Gathering and Defending It has been a few days ever since he started playing Terrasphere and ever since, he was starting to learn more about the game's mechanics and features such as combats and quests. But one thing he didn't focus so far was his current masteries and from what he learned, he needed to "grind" some kind of special experience in order to level them. As for what mastery he wanted to focus on, he felt he needed to focus on his Alchemy since his skills with his sword and magic were increased due to his previous monster encounters and quests. But while he found a perfect location to gather some herbs for his experiments, there was one problem when he got there, which are some group of monsters attacking a village near the gathering spot. Sure, he would ignore it since it's residents are NPCs. However, a part of him felt like he didn't want to abandon them just for his current objective. He may be cautious, but he was not heartless. Because of this, he knew he needed some help to not only defeat the monsters before they eradicate the whole village but to defend him while he gets to his destination. Right now, he was waiting for some players to join him not far away from the village, hoping that they may get his message on time. @Solaria @Sharara Gatsu
Signing up to protect people was natural, especially now that Solaria had a bigger martyr complex than ever. She took great pride in her ability to kill enemies, as well as to heal her allies (though really, who needed healing if you could stop people from getting hurt in the first place?). With a skip in her step, she noticed a familiar face in the crowd as she was headed towards the meeting point. She didn't know who to expect at the time of signing up, really- just that whoever it was, they needed to gather something from a place that probably wasn't meant to be dealt with on normal terms. "Verity!" Smiling and waving cheerily, she rushed to the man's side. Last time she'd seen him, it was to give directions. This time, was it to work as a team? Though he didn't really seem much into team spirit last time, she couldn't elp hoping that meant this time he'd changed. "Are you hear for the gathering quest too? I'm here to help defend the gatherer's from any creep or creature that tries to bring harm. Something tells me it's gonna be a real fun trip, this little journey! What do you think?"
Sharara's days in this game had been mostly centered around combat. While other players seemed to want to involve themselves in the story that this world presented, she was more than happy to spend her days and nights grinding as much monsters as possible. After all she wanted to be the strongest that there was, she wanted everyone in the world to recognize her as the defacto expert on all things smash and slash. Day and night she'd been cutting her way through Falderen, constantly unsure of where she was in relation to anything else. Even though she was actively avoiding any sort of politics or story, sometimes she couldn't actually turn her nose up at something that was happening with the NPCs. @Verity had made some sort of post claiming that a nearby village was being accosted by monsters. This was the sort of story that Sharara wanted to be involved in, high adventure, saving people and generally being a big damn hero. Leave all the dumb kingdom stuff to people who actually gave a damn about politics and all that rot. The cool thing about being a Felis was that it was really easy for her to get up into high places, even if she was weighed down by the huge sword on her back. It was especially easy in a small village like this where very few of the buildings even reached two stories tall. It gave her a great vantage to find where she was supposed to go to meet this party. It didn't take her long at all to spot them, they stood out from the average villager quite a bit. Most adventurers had a certain way of dressing that just made them pop in a crowd. From a design aspect it was actually quite pleasing to look at, the sort of thing that might make her want to draw a picture or something... That could wait though. Sharara dropped down between the two landing in a slight crouch... That kind of hurt her knees to do. "Yo! You guys ready to bust some monsters?! I know that I'm gonna take down most of them no problem!"
One thing he didn't like about the mechanics behind this quest system was that he never knew that there are some people he met that he just wished he met them just once. One person in mind was @Sharara Gatsu, which the last time he met her was when she almost lost her life from her reckless actions. He didn't want to look down on her because of this, but he was worried that she might mess this quest with her same actions as before. On the other hand, he couldn't say the same with @Solaria. He was still suspicious of her, but she did help him on finding an NPC to aid him during his first day in Terrasphere. So he has no doubts or worries regarding this girl. But so far, he had a feeling this will be an interesting quest. "Yes, but before I can go to the gathering spot, we have to take care of the monsters before they reach the village nearby." In his honesty, once he took another good look at Solaria, she seemed to look like a good girl, not to mention that she wanted to protect some creatures nearby. But as for Sharara as he turned to her... "I'm glad you're joining us for the quest. But please, try not to go off on your own or ignore my orders," he said this with a strict tone that he gave to the cat girl. "Unlike before, you may not able to survive if we don't work together as a team." He hoped that Sharara was aware of what he just said to her. Besides, the less chaos in his party, the better. With that said, the party then headed over to the village. As they arrived, they can see the damages the monsters had made to the houses and food stands around them. Also, they can see a few wolves preying on the food that has been left over from the invasion as well some few goblins ransacking an abandoned house. Luckily for them, they noticed that there are no signs of villagers anywhere, which Verity noticed some of them peeking at them through their windows inside the comforts of their homes. Once the observations around the village were done, Verity drew out his sword as he prepared himself for battle. "Okay. Let's take care of the wolves first. Solaria, you're with me. Sharara, try not to be reckless." Verity then charged into one of the wolves as he activated his Breeze Shroud spell via the panel that appeared in front of him.
