Aereth

For now Aereth let Lessa handle their damsel in distress, staying behind in order to check over his equipment and items. It was an old habbit of him. Every time after he was done with a hunt or job he checked his inventory. It calmed him, as if sorting through his inventory and checking everything was also helping him to sort his thoughts.  

The girl didn't show much reaction. Still having those wide and empty eyes, her gaze stayed on Aereth for a couple of moments before it continued to move over to Lessa.

"W-who? Why?" Was everything she weakly managed to get out of her mouth.

Thankfully it didn't take very long for lover boy to make an appearance after Aereth had sent the message. And he didn't manage to say one word before the boy transfered the money and rushed over to his lost girl. His armes warped around her, and in a weak voice he apologized. "I'm so sorry. I'm sorry for being too weak to act on myself. I'm sorry for not asking for help earlier..."

Deciding to just let them have their moment, Aereth pressed a few more buttons before closing his menus, and then walking over to Lessa and slightly bumping her with his elbow. A small pop up notice materialized in front of her, containing half of the money he had received for the job. "Thank you for not serving me on a silver tray to those players following me. And sorry for leaving you there." He clearly saw that the woman was deeply troubled everything she had seen today. This was the side of Aincrad nobody wanted to look at. The dark and ugly side that only pulls you deeper and deeper into it with every moment you spend there. "I know... that not only  the time you had to stay there, but everything related to it is disgusting. But look at them." The brunette then added. "Look at them AND your money count and tell me that it wasn't worth it."

After a couple of minutes the heartfelt reunion was over and the boy, tightly clutching his girls hand came over one more time to the mercenary and guild leader. "Thank you again for saving her. If I could give you more, I would, but..." 

"Stop it. You held up your end of the deal and so did I. You owe me nothing. Now go home and take care that you guys don't get into any more trouble..." Aereth interrupted, dismissing the two and also preparing his leave...

@Lessa

Some of these frontliners were straight out laughable. Yes. They were all capable fighters and probably stronger players than him, but talking to the monsters, hell even having something resembling a feeling of pity... They were either plain stupid for having such feelings towards pieces of code created by a madman that trapped everybody inside here, or the time already made them go mad. The brunette didn't know, neither did he care much, so he readied his blade once more before following Domarus into the battle. Maybe he could use an opening created by his fellow squad mates to finally get some damage in. 

With that the orange player readied his <<Charge>> and <<San Ge>> skill and sword art. The blade of the phase weapon traveled through the air, creating a high pitched sound, before making contact with... Nothing...

He missed again. It seemed like even though he didn't let himself get distracted by stupidity, the stupid players still managed to be more useful in the raid than him. A shame...

ID# 103831 results:
Battle: 2+3-2 = MISS
EN: -2+1

Up until now the brunette was simply lurking around in the background of the battle. Observing and learning. The roles inside of the council seemed to be equally distributed, creating a solid and well rounded party. But just as Domarus, the brunette also saw the weakpoint of the group. Attacking randomly wouldn't bring anything. A chain was only as strong as the weakest part of it. They needed to target the weakest link and work their way up.

Aereth simply nodded at Domarus and shot forward immediately after Teion was done with her area of effect assault. Teion.. The brunette rushed past her, his katana ready to strike. Only one or two hits, and the first boss would be down. Excitement filled his whole body as he closed the distance between himself and Ratar. It had been ages since the last time he felt such a kind of excitement. Usually he only felt this excited on... his hunts... 

He hesitated for one moment...

And missed...

@Dark Elf Council

ID: 103387
BD: 1 Miss

"Aaaah. Princess finally noticed the man that saved her life." Aereth shot back, a small smirk stretching over his face. It didn't surprise him that she was attempting to tease him as a greeting. He knew her too well for that. "Good to see you as well Leyna." he then added, turning to the huntress and sending a smile her way. His eyes lingered for a few moments on the piece of jewlery around her neck. Memories of him torturing the woman by taking her prectious item on their last encounter rushing through his head. Quickly dismissing them the brunette chuckled as Kooh climbed her way over to his side and took a seat. "Indeed. Its been too long. How have you been? Hope you stayed out of trouble." he added, sending a small chuckle towards Leyna. 

