Eatos

To say these things, to Silvers face, even to a monster using it, felt like a relief. All the things she held within her, that she had wanted to say, but was too scared to. She could say them now, to him. To relieve herself of the burden that she had carried for so long.

“I was weak, and when you came and saved me. I become prideful. I believed that you would do anything for me, because I needed you. But you, you never needed me, you wanted to help”

“No!” The demon yelled, throwing a fist forwards at her “You were but a tool, to get me away from my family!” The fist nearly struck, but the girl skipped around it and unleashed her counter-attack, two quick and harsh strikes across Silvers chest.

“You love your family, Atzo, your uncle. I know you love them, you told me yourself” The girl said, confidently, finally “I may have been a tool to you, but I owe you my life. Even if I was a way for you to live, you allowed me to live. For that, I’m so grateful..”

--------------

Eatos: 400/400 HP | 36/40 EN | 7 DMG | 3 EVA | 3 ACC | 9 MIT 

ID: 99327

BD: 6(+3)= <hit>

Sword Art: Han'ie <EN2> (2)7= 14 DMG

Pride Demon <Silver/Thorsten>: 76/100 HP | 4 DMG | 2 MIT 

ID: 99328

MD: 2 <Miss>

The girl let out a quiet chuckle at Hei, his joke had indeed amused her, even if it was somewhat dark in nature. She smiled, he was reliable, if nothing else, and she knew she could trust him, in and out of combat. Hearing they were planning on going, the girl clicked her fingers and Angel moved to her owners side. She had been teaching her familiar to come to her, and clicking was a simple one she could use to get her familiars attention when she got distracted. Pleased that the Husky was learning the lesson the blacksmith had spent nearly a month teaching, they set out towards the cave.

The first step in the snow brought an odd pleasing sensation within the blue-haired girl as they walked to the cave, after all, quests don’t change much. Nearing Hei’s comment, the girl looked at him. She was wearing her Guardian Angel armour, but nothing covering her amber eyes as she looked around at the white snow with a gentle caring smile “You think? Maybe its because I grew up with this, but I love this weather. The snow is just, beautiful…pure”

The battle had started. Now admittantly it was 8 against one, however, that wasn’t’ what Eatos reminded herself as she watched Stryder make the first attack. What was important to remember was that this was practice for the future, that the higher floors dragons would be threats and their groups would been to be able to work well together. So far, it hadn’t honestly gone too badly. Stryder had coped the return damage, but he was tanky enough to survive the encounter. Out of her own team, which hadn’t been striked again, the girl knew there was little point trying to heal. You couldn’t overheal an ally, and none of them were injured. She would simply have to wait, and held her position in the backlines.

The girl glanced at her side, and saw the Katana sitting there, waiting, almost begging, to be used. But she knew she couldn’t, there were so many reasons why she couldn’t hold that weapon, not any time soon however. So instead, she watched and waited for when she would be needed.  

Action Taken: None

-------------------

Zylara - the Quartz Hatchling - Stunned - Bleed for the next 2 turns ( 12 DMG per turn )

HP: 73/175 - MIT: 35 - ACC: 1 - EVA: 0 - DMG: 65

Stryder: 582/620 HP | 58/62 EN | 59 Mit | 3 ACC | 3 EVA Hate: 1
Hei: 520/520 HP | 41/52 EN | 3 EVA | 3 ACC | Hate: 2
Froppy: 100/100 HP | 8/10 EN
Pinball: 500/500 HP | 50/50 EN | 3 EVA | 3 ACC | Hate: 0 
 

Team 2:
Saphira: 180/180 HP | Energy: 18/18 | ACC | Hate: 2
Embers 320/320 HP | Energy: 32/32 | 9 DMG | 1 ACC | 39 MIT 
Hydra: 830/830 HP | Energy: 78/80 | 89 Mit | 4 HM | 10 RGN | Hate: 0

Eatos 400/400 HP | Energy: 40/40 | DMG: 7 | EVA: 3 | MIT: 9

Stryder moving on. It wasn't an idea the girl had, if she was honest, put much thought into. After all, he had been the one to first suggest it, even if she saw it coming a mile away. He was reckless, needlessly so in her honest opinion. And he loved this world, so fighting was just part of him now. She knew he was aiming for the front lines, but people like her? Well, it couldn't be more different. She was scared of the front lines, and so, protecting those who didn't want to go there was her role. Through healing, or being an ear to listen with.

