Oscar

Five quests were in the bag. Now there was just one more boss to defeat before the Scents of the Wild quest chain was completed. Their journey had taken them up and down (mostly up) Castle Aincrad. This quest sent them to the highest floor yet - Floor 22. Oscar waited in the teleport plaza for Cordelia. To say that he was excited would be a complete understatement. Not only were they about to complete a fairly long quest chain, but he and Cordelia were likely the first to finish it. It was definitely an auspicious moment. But, Oscar couldn't afford to count his chickens before they hatched. First they needed to kill the quest target. The bosses had become progressively more difficult the further along he went, so he had to wonder just how strong this final one would be. It had certainly gotten itself a lot of build-up. Oscar just hoped that the thing lived up to the hype. FOCUSED DOG CONSUMED [+2 ACC -> +3 ACC DUE TO FILLING HOUSING BUFF] EVASION DOG CONSUMED [+2 EVA] TITAN'S STRENGTH CONSUMED [+3 DMG]

Thread Summary Cordelia 5 SP 1 from Page Completion 1 from SP Bonus Event 3 from Quest Completion 5700 Col <<Mothra Statue>> Oscar 5 SP 1 from Page Completion 1 from SP Bonus Event 3 from Quest Completion 5700 Col <<Mothra Statue>>

"So you gotta promise me that even if something we to happen, you'll keep going. It won't be your fault. Unless you, you know, stab me in the throat. Don't really have any words of wisdom to impart on that one," Oscar said before sticking out his tongue playfully. When you got down to brass tacks, Oscar was a stubborn man. He had all the reason in the world to not do something so boneheaded as to get himself axed before everyone finally made it out of this game. He had his eye on the future, tumultuous as it may be. He would take that future on, come what may, with Cordelia by his side. After all, he had plenty of reason to see this through. Finally, he clapped his hands together and said with finality, "Alright, Cord. We've got one more of these standing in the way of us and finishing this quest chain. Let's go kick its ass."

"Uh...Oscar is that such a good idea; I think Yuki'd be able to handle herself buuuut..." "Oh nah, both of them would definitely get killed if they tried to do this quest alone. But I'm offering them the opportunity to do nothing and still get loads of SP. They don't even have to enter combat to get the quest rewards if they're in our party. So long as they don't enter combat, they cannot possibly draw threat, which means they can hang back, maybe pick some flowers, and be perfectly safe while you and I do the heavy lifting." Oscar wasn't the type of guy who would deliberately take a pair of lowbies on a quest he knew would probably get them one shot if he didn't have a solid plan behind it. Threat mechanics were rather busted in this game. Plus, word through the grapevine was the lions didn't have any sort of AoE attack that might kill them with chip damage. It was a pretty sweet deal for Yuki and Shiina, all-in-all. "Mari called you Oscar, as I said, my name is Yuki. I'm a level 11 tank looking to grow stronger, so that I can join the front lines in the future." Oscar turned his attention to the pink haired girl. Oscar blinked once and then politely nodded to the woman. "Nice to meet you Yuki. And you as well Shiina. Yes, I'm very tall for my age. And yes, I do play basketball. Like a white guy, but yanno. Height is 80 percent of the game." Oscar laced his fingers behind the back of his head and let out a contented sigh. "So we ready to do this thing or what?"

"Cordelia," Oscar began. "We both know that if I wind up getting killed, it's because I did something stupid. It's not going to be any fault of yours. Something I learned really early on is that you can't save everyone. Some people don't want to be saved. I don't know about you, but I'd rather die on my feet." This lesson had been hard to swallow when it came his time to learn it. It was an even harder lesson to teach. "You can't tell yourself 'I could have saved them' or 'I should have done this.' All you can do is the best you can in the moment. And sometimes, Cordelia? Your best isn't good enough. Trust me. I've been down that road. Telling myself I should have said or done something different after the fact. It never once helped anything. It just made me feel like crap." As much as he would have liked for all of their conversations to be sunshine and rainbows, it was simply the nature of things that, sometimes, things got heavy. And there was nothing heavier than making sure she would be okay in the event of his untimely demise. "I don't plan on going anywhere. But the way I see it, this isn't any different than real life. I could just as easily get hit by a bus than I could let my health bar reach zero here. Whatever happens, happens. But if I die, you need to know that being with you has been the happiest time of my life and I love you for it."

"I'd much prefer that we both be on the same page when it comes to competence," Oscar said with a smile. "Right now, our little tag team is only operating at 50% efficiency. Could you imagine what we could do at 100 percent?" He draped his arm around her shoulder, pulling her close to him. "You know you don't owe me anything, right? I do the things I do because I want to. Not because I expect compensation." It was a heavy topic. She was coming into her own - which was something Oscar tried to have patience for. But at times, she came down on herself much too hard. There relationship wasn't a competition. At least, Oscar didn't see it as one. Even if it were, he would have already won the moment she decided to stand by him. Sure, a friendly rivalry between the two of them would keep them sharp in this game of death, but ultimately, their energy was much better spent uplifting one another in lieu of repaying any sort of debt they thought they owed. They finally got clear of the abandoned temple. This prompted Oscar to stop and spin her around, a stern glint in his eye as he met her gaze. "Seriously Cordelia. This isn't a tit-for-tat situation. I don't want anything from you but you. Don't think ever think you're not enough for me. That you're not doing enough for me. You don't need to chase me. You just need to walk with me. You're worth more than numbers. Remember that." He cracked a wide grin and backed off, lacing his fingers behind his head. "We've had this talk so many times, Cord. I worry that there's something unresolved in play. Why don't you verbalize what's eating at you?"

