it switched targets and a javelin hurtled her way from point blank range an instant later, punching into her shoulder and taking another chunk from her HP. The bar turned a sickly green as a Poison status took hold, a creeping sense of not-quite-nausea suddenly tugging at her stomach, but the hurler had disarmed itself just beyond her reach.
A single step transitioned into a smooth linear, crimson visual aberrations mingled with the azure trail as it cut across her foe's chest, burning through armor and biting deep into bone.
By the time the post-motion released her, the mob was still reaching for the cluster of javelins. Its grasping fingers came apart into shards before ever touching another weapon.
Outside, Tokoyami was pressuring one of the two Kobold scouts with a series of swipes and stabs, his dagger whittling away its HP while shimmering golden barriers guarded him in the moments of stillness between attacks. Mystic Elf trailed serenely in her summoner's wake, the constant precise motions of her fingers the only sign of any sort of effort as she glided through the battlefield. Jonah was at the back downing some sort of potion while Diavel, Zeero, and Duke were now ganging up on the last of the Kobold guard, carefully rotating to keep themselves from taking any hits as they took it apart. The other scout was glittering dust on the wind around Flowerfae's fists as she slowly straightened from her crouch and took in the battlefield.
That was all the attention she could spare them before she had to get back to work. Flashy stunt or not, she still had a part to play here.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
You can read two chapters ahead on Patreon.
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Everdistant Eternity
Becoming a bear(Animal) is also Transhumanist
- Joined
- Sep 24, 2023
- Messages
- 308
- Likes received
- 2,542
Not much to say, again, but good shit as usual!
Chapter Eighteen
New
Spectral Waltz
Warrior of Lewd
- Joined
- May 1, 2017
- Messages
- 4,809
- Likes received
- 26,083
They found her just past the first bend, a body face down on the stone and deathly still, white kimono stained dark by the crimson seeping from a bloody hole in her lower back. After hundreds of wounds denoted by simple red wireframes, the sudden gore was all the starker. "I really hope that's not our girl…"
"The timer's still…" Flowerfae trailed off as she took one more step and the quest logs promptly reacted to the proximity with a little *ping* "...o-oh…"
[Quest Update: Hermit of the Mountains | Help Seiko return to the Shrine.]
"Are we supposed to just… Bring her body back then?" Duke looked unnerved, while Diavel seemed almost annoyed.
"I get that we're in a death game but this just feels gratuitous, let's see…" Diavel knelt, by the body, ignoring the aborted noise Tokoyami made as he rested a hand on one shoulder. "If it's a quest item we should be able to inventory it-"
"You probably shouldn't call her 'it'..." Tokoyami looked wary, his face screwed up in concentration.
'Though this is not our realm, we ought to follow its rules, and she should not be an exception…' Otejima leaned from behind Helewise' shoulder, peering towards her while Jonah seemed more interested in the cave itself, rather studiously trying to look anywhere and everywhere else.
"I'm gettin' the creeps, somethin' doesn't feel right he-."
*KHUuuhhh-* The 'corpse' jerked under Diavel's hand and he snatched it back fast enough to unbalance himself with the motion, falling on his ass with a raucous clatter. Jonah yelped, jumping straight up and fumbling his axe while Duke and Zeero hefted their shields quickly.
"Zombie!"
"No, she's alive!"
"Only for so long if we don't stem the bleeding." Helewise grunted, shifting into a full on growl as she saw her mana was pretty much dry. No stunts from her today. Inventory… no potions or bandages left, fuck. Drop items? Various flavors of armor scraps, but even the stuff from the Harpies wasn't better than dirty rags. "If anyone has something better than cloth tatters to stabilize her, now's the time."
Maybe one of their summoned monsters could do something? Or someone could use their brand new mana bar to get something done. Helewise' thoughts raced furiously, 'fuck, I don't even have alcohol to soak the rags in, stupid stupid stupid.'
The girl twisted and then jerked in what could only be sudden pain at the motion, gasping breaths rattling from her throat. No words, closer to an animalistic terror, a desperate fear of death. Pale in the dark, blood pumping sluggishly as frantic hands delved into inventories. Jonah was hovering, expression visibly torn. Tokoyami turned, voice rising in the closest she'd heard to anger. "Can't you help her?!"
"Shut up! I'm trying! I don't-"
The air shimmered, and Duke's snappish response fell silent as he absorbed the fact that Tokoyami's indignation hadn't been aimed at him at all.
The Mystic Elf, so silent and withdrawn as to have gone forgotten, held out one hand, golden threads weaving themselves into the air from her fingertips, a lattice that sank into the flesh around the wound, the ugly pumping of crimson from it slowly easing as the girl shuddered.
"Understand, my summoner, that you shall not speak to me so again." Her words were serene, melodious, and could have spread hoarfrost with a whisper. The dusk-skinned woman's eyes gleamed, a glacier's deep blue glow peeking out from beneath a single lid. Beneath her, the bleeding slowed, though the wound remained open even as the girl sobbed, whether in terror or relief…
"I understand." Tokoyami's voice was almost a whisper, "I won't… I was… I got emotional in the moment."