"Stryders' always been like this, since we first met. Reckless, so focused on combat. I can just tell he wants to help at the front lines, and part of me fears he'll leave for it" She said softly "But that's just who he is, someone who hates the real world so much he can only live trapped in here. But he sees people like me, who hate it here, and so, he's stuck" Eatos looked up at Tsu with an apologetic smile on her face "S-sorry, i just get lost in my own head sometimes". 

The girl took the bag, and opened it up taking a poke inside. She'd always been a fan of this food, but often, well, it meant going outside. "Thanks for the food, i do appreciate it"

With the entire group for the quest having arrived, the girl accessed her personal notes for this raid. The drake itself, wouldn’t be much of a challenge. However, the core idea for this was to finally establish groups for the future raids that would work. They had 8 players now, two groups of 4. The obvious question was who goes where.

Currently, Team 1 was Stryder, Hei, Pinball and Tsu. While Team 2 was herself, Embers, Saphira and Hydra. Both teams had similar roles. Tank, healer and damage. But she still felt some nerves as she looked. Yes, this boss wasn’t hard. But that wasn’t her worry. It was the higher floored mobs that honestly scared her, as that’s when they had the risks of people getting too low.

She walked up to Stryder “Everyone is ready and in their teams. We can start” she said simply keeping her menu up, since most of the guild was in the attack, she could easily keep track of health bars for this, and future, raids.  

Team 1: 

@Stryder

@Hei
@Froppy

@Pinball

Team 2:

Hydra

Embers

Eatos

Saphira

The girl was pleased the Tsu took her reply rather well, in part, she had prepared for the girl to be offended. Some people were like that, taking personal opinions so serious that refusal was parallel to offense. They were people that were difficult to communicate with, and near impossible to barter with. Eatos smiled at Tsu watching the potion go away, and mentally, let out a sigh of relief. While it was true there was a meeting coming, it wasn’t today, probably. Stryder was useless at keeping her informed despite her insistence of letting her deal with the talking. He was a child when it came to business, she was an expert.

Ironically, the guild came up once again and the girl smirked. She clicked her fingers, Angel’s ears perking up before barking softly as she scratched the dog behind its ears “Well, given I’m one of the co-founders, until everyone moves on, or we escape this game” she said honestly “Stryder and I were part of a guild before this, but it…well, just stopped. The people there helped me, well, live. So I want to give others the option, make friends, level up, just live while being trapped in this game” Eatos leaned back and closed her eyes “I plan to protect people Tsu, and even if Stryder takes those who care for combat and move on, I’ll stay here. I’ve made enough mistakes in my life…” her voice shook a little, sadness lightly kissing her words “No one in this guild dies, ever…”

The girl was very pleased that Hydra seemed interested in joining, not just the guild, but this quest. She had a pretty good feeling that their original party could handle it, but adding Hydra into the calcautions made her a lot more confident. She knew that Hydras level was higher than any of them, he had been a highish levelled member of the old guild before its disbanding and given he used to have an orange marker, he knew how to fight.

“Basically, the quest is to acquire a combat healing crystal. From what I read and paid for, we have to fight with a good few knights, defeat their boss, then go back. It isn’t a hugely hard quest, given from what I know, we can team up against a single knight one at a time, so just, avoid taking huge amounts of damage and I can keep you alive” she said clinically. It was one of the few ‘benefits’ of being as cold as she could be. Information control, information retrieval, came easily to her. Pay the right person, have your Husky growl, and most people can talk.  

