Baldur

The boss' health bar had been depleted but it was still alive... the only reasonable thing that could mean was that there was a sepcial condition that hadn't been met yet. Something about the boss fight they had missed or overlooked. What did it all have to do with each other? Glass knights, shape changing, darkness, no safe zone, perpetual rain and monsters of the elderitch gods. He had been all over this floor, but had spent most of his time fighting to defend the safe zone. "We've missed something! If the boss' health bar is gone but he isn't dead, there's a specific condition that we

Baldur picked himself up from the ground. He had thought he had hit the boss, but at the last moment something caught him off guard. The bosses weapon shifted strangely and blew them all back, hurting them and applying a bevvy of dot damage attacks. Thankfully his antidote protected him from the worst of it. It had been a very long time since it had actually done anything for him. "I'm up!" Healing magic quickly started to wash over them, and Baldur pulled out a healing crystal that he thought he had already used, but crushed it now and saw the healing magic wash over them, topping severa

Baldur watched as Acanthus showed him something she was obviously very proud of. It seemed she was trying out a new build. Probably heavy with thorns if she was going to use the RAW sword art. He had seen some people become pretty incredible at leveraging defensive builds to take advantage of that, and she seemed no different. The niche she was able to accomplish with her build was incredible. With a single strike she took the horn off of the piasuhon. When she turned to continue her explanations of the technique to Baldur he was beaming a smile at her, showing obvious pride and excitement at

"I'm on it!" Baldur called out as he immediately followed up Wulfrin's with a swift attack of his own, the katana Zanshin striking as if it cut open the sky and revealed the stars and nebula hidden by the rainy clouds. As he brought his sword down, there seemed to suddenly be a glitch, and the Belregor was not where he had been just a moment ago! Baldur's sword sliced through air, and the carefully cultivated stacks of attacks he had built up fell off. kuso! He cursed to himself. Keeping that stack up had been his job, but he had been too focused on the attack and getting more damage out

"On it!" Baldur called out as Wulfrin relayed his plan. He tried his best to charge up Zanshin, they needed the freeze enhancement to proc for this, but the gaijin samurai had been having terrible luck with getting anything to happen this fight. He needed to time it, but it was always unreliable. As Wulfrin charge, Baldur crossed with him, making an X tech attack with the other swordsman. Throwing himelf into the attack, he was blown back by the double shields. His blow still struck hard, but nowhere near what he needed. "Kuso!" He cursed, and sheathed Zanshin, quickly grabbing both it an

They were slipping into a rhythm. Wulfrin was able to live up to his tracker status and continue to clear the status effects the boss imposed on them. He and Ciela worked perfectly as a team, allowing the rest of the team to focus on what they did best. Putting the floor boss into the ground. "Keep it up!" Mari scored a critical hit, all the enhancements activating from her weapon as she struck, but once again there was blow back from the boss. Baldur was a second too fast, not giving him time to react to the situation before he was thrown by the explosion of reflected force. But he

The gaijin samurai was unconcerned with the new weapon that the floor boss summoned, mostly because Wulfrin almost immediately cast it aside and disarmed him. While he would quickly summon it back to his hand, this opened up a number of opportunities for them. Baldur rushed in, his sword flicking in the light of the thunderstorm above, salt spray of the sea continuing to drench them. Would the storm break and the NPCs return once they defeated the boss? The knight raised his arms, attempting to deflect the blow, but Baldur's form flickered as he adjusted, moving to duck through the guard

► Zettai Ryoiki Cost: 10 SP Passive Requirements: Tech Shift __Effect:__ - Each time the user successfully hit an enemy, All players in the users party gain +1 ACC (up to the maximum of +2), this effect fades when combat ends. This effect stacks with any other existing ACC enhancements/skills (I.E. ACC/KEEN/Rally etc.) - In addition, whenever the user rolls an LD: 20 on an attack that slays an enemy they perform a 'perfect sheathe' allowing this effect to persists until **the next encounter** instead of fading immediately when combat ends. Through a combination of zone cont

Baldur was surprised when Mari suddenly got close, and then embraced him, placing her face against his chest and holding him, and after a moment, he held her back, giving her a light squeeze. When she pulled back and continued, Baldur still tried to make sense of what could make some do that to themselves. Most people stepped off the edge to make it end. He wasn't sure if what Mari did was better or worse, but at least she was here. One foot in front of the last. He wanted to tell her she was crazy for doing that, that she could have come to him. He could have locked her up somewhere private,

Baldur closed his eyes to hold back tears. I would have to come to visit you. But he didn't say the words He couldn't say the words; they would just be more knives. In his minds eye, he could imagine her situation, the horrors of it. She had chosen to do this to herself? He felt furious with Raidou. The man should have known better; should have talked her out of this torture. When he opened his eyes again to look at her, a small tear trailed down his face. "It's called the rule of three." He croaked out, wiping the small tear away with sleeve of his yukata. "Three minutes without air

So many little nuggets dropped in what she had to say. He didn't know about Oikawa confessing to her. He thought Oikawa had confessed to Kiru too. It seemed more like the man was trying to find someone to latch onto, and he could see why he chose the two of them. Though Mari and Kiru had similarities, they were also two wildly different people. If he guessed it, he probably felt that Oikawa saw a kindred spirit in Mari, and someone whose pain and past was similar enough to his own that he felt he could confide in her, and that she would understand what he was going through. Still, Baldur shook

It seemed she was ready to speak her feelings now. He shifted a quarter turn, to show her that she had his full attention without her having to sit there under the full weight of his gaze. They could both still look out at the garden, but his body language was inviting towards what she wanted to share with him. He filled up his little cup, and then raised to his lips, this time sipping it slowly. "Of course." He tried to keep his tone and mannerisms open and welcoming. He wanted her to feel free to speak as much or as little as she wanted. "You don't owe me anything, but I would

Baldur picked up the small cup of shochu and gave Mari a pleased smile, holding it up. "Kampai." He said, then took a sip, savoring the flavors and forming his opinion on the matter, but he finish the small glass quickly. "It's Ume-zing" His eyes sparkled with a little bit of mirth, before he set the cup back down. Supposedly it was bad luck to pour your own sake, but Baldur was never one to buy into superstition, especially in a video game. But he would pace himself. "I'm glad you enjoyed yourself, and made time for some girls day out. Connection is important to us in here." There h

As they sat back down, Baldur let Mari's thoughts wander as they wanted. He could see that coming here and talking to him was an undertaking, no doubt she felt guilt and would try to punish herself as she often had before. But she also seemed at ease here, like she could finally let her hair down and breath for a moment. "It sounds like you have had some fun adventures, I'm glad to hear that. You have always been so hard on yourself, it's good to hear that you've made some connections that are truly yours rather than just your pasts'" He fiddled with the flute, not nervously, but mor

Baldur was sitting on the engawa behind the opened shoji panel walls that made up the living room of his main house. During the day when he was home, the panels were always moved open, allowing a nice breeze to permeate the home. It also opened up to beautiful landscapes on either side. The front of the house opened up to the massive pond that his home was built around, and he would often sit there and dangle his toes into the water. Hirru often fished in that lack, and he could see Cal and the others practicing in the dojo from there. But for music, he sought solitude. Not to be alone, b