Baldur

Floor 24 Panareze Late Morning Post Event Boss Baldur was the first one there, as he had planned it. The restaurant was not yet bustling with players, since the floor had not yet been discovered by the masses. In fact, it had only really just begun to be explored by the frontline players, though now that the teleport plaza was active and anyone could make it up here, and be safe in the [area] effect of the settlement, low level players slowly began to trickle in. The restaurant was not immediately on the water, though you had a view off of the main island from the side the faced it. Instead, the restaurant was actually part of the upper level of the unique feature of the floor - the coliseum. From where Baldur had made space, they could see into the arena, and watch as the NPC fights slowly roused and began their training session. Though by now, late in the morning, they were well into it. Baldur had been here to watch them warm up. He had wanted the time to think. They should be arriving here any moment now. Baldur assumed that Shield or Calrex would be the first to appear, as they were a little more aware of his mindset when he had planned this meeting as a quick flash of inspiration when the events of the boss fight against the dark elves had resolved. Then the event against the evil artichoke happened, and it drove the frontliners near death. Dead or dying, only Calrex would have been left alive to finish the fight. Their morale was a mess. Everyone agreed that the frontline needed direction and organization. Shield and Baldur found themselves in position to be ready for this eventuality, but Baldur had been pushing prep in the frontlines for a long time, and the dark elf fight had been the first time that ever came close to being realized. But more than anything, they needed unity and a situation report. This meeting was not to talk about their new guild, which had not been created yet, but to talk about the fate of the frontline, how to build trust, and how to move forward. The azure samurai had reached out to @Calrex, @Shield, @Macradon, @Hestia as the tanks going forward. Though he was not sure if Macradon would come. His fate, and the fate of the Knights of the Blood Oath, was in jeopardy now because of Hirru's action. As an afterthought, Baldur had reached out to @Jomei as the man was a potential decision maker, even if he was busy with his wedding. He would have brought Itzal in as well, and Jonathan, but the former could not be reached, and the later seemed to have cast away the determination Baldur needed in this meeting to drive the frontline forward. The fact that there were so few on the frontline now terrified Baldur. But this core could identify and build up others to join them, otherwise they were at risk of stalling here. "I hope they come." The samurai said to an empty room, as he sat at a large, empty, round table.

Baldur listened to Hestia and Shield's comments about the up-and-coming with a bit of a grim expression, steepling his hands and resting his chin on them as he considered what they told him, but first, he would address Hestia's last point. "There is always a chance someone will disagree with us. That's the entire reason we're here, and not addressing this with everyone at the same time. As I said in the beginning, we're here to build a consensus, with a small group, so that everyone can be heard. By building consensus among us, it makes it easier to build consensus among a larger group. By us all getting on the same page, when we address the larger raid party, we have less people we need to convince, and more people people to do the convincing. We're also able to address, in advance, a large number of the points they raise. There will always be people who disagree, but we can't let that reality prevent us from doing anything." With this aside, Baldur shifted the gears in his mind to address the real issue at hand, their lack of tanks. "So we have no shield users coming up, but instead a pair of DPS Tank hybrids like Macradon. Which only serves to make it more difficult to elevate them if they were already on the lower end of the level range..." Baldur trailed off in thought. "If that is the case, then the best bet would be to put a strong AoE healer with them. Both of them. If we're going with two DPS/Tank hybrids, who want to go with a bruiser build like Mac did, then the best bet would be to put them together, and let them switch. One or both of them would still need <<focused howl>>, and preferably they'd both have <<Fighting Spirit>>. It's not a build I hadn't considered to help off tank... but it wouldn't be unwieldy either. It's still dangerous, but if they could switch out less frequently than the healer needs to <<Field Medic>> it could be possible. I don't like it, but it could be possible." It would be best to be lead by someone like Macradon, and someone who had fully GM'ed <<Battle Healing>>. And perhaps had a <<Quick Change>> for some regen armor or <<Life Mending>>. The tools were there, they just needed someone to use them all. "Unless another tank appears, it seems that our next boss fight will be a two party ordeal, unless we can come up with someone to fill that role, and dedicate our efforts to getting them to Tier 3, but I don't think that's reasonable in the time we have left." Baldur sat back in his chair, and grabbed at his glass, taking a long sip of the tea, before he looked up at the others around the table. "I would volunteer, but I don't have the skill points free in order to pick up all the necessary skills and mods."