"Hey! Come on, just because I like to fight things on my own doesn't mean I'm some kind of jerk who doesn't listen to good advice!" Sharara made a face as she scratched the side of her face with her finger, looking back at @Verity with an expression that seemed to say that her feelings were a bit hurt. Her piercing green eyes seemed to size him up as someone who took this game just a little bit too seriously.Not that she didn't think it was totally worth it to save the villagers and all, nor that she wasn't into the whole roleplaying thing herself... Actually now that she thought about it her point was kind of lost in the ether, so she decided to just give him a bright smile. "I'll listen to what you have to say boss!" The village of course was in shambles, enough to get Sharara's blood boiling at the very least. As she looked around at all the destruction that was caused she could feel her tail waving in circular patterns in some form of agitation. She narrowed her eyes when she saw the wolves going for the overturned food in the village. She followed Verity's lead on the attack, drawing her blade and running with it at her side as she made her approach on the wolves. It seemed that Verity at least had the same sort of magic that she did though he seemed more focused on... Y'know actually casting it for useful effect. Wait wait that wasn't fair. Sharara wasn't terrible with her magic, she just didn't really like to use it until she was backed into a corner. Also she wasn't really into the whole "air" thing so much as she was into the "striking things with bolts of lightning" thing. Hence the fact that her eye patch had a lightning bolt motif on it, it was kind of meant to be a calling card. Though in order for it to become one she would eventually have to start casting the spells to grow her legend. For now though she was more than happy to just swing her massive blade around like some kind of mad woman. Solaria seemed kind of supporty with some fast and light melee mixed in and Verity seemed like he preferred to be in the backlines of a fight so it was up to Sharara to keep the wolf's attention. She wasn't really a tank to be honest but she was probably a little more tanky than most people by rights of having to carry a massive blade. Her move was to try and cut the wolves in twine with a massive, earth shattering overhead swing. If the sharpness of the blade didn't kill them then perhaps the weight of the sword would crush their spines.
Smiling towards the stranger of the trio, Solaria held a hand up to wave gently. "I've met Verity once before, but I don't think I've had the pleasure, have I?" She seemed at ease as she greeted the felis, her grin a bit too broad to not seem goofy. Her words, however, were said fairly eloquently, creating a peculiar personality gap. "I'm Solaria. I hope I'll be of help with my illumancy and swordsmanship." It seemed like they had little time to speak, however. As if immediately, the battle to stop monsters from getting in the way. Wolves, was it? She was already impressed by their numbers, but moreso by Verity's rather commanding tone. Well, it's not too bad to let someone else take charge sometimes, right? Following orders, albeit in a haphazard manner, the girl was swift to slash down some of the pack that came at her. She kept close to the man that had requested it of her, but seemed more focused on the mission than the man himself. Watching Sharara casting magic to aid the fight, she found herself struggling to feel quite as helpful outside her sword skills. Watching, however, gave her an idea. Adding some magic into the hand on her sword, she brought holy damage towards the beasts. "Looks like it's a good aid after all," She mused, smirking. Casting a buff towards the other two, she called, "Let's boost our effect this way and get them where it hurts!"
When @Solaria introduced herself, he did remember that the last time they met, he didn't bother to ask her name due to his trust issues before. Though by the look on her face once more, there was no sign of malice or deceit like last time. Guess that he has to rely on her Illumancy spells when the time comes. As for the battle, he has seen no problems or mishaps so far as he noticed how @Sharara Gatsu somehow acted as a distraction to get the wolves' attention. Not to mention how his Breeze Shroud spell allowed Sharara moved faster thanks to the wind behind her as well chip off some of the HP from the wolves and goblins nearby. And with Solaria's holy attacks, most of the beasts were slashed down by her blade. Yet, it wasn't enough to kill all of them. Just as he charged into the battle with his sword in hand, he felt something stirring inside him once Solaria cast some kind of spell to him and Sharara. If he recalled from when he looked up on MMORPGs during his off time both from his work and game, this kind of spell was called a buff and in his honesty, he felt that his body was somehow stronger than before. In fact, this small feeling wasn't just one of the features of this VRMMO's immersion experience. Just two swings of his sword were enough to kill one of the wolves. Obviously, he was surprised at his sudden boost in strength, but he was a little impressed at how Solaria's spell helped him a lot. Alongside Sharara and Solaria, Verity continued to slice down most of the wolves with his sword with ease. Yet just as he finished the third to last one, he turned around to see a goblin jumped up above him, which caused him to stab its shoulder with his sword. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to stop it, so he has to resort with his next spell. "Praemium est in fulgur," he chanted as electricity began to gather through his left hand as the goblin tried to struggle to raise its left arm to strike him down with its mace. But just as it can do so, the electricity bursts right in front of it, which caused it to be electrocuted from Verity's spell until it dropped dead as it slid out from his blade. "Close one. But it looks like we got the goblin's attention now." He even turned around to see some goblins now noticed the adventurers as they charged in to stop them. "Just one more push until the village is safe! Just keep on fighting and don't go running off on your own!" With that, he then started swinging his sword to the goblins while he tried to dodge their attacks, which he may end up killing several of them.