"God damn it Hik. Don't make me draw my weapon in a church." Aereth said when from seemingly nowhere Hikoru appeared to his other side. "I swear to god. I'm quite good at keeping my presence hidden as well as having invested a considerate amount of skill points into my detection skill, but man. You always manage to scare me sh*tless." Quickly though, a smile worked itself across Aereth's face. "But putting me being a scared child to the side... It's really good to see you alive and healthy as well my friend."

"Let me introduce you guys to each other. The girl in the hoodie is Kooh. She's a little troublemaker, but also an old friend of mine. Next to her is Leyna. Less of a troublemaker but also a friend." he then turned to Kooh and Leyna. "Girls. This is Hikoru. Master of Shadows and an old guildmate, mentor and friend of mine." After the chit chat was over Aereth fell silent again, enjoying the ceremony of one of his first friends getting married to the girl he loved.

@Kooh @Hikoru

"Of course we are going to make it." Aereth answered after they exited the hideout. "But first... STUN." he shouted as he finally saw the two other entry guards. Immediately his phase katana shot forward, cutting through the light leather armor of the first guard like a hot knife through butter, while applying the stun effect onto him. He was just hoping Lessa understood his sudden command before turning around, seeing that she thankfully did as he ordered. "Let's go. I want to be gone before the boss comes back." And with that the unlikely couple made their escape.

Only when they reached the entrance of Lessa's guild hall, they finally slowed down again in order to catch their breaths. "While everything worked out, I really can't say that everything worked out as planned. You ok?" the brunette said with a small chuckle, breaking the silence. His fingers moved through the menus opening the message box.

Quote

To: Dude who lost girl
Subject:-
Text: I got her. Meeting point: F21 Coordinates are attached. 
PS.: Don't forget the payment.

"Before you ask. She's inside. I told her to lock herself into a room and only open again when she hears its me. Wanna go and get her? I already messaged lover boy to come over and pick her up..."

@Lessa

Finally it was time for the brunette to attend his first floor boss battle. He had prepared accordingly for the upcoming raid. His best set of armor and weaponry was already equipped, white flames dancing around his armor and a dark aura coming from his sheathed blade. Calmly he took the item he had received from two players that were supplying the frontliners with important buffs. . He needed some time to calm himself down and to mentally prepare for the battle, so he thanked @Pinball, @Zandra and @Neopolitan, went over to his raid group and nodded once and immediately went into stealth, preparing for the raid to finally begin.

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath before reopening them again and activating his hiding skill. Today he wasn't the PKKer he usually embodied. Not the most feared player in Aincrad. Just another player that wants to help clearing the game and getting all of their a**es out of this living hell. Just another warrior in the war the maniac Akihiko Kayaba forced them to participate...

Aereth entered Stealth! Stealth Rating: +7

ID# 103288 results: Loot: 17+7 = 24

"Yeah I'm in." The brunette answered his old friend and ex-guildmate. "I need to talk to you anyways so this is only convenient for me." After that, slowly but surely the four groups started to form. Froppy was quickly joined by Jevi, while Dazia asked the Knight Macradon and Pinball to join her group. Last but not least was the girls only team consisting of Elucia, Kasier and Sunova. All in all the brunette was pretty satisfied with how the groups had formed. In case the groups would stay this way, he only would have to assign Outlander and that strange guy Dustin who fell asleep, and since there were only two teams with only two players, the assigning didn't take long. 

"Outlander." he called out looking at the armored player. "You're with us." His gaze then moved to Froppy. "Care to wake up Sleepy guy and fill him in?" Aereth asked slowly looking over to Dustin with a raised eyebrow.

OOC: The next Plot Master post starting the actual interviews will go up on this Sunday, or earlier if the group assignment is finished before that day.

Underlined Bold marks team leads

Group 1: Hikoru, Aereth, Outlander
Group 2: Forppy, Jevi, Dustin
Group 3: Dazia, Macradon, Pinball
Group 4: Hidden, Kasier, Sunova 

@Outlander  @Froppy @Dazia @Sharr @Hikoru @Sunova @Teion @Jevi @Pinball @Oxand @Hidden @Macradon @Shi @Dustin

Two turns... That was all the disguised brunette managed to walk before he almost bumped into the blonde woman that was the reason for him being here again in the first place. Fear and disappointment were clearly evident on the delicate face, even as she unsheathed her weapon and pointed it at the brunette PKKer. Refraining from teasing her in a situation like this, Aereth moved one of his fingers in front of his mount, signalizing to be quiet while deactivating his Disguise skill. After a couple of seconds his original appearance was standing in front of Lessa. 