Baldur smiled as things finally came around to the plan that they had suggested anyways, even if it was a rocky road that got them there. Shield called out the attack, and Hirru flew like the wind, finally scoring a critical hit against the boss and doing a decent chunk of damage. If Baldur's guess was right, the boss would likely have more mitigation than the Shaman, but from the look of Hirru's hit, it wasn't much more. "Alright, let's do this!" Baldur said, crouching down to <<charge>> up his attack, as he <<concentrated>> on the movements of the Chieftain. If Baldur and Beat could score hits or crits on the big guy with their charge attacks, then they might be able to take out half of his health. Planting his foot down as the charge began to build up, Baldur slipped in the water that the Shamen had been shooting around, and had begun to pond up and slick the bridge they were fighting on. "Kuso!" Baldur spat, as his sword art went off without a target.

"Yea, this certainly hasn't gone as planned, but I think we've found something that works better. It's amazing how much a couple of spare rare buffs can help out. Now that we're capable of one-shotting them, you become a backup battery that let's me last much, much longer than I would be able to otherwise." Baldur gave a soft chuckle, "but I'm definitely not volunteering to help anyone with this quest. It's not as bad as that quest I stumbled onto on the cave floor, <<Hidden Village>> but it it is certainly taking the cake for length and effort. But then, we are going for the bonus points." Baldur sheathed the <<Muramasa>> and followed Shield away from the spawning ground of the <<Drakelings>>. Baldur didn't consider this retreating, rest was an essential piece of combat. He didn't remember who, just that it had been a Navy seal, who had told him rest was a weapon. 'Never run when you can walk, never walk when you can stand, never stand when you can sit, and never sit when you can sleep. Sleep was a weapon.' He had been speaking about a slightly different, situation... but not terribly so. People who did not rest, cracked. Or got reckless and died. (out of combat 1/3)

Baldur was furious at the others, but as he had taught Calrex, in the heat of battle, he took that emotion, and he fed it to the fire, leaving him in control and clear headed, even when he wanted to react as they had. Ignore everyone, and do their own thing. But that was not productive, and would only accomplish the same thing Hirru's actions had in the boss fight. A bad plan was still better than everyone trying to act independently of one another. Alright Zandra, we'll do this your way. Hopefully Baldur's own team would listen to him, when Hestia, Ruby, and Zandra had ignored his own instructions. "Alright Zandra, we'll follow your lead." Baldur bit the words, but someone had to be the first to work together. And if he wanted other people to do it, he had to be willing to do it himself. Crouching down to <<charge>> at the shaman with full health, "Let's do this Beat." Baldur shot forward, executing his <<San Ge>> at point blank range, and the crimson bands of light arcing from his impossibly fast sword art flew to the creature, but right at the last moment, it threw up its staff and blocked the attacks, getting thrown back by the overwhelming power of Baldur's blows, but left it without any damage taken. "Tsk." He hated missing his attacks, but there wasn't much he could do right now. He hadn't any accuracy buffs for this fight or he would have used them. ID# 110992: BD: 3+3=6-2=4 (miss) -2 Energy, +1 Regen

