Aetharan

Walking past the weathered stone that surrounded Amazon signaled, to him, the true beginning of his quest.  This cat he sought wasn't going to be a friend, or even a companion, even if it did purr.  Instead, it would serve him as an extra pair of eyes-- a spotter, with sharper vision than his own to feed information back into its master's HUD and make it easier for his spear to bite enemy flesh.  That was, at least, the intent when he started out into the jungle.  Of course, this would require finding a feline in the first place, which he wasn't entirely certain he'd be able to pull off.  It wasn't as if ambush predators were likely to be spotted unless they were hungry and decided he was on the menu!

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(Out-of-combat recovery, HP to 24/27.)

Finding the merchant was reasonably easy.  Food was food was food, and unless you wanted something that gave a buff, it wasn't a big deal, was it?  He stopped at an NPC and offloaded 400 Col in exchange for ten of the most basic meat-based foods he could locate.  They'd be bland beyond belief if he was to eat them himself, crying out desperately for some Worcestershire sauce or something, but he had no intention of eating them himself.  These were meant for tossing in front of a cat so that it would eat them, instead of him, and he could make an attempt at taming it!

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(Out-of-combat recovery, HP to 23/27.)

The NPC gypsy had given him information to mull over, and it actually took Aetharan several hours before he decided to find her again and take her up on the quest.  A familiar could wind up a very useful thing, in the long run.  It wasn't exactly as if he felt that a companion would be the best thing in the world for him-- not by a long shot.  He couldn't let himself grow attached like that.  Aetharan may tame a beast, but he'd never be a beast tamer.  Not really.  Instead, he saw himself far more like a warlock from that older game: calling on another creature to serve him until its usefulness had ended, but never letting it into his heart.

The first part of the mission would be simple enough:  find an NPC or merchant that sells basic food items.  Next, he'd need to head up to the sixth floor's jungles, because what he wanted most was a cat, and where did the most awesome cats live?  That's right, forests and jungles.  His hope was to find a cougar, jaguar, or similar-- though he suspected he'd be going home with something smaller than the real-world animals he was hoping to find analogues of.

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(Out-of-combat recovery, HP to 22/27.)

With a growl of frustration, he tossed the ruined weapon into the same waste bin that other failures had gone into.  Yet another creation that wasn't worthy of being mounted on the wall for sale!  He hated coming up with failures like those, but the only thing to do was keep pushing.  He wasn't going to get any better at this if he didn't persevere and practice.  Thus, he kept the same mental image in mind as he prepared the second ingot of the day for crafting, then began to hammer at it.  He just had to focus.  Failure to keep his mind steady would cost him.

At least that focus meant that, this time, as it started to take the wrong shape he was able to catch it fast enough to quickly re-heat the metal and force it back into the shape of an ingot instead.  He'd only wasted one unit of steel this morning!

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(ID# 29826 results: Craft: 6 Loot: 17) (Result: Bad item (again!), but this time, salvage possible.)

More steel earned in combat meant more that he could work, and work it he would.  There would always be need for weapons in this world, and he still wanted something even better than his current main arm.  He took a deep breath before getting to work, heating that first ingot in the forge before transferring it to the anvil and just staring for a second as he thought.  "Alright...  this time I'm not going to bork it up."  Mind focused on the image of a sword-staff this time.  Full tang, a short-sword mounted onto a pole instead of being wrapped in a more standard hilt.  Unfortunately for Aetharan, he once again mucked it up.

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(ID# 29825 results: Craft: 7 Loot: 5) (Result: Bad item, no recovery of materials.)

There was only one appropriate response to this moment.  After pausing for a beat, he put on his best Lu Bu voice and shouted, "Can anybody provide me with a decent challenge‽"  Not that any of the mobs were going to respond, but let's face it, there are some moments when you just have to revel in the absurdity of it all.  After a few moments of just forcing himself to breathe deeply, he acknowledged the loot drops and turned back toward home.  For once, he wasn't even going to have to make use of the teleportation stones in the middle of town.  After all, this was his home floor now!