Angel barked a few times, nothing aggressive, but barks of seemingly joy as the Husky moved in circles around, rubbing up against Hei’s legs. The husky could tell that the human, the friend of her master, didn’t want kisses. So instead, she entertained herself by ‘petting’ the human with affection for feeding her.

Eatos smiled at the boy, then frowning. She actually had no idea, about, well, much about him. His name, where he was born. Nothing about his real life, then again. He didn’t know much about her, now that she thought about it. The only person who knew anything about her real life, was Silver and Stryder. And even then, Stryder knew very little. It was, sadly, ironic in its own little way. “Well, I’m grateful for the help, the constant changing in the system is something I’ll admit annoys me, but guess we don’t have much in ways of a choice eh?” She let out a sad sigh shrugging “Well, the weather is looking better so we may we well get going now eh?”

Eatos listened to Saphira talk, and admit she wasn’t that comfortable talking to new people. To a degree, Eatos was amused. Two people who weren’t a fan of talking, were about to be stuck in each other’s companies for a day. Surely there were those who would call it dramatic irony.

Eatos smiled at the other girl, smiled warmly despite the blistering heat that was ruining her mood “Yeah, I get what you mean Saphira. Back a bit ago, I was…well, I couldn’t speak to people fullstop, so I kinda get where you’re coming from” she understood, in part. Unfamiliarity was intimidating, and she knew she’d had about one conversation with Saphira. So the fact the girl didn’t know her wasn’t a huge surprise, but was also something Eatos intended to change.

“Angel…?” The girl asked, confiming what was said. She let out a weak smile “Y-yeah, I left her behind. She hates hot weather, and, well, I figured she could use a day to rest up you know?”

Eatos had overslept, she knew the guild was making its second round. But she’d been having such poor sleep and today was, sadly, no exception to that. She’d woken up around every hour, panting for breath. That was why she had just teleported down to the second floor, she knew she should have been quicker, but well…Crap.

She was wearing her custom clothes, her suit. It wasn’t designed for combat, but she would change before they got into combat. She didn’t like wearing her Guardian Angel when it wasn’t needed, combat gear should be worn for that, combat. So in her black suit, she finally arrived where she needed to be. The 2^nd floor, the start of the 2^nd Dragon Hunting quest. It seemed she was behind, as majority of the members were already here. She arrived just in time to hear the outside, Embers, ask Stryder a question. EAtos wasn’t sold on the red-haired girl, but Stryder said she wanted to join and she was a combat focus player…

“Not as many as last time” she said, taking ‘control’ of the conversation. After all, it was her ‘role’ within the guild “I believe there is one more, so we’ll begin shortly”

@Saphira

She knew it wasn’t ‘ideal’, but the guild had little to offer outside of crafting discounts if she was honest. After all, they weren’t much when it comes to combat. Their strongest members had just gotten access to Tier 2, and most guilds aimed at Tier 3 equipment. They couldn’t supply man power, and the one thing they had over some guilds was numbers and crafting.

“Other than crafting, we’ve got nothing that can’t be found. Our one selling point to other guilds is our diversity in professions. If we can’t use that to try ally with another guild, then we have nothing else” It wasn’t good to admit, but that’s just how it was. Their guild was ‘weak’ in terms in combat, but utility was not. Players in the support section, like herself, could be used to help with larger quests as healers, but in terms of damage, they didn’t have much else to sell.  

In a way, the classroom situation was somewhat humorous and Eatos had to not smirk, or laugh, even though part of her wanted to. The teachers worry about working on a frog was oddly amusing for her, but her face remained passive. Even if she claimed to find humour in it, Eatos was still going to be careful about how she reacted. Tsu might have a sore spot for it.