Baldur listened to the conversation go round and round again, in a mostly unproductive manner, but then something did surprise him. Calrex seemed to find the ability to bridge between Hestia and Shield, and get her to take a step back and realize that doing something, was better than admitting defeat without every trying something. It was an impressive turn of events that Baldur would not have predicted, much like how Hestia had shamed Zandra into cooperation in the previous boss meeting, even if that had not translated to execution in the boss fight itself. "Gentlemen and lady, we have gotten off track. I think the boot camp, and frontline social events bear merit and further investigation and discussion, but we have more immediate and tangible topics we need to discuss first." "The reason we're here, doing this" Baldur gestured to the table while he looked at @Hestia "Is not because we're leaders, or will always make the best calls, or that people should always look to tanks for leadership, though I do think that is often the case. What we are doing here, as I said in the beginning, is trying to build understanding and consensus. If all of the tanks beat these topics down, and come to a consensus through reasoned debate, then the others will see that. The frontlines doesn't lack discipline because we don't have leaders, it lacks discipline because that leadership is unprepared. Because everyone has always done their own thing. Because every man thinks they know best. But with this core group, if we can get everyone on the same page, and approach the frontlines with a unified, disciplined front, then the others will fall in. If we establish that acting together, through teamwork, is more effective and beneficial to us all, then the others will fall in line. But if we continue to infight, and let our pride get in the way of sense, then we're going to continue to be our own worst enemy. Often times following a bad plan will still be better than following no plan. We stumbled in the boss fight, but having the raid more or less focus target down the Dark Council was a very effective strategy." Baldur sighed, as he got a little more heated than he had planned. He needed to heed his own words. At the field boss fight, everyone had ignored his carefully laid and optimal plan for strategies of their own. And he had been faced with the choice of either following a bad plan, or perpetuating the same problem the others at the field boss fight were. If he wanted to prove his point, then he needed to live by his words. He couldn't expect people to do something he was unwilling to do, and it was his principle to never ask someone to do something he was unwilling to do himself. "Our most pressing point is identifying the core players we have in play. We have 2 healers, Zandra and Ruby, and 2 tanks, Calrex and Shield, with Hestia who can fit in either, but has no one to back her up. So we either need to find someone to tank for Hestia to heal, or someone to heal as Hestia tanks. It seemed like, based on Hestia's suggestions." Baldur gestured to her, giving her credit for being the only one to answer his question, "That we're more likely to raise up a tank for Hestia to heal. So who is the best tank, that is close to tier 3, that we can help prepare for the raid?" Baldur turned to @Shield, "Wasn't Haz the kid from the event boss fight we just fought? I think he was in the group with Sunova that I met very briefly. I think you knew him, right? What do you think about trying to power level him up to tier 3, and getting him to commit to a pure tank role, rather than going hybrid? He'll need focused howl, and probably parry, to help keep him alive. I would be more than willing to donate my dungeon scrolls to try and get him up in level, and give him some experience tanking something scary." "@Macradon Do you have any spare Tier 3 tank gear in your shop that could go towards outfitting a new Tier 3 tank? @Calrex do we have anything from the old Spectrum Coalition vault that could be useful?" Then Baldur addressed the council. "We need other options though. If not Haz, who is out number 2 pick? Are there any up and coming healers?"

Baldur had heard of a hidden village on the 21st floor that could only be found by completing a quest, and that meant that Baldur had to complete the quest. He was one of those people who had to fill in their map. He didn't need every nook and cranny like many other people did, but he couldn't leave an entire settlement missing from his map. What if he needed it in the future? What if there was a clue there? The rewards weren't great, but right now he could use the experience more than anything, and it was a Tier 3 floor, so maybe he could... He shook his head. The one thing he had learned from his last quest was that he wasn't ready to go solo yet. Definitely not before he got his new armor. He felt naked without the mitigation. Monsters up here stepped it up. He had heard about the boss fight while he was with Lessa. He should have been there, he could have helped. But the work that he and Lessa were doing was valuable too. Those kids need someone. The thought brought a smile to his face as he got ready to send the messages out. Turning back to face the teleport platform, Baldur rested his left forearm on the handle of his katana, while his right hand played with the emerald matagama that hung around his neck. Teayre had made it, along with several others, for him. Hopefully she was doing okay. When he had offered to train her had not expected so much... crying. But it was good, and in the end, he had forgiven her. He should never have doubted his kouhei. Calrex knew she had a good heart, he never would have married her otherwise. Pulling out one of his breads, Baldur sat down and pulled off several chunks to eat. The mobs on this quest were supposed to be nasty, and so he needed to bring in help until he reset his gauge. Stats: @Calrex @Hestia [-1 Yui's Grace]

Baldur took a slow moment to look around them and try to get some bearings. He was amazing at how disorienting it was to be outside of the castle, and to have nothing but blue sky above him. It was almost... surreal. Looking over the edge, he could see the landscape stretching out below him in a way that was more difficult to see from the tower, but also more disorienting to be near the edge. Just to check for himself, Baldur pulled up the menu, but the log-out button was still missing. "Alright, so this is probably a sub-dungeon of some kind, which means we can't send or receive private messages. And our teleport crystals may or may not work here. Do you have one on you Lessa?" Slowly backing away from the edge of the floating island, Baldur turned to face the interior of it. "This place actually seems pretty big, but if it's a dungeon of some kind too, then there are probably underground levels too, and we won't be able to leave until we accomplish our objective." The island itself was not quite as volcanic as the islands of the 16th floor, but what Baldur would call a more mature island. It may have been volcanic at one point, but life had begun to flourish on the island and it was covered in tropical trees and undergrowth like he would expect to see in a rainforest. A peak rose up in the distance, but it didn't have smoke rising from the caldera. At least not yet. Looking around, Baldur also saw what looked like weather moving towards them. Or they were moving towards it, he couldn't tell. "It looks like we might need to find some shelter here soon too. I wouldn't want to try exploring this place in the dark with storms about, and run into something troubling. On the plus side, at least this is only a 16th floor dungeon..." He tried to make it sound like that was a silver lining, but 16 floor dungeon bosses could still pack a punch.