Unfortunately Lessa wasn't his only problem since he could clearly hear steps that were coming closer to them. "Sh*t. The guards seem to come our way..." he thought while materializing a simple potion in his free hand. "Oh, this is such a bad idea..." The brunette then pulled back his hand and threw the potion deeper into the hallway Lessa had emerged just some moments ago. 

While the item was quickly moving towards the wall at the end of the hallway, Aereth quickly grabbed Lessa by one of the arms she was holding her blade with, hoping she wouldn't stab him, and dragged her inside of the nearest room, that conveniently was just next to them. With a loud scattering noise the potion bottle broke and dissolved into tiny polygons and the guards started rushing towards the source of that sound. 

"We need to get out of here. Now! Quickly!" Aereth told Lessa in a hushed voice, moments after the guards rushed past the room the two of them were hiding in.

Thread Summary:

@Hestia: 2 Posts
@Baldur: 2 Posts
@Fae: 2 Posts
@Lessa: 1 Posts
@Outlander: 3 Posts -> 1SP
@Vigilon: 2 Posts
@Froppy: 2 Posts
@Krysta: 1 Posts
@Dazia: 2 Posts
@Sharr: 2  Posts
Aereth: 3 Posts -> 1SP
@Hikoru: 1 Posts
@Sunova: 2 Posts
@Teion: 3 Posts -> 1SP
@Jomei: 1 Posts
@Morgenstern: 1 Posts
@Jevi: 3 Posts -> 1SP
@Pinball: 1 Posts
@Oxand: 2 Posts
@Seul: 1 Posts
@Blood: 1 Posts
@Ruby: 1 Posts
@Kasier: 1 Posts
@Hidden: 1 Posts
@Macradon: 1 Posts
@Ronin Dragoon: 1 Posts
@Shi: 1 Posts

Only after three more times of telling her that she would be alright and safe, the girl locked the door after Aereth left. He immediately fetched the long black hooded cloak from his inventory and threw it over his body, hiding his face and all of his armor. This would be a tricky one. He needed to get to the entrance of the hideout before the boss would leave for their dinner. The rest of the plan... Well... Let's just say it was still a work in progress. 

And so the dark figure dashed through the dark floor, altering his way not to risk running into her. He had activated his Hiding skill in combination with the Blindside mod almost immediately as he left the guildhall. To anybody that might see him he would have just looked like a fast moving black blur, due to him pushing all the strength and speed he had at his disposal into that mad sprint, even activating the Charge skill to speed himself up more and pushing himself to the limit of his avatar. Strangely enough, it was in moments like these where he managed to have his clearest and calmest moments. Somehow the adrenaline rush, the stress and fear managed to flick a switch inside of his head enabling him to analyze the situation and come up with a plan. And today was no different. An idea formed inside of his head.

Once he came into viewing distance to the cave, Aereth immediately hid behind a group of bigger rocks. Looking at his HUD he noticed that he had around 15 minutes left until the meeting. Taking into consideration that the meeting point was around 10 walking minutes away from the hideout and that a woman of that caliber would almost surely come too late to a dinner invitation, the brunette choose to stay and wait for some time before jumping into action.

He could already feel the headache forming in the front part of his virtual brain as he indeed saw the woman slowly walk out of the cave into the direction of the Underground Waterfalls. Maybe he was lucky for once and the angry mob of players would encounter her and maybe even buy him some more time.

Two minutes after the boss was out of sight, Aereth stealthily moved to towards the entrance while activating his <<Disguise>> skill. His features started to blur and once the transformation was done he was looking like an exact copy of the boss. He made sure to adjust his newly gained breasts and dropped his hiding skill to reveal the suggestive figure of the woman.