Eatos frowned at the potion she was given, and its effect. If she was entirely honest, she had no interest in it. The idea of having a tongue that long was extremely off-putting, and the girls mind tried to find a way to reject the idea without being rude.

“I would, but I’ve got a meeting with a guild later today” she said slowly “Stryder and me are looking at bridging across with one of the stronger guilds, and no offense, not sure Stryder, or the other guild, would look kindly upon it. You know what politics are like, appearances must be perfect and all that”

The girl stood at the window, at the back of her store, and spent her time looking out at the snow. It was calming, it reminded her so much of home. Staring at the snow through a window, it was so much like home. In part, she missed it so much. Yet, this floor, in a way, was her home now. It had been her home for ages, and would be for the foreseeable future. She felt Angel, her Husky familiar, bump into her leg and bark once. Someone was approaching her store, her familiar had started doing that recently.

She turned around, right as the door opened and Hei stepped in. It was nice to see him, he was reliable for this quest series. Well, anything really. It was comforting to know that she could message him, at really any time, about anything, and he’d be there to help her. “Hey Hei, it’s been a while” she said happily as Angel ran forwards.

The Husky liked Hei, and barked happily, her tail wagging rapidly as she was given food. The Husky chomped it down and tried to lick his face “Thanks for helping with this, crafting recently has been a little harder of late and, well, I’m still not able to do combat quests on my own…”

Eatos nodded her head. She knew her problem didn’t have a solution, at least, not one that Stryder could give. There was so little they could honestly do, she didn’t know how Silver had managed to make her calm, how he brought her back. She had no idea, yet, he had. She knew he could do it, just how was. No idea.

“I’m sure he could” she said simply, petting Angel on the head before forcing herself to stand up, her Husky loyally at her side as she turned to look at Stryder “Look, I can’t explain how he did it but he did. I don’t expect you to be able to do the same, that’s not fair on you. Just, if we get into combat, as long as I don’t draw my Katana, I’ll be fine. If I do, just keep me focused…” The girl looked out over the scenery “Now you know, so…I might head back Stryder, I’ve got…things to do at the store”

The approval of Hydra, a player she had gotten along with and who had promptly vanished, had caught the girl entirely off guard. After the previous guild disbanded, she had lost contact with quite a few players. Atzo, Hydra and even Vargas. They had just vanished off the face of the world, and the girl had written them off as gone. It hurt her at the time, but slowly, she had accepted that death, in Sword Art Online, happened far too often to those who didn’t deserve it.

She wasn’t sure what to say, but something needed to be said. “I’m…well” A lie, but one she needed to commit to “I’m just happy you’re ok, when you vanished I assumed the worst…” the girl opeed up her inventory, flipping through it and finding her weapon, her Katana, equipping the weapon and placing it on her hip for keeping. Then an idea came in. “Hey, Hydra…If you’re not, well, busy, we could honestly use your help in this quest..”

Eatos was little a little surprised at what she was hearing. Part of her had assumed Tsu used the frog as a coping style, but to hear she was biologically related to frogs, was, well, not what she honestly expected to hear at any point in her life. She knew there was nothing she could do to ‘help’ Tsu, after all, this wasn’t one with an easy solution.

“Those people, lack maturity” she said in response to the bullies being, well, assholes “I do get what you mean though, being on your own against people who don’t understand” Eatos sorta knew what the other girl experienced, solitude. It hurt, a lot. When people were like that, with things out of your control, or things already done.

Hearing the last part, Eatos gently rested her hand on the other girls shoulder “Trust me Tsu, normal isn’t what it’s chopped up to be. I was normal, then…I wasn’t. And I learnt a lot…” Eatos didn’t want to tell her the reason, the event, that changed her. It was her burden. Her sin. “Trust me, seeing the world in a differnet way, being unique…Its far better than being one of the sheep of society…”

Eatos got her reply from Hei. In part, she knew it was annoying that he had to come bail her out of yet another crafting failure. But with the recetn edits to the system, crafting was just that much harder and out of her control. She used to have such good success, then they changed the system and now it was failure, one after another. It was annoying.