Baldur pushed open the door to Zandra's shop and gave a smile and a wave to the berserk healer. She and the gaijin samurai had been corresponding about some healing items that he had needed in order to restock from the previous event boss they had gone through. That and the floor boss before it had sapped Baldur's entire supply of party heal crystals, and had left him with nothing. They were the single best item he could come equipped with to a raid, since it let him and others in unison become a healer unto themselves. It would let them heal the tank and the healer if needed, and it had allowed Hestia to survive a bit longer when she would have fallen otherwise. Had more players had Party heal crystals, perhaps no one would have fallen in that fight. But supplying the front line is part of what brought Baldur here today to speak with Zandra. "Ohayo, Zandra-san. I got your message. How many materials of each tier do I owe you for the order of the healing items?"

"Well then, I guess we'll call this one the last one." Baldur crouched down in his very familiar position, the pre-motion required to activate his <<charge>> attack, and then followed by the pre-motion required to activate his <<San Ge>> katana sword art. The <<Muramasa>> began to glow with that vicious red light, before Baldur released the art, and the system took him over, moving his body at speeds no person could match. The slashes tore through the body of the <<Drakeling>> until all it seemed to be was covered in the red after image of Baldur's sword, or the exposed red wire-frame mesh that made up it's 3d sprite. "I have to say, I feel so much better having buffed up for this quest now. It's a shame these last few drakes haven't given us what we're after, but at least we've moving through them must faster." Baldur whipped the sword around in a while as if throwing invisible blood onto the floor before he sheathed the cursed weapon. "But now I guess we need to wait and recover our energy." @Shield

Baldur had never done the essence of steel quest. He had never had a reason to, since he had always been so well equipped. But having to increase the capacity of this weapon now, meant that he needed to raise the quality of this uncommon weapon with a unique enhancement to a perfect weapon. If he could unlock some paralysis enhancements on this sword, then it would be a good PvP and farming weapon. Probably becoming Baldur's mainstay. He had originally decided to go with bleed effects for the additional damage, but in his circles, things usually didn't live long enough for bleed to make an effect in what he was after. "Thanks for letting me tag along Zandra. I appreciate it. I've somehow managed to avoid doing this quest until now." He watched her half heartedly attack the snow beast, and idly wondered if she were trying to let them all get a hit in, but since they didn't get the drop no matter what, Baldur just finished the creature off. Shukketsu was enough. Ironically, the bleed attack triggered, but he didn't require it this time. Activating his <<charged>> <<San Ge>> attack, meant Baldur went from standing in front of the beast, to standing behind it in the blink of an eye, before it shattered into a thousand glimmering gravity-defiant polygons. ID# 110931 BD: 10 (crit hit) Shukketsu 19+2 (crit) +5(Charge) = 26x15 = 390 DMG Snow beast: -273/250 dmg: 160

Baldur watched the fight progress, looking for openings while his sword art cooldown refreshed. Just when things were looking good and he was about to go in on the Chief, he summoned another set of adds. One of those bosses, eh? That changed things. This fight would go one of two ways. Either the boss would summon them when he ran out, or he would summon them periodically and they would have to continuously cull them. Either way, they needed to knock them down a bit if they wanted to control the Chieftain. The samurai's still blue eyes quickly checked everyone's status condition, he knew that his party, which he could see i the corner of his eye, was fine. But Ruby and Hestia would eventually get in trouble, especially since the shaman were healing the Chief. "We need to keep pressure off of Hestia and Ruby first. Beat, follow me. Hirru target the one in the middle. Ruby use field medic, Hestia stun one of the fishsticks! Z, Single target the one Hirru attacks, we need to keep one of the shaman alive, we don't want it to die to thorns!" They needed to get the number of Shaman down low, but with the rate that they could heal the boss, they were in for a battle of attrition. As soon as Baldur had barked his instructions, he became a blur of orange and blue, streaking across the bridge to target one of the shamen and unleashing his devastating <<San Ge>> Attack. He had faith that Beat would follow behind him, and that the Ace of the Frontline wouldn't miss his attack, and they would kill it. "This is going to be a battle of attrition, so conserve your energy!" ID#110891 BD: 6+3-2= 7 (hit) San Ge: 24 (base) + 5 (Charge) = 29x15(San Ge) = 435 - 50 MIT = 385 DMG DEALT to Shamwow 3