"Then we shall work going forth to ensure this need not happen again." The icy blue eye shifted, its gaze sliding over the rest, before it closed once again and its own fell silent. The gold fading to a pale green before cutting off and dissipating.
Helewise had to prop herself on her spear because her legs threatened to go limp from sheer relief. That… that had been too close. Worse, she had no doubt she would run into similar situations in the future, and this had been a lucky break. Next time, that luck may run dry. Out of potions, out of bandages… forget two is one and one is none, I'm keeping at least three dozen of each. Organize some emergency bags. Track down an EMT and learn what bits of triage and first aid can be applied here, Argo can probably help. Learn some magic to at least stabilize people, for sure. Find some way to rapidly recover mana, maybe potions and crystals for it are starting to crop up?
Only an endlessly sprawling mental itinerary of supplies, training and assorted preparations kept the suffocating feeling of helplessness at bay.
Next to her, Tokoyami swayed before Zeero steadied him. Diavel pushed himself up, "we should get her back to the shrine. Jonah."
"Gah! Ah… Yes?" The blonde asked after a jolt.
"Can you carry her? You've probably got the strength stat for it." Diavel asked sharply.
"Can't you do it?" Jonah shifted, clearly put off.
"If we run into any more Harpies we need to play it carefully, and that means shields." The blue-haired knight explained, fixing the teen with a serious look despite the grimace creeping around the edges of his expression.
"T-then can't Te-Fae do it?" Meanwhile, that was some queasiness on Jonah's part, probably didn't do well with blood. God, Helewise hoped nobody fainted and died to monsters from seeing something like that.
"I'll get it," Duke knelt down and carefully set his hands on Seiko's shoulder and hip, ignoring the startlement at his interjection. "I'm going to roll you over, I'll do my best not to jostle the wound, alright?"
"A-alright…" Seiko replied shakily, visibly bracing herself for a great deal of pain.
"Here goes…" Helewise winced at the raw sound that bubbled up from the girl's throat, and something tugged at her sleeve.
'Miss Dragon?'
Nothing was there, but the tugging persisted, a flicker of pale blue flames that ought to have been lost in the reflected light spilling in from the cavern's entrance.
That, more than anything, snapped her out of her spiralling. Her work was not done, there were other people to help and that wasn't going to happen if she was wallowing in a one-woman pity party. Gently, she reached back through the soulbond, almost like she was cupping the little ghost's hands in her own, 'Yeah? Need anything?'
The flames flickered, solidified slightly, forming a pale blue outline, but while Zeero gave Helewise' a look, there was no sign he saw the same image. 'My home… It's not far… But it's broken…'
'Can you point in its direction? I will mark it down on my map, then make sure any Tengu who may still be loitering there scram.' Helewise asked as she went down to one knee, a few flicks of her finger opening the relevant bit of the menu. They needed to get Seiko back to the shrine and restock on healing supplies. But once that was don—
'It's this way,' the tugging intensified, pulling her from her thoughts, a little hand finding its way into hers, a horned figure tugging her towards the cave's deeper reaches. 'It's really not far. I promise.'
…Wait. Seiko being here, of all places, with the little ghost's home so close? This had been a last stand.
"Seiko, sorry for imposing while you're like this, but— were you guarding a spot just around that bend in the cave?" Helewise asked as a tiny twitch of her hand dismissed her menu, her attention fully on the Shiranui lady who grimaced as Duke carefully hefted her over his shoulder, looking faintly disoriented before managing to regain some measure of her focus.
"I… Was… Ha-ahHH--!" The questioning done gave way to a pained hiss, answered by a hurried apology. "Hauhhh… Yes… So that's where…"
Her eyes unfocused, refocused lower, voice trailing off before returning as a pained whisper, each word audibly dragged from her by force. "Marker… Check… Please…"
Looking on, Diavel opened his mouth, closed it slowly, then opened it again. "I'll go with you, the rest of you… We should start getting ready to leave, figure out the fastest way out of here."
"I'll come too." A high voice piped up from Tokoyami.
"It might be dangerous, Yug…" Zeero shook his head at the slip-up Jonah hadn't even tried to cover but said nothing for once as their friend grinned back at them.
"I'll be fine, I promise, I think I have an idea what's going on here, I just want to see if I'm right."
"If anything happens…" Flowerfae began,
"I'll shout as loud as I can." Tokoyami nodded firmly.
"You better," Duke nodded, hefting Seiko carefully again, the girl's eyes unfocused again. Even if she wasn't losing any more for now, she'd lost a lot of blood. "We're a team, got that?"
"Let's go," Diavel started walking, "the sooner we wrap this up, the sooner we can go."
They went.
It really wasn't far at all.
Just around the next bend in the cavern, beyond the reach of sunlight. A raised dais had been carved from the stone, a desecrated shrine resting in its center illuminated by an ambient blue-white glow. While stone itself had resisted vandalism, careful arrangements of decorations had obviously been smashed or otherwise cast down and painted symbols were marred by spattered blood, some of it still disturbingly wet and crimson.
