Raidou

With a look to the list and a stare into the glass, she was clearly picking up on some of the little sour curdlings that tend to linger on everything he did. What she was sensing was more than superficial abrasions but something that had run deep for what felt like lifetimes long before Aincrad. "A story perhaps. A song I am sure." Raidou seems to shift demeanor as he took on almost an instructor style tone. A pause and slide of her menu over, he ushers for his own with a quick flick of his left wrist like a conductor calling an instrument to play. From within his menu, he produces a single bottle in a rounded bottom flask, upon it a loosely drawn kanji hung to a label around its rim. Taking one of his own empty apothecary potion vials out and removing the cork stopper, he pours into it clear fluid akin to water and the scent of ash. "You've given me plenty if you would allow me to return the favor." he offers her it before pouring his own. "A child, to which a seat was given upon birth with a mind for inquiry. Expected a weapon held when in his grasp a pen was wished instead. A crown forsaken and a father scorned. No, not shall I a painter be, but a poet I do beseech thee. To the blood of a barbarian, I was born, and through this path, I am reminded of the torn. To each, their own a taste of this sorrow, but I assure that mine was not on borrow." A soft exhale to allow the air to escape his lungs, for the bitter burn of the sake to be laid to rest before its quaffed in full. For within this poetry his mind was allowed to speak freely, and he broke his own rule but was capable of letting it flow unhindered.

A bit of reluctance and a spry and ginger acceptance, he'd not be rude and decline. Taiyaki he'd not had since he was a child, through festival alone as it's ushered into his hands with a faint memory. "Quite." Raidou remarked but the single word with a grin, unsure if he should define if he was joking or not for it was the truth. For but a moment he weighs the name spoken as if he had heard it from somewhere before, and then it stuck. The raid meeting, that's where he saw her. Which meant the blonde she was with must have been Jon. A single glance forward with an aversion of his eyes, shielding them from her view as he performs a routine check. Another pulse rings from his position on his HUD, an echo that would mark any that wished to remain unseen. He wasn't one for sweets, even moderately and mildly sugary things such as these. Even still he takes a bite and chews slightly, weighing his words and dismissing them all with a mental scratch of a list. It was here where he was at a loss, unable to produce a phrase or strike a conversation with another. The wanderer knew how to lead, how to fight, and how to plan. But be normal, that was where he was nothing more than a child. A twist on her question, a desperation to find an outlet and to bridge that gap as he peered across a cliff that seemed ever out of reach. "I haven't had them since I was young, a very long time ago with my mother." Within that brutal honesty were a longing and a stinging pain, for the woman he was already content with never seeing again. Reaching for the glasses on his brow, an anchor to keep him stable and solid on what had to be done as they reflected what faint light was around them both.

A single pause as the familiar wrapped around him rather abruptly, this one seemed the excitable sort. Of all shapes and sizes, it was no surprise that they came in varied personalities, it offered him no issue as he fixes some flustered frames. Abloom in green built upon the place, casting lantern luminescence over the fields in dim burns. With it the shadows of a retiring few, finding the day rounding near closure as they made for the main settlement of the floor. The soft clatter of heels upon the stonework as they did, for shelter and hearth from the dangers of the wild. New dawn would beckon them on repeat, as they ushered around in tedium to a success that was ever fleeting. "I am not much of a painter..." He quipped held vision to one of these small little bulbs, as it fluttered faintly in the open air. "A failed one yes, occasionally they just don't work out as planned. The result is nothing more than an orange-flavored sweet, but familiars seem to enjoy them all the same." He spoke leaving the finer calculations to the wind, no one wanted to hear him spout formula and theory. A hidden interest that was best-kept secret. Patient and soft, his words were broken into what flowed as a sonate would letting his mind linger and mix with the surroundings. "No matter, I am used to being hit." Raidou remarked in a joke, but it came off as brutally honest and placid so you could hardly tell despite the smile. "Mina, I would say learn from old things but do not let them control you." With a glance down to the book on his thigh, finding her gaze in a soft glow that washed over her face making an emboldened red strands light in contrast. "Some call me the Red Wanderer, but those who know me better I am just Raidou."