Things had been going so well. It seemed like there wouldn't be any misunderstandings, no confusion, everyone was going to get along just fine. Therefore, Baldur was quite surprised to find that he was holding @Minako in his arms. The slight, tiny thing was so small in his arms that he didn't really feel like he was holding anyone. She was just suddenly... there. The look on Baldur's face, as he looked from Minako to @Lessa, said the he didn't really understand what reality this was. He looked back from Lessa to Minako, who then asked if Baldur could put her down. That seemed perfectly reasonable. He would gently place her on the ground, figure out what happened. They would all, like adults, laugh about it and have a merry christmas. What was unreasonable was what Baldur actually did. In his mind, the words 'ruh roh' played out, and his hands shot up in panic. The kind of gesture someone does when they realized they just touched the hot stove, or had grease from cooking bacon hit their arm. The terrible, unfortunate side effect was dropping Minako into the foot deep snow that always covered the city. "Oh god! I'm so sorry!" Baldur said, bending over to pick Minako up out of the snow, only to find that he was holding her again. His reaction was the same again this time, as soon as he realized what he was doing, but instead of just dumping the poor girl into the snow, he placed her feet first into the snow and then suddenly became very uncomfortable about what to do with his hands to keep them out of further trouble. "I am so sorry, Minako-sama. Baldur gave her a deep bow of apology, but this only put them on eye level. The blush returned to his face. "Umm.. I'm going to uh... get drinks? Does anyone want a drink? I want a drink. I'll bring drinks. Something warm." Then Baldur turned in a quick 180, and raced off to the nearby booth where someone was distributing warm mulled cider.

"Yea, that does sound like washing the cottage cheese, especially if you continue using a consumable every time you identify." Baldur saw as a few more drakes flew in, and both of the HP was fine, but their energy was low. "That's fine. These things can't kill me before they're dead. Why don't you step back, and once they've used their fireball, take the time to focus on Meditation. If you can get me another energize, it should give us enough for another set of drakes after this one before needing to rest." Just as he spoke, another pair of fireballs rocketed towards them. Baldur was able to dodge one, but landed in the middle of the second. The fire singed him, but did little to his very large health pool. With is accuracy and damage as it was, neither he nor Shield were in any danger, they just needed to keep their energy up and going as long as possible. "Alright, here I go!" Baldur crouched down and activated another <<charge>> for his <<San Ge>> and the crimson bands of the <<Muramasa>> blew through the Drake, shattering it into thousands of polygons. "Damn, no drops from that one"

Baldur stepped through the tree portal, and everything changed for him. The next moment, instead of seeing the floor around him, he saw... the tower. The floating castle of Aincrad stood before him in a perspective he had never seen since the box art. It was very different in person. He was close enough that it was difficult to see the whole thing, he had to turn his head to see it side to side, and even then, his vision was cut off, and because of the shape of the tower, he couldn't see the top, but it was an impressive sight none-the-less. He could see, in the distance, what he assumed was the floor he had just come from. Looking down and around him, he saw that they appeared to be on one of the floating islands that surrounded the tower. "Hoo-lee $#!7" He didn't have much time to wrap his mind around what happened, before Lessa appeared next to him. He hadn't even tried to send a PM to her to let her know what had happened, since he had been so stunned by finding himself on a forested island floating alongside the castle of Aincrad. That, however, was when the second point hit him. There was no portal to take them back. "Umm... Lessa? There's... no doorway back."