Smiling at the reply, the girl took a deep breath and looked out the back window she had in her store. The weather seemed rather peaceful, but then again, that could change at a moments notice. She hoped it would stay like this, if not, well ,she did have Angel by her side as always. She petted the familiars head lazily as she looked at the snow outside her store. It was like back home, but not. She hated how similar, yet different, the real world, and this one, really were.  

'I'll see you when you get here' was the girls simple reply as she forced herself to look up. Now wasn't the time to think of back home

She knew it wasn’t an easy topic, hell, the only person she’d ever talked to about it with any maturity was Silver. It had been a lot to learn, but now, without the one person who helped make it rational for her, without the one person who had helped her once before.  While Stryder was there for her, now, she knew it wasn’t what she needed. He didn’t know how to help, Silver just did. He knew how to support her, how to help her. Stryders words weren’t, helping.

“That’s the issue Stryder. I honestly, don’t know. Back when I had Silver, he just…knew what to say. I think, my plan for now at least, is to simply survive” She let out a single breath “I don’t expect you to do the same, honestly no one got to me before Silver did. But he did, somehow” It was still a mystery to her how she met him, how he knew.

“Just…if we get into a fight, and I have to draw my weapon. Keep my focused, remind me…that I’m not in that alleyway…and I’ll be fine”

Eatos listened to Tsu explain her family, and she couldn’t not feel slightly bad for the other girl. It was something far beyond her control, yet she was forced to live it. A life forced upon her family line. She did find it a little odd a government would look at it, pondering the purpose behind such research. Was it to test the possibility, look for adaptive genes? It wasn’t that Eatos couldn’t see the possible benefits of running such an experiment, but rather, the nature upon which it was conducted. Forcing it upon the family was the first mistake, and the second was the nature of how exposed it was. And why frog. But, it didn’t matter the why. There was nothing she could do about it, other than simply acknowledge it had happened and, well. Tsu wasn’t looking for Sympathy, rather, understanding?

“It’s ok” she said to Tsu’s comment about rambling “I asked you to speak. As I said, I take a joy out of observing and listening. I find it, well, just the knowledge that a government did that. It’s sickening, in a way, what people can get away with when others aren’t paying attention” SAO was, yet another, example of this. How much did power really get you?

“So, do you hate them? The government I mean, for..well, doing this to you? To your family?” Eatos found it impossible not to ask, for she knew her answer. She’d hate them for it, she wasn’t sure how you couldn’t not hate them.

Eatos scoffed at Stryder, despite his suggestion. He wanted her to run away? To run from her problems, just as everyone said to? How could she do that, in a world, where everywhere she turned, she had to make that choice?

“So you want me to, what? Put my blade down?” She eventually asked, petting Angel slowly “You want me to just, ignore the dreams? Ignore the nightmares that keep me up at night?” Was that his plan? Well, it couldn’t be hers. “Our guild is made up by weaker players Stryder, players that I have to protect”

Eatos let out a deep breath. The words became harder to say, but she had to confront her demoms somehow. “Do you expect me to just, do nothing, while more people die Stryder? I already bear the sin of so many corpses. I’m scared of dying, but I’m even more scared having to…having to add more names to the list”

Hei, Stryder and herself. The Three leaders of the guild, it did make some sense why it was always them. They were the highest leveled players within the Guardians guild, and the item was worth the risk. A group healing item, when her healing was average at best. As long as no one died getting it, mission accomplished.  

Eatos smiled softly “I’m fine Stryder. It’s been a while since the three of us did, well…anything that wasn’t directly guild related. It feels nice to, well, get out of the store for a while” She said. In part it was a lie, but to escape the confines of her shop. It had started to turn into a prison of late, and one she could escape, albeit for a short time.

