Jomei

-Jomei

Jomei brushed the dirt from his clothes as he stood up, looking around at the grassy area he now stood in. It looked like the catacombs ran under and out of the city, judging by the tall, crumbling wall that surrounded the once great civilization. He let out a small sigh of relief, not seeing any of the Forsaken in the immediate area.. so he knew he was safe for the time being. A familiar voice sounded out, calling his name, and looking off a short distance away, he saw the familiar blonde haired girl he was looking for rushing towards him. The relieved smile on Jomei's face grew to a wide grin as he took steps forward to meet her, the woman's body colliding with Jomei gently, her arms wrapping around him. The ginger did the same, embracing the girl and kissing the top of her head, "I'm so happy you're safe." He held her for a moment more before she slightly released their hug and asked about Vaughn, whom he had almost forgotten about in the bliss of being reunited with his love. "Oh yeah, he's right down the hole I came out from.. We didn't know if the sunlight would turn him the rest of the way.. so we figured it would be safer for him to stay in the darkness until we figured it out... Did you find anything that could help him?"

Awww ye. We gonna

"Incredibly cheesy" Jomei replied with a light chuckle, olive eyes trying to keep up with the sporadic dance or the two fairy creatures as they orbited the couple. Telrenya's added on comment about how she truly felt about the two's ride so far and the accommodating light show caused the corners of his lips to pull even further into a wider smile, "Yeah. Me too." Just as quickly as the two fairies had made their appearance, they had vanished into the ceiling above them, allowing for the players' focus to return to another projection onto the tunnel's wall. Jomei's eyes fixated on the chain that hung from his past self's wrist, a charm representing that of a four leaf clover swaying with each step he took. The trinket soon disappeared off of his wrist in a white light, and moments later, Telrenya was placing it on her own person. The man simply smiled with no words as his eyes pulled from the scene for a moment to look at the hand that grasped at his lover's, the same chain still resting on her wrist. His eyes returned to the projected show.. providing the two with a view from the cursed mansion that was Jomei's "prize", cutting midway into Jomei's conversation with Ruby, who up to this point, was having mixed feeling about trusting the man.. I don't think this was exactly a nice moment we shared.. he thought to himself. His other words seemed a bit muffled, but from his tone, it was obvious he was pouring out his feelings and frustration to the blonde. The scene finally found Jomei's voice, focusing mostly on a single sentence "And Tel, I care about her deeply.. Which is something I have not felt in a long time.." Jomei let out a tiny laugh, his eyes shifting to Telrenya, "Well... guess the cat's out of the bag." he said with a playful smirk to end his joke. He continued smiling as the scene played out with Ruby and Jomei rescuing Telrenya, and meeting Spencer, the screen fading as Jomei rushed past Ruby and pulling Tel into an embrace, thankful that she was safe. As far as Jomei had remembered, the two had not shared any other moments together for the rest of that adventure, and his suspicions were confirmed when the scene faded to black, returning the wall to its pinkish red hue. However, the boat nearly slowed to a halt as the wall on the opposite side began to come to life, a few of the fairies from before flying by the two. The scene opened on a cozy tavern in the middle of Snowfrost on the fourth floor. The two players sat across from each other, simply making small talk. Jomei's attempts to hide the fact that he wanted this to be a date were much more apparent now that the two were together. The ginger ran a hand down his face with a small grown, "I was.. so awkward." he said with a chuckle, "I should have just told you it was a date from the start."

With one final onslaught against the Dark Elf Paladin, Hikoru's dagger struck true, piercing Evehira through the chest. Her armaments fell to the ground, the sound of metal crashing against the stone still warm from the battle echoed, bouncing off the walls of the chamber. It was the only sound that could be heard before an outburst of golden light spread from the NPC woman, soon after shattering into hundreds of data fragments. With the demise of the council that ruled over the land through a dark veil, a life was returned; the tattered, skeletal remains of the one Queen became engulfed in a very similar light. As the light faded, the Queen's green eyes flickered to life, quite confused about the events that had transpired before then. The ginger swordsman stood in place, his rapier still clutched in his hand, lids slowly closing over his eyes as he let out a long sigh through his nostrils. The man was relieved that the fight was over, but at what cost? Sure, they had not lost and members of the raid party, and everyone was emerging unscathed on the surface. However, he had never seen Aincrad's best so divided during this fight and it only worried him what future fight would look like. Some members blamed themselves, some blamed others, Jomei thought the whole thing was a mess. Looking down to his side, he finally returned Oathkeeper to its scabbard on his opposite hip before turning to face @Telrenya. He shared no words with any of the other Frontliners as he passed them. He spoke to her in a hushed voice, "I think after this.. I'm going to take a break from the frontlines for awhile.. Seeing everyone pit against each other.. it made me worry about what could have happened if the boss exploited that." Olive eyes met her chocolate brown before holding out his hand to her, "If you want to continue fighting without me, I won't stop you. You've proven to be an excellent frontliner, and I couldn't be more proud" a small smile finally found its way to his lips. "Taking a break from the fighting could also give us a chance to finally plan our wedding too." he ended with a chuckle. "Come on.. lets get out of here." <<Jomei exited the thread>>