Baldur listened as they started to get to the heart of the matter, and Shield and Hestia made some great suggestions about compositions for the teams. There were good dynamics there, though the Hestia and Macradon one was a great stop gap, it still left that pairing as the weakest link. Hestia needed someone who could heal her, not just her healing the raid. But before that discussion could come to fruit, Macradon decided to drop a bomb on the meeting. He was retiring. Baldur's normally controlled steel blue eyes went wide, and he suddenly sat up much straighter. "You're... retiring?" It took Baldur a moment to process, but the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. Mac's sense of... hunger was missing from the him. Not necessarily during the fight, but in the down time in between. The man who had single handedly scouted floors before no longer had the hunger that drove him to do that. "Wow.." Baldur sat back in his chair as he continued to process that. His thoughts tended to be more of the man, and less of its effect on the frontlines... but those thoughts started to creep in. Mac had been one of the reliable pillars, like Calrex, that they could build around. To lose him now hurt, but nor could he blame the man. "I am sorry to hear that Mac, but I am glad you came here. I appreciate your leadership and insight, even if you won't be fighting with us." The others continued to discuss the bootcamp idea, but Baldur wasn't listening as intently as he should have been, since he was so distracted by the news, but he finally brought himself back to it, as they brought up what happened on floor 23. "I think there are ways to address what happened on floor 23, but it is not productive to dwell on it. We need to focus on what we can control first and foremost, and then we can come up with contingency. I have my ideas on what we can do to help, but for now, let's stick with the current topic. If we have lost Macradon as an option for a tank, then we have 3 supports: Ruby, Zandra, and Hestia, and 3 tanks, Shield, Calrex, and Hestia. But Hestia can't heal herself. So we have 2 options. Find another tank, or find another healer. The option for 2 teams exists, but that's cutting our numbers pretty shallow, and we need to plan for expansion." Baldur tapped the table idly. "Who do we have in the Tier 2 range who might be up and coming tanks or healers? I have those floor 23 dungeon map rewards from the previous boss fight, and we have a floor 24 advanced dungeon map. They could be used to potentially powerlevel someone who is on the cusp of Tier 3. And it would lead into the boot camp nicely. I think if we offer the chance to those who want to make the plunge but have not yet done so, or those who, like Macradon has pointed out, desire to see the frontline more disciplined, I believe they will leap on the chance. I believe many who we lost after this last boss fight will return if they see leadership, and an effort to correct deficiencies. However, as Calrex and Macradon can attest, any time we've had a boss fight end with death or betrayal, the following boss fight ends up with a significant decrease in attendance and support. This next fight will be challenging, and we'll likely have to decide on 2 parties."

Baldur watched with a breath of relief and a smile as Lessa seemed to be able to read the situation and react calmly, instead of making the situation worse at Baldur's expense, or being hurt by a misunderstanding. Thankfully, life was not like some anime or manga. With unknowing bliss, and red color finally draining from his face, Baldur watched pleasantly as Lessa extended her hand for Minako to shake. This is all going well. This is helping to cover up for my lack of demeanor. Just act cool, Baldur, and everything will be find, we'll all laugh about it, and it'll be a pleasant experience. Minko showed remarkable humility bowing so deeply to Lessa. It really impressed Baldur that someone so famous, with such a devoted fanbase, could still show that kind of respect for someone whom she had just met. Lessa took it in stride, and though his face turned a little red when she glanced at him with mirth in her eyes, it all seemed good natured. He would probably get teased about this later when they were alone. Perhaps his reputation would never be the same again. At least, perhaps, people would see him as a more three dimensional character. Someone who could be business when it was required, but at the same time could be fun to hang out with, and was no different than them in social gatherings. Baldur did always want to be a mentor of people, helping them through their challenges and creating bonds between players. They were important in this game of life and death. That was when Baldur caught the attention of Pinball falling from the roof with a crash of snow, and another player, some kind of edgy PK hunter, seemed to arrest him and take him over to Hestia so that she could take him to her jail. Where are the NPC guards that are supposed to keep player killers out of the town." Though Pinball had fallen not far from them, the sight of an orange crystal and masked, imposing looking players was something Baldur dealt with every day. To him, it was just a matter of life in Aincrad, unlike people who weren't actively on the front line fighting life and death every day, to which it might have been a more significant event. @Lessa @Minako

