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[PP-F21-F6] Between the Shadow's Lines (Vale) <<Dragon Hunter Anthalogy- Dragon Hunt 6>>


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His home. Hikoru's home. That's where he was today. It had been a morning like any other, waking up later than most people, as he worked late nights trying to stay caught up on rumors brought in by the Info Broker Society. He awoke to the smell of coffee, made by his familiar, Sir Rolland. The tiny Pumpking had grown a knack at making coffee, and he loved to make it or anyone who stopped by. He got up groggily and hopped to the bathroom to freshen up, taking a quick shower to wake up his tired body from lack of sleep. It was back to work for him after this, and he needed to stay on top of his game if he wanted to keep up with the amount of fake and real news that came through. No new quests had been released in some time, and every time a new lead to a possible quest came up, it ended up empty. He needed to get out of the house, but he had no drive to. He quickly got out and threw on a pair of jeans, deciding to work comfty today. He came downstairs to an awaiting Pumpking, holding his perfect cup of coffee. Hikoru smiled and picked up the cup.

"Cheers Rolland. Thank you for helping me this morning." He said in a happy tone. Since that day with Baldur and Hestia, he's been far happier. And things aren't bothering him as much. Shield helped him with that. After a small sip and a sigh of happiness, he sat down at his desk and started to sift through the piles of paper, seeing what he could find to work on and what to throw away.

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Multiple colors illuminated the walls of the 21st floor, the mass array of flora and fauna that grew in the deep dark caverns were simply captivating to lay one's eyes upon. Certain elevated locations tended to yield small hot spring pockets, where one could escape from the trivialities of this world and seep themselves in a warm refreshing bath-like place.

Unfortunately, despite having immersed herself into one of the far off, secluded, and seldom known about hot spring spots. The delirium of the past few months was beginning to show on Vale's distraught face. The well-toned tannish brown woman left her body float in the water as she held a laying back position. With all of her equipment left in her inventory, it was one of the very few moments in her time spent in the death game, where she was truly vulnerable.

The months had been spent away from all other players in pursuit of uncovering a well-hidden mystery held by those of the Frontlines. Most importantly those, who were once apart of the frontlines though they held their spot no longer. The effort that she had so meticulously been working with was beginning to wear the woman down, so much so that the idea of someone ending her life there in the water was a thought that could bring a smile to Vale.

She slowly opened her eyes to look at the crystals that were embedded into the cavern's ceiling, an undiscernable distance away. The slight glow they emitted would bring the woman back to her senses after the idea of her permanent dematerialization. There was an extremely strong reason why she needed to keep moving forward with her conviction. Someone who was helping her in the back of her mind.

Hikoru.

The martial artist moved her hand to her lips, lightly touching them with just her index and middle finger as they gently slid from one corner of her mouth across her bottom lip to the other corner. Butterflies consistently churned through her stomach when she thought about it, so much so it caused her on a number of occasions to seek him out while keeping an immense distance between the two of them.

The feeling of dread that resided in her when she removed him and all other contacts from the game off of her friendslist. She knew that the man would be upset with her after doing such an act, it made the want to see him in person all that much more difficult. But finally, enough was enough. She couldn't hold her feelings within a metaphorical bottle any longer.

She needed to see him, face to face.

 

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Hikoru sat at his desk for a few hours, staring at every scrap of paper and report that he had. But, nothing was true. He sighed and tilted back in his chair, staring at the ceiling. He couldn't find anything to be true, and it was starting to bore him. He had finished his coffee and gotten a light snack to hold him over until dinner, but it bothered him to be sitting around. He had hit his quota for the day, and he couldn't sit in his chair any longer and read rabbit trails that lead to nowhere. He sat up and stood, pushing in the chair and putting on his shirt, equipping his dagger and pendant, then putting on his armor, the bright logo on his shoulder gleaming in the light. He went over to the hook on the wall and grabbed his cloak from it, equipping it and being covered by the blue cloth. He sighed as he felt comfortable in it, and opened the door, the giant skull rumbling outside as it rolled out of the way. He opened the door to reveal the caverns, and he breathed in the musk of the wet and moist caverns outside.

"Yknow," He said, looking at Rolland. "We should really come outside here more often." He said with a chuckle. Rolland gave the best of a laugh that the Pumpking could do with vines instead of vocal cords, then they left, heading in towards town to see if any information or leads could be found that he hadn't heard of yet. He passed by a few springs on the way and looked at them in longing. He wanted to go and relax by them, as they did wonders for his stress, but he needed to focus, and stay on the course he had set out. He looked away and turned back towards the direction of town.

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The woman looked down into the water seeing the reflection of her own eyes staring directly at her. The once bright gleam that shined in the martial artist's eyes, which was ignited after long after the loss of her first love. Had once again vanished into nothingness, the prideful had become fearful of her day to day surroundings.

Fingers clenched into the same arms they were attached to. The visible shifting of skin would be evident to anyone within eyesight of her. How deep the fingers dug into the skin, it was a shock that the system wasn't registering the actions as an attack on the body. It had been a while since she had become aware, but this... Proved to be the feeling of something she hadn't felt before.

True Fear.

The thought of facing Hikoru was a mental struggle atop of the forefront mental war she battled with the legacy known as 'The Berserker'. Vale needed more answers, but she was at a large impasse. There was a shortage of leads, and not much left to go on with what she had at her disposal. Which was finally bringing an end to the reason she distanced herself from her second love.

The mental struggle of wondering if his feelings still held true for her. The idea that he may just completely look away from her and consider her a traitor to his heart, caused her hesitation to exit the supposed relaxing spring.

Taking a multitude of deep breaths, in an attempt to calm herself from the anxiety attack that was soon to regress into. Vale finally managed to still her heartbeat back to its usual pace. The well-toned woman immediately equipped her iconic armor and took to the road slow and steady. Taking every moment of her time along the road to a safe spot for Player Killers to use a Teleportation Gate.

The path had become well known, as there was a small crossroads area where both PKers and Non-Pkers crossed paths to reach their respective Teleportation Gates. Amongst most of the known PKer groups, it was agreed upon to be a neutrality zone... An area that felt somewhat safe for both factions of players.

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Hikoru pulled out a few papers from his inventory. Leads that he had confirmed were true that were somewhat vague but when studied, found true. One of them was the exact location of the 6th Dragon in his quest. Usually, you would have to hunt for it, but someone found the biggest spawn rate area that they had encountered. He decided that now would be a good time to try and test it out. As he walked, he heard Rolland say something, then feel him tug on his leg. Hikoru pulled his leg away as he kept walking, his eyes on the paper.

"Hold on bud, im reading this-" before his sentence could finish, he bumped into something, sending his papers flying. He bounced back a bit out of instinct, and looked at what he ran into. As the papers landed and flew, he realized that it wasn't a something- it was a someone. His eyes blinked as bit, being confused by the papers covering. But the outfit was familiar, and so was the hair... His eyes grew wide as his hands dropped to his side. Tears formed in his eyes as he stood, looking at the woman he loved

"U-Umiko?...." He spoke softly, in disbelief that she was here.

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