Jomei chuckled as he set himself up for another attack on the boulder "Too many times." With a step forward, the ginger's fist followed, crashing into the side of the rock. They were almost finished, and hopefully this would be the last time he would have to do this Godforsaken quest. "But, that's my own fault for being kind and willing to help out. Usually I end up agreeing before I'm told with what.. and before I know it, I'm walking to this same boulder." Jomei winced as the young man went to strike at their target yet again, but completely missed the target. His browns turned upward with a small smile, "H-hey, at least we are almost done." ID 108836 | BD 5(+4) Jomei: 986/986 (92/98) @Kyot0 60/60 (4/6) Boulder: 8/50

Ruby's strike to the rapier wielding elf proved to be fatal, as the woman calling the shots hit the ground, her life slowly fading before bursting into tiny date fragments. With the death of the other members of the council, save the smaller one who made his escape moments earlier, that left only the heavily armored tank to remain. Now that the council's head, in the form of Isaxi, was no more, and Evahira's showing of care for the younger looking Durares.. Jomei wondered if the remaining dark elf's actions would be that of surrender, or standing her ground. Her voice rung out to the rest of the frontliners, exclaiming she would be doing the latter and finishing the job she was here for, defending what remained of the council from these perpetrators. Corners of the Irishman's lips pulled into a slight frown, knowing that they would simply be beating the boss into submission without much danger of counterattack.. unless she had any other tricks up her sleeves. But if she were a true tank, and her skill set was focused on defense and not attack, then they should have nothing to worry about. Jomei flared his blade, letting it drop to his side.This is more like it.. a boss doing what a boss should do..fighting rather than trying to pry into the emotions of us players. "Your choice to stay and fight is respected, and I would not except any less from a true warrior. Heh.. now I almost regret having to do this, but we will fight you until the end." Light on his feet, with the help of the Charge skill, Jomei shot forward in a blur. As the shielded warrior raised her first line of defense, Jomei was able to easily knock the shield out of the way with his shoulder. Oathkeeper followed suit, piercing into the armor of the elf multiple times. The heavy armor of the boss negated a large chunk of his full potential damage, yet what was left was still nothing to scoff at. ID 108793 | BD 7(+4)(+2) | Charge(+5) | Over Radiation 14 x 20 (+5) = 350 Dmg (- 100 Mit) = 250 Dmg to Evahira Player Stats:

"Heh, you've still got a hell of a punch as well." Jomei said with a smirk after Ruby extinguished the last of the Drakelings. "Glad to see that taking the medic role hasn't taken away from your combat skills." After the two small dragon-like creatures had been finished, Jomei noticed a small data screen with a tally appear in front of him only for a moment; Drakelings: 2/10 Pelts 0. Just as quickly as the screen had appeared, it slowly faded to give Jomei full view from his HUD. "Looks like we are far from finished here.. we've still got a bit of clean up to do.. Hopefully we can snag some of those skins as well." Another roar of a far off drakeling bounced off the walls of the cavern, leaving the two to hear the echo of the beast. "Come on, lets go find the next two.. I'd hate to have to deal with more than two of them at once." ((If you still want to continue, you can spawn the next two)

A small smirk crept on Jomei's face after Kyoto asked how Hikoru was. "Hikoru huh.." The man wrapped his fingers around his wrist on the opposite hand, gently moving his hand up and down to stretch it out. Punching a boulder for this long really stiffened up his muscles. "Hikoru is actually a good friend of mine.." his eyes went wide as he went in for another punch, stopping suddenly when memories flooded back to him. "I... actually first met Hikoru here.. He was looking for this quest and he found me first, so I helped him with it." Jomei took another step back before letting his fist fly, crashing into the boulder and taking its health down another chunk. "That was a long time ago.. It makes me happy to think that.. someone who I helped get on their feet is now taking someone under their wing." The man bashfully laughed, rubbing the nape of his neck, "Wow, saying that really made me seem a lot older, didn't it?" ID# 108420 BD: 5(+4) Jomei: 986/986 (92/98) @Kyot0 60/60 (3/6) Boulder: 10/50