Baldur, Hirru, Shield, and Beat came racing down to find the others in combat with the walking fish sticks. "Beat, follow my lead. Hirru, help Ruby on her target. Zandra should have made it easy for us to wipe out the supporters quickly. Then we'll focus fire the boss." As they crossed the final bridge, Baldur spared not even a single moment to crouch and activate his <<charge>> attack, turning into an orange and blue blurr of light as he flew across the last bit of land from the foot of the bridge and into the back line of the fish people where the shamen were. As Baldur activated his more power than ever <<San Ge>>, the crimson arc of light from the <<muramasa>> still equipped from the boss fight they just left, tore through one of the fish people, his attack alone taking out about half of the creatures HP, or just less. As the samurai skidded to a stop, his momentum carrying him to the edge of the island, he hefted his katana over his shoulder and smiled to the three gathered there. "Well look at this! Seems we got here just in the nick of time. Shield, what does that make us?" ID#110720 BD: 8+3-2=9 (hit) San Ge: 24 (base) + 5 (Charge) = 29 x 15 (San Ge) = 435 - 50 MIT = 385 DMG DEALT to Shaman 2 Baldur Stats: Combat Stats

Baldur was beaming when @Minako had said it was nice to meet him, though slowly the realization of what he had just done began to creep across the samurai's face. But that was when he heard the more embarrassing phrase of his life. "Hi." Baldur's face froze in an instant, a bizarre mix of shock and embarrassment painted plainly on his normally stoic, guarded features. Few people ever really saw the gaijin wanna-be truly expressive and at ease. He was reserved at all times, discipline at all times, and except in rare occasions, serious at all times. However, here and now, caught up in the spirit of the holidays, Baldur had let his guard down. With his guard lowered, he had seen someone he admired from the real world, a completely separate version of himself than the persona of Baldur, the Azure Samurai, Frontline fighter and Mentor of the most powerful players in Aincrad. He had... fangirled all over a woman who was probably half of his age, and probably less than half of his size, he towered over her and his hand literally engulfed hers. And that was when @Lessa showed up. Caught. Red Handed. Fangirling. This was the expression frozen on Baldur's face when Lessa spoke those words. Like a deer in headlights, Baldur turned his head to face the tall blond woman who had been his friend and companion for the entirety of his journey up the tower. So in shock and embarrassed that he didn't let go of Minako's hand. "O-oh... H-heyyyy Lessaaaa." Slowly, Baldur uncurled his spine and stood to his full 6 foot height, towering over two girls, and his face slowly turning back in a mask of pure, confident, collected, control... that happened to be the same shade of red as Minako's dress. Baldur gave Lessa a sheepish smile, and then turned to Minako and gave her a smile that said he was embarrassed about fangirling over her so much. "This-uh.. this is.. Minako-sama... she's a super famous ViewTuber in the outside world..." His words were slow and sheepish, in stark contradiction to the confident expression, red face, and panicked eyes. "Minako-sama, this is my good friend, Lessa-san." The smile he tried to give them two of them was so embarrassed, it bordered on awkward.