The guards looked surprised at first, but a simply explanation calmed them down. "I forgot to bring some.... Toys..." Aereth purred as he walked past them, making sure to walk just as the woman he was disguising as did all the time. Once inside Aereth moved through the hallways in search for the 'master bedroom'...  

"Yeah, great idea placing a target mark on yourself. Go ahead and f*ck yourself..." the brunette murmured sly grin still intact, as Gray left the room. 

Now it was time to focus on Hidden. Aereth didn't even flinch a bit as she shrieked at him. He carefully listened to her story, taking in every detail she decided to share with him. "Stupid." he thought. "You should messaged me or Dom immediately...." But it wasn't the time to lecture her. What was done was done and no scolding could reverse it. In the end pride and overconfidence was the thing that had cost her. "Two days." the brunette answered. "Today is the 22nd." After that followed some moments of silence before Aereth would attempt once again to calm her down. "Everything will be alright. I'm promising you to get you out of here. If they simply wanted to kill us, they would have done so as soon as they got me. But here we are." he paused again, thinking about his own words. They already got everything they needed from Hidden. So they could have gotten rid of her immediately. Which meant.... "They need something from me. And I will give it to them to buy your freedom. I know... As crazy as it sounds, the leaders of the guild aren't just lunatics. They are very intelligent and if I'm lucky I might manage to get you out of here."

@Hidden

Aereth did already turn his back to @Teion when she declared that she would stay in his search party. It pretty much confirmed his first thoughts when he initially spotted her in the crowd. “Come on Thea… You’re not here for the search….” he thought before stopping for a brief moment. “Fine, have it your way then.” he simply answered without facing her again.

Now the brunette finally managed to give his full attention to @Jevi.  “That’s very good. And don’t worry about your level. I’m not going to send anyone on a suicide mission. Once we are done with dividing the groups I’ll assign tasks to everyone, so just head over to the others and try getting to know them a little better.”

Immediately after finishing the sentence, a new face appeared in front of the brunette hunter, asking him if he would be allowed to join his search party. He nodded one more time to Jevi and turned to @Pinball. “I would mind if you wouldn’t.” he said dryly, still feeling that slightly uneasy sensation from the conversation with Teion earlier, but he would never allow something personal to interfere with the task in hand. “Just tell me your build so I can take it into consideration when I’ll be making teams.”

After hearing two player talking about how this event would just serve as an opportunity for them to kill somebody legally, Aereth slowly turned his gaze towards @Hikoru and subtly locked eyes with him. He would need to make sure to have eyes and ears around them.

For the first time since this whole thing started, Aereth was pleasantly surprised to see a familiar face. “Heeey there @Kasier . It’s been too long. Hope you and Itzi are doing well.” he answered, small smile, creeping out from under his mask of stoicism. This was the girlfriend of the man that showed him everything inside of this game, so it was only natural to give her some some special treatment. “Speaking of which; will he also join us?”

Shortly after the small talk with Kasier was over, the next newcomer already introduced herself to the orange player. “Pleased to meet you.” he answered finally noticing that the girl had an orange cursor. “May I ask what kind of build you have and if you have any PvP experience?” @Hidden

Talking to so many players at once wasn’t quite his favorite task, but what had to be done had to be done. Quietly thanking the other new player for not talking too much, the brunette simply sent a nod in @Macradon's direction. He already knew who he was from the last floor boss meeting. One of the strongest frontliners and a higher ups in the KoB.

“Sure. Just head over to the others, we will be just be waiting for a couple more minutes before we head out. Build?” he asked the noirette. @Shi

Quote

OOC Note:

This thread will be closed on the 2nd of July. Players that didn't join up until then: Don't worry. You can still join in later stages of that plot.

After Gray finished the first part of his little speech, the brunette PKKer quietly mouthed "Surprise." as his captor laughed like a stupid maniac. The greed for more power made this man blind. "Just one or two times. I usually don't count. But hey, you might wanna reconsider your perfect plan." Aereth replied calmly. "Girly over there has some powerful friends in some powerful guilds. Disposing her like that could lead to.... let's say "Tensions" between your guild and some others." He sighed. The Laughing Coffin hadn't been bothering him at all lately, so this sudden move was kinda surprising to him. Sure, he knew that he was a constant thorn in the side of that guild, but as he explained it to himself, it seemed like he and the LC came to an silent agreement some time ago. Back in the day when they still sent skilled assassins his way, they almost never made it back to the guild, tearing big gaps in their mid to high tier strike force. When this stopped, he simply assumed that they saw him as something like a initiation test for the rookies. If they managed to get caught by him they weren't worthy of the guild anyways. But if the rookies managed to go under his radar, that meant that only the best of the best would still remain in the guild. It seemed like Aereth turned from a constant pain in the a**, more into kind of a quality control for LC. But he didn't know for sure of course. 