Postures Before Sprint/Charge Parrying Stance:

Each step forced his skin to stand on end, like static clinging in the air before a storm would begin. His nerves still present and although he had found a way to master them, Raidou was still riddled with them regardless. The goal of the girl still stay airborne, held aloft by the pure circumstance alone without exchange to determine it. Assumptions aside, somehow he was pleased. Before through efforts intentional, he'd avoid these affairs, dodge the eyesight of many. Before he would have run from this, the moment he could feel that static of eyes looking upon him. Something had changed through his journey, finding a footing to see eye to eye and stare back in the daggers that punctured his skin unfazed. As the girl sat beside him, his suspicions are all but confirmed. A serpent, akin to that of legend in its scales. A Familiar, no doubt and as it cooed in resistance to an owner's swat, Raidou shifted off to his side. For a pocket on his robe now playing blanket, he removed a small white disk and offered it to the girl. A failed pheromone but an adequate treat to train regardless, a sweet disk of orange that most pets found palatable. "It is, and I could say the same to you." The nomad remarked softly folding the leather-bound book up and placing it on his leg. "Strange isn't it, that right before the light fades it always looks like a painting." He quipped with a glance into the tapestry above, finding the slight memory of Tanabata and its veiled meaning within the newly forming stars. "It's quiet here, a place to think and reflect. I would assume the same for you?"

Simple and clean a lingering scent that drew him to a woman he had all but forgotten, her face fuzzy and obscured through a rose tint of the past. It produces a sense of longing and a break from the shackles of captivity, although in some way it was as if he was saying goodbye. Even still he had to keep trying, pushing, and striving for the metal to give way. For the prison built around them forming a dream to which no man could escape. A world in which it is manifested in such a way to paint itself as perfection, a world to replace its predecessor before a row of teeth would form and consume you within the nightmare. A single step toward him triggers a detection like sonar, a passive activation of a skill that had become muscle memory. It's source? A female that paled against others in her ability to hide. Her weapon sheathed and a defense that was almost unmatched shows him complacent and soft, doing his best to leave her to her own. But the distance between closes on a passing second, a dial twists and carries with it the faint hue of violet that overtakes the orange. Within his serenity, a shift and twist of a pair of lenses to his brow offering nothing more than a shift to the next page. A trick he had learned through an understanding ripened by time and and exchange of words, he was getting better at being human.

Tasks complete, chores laid to rest for but one more day. A tinge of amber had claimed the stars, a waning sun played happily with the clouds. Charko had its supplies, Byakko was destroyed once again and the flames it bore were sated. Restless and on edge, broken away from settlements that would see him too driven to let the troubles of the day to pass. A soft breeze carries across a field, lifting aloft a sprinkle of crimson. It dances on the current in folds and bends, no direction the same in a soft but warm breeze. With it, a scent that lingered in one's nose. A honeysuckle sweet that stuck and made the muscles in one body feel limp and frail. The high fields of crossing were in full bloom, and patrons gather to take in its beauty. A single swordsman clad in red, a lingering fate as red as the robe on his back still tied around his throat. A noose that had yet to tighten, as he worked against its ever closing vice. Taking a section for his own, a remove of his burden for but one day as it builds a blanket. A slink of a single book written by an author that could stand to practice. It was all he knew and all he had aspired to with a number now stagnant and unwavering. He could grow no further, and the gears within a machine he built with his own two hands covered in blood no longer required his sweat to function. Pride as he removed the lenses from his face, polishing them on his right shoulder as he undertook his most difficult challenge. To relax, was harder than any conflict... Raidou | HP:1790/1790 | EN:176/176 | DMG:20 | MIT:106 | EVA:1 | ACC:3 | REC:1 | TAUNT | LD:5 | BH:89

The whisper had softened its armor, and Gaius had made it a method to break tons of it off with one driving blow. A sprint and cleave albeit slower given charge was not active, he burns a scar through the bare chest over Kasumi's head. "Keep it up, its almost done." Raidou remarks to them all, a way of bolstering courage before raising his steel to stop an incoming blow aimed for both he and his cousin. "Your doing well, proving me wrong." He looks to her out of the corner of his eye, shifting Auric Sol to let the weapon slide off and off center. A path taken she'd more than did more than he could have hoped she would, her and Gaius both are leagues beyond his projections. This brought into question the others within the hall and where they were on their journey. "Let's finish this." Spoken as he drives the yellowed blade through the knight's sternum. Galaxy Destroyer (x13): 13 EN - (13 - 3 [Finesse]) vs. Plasma Knight ID# 181428 results: Battle: 9, Minor Critical [+1 DMG] vs. Plasma Knight dealing 27x13=351-110=241 DMG ID# 181429 results: Battle: 1, Critical Miss vs. Raidou! Freyd | HP:1870/1870 | EN:118/187 | DMG:26 | MIT:79 | EVA:4 | ACC:6 | VAMP OFF:187 | HLY:6 | FLN:6 | TOX.VEN. 24/2 | LD:8 | BH:93 Kasumi | HP:780/780 | EN:19/78 | DMG:20 | EVA:3 | ACC:5 | BLD:24 Gaius | HP:850/850 | EN:34/82 | DMG:22 | MIT:6 | ACC:1 | H.M.:4 | REC:2 Raidou | HP:1790/1790 | EN:121/176 | DMG:26 | MIT:106 | EVA:6 | ACC:5 | TAUNT | LD:5 | BH:89 | JUSTIFIED [H:2,1,1,8] Plasma Knight: HP: 301/1650 | DMG 440 | MIT: 110 | ACC: 2 | EVA: 2