At its center, a dusty tapestry, a torn shroud cast aside. At opposite edges of the dais dusty bones had been tossed with a carelessness that became fundamentally offensive, a ribcage and crumbling spine on one side, a battered leg with its knee joint surprisingly intact on the other.
'It's all messy… The pieces of me… They took them.' A shadow of something ancient and wrathful touched Helewise' mind only to be rebuffed by a hand on her shoulder, Otejima's presence bleeding some of the red from her thoughts.
'Such a desecration of their remains… Any spirit would become vengeful, Onmyouji-dono.'
Helewise had to focus on her breathing, because the spirit wasn't the only source of red tinting her sight and thoughts. This place kept taking more and more and more from the people trapped in it. It was only the knowledge that she couldn't right this if she went berserk that kept her steady on the inward front, as much as Otejima warded off the worst of external influences.
'We will take them back and fix this. I promise.' Helewise said through her soul, because if she spoke right now it would come out as a scream.
[Quest Updated: The Oni's Cave | Find and return the bones to their rightful resting place. (1/4)]
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You can read two chapters ahead on Patreon.
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"The timer's still…" Flowerfae trailed off as she took one more step and the quest logs promptly reacted to the proximity with a little *ping* "...o-oh…"
[Quest Update: Hermit of the Mountains | Help Seiko return to the Shrine.]
"Are we supposed to just… Bring her body back then?" Duke looked unnerved, while Diavel seemed almost annoyed.
"I get that we're in a death game but this just feels gratuitous, let's see…" Diavel knelt, by the body, ignoring the aborted noise Tokoyami made as he rested a hand on one shoulder. "If it's a quest item we should be able to inventory it-"
"You probably shouldn't call her 'it'..." Tokoyami looked wary, his face screwed up in concentration.
'Though this is not our realm, we ought to follow its rules, and she should not be an exception…' Otejima leaned from behind Helewise' shoulder, peering towards her while Jonah seemed more interested in the cave itself, rather studiously trying to look anywhere and everywhere else.
"I'm gettin' the creeps, somethin' doesn't feel right he-."
*KHUuuhhh-* The 'corpse' jerked under Diavel's hand and he snatched it back fast enough to unbalance himself with the motion, falling on his ass with a raucous clatter. Jonah yelped, jumping straight up and fumbling his axe while Duke and Zeero hefted their shields quickly.
"Zombie!"
"No, she's alive!"
"Only for so long if we don't stem the bleeding." Helewise grunted, shifting into a full on growl as she saw her mana was pretty much dry. No stunts from her today. Inventory… no potions or bandages left, fuck. Drop items? Various flavors of armor scraps, but even the stuff from the Harpies wasn't better than dirty rags. "If anyone has something better than cloth tatters to stabilize her, now's the time."
Maybe one of their summoned monsters could do something? Or someone could use their brand new mana bar to get something done. Helewise' thoughts raced furiously, 'fuck, I don't even have alcohol to soak the rags in, stupid stupid stupid.'
The girl twisted and then jerked in what could only be sudden pain at the motion, gasping breaths rattling from her throat. No words, closer to an animalistic terror, a desperate fear of death. Pale in the dark, blood pumping sluggishly as frantic hands delved into inventories. Jonah was hovering, expression visibly torn. Tokoyami turned, voice rising in the closest she'd heard to anger. "Can't you help her?!"
"Shut up! I'm trying! I don't-"
The air shimmered, and Duke's snappish response fell silent as he absorbed the fact that Tokoyami's indignation hadn't been aimed at him at all.
The Mystic Elf, so silent and withdrawn as to have gone forgotten, held out one hand, golden threads weaving themselves into the air from her fingertips, a lattice that sank into the flesh around the wound, the ugly pumping of crimson from it slowly easing as the girl shuddered.
"Understand, my summoner, that you shall not speak to me so again." Her words were serene, melodious, and could have spread hoarfrost with a whisper. The dusk-skinned woman's eyes gleamed, a glacier's deep blue glow peeking out from beneath a single lid. Beneath her, the bleeding slowed, though the wound remained open even as the girl sobbed, whether in terror or relief…
"I understand." Tokoyami's voice was almost a whisper, "I won't… I was… I got emotional in the moment."
"Then we shall work going forth to ensure this need not happen again." The icy blue eye shifted, its gaze sliding over the rest, before it closed once again and its own fell silent. The gold fading to a pale green before cutting off and dissipating.
Helewise had to prop herself on her spear because her legs threatened to go limp from sheer relief. That… that had been too close. Worse, she had no doubt she would run into similar situations in the future, and this had been a lucky break. Next time, that luck may run dry. Out of potions, out of bandages… forget two is one and one is none, I'm keeping at least three dozen of each. Organize some emergency bags. Track down an EMT and learn what bits of triage and first aid can be applied here, Argo can probably help. Learn some magic to at least stabilize people, for sure. Find some way to rapidly recover mana, maybe potions and crystals for it are starting to crop up?
Only an endlessly sprawling mental itinerary of supplies, training and assorted preparations kept the suffocating feeling of helplessness at bay.