"It could very well mean that guilds like the Celestial Ascendants, Knights of the Bloodoath, could be on your heels, hell I've even heard that they have connections to the Ultramarine Knight himself. Hmmmm." he paused, looking down on the man with a smile. "That's three unique skill wielders where one is the strongest player in the game... And that may or may not be a thing your 'superiors' would want, think about it, before you go and report to them like the good puppy you are." Only five minutes. That was all it took Aereth to completely understand how that man worked. He was having a major superiority complex, constantly trying to impress his higher ups, like a dog begging for attention. "If he hits me and storms off, my idea is correct..." he thought, still wearing a smug grin.

Once everybody was gone, meaning Hidden and Aereth were alone. The girl was broken. She was crying and begging him for forgiveness. "Hidden" His strong and strict voice cut through the air. "You need to down. We need to keep a cool head if we want to survive. Can you do that for me?" he asked, his voice steadily growing softer with every word he spoke. "Tell me how they got you, and how long you have been here."

@Hidden

Aereth didn't even attempt to fight back once the second wave, the elite group, came clashing down on him. Though he could probably go toe to toe with them in single combat, he knew when he was outnumbered. His virtual body flew through the warehouse like a punching bag before they hoisted him up, restraining his movements with ropes. After he got tied to the pole he was able to see Hidden for the first time since his arrival. He had never ever seen the girl like this. Fear and horror were  clearly evident on her face and he felt sorry for the poor girl. It was also the first time he realized that behind her sharp tongue, all those sarcastic comments, she was still that. A helpless girl. The brunette sighed, raising his gaze to the top of the warehouse, ignoring the figure that stepped in between them.

Long moments passed before the brunette would speak again. "You... Didn't capture me." he answered finally locking eyes with the man. "She did." his gaze moved past him to Hidden. "All you did was capture and terrorize a girl until she would sell out an ally. You guys could never find me if I didn't let you find me. Let me guess... You told her to hurt somebody she likes and promised to let her go once she lured me in here?" he took a breath and chuckled shortly. "And still... Here we both are. So what do you want?"

@Hidden

Just a couple of minutes after he had sent out the message to Hikoru, the master of shadows made his appearance. The brunette watched as his old guildmate slowly made his way up to the Monument, placing something he couldn't quite see on the floor. The man looked broken. Aereth knew him long enough that he usually wasn't the type of person who let others see through his mask of stoicism and seriousness. Immediately afterwards a group of five other players approached him, seemingly players he knew well and immediately his mask slipped back on. That  sight saddened him. The brunette offered the man a hand for a greeting. "I'm sorry for your loss." he said locking eyes with the man. "But I'm really glad you could make it. Thank you."

Nothing in this floating castle could have prepared the brunette for what he spotted shortly after greeting Hikki. Weren't it for the fact that there was a big amount of players gathered around him, even he couldn't have said for sure how he would have reacted. "Purple..." he said   in a low voice, devoid of any emotion completely ignoring Jomei's greeting, as nobody other than Teion approached him. He hadn't seen the girl ever since she placed the note inside of his old shop and left. "Give me some secs Hikki." Not even for one second did the brunette break eye contact with her. And as she said that she would want to join his team he felt his own mask slip for one or two moments... No. Not here. A calm voice of reason washed through his clouded mind and pushed all the feelings and emotions back where they would no longer influence his thoughts. "You sure you really want that?" he asked coldly. "You don't have to come with me if you want to help."

Aereth had to thank god for the person that interrupted this conversation. "At your service." he replied, locking eyes with Jevi. "Support, Damage or Tank? And your name is..." he asked the newcomer in a calm voice.