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(Out-of-combat recovery, HP to 21/27.)

Summary Post

Kills:  Avalanche (50 HP), 2x Ice Elemental (16 HP each.)

Rewards:  650 Col (400 for 1 page, 250 dropped).  4 Materials (let's go with Steel Ingots again).  1 Good item: Call it a meal.  Snowfrost.  4 Skill Points (1 for completed thread, +3 for quest.)

"I swear, you pathetic lump of ice...  I'm going to invoke stabbity death, and I'm going to f***ing enjoy watching you dissolve into little sparkles of light!"  He was sick of this constant exchange of misses between him and this boss.  Oh, they rarely went more than one or two exchanges without one or both making contact, but his lacking accuracy was starting to get very old.  Aetharan was pretty sure that if he invested in the skills and equipment for accuracy, rather than pure damage output per hit, he would actually increase his DPS.

Thankfully, this swing not only made contact, but managed to pierce where he was pretty sure Avalanche's heart was.  He once again found himself enduring a grazing punch across his right arm, but that was nothing, especially with the enemy exploding into a burst of light just after it had punched him!

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(ID# 29678 results: Battle: 10 Craft: 5 Loot: 20 MOB: 7)

(Exchange Results:  Aetharan drops to 18/25 HP.  Normal hit for (3-2=1) damage.  Avalanche drops to -4/50 HP.  Total Critical for (4+2=6) damage.)

(Battle Results:  Avalanche drops 2 Materials, 250 Col, and the quest-drop Snowfrost.)

(At end of battle, Aetharan gains a level.  HP improves to 20/27.)

"Alright, it's over!"  Nothing fancy, just aim for center-mass and hope it can't dodge too far in any direction.  This mob was almost dead!  All he had to do was finish it off, and he could go get his drink on somewhere, which seemed like a very, very good idea after this long in the cold.  Oh, picking the fourth floor had been great for balancing out the air temperature issues of living in the same building as his forge, but tundra was not a great place for a picnic.  Growling, he waited until he could see Avalanche coming in for another swing, and responded with a vicious thrust at its heart.

As if some deity was laughing at them, both Aetharan and Avalanche managed to dodge one another's attacks, ultimately doing nothing but trade places and put Avalanche's back against the rock that Aetharan had started their duel leaping out from behind.

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(ID# 29677 results: Battle: 2 Craft: 9 Loot: 20 MOB: 4)

(Concentration cooldown 5/5.)

(Exchange Results:  Swing and a miss on both sides.  Again.  >.< )

He was going to win.  Avalanche here couldn't hope to hold out.  All that Aetharan needed now was a nice, lucky shot at this creature's head, and he'd be done.  Spear was jabbed high, even as the monster tried to punch him in the groin.  Seeing the attack coming was one of those moments that made him laugh, and even as he tried to side-step enough to take it in the hip, he couldn't help but comment.  "Seriously, Avalanche?  Swinging below the belt?  Your victims can't even feel pain from such a shot, so it's what...  psychological warfare?  Shame on you."

He took the attack on the left hip, and the forced dodge threw his aim off enough to drive his spear's tip through the side of Avalanche's neck.  The creature was down to the point now that there was no way he could fail to kill it with the next attack to land!

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(ID# 29676 results: Battle: 6 Craft: 8 Loot: 16 MOB: 8)

(Concentration cooldown 4/5.)

(Exchange Results:  Aetharan drops to 19/25 HP.  Normal hit for (3-2=1) damage.  Avalanche drops to 2/50 HP.  Normal hit for 4 damage.)

"Alrighty, then.  Is that how it's going to be?  We can deal with this.  You do realize, my ugly friend, that your name is just a word for a bunch of snow losing structural integrity and giving into gravity, right?  You're not some great, awesome force.  You're the anthropomorphic personification of s*** rolling downhill!"  Three more hits, at most.  The way things were going, he very may well have gotten it right when he predicted he'd finish this fight at better than 80% HP.  "Goddess, I love my armor...  Now, dear Avalanche, could you do me a favor and die a little faster?"  He thrust as hard as he could at the creature's chest.