"Of course. Sometimes freaking out is the worst thing you can do. I find that it really inhibits accuracy. Nowadays, I mostly just swing and wind up hitting something. But you need precision and focus with the Katana." Oscar shoved his hands into his pockets and gestured towards the exit with his elbow. "We should probably get going. Don't wanna be here when that thing respawns." He began to whistle a tune as he headed for the exit. He had to step over fallen brickwork and pillars every other step, but he really didn't mind. Right now, they only had one more boss that they needed to bring down. No sense making that two more by being in Suterusu's aggro range when he eventually respawned. "You did really well back there. In case you didn't notice, I missed a little bit there too. But your stun came in clutch there at the end."

Oscar was impressed. It was as if a switch had been flipped in the mild-mannered samurai. One moment, they were just having a casual chat. The next, they were talking shop. And now that they were talking shop, Oscar was able to see just what kind of man Baldur was. As the samurai immediately launched into a discussion on tactics, Oscar was admittedly struggling to keep up. Then again, this was a Frontliner. Discussing strategy with this guy was clearly something that was on a whole other level than what Oscar had been doing up till now. That is to say, just hitting things until they died. It was a big departure from what he was accustomed to, not that it was a bad thing. When it finally came to Baldur discussing the use of Safeguard potions, Oscar realized that he himself had one left. It had just been sitting in his inventory, untouched, since he first obtained the item from the tutorial quests. Was this the proper occasion to use it? Oscar leaned over the counter, his face twisted in thought. All of the mechanics began to swirl together until he got a picture of what the boss could actually do. "So basically, we're looking at a boss with a ton of health, not-insignificant damage, with a paralysis and hate reset mechanic. If the name of the game is playing hot potato with Cordelia's aggro, we can just have her switch with one of us on cooldown. As far as tanking goes, I can probably go a few rounds with the boss myself. A few more if I forego Protein in favor of more Mitigation. I'm running at about One-o-Six MIT right now. And as far as buffs are concerned, we are literally standing in the only Grandmaster Cook's shop right now. I'm sure I got something." Oscar's build wasn't anything special, all things considered. Most of it was pretty standard. With one notable exception. Oscar pointed to the battleaxe tucked into the corner of his shop. "I also got that thing, if that helps at all. Zandra passed Tesseleth's Fury on to me. Might help make this thing go a bit more smoothly."

"There we go! Nice one!" His words of wisdom had apparently worked. Cordelia managed to land a stun on the sneaky panther. That would make it unable to benefit from its evasion properties on Oscar's follow-up. He rushed forward, raising his axe high to strike the prone beast. Tesseleth's Fury roared to life with an abyssal energy, its Fallen properties activating on this final blow. As Explode Catapult carried his weapon through the creature's neck, there was a brief pause. Their eyes locked. Suterusu blinked, slowly. It was as if the noble hunter were accepting its fate and commending Oscar and Cordelia on their mastery. Then, his form began to crack and splinter before shattering. The shard scattered on the wind and Oscar put away his weapon. The fifth boss had been slain. Now, there was only one more left to bring down.

Suterusu sank its fangs into Oscar's shoulder, taking around a tenth of his health bar from him. Oscar, for his part, looked positively bored. For good reason. First, Battle Healing kicked in. Then, his new Vampiric Enhancement activated - more than doubling his regeneration. Once he was done regenerating, he looked up to his health bar. It had barely moved. In fact, he had to look closer to his actual value to see that he had suffered damage at all. A whopping two points. He could barely hold back his laughter. He pushed the panther away from him and turned his attention to Cordelia. She was having a moment. The tension was palpable. He remembered how things were when he was wielding a katana. Tension was the enemy. Relaxed focus was the key. "Cordelia! Breathe. You're not going to hit anything if you don't relax. Don't get stuck inside your own head. That's just going to make it worse!"

Oscar headed into the abandoned structure. It seemed like an odd place for a wild creature to call home, but Oscar wasn't one to judge. After all, he was a humble hot dog man what lived in a literal palace. The ground was littered with rubble and the low light made it difficult to see. But eventually, the entry corridor opened up to a wide open space. There, off in the distance, rested a gorgeous panther. Its supple fur glinted in the weak light of the room. It had been dozing, but following their entry into its home, the creature slowly rose to its feet, stretching nonchalantly before prowling over to the two of them. This creature was different than the others. Kumatetsu had been just an angry bear. The Leech Lich was an aberation. Moretsuna was just a big fish. Colossus was just an asshole. But this creature. There was an air of nobility there. This wasn't the same as fighting a normal boss. No, this was tantamount to hunters clashing with one another. Only the one with the sharpest wits and blade would prevail. Luckily, Oscar had a pretty damn sharp axe. He rushed forward, bounding over the rubble. Tesseleth's Fury was at the ready and Oscar unleashed his Explode Catapult. Cloaked with black flames, the weapon slammed into the panther, sending it flying away. It rebounded, its fur ablaze and casting a macabre shadow as the creature struggled to douse the flames. "Cordelia! Go for an Iai. Let's finish this quickly!"