Pivoting and knowing full well Freyd would be fine, as the plasma knight aims to correct his helmet Raidou shoves the blade in the now exposed shoulder. It digs deep and clean through and out the back. A flare of gold as he pushes, burning through it like a blowtorch. The knight reels and lifts a weapon as a rebuttal, the wanderer rips his blade out and batters the attempted blow off-kilter with an obvious attack of a weapon on a weapon. The exchange rattles the place, each aggressor holds strong under the powerful swings. Raidou becomes enveloped in his special brand of red, building an aura that fumes from his shoulders before twisting into a faint purple. Concentration holds it into a focused fury, he had its attention and all of its anger in his denial of any other targets. The poison begins its magics draining the light from the eyes of the target. Galaxy Destroyer (x13): 13 EN - (13 - 3 [Finesse]) vs. Plasma Knight, Charge Triggered [+5 DMG, -1 ACC] ID# 181415 results: Battle: 10, Major Critical [+2 DMG] vs. Plasma Knight dealing 33x13=429-110=319 DMG ID# 181416 results: Battle: 2+2-6=-2, Missed vs. Raidou! Freyd | HP:1870/1870 | EN:126/187 | DMG:26 | MIT:79 | EVA:4 | ACC:6 | VAMP OFF:187 | HLY:6 | FLN:6 | TOX.VEN. 24/2 | LD:8 | BH:93 Kasumi | HP:780/780 | EN:20/78 | DMG:20 | EVA:3 | ACC:5 | BLD:24 Gaius | HP:850/850 | EN:47/82 | DMG:22{4} | MIT:6 | ACC:1 | H.M.:4 | REC:2 Raidou | HP:1790/1790 | EN:133/176 | DMG:26 | MIT:106 | EVA:6 | ACC:5 | TAUNT | LD:5 | BH:89 | JUSTIFIED [H:0,1,0,4] Plasma Knight: HP: 1141/1650 | DMG 440 | MIT: 110 | ACC: 2 | EVA: 2

With the prior destroyed, the entire field disturbed and rough. Gaius was holding his own and using his head, Kasumi was absent of hesitation. Pressing a finger to the lenses on his nose, pushing them up his brow to conceal what lay beneath. All according to plan rung through his head, pleased that they were finally seeing the bigger picture. They were becoming fighters, a well sharpened blade that was surgical in its delivery. Striking down everything long before it had a chance at a rebuttal, a look to the party member list confirms not a single one had taken a point of damage. "Let loose the hounds of war, bring your fires and your banners." Raidou muttered and with a smile. "You've just lost this battle, cardinal. It's only a matter of time..." A look to the whisper, his fellow captain whose efforts had been essential to building two more ready for the ascent. "Checkmate..." Raidou activates Justified Riposte, -5 EN, Parry CD [-/2], Justifed Riposte CD [-/3] Freyd | HP:1870/1870 | EN:128/187 | DMG:26 | MIT:79 | EVA:4 | ACC:6 | VAMP OFF:187 | HLY:6 | FLN:6 | TOX.VEN. 24/2 | LD:8 | BH:93 Kasumi | HP:780/780 | EN:33/78 | DMG:20 | EVA:3 | ACC:5 | BLD:24 Gaius | HP:850/850 | EN:48/82 | DMG:22 | MIT:6 | ACC:1 | H.M.:4 | REC:2 Raidou | HP:1790/1790 | EN:145/176 | DMG:26 | MIT:106 | EVA:6 | ACC:5 | TAUNT | LD:5 | BH:89 | JUSTIFIED