The impact was jarring, but it dropped Avalanche far enough into the red that Aetharan was pretty sure his absolute best shot would kill the thing now.  The strike on his shoulder was less than pleasant, but it was nothing he couldn't handle!

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(ID# 29675 results: Battle: 9 Craft: 8 Loot: 5 MOB: 9)

(Concentration cooldown 3/5.)

(Exchange Results:  Aetharan drops to 20/25 HP.  Critical hit for (3+1-2=2) damage.  Avalanche drops to 6/50 HP.  Critical hit for (4+1=5) damage.)

"Alright, Avalanche, level with me...  Would you rather have a screwdriver, a Manhattan, or a gin and tonic poured over your remains?"  Really, he could go for any of those options, and he rarely enjoyed drinking gin.  Then again, it'd been quite a while since he'd felt the burn of alcohol going down at all, hadn't it?  He wondered how well the NERVgear could simulate getting drunk.  He decided to aim for the creature's legs again, hoping to trip it up and resume forcing it onto the defensive, considering that such a tactic seemed to work a lot better for him than playing things defensively himself, one on one.

Yeah, offense did a lot better for Aetharan.  He took a glancing strike to his right hip, but it was in trade for that half-pike of his shattering Avalanche's left knee, producing a sudden little flurry of snow.  Sadly, the damage didn't seem to be limiting the mob's mobility one bit.

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(ID# 29674 results: Battle: 10 Craft: 11 Loot: 8 MOB: 7)

(Concentration cooldown 2/5.) (Battle Healing proc for 2.  Aetharan improves to 23/25 HP.)

(Exchange Results:  Aetharan drops to 22/25 HP.  Normal hit for (3-2=1) damage.  Avalanche drops to 11/50 HP.  Total Critical for (4+2=6) damage.)

(Yes, I misspelled NerveGear again.  There's a reason for it.  If you don't know Evangelion at all, go watch it.)

He was close now.  He could just taste it!  The enemy was at about a third of its starting health, and he was only four points down.  "Y'know, frosty...  I'm never gonna give you up!  Nope.  Never gonna let you down.  Never gonna run around and desert you!"  Aetharan probably needed to make some friends, or at the very least find a good spot to share drinks with total strangers.  After all, four or five beers in, there was no such thing as a stranger any more.  Everybody was either a friend, or an enemy, and he'd never started a bar brawl.  His steel toes had finished a couple of 'em over the years, but that was beside the point!  Frosty here, though...  That wasn't going to be a friend.  That was a pile of Col!  Of course, collecting said money would require that both of them stop slipping and sliding around like it was suddenly the Icecapades!

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(ID# 29634 results: Battle: 2 Craft: 1 Loot: 2 MOB: 2)

(Concentration cooldown 1/5.)

(Exchange Results:  Swing and miss on both sides.  Aaaaagain.)

(Pausing here.  For the first time, a thread's just lasting too long for me to finish it the day I started it.  Will bookmark, and pick up after I've gotten some sleep.)

He'd successfully pushed this punk past the halfway point in its health bar!  "Would you like to surrender?  Go out via your own hand instead of being beaten and humiliated?  Nah.  Of course you wouldn't.  Wouldn't be any fun for players if boss mobs surrendered halfway through the fight, would it?  You.  Silly, sad mob.  You were programmed for playing with.  It's not your fault somebody re-purposed you into a murder weapon."  As he gave another stab at the thing and tried to duck the punch, he couldn't help but smirk.  "Doesn't mean I'm going to let you live, though.  I need your loot!"  He didn't manage to fully duck, taking a clipping blow across his shoulder, and it took a last-instant activation of his Concentration skill to bring that spear's tip into the enemy's foot, rather than the snow just beside it.

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(Reminder across page-break.  Aetharan: 22/25 HP.  Avalanche: 21/50 HP.)

(Activating Concentration as free action for +1 to BD.)