@Teion @Hikoru @Jevi

"I'm glad to hear that. You know the Underground Waterfalls? " he asked. "Meet me there and we'll have a nice evening. And..." he said while taking a better hold of the girl right next to him. "We'll see about that once we're done with the 'foreplay'... I mean dinner... So if you would excuse me, I need to collect some well earned money." The brunette shot back in a smooth tone and started walking away, only turning around for the last question. "I don't know. She didn't tell me when I snatched her away. Though I liked to call her 'blondie'. But I'm sure she'll tell you if you ask friendly enough." And with that he became smaller and smaller with every step. 

As soon as the entrance was out of sight, the brunette picked up the girl, threw he over his shoulder and started sprinting towards the guild hall. He needed to be fast. The timeframe he bought was very small. And he needed to get Lessa out of there before the woman would come back. 

Being handled in the way she was, at leas some life seemed to come back to the girl as the winds started to kick up due to Aereth's rather high speed charge. "Don't worry! You're safe now. I was hired to get you out of there, but you have to trust me." he said, and he could swear he saw the girl nod from the corner of his eyes. Just some minutes later he finally reached Lessa's guild hall and put the girl inside of an empty room. "Stay here. I need to get my partner back from those psychos. Lock the door and don't let anybody besides me in, understood?"

It all happened way too fast for him to react accordingly. The doors fell shut and players dropped all around him preparing to attack him. Only driven by his instincts and reflexes, the brunette grabbed the hilt of his katana and unleashed a devastating area of effect sword art. Four of the players got hit by the strong attack and were either smacked to the ground or left standing on even shakier feet than before. 

"Laughing Coffin... A trap..." he hissed as he noticed their appearances. The other thing he noticed was that his opponents were moving slow and uncoordinated. Very differently from what he knew the Laughing Coffin fighting style. 90% of the time they moved as a perfect unit taking out even much stronger opponents through perfect teamwork and coordination. These guys were only rookies. The could be his chance, but he wasn't stupid enough to think that it would be that easy. 

As soon as his post motion cooldown was gone, Aereth parried a strike from a player that didn't get hit by his AoE, before disengaging and ducking under another attack. His blade shot forward piercing the armor of that player effortlessly....

@Hidden feel free to overwhelm him in your next post.

Slowly but surely the rather big group of players began to form the two groups around Lessa and Aereth. While there were almost instantly about five people around Lessa, maybe because of her 'female attributes' maybe because of his orange cursor he didn't know why, players first seemed reluctant to come up to him. That was until three (assuming Dazias friend also is a female) female players made their way over to him. The first one introduced herself as Tsu a pure healer, the second being Dazia which he had already run in a long time ago and the third one seemingly being a friend of Dazia. 

Aereth nodded towards the frog girl while mentally noting that the girl was a healer. From the last time he met her he knew that she had been a DPS unit but that could have changed up until now.  "It's... um... Great to have all of you here. This whole affair has reached dimensions where we, the player base cannot continue to simply stand by and watch without doing something." The brunette said in a serious voice. It was new for him to work together with a larger group of players, but his past encounters with player killers, especially with the Laughing Coffin had shown him that he couldn't do much without the help of others. He sighed and glanced over to Lessa. She was one of the main reasons they had brought this topic to the public. Stubborn girl. But more than capable in a fight and a reliable comrade.

He then opened his menu to type a short message to a player he had expected to come but obviously wasn't here yet....

Quote

To: @Hikoru

Subject: Aincrad needs you.

Text: I don't know if the info brokers in your network became lazy, or if you have other important things to do, but we have a rather big and dangerous issue where I could need your help. If you've got time please come to meet me at the Monument. 

PS: Some reinforcements would also be nice, so just bring anybody that can hold a blade...

Just after he pressed the send button another player joined his search party. He was having white hair and his greeting was followed by an immediate warning. The brunette PKKer rose an eyebrow at that statement before answering. "Appearances can be deceiving. Even the smallest and cutest girl could be monster of an opponent if she would have the numbers. Bit still nice to meet you." In this game numbers were everything. He knew that at least Dazia knew as much. "I'm just going to wait for some more time before I'm going to explain everything to all of you. But keep in mind that this is a dangerous task. We will be heading to very dangerous areas so we all have to work as a unit in order to bring that player to justice. I don't want to have any casualties because somebody thought that they need to play hero..."

