Yuurei

The girl wiped the sweat off her- She's not sweating this world is digital. The rain was present and she had no gear to protect her from the weather, but this was a last attempt. If she could just learn to do this maybe... Just maybe getting stronger wouldn't be so hard. The boar was she was fighting had no remorse and she had missed it so many times that she had easily lost count. Looking up at her health bar hurt. This thing could only do one damage a hit and she was letting it push her around. Was this how it was meant to be?

A tear streamed down her cheek as the boar came in for another round of pummeling. She did her best to move out of the way, stepping around the boar. It didn't let her, the tusks on it's face rammed her in her stomach as it made a rough turn and plowed into her. She was sent to the ground face first, she sword rolling across the wet grass. She coughed uncontrollably into the dirt.

Was that... the sound of music? Was someone coming? She didn't want anyone to see her in this state, but her voice called out on its own. She coughed with almost every word. "Someone help! Please!"

@Bistro

The bright sun pierced through the sky, blinding her vision even more as the teleportation colors faded. It was was warm here. The humid smell of ocean water wafted in her face, making it difficult to breathe for a moment. If Shield was anywhere, she could find him here. The floor the front lines were closest to was this one. Shield was tough fucker and she was sure he was still kicking the doors down to new floors to get them all out of here. However, she couldn't take it anymore. She wouldn't leave a friend to wonder about her though. She would say her last goodbye to the tank and be done. It would all be over.

She wandered around the floor, hoping she could just happen to find the hulk of a man anywhere. The slump of a girl was absolutely demolished. Completely drained of any will to continue on. Looking off to the side, she didn't see the gaijin in front of her. She bumped into him, and looked up at him.

"O-Oh...Excuse me... You're not Shield... Do you know a man named Shield?" Her tired expression and disheveled clothing and hair seemed to be the least of her worries.

@Crozeph @Baldur

The white haired woman covered her eyes with her arm as the harsher sands blew across her face in the heavy wind. It was like snow, only more annoying; at least snow is just water. Nevertheless, the parameters for the quest require that she make her way through the desert wastes and that was exactly what she intended on doing. 

Yuurei drew her curved saber from its sheath. She knew the dangers of the non-safe zone already and hadn't spent much time in them, but Shield had surely shown her just how hazardous it can be. Her teammates all went ahead of her, except for the other girl in their party who had taken up the rear. She assumed she was strictly a healer and not much of a combat player from her previous statement.

“My name is Yuurei, guys, nice to meet you all.” She said, just before choking on a glob of sand that had flew into her mouth. “That’s Yūrei, not Yurei. Ghost, not oil cooler.” She emphasized the long vowel in her name with hopes that her new companions would respect her choice in screen name.

@Aster @Stryder @Hirru

Yuurei sighed to herself. Idly walking around was extremely boring to her and she wasn't much of a nature-y person. Sword Art Online wasn't like the real world, but it mocked it enough for her to get a good enough feel.

When Soredell offered his assistance in search for her wisp she couldn't help but smile. She had been told that a lot of RPG players were pretty shrewd and didn't like to share information with newbies like her. Perhaps SAO is just a special case, but she still did not expect to meet such kind people here.

“I thank you but I would rather keep my party to a minimum size. I planned on asking only Shield to accompany me. Perhaps we can do a less...idle quest next time we meet?” She asked keep her eyes peeled for any more materials that may lay about. Misfortune decides against her, however, as there were none nearby to collect and her allies had gathered what lay mostly about.

(OOC: Sorry for missing this, forgot to notify of replies. I don't mind the posting order, so don't worry about it.)

Sand swept up in to Yuurei’s face, disgracing her eyes rather abruptly. She rubbed her arm against her eyes and blinked a few times to regain her sight. This had to be the worst floor she had been on so far, granted she hadn't gone passed the fifth floor yet. She sighed heavily, resigned to the thought that there was no available quests she could do by herself. 

As she turned to head back to the teleportation gate, however, a voice called out. A male, looking to help anyone with a certain quest. The Ghost’s eyes shifted through the area covered in sand until they locked onto a man with green hair clad in white and red armor. She would have commented on his taste in apparel if not for her snow white hair and black and green armored plates underneath a not-so-modern emerald dress. The saber-user stepped up to the other player after closing the distance between them.

“You looking for help with a quest? Count me in.” She says, trying to act like she's a player who knows what she is doing despite only being level four.