(ID# 29631 results: Battle: 5 Craft: 8 Loot: 15 MOB: 8)

(Exchange Results:  Aetharan drops to 21/25 HP.  Normal hit for (3-2=1) damage.  Avalanche drops to 17/50 HP.  Normal hit for 4 damage.)

Grinning to himself, Aetharan continued the one-sided banter with the mute monster he was poking full of holes.  "You know, my chilly friend, violence isn't the answer.  It's the question.  The answer is yes!"  That last word, of course, was accompanied by an exuberant thrust of his spear.  What else could he do?  He'd set himself the task of killing something that needed killing, and it hadn't keeled over yet!  Dreadfully inconsiderate of it.  Oh well.  He shouldn't have wasted so much time playing with its lesser cousins earlier.  He just needed to finish this so he could go home!

Lucky him, his victim was having worse luck than he was at this point in the match.  Once again, a big, icy fist went wide even as black iron chipped away another part of the elemental, this time around its rib-like area on the left side.

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(ID# 29627 results: Battle: 9 Craft: 6 Loot: 2 MOB: 4)

(Exchange Results:  Aetharan remains at 22/25 HP.  Miss.  Avalanche drops to 21/50 HP.  Critical hit for (4+1=5) damage.)

"Okay, Frosty...  here's the deal.  As far as you're concerned, I'm ****ing Lu Bu.  There's no getting out of this.  You're dead.  Dodge all you want, but I know you're not programmed to run away, and you can't kill me...  which means there's only one outcome here."  He chuckled quietly, then gave his half-pike a theatrical little twirl before bringing it down in an overhead thrust.  He was having too much fun with this little struggle to care too hard about whether it ended now or after another twenty minutes or more of swinging back and forth.  Funny enough, that little bit of theatre actually seemed to work!  Blade sank into an icy shoulder, and the flying fist of retaliation missed him!

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(ID# 29622 results: Battle: 6 Craft: 10 Loot: 9 MOB: 3)

(Battle Healing procs for 2.  Aetharan improves to 22/25 HP.)

(Exchange Results:  Aetharan remains at 22/25 HP.  Miss.  Avalanche drops to 26/50 HP.  Normal hit for 4 damage.)

This punk had started with twice his health, and he'd whittled that down to a 3:2 advantage.  It was a start, at least.  Besides, it couldn't heal, and it couldn't hit him as hard as he could hit it.  He just needed to make those hits, and keep 'em coming.  He could do this.  Shift left, crouch, angle the spear just so...  and lunge!  He was not going to let some minor mob, even if it was a quest boss, stop him this early in his career.  He'd be the greatest spear-wielder in Aincrad, and if Gungnir, Rhongomiant, Tonbogiri, or even Aiglos happened to exist in this game, he was going to prove himself worthy of stabbing something with each and every one of them!

Of course, to be worthy of using any of those, he had to be able to hit a stationary freakin' target!

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(ID# 29615 results: Battle: 1 Craft: 4 Loot: 20 MOB: 5)

(Exchange Results:  Misses all around.  Again.)

(For readers who might not know, those names refer to the following weapons (in order): Odin's spear, King Arthur's spear, a legendary Japanese spear so sharp that it bisected a dragonfly that landed on it, and one of the few named non-sword weapons in Tolkien's works-- a spear wielded by an Elven king.)

All he had to do was kill.  Kill this boss, then the next, and so on.  Each creature he destroyed brought him one step closer to the power he needed to fight on the front lines.  This thing may have a lot of health compared to him, but that just made it a damage sponge, not a tank.  He could chip away at it all day.  It may cause him a bit of pain here and there, but he was willing to bet he'd finish this fight at better than 20 HP.  He'd knocked out 40% of that thing's health bar already.  One or two more strikes, it would be in the yellow.  Time for another thrust...  there!

...aaaand that didn't go as well as he'd wanted.  Spear was slapped off target so that the thing could punch him in the gut again.

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(ID# 29609 results: Battle: 4 Craft: 8 Loot: 10 MOB: 9)

(Exchange Results:  Aetharan drops to 20/25 HP.  Critical hit for (3+1-2=2) damage.  Avalanche remains at 30/50 HP.  Miss.)