Baldur gave @Macradon a broad smile when he saw the template come into the meeting, though when he read Mac's body language, he became concerned for the morale of the frontliner. He had seemed to be defeated at the end of the fight against Artamiel, but during the fight, he had been an amazing force against the artichoke. However, he did not have much time to spare thoughts for Mac without missing out on what the others were saying, so he turned his attention back to Shield, Cal, and Hestia. They were all touching on aspects that Baldur had already prepared to cover, allowing the conversation to flow naturally in the direction he had hoped it would. It meant he was right when he took the pulse of the frontline, and that he was right to bring these people here. He was saddened that @Jomei had been unable to make it, as he would have provided another piece of the perspective to confirm Baldur's suspicions, but the Guild Leader's presence was that of an influencer, and less for getting to the heart of the matter. These, gathered here, were the heart. "You've all raised really good points, so me try to summarize where we're at, so we can keep the conversation focused." Baldur held up his hand, and began to count off on his fingers as he revisited their issues. "First, we acknowledge that the frontline has a pattern to it. This emphasizes that we're not learning from our mistakes, and there is a lack of legacy between the previous raid... let's call them generations, and the newer generations. "Second, there is a lack of discipline in the frontline. This shows itself in two forms, the lack of preparation of players when they show up to the fight, creating the necessity to supplement the slackers, at the material and energy cost of those willing to step it up, creating a potential drain on our high performers. The lack of discipline also shows its face in the inability of people to work together as a cohesive unit, and put the team and the frontline in front of their personal decisions. "Third, we have a... trust and morale issue that ties into discipline. We need the frontliners to trust each other, and more specifically, we need them to trust you. And we need you guys to trust your supporters. This is why I started with you four. You are the core." Baldur paused and looked at each of them, his eyes firmly including Mac in that. "Mac stepped up in a big way, taking on the role of a tank in the last fight because we needed him to, and that is the most dangerous position, especially for someone who doesn't focus on it. And he spent a lot of skill points to do it. That is the kind of leadership, dedication, and discipline we need. People with these traits are going to make the most ideal frontline team members. But ultimately, the tank is the team leader, no matter what the party menu says. We need you guys to be able to have faith in your teams, and trust in your support, so that you feel safe doing what you do. And we need to build the bond of trust with your teams, so that they can trust you to make the important calls. And we need you guys to feel comfortable making the calls. That's the role of the tank. "And that, I feel, is where we should start." Baldur leaned forward on the table again, folding his hands together. "We need a health assessment of the frontline. Who can we could on to be tanks, and who can we count on to be healer support. The immediate, obvious ones are: Shield as tank, Calrex as hybrid tank dps, Hestia as hybrid tank healer, Macradon as hybrid tank dps, Zandra as hybrid healer dps, Ruby as straight healer, though with good DPS. Unfortunately my suspicion proved correct and it seems we've lost both Morgenstern and Kaiser. Unfortunately, this gives us an awkward setup. We need to build tank healer pairs, and then we need to run those pairs through challenging situations to build up trust and teamwork. Those bonds, and figuring out who works with whom will be important. Because the bond of the tank and healer will reflect on the rest of their party." Baldur smiled at Macradon. The man had hit the nail on the head, exactly the one Baldur had wanted someone to hit. "So what are our resources for tanks and healers, and what are our ideal pairings?"

Baldur smiled when the Master of Shadows greeted him by way of a hug. Another player higher than Baldur would he had forged an almost mentorship role with. He didn't have time to wonder long about though, as he greeted the man warmly. "It's good to see you too Hikoru-kun. I'm glad even if you didn't make the party, that you decided to get into the spirit and join one." Just then @Hikoru was approached by a young, cute girl who was dressed to kill. She seemed to approach Hikoru shyly, and Baldur turned to face the master of shadows, allowing him a moment of youth as the two love birds stammered at each other. There was something familiar about the girl, but Baldur couldn't place it. She must have just been a cute young girl that caught his eye from time to time as one lives in the floor. There were tons of faces he saw regularly as people tended to collect on their favorite floors, and the population of the tower segregated. The awkward chemistry between the two of them was endearing, and Baldur watched, sipping his hot chocolate as only a wizened old man with the perspective of years behind him could. Then the girl finally introduced herself to him, and Baldur, who had only been half listening as he followed the threads of several conversations, almost choked on his hot chocolate. "Oh wow, that's where I recognize you from!" Baldur said, stepping forward suddenly between Hikoru and Santa girl. "You're the @Minako, from ViewTube! I watched your videos all the time while I was trying to learn Japanese! I never understood unboxing videos until I saw your review of the Super Sentai Katana Pink Go! cosplay accessory set. And your cosplay tutorial for your Umberion Monster Hunter XI cross over was amazing! I was so sad when I missed you at Comiket! I waited in line for hours to get your autograph! Your unboxing for the NerveGear was the last video I watched. I was so excited! Wow! It's so nice to finally get to meet you in person!" The normally calm and composed samurai forgot himself and reached out with his hand like a gaijin and took her hand, shaking it excitedly.

"MERRY CHRISTMAS!" The Samurai bellowed when he saw @Shield and @Cosi come up to where he had been standing at Benny's booth. The earnest grin of of the gaijin split his face and touched his eyes, true friendship glowing from them as he took them both in with a broad gesture of his arms. Realizing that Cosi was with Shield, Baldur turned to the young man and give him a formal bow of a senior to a junior. "Merry Christmas, I am Baldur. Nice to see Shield with someone new for a change. I don't imagine @Beat is wandering around anywhere here. He's probably admiring that pile of unique items you've found him." The wanna-be samurai gave Shield a teasing, lopsided grin. "So introduce us here, Shield. I just bought a backpack myself, by the way. Thought of you when I saw those keys though." he gestured at the ones Cosi just got, "but I figured you were a backpack type of guy. Everything else is just a temporary fix."