Aereth's team: @Dazia @Froppy @Sharr

Aereth relaxed again as he heard the order spoken by the female player. They were getting her for him. Good. He slowly removed the blade from the grunt's throat and lowered it. 

Just some moments later the other man came back. On the one side, Aereth was relieved to see that they brought the girl, she looked just like in the picture he had seen from her boyfriend, brother or whatever, but on the other side he cursed inwardly at the other three men who followed Darvin out of the hideout. As good as he was with his blade, and even if he would be able to free Lessa immediately, he couldn't best six players in combat. His mind went into overdrive in the couple of moments before the grunt set down the girl in front of him. "Attack or waiting?" was the question that bounced around in his head. 

Ultimately he listened to the calmer voice of reason. His phase katana slowly went back into the sheath on his hip while he took a hold of the girl forcing her to look up at him for a couple of moments. He didn't like what he saw. The girl looked broken, empty even. He didn't even want to attempt to think about what they had done to her. Instead he forced her to his right side before turning to the boss again, a pleased smirk on his face. "Though I am sorry for my earlier behavior, being the orange merc that I am, it is pretty common for me to get scammed out of my deal. I really have to thank you for the cooperation in this. The goods are perfectly fine. You can have blondie." The words came out smoothly, accompanied with a small bow. And just like that a plan formed inside of his head. The smirk turned into a smile as he rose up again. "How about you take a break from the whole 'I just like the fairer sex' thing? I know a place just some minutes away from here. Great food, good drinks. We could 'celebrate' our successful deal..." he spoke.

And just as he had removed his gear, a message from no one other than Hidden. And after reading through it it was clear that it was too early for him to simply discard his armor for today. Though he decided not to use his usual armor for this. Too flashy. And if the Laughing Coffin really had something to do with this they would immediately notice him because of the unique armor and sword. "Nightingale it is then..." he mumbled before equipping the black in black armor.

Fast forward about 40 minutes and Aereth was at the spot specified in the message. The warehouse looked pretty rundown and emitted an uncomfortable aura. Pulling back the hood of his armor, Aereth stepped inside, eyes glowing from his searching skill. "Don't hide from when you are expecting somebody. Didn't anybody tell you that this was rude?" he asked as he managed to see a player in an unusual high spot close to the ceiling. But it was already too late...

Aereth slightly bowed at the compliment of the woman. "While on the one side it might be a shame that somebody as you more interested in the 'fairer' sex, I cannot deny that I'm also a little relieved to hear that. I wouldn't enjoy to see myself down in the dirt like our blonde pearl over there." Aereth replied, a small smirk on his face. "Besides... Who knows, maybe I'll come here more often if the money is right.."

On the outside totally calm, the brunette wasn't very comfortable with how things were proceeding. Though the deal seemed to be going through just as Aereth had expected, they were already trying to take her away, thus lowering the chances of a joint breakout. As soon as the thug had picked her up, Aereth's blade shot forward, only stopping mere inches away from the guys throat. "Nah, nah, nah. Not so fast." Aereth said, his playfulness now completely gone again. "As happy as I am for you to agree to our deal, first I wanna see the goods. And after I confirmed her identity you can have her. There's only one thing in here that I pay for in advance.." Oooh, he didn't like where this was going. He was playing with fire and he knew it. But he wouldn't risk to loose both girls and go home empty handed.

Aereth quickly finished writing a message after receiving quest information from some NPC outside of Lazaro. He was pretty lucky to get his hands on said quest, because usually the Quest NPC is staying insides of the main settlement, but thankfully he was able to kindly ask a small group of players to lure the quest NPC out. And asking kindly consisted of Aereth giving all of the three players some Col, in oder to get this sh*t done for him. "I also could have threatened them until they'd have done it for me...." Aereth rumbled before slowly making his way to a shabby and f*cked up inn outsides of the safe zone.

Slamming the door behind him, and immediately locking it, Aereth let himself fall on the old bed and closed his eyes. "Why do all the inns outside of safe zones have to be so f*cked up...." he thought before pulling himself up again and removing his cloak, sword and shirt.