Next to her, Tokoyami swayed before Zeero steadied him. Diavel pushed himself up, "we should get her back to the shrine. Jonah."
"Gah! Ah… Yes?" The blonde asked after a jolt.
"Can you carry her? You've probably got the strength stat for it." Diavel asked sharply.
"Can't you do it?" Jonah shifted, clearly put off.
"If we run into any more Harpies we need to play it carefully, and that means shields." The blue-haired knight explained, fixing the teen with a serious look despite the grimace creeping around the edges of his expression.
"T-then can't Te-Fae do it?" Meanwhile, that was some queasiness on Jonah's part, probably didn't do well with blood. God, Helewise hoped nobody fainted and died to monsters from seeing something like that.
"I'll get it," Duke knelt down and carefully set his hands on Seiko's shoulder and hip, ignoring the startlement at his interjection. "I'm going to roll you over, I'll do my best not to jostle the wound, alright?"
"A-alright…" Seiko replied shakily, visibly bracing herself for a great deal of pain.
"Here goes…" Helewise winced at the raw sound that bubbled up from the girl's throat, and something tugged at her sleeve.
'Miss Dragon?'
Nothing was there, but the tugging persisted, a flicker of pale blue flames that ought to have been lost in the reflected light spilling in from the cavern's entrance.
That, more than anything, snapped her out of her spiralling. Her work was not done, there were other people to help and that wasn't going to happen if she was wallowing in a one-woman pity party. Gently, she reached back through the soulbond, almost like she was cupping the little ghost's hands in her own, 'Yeah? Need anything?'
The flames flickered, solidified slightly, forming a pale blue outline, but while Zeero gave Helewise' a look, there was no sign he saw the same image. 'My home… It's not far… But it's broken…'
'Can you point in its direction? I will mark it down on my map, then make sure any Tengu who may still be loitering there scram.' Helewise asked as she went down to one knee, a few flicks of her finger opening the relevant bit of the menu. They needed to get Seiko back to the shrine and restock on healing supplies. But once that was don—
'It's this way,' the tugging intensified, pulling her from her thoughts, a little hand finding its way into hers, a horned figure tugging her towards the cave's deeper reaches. 'It's really not far. I promise.'
…Wait. Seiko being here, of all places, with the little ghost's home so close? This had been a last stand.
"Seiko, sorry for imposing while you're like this, but— were you guarding a spot just around that bend in the cave?" Helewise asked as a tiny twitch of her hand dismissed her menu, her attention fully on the Shiranui lady who grimaced as Duke carefully hefted her over his shoulder, looking faintly disoriented before managing to regain some measure of her focus.
"I… Was… Ha-ahHH--!" The questioning done gave way to a pained hiss, answered by a hurried apology. "Hauhhh… Yes… So that's where…"
Her eyes unfocused, refocused lower, voice trailing off before returning as a pained whisper, each word audibly dragged from her by force. "Marker… Check… Please…"
Looking on, Diavel opened his mouth, closed it slowly, then opened it again. "I'll go with you, the rest of you… We should start getting ready to leave, figure out the fastest way out of here."
"I'll come too." A high voice piped up from Tokoyami.
"It might be dangerous, Yug…" Zeero shook his head at the slip-up Jonah hadn't even tried to cover but said nothing for once as their friend grinned back at them.
"I'll be fine, I promise, I think I have an idea what's going on here, I just want to see if I'm right."
"If anything happens…" Flowerfae began,
"I'll shout as loud as I can." Tokoyami nodded firmly.
"You better," Duke nodded, hefting Seiko carefully again, the girl's eyes unfocused again. Even if she wasn't losing any more for now, she'd lost a lot of blood. "We're a team, got that?"
"Let's go," Diavel started walking, "the sooner we wrap this up, the sooner we can go."
They went.
It really wasn't far at all.
Just around the next bend in the cavern, beyond the reach of sunlight. A raised dais had been carved from the stone, a desecrated shrine resting in its center illuminated by an ambient blue-white glow. While stone itself had resisted vandalism, careful arrangements of decorations had obviously been smashed or otherwise cast down and painted symbols were marred by spattered blood, some of it still disturbingly wet and crimson.
At its center, a dusty tapestry, a torn shroud cast aside. At opposite edges of the dais dusty bones had been tossed with a carelessness that became fundamentally offensive, a ribcage and crumbling spine on one side, a battered leg with its knee joint surprisingly intact on the other.
'It's all messy… The pieces of me… They took them.' A shadow of something ancient and wrathful touched Helewise' mind only to be rebuffed by a hand on her shoulder, Otejima's presence bleeding some of the red from her thoughts.
'Such a desecration of their remains… Any spirit would become vengeful, Onmyouji-dono.'
Helewise had to focus on her breathing, because the spirit wasn't the only source of red tinting her sight and thoughts. This place kept taking more and more and more from the people trapped in it. It was only the knowledge that she couldn't right this if she went berserk that kept her steady on the inward front, as much as Otejima warded off the worst of external influences.
'We will take them back and fix this. I promise.' Helewise said through her soul, because if she spoke right now it would come out as a scream.