The fifth floor gate flashed brightly, blinding the pedestrians near it as it lit up radiantly. A sole person walked out from the flash of light - Yuurei. The Ghost covered her face quickly with the winds being blown in her face. Her first impression on this floor? She hated it. Snow and the cold was more her preference, or at least a more grassy scenery. She had been exploring all the lower floors’ safe zones to see what each floor was like since she had yet to progress past floor 3. Occasionally sand flung up into her eyes, causing some seriously unwanted discomfort.

“Jeez, does anyone even like this floor?” She asked herself as she rubbed her eyes. “I guess I should at least look around for doable quests.”

The silver-hair saber user stepped off of the teleportation platform and began to explore Fortaleza. Maybe there was a quick quest she could do while she was on the floor so she wouldn't have to come back.

Searching for materials was fairly relaxing in Yuurei’s opinion, at least if you were to compare it to fighting mobs. There wasn't much danger from just searching if none at all. It gave her a little time to think while doing something seemingly productive as well. Up ahead rested an area that was vibrant with greenery and flowers. The logical conclusion was that there had to be at least a couple of materials for use within the area around there. Yuurei picked up her pace towards the not-so-vast but not-so-scarce area of vegetation scattered ahead of just a few dozen meters ahead.

Once she had reached her destination, she began by searching around the edge of the grassy area for anything of use. This was to no avail though. She sighed heavily.

“Perhaps the easy time finding materials was only for the quest while I was searching. Pity.” The silver haired girl mumbled to herself.

With a heavy sigh, the emerald clad girl headed a little further out of the safe zone, being careful of getting into anymore scuffles with an enemy mob again. Going through another fight of constantly missing and getting lucky was at the very bottom of her to do list. She would only look around for the materials that she lost to Zackariah and get back to town to deliver this parasol then be done. 

Her eyes were locked on the ground looking for an materials for use. It had come to her attention the materials functioned to players as a secondary form of payment, something akin to bartering for goods. This meant having materials could be more of a benefit than she had previously thought. Not much luck was on her side in this area. It was either plucked dry or nothing was here in the first place, so Yuurei moved on to another area.

Yuurei listened to the comments between Soredell, Piera and Lee. They all seemed to think her idea was cool and she liked the idea of having ghostly familiar. It was too thematic to not be cool as her name meant ‘Ghost’. She listened closely to Soredell as he explained where she might find one.

“Floor 10, hunh? That seems a bit out of my league to be honest, maybe I'll have to get ahold of Shield just in case. Thanks for the advice Soredell.” She said looking back down at the ground for awhile just in case there was anymore materials for the taking. Unfortunately, her good luck seemed to run out as there were no materials nearby. Nevertheless, there was always more somewhere and it wasn't necessarily bad if she couldn't find any.

“This Dragon is good at hiding. Must be a rare type of enemy, hunh?” Yuurei asked the whole party.

Yuurei followed behind the group, occasionally looking behind them to make sure they would not get ambushed or something stupid along those lines. It was all she would be helpful for in this party of high leveled players. All of them, almost, had familiars and she had yet to get hers. She didn’t have the money to acquire some decent luck boosting consumables. She finally spoke up after so long of being the quiet one in the back. If she had met all of these people one at a time, she may have had an easier time talking to them, but groups bigger than 3 tend to rattle her antisocial nerves.

“I have been debating whether I should get a familiar this early. If I do, I’m going to get one of those transparent-y white wisp things and name it Myon.” She said plainly and looked down at the ground finding another material and picking it up quickly.

The silver-hair assailant had enough of this overgrown wad of bacon wrapped in uncooked ham. She gripped her saber tightly and calmed her breathing, focusing all her total attention on landing this next strike. If she were to miss again, she would have to flee, as this fight seemed to be getting no where on either side of the battlefield. With a quick step to the side, she dodged another attack from the boar. Not missing a beat, her sword plunged towards the neck of the boar like a guillotine. The blade cut clean through the boars spinal column, decapitating her foe just before it exploded into to pixel bits.

A little too satisfied with seeing the victory alert on her HUD Yuurei just had to scream out. “Finally! Jeez! That was horrible!” She sighed after her victory bellow and looked around. Nothing was around her, so maybe it wouldn’t hurt to search for a few materials, since Zack had taken the materials she’d gathered for him.

The boar noticed how unlucky Yuurei seemed to be getting with her attacks. Missing three times in a row was tough on a player, even the strongest players could be overwhelmed by a weak mob if they could not land a clear shot on their prey. But, the boar had no care for this player or her single life with no respawn. It dug its hooves into the ground and pushed itself forward towards the small, silver-haired female with all of its force. Its tusks reached out to cripple Yuurei’s legs but missed its mark as she promptly rolled away from the bony appendages. She had copied the boars approach to dodging, as it seemed to have been working for him. Why would it not work for her then? She stood back up just in time to watch the boar turning back around to face her and prayed that she could land a [censored] hit.