Sharara had done her best to make sure that the wolves were held at bay, during the entire fight she laughed and grinned. She gave some scathing rhetoric as well, typical things like 'you're looking tired' and 'I've seen more fight from a puppy.' Not that the wolves cared one whit for the art of insult sword fighting, but it still put her at ease to have a constant back and forth when she was fighting something. @Verity had given her a buff and it was working well to speed her up, to keep the wolves busy as the other two players came in and did the short work of defeating them. She was supposed to be a DPS player, she liked being in the middle of the battle rather than the one taking all the damage or supporting others. Soon enough they were making short work of the wolves, and attracting the notice of the Goblins. It seemed that the Goblins were a little stronger than the wolves, they surrounded the party and Sharara was doing her best to fend them off. Enough so that she ended in a dead lock with one, its blade crossing her own sword in a test of raw strength and endurance. She already had a buff to her speed, but that didn't effect her strength too much, she needed something more to push her over the edge, something to really make these goblins rue the day that they messed with Sharara Gatsu. "HEY! Verity! @Solaria! HURT ME! Pump some damage spells into me... Just enough to put me at 10% health!" If everything went to plan you would activate your Berserker stance, and with that you would explode with Strength, Speed, and Damage. Of course you would also take more damage, but at that point it would be a speed game, whether or not you could blast through a field of goblins faster than they could damage you. Saving that if the goblins paid more attention to you as the raging Berserker tearing through them they wouldn't pay attention to Solaria and Verity as they made short work of the rest of them.
Adding holy damage to her sword once more, Solaria was in a rush to beat up the baddies that came after them- until she heard a very bizarre request! Glancing in the direction of @Sharara Gatsu, she couldn't help but pray the felis was kidding. "I'm a nurse damnit!" She called, ignoring her own choice of crude language. As if to punish her, a goblin came from behind to give her a nick. She cried out, startled, and glared at it with her sword's point right where she wanted it. Stabbing it in the chest, she the sword close to her. Taking a moment to recall her choice of masteries, she finally remembered a critical thing, realizing what Sharara was intending. "Wait, you plan on going berserker on them!? Is that really a good idea? I mean, I know I can heal you, but that's pretty damaging on the body even ignoring that it takes you down to ten!" Her gaze moved to @Verity. He was, after all, the one who'd given a pretty good plan. "Verity, you said she runs wild. Is it okay to let her run with that? Attacking other players isn't really my strong suit. I've never been a fan of PvP...And I'd really rather not be her death."
Berserk? If he can remember, that was the very same mastery Kaede mentioned before and the reason she was reckless at that time. But just damaging @Sharara Gatsu meant that there's a chance that she won't survive this method. He wanted to join @Solaria on objecting this, but with this number of goblins about to surround them, he felt that using his spells might not be enough to kill all of them. There was no choice. He had to follow Sharara's request, but... "Let's give it a try. But once you get the 7th goblin, you have to retreat back to Solaria for treatment while I'll take care of the remaining numbers. Since you might lose control to Berserk, I'll make sure to push you to her side by any means necessary. Got it?" He didn't want to hurt anyone unless he has a reason to do so, but if that was the only requirement to activate her Berserk, he doubted that he has a choice in this. Tapping on his panel, he then chanted a Latin invocation as electricity began to gather in his hand and approached the young cat woman. "I'm sorry in advance if this hurts a lot." In his honesty, he really disliked hitting a girl, but just not doing will not activate her special ability. Sighing in defeat, he raised his electrified hand and shouted, "Thunder Burst!" With that incantation, the electricity burst right in front of Sharara as the bolts head straight to her face and body. Just for a good measure, Verity also slashed her chest two times before he gave another two to the charging goblin nearby before he stabbed it to their chest. "I'm giving you an opening! Do it!"