[Quest Updated: The Oni's Cave | Find and return the bones to their rightful resting place. (1/4)]
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You can read two chapters ahead on Patreon.
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Everdistant Eternity
Becoming a bear(Animal) is also Transhumanist
- Joined
- Sep 24, 2023
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Again, not much to say from my end. The chapter's good, the plot interesting, just can't figure out definitive thoughts.
Spectral Waltz
Warrior of Lewd
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If it's any help, we're coming up on the conclusion of the first floor (in five chapters or so).
Nihilo
Experienced.
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We are happy to discuss lore, crossover minutia and future plans (to an extent, some stuff we'll keep under wraps).
Winged One
Not the Simurgh
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This is making me remember back when I actually played MMOs and quest lines kept sending me to where I would find new quest lines. Except more blatant about being intentional.
It makes sense.
It makes sense.
Chapter Nineteen
New
Spectral Waltz
Warrior of Lewd
- Joined
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- 26,083
Digital muscles had some benefits.
Fatigue was conferred as a status effect rather than simulated with each swing of their weapons. Pain still came when called but in a muted manner that faded quickly, untreated injuries more often a nuisance than a crippling debilitation, while the agonies of treated injuries faded entirely within a matter of minutes.
It was despite those benefits that Helewise would have sworn she could feel a piano wire running through both shoulders the whole way out of Harpie territory, easing only as the sound of the waterfall came into earshot a few bends before the stairs and their orange torii gate. The staunching woven by the Mystic Elf was holding, though the threads of the spell were bleeding little streamers of gold if one looked closely. Seiko herself was largely limp and under better circumstances would likely have passed out by now if not for the pain—better than her passing out from the pain, as grim as that was. The noises brought by every misstep or too-fast turn painting an ugly picture of what she must have been feeling.
There would be a trip for supplies after this. They needed easily thrice the amount of potions and bandages they'd brought in initially if they wanted to operate in this area, let alone help with situations like this.
Helewise would start carrying four times as much, just in case.
Flowerfae and Tokoyami went ahead, taking the steps two at a time while the rest of the party made a more sedate pace. By the time the rest reached the top Lisbeth Tokoyami and Lisbeth were fretting while Kaji and Flowerfae were nowhere to be seen, although an audible clattering from the outbuildings gave a good indication of where they might be. Sure enough, as the rest of the party crested the top the smith was already hobbling out to meet them, face set in a ferocious grimace that tightened every time he took a step. "In here, in here!"
He waved them towards an open door in the row of outbuildings set against the cliff face, something like relief lurking behind his furrowed brow. "Flower, get some water from the river. Apprentice, go with her, boil it using the forge fire. I'm no mage…"
The man trailed off as he moved around Duke and caught sight of the glowing threads still binding her wound shut. The gold had dulled to amber and blood was starting to well up around the edges of the wound, sluggishly wetting her ruined tunic anew. "...but one of you is..?"
Suspicious eyes turned to Jonah, then to Tokoyami, then back to the golden threads before finally turning to the Mystic Elf. Kaji's mouth opened and Tokoyami's hand rose, a thin line of luminous silver appeared in the midst of serenity, fixing the smith with a patient glare.
The old smith looked to Tokoyami again, then back to the Elf, his eyes flicking between them before very purposefully looking away from them and into empty space, gritting out too-loud words. "If any of ye c'n do anythin' more'n stop bleedin' then that'd be of great help."
"I'm no healer, I'm afraid, and we're out of such supplies as well. Please accept my most sincere apologies." Diavel ducked into a deep bow and Kaji scoffed, but pushed no further. Tokoyami was turned towards the elf and appeared to be in the midst of an intense conversation with her—correction, an intense conversation with her and that spot in the air just in front and to his left—despite not having spoken even a single word. Kaji hesitated a few moments longer, then turned with a huff and hobbled at best speed back towards the outbuildings where Duke was carefully navigating the creaky porch and low doorway, Seiko still slung over one shoulder.
Duke looked like he was holding up fine with his work and Helewise was not about to go intercede on whatever discussion was going on between Toko and his companion, that whole thing looked tense enough without her sticking her nose in there and fucking it up. There was still a flicker of curiosity at the invisible presence, but frankly, none of her damn business and she wasn't about to pry unless the topic of spiritual weirdness came up. Besides, there was still important work to do, "I'll go see what we can cut into bandages and boil to get it vaguely sanitary. She's going to need a lot to pack that wound."
It went without saying that it'd be an agonizing experience, especially for a through-and-through wound like that, but it was that or dying of internal bleeding once Mystic Elf's magic faded. At least it had, by some miracle, managed to not hit the intestines. A rupture there meant sepsis at minimum, and while a potion may've helped, they'd be on a tight timer to keep her from dying of infection.
"So uh… What should we do?" Diavel frowned and turned at Jonah's curious question, taking in the rest of the party. Toko and the Mystic Elf had started to drift away, still deep in some sort of apparent communication, leaving Jonah and Zeero at loose ends.