Ignore them Nick, just focus on the enemy ahead of you.. the ginger thought to himself as he recovered from his embarrassing miss just moments earlier. This boss fight was a disaster, despite the council of dark elves being one man down with Durares' teleporting from the fight. Would that come back to bite them in the ass..Jomei was not sure, as it was still an NPC boss they had allowed to escape from under their grasp. His teammates arguments that Durares was a child.. mighty assumptions to make about an elf, who could still hold the look of a young boy well past a normal human's expiration date. Jomei would suck his teeth at the though before shaking it from his mind, for it was no matter now, since there was nothing they could do about it. Only two of the council remained in their way, and as long as they all regained a level head and fought like they were supposed to, they would clear this floor in no time. Olive eyes shooting across to the other side of the council's chamber, the duelist caught a glimpse of Telrenya, who seemed completely shaken at the sight of their comrades attacking and screaming at each other. Making sure Isaxi's back was turned, as to not gain an opportunity attack on Jomei as he rushed by, the man picked himself up and ran over to the blonde, placing his hands on her shoulders and lowering his shoulders to look her softly in the eyes. "Estelle, its okay. You can do this. Forget everyone else and everything going on. I believe in you." he ended with a kind smile before turning to stand next to her. "Lets go show Isaxi how to really fight with a rapier." he said with a smirk. "I already exhausted my Charge on her, so I'll head in at normal speed. After I attack, Charge in and catch her off guard. You ready love?" As Zandra distracted the dark elf, Jomei began his approach, picking up speed with each step. After pushing the girl off of her, her axe followed with a powerful area attack, causing Jomei to have to dive over the swinging blade as to not be cut by it. "Gotcha now!" Jomei shouted as he hit the ground and pushed forward, his gold glowing blade piercing the thin armor of the boss, following up with a flurry of devastating cuts and stabs. ID 107668| BD 9 | Over Radiation 14 x 20(+1) = 294 (-75) = 219 dmg to Isaxi

Jomei let out a small groan as he pulled, what he hoped was, the last of the strands of web from his ginger hair. However, his skin still crawled and tingled, as if he was still covered by hundreds of tiny little spiders exploring the insides of his green clothing. With arms loosely crossed, somewhat hugging himself, the man continued forward without words in search of some way out of the catacombs. The soft chime of bells that seemed to echo off the walls, accompanied by the small yellow letter icon in the corner of his heads up display, stopped him in his place. Pulling away from his own arm that he clung to, Jomei extended a finger and tapped the small notification to open up the message. His eyes scanned the message from Telrenya, who had safely made her way back to the surface. A huge wave of relief passed through Jomei, erasing the lingering thought of spiders from his mind. "Thank God she's safe.." Jomei said aloud through a sigh and a smile on his face. "Looks like she also found a clue to helping you out.. all the more reason to get out of here and find her." Vaughn shone a small smile in appreciation, yet it soon vanished as he began to look around the particular part of the cavern they stood in. Jomei took notice and turned to the cursed man, "Whats wrong?" The once saint turned back to the player and let out a long sigh of disappointment. "When I.. blacked out earlier.. I don't know what direction we walked in. And I don't recognize this part of the catacombs.." Jomei blinked in shock before turning his full body to his confused companion, "Are you saying we're lost?!" "Look I'm sorry.. I'm just a hopeless cause at this point." The ginger grit his teeth, "No.. We've made it this far. We aren't giving up yet." Jomei said as he began to look around. In the silent caverns, his ears picked up the sound of water dripping from the ceiling nearby, creating a damp spot on the floor below it. It did not take long for the man to find that spot. "If we can't find the exit, we will just have to improvise." Taking his rapier from its scabbard, the ginger dropped to a knee, facing upwards towards the ceiling with the tiny crack in it. The blade of his sword began to glow a brilliant gold color before he thrust the blade upwards into the small space. The force of his attack caused the crack to web out, causing more water to seep in. Pulling his blade out, Jomei rushed away from where he had damaged the stone roof, pushing Vaughn back with him. The ceiling finally gave way under the pressure of the ground water accumulating above it, and piles of cracked stone and moist soil poured in from the ceiling, some of the dirt and dust blowing onto the two as they shielded their faces from the debris. Beams of sunlight followed the rubble, giving the two a new way out. "I... guess that's one way.. to do it..but the sun is still out.. I may not be able to go out there." "Hm.. good point." Jomei replied, "Wait here then, I'll see if I can find Telrenya and see what she found." Thanks to his Acrobatics mod, it was not difficult for the ginger to climb his way out of the catacombs and onto the grassy plain on the surface. "Finally.." he said as he took in a deep breath of fresh air, his green cloak and attire covered in dirt from the hole he had created.