Freyd offers a read, and Raidou scans the field beginning to move for the weakened. Kasumi appears and dispatches it with a bladed fist, as horrifying as it was effective. A twist of his head to feign the memory, as he looks to the one Gaius was herding. A single broad stroke sheers some of the molten skin from its back and as a reflex, it turns to bite. It finds purchase only in the solarite bastard sword he's carrying before being decked with the off hand to break it loose. A flare of blindness claims its eyes forcing them to gloss over in white, he had it under his control. He wanted to say something, but he could not find the words to speak for this was still sinking in. It was jarring and odd how much they had changed while he was away, so much so he could hardly find the ground to compliment them. Galaxy Destroyer (x13): 13 EN - (13 - 3 [Finesse]) vs. Fire Elemental #2, Charge Triggered [+5 DMG, -1 ACC] ID# 181394 results: Battle: 2+5-1=6, Hit vs. Fire Elemental #2 dealing 31x13=403-44=359 DMG ID# 181395 results: Battle: 3+1-6=-2, Missed vs. Raidou! Freyd | HP:1870/1870 | EN:137/187 | DMG:26 | MIT:79 | EVA:4 | ACC:6 | VAMP OFF:187 | HLY:6 | FLN:6 | TOX.VEN. 24/2 | LD:8 | BH:93 Kasumi | HP:780/780 | EN:37/78 | DMG:20 | EVA:3 | ACC:3 | BLD:24 Gaius | HP:850/850 | EN:57/82 | DMG:22 {8} | MIT:6 | ACC:1 | H.M.:4 | REC:2 Raidou | HP:1790/1790 | EN:149/176 | DMG:26 | MIT:106 | EVA:6 | ACC:5 | TAUNT | LD:5 | BH:89 [H: 0,2,0,3] Fire Elemental #1: HP: 217/1100 | DMG 330 | MIT: 44 | ACC: 1 | EVA: 1 [H: 0,0,0,3] Fire Elemental #2: HP: 741/1100 | DMG 330 | MIT: 44 | ACC: 1 | EVA: 1

Blindsiding it as it eyed Gaius, it staggers and flails rolling like a stone. "Your fight is with me." A laugh at his back, the dragoon found it humorous. Health draining it rips up dragging on all fours before lunging, slamming teeth first into a blade which the nomad rips off to one side. With a scream of steel and exchange of lights, it barrels out of control. A turn to a flutter of red and a spun grip to right his blade to a gleam of yellow the parry had worked wonders. A pump and flush of the area in red film, he had its attention for good until it would meet its end to the hands of the group, and the whisper was right on its tail and had a score to settle. Would it last them all? hardly, it could not take but one of them let alone multiple. Galaxy Destroyer (x13): 13 EN - (13 - 3 [Finesse]) vs. Fire Elemental #1, Charge Triggered [+5 DMG, -1 ACC] ID# 181387 results: Battle: 5+5-1-1=8, Hit vs. Fire Elemental #1 dealing 31x13=403-44=359 DMG ID# 181388 results: Battle: 3+1-6=-2, Missed vs. Raidou! Freyd | HP:1870/1870 | EN:147/187 | DMG:26 | MIT:79 | EVA:4 | ACC:6 | VAMP OFF:187 | HLY:6 | FLN:6 | TOX.VEN. 24/2 | LD:8 | BH:93 Kasumi | HP:780/780 | EN:50/78 | DMG:20 | EVA:3 | ACC:3 | BLD:24 Gaius | HP:850/850 | EN:53/82 | DMG:22 {4} | MIT:6 | ACC:1 | H.M.:4 | REC:2 Raidou | HP:1790/1790 | EN:148/176 | DMG:26 | MIT:106 | EVA:6 | ACC:5 | TAUNT | LD:5 | BH:89 [H: 0,1,0,3] Fire Elemental #1: HP: 485/1100 | DMG 330 | MIT: 44 | ACC: 1 | EVA: 1

Taken back by the sudden shift in aura, two that he'd hardly expect to become so routine. It looked that some of that training had paid off, and some of those lessons had stuck. "Better." Raidou quips blinding in sequence and dragging steel through the damaged target cleaving it in twain, before rocketing on overdrive to the tune of two active skills and planting a blade in the chest of the other. A simple tear and cleave bisect it causing a spray of data in a chain detonation. "Much better." The wanderer looks to them both, to Freyd and then to the gate. "But this is not over, Time for celebrations can wait. Show me what you can do. Show the captains what you can do, and protect your guild hall." he had to look away, to hide the fact he was smiling, and the thought that they would stand the test of time lingered in his head. Calamity Disaster [x12], - 13 EN { 12 - 3 [Finesse] + 4 [2 Hits] }, Charge 5 triggered [+5 DMG, -1 ACC] ID# 181372 results: Battle: 7+5-1=11, Hit vs. Scorched Invader #5 dealing 32x12=384 DMG ID# 181373 results: Battle: 5+5-1=9, Hit vs. Scorched Invader #6 dealing 32x12=384 DMG Freyd | HP:1870/1870 | EN:148/187 | DMG:26 | MIT:79 | EVA:4 | ACC:6 | VAMP OFF:187 | HLY:6 | FLN:6 | TOX.VEN. 24/2 | LD:8 | BH:93 Kasumi | HP:780/780 | EN:63/78 | DMG:20 | EVA:3 | ACC:3 | BLD:24 Gaius | HP:850/850 | EN:54/82 | DMG:22 | MIT:6 | ACC:1 | H.M.:4 | REC:2 Raidou | HP:1790/1790 | EN:147/176 | DMG:26 | MIT:106 | EVA:6 | ACC:5 | TAUNT | LD:5 | BH:89 [H :1,0,0,3] Scorched Invader #5: HP: 326/770 | DMG 264 [H: 0,1,1,3] Scorched Invader #6: HP: 125/770 | DMG 264 Loot Rolls (Forgot): ID# 181380 results: Craft: 4, Loot: 8+5=13 ID# 181381 results: Craft: 9, Loot: 14+5=19 Total Loot: 42350*Col 8*T3 Materials T3 Perfect Armor/Shield #181374a T3 Perfect Weapon #181374b T3 Perfect Consumable #181375a T3 Rare Trinket #181376a T3 Rare Trinket #181379a T3 Rare Trinket #181380a T3 Perfect Weapon #181381a