"Rest up, find somewhere to sit down, preferably somewhere warm if you can. SAO has some kind of hidden 'comfort level' mechanic that changes re…" The rest of his explanation was lost under the creaking and grumbling that was Flowerfae and Lisbeth hauling a heavy pot towards the forge while Helewise made her way to the last outbuilding in the line and tested its door. Old wood shifted slowly, screeching all the way, but the place hadn't actually been locked, merely disused.
What greeted her was dryness and dust, a rough third of the space was paved with broad flat stones, a blackened dip in the middle of what clearly served as both an entrance area and—as attested by the cookpot and stand leaned against a nearby wall—the kitchen. The rest was given over to raised wooden flooring, a single chest of drawers in one corner and a literal chest pushed up against the wall opposite it.
The drawers opened with a screech, revealing plain white roughspun linen, jackpot—
"You know it's…" Diavel's voice wavered slightly, "you know it's not… I mean, it feels real, so much of it does, but—, it's not a real wound."
She's not a real person, he didn't say.
That didn't mean it went unheard even in Helewise's frazzled state. She kept working as she organized her thoughts, because actually having something to do, that helped, grounded her into something vaguely functional.
"I know who to prioritize," She opened with, tiptoeing around views that could easily turn into a whole thing with everyone's frayed nerves, "But if I start getting precious about what is real and what isn't, that means delays and hesitation and that can cost us. I appreciate what you're doing because on the other side there are sneaky weird rules to all this, and most people stuck here will have an easier time of it mentally distancing themselves, but…" Helewise grimaced, shaking her head as she straightened up, her prize in her arms, "I just can't bring myself to."
Not when she could feel Reg's soul doggedly reaching back to her for the battles to come. Not when she felt Otejima's presence brushing against her fire. Not when she had a bereaved little ghost clinging onto her like a lifeline to keep it together and oh how painfully familiar that feeling was and how she hated seeing another subjected to it.
If all of this was a farce fed to her brain to the headset, she'd get through the consequences on her psyche when and only when she was free.
Diavel lingered for a moment, quiet, pensive. His jaw worked a couple times, abortive motions, making to open his mouth only to stop himself before he really started. Finally, he asked, "how long do you think it'll take?"
He looked like he regretted the question the moment it left his lips. The whole thing was pained enough that for a moment Helewise thought he was asking 'how long until someone dies in front of us?' or something to that effect, but no, that anxiety had a different texture to it.
"...Long enough that we'll be dealing with physical therapy, minimum. Even if we somehow cleared a Floor a day, we're still looking at needing to get our legs functional again." 'If you have functional legs to begin with', she very pointedly didn't add, because this prison was all the more painful in how it let so many people do things most of the population took for granted. Full five senses, full mobile autonomy, just to name the two most obvious.
"Three months, three and a half." The man's mouth twisted like he'd bitten into something rancid, "at minimum."
The first floor was already approaching two days old and unless others were making massive progress while they explored these mountains, they were nowhere near the end of it. The realization settled on him like a shroud, eyes losing focus and face settling into a terrifying blankness.
"Yeah. Yeah…" Helewise sighed, finding herself faltering again. It was much easier to face monsters with spears than trying to navigate a situation like this. "Best advice I can give you is to find something to focus on, so it doesn't get overwhelming. It can be beating the fuck out of a wooden post to get used to your weapons and gear beyond the numbers on the screen, it can be a friend or five, hell it can just be wanting to make it back to a pet cat or a cafe you like."
It was what kept her going, this quixotic dream of being a Death Knight. She'd clutched it like a lifeline and used it to hold herself steady and straighten up when it felt like anxiety was going to crush her flat.
"Easier said than done." The words came out too fast, a scowl twisting its way over his features before transforming into guilt. "I…"
A slow indrawn breath, a gusty exhale, and then the sound of boots tapping against stone as he made his way over and plucked up one of the dusty sheets of cloth, examining it with a furrowed brow before it vanished with a faint 'fwip' and he moved to pull open his menu. He stared at the window for a long moment, "this shouldn't be useful for anything."
As attempts to distract oneself from processing horrifying revelations went, it was blatant, if apparently effective.
"Worth trying." Helewise cast about for a blade—she could've used her glaive, but it'd have been slow and awkward for this—and then shifted over to pluck up a knife and pushed it through the cloth with a moment's effort, sawing a long rough strip from the hem of it. "Put that in."
"Phrasing." He shot back tonelessly, and the length of cloth vanished with the same little 'fwip' before he looked back over where he'd left his inventory window and blinked twice, lips working for a long moment before finally reading out "dusty cloth strip."
"Any tooltip?" She asked, meeting him in the middle because standing on opposite sides of the immersion scale didn't mean they couldn't benefit from each other's input.
"Just flavor text." Diavel shook his head.
How to word this… ah. "This is less a videogame and more a TTRPG, give it a look."
"A strip of old cloth, cut from long-disused garments." He read out, lips huffing as he reached the end. "What do you propose we do now then, wash it?"
There was a nugget of sarcasm in there, but it was sharing space with a seed of much more complicated emotions.
"We got a pot of water on its way to a boil, let's see where that takes us." Helewise replied with a bob of her horned head. It would get them moving and doing things and even if it didn't work? It was better than just languishing here.
