Baldur

Baldur didn't consider himself a neat freak. He didn't think he was someone who went to great lengths to stay clean nor avoid being dirty. He had worked hard in his youth, covered in mud and sweat and blood in his various jobs. But the sewer was something else. The sound of it. The way it clung to everything, physically and olfactorily, and that oppressive atmosphere that always exists in them. It rankled the gaijin Samurai. When light was seen at the end of the tunnel, he didn't increase his pace, he continued to slowly bring up the rear, but said a silent prayer of thanks that they

Seeing that they were forming a group of more adults than children, Baldur decided he would lead himself and Lessa off to another group, to see if less intimidating numbers might help the information flow more freely. "You're good with kids Lessa, let's see if we can get some of them to reveal the best hiding spaces." The gaijin samurai's eyes still held the steel blue, a subtle tell that he was still keeping an eye out for any danger they might face, rather than the ocean his eyes usually reserved for their walks. It was only a short ways down the alley, still in sight of the other

It felt good to have Lessa at his side again. They were infrequent questing companions at best, though most of their time spent together was in the realm of much needed companionship and recovery. They had both seen in themselves and others the cyclical nature of burnout and recovery that the frontlines demanded. "We'll always need you, Lessa." Baldur said casually, obviously referring to the raid. "I'm actually fairly new to the scouting parties. The first two dozen floors were found so quickly it never required a team. But this would be my, third or fourth time scouting out a new f

Baldur enjoyed the warm welcome of Hirru, and when the viridian haired hunter let him know that Crow and Night would be joining, it brought another smile to his face. He was glad to see that Crow was pushing forward, and while his interactions with Night had been a whirlwind, he had been impressed by her performance, though he knew nothing of her personally. She kept strange company was about the extent of his knowledge. He opened his mouth to say that he knew Crozeph when Baldur caught the sudden physical change come over Hirru. He turned to look at what the Hunter was looking at and saw

Skill(s) Being Dropped: Exctended Mod Limit Mod(s) Being Dropped: Bull Rush SP Incurred Towards Limit: 20 SP Refunded: 20 Cost: Free (3.1 Respec) Picking up: Add-on: Precision (2SP), Energist (8SP), ST Shift (10SP)

"Ohayo, Hirru-kun." Baldur called out to his old friend and comrade. It hadn't been long, but still had been too long, since they had run their dungeon together. Baldur had been busy helping people acclimate to the changes of the landscape in Sword Art Online, and with great change came stress. He was also in the position of being a sword teach, and so Baldur needed to take his steps very carefully now that yet another system patch had been put forward. "I am glad to see someone take the first step forward, or else us oldies would take too long to feel comfortable and prepare. Sometimes w

"Hmm... that's a good point I hadn't considered. I had thought all three of these dungeon maps were for this floor because it was the highest at the time. I never considered it came from the council, and may actually be records of their head quarters." The gaijin rubbed his chin in thought. "I wonder if we followed all three of these maps, if we would unlock some kind of event, or find the one that got away. Maybe even reveal the truth of this place to the people of this floor." Baldur rested his hand on the katana at his side in his normal, nonchalant way as he scanned the room. He

"A little somethin' *cough*cough*cough* ole Rori taught me." The Dark Elf taunted Baldur, revealing that he had a substitution effect of some kind, leaving behind an after image and assaulting Baldur from his blind spot. "Baldur!" He smiled at the concern he heard in his friend's voice. "This trick only works once." Baldur said, suddenly thrusting his sword backwards, as if to stab himself, but instead the blade missed his own side, coming through the blind spot created by his haori, and drove into the dark elf. Baldur quickly pivoted suddenly bringing the elf in front of him, and to

Baldur smiled as the spoke, but waved away her dismissal. The blonde was conveniently forgetting that she too, fit into a role akin to his for many many people, and he intended to remind her of it. While she may not have taught him to use a katana, she did save him often, through days like this, and walks like this, which meant so very much to him. "I, too, am glad you didn't kill me that day." His ocean blue eyes sparkled. "But you don't need a sword or to kill NPCs to save people. You don't have to teach someone how to kill to help them survive. You've saved me many times over, and

Shards obtained Here Purchasing <<Asgard's Finery>> The dungeon had been a wild ride, but while Baldur had enjoyed seeing some of the gods from his own namesake's origin, it had been a bit of a slog to get through bosses who healed so much. If they had played a few things different, they would have been able to get through the fights much faster. Still, it was considerably less of a drug induced hallucination than the Easter event had been. He would never look at a peep the same. "I'll take one of the Asgard's Finery please." he handed over the three spirit shards to th

The dark elf attempted to stand after Baldur's <<bull rush>> and Hirru's devastating critical hit, but he couldn't find his feet in time before Baldur was already on the menace. His katana cut down in a flurry of blows that would have looked wild if they weren't animated by the system that gave him super human strength and speed. Instead, the arcs of inky darkness that revealed the night sky no mater where struck, tore into the sub dungeon boss. The red wires that animated his shape and gave him volume were exposed by the deep slashes. "So it was you *cough* people *cough* tha

Baldur's katana flew through the air once more, lacing the lupin form of the world ending doggo, Fenrir, in more red lashes, revealing the polygons that constituted his form. Sometimes it was really easy to forget this was a video game with how real the world is around them, but it was never more apparent to Baldur than in combat. They were nearing the home stretch. The boss was in the red. "We're almost there..." his eyes slid to the energy bar. He only had a few more strikes left in him. "Keep it up! We've got this!" Thankfully Odin was tanking the boss for them, as well as ad

Their progress was slower this time, but not due to any lack of skill the players had. The smol orange one seemed to be wielding a holy weapon capable of powerful critical hits, and the one called <<Night>> appeared suddenly, for Baldur hadn't even noticed she had vanished, and tore through Fenrir's back, leaving behind a massive DoT of unbelievable power. It would do a tremendous amount of damage over the course of its life, they just needed to make it count. They had almost put the wolf into the yellow again. "We're almost to yellow again! Watch out for any new tricks, but k

"Sure would be great if my legendary brother would show up right about now, eh?" Baldur joked as the now free monstrous wolf plunged them into darkness. Had he been an ancient warrior that believed this world real, seeing Fenrir eat the sun would be an impressive feat and likely would have inspired terror. But that's now how the sun worked. Or the sky. Or gravity. Though he supposed, if Fenrir had managed to accomplish that in the real world it would have been many times more impressive and definitely would have driven Ragnarok, though not in the way one might have thought. "Bad dog Fenri

Baldur stood there, prepared to stand shoulder to shoulder with Odin and bear the brunt of Fenrir's attack alongside Hati and Skoll. However, just as the wolves were beginning to charge them down, Calrex sailed past, his fist emblazoned with ultramarine light and struck the giant wolf like he was a big green superhero in some cheesy old MCU movie. It was enough, though, and the giant wolf was staggered. Baldur lept forward, his blade alight with the evening sky, and tore several more red gashes through the model of the legendary doggo. They were flying through the evil k9's health, a