"I'm gonna pull back once we break their ranks, and don't worry about how much it's gonna hurt, it's gonna hurt a lot worse if we get ourselves surrounded by these gobbos!" Sharara grinned as bright as the sun in an attempt to soothe her teams worries about her own safety. She'd chosen this particular mastery so it wasn't really any of their faults how it worked. She wanted to live on the edge of a knife and that meant doing so both physically and mentally. Of course she was also the kind of masochist who also had the setting on that allowed her to feel all the pain that came with being struck in battle. She viewed it as a motivator more than anything else, also being able to feel the pain that an enemy inflicted on her during her berserk would actually help quite a bit with measuring her health without having to look at her HUD. And with that a bolt of lightning struck Sharara wrapping her in a sudden flash of light, tendrils of electricity dancing along all of her extremities. Two sword strokes also caught her before the indicator popped up on her HUD. The goblins weren't really sure how to react, they sort of took a step back from the Felis as she was struck by her companions, trying to work out if they should continue attacking her or not. It wouldn't take them long to remember that all they cared about was killing. But before that could happen they were audience to Sharara stepping out of the smoldering circle where she'd been struck. Her head was down and shadow seemed to cover the top half of her face for a moment. Her body was bleeding and smoking and there seemed to be a faint red aura that blanketed every part of her body. Despite all this the felis was grinning, a wide toothy grin that persisted as she grabbed at the haft her massive blade. She laughed and looked up, her only eye seeming to have gained a red hue as well. "This feels.... AMAZING!" With a burst of unreal strength and speed she was suddenly in the midst of the goblins all fighting for their lives as she knocked them around with her massive blade. She very quickly broke up their formation seeming to dash around randomly causing each and every goblin to confusedly chase after her in an attempt to catch her with their own sharp implements. The great thing about the Berserk ability was that it actually increased Sharara's damage reduction too, so when she was at her final 10% it was like she was a slightly higher level adventurer, it must have been terrifying for the monsters to see. But the point wasn't that she was going to kill them, this was not her plan in the first place. Sharara couldn't hope to survive against all these goblins at such low health. Rather the point was the buff that she had been given, it allowed her to do things that she normally couldn't do and open up even more opportunities for @Solaria and @Verity. Laughing and exulting the whole time like a crazy woman she effectively scattered the group of Goblins into easy to defeat chunks for the other two players, and like she said once she hit a certain point she pulled herself back to be healed planting her blade in the earth like a flag.
To hear someone say being injured felt amazing was kind of a concern to Solaria- was Sharara some sort of masochist? Then again, it was likely the buff that she was referring to, but to the young healer, 'Berserker' had always been a unique skill in any game. For someone who usually played only combat characters, it was surprising how much the tables had turned in this game for her. As the mass of goblins separated into bite sized groups, she stood and watched for a moment when @Sharara Gatsu took great care to defeat a chunk on her own before finally accepting the need for some help. It took a fair bit of energy for the Yladian to muster up a good heal, but she was able to give at least half the girl's health back to her, making her more than happy to take a chance to rush in on the offense as well. "@Verity, I'll get the left half!" With her words spilling out on the wind, the girl rushed into an assault on the enemies she'd claimed as her own, her brilliant blade slashing them to pieces without any intention of letting up. The numbers slowly diminished at the edge of her blade and the skills of her partners. The longer she left herself to fight, the more she enjoyed it and turned to her party with a gleaming grin. "It's been a while since I've had a mob this fun to fight. Healing is a good rush itself, but there's nothing quite like the scent of monster blood to get your own blood going, don't you think?"
Fighting the mob of goblins was fun? He can't understand most of the players enjoying the RPG genre about the combat, but he did notice how exhilarating the battle right now. Comparing to his current life and playing the game as Verity, he somehow managed to free himself from his frustrations and stress during a battle like this. Even just slashing down the goblins makes him feel the excitement drawing inside of him. But just staring at @Sharara Gatsu going all out with her Berserk skills makes him feel that there are limits to the exhilarated experiences, especially how reckless she was back there. Though thanks to her, only 3 goblins are left in the village. While he left the third one to @Solaria, he took on the remaining two as continued to swing and parry every attack that they have to throw in. At one point, he found himself between himself and a mace that was about to make contact to his face. All of the sudden, his movements began to slow down as he raised his sword and pushed the mace to the side. At first, the goblin seemed like it hit something that could lose his speed. That was until he shouted these words. "Régler Parry!" Régler Parry His movements quickly sped up as he twirled his sword and slashed the goblin's neck. If the girls noticed, the speed of his swing was very fast, which there was a chance they may not notice it. Not only that, there might be a chance they might see how crooked he used his sword when he performed that skill. At any case, he then took care of the last one by slashing a few times on its before stabbing it to death. With the battlefield now showed no signs of wolves or goblins, Verity looked around the village for any signs of an ambush. Though despite how devastated the village looked right now, he sighed in relief that it was over. "I-I guess we got all of them. Good job everyone." Now the only worry was Sharara's condition. He did injure her just to activate her Berserk, so he felt a little responsible for her current condition as he gave her a blank stare while he watched her being treated by Solaria.