That’s when she heard a voice, one that was oddly familiar. Turning, it was…She blinked. The, the hell? Hydra?! “H-Hydra…” Eatos took a step forwards as if doubting him even being real “You…you’re back…You’re really…real?”

Eatos had been working at her forge, trying to craft a certain item. It had no ‘real’ value, rather, was simply to being amusement to her. She had been trying to forge the Mace, officially listed as a One-Handed War Hammer, but it was more of a club than anything else, if the stories were to be believed. It had been a love of hers since she was a young girl, and while trapped in Sword Art Online, she could make parts of her dream a reality. By forging the very weapon she daydreamed about many years ago. The weapons of heros, Arthur and his legendary knights, the greek and roman heros.

Today she had been attempting to make the weapon of Hercules the Demi-God, who assended to godhood through the acts of his labours. She let out an odd laugh, if only it was that easy to live forever. That’s when the noise occurs, and she opened her menu. There was…a new quest?! She frowned, where had this come from? It requested she come to the 17^th floor. It was too poetic, but the girl placed her hammer back into her inventory and headed for her door, Angel by her side. It was time to see what this random quest really was.

Eatos couldn't not find it, to a degree, somewhat amusing. She had done this once before, and it had been rather, well, easy. This time, it was similar. Her talents as a Blacksmith were still to be improved, and she had work. Hei, her guild mate and fellow leader, had given her an order only to 'fail'. He wanted a Perfect Tier 2 weapon, and she had only been successful in making a Rare. She knew how to resolve it, but lacked the ability to kill the monster. This time, however, well, it was a repeat.

She opened her messaging system and made a quick one out to him "Hey Hei, i need help doing the Essence of Steel for your weapon. I didn't manage to make it the way you wanted, so i could use the help"

After sending the message, the girl grabbed her armour. Guardian Angel, and equippted it. Well, 'Armour', it was mostly just a shirt and jacket, but it gave her the evasion she needed to stay alive in fights, so who was compaining, not her. 

@Hei

Being, born like that. Eatos couldn’t imagine it. The bullying alone would push many to the brink, maybe it was just her inside of her own head. But, who knows. She had a slow childhood and couldn’t imagine anything else but it. But from the sounds of it, it wasn’t too bad. Super heros, for young children, are always important. At least for their mental health.

“Honestly Tsu, I’m more than happy to listen. I just find it interesting is all. Naturally, well, I’ve never seen, or even heard, anything about or like it. Honestly, it’s pretty interesting” Eatos was saying it partly to build a friendship with the other girl, and because she was genuinely interested. Tsu had lived with something she thought was, well, didn’t exist.

“I gotta ask, the test that went on with your family, that put the dna in there. Like, why did they go for it? Surely they’d of known it would affect you down the path, right?” It was her biggest curiousity, why would you willing have dna inplanted in you, and continue to have children? It was signing them up for a life of, well, this.

A family huh? The girl couldn’t stop the snort. In a way, he was fight, but it just felt so wrong to call people who she didn’t even know the real name of, a family. But she would look after them regardless, even if she was no where near the front lines. Someone had to look after the weaker players, might as well be her?

“It doesn’t matter if he did, or he didn’t, Stryder. Regardless of it he drugged me, I still killed them. I’m the one who ended their life” It was true, and even Silver hadn’t been able to change her mind about it. Teach her to cope, yes. But that blood was on her hands alone, nothing would ever change the sin she had committed.

“Silver? He does this, even back then. He’d vanish for a while when he had to, he’d usually tell me it was important. But, he always comes back, trust in that” The girl answers, mostly not wanting to think about the first question. The very fact these memories were coming back, was there anything you can do against your own mind?

“Honestly, Stryder, I doubt it. I just…have to get used to holding a blade. You know I dueled Pin, and mid battle, I had a flash back and just…I screamed” Eatos petted Angel, who barked lazily back “I don’t think there is a cut and dry solution to this Stryder…”