Ah, the old fashioned mutual swing-and-miss.  He always hated those kinds of rounds, back when he played D&D.  It always seemed to be a problem when playing tanky characters and going up against the enemy meat-shield.  Both sides had huge HP pools and massive AC, sometimes requiring a nat-20 to even see a hit on either side of the fight.  It was all that he could do, in those circumstances, to just hold the things off until the party mage could nuke 'em...  but this game didn't have mages, did it?  Nope.  That's why he was the spear-man.  He needed to look into whether it might be possible at some point to learn how to throw weapons.  Now that would be reason to invest in one-handed spears!  Toss one or two before closing into melee with the two-hander...  he liked that idea.

For the moment, though, he needed to think about the fight at hand.  There was something cold and ugly standing between him and a hot dinner at home.  He had to fix that, preferably with violence...  because violence was how he solved all of his problems in Aincrad!  Heck, it was working right now-- spear-tip driven into an enemy thigh.  At least, he thought that was a thigh.  It was where a thigh should be.

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(ID# 29605 results: Battle: 6 Craft: 7 Loot: 6 MOB: 3)

(Exchange Results:  Aetharan remains at 22/25 HP.  Miss.  Avalanche drops to 30/50 HP.  Normal hit for 4 damage.)

Yeah, he had a distinct advantage over this foe.  He didn't know what he was going to do if he ever ran up against something that had battle healing, too.  It could turn out to be a hell of a long fight, especially if both sides were well matched.  He still needed to train with his weapon skill.  That required boosting, and fast.  The more damage he could output per swing, the better off he was.  It would be even better if he could also pull off some manner to raise his accuracy, without relying on weapon enhancements...  Goddess, so much to train and improve!  Blade and fist both flew, and both went wide.

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(ID# 29603 results: Battle: 3 Craft: 3 Loot: 3 MOB: 5)

(Exchange Results:  No progress for either side.)

He had to keep going.  If the fight kept going at this level, then its victor would be decided by whether or not his regeneration procced.  He still didn't understand the mechanics behind that, but he knew that it seemed to go, at best, once every fourth attack or so.  Part of him wondered whether there was some way to increase its odds of firing.  He knew he could train to make it more powerful when it did fire, though, and that was important too.  Five ranks, and he had two.  There was no way to make himself immune to damage, so he had to do his best to ensure that he healed from it quickly, even in the middle of a fight and without potions.  Those were expensive, and he'd save that kind of deal for floor bosses if he could.

Against this thing?  Just keep stabbing and tank the pain.  He'd outlast it.  That jagged weapon of his dug into its left arm as it swung ineffectively, apparently distracted by the simulated pain it must feel from the back-to-back criticals he'd landed.

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(ID# 29601 results: Battle: 8 Craft: 11 Loot: 17 MOB: 4)

(Battle Healing proc for 2.  Aetharan improves to 22/25 HP.)

(Exchange Results:  Aetharan remains at 22/25 HP.  Miss.  Avalanche drops to 34/50 HP.  Normal hit for 4 damage.)

It had started well.  Despite taking on a bit of trash before the boss, he'd begun the fight at full power, and that first strike had been brilliant!  He just had to keep pressing the attack, and this would be over before he knew it.  "If you win, you live.  If you lose, you die...  the only way to win is to fight."  Amazing how much of the old anime from his collection kept sneaking back into his head at appropriate moments.  Gundam.  Attack on Titan.  He was absolutely certain that, at some point, he'd find a reasonable moment to quote Akira.  For the moment, his goal was to keep poking holes in Avalanche here until he got a Quest Complete notification.  That shouldn't be too hard, right?  Just stab and stab until the target stopped existing.

It seemed that this boss wasn't going to go easy, either.  Although that half-pike dug hard into its belly, it paid him back in the same breath with a swipe at his left leg that felt like it would have broken bone in that other world, if he'd taken such an impact.