Again, Aereth's left eyebrow started to move up towards its seemingly new favorite position as he saw the boss coming out of the hideout. This was certainly not what the brunette was expecting. He eyed her from head to toe, seemingly just ogling at the REALLY offensive and provocative outfit she wore, but in reality he was checking for any signs of weapons or armor. "Definitely not the heavy armor type and no obvious weapons..." he mentally concluded. 

Her sensual voice finally brought him back to the reason he was here to begin with. "Well, as your... friends... surely told you already, I'm here for a deal. And I would like to be done here rather quickly so I already know what you guys are doing for a business." Aereth said, blade still pointed at Lessa. "And honestly: I don't care. But you see, I make my money with mercenary work. I was hired to find girl. Short blonde hair, 17 years old, not higher than 5 foot 2, named Lyanna. You see... Her boyfriend is running out of funds and thus hired me with his last coin to find a way of getting his girl out of her... Let's say tight spot." With only the boss and two guards around, they might even be able to fight their way out of the situation. "But I know that nothing is for free, so I offer this girl as a replacement. A prisoner exchange, so to say. She's having a small guild with no allies, and surely more funds than that poor bastard." he then broke eye contact with the female and looked at the tied up blonde at the ground. "And besides that... She doesn't even look half bad if I may say so..."

Ignoring the question about his name seemed to have done nothing good to the tense atmosphere between the two of them. Even his attempt to calm her down again resulted in nothing. Either way, they had and common goal and they would make it work somehow. 

Aereth nodded and followed her through the guild hall back into the cave towards the city center. "Here, I'll give you the map data from the hideout." he added, while sharing his complete map data, which was fairly complete aside from a few blacked out spots, as well as the coordinates of the hideout with her. "Let's go."

The walk was fairly quiet as the pair made their way through the 22nd floor to the hideout. Only once they drew closer to it Aereth spoke up again. "We're almost here. Please store away your weapon." he said, patiently waiting until she was done. "I know you won't like what I'll be doing next, but I'll need to tie you up to make everything look more authentic." Said, done. The brunette fetched a rope out of his inventory, tying her hands behind her back and fixing her arms close to her body, before hoisting her up on his right shoulder. 

A couple of minutes later he finally arrived at the entrance of the hideout. He was as calm as always, all of his emotions locked away behind a mask of indifference as he approached the already alerted guards. "Oi. I need to speak with the man in charge here." the brunette told the two heavily armored men. "I have an offer you guys might like." after that he threw Lessa directly at the feet of the two guards, pointing his black blade at her. 

The two men were confused beyond hope. Never had they seen a stranger approach them so bluntly, throwing a female player at their feet demanding to speak with their boss. They were nervous and clearly overwhelmed with the situation. Usually they would just drive away anybody unfamiliar but this time it was different. After some tense moments and a few whispered sentences both of them agreed not to simply drive him away. One of them turned around without another word, slowly vanishing into the cave like hideout "You will wait here with me. He is going to report to our boss and we'll see what happens next. And for f*cks sake. Don't try anything fancy." The remaining guard growled at Aereth in an weak attempt to threaten him...

“Who’s the try-hard now?” The brunette mumbled as she declared how she was a strong and independent woman who ain’t need nobody. Were the situation not as serious he would have chuckled and teased her about it, but unfortunately there was no time for that. 

Back to business. “You’ll need to trust me there. If everything goes south I’ll free you and you’ll immediately have to prepare to fight.” Aereth was having serious doubts that the girl had what it takes for a fight until the end. “The most important thing will be to know when to fight. In an ideal scenario you won’t even have to fight.” Aereth said as he lowered his gaze and closed his eyes. “The scenarios we just discussed are worst case assumption. If we manage to trick them and get them to do a prisoner exchange, I’ll wait for the perfect moment, free you and then you have to take the girl and make your escape. I’ll try and hold them back as long as possible before following you two. Meeting point will be here again after we lost them. If you have some tunnel or teleport crystals that would be great...” the brunette said, lifting his gaze and locking his gaze in her. Some of the usual hardness was gone replaced by a warm and supporting aura. “We can do this.”

Mobile Post, beware of typos and general bad grammar.