Jomei chuckled, "Well, you don't have to get a familiar if you don't want to. In terms of stats, they are pretty helpful. But for the most part, its just nice to have a companion that you know will always be there for you, even when no one else is.." With a sharp whistle, the owl spread her wings and soared from the tree to the Irishman's shoulder, where the man would scratch at the feathers on her stomach, "I usually forget that Adere helps out my with accuracy stats, and just see her as a partner in battle." Lifting herself from Jomei's shoulder, the tawny owl moved to the top of the boulder the two were punching. "Probably not the best place to sit lass." he said as he pushed a fist into his open palm, cracking the knuckles. With a step forward, the man punched the boulder again, to which the stationary owl only let out a small hoot. "W-What? That wasn't a weak punch.. of course I did damage to it!" Jomei's focus was brought back to Kyoto, who mentioned about Hikoru. "Huh? Hikoru? Yeah I know him.. Good friends with him actually. Why are others telling you to contact him?" ID#: 107165 BD: 2(+4) Jomei: 986/986 (92/98) @Kyot0 60/60 (3/6) Boulder: 12/50

The ginger's lips curved into a soft smile at Kyoto's mention of being happy to meet new people. "Yeah, you'll meet a lot of people as time goes on. Mostly good, some not so great. But as long as you are cautious, you should be fine. There's a fair amount of bad people out there ... in it for their own, unknown reasons." Jomei pointed at the small green crystal that rotated above his head, that showed his fair standing player status. "I'm sure you already know that criminals and player killers' crystals are orange, rather than green." Jomei pulled a fist back, letting it fly into the rock yet again, knocking out a bit more of its health. "Not every single person with an orange crystal is out to get you.. but you should always be careful. They can't get into the main settlements, so you won't have to worry about that." Jomei noticed the boy looking back at the trees, at the familiar small tawny owl that perched upon one of the lower branches, watching the two players attempt their quest. "Thats Adere, my familiar. We've been together for such a long time.. almost since the beginning of the game. She's been there for everything.. heh.. I'm surprised she's stuck around this long." he said in a playful tone, taunting his feathered friend who responded with a flap of her wings. ID# 107159 BD: 4(+4) Jomei: 986/986 (92/98) @Kyot0: 60/60 (2/6) Boulder: 16/50

Finally, it was looking as though the two players had put a large dent in the boulder. It seemed as if they had gotten past the half way mark, and a few more good hits would shatter the large rock. The ginger chuckled at Kyoto's remark about being bad at this task, "Don't stress about it. We all had that point where we just couldn't hurt this thing.. I mean, how many rocks do you really go around punching in your life." he turned to the boy with a friendly smirk before stepping back up to the boulder himself. Pulling back his fist, the man let a punch fly forward, taking the boulder down by another small notch. If only I could land another critical hit.. he thought to himself. "Skills and damage potions.." he looked back to Kyoto once he had finished his attack, "Or putting some time into training your Martial Arts skill.. once you get it of course. That's the only way you'll make this quest go by quickly." ID# 107016 : BD: 5(+4) Dmg 2 Jomei: 986/986 (92/98) @Kyot0: 60/60 (2/6) Boulder: 18/50

It only took a few moments for the green of Jomei's health to fill in the dark spaces that represented depleted points, restoring him back to his maximum HP. The man kept moving forward through the dark, moving quickly as to avoid Vaughn taking another turn for the worse. After the close encounter he had with the cursed man just moments earlier, he feared if the NPC suffered from the forsaken illness any farther, that there would be no turning back this time. Turning his chin slightly, the ginger looked over his shoulder at the ex-saint, who limped along behind him at his own pace. "You alright?" Jomei asked out of concern, "Yeah.." Vaughn replied, his voice sounded less weak than before, "I'm fine." "Good, just let me know if you feel like you're going to turn again so I can get a head start." he said with a small chuckle, trying to make light of the situation. As Jomei turned to face forward again, the feeling of dozens of tiny threads tickled at the skin of his face that tore from their place on the wall. The Irishman froze in place as the strands of web settled, sticking to his skin. A slow, trembling hand rose towards his nose, his fingers gripping one of the hair-like threads. The next feeling that Jomei had sent a chill down his spine, as his already pale skin lost any of the color it had. Eight small legs, one after another, angrily scrambled across Jomei's face at the destruction of its home. "Oh yeah, watch where you walk. A lot of spiders made their home down here." A LOT? Jomei thought to himself. The ginger began to flail his arms, swatting at his face to remove both the webs that clung to him and the spider trying to enact its tiny revenge on the giant man. In his blind squabble, Jomei stumbled forward, moving through even more unseen webs. "A-AH!" Jomei shouted, before stumbling over a piece of collapsed ceiling, continuing to brush his face and hair on his fall down to the cavern floor. Vaughn let out a weak small chuckle, "Relax kid, they won't hurt you." Jomei pushed himself back up to a standing position, still trembling and shaking his head, "I don't care just.. help me find the way out!"