Missing now was unacceptable. It was completely stupid. If she missed a second time while her enemy was incapacitated, this would be on the game, not her ability to strike. There was no realistic way should could miss a second time, or even the first at that. She pulled back her blade and jabbed it forward at the fat animal’s stomach as quickly as she could hoping that her speed would trump the boar’s completely uncanny luck. Unfortunately, her speed could not outmaneuver its amazingly hero-tier luck. The boar completely rolled over this time away from Yuurei’s saber, once again causing her to waste valuable energy and time. This fight was beginning to aggravate her to the point where she was soon going to just run for the safe zone. If she did not land her next hit, that is exactly what she would do. She, once again, raised her saber.

The boar stumbled back onto its feet awkwardly. It could not seem to gain a decent foothold before charging. This actually made Yuurei laugh a little, probably for the first time since she turned the stupid helmet thing on and entered this death game. The boar’s clumsy dance of trying to stay on its feet was too amusing not to laugh at. Sooner or later, it fell back over onto its side this time, squealing madly with enough effort to deafen someone sensitive to high pitched noises. Dirt and grass kicked up as its hoof dug into the earth in its attempt to once again regain a foothold. Yuurei finally stopped snickering at the boars helpless state and held up her blade - She could not miss this time. If she missed another easy shot, she would probably have to stab herself for being so uncoordinated.

“This time for sure, you die!”

The perfect time to strike a killing blow couldn’t have slapped her in the face any harder than now. The boar was completely vulnerable to a free strike and Yuurei wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity. This fight had lasted much longer than she had wished and she was starting to contemplate just running back to the safe zone. Landing a hit was starting to become scarce for her and she can’t kill something if she can’t hit it. Perhaps this is a sign that she should acquire some accuracy boosting items so she would hit more often. Either way, she would have to live through this fight first. She raised her saber and dashed forward with an underhanded grip. To execute her opponent, she reached down to impale it through the neck. The boar planned to keep living though, as it had just freed itself from its prone status as Yuurei’s blade bore down on it. She again, cursed under her breath.

The silver-haired assailant jumped back as the boar saw that she had swung wide. It was readying to attack again, digging its hoof into the ground and puffing metaphorical smoke from its nostrils with its heavy breathing. With something mimicking a low growl, the swine charged at Yuurei angrily once again. Rage blinded its path because of the excessive damage it had taken, it was not happy to have been smacked around by this girl’s saber. In its frustration, it did not notice the protruding rock in the earth a few feet ahead. The dumb piece of meat hit its leg against this rock, causing it to lose balance and fall to its back. Its legs writhed around wildly as it tried to flip its body back upright. Yuurei’s heart pumped fiercely. If there was a more golden time to finish this mob off, it may as well have just smacked her across the face.

The boar did not seem to want to attack relentlessly as Yuurei had anticipated after having its tusk chopped clean in half down the middle, but it sure was not holding back its ferocious anger. The both of them had landed two hits on each other, only the pig seemed to be having a much rougher time when she compared their health bars with her HUD. She had three-fourths of her health remaining, while the boar was just shy of being below one-third of its health points. The confidence building inside the girl told her to swing with all her might and end this fight with a single strike. Her unfaltering bravado would be her greatest and worst trump card all at the same moment. While it had just landed her a gruesome blow, it also left her open to being hit again. Her saber reached for the boar’s thick neck, but somehow, her stab went wide, missing by but a couple inches. She cursed under her breath.

The boars face was gashed open and it was missing half of its right tusk, which was probably the most unpleasant thing it had ever endured in its extremely short, digital life. In its spite of hatred induced rage, the boar jumped at her again, closing the short gap between them and ramming Yuurei another time in the torso. This time, the sharpened protrusion of the cut tusk pierced her skin, leaving a hole in her stomach. By now, she had gotten used to taking hits, hardly being taken aback by the blow and simply backing up to gain some distance. Her expression steeled again, if she could just land one more good shot, this pig would be bacon for breakfast.

“You’re gonna have to try a little harder than that boar. I don’t look so tough, but I can take a hit!” She bellowed holding up her sword again to ready herself for any pursuing attacks.

With a loud battle cry and some renewed vigor from regaining her breath, Yuurei bellowed as she ran towards her opponent. The tusked pig seemed to shrink in its skin a bit as she came barreling towards him judging by the fact that it backed up some for no reason other than apparent fear. It could not, however, escape the wrath and raw prowess that assaulted it mercilessly. Her saber forward and her attitude shifting, her blade pierced the boars tusk, cracking it clean off his face and making a loud cry of pain as it hit the dirt. Yuurei backed off as it swung wildly again, possibly attempting to retaliate or just writhing in the pain of losing bone to her sword.