Battle Healing Triggers, +89 HP A mixed exchange that ends up as he would have hoped. He assumed that like Mari or Hidden, even Chase that Gaius wanted to hit him. He expected as much and was fully prepared to lose another pair of glasses if it meant finally bridging that gap. But it doesn't end as he had expected. A simple shove, and a change in demeanor entirely instead. "Val Halla?" Raidou recalled his own affair and looked to Freyd, it was the first he had been made aware that they had taken it upon themselves to run it. Perhaps he'd mistaken them entirely, and with that same perplexed look the whisper offers a retort. *** Transition *** No stranger to the mechanisms of the Spire and its army, but not quite as versed in it as the captain who ran them down like rats. Silence as he ponders who had been on this unknown mission between them. A gate opened by the O&I captain, offering the sitrep before Raidou pipes in "Agreed, a mere 200 or so yards away is the hall filled with people weaker than us, that would soon burn if this is not handled. Monsters, player killers. These pose a real threat, that weapon you hold was forged out of metals who's node was saved by someone stopping a boss from running amok. It's time you learned to pay it forward and protect those weaker than you. So they may, in turn, cover your back when you dive into the depths of hell." As the map vanishes, a small legion appears. With no surprise, Freyd was first in the fray, but at his back was Gaius working with him. The dragoon remarks to Kasumi about it causes further confusion. So she was there The question was what the hell happened in there? They survived it, and this was the first he was hearing of it. As Raidou's steel screams and erases the pack, it was simply on autopilot. Forgot I could loot these goofs ID# 181374 results: Craft: 4, Loot: 16+5=21 ID# 181375 results: Craft: 9. Loot: 18+5=23 ID# 181376 results: Craft: 10, Loot: 1+5=6 ID# 181379 results: Craft: 11, Loot: 13+5=18 Total Loot: 28798*Col 6*T3 Materials T3 Perfect Armor/Shield #181374a T3 Perfect Weapon #181374b T3 Perfect Consumable #181375a T3 Rare Trinket #181376a T3 Rare Trinket #181379a

Amongst a heated scuffle long removed, a myriad of wooden tools of war littered about in a pile. A chore of fizzles and pops that force them to be reclaimed by the system. A single swaying robe in red held as a battle standard against a pair of shoulders, mirrored eyes shielded by what sunlight burned ablaze above. The wanderer clad in his attire, single exposed steel as a flicker of yellow drains from its surface. A flourish to one side casting it away as it spun to a scabbard. The news would need to be delivered to Ralberg, that their crops would no longer be threatened, at least for a time. But for now rest, as he shuffles through a massive sea of gold in the wake of conflict. Behind him, a littering decay of equipment with no owner, breaking and vanishing. He takes a moment feeling the wind upon his brow, knowing this was non-negotiable. There was no other path, and although he wished there was he was not foolish enough to attempt to parley. Not anymore. Finding comfort in the smells that assailed across the wide expanse, drawing further and deeper a chill from the floor's birth. Taking a single seat in the center of a wide rolling sea of gold, a soft exhale as he sat. To his pocket a hand, to a book to which he had yet to finish. The Red Wanderer trying his damned to allow himself the ability to remember who he was after all this game had changed, losing himself in the drive forward. A single container with tea within, although bitter reminded him of home. He didn't enjoy it sweetened, and as it poured and offered to a cup he unfolds the book. Raidou | HP:1790/1790 | EN:176/176 | DMG:20 | MIT:61 | EVA:1 | ACC:3 | REC:1 | TAUNT | LD:5 | BH:89