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(ID# 29596 results: Battle: 10 Craft: 2 Loot: 7 MOB: 10)

(Exchange Results:  Aetharan drops to 20/25 HP.  Total Critical for (3+2-2=3) damage.  Avalanche drops to 38/50 HP.  Total Critical for (4+2=6) damage.)

Aeth gripped his weapon more tightly, and he knew that his newest victim was coming around the corner.  Time to do what he'd come to do on this freakin' ice plain.  When the creature came around the rock that he was behind, he dove in with everything that he could.  This thing may not have his damage potential or mitigation, but it had twice his health pool.  He was pretty sure that he still had the advantage between the armor, higher weapon power, and passive regeneration, but he hadn't taken time to run the numbers fully in his head, so the only way to find out was to kill it.  The strike drove home quite nicely, but he was countered with one square in the gut that would have left him breathless for a few minutes if he'd taken such a punch in the real world!

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(ID# 29585 results: Battle: 10 Craft: 11 Loot: 1 MOB: 9)

(Exchange Results: Aetharan drops to 23/25 HP.  Critical hit for (3+1-2=2) damage.  Avalanche drops to 44/50 HP.  Total Critical for (4+2=6) damage.)

A nice, deep breath.  Focus your mind, Aetharan.  Become the spear, and the enemy will fall.  He just had to keep himself calm.  No silly distractions, no unnecessary flourishes.  If he could keep himself calm, then it didn't matter how many HP he had to whittle through.  This enemy, from all the rumors he'd heard, couldn't possibly be strong enough to be a true worry.  He could hear the rumbling of its continued approach, and knew that it was getting close to time.  It's not going to be a problem, Aaron.  I'll beat this thing, and prove to myself just how much stronger I'm getting.  Nothing is going to stop me.  This world...  is going to break.

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(ID# 29583 results: Craft: 12) (Battle Healing proc for 2, and Meditation healing proc for 1.  Aetharan improves to 25/25 HP.)

(Avalanche arrives next post.)

Judging by the sound of that rumbling, it wasn't a normal elemental on its way to the little patch of ice he'd been fighting on.  It must be this Avalanche mob he'd come here for!  That was all the more reason for Aetharan to grin, and he was all too happy to take a few moments to prepare.  He couldn't exactly set up the most perfect ambush, but he could make sure that he was as ready as possible!  Eyes closed, and he focused his mind in this moment of peace.  He wanted to try out the skills that he'd picked up so far, and so took a deep breath as he focused.  Hey, Aaron?  You doing alright in that other world?  I hope so.  Just checking in.

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(Denying myself the usual out-of-combat recovery, on the grounds that an enemy has already been pulled.  It's just pathing slowly.  Instead, using Meditation skill and hoping for a Battle Healing proc.)

(ID# 29580 results: Craft: 9) (No Battle Healing proc this turn.  Meditation would remove one status effect, but doesn't heal either.)

(Avalanche arrives in 2 turns.)

The beast that Aetharan was currently facing let out a sound that could only be a cry for help, meaning that he didn't have much longer left to finish this one before he'd have to deal with an add.  That was the last thing he wanted.  From what he'd experienced so far, he had pretty good odds one on one, even against things that outdid him in health.  Add a second mob to the mix, and he had trouble keeping up.  Nope...  So, what he really needed to do now was finish off this second elemental, and at high speed.  Time for a quick little thrust, right at its face.  Just tank that incoming left hook!

Thankfully, he didn't even have to worry about the punch that was being thrown at him.  His spear made contact first, thanks to the extra reach a pole-arm provides, and by the time that hand was reaching his face?  All that struck him was dissolving motes of light.  He couldn't help but grin.

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(ID# 29578 results: Battle: 9 Craft: 9 Loot: 15 MOB: 3)

(Concentration cooldown 5/5.)

(Exchange Results:  Aetharan remains at 22/25 HP.  Miss.  Ice Elemental B drops to -1/16 HP.  Critical hit for (4+1=5) damage.)

(Effective loot die 16.  Ice Elemental B drops 1 Material and 1 Good item.)

(New enemy, Avalanche, arrives in 3 turns.)