“Haha you piece of crap! Who’s the big hitter now?” She laughed amusingly at her comment and her attack. One more lucky strike like that and she would soon see the end of this fight.

Yuurei observed the weasel that Grave has placed on the glass counter that lazily slumped back over onto the glass as soon as he put her down. She reached slowly to pet it comfortingly as it laid there quietly.

"I'm shooting for a friend who's not so fuzzy. A wisp, I'm hoping to get one that will boost my stats, which is why I need all the items I can to boost my luck. I'd hate to be looking for hours, or even days."

She surveyed the food item Grave had pulled out. She loved salad back in the real world, so it was a win-win for her. After some pondering she pulled up her menu and emptied 230 col into a sack in her hand.

"Thanks Grave. I'll take it, this should cover the charge." She said exchanging items with him. "I'll recommend you to others."

The boar was getting angrier the longer this battle continued on. It squealed unhappily, swinging its tusks in the air crazily and rushed at Yuurei again. It came at much more quickly than she anticipated and she did not have the reaction speed to dodge. It’s tusk smacked against her core unpleasantly. Having already taken a hard hit to the stomach, Yuurei was able to keep her balance this time, but it did not save her from getting winded from the blow. She coughed roughly as she reeled back on her feet, sliding against the grass and kicking up dirt with her heels. Saliva formed on her tongue, which she promptly spit out into the digital-earth.

“Alright then, you’re really starting to piss me off!” She yelled at the boar as if it could understand her. Tightening her grip on her sword she pointed the saber at her enemy ferociously. “Prepare to die you overgrown piece of bacon and ham!”

Yuurei was feeling confident now. She landed a hit and dodged another. Her blood was pumping, or well, whatever digital effect made it feel like her blood was rushing through her body. In response to the miss, Yuurei jabbed out to the pig to give it a straight slice across its back. It, however, saw the attack coming and jumped out of the way of her sword. To see it was agile enough to dodge her sword was a big slap in the face. It seemed to big to move the way it just did, hopping to its side to avoid being cut again. Either it was smarter than it looked, or just was smart enough to l know that ‘sword’ meant ‘bad’.

Yuurei stood back up and prepared herself to strike again. She took up a defensive position one more time and hoped that the swine wouldn't surprise her with another combat move like that idle sidestep. 

The unhappy boar swung its head around in pain from the large cut Yuurei had etched into its skull. Unable to let this stand without some kind of retaliation in turn, the swine scuffed its hoof into the ground as if it was reeling to charge. The silver hair assailant assumed a defensive position and readied for the boars counter strike. It tucked its head into its tusks and began to sprint at the attacker.

As the overgrown pig charged her, Yuurei’s heart began to beat faster. Adrenaline was kicking in, this wasn't something in the real world, but it was just as dangerous. One mishap could lead to her true death. It closed in and readied to buck its head at her. Unfortunately, she was too fast for it and rolled away from the tucks.

“You'll have to do better than that stupid!” She yelled at it.

Yuurei eyed her opponent curiously, gauging its strength by eye and knowledge. It was floor one so it couldn't be too strong and didn't look so fearsome. She danced around it, waiting to see if it would attack before her. It scuffed back at her angrily but made no antagonizing approach at her. Seeing that it was waiting for the first strike, Yuurei complied. 

Her saber lit up emerald as always with radiance that could blind a man who looked directly at it as it shined. With a loud battle cry, she charged at the boar with murderous intent and slashed a gash into its face making it squeel like a little girl. Satisfied with her attack landing successfully, The Ghost jumped back to get some distance and prepare for the boar’s retaliation strike. She grinned at the successful dent she had made in the mob’s health bar. This was only the beginning of her journey to the front lines

Yuurei stepped out of the workshop and looked around for the way point. It was on the other side of town. She sighed and readied to walk, but just as she started walking, she thought about her new found power. Being level four means should be able to wipe the floor with any first floor mobs. Why not try go and have some solo fun? She could actually kill something herself and perhaps get some loot in the process.

The safe zone wasn't far, so Yuurei headed for it. It wasn't likely that single mob could over run her as long as she was careful. She drew her sword and looked around for her swine victim, a boar to be precise. One in the distance dug at the ground idly enjoying it's blissful existence. The silver haired assailant charged into battle without restraint. The boar reacted, initiating combat with her.