For a moment, Diavel looked like he wanted to object on principle. Then, wordlessly, he reached over and pulled the rest of the cloth bundles into his inventory before pushing himself to his feet.
"Fine, let's go see if we can turn these into something useful."
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Fatigue was conferred as a status effect rather than simulated with each swing of their weapons. Pain still came when called but in a muted manner that faded quickly, untreated injuries more often a nuisance than a crippling debilitation, while the agonies of treated injuries faded entirely within a matter of minutes.
It was despite those benefits that Helewise would have sworn she could feel a piano wire running through both shoulders the whole way out of Harpie territory, easing only as the sound of the waterfall came into earshot a few bends before the stairs and their orange torii gate. The staunching woven by the Mystic Elf was holding, though the threads of the spell were bleeding little streamers of gold if one looked closely. Seiko herself was largely limp and under better circumstances would likely have passed out by now if not for the pain—better than her passing out from the pain, as grim as that was. The noises brought by every misstep or too-fast turn painting an ugly picture of what she must have been feeling.
There would be a trip for supplies after this. They needed easily thrice the amount of potions and bandages they'd brought in initially if they wanted to operate in this area, let alone help with situations like this.
Helewise would start carrying four times as much, just in case.
Flowerfae and Tokoyami went ahead, taking the steps two at a time while the rest of the party made a more sedate pace. By the time the rest reached the top Lisbeth Tokoyami and Lisbeth were fretting while Kaji and Flowerfae were nowhere to be seen, although an audible clattering from the outbuildings gave a good indication of where they might be. Sure enough, as the rest of the party crested the top the smith was already hobbling out to meet them, face set in a ferocious grimace that tightened every time he took a step. "In here, in here!"
He waved them towards an open door in the row of outbuildings set against the cliff face, something like relief lurking behind his furrowed brow. "Flower, get some water from the river. Apprentice, go with her, boil it using the forge fire. I'm no mage…"
The man trailed off as he moved around Duke and caught sight of the glowing threads still binding her wound shut. The gold had dulled to amber and blood was starting to well up around the edges of the wound, sluggishly wetting her ruined tunic anew. "...but one of you is..?"
Suspicious eyes turned to Jonah, then to Tokoyami, then back to the golden threads before finally turning to the Mystic Elf. Kaji's mouth opened and Tokoyami's hand rose, a thin line of luminous silver appeared in the midst of serenity, fixing the smith with a patient glare.
The old smith looked to Tokoyami again, then back to the Elf, his eyes flicking between them before very purposefully looking away from them and into empty space, gritting out too-loud words. "If any of ye c'n do anythin' more'n stop bleedin' then that'd be of great help."
"I'm no healer, I'm afraid, and we're out of such supplies as well. Please accept my most sincere apologies." Diavel ducked into a deep bow and Kaji scoffed, but pushed no further. Tokoyami was turned towards the elf and appeared to be in the midst of an intense conversation with her—correction, an intense conversation with her and that spot in the air just in front and to his left—despite not having spoken even a single word. Kaji hesitated a few moments longer, then turned with a huff and hobbled at best speed back towards the outbuildings where Duke was carefully navigating the creaky porch and low doorway, Seiko still slung over one shoulder.
Duke looked like he was holding up fine with his work and Helewise was not about to go intercede on whatever discussion was going on between Toko and his companion, that whole thing looked tense enough without her sticking her nose in there and fucking it up. There was still a flicker of curiosity at the invisible presence, but frankly, none of her damn business and she wasn't about to pry unless the topic of spiritual weirdness came up. Besides, there was still important work to do, "I'll go see what we can cut into bandages and boil to get it vaguely sanitary. She's going to need a lot to pack that wound."
It went without saying that it'd be an agonizing experience, especially for a through-and-through wound like that, but it was that or dying of internal bleeding once Mystic Elf's magic faded. At least it had, by some miracle, managed to not hit the intestines. A rupture there meant sepsis at minimum, and while a potion may've helped, they'd be on a tight timer to keep her from dying of infection.
"So uh… What should we do?" Diavel frowned and turned at Jonah's curious question, taking in the rest of the party. Toko and the Mystic Elf had started to drift away, still deep in some sort of apparent communication, leaving Jonah and Zeero at loose ends.
"Rest up, find somewhere to sit down, preferably somewhere warm if you can. SAO has some kind of hidden 'comfort level' mechanic that changes re…" The rest of his explanation was lost under the creaking and grumbling that was Flowerfae and Lisbeth hauling a heavy pot towards the forge while Helewise made her way to the last outbuilding in the line and tested its door. Old wood shifted slowly, screeching all the way, but the place hadn't actually been locked, merely disused.
What greeted her was dryness and dust, a rough third of the space was paved with broad flat stones, a blackened dip in the middle of what clearly served as both an entrance area and—as attested by the cookpot and stand leaned against a nearby wall—the kitchen. The rest was given over to raised wooden flooring, a single chest of drawers in one corner and a literal chest pushed up against the wall opposite it.
The drawers opened with a screech, revealing plain white roughspun linen, jackpot—
"You know it's…" Diavel's voice wavered slightly, "you know it's not… I mean, it feels real, so much of it does, but—, it's not a real wound."
She's not a real person, he didn't say.
That didn't mean it went unheard even in Helewise's frazzled state. She kept working as she organized her thoughts, because actually having something to do, that helped, grounded her into something vaguely functional.
"I know who to prioritize," She opened with, tiptoeing around views that could easily turn into a whole thing with everyone's frayed nerves, "But if I start getting precious about what is real and what isn't, that means delays and hesitation and that can cost us. I appreciate what you're doing because on the other side there are sneaky weird rules to all this, and most people stuck here will have an easier time of it mentally distancing themselves, but…" Helewise grimaced, shaking her head as she straightened up, her prize in her arms, "I just can't bring myself to."
Not when she could feel Reg's soul doggedly reaching back to her for the battles to come. Not when she felt Otejima's presence brushing against her fire. Not when she had a bereaved little ghost clinging onto her like a lifeline to keep it together and oh how painfully familiar that feeling was and how she hated seeing another subjected to it.
If all of this was a farce fed to her brain to the headset, she'd get through the consequences on her psyche when and only when she was free.
Diavel lingered for a moment, quiet, pensive. His jaw worked a couple times, abortive motions, making to open his mouth only to stop himself before he really started. Finally, he asked, "how long do you think it'll take?"
He looked like he regretted the question the moment it left his lips. The whole thing was pained enough that for a moment Helewise thought he was asking 'how long until someone dies in front of us?' or something to that effect, but no, that anxiety had a different texture to it.
"...Long enough that we'll be dealing with physical therapy, minimum. Even if we somehow cleared a Floor a day, we're still looking at needing to get our legs functional again." 'If you have functional legs to begin with', she very pointedly didn't add, because this prison was all the more painful in how it let so many people do things most of the population took for granted. Full five senses, full mobile autonomy, just to name the two most obvious.
"Three months, three and a half." The man's mouth twisted like he'd bitten into something rancid, "at minimum."
The first floor was already approaching two days old and unless others were making massive progress while they explored these mountains, they were nowhere near the end of it. The realization settled on him like a shroud, eyes losing focus and face settling into a terrifying blankness.
"Yeah. Yeah…" Helewise sighed, finding herself faltering again. It was much easier to face monsters with spears than trying to navigate a situation like this. "Best advice I can give you is to find something to focus on, so it doesn't get overwhelming. It can be beating the fuck out of a wooden post to get used to your weapons and gear beyond the numbers on the screen, it can be a friend or five, hell it can just be wanting to make it back to a pet cat or a cafe you like."
It was what kept her going, this quixotic dream of being a Death Knight. She'd clutched it like a lifeline and used it to hold herself steady and straighten up when it felt like anxiety was going to crush her flat.
"Easier said than done." The words came out too fast, a scowl twisting its way over his features before transforming into guilt. "I…"
A slow indrawn breath, a gusty exhale, and then the sound of boots tapping against stone as he made his way over and plucked up one of the dusty sheets of cloth, examining it with a furrowed brow before it vanished with a faint 'fwip' and he moved to pull open his menu. He stared at the window for a long moment, "this shouldn't be useful for anything."
As attempts to distract oneself from processing horrifying revelations went, it was blatant, if apparently effective.
"Worth trying." Helewise cast about for a blade—she could've used her glaive, but it'd have been slow and awkward for this—and then shifted over to pluck up a knife and pushed it through the cloth with a moment's effort, sawing a long rough strip from the hem of it. "Put that in."
"Phrasing." He shot back tonelessly, and the length of cloth vanished with the same little 'fwip' before he looked back over where he'd left his inventory window and blinked twice, lips working for a long moment before finally reading out "dusty cloth strip."
"Any tooltip?" She asked, meeting him in the middle because standing on opposite sides of the immersion scale didn't mean they couldn't benefit from each other's input.
"Just flavor text." Diavel shook his head.
How to word this… ah. "This is less a videogame and more a TTRPG, give it a look."
"A strip of old cloth, cut from long-disused garments." He read out, lips huffing as he reached the end. "What do you propose we do now then, wash it?"
There was a nugget of sarcasm in there, but it was sharing space with a seed of much more complicated emotions.
"We got a pot of water on its way to a boil, let's see where that takes us." Helewise replied with a bob of her horned head. It would get them moving and doing things and even if it didn't work? It was better than just languishing here.
For a moment, Diavel looked like he wanted to object on principle. Then, wordlessly, he reached over and pulled the rest of the cloth bundles into his inventory before pushing himself to his feet.
"Fine, let's go see if we can turn these into something useful."
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Winged One
Not the Simurgh
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2013
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Even if Shadow Games didn't have a documented tendancy of allowing this type of shit, I'd like to think Cardinal would try to accommodate creative solutions like this if its research about the physical world supports the idea.
Spectral Waltz
Warrior of Lewd
- Joined
- May 1, 2017
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Cardinal was handed a Player's Handbook and is now discovering the wonders of free will and homebrew while still desperately trying